Two days ago, a dear friend gave us a storage bin full of kiddo books from cleaning off her bookshelves. How did we get so lucky? An Unschooler with two boys = THE best books EVER! I didn't tell the boys, I just put the storage bin in the middle of the living room floor. They have hopped over it and played around it for two days now. Finally, today, Josiah is so "into" a book that I can't get him to hop off my bed so I can make it. I didn't recognize the book. I looked and the storage bin was open. Wow! Thank you Pam! Sam immediately discovered the UFO/Alien books and pulled them all out. (Sam has suddenly developed an intense interest in UFOs and aliens). Josiah loves the Magic School Bus books, especially the Waterworks. Anything with water, dams, tornadoes, storms, etc gets his undivided attention. Josiah and I also spent about an hour in the Usborne Puzzle Adventure book, in which we made a trip to Scandinavia, China, and Rome through time travel.
I am beginning to connect more with my local home school group. I met a person who I absolutely adore. She is a self-taught expert on herbs, and she had both of her babies at home! She has a wonderful personality, and she is so "real" and easy to talk to. We have a parade coming up in which we enter a float of our own for our group. It is a "farm equipment/animal only" parade, and I hear it is fantastic! I don't think we will get to ride on the float this time, but I am so excited to be able to experience such a parade!
Cassidy's Christmas Concert was amazing. Well, minus the troll that sat behind me. (Luckily, a REAL teacher eventually came and sat beside of me to take pics, and magically, the Troll Teacher Assistant behind me AND the rude teen with her shut the fock up for the remainder of the performances!) I have NEVER heard a high school chorus so developed. I am so proud of her to be part of such an amazing group, and I believe that Ms. Laney has been an important influence in Cassidy's life. Admission is two canned goods per person, all for Project Hope. I love watching the accompanist, and I envy how well and how easily she plays. I should have practiced when you tried to make me, Mama! lol Now that I am "playing" again, I can see that practice makes all of the difference. I will struggle with a piece until I have to just walk away from it. I will go back to the same piece the next day, and the part I struggled with before comes more easily to me. I also envy the interns. That should have been me. Life is music, and music is life. How easily what I loved so much was made unattractive to me through the distractions of high school. In 1990, NC State came to Hunter Huss to recruit people for their textile programs. Textiles started to disappear before we graduated from college!
The boys behaved so well during the concert, and on the front row, no less, that I let them stay up until almost midnight to munch on popcorn and watch A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. It was scarey! Great effects, especially the evil horses!
I received our Winter Solstice books today. I am really excited about this. (The above pics are saved images and not links, so don't try to "Look inside!") One actually has celebration activities in it! I also ordered other seasonal books, covering Christmas around the world, pioneer Christmas, etc. Our list of winter books we have read is very long, and will grow even longer as we go. So far, Josiah is smitten with the idea of decorating a tree with real candy & fruit (from Nonna Tell Me a Story: Lidia's Christmas Kitchen by Lidia Bastianich, set in Istria long ago...) IT is a very good thing to have many maps about when you are Unschooling, in the house, in the car. There is a way bigger world out there than what we confine ourselves to by playing the mainstream game.
I think Mike and I are having more fun with Hooper, our Elf on the Shelf, than the kiddos are....
I love you Jen. Because you packed up the Wasabi Peas and sent them home with ME!
Today I am thankful that we are not wasting our lives away dropping kiddos off and picking them up from school. I am also thankful that the boys are not wasting their childhood away doing homework and signing reading logs. I am so thankful that *I* am raising my children rather than sending them away to the school factories to be turned into sheep, while I work to buy more things. I am thankful for my husband, my Mr. Steady, who makes this all possible, and who is learning from us as we are learning from him. We are making moments, which is all you really have. As Jen said the other night..."There ain't no Uhaul behind that hearse."
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