what did your USer do today?

[kathymuggle]

I sometimes think people think USers sit around and do nothing all day (of course, some days that is true, lol). There seem to be a lot of misconceptions about what USers actually do. In addition, I like seeing how other people live their lives and perhaps gleaning some ideas....

With that in mind.....

What did you do today?

All poster welcome - from "I am not sure if I am an USer" to "I am a Radical User!"  Labels smables, if you hang out here and somewhat identify as an USer, go ahead and post!

It has been a fairly typical day here in muggleland....

Ds is sleeping.  He is a teen.  He likes his sleep.  He will wake up  and do an online French class.  This is completely of his own choosing.  He will probably accompany me to work as he has a French assignment due today at midnight - and he is a beginner at French and wants some help with the assignment (my French is good).

DD has been up since 8:30 or so.  We have made a cake (she wanted to) and she has done some math.  We did some adding of 2 digits, and telling time and played with cuisinaire rods. She invented a game with them and we played it. I did ask her if she wanted to do math - but she said yes, and we stopped when she wanted to stop.  

I think she has telling time and adding 2 digits under her belt, so I asked her what she would like to do next and she said fractions - so that we will do!

She has spent a lot of time drawing today (she hauled in the chalk board) and found a book (from among old Guiding supplies) related to trail markings and she told me she would like to do that.  I cannot wait for winter to end......

I have no doubt that before the end of the day we will do some reading. She is an emerging reading - which is a post on its own.  I try to give her every opportunity to read, without making it into a chore.  I think she has most of the skills down, just needs some time to develop fluency and speed.  I would not be suprised if she writes a story - she does that a lot these day.  She uses volumes of paper.  She has numerous stories on the go.

She has just asked to use the glue gun (not sure what for) but I like to supervise that so I have to go.  I think she is making a bird house......

[midnightwriter]

I'll play.

We are night owls, trying to reform for the sake of some earlier activities, so I still feel quite sleepy. It is an early morning for us.

DD started her day with crochetting.

It is her first crochetting project, and she's attempting a pony. She's half following a pattern, half inventing things.

She also learned a couple of Esperanto words that I have taped to my kitchen cabinet. It has been my long time dream to learn Esperanto, and I finally located the resources, and am having fun with it. DD is eager to learn new words, and asked for her breakfast in Esperanto today. Fun stuff!

DS has been drawing since he got up. He watched some videos on Youtube on how to transform different types of transformers, and then picked up one of his transformer and attempted something he couldn't do before.

They both watched some Russian (our first language) cartoons on youtube, which I convinced myself to call "language studies." The same goes for English cartoons

DD2 has been bouncing around, engaging in a little bit of everything.

I learned a couple of new words in Esperanto, answered some emails, signed the kids for their swimming lessons for the next term--they are in different levels, but i managed to have them in the same time slot, HOORAY, posted on MDC, worked out, gave feedback on a very short story for a friend of mine, and should be washing the dishes just about NOW.

[lgyre]

I love these threads :)

My husband was off work today, so he let me sleep in...when I got up, River, 3, was watching Kai-Lan videos. They're just fun for him, but he has definitely picked up  some Chinese words, too. After breakfast, he asked me to read him a dinosaur alphabet book and one about astronauts. While I put Violet (1) down for her nap, he built a duck and a castle from legos. Now he is practicing writing letters on his Leapster. It's a nice day here...when Violet wakes up we have some errands to run and maybe we will stop at the playground.

[4evermom]

Ds has been playing his ds.  We ran out to Gamestop so he could load the pokemon, Celebi, onto his game.  And he has done some research on youtube about games.  He's being a stereotypical radical unschooler, today. 

[PreggieUBA2C]

*I just finished dealing with the internet connection after I typed the post below, so my timeline is off, but it's now 1:20pm*

This morning, my four boys cored their apples with steak knives. Then they sat together playing a game wherein the storyteller is drawing various elements of a story, and the others play by rolling dice and making decisions (homemade RPG), then ds3 spent time drawing while ds4 set himself up at the counter where I was planning to prepare salmon cakes. The older two were trouble-shooting on the computer because the dvd player was not working (it is now... it's their computer and I don't know why it wasn't working or how they fixed it). I had been holding the baby, but once it came to mincing celery, I put her down on the rug and three brothers rushed to play with her. She promptly crawled over to the radiator, sat down next to it, and fell backward, burning her scalp in two places. :( So I shut off the stove (was heating cast iron) and ran to her aid, put frozen bag of sunflower seeds on her head, which relieved her quickly, nursed and sat while she slept, sent off 13 drawings for a commission I'm working on, talked briefly to dp on the phone, and looked up "Make You Feel My Love," which woke baby. So, I played Rolling in the Deep by Adele, which baby looooves, so we danced.

