**August Unschooling**

[SagMom]

Can you believe it's August already?

Our calendar looks empty for this month (although, that's what I said about July's calendar, and then July came and suddenly our days were full!)

So far, we're planning a trip to the state fair this month, and we'll be at the pool and the shore.

[Millie Ivy]

The kids and I are open this month so far, but we are about to fill up I think...

lol

[folkypoet]

Okay, I'm jumping in this month. I always think about posting something late in the month, but then I feel like I shouldn't 'cause I wasn't there in the beginning, you know? Silly, yes, but that's just me.

Now that the Harry Potter hoopla is over (for the most part - I'm still reading it, and Kenzie is working desperately not to give away the plot), we're trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. We're looking into some martial arts centers around town and thinking about finding a theater that's close and welcomes kid volunteers.

[UnschoolnMa]

Yay August! Wow summer has flown by.

This weekend we'll be having my Ds's youngest sister over to stay a couple of nights. Her mom is a close friend and she is heading to a music festival that her Dd isn't at all interested in. We plan to make homemade pizzas and brownies.

We might make it to the fair this weekend too, but I am not sure just yet. Ds has decided to re-read most of the HP series after finishing the last book. He's has some job interviews this week (my first baby going to job interviews!) and after an interview yesterday he called to say he was going to see the Simpsons movie.

Dd is heading up a guild on a board she visits, and she writes fan fiction there. She said it's been a challenge in a good way. She's learned how to play/write as multiple characters by using different colors of font, and her vocabulary is expanding. She's reading a few books right now including "Doing it Right" and Friendship For Today

Today is the first harvest sabbat so if the temp doesn't get too crazy Dd and I may make some bread. If not, fresh berries may have to suffice.

[majikfaerie]

Greetings August Unschoolers!
(pun intended)

Well, July was a big month for us; a bash at single-parent unschooling, we built a bridge, bought a bag'o'barbies, made multi-coloured potions, lots of gardening, living... let us see what August has in store...

[UUMom]

This is basically a 'my kid is so cute' post. Tonight I was making grrilled salmon with a cilantro sauce/topping, and as we were chatting about it she (my 8 yr old) said "I'll go clip the cilantro, and I think the dressing will need some parsely, *you love parsely* so I'll get that as well". Anyway-- all cute little voice aside, she ended up making the topping. She ended up adding a little Korean red pepper sauce (which was not in my plans, but actually worked out great), some lime, and a little more cracked pepper plus * a huge amount* of cilantro. lol It was great. She was chopping the cilantro like a pro-- her knife never leaving the cutting board-- up and down, up and down. lol So attentive, so adorable.

I have no point...lol...just that I love that my kids can go to the garden, clip some herbs, and feel respected enough to know they can go ahead and work it.

PS-- A cool thing is was she thought it needed cumin, but when she went to the cumin bottle, it had like a drop left in it. I think that was because my oldest made a yellow curry the other night and used it up. I told him tonight, 'when you finish a spice, don;t forget to write it down so we can replace it'. Which is not to say I don't forget that sort of thing *all the time*, so we all rolled our eyes together. lol I think the reason she used the Korean pepper paste was more for color than anything (I love that she was thinking about that!) . But it really worked with the cilantro and lime.

[Maiasaura]

i'm here!

happy lammas, for those who celebrate it

we're having our family celebration on friday. colcannon, homemade bread (YAY for bread machines) and fresh berry cobbler. i have been saving the berries from our vines in the freezer since i picked them. i was getting about half a cup a day while they were ripening, and i've now got about six cups! plus a thing of raspberries that i got from the store-- organic, and they were like $1.49 or something. i couldn't believe the price

i am GLAD it's august. cause that means soon it's september, and then november. and then december and january. my favorite time of year.

i went and bought a whole thing of borax so we could make more slime- i'd made laundry soap out of the last box, and i forgot to hold back three lousy tablespoons to make slime with. so i had to buy a whole new box oh well!

pamela

[ColwynsMommy]

August looks to be a lot busier for us than last month. We've got lots of birthdays in the family (me, my husband, the baby, my mother, my sister), so we'll be busy making lots of cakes. We're going camping this weekend so we can attend a hot air balloon festival in New Hampshire, next weekend is a birthday party, the weekend after.. um.. I forget.. and the weekend after that is another cookout.

We went to a local farm to get a blueberry cobbler for Lughnasadh (I'm so not into baking when it's this hot out), and met all the new sheep they have there.. boy, were they a lot more enthusiastic than the two old girls they had before. The kids were more than a little freaked out. We listed to Hugan the Bard's songs about the Mabinogion, read lots of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, and then went to the park.

