I'm giggling as I'm sure that title made a few eyebrows raise of people who know we unschool.  I mean really, what unschooler prepares for back to school?  Well, I'm not really, but since I'm always looking for great information, I figured I'd share.

Homeschool Reviews  is an online resource where many homeschoolers have posted their thoughts on the different curriculums that they have used.  Since I'm always looking, I found the personal experiences very useful.

Green Box on the top of my sidebar   This little green box is a simple and wonderful way to search through HSB and find posts about things you are interested in. 

What have we been doing?  This Summer has been filled with game play:  Dwarf Fortress , Pirates of the Carribean , Runescape, Funorb, and the current favorite, World of Warcraft.  Along with these online games, there's been lots of books read, stories told, and costumes made.  The thing that always jumps out at me whenever we start a new game or project is that my youngest graps the manual and reads it through.  That might not sound impressive till you realize that the manuals are usually at least 358 pages long!  Some are four times that size, and many have dedicated web pages just to explain all the rules, abilities, and strategies of game play. 

This skill might not seem all that important but take a look at Dwarf Fortress.  That game is mind boggling.  My spouse and I were just discussing it, and he was saying that it takes a computer programmer type brain to be able to play it.  On Wiki they state,"It has a very steep learning curve, partly due to its ASCII graphics, but also due to the fact that it is one of the most complex games ever released."  Their slogan is "Losing is fun."  This game is near impossible to win and you better just accept that before playing otherwise you won't enjoy the game.

 I've found my son researching all types of things.  How mines really work, the textile industry, economics, interest rates, glass blowing,.... the list is long for he researches everything that he is curious about and that's a non-ending curiosity.  I love unschooling!

Dear friends,

A dear sweet local friend of mine has been dealing with some tragic news.  Her husband, Eric, has just been diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma brain tumor.  I'd like to ask you all to raise her husband up in prayer as he starts his treatments.  Here is their story in Laura's words:

My Dear Friends and Family,

    I know so many of you have been on pins and needles wondering about Eric's brain tumor. We finally got back from Houston TX today. Eric had a biopsy July 3rd which was a very dangerous procedure but he made it through with flying colors. They where able to get 3 samples of the tumor to send off to the lab. Yesterday we talked to the doctors and found out that Eric has a stage 4 glioblastoma. Honestly this is about the worst news we could have possibly recieved. It is a very agressive brain tumor.

 

 We were devistated and I have spent some time being quite hysterical. We have shook ourselves off now though and decided that it's time to fight. We have  a very positive Oncologist at MD anderson in Houston who had an incredible bedside manor and a track record that was equally amazing. He has his hand in many clinical trials and therapies for brain tumors. He gave us some hope by saying #1 Eric is young, #2 he is in good health otherwise, #3 the tumor is still relatively small, the size of a marble. The bad news is that this is a very agressive type of tumor so time is of the essence. We meet with our FL oncologist on monday. We hope he will set us up with a chemo/radiation schedule as soon as possible.  We will proceed with agreesive treatments for 6 weeks then will have 2 weeks off, then another MRI to assess if the treatments are working. We will then decide what to do at that point, weather it be more chemo/radiation or clinical trials ect.

Now that I have dumped that all on you I just want to say that Eric is still very positive about all of this. He feels a real spiritual connection to God right now and feels he will somehow come through this. Through much prayer of my own I am hoping for the same. That is how we are hanging on.

I want to thank you all for all the support you have given so far. We are so blessed it's incredible. Each of you have given to us in your own way and it has meant a lot.

Keep up the prayers and we will keep you posted.

 

Love,

 

Laura

Silly children!

Here's the last week through their eyes and my camera. Rotflol

Welcome to the wonderful world of worms!

The video below is about how one couple has decided to help change the world for the better.

Enjoy.

Click here if video doesn't load.

For a little bit of fun and a little more information on worms,

click here.

