Glasses

It turns out that Evan has a lazy eye. 


It doesn't turn out or in so we had no idea.  He's been complaining for a couple months about a bothersome blur, so we took him to have an eye exam. 

 Before we went Evan told me he had been thinking, and he decided he wanted glasses, not just a monocle like the duke in Cinderella because that would be too hard to keep on his face. Holding back my laughter I just said, Okay.

At his appointment on Monday, we found out about the lazy eye which is very far-sighted and also has an astigmatism.  Just one blurry eye (his right) and the other sees 20/20.  The doctor said he needs glasses to help strengthen the weak eye, and Evan was so super excited at the news.  He picked out the pair he like best and was mad that he couldn't take them home right away.  We had to wait.

They told us to expect a call Thursday or Friday.  So every day this week, he's been rubbing his eye and lamenting.... "I can't believe I have to wait four days...."



Today, Evan was watching the clock:

"It's 9:30 Mom.  The eye doctor's is open in a half hour. Do you think I'll get my glasses today?"

"It's 10: 15am!!!  They're open!!  Do you think they'll call today??"

"Mom, it's already lunch time..... why aren't they calling??"

"Hmmm.  2:30pm.  Do you think I'll get my glasses today or not?"

I started telling him about how they probably would have called first thing if they were ready, so...... probably not today.



I was wrong.

The phone rang at 2:45pm.  As soon as I hung up the phone, Evan shouted, "I know who that was!!"  He and Chloe threw on their flip-flops and bolted to the car.  Evan was buckled in before I even sat down.




So.... here he is......

The lovely ladies at the office gave Chloe a free pair of sunglasses.  She tried on nine pair, then narrowed it down to four favorites. I like her choice.

And I like my guy in glasses.  How cute is he?? (in the first picture, not that last one.)

Living Unschooling

Unschooling is a way of life.  Life is school.  Learning happens all the time.

I thought I'd post the notes I kept during the month of March on how Evan is learning.  If you look through them closely,you'll find almost every subject area covered even though I don't categorize it that way; life's subjects always overlap.  If we missed a "subject" this month, it will show up in next month's list.  And of course, it's impossible to capture life or school or learning in a list of notes (which just barely touches the surface!!), but this method of record keeping does a pretty good job, I think.

Living Unschooling :: March 2012

reading ::  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs;  Disney Tarzan books;  Chanticleer and the Fox;  Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron;  Fairy Tales: Ugly Duckling, Jack the Giant Killer, Beauty and the Beast;  The Courage of Sarah Noble;  The Matchlock Gun;  The Bible: Creation, Adam and Eve

out & about :: Glenwood Park where we made new friends; Ajay's second b-day party with family and friends; the milk farm where we saw a brand new calf not five minutes after its birth (this led to a huge Q&A session with Miss Laurie); the Co-op where he helps gather produce/push the cart/find grocery items; visiting and playing with friends; watching Todd and his helpers tear off and re-shingle our roof for three days; walking around our neighborhood; hiking through Scott Park; riding his new bike all over; playing Car City in the backyard; collecting flower petals while exploring and admiring spring scenery;  running errands with Todd

words :: ingredients, vanity, prattle, flattery, glade, colonel, tomahawk, settlements, cavalry, inflection, flatirons, musket, stoop, unattended, militia;  simple metaphors -- "the puddles were like shining eyes" or "he sat there like a flour sack"

playing ::  Legos -- building a dozen boats to make a fleet;  using colored pencils for blending while doing art stuff;  the game 'Boxes';  being a pretend horse with Chloe and also playing with her toy horses together;  playing 'Dirt' racing game on the computer;  learning the card game 'Solitaire';  making 'villages' in his set-ups with leaders, protectors, weapons for defense, etc.;  playing war in the rice box with army men;  coloring/folding/playing Cootie Catchers with Chloe where all the papers have personalities and names and abilities;  Chameleon Hide-and-Seek where they hide their beanie toy and the other tries to find it;  stuffed kitten families -- building nests for them, taking them out strapped to rock crawlers, and other pretending.

talking about ::  buoyancy when testing his lego boats in water;  estimating -- for example, trying to guess how many trees we passed while driving;  why we wash our hair;  Indians, tepees,reservations and war;  the cow giving birth at the farm;  horses and herds;  the roof, insulation, shingles, dumpster and tar;  liver -- since we eat it a lot, it is a conversation topic;  why chicken broth has glassy bubbles in it;  "play on words";  sarcasm;  color names on the colored pencils;  numbers -- 80 hundreds makes 8 thousand, etc.;  why the oven heat makes cookie dough flatten out

watching & listening ::  watching the movies Spirit and Cinderella; listening to Skippyjon Jones books on CD while drawing;  listening to the Carmen Suite CD (classical music) and dancing or horse-racing with Chloe to the music;  listening to the 'thug song' on the Tangled soundtrack CD while playing 'Flynn and Rapunzel' with Chloe

baking :: oatmeal muffins, brownies, chocolate chip cookies -- helping to  measure accurately and mix batter; learning to make our breakfast porridge on his own by following the recipe -- working with fractions and the concept of 'doubling' a recipe too

crafting ::  began sewing a tepee out of felt squares and thread; drawing new patterns and cutting out snowflakes;  designing and building a space shuttle from cardboard and paper

 *************

So there you have it:  literature, history, science, vocabulary, health, math, music, art, phys. ed. and the all-important socialization.... I think we are missing writing.  (My boy hates writing, but he will do it when the need arises. His fine-motor skills are exercised frequently though playing the connect-the-dot Boxes game he loves and his detailed coloring with colored pencils.)

