Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Mozart Experience

These next few posts won't have any pictures since I forgot to bring my camera, something very unlike me. I've been so concerned with just getting us out the door and somewhat on time.

A few weeks ago, we met up with a homeschool group (about 40 of us) at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for The Mozart Experience. Steve was able to go with us (thank God!) which allied my fears of crossing Michigan Ave by myself with the kids. We had checked out the parking garage situation the week before when we'd been to the Art Institute because I didn't want to be driving around the day of the symphony wondering where we were going to park. I'd chosen a garage around the corner, but, not thinking, it turned out to be $30 for the 2 hours we'd be there. $30! It was a hotel garage, but still. Thank God the Millennium lot was just $14 since the Auto Show was still going on.

We had seats in the upper balcony. It really was the perfect venue for the kids. The auditorium was gorgeous, with chandeliers and an ornate ceiling. I wished I had smuggled a drink in because they both started to complain of thirst just ten minutes into the program. Thankfully I had grapes in my purse which did the trick.

The Mozart Experience is a Kraft Foods Family Matinee performance (although this particular date and time was reserved for school groups). It's the story of a street musician (portrayed by an actor from the Magic Circle Mime Company) who finds herself thrust into the role of Mozart. The exciting part of the hour for my kids was when an actor came out dressed as Papageno from Mozart's Magic Flute Opera. We had just listened to the Classical Kids audio version of the story - something the kids LOVED and wanted played over and over again.

Tickets were only $8.50. A great price for the kid's first symphony experience.

Carnival of Unschooling - March Edition 2010

I was very honored to have this post chosen for the March edition of the Carnival of Unschooled Life. There are some great unschooling bloggers there, so please check out the carnival.

Books Read, CD's listened to, and DVDs Watched in February 2010

                                                                              Books Read

Smokey
Can Elephants Drink Through Their Noses?
Batman: The Story of Batman
Dinosaur Hunters
Pirates Past Noon (Magic Treehouse Book)
Pirate Mom
Mozart's Wig
The Best Nest
Play, Mozart, Play!
The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock
Batman: Time Thaw
Why why did Pirates Bury Their Treasure?
Zero is the Leaves on the Tree
A Band of Dirty Pirates
Batman: Double Trouble
Young Cam Jansen and the Double Beach Mystery
The Wump World
Prehistoric Pinkerton
The Berenstain Bear's Science Fair
The Dragon's Scales: A Math Reader
Zella, Zach, and Zodiac
Can You Catch a Falling Star?
The BFG
Batman: Green Gotham

CD's Listened To

Eevil Weevil (book)

Meteor! (book)

Mozart's Magic Fantasy: a journey through the "Magic Flute"

Songs for Little Boys

Animal Tales - Jim Weiss storyteller

No Dogs Allowed! (book)

The Evergreens: Gentle Tales of Nature

DVD's Watched

Magic School Bus: Ready, Set, Dough!

James and the Giant Peach

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

Between the Lions: Season 2

Mozart's Magic Flute Story

Liberty's Kids

Ocean

Dinosaur George's Guide to Prehistoric Life

The Magic School Bus Gets Planted

The Reluctant Dragon

A Few of the First Batman Movies

Wonder Works Children's Museum

It had been a while since we had visited Wonder Works in Oak Park, so last week we headed there for a day of fun. It turned out to be almost literally a whole day, even though I had thought we'd only be there a few hours. I brought our lunch to eat, and even after lunch they wanted to go and go. We stayed there for five hours and even then it was more gentle nudges from me to go that we left than because they wanted to go on their own.

I hope you have fun through these pictures glimpsing a little of the fun we had there that day.

Alexa LOVED this little gas station. She'd ride the car around the museum, stop to fill up the tank, and then take off to do it all over again.

We'd never played puppets before on a puppet stage, so it was so much fun to watch the kids really get into that type of play.

We must have spent at least 45 just in the dress-up area. It really is the first thing they like to do during the day, especially for Jared.

