Archive for the 'Unschooling' Category

I’ve always loved yarn. There is something magical that happens when I touch it & look at it. But that’s as far as it goes I am not a knitter, but I am certainly envious of those with great knitting skill (which at times seems like ALL of my friends). I bought these so that I can wrap my dreads with them and use them for art with the girls.

HOWEVER…we want to become a knitting family!!

We have tried half-heartedly a couple of times, but we’re serious now. I would love some advice from some of you more experienced yarn women.

• What needles and type of yarn should we buy?
• What is your favorite online tutorial? Or is it better to seek out a class? Books?
• How did you start knitting? I’d LOVE to hear your stories!!

*Edited to add: I just signed up for Ravelry under “livelightly”. Add me as your friend so I can become a knitter!

 

Thank you so much to all of you who chimed in about your art spaces! I LOVED reading your responses and we were inspired to stock up on a few more art supplies. After a completely crazy late afternoon trip to Michael’s with 2 tired girls and a million other crabby shoppers (what was I thinking?!)…we were ready to go!

I’ve been wanting to get Bella a table easel for quite some time and I found one on clearance…yay! She adores it and spent pretty much the entire day yesterday painting and creating…and she’s already back at it today.

So far, our favorites are:

• Popsicle sticks. We have a box of 1000 for endless hours of fun!
• Glitter. Oh….the glitter is everywhere.
• Yarn. It’s so versatile and fun. We’ve been making lots of God’s Eyes with striped sock yarn.
• Paint. The tempura paint we bought is a little watery, so I’m thinking of switching to acrylic or something more substantial. What do you use?
• Oil Pastels. Such a nice texture!

We’re just in the baby stages of getting our art space set up…although I have to admit it’s rather difficult in the type of temporary rental we’re in right now. It’s furnished…and the owners are snow birds, so they come back and live here in the summer. I’m constantly having to be aware of crayons on the table, paint on the floor, etc, etc. I’m SO excited to move back into our own space in July so I can buy a huge OLD table for all kinds of crazy art projects

I WILL find a way to make it all work in this house though…it just takes time. I know we won’t have a “dedicated space” for art, as our house is quite small…but my goal is to find a way to organize all of the pieces so that I’m not so overwhelmed by the mess that ensues. I’ll be posting photos when it comes together.

Links to art space inspiration:

Art Cubby: This is an ideal space in my mind…I love that it doesn’t take up too much room, but is still super organized and inviting.

Katie’s Pencil Box: An amazing open studio space. So much light!!

Wildflowers and Marbles: This post has her entire homeschooling space (which is insanely organized!) but I love her art area with the jars.

Play at Home Mom: LOVE all the jars and visually pleasing stuff in this space. Super inspiring.

Decorating with Kids’ Art: I love this arrangement of kids’ art on the wall. We do clips on a string…but this is taking it to another level!

A Little Learning for Two: A re-purposed crib…love the blackboard paint!

Books & blogs to inspire:

Playful Learning: I recently ordered this book and I am LOVING it so far. I also discovered the author’s blog…which is full of great ideas as well!

Five Minute Art Ideas: I found this at a used book store and it’s great! I love that all the projects are super simple…using materials that you probably have at home already. And for 3 cents on Amazon plus shipping, you can’t go wrong

An Unschooling Life: Love the quotes in this post. She also refers to Artist Trading Cards. Bella attended an ATC workshop at the unschooling conference and loved it!

If you have found an inspiring blog, book, or photo related to art + kids or creative spaces that you love…please share!

 

 

We spent some time at Cheek’s house today. At some point in all of our visits, the kids end up in the homeschool room. And somehow my little natural leader ALWAYS ends up as the teacher

In the other room, Natalie and I had a great conversation around creating space for art in our homes. In an effort to get more ideas…I would love to hear from all the homeschoolers/unschoolers out there.

Do you have a dedicated space for art/creating in your home? How do you keep it organized & inviting?

 

 

I know this title is a bit silly…because every unschooling family looks different from the next. BUT…I wanted to show you what it looks like for us on a typical day and how that translates into some of the grand truths about unschooling

1. CREATE things together & and don’t be afraid to get messy.
Now that it’s winter and we are spending a lot more time inside than out, there are projects galore. I saw this on Pinterest recently and thought it would be fun to jump on the melted crayon bandwagon. We had a great time coming up with different color combos and watching them melt slowly in the oven. Bella loved making them…but it was Lucy who was even more thrilled with the final product. The little crayons that formed in the silicone mold were the perfect size for her little hands.

