Other typical unschooling days
We all had breakfast and I went to load the dishwasher. While doing so I got dizzy and ended up falling down.
Well here it is later in the afternoon. Come to find out I just have a double ear infection. This leads to a discussion about the body and how an ear infection would cause one to be off balance and about moms need to take it easy and mainly sit down a while.
Courtney (8) prints out some worksheets Alyssa (4) wants to do and then starts playing world of warcraft. This somehow leads to the discussion of catholicism and exorcism.
Dad comes in and Courtney starts talking to him about wind tunnels and airplanes and sky diving which leads to revisiting a discussion about lift which leads to plans to find information about the possibility of her and dad going sky diving.
Dad is now playing WoW and cash cab is on. One of the questions on cash cab leads to Courtney asking whats the Pythagorean theorem? Which leads to an explanation and how it could be useful to dad while he is learning programing and making games and how if might be useful to her if she starts doing more graphic art on the computer.
Courtney and dad start discussing their characters on the computer and Courtney mentions how she had been building up her char's cooking skills. This leads to Alyssa wanting in on the computer action so she gets on my laptop and starts doing this coloring thing where she gets to mix primary colors to make new colors then paint with them. This leads Courtney to ask Alyssa what color icing she wants on her birthday cake. Pink of course!
Dad wants to order subs for dinner but the kids don't want subs or pizza. Courtney says mom and dad get subs and she'll cook dinner for her, sister and brother. Courtney comes to tell me that even if she uses soymilk the mac and cheese will still have regular milk in it. Alyssa gets out of the tub and we talk about how she can choose to eat it but her eczema may get worse again. She chooses to have baby carrot sticks with her hot dogs.
We all eat and I brush Alyssa's teeth and get her settled into bed and she lies in bed with a few toys watching cartoons. Then my son, Nate, falls asleep on the futon in the living room. I go to talk with dad a bit and Courtney goes in the living room and watches tv a while and plays diner dash on the computer.
I come out in the living room with Courtney and she is watching this scientific-type cooking show. They make fudge and talk about different types of thermometers and find crystals under a microscope and talk about what is happening to different molecules as they are being heated up.
This leads to Courtney mentioning that she is going to look at some stuff under her microscope tomorrow. Then I remember an e-mail I read a bit earlier and mentioned the Dr. Seuss cookbook to her. This leads to a discussion about budgeting and finances and the necessity of waiting a few weeks to buy it. Which leads to how we can see if the library has it and check it out before we decide to buy it or not.
Alyssa wants me to come sleep with her so I tell Courtney goodnight. I fell asleep sometime soon after, not sure when Courtney went to bed.
I won't tell the girls they can't go/go back to school if they choose to do so but I hope they don't. It's doubtful many of the concepts introduced (that's not the best word but I can't think of a better one right now) today would be touched on all year at school and even if they were there is no possible way it would be at the right time for all—maybe not even one—of the kids.
Nicole
February 2008