Yesterday (I know, I know, that was July, this is August, sheesh), we drew a life-size apatasaurus foot print with chalk in the driveway.. 3 feet long and 2 feet wide. Then we drew a T. Rex footprint, then traced Colwyn's foot print. We also talked about how T. Rex walked on his tiptoes, and that's why his footprint was so small. Then we measured out 80 feet and drew a looooong line to show how long an apatasaurus was. Let me tell you.. drawing an 80 foot chalk line on the ground is not fun. But Colwyn had fun running down to one end while I stood at the other, and whenever I said something to him, he yelled, "I can't hear you, Mommy! I'm SOOOO far away!"

I can't wait for the cooler temps in September, but I'm not looking forward to being cooped up all winter. Hooray for summer!

[hahamommy]

August is a huge month for us
We're dogsitting for the next week or two. Hayden loves hanging out with our cousin's dog, so it's a blessed chore May even take her out to the dog park to work on her frisbee skills!
We've got our local county fair next week,which is always a blast! We'll do a whole day of rides and I'll sneak some time to see the exhibits which always inspire me to begin amazing projects that I'm sure to show next year -- not! The inspiration is fun, even if the follow through doesn't exactly follow through with me.
The week after, we'll be hosting some unschoolers who are passing through town from Idaho on their way to Ohio.
We've got our local, inclusive, homeschool group's Not Back to School party. We're lucky someone has offered their home for us, so we get to party with a trampoline, a pool and some serious watermelon eatage!
Then BIG plans for The Boy's 9th Birthday celebration -- we'll be celebrating at home AND travelling to Bemidji to share the joy with some of our Tribe there.
Hannah's birthday (my mother's day) is the day after Hayden's so I'll be wallowing-- though just for a tiny bit because we've got unschooling visitors coming from England that day!!

All the while, I'll be perfecting my talk for the Live and Learn Conference "Change your Perspective, Change your Life" and readying the rest of the stuff I'll need to take (as in my Rocky Horror supplies!) and centering myself before taking a cross-country road trip with my own mama And deciding which exciting destination calls us most strongly for our post-conference tour!

Whew! I'm exhausted just writing all of that down! Next time I'm up for air it's gonna be September and I'll be on the road and wondering what the heck just happened to me?!?!

~diana <--- for SURE this month!

[doulajewla]

Trying to Unschool...

Briefly ill post...im trying to unschool. I homeschooled part of kindergarten for my older son, and then all of first grade. he wanted to go to school so very much that I let him--but only after i made sure it met my criteria, which, it did not since it was not at home but he wanted to go and it was a very small school and i said id be there every day. my daughter ended up going as well. this year we are homeschooling again and will not go back to PS anytime in the future. I tried unschooling back a few years ago but i couldnt grasp the concept. I have to train myself and trust. TRUST. Its a big thing I talk about concerning birth. Trust that they will learn and they will ask questions and seek out the answers. They already show me this daily.

I know i try to read this thread (June and July) to see what a typical unschooling day is like...but since we are in the "system" and have to report to the state what can i get away with? i dont tell them i am unschooling, but as far as portfolio work i have to submit. a few worksheets here and there, pictures, art projects, hiking, biking camping etc...

Help guide me...help me understand please we homeschool to have a more relaxed atmosphere and do not overcrowd our schedule. we need to be a family and not rushing here and there anymore. I just want to relax and learn on our own. Thank you!

[Arduinna]

You guys plan stuff? Well August here is blistering we stay inside as much as possible. Although we did get summer monsoons rains today.

[UnschoolnMa]

We hid in the house for the bulk of the day today due to hot weather, but the evening was a bit nicer. We had some goodies to observe the sabbat, played video games, watched an OPB show about farmers markets, read, and helped Dd navigate a MySpace hacking situation.

Tomorrow we may leave the house... or maybe not. LOL

[majikfaerie]

I know everyone is talking about how hot it is, so this is gonna sound old and lame, but it was soo hot here today.
but its special and exciting for me, coz its actually the middle of winter where we are, and it should be cold and rainy. but we actually got into the pool! It was about 30 degrees C. Which is cool compared to summer, but for winter its HOT.
Anyway, my DH comes back on saturday, its been such a great 3 weeks without him so that will change our dynamics a bit...

[TheJoyfulMom]

We have no plans... Its too hot to do anything still here.

We're in the midst of selling our house so I've been trying to come up with things to do that are out of the house, yet still in a/c. I'll be happy when public school starts back in 2 weeks so some of our favorite places will be empty again.

My kids are planning and re-planning our trip to Asheville for the Live & Learn conference. They go on to google maps and plan the way and then change it a few times and decide where we will stop on the way. The excitement is really building for that!

We're on day 4 of rain now though so we've been cooped up. We're all ready for it to stop!

[beanandpumpkin]

Well, we've definitely joined the "unschooling" camp... I find that my Justin is learning much more with no fights when I just let him figure out what he wants to do and then help him/let him do it!

