This month could be summed up by cuddle time, indoor time, couch time, books, lego creations galore, a splash of glitter, video games (phonics, air penguin, and angry birds), math, conversations, and the ocean.
Always the ocean! 
reading – As usual, we’ve read a ton of books, with links to ones I particularly recommend.
We loved the short story collection The Serial Garden by Joan Armitage. Another great one, chosen at random by Orlando at the library, was The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women.
I bought ourselves a copy of Anh’s Anger, which both of the kids are somewhat fascinated by. During one meltdown of Mica’s, he asked me to come in the bathroom (where he was crying and wailing and from which just moments ago he had asked me to leave) and read him Anh’s Anger. We reconnected after that (and after eating some food).
We read a bit about penguins, after our visit to the zoo and lots of playing of baby penguin games. A cute picture book was And Tango Makes Three, based on the true story of two male penguins in a zoo who raised a chick.
After reading and re-reading all eight books in the series, I think we’ve seen the last of Captain Underpants for a while and Theseus was the last of the Greek heroes (for now at least). Though we did read a few books about life in ancient Greece, explored Greek ships, and found maps of Odysseus’s journey.
And we’ve been revisiting Cynthia Rylant — Mica seems at just the right age for them — Mr. Putter and Tabby, Henry and Mudge, and Poppleton. I won’t link because there are so many, but I would recommend them.
talking about – Being vegan and spanking. Both brought up by Mica spontaneously as we walked together. The spanking was from something in Captain Underpants, and being vegan came up from visiting the zoo and talking about how no creature wants to be hurt.
Voting and design. One of our neighbors ran in the last election and I was eagerly looking up results the next morning. Orlando wanted to know if I voted for her, if Papa voted for, and if he did, too? So we talked about elections and being eligible to vote, and how they count the votes (percentages).
Rom, Orlando,and I also had a spontaneous and notable conversation about design, and how it works. Rom talked about how design tries to solves problems and that the first step is really understanding the problem and then being able to evaluate if your design solves the problem without introducing any new problems. Orlando was really engaged and thinking up lots of examples.
How to tell when it’s going to rain, looking at clouds.
out and about — Mica and I went to the local firehouse for a tour; we also met my cousin and her kids at the zoo. We went on a family visit to the ocean and saw the highest tide we’ve ever seen. And a seal!
Rom took the kids to The Museum of Flight, and the whole family spent an afternoon at the local etsy fair, meeting up with beloved cousins.
Plus the regular ole errands, meeting friends, park days, going to parks on our own, playing with neighbors, picking up a neighbor from school (which was big fun for us) and having a “half-sleepover” where we picked the kids up from our neighbor at 9:30 PM in their jammies with their teeth brushed.
being human — We had many chances to play with friends, working out conflict and understanding self-control… Orlando and I prepped before meeting one set of friends, about things he could do when he was feeling so excited, and after I had forgotten all about it, he went and did one of them (“getting his ya-yas out” by running around rather than getting up in the other kid’s face). I was much more present and proactive in helping, too, so that felt good, even when things got pretty intense. We also talked about and worked with inclusion, which seems to be brewing a bit here in cohousing.
playing and creating — Legos! There was a ninjago binge after Mica’s birthday and the usual lego ship and machine building that continues on, combining with magnatiles and blocks to create giant “bases” to house, shelter, and repair their creations.
Forts galore (here and in the Common House), lots of obstacle courses built inside, and races in the house. (Yes, we’ve been homey and cozy these last few weeks.) I had hoped to put up our swing but was stymied once again by not having a stable enough place to put it.
We had a big shin-dig in our community, to say good-bye to a beloved friend. The kids did a bit of line dancing (the party’s theme was a ho-down!) and played away downstairs. The next day we had an impromptu group game of bingo in the Common House, which was great fun. The boys played their first charades at a neighbor’s house.
There was maze mania (doing mazes on paper) after reading Theseus. And sticker insanity after Grammy sent them big books of 500 stickers. And both boys recently used Mica’s birthday glitter to create pictures, and now our house — and everything in it — is covered a fine sheen of “fairy dust”!
words — after the “backwards land” spontaneously appeared in one of our bedtime stories (which we make up together), I spent a few days writing down words backwards, per the kids’ requests. Mica and I wrote thank you cards for his birthday, which featured lots of… you guessed it! backwards words.
Both the boys are doing more phonics games.
regular classes — Orlando attended outdoor school once a week, where he loved building traps (dead-fall and string) and doing two days of scouting and awareness. He also has continued with his Math for Love class, learning about square numbers, factors, and strategy. Both are on break until January.
watching and listening – The Story of Math on DVD. This was a pretty incredible series — I don’t even remember how I heard about it, but at some point I had put it on hold at the library and it showed up recently. Part II was our favorite: The Genius of the East. The last two get pretty abstract, but Orlando wanted to keep watching. We just finished yesterday but I’ve already got lots of ideas to offer — Mancala, Backgammon, Go, the Great Wall of China, Archimedes, Hypatia and Pythagoras (more Greeks!)…
We’ve continued listening to classical music, The Flaming Lips, and Mustard Pancakes (though the latter is fading out). We’ve added in our recording of the Jataka Tales, which the kids like a lot. Me too.
And I guess that’s it. Oh, one more thing!
You can join in, too!
mb is hosting a linky, which each of us is welcome to submit to and/or host ourselves. It’s a great way to share the love of unschooling.
And, there is no required format — you could post long, short, detailed, a few highlights, lots of photos, only photos, etc.
Enter below (if you’re seeing this post in a reader, click over to see the linky)!
