Wii did it!!!

We all agreed several months ago that we'd be getting a Wii as our big Christmas gift. We've also known that by the time we had the money, there'd be no Wiis. We'd all come to terms with that. I'd even decided to not go around trying to chase one down before stores ran out.

Then I saw on the news last weekend that Friday morning (2 days ago), GameStop stores would be selling Wii rainchecks, guaranteeing delivery by January 25th. Knowing how hard they are to get, that sounded like a great deal to us. No trying to hunt one down. So Tuesday night, I stopped in at GameStop and talked to one of the associates (John). He very strongly suggested I check with him in the morning(Weds.), early. So Wednesday morning, Gregory and I go off on our quest. It was short and sweet. John had already gotten a call from his UPS driver - no Wiis today. So we did it again Thursday morning. Thurs., he hadn't heard from his UPS man, so we waited, along with 2 other customers until around 11:30 when UPS got there. Again, no Wiis. I could tell John was very disappointed for us. He asked if we'd be coming for a raincheck and I assured him we would. He told us to get there early; they only had 12 rainchecks to sell.

So Friday morning, with snacks, drinks, DS, my crochet bag, and an old blanket to sit on, we headed out at 7:30. We were the second people there. I had flashbacks of camping out for concert tickets, but we all waited calmly in our cars. By the time they opened at 9:00, there were only 3 of us waiting. I called DH and let him know that if anyone at his office was interested, they'd better come now. So we go home quite happy Friday morning, confident that we'd have a Wii within a month.





At about 8:30 Friday night, the phone rings. Gregory comes running, phone in hand, calling "EB games! EB games!" (they've only recently changed name to GameStop). I answered. It was John. "Penny, I have your Wii." We were there in about 10 minutes, and playing by 9:30. We love it!

Grrrr

Okay, I am really working on letting this go, but I think I have to type it out to do that. When is the allopathic medical community going to recognize the importance of breastmilk??? (That is a rhetorical question - I do know the answer is *never*)

Little Joey has an intestinal disease. We know that his intestines do not function properly. But are the doctors promoting breast milk for him since it is the perfect food for him? **** no!

He's back in the hospital and this time they suspect it is reflux unrelated to his Hirshsprung's disease. So what are they recommending for this 6-week-old baby? They want Mom to try adding some rice cereal to his formula. The sound you just heard was my head exploding.

Did you know that in their entire medical schooling doctors get a 2-hour lecture on breastfeeding? And I don't mean a semester class worth 2-hrs credit. I mean literally 120 minutes of someone talking and that is it!

Don't get me wrong, this is not just the doctor's fault. It just doesn't matter to way too many people. And that really breaks my heart. I hurt for every baby who doesn't get to breastfeed. Now I'm not talking about those who try and are not successful. Sometimes, it really doesn't work out, and for those cases I am glad formula exists (still sad, but understanding). I would never judge a woman I see bottle-feeding. First of all, I don't know what's in the bottle. It could be breastmilk and for some reason the baby won't nurse, or mom is not comfortable nursing in public. Or perhaps this mom tried her best and it didn't work out and her heart is broken over it. I am talking about those who really don't want to breastfeed. Those who think it's yucky or it ties them down too much. And I know way to many of them.

I'm starting to feel a tug in the direction of becoming a lactation consultant. I've just done some basic research and it seems harder than I thought it would be. But I still feel the tug. Maybe that's what I'll be when I grow up.

Joey

Once again I call on my prayer-warrior friends for little Joey. He's back in the hospital unable to keep feedings down. I was so sick when I was sick (ages 16-18) that I have watched my own son like a hawk for any signs of gut problems. Thankfully, none have surfaced. It was honestly a bit of shock to hear that Joey was facing gastro surgery. I really felt if it was going to be passed along, it would be to Gregory. But, like me, Joey has IBD on both sides of his family. None of this is bigger than God, and He can make the nerves grow in Joey's intestines just as easily now as when he was in-utero. I know He has a bigger purpose for this, whatever the outcome. He will carry us through.

Blog readability

Okay, Stephanie got me with this one - had to check it out. :)

Cash Advance Loans

My niece

I became an aunt for the first time 32 years ago. My first niece was born 27 years ago, and her daughter was born 8 years ago. This week I got to meet my newest niece, Stella Rosalie, born to Greg's younger brother & his wife. She's a little bit - only 5lbs 6oz - but she's quite the keeper!