Let's see... we're leaving for Germany in 8 weeks, so we've been talking a lot about that, talking about the food that we'll be eating (staying with a family, so we will be eating home-cooked German food), reading about the castles that we will be visiting, looking through a couple of books that they have sent over the past year about the region. We also had to submit extra paperwork for Justin's passport, so we've been talking about that too. We've been talking to Rebecca a lot about how to be polite if you don't like something that's served (we're preparing her for our trip), so she's been practicing saying "No thank you, I don't want that" instead of laying her head in her arms and wailing, "That's just too yucky!! Wahhh!!"

At the end of the month, we have some "homeschool group" activities starting up again... there's a field trip to a chef school for kids (can't think of the name of it right now) and a "back to school" bowling trip.

Normally they play/dig/splash around outside every day, but it's been rainy, so we've basically just been watching the grass grow (which it's doing VERY quickly!). The kiddie pool is all filled with rainwater, and I wonder if there are tadpoles out there... I'll look before I dump it and wash it out. Last year there were some in the neighbor's kiddie pool after a few days of rain, so maybe we can do the tadpole thing again this year!

[doulajewla]

I have been reading non stop since last night about unschooling, most of it are essays ive been reading for the last few years, and the same message boards. I think i have to just let go and let my children fly. What do you all do about state requirements and proving what they learn?

[SagMom]

My dd has been researching various religions for a while now. Would any of you have any books or links to recommend about paganism? She's read Circle Round but she's looking for something more in depth. Our library is not really well-stocked with such books, and she's having trouble sifting through all the negative websites to find what she's looking for.

Originally Posted by doulajewla

What do you all do about state requirements and proving what they learn?

Our state doesn't have requirements--what do you have to submit? I've been taking notes, after the fact, of what my older kids are doing/have read/etc. in case we need to put a transcript together for college, but I just keep that in a journal. As for relaxing...since you're coming off of schooling, maybe just pretend every day is a weekend? When ds was in school, I remember the flood of relief when Friday afternoon arrived and there were no expectations for the weekend. Cultivating that would help get into a deschooling midset, I think.

I really dislike summer weather. It's going to be in the 90's today (not as hot as it gets, but still!) Happily, ds got a reprieve from his apprenticship today, so we're all going to the pool--it's way too hot to do anything else. Mercyn, I'm with you on the weather--I LOVE the fall and winter.

Originally Posted by majikfaerie

Anyway, my DH comes back on saturday, its been such a great 3 weeks without him so that will change our dynamics a bit...

My dh works long hours and I feel that dynamics change on the weekends when he's generally home. We feel so out of step with each other and it takes lots of deep breaths.

We went to the library yesterday and in the car, my youngest was looking at a book and read a sentence all by himself! While he's read a few words here and there, he hasn't been interested in learning to read, so this was pretty cool. Of course, when I said to him, "We could read together when we get home." He replied, "No, I'm done reading."

[Arduinna]

Joan, for a 12 year old I think the Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism is probably pretty good. Most of the other stuff I'd recommend is really dry reading. If she wants something more in depth with history I'd suggest Drawing Down the Moon by Hutton if she is an advanced reader.

Here are some links for her

http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm
http://www.novaroma.org/main.html
http://www.imbas.org/imbas/index.html
www.druidry.org
http://www.caw.org/articles/otherpeople.html
http://www.ealdriht.org/
http://www.thetroth.org/
http://www.sponde.com/

[nomadmom]

I'm loving the return to freedom and slow pace after our over-scheduled, manic June/July. Last weekend, dh and the kids built a gate for our front garden, and ds has been putting a coat of wood stain on each day this week. He even let dd help on Tuesday -- so sweet to look out the window and see them working together.

Originally Posted by UnschoolnMa

We hid in the house for the bulk of the day today due to hot weather

Lol, we got *out* of the house for the bulk of the day due to hot weather! It rained here for nearly the entire month of July (I think we had 2-3 dry days), w/ high temps in the 50's, so today's sunshine was most welcome.

Ds set off on a road trip w/ a couple friends to get some skate gear, and then headed to an outdoor skate park where's he's been all day. When he was little, I used to love when he'd come in from playing all sweaty and filthy because it meant he'd had fun. I expect he'll be coming home like that tonight.

One of our unschooling friends is moving on Monday to a different part of the country, so she invited a few of us to her house for a tea party. It was far too nice to stay inside, so after eating we walked to the field down the road. Dd had a lovely time alternating between hanging out "teen style" with her 13 y.o. friend, playing ponies with her 8 y.o. friend and loving on a 10 month old.

Later, we wandered over to the river where the kids (11 boys and girls of various ages) ran, climbed and threw stones until they'd burned off their lunches and started to get hungry again. It was one of those pleasant kind of days where no one really wanted to go home.

Ds has just staggered in, grubby as heck and heading for the shower. Yes, a good day.

[UnschoolnMa]

Heading to the lake today!