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Generally, I don't like to be busy. I like stillness. But my passions are stirring me on well past my bedtimes. A very exciting personal goal of mine is coming to fruition soon! But I am at the computer more than I like and when I pull myself away I realize that I have so many photos and stories to share...but can't bear to sit at the keyboard another moment. Well tonight is Chris's band rehearsal night so I'll take a few more moments to tell you about a great little online press called blurb. I didn't motivate to make photo advent calendars for the grandfolks this year after the move and have felt sad about that for months. And I've got hundreds and hundreds of edited photos and can barely imagine myself putting together albums...so I decided to make a book with some of my photos. You can check out a little sample of it here. I just threw it together and it was so easy with the templates. Of course now I am burning to make something better and more beautiful...with some of my journalling included and larger files (rather than my flickr files). But I am so glad I went ahead and did it. My mom cried today when I gave it to her. Make your own today!
Remember doing this? It's so fun...the spontaneity and mystery of how it will end up is so addicting. I found one of these for just $12 this morning and Bowie made 5 of them this afternoon. Then carried around the machine forever turning it on and off. I think this is a totally great activity for 3-4 year olds. It is so much about process and surprise. Bowie kept looking at them saying, "They all are different." He calls them, "the beautiful messes." The directions called for glitter to be sprinkled on them with the machine off, but immediately he knew he wanted to sprinkle it on while spinning. Glitter dusted the table and floor but he got the hand vacuum and cleaned up after himself (the dust vac is also a totally great activity for 3-4 year olds...after cutting, while I'm vacuuming, after a messy snack). Can't wait to make more tomorrow!Our unschooling day:*Wake up and watch Deep Sea IMAX (talked about it several times through the day)*Go to Gattitown...for over 2 hours. He loves this place! Being really present with him to see what he loves about it is how I survive and even manage to enjoy it in the end. 2 years ago I couldn't imagine feeling right about taking him there, but I don't fear it anymore.*Tuesday Morning next door...walk all the aisles. He picked up so many glass and ceramic items. And put each back, "where I found it." I love that we can do this together now. Find the spin art!! Bowie examines a big Robot (went to a robotics demonstration at a local high school last weekend), a fleet of rescue vehicles, a tank, a racing helmet, water guns, water guns, and finally a laser type gun which we agree to get...except that he wants a candy bar (at Gattitown we decided that rather than pay $1 to play a game and maybe wind a candy bar to go to the dollar stare next door and get one for sure for half a dollar but got sidetracked here) so he puts the gun back happily.*Go the the dollar store where he chooses a snickers. As soon as we walk out the door he asks me to open it, he takes one bite caramel trailing from his hand to his mouth, and gives it to me asking me to throw it away because he doesn't like it so much. He amazes me, that he didn't feel upset in the least. He said, "I would prefer that it be ALL chocolate."*Come home and make 5 spin art creations. Clean up.*Work picking up sticks in the backyard, cleaning the pool, weeding...Bowie helps and investigates. He finds an empty snail shell. He cleans it at least 4 times. He finds a living snail and puts it in his observation box. We google "snail diet". Put some of the weeds into the box. He wants to see it eat then set it free.*We dance to my valentine's day ipod playlist while I fold laundry (which he helped me to put into the washer and dryer). We listened to "Reach Out, I'll Be There" at least 10 times. He's been loving that song for about 2 weeks now. MUST find the damn power cord for the video camera!*Sit on the couch together, leaning on each other as we wait for Papa to come home...I sing along to Jill Scott, Jeff Buckley, REM. I love to sing and he's very kind audience.*Papa!!!!!Anyway, I write this all out because sometimes I am just amazed at the weird diversity of our day. And to remind myself of how far we've come in this pursuit of joy in our family...candy bars and Gattitown don't fit what I had "wanted" for our son. But the magic of riding along in his joy is SO much better than any of my preconceived desires for him.I also write this because in the past 2 weeks I have received 3 really touching emails from people who have been silently reading here or looking at my photos on flickr. My motivations for writing this blog vary constantly...the personal need to document this life, sharing with family and friends that don't get to see us as much as we'd all like, soul searching and reflection about our family, and the one I have struggled with a bit...the relationship with the reader. I sometimes wonder if I want to continue sharing so publicly. But when I know that someone reads this, sees how I see the beauty of our family and it connects with or inspires them, I know that this is good. And I know how much I've gained from so many people sharing publicly. I have my wee tribe around me but this is a broader tribe that I value as well...thanks to everyone sharing your stories out there.
Today I posted this photo of Bowie cutting up apples for applesauce on flickr. Someone wrote me asking about unschooling and it was a chance to spend sometime being reflective about it. Here are some of the things I wrote in response to her interest:"I was a teacher, toddlers to 3rd grade, public school and private Montessori. So I am in process with that (unschooling myself), as you can imagine. But one of the most amazing things is that this unschooling approach actually feels the closest to the things in my education that really excited me: the journals, the child portfolios, the book clubs, all the stuff we studied called “authentic” learning through authentic tasks. I was on fire with passion for all of that. By having so much time to live life together, we are doing all of these authentic tasks driven by authentic interest . I don’t often come to Bowie in the morning with the tasks in mine. Leaving our days open allows us to really dig deep into whatever our interests are (for instance making the grocery list together, discovering that Bowie wants to make applesauce, looking up the recipe to add ingredients to our list, going grocery shopping, cooking it, enjoying it, photographing it, reliving it through the pictures and telling people about the experience, etc.)
This quote really captures what feels so right about it to me:
“ ...if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience." -- Anne Sullivan
Well there I go on and on…but I imagine that you get the idea that I love it for our family."
And this:
"And I totally relate to your desire to make childhood magical. What I never imagined was how magical it would make all of our lives. It allows me to learn and meet my needs as well. Now don't imagine that we don't have our hard moments, even hard days. We ARE living life here!"
I am in such an early stage of unschooling. There are many areas in which I have yet to give myself over to the flow. But I accept it joyfully in the places that it natural fills and I give attention to areas that are damned up as I begin to trust my need for it there. I am filled with the anticipation for our future and so utterly in the joy of each day in a way that I have never been.
The radical unschooling lifestyle has so impacted us. Now, "Why not?" comes to us naturally in most situations. And that opens our lives up to freedom and creativity and mutual respect.Yesterday was warm and sunny and we were wishing that our pool water was warmer (60 is too cold to sound really appealing if you ask me). I said jokingly, "We could go canoeing in the pool." But Bowie didn't see the joke, he saw the opportunity. So we did. All of us took turns, Bowie practiced getting in and out and in and out and paddling. What fun! And then my boys decided that they would like to swim and went in their shorts. Why not? I did however say it was too cold for me.
