Be free, have fun, ask why">

Riesling and Cashel were in bed with me this morning arguing over my hands. Riesling was trying to explain to Cashel that I had 2 hands and that they could each have one of them while Cashel was insisting that he have both hands. Ahhh the joy of learning about ratios early in the morning. I asked what time it was and Cashel said seven seven six eight and Riesling said it’s seven thirty eight; past time to get up and make the smoothies!

While I blended, the kids decided to get out the Legos. I let them know that I wasn’t any good at playing with Legos and wouldn’t be able to help them. They said ok and began taking items out of the containers. Before long Riesling was in the throws of frustration (crying and blubbering) because she couldn’t get her very tall car to stand up. I asked her how I could help and then just finally left her alone after she wouldn’t answer me. Cashel took this opportunity to bang his roller into Riesling’s feet, further frustrating her. After a bit Cashel left Riesling alone and her car stayed together and all was well.

Cashel let me know that he had to go potty and afterwards, as I was washing his hands and singing ABC’s, he asked why there was a spring in the soap.

“Ummm, I’m not sure, except that I don’t think that it would work without it,” I said.

I searched online for an answer and got nowhere except that the kids got very ansy. I decided to use my lifeline and to call Joe at work and have him explain it. He told them that the spring pushes the pump back up to suck more soap into the tube which will be squirted out the next time the pump is pushed down. He said that when he gets home they can take one apart and look at it.

They looked at books and played doctor to both animals (”Oh a vetrenarian,” I said) and humans.

Then they played barber to their stuffed animals who have any hair left after the last few renditions of barber. Riesling took the fabric which I had detached from an old umbrella and wrapped it around her stuffed kitty’s neck to mimic the cape the beautician had used when she cut our hair.

They used one continuous piece of clear tape to try to go from one end of the house to the other, making sure it was securely over the doors so that no one could get in or out of them. After they had gone through one and a half rolls of tape, I let them know that another roll would cost $2. They decided that they would rather spend their money on something else.

Riesling and Cashel continued their rehearsal of the “show” that they will be presenting sometime today, as they didn’t get to do it yesterday.

We played 72 card Memory and then Candyland. I am always in awe of how fantastic their memories are…or possibly how poor mine is…as they always whip my butt!

At lunch Riesling and Cashel tried to reinact a beat box video that they had seen and really like using old spice containers and their bowls.

We read lots of books. The Emperor’s New Clothes (A Favorite Fairy Tale Retold) by Van Gool, Trick-or-Treat Faces by Judith Moffatt and A Weekend With Wendell, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, & Wemberly Worried all by Kevin Henkes.

Since we were having pears as part of our snack, we read Too Many Pears by Jackie French.

When Joe got home, Cashel barely let him get a hello out before asking, “Why does the soap have a spring in it?”  Please see Joe’s post to read about the science that ensued.

I decided to make gnocchi from scratch tonight.  Riesling helped Joe make many of them.  Cashel peeled the carrot that went into the pumpkin sauce.  But before they would help Riesling asked that I get her “kitchen robe” for her :)  Makes sense to me!  I got them both their aprons and they were set.

Before we ate Riesling and Cashel finally performed their show.  It was “belly button dancing”.  I have absolutely no idea where she thinks this stuff up!  I do think it was very important to her because she picked up all the toys from the living room and made sure they had enough room to move.  Riesling wore a scarf tied around her chest and a long skirt and Cashel donned his pink satin skirt and decided to go commando.  They both had so much fun dancing and we just loved watching them.

I read Can You Tell Me How to Get To Sesame Street? by Eleanor Hudson and they passed out.

tags: Cashel, engineering, fluids, mathematics, physics, Riesling, valves

After I got up and made the smoothies, I cut Cashel’s hair while Joe held him on his lap and we all enjoyed yet another viewing of Return of the Jedi.

