Scooby Doo & Legos

I've said this in a previous post, but my kids LOVE Scooby Doo and the gang, especially Jared. He will spend hours with his Scooby Doo figures, tying them up, hanging them from his pirate ships, and shooting them down with his nerf gun.

We found the five pack figure set for only $10 at Toys R Us. They are his co-ultimate toy. The other has to be Legos. Jared is such a right-brained person. He is so creative, a deep thinker and has a built in sense of order and sequence. He loves to be read to, but I think he will not be ready to read for quite a few years. I thought things would be strange since Alexa started reading words at 2 and now reads longer children's books like Stuart Little on her own, but she reads books to him on the couch and he doesn't seem to think it's strange that he's not reading them on his own yet she can. I'm so, so, so thankful for this. They both would be so out of place in a school classroom. I guess it might party be the way they've been given a lot of freedom growing up, but it might also be their in-born personalities, too.

How great is it that they get to grow up knowing that playing Scooby Doo and Legos is just as valuable as reading a book or watching an American Frontiers DVD (which they just did this morning!)

Play Photos

Random Fall Fun

While the above photo isn't quite the picture of jumping up and down fun, I just had to include it here in my blog because I love seeing my two boys cuddled up together. As much as a pain it can be at night sometimes for us to have the kids crawl into bed with us and get kicked and elbowed in the stomach in the middle of the night, I know I will deeply miss smelling the tops of their little heads before drifting off to sleep and watching their chests slowly move up and down.

While digging through their Halloween candy, the kids found this mini War card game. I had never played the game before, so it was a fun new experience for us all. Many times people who are deeply entrenched in school mentality cannot fathom how anything math related can spontaneously occur- they think everything must be pre-planned and thought out. Not that researching cool number and pattern games is bad, in fact I find it a lot of fun browsing through catalogs like Mindware, but even without any extra thought things like this random finding of a card game and exploring how numbers can be more or less than each other happen all the time.

I don't know if you have anything like this at your library, but  our neighboring town's library had these awesome cloth activity bags. The kits usually include a book, a laminated card showing you how to "teach" the material, and some cool toys. How's this for serendipity? It was a week before Halloween and we had been reading online about different Halloween traditions and also how other countries have similar traditions. Around this time the kids had also watched Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico, which plot takes place during the Day of the Dad festivities in Mexico.

Then Alexa picks this bag out at the library without even looking inside it, and when we get home we realize that it's all about the Day of the Dead. We read the book and played with the toys. The family in the book talked about making Pan de Muertes. I asked the kids if they wanted to make the bread with me, and they did. It was the first time I had made bread before by scratch, and to my surprise it turned out great! It was like this perfectly planned out unit study, but of course much better because I couldn't have planned it out so perfectly.

I've mentioned before how Jared is our late-night boy, sometimes not falling asleep until 11:00, yet still up by 7:00 the next day. He gets into the most wonderfully creative moods late at night. Here's one of his late night Lego creations.

Jared's the type of kid who wants everything. Right now one of his favorite activities it to take all the ads out of the Sunday paper and point out the hundreds of things he wants for Christmas. Alexa, on the other hand, is much different. We gave her $20 this vacation to buy whatever she wanted, and she would always leave stores, aquariums and other attractions empty-handed because she didn't find anything worth spending her money on. So, when she saw a commercial for the Glo-Doodle and was jumping up and down saying she wanted one, we took her right out the next day to get one. (She had so much allowance built up by then it was crazy).

Random August Fun

So as much as I had wanted to keep this blog current with what's been going on with us, it's almost the end of September now, and I'm just starting to write about our August highlights. It's not been a great month for me health-wise. I've had another sinus infection, had a severe TMG episode and have felt incredibly tired most days. I've felt like we haven't gone out and done as much as we usually do, even just doing different things around the house. But then, when I get really down on myself for not being as there for the kids as I want to, the kids do and say the most amazing things and I realize they are getting so much more out of our lives than I realize, even if it means just hanging out more or staying close to home.

We have enjoyed playing Mouse Trap many times the past two months. Jared's usually the one asking to play. He loves the construction aspect of the game.

Of course the pretend play has continued to be strong. They love, love, love to dress up. I love to just watch them and listen to how they use their play to make sense of new things they've learned.

I never thought with twins that I'd have one reading to the other, but since Alexa started reading at two, and then reading really well at three, the kids spend many hours together on the couch with Alexa reading to Jared. I have a funny feeling that she'll play a big part in how he'll learn to read one day.

We had been reading a book about mummies, so Jared asked me to wrap him up as one.

We've had quite a few beach ball games after baths...

..and the kids have actually asked to mop and vacuum! Who know how long that will last?

Smoky Mountain Vacation

It's been almost a month since I've last written a post, and I almost felt like giving up on this blog. It really is very important to me to record what we do, how we're living and learning, and how my kids have grown, changed, and continue to change.

It can be difficult to keep up with the writing when your  life is so very busy, but I've decided it would hurt more now to drop the project than the frustration it feel now to get caught up. I really want a detailed record of our lives starting from when the kids were two until they turn twenty-one.

So, here goes.

We had a wonderful traveling adventure to the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We left on Saturday, July 17th and came home on July 25th. It was a long car ride, about twelve hours, but I was really proud of the kids. There were a couple of short squabbles in the backseat, but for a huge majority of the time, the kids played well together. I brought several books on tape, and we read many books together. They drew, sang, looked out the window, and took a 45 minute nap. I brought a bag with a few toys, and I'm so glad I did because it kept them happy for a long time.

We stopped for lunch at a fast food place in Pigeon Forge. The map said ten more miles to our house, but the traffic was outrageous, and it took us an hour and a half to get there. I suppose the fact that we were a little lost didn't help, either.

The house we rented was absolutely perfect. It was in the mountains, and fairly secluded on one side. The neighbors on one side, a little further up the mountain, decided to have a party the night we arrived, so it sounded like a concert was going on, but besides that night it was very peaceful. There was one huge master bedroom where we all slept, with an en-suite bathroom. Outside the bedroom was a huge Jacuzzi tub. Downstairs we had a living room, kitchen, pool table room (which the kids LOVED playing on), another bathroom and laundry room. Each level also had a porch, and on the lower porch there was a hot tub, which the kids adored.

I'm going to post about seven more entries about all the fun with had with hiking, wading, swimming, sliding, skating, and other great things, but for now I have to say, one of the greatest things about this trip was just the simple things we did together at the house.

I'm a huge believer in renting homes when traveling instead of staying in hotels, if you will be gone for a week or more. This place was only $725 for the week, and it was much, much more room than staying at a hotel, quieter and more private, and an awesome way to build very special memories.

Just things like cooking breakfast for yourself (I should say Steve cooking the breakfast!), ordering food back to eat at night while watching a movie together, playing games and even just curling up together on the couch to read, seems more special in different surroundings. (I suppose for me part of the special feeling was not worrying about picking up any clutter or cleaning!)

I highly, highly, recommend renting a home the next time you travel. I have used Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) several times now, and we will be using them again as I plan for our travels to Greece next year.

It was so peaceful to sit on the porch, high above the ground, on the side of the mountains. The picture at the beginning of the post was taken from the back porch. One evening we watched a flock of wild turkeys run through the trees.

Yes, it does take a little time to go grocery shopping. And it does take some time to cook. But we had a gas grill on the porch, and we did bring back food from an Italian restaurant one evening, and we had a dishwasher (something we don't have at home), so it wasn't bad at all.

The kids still talk about wanting to go back to their "Smoky Mountain home." It really feels, just like it did in the Cayman Islands, that the place has become a part of us now.

June 24th -29th

     Since cleaning up our flooded basement on Thursday after we came back from our mini vacation in Minnesota, I've not been feeling very good. I had sinus surgery about a year and a half ago, and yet I still get sinus infections and blockage. So, I haven't had my camera out that much or been very interested in writing. Still I wanted to capture some memories from this week, so here goes...

~ making fudge with Steve and Jared late one night after Alexa had gone to sleep. We used the quickie recipe off the back of a Marshmallow Fluff container. Yum!

~ going to see Shrek Forever with Steve and the kids at the cheapie show

~ going on a Home Depot run after the movie to pick up custom made storm windows for the upstairs rooms. They were already two weeks late, we had ordered them over a month ago, and found out that they had reversed the dimensions on the windows so we still had nothing to take home. Needless to say, we cancelled the order, got our money back and will be going elsewhere.

~ having Jared call me out to look at his sidewalk drawings. He made one of me, Steve, Shrek, and Rumpelstiltskin. He has really taken off with his drawings, usually wanting to draw every day, whereas before it had been months since he'd picked up a pen or crayon. He now includes lots of details in his drawing like eyebrows, bottons on clothes, and eyeballs inside of eye sockets.

~ lots of reading

~ going to church. Afterwards, I took the kids to a local indoor fruit market while Steve stayed to play electric guitar for second service. It was one of the worst times with the kids. Even though I hate to put the kids in the cart (they are four, for goodness sake!), it does help to keep Jared from dashing away from me. Jared did everything from fling fruit on the floor, knock over pails of juice, to run all around the store with me chasing him before I finally gave up. Then when I finally was able to scoop him up when he ran close to me, he yelled, kicked and screamed for awhile. UUUUUUGGGGHHHH. I love him so much, but he is a very intense, little boy, from having huge temper tantrums, to sitting up in bed at 9:30 and talking your ear off for an hour.

~ catching fireflies and swinging in the dark

~ watching Bedtime Stories together on movie night.

~ having Grandma watch the kids for three hours while I saw the sinus doctor and had another CAT scan done. Turns out the two upper sinuses have severe blockage and the lining has thickened. Now I'm on a steroid treatment and taking antibiotics. Monday evening I crashed at 7:00 and didn't wake until 8:00 the next day.

