A Day in our Lives

People ask me all the time "What is it you do?" (in regard to homeschooling). I'll try to share a little bit here, and hopefully as time goes by it will become clear that our blog title says it all!

We are unschoolers. Meaning we don't do much of anything that looks like "School." We trust that children learn what they need to know, at the times they need to know it, and that this knowledge will be retained far longer than if they had to learn something "for the test."

This also doesn't mean we don't respect everyone's choices in education. We do. Not everything works for everyone. Isn't it great that we have choices? :-) But this is just how we live our lives.

So, for a day in our life: Right now it's Thursday April 10. About 12:30 PM or so. Josh (almost 13) is on the computer. Runescape. He's got a goal to hit 70 defense today. Don't know what that means, but it's important to him, and I do know that it means he can wear some special sort of armor at that level! LOL! Runescape has been a big part of Josh's education. He has learned loads of math figuring out how many logs it will take him to cut to get to some level of the game. How much he can trade one helm in for to buy another. He learned some real life lessons along the way too... like you can't always trust everyone you meet on-line. It was a few years ago, fortunately it was only his member character that got swiped and nothing more harmful than that. But definitely a lesson learned. I was just informed he just hit 70 defense...and he's off to buy armor!

Rylie is still in her pj's, playing Baby Pals on her Nintendo DS. She says she's getting ready to be able to babysit. She spends most of her time dancing, singing or being dramatic (just ask her brother about this sometime!). Later today she'll be off to voice lessons. Earlier she helped me sort the laundry and learned how to work the washer. That's one of my goals for this year - teaching the kids how to do their own laundry! She just finished two different library books and we're currently reading "The Wright Three" by Blue Balliet together. Rylie's also been into drawing faces lately. She's got them in a notebook and can often be found curled up sketching. Rylie had a "date" with her dad on Sunday night. They went to the Jo. Co. Arts Council Shooting Stars award banquet. Sprint is one of the underwriters for this event and Darren thought Rylie would enjoy the evening. She really did! They got to meet the award nominees, and one of the scholorship winners was seated at their table. They also met many other people, one of whom is connected with Leawood's Theatre in the Park. She offered Rylie a job of passing out programs at their summer production and then getting to watch the rest of the show from backstage. Rylie's really excited about this possibility - as she wants to start acting in the local theatre productions soon. She's working really hard toward that goal, between dance classes, jazz company practice and shows, voice lessons, and drama classes (right now she's taking one through Kansas City's Coterie Theatre - an award winning theatre that produces shows mainly for young audiences) she keeps busy!

Ellie is playing with another homeschooled friend who came over today. They've been busy having a restaurant. The kids snagged our Panera takeout bags and now have created a "Panera" in the playroom! They've been known to deliver to the family room on occasion as well. Ellie spends quite alot of time creating art. We're also reading the "Little House" series right now. She is very into Laura these days. We're on book 4 (On the Banks of Plum Creek) right now, but we did skip through Farmer Boy... turns out the book is all about Almonzo (Laura's future husband). We got to about the second chapter and Ellie asked me "Where's Laura?" When she found out it was all about Almonzo she decided she wanted to move on to the next book! Looks like a trip to the Little House site is in our future. It's a few hours drive from here, but well worth it for those with Little House fans.

It's cool and rainy here today or all three would probably be outside. In fact, Ellie just asked if she and her friend could go play out in the backyard. Normally this would be fine...but we're in the middle of a (neverending it seems) backyard re-do. It's really swampy right now after the rains on Tues and last night.

Anyway, this is what we do... just live our life well, laugh often and love much... and learn along the way! I'm going to try to figure out how to post pictures as well. I'm still in the REALLY new stage on blogging. LOL! Lots to learn!