The Road Less Traveled

The First Week Almost Done

It is so nice to look forward to the weekend once again. I haven't had this much excitement since I was in school. The first week has gone pretty well. Jonas already has and A+ in Math and a B in Language Arts, we are still waiting to see how he is doing in Social Studies, his test was still being graded yesterday.

It is nice to have someone else grading the work. The boy's teachers called this week to talk with me and the boys. They are wonderful teachers and I love that they take the time to call each child to get to know them. This is a virtual school. http://www.connectionsacademy.com  So, so far so good. The kids are doing well and getting used to having to do school work each day. And I am getting used to all the computer stuff that we have to do.

Well need to go the natives are restless and we need to get started on our day.

Hope everyone else had a great school week and that things are going well.

Disney Journal 1

Sunday (8/31) - After our beach outing, it was time to head to Disney World! We checked into the Old Key West resort and had a relaxing and fun afternoon. We took a water taxi to Downtown Disney where we enjoyed the sights and the shopping as well as the Rainforest Cafe. When we returned to the resort, the kids had a blast at the pool where the castle water slide sent them zooming into the water.

Monday (9/1) - Today did not begin too well because our little Princess woke up throwing up. She has been talking about Disney World for a year now, and I was quite concerned that her magical dreams would be dashed. Besides that, we had to check out of Old Key West by 11:00, and our suite at Animal Kingdom would not be ready until 4:00--5 hours in the car or out with a sick one! We went ahead and checked out, and covered our little one with beach towels. Good thing because we didn't make it far down the road. In the meantime, we called Animal Kingdom, explained our situation, and asked them to do what they could to get us in early. Audrey then wolfed down a very hearty lunch, which I tried to discourage, but she kept insisting: "I still hungry, Mommy!" So I let her pack it away, and that seemed to be what she needed because she perked up and was just fine. Animal Kingdom was, meanwhile, very accommodating and got us into our lovely apartment by 12:30. We enjoyed settling in while the kids hung out on the balcony checking out the zebras, giraffes, and gazelles grazing below us.

Tuesday (9/2) - We headed to the Magic Kingdom bright and early this morning. We are blessed to be here at the same time as some dear friends of ours from church. Their two older kids are our kids' best buddies, so we all had a splendid time at the park together. I think we rode just about every ride, and Mark and I even took turns on Space Mountain. We left around 5:30, came back for dinner, and then headed back to Magic Kingdom for the parade. We left before the fireworks to avoid fighting crowds until midnight, and when we got home, we were surprised to discover we could see the fireworks in the distance from our balcony!

Wednesday (9/3) - Today has been a lazy day. No one stirred in our apartment until about 8:45! We spent the day at the pool where even Audrey couldn't get enough of the slide (as long as we were at the bottom to catch her!). This evening we'll enjoy a spaghetti dinner here with our friends. Their kids, in fact, are here watching a movie with our kids (actually the movie is over now, so they're tearing around in circles through the living areas and out through the balcony). It's a crazy crew here right now!

This is such a fun place. The African decor makes me feel at home, and every once in awhile I even get a whiff of something that reminds me of the Cocody Market--maybe some of the souvenirs or something. We'll try one of the lodge restaurants Friday night to see how authentic their African food is!

She begged to see Tigger and Pooh, but once we FINALLY got through the line, she wouldn't let me photograph her alone, and you can see she was still a bit shy!

Quote of the Day

After a very late night last night, I wasn't surprised to hear a huge yawn come from Audrey this morning at breakfast.

"Are you tired, Audrey?" I asked.

Jacob thought it was a pretty big yawn for such a little girl too because he said, "Do it again, do it again, Audrey!"

"I don't have any more tired now!" she replied.

Hay hay hay how are you doing today? I know I am! I hope you are! Crh.

American Revolution Lapbook

We have assembled another lapbook -- The American Revolution. (No, that's not a nightgown. That's her prairie girl dress sans the apron. Today she dressed in a white silky dress with a silver tiara. Another perk of homeschooling -- wearing costumes to class.)

Like all our lapbooks, it's a hodgepodge of many resources. Mainly it's based on our studies from Winter Promise's American Story 1. So the 3D maps that are part of that curriculum, we simple adapt to fit into a lapbook. Other ideas for minibooks and graphics came from the Homeschool in the Woods Time Traveler CD (which was not part of WP AS1 when I bought it but now is).