Afterwards, Riesling painted in a coloring book, trying very hard to stay in the lines.  She used a paper towel to wipe off any mistakes or excess.  Cashel painted as well, but opted to mix all the colors resulting in a muddy green or brown spread randomly over each page.  After lunch Riesling wrote down the alphabet, numbers and symbols needed for her font for her birthday card while I read Cashel Too Many Pears by Jackie French twice and then There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback twice.  He wouldn’t go to sleep so he and Riesling dressed up, danced, and looked at books while I had a few minutes of quiet time.  I heard rumor that there was going to be a show after dinner and saw costumes carefully packed into show boxes, but alas, Joe didn’t make it in for dinner, Cashel wouldn’t cooperate and we ran out of time.  I will ask for a special viewing tomorrow.

After snack went outside where the kids rode their bikes around and Riesling climbed the oak tree to the second limb and no further.  They also practiced crossing 17th Street safely while I watched.  Then we went to the neighbor’s and the children jumped on their trampoline and ate the concord grapes growing near by (don’t worry, this didn’t happen simultaneously).

We came back home and cleaned up, had dinner, a bath and read books.  Riesling chose Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes and Cashel chose Blue’s Cool Idea by K. Emily Hutta and Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott.

…on to Monday.

tags: art, biking, Cashel, exercise, imaginary play, life skills, literature, painting, Riesling

We took the metro to the zoo because we thought it would be fun for the kids.  Not only did they enjoy the trains, they also enjoyed learning about momentum, air flow and mapping.

At first when Riesling would fall forward or backward when the train stopped or accelerated we asked her what ideas she had as to why that happened.  We talked about her standing still and the train accelerating and that she had to catch up to the train and that the train slowed down faster than she did.  We did some experiments.  Joe dropped his keys and they didn’t fall straight to the floor.  He held a bag by the strap and it swayed in the same direction we swayed (or fell if we weren’t holding on!)

Joe also talked about how the trains push the air out of the tunnel ahead of them and created a vacuum behind them.  We stood close to the entrance to experience it first hand.

We looked at the metro map to figure out where we were at and where we were going and how many stops we had to get there using the color coded lines.  Riesling matched the sign on the wall of each stop to the names next to the dots on the map which represented a station.

Of course there were lots and lots and lots of things to see and do at the zoo.  We visited many different animals.  We talked about mammals, reptiles and invertebrates and what makes them different from each other.  Cashel tried to say the name of each animal.  Riesling looked at where the animals lived in the world before they came to the zoo.  We discussed what the animals were doing and possible explanations as to why.  I learned the difference between a seal and a sea lion, which I had confused with each other. Riesling found the different types of turtles fascinating.  She told us all about what was similar and what wasn’t between the sea and land turtles.  Cashel loved the crocodiles with their big teeth!

As we navigated back to get to our train with a sleeping Cashel in one stroller and a tired (too big for the stoller she was in) Riesling we had to take the elevators.  Riesling looked out the windows and could see the cables outside.  Joe discussed with her what the cables were for and how the elevator worked.

When we got back to Beth’s, Riesling and Cashel played some more with Colleen and Joseph.  I sat on my hands and zipped my lip as I wanted to cheer or suggest while they negotiated toys and games with out killing each other.  I read Piglet’s (or maybe it was Pooh’s) Big Movie to all the kids.  Then we went outside where they rode and ran around until dinner.

tags: air, Cashel, dynamics, fluids, gases, momentum, navigation, physics, pressure, pulleys, Riesling, travel

We went to Funschool this morning.  Funschool is a homeschool co-op that we belong to.  Each month one member volunteers to be the Leader for the “older group” (about 5+), another to be the Assistant Leader for the children who are not in the older group and a third to be the Daily Clean-Up person who makes sure the list of chores is done before the last person leaves.

So for September I am the Assistant Leader.  I lead the kids on a leaf hunt.  We took our finds back and glued them to paper plates which had the middle cut out to make wreathes.  During the previous two Funschool meetings, Riesling had chosen to be with the older group.  This time she came along with the younger kids as the older kids were making commercials and she said she would rather do a craft.