I've since made about 6 or 7 batches of salmon cakes, posted here, responded to email confirmation of receipt of my drawings, tickle-attacked two of my boys, giggled at my ds4 (3 yrs old) for solving the problem of not opening a new bag of raisins until the old one is empty, by dumping the remainder on the floor in protest. I pushed them into a pile with my feet. Someone will clean them up later. I'm nursing. Baby's knocking everything in reach off the table...

Somewhere in there, I've changed diapers, given D3 supplements, finished the drawings up by converting them to greyscale and fixing the contrast and cropping before sending them, explained why I don't like being mocked when singing my own songs, talked, talked, talked, removed the radiator from the livingroom, and picked up a pile of sketch pads and books from the floor. I also opened the curtains and blinds, but we're all still in pyjamas; we may remain this way.

It's 1pm. I doubt I'll be reporting on the remainder of the day. Three of my boys are now watching a movie after intermittent negotiations over the last hour. The baby's now sitting up and ds3 is making her squeal and flap with excitement, so I'm off, before she hurtles herself off of my lap!

:D

[Qalliope]

Ds is on a bit of a History Channel kick.  He's been watching "Building an Empire" episodes.  He stops the DVD in between episodes to tell me about it since I am off cleaning and doing laundry, build the Great Wall of China or whatever with blocks, play a little bit of Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii, or make snacks for himself and his sister.

[Lakeeffectsnow]

Today is one of those days when I wonder if unschooling is a good choice for us.  Oldest Daughter and Middle Son are unschooled, Oldest Son and Youngest Son are home schooled.  Oldest Son was up at 7am, had all of his on line work done 9 am and handed me a two page report the fall of Berlin Wall to unrest in the Middle East.  Then he caught a ride with his best friend's mom to help muck out the stalls on her horse farm to make money to put toward the skate board he wants.  He came home at 3 pm and walked to the skate park to hang out with his friends. Youngest Son finished the  "Magician Nephew" today, did his two pages of Singapore math,wrote in his journal, and hung out with his brother playing Legos until DH took them to home school swim.  Then Youngest Son went to his after school program for three hours.  He's now upstairs playing the Wii with Oldest Son.

Oldest Daughter slept late, made some French Toast for breakfast, and read a romance book.  She complained about being bored, refused to her babysitting job because she didn't feel like it and yelled at me when I told her if she let down her art teacher (she trades sitting for lessons), she wouldn't be allowed to babysit anymore.  She's in her room, reading and mad at both her art teacher and me (the art teacher told her the same thing).  She still in her pajamas and hasn't done anything all day.

Middle Son played Legos with his brother, went to home school swim, and took a bath today.  I think he read a Calvin and Hobbes book.  He did a few math problems because his younger brother did.  I feel like my unschooled kids aren't learning, are miserable and bored and my home schooled kids are happy, productive and engaged.

[kathymuggle]

Originally Posted by Lakeeffectsnow 

 She complained about being bored, refused to her babysitting job because she didn't feel like it and yelled at me when I told her if she let down her art teacher (she trades sitting for lessons), she wouldn't be allowed to babysit anymore.  She's in her room, reading and mad at both her art teacher and me (the art teacher told her the same thing).  She still in her pajamas and hasn't done anything all day.

No comment on whether USing is right for you or not...but my 12 yr old DD (who goes to a brick and mortar school) is not alway a joy.  It is a rough age - the roughest she has had, actually.  Hang in there!

[moominmamma]

Dh and I both worked this morning and left the house before anyone else was up.

Dd17 got up and did some work on an assignment for her history course, then practiced violin a bit and spent a long time organizing her iTunes playlists.

Ds14 got up late (night owl) and watched some video blogs, played Minecraft on the computer, read some other blogs.

Dd12 got up late (night owl) and worked a bit on a stop-motion animation. 

Dd8 was sick with a cold. She watched a bit of Star Trek, Mythbusters and read the end of Harry Potter #7.

I got home early afternoon. Drove dd17 to the gym so she could work out. Got some lunch and some origami projects ready for dd8, helped her a bit with her science fair project, helped ds14 for quite a while work through a chunk of his chemistry course. 

I taught a couple of violin/viola lessons to a couple of students. I picked dd17 up from the gym. Helped ds14 with a bit more chem. Dd8 played with the molecular model kit and made a pack of ethanol molecules, which she calls "alcodoggies" because they look like little dogs, and then wrote a story about an attempt by alcodoggies to take over the world by poisoning all the humans by jumping in their food, but the humans just got drunk so they failed.

I cooked supper. Dh got home.

Dd17, ds14 and dd12 all practiced their instruments. Dd17 will keep going until 11pm, at which point she has to stop to let dh get to sleep. Dd8 (the sick one) napped on the couch and chatted with her dad. I helped chemistry-boy with more covalent bonding. Dd12 did some algebra and worked a bit on Rosetta Stone French I.

Later I'll read aloud to the two  younger kids from "Maze Runner," our current fantasy novel. We're on a bit of a dystopia kick again after a bunch of historical fiction earlier in the year.

Miranda

[SundayCrepes]

My son is 5. I babysat a 4 year old today.

They used an airbrush sidewalk paint and sidewalk chalk set. 

Played outdoor games (I was inside folding laundry, so don't know what they played, though they did clean up dog poop without being asked.)

They did starfall.com then watched home videos.

They did stuff with the art kit.

After my charge left, we went grocery shopping.

Tonight was BMX night. My son rode for the first time last week and has asked about when we were going every day since. (We have worked on days of the week since we always planned for Thursday and we would talk about the names of the days before Thursday.)

He rode on the track for 45 minutes then was ready to leave. I have offered violin, music, story, etc. classes and he has never been interested. We took him to observe at the BMX track last Wed and he fell in love. He rode last Thursday and again tonight. It's amazing to see a passion in action.

[Dar]

Thursdays are my long days... so I was on campus from 9-8, and Rain was asleep when I left and didn't get home until after 9. We texted a few times, though... I had a Chipotle B1G1 coupon so I brought a couple home for us. She was at rugby practice and she gets a ride with a teammate who lives near us (a grad student from Cote d'Ivoire), but lately they've been practicing at a field really far away, so it's like an hour driving total plus at least two hours of practice.

Before that Rain had her cc algebra class, and I'm pretty sure she slept in late, and I don't know what she did in between. When she got home we watched an SUV rerun together and played scrabble on isc.ro - we didn't play each other and we both won. I'm about to crash, and Rain will probably read or listen to music or something...

[Kalani]

@Dar: From nine in the morning till eight in the evening??

Well yesterday DS slept in, made breastfast for himself upon getting up because dd and I were out.

Watched about two hours of Into the West.

Wrote fanfiction.

Messed around on ICivics and Edheads.

Did paint by numbers

Played ball with his sister.

Read his Stephen King novel until well past midnight.

I wasn't a pain today, though I did yell at me to leave him alone.

DD got up early and played with her stuffed animals and dolls.

I went shopping with her at about ten.

Played a Spanish game.

Played with her science kit.

We read in one of her American girl books together.

Helped cook dinner.

Listened to a audiobook until about 10.30. She woke up at seven regardless of that today.

[fruitfulmomma]

We are on the not exactly end of the spectrum because I set some curriculum/direction for the kids, but totally not school@home type stuff, but my 10yo son has been at mil's flea market all day helping her, which he does every Fri. and Sat., and the girls have been playing most of the day. DD1 who is 8 helped me fix breakfast this morning. Yesterday we all went to a working farm museum and they gathered eggs which we brought home.

[SpiderMum]

DD (2.5) woke up around 7ish.
We watched a bit of Kai-Lan, Wonder Pets, and The Upside Down Show while I woke up a bit more and had some breakfast.
After a bit she moved on to reading books. She asked me to read about 10 books one after another.
Then we headed to a library branch we'd never been to before (my mother was coming over in the afternoon so we had time to kill).
DD did puzzles while I picked out more books and then picked out a few of her own books and "read" them to me.
She handed all the books to the librarian to check out and then we headed home.
When we got home we ate lunch and she watched a train DVD we had gotten at the library.
My mom and niece showed up soon after and we all looked at the tie-dyed stuff we'd worked on a few days before (I hadn't gotten to see the finished products yet).
We went to a restaurant to get food for the rest of us and drew pictures together while we waited.
Then we went to the craft store and got paints.
When we got home DD asked to read more of her books. After reading one to her several times she "read" it to me and she remembered some of the text from certain pages.
This evening she was really tired after getting up early and not napping so she asked to go lay down in her bed around 8.

[Dar]

Originally Posted by Kalani 

@Dar: From nine in the morning till eight in the evening??

Yes... I start the day with an hour of Arabic and end with 2.5 hours of French, and in between I'm the TA for two different classes, plus I try to get some reading or grading or writing done... It's not a fun day...

[zebra15]

Can I have a turn?

