What are all the unschoolers doing today? - Page 3

[KaraBoo]

Last night, my husband and I were supposed to go out on a date but there was a mix up with the sitter (she's coming tonight instead). Our plans were to go out to a restaurant for dinner and then head to a DVD rental store, set up a membership and rent some new movies. At first, when we found out the sitter wasn't coming, all three of us were grumpy and trying to figure out what to do and just grumping about our evenings being "messed up."

Then I asked Sophia if she was up for getting bundled up and going out to the DVD store with us. She said yes! So we all walked up to the store. It's a neat new store! You check out movies electronically on TV panels set up in two rooms of the store. Then you just go to the counter and they pull up your account and see what you rented. You can also use the TV panels to watch trailers of movies. There is one that is at a child's height so we watched trailers while my husband filled out the paperwork for the membership.

Before we were about to leave, we recognized the owner of a Mexican restaurant (he bought our old microwave and that's how we met him!). As we were leaving, we were discussing what to do about dinner. And decided we'd go to our acquaintance's restaurant! LOL Good thing we bumped into him! As we were walking there, we got a bit worried that, since it was a Friday night, it would be packed with drinkers and rowdy expats. But it was still early for that and we got a table easily. There were actually two other families there.

S tried something new to eat, drew "surprise pictures" of Pokemons and talked with us about the movies she rented. ("Surprise pictures" are when she draws a portion of a Pokemon and we have to guess which Pokemon it is) We got home and watched one movie she rented, took a shower together cuz our hair smelled like cigarettes from the restaurant, then snuggled in our bed to start the other movie (my husband said he'd compromise and "let" her sleep with us LOL)). We all got too tired to focus and she asked to turn out the light and pause the movie til tomorrow (today LOL).

So we were all really glad the sitter didn't come. S doesn't usually like going out at night, especially when it's cold. We had a great walk, talking about how we couldn't see the stars well cuz we were in the city. Also, she is always surprised that other people are out and about in the evening. LOL I was glad she tried something new at the restaurant and liked it. So now we have yet another place we can go as a family.

We slept late this morning. Our plans for today are to work more on decorations for our Halloween party, finish the movie from last night, play Pokemon card game, and maybe bake something. And the sitter comes around dinnertime.

[LeftField]

I LOVE this thread.

Yesterday, the kids did art in the morning. I cut out a strip of paper and ds1 made his own bookmark. It was black paper with white crayon and depicted bones (one of his loves). Later, we went to the craft store to buy laminating material, but we haven't laminated it yet.

The kids discovered some new books in a bag in my room and they read those. Ds1 discovered some sticky notes and he declared he was having a "sticky note party". It looked like my room exploded in sticky notes.

I can't remember what we did in the afternoon. During ds2's nap, we didn't read for a change. Instead, we played a shop game that involved selling sticky notes. I got to be the cashier and I sat inside the playstand and sold the notes to him for 50 cents each (expensive, huh?).

At one point, ds1 used the sticky notes to depict the heart and a blood vessel. We looked at our blood vessels and he asked where they were in the body. He really wanted to know how the brain is attached to our body, if blood vessels went in there and he kept coming out with the conclusion that there must be a hole in the brain to get it to attach to the spine. Later, in the bathroom, he tried to give me a blow by blow of what he was doing on the toilet, in way of a digestive lecture, so that I could learn, "how his body works". :

We went for a walk, but discovered that the stroller was in dh's car. So I carried ds2 on my back in the Kozy Carrier; that was a workout. We tossed bread to the ducks, but the fish ate it instead, doing big splashes in the process. We saw a big turtle swim to get a piece and then we noticed little funny turtle heads sticking out of the water. A baby turtle bravely came all the way to the shore line to get a piece of bread, but he had to fend off the fish.

We went to the chiropractor's that night and the chiro explained to ds1 that there's a hole in the skull and the brain sort of turns into the spine. She promised to show the basic structure with clay the next time we came.

Today, we might go to the big zoo in the capital (1.5 hrs away).

Argh. I meant to say that ds1 pointed to his world place-mat last night and said, "This orange one is Iceland." He knows Greenland, but I didn't know he remembered Iceland. For some reason, he is very interested in those two and why Greenland isn't actually green.

If I hurry and shower now while they're out getting haircuts, we'll be able to make the big zoo trip (we have to squeeze ds2's afternoon nap in). Woo hoo!

[RubyWild]

Dd is very into playing with her friends right now, so she had two playdates in the morning which involved a lot of , dancing, fantasy play, and pretending to be asleep.

