Amazing Games Children Play

I'm not feeling very well this morning, the baby has had quite a few fussy nights, so I've been pretty uninspired. The girls have been moving in and out of the house all morning. Just now, I hear them in my bedroom playing their game. It sounds like they are veterinarians or animal rescuers who have found a chimpanzee, "old Graybeard". My 7yo said, "Quick! Jane Goodall will be at the animal shelter in 10 minutes. If we get him there fast, she'll take care of him!" My 5yo has been so taken with Jane Goodall since she heard Raffi sing about Gombe. We've found some books at the library about Goodall which she has loved reading. She even named her chimp Beanie Baby "Jubilee", just like Jane.

It's amazing what they can come up with when left to develop their own play. It's always been a pet peeve of mine to hear adults over directing children's play. Some adults think they will be able to make it more imaginative or educational, when really most children want you to play along with their ideas.

Now, we're off to have lunch before the older girls have Little Flowers this afternoon.

Unschool Panic

It's been a while since I posted on my baby blog, but I had an uncontrollable bout of unschool panic. The kind where it seizes you deep in the pit of your stomach. Where you just want to be like everyone else and fit in. The constant worry that maybe you're wrong and your children will grow up to be uncivilized illiterates......

Then you slowly come back down to earth and things don't seem so bad. You hear other mothers fretting over whether their 9th grader should do life science or not. How others actually grade and give their children partial credit on math problems. You see people who somehow think they have to match the school requirements of credits and classes for college entrance.

Now, I know I don't have a "high schooler" yet, but I find this all puzzling. I'm about 10 years off from having a child in college, but I can honestly say I have no idea what college will be like in 10 years. With the economy in the shape it is in and kids coming out of school with huge debts and no jobs, I'm not sure it will look the same.

I also had a personal revelation recently when it occured to me that I have 2 college degrees, but no skills! I have a B.S. in Finance and a Master's in Public Administration and yet I really can't "do" anything. Oh well, I have to do better for my girls and help them see numerous possibilities and ways of reaching their goals.

So, I will be posting more now in my effort to show my girls that writing is important. Hopefully, if they see me spending time writing, they will do the same.

A long, long trip!

We'll we had a very long trip over Easter. It ended up being for 13 days! That's a long time with a husband, five children and a minivan. First, we went to Arkansas to see a family friend retire after working for about 37 years! Then we traveled to Vicksburg, MS to spend the night on our way to Gulf Shores, AL. The next day we arrived in Alabama and spent the next 5 nights at the beach. The girls really just wanted to swim and go down to the sand. We took one excursion to Alligator Alley, but that was all. From there we went to my Mother-in-Law and her husbands house in Hattiesburg, MS, for Easter. It was a great time full of extended family. We were so glad to make it home and I'm still recovering a week later.

There's my oldest holding a real, live alligator. She dropped it soon after this picture. Ooops!

Everyone (except baby) enjoying the sand and sun.

Great New Picture Books

Well, Who Stole the Mona Lisa is fairly new (2010) and Do Re Mi: If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido d'Arezzo is from 2006, but new to me!

These were both great picture books and we learned so much. I love picture books about real events and people. The girls absolutely loved the one about the Mona Lisa. They really enjoy anything about artists and know quite a bit about da Vinci.

The Do Re Mi book was fascinating. I had never even thought about how musical notation began. The girls were also intrigued by the collage illustrations. My 7 yo commented on how the Title Page looked like paper and I explained about collage. I had to explain how the illustrator has the original and then it is copied for the book. Maybe I should look for some books and cd's of Gregorian chant. This book is a nice introduction to musical notation and chant.

A Typical Day?

I thought I would try to show what a somewhat typical day was for us. Every day has it's challenges and yesterday was no different. I awoke fairly earlier and tried to watch the episode of The Journey Home which I had recorded, but about half way through kids were getting up and hungry. My youngest had her one year check up so we had to leave the house fairly early for us. That meant I needed everyone to be up, dressed and fed by about 9:30. I took the oldest four to daddy's office where the colored and watched TV while I went to the appointment. We also watched a Popular Mechanics for Kids DVD in the car. We left the house in a mess so I picked up lunch to make things a little easier. After lunch I held the baby while the girls played. Once the house was in a little better order, the girls wanted to paint. We tried out our new liquid watercolors and they had a great time. Daddy then called and said he would be a little late so we went ahead and ate dinner. After dinner, the older girls took turns taking long baths and I read some to my 3 and 5 yo's. Daddy was then home, but feeling bad, so I had everyone get ready for bed. The oldest two stayed up with him watching some car restoration show and the 3 yo feel asleep on the couch. The baby and 5 yo got in bed with me and fell asleep. Once everyone goes to bed, we move the 5 & 3 yo's to their room. I stayed up reading for a little while longer.

That's a fairly typical day. Today will be changing out winter/summer clothes & laundry. I'm thinking about the arboretum for tomorrow and we have Mass and a park day on Friday.

Old Favorites

I've been busy getting ready for the Little Flowers meeting that will be held at our house tomorrow, but took a break to read some old favorites to my little ones.

Owl babies is one of my favorites and I'll happily read it anytime. We also read a couple of new ones:

Our Apple Tree has lovely illustrations and A Fabulous Fair Alphabet was just fun!

Tommorrow we'll be making sacrifice beads and I'll take some photos and link to the instructions I'm using.

Color Mixing

The girls and I had our first day with our new art supplies. We talked about mixing colors, which they already knew, but reinforced the idea of mixing a little too much.

They made some drip paintings where they let the colors run and mix together. Then, with the leftover paint, we talked about how some mixing was good and too much was not so good. Our red added to the yellow made a lovely orange and the red added to the blue made a deep purple, but they saw how when we mixed them all it made a yucky brown grey.

The blog above is where I have gotten the ideas for our art. She has an online art class going. I was late on getting all my supplies ready so I bought her class pdf.s which has everything laid out and we can go at our own pace. I've learned so much about art supplies just in getting ready to follow these plans! We'll see what we can do today!