2. Show your children new ways to make stuff.
We’ve been making TONS of homemade play dough around here lately! There is just something so different about the warm, just off the oven dough…the store bought cannot compare! We finally got some gel dyes to make lots of different colors and that has been really fun. We did try using red cabbage and turmeric for coloring, and while they did turn them colors, they weren’t as vibrant as we hoped.

The girls have spent hours and hours over the past couple of weeks creating dish after play dough dish…taking orders with handmade menus…their little hands furiously rolling and cutting and “plating”. We’ve been watching some Food Network shows together and it’s so cute to see what they come up with.

3. Encourage your children to pursue their passions.
Bella has always been enthralled with fashion design and clothing. She will often re-purpose clothing and create new items for herself to wear…but lately her love is creating Barbie clothing. This lovely little number was made using old tights and a few safety pins. I love the cowl neckline…don’t you?

Our next step is going to be to set up an area in the toy room dedicated completely to this passion. There will be a sewing machine, thrifted fabrics, buttons, and other goodies so that she can create whenever she wants, when she wants. As an unschooling mama, my job is to give her all the tools she needs…and then step back and let her do her thing! I would also love to find an opportunity to shadow a “real” designer sometime. If anyone has any great resources/books for us in this fashion design journey…let me know!

4. Stand in awe of the amazing world around you!
These glorious icicles have been forming for a few days with all the melting and re-freezing up here in the mountains. The girls love to look at them, hold them, and experiment with them. There is so much to be learned from nature.

Science is easily understood when children can experience hands on learning!

5. Buy glue sticks in bulk.
Ok…ok, I’m kidding. But no seriously. We love the glue sticks. Spelling and fine motor skills were honed when Bella sat down next to me and decided to create a pretty box to put her money in. She wanted to cut out the letters to spell “ALLOWANCE”. We spent several hours cutting and chatting and gluing.

The fun part is that I was the one who was sitting at the table first…adorning my prayer journal with pretty letters. She saw me hard at work and wanted to join on her own…I didn’t have to declare “art time!” It spontaneously happened. Like life. That’s why unschooling is often referred to as Life Learning!

6. Let your children be who they are.
It’s sometimes hard to step back and let our children be who they are without constant input from us…in areas that really don’t need input or guidance! But if you’re able to do that, you will see their true personality SHINE through and it makes life truly joy-filled. In my interactions with other unschooled children…it’s always so apparent that they are trusted and supported at home in whatever they decide to do. They are, for the most part, independent, outgoing, and pretty much brilliant!

7. Follow YOUR dreams and pursue YOUR passions!
When your children see you going after what you love and loving life…they will follow. This photo is called “Put the camera down mom and just get in the car because we are FREEZING!”. But hey…at least my girls know without a doubt that I love photography! If I want them to live a passionate life, I have to model it in my own.

If you are interested in finding out more about unschooling, here is the post I wrote awhile back that has more links and resources…along with some commonly asked questions.

We are in full preparation mode around here…cutting, creating, lighting it up. Christmas is coming! We spent an entire day covered in paint and mod podge…creating handmade ornaments for our tree.

We had big plans to get a permit to go cut down a tree in one of the nearby forests, but after a big wind storm a few weeks ago, we found this sweet little tree laying behind the house. It turned out to be the perfect size, it has “character”, and we just love it! The girls had such a great time hanging their ornaments…it’s been so special to have our own tree this year!

All of these preparations are not just to “decorate” or make things pretty for the holidays. We are awaiting a King! Jesus’ birth is the single cause for celebration. And this year, we are turning our eyes toward Him every night after supper as we read together from Ann Voskamp’s Jesse Tree devotional.

With Bella and Lucy snuggled up with Daddy, we light a candle and learn more about His love for us and the grace He extends. So excited to walk through this amazing Advent time with my loves and to create new rituals and traditions together as a family.

What are some of your favorite rituals and traditions during the holiday season?

Another season of Raccoon Clan has flown by! Bella loved her time spent exploring and learning last spring and she was SO excited to get “back to the land” after the summer break.

Every Thursday we dressed her in layers & warm boots, and sent her off with hot soup, bread, and treats.

Lucy loved playing with the other kids, but of course had to say goodbye as they prepared for a fun day spent entirely outdoors.

Last week was this season’s closing celebration, where we were able to see everything they have been working on and learning. One of Bella’s favorite activities was carving her own arrow and learning about archery.