After the craft and most of the commercial was filmed, the kids all played on the playground…mostly on the tire swing.  This tire swing is the kind that is situated horizontally and has 3 chains attached to it leading to a mechanism that allows it to spin at a pretty good clip.  Riesling loves the tire swing and is on it with all the older boys (ages 7-10) at every meeting spinning so fast that it makes me dizzy to watch them.  Cashel also really likes the tire swing, but nobody would ever let him on, despite him screaming STOP! and throwing pebbles at them (the persuasion techniques of a 2 year old!).  Finally all the boys got off to go work on their commercial some more and it was just Riesling on the swing.  She let Cashel on and they were having lots of fun.  I went inside as I can keep an eye on them from the window and another Mom was out there with them.  The next thing I heard was Cashel bawling his head off.  Apparantly a couple of the boys had come back and started spinning too fast and Cashel fell forward and got caught under the swing.  He had a scrape on and under his nose, bumps on his forehead and his ear was quite mangled.  I ran out and scooped him up as the other Mom was walking him back into the building.  I took him into the bathroom and dabbed the dirt off his face as he cried.  I took off his shirt to look for more injuries and because the front of it was also covered with dirt.  When I got him cleaned up and dried off and he ran away and back out to the tire swing before I could even get his shirt on.  Crazy kid. 

I put his shirt on him while one of the other Mom’s warned the boys to be extra careful of the little ones.  Cashel held on with both hands and Riesling put her arm around him.  I went to continue packing up when I heard him crying again.  I sprinted toward the tire swing.  He just had a little more dirt on him and no more injuries.  I decided we were all done with the tire swing for the day.

On the way to Joe’s sister Beth’s house (2 hours away) Riesling read aloud What is Big? (by Shane Armstrong and Susan Hartley).  Then they both listened to Dr Suess audio books.  Their favorites are Horton Hatches an Egg and Bartholemew and the Oobleck.

We quickly got the kids settled in and went on a date.  When we returned Beth reported that Cashel went on a total hunger/thirst strike.  He also refused to use the bathroom.  This is typical of Cashel when I’m not around.  His own variety of anger expression.  Riesling was reported to be compliant…until bed time when she wouldn’t lay down and instead played around with the toys and looked at books until well past 10.  She finally rebelled.

Came across this old video of a crayon factory which brought back some memories of how I used to love watching this as a kid when it came on the public television.  Via Core77 via Makezine Blog.

Riesling and Cashel like to watch how things are made videos and so I thought they might like this, too.

We went to Shenandoah Valley Community School this morning where I volunteer as a “responsible” adult and Riesling and Cashel as playmates for for the children who pay to attend school there.  On the way there, Riesling read Go Dog Go by PD Eastman to Cashel.  They both went and hung up the sweaters and then continued looking at books.  One of the students, Emilia asked me to read Jason and the Two Great Fishes by Mordicai Gerstein which I did.  By the second page in I had 4 kids clamoring to see the book while I read.

When the book was done it was time for the daily school “meeting” where anyone can announce or propose anything and then it’s discussed and decided by consensus what the outcome should be.  I proposed to find a solution to stop the spread of germs after someone puts their finger in their nose.  None of the children attending the meeting wanted to suggest anything (at this point Riesling was taking the laces out of my shoes and Cashel would only respond to the request for a solution with a “NO!”).  Leyland, who wasn’t officially at the meeting, shouted out “Wash your hands!”.  I asked if that was ok with everyone (Sarah (the director), Emilia, Riesling, Lilith, Cashel and Solomon) and everyone agreed (except for Cashel).  Sarah said that it didn’t matter that Cashel disagreed because all the children who attended the school were in agreement.  I found this remark very insensitive and dismissive.   Cashel was just being obstinant…he’s 2!  But Sarah didn’t give this as the reason for not considering his objection.

After the meeting Riesling, Cashel, Leyland and Emilia played dress up and some sort of house game with some pop up structures.

