We Are Unschoolers, Finally!! Part 2

Unschooling, child led learning, is on the chalkboard today, folks. As I stated in yesterday's post, we are embracing a more unschooled approach to learning in our home this year. Yesterday I covered what unschooling can be defined as, and I shared what my daughter is learning this year based on her choices. In 'Core' subjects. So today I'll get to the real fun stuff, non-core subjects, and how I keep track of what she does just for my own peace of mind and to figure out how to do a transcript if needed. :)
Here's our non-core unschooling:

Art: I'm an artist, therefore I have a big studio full of art supplies. The world is basically her oyster unless she wants to get into glassblowing or metal works and then sorry sister, you're out of luck. #wink We sat down and with Pinterest as our ideas guide she made a list of her interests: Yarning (bombing, crochet), weaving loom, nature weaving, Sketching: cities, buildings, perspective, point line drawings, Pottery (make pottery wheel), Screen printing, Encaustic wax painting, Jewelry, soldering, Paper mache', Embroidery: constellations, feathers, people, eyes, Dolls, Scarfs. Out of anything, Felting, Fabric rugs, Wood art, Street art. So far we've worked on a few and done some new things. She's practiced perspective drawing, pointillism drawing/painting, watercolor, splatter painting (think Pollac and the corner of my kitchen is covered ceiling to baseboard in trash bags because this is her splatter zone.) She veered off plan and worked on a Loki costume for Halloween out of duct tape, made a corset out of cardboard, duct tape and metal for the 'bones'. She has begun covering shipping boxes in white paper to start decorating them as a city. What we don't know how to do, we google, youtube or Pinterest it. The internet has everything, seriously.

Music: She wanted to continue with the classes we did last year since she likes the instruments and has friends there, so she's in advanced guitar, advanced band and marching band. She also has made a list of songs she wants to learn on her guitar (Queen songs, hymns, Hobbit chant, Frozen songs, etc). She uses the PS3 2014 Rocksmith game which teaches you step by step how to play guitar. She has made a list of songs to learn on the piano and I've schedule her to meet with a friend to brush up on notes and chords. (Hello Dolly, Star Wars theme, Frozen songs, Led Zeppelin, Hymns).
Foreign Language: she's continuing with the class she took last year and doing Spanish 2. She wanted to be with her friends there too. It's now held twice a week in our small living room, 10 students and teacher.

PE: This is where we get a bit interesting. She asked if she could learn to 'swashbuckling pirate sword fight'. I figured this was like fencing, so she is now in a class twice a week for about 1 1/2 hrs each day. Hard work, great instruction. She is also taking archery instruction for 2 hrs each week. Sometimes we ride bikes or walk and she learns new exercises on Wii Fit Plus. Occasionally she'll take a yoga class with grandma.
Bible: We attend church weekly for 2 1/2 hrs, she also attends a small group and another class for 2 1/2 hrs a week. We are learning weekly bible verses, she's reading a bible chapter a day (according to what Sonlight History has her reading) and we're working our way through the Catechism although I'm counting that under History for now. She also has a devotional she gets to couple times a week.
Life Skills: A very important lesson to learn. How to care for a house, a car, a bank account. Things we will get to eventually. For now, she requested to learn about international cooking and baking so she sat and schedule what cuisine we'll learn about each month. This month is Indian food but we've been so busy we haven't done much with it. I'll work on that.
*** Her interests are varied and heady but I think we can fit them all in.
I used to keep detailed daily and monthly records but this year we're in a calendar. It works for me. This is what it looks like and how. I tally hours:

It does seem like a lot if you look at our whole list of things to accomplish but she is enjoying herself, and she picked 98% of it. I'm not running myself ragged hollering at her to get her work done, or study for that test, etc. We're enjoying each other much more. She has the option to put something aside if it's not what she wants to do at this time and I just try to keep up and make sure the car is filled with gas. Ahhh, unschooling.

Posted with Love from Contessa

Worry NOT Dolls

The little one and I are studying our way around the world through 7 continents. Right now we're stopped at our own, North America. This study includes books on America, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbeans. It's been a very interesting study as I personally don't even know much outside of America.

As we were reading the book: Traditional Crafts from Mexico and Central America we came upon a section about 'Guatemalan Worry Dolls'. Here is what the chapter said: "In Guatemala dolls are made from scrap materials. Children may take them to bed with them at night. Before the children fall asleep, they tell their worries to the dolls, one at a time. It is believed that the dolls take away the problems while the children sleep. Traditionally, about six dolls are kept together in a tiny wooden box."