I love seeing my hubby holding a baby :)



She was asleep &/or nursing for a good while after we got there. Then when Mommy decided to change her diaper she woke up! Here she's holding onto her daddy's finger and looking straight at him.



Her Grandma Joan didn't want to hold her since she's so little. We talked her into it anyway. I think she's glad we did.



She slept in my arms for a bit too. Look at the sweet little hands...

an interesting article re: "minimally invasive education"

This article is really long but it's really worth the read!

From a Businessweek Online Daily Briefing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sugata Mitra has a PhD in physics and heads research efforts at New Delhi’s NIIT, a fast-growing software and education company with sales of more than $200 million and a market cap over $2 billion. But Mitra’s passion is computer-based education, specifically for India’s poor. He believes that children, even terribly poor kids with little education, can quickly teach themselves the rudiments of computer literacy. The key, he contends, is for teachers and other adults to give them free rein, so their natural curiosity takes over and they teach themselves. He calls the concept “minimally invasive education.”

To test his ideas, Mitra 13 months ago launched something he calls “the hole in the wall experiment.” He took a PC connected to a high-speed data connection and imbedded it in a concrete wall next to NIIT’s headquarters in the south end of New Delhi. The wall separates the company’s grounds from a garbage-strewn empty lot used by the poor as a public bathroom. Mitra simply left the computer on, connected to the Internet, and allowed any passerby to play with it. He monitored activity on the PC using a remote computer and a video camera mounted in a nearby tree.

What he discovered was that the most avid users of the machine were ghetto kids aged 6 to 12, most of whom have only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of English. Yet within days, the kids had taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the Net. Some of the other things they learned, Mitra says, astonished him.

The physicist has since installed a computer in a rural neighborhood with similar results. He’s convinced that 500 million children could achieve basic computer literacy over the next five years, if the Indian government put 100,000 Net-connected PCs in schools and trained teachers in some basic “noninvasive” teaching techniques for guiding children in using them. Total investment required, he figures: Around $2 billion.

On Feb. 25, BW Online Contributing Editor Thane Peterson sat down with Mitra, a stocky 48-year-old with a mustache and a mop of graying black hair, in his tiny, triangular office at NIIT’s R&D center on the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology in the south part of New Delhi. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation.

Halloween

We were planning to go to New Orleans today. It would have really been my last chance to see my SIL pregnant. And little Joey (my great-nephew) is 4 weeks old and I've not seen him since he was a day old :( . He's doing pretty well and I wanted to visit him at home while I'd have the chance.

Joey & Mikey...

Last night Gregory told me he didn't want to go. No big surprise there. He doesn't want to go anywhere lately. This morning he was dragging butt getting ready and I eventually found him in tears. I wanted to go so bad. I had already made phone calls (MY phobia!) and we were expected and I'd have to call AGAIN to cancel. My spirit could see that he couldn't do it but my flesh wanted him to get over it. I got very frustrated and wasn't helping. I finally just picked him up and held him and said we wouldn't go. That got him even more upset and he started insisting we would go (I know he was thinking he'd be blamed) because I wanted to go. I told him that yes I wanted to go but that his feelings were more important. I told him I was upset because I don't want him to cheat himself out of ever doing anything because of the fear of leaving home. I even told him I knew how he felt - a burning hole in the belly. BINGO. His face just transformed. I saw the trust return to his face. I wasn't just blowing smoke; I did know how it felt. Anxiety. Not the road I want him to go down. But it's part of the package. He's super sensitive and that applies to food additives, clothing tags, "joking" comments, and any stress around him. He knew I wanted to go. And I know a part of him wanted to want to go. But he couldn't. We went outside and I made my phone calls (I lived) and we just hung out and had a nice afternoon outside.

We watched a spider build her web...

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And Gregory finally believes that he can swing himself. He's been enjoying our "fall" weather. Today he was working on his dismount...

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And just to show how much he doesn't want to leave home - no trick or treating tonight! We've never had any TrT in our neighborhood. There really aren't any other kids. So we usually go with some friends to a neighborhood nearby that really goes all out. Saturday he got to go to a trunk or treat with his best friend and that was about as big of a crowd as he can handle. When we were talking about it today, he sounded like he didn't want to go (and that didn't break my heart). I told him he didn't have to go and he said, "Well I want some candy, so, yeah, I kinda have to go." His face lit up again when I said I had some candy & he did NOT have to go trick or treating. So he and his dad have been having a superhero cartoon marathon complete with dragging out comic books and the DC "encyclopedia" of superheroes.

