Tag Archives: unschool

cincinnati or bust???

Posted in it's cool to school, kiddie-do, parenting apparently? by

here’s our day:

all three key players loaded into car. only one of us has egg on her face: success!

arrive at beautiful cincinnati museum center: success!

take in some architectural elements: success!

explored exhibits: success!

deliciousness at our lunch spot discovery servatii: success!

and, as always, a little silliness: success!

i’m reminding myself of the successes of the day b/c a good portion of the second half was a total bust. no rest for the weary girl. no rest for the weary parents. behavior issues from toddler caused behavior issues from parents. okay, just from me. and why does she insist on having a full force surge of independence show down every single time we’re in a parking lot? it’s all trivial stuff in the long run but by the end of the day i wanted to bang my head against the backseat window. oh yeah, did i mention i had to ride smushed in the backseat with wild child while the ikea purchase took up most of the room in the car? i’m sorry to complain but i’m trying to poke fun at the chaos more than anything. also it’s my writing so ICanDoWhatIWant!

despite the pitfalls, we discussed with jubilant enthusiasm (jubilant i tell you!) returning another day and time. we only scratched the surface of all that the cincinnati children’s museum has to offer. and with our reciprocal museum membership we have no excuses.

B day celebration

Posted in it's cool to school, kiddie-do, parenting apparently? by

no annual milestone over here, just our letter of the day. and what a B-eautiful day it was, too.

we started of course with breakfast of bread and butter and berry yogurt

it was at this point in the meal that my daughter jumped up and ran out of the room yelling “oh i forgot something.” she returned 20 seconds later wearing her ruby slippers. only her ruby slippers. she stripped out of her sleeper and put on a pair of buckle shoes in a speed that is going to make me very frustrated then next time it takes me 18 minutes to get her in or out of an outfit.

i think she took B day literally and so wearing her birthday suit was entirely appropriate. 

after getting dressed with a lot of attention paid to the letter B – braid with a blue hairband, boots and a birdie shirt we hopped on cordelia and biked to the audubon center for bird learnin’. hence the appropriateness of the bird shirt.

i know i post about the audubon park a lot but it’s by our house and is really a beautiful, magical place. this town does a great job with it’s parks. here’s our little bird watcher.

using the binoculars (the wrong way) to spot what she says is a “jerry bird.” huh?

and there he is. just imagine my sugar sweetness congratulating her for being able to spot an 8 FT PAPER MACHE GULL. ohhh, i laugh at life.

in the center we: read books about birds, bats, bugs, butterflies blah blah blah. visited the salvaged art butterflies which are still holding up with original coolness factor and did some of the center activities testing different bird beak designs.

we discovered a new room with lots of grand activities including bird and butterfly costumes seen here as well as a simulated climbing tree biosphere complete with root system too.

but the greatest resource discovered at the audubon park today….

BIG KIDS

i have previously noticed the magnetic pull that exists between pre-teen/teenage girls and toddler girls – probably toddler boys too but i don’t have as much experience with that. darla first adopted this group of homeschool kids and they were impressed that she knew words such as “audubon,” and  “insect.” i think they were most impressed by her cowgirl boots, though. they then adopted her and entertained her for 15 whole minutes. i ate and entire apple in peace!  all three were jumping, hand in hand, from atop this fire pit thingy, pretending to be birds and chanting “we fly so high in the skyyyyy!” it was very cute and gave me hope that one day darla, too, will grow into a lovely pre-teen and give a weary mother a break by bossing her toddler around for her. thanks again, universe.

sunday funday

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness by

i meant to post this picture update earlier in the day but we were busy with adventures.  the motto for this s’ennight could have been attention to detail. we made lots of new discoveries- secret old doors in the neighborhood, odd trees, new parks and playgrounds. learning is getting more comprehensive. such as when i show her the veins running through the leaves and then compare them to the veins in our wrists. she understands they serve the same purpose in both beings – the transfer of oxygen and nutrients. at least she understood for 2 minutes. it has probably floated away, out of her brain by now but FOUNDATIONS ARE BEING LAID! i am an educating force to be reckoned with. cackle cackle cackle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway here are some of my favorite pictures from our outings.

