Dana & Michelle Harper

Hi All!  I was just enjoying my time alone..reading all your posts..and thinking how nice it is to hear everyone's take on all these great topics.  I often find myself going through these posts with great enthusiasm...so I guess I just wanted to send a big Thanks to all of you.  Zain's(4 1/2 yr old )  new enthusuasm is Alien's, and pretending is a big part of our schooling here..he decided we were taking off in this spaceship to the moon..where I lived and was the Alien...so we buckled up, sat back , and shook the bed for our take off and landing..then we proceded to step out of our spaceship, and explore the moon, and the moon home of an alien,me.  Well this was quite an adventure...he learned all about the weird language that this alien has such as bveepmekhjdifhiseuyf.....it was wonderful to see how helpful my son was...explaining to me the names of various household items, and how they are used.  He was an excellent teacher, actually, and described things very well.  I was happy to see how polite he was when visiting the moon, and how kind he was to the alien...he was very respectful of my(the alien's) names for things, agknowledging , and repeating back in my own weird alien language.  He asked questions, and we shared moon/earth experiences....It was alot of fun!  I was thinking it would be fun to help him build a little spaceship out back to extend this creative strand......and we just Must create some sort of Moon goo..any suggestions?......Someone mentioned..being asked to homeschool someone else's kids..well there was alisting in the paper requesting trade for kidsitting...I responded to the add..hoping to  extend our interaction horizons..it turns out this Mother has a 2 year old daughter, and a 4 year old son....her husband has been watching them, and wants to go back to work...she works during the days, and can't afford the high prices of care..I mentioned to her that I homeschooled , and she was very enthusiastic about that....I will be meeting with her next tuesday evening..to just aquaint ourselves with each other, and let the kids play...that would mean that I would be including her children  from 8am-5pm  T,W,Th...in our homeschooling activities..so in a sense i would be homeschooling someone else's kids...I am casual about our schooling, and not too pressed or anxious so I don't see any problem in this...if anything more children often means more ideas to keep them occupied flowing, so I see this as an advantage.  This would probably not be long term..but I'm interestred in the idea..so if anyone has any suggestions or comments..I welcome them....It seems in the past when I have cared for other people's kids , things seem to run a little smoother, as I am able to focus myself with just the kids , and activities for them,...this may even be helpful in our own home/unschooling..for my son. who can share the activities with someone else.   We will see how it goes. 
  And someone did ask about the ideas I had planned for our learning environment, as we had picked up a few helpful ideas from visiting another homeschooling home.  One thing I noticed was the maps on the walls..so we have taken our Big Map book and proppped it up on his easle so he can see it during the day..and he has initiated more geographical questions since...my house isn't quite as big as hers..but I noticed a big table in the middle of their learning area....so I am setting the table back up in the dining room to accomodate more learning space(we have a very small dining room,and eat in the living room usually)  I would like to get some more book shelves, and on the way to her house for the first time I saw a teaching supply store(I have been that way many times and never saw it before)  I am going to go IN next week and see what they have...We are going to keep it simple....a bucket of beans for counting....the drum off the wall, and accessible...stuff like that.  If you have any suggestions of cost effective if not free resources of fun filled learning tools..share them...we do enjoy our kitchen activities...Zain tends to be science oriented.This post is getting way too long. Michelle (Alien Mom)