I played Powderpuff Girls Villians-At-Large with Solomon (age 6) who loves all boardgames.  We played by his rules which involved figuring out if the numbers on the card(s) you had were greater than the numbers on the tiles.  If they were, you could take the tile.  I helped Solomon add numbers together, if he wanted to, and he seemed to be getting better at it by the end of the game.  He wanted to play again, but I wanted the rest of my smoothie and the kids wanted their lunch.  I let him know that I would play again after our lunch.

After the kids ate a bit and I cleaned up, Sarah came and sat down and began eating as I finished my smoothie.  At first she made small talk and then she let me know that the next time I proposed something that I should also propose the solution that I had in mind, because that was being honest.  I didn’t take offense to this immediately but got to thinking about what that comment meant to me and am now quite offended.  So does this mean I was being dishonest?  I had intended to give the children a chance to think for themselves instead of having my idea staring them in the face.

After she was finished with me and her lunch, Sarah went and read a book to one of the children in the other room.  She and quite a few children appeared a bit later so that they could all have room to read together as there is less seating in the other room.  She read them Berenstein Bears books as requested.  She asked me if I would mop the floor and I began doing so and then Leyland melted down.  (Leyland’s 5, reads chapter books and grasps the concept of 10,000.  His speech is very hard to understand (sounds like Cashel) and he gets very emotional if things don’t go the way he had anticipated they would.)  Apparently he usually has a pb&j for lunch and had changed his mind and now regretted it.  So Sarah helped him call his Mom and I read the children a Dora the Explorer book.

After school we went to Walmart where the children figured out what their dollar would buy.

When we got home, Riesling watched a ballet video and then the Numberjacks.  The Numberjacks is a fantastic British show about, you guessed it, numbers!  Her and Cashel really like it.  The episode she watched was about the Number Taker taking even numbers and the Numberjacks had to figure out how to stop him.

Cashel woke from his nap and after snack the kids played in the garden with their rakes and shovels looking for worms and rocks.  Riesling climbed the oak tree for the first time today.  She’s been training for this event since she was 2

At dinner we discussed a rule about Riesling and Cashel crossing 17th Street.  The children were both unreceptive (Riesling told me she was going to put me in the trash! and Cashel gave his standard NO!).

We’ll try again tomorrow.

Riesling looked at the clock this morning and tried to figure out if the number was a 2 or a 5.  I said that it was a 2 and she asked me what a 5 would look like on the digital clock.  I wrote the 5 and then she asked me to write a 2 next to it which I did.  I then explained how the digital clock only has straight lines to work with.  I wrote out the numbers 0 through 9 and then I wrote them out as they would appear on a digital clock. 

Riesling got herself dressed.

She sounded out or tried real hard to sound out lots of words in the STOP LOOK & learn ABC book.  Words like xylophone and avocado. She then read The Pike Glides and Ape Date both by Nora Gaydos to Cashel and I.  After she was done with Ape Date, she tried to figure out what words rhymed with ape, cake and date.  She tried to make up sentences using the words gray, tray and flame.  She also answered some questions about the story.  All this is listed on the last page of the book as an “After You Read” activity.  Sometimes Riesling wants to do the After You Read page and sometimes she doesn’t.  It’s absolutely her choice.

And then yet another viewing of Star Wars Return of the Jedi.

For together time we made Polenta, wrote an email to Nana and then I read The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten by Joanna Cole, Thumbelina by Hans Christian Anderson and the STOP LOOK & learn ABC book.

The I put on the ever motivational Barney clean up song and we (Riesling and I) cleaned.  Cashel played.

I read Lofty and The Magic School Bus At the Water Works by Joanna Cole.  Then we all went outside so I could clear the branches so Joe can cut down the trees.  The kids played in the sandbox and built a “private area” under the swing set.  This continued for an hour and a half and ended with a sand war where Cashel was crying while squeezing his eyes shut, though I’m sure he started it!

We all took a shower and went to the library.  There were monarch butterfly crysilises there and some boys found a huge caterpiller which Cheryl (the librarian) added to her collection.  Riesling found this all very interesting.  Cashel played with the hand puppets and stuffed cars…and the spinning book rack. 

