a month of unschool

i know these a month of unschool posts tend to be my least polished, most photo-heavy and scatterbrained of all… my feeble attempts at scratching another mark on the doorframe to show how much we’ve grown, when that little scratch mark in no way encompasses what it actually meant to grow that quarter of an inch… yet they are my favorites and i know i will look back at them later and treasure these cryptic little markings, barely a hint at what all went on in our lives, but a cherished hint nonetheless.

~the month i’m covering extends back to just before thanksgiving, so pie making was one of the first subjects we covered. 🙂 important stuff, that.~ we spent most of the month drawing and drawing and drawing again/still, with quinn documenting the triumphant return of my guitar from repair land, drawing a beautiful image that doubles as a poem “it’s you, me and dada standing on a moon, and it’s a pink moon, and a butterfly is landing on dada’s head and bringing us a berry pie.” ~ one of the masterpieces of the month that quinn spent lots of time on was a map of the junkyard (from the junkyard tales series over at sparkle stories, and speaking of cherishing! what a gem of a resource, folks. if you are into audio stories, i urge you to check them out, imagine listening to stories about other kids who homeschool!!!) quinn spent time poring through the pacific northwest field guide for specific animals he wanted to draw so he could study them: zippy the porcupine, spiro the skunk, the rowlands (a family of raccoons) and more.~

~one library book on whales told of mythology about the earth being brought into existence on the back of a whale, which quinn immediately wanted to draw (cherish!)~ vermicious knids (you see we are actually reading in addition to drawing- and it inspires more drawing!) ~ umbrellas ~ junkyards ~ hobbits and wizards outside hobbit homes ~

~ corn (this was a great unschooling moment for mama in using what is salient for him right now to help him through struggles: he was upset that i was using frozen corn in our dinner instead of fresh corn still on the cob, and my logic about seasons only made him angrier, but when i suggested that maybe he could draw the kind of corn he is really missing and sad about, he snapped right out of that mood and got busy! i have the cut-out corn cob hanging on the fridge as a reminder to myself!) ~ artwork hanging in his bedroom (used to be our bedroom and i do still sleep there occasionally but… he decided he was ready for a room he could claim as his own.~ “three whales swimming towards you and smiling and these are their noseholes”~ the hardwood ladybug; likely friend and companion of the berican pelican or the great east-north-west elk (wish i had written down more of his made-up animal names, they are classic!)~ chantarelle in his hand (tracing is a new fun facet of his drawing world)~

~mermaids ~ mama-quinn-and-kitty (which is now hung on the ceiling by his request) ~ his design for my sleepytime tea concoction (fender moon, boat  moon and mama dancing in the middle) ~ more field guide studying and some bird drawing ~

~taking our drawing skills on the road… we drew at the aquarium and drew at the beach ~

~getting creative with food, we snacked on umiaks (another sparkle stories find, involving a dugout apple, pb, raisins, and coconut “snow”)~ homemade noodle lasagna that quinn got in on for the layering ~ cookie baking in prep for christmas ~ and in the garden: lo and behold we are growing winter peas! a few at least…

~more archery practice (especially intuitive shooting, it is pretty cool to witness!) ~ blokus with friends ~ and a nice hike with a nice newt sauntering on by~

a month of unschool was going to try being a blog hop, but i think between my reluctance to spend money on the blog for the linky tools subscription (not that it isn’t a worthy business but ya know we all have to pick and choose where we spend our money!) and my wildly overdue posting (i think i promised the last day of the month! hahahaha. i guess that blew right by, huh?) so instead, i would love to simply invite others to share a link in the comments as a way for us to share our many varied life learning experiences as unschoolers.