Living in this mess we call our life

Isn't it amazing how so much time can be spent cleaning just to have it destroyed again in five minutes by your children? I am trying so hard to change my way of thinking. I don't want my kids to grow up and think the only thing I did for them was clean the house. I just hope one of these days one of them will wake up and decide to help out without me having to coax it out of them.

The aftermath of a compulsive reader

I download free books for my kids and myself from Amazon every day. Lately, there have been quite a few vampire books and I know my daughter loves that genre, so I always get them. Yesterday, while going to the car, my daughter(17 yrs old) informs me it's good that it isn't dark yet because she wouldn't be going to the store with me if it was. All the vampire stories have left her a little afraid of the dark. I think maybe she should lay off for a few days.

Self motivation

So far this month, my son has learned about ratios, fractions, myths from all over the world, and dinosaurs. We installed an astronomy program because that is his passion right now. It's called Stellarium and is an awesome program that you can set it to a different time in the past or future and put in where you live so it is the night sky above you. He's already been on the hunt for a telescope for his birthday.

Christmas

My 2 year old has an obsession with everything Christmas. Still. She sings "Jingle Bells" everyday and loves to watch "Elf" over and over. She has this little dress that is red with white fluff on it. It's her Santa dress and she loves to wear it a few days a week. I think it would be more if I didn't hide  it. Maybe by Easter, it will die down.

Moving

We are moving back to SC in about two weeks. It has been pretty stressful for the last month! My son keeps unpacking his things every time we get a box packed. Two year old daughter is enjoying that we already got rid of some furniture and she has room to move. Today, my daughter and I worked on cleaning makeup and nail polish out of the carpet in the bedroom of my teenage girls. Gotta love 'em.

goodwill

I was so excited to find out today that there is a new Goodwill near where I live! Of course I had to go as soon as I heard so I could check it out. I ended up getting 7 educational books ranging from elementary to high school level today. I also got 4 games for us to play. I saw so many more books I am going to go back to get soon to add to our unschooling library!

Art project

In our house, there is always someone doing an art project of some sort. Lately, the craze has been origami, watercolor, and acrylics. Here's a watercolor I did in about three hours. It's not great, but a big improvement on my water color abilities. The color isn't great on here because I took the picture with my cell. The other is of a garden rock my teenager did on another project. It's a shark. Very creative.

living natural

I would have to say I have no friends that lead a "natural" lifestyle the way I do. I get called a tree hugger because we recycle, cloth diaper,buy natural, homeschool, nurse(child led weaning, of course), bed share, having a large family...the list goes on. I am so thankful for the endless resources on the internet. Groups on facebook and cafemom having been the saving grace for my sanity. Especially when family and friends have so many negative things to say about our lifestyle.

games, games

Lately, we have been playing games on fun brain a lot. I don't think Noodle even realizes he's learning from these games. A few days ago we played Yahtzee. The kids caught on quick and loved playing. I made them count their own scores up, of course.

homeschooling/unschooling...trying to find our way

So I have been reading everything I can get my hands on lately about unschooling. I have completely decided it is definitely for us. Noodle has had so much trouble trying to sit still with a structured, expensive curriculum. He has Tourette Syndrome and melts down under pressure. I love the idea of being able to let the child learn what they are interested in. My teenager loves the idea, too. She reads constantly, day and night. Every weekly trip to the library brings at least 20 new books into her life. The book "The Unschooling Handbook" is the best book I've found for information and resources for unschooling your child.