Learning Life Through Unschooling

Mar. 21, 2006

A Day In The Life...

So many things to write about today. What a great Day In The Life of An Unschooling Family...and I'll miss a lot because I'm sick and going to try to make this quick before I collapse on the couch waiting for DH to come home.

The morning started off with Dh taking Rose to her first dental appointment. Her being *just barely* 3 years old limited her re-telling of the experience but she was quite excited about her new toothbrush and sugar free candy and bouncy ball and oh yes, "Mr. Thirsty" - that straw shaped thing that sucks your cheek off. ;)

The kids were very excited about playing in the snow. Dh got them some snow in a bowl to play with before he left for work. Unfortunately, the kids didn't realize it was to share so I quickly remedied that by sending Rose out for another bowl of snow. They played with it for a bit and then I brought out the markers and they had fun drawing on the snow. That started to wear off after a while and I got out my measuring spoons and cups and they had fun packing the snow in all sorts of things. Then Matthew started talking about science experiments so we put a lump in one of my measuring cups and tried to guess how much liquid it would make when it melted. We guessed it'd be just over one cup. We also got out my new digital kitchen scale and weighed it. After 10 minutes, Matthew was ready for it to be melted so I stuck it in the microwave and we watched it melt. We were right - it was just over a cup of liquid and the water weighed the same as the snow. Of course, Matthew wanted to know if we put more snow in the water, would it turn back into snow? That experiment led to an interesting discussion about snow and weather. They also patted the snow down into a cookie sheet and used cookie cutters to make snow cookies.

After lunch, they decided to go play outside in the snow. With my pneumonia, I could only watch from the window with Jade, leaving strict "don't go near the street" rules in their heads. We live on a cul-de-sac so it's a safer area than some but they're still quite young. At one point, I saw Rose run down the driveway, trying to chase birds in the cul-de-sac. I was getting ready to open the door and stop her when I saw Matthew run past her, stop and hold his arm out so she couldn't run past him. He's a great big brother and is always looking out for her. :) They played for a while *just* out of sight but I could see them every minute or so as they moved around. They were by the trailer that DH uses for hauling compost or the lawn mower, etc. When they came in about 30 minutes later, I asked them what they were doing by the trailer. Matthew said, "Oh, we were just cleaning the snow off the tail lights and the rest of the trailer so it wouldn't freeze."

Matthew had a lot of fun with his new flip flap math book during rest time while the girls were napping. He is a spirited child and needs his alone time during the day. So when the girls go down for naps, he goes to his room to read or play Legos or something else relatively quiet. He seems to recharge during that alone time and when we're on family vacation and around each other all day with no breaks, you can really see the difference. He was asking me math problems during dinner and correcting me when I guessed wrong. We've gotten a lot of great math ideas recently from www.livingmath.net...mostly we're just using book titles for now. ;)

After nap, Matthew wanted me to be a knight and he was the King and he wanted us to fight the bad guys together. I pointed out that usually the kings don't fight. He informed me that he wasn't that kind of king. ;)

Dh went to a hockey game tonight (a very rare occurance as he's not a sports fan at all but it was a company freebie and they had a great box) and Grammie stopped by with Chinese take-out in the nick of time. Matthew was excited to show her his new Transformer toys. Rose begged for several stories to be read while Jade just wanted to play peek-a-boo with her. And of course, a short game of The World Is Coming To An End.

So today we did quite a few math things, read several stories, discussed science (snow and weather), had art class (drawing on and sculpting snow), music (The kids love to sing - and they do so almost every day), geography and even a little history. All with no curriculum while I have pneumonia and am coughing up my lungs. Almost makes me wonder why so many moms tell me they "aren't creative enough" to homeschool.

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