Our FREE Weekend

We had a lot of fun this past weekend and we didn't spend a dime! I get a little bit sick to my stomach when I see parents buying their kids crap ALL OF THE TIME. Even if you have money, why must you always buy everything!!!!? Their kids just learn to ask, ask, ask, constantly, ask, ask, ask...for every single thing they think they want. It's annoying!

Anyway, here is what we did.

We played water balloon baseball.

 Examined our celery experiment.

 Made play-dough.

 And mini ecosystems.

 With working volcanoes!

 And port-a-potties!

 Floated boats when it started to rain.

 And went inside to make ziplines for legoman when it started getting late.

Bring Back Pluto!

I got around to making Taven a marker roll. He has finally started to show some interest in drawing/coloring.

 But still prefers paper airplanes.

 We checked out a pretty awesome book from the library. It is called Thunder Birds: Nature's Flying Predators (by Jim Arnosky.)

 This next one is called Island by Jason Chin on The Galapagos. We love all of Jason Chin's work.

 Also a neat book from National Geographic on Darwin. There are quotes from his journals.

 Some science experiments.

 And a new fascination with Pluto.

 My sister is a 2nd grade science and math teacher and she gave us this old model of the solar system. Pluto is represented as a planet. However, Eaden was not willing to accept that Pluto is no longer a planet and is instead a dwarf planet.

 The kids take the solar system everywhere. It talks and tells all sorts of facts about the planets.

 Because everyone was so upset with the treatment of Pluto by scientists, we decided to make shirts.

Next, we are planning on writing a letter requesting that Pluto be reinstated and we will be taking it with us when we visit NASA in the near future.

And Peace Descends Upon Us

In my last post, I talked about staying home and switching to more of an unschooling style. Oh how happy I am for doing these two things!....at least for some amount of time. I think staying home is what my son needs right now. And unschooling is always welcome of course. We have had abundant happiness on this Tuesday! and it's not even 2 o'clock yet!

I started off the day reading about pioneers and homesteading to Eaden. That led to us baking some pioneer style bread.

 Then the kids played in their fort.

 Back to the bread.

 I should probably remember to check in on this little monster more often.

 Watching pretend t.v. Naia kept turning the channel making Eaden mad.

 Then the baby wrecked the fort!

 Rebuilding.

 Dust baths.

 Neighbors flowers overflowing into our yard.

 Back inside and the dough has risen!

 I steamed some artichokes as a treat for the kids to have with their bread.

Here's to more days like this!

Priorities and Parenting Challenges

I feel the need to prioritize a few things in our lives right now: nature, art, and reading. With summer, aka 100 degree temps, upon us it is tempting to not step a foot outside. So we need to make that a point. Also, I feel as if we have not been very creative lately. Unfortunately, when I look for something artistic to do, I look to Pinterest. In other words, we copy. It is fun, but I guess not too creative. We need to just sit down with supplies and let our minds flow. And reading. We must take time to read everyday. I want to read my own book and I want to read to my children...more.

On another note, I feel us sliding back towards unschooling. I like some of the classical curriculum but a lot of it is a waste of time...in my opinion. There is much more interesting material out there to learn. So, if there is a complex which involves indecisiveness, I've got it.

Here is a question. Every time I take my son somewhere, he cries. Cries and cries until it is miserable for everyone. For example, we went to a snake program with our homeschooling group and he did not want to participate. He wanted me to stand in a certain spot away from the group and was going to cry until I stood there. I told Eaden and Naia we had to leave because he started to push down the baby, and he had even more of a fit. It was a disaster. The next day I took them to the new Egyptian exhibit at the museum and he cried the entire time screaming that he wanted to leave. Now, I know I need to do activities that he is going to like, but what about the other kids and what they want to do?

Today we went to a place where I wanted to go on a nature walk. The place also has a park. Well if there is a park, there is no way he is going on a nature walk. He just wants to stay at the park. So by making him go on a nature walk am I in some way teaching him to hate nature? If he cries the whole time? Of course, if he is crying the whole time we don't stay, but it's just that he wants his way ALL OF THE TIME and is not willing to let anyone else do anything that they want to do.

I would take them on nature walks that involve swimming every time if I could, but they are few and far away. Where we live, there are bayous and swamps and alligators. I am planning a swimming hole trip to the hill country in the near future, but that's not a daily or even weekly option.

HELP!!!!

 Here are some pics from the awesome new Egypt exhibit at the museum. We also saw Flight of the Butterflies in 3D while we were there and I highly recommend it!

 I will have to take the girls back at a later date (without the boys).

This lady was hot gluing cocoons/chrysalides on a board so that we may watch the butterflies emerge.

 How awesome is this!?

What a lucky lil' fella to have see through wings!

 My flash doesn't work so this next picture kind of sucks, but I still love it.

 Back home.

 One of our newer hens is an escape artist! We had to go outside numerous times to stop her from jumping over into the neighbor's yard.

A meal from my garden.

 Our attempted nature walk that lasted maybe 10 minutes.

I told the girls I would take them again when Daddy gets home from work and can watch Taven.

For now, I am content with staying at home, sitting in the backyard, and creating pages for our nature journals...even if the creatures are not local. This way, I drink beer, the baby takes his nap, and Taven does whatever he dang well pleases.