DS up at 7 had breakfast

7-9 legos

9-3 went to the sitters/friends house

3-5 home, tv, dog, etc

5-6 dinner

6-7 online math class

7-730 shower

730-930 reading

this is approx.. IDK what happened at the friends housem probably legos, art projects, etc

[SagMom]

10 y/o is still sleeping and will prob. be up around 10:00 or so (he's practicing to be a teenager.) He has a dvd on Lewis and Clark that he wants to watch today, and has suddenly been into numbers so he'll probably ask for some "problems" to work. He will also practice his music (mandolin) as he's taking lessons and has a festival coming up.  The rest of the day he'll make up as we go along.

16 y/o is up and out for a run (just back to training after 2 1/2 months of down-time due to an accident.) She has homework to do for her CC class (Criminology.) She'll do a lot of reading, as always and work on a sweater that she's knitting. She also has a paper route to deliver and will continue her p/t job search. She's also working through "Key to Algebra" because she needs it for college. And she'll practice driving. There will probably be Facebooking, music, IMing and txting sprinkled in there too.

20 y/o has babysitting to do and has an appt. with a career center to get some input on his resume/interview/job search. He also will work on the jewelry he's been making for consignment and craft fairs. And he's studying for a driver's license.

*I* will be "on call" for questions/discussions/help as needed. That's pretty much my role these days--I'm perpetually on "stand-by." And I fill the spaces in between being needed with housework, or reading or knitting or my own job search. I also have a class of my own tonight at the CC.

We are, as a family in a bit of a transition with the older two mostly on their own, me preparing to return to the workforce and yet the youngest still being...well, young.

[TKEM]

We had a rewarding day with the kiddos today. Both the 10yr DD and 6yr old DS woke up at 8, came into our bedroom and asked us to sleep. They played legos and wrestled until 9:30 when we crawled out of bed and thanked them profusely for letting us sleep in together, which never happens... Breakfast and feeding the animals then off to the school with the 10yr old DD for a writers workshop with the states laureate which lasted a hour. My hubby is helping my grandfather rebuild an old cabin and the 6 yr old DS helped measure boards, haul lumber, hand screws, splash in puddles, pretty much be a 6 yr old boy! Then back home to eat dinner, watch a Lewis and Clark doc. after reading a few Bob books with the little guy while DD read and worked on the story started earlier in the day.

Tomorrow it's math for the 10yr old as she's trying to keep up with the public schooled neighbor girl, her choice, yard clean up as it's break up here and history,geography with the both of them. Hopefully fun will be had by all again while loving and learning!

d

d

[mommariffic]

I'll play! We are learning towards a naturey based unschool Waldorf THING. I have no idea 

DD is 3.5, DS is 10 months, and I'll post for yesterday!

Woke up early with DS and had coffee/watched My So Called life on Netflix while he crawled around and played

DD got up, made her cereal and she sang to baby brother while I did some dishes 

DD played with our 4 foster kittens while I did morning chores, showered, and got ready to go into Manhattan

Friend came over, babysitter arrived! Friend and I took big kids into the city to go to Moomah (art store) and we popped in this Waldorf play store and let the kids do the marble run for awhile..DD wanted to leave to go to the "funky forest" and do a craft/eat so that's what we did! She made some dinosaur collage with buttons, pinecones, and fabric bits and ate. 

Walked around city, pet dogs :) 

Came home and DD wanted to dye Easter eggs so I started boiling beets, blueberries and the likes. 

She did like 4-5 eggs and wanted to see kittens, so DS and I finished (he watched) 

I started putting up a "How a plant grows" bulletin board and DD came in and helped/asked questions

We looked at our seedlings after 

The rest of the night we went to Grandparents for dinner!

[mary3mama]

Fun thread!

Some days we watch netflix and the kids play on the Wii and on their computers pretty much the whole day. Other days the littler ones spend a majority of their days outside.

Today I took all three kids (11, 7, 4) with me for a variety of errands. There's garage renovation-stuff happening and it is better for them to not be under foot. 

We went to the post office and the library and out to lunch then to best buy and then to a park and then for ice cream and then to another park and then --- upon their request/plea --- we headed back home. 

All of the destinations, mind you, are mini-field trips. They almost never resist running errands with me, and I think it is because I try really hard to appreciate their time and their tolerance for all of it. 

Now we are home. The eldest is playing a new Wii game we just bought. The two younger ones are playing on Wizard101. I'm attempting to update the operating system on our old PC-desktop.

Yesterday we met-up with other unschoolers at an indoor play park.

We usually alternate days of much running-around & doing &/or meeting up with friends with days where it is just perfectly ok to stay in one's jammies and read/play/build.

There are times when I (neurotically) wonder if this path is serving their needs. But then I see that they are happy, friendly, well-adjusted, healthy and just plain awesome.