This week Grandma is in Morocco.  Can you say that, class?  M-O-R-O-C-C-O  She got there via Chicago, Madrid and Barcelona.  She’ll be there for a week visiting with the Moroccan government and several Islam officials regarding the refugees in the Western Sahara.  That’s the Sahara desert.  She’ll return via Casablanca, Madrid and Washington D.C.

Geography is so much more interesting when it’s relevant.  Don’t you think?

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Begin with a discussion on responsibility and some parental hair pulling.  Seriously question freestyle learning methods.  Pull out the curriculum that’s been fairly dormant for some time now.  Organize lesson plans, make a new chore list and be generally hard nosed about “how things are going to be around here from now on.”

Once everyone is (finally) in line, realize that Brother needs a haircut. Go downtown to your favorite walk-in salon.  While Brother gets a trim, you and Sister can have a nice chat with the lady getting her nails done.  Talk about things that modern day generations will probably never experience - like a true barber shop or rotary phones.

Since you’re out and about might as well call Dad and see if he’d like to have lunch.  He would but not yet.

Skip over to the library for a bit.  Oh, look they’re just starting Storytime. How lucky.  Finish Storytime, grab a few interesting books and go meet Dad for lunch.

Back at home help Sister put on an episode of Blue Planet.  Brother seems to be feeling under the weather and wanders off to take a nap.  Mmm, good idea, Brother.  I think I’ll take one too.

Wake up to Sister asking to go ride her bike and Brother working on his 4 billionth Lego creation. Watch the afternoon skip off to play with the neighbors.

Ring the the dinner bell.  Daddy’s gone for a Boy’s Night Out which is fortunate because over dinner the conversation turns to bacteria and viruses and fungus.  All this talk, of course, begs the question, “But what do they look like?” Pull out a couple of books on the topic and peruse the pictures.  “How do they get pictures of things that are so small?”  Pair a curious child with this tool and watch another half-hour fly by. “Eww, fleas look spooky! … “That’s what skin really looks like?!” … “Do you know what else is kind of spooky?  Some dust is made of old skin.  In fact, 90% of the dust in your house is YOU.”  Remember that sometime long ago you had heard this fact.  Wonder where she could have learned it.

Hear Brother coughing and offer to make hot warm chocolate for all.  With the three of you sitting at the table again, might as well pull out some cards.  Play solitaire and SET and Go Fish.  Make a mental note that in the future you want Sister on your team.

Break up the games to get pajamas on and teeth brushed and do all those sundry things that must be done before the day’s end.  Tuck in little man with Uncle Wiggly playing in the background.  Sneak off with Sister to get in a bit of the chapter book you picked up today.

Kisses and hugs and prayers for peace.

Wonder why you ever doubt?

Persil, a well-known maker of laundry detergents in the UK, is touting the benefits of unstructured outdoor play in a new national campaign aimed at parents. The company surveyed mothers, a majority of whom agreed that society had lost sight of the importance of play in a child’s learning process.

— from the Children & Nature Network

Here’s a neat site that anyone with children ought to check out.  There’s a new challenge posted each Saturday and several ongoing challenges as well.  We’ve only participated once so far but you can bet this is going to become a weekly favorite.

“Birds fly, fish swim, man thinks and learns. Therefore, we do not need to motivate children into learning by wheedling, bribing or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we need to do, and all we need to do, is bring as much of the world as we can into the school and classroom (in our case, into their lives); give children as much help and guidance as they ask for; listen respectfully when they feel like talking; and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest.”

from John Holt in “How Children Learn”

So three weeks after we allowed ye ol’ curriculum to invade our philosophy I no longer feel like a traitor. We have in these 21 days (or so) made it all the way through Week 1 and only Week 1 of the prescribed plan. But oh what we have learned besides. These lesson plans have provided such wonderful jumping off points to other places. We’ve been introduced to interests we didn’t know we had and we’ve spent so much more time exploring together rather than just being together. I have mentioned before my love of lists. To me the lesson plan is a perpetual list that keeps me engaged and gets me motivated each morning. But though I love lists I also love skipping out on them altogether and letting some distraction lead me down a rabbit hole where who knows what will happen. For the most part I’m giving a big thumbs up to this new resource. There is more to tell but LiveWriter just ate my beautifully prepared post and I can’t bring myself to write it all again.

