A Day in the Life of a Classical Unschooler

***New pics in photo album, also*********



It's been a while!! We've taken...like 2 weeks off?? Maybe longer..LOL...;) Even during this time, it hasn't stopped the kids from reading/wanting to play their math games:) Just got to keep up with the blog!!!

Here's what we've done...I have a rather long list..

We put up a Christmas tree...the cat thought it was real!

(i guess)

You can get a better view of our 'Cookie' from here;)

We didn't bother with the ornaments...she has already knocked nearly every candy cane off

Rachel read this to me today. It's from the Elson Reader, which you will see a little further down the pic's.. I'm looking into buying grade 3, this is grade 2 from the library and she seems to enjoy it. We've been on the waiting list for grade 3 for a while..so I think I'm going to just buy it. Prior to writing 'Dick and Jane', William Elson wrote these books.



Our history story

Star Spangled Banner

The kids love doing math with this game! We role two dice and then role a third. If it's even, you add the dice together. If it's not, then you subtract. They really enjoy it!:)

We will need to get back into written math, though. I think that is important too.

I read the book below to them today. It was pretty cute!

This is a portion of science we read last week.

We did this one today. The kids enjoyed learning about 'endangered animals'..added another vocabulary word to their list;)

These may be repeats..I'm not sure!! But these are some stories Gracie has read to me. She does them really well, and hardly ever needs to ask questions.

I guess I entered this backward again..here is the book it came from:)

Here is the book the first story came from. I am on the waiting list for grade 3, but am growing impatient... I think what I'll do is have her start reading from the end of the book, if she does well, I'll buy the grade 3 one. It's an older book, so there are new words in it, and it isn't as dumbed down as books are nowadays, which is why I'm letting her wait.

These are stories we did last week

She liked this one below. She found out she had been singing it differently..I think it had a new verse, as well.

Cute book for adults...I think the humor went right over their heads!

Rachel read this to our kitten.

I read this to them today.

Rachel also read this to the kitten.

I read this to them last week.

Rachel couldn't sleep one night, woke up in the middle of the night. Went into my room, turned on the light and read this...yes, I am a heavy sleeper. She went back to sleep when she was done...I didn't know she was there.

Rachel read this to Gracie the other day.

I read these to them last week

I also have a series of videos. This first one: Gracie decided to help out with the dishes. Colette joined her, splashed around but really felt she was contributing.

On the right, Colette enjoys crawling across house with Rachel, making a new animal sound each time. Here they are playing 'alligator'. They move more in a line...but because of the video they are more moving in a circle here...can't take the video if they're crawling across the house;)
(it's a little dark)

The one below is of our beloved cat climbing our Christmas tree!!

****I wasn't aware when I took video I couldn't put the camera sideways***

OOps!;)

A Week in the Life of a Classical Unschooler...Well, a 'Relaxed' Week;)

This week was a long week!! Sorry I haven't kept up. As you can see, we've been relaxing this last week, too. An extended break, lol...;) Got to love unschooling!!

The next segment in the kids history is 'American songs'. This is interesting as it goes to the origin of each song. This is stuff I don't even remember learning:)

Above is a good book on space. It's colorful and keeps their interest.

I've been reading Christmas stories to them.

I'll be listing off the stories as I read them.

Below is a story Rachel picked out to read. I don't know why it says, 'start writing'. I looked all through the book for something that even discussed it

??????????????

It's a 3.8 grade book though.

We got a new Chutes and Ladders game. The other one had missing pieces, we probably got it when the kids were like..3! Will take better care of this one:)

It's great for math.

The book below is very cute. I got it for Colette, but she wouldn't sit through it.

Mommy liked it.

Rachel read the book below. She really enjoyed it, it has the same words as the movie, just about.

Gracie finished her bunny book from the previous week.

Gracie celebrated a birthday!!

Big girl is now '6' years old!!

We had discussed getting her a money, to save with her Christmas money. She agreed to this, but we just had to get her a little something;)

She got butterfly to paint, the plastic ones you hang in the window

and some clay. She's been asking for clay for a while.

Below is a video.

Happy unschooling!!

:) I'll try to keep up better!!

A Day in the Life of a Classical Unschooler

I got a little behind, this is for last Thursday and Friday. I came down with some kind of bug
:(
so I can't say we did much. Everytime the kids started reading, I fell asleep!!
How sad is that? But we'll finish their reading this week.

We read the book above for our science. Rachel read it to us. The kids wanted to learn about whales and we're also studying mammals in our science text so it was a lot of fun.

I don't have the picture...I forgot to take one!! But we read 'The Irish Night Before Christmas' (may be in previous posts) well they also have these. They're a lot of fun. They also have a 'Cajun Night Before Christmas' and a 'Hillbilly' one, but we had trouble understanding that dialect.

Rachel started on the book above. I think she got to page..2?? And I was out!

We used this book for science on Friday. The kids wanted to learn about whales.

It was a lot of fun.

Gracie started on this book for Friday. She is learning a few phonics rules, and I help her out on the rest. She got a little further then Rachel did...

Perfect timing for the holidays!! We read about Thanksgiving! Take the quiz below, can you get the answers right?

:( Neither could we...had to look back and take a look..lol..

Not much else going on. The kids 'really' enjoy going outside and playing with their friends. They also enjoy riding their bikes. I'll have to go out and take pictures of that, as Gracie got a new bike for her birthday present.

Rachel and Gracie both got a new e-pal/penpal. A little girl, turning 6 this month. She writes often, so they're excited about that!!

Rachel announced she wants to be an 'artist' when she grows up. She wants to paint, work with clay,etc. I plan to start several projects, so she's realy excited about that!! Gracie, as usual, likes to color and draw and work with watercolors and paints. They both like to cook.

None of us likes to do dishes...

:(

Happy Unschooling!

A Day in the Life of a Classical Unschooler

This is what we did today:

We went for a long walk to Dollar General. All the way to Polk City! The kids had a good time and did they sleep great;)

Gracie read her book. She is doing good! This book was rated in book-grader at grade .08. She's on her way to grade 1 :)

I don't think I showed the front of this, so here it is. It is where we get our Bible stories from. Below is the story I read today.

Below is our history lesson. We read on Veteran's Day today. There was no quiz, but I 'quized' them on the dates of each holiday they covered. (I give them funny cues, they find it funny;)

Above is a book I checked out. Rachel 'loves' to read it! Only a few are grade 3, a few are grade 4, and the rest are grade 2 but she was so excited to read it I told her she could read it anyways. She likes books with colorful, pretty pictures and these are very imaginative!

Below is our science book I hadn't shown the day before.

Today we read about animals that come from eggs! The kids liked looking at all the pictures. This is a great book:) There was another page, but I forgot to put it behind this. We also studied 'mammals'. The kids found it interesting a whale and a cow are both mammals, yet so different!

For 'fractions' we do cooking:) Colette loves to stir, that's her big job. I quiz them on fractions, such as: if I have 1/4 cup, and the directions ask for 1/2, how many cups do i use. we make a circle to 'visualize' it. They're having trouble with it, as it is abstract so I don't press. It is something they'll understand better in later years as they began to think more abstractly. Right now, if they memorize it, great:) If not, they're just being exposed.

Below is a video of Colette stirring.

This week we're doing math through games. Today, that was replaced by our long walk. We also skipped dictionary, but will pick it tomorrow. Next week we will start back up 'paper work' for math, and alternate between games and paper-work.