When the library was closing we checked out our books and Cheryl let the kids open up the overnight drop bin and investigate where the cart was hidden inside the box.  We then had heated negotiations regarding the swings and giant dirt piles adjacent to the library.

While I made dinner the kids “helped” Joe organize the tiniest parts of his Legos into the new container he came home with.  Once Cashel and Joe had completely gotten on each others nerves, Cashel came over and helped me shell fresh lima beans. 

After dinner and bedtime routine we settled in for a reading of What is Big? (by Shane Armstrong and Susan Hartley) by Riesling and I read A Weekend With Wendell by Kevin Henkes.

Nighty night, sleep tight…

The kids climbed into bed with me this morning and wanted their smoothies.  I asked what time it was, to which Riesling replied, “six two eight or six five eight?”  We talked about how she could tell the difference.  Cashel sat in front of the clock to see it change to seven zero zero, which is the time I get up and make the smoothies.  When it changed to seven zero zero he pronounced it “thirty o’clock!”  I slowly pointed to each number and said, “Seven zero zero,” and got up to go make the smoothies.

While I  made smoothies the kids played Water Tea Party.  This involves filling all available tea or dolly drinking containers with water and then pouring and re-pouring it from container to container and drinking the water.  I put paper towels down under the area at the table to catch the inevitable spills.

We took pictures of the leis we made yesterday during together time using construction paper, ribbon and straws.  When Joe got home yesterday we talked a little bit about when leis were traditionally worn in Hawaii.

The children played dress up and make believe for 3 hours with little interruption from me.  They didn’t fight at all. During this time I sang Cashel his ABC’s while wash his hands after he went potty.  Riesling read to Cashel.

On to the grocery store, aka learning opp central…  Each child gets a dollar a day to spend on absolutely anything they want so Riesling asks if she can buy things and I ask her the price and she tells me and we look at the money she has in her hand and see if she has more or less money than the item costs.  She also knows how to use the scales at Martin’s Food Store to weigh items and print out the sticker to tell the cashier how much the item costs.  For Cashel, we talk about numbers and shapes and sizes and what things are called and where they come from and if they’re good for your body and the earth and why or why not.  And always there’s the bakery at the end where sometimes there is a “treat” (sample) and sometimes there are only crumbs, which they are equally happy with!

When we got home, they played outside in sandbox and on slides.

Attempted to discuss a new rule proposed by me the Riesling is not allowed to eat Cashel’s food.  (She’s an eater and Cashel has better things to do than take in nourishment.)  This proposal made Riesling very upset and she began to hit Cashel.  I asked her why she wanted to hit him and to please stop. She wouldn’t so I calmly and gently picked her up and took her to get ready for bed.  After a few books she was back to herself.

Read books.  Riesling read Ape Date by Nora Gaydos and half of Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr Seuss.  I read Fox in Socks by Dr Seuss, Winter is Coming by Janet Craig and half of the Magic School Bus Gets Eaten by Joanna Cole.

As we continue the work to cut down the pine trees which previously stood between our house and the road I took the opportunity to involve the kids and teach them about some more tools.

Earlier in the week, Riesling and I disassembled the chain saw and I showed her how the engine works.   She could see how the air is brought in through the filter and the gas is fed into the combustion chamber to move the piston which moves the gear which moves the chain.   I showed her the sharp edges on the chain and explained to her that they were like lots of tiny teeth each taking a small bite out of the tree but since there are so many bites so fast it just looks like it’s slicing through the tree without me sawing.   I was going to explain how this was similar to the miter saw that we we used last week, but she was ready to move on to something else so it will have to wait for another day.

It’s sometimes hard to balance my desire to instruct/inform with their desire to learn/explore, but in the end this form of instructional titration is the best way to encourage future learning rather than boredom.

