Tag Archives: park

Wednesday – Day Three

Posted in Beach, children, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, School-at-home, Uncategorized, Unschooling by

Today was a little trickier to document because we were out and about all day here and there and everywhere, busy. Which means we are relying on my mama mind to recall our day…ha ha! (Have I mentioned in the past I’m fairly certain my memory was delivered along with my children…they might of called it a placenta, but I’m certain it was the memory section of my brain!

First thing this morning I had a SMIDGEN of mama time before my son woke up and we had to get ready to leave. I had to unfortunately urge my daughter out of bed and rush her along a bit.

While in the car (an hour drive today) My daughter was reading her insect fact book. She loves these types of books on insects, mammals, sea life, and all living creatures! She announces: I can’t believe there is a MOTH that is pink, yellow and blue…it is so beautiful and it is a MOTH! Can you believe there is a beautiful moth mom?!?! My son leans over and reads the info…he tells her, yup, it’s called a Rosy Maple Moth…

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Joke told by my kids: Do you know the difference between a preying mantis and a praying mantis? One has a bug between it’s hands. (not really sure if that is how the joke goes, but that is how they said it and they laughed!) Ha ha!

After that I listened to the music and they researched spiders. I did have to keep reminding them to look up to avoid getting car sick…sometimes reading in the car will turn them green.

A bit later I notice my son has packed the magnet toy in our car, so he’s still processing magnets and having fun with it. (I wasn’t overjoyed when the magnets fought each other and shot all over the market’s floor, but such is life when you are learning I suppose…he now understands why it’s best to leave your toys in the car)

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Directly entering Costco there are a plethora of TV’s, today was an interesting show about underwater life. Tomorrow we are supposed to research that show to see if we can get it and watch it in full. I’d happily do that over researching a cartoon we discover at the entrance of Costco.

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After our errands are complete, we meet up with some friends and play at the park, then head down to the beach. It wasn’t really beach weather, but most of our kids still enjoy it.

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I love how each kid stands so nicely in line waiting their turn. No one is cutting or complaining. It is just a peaceful cooperative queue of unsocialized homeschool kids. (Oh gees, there goes that sarcasm again, ha ha!)

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Every time we get together with other homeschoolers, I giggle to myself at how silly the whole “socialization” concern is. These kids are so well socialized. The way they work out differences and handle situations is generally very impressive.

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It is always a sensory experience to have your entire body buried under sand! And such a physical job for my daughter’s friend who was covering her up! (We can check on P.E. off for my daughter’s friend!) Ha ha!

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Not sure what they are doing, but looks fun!

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Looks like the kids have decided to play duck duck goose…

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The mamas were enjoying a relaxing adult chat while the kids were running around.

While my son was enjoying a pizza party with his super brains club (three of the kids, my son included, were graduating today) I took my daughter shopping for what she loves…jewelry!

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A little boy was selling confetti eggs (6 for a dollar) on the sidewalk, so we bought some confetti eggs and the kids had fun smashing eggs on each other’s heads!

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Well some liked doing the smashing more so then getting smashed on…ha ha!

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This would be a loving tackle, she comes off as a delicate little flower, but that is her trick…watch out, when you are least expecting it, she will get you!

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After the beach and confetti eggs, it was BATH TIME! Which always ends up becoming some sort of water explosion, I mean experiment! (I have been known to line the floor with towels, because it doesn’t matter how often you mention keep the water IN the tub to the children, that darn water still seems to leak out of the tub and all over the floor, sometimes the walls and on a rare occasion the water makes it’s way up to the ceiling!

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Deal Making time: My son wants to watch a BEN 10…the job is CLEAN YOUR ROOM…trust me it’s a big job tonight!

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We sneak in a little LIFE OF FRED MATH (my son’s choice!) He is asked to build a house with right angles and he enjoys himself so much, he decides to build a basement and a basement vent and of course he has to leave the roof off because a roof isn’t made of right angels…he takes his assignments very seriously!

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…and a little practice with nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc thru MAD LIBS (love those!)

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My daughter does some piano practice. I don’t force practice on them, but neither of them like the rush of having to complete it all last-minute, so they generally do a little here and there each day. (as you can see in the background my son is practicing head stands in the chair! Ha ha!)