They enjoyed putting on little concerts and dance performances in between costumes.

They met another little boy, who was probably near six, and had such a great time running up and down this tree house. They had one of those cloth tunnel things and would put it on the top of the stairs and slide down. They were so loud with laughing and giggling, almost to the point of screaming. I thought it was great, but I kept getting stares from other parents (well, mostly nannies) and people who worked there. It's just a shame that even in a place designed for play, people still think if children are making too much noise there must be something wrong.

Besides Alexa getting pinched pretty hard from a boy (who had just finished having a screaming match with whoever was with him), the kids had such fun playing a variety of other things before listening to Mozart's Magic Flute Story for children on the way home.

Fun Activities Around the House in February Part 2

We haven't played with our Child-Sized Masterpiece art cards in a while, so I brought them out. I find when I put things away that have been left untouched for awhile, when I take them out again, it's like they are new.

Jared's been liking to put his animal and other figures in Play-Dough and calling it his jungle.

Of course we've had more baking.

Alexa will sit for an hour with the video camera, just scrolling through and looking a various clips. I've shown her so many things on the video camera and computer simply because I was tired of her whining and crying while I was making dinner or cooking and couldn't help her at the moment. She's also figured out quite a bit on her own, too.

Unschooling Writing and Spelling

Alexa has a new obsession: spelling. She asks us to write down words, and then she'll type them on the computer. She loves the computer and is pretty proficient on it for 3 1/2. She can go in the Favorites tab,  find her favorite sites (Starfall.com, Storyline Online, and PBSkids.org) and navigate the sites without my help. Jared isn't interested in doing this for himself right now and is content to sit next to Alexa while she reads and plays games.

She is really great at electronic things. Since turning three, she can put in her favorite DVD's, search for favorite scenes and press play. She also loves spending hours putting in different CD's, skipping to different songs, and singing along.

When they were a little under the age of 2, I started writing words on the sidewalk with chalk. They liked this and would request words for me to write. Then it changed to writing words on paper. Now Alexa wants us to write down entire sentences.

What's amazing to me is how organic this process has been. She's just naturally learned that words that begin a sentence start with a capital letter, without me ever telling her. When she asked what the dot was at the end of the sentence, I told her it was a period. She is beginning to grasp what a sentence is without me ever defining it for her.

Typing on the computer is a great way for kids who are still not developmentally ready to write on their own. Although both Jared and Alexa will write, unprompted, individual letters while drawing, they have shown no interest in writing full words, yet. But Alexa has typed many, many sentences on the computer. Plus, she is getting valuable experience with a keyboard.

The things my kids do daily amaze me. I'm so looking forward to see where this journey will take us.

Grammy and Papa's New Home

After living in their current home for almost 25 years, my parents are moving. I feel......a little sad, but mostly relieved. Their neighborhood has changed for the worst over the past few years; they've even had a bullet whizz through their bedroom window.

While I feel so much better about their safety, it still feels strange that I won't be able to visit the home I first moved into at age 10. In fact, I've only lived within a three mile radius of the apartment where I first was born. I think my husband has a hard time understanding this. He moved around a lot growing up and even lived for 15 months in Papua New Guinea.

My parents are actually paying rent on their old home for two weeks while they wait to close on the new house. My 92 year old grandmother will be living with them, along with my brother for a little while. A few weekends ago, Steve suggested checking out at least the outside of the new house, so we met my parents and took the drive together.

Even though it was a chilly, slushy day, the kids had fun slushy around the back yard in their boots, and running down the small hill in the backyard. They even found a small opening under the pine tree, their "tunnel," to crawl through. Jared climbed up the tree, with some help from Steve. I don't think he'll need  much help for long.

Afterwards, we took a drive around the neighborhood, swung by the college where my mom works, and saw some horses at a stable around the corner.

While I'm going to miss going back to the old home and remembering all the fun times growing up, it makes me smile to think of all the memories we'll make in this new home.