As I typed all of this it occurs to me that the reason Gregory doesn't like to go to church with me is that it's a big church - seats about 1100 - and it's always crowded. He likes to watch it online with me sometimes & I take what I can get. I've had to really teach my faith by living it. No way could I get away with schooling it. But that's a blessing too. It's made me dive deeper.

Babies...

Well, Joey has been home for over a week and things are going pretty well. If his feedings and enemas continue going well, he should have his surgery in January. It was slow going for a while and there was talk of a temporary ostomy, but he's had several good days now and has surpassed his birth weight(finally!).

Still waiting for my other niece/nephew to be born. Only 16 more days till EDD! There's been a little concern about baby's size and the ammount of ammniotic fluid, but so far just "watching" things. My poor FIL is a nervous wreck. It doesn't take much to get him upset and his anticipation has gotten the better of him.

We're going ice skating today w/a few HS groups and hopefully there'll be a baby or two for me to snuggle. :)


[UPDATE] No babies to hold! Oh well. I had to follow the toddlers around instead.
BTW - I crocheted the hat Gregory's wearing!

Hirshsprung's disease

Well, unschooling has proven it's validity once again. This week, my whole family is learning all about Hirshsprung's disease. My nephew's son was born last Tuesday. By the weekend, it was clear something was wrong with little Joey's gut and he was in the hospital. Basically, the nerves that cause bowel movement are missing &/or incomplete, leaving him without the ability to eliminate properly. Treatment involves surgically removing the affected intestine and reconnecting the rest. But docs want to wait until he's 12 pounds, and he's now only 6 pounds. Until surgery, he'll have to have enemas to help him eliminate.

This is in the IBD (inflammatory bowel disease - not the same as IBS, irritable bowel syndrome) family of diseases. And we are an IBD family. I have Crohn's disease. I have one sister w/ ulcerative colitis. My mother has 2 cousins & 1 brother w/UC. My father's brother died of complications from UC 10 years ago. And if that weren't bad enough, little Joey's mom has a brother very sick with Crohn's. This little man's gut didn't almost didn't have a chance. Thank God for God!!

The blessing here is that this could not have been caught sooner. He wasn't even dehydrated yet when he was hospitalized. And his days are getting better. He's able to keep formula down (we won't go there!!) and had a small BM on his own yesterday. They may get to go home today. So prayers for good weight gain are appreciated. And feel free to join me in praying that these nerves continue to grow and develop making surgery unnecessary! AMEN!

Baby Joey

I met my 3rd great-nephew yesterday. Joseph Paul was born Tuesday, October 2 @ about 1:15 PM. I got to hold him for a while, but never saw his eyes - he slept the whole time. Older brother Mikey was pretty tired too and fell asleep just after we got there. Oldest brother Chase was happy to see Gregory - he thought he'd found a play mate. But yesterday was not a fun day for Gregory. Well, he ended up having fun, but he really didn't want to go. I did what I could to validate that feeling, but staying home was not a good option. He just wanted to be home and we talked about it and agreed to just keep our visits short. Thankfully, once we were there, he did enjoy himself and I really had to drag him out of his Grandpa's house to go home.

I have to say that the more time we spend in NO, the more I realize I really do not want to live there anymore. I used to think we'd end up there again, but I don't see it now. The main drags all seem to be up and running, but you can go down just about any side street and find abandonded buildings - often very large buildings. It's creepy. And I have to say, everyone we know went home and rebuilt/repaired. And everyone of them have said never again. They have all said that next time, they are not coming back.

BUT life DOES go on, and here's some proof:


Joey

Mikey

Baby shower, New Orleans style

My SIL's baby shower was Saturday. It was a suprise, thrown @ the Rib Room of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, on St. Louis St. in the French Quarter. It was lovely. The food was incredible! Mmmmm the gumbo! It was even worth having to wear dress/hose/lycra/heels.

For some reason, I thought I would be the only person from Jason's side of the family attending. I thought it was a suprise from him also(it wasn't) and knew that I was the only woman in our family they knew well. To my suprise, their grandmother was there, 2 aunts, & 3 cousins. I hadn't seen most of them in several months, but one cousin I hadn't seen since Gregory was 5 months old! It was such fun.

We were treated to a 3 piece jazz band, and an open bar .


