**August Unschooling** - Page 3

[SagMom]

Originally Posted by AntoninBeGonin

I'm not sure if it's state required or not. Are there any lists online?

http://www.nhen.org/leginfo/state_list.asp

[AntoninBeGonin]

http://www.nhen.org/leginfo/detail.a...eCode=Illinois I'll have to read it later and try to dicipher it . Don't have time now. I'm s'posed to be packing for a trip.

Thanks for the link.

[ColwynsMommy]

Originally Posted by mercyn

you saw Hugin??? how cool is that? he used to play PSG all the time! i SO miss the song "Pagans in the Mud"

where did you get the info for the dimensions of dino prints? what a cool idea! maybe we'll do that when we find a place where we can draw with chalk that big. we have a gravel driveway

MAN y'all are prodigious!! now back to the previous page to catch up....

pamela

Oh, I wish we could have seen him live.. no, we have a CD that we listen to. It's better than nothing, I guess.

For the dinosaur footprints, I just googled it and found some info on enchantedlearning.com. Then I did a Google Images search to see what the footprints actually looked like. The footprints are still out there, as is the big long line.. I laugh every time I pull into the driveway.

[UnschoolnMa]

Originally Posted by Joan

No, that hasn't been my experience. My kids talk about what they've been doing in a general way. Depending on your state's requirements, you might need to translate what you do into "educationalese," but where I live, we don't report and I don't have a list of subjects that my kids need to work through, so we really don't think in terms of subjects. Do you live where you need to break down your activities or are you wanting to do that?

No requirements here from either the state or our family as far as subjects go. We don't really think in terms of subject, but I can admit I have used the connection between some activity and a subject when talking to an anti-unschooling person. I try not to get caught up in a feeling of needing to justify what we do because it's just so silly.

Learning rarely involves just one subject area anyway. If you need to translate unschooling stuffs into academic language for a portfolio or learning statement thingy you might be interested in reading this page one unschooling mom wrote for her son. It's might get you thinking in the right direction anyway.

[KaraBoo]

August is going to be a slooooowwww month for us. We're trying to save money, we have no visitors and aren't going anywhere, the pottery studio where DD takes classes is closed til next month...Europe kinda shuts down in August. Well, for the locals anyway...there are still tons of tourists in the city here.

DD has been getting into music lately. She goes in phases where she immerses herself in something. Right now, it's music and online chat. LOL Last week, she wanted to hear Video Killed The Radio Star over and over and over. But this week, it's old school rap. Who knew?

I can't remember how it started but I told her about owning the first RunDMC album on vinyl and I was talking to my husband (while dd listened intently) about how rap has changed So Much over time. So I found a bunch of RunDMC stuff on YouTube (we have Veoh so we download stuff and listen to it later), along with Will Smith. Now, she is in love with the song Get Jiggy With It.

It's times like these when I fall in love with her all over again. Ok, I adore her to bits anyway but these times are so precious to me. I love seeing something through her eyes. The world is still so new to her. And yet she's a pretty savvy 8 yr old. It's just amazing and fun and life feels good right now.

[UnschoolnMa]

Originally Posted by KaraBoo

I can't remember how it started but I told her about owning the first RunDMC album on vinyl and I was talking to my husband (while dd listened intently) about how rap has changed So Much over time. So I found a bunch of RunDMC stuff on YouTube (we have Veoh so we download stuff and listen to it later), along with Will Smith. Now, she is in love with the song Get Jiggy With It.

This sounds much like me and my kids! We love to talk music...what I listened to back in the day, what I liked and didn't, what they love, how it's all different and how it's all the same. Ds was just mentioning how he thought it was so strange that he likes NIN and that they were, technically, a product of the 80's. He typically doesn't care for 80's music. That led to us discussing the shift in the popular genre of hair band to grunge, and about how the genre labels are not what they were when I was a teen.

I adore Will Smith and the kids know the theme for the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air", "Parents Just Don't Understand", and just today we listened to "Summertime". I wonder what DJ Jazzy Jeff has been up to anyway?

