Monday, February 18, 2008

If We Don't Buy It, Then What Do We Do?!

Our homeschooling group is very active and we try to have a few holiday parties scattered throughout the year. Recently, we had a Valentine's Day Party. E., a friend of mine, agreed with A., another friend of mine, that they both like my blog. Thanks guys! I'm glad that you do. E. made the point that I'm not always on topic here. I have plenty of posts that don't have anything to do with not buying anything new. In fact, I realize that I have whole categories, don't I? Overseas Visitors. Politics. Polls. Nature. Internet. Vitamin C. Somehow in my mind it's all interrelated. It's all the positive correlate to NOT buying anything new. It is all the stuff that we DO do. If we don't buy it, then what do we do?

We go into the city to the museum of Science and Industry with Mom and Dad and Dad shows us stuff.



We see a DNA strand on the floor in front of the genetics section and realize it looks just like the macrame bracelets that we make!



We mock the Republicans...well, actually we mock the Republican powers-that-be who try to get our vote...


We go to the new Goodwill Store and eagerly await its opening!
And then it does open, and we do go and we check out everything and even get a cute dress for $4! If we wanted a computer monitor, we could get one for $4.99!

We could get a stair climber!
Or shoes!
Or clothes!
Or even a book--check it out kids!!
We photograph the trees covered with beautiful snow.
We go to a snow sculpting competition while Mom is home sick and we see a great dog.
And, we see snow sculptures:





Pretty good, aren't they?


Doesn't this giant penguin remind you of the Monty Python penguin on the telly? It's just there. What's it DOING there? Standing! I can SEE that!! My kids don't know about that yet, but Husband and I think it's pretty funny.


We go to a Chinese New Year celebration at a local community college. We wait for the festivities to start by practicing some trick photography...I mean, we magically shrink my daughter and my son photographs the result. Yeah that's it.
See how easily she can stand on my hand?

My son was also able to get the Queen's guards at Buckingham Palace to all line up and stand on his finger!!
That kid is magical, I tell you! He must only use his power for good...

We saw dancing, twirling, whooshing lions!


We play in the snow in our driveway.


We go sledding with the homeschooling group, and Dad meets us during his lunch and climbs the GIANT mountain of snow that has been plowed into a big pile!


We go to the homeschooling Valentine's Day party where we exchange homemade valentines and my daughter wears her kicky new dress from Goodwill!


We play Harry Potter where my daughter is Hermione Granger and reads junk mail, pretending it is mail she just received from an owl at Hogwarts.


We have a photo session with Mom where a certain kid starts cracking himself up by being as wiggly as he possibly can, which then infects his sister with the same silliness and a powerful fit of giggles.


And then, all of sudden, the world is slipping off its axis!!! The world is tilting!! We. Can't. Hold. On!!!! Aaaaaghhhhh!!


We don't buy it, but we do have fun!

3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

What a wonderfully fun family you have. Your children are lucky to have such involved parents.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this. I am discerning whether we are called to be a homeschooling family, and I really appreciate the entry.

Laura said...

Thank you, me. It is lively around here.

analisa, homeschooling is completely doable these days--especially with all of the support groups that are around. Homeschooling looks different for every family. There is no "right" way to do it. You can trust that whatever way works for your family, your children are learning and are healthy and happy, you can do it. You also can know that you don't have to have it all figured out from the onset. Use what works and discard the rest. You can adjust as you go. And, isn't that one of the basic benefits of homeschooling? You can tailor the learning/home environment for your kids. You can tailor it according to their learning styles, your temperment, their temperment, your changing schedule, their changing schedule, etc.

I highly recommend you read anything by John Holt (the de facto father of homeschooling)or anything by John Taylor Gatto. He won the teacher of the year award in new York State and New York City. He is a huge proponent of homeschooling and explains in his book, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, how institutional schooling robs kids of a sense of themselves and is failing them. Good book.

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