Blog #27 “Evanesco” Harry Potter

November 21, 2014

I have been reading the Harry Potter series out loud to my kids for the past 2.5 years. One book at a time, one word after the other. Well we finished the entire series earlier this month. We were so excited to finish that we read the last 100 pages in two day. We were also motivated because they just re-released the movies out in our local movie theater, showing one a week starting in October. They kids were thrilled because I didn’t l...

Blog #26 sometimes we fail

November 17, 2014

One of the hardest things about being an unschool mom is watching your kids fail. It’s probably the hardest thing for all moms, but when you are home with them all day, you need to let them fail. Somehow our American parenting style as come so full circle that it just doesn’t allow kids to feel uncomfortable, let alone, fail. It is a ridiculous notion that we as parents can prevent all heartache from our children by never letting them feel lik...

Blog #25 flying high

November 14, 2014

This afternoon we went downtown to The New York Flying Trapeze School in Chicago. Flying trapeze is an activity that combines athleticism, art, and adrenaline. It also takes a certain personality to climb 64 feet into the air, trust the spotter at the top to hold you as you stand like the Leaning Tower of Piza over a 3x2 platform above the ground to grab a swinging bar, and jump at the words “hup,” that sends you soaring into the air. Well, two of us ...

Blog #24 fiber and fabric show

November 10, 2014

We ventured to the Chicago Botanic Gardens for their annual Fiber and Fabric Art show.  This was a huge show displaying many artisans works from quilts to clothes, to baskets and masks. The colors and textures are so inviting to the senses, they call you to look at them deeper, and pull you to touch them. I am always amazed by what people can do with needles and yarn. I can’t even sew in a straight line! Arianna did want to make matching ap...

Blog #23  drum circle rocked our world

November 10, 2014

This weekend I was part of a Funfair with Circus and Arts event. The event was open to the public, and including acrobatics, german wheel, juggling, unicycles, art, woodworking, GyroKinesis and African Drums. It was a busy night in the gym, but my little tribe kept flocking back to the drum circle. The drum leader was an amazing woman, who lives half the year in the USA, and half the year in New Guinea. She lives the music. She lives for...

Blog #22 bees have spit

November 8, 2014

A couple weeks back, the kids and I saw a massive beehive hanging from the neighbors tree. It is ginormous. Later that afternoon, as we were driving back into the neighborhood, I notice a piece of that nest had fallen to the the ground. I pulled the car over and Arianna went and picked it up for our collection of nature related stuff. We looked at the many layers of thin nest, marveled at the holes and mazes in the chunk we found, and wondered how the r...

Blog #21 NaNoWriMo

November 7, 2014

NaNoWriMo is the acronym for National Novel Writing Month. My kids took informational kick-off class this week sponsored by our wonderful librarians, both whom are very excited about kids writing. One is the children's librarian, who is encouraging beyond measure, adors helping kids, and offered to help with their works of art anytime. The other is a hip, in-the-know teen librarian that is enthused by all young adult literature, comic strips, movies, animati...

Blog #20 oh the places we go

November 4, 2014

“Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won……” This week my kids decided they wanted to sign up for the National Geography Bee for homeschoolers in our county. They posed a question to me, “hey Mom, if we sign up for this, can it count as our geography class?” This struck me as funny seeing as we aren’t really doing classes per se. Then I realized that they were traditi...

Blog #19  Happy Halloween stories

November 1, 2014

Halloween night in our town means some combination of the following: cold, hot, rain, sleet, snow, howling winds or eerie stillness. It is always dark by 5:30. So, off we went this year

(the combination: cold, gushing winds with a sprinkle of snow flurries) Trick or Treating. I walk with the kids, not because they need me. And not because I fear kidnappings on Halloween, but because my neighborhood has a way of adults bonding in the streets as...

Blog #18 living and learning

October 27, 2014

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous autumn day in Chicagoland. The jeans and sweatshirt temperature, the vibrant colors in every direction, the warm sun. I opened the door and let the kids run free. They raked leaves, played with the dog in  leaf piles, explored the woods, created backyard games. Found stuff. I don’t know what because I was putting away garden statues and flower pots. It was splendid. In the way of school we did nothing, but i...

Blog #17  five star reviews

October 24, 2014

Matthew holds few interests in life. At the age of 12.5 he enjoys martial arts, video games, YouTube sensations, friends, filmmaking, watching football, making weapons out of sticks, and eating. He is awed by powerful people, good or bad, and their influences on the masses. He is into good vs. evil. He would love to create a YouTube channel that can speak out to the greater world. Not a lot to draw from when you want to encourage a new educational...

Blog #16 Deutsch lehren

October 21, 2014

Arianna wants to learn many languages, but she picked German first.  I speak one (unless you count the little phrases I still remember from high school Spanish class). You know the language class where you memorize a bunch of vocabulary words, but never actually speak conversationally. That is my background. How am I suppose to teach her this? She did not wait for me to figure out the answer. She decided to check out a book from the library Beginners Ger...