Oh, you should show your Dd the video of when RunDMC teamed up with Aerosmith for "Walk This Way".

[KaraBoo]

ooooh thanks for reminding me! She's rocking out to it right now, although she says it's too "rocky." LOL I am downloading the vid for Blondie's Rapture as well so she can hear the rap bit and some LL Cool J. I used to be so in love with him.

Anyway, I forgot to add that we're getting DD a new bike this week! Grandma sent some money for it (THanks, Grandma!) and we're looking for a good deal. I remember learning to brake and told her some stories which made her crack up.

These rap songs are opening up some good conversations about words and fashions and even, yes, the N word. She still doesn't get how a word can hurt and insult so much. It's an ongoing conversation that started when she saw Rush Hour a few weeks ago

ETA----re: labels for music...I was thinking of this a few months back, about how "alternative" doesn't really mean what it used to. Pearl Jam as alternative? Not anymore! LOL

[Maiasaura]

i was a drummer for various punk bands in the 80s. my 6.5yo ds is all *over* that! my drums are set up in the basement, and though i don't play anymore, he sometimes goes down there and goes to town.
he loves many of the bands i listened to then, especially my fave local-from-then (Syracuse NY) band, the Flashcubes (who are still around, btw!), and my friend Maura's current band the Kennedys, and he likes Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and the Ramones, and Incus (current, not from back then). as long as it's "rough" (his words ) and not mellow. ooooh, i can't wait till he's a teen...NOT! i never could stand rap (sorry to the mamas who do) and i hope he doesn't take to that!!

so he's all into dinosaurs again the way he was when he was 4yo. weird. when he was like...3? my mom got him this cool kit where you can put together little dino bones to make complete skeletons. you can make the ones they suggest, or make up your own. he hasn't touched it in years; i thought many times of getting rid of it, but for the last two days he's been into that with a vengeance.

we're doing Komodo dragons, too. i didn't know anything about them before he developed an interest-- those things are scary, and GROSS! :Puke

pamela

[KaraBoo]

I love that when they bring out something they haven't played with or messed with in years. It's cool to see where their brain takes them and what new interest they can find in something they thought they'd passed by.

Hey, we like the Ramones too! DD is partial to Judy is a Punk, from the Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack (one of my favorite soundtracks...I play it a lot). I like it that she likes all kinds of music.

And yeah, Komodo dragons freak me out a little bit. The swallowing thing is a little...scary. lol

[UnschoolnMa]

I totally agree that the genre labels for music a bit strange these days. I get that music changes and new things pop up, but I once came across KISS being labeled as soft rock/pop! And Dd's fave band comes up as Pop/pop punk/emo/rock emo/ and alternative rock. It's hilarious.

We also love the conversations that come from lyrics in songs. Lots of great discussion to be had.

[folkypoet]

I finally finished HP7 at dawn this morning (!), so Kenzie is now free to talk my ear off about all the things that happened in the book (he finished the Tuesday after it was released). He's been having such a hard time not giving away plot points.

The book was great, except for all the comma splices. It was so hard for me to read through them without correcting each one in my mind.

He's actually rereading the series. He started with 6, finished it, and then decided he'd go back to the beginning, so he's in the middle of The Sorcerer's Stone, now. I kind of wish I'd reread everything before picking up Deathly Hallows, since I'd forgotten SO much....

For the past few months, Kenzie has been recoloring Sonic sprites. Yesterday, he finally felt he'd gotten good enough to put up an ad on his Neopets page offering his services, and he was elated this morning to find out that someone had already requested one! He's working on it now.

Neopets has been amazing for him. He loves it, and it's spurned his love of writing, drawing, and techy computer stuff. He's learned so much from Neopets - the ins and outs of communicating over the Internet, storytelling (in the RPG boards), spelling, grammar and punctuation, html, Dreamweaver (we host the images he uses), Paint and Photoshop (for recoloring), and goodness knows how many other things....