It was so super-duper fat that we had to create a way to shut it with ribbon and paper fasteners. This lapbook was a first for us in that it could be arranged chronologically -- from the taxes that Britain imposed to the final surrender at Yorktown. We had a timeline graphic from another WP Scholastic book that served as the anchor for all the minibooks. And before we but the lapbook together, we used the timeline as a good review activity and for getting the big picture again.

I put the green timeline strip on the bed and had Sprite arrange the different minibooks and notebooking pages in something of a chronological order around it. Then I cut up the timeline into sections and used that to break up the lapbook into parts.

So this is the first part -- the events leading up to the war: the taxes and the Boston Tea Party and Boston Masaccre.

(here the apron is back on!)

Opening the lapbook farther reveals the Battles of Lexington and Cocord, the Signing of the Constitution, and all about Washington. His "mini" book was pretty big and became somewhat of a lapbook inside a lapbook.

That's one of the reasons we enjoy DIY lapbooking -- it's so versatile. There are no "rules." It can reflect what we learned and also Sprite's creativity. The full set of pictures is uploaded to Flickr in case you want even more details.

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Education on the Campaign Trail

What if?

What if YOU were suddenly thrust into the position of being a candidate for public office.  How about Higher Public Office?  And you had a family? 

Wow.

Think about the possibilities!  I just got to thinkin' about it today.  Thinking about the Palin family.  A family traveling across the country on the campaign trail.  What an experience!

Just off the top of my head here are a few of the things the children would be exposed to:

Geography, History, Civics (ie. how the electorate works)

Bi-partisan politics, just to name a few.

Close family relationships, close quarters, tight schedules.

And all this just by being there.  No need for textbooks, cumbersome curriculum or a program; pure experiential learning.

I'm just extrapolating here, you know.  I have no idea what kind of educational "plan" might be in place.  But I have just been daydreaming about what it would be like if my family were in this position.

Ahhhhh.  The possibilities are endless!

For such a time as this.

Homeschooling Is Life!

Nancy

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi there I was wondering i'm stuck on Scooby Doo night of a 100 frights. In the secret lab.Little lab of frights part2. If anybody knows how to beat it please tell. Crh

Common Bonds

We enjoyed one last night and the other today. What do the two have in common? The soleil! Cirque du Soleil was a blast last night, and the kids were totally impressed, especially with the "swinging and the bouncing" (Audrey's words for the trapeze and the trampolines). Today we joined our cousins for an outing to the beach. They took us to a rather remote beach, which was great because we had it mostly to ourselves...even on a holiday weekend!

When do *we* start school?

This is one of many annoying questions for us as an unschooling family. Now for those that don't know we're unschoolers or understand unschooling, fine.  But those that know?  It's annoying.

I remember a commercial a few years back.  I think it was for Staples.  The Christmas song, "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" played in the background and a kid looked all sad and dejected while the dad merrily danced down the aisles of the store celebrating that all important, "Back To School" time.

I felt so bad for the kid.  I remember hating that time of year growing up.  I hated how every adult always asked when school was starting and was I ready and happy or excited to go back.  Uh, NO!!!  I did well in school, kept at least a B+ average but I felt I could be doing something else more worthwhile with my time. 

As I drove from a much needed visit to the gym, I thought about that silly question.  I usually try to be really nice and sometimes a little vague but I think I'm done with all that.   I'd usually reply that we go all year thinking about how we're learning all the time but that's not entirely true.

The truth is we don't "do school".  We never have and probably never will.  We just live and learning happens.  We can't really do one without the other.  So now, I think I'm ready to reply with the absolute truth.  When the next person asks me when we plan to start school, I'll say, "Never".

A woman for McCain's VP?

You bet! It is official!!!!

 Go check out this blog, and by the way--the mastermind behind this grassroots campain to draft Sarah Palin for VP, just in case you didn't already know it, is a homeschool grad whose mom is right here on HSB.  Woooo-hooooo!

BTW, his blog has already been all over the news--AND he's being interviewed tomorrow morning on FOX.  Way to go ADAM!

 addendum:  Julie's links weren't working but here is one for you, and here is the Townhall article.

Blessings!

Nancy