Fall - Part 2

Decorating Pumpkins

Kandy

Fall - Part 1

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Unschooling Interests

We are having a conversation on the Christ-Centered Unschoolers list about "lessons." You know, the daily plans we homeschoolers often like to have to be sure that our kids are "learning." One thing I've noticed about unschooling parents. They love it when their kids enjoy - um, let's just say - non-traditional things. They understand when kids get into a specific movie or a specific genre of writing or a specific type of music - and they encourage that interest. I blogged a week or so ago about how Taliesin and Nathanael are so much into Star Wars right now. And as much as I - um - do not care particularly for Star Wars, they have learned a lot from those movies. They inspire them to study more about space. They get us into discussions about good and evil. They get us into the whys of individual actions and how our behavior affects others. Why would I ever want to stop that kind of natural, interest-driven learning - even if it is from movies that I could live without watching over and over and over.

Kandy

Superstar!

Taliesin and Nathanael have been playing with their keyboards today, and I caught this picture of Taliesin singing into the microphone. No autographs, please.

Kandy

Lotsa Lapbooks

I should not be surprised that Taliesin has taken to lapbooking so much. Just this evening, he has finished up his volcanoes lapbook and started one on the Book of Genesis. We're also keeping prayer journals for devotional lapbooks we'll be starting in the near future. (This week, we're planning to make a "kindness pie." There is a cute paper "kindness pie" activity in the Hands of a Child booklet for a Devotional a Day, and Taliesin and Nathanael got the idea to make an actual pie. So that should be fun). Nathanael has even gotten into lapbooking. He's made two so far - one on dinosaurs and one on volcanoes (two of his favorite subjects). Tomorrow, we're working on pirates again, according to Taliesin. And then he wants to start a map lapbook to go along with his unit study over Mirette on a Highwire, which, of course, takes place in France. So we have our next few days cut out for us. LOL

Kandy

What We've Been Up To

Last week, we took Taliesin and Nathanael and the daycare kids to a play of Winnie the Pooh at our local community theater.

Of course, we have been doing lots of art

And inventions

And monster trucks!

We are still here, just been busy the past couple of weeks. We have been trying to keep up with ourselves. Taliesin has really gotten into inventions. Above, you will see pictures of some of his hydraulic machines. We've studied so many things from health and nutrition to friendship (see the above Winnie the Pooh play) to pirates. I invested in some fun lapbooking kits from In the Hands of a Child. Taliesin, especially, is loving them! He's been bouncing back and forth between them, his Five in a Row unit studies, Star Wars, art, and inventions here lately. And of course, we have to take our annual trip to see and ride the monster trucks at our local Dodge dealer. This year, Taliesin rode, too. Last year, only Nathanael wanted to. I even rode. It was pretty fun, I have to admit. The Winnie the Pooh play was definitely a highlight. All of the kids loved it, and Taliesin still shows an interest in getting into theater. If you remember from a year or so ago, Taliesin began taking dance lessons with hopes of eventually getting into theater. He's still in dance, and now he's old enough to begin classes and day camps through our community theatre.

So things have definitely been busy here, but I will try to keep up better!

Kandy