What an opportunity to talk to my daughter about our faith! I told her "We have no need for 'Worry Dolls', do we? We have a God that meets all our needs, hears all our worries and cares, and especially our fears. " She said "These dolls could remind of us that God is who we can talk to when we are worried." I said "We could name them our 'Worry Not Dolls.'"

I love when opportunities crop up to talk with my daughter. God knows what we need, when we need it.

(To Make: Make the body of a doll with either twist ties or wire (which we used). The book recommends wrapping the wire in paper next. We skipped that step. Wrap yarn around body areas. The book tells you to make a cardboard head, but we didn't like that so we made a loop of wire and wound it for the face. We need to go back and glue the little strings in. The book had dolls made of various wraps: string, yarn, fabric. You could also add hair, hats, etc...)

Battles and Books

Today's summer post is brought to you by FUN and the makers of FUN products. US!

The little one found this in the storage room while I was down in the studio. 'What is it, mom?' Really, you don't know? I was shocked. I wonder why we even own it. I should get another one so we could have a puffball battle! Now that's what I call a good time!

She went looking around for something to shoot with it. We found a bottle of these. They shoot really far too. Although she judged and finds the little ones are the best for distance. I thought the red one look particularly lovely while flying through the air. Must just be me and my penchant for glittery things...

All was good until she decided these might be fun to shoot! (where do kids come up with these ideas, I ask you?!) I nipped that idea right in the butt before I got one shot at my butt. Believe me. She has sharpened them very well and they fly very far but I like my body parts and eyes intact thank you very much.

I've decided to cut down on the amount of time spent on the TV, computer and video games. She would prefer to do that all day long. I told her today I'm cutting her to 1-2 hours a day. She doesn't know it yet but I'm cutting it down further and to almost non-existent soon. I want her summer to be about outdoors, reading, swimming and bike riding. Not square boxes that make noise.

She has been reading several books lately.The local library has a new reading program. Based on time read instead of amount of books. I tend to like this better otherwise she'd just snap up a pile of younger books and read all those. This way she is free to read whatever books we pick and chart the hours it takes. She doesn't have to be done with the book yet to get a prize for the 3 hours it takes to turn the card in. Books on our shelf right now that she is reading (click on the book's picture to read more about it):

The little one is on the first of this series, which I think is called 'The Capture.' I had to 'force' her to start it, to at least TRY it and she now says she loves it. It's the same experience as getting her to try mixed casserole type foods and new veggies. I had her try jicama the other day. Loves it now and today she tried a mixed thingie of rice, cheese and broccoli. What's not to love? I told her to be brave. She loves them both now. Children!

This book looked so adorable in the library. She has only just read a bit but says it's interesting so far. It reminds me of when the girls tried to take care of a bird recently that had fallen into a fence. It was a baby bird. They were all set on raising it, feeding, taking care of it. We got it a box and a worm and water. A towel to sleep on. But I told the girls to put the box on the porch while they were playing outside. The bird eventually hopped out and flew off. I guess it was just dazed. Cute though!

This is another one of those series I had to 'make' her try. I think the first one she ever read was when we were studying Russia. They have one called Anastasia, The Last Grand Duchess, Russia 1914. She loved that book. So at the last homeschool conference I picked up 3 more of the series. I've only given her one so far. Whenever she is done with this one, I'll give her another.

Although I'm sure she's getting enough books in, we're still reading a book together. One of my favorites growing up. We went and saw a play on it a couple years ago. Good play, didn't do it justice. The book is so funny and has such subtleties of language, math and more. And it makes it all funny and enjoyable! This is a must read for everyone.

Talk soon! I'm off to water the plants!  

NOTE: If you'd like to trade blog links, just holler. I'm game.

Homeschool Art - Mushrooms!

Walking through the new books department of the library I found this unique book of mushroom paintings; A Visionary Field Guide Mushroom Magick by Arik Roper. The colors were so vibrant, I wanted to cut the pictures out and frame them! Needless to say, I brought it home for further perusing.

Yesterday we moved our homeschool time down to my art room and the girls wanted a bit of art time. I thought of that book. We started out with patterned paper scraps and looked at some of the mushroom paintings. The girls drew mushrooms, taking in all the details.

The teen then painted over her sketch with gesso (it allows for the pencil marks to be set but still seen.) She then used fluid acrylic paints with matte medium to paint her mushrooms complete with a background of clouds and a floor of leaves.

The little one went with the simple approach and just colored the mushrooms with Koh-I-Noor colored pencils.

