Scrap Wood put to Fruition

No platic play tools for us! The real thing baby! A lot of imagination and a little supervision and they are on their way!

Another Man's Junk - Two Kids Treasures!

The kids caught wind of some construction going on up the street, hooked up their wagon to their pink jeep and headed North. They hauled a few loads of wood home and began their creations.

Science and Spatial Relations

We frequently travel to the mountains, 7,000 feet elevation! Along the drive up the winding road, we watch the temperature rise and fall, we get to really FEEL what the freezing point is, we watch water droplets turn to snow as the temperature drops slowly from 34 degrees to 32 degrees, observe the geography as it turns from freeways to alpine and then to SNOW!

Yes, from sandals to snowboots all in one day, what fun! As a child in Michigan, I have fond memories of the snow caves that we built in the packed snowbanks. Here I am with my children, reliving a fond childhood memory of my own. Snowplay, snowhikes and snowcones with maple syrup fresh from the yard.

artful expressions!

We LOVE to get into our art, really, really, into it! What if Jackson Pollock's mother never let him drip or splatter?

learning colors

What happens when we mix red with yellow? Let's see? Mixing colors from head to toe. primary colors - red - blue - yellow

Tall Ships and Chocolate Chip Cookies - The art of a SWEET Negotiation

Today we visited the Tall Ships docked in the Harbor. The kids were able to tour the boat with an 18th Century Docent that taught us about this trading vessel way back when as it would sail the West Coast trading items at local ports.

The kids were really curious about the sleeping quarters. "Sorry kids, that's a private area." of course, this heightened their curiosity even more.

Needless to say, we will be returning tomorrow for another Tall Ship tour. At the end of today's tour, Sierra negotiated with the ship Captain a trade of her own. "If I bring you some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies will you let us tour the sleeping quarters?" desperate for any homecooked food, he quickly replied" INDEED we will!"

24 hours later - We returned with Brownies in hand, one batch of flour, one batch of Gluten Free! Yeah for that, the Captain was a Gluten Free female. We got the VIP VIP tour of the behind the scenes of the ship - sleeping quarters, the Galley and, then (drumrole) the Captain's quarters. "Oh look! He does oragami!"

The MAZE CRAZE!

The kids love the mazes that I create. I write words on paper and trail them throughout the house. They read as they go. I write math equations on paper and trail them also. Sometimes they lead outside and are even woven throughout the trees and plants.

Then there are the treasure hunts that Sierra learned to read with. Note after note as she wandered throughout the house or the backyard, hunting for little scrap pieces of paper that she eagerly unfolded in anticipation of the next clue.

At the end of it all, was, yes, a little something fun. Not necessarily a PRIZE per say, (as I'm not into rewards - Alfie Kohn says it best!) but a little something to help celebrate their victory. Sometimes it was chocolate and sometimes it was a note from me, expressing a fondness for them or an invitation to another fun adventure and sometimes it was nothing but the victory itself - an inner sense of satisfaction that only they can give themselves.

Creative Letter writing

We have frequent mail deliveries to our neighbors, which serves as a beautiful way to write letters, practice penmanship, human kindness and more of those great social skills that everyone worries about with us homeschoolers!

Letter writing and mail delivery seems to be a weekly event in this house. And then, there are the regular Thank You Letters, the grocery lists that I ask their help with. Sierra will write out the full list and Canyon, a very new writer, will write the first letter and make cryptic notes therafter. It's a beautiful start and he feels amazingly confident in his writing ability because he can READ IT!

We have also created mail boxes in our house. Another great excuse to drop each other a note here and their to express something wonderful (or not so wonderful!) All feelings are welcome here in this house.

PUBLIC SPEAKING - most peoples worst fear!

As we all know, public speaking happens to be one of the most feared events in life! And with that said, we thought we'd nip this one in the bud as Sierra visits local schools to educate children on the way of life Africa. (More to come here!) Visit her blog at
http://www.sierrasc.blogspot.com/ to learn more!

Learning Balance!

A very important lesson in life - something that most all of us struggle with - balancing life!

The Barbie Jeep Explorer!

We have masqueraded this little pink jeep through crowds of all types on so many different journeys. Handmade Signs toting "Fresh Baked Cookies and Organic Lemonade" were taped to the front and the back of this little vehicle as the kids loaded up their goods and headed for the pier. ($70 later, and after loads of fun) the kids put their money in their ban piggy banks and began their savings for Disneyland.

