Dietary Inasanity

Not generally a fan of sudden changes in this area but I'm so frustrated by the awful and stubborn eczema that improved significantly after going gluten free but is none the less still here that I'm attempting a weeks of GAPS. Not the intro, just the full diet. Theoretically no coffee either but I don't think it's fair to subject the littles to the withdrawal. I'll save that for a day when P is around to protect them. Never the less it's after one pm and I haven't had my second coffee yet. Maybe after lunch (pumpkin soup with homemade beef broth). Wish me luck.

Unschool Monday

Or is it?
Of late we've embraced quite a bit more of what looks like "structured academics". This is not in the interests of pushing any kind of educational agenda but rather in the interests of maintaing household peace. Put quite simply, ms 4.5 thrives on the kind of one on one attention provided by workbooks, reading aloud practice etc etc etc. She also seems to really enjoy being told what to do, as long as she has a certain element of choice. So not "it's time for maths now" but "would you like to paint a picture or do some [cuisenaire] rod activities?" . Maybe it's not technically unschooling but my wonderfully calm little girl who has gone to bed every night this week telling me "I didn't get upset at all!" tells me it is meeting her needs for now and that is far more important than getting stuck in any dogma no matter how radical.

Jammin'

P made his second batch of Cloud Garden raspberry jam today (although apparently the Cloud Garden has changed it's name, I'm not sure what to - I couldn't read the handwriting) after a very productive picking session with some visitors from Sydney.
The children weren't so pleased about the trip to the garden today - although they both enjoyed a duck & chicken hunting expedition. It ended up being rather fun for them though, when we were leaving V & S's ute got mightily, inextricably bogged. This necessitated a trip to the owner's house, a ride back to the ute in the back of the owner's 4WD ute and joy of all joys, a chance to sit on the tractor for each of them. The ease with which that old tractor pulled the ute out of the mud and up the hill was almost comical, it might as well have been pulling a feather. V took pictures of M on the tractor pretending she was the one who pulled them out of the mud. I hope she emails them.
That's all folks. Raspberry jam on fresh sourdough for breakfast for them and on left-over gluten-free kefir pancakes for me.

Windsday

Child the larger likes to insist that we eat pancakes on Friday because they are fried and that it must be windy on "Windsday". Well it wasn't windy today but there was a lot of thunder. Very loud thunder! Recipe for disaster around here. Or at least a recipe for a catatonic older child.
Despite the conditions however we had a lovely day. Our days are becoming much more structured, well our home days at least. Offering more structured academics seems to be helping everyone in the family to get their needs met. CTE (child the elder) and I chatted about "school" and decided that for January everyday at lunch I will tell her three suggested activities and she will choose one to be completed at her leisure but preferably before dinner. Funnily I had trouble on the first day because she had already done all the things I was thinking about suggesting.

Another Monday Rolls By - Unschool Monday

Was it me or was that week ridiculously quick?
We are all enjoying having P work from home for those crazy days between the big Christian celebration and the big calendar celebration. There was some mention of camping but nightly downpours and (lovely) misty days have done away with that idea.
Peter Pan was the order of the day today, precisely Return to Neverland. Can't say I'm all that comfortable with all the questions the air raid sirens are bringing up but I guess that all counts as deschooling for me. Well, it's not entirely accurate to say Peter Pan, rather when one has memorised all three of the existing Tinkerbell movies and listened to Peter Pan read aloud one needs to search further afield to get one's Tinkerbell hit. Which leads me to the fact that we now own not one but two Silvermist dolls(and if you don't know who that is you haven't watched enough Tinkerbell) as well as Iridessa and Rosetta. So much for no barbies! At least they have a reason for having such ridiculous feet since they don't actually need to walk.
What else today? Well, lots of cubby houses, painting. I love love love that a gift of a sideboard plus taking the legs off the craft cupboard has meant that all the art stuff is accessible. I want to do some painting has become I'm going to do some painting. Piano for both littles (I guess it's a sign of a younger sibling when one of their early phrases is "fist first me!") and violin for child the larger. Actually she played a concert for a knitted mermaid doll (we do have some non Disney Fairy toys, phew) who enjoyed it very much.
Lunch was in Kat while scrambling to shop at the co-op before it shut early. We read a second grade science textbook in the car on the way there and at the table while waiting for our food. It occurred to me that it may not look particularly like natural learning to be reading a science textbook while waiting for our food in a cafe but I suppose most parents know you just do whatever works.
Oh, I almost forgot that child the larger wanted to read a book for her library Summer Reading Challenge thingo so I pulled out an easy one she has read before but hasn't counted towards this round of the challenge, no dice. "I've already read that one!". She grabbed a much harder one and struggled through it with all the stubbornness of a childhood me and the single-minded drive of her father. Wow. No amount of "let's finish it tomorrow" or "shall we read a page each?" made a difference. No, she read Every. Single. Word.

Unschool Monday

Joining in with Owlet et al. Today Child the Larger:

• Sketches planning, more sketches and more planning for the movie M woke up on Saturday morning wanting to make.
• All of the mazes from the local Library's "school holiday entertainment pack". Wow, I'm impressed with her maze solving ability.
• Used water colour pencils to paint colouring pages from same (note to self - water colour pencils would make a good present).
• Painted a diorama of mountains against blue sky (acrylic paint this time)
• 4 pages of Miquon Maths Orange Book.
• Carried around the broody chicken, pushed her in the wheelbarrow and swung with her on the swing seat (chicken didn't like swinging very much).
• Watched segments of the latest Tinkerbell movie seeking inspiration for her own endeavour.
• Watched all of The Princess and the Goblin (I love the flute in the soundtrack)
• Quizzed her brother endlessly about all his new words (many many many)
• Listened to an audio book
• Op shopped
• Walked in the cold cold wind and
• Asked a million challenging and insightful questions

Child the smaller:

• Answered correctly every word his sister quizzed him about (since she had just modeled it for him when asking)
• Made quite a few deliberate jokes
• Was adorably cute despite the fact that he
• Insisted on the millionth read-aloud repetition of "Sparkle Fun Christmas Shapes" in that way only toddlers can
• Delighted me with his little pre-sentences such as "Mama. Apple. Up. Cut." ... "Shankyyooo."

And much much more between them of course.

Having doubts

About homeschooling or maybe about natural learning. Not the cliched "She wont learn if I don't teach her" kind but more the (also cliched) "I don't have the patience for that" kind. Sigh. Guess I'll have to get it though because she most adamantly (tearfully) DOES. NOT.  want to go to school.
What do I need? More rhythm? More space (alone time)? More purpose (my own music)? Or just to put it out there that today was a hard day ;)