She's also very into reading this book series Let's-read-and-find-out science. Stage 1. It started with one on how seed grow to pumpkins, then she was interested in how viruses work (she got sick and wanted to know why and what), so I brought home stacks of these books and she wants to read nearly all of them all the time.

[SagMom]

Originally Posted by ShannonCC

Aw bummer. Sorry Joan, it was raining here.

I keep mixing up this unschooling thread with the other one--I responded to this in the other thread...oh well.

OMG Joan, the ghost in the commercial video? Scared the you know what out of me. I had headphones on too. Just don't send it to any potential heart attack victims, :LOL

Yup, that's the one. My youngest thinks it's hysterical. He sits here and watches it over and over again.

[ShannonCC]

Robert is building Bridget a mini-loft bed. It's a loft, but shorter than a regular one. The mattress will be around 5 feet off the ground. The ceiling isn't too tall in her room and there's a ceiling fan, so this will work with a nice little space underneath for her to play in, read in, whatever. So we joined him in the shop (garage) today. Bridget helped glue and place biscuits and then we helped him line up and clamp the pieces. I got some great pictures of her in a shop apron (to keep the glue off) with this serious look on her face, carefully putting biscuits in place Owen just watched and screamed at me when I took his picture. He says he doesn't want any more pictures

More Zoo Tycoon on Bridget's end. She showed me you can assign tour guides to exhibits which I didn't know you could do. I'm getting the urge to play the game again. I'll have to dig out the disk and get it on my computer tomorrow.

Oh, and she climbed up on the entertainment center and found some books I had put up there. They're books I didn't think she was interested in, I wasn't hiding them or anything, but she giggled and yelled that she found books (like there aren't hundreds of other books in the house ) and ran upstairs to read them. Later she came down with Anne of Green Gables and asked me to read it to her so I read a chapter. I read it to her once before and man, is that hard to read out loud (for someone with a propensity for stuttering at least!)

Huh, I'm blanking on what we did today, I did end up napping for a short time but not so much as yesterday.

Oh, tonight at dinner the kids are running around like wild animals. Robert and I are eating and the kids are just running back and forth from room to room, shrieking and having a good time. Robert's looking vaguely annoyed and I told him he's "too touchy". He said "no, you're too lax". (ok, this whole conversation was light and joking by the way). We go back and forth for a minute and then he says, as proof that I'm lax "the kids don't even go to school!" : At first I'm asking what the heck that has to do with anything but then I saw his point. These kids don't know how good they have it! Well, Owen wouldn't be in school yet, but Bridget would be in first grade and man would that kid be miserable.

[KaraBoo]

Oh man, we love Zoo Tycoon here! My daughter has been playing for years. She figured out so much stuff on there without even knowing how to read.

[ShannonCC]

Yeah, my dd learned most of the ins and outs of that game before she was reading too! I think this is the first time she's played since she started reading though (she took a loooooooong zoo tycoon break), so she's figuring out even more.

I don't even know what my kids did most of today. They went to Grandma's for 4 hours so who knows? But tonight we went to their Great Grandma's 90th b-day party. We found a bunch of my late FIL's magic tricks and puzzles in the basement and played with them. Bridget had a lot of fun with one trick that turned 1 big die into 8 tiny dice. We got a real stumper with one puzzle where you had four pieces of wood and had to form them into a T (MAN was that one hard). And another where you had two pieces of wood and had to make a pyramid. I joked with BIL that since he's from Egypt he should be able to do that one and Bridget agreed Oh, and the one where you pull apart two nails. Bridget and Robert kept getting it but then being unable to repeat it. All in all, we had a lovely time

[UnschoolnMa]

Dd had spent the night at a friend's house, so it was just me and Ds. We cleaned a bit, he read a lot, etc. Dh got home early and made a yummy dinner! Now they are all watching Pink Floyd The Wall.

[FreeSpiritMama]

Great thread

Last night DH, DS and I went to a fireworks display so we had a late night and as usual DS was still up early! We're both tired and its raining so having a pretty quiet day. We have a contruction site set up in the familyroom with his crane and a dozen trucks & workmen which has been played with on and off, we did some chores (ds loves to vacuum ). DS is interested in Vikings all of a sudden so we looked up some sites on the net and are planning a trip to the library tomorrow. About to bake a cake and some cookies (gotta love pregnancy cravings ) when he has finished listening to his audio books (Bob the Builder & Spot the dog).