Othertimes this jeep served to keep up with Mommy as she went on her morning runs.

And then, there were the rain expeditions that we took this on as we spun out in 360 degree circles (due to poor road conditions and lots of fun!) Safety and Science all in one! There were definite off roading limitations to this little pink puppy, nothing like their Dad's bronco!

Train Trip to Little Mexico

We ventured south a bit to Los Angeles on a very inexpensive ($3) ride on Amtrack! We toured Olivera Street, which was the closest the kids had come to Mexico yet! We learned a little spanish, had some wonderful tacos with friends and perused the shops afterwards.

Who's watching who?

We sat in a field one day, waiting to catch a glimpse of this little fellow as he popped up for a bite to each. A lesson in patience and stillness definitely.

Horse Training at Eldustberry!

The kids were able to test their strength and confidence in a 4 month horse training class where they were taught basic horsemanship, compassion, and the use and misuse of their own body energy. In this photo they were taught how to use their own body energy to move the horse in the ring - a lesson based on trust and confidence. Sierra must have weighed 55 pounds here and yet embodied the confidence of a stallion!

911 EMERGENCY!

Fantasy play has always been a favorite in our household! So much wonder, negotiation and understanding of the world takes place in the midst of this play.

Creating the proper habitat

Creating the proper habitat for a lizard requires research! Various gathered items served as a new habitat for this Western Fence Lizard and crickets were caught as his meals. He was released soon after observation.

ART WALK and paper mache Masks

We participated in the Art Walk to raise awareness for the city arts! Paper mache masks were made out of half cut plastic milk containers. The process of dipping paper strips into the flour and water mixture took a few days (lay the paper mache, dry, lay, dry.)

After this process was completed, we painted the masks and added lots of extras using hot glue guns (with my help) glass beads, buttons, branches, leaves and any other items that we desired! These masks are hanging on our wall and we gaze at them fondly.

Never too little SOCIALIZATION!

We met LUKE WILBANKS as he stopped into our coastal town after a trek through 14 countries. YES, that's right. He walked over 7,000 miles around the world and had ended up in our Coastal town after venturing across the Southern United States from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. A handful of oceans, 14 countries, 20 states, an infinite number of cities, counties and so much more. Imagine all of the GEOGRAPHY we learned in this adventure!

Luke also opened the kids up to a whole new life around the globe - the children and way of life in AFRICA! We had no idea how many African children were a product of the AIDS epidemic.

Sierra soon began following in Luke's footsteps (no pun intended!) as she began her quest to raise awareness and money for a little girl in Africa named GRACIOUS! Sierra would soon start visiting schools and speaking on behalf of the children in Africa, and raising simple awareness of how life so vastly differs in other parts of the world. What an adventure this has been for us all!

VISIT SIERRA'S BLOG at http://www.sierrasc.blogspot.com to learn more about this venture and to have Sierra speak at your school!

Trustbuilding and Teamwork!

Learning trustbuilding exercises and teamwork in the garden.

Fishing for words!

In their handmade boats, the kids learned to read by fishing for words (or letters and shapes!) We made some small boats out of cardboard boxes. Then gathered sticks from the backyard, tied string to the end of the stick and hot glued a magnet to the other end of the string.

We then cut out several different colored fish shapes. I wrote letters, colors and shapes on the fish for Canyon (beginning reading) and 3 letter words for Sierra in the beginning phase of her learning to read. Each fish was topped of with a paperclip on his mouth.

Time to Fish! When we cast the fishing rod out, the magnet would do it's trick and catch a fish! Sierra was so excited to reel it in that she didn't even think twice about sounding out the letter formation on each catch!

Shaving Cream Extravaganza

Because every kid needs some messy play throughout the day!

Farmer's Market Math

Weekly trips to the local farmer's market is where Sierra began her early math lessons (business skills and social skills too!) At 5, she would bring her money to the market and begin navigating her way through costs, supply and demand. Having her own money made her soon realize the value of her desires and the purchasing power at hand- kettle corn vs fresh french bread. . . hmmm...

Happy Halloween Grandma!

Seaweed JUMPROPE at the beach!

Natures wonderful treasures always keep us preoccupied. Never a dull moment when you're creative!

Life Cycle Lessons

We enjoyed raising butterflies! What a process this was. We sent away for some larvae, (I'll fill in the details later( Here is our miracle, as we set it free on it's amazing journey in life.

Meet Halloween, our pet spider

Yes, it's not really the kind of pet that I was hoping for, yet, when all else fails, the kids will adopts just about anything as their pet to care for. We found this wonderfully frightening and quite large orb spider hanging out in our lavendar bushes.

The kids decided to name him/ her "Halloween." We watched as it captured the neighboring bees in it's nest and spun them ever so quickly into a webbing before they ate their meal. I had to remain objective about the whole process, or I might squeal and ruin it all for them!

Sierra was quite excited about her catch of the day here! She seems to be quite successful at catching fish with her bare hands. Amazes me each time.And this one we had to research a little bit before our hands on learning began! A backyard gopher snake it was indeed! Later that day, we released him back into a gopher whole and watched him slither away.

Wood Building with Free Scraps

Building a bridge with scrap pieces of wood found at a local lumber store! Yeah for scraps!

Radio Flyer Wagon Multi Use Vehicle!

Counting, craftsmanship, art, social skills and entrepreneurialism at best!

There is always an opportunity to merge many of our skills to do something that we enjoy a lot. We love to make money! Our wagon has many uses! Here we are with our mobile, fresh squeezed organic lemonade cart giving the world a taste of what childhood is all about! (We raised $35!)

At Christmas time I decked out my wagon with red ribbon, put together some wonderful boquets of lavendar (for stress relief :) and fresh evergreen tree wreathes and toted them around the neighborhood for sale. (I ended up making $2 and giving most of them away!)

We soon discovered that taking the wagon to more populated areas was a real moneymaker! Then, suddenly we had a real life lesson in DIVISION as we divided the money made with the number of helpers! We soon cut labor costs.

Real Life Lincoln Logs

One of our most favorite adventures is to head to the beach and build! It's full of wonderul debris that has been tossed ashore from the ocean, just waiting to be built with! We love building TP's, lifesized wooden forts and more! We returned the next day only to find that someone had used this as shelter the night before (we found the remants of a fire.) Beachfront property for someone that night- a dream come true for someone wandering by!

and then we squeezed them. By the looks of it, the oranges didn't enjoy this much!

Fresh Squeezed ORANGE MATH

We saw them from our window, the vibrant orange color yelled PICK ME! PICK ME!

Moments later my daughter was hand picking oranges with her blue patterned poncho strewn over her while simultaneously using it as a catch bag for the goodies. Yes, East Coast friends, it's January and time to harvest the oranges! Before we attempted to make fresh squeezed juice from our sweet bundle, we did some wonderful MULTIPLICATION and DIVISION! Oranges strewn across our kitchen floor in groups of 3's, 4's, 5's, and 9's! We covered the whole times table in that period, while determing how much juice we would be able to make with that morning harvest!

All this before our morning cup of juice.

WHO can teach SELF REALIZATION better than yourself?

My 9 year old daughter is a philanthropist at heart! As I contemplated a few business opportunities that I have have considered persuing, my daughter interjected . . . "Mom, you already are a successful business woman. You're business is to be with us." I couldn't have said it any more eloquently.

I never knew I would enjoy homeschooling my two children this much. It never occurred to me that this was even an option. When it came time to begin considering schools for my daughter's new adventure, it suddenly occurred to me that what I had in mind, a school where you touch, taste and feel life, where your individuality is appreciated and encouraged, where the whole of you is honored and each day unfolds amongst the natural world that we live within, didn't ex

ist within a 40 mile radius. And, a heavy morning commute on a busy freeway, was not something I wanted my children to experience as a way of life in the rythm of their day.

It was then that I realized we would continue on with our daily adventures, exploring, living, learning and laughing together. No school bus, no lunches to pack, no 8 hour time lapses between us all. And the journey began to unfold.

"How long will you do this?" Was a common question asked of me. As long as we all are enjoying it, I would say. "What about socialization?" so many would inquire. Socialization is the least of our worries as we befriend everyone, everywhere, not specific to our grade or age. The world is open to receive us and there is no bell to ring to stop us from discovery and wonder.

We take it year by year, month by month and day by day. It's an amazing journey of self discovery for us all. We are all learning about life, relationships, the world around us, how it impacts us on a whole and, most importantly, learning about ourselves. Learning who we are, what we like, dislike, love, devour, cherish and yearn for. It's a journey of SELF REALIZATION at it's best. We aren't waiting until our adult life to learn this one. It's right here, right now, ready to be discovered.

It's the most real life learning experience that I can offer my children - we learn as we go. Welcome to our daily life full of fun filled adventures and a discovery of self!