Yesterday, I still felt horrible, so I lazed around the couch most of the morning. Still, as I look back over the day, I'm amazed at what we still accomplished.

~ had a Joker's Birthday Party. Jared made up this game a few weeks ago. We sit around in a circle and have a birthday party for the Joker (who is really a pirate figure). Everyone brings him gifts to open up, ranging from diamonds, to poison, to knockout gas. Then sometimes we dance and then sing Happy Birthday. Then the Joker blows out his birthday candles.

~ did many mazes with the kids from a Maze book, and Alexa practiced writing her letters in a Big Kindergarten workbook I bought her a few weeks ago.

~ lots of jumping on the bed

~ watched several episodes from both Liberty's Kids series and the original Inspector Gadget series.

~ I squeezed in a shower

~ during lunch I read to the kids several Step into Reading Spiderman books, and a Graphic picture book about Patrick Henry.

~ my mom came over for a few hours to watch the kids so I could get some rest. But right before she came over, I found the kids in my room naked, rubbing my Vaseline all over themselves and the wall. They had been quiet for a few minutes, but it was so nice to eat my pizza lunch in peace, that I didn't go in there right away. That cost me twenty minutes of my resting time. What time I did have to rest after getting a bill ready to mail, washing the dishes and cancelling an appointment, my mom took the kids for a little walk, they washed the car with the hose, and read together.

~ In the afternoon, we did a project out of Mary Ann Khol's awesome book ScienceArts called Wet Paint Design. The kids dipped construction paper in water, then dropped diluted paint from a medicine dropper onto the construction paper to make designs.

Jared called his picture Volcano and Alexa labeled hers Ogre. We talked a little about the process of diffusion, too.

It still amazes me how even with such little planning on my part, and even when I feel bad, if we discuss the things going on in our lives and take advantage of everyday opportunities, the kids learn and pick up so much. Just in this week were were able to discuss everything from the American Revolution, sinuses, getting a refund, why it's not safe to run off in a store, how to make fudge, and diffusion.

June 10-13 Part 1

Even though I've kept up my goal with being fairly consistent with this blog (making at least a few entries every week), I still miss recording so much of what my kids learn every day. I suppose a person could never list everything they've learned in a day no matter how hard they tried.

Still, I love to have a record of all the amazing ways the kids learn and have fun to look back at over the years. That said, for some reason, I've captured quite a bit more about our lives in the past few days than I usually do.

The kids received so many things for their birthday at the end of April that I took a few little things and put them on the side for later. This past week I pulled out the box I'd set aside. The kids discovered the little kites and had fun trying to get them to fly.

Making large bubbles continues to be a huge hit around here. Alexa found making bubble hand prints just as fun.

I started a new thing I'm tentatively calling Activity Box time. As unschoolers, we won't have a set curriculum, but I believe very strongly in constantly introducing new things to the kids. I keep a box in our room, and I look for things they might like and new things they haven't been introduced to yet, and add to it whenever I can. Then on Monday morning or afternoon, I bring out the box and invite the kids to pick something in it to do with me. I've filled it so far with books on craft projects, games, books, and DVD's. I'm so excited about garage sale season so I can stock up on tons of fun stuff for the next year. I've also ordered the books Science Arts and Math Arts by Mary Ann Kohl and Knights and Damsels (since they love knights and castles so much). I'll make sure we have most of the supplies on hand, and then I'll place the book in the box for the kids to choose projects and activities that interest them. Of course, they don't have to do anything in the box, but they haven't yet found nothing they'd like to do.

Jared's favorite choice this week was a Scooby-Doo game that I actually received for free at a thrift store. It's really just a memory game. He's never wanted to play memory games when Alexa and I have played them in the past, but because it was Scooby, he was really excited. He was so good at it! He blew me and Alexa away in points.

Alexa chose an art project (she usually does). You were to draw a picture with pencil, paint with water inside the drawing, and then dip your brush in watercolor and dab it into the water.

There was quite a bit of lounging on the couch reading. Alexa is reading a book about mummies in the picture above. We've been into learning about Egypt lately. They watched an episode about Egypt from the Families of the World DVD series, and we just finished up reading Mummies in the Morning, the third book in the Magic Treehouse series.

DK puts out a great CD-ROM called My First Amazing History Explorer. I checked it out from the library, and Alexa loves it. She loves all things computer related, and if I'd allow it, she'd literally play for four to five hours straight. Some of the material is a bit above her head, but she really loved exploring the program.

My friend came over with her son and two month old baby girl on the 10th of June for a little playdate. The kids played in the sand, and I attempted to get the little pool blown up, but things didn't work out quite as I'd have liked. They usually like to have the slide go into the pool, but I couldn't get it to work. Still, Jared and J played for a bit in the water, and Jared wowed us with his flying leaps from the edge of the pool. Alexa's been a bit funny about water lately, so she didn't really go in that much.