Outside the giant windows of the hotel, this couple sat and entertained passers by. LSU was playing Tulane @ the dome, and the streets were crowded.


After Katrina, both of Darlene's sisters moved out of state. Her older sister is 14 months older, and the other is her twin, so they are very close. It's been hard on Darlene for them to be gone. Renee has 2 boys, so her family is ready for a girl. Our family, however are all pulling for team blue (Did I mention that they aren't finding out the gender before birth?). Lately, I am secretly hoping for a girl because I know that's what Darlene wants, but I'm still getting that boy vibe. We shall see!

blossoms

Some of you may be enjoying fall already. Although we have had a break in temps (it's only 88 right now!), my flowers are still loving a long summer.

proud of me

I've left the aforementioned mommy forum for good. Really for good since I can't remember my password! Long rant short, there's an Ezzo mom there and it's just too painful. I've been there for 5 years and always passed along AP info. But for the past year an Ezzo mom has been very vocal. It really breaks my heart. It started with recommending flicking baby's cheek if she bites while nursing and it just got more horrific from there.

Anyway, I have left this forum before, because of this, but gone back because of the real friendships I'd formed with most of them. But this time it's for good. It was hard, and yet not hard KWIM? A few of them are on myspace anyway.

My peg appears to be a rhombus...

Test - photos

Just testing. Darlene said I couldn't post this on myspace. She didn't say anything about my blog. :)

Impatiently waiting for the arrival of Little Jason Jr or Stella Marie,
Aunt Penny

Unschooly movie

We just watch Accepted. The writers obvioulsy have a fixation with the word "shit", but if you can get past that, it's a great story. Basicly a guy doesn't get into college & takes the college money from his dad & makes up a college. It slowly but surely evolves into a very real "uncollege", w/ some very unschooly themes.

A day in our life

Somone on Louisiana unschoolers began a "our day" thread, and I wanted to repost my reply here.

DH Greg leaves for work @ 6:30am. I try to be up by 8:30 to have some time before DS Gregory (9) gets up, but that doesn't always happen. I start my day w/coffee, devotionals, and email, including checking for new soap orders. Gregory is up by 9:30 and heads straight for my lap :) . He sits there until he can't wait any longer to pee . Then he's off running around with the dog. By the time he's done devouring some peanut butter sandwiches or oatmeal, it's his turn @ the computer. He's very into Webkins right now. He takes care of his panda there, often while taking care of his tomagachi as well. Then he's off to his room to read his huge pokemon book while playing the latest pokemon game he's rented from Gamefly (he pays out of his allowance), and often watching a pokemon episode as well. Somewhere in there will usually be a SpongeBob episode or 2.

DH comes home for lunch, and DS has recently begun cooking (we usually have burgers) w/me. We do a spot clean of the house, get the floor swept, our hair combed, etc. The house always looks lived in, but I try to be sure that the mess DH comes home to is not the same mess he left behind LOL! DH loves the show How It's Made, and it happens to be on at lunch time, so we'll have that on while he's home. DH, DS, and the dog usually have a bit of play time before DH goes back to work.

Three or 4 days a week, our afternoons are spent out - post office, shopping, field trips, park day. If I have a soap order, he likes to help me pull the
inventory and package it, then we are off to the post office. Trips to WalMart always entail bringing allowance money, price-checking the latest games, figuring how much more he needs to save, how long it'll take to save that much, etc. We talk about choosing best prices, nutritional value, marketing ploys, goodness we are always talking! Recent field trips include a visit to a small post office, a hands-on pottery demonstration, checking out a homeschol kung fu group (he's not interested), and learning to crochet over the summer(a class taught by a homechool mom for any interested kids & moms. I'm now teaching myself to knit as well.)

DH is home about 6 and we try to do dinner before 7pm. Gregory has recently been bit by the cooking bug. Last night he made spagetti & meat sauce. After dinner ny 2 guys will usually do something together - a bike ride, play a video game, wash the truck, work on whatever household project is going on,
etc. I get about an hour or so alone most evenings. My guilty pleasure during that time is watching a CSI/Law & Order show. It's my time to veg. Then we usually watch a movie together (love Netflix!). Our collection and taste in movies vary greatly. Some family favorites are Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Abbott & Costello, Jerry Lewis, John Wayne, John Candy, Bill Murray, etc. I married into a movie family. My in-laws, DH & DS can see a movie once and they remember such detail! DS loves to take a DVD and watch everything on it - outtakes, how it's done, etc. He learns so much from watching movies.

Bed time for DH is 10pm. He rarely makes that, but that's his story and he's sticking to it (more like 11 or 11:30). Gregory & I are the night owls, usually up until 1am or later. If I'm ready for sleep & Gregory isn't, he'll just watch TV or play until he is (that is rare). Then we get up next morning & have a completely different, although similar, day.

And I know that we do many things everyday that I am not remembering right
now. :)

Punkin the Tiger Kitty (LSU Tailgating)

SCHOOL SUCKS

For the last 3 days I have been helping a friend that's in a true bind. Three of her children have been sleeping at my house. So come 6:30 in the forsaken AM, I have to get up. Then I have to wake them up. Then I have to feed them, tell them and help them get dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, shoes on, potty?, where's your booksack?, come on let's go! OH, and don't forget to take your "medicine" . Rush, rush, rush, rush, phooey! And then right smack in the middle of my day, I get to go back to retrieve them. Then it's rush them home, rush myself home, make dinner and get my family fed, relax for about half an hour, then go pick them up again to sleep at our house so I can get them to school the next day. All of the time they spend at home (all of 4 hours)is spent fighting over getting homework done.

For quite some time, these kids have made no secret of how they envy Gregory's not having to go to school. Lately, they've said they want me to homeschool them (Yeah, Right!). Yesterday afternoon my friend asked me some questions about the cost of homeschooling. So we talked about the basics - our state laws, using PS curic., using full curics., using bits and pieces, and a very basic description of unschooling. Truth is, I spend less than $50 per month on things that could be considered related to homeschooling (field trips, mag. subscriptions). She said her kids are always saying they want to be homeschooled. In fact they say they want me to homeschool them "because Gregory is so smart!" Wow. That suprised me. Not that they think he's smart, he is smart, but I was not expecting that to be their main reason. I'd love to see her homeschool. Now, she's one of the most mainstream people I know. We parent very differently. I'm sure she'd be a school-at-homer, but it would still be so great to see them out of school. I know she'd love to get them off medication. Over time she has stopped spanking (still punishing tho), stopped letting her babies cry (she's had 4 since I've known her), and even allows some co-sleeping now and then, so there is hope. Baby steps...

Church...

I wish I'd have had my camera at church last weekend. We have about 30 minutes of great jump-up-and-down worship before bible study. It's a very active crowd, and it's often the most excercise I get all week :) . Anyhoo, I spotted a scene right up front that I wish I'd have been able to photograph. Right in the front row I see two hands in the air in worship. One man had his left hand in the air. His long sleeved light blue oxford was freshly pressed. Immidiately to his left stood a man with his right hand in the air. His roughly tanned arm was covered in tatoos. To see those two arms, the oxford and the tatoos, raised in worship beside each other summed up what I loved about my church so well. All are welcome. It is a no snob zone.

We have peanut butter!!

Our lives changed on February 14, 2007:
"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to eat certain jars of Peter Pan peanut butter or Great Value peanut butter due to risk of contamination with Salmonella Tennessee (a bacterium that causes foodborne illness). The affected jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter have a product code located on the lid of the jar that begins with the number "2111." "

I don't know about you, but my child is made of peanut butter. It's the one thing that I could always turn to when he was picky and hungry. And suddenly it was gone. No other peanut butter would do. He settled for peanut butter crackers, but that's pre-packaged with who knows what, and I knew the nutritional value could not be compared. In May I read that the company was hoping to begin production in July. I told Gregory that, and he said that I'd better not get him peanut butter for his birthday (late in July). Truth is, he'd have been thrilled to have it for his birthday. I later read that they were aiming for late August. Imagine if you can my amazement when I saw Peter Pan peanut butter on the shelves of WallyWorld Saturday. Can I tell you that I had tears in my eyes thinking about coming home and making my child a peanut butter sandwich? I felt like Walter Fielding in Money Pit discovering they have stairs - "We have peanut butter!"

Now I'll have to start buying more bread again!

I am a Violet What Flower Are You?

The square peg...

Nobody IRL gets me. Well, that's an exaggeration. My hubby gets me, and he's still here. I am truly blessed that he's always seen parenting as my career (not just a job), and he's allowed me to do the research and come up with what works for us. That doesn't mean he's hands off. Far from it. He's just allowed me to be the expert here. He respects my choices and feels I can make good choices for our family. He sees the results of those choices, and it is good.

