Artwork by JJ

A day in the life

When asked what a typical 'unschooling' day is like I often think about a day, perhaps like today, which is only typical in that it is totally random. For the purpose of future reflection I decided that I would occcasionally blog our 'untypical' unschool day....

A day in the life Tuseday

Today we woke up at around 8 am together in our family bed. When Bug opened her eyes she instantly remembered her dear friend Nim was sleeping over. Usually Nim gets in our bed during the night when she sleeps over but for the first time she woke up in Bug's bed where she started the night. JJ woke when Bugsy moved to get up and they ran in and jumped on Nim. The Dad man 'Willow" and I could hear them telling stories and laughing as we fell back to sleep for another hour. When we rumbled out of bed JJ, Bug and Nim were far in the backyard on the swings and in the sandpit. I made smoothies, miso and avo on rye bread and tried several times entice children inside for food. Giving up and draining my cup of tea I packed my shopping bags into the car and headed out the door to the organic market. Just as I was leaving the little people's hunger pains forced them inside to eat.

I drove along the winding road to the market listening to JJJ loudly and enjoying the rare treat of driving alone and wishing I had another cup of tea :) After gathering enough fresh green things, sweet red things and scrumptious other coloured, local yummy vegetable things and stuff I drove home eating 2 apples on the way. Not caring that apples sometimes make me fart!

I was greeted in the driveway by JJ in his spiderman suit, Nim wearing a black leotard and goggles and Bugs in a tutu all grabbing at the food and running off with a capsicum each (or red bell pepper as Nim calls them). I made Willow and I a salad and the kidleys a plate of snacks and tried to persuade them to join us to eat. They had managed to get under our trampoline (which is tricky becasue it is dug in and at ground level) and so they ate under the trampoline in a hole in the ground.

Willow headed off to work after lunch and I did washing, cleany type stuff. Nim's Dad came to collect her with lots of tears and begging to say she was whisked away and I cuddled my sad littles for a bit.

Deciding the day was way too yummy to stay at home we packed some guacamoli and carrot sticks into a basket and decided to drive somewhere we had never been before. We drove along in the country and spotted a lamb on the side of the road. Finding a safe place to turn and go back we were hoping to help it back into it's paddock. When we arrived we found it had already managed to get back in it's paddock so we hung around the fence for a time, watching the lambs have 'milkies' and dreaming of buying a mini sheep for our backyard.

We headed off again and turned down a road we have never been down before and over a little bridge. We stopped and explored the river bank, seeing a king parrot, wild ducks and other birds. JJ collected flowers and Bug became a fishergirl. We ate the carrot and started thinking about making homemade chocolate chip icecream.

We left for home after a good explore via the health store to get organic cream and chocolate for our icecream. When we got home we made the icecream and munched a fair bit of the chocolate and then Bugs and JJ had a long bath. Bugs wanted veg soup and a sandwhich for dinner and JJ wanted pesto with squid ink pasta and a sandwich. I had the soup and pasta leftovers so I just made a big salad sandwhich as a side dish and tried to discourage the dancing while eating. (due to the recent incident when JJ vomited becasue he was breakdancing during dinner.) Reminding him about that instantly caused the boogying to cease al least for the duration of the meal.

Bug read a pile of books to JJ and I in bed and JJ fell asleep having some breastmilk. Bugs then gathered her ritual plate of snacks (cheese, strawberries and cream and cucumber) and rooibos tea and we snuggled on the couch and read Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince until 9 ish. After brushing her teeth Bugsy playyed with her mermaids on the couch until she fell asleep.

I plan to wait for Mark who will be home from work at around 10.30 pm, have a small galss of red wine and try that icecream! here he is now :)

Flower arranging

JJ is very interested flowers. When we gosome place new he likes to collect flowers and make an arrangements with them to enjoy when we get home... He also spends alot of time at home in the garden collecting flowers, berries, beautful leaves and feathers and arranges them in vases with great care. We often have a vase on just about every surface.

Felt letters

Loopity Lou's blog is an abundance of inspiring creations, we were just looking at it the other day when Bug fell inlove with her felt aphabet letters. Eeek, in the name of learning I thought I'd give it a wobbly go and start an alphabet. Bug soon decided to take over the project after watching me do a few letters. She is up to 'F' now and is talking about all sorts of wonderful things she'll sew next.

Luscious oil paint

My special Dad gifted me with some new oil paints for my birthday and I have been in buttery, oil heavan. Aside from the fact they are toxic the are the most joyous medium to work with. It has been years since I have played with oil paints and have been revelling in this more sculptural medium. Now I have finished illustrating this book I have decided to get down and painting for a few months of wonderfulness :) Secretly hoping that my book will selll itself while I play with paint hmmm.

as sweet as a flower

It was my birthday today and we had a fun day filled with family, cake, singing, dancing and playing. Instead of crashing out in a tired heap JJ decided he couldn't possibly sleep until he finished this letter to me. He worked on it from 8 pm until 9 reading out as he wrote,. It says things like "Mama you are as sweet as a flower. Your breastmilk tastes like love hearts. I love you more than ever. You are a princess...."

"Scare City"

My lovely friend sent me this

THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove::

Scare City ::When you buy into the *scarcity* principle, you live in "Scare City": a place where you're always afraid of coming up short.

In Scare City, you can't enjoy what you have -- you're too busy worrying about what you *don't* have. All the cups in Scare City are half empty.

Somehow, young children are largely immune to the distressing effects of living in Scare City... They enjoy the abundant *now* while their parents worry about the lack of time.

They transform their homes into magical worlds while their parents worry about the lack of order.

They give and receive love endlessly while their parents carefully ration their limited supply.

To live the Good Life, you have to leave Scare City and go to a *dance* -- a joyful, magical, healing dance where you release your fears and *shake your booty* like nobody's watching:
a-BUN-dance! Are you willing to do A BUN DANCE with your child? :-)

http://dailygroove.net/scare-cityFeel free to forward this message to your friends!(Please include this paragraph and everything above.) Copyright (c) 2008 by Scott Noelle

I am willing!