Christian Unschooling

My Old Rocking Chair

2009-11-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

I am lucky enough to own many of the toys I grew up with. Hopefully my kids will want some of these items when they are older...

All of my childhood toys evoke some memory or feeling.

Here's Sebastian sitting in my old rocking chair. Behind him, in the kitchen, is my old wooden kitchen set. These toys have been used and abused, but keep on rockin. (Get the pun, hahahhah!)

Great Art supply resource

2009-11-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

I finally got tired of using paper plate after paper plate to put paint on! I bought some big well and some small well, paint pallets for pretty cheap!

Trader Joe's Field Trip

2009-11-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Trader Joe's is always a cool field trip. They show you lots of cool food, show you the back freezer, give you free samples, and then you get to grocery shop!

On this trip we learned that in each Trader Joe's they have their own artist who hand paints all their signs. Here's their artist and her creative space.

Group picture

The balloon was certainly a great perk!

Gloves/Hat organizer

2009-11-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

I love sharing organizational tips. On the inside of my coat closet I have hung 2 see-through shoe organizers. They are filled with various size/color gloves/mittens, hats, scarves, umbrella, etc. It makes finding the right color and storing a pair together, very easy!

Uhoh, Daddy's Ironman Hat

2009-11-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is almost sacrilegious in my husband's mind...NOONE touches THE Ironman Hat! Not even the baby! Luckily this was last years. phewwww.

Blue and Gold Banquet

2009-11-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Good thing there's no grading involved in blogging! I'd get an F. This is also months late. Oh well, accept it!

This was Elias Blue and Gold cub scout banquet. We learned about Hawaii and hosted a Hawaii table and craft.

Here's our palm tree:

Here's Elias' Hawaiian name

The Las Vegas Dutch Oven Cooking Society came out and provided the meal for us. It was fabulous!

Beef stew, yummmmm

It was a great day, and a great learning experience on so many topics!

My Ring

2009-11-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

My precious wedding ring...with no diamond in it. (This is NOT the new diamond ring...rather my original wedding set)

Pet Rock

2009-11-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Another simple, fun craft.

The required googly-eyes LOL!

Lawry's

2009-11-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

I am sooooooo behind in posting! This was months ago! One of Chris' longtime clients/friends came to town and wanted to take him and I out to lunch. We went to Lawry's, which was fabulous! Great company and great food!

NHN Celebration

2009-11-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here in NV we're very blessed to have been able to pass homeschooling laws that are least restrictive. Our governor has also signed a proclamation 2 years in a row, declaring the first week of April Home Education Awareness Week.

This last year Nevada Homeschool Network hosted a city-wide event with various speakers and things for the kids.

Here was (at the time) North Las Vegas Mayor, Mike Montandon, talking with a teenager.

Here's Senator Joe Heck (now running for US Congress), talking about his stance on education and homeschooling in particular.

We had the Fire Dept bring out their Smoke House and the Fire Safety Program...Stop, Drop and Roll, as Elias is demonstrating

The kids are learning about what Firemen sound like when they come to save you.

Here's the smokehouse!

The Las Vegas Mounted Police came

And here are Amy Carder and Laura Siegel, helping represent NHN & Las Vegas homeschooling!

It was a great day! Hope to do another one this year. Thank you to the Governor for recognizing this important time, and homeschooling in general.

Orange Ramp

2009-11-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Left to their own devices, with various supplies, kids can come up with the most amazing things!

Here, Elias and his friend Zanthippie made ramps for oranges.

Puerto Vallarta Misconceptions and Education

2009-11-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Somehow Chris and I had a lot of "americanized" maybe, misconceptions. One thinks of Mexico, as old cars, laborers, natural birthing, poor, etc.

We were very surprised by so much we saw and learned. They are more in time with medical things than we thought...LOADS of cosmetic dentists down there, women who get C-sections on schedule, boob jobs. Really?! It was amazing.

It was also very industrious. Families encourage their children to start working at 8, and moving up in the business. Chris' friends owned and ran 3 different businesses, simultaneously! We saw people working hard and WILLING to work.

It totally changed our perception of the laborers standing outside Star Nursery etc. At least they're WILLING to work, instead of sucking off of welfare.

The thing that surprised me, as a female, was the bathrooms! Often there were no toilet seats, and except for in the hotel, you are not allowed to flush toilet tissue. At first I didn't quite understand this, "please put your paper in the trash"...well, duh! Then I saw it every where, and.....sometimes the cans had toilet paper in them...hmmm.....