While they worked on their art projects I made ornaments. Maybe I should make some mushroom ornaments! lol

Emerging From Winter

borrowed from fieldandswamp.com

Where has the time gone since my last post? Homeschool is back on track. We have been hunkered down during the winter months catching up on schoolwork. It seems, according to my hourly charts, that the end of November through mid-January were hit and miss as far as getting anything done. Some weeks, great! Some weeks, oh my goodness. We might as well have taken them off. And we did take off several for holidays and vacations. The last 7 weeks have been spent reevaluating where we are at in every subject, seeing what needs to be accomplished, seeing who is lacking in what.

The little one (4th grade): She FINALLY has her times tables down. Kind of. She can't spout them out immediately like she can her list of favorite cartoon shows but she knows them well enough to do all her math. For science we quit winging it because she couldn't decide on a subject to study and we opened a book I had that is quite colorful and direct. We've been studying volcanoes, earth, and fossils. I may have to give in this week and build a volcano and grow some crystals like a good homeschool mom should. Ugh.

The piano lessons she started taking in January are going so well. At least I think so. She loves her teacher (who wouldn't) and it just squeezes my little ole' heart when her dainty fingers reach out to make chords in a song. All week we've been belting out 'Down In The Valley' while she plays. I'm so proud.

The teen (11th grade): has been ACT driven. Almost all schoolwork went by the wayside while we brushed up on every subject known to man for the ACT. She took it last week. Up til the test we didn't feel confident about her knowledge at all even though we had studied non-stop. But after the test she was all smiles. We don't really care what she gets this time. It's the experience of test taking that we care about. She can take it many times during the next year.

She has been reading all over the board for World Lit. She read a lot of Grapes of Wrath, really getting the gist of the time period. I didn't require her to finish it. Maybe she will over the summer. Right now she is engrossed in Watership Down.
I love to see my kids huddled in bed, glassed perched on noses, reading big books. Last night she couldn't sleep until she had found out what happened to BigWig (if you don't know what I'm talking about, read the book!) After she is done I plan to rent the movie for her to watch.
This week has been all about painting. We've just felt like it. The teen takes watercolor painting instruction from a very talented friend of mine. Every week we meet and they paint and talk. Good relationship being built there as well. Always good for the teen to have good christian mentors outside of her parents. Anyway, her painting is improving drastically.





The little one has been watching videos I picked up from the library for her art; Art Lessons for Children (several volumes) by Donna Hugh. I've order Ms. Hugh's Drawing Lessons for Beginners as well. Excellent video series. I've seen her painting improve immensely!




The little one was so excited about what she is learning that when DH came home early from work today, she sat him down and taught him how to paint a chinese dragon. So cute!

DD's painting, DH's painting



We've also started doing the Illustration Friday prompt each week. See my blog here, here and here for the newest examples, or search my art blog for 'illustration friday'.

I think that's enough of an update. I'll be back soon. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're in the homestretch. Seven more weeks until Summer break! Hallelujah. I think we all need it.

Halloween Goodness!

I'm a pushover. Both my kids (ages 16 & 9) stood in the middle of Michaels and whined in 2 year old voices when they saw this:


And I caved. After I told them I don't listen to baby whining of course. They asked nicely, it was on sale $3 off, so I gave in. It's the season, what can I say? We've already called the parts we get to eat when Halloween is over. I was smart. I went with the roof and all that frosting. Yay me.

The kids enjoyed creating together although the teen has a thing about it being a 'certain' way. I told them to play nice or I would take over and make it myself. I will say I was a bit disappointed in the kit and how much it skimped. There were only 5 gumdrops. 5! What kind of nonsense is that? None for me to eat while they create! That's probably why it was on sale, there was a gumdrop shortage. lol

Homeschool Art Projects

Awhile back we had an Art Friday where we made jewelry. The kids had the best time using game pieces, the Dremel tool, E-6000 glue, jewels and so much more. I had a bit of fun too! (You'll notice 'some' of us didn't get out of our pajamas at all that day. I live homeschooling! lol)

The circles you see are soon-to-be rings I made for a get together with my family. We had a 'Ladies Poker Night' with mom, teen, me and my 2 sister in laws, although we played Spades instead! lol The rings weren't ready in time (we played Oct. 4th) so I plan to have them ready by the next round of Spades.

We've had homeschool co-op for the last 5 Fridays. The last class is this Friday so I'm hoping to resume 'Art Fridays' next week. Wonder what we should work on next?