As for what we did today, and the subject of the email, the kids learned how to use the long-handled lopping shears.   We practiced how to handle the tool safely (glasses, shoes, always keep it closed when not cutting and pointed towards the ground) and they unconsciously explored the concept of a lever when I could see them slowly move their hands up the handle with each successive cut, especially on larger branches.   Also, on one particularly large branch the kids teamed up for greater force, putting their collaboration and physics knowledge to good work!

I can’t wait to bring the first whole tree trunk down, I think the kids will have great fun watching it…from a safe distance of course.

tags: Cashel, engines, levers, Riesling, safety, tools

I’m a PLANNER.  That’s just my nature.  So when I found out I was pregnant with Riesling I began planning the first weeks of her life.  I had a feeding, sleeping and play schedule based on the Babywise book by Gary Ezzo.  After trying this for a few days, my husband became suspicious of the validity of this crying strategy and found that the American Academy of Pediatrics disagrees whole heartedly with most of Babywise.  I then cried for 2 hours and threw the book in the trash for fear some other mother might think it’s a good idea.

We did alright as Riesling was dubbed the “angel baby” and was sweet and easy going.  So then I read Family First by Dr Phil McGraw as I loved watching his show.  I was excited to figure out how to get my child to do what I wanted her to do.  Rewards and punishments (but not spanking) were the answers.  Tough love.  So we had time outs and sticker charts.

This got her to do what I wanted her to do, for the most part.  Until about a year ago when she told me that she didn’t care and that I could take her (beloved) books away because it didn’t matter.  It honestly broke my heart that I had been using her most favorite thing to manipulate her to the point where she didn’t even care about them anymore.  Cashel would never conform to anything ever.  I would put him in time out and he would spit out what he knew he had to say to get out and then forget whatever it was that had gotten him there in the first place, and then he would do it again.

Soon after the beloved books incident I was sitting near my computer rummaging through some papers when I came to a Shenandoah Valley Community School  (SVCS) brochure. I went to the site http://www.svcs.us/aboutUs.html and followed the links under Background.  I read for hours.  It just made perfect sense as to why external motivation wasn’t working.  I wanted this happiness for my children.  I called and spoke with the director Sarah.  She said that she wouldn’t have time to give me a tour that day because they were having a speaker that I might be interested in hearing.  I quickly got a sitter and drove through a rain storm to hear Chris Mercogliano, who taught at Albany Free School for 35 years and had recently stepped down as co-director.  The talk was interesting and inspiring.  I spoke with some of the other guests while waiting for a chance to meet Chris.  One woman, named Lynda, and I were talking about kids and freedom and homeschooling.  She practically insisted that I read a book by Alfie Kohn called Unconditional Parenting.

I checked the book out of the library and began implementing Alfie’s “working with” strategies immediately.  This was very difficult.  Riesling let loose.  She wasn’t used to making so many decisions and having so much freedom.  My husband thought I had lost my mind.  He did his research and the sacrifice of short term compliance for the long term goals of raising self-motivated adults made sense to him too.  He bought the Unconditional Parenting DVD so that he could quickly get up to speed.

I did tour SVCS and was very insulted by the director’s response to my questioning her inflexible rule regarding a September 30th cut off date for admittance.  (Riesling’s birthday is 10/9 and I have since bit my tongue to volunteer there to support the school and allow my children to have another consistent group of kids to play with.)  We toured a couple other private schools and even gave the local public school a shot, but nothing was what we envisioned.  So we decided in March of 2008 that we would be unschoolers.

After joining a couple of Yahoo Groups and meeting quite a few homeschooling families and some adults that were homeschooled I think that kids are best with a significant chunk of their time spent with a consistent group of other kids.  On 11/1/08 I will take a test that will begin my journey to become certified as a teacher.  (Update (11/28/08) I passed the test and begin classes on 1/31/09.)  In the next 2 years I hope to start a free school where the kids truly make the rules, where everyone can afford the tuition for full time enrollment and where there is a community who supports each other.

In the meantime, I welcome you to come along as our children grow and learn every day at home and on the go.