Lately, I'm running into people who obviously (to me at least) are threatened by or are resentful of the freedoms I've chosen to create my world. As my son gets older, I've become less and less coersive with him. Everyday it seems I have another mini-lightbulb moment about one thing or another. Things are constantly changing in our house.

I'm not too big into writing, so I may not go on and on about the details of each day. I'm a photographer, and I do a lot of photo-journaling. So you can expect many photos.

Oh, we saw Underdog yesterday and really enjoyed it!

More later!
P

can you unschool school?

My short answer - NO

I see "unschooler" and "unschooling" a bit differently. An unschooler can decide to take a formal class, and this doesn't mean they are no longer an "unschooler", but they are not "unschooling" at the time. Of course, an unschooler would bring a different perspective to a class than other "schooled" students, but if the goal is getting credit for the class, class rules must be followed, class goals and deadlines muct be met, which makes it schooling.

If my son decides to go to college, I will still be an unschooler because I will still be a life learner. But my son would be a student of university and therefore not unschooling at the time. I am not unschooling my son. He is unschooling himself.

video games

Yeah, I think we've all gotten stuck at video games for a time. We've been
told forever that they are evil. Fom money suckers to time wasters to brain
rotters. Be ye not afraid!! I have to giggle because I fought it for so
long. Problem was, the more I fought it, the more it became a holy grail to
my son (almost 9yo). When I realized that and began to let go, I began to
see all of the learning going on. Yes it took time. Yes he did little else
for quite a while. Yes I often had moments of panic. But we have reached a
balance. He loves his games. But unlike some of his friends who are limited
in their game play, he can walk away from it. It seems many of them can only
play in the car and away from home. So at park day there'll be a bunch of
kids all playing their hand held games (many are interacting with each
other) and Gregory's the only one who doesn't bring his to the park. In fact
he's only taken his out of the house twice. Both times at my urging because
we were going to be driving for quite some time. One trip he played for a
while. The other he never took it out.

What's he learning? Well, there's quite a bit of reading going on. Games
have *cheat codes* and *unlockables* that can be found online or in gaming
magazines. There are online forums for game users to share experience and
advice. He's doing a lot of research. He's also budgeting. He uses some of
his allowance to pay for an online game rental plan similar to netflix (
www.gamefly.com ). He saves the balance, usually to buy games. He's traded
old games at a local gaming store for store credit - he's saving for an
x-box or a wii. He even ebayed himself a gamecube system for $38! In the
games themselves, there are objectives to be met, widgets to be found, bad
guys to be subdued, allies to appease, etc, etc. There's usually quite a bit
going on at once. Allowing myself to enter his world for a while has been
wonderful. I'm learning about what he's interested in, I'm not putting down
his interest, and that keeps him talking to me about the games and other
things. It's been good for our relationship.

We are all big movie fans. There's something in DH & DS's blood that makes
them remember the smallest of details after seeing a movie once. It's
amazing to watch :) . Anyway, DS loves to get a new DVD and watch all of the
bonus material first. Talk about learning! He likes to watch it in a foreign
language and will often watch it subtitled in another language. He loves the
backstories from the commentary versions.

I'm having trouble getting to the details in my memory, but there's learning
oozing all of the place. You just can't stop it once you get out of their
way. It's a true leap of faith to let go of the notion of needing to control
our children. But our control is an illusion. God is in control. We just
have to let Him do His thing.

a dream

This was a few weeks ago. I only remember a few seconds. I was in the back seat of a car w/my parents in the front seat. We were stopped at an intersection near my (now) best friend's home. I remember hearing and feeling a deep boom. I looked out of the window and in the distance I saw a plume of smoke. At first it was not a mushroom cloud, but my thoughts were "it's a mushroom cloud," and then it became one. A general sence of panic was suddenly all around. My mother was screaming. I remember thinking, "Okay, my God is still in control." I kept thinking it and then I realized I was saying it outloud, louder and louder. My mother turned around and cried, "we could die!" and I replied, "If we die, we go to heaven" in a sort of what-are-you-worried-about manner. Then I woke up. It felt so empowering that my first thoughts were not of panic but of God's control.

"Limits"

No artificial limits on much of anything here. We share one computer and only 1 television has cable feed, so there are some natural limts. I was terrified of game systems and swore I'd never have one (long, long before being a parent. I called them money suckers). Eventually not having one made it that much more wanted by and endeared to my son (8.5yrs).