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never a dull moment…kids are tucked in and it is my bedtime…goodnight 🙂

Go Climb A Tree!

Posted in children, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Unschooling by

Climbing a tree….one of the passages into childhood….

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No longer allowed at schools…..sad!

I really want to rant and rave about the need for tree climbing in our children’s lives. How the element of danger is necessary in the developmental process and how we as a society have removed nearly all degrees of danger (& nature) from our children’s natural play.

No climbing, you’ll get hurt
No jumping, you’ll get hurt
No running, you’ll get hurt

When my son was a toddler and we were heavily involved with a moms group. The other mothers would see him toddle off and start climbing. They would inform me, as if I’m not watching my own child. “He’s going to fall!!!” they would announce it in a panicked voice.

Not only was I watching my son, I had already assessed the situation and realize that if he did fall he might get a little scared, but he wouldn’t be injured. And it was a good opportunity for him to learn his abilities. My replies were generally on the lines of “if he does fall he will only do it once” or “if he does fall, he will learn from it”

One of the other mothers said to me during group, I can’t believe your busy son has never been to the emergency room when my sweet docile daughter has been three times already.

I just had to laugh at the descriptive personalities. Busy, sweet, docile…ha ha! Parents can be so bias at times towards their own sweet innocent darling perfect children. Especially when they hang out with busy dirty dangerous children whose parents clearly don’t know that germs and danger exist. Ha ha! (Oops my sarcastic side just slipped out)

The truth is her sweet docile daughter never had the chance to experience danger. She never had any “safe danger” to play with. She had no idea that life could be dangerous. It must be a safe situation, no one was hollering “stop you’ll get hurt!” So when opportunities came up and no one was looking (aka hovering) she would go about her normal developmental path and voila danger would arise, but she had no clue danger was there.

We as a society are so preoccupied with making the world a safer place for our children (which sounds nice) we are not realizing the consequences.

1) We are raising children that never get to experiment with “safe danger” Children today are not learning and making brain connections on their danger boundaries. (Which can also go into personal space boundaries and many other body awareness/social issues, but we can save that for another post down the road)

2) We are not outside in nature enough climbing, jumping, running, etc…Our children are becoming oblivious to outside sounds as well as sounds of danger and their intuition skills.

3) We are creating “overly worried” children. Worried about irrational fears, because they are told constantly don’t do this, don’t do that, this is dangerous, that is dangerous, don’t touch that, it’s dirty, it has germs, but they aren’t fully sure what they are supposed to do, or what real danger is, they only know its out there lurking in every corner, waiting to get them and it must be something bad….really really bad!

Now that I am involved in a homeschooling group, instead of the hover mama club, I see lots of tree climbing, free happy kids developing not only physical abilities but loads of brain power.

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So I plead with you, get out into nature and let your kids climb trees!

The Unsocialized Homeschooler

Posted in children, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Unschooling by

The socialization of homeschooled children is a common topic that many homeschoolers are asked about by non-homeschoolers.

When people are considering homeschooling, often they fear their child will miss out on the socialization a classroom brings.

When people are unaware of what exactly goes on in a homeschooling home, they assume the children are unsocialized or rarely get to play with children their own age.

People assume homeschooled children only socialize with their siblings as playmates.

Socialization seems to be one of the biggest concern of the non- homeschooling community.

As a homeschooler, socialization is my least concern, and I’d like to share with you why.

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Each week on average we have 3 play dates with a variety of friends.

Each week we meet up with a homeschooling group and have a park or beach day.

The homeschooling group arranges monthly field trips.

We have sleep overs, camp outs, BBQs, parties, community activities, etc.

We sign up for clubs, sports, dance, horse riding, music, etc.

I was recently told by a friend whose children attend the local public school, that my children have more of a social life than hers do. She confessed, she had worried about homeschooling kids, thinking they sat at home all day with nothing to do, while the other kids were at school playing with friends.

The truth is, school kids spend majority of their day sitting in the classroom, not outside playing with friends. Where as homeschooled children are generally finished with their studies hours before school kids are let out for the day; therefore, homeschool kids get to spend the rest of their day truly SOCIALIZING with friends.

If you are concerned or would like more information on the topic of socializing homeschooled children, here are two really good books on the topic.