It’s always fun to connect with my beautiful mama friends…we enjoyed hanging out each week and would stand and talk about unschooling, our kiddos, and the weather

To kick off the ceremony, we gathered around the fire and sang a blessing together. It’s so lovely to get all of the families together in one place for a common purpose.

The kids created this awesome centerpiece from pods, berries, and leaves. So fun!

Potlucks are the BEST! I should have taken the foil off of these front two dishes because they were amazing…but as you can see, it was a cornucopia of whole food goodness. Lots of squash, quinoa, black beans, bread, meats, and cheeses. Mmmmmm…

Everything tastes better when eaten from a hand carved wooden bowl! This was Lorene’s (the Raccoon Clan leader) bowl and it was so beautiful…I had to stop her before she ate it. She carved the spoon herself too!

Bella was so excited to show us everywhere they had been exploring…and this red rock wall was nothing short of stunning.

This was the flag that the kids had worked on and all of their arrows, throwing sticks, and fire making supplies. It was neat to see all of their hard work laid out on display.

As the evening continued on, there was lively conversation, children at play, and drying of socks over the fire.

Lemonade berry tea was brewed over the fire during our time there…it was quite tasty, kind of like a sour hibiscus tea.

It started to get dark and it was time for goodbyes. The next session starts up again in late February and Bella is already asking “how long?!” I’m thinking the same thing! We’ve loved getting to know all of these families and I’m thankful that we’ll see many of them at unschooling group events over the next couple of months.

Click HERE to view the entire Fall 2011 album on Flickr.

If you would like to find out more about Raccoon Clan and other programs, check out Her Feet On The Earth.

Happy Sunday everyone! We are finally coming out from the cloud of flu that has been hanging over our house since last Tuesday. I haven’t left the house since then…so I think we may go out to a little cafe for lunch and I am oh so excited! Fresh air, someone else cooking for me, mountain views…sounds good to me.

Here are a few of the things that made me smile this week around the web:

I’m always looking for playtime ideas for the cold winter months. I recently filled a large, flat tupperware with about 10 lbs of popcorn seeds and the girls have been going crazy with it. Yes, it can be messy…but fun is sometimes messy! We call it the “seed box”. You could also use beans, wheat, or real sand if you’re out of your mind Here is another idea with oatmeal.

This week I want to make homemade playdough.

I know I have seen Kat’s incredible sweaters on Etsy before…but had never seen her website until today. Kind of obsessed. And I want her house. Oh, and her busses. As I type this, I’m listening to this podcast interview with her. Love. It’s a beautiful conversation about making art, how “stuff” can take over, traveling light, and more!

I adore this idea. I have many cards and letters from dear friends, but they are all just in a box. Punching holes in them and putting them in a pretty binder sounds like way more fun.

I like to buy sweaters at the thrift store & cut off their arms for leg warmers…but I’ve always wanted to do something with the part that is left. I think I will try this next time! Circle scarf = happy.

Bella has been obsessed with snow globes for as long as I can remember. Can’t wait to make these with her!

Have you seen my “Lovely Spaces” board on Pinterest? I go there when I want to smile.

I like to make stuff and feel crafty…although it seems to happen less and less these days. These bracelets look pretty simple and I’m excited to go thrift store!

We have oodles of gaffers tape laying around from all of our hoopmaking…so I was excited to see this idea. Bella has loved making duct tape wallets, so I know she’ll love this.

Thank you to everyone who posted recipes and links for bread and muffins! So excited to try them out over the winter. After posting that, I found this great page with tons of bread recipes.

Hope everyone is healthy and enjoying a restful Sunday! xxoo

I have been spending a lot of time in this here corner of loveliness…it houses my baking corner and my bulk goodies. I have longed for a space like this forever…and oh how grateful I am to finally have it.

There is just something so wonderful about having everything I need right at my fingertips…and yet not cluttering up the kitchen. It’s inspiring to see them all on display and  it makes assembling recipes so easy!

And so…we have been baking up a storm…in the snow storms We love baking something warm and delicious inside while the snow is falling outside.

Bella is an excellent helper and always offers to help with any baking task…we’ve been learning a lot about numbers and measuring through this.

I like to call this beauty “My Precious“. I LOVE having a full size oven again. Love love love. And it’s gas. Which makes me insanely happy. I think I would rather cook over a fire than an electric stove!