We bought him a playstation2 about a year ago. We got him a Nintendo DS for Christmas. I was actually pretty happy about that decision as I find the Nintendo games much less violent than the PS2 games. He recently "e-bayed" a Gamecube for himself and got quite a deal. He rents games from gamefly.com which he pays for out of his allowance.True, when he gets a new game, he emmerses himself in it. He learns all he can online about cheats and other codes. He's researching plenty! For a day or 2 he does little else. He stops on his own for a rest now and again, but he goes back to the new game after a while. But he learns so much from the games themselves. There are goals to be met. There's reading the story along the way. There's math in figuring how many widgets he needs to collect to get to the next level. There's often people managing skills needed to get different characters in the game to cooperate. It's all in how you look at what is going on.

And he does walk away on his own when he's had enough. Sometimes that may be hours, sometimes a few minutes. But because he knows they are there for him to use at any time, he has no fear that they will be taken away and no urge to soak up all he can while he can.

Same is true for television. If he doesn't want to watch, he doesn't. He turns it off more often than I do. There's no fear of not being able to watch later.Learning happens all the time. You can't stop it. You can kill the desire, but you can't stop learning. Unschooling is about changing your perspective on what learning is. Living life is learning.

yes, even fractions

Gregory (busy playing Zelda in his room) comes running out and starts telling me about the hit he just survived. It ended with "I had full health and when I fell on the blasters I lost a quarter health and when I fell in the lava I lost another quarter health. But I still have half health now."

:)

rambling about unschooling

I felt led to be an AP mom. While PG, I decided I was not going back to work. Nothing I could do to earn (at best) $10/hr would be anywhere near as important as being with my child. I have been very blessed that my husband agrees and we are able to get by on one income. He has also allowed me to do the research on education and allowed me to start us down this lesser-traveled path. I know not everyone has the luxury of being as free as we are, and I am greatful for it. Unschooling, for us, has been a natural progression of AP and positive discipline. The central theme of trust and respect work for us. I'm trying to model for my son how to get along with others, how to be a good "housemate". How to love others and share our blessings. How to appreciate how blessed we are.

I have come to see the fact that we only have one child as a blessing in itself. Although I know families with many children who very successfully unschool, I do not know if *I* would have been able to give Gregory what he needed if I had had another little one needing me as well. As you all know, I love babies. My heart almost always sinks just a bit when I hear that someone is pregnant. It's as though I hear "Myrtle is pregnant and you aren't!" But as I've gotten older (I listen for the bio-clock, but I just don't hear it!) it's gotten easier. I think there still may be babies in my future - babies put in my arms but not in my womb. So if I had written the script of my life, I would not be 40 years old with only one child. But in hindsight, I do see all of the blessings the situation has brought us and I am happy with where I am right now.

Watching Gregory learn on his own has been amazing. I'm not even sure I can put it into words. For me, there is faith at work. Faith that he was created as a whole being. He is not mine to "train" or to "civilize". He is only mine to guide. He learns best when I stay out of his way. I am here to help him find his God given passion and to help him develop that passion. I am not here to convince him to be a doctor or a lawyer or even (as Dad is) an engineer. I don't really have worldly goals for him. What I want for him is to be a happy, healthy, productive person. Those are the things I am to model for him. He taught himself to read and reads very well. Math skills have flourished with time-telling and cash-spending/saving. He is better at budgetting his money than I am, and he often has more cash than I do! When interested, he approaches new things head on. He examines new things in their totality and figures out how they work. He'll then take it apart (literally or figuratively) and examine and absorb each detail. His thirst for knowledge is still fresh. And I love the light bulb moment expression I often see on his face. But I also know when he's not interested in something, and I know that if he's not interested no amount of talking or showing can change that. And that's okay - because of it, I am fairly aware of what he does not know. Well, maybe that's a stretch. I *think* I know what he doesn't know. He'll often suprise me by spouting off something that I had no idea he knew.

All of this is a long way of saying that examining where you are on your journey is a good thing. Finding your own way is a good thing. Questioning what you trust is a good thing. And they are all good things to be modeling for your children. They are seeing that even as an adult we are growing and learning. Very little is in stone.

And I could go on a rant about hating the term unschooling. Our life should not be described by a term with "school" in it at all. We have nothing to do with it at all. It's like calling breastfeeding moms "unbottlers".