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
to updates and extras
Oh, I don’t know if I can join in on the unschooling fun, but I will think about it. Great job getting all of this down. Funny, we just learned how to play GO today at an International Festival. I had never heard of it before in my life, and here it is twice in one day – fascinating. Going to look in to The Story of Math, although the kids in the house are pretty resistant to anything that sounds educational:)
That’s cool about Go.
My older son in particular is interested in and engaged with math (always has been) so that is probably why I requested the movie after hearing about it. Both my kids are pretty resistant to anything if they sense I have an agenda, but in the case of the movie, I just asked, “Hey, I have this movie about a guy who travels around the world uncovering the history of math. You guys want to watch it?” and they said, “Yeah! Let’s make popcorn!!”
The whole approach of the series is much more “adventure-y” than teach-y, and it’s intended audience is _not_ children. It’s a guy traveling around, talking to people and presenting historical information along with descriptions of certain concepts (e.g., zero). But it got pretty abstract in the latter sections, so I was surprised when they wanted to continue, but they did.
There is one bonus session left — about music and primes that my kids said they want to watch (based on the description) but it’s fine with me if they don’t want to finish it after starting it. We’ll see!
I would love to see your unschooling adventures, so I hope you join in!
this was such fun to read! i guess we are unschoolers so far – but, i would have to keep a running list to write down all we’ve down for a month. ez loves the henry and mudge books too and if you’re still on a penguin theme, he loved the book, “where is home pip” and another pip title i can’t remember, nor the author right now, but i’m sure you could find it at your local library. we read those soooooo many times this month that i was pretty proud of myself for carrying on as well as i did (because of course i’m doing all the reading). i’m such an unschooler at heart. i want a crystal ball to see what we’ll end up doing but this just seems so right to me on so many levels. but, stacy, i’ve been meaning to ask you more about your experience with oak meadow. can you tell me more when you have the time?
Hey Anushka,
I started writing things down this year. This is the first year we are “officially” homeschooling in the eyes of the law (State of Washington) and I am required to keep records. No one ever checks the records, but each year we are required to perform either a test evaluation or a non-test assessment. We will likely choose the non-test assessment, which is a written summary of the child’s participation in the eleven required subjects. So… I started writing down things in a daily calendar. There are about 4-5 lines per day, and I jot down books we read, places we go, things we talked about, things the kids did or built, who they played with, etc.
I never kept records before and I’ve found that in the process of summarizing I develop a sense of what we’ve been doing, not doing, what we might follow-up on or revisit, what to build on, what never really went anywhere (the books about composers I checked out from the library, though we will see an orchestral performance later this month, which Orlando is excited for), etc.
About Oak Meadow… We’ve never done it consistently and haven’t used it in a long while. I was using it for Orlando’s kindergarten year. He enjoyed the fairytales, the stories, and the crafts, but my kids just seem allergic to anything that is too teachy (Oak Meadow isn’t overly so, but using the curriculum sets the tone that some other thing is deciding what to do), so I took the things that flowed naturally and left the rest, using it mostly as a resource to draw from. I’ve never used another curriculum so I can’t really compare it to others.
I love the idea of un-schooling for a month. I think I may plan on doing that next December…perfect month for that:)) ~ Barefoot mama
Thoroughly enjoy reading your learning month.
It reminds me of how much we do/learn, but just it in stride as our day to day stuff. I guess that’s organic learning!
I’m off to check out all those great links, thanks so much!
a month covered in fairy dust! hurray! i am so happy you’re joining in with me, stacy, i have definitely been inspired many times by the life learning you and your family do, and my hope is that these posts turn into something people can point to when hearing from naysayers about how lazy we unschoolers are.
thanks for the book recommendations! they sound awesome- what a cool moment with the anh’s anger book and mica. you have a way of tying in the connection moments… i like that. because that is so much of what unschool is too- being together more, which is intense, but is so much about how we handle it and whether we are connecting. love it.
cool to hear about your state’s requirements- we don’t get official until age 8 either, but then i am not sure if we can do the assessment, or whether we have to test… i’ve heard other homeschool mamas around here talk about testing, so i assume there isn’t another option, but maybe that’s just because i can’t imagine opting for a test if there is another way.
I am so inspired by you and MB’s month of unschooling. Thank you thank you for the links and for story of math!! E, too has a math bug and he would love it! I am really bad about recording details, especially our conversations because they happen so naturally (as you know), but I think im going to work on that for December, and especially since i havent a clue yet what to expect in CO! Cheers and have a great day Stacy!
Hi Stacey, well as you know I don’t homeschool or unschool but I still so love these posts, because of what you share in terms of the conversations you have with your kids (love the design one and the working out conflict one, the latter of course being a recurring theme in our household, and I suppose any household really)…And I thought you already were vegan, guess I was wrong there (I am not, just thought you had mentioned it at some point…) Thanks for the book recommendations, we are not yet into Captain Underpants, but I always hear about them, I suppose they are coming soon (my son is 5 – our household has been dominated by ‘girl’ series since my eldest is a girl, although I try so hard not to fall into the boy/girl thing)…I love the Serpent Slayer recommendation…I also liked Ahn’s anger, the kids are fascinated with the anger monster pic…They also like Moody Cow Meditates too, although I noticed in reviews some thought the expression of anger in that book was too much, and the mother’s punishment, but I think it all opens things up for dialogue…
Thanks for sharing so much of your life here. It is fun how I feel I know you and your family! I appreciate the open-hearted feeling of it. When I come here I often ponder doing a separate blog of this type, but come back to it not being feasible right now time-wise…but I do so appreciate all you offer and share here. xoxo – Lisa