[Maiasaura]

ok....i thought i knew a lot about grammar...apparently i don't. what are comma *splices*?? can you give an example (without giving away the plot, of course )?

i thought Neopets were a thing you carry around with you? it's something on the internet, too? what do you do with them there? how is it different from the electronic things you carry around?

more Komodo dragons...we started a 2nd book last night. i'm already maxed out on them

i got ds a huge box from the grocery store today. he's been living in it since about noon. he LOVES huge boxes! don't all kids?

what is the royal tennenbaums?

pamela

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by mercyn

i got ds a huge box from the grocery store today. he's been living in it since about noon. he LOVES huge boxes! don't all kids?

Many a day, I'd like a huge box to crawl into....

[ColwynsMommy]

We got back from our camping trip today. It was both fantastic and horrible.

The hot air balloon rally was great, absolutely fantastic. If anyone is close enough to Pittsfield, NH, they do it every August, I think. They were doing helicopter rides ($25 a person for a five minute ride!) and we sat right next to the area where they landed and took off. The kids were beyond thrilled to watch the helicopters, and the wind made it quite cool! We were planning on having my husband and my father take the boys on a ride, as my mom had asked the guy selling tickets if there was a minimum age, and he said no. So, we told the kids they could go and when we went to buy tickets, they said my 2 year old couldn't go on. I could have cried.. it's his birthday today and he was SO excited. He was totally heartbroken when he realized he wouldn't get to go on it.

But.. my husband, father, and my three year old had an awesome time. We got some great pictures of my peanut wearing giant headphones, and of them deboarding the helicopter.

Then around 6pm or so they inflated the hot air balloons, and that was amazing. Once they were all up, there were about ten or so, and as night fell, they used their emergency.. um.. fire thingies (heh, I'm so technical--but the emergency ones fire at a lovely orange color) to make the balloons glow. They coordinated and all lit up at the same time about half a dozen times.

Then we waited around until 9:30pm for the fireworks, and seriously.. for a tiny little town, they did a great job. I think they said they did $35k worth of fireworks, and it took 45 minutes. They were literally the best fireworks I've ever seen. Colwyn loved them (and said he wanted to be a firework when he grows up), but Lachlann didn't, but he fell asleep during them.

That night camping sucked. We all got about three hours of sleep, if that. That's all I'm going to say about that.

But the rest of the trip was awesome. Woohoo Pittsfield NH!

[Lillian J]

Just saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and was struck by the classroom scene in which Professor Umbridge announces that the best way for the students to learn about Defense Against the Dark Arts is to sit quietly in class, wands put away, and read the textbooks. She refuses to allow them to get any practical knowledge, and won't teach them any Defensive spells: “Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way . . . ”

Couldn't help but think of traditional schooling.

I know there's also a thread here somewhere about some sort of homeschooling remark in the newest book, but I haven't read it yet, so haven't followed the thread. - Lillian

[folkypoet]

Originally Posted by mercyn

ok....i thought i knew a lot about grammar...apparently i don't. what are comma *splices*?? can you give an example (without giving away the plot, of course )?

It's just two sentences spliced together by a comma. She took a sip of milk but spat it out when the men burst into the room, she hadn't expected the Spanish Inquisition.

I looked around the Net to see if I was the only one who had noticed, but I was in good company. Mostly, people were blaming JKR, but it's really the fault of the editorial staff. How something like that could slip by SO MANY TIMES is simply beyond me....

Originally Posted by mercyn

i thought Neopets were a thing you carry around with you? it's something on the internet, too? what do you do with them there? how is it different from the electronic things you carry around?

The Neopets site is HUGE. I think it started out as a card game? On the site, you still have ultra-cute pets, and there are games you can play and quests you can undertake to earn Neopoints. You can spend your Neopoints on new pets or on gear or magical items for your existing pets. For Kenzie, though, that's not the biggest draw. He spends his time on the forums, mostly in the role playing section. Really, the role playing is just a bunch of kids doing a shared storytelling. The boards are *extremely* busy. Right now, the role playing board has recent threads for things like Medieval Fantasy, Pokemon, Family (you play the mom, I'll play the brother, etc.), Ancient Rome, Science Fiction & Future Fantasy, and (of course) tons of Harry Potter.

