Fourth of July Talent Show

Well, it was really the 3rd, but that's how we roll.

Among other festivities, we had the annual Talent Extravaganza.

Ella MC'ed and coordinated the talent (which is a bit like herding cats, but she got the job done!).

The karate girls. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the camera to get a clear picture of the kicks. Even in the sand, don't they look strong, focused and intense? Uh huh, they are.

The girly-girls doing the Cotton-Eyed Joe remix dance to The Dog Song by Nellie McKay.

The diaper dance karate improv roll in the sand having fun routine!

Oh, this was coerced participation in the show. Ella: "You can pretend to kill each other!" The boys: "YEAH! Then we'll DO IT!!"

Everyone took a nice bow :) We couldn't quite get our diapered lady to join in, but she got plenty of applause, too.

What a game!

And although I have been obsessed by the Celtics championship, I don't mean that game.

I mean t-ball. How fun is that game? That's the D-dog in the red shorts and white/blue hat.

Declan decided to play this spring again, and he has loved it. He was kind of not really really sorta ready for it last spring. I think the lying down in the outfield was the clue that he was not quite into it.

Fast forward to season 2008! Whadda battah!

He is so into it. Not even the cicadas could distract him. He said that he loved t-ball, but really felt he needed to play to get ready for little league. So sweet. This season his coaches were great and really engaged all the players. They made a team out of the kids, which really didn't happen last season and made for some wicked awesome Saturday mornings this spring!

Last year, Ella did a visual presentation for 4-H on Duct Tape (The Duck That Doesn't Quack - Duct Tape). She won at the State Competition, so the pressure has been on. Well, self-imposed pressure as always *grin*.

This year, she did an entire presentation on Artist Trading Cards. It was beautiful. She had sponge-painted all her "boards" (the posters that the kids use as an outline for the presentation). She made one HUGE Artist Trading Card so that everyone could see what it was. Then she found a great way to mount all the atcs so that they popped off the display.

But, then, in February, she decided to do a visual presentation on the eye.

Deep breathing exercises were used.

And then she set off to work again.

She ended up making a beautiful cross-section of the eye from large pieces of that foam paper (why didn't they have THAT when I was a kid?).

She worked really hard, and set up a whole new project. We are going to the county visual presentation this weekend, and if she does well then she'll go on to the state competition.

We'll keep our fingers crossed.

This is one of her "visuals" for the VP. It shows an image of the inside of an eye and some fruits and veggies that contribute to eye health. as she says (every time she practices), not only are they good for your eye, but they provide nutrients for your body to keep your eye healthy."

This is her title page (ohh....it feels like you could be right there listening to her, doesn't it?)

Oh, yeah, baby, feeling like a winner. With a carrot.

Pledge of Allegiance

Oooh la la.

Of all the things I worried about, the pledge of allegiance was not one of them.

Both of my children want to opt out of that ritual. Declan thinks that the "under God" part is "not good".

We are not a religios family, as in consistently going to church. I would say we are spirtual. But, my son feels a deep connection to both God and Jesus. He said, about the pledge, that "God rocks, and should not be in with the flag or anything because he has really important things to do."

My daughter, true to form, feels that the pledge is part of the on-going brainwashing that occurs in school and does not want to (her words) "engage in anything that takes away from her individuality."

Separately, each child has approached me about this pledge of allegiance.

My son, once he realized after some discussion, that "under God" meant God was MORE important than the flag, said he would keep pledging.

Ella is just going to mouth the words and not say them out loud.

I'm baaaaack :)

Well, we have had an eventful month, those Joyful Learners and I.

It was very nice to hear that people were missing the blog, but it was also making me even more conflicted. Ella has decided to try school, and Declan also wanted to go. Due to some other issues in our lives, I thought that this might be a good time to go with their desire to try.

It is very hard to make this decision. Many people in my life who I know through homeschooling have made a point of telling me how much their own children will never want to go to school, and how grateful their children are for the homeschooling lifestyle.