OhYeahandI’mHereToo

what really happened

Posted in it's cool to school by

the weather made a liar out of me yesterday. it turned sunny and warm abruptly. after darla had paraded around the house making messes and climbing every piece of furniture we own, just enough to make me truly, truly afraid of those upcoming housebound months, i pulled the trigger and got us on a bike ride. we had a picnic lunch over the river and spent some time examining driftwood.

this tree stump was by far the coolest find.

so yesterday was a practice of patience, adaptation, and finding the beauty in all this rain. these past few months have really made me skittish about getting started on schooling. it’s days like yesterday that set my wheels spinning about homeschooling or unschooling. darla is not going to get these kind of hands on learning opportunities sitting in a classroom. i really have no idea what path to choose. for right now, i just have to be thankful for the time i’ve had thus far to be her educator, her full time parent, a stay at home mom.

today is back to cold and wet, by the way.

a semi-communion with nature

Posted in it's cool to school, Kiddie Hangouts, parenting apparently? by

when i say semi i mean that we could still hear the semis speeding along the superhighway. the audubon park is a little nook of nature carved into the cityscape between the two biggest highways that pass through columbus. still, it’s one of our favorite spots to play, bike, hike and spy a little nature. here’s our latest nature hike.

photo 1. our path  2. darla holds my hand; a momentous event  3. our shadows turned out more “poltergeist” than i would’ve liked but, eh  4. she climbed stuff  5. deer tracks!  6. “take heed. for the path you are about to choose will lead to certain destruction!”  7. she enjoyed being able to run as far in front of me as she liked without restriction  8. i realized halfway through the trip that it was incredibly insensitive of me to wear a hat adorned with a feather to a park dedicated to avian conservation  9. you can’t see the little guy but a shrew was in the underbrush rooting for his breakfast. we watched him for ten minutes – a personal record for d’s attention span and ability to stay fairly quiet  10. she climbed more stuff  11. she left “directions” for other hikers so they wouldn’t get lost  12. N is for nature  13. examined moss. i’m going to have to get a magnifying glass to bring along for future wilderness treks  14 & 15 shoulder ride and her turn to wear the hat  16. salvaged item art inside the audubon center.

this trip was the first time we’d ventured inside of the center. wowza, what incredibly wonderful resources and setting. we spent a good hour in the reading library which architecturally consists of 3 walls of glass looking out over the park. lots of birds flying to and fro and stuff. i’m hoping i’ll be able to get darla a jump start on learning plant names, bird species, trees, etc. those are all things about which i wish i had more of a knowledge bank.

it was a very organically educational, carefree day for us. there were many more discoveries and new experiences that i didn’t capture because i did force myself to put the camera away and just be present. i love how everything seems like such a marvel in nature. the pictures don’t even do justice to the weather and the jubilant attitude darla exuded that day. universe, i’d like more days like that one, please.

remedial p

Posted in it's cool to school by

just a few pics from some more work we did with the letter p.

darla wore all pink and also purple socks. she even wore her pink pachyderm underpants. i drew a picture of her in her outfit and then she set to coloring. we also did puzzles, including a pirate puzzle. we had pretzels, pepperoni and later on popcorn. there was other stuff but hey, i forget. i’m sure it was a) educational and b) annoying and p) all about p.

upon completion of the puzzle she lay down and began to “swim” alongside the boat. what a nut.

G’day mates

Posted in it's cool to school, Kiddie Hangouts, parenting apparently? by

guess what our letter day was? G. aw gee. shucks.

i’m tired of writing out all the details and i’m sure it’s just annoying and boring to read. BOOOORRRRIIINGGGG! from now on i’ll just be posting pictures with a general outline and if you ever wonder how the day went just imagine me over your shoulder all day long pointing out every detail that starts with said letter of the day. every damn thing. my kid is probs going to strongly dislike me someday.

gymnasticsgroovy spoon fro yo with gummi bears

she refused to use green to color in her G.

we finished up with some geography after grocery shopping

which way to school is cool?

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, parenting apparently? by

because i can’t decide which method of schooling we are going to jump into – oh my gosh i can’t handle the pressure of this decision! – i’m just sticking to an amalgamation of homeschooling and unschooling for now. i’ve come up with the letter activity project. i focus on one letter a day and integrate the letter into our days activities.

we started this project today with the letter L and we ventured to none other than….the library! as far as libraries go, columbus’ is topnotch. no, really, it was voted national library of the year. i’m not LYING – an L word. See how good of a teacher i am? here’s pics of the day.

first we found the lion on the felt board. then we read about little leo.

then momma loaded up on books

we found the letter L in the magnetic letters

then we headed upstairs to the gallery space to LOOK at the art exhibit. The Carnegie Gallery at the main library branch has an exhibit up called Strands and it was quite beautiful. the exhibit will be running through oct 21. little lovely lady enjoyed it. (all L words. wink.)

we stopped for a little cupcake snack b/c darla was pretty good and b/c she’s a treat nazi.

we finally returned home to bask in the spoils of our Learning (L word!) i might have gone overboard with the libros this time. meh.

we followed up the library outing with a Listening Lunch which really means that i just put on a record album to aid our digestion while we munched. the album was rumours and i cried during songbird. troof.

here’s to learning from life until i can finally stomach the thought of shelling out thousands to educate my preschooler.  i’ll post our progress but please don’t expect me to be able to do this in 26 days. Also, i don’t plan on going in order, obvio. I just don’t have the organizational skills and the energy to to do it that way.  annnd i hope i can come up with some activity for letter u that isn’t unicycling. maybe. on second thought i might keep that one in there.