If you had any doubts as to the kind of education we are giving our son, maybe this helps you to see we are not "Lazy Schooling" (as a person I am no longer friends with once called it).  It takes a lot of effort and attention to make sure learning happens here.  And, as you can see, it does.

All That Glitters

When I dug around in the shoe box for my sandals the other day, I couldn't help but notice all the glitter in there.  I usually buy each of the kids three pairs of shoes -- one super nice pair, one for everyday play and one to destroy in the mud or whatever else they can dream up.  But Chloe has four:

Her mud shes are the purple-ish ones on the top right and the bottom two are for nicer occasions.  But those red ones sure are dirty......  Why would I let her play in mud in sparkly red dress shoes?  Because life is too short to wear your most favorite shoes only once a week for a few hours.  Glitter is for all occasions!

In the Backyard

Our past few weeks have been full of family time, friend get-togethers, backyard playing, library outings, bike rides and general goodness. 


Here's the only part I have taken photos of:  backyard fun.

The king and queen of funny-faces have adapted to my new scenario.  "Hey guys, turn and smile and I'll leave you alone."  It mostly works.

Chloe is still not sure how to pump on swings, so when Dad is outside she gets to fly.  I don't  do swings for more than 2 minutes.  I call it motivation to learn.

Car City has an ongoing story dialogue full of chapters and bookmarks when it's time to go inside.  I love that their narratives are full of old-fashioned words like shan't, nor, mustn't....

..... but then in the next sentence they are just little kids obsessed with bathroom humor like fart-exhaust or poop-rocks.  You know.

Poor Ruby, she likes swinging even less than being picked up.

Maybe it's mean that I won't push her.  She just sits there while Evan is flying. 

Our backyard is so loved, just like a favorite stuffed animal or blanket. 

The back of the shed is once again covered in mud meatballs.  It makes me smile because with each splatting blob of goo there is uproarious belly laughing along with it.  What could be better?

They love mud.  I mean, who else poses with mud??

She really does love to swing.  Maybe I could push her for 3 minutes instead of 2....

Easter Smiles

What Is Normal?

To my children, THIS is normal. 

Bits & Pieces

I haven't been online much since last week as Todd and I have been helping out a friend in need, offering a place to stay, being a shoulder to cry on, giving loving advice and helpful support.  As we've been focusing on someone else other things take a back seat, of course.  But if I don't post here frequently I find myself forgetting the little details I love so much..... so here goes.




Over the weekend we celebrated a very important little person in our lives.  Little Ajay is two and we joined our family for a sweet little party.  Chloe could barely sleep for days leading up to it.  The thought of having cake does that to her.

My kids each wrapped up a treasure they were ready to pass on to someone new and also a new truck for their little cousin.  It was precious watching them give like that and Ajay loved what they picked out.

Chloe has a new favorite outfit.  Does this one surprise you?  She has gold glitter shoes to go with it now since her rainbow glitter shoes are too tight.

She wore it three days in a row with a change of tights on the last day.  It is finally not a huge chore for me to shop for her since she will wear things with ruffles, bows and pink.

Every day one of the kids will announce "Let's go outside" and they strap on shoes and run out the door.  Usually they are back in a few minutes to bundle up a bit, but sometimes not.  The days of me having to be with them constantly are soon becoming a distant memory.

They played chess for an hour on the kitchen floor (with cushions under them).  Chloe learned the real rules just about a month ago and is so pleased with herself.  They played three or four games nicely but this special little scene ended with name calling and Evan storming outside.  Oh well.

Todd gave the kids a handful of cords he trimmed from our new blinds and you would have thought it was Christmas.  Evan and Chloe have been playing horses and cavalry for days.  I have found horses tied up all over the house.

Evan seems more into building and displaying Legos lately rather than playing.  I'm sure it's just a phase, but I wonder all the time when he'll stop scooting around on his knees so his pants will have a left knee in tact.  Maybe when he's 10??

See the hole in the knee?  All his pants end up like this.  His left knee is his scooter.

Evan recently had an idea to make his own teepee out of fabric.  He wanted to stitch it together in pieces just like the Indians would have with buffalo skin.  So he asked me to teach him how to sew (I love unschooling). Chloe wanted to make one too.

These little projects sitting around make me so happy.   They do a little here or there as they work on them over the course of a few weeks.  I hope they actually finish them because it's a really neat idea.

 

Todd has been home for a while so the kids keep him busy multitasking -- playing with both of them at the same time.

They also have made up games they play only with him, like BLAR!!! or Mail Chase.  Blar is just a scary version of hide and seek where Todd jumps out and scares the crap out of everyone with a BLAAAARRRRR!! that makes me pee myself if I'm nearby.  Mail chase is an attempt by the kids to raid the mailbox before Dad does.  Todd loves to get the mail, so they try to stop him and have a battle with grabbing, chasing and hiding the mail all over the house.

The only game I have with them like that is Rogue Babies.  I'll have to explain that another time :-)





Evan's been really seeming older lately.  Talking like a big kid and acting different in ways that are hard to put into words.  I love that he calls his dad "Dud" most of the time, or when he's annoyed with him, "Tawwwwwwwwd"  :-)

Chloe can finally do this wall climbing trick that Evan loves to do.  Her only issue:  sweaty hands.  She might never achieve greatness in this sport.

She has been wanting to learn how to read though.  We are working on letter sounds as she asks about them.  I honestly never thought she's be interested in reading, so this is a wonderful surprise!