Yes, when there is no sewer, you don't want to clog up your pipes! I am so glad I only had to go #1 in public, cause I don't think I could leave dirty toilet tissue in some of those garbage cans. EWWWWWWW

Would I go again, you betcha! Would I recommend you go? You betcha!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

For the last 2 Halloweens we've been in FL..and they were great, but not the same as trick or treating with friends around your neighborhood. This year, Sebastian was excited to dress up and Elias was uber excited about everything! The countdown began at the beginning of October and by Halloween Day we were getting into the hours and then minutes, till Trick or Treat time!

Brian got up early and went over a friends house to start decorating a Haunted House. He stayed there all day and through the evening. (I'm still waiting on pictures!)

Elias and Zanthippie spent the morning carving. We started off with pumpkins...

Then we moved on to Apples! We carved them to make Dried Apple Shrunken Heads. We'll have to see what they look like in a few weeks...but I think they will be pretty cool looking!

Then, finally, it was time to dress up! Elias as BumbleBee (Transformers)

We went around with some of our friends. Started the night off going with Zanthippie (Grapes) and her brothers. Sebastian is Spiderman

It was just perfect weather! A perfect evening! Elias topped off his evening by spending the night at Jill and Austin's. Luckily their mom kept a tight reign on the candy bags!!

Puerta Vallarta Pt 2

2009-11-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

We took many trips, on our own, on guided tours, and with Chris' friend Martie and his wife.

We saw the malecon...boardwalk, which is surrounded by a downtown shopping area. A bit further, a huge, many streeted flea market, where we bought many of our purchases.

We took an all day trip, all over! The tequila place, scenic coastlines, etc and a nice outdoors lunch at a local restaurant.

We went to Las Marietas where Chris was able to scuba dive and we got to frolic in the beautiful water.

At the Marina, an enterprising soul brought in this Sea Lion...which of course Chris loved and had to get his picture with!

We had an all day tour to Las Caletas, an island paradise complete with dinner buffet looking out over the ocean. At this location Chris went Scuba Diving again while I got a peaceful massage. We met up for an afternoon of rest and tanning, and dinner. It was beautiful!

Private beach at Caletas

What a beautiful setting for dinner

Should have seen us trying to take a photo of ourselves...this is probably the 15th try!

Nap time after dinner!

The tranquil massage room!

Another thing Chris really wanted to do this trip was Parasailing. I was somewhat open to it, until we got there. All the directions flipped me out. Pull here when we whistle once, Do this when we whistle twice...ACHH!! I'd be in the ocean! But Chris did it and had a blast, and I took pictures and sunbathed!

A big thing on my to do list was an Oceanfront Massage. The massage I got at Las Caletas was nice, but not on the ocean....I was envisioning the tent with flowing white curtains, the sound of the ocean, waves slapping the sand......and I found it at the second hotel we stayed at! It was all it was hyped up to be! Fabulous!!!!

We tried much of the local cuisine, and many local little mom and pop cafes. I particularly liked Sope-bread with meat topping.

A restaurant we went to 2x was Pipis. It was downtown. The service is unexplainable. They are right at your elbow, cleaning up crumbs, whisking away plates....and it is very reasonably priced.

This is the street outside Pipis

Here we are: Pipis!

I loved walking around downtown. It was so beautiful and old. These are the types of buildings we'd see:

We also tried some local places such as Carlo's tacos in Fonavitt and Dona Tere Pozole's- close to the Sheraton and Cafe San Angel-their version of Starbucks- in Old Town. All very relaxed, very family-run, very patron oriented...everyone knew your name!

Along the theme of "animals as an attraction", like the Sea Lion, while we were at a restaurant, there was a man who led a horse around and allowed you to ride it and take pictures wearing some cowboy gear. Chris doesn't understand a word of Spanish, so when the vendor was talking to him, Chris went over (Sucker!!) That's ok, it made for a great picture (and a snickering wife)

At another location someone had their humongous Iguana...$1 for a picture
Yeah, we are suckers!

Really...we were helping the economy!

Overall, it was a fabulous trip and we'd encourage anyone to go there!

Puerto Vallarta Tequila

2009-10-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Chris and I don't drink. We're not anti-drinking, we just don't. Ever. We were very surprised/amused at how much drinking is part of the Mexican Culture. Every tour we went on had drinking, even a brief stop at a Jewelry store had a bar set up in the corner for a quick refreshing alcoholic beverage! Our tour guide imbibed during a day-long tour! It was funny.

As part of one of our tours we stopped at an old, family run, Tequila making place, Tequila Don Crispin.

This is the agave that Tequila comes from.

These are the pipes...I think water runs through to cool something? I don't remember, sorry! It was a unique experience because here in the US everything is so regulated and so machine-operated, this is all by hand and old-fashinoned!

The thing we mostly took away with us is that Jose Cuervo is not real pure tequila. It is mixed, therefore the headache the next day. With this stuff, they say, "No headache!"

After the whole process was described to us, there was a tasting of 3 different tequila flavors. And, of course the ability to buy! Wish we knew someone who appreciated pure tequila....we didn't end up buying any but it was a cool trip!

Halloween Party

2009-10-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

It was soooo cold here the last few days! We had a Halloween Party scheduled for the park and I didn't want to go! So, we changed locations to my house! Works for me!

One of the moms had all sorts of games and Halloweeny type food. Here's her "Witches Brew"

Here's Elias playing a game...reach in the bag and find the item listed on your paper. Black cat, witches wart, etc etc...very cool!

The teenagers even dressed up! And stayed amongst themselves for the better part of the day LOL

This was Sebastian's 1st real time dressing up and he LOVEDDDDD it! He was SO proud to be Spiderman. He wouldn't let me take the costume off to change his diaper! Then he got a pirate's patch and was Spider-Pirate-Man...gotta love him!

Group picture

What a fun day!

PV Scuba Diving

2009-10-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

See how far behind I am in posting?! This is from MAY! Oh well, better late than never.

Chris and I went to Puerto Vallarta and had a fabulous time! Very much recommend it. So, while we were there Chris really wanted to do Scuba Diving. Me, no desire, no thanks, no way, no how! So, the Scuba Instructor came to our hotel pool and gave Chris his first lesson.

I gotta admit, it looked very cool. But, still, no thanks! We went on a scuba tour, and off Chris went.

I hung out on the back of the boat, watching others scuba diving. I'm not really a strong swimmer, so I was very content to hang in my life vest and see the sights. Which included starfish!!

Here's another reason why I didn't want to go out there! EEEKK!! Jellyfish. They look worse than the ones on the East Coast!

I'm glad Chris got to do something he's always wanted to do. Hopefully we'll get to do it again soon!

Puerto Vallarta Pt1

2009-10-29T09:00:00.001-07:00

We're back from the most amazing vacation. Neither Chris nor I knew much about Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, but Chris won a trip there, so there we went!

Turns out one of his high school friends has lived there for years (Hey Martie!). We hooked up with him and his wife and WHOAH what an education we got! The area is so lovely and the people so friendly. We just can't say enough about the hospitality Martie and his wife showed us, or enough about the friendliness of everyone. The trip was truly memorable. I left saying I'd move there in a heartbeat.

Chris and Martin

We weren't trying to be all matchy-matchy poo...but we almost were

In later posts Chris and I will share the various myths that were shattered about Mexico, and some things we didn't know before going! Also, of course all the wonderful places we went to eat and the tours we took.

But for now, suffice it to say, it was amazing!

Killing Jar

2009-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

At a recent event we found a Bark Scorpion. I brought him home taped to a sheet of paper (praying he wouldn't escape in the car!!).

I wasn't exactly sure what to do with him, but he looked so cool I knew we had to keep him! So, then comes along the idea of a Killing Jar. Perfect!

We invited some homeschool friends over and got started!

Newspaper, Shredder, baby food jars, masking tape, poison labels, packing tape, cardboard & Nail Polish Remover....oh, and don't forget your creature! I also included a small pocket microscope.

Here are Elias and Austin shredding the newspaper needed for the bottom.

We traced the bottom of the baby food jars to create a shelf over the paper shreddings. Austin is looking at the scorpion while mom is tracing!

Jill cut out all the Poison labels

Here are our beautiful jars...just awaiting some poor innocent creature!

And, what may you ask, were the toddlers doing while we were working on this project? What else but playing Tea!

Bark Scorpions

2009-10-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

We recently found a scorpion, crawling around (ewww). Not at our house, thank goodness! A friend called it a bark scorpion, but I had to research it myself. Sure enough...and here's what we found out:

"Bark" scorpions are Centruroides exilicauda. They are considered a medically significant species, meaning they can and will take your life. Use caution around them.

http://www.birdandhike.com/Wildlife/Invert/Ph_Arthropoda/SubP_Chelicerata/Cl_Arachnida/Scorpion/Centru_scu/_Cen_scu.htm

Arizona Bark Scorpion- Centruroides sculpturatus

Classification:

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Arachnida (Arachnids)

Order Scorpiones (Scorpions)

Family Buthidae

Genus Centruroides (Bark Scorpions)

Species sculpturatus (Arizona Bark Scorpion)

Originally Centruroides sculpturatus Ewing, 1928. Synonymized under C. exilicauda (Wood, 1863) by Williams (1980). But the distribution of the species is disjunct: C. exilicauda is endemic to the Baja California Peninsula, and in the north it is limited to the western side of the peninsula to near Ensenada; C. sculpturatus does not occur in BC, but is found in Sonora, Mexico, and the southwestern US in Arizona and the borderlands of adjacent states. Returned to C. sculpturatus by Valdez-Cruz et al. (2004) based largely on chemical makeup of venom, potency of venom, and DNA.

Explanation of Names

"sculpturatus" describes the sculptured appearance of the tergites (dorsal plates). "exilicauda" is for the elongation of the male metasoma (tail).

Sebastarina

2009-10-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is my lovely BOY in a friend's headband. Isn't he GORGEOUS?!? The funny thing is, he looks exactly like one of his cousins in this photo (huh, Andrea!!!)

1st Preschool Class

2009-10-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

This year I am teaching an Alphabet Class, in the style of my dear friend Jene! She offered one when Elias was younger, and he participated for 3 years. Now that she's moved away, it's my turn to take the helm with Sebastian.

Our first gathering was random crafts and activities, just to get the kids familiar with the routine. After that each week will be based on a letter of the alphabet.

First we did a pattern using Fruit Loops, and a toothpick stuck into a Styrofoam plate (Yes, all I had left were Christmas themed ones!) Yummy activity too! This is easily adaptable...do it by pattern, count how many are being added, name the colors, whatever! This wonderful idea is not mine, it came from Teaching Two-Fruit Loops Math-Part 2. Thanks!

Then we did searching for items in rice. I used the plastic Counting Bears. (also not my idea....darn, I save so many bookmarks that I can't find them later, so sorry!) This is very tactile, they just LOVED it! I had 2 containers going at once, 1 person counted as the bears were found, while the other was "finding" them. Then they switched. I saved the rice afterwards in a ziplock bag labeled "Not For Eating".

Lots of other stuff tried out that day, none of it photographed! But it was a fabulous success. I think the kids are going to have loads of fun! I'll post our "schedule" sometime soon.

Timeline

2009-10-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

We're going to be doing our first timeline. Seriously, first one. I am not into the wall timelines...too long, too much work..etc etc. This year I found Mystery of History, which we'll use along with Story of the World, in chronological order, all hands on and fun!

The author of Mystery of History includes in the book exact directions how to make this simple Timeline that FOLDS UP! Space saving, portable, but nice when it's opened!

I also joined a YahooGroup dedicated to Mystery of History Vol I and on there they have loads of pictures AND lots of resources you can download!

This is made of a Super Sewing Board. I found mine at Joann's. It was $16.99 cause it's the SUPER sewing board. I love it.

I covered the white part with white contact paper. And once folded, I added the title with my beloved Cricut.

Here's the board open. On top is Anno Domini, and Creation is on the bottom. It works its way up with Christ's birth at the top.

Here it is with the top and bottom flaps folded up

Then the next portion folded up

Then the final portion folded up

It's beautiful. I love it! I am so pleased with the way it came out, and how simple it is, and how it folds! Love love love it!

Tissue Paper Flowers

2009-10-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last month I wanted to do a craft for the nursing home we visit. After some surfing I decided on Tissue Paper Flowers. (I'm so sorry, I can't find whose blog I found this on.)

I had forgotten all about this simple yet pretty craft! It simply entails accordion folding tissue paper, wrapping a pipe cleaner around the center, snipping the ends, and opening the layers!

A few moms and teens came over and we whipped out a few baskets!

They were very appreciated at the nursing home.

JetStream Writing

2009-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Elias and I were at a local grocery store (Not Albertsons, they won't let anyone sell during the week...even if one of their managers previously approved it) selling Cub Scout Popcorn. We looked up and noticed
an N and a heart in the sky. As we watched the pilot drew the P.

Wow, N "heart" P. The first time he wrote it (or the first time we saw it) it was horizontal. We were all amazed and talking about what a lucky gal "P" is. Then the pilot started doing it again only a different direction! I got a photo this time.

Alright, "P" , he loves you! Lucky girl!