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
Making Changes For Fun: Skyscraper Destruction
It turns out the kids LOVE Lego skyscrapers. They play together, (or alone) for hours. They follow common sense Lego rules like if one kid builds and ‘claims’ something, the other kid can play with but not modify or break it. Or not to worry about things falling apart on their watch if they were trying to rebuild something, but to not break something ‘just because’
Dad, Come See My Swidda!! Introduction to Computers
I’m so glad we found the game called Slither.io, a browser-based game that has helped our three year old start to figure out how to control a computer. I wasn’t trying to find a way to ‘teach her computers’ yet; that’s just what happened. She saw her brother doing it…and well…that’s all she needed.
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.
Treading Water
Down to one kid in waterwings! Many hours have been spent in gramma’s pool between now and the time he was wearing swimming diapers. Swims with gramma, or grampa, or mom or dad, or his aunt, uncle, and cousins, or any combination thereof.
Just recently he mastered ‘goggles and nose holding’ for new underwater adventures and was excited to show me. (I got him to dip down sans-nose holding a few times, but it didn’t last long)
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.
Birthday Terrarium From Gramma
Here’s a fun little activity for the kids…let them grow their own life in a container…Well, actually, let them follow the instructions, give or take, to make their own life in a container…I guess we’ll see in a few days if it worked.
Unschool Math Immersion
The main lego pieces are bricks and plates. (the plates are one third the depth of bricks).
“Hey, can you find this 2 by 3 plate? It’s called a 2 by 3 because it’s two rows of three. How many posts does it have?”
“1,2,3,4,5,6!”
“See how much faster I can count them because of how I am just adding groups of numbers? See how they are organized in rows and columns?”
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.
Firestarting : Unschooling At Night
Excitement from the time he helped me move the wheelbarrow till he put it out like Marshall with a hose #pawPatrol
She was asleep on the couch. He was almost asleep beside her. He got up and got outside as fast as possible.
Advantage Unschool : Skate Parks During School Hours
We didn’t even come here to run, we came to scooter. I had to ask them if they were ready to put their gear on and ride yet..before they tired themselves out!
During school hours, no one is there. Kids as young as brand new crawlers can have a blast here with so many slopes and angles and risk levels.
Unschoolers : You Have Whiteboards, Right?
The whiteboard has had many letter games, tic tac toe games, and all sorts of pictures set up for them in the morning (which caused me to search youtube for ‘how to draw characters’. (I suck at it, but they don’t realize it yet!). It has little dots on it in a grid pattern which have many advantages down the unschooling road for sure.
First Time Randomly Bumping Into Unschoolers – Six Hours Away
Turns out the hens that came in through the treeline also lived with some unschoolers! We showed them about slacklines, they showed us turkeys!
Interesting fact about city kids: They’ll pick up an axe if they see one and you’ve never said ‘don’t pick up an axe’!
Bugs: No Need For Compassion
They hadn’t gotten to interact with so many of them before, they were quite impressed; hopping things have always seemed to hop away before we could investigate. They know exactly what a frog jumping into the swamp right before we get there looks and sounds like
Unschooling? Why You Should Pull Over
It would have been great for the kids to go in and get a tour of what they do there…but also there was a sideroad that we could pull over on and let the kids out. They were pretty impressed!!
LLamas, goats, alpacas, donkeys, reindeer, sheep, pigs, horses… There’s also GIANT DANDELIONS on that side road!
Find Out What They Love : Do That. How They Love It.
What do you do with a toddler who loves the music time you have together, but you aren’t a music teacher and you only really have some plastic instruments and a banjo you only have because someone once asked you if you wanted a banjo or a ukelele?
Multitasking: Taking Toys & Things Outside
Little kids love (well, whatever you teach them to love, in this case, toys and instruments) toys and instruments. They also love the playing down by the river. (The nitrate-heavy, city-gross, unswimmable river) Dad loves to unicycle. Sounds like a plan!
Why There Is No Recess At Unschool
Why separate learning from play?
Here was a neat little impromptu climbing adventure on the way home from our adventure. The trees along our river are quite large and old. Seems one of them had gotten struck by lightning recently and had been started to be taken away. Clearly only a several-day job; we had to experience it now, if we ever..haha..wood.
Don’t Keep Your Kids Away From Things. Teach Them All You Can About Them
A month or two after my kid could reach the table, I kept my ‘fancy camera’ at the edge of it. Right next to all the computer stuff. All of which were, and still are, important to me.
All the photos and images on this site were taken with the cameras my kids could use anytime they wanted.
Don’t Run Too Fast Down a Hill, Like I’ve Been Saying For Years
I figured he understood not going too fast down a hill, I’ve told him several times throughout the years (at hills) and always made sure to keep him going slow. (just in case)
Well, today just in case happened. He outran his own legs in a couple of strides and was out of control.
