The Expanding Life - Unschooling Blog Carnival

Just a quick note to check out the December edition of The Expanding Life - an wonderful unschooling blog carnival. One of my blog posts has been featured this month! Check out the wonderful posts.

First Snowfall

The first day of December also brought our first snowfall of the season. It's always a bit of a shock to me to come shuffling out of my bedroom in the morning to see the yard, trees, and everything in sight covered with snow. It always seems too early.

But, as you can see from the kids' faces, they weren't shocked at all. They were all too excited to get decked out in snow gear, ready mostly, to eat as much snow as they could.

I was surprised how long they stayed out in the snow. It was at least an hour. I braved the cold in my bathrobe to snap a few shots of them from off the deck.

We hadn't brought in the old sandbox or water table, so Jared had loads of  fun hacking away at the ice with a golf club. Unfortunately, the snow melted quickly, so they kids were disappointed they couldn't make a snowman yet; that didn't try to stop them from shovelling or even raking the snow.

How much do your kids love the snow?

Jared's Costumes

Jared's always loved, loved, loved dressing up in costumes. Usually they are not pre-made costumes or costumes you'd recognize as "being" a specific something. No, he definitely moves to his own rhythm.

I had thought that my daughter would have been the one with the creative flair of dressing in the unusual, but nope, it's my son. I love that out of the blue, he'll just show up in the kitchen while I'm making dinner his own creative getup; lately the costumes seem to revolve around white tights.

Do any of you have rather eccentric, imaginative kids?

Christmas Season is Here!

It was a cold, cold, day the day after Thanksgiving when we bundled up to pick out our Christmas tree. I'm still not prepared for the 20 degree weather we've had this past week. BURRRR!!!

This year, we went to Menards, which we did last year, too, but I think the cold made us choose our tree a little bit faster. Even though we choose the second tree we saw, I still think it was one of our most beautiful ones yet.

The kids were so, so, so excited this year about decorating the tree. They helped last year a little bit, but this year they stuck it out until the end. In fact, before we even brought the tree home they had all the ornaments and decorations scatted all over the living room.

Jared liked hanging up the ornaments the most. I knew because of what a detailed, precise boy he is that he would. Both kids were also excited about the electric train we have running around the base of the tree.

I felt so sorry for Steve, though, because he bought several new strands of lights for the tree and, in less than an hour, one of the strands went out. He later discovered we needed to get stronger extension cords and spread out the cords and plugs, but he still had to make an extra trip to the store.

We listened to our favorite Christmas music while decorating, including the wonderful
Charlie Brown Christmas CD. 

Then we watched most of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (with some creative editing from mom and dad at strategic points!).  I'm so excited about this time of year. Not about the cold. Definitely. But I am excited about the stories, caroling, baking, and great, great memories to be made.

What are you most excited about this season?

Thanksgiving Day

When I was thinking about how I would describe our Thanksgiving on this blog, I thought about sharing how wonderful the dinner was with the rolls, mashed potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, turkey and the rest of the food.

I thought about how much fun we had playing Telephone Pictionary and all the laughter.

I thought about how wonderful it was when Steve's sister's husband showed Jared how to shoot rubber bands to knock off figures from blocks and how much he loved doing that all evening long.

But the memories I'll most remember came from our Thanksgiving circle sharing time. We all sit in a circle after dinner and go around sharing something we are thankful to God about. We do this three times. When my turns came around, I shared how I was thankful that Steve and I can still be crazy silly together after 8 years of knowing each other. I also shared how I was amazed how we need to be thankful about the hard things in our lives because they're there for a purpose we might not even be able to understand for a long time.

But the thing I was most thankful for, the thing I felt most passionate about, was that God has blessed me with the ability to give my children the gift of time and freedom. They are four and a half. I'd only have another 8 months with them before they'd be gone from home a good chunk of the day. They'd not have time to pursue those things that excited them for large blocks of time, and they would constantly be compared to others, tested continually and not living to the fullest.

I thought about the day, how Alexa took the camera from me and followed everyone around, taking silly pictures. I wanted to remember this Thanksgiving as a time of freedom and joy, of unbridled learning and unending adventure.

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving day as seen through Alexa's eyes.

Building, Playing, Creating, Learning

I've heard so much about people making their own homemade pizza that I finally gave it a try. Mostly because I'm looking for quick, cheaper meals for the weekends so I can take a break from real cooking, but also I thought the kids would really like it. I threw some dough mix in the bread machine, and when it was done, we worked together on the pizza. It turned out ok, but it needed WAY more cheese. The crust was great, but the rest of the pizza? Ehh.

Jared's been working hard on his creations this past week. Here's one where he put the play table upside down and tied his snake and ropes around the legs.

Jared has the most amazing ability to come up with new things to do all the time. My daughter is a great reader and she blows some people away on the computer even at four, but Jared is incredible in his self-direction and imagination.

We had been watching old family DVD's and saw how we had a birthday party for Curious George around this time last year. So Jared found some Christmas wrapping paper and started wrapping some of his toys. He worked so hard at cutting and taping those presents. It made me think of how I hated sitting in kindergarten class around the table where they made us do these artificial cutting and pasting exercises. I've never show my kids how to cut, paste, color, or tape, yet they do it just fine on their own because they've practiced for hours by coming up with their own projects.

Alexa's been enthralled lately with Jumpstart Grade 1. She would play for hours and hours on that computer if we allowed it. When she starts getting too cranky and impatient, we try to gently guide her into something else. Plus, I worry about her eyes.

Here's one more game Jared made up this week. He dragged all my Tupperware out to the living room. Then he took out all his animals and started placing each animal under a Tupperware and calling them the animals' cages. I just love my kids!

Pre-Thanksgiving Feast

I've a bit of catching up to do on the blog, but on the 20th of November we had a pre-thanksgiving feast at my mom's house. We try to switch Thanksgiving between our families every other year. This year was supposed to be at my parent's house, but my sister, her husband and son went out of town to her husband's side since this year all the sisters and brothers could be together. So, we all gathered the week before Thanksgiving at my parent's house for a pre-holiday celebration.

While my mom, sister and I were getting the food ready, the kids had a blast with Uncle Andy in his room doing pull-ups in his closet and jumping on the bed. Right before dinner, the kids placed the Thanksgiving scrolls they had made beside each person's plate. A few days before I had written on half-sheets of paper (which they had cut out themselves), one thing the kids were thankful to God about each person who would be at the dinner. Then we rolled the papers into scrolls and tied them with ribbon. During dinner, each person opened his or her scroll and read what the kids had written. It really was a special and memorable time, even though I didn't come up with the idea!

We bundled up a bit and took a walk after the dinner to look at the slue near my parent's house. My sister let me play with her camera and I was in HEAVEN! I was so, so, so wanting to take that camera home with me. It's a Canon DSL Rebel T1. I have always wanted to learn more about photography and own a really nice camera, but I haven't followed up on that dream yet. Maybe one day we can save up for one.

All the kids posed for a picture on the walk. Needless to say, the picture I took from my sister's camera was much nicer.

After the walk, we came back to wonderful Czech bakery, pumpkin pie, cheesecake and cookies. Then we settled in to watch the original Karate Kid movie. It was a relaxing, wonderful day.