This makes me feel (whether it is intended or not), that they have an implied judgement on my failure to make my children *love* being homeschooled, or that they want school because I am an unschooler, or not really an unschooler, or whatever the implied judgement is.

Granted, I am not in the best most secure head space right now, so I could be making this all up.

Anyway.

Ella was *very* clear. She LOVES her life. She is happy. She likes her friends, she loves her family, she is secure. She is grateful. She is learning. She wants to try school.

She has been wanting to explore school for a good 6-8 months now. I did what most "good" unschoolers would recommend. I expanded our world, I connected more. I facilitated. I validated.

I finally realized that I was making a big mistake.

I had finally hit that place (her wanting to try school) where I was not letting her make her own decisions. I was, in fact, manipulating her into "appreciating" the gift of unschooling, while at the same time denying her wish to try something new.

If it had been skydiving, I would have said, "Let's explore that!"

If it had been driving a car, I would have said, "Hmmm....how can we fill that desire?"

But it was school.

And I was saying, with all my gyrations and interesting strewing, "WHY!?!? What am I doing wrong? What can we do differently?" All the while implying that her desire was wrong.

So I said, "Okay. Let's give it a go."

Now, I am wondering where this will lead us, where this will leave this blog, what I am going to do in this new chapter of relating to the kids and school.

But, I am back here. And will be keeping you updated on the Joyful Learners in school for the time being.

We're off to see the Wizard

It was definitely organized chaos wrangling hundreds of children into groups of poppies, munchkins, and flying monkeys. The flying monkeys were already zooming around!

Ella is a munchkin, and she is so excited! This picture is stinky, but you can see Ella in the turquoise shirt right in front when they were learning the jitterbug.

She was thrilled to be cast in the Wizard of Oz at the high school, along with some of her friends. Yesterday we went to rehearsal and the director of the show had such a wonderful energy and it was really great. I am so glad that Ella has had so many positive drama mentors.

Spiraling Around Fairies

Spirals are so wonderful and organic and somehow cozy and scary all at once.

I have always loved the educational notion of a spiral of learning as opposed to a linear progression. After all, isn't that how we learn in real life? I love the image of swirling around ideas and falling into them as one falls into a whirlpool, reaching deeper and deeper (maybe even scary) levels of understanding.

One thing that we have revisited over and over is the Spiderwick series of books. They are captivating, and as they captured the imaginations of Ella and then one friend and then another and another, or then she was given a field guide, the interest would be rekindled.

I remember feeling that way about gnomes. I still have the Gnome Gnotebook that Meg's mom gave me when I was about Ella's age.

Now that Spiderwick is going to be a movie, we did the books with our Coastal Free Learners homeschool group. We also found out it is going to be a game and I am so excited! It 's going to be very fun! There is so much information about the books on the internet, along with games and downloads, etc. What is so wonderful about these books is that the kids seem to take them so seriously, and really feel connected to the Grace children and the invisible world all around us.

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We had a blast today making Sprite outfits. It was so fun to hear the children earnestly discussing the merits of leaving milk out for Brownies, and whether or not fairies liked fairy houses or felt that they were some sign from us that we thought them incapable of housing themselves. Ella has researched the authors, their influences and even their pets (pugs, of course!). Even the boys had fun drawing and making the Sprites have warrior helmets on their head..

Spectacle of Lights

Last night we went with Meg and her young friends, Paul and Doug, to go to the Spectacle of Lights. Declan had a blast riding the carousel. Once you are up there spinning around it is pretty fast and high, but he hung in there.


We went through the whole display of lights, which was extraordinary! We saw some friends there, which is always nice. I am still adjusting to the small town nature of Cape Cod (in the winter especially). We saw three families there that we knew! People always wonder if home schooled children are going to be well-socialized. It was nice to see that last night my children made friends easily with the two boys they'd never met, and then saw plenty of people that they knew from their wide world experience.

Centerville Stroll

These small children adored Frosty! They followed him down the street, and told him, "We love you!" and "We know your SONG!"

