First Slingshot Lesson – 10 and 12 year olds
We would come home hungry if we were hunters! Is 10 too young for a slingshot? I know as soon as I got mine as a 12yo, I wanted to break windows. Holy eff did I break a lot of windows – I could do it from far away! You can’t really blame me for […]
Unicycling : Getting Closer and Closer!
We had a ‘big’ dose of unicycle lessons recently. By big dose, I mean about 20 minutes of practice over a few days. It was a push to see if he could get it before he turned six. He’s not there yet, but it will only be a few more tries…he’ll get it next month for sure…if he wants to…I don’t actually care if he does or not…as long as he keeps practicing whenever…there’s so many other ways they are both being active, it’s low on everyone’s list.
Getting Around : We Now Convoy :D
Razor E90 Electric Scooter : Unicycle Stroller Speed Getting Around : We Now Convoy 😀 i can put heavier stuff up on the roof rack and still push it with one hand while filming with the other now that one of the kids pushes their own weight 🙂 walkie-talkie installed to handlebar so i can […]
Community Firefighting for Homeschool
Well, the 5yo says to his little sister, you’re officially a firefighter now.
Big day yesterday, we put out a fire! The 5yo smelled smoke first and we saw the ground burning. (when we got closer we could see it was all the wood chips at the base of the sign that were on fire)
Dam Fun. Dad & Son.
Our second T-shirt day of the season – our first was a month or so ago. (Let’s get with Spring, ammiright?) The great part this time was the high winds. Strangely enough, he seemed to benefit from the wind BOTH ways! When does THAT happen? Sure we have adventures that are enjoyable for both kids, […]
Our New Pigeon Family in the Making!
We’re so lucky a season of new unschooling classes just flew in! It’s quite interesting to watch what they are doing in their ‘unwatched and alone’ action…especially in watching how the nest gets built and pressed into shape while they go.
Homeschool : Where You Can Hit Your Students With Bats
I came here to smash you with a bat and feed some geese and I’m all out of birdseed…Strange Math Was Afoot –
Usually when by the river in London, two geese plus birdseed…
Sweetwater : Our Trip to the Sugarbush
What a great time we had here, sorry if it’s too Canadian, eh?
I first thought, ‘well this will be neat for the kids’. I didn’t realize how interesting and fun it would be for them! A short informative tour showcasing modern-day sap collection with hoses and taps compared to the old fashioned way you may be more familiar with…buckets on a tree (I know that’s what I was picturing!)
Mortal Kombat, Green Screen, Scootering, & Swimming : A Week of Unschool : Episode 4
How fun is unschooling? How beneficial is screen time? How comical is ‘video game violence = violent kids’?
Another great week of education and excitement!
The five year old beat Mortal Kombat Armageddon on the Wii. Leading up to this, and since this happened, there have been several dad-son ‘real life’ battles. They mostly end with me getting to his tickle spot (ribcage) but one, in particular, ended much differently. An accidental headbutt and a bloody lip on dad. He officially Finished me! His little sister is also getting on board. She threw a frisbee at me outside. She said it wasn’t a frisbee, but Kung Lao’s hat! (I haven’t caught on video the super cute way she mimics Scorpion’s ‘GET OVER HERE!’)
Welcome to Parks But No Bathrooms Season
Here in Ontario, parks (at least their bathrooms) are closed in the winter. And into the Spring. No matter if it’s hot for several weeks before the opening date, like it always is.
Remember how convenient that was anyways during diaper years?
You can’t beat this time of year for the park-things to kids ratio, but having some bathrooms around, well, that’s just handy!
A Week of Unschool : Episode 2
We had another fun week. It was winter jackets and snow at the beginning and no coat scootering at the end of it. We went to the library and were excited to see they added two ipads to the computer section. The three year old went with me to get the cars and trains for the car and train table and wanted to return them before setting them up after I said ‘huh, oh look, they have ipads like at gramma’s library!’
I’m So Glad We Found Out About Skateparks! (for non-skateboarding kids)
We’ve been to three different skate parks in our city so far. (London, Ontario) There looks to be siz or seven that we will be sure to check out. (they call Victoria Park one, but meh…it’s mostly just some concrete blocks and broken glass)
The kids just get there and play. Scooters, little bikes, and just running…we’ll be back often. Whatever risks the kids are comfortable with (or are almost comfortable with) are right there. Have you heard about Parkour? (Where people jump from building to building and do crazy flips and things off of structures). Skateparks offer a great introduction to
Same Place, Different Discoveries
Our plan was to climb ‘Big Hilly Climby’ and go for a scooter ride through the forest – well, at least if I was making a lesson plan for the day, it would have only had those two bullet points.
A Week of Unschooling : Episode 1 – Mythology, Health & Fitness, Physics, Writing, and Biology
In our introductory weekly episode, the three and five year old visited a skatepark, play-drew Greek Mythology, and they experienced a variety of cutting tools that so far only dad and mom have been using.
There are many ways kids can learn but fun is always better. Let them play; when you’ve shown them how fun knowledge can be, what’s stopping them?
Fun Ways To Educate? Use the Force. Always.
We knew she was ‘officially pregnant’ when she cried her eyes out seeing little Anakin leaving his mom in the desert…again…seriously, we had seen this several times already…)
Star Wars has always been a big part of my life (well, only if you include making a Star Wars reference whenever possible and owning and wearing too often an adult sized Star Wars costume) but the kids hadn’t really shown too much interest…no more than any of the other things they are in to – from every comic book hero to anything that’s in a ‘Flying Bag’ (blind bag)…or anything that they have seen on youtube.
Better Than Travelling Around In A Rollercoaster? A Roof After Being On It.
When pushing your kid in a unicycle stroller is commonplace; even up & down 6 levels of a parking garage
This parking garage has a special place in our hearts. One of the landmarks we pass on our trips to grammas, it was one of the first examples I stumbled across of ‘introducing excitement’ to kids and how easy it is.
Wow! You know what that is??? A PARKING GARAGE!!
Week after week, looking for the parking garage, and staring at/studying it as we passed, it just became ‘our thing’.
When One Kid Is Done Exploring and One Isn’t
So clearly I couldn’t leave one kid on the bench on the bike path and continue on another adventure trail into the woods with the other one. So what’s a dad to do?
There’s a whole bunch of sticks to slow him down…send him into the woods (which you know look a whole lot bigger to him)
This was an exciting opportunity for me to just send him off to be alone on his own. (I could always hear him and could see him from time to time)
But if you look in the video, you can see
It’s Been Super Cold. Out to the Snow Pile!
Sometimes the time it takes you to get the kids dressed up and undressed is longer than the time you were outside playing.
Here are some great ways to maximize their enjoyment while being exposed to some pretty harsh conditions.
A Week of Unschool : Episode 3
Another great week of learning! He learned how to more properly navigate a giant ice pile that used to be a snow pile. They even got to climb up and slide down it when it was a snow pile again.
We were on the DIY kick after our homemade playdoh, so we made up some homemade puffy paint. Just self-rising flour, salt, water, and food colour, but oh no, we didn’t have any self-rising flour.
Play Now. Learn Later. Record Your Edventures.
We went to their first airshow! The were super excited about the first few planes that flew over, the Super Hornet (only during an upside-down fly-by), and the snowbirds…mostly when they drew the heart in the sky.