Our muffins must always be eaten with hot tea! I recently re-stocked my favorite tea, Rishi’s Citron Oolong…so I’m a happy girl. The muffin that we tend to make the most around here is the Delightful Banana Nut Muffins from The Garden of Vegan. It’s one of my most requested recipes from from friends and family…so I thought I would post it here!

Delightful Banana Nut Muffins
Cookbook: The Garden of Vegan
By Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup dry sweetener (I like rapadura or turbinado)
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
½ t salt
¾ cup ground flax seed
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 t vanilla extract
2/3 cup soy, rice, or almond milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sweetener, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flax, and walnuts. In a small bowl, combine the bananas, oil, vanilla and soy milk. Pour the liquid ingredients with the dry and mix together gently until “just mixed”. Spoon into a lightly oiled muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

On the day of our big snow, Bella decided that we simply must have a muffin picnic in front of the fire, and so we did! Such sweet memories I have with my girls.

And lastly, my friend Ellen gave me a yummy recipe for Sunflower Seed Cookies…and of course we made them right away! They were SO GOOD. Although, I think it had something to do with the copious amount of sugar in them You can always cut back or add alternative sweeteners if you’re so inclined. They can also easily be made vegan.

Sunflower Seed Cookies
Serves/Makes:   4 dozen

Ingredients:
Cream together:
1 cup butter or Earth Balance
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs or egg substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend in:
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup sunflower seeds

Directions:
Mix together well. Drop onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 8-9 minutes.

For more yummy muffin recipes, check out my food blog, Happy Foody, under the muffin category. If you’re a fellow muffin lover, be sure to check out this great article on “How To Make the Best Muffins Ever“. It’s a goody.

Next I’d like to get into baking homemade bread. I’ve done it before…but I would especially like to make sourdough and english muffins, along with some crusty, hearty soup breads.

If you have a tried and true recipe…please share it below! Also, please share your all-time favorite muffin recipe so I can stop making the same one over and over

Oh the excitement! Good Vibrations was our very first unschooling conference…and it just happened to be in one of our favorite places in the country, San Diego! We made plans and more plans and at one point it looked like Matt wasn’t going to be able to join us due to work conflicts, but he was able to come a few days late and we were able to celebrate life together as a family!

Upon arriving at the hotel, I was reunited with one of my favorite people ever and a dear friend, the fabulous Tiffani. And at her side, hoop master mama Brianna. This was my first time meeting Brianna after hearing about her and “knowing” her on Facebook. We hit it off immediately and the three of us had way too much fun. The entire weekend after that point was a blur of laughter, hooping bliss, poolside margaritas (well, not me obviously… but I lived vicariously), and oh yeah…how could I forget? Unschooling inspiration!

There were so many amazing speakers at this conference…such wisdom from seasoned unschoolers. This room always had my favorite sessions…roundtable is definitely more my style than a classroom setup. Tiffani was leading a discussion on “play” in this photo. And true to her style, she handed out wigs for everyone to wear

I thought that I would go to a lot more of the workshops than I did…but we ended up “UNconferencing” a bit I had rich, relational experiences with friends just sitting around the pool and talking about our unschooling and real life. We learned so much by watching and soaking up each different family’s style of parenting. Every one has different ideas and ideals and how they live it out is so interesting. Much more fun than reading about their lives online Matt was able to attend several of the “Dads sessions” and came away feeling more informed and confident in his role as an unschooling dad. It was fun to hear about all the great discussions that they had.

We weren’t the only ones making new friends. Within a few minutes of registering, Lucy struck up a friendship with Grace, another little girl at the conference. Every time she saw her, she would exclaim…”FRIEND!!”

Speaking of FRIENDS…we also got to hang out with Mike Hedge after not seeing him since Texas. He was the official photographer for the event…and he did an amazing job! (He has posted nearly 1,000 photos of the conference here). And I finally got to meet a blog friend, Jess, who is currently living in Japan! She brought her mom with her and she and MY mom hit it off and had many long talks/walks while they were there.

Bella reveled in the freedom that came along with being at the conference. She went by herself to sessions that she was interested in and loved being with her new friends in their hotel rooms and around the pool. It was great to see her blossom in so many ways while we were there. She had good conversations with girls who had experienced public school prior to unschooling…so good for her to hear their thoughts first hand.