In case you’ve been wondering what I’m doing with all my extra bloggy break time, which you probably haven’t, but just in case - I’ve been buying curriculum.  Yep, you heard it here first.  Toni’s children will now be scarred for life because she crumbled under the weight of tradition and purchased honest-to-goodness-complete-with-lesson-plans-and-actual-schedules curriculum.  It’s not really as bad as all that but given how avidly I’ve supported unschooling it feels as though someone should sew a big “T” on my shirt and call me Benedict just for mentioning the “C” word.

After much debate, we finally settled on this company.  I liked the idea that most of the material is simply gleaned from good books (very Charlotte Mason of them) and I like the fact that they offered a Newcomer package with materials and instructions pre-assembled since we are after all “newcomers”.

It came with these books and supplies,

this ginormous instructor’s guide

and a pamphlet containing the words “Don’t be alarmed.”  Riiight.

After everything was unpacked, Will took Sister out on an errand.

“Do you need anything,” he asked?

“Yes,” I replied. “Bring chocolate.  Lots of chocolate.”

The thing is I’ve always considered myself a perfectly competent teacher -  even a good one.  But as we pulled out book after book of “expert advice” I began to doubt my abilities and by the time all was said and done I even considered that perhaps my approach had been completely wrong.

But chocolate cures many ailments and once I got past the overwhelmed part it occurred to me that having curriculum doesn’t mean we must give up our unschooling ways.  School day or no, we will still go out and splash in puddles after an unexpected shower, take trips without a plan just to see where we end up and spend whole days in our pajamas sharing a good book.  This curriculum is a tool just like the library or the museum and like any tool it works for us - not the other way around.

If you hear of a workshop in your town where one can learn to play the harmonica AND said workshop is specifically for children AND each child walks away with their very own harmonica with which to practice what they’ve learned, you may think that sounds like a fun, educational experience.  You would be right.  It would be a lot of fun and the fun would continue all. day. long.

Begin by listening to this famous storyteller.

Have lunch with Dad.  Discuss the business behind those insipid claw machines that take your money and still keep their cutesy stuffed animals.

Attend a magic show.

Return home inspired.  Make up your own magic trick.

Discover this bug on your morning glories and spend time finding out what it is, what it eats, where it lives and why it’s golden.  Also look for snails.

Check on the potato plant your growing in a garbage can.

Watch a Snook video from the library.

Try your magic trick on Dad … it works!

Finally get brave enough to knock on your neighbor’s door to see if he can come out to play instead of waiting outside hoping he’ll see you and come out on his own.  He’s not home but now you know you can do it.

Play Star Wars with Dad.

Read a chapter from the second Spirit book with Mom - We’re halfway through!

Get some rest.  You deserve it.

While watching this

Sister queries, “Can you really make butter just by shaking milk?”

“Yes,” I reply.  “I believe you can.”

Many minutes later she appears by my side.

“Can we do that?”

“Do what?”

“Make butter?”

“Yes,” I reply.  “I believe we can.”

And here is how it’s done:

Add 1/4 cup of this -

and three of these -

to one of these (with a tight fitting lid) - 

let one of these - shake vigorously intermittently for several minutes.

Pour off the liquid (buttermilk?) that accumulates and you are left with this  

and a very proud one of these -

**for more detailed instructions visit here. 

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*because Sister believes in the “make up words as you need them” method of speech

**no frogs were harmed  traumatized mortally wounded during this learning experience

***technically speaking they were toads.