Oh, and you also have your own "pet pages" that you can customize. He loves that.

[folkypoet]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

Just saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and was struck by the classroom scene in which Professor Umbridge announces that the best way for the students to learn about Defense Against the Dark Arts is to sit quietly in class, wands put away, and read the textbooks. She refuses to allow them to get any practical knowledge, and won't teach them any Defensive spells: “Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way . . . ”

Couldn't help but think of traditional schooling.

This was maybe my favorite part.

'Yes,' said Hermione. 'Surely the whole point of Defence Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?'

'Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?' asked Professor Umbridge, in her falsely sweet voice.

'No, but -'

'Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the "whole point" of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way -'

Ah, the public school curriculum. Everything all approved and safe. Nothing exciting. Nothing even all that interesting. Just believe what we want you to believe, think how we want you to think, and see yourself as we need you to see yourself.

Also made me think about all the people who believe that a degree in education is absolutely necessary for homeschooling parents.

[wdube]

New here!

Hi Ladies,

My boys are still young (ages 3 and 1), but I think this is where we belong, so I figured I'd post and say "hello." DS#1 is very self-directed; I'm just along for the ride, so I guess we're unschooling. He wants nothing to do with preschool, and has told me since he was 2 that he wants to learn at home with me (though his little brother can go to school ). He also has no interest in sitting down to "learn" letters, numbers, etc. so I've never looked into any curriculum. When he shows interest in a particular area, I suggest we find that section at the library and then he read books. When he asks questions I don't know the answer to, we jot them down so we can research the answers together later.

Our activities include playgroups, museum and zoo visits, and household things like gardening, grocery shopping, cooking/baking, laundry and paying the bills online. He also just learned to ride his bike (with training wheels), which we are all so excited about!

Like me, DS#2 is along for the ride at this. His interests mirror DS#1's at this age. He just started walking so now he's really starting to explore.

Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this community.

[Maiasaura]

Originally Posted by folkypoet

It's just two sentences spliced together by a comma. She took a sip of milk but spat it out when the men burst into the room, she hadn't expected the Spanish Inquisition.

that's supposed to be separated by a semicolon...someone correct me if i'm wrong? that's a total grammar blunder. i can tell you now that book will drive me crazy

well i guess ds will have to learn to read, and navigate the 'net before he gets into the neopets site. and that will happen when hell freezes, cause he's not allowed on my computer. MAYbe when i am not on dialup anymore, and don't have win98 anymore. maybe.
that's ok though cause he's not that interested in it anyway. he wants to play games but the puter's not fast enough, so he plays video games or computer games that don't involve being online. he isn't even interested enough in those, though, when he can watch video : back in the day, we used to call people like that "vidiots"....
oh well. i've raised one


pamela

[UnschoolnMa]

I spent much of the day in the ER waiting to be seen so that sucked, but Dh and Ds visited with a whole host of characters in the waiting room. There was a lady that freaked out and said she was going to sue the hospital, and then the older fella that said he purposely moved to this town way back when because it was "so white". : There was a nice lady with a bunch of kids who were restless so Dh changed the TV for them and turned it so they could see. The mom was thankful. Oh the people you meet!

Dd was asked to "hang out" at the park today near our house by a boy that lives around the corner. She got there and he was there for about 10 minutes before totally bailing and not even giving her any reason. She was pretty ticked. She said that when she mentioned it to him he just said "Oh, now I don't want to." and his friend kept answer FOR him in smart alecky comments. Dd was so sad and irritated. I told her that if someone treats her that way they aren't really what I call friend material. As a mom, sometimes I just wish kids weren't so mean, ya know?

But some chocolate cake and watching a movie with Dad has made for a much better evening.