Yesterday my daughter (8) made a vest for her doll (sewing), did tricks on her bouncy tree branch, read comics in the tree, I read to her in our sunny field, we checked on the ant hill (we have been feeding an ant hill way across the field to see how long it take them to eat things. We gave "it" a dead vole we found and it was completely gone in 2 days). We went to town and she spent money. She made salad.

One of her responsibilities (as long as she has interest) is being the family salad maker. She has the bottom drawer of the fridge for salad ingredients, makes sure nothing is composting, makes a list of what we have, makes her "wish list" of what she wants. We typed a list of veggies and fruit on the computer, colour coded so it is easy for her to find things on the list. We go to the store and she is the shopper,, I am her helper if she needs me, she look at prices, weight things, she has a budget so makes choices based on how much money she has to spend....

She made salad last night, some times she does it completely on her own and sometimes asks for help.

We watched Fantasia 2000 while we ate.

Then we had "girls night" My DH goes out on Sat. and she and I stay up late and play on the computer, play games, read and last night we also worked on an animal project. (we learned about an animal called the tarsier from the TV show called Wild Things.

This morning so far she took out a whole stack of chapter books and read several chapters from several different books (never done that before, usually just picture books she reads to herself) and is now sewing a hat for her doll. Actually she is now finished the hat and has moved on to a dress.

Wow, I am loving this.....
Reading here helps me *know* this is the best and most loving way and that I am not the only one with these beliefs. It's a little bit more than a day but this is how it is working for us. And I probably didn't add everything she did, infact I may not know all she got out of her day but I trust she is living a happy life and learning just happens if we step out of the way.

Thanks for everyone who shares here.