Fall, Revised

Alrighty then! It's official, we are *out* of the homeschool co-op classes for fall, and I have to admit to being a little relieved. For some reason it was starting to feel a little too school-y for me, anyway.

After I made my list yesterday, I asked Ezra what else he'd like to learn and after some discussion he said he wanted me to teach him some Spanish. (This came up because the class that was too full for him to get into included a Spanish class.)

I have to admit a part of me dreads this, but OTOH I've been feeling really angry at myself for letting my Spanish slide so badly for the last 8 years. So, we're off! I've decided to try and do Spanish tomorrow morning while we're waiting for the milk man.

Managing Fall Semester

Fall is the time of year when all the neurosis comes out in homeschooling families, in my experience. Suddenly you feel like you are supposed to be signing your kid up for a million activities, just like everyone else. Supposedly, anyway.

Well, I missed this frenzy period once again this year, because of moving around Labor Day.

We did get in on the local Homeschool Co-op startup, though, but we are currently in the position of deciding whether or not we will try to continue this fall, or wait until January, when a new semester begins. I am leaning towards waiting until January, due to the fact that bringing Ottar along has been way too challenging for my ability levels right now. And also Ezra was put in a class that is for 4.5-6 year olds, and he is going along with it but not enjoying it to the degree that he is willing to participate in it on his own (with me dropping him off). So, I am thinking of things we could do this fall as True Unschoolers!

Ezra did start "Little Ninjas" last week - a martial arts class. He's wanted to do martial arts for a long time, so I was very excited when I saw this class being offered.

The other things Ezra said he wanted to learn this fall are: archery, blacksmithing, and art.

I can't find him an art class so far, so I think we'll do that at home. And I also can't find a kids' archery class, but I am trying to figure something out. And there is at least a one-day blacksmithing workshop we've found that he can take with one of his parents.

As parents we have also decided to take the opportunity to look at Ezra's "first grade year" as a chance for us to gain some of the skills we are bitter that we never learned, ourselves! So, for this year we are going to work on a variety of skills as a family. Included among them, for the record:

-woodworking projects
-sewing lessons
-"handy" projects, such as fixing the screen Ottar just wrecked
-beekeeping workshop (I've always wanted to do this!)
-hunting skills (my husband is going to work on this with a friend)
-gardening
-patio construction
-knitting
-woodcarving

Well, that's it for now! I just wanted to write some stuff down before I forgot. Once again, too bad I don't have a digital camera right now, to spruce up this barren post.

Counting Votes

photo by Leo Kim

Everyone say "aye" if you think it would be a good idea if I actually had a digital camera, so I don't have to cut and paste pics of my kids off other people's Facebook albums.

So Help Me God

I will get *this* house organized. This is our fifth move since Ezra was born and I am ***done*** living a life of organizational misery. Especially since there is another move on the horizon . . . probably within a year or two.

Luckily, during my ill-fated attempt to actually be able to browse at the local library (only 3 blocks away, I think! If I actually go directly there instead of biking a mile out of the way looking for it.) I happened upon the above video in the kids' section, when I wasn't even looking for it! Divine intervention, for sure. Especially evident because I was unable to even attempt the 2nd floor adult section due to Ottar's need to run willy-nilly through the library, carrying one of those cool metal stools.

Anyway, I already almost cried several times during the video, and I'm only a little more than half done. This woman, Julie Morgenstern, is like an angel from heaven sent to save me from myself.

Of course I will keep this blog (and my other blog, Organizing Is Easy, I hope) updated on my amazing progress.

Also, I think that watching this video is a MUST for all homeschooling families. Really. Unless you are one of those people who has it all together, like Mariah.

Break Time

I'm sure at least one person out there is going NUTS wondering, "Why aren't there more posts on Unschooling is Dreamy lately?"

The reason is, we are trying to move.

We finally settled on a house last night, exactly 8 days before we are scheduled to leave Minnesota for Wisconsin. Now we just have to find a moving truck!

Here is a picture to tide everyone over while we are going through this upheaval.

Oh, whoops. It posted at the top. Oh well. It's a picture from our month-long camping trip last summer.

Bye!

An Awesome Video - Art or Physics or Chemistry?

This video is amazing. Only about a half an hour. You can get it from First Run Films. It's actually an art film, but the entire film is watching physics/chemistry as an installation. Here is a more clear definition of it from Wikipedia:

The Way Things Go (German: Der Lauf der Dinge) is a 1987 art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects, resembling a Rube Goldberg machine.

The machine is in a warehouse, about 100 feet long, and incorporates materials such as tires, trash bags, ladders, soap, oil drums, and gasoline. Fire and pyrotechnics are used as chemical triggers. The film is nearly 29 minutes, 45 seconds long, but some of that is waiting for something to burn, or slowly slide down a ramp.

The film evolved out of work the artists did on their earlier photography series, "Quiet afternoon," (German: Stiller Nachmittag) of 1984-1985. As the delicately unstable assemblages they constructed for the photos were apt to almost immediately collapse, they decided that they wanted to make use of this energy.^[1] The film may also have been inspired by the video work of fellow Swiss artist, Roman Signer. The artists undoubtably saw his video work which was exhibited at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1981.^[2] Signer's videos often document objects performing simple actions that are the result of physical phenomena.

And here's a little video "teaser".

Anyway, this video is great entertainment for adults. However, it is rated G, and so I let my kids watch it. My 2-yo especially loves it - they get to watch one video every Wednesday and he always begs for it to be The Way Things Go.

Of course, it just so happens to be educational - but it's accidental, so it brings up questions about what the materials are, etc. without answering them (thank God). But it is quite an inspiration, IMO. Makes me want to go build my own weird obstacle-course/installation-type thing.

Unschooling-Friendly Zines

While supplies last, click on the image of Misfit Zine at the top of the blog to order your very own copy of my unschooler-friendly zine!

This zine has received rave reviews, but unfortunately, I have limited quantities left because I have decided to take my cartooning and writing to a new website I'm building, instead!

If you go to my etsy shop and see that my zines are gone, feel free to let me know and I can sell you some directly over email.

Enjoy!

Oh, and P.S. let me know if you know of any other unschoolers who do blogs, please.