He was very nice to them and said he would pass along their messages to Santa. Oh, yeah, baby! Marshmallows on a dark night in the middle of the street!?!? Does it get any better?
And then my camera died. So, I missed pictures of Shyah with her dancing toes in the stroller. But, the memories are in my head.

Scrapbook Fun

We have found a wonderful place! It is called Simply Scrapbooking, and the woman who runs it, Michele, is awesome with the kids. We have been twice, and both times the girls (we have yet to get Declan or any boys to come!) made stuff they were really proud of.

It is so fun to hear them chatting in the "back room." Ella is really concentrating here.
Ahh! The finished product! A picture book for Dad for Christmas. Shhhh. . . it's a secret!

November is National Novel Writing Month

Well, I am going to try again. It is National Novel Writing Month again. Ella is actually joining me in this pursuit and we will see how it goes. So far, I have more than 2000 words, which sounds impressive until you calculate that I will have to write 1666 words a day and so today I have to write about 3000 words to keep on schedule.

I am being quite verbose, and every minute thinking of Mr. Burns (both mine and Richie's high school English teacher) saying I had "diarrhea of the pen." I am sure he is rolling over in his grave at all these writers writing for word count and editing in December for clarity.

So, how this will effect my blogging will remain to be seen. I am thinking either I will write a lot to "warm up" (read: procrastinate), or I will actually get to writing and not blog much.

Ella's goal, as a Young Writer, is set at 18,000 words. She has writing nearly 1000, and she had to kill off a character who just wasn't working. My goal is set by NaNoWriMo at 50,000.

Okay, with the near hurricane outside, I am off to try to get to 3000 today.

Cape Wildlife Part Two

Oh. My. God.

So after yesterday's post, we were sitting having lunch and looking at the very green backyard. It has been raining here, much much needed, and so everything looked just lovely and fallish.

Then, streaking across the lawn I see our cat, Ozzie, chasing a white cotton tail.

A very small, and fast, white cottontail. It looked just like this picture.

So, before I even open the door to the back, I am screaming like a mental case. Screaming and banging stuff.

Both the cat and bunny freeze, but where is the bunny? I know it has frozen, since it isn't moving, but I am left to wonder, Is it UNDER the killer cat?!?!?

Now, I am the one streaking across the backyard...well, not streaking exactly, but running, and yes in my pjs. As I reach the cat, he just lounges, as if killing sprees of baby bunnies is really nothing at all to get so worked up about. Lolls, really, the big brute, for a scratch or something.

I scoop him up in my armpit. I can't look at him. He must go INSIDE. FOREVER. NOW.

By then my kids are involved and although I don't relish the idea of them coming with me to discover the bloody corpse, I think the bunny is just in a panicked faint as bunnies can do. Of course, the woman at the Cape Wildlife Center had told me how bunnies just drop dead unless you approach them with a "yoga-like calm".

Hmmmmm.....I really really really tried.

And I tried to remember if I could touch it with my hands. Stories of mange, rabies, and other various common human mistakes were racing through my head.

It wasn't moving. Its eyes were open, and it seemed to be breathing, but there was a big smear of blood on its little cheek.

I called Cape Wildlife. They told me *not* to touch it, and wrap it in a blanket or towel and bring it in.

All the while, I am looking where it is sitting thinking, Get up and hop away. Get up and hippidy hoppidy along now. Go on. HOP!! HOP!! HIPPIDY!!!

So, out we go again and bring a shoe box and a towel. It is very still. I kinda poke it and it moves a little, so we try to scoop it up.

And it stirs. It hips. And then, it HOPS! It scampered off just like a little bunny should.

Hooray!!!

Nature lives another day.

Now, I am off to buy some cat toys for my indoor cat.

Renaissance Fair

Declan made a friend at the Renaissance Faire. Although he declined a sheild, he did feel it made this opponent "unstoppable".
Hmmmm, are they attacking this other kid in a team?



Photos by Ella.