This week our list of books for reading fun is:

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4)

The first three are: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) , The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2) , The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3)

Borrowed from the Library:

The book of lost tales / Tolkien, J. R. R

Of courage undaunted; across the continent with Lewis and Clark. / Daugherty, James Henry

Mythological creatures : from ancient Greek mythology / Curlee, Lynn

Have a hot time, Hades! / McMullan, Kate

Keep a lid on it, Pandora! / McMullan, Kate

Nice shot, Cupid! / McMullan, Kate

You can't, but Genghis Khan / Frantz, Jennifer

Archimedes and the door of science. / Bendick, Jeanne

Francis Marion : the Swamp Fox / Cornelius, Kay

Behind enemy lines : a young pilot's story / DeMallie, H. R.

The librarian who measured the earth / Lasky, Kathryn

Next books on the to be purchased list:

Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3) by Christopher Paolini  (release date September 20, 2008)

Apologia - Land Animals of the Sixth Day(New) (Apologia-Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Zoology 3, Apologia-Land Animals of the Sixth Day) by Jeannie Fulbright 

CD's:

Cat Biology: http://www.emescien ce.com/bio- software- catlab.html

Cat Anatomy Scans: http://www.emescien ce.com/bio- software-
catscans.html

Community Dynamics: http://www.emescien ce.com/bio- software-
communitydynamics. html

On a lighter note:

1) Why is it interesting to study mummies?

2) What eight letter word has one letter in it?

3) What two words have thousands of letters in them?

4) Which takes longer to run: from first to second base or from second to third base?

Answers:

1) Because you can get so wrapped up in them.

2) Envelope

3) Post Office

4) From second to third base, because there is a shortstop in the middle.

Have a glorious day!

When We Left Earth, The NASA Missions will air Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 9pm Eastern on Discovery Channel.

Click here to see a clip from NASA's site. 

Homeschooling, Unschooling, Working full-time, being the boss in charge of everything at the office, being in charge of everything (well almost) at home, the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, the pantry stocking, the pet food suppling, the procurer of new books, games, clothes, .... plants, pets.... Life sure seems busy.  And then it's finally sweet, sweet, bedtime!!

I LOVE bedtime!!  Probably, because by MY bedtime, I'm REALLY tired.  If you have ever read anything about unschooling, or should I say radical unschooling, there isn't an across the board bedtime for all.  Nope.  In our house, everyone goes to bed when they want to. 

Grandma is free to stay up and read all night long if she wants.  Just not out in the dining room which will keep the birds singing all night.  (That goes for everyone. The birds' bedtime must be respected, too, lol.) 

Since I must be to work in the morning, I have a bed time.  I find I get grumpy if I stay up too late and that's not fun for anyone.  But my kids?  One is early to bed, one likes 2:00am, and one likes...who knows...she's a teenager and loves to sleep.

The 2am child asked me last night, after I had fallen asleep, (yes, he woke me up) to inform me he needed a book to read.  Gee, we had just been to the book store two days ago where I spent around $70.00 buying books for him.  He had read them all and needed another novel.  So what did I do?

UNschooling/Funschooling....it was late.  He said he had read everything on the shelves and in our house, that's quite a lot, so I grabbed the Fifth grade Abeka Old World History and Geography Book and told him to read me to sleep. 

Boy, let me tell you, when you've been unschooling for a couple of years, being handed a TEXTBOOK sure makes the child sit up and notice!  He complained Geography would be boring.  WHY would HE EVER need IT!?!?!

I stayed the course.  He said he needed to read.  He said he had read EVERYTHING.  (But the textbooks on the shelf, of course.)

Well, by the time he was a few pages in, we were both laughing and exploring and enjoying a bedtime textbook.  What I don't quite get, is this kid reads EVERYTHING unless he thinks it's a textbook.  He's been studying Greek mythology on his own!  He's even ASKED for MORE on the subject! 

Lol.  KIDS! 

I'm praying for more textbooks to be designed like a well written novel because textbooks are the bane of this child.  Maybe I should just remove covers.....hmmmm.