One of everyone’s favorite workshops was the “International Candy Tasting” event! I’m sure you can understand why

This was our beach potluck that got moved back to the hotel after a power outage. It affected all of Southern California for 12 hours and caused a sewage spill at the beach (among other problems!) We didn’t mind though…what could be better than crowd-sourced food, sunshine, and friends!? We just pressed on…and we all breathed a sigh of relief at 2am when our lights and air conditioners popped back on!

My mom came with us so that I would have extra help…and she and Lucy had lots of fun around the pool and playing dress up! Both girls could not get enough of the water…the common cry from our room was “let’s go to the pool!” With every day consisting of sunshine and 80 degrees, we gladly obliged.

The pool area was a constant hooping mecca…there was always some hoop action going on somewhere. So much fun. As a side note, I ran into Baxter and his friend Kara the day we arrived as we all hooped poolside. So random. They were there decompressing from Burning Man…although I’m not sure how relaxing it was with all of us crazy unschoolers running around the hotel!

On the last night, Matt, Tiffani, Brianna, and I went to a delish little Mexican joint near Torrey Pines State Beach…and then we headed over for a sunset photo shoot.

When we got there, we were reminded not to touch the poop water

The light was to die for…and it was a sweet time with my honey.

I love these girls so. We had so many other fun experiences during the weekend…too many to detail here. But they shall live on in our memories!

The day we left, we headed up to Encinitas and played at Moonlight State Beach. Perfect sunshine. Perfect moments. So thankful. We’re already dreaming of next year! I leave my heart in California every time I fly away…

*see my iPhone album, the photos featured here, and more!

Life has been full and wonderful…and I wanted to share some of our most recent fun with you! This weekend Bella took a tree climbing class (part of the Longmont Parks and Rec Program) and she had SO much fun. This isn’t your regular ‘ol “tree climbing” though…

Once you get your harness on, you use your arms to pull yourself all the way to the top of the tree and then you release the knot to come back down.

She was a natural…and loved every  moment. Matt is even talking about getting our own tree climbing gear.

On a rainy day this week, we met our unschooling group at Bounce Town! It’s a big warehouse with 6 large bounce houses in it for the kids to go wild. I like to crawl in there with them and bounce bounce bounce, but it doesn’t take long before I get sick and dizzy!

I’m getting to know some really fun local mamas…it’s so nice to build a connection here.

Another day, while we were cleaning up a bouquet of purple irises on the table, we decided to see if we could dye paper with them! They were wilting and we were going to throw them away…but instead, we threw them into the Vita-Mix with a little water and soaked our paper in it.

It turned out to be a beautiful shade of blue/violet. We had some good discussions about how people used to use plants, seeds, and flowers to make dyes all the time (and still do). I told Bella that’s how they did it in the “olden days”, and she said, “…you mean like in 1984?”. Oh my.

Bella has been asking to set up a lemonade stand…so on the first sunny day this week, we brought out all the supplies and set up shop. She did well…but she did have to pay her “employees” their wages, so her profit was a little down. She was still happy with her results…she has such an entrepreneurial spirit!

Yesterday morning we decided to scope out a new breakfast spot in town and we settled on Two Dog Diner. It’s a sweet little cafe tucked away in the Prospect area of Longmont. They have Bhakti chai there (which I am quite obsessed with right now) and even veggie sausage! We enjoyed some sweet family time together and we will definitely be going back!

Other activities from this weekend: I painted our TV-less corner and have a few little decorations in it. It’s not quite done, but I will share it with you when it is! I picked up the supplies to paint our bedroom (finally!!). I’m SO excited to start it. Bella had a sleepover last night at her friend’s house, which went splendidly. Today we enjoyed meeting with our house church family and had a relaxing afternoon.

We’re looking forward to another lovely week.

Monday and Tuesday we’re *hoping* to paint and hang curtains in our bedroom. We’re having guests over for tacos on Wed. night. Thursday is Bella’s last day of Raccoon Clan for the season and there will be a family potluck out on the land. Right after that we will leave for Iowa and drive back for my Grandma’s estate sale. If you recall, she died just a few days before Lucy was born and I wasn’t able to attend her funeral or have closure…so I am looking forward to getting back there. My entire family will be there, as well as Matt’s parents who are driving down to see us.  We’ll be there through Sunday.

Whew! Life speeds by so fast…I have to remind myself to stay in the moment so often! I love taking time throughout the day to stop and really WATCH the girls faces and see what they are feeling. I also like to list all the things I am grateful for in that particular day…and that helps me too.

How do you stay “present” and in the moment when life is rushing by? I would love to hear your thoughts…