It was a gorgeous fall day today, sunny, and warm, and all aglow with drifting leaves. We journeyed to South Chagrin Reservation's Squaw Rock, and went hiking up a beautiful ravine. The Sunchild showed his excellent off-roading skills, and was quite confident in his climbing. I will admit to being a bit nervous, especially in the wet & slippery spots, but I made it through with grace.

After enjoying our autumnal walk, we stopped at the library for our weekly trip. Everyone stocked up on various supplies. Papa brought home a plethora of new woodworking books. Sun found three Magic Schoolbus videos that he wanted to watch again. He told me today that he has three favorite kinds of movies: Popular Mechanics for Kids, Magic Schoolbus, and Bionicles. I thought that 2 out of 3 being educational is a pretty good sign. I found some more audiobooks, including several cultural folktale collections to listen to with the Sunchild. We have been enjoying the Tales from Old Ireland, and the Conference of Birds, and I thought we could continue in this vein.

We are now more than halfway through The Goblet of Fire. I know that he will appreciate these books much more when he is older, and can relate to more of the material. He does enjoy the story and the characters very much, however, and we have many good conversations about the plot. He has been thinking ahead, and is learning to try and figure out what might happen next in the story. On that note, I did bring home an audiobook by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- perhaps he will enjoy the mystery format as well.

Today has been an interesting journey into the concept of organization skills. The Sunchild announced that he wanted to make a Bionicle book this morning. He wanted to organize his manuals & magazines in a way that makes sense.

I found a 3-ring notebook in the closet, and pulled out the tape, the 3-hole punch, and the bag of paperboard recycling. We made numerous pouches, which he then decorated, so that it is easier to determine what goes in each pouch. In going through his paper collection, he found quite a few things that he hadn't seen in a long time. He is beginning to appreciate the idea of putting things away so they are easy to find the next time you go looking for them. He has been enjoying arranging the pockets in the most appealing order. It is much more practical than just throwing them willy-nilly into a shoebox.

I think that the birdfeeder is going to be an ongoing source of interest and entertainment. It has a bit of a spiritual quality to it, as well. We fill the feeder, helping the wildlife who have had even more of their habitat destroyed in our local neighborhood, and in some small way we give back to the Big Mama.

And in honor of the bounty of harvest-time, we have spread seed in the garden, and the herb containers & even on the plants hanging from the rail. Last night, some industrious creature spilled the herb pots, and there is now seed all over the porch. The Sunchild wanted to sweep it up, but I suggested that we leave it, as it would likely afford us a better view of our visitors. He saw the chipmunk first, and we watched it stuff its mouth, amazed by the quantity that it could fit inside. He practiced his 'hunter's walk', and slowly moved as close to the window as he could. Later on, a Dark Eyed Junco came to visit, the first one I have seen this season. The sparrows come in droves, accompanied by the doves. The are so numerous, they flatten the damp grass, so it reflects the silver sky. We keep the Peterson's Guide on the side table so that we can reach for it in case of any new visitors.

We also finished Lord of the Rings today. I am glad that he has heard the story now, although I realize that it was in many senses, rather advanced for him. However, with a bit of help in remembering which character was which, he understood quite a lot of the story, and has picked up some wonderful vocabulary as well. I love it when he answers a question with 'yes, I think I shall."

We went for a bike ride today, in drizzly wet weather, with bags on the seats to keep our bottoms dry. He finally decided to spend some of his savings on a couple of new Rahi Tamers. Now he has the red one, the blue one, and the white one, and he has been creating dramatic scenerios all afternoon. Their small size makes them easier to postition. I believe we will be making some movies with these new characters very soon.

This is the current state of the Workshop, on the interior of the Castle. He has been busy today, after a nice walk at Sunset Pond with my friend Cory & the kids. He re-discovered his Lego Contraptions book that we purchased at the Great Lakes Science Center on our first trip there. He made the 'Automatic Field Goal Kicker,' finding all of the pieces himself, and with very little overall help from me. He is now practicing field goals, and perfecting his designs.

We are also listening to a playlist that I put together for us. It has a lot of very singable songs, and we are beginning to build a repetoire.

We transformed the apartment today, Sun & I.

He has been hiding under his paper castle, which is on his table, atop several sarongs which are tied on to it. Today, we added wings to his dungeon. There is now a lava room, for extra hiding. We even created a door out of cardboard and another sarong. And best of all: all of his building toys fit inside! We brought out his bin storage rack, brought the legos out of hibernation, and sorted it into the bins. He has a workspace he is pleased with, and I have a living room that is pleasant to be in, and no danger to tired feet.

We also put up the black & gold sun tapestry from Jude. It changes the feel of the living room in a very wonderful day.

Now, the Sunchild has his own space that he can lay claim to, and be creative in. He was very excited by this whole production. He was wearing his sword and shield for a large part of the day, and did a generous part of the organizing & planning of where things would go. I named him "Sir Hide a Lot" & he said that I was "Sir Clean a Lot".

I feel that a lot of stagnant energy got cleaned up today.

We picked up some autumn stencils at Target today, on our weekly window shopping trip. The Sunchild is planning his Yule list, or perhaps I should say editing it. He has been working on it ever since last year, when the whirlwind of Yule, Christmas, and his birthday hooked him into the 'get more stuff'' paradigm of our culture. Luckily, I told him to start his list last winter, and he has been working on it ever since.

We played around with the stencils for awhile, which transitioned into free drawing. This made me very happy, as he used to draw all the time when he was in Montessori school, and his desire to do that has evaporated since he stopped attending there. I have tried to intrigue him numerous times, but it always felt like a struggle, and I felt that I should follow the unschooling paradigm, and just let him be for a while.

The deschooling process is tricky. Every so often I get the urge to break out the worksheets, and do something, anything, which I can show off as 'progress'. Generally, these moments pass, though, and I can compromise by leaving them somewhere that he will see them. If he is interested, he will ask to do them. Meanwhile, I work on ways to capture his interest without forcing the issue. I really feel aligned with the idea of child-led learning, but as a product of our hurried culture, sometimes it is very hard for me to back off.

He enjoyed drawing immensely, today, and told me stories about what he drew. We went hunting for our other stencils, and found a Sand Art set in the closet that my friend Sunmountain & her family gave him last year for his birthday. He played with that for a couple of hours, while I cooked dinner and cleaned up a bit.

We have been playing Rummy 500, over the past week or so. We play with all of our cards out, so I can help him to spot his patterns. He is getting better at seeing them, as well as organizing the cards so the patterns are more obvious. He also is becoming quite proficient in counting by 5s, 10s & 15s. He startled his papa today by announcing that "3 15s make 45."

Earlier today, I asked him if he wanted to read a Clifford book with me. We generally switch off, line by line. He told me, "I don't really feel inclined to do that at the moment." I love how he picks up vocabulary from the books we read & listen to together.

About the deschooling.... really, I need to remind myself not to judge our progress by how busy we are. Being busy as a goal in and of itself is something I learned in Catholic school. It is a strong part of our culture, but as David Elkind reminded me in The Hurried Child, which I just finished, it is not necessarily a healthy one. It is definitely not a legacy I wish to pass on.

I see now that the whole idea that I would be able to treat this blog as a daily log of our activities was misguided in its conception. A record, perhaps. A journal. But a log, seems somehow to imply the need for justification, and in that, has similarities to the whole spreadsheet experience.

I still want to journal our days, but more in the way of a naturalist, recording things of note, in a more graceful rhythm.

We do so much in our days. Every day is full of learning, and growing, and relating. Some of the things we experience go on for cycles longer than a day, and to chop them into their daily parts does them a disservice.

I am learning to listen more, and to talk less. I am learning to observe, to discover what the Sunchild is exploring, and joining him as a willing participant. It is challenging, at times. He so loves his Bionicles, and I sometimes want to do something else. When I observe him doing his own uninterrupted thing, I see that he is exploring balance, and creative thinking... he is discovering martial arts stances as he makes his sculptures stand upright. He played with the digital camera, taking pictures of his creations while I made dinner. And all of this against a rich background of stories, as we discuss things like church, and history, and castles, and crusades. Tolkein (the BBC radio production), The Chronicles of Narnia, King Arthur & Merlin, Irish Folktakes, Harry Potter, and The Conference of Birds. He weaves these into his own tales, using his bionicle sculptures as the characters, and mixing the storyrealms up in great Gaiman fashion.

If the amount of peace we have in our house right now is any indication (and all the great books would likely concur), we are on the right path.

Thanks and praises to the Great Being.

What a great weekend it has been. Of course, on Saturday, I worked at the restaurant. El Gato & the Sunchild both went to Nana & Grandpa's house so that they could help Nana paint Sun's room over there. Well, mostly that was Papa who helped. The Sunchild had a Grandpa day, and they puttered about, built with Construx, and finished reading Paddle to the Sea.

Sunday was our family day. We slept in, while we let the Sunchild watch the Bionicle movie one last time. Then we straightened the house a bit, and I made migas for brunch. We each worked on our various projects (El Gato has glued the first pieces of his guitar neck!) and relaxed for a few hours.

We got motivated in the early afternoon to venture out. We headed to the library, where the Sunchild asked the librarian to help him to locate the next Bionicle movie. Hopefully, this one won't have white lines & varying noise levels throughout the entire thing.

From there, we headed to the Metroparks. They were having a Wood Duck Festival, as this weekend is the best time of year to see them as they head for warmer climates. There were a variety of activities, and the little Nature Center was open, so we spent some time in there. I especially enjoyed hanging out with the owls, as I am currently reading The Owl Papers by Maslow, and have been thinking a lot about the night predators of the sky.

We had a very nice day today, taking our time, and just being family together. I think we need more days like that, with little constraint on our time & energy, to just follow the moment as it arises....

finding our rhythym

El Gato is working on his guitar. As part of this whole self-education adventure, I am trying to honor all of the learning that goes on in the house- not just the one that tried out a few weeks of Kindergarten. The guys went out to Home Depot this evening, and some more woodworking supplies were obtained. We definitely have a shortage of tools around here.

The Sunchild and I have been working on a castle made out of cardstock. We printed it out from software at Owl & Mouse, and cut and folded and taped for hours today. It came out very nicely. we also organized toys & pulled quite a few figurines out that go well with the castle theme. While we were working, we got into a good discussion about castles and the Medieval Age, which in turn led to a discussion of the role of the Catholic Church in the Western World. We discussed the message of Jesus, and of Jesus as Bodhisattva. We talked a lot about the good messages of Christianity, such as 'Love your neighbor' and 'Treat other people how you want to be treated". We discussed whether Popes or Emperors have more power, and why people felt they had to listen to the Pope. We listened to Anonymous 4, An English Ladymass, and some Celtic music as well.

We also listened to a mix of music I had put together for us, which has some of my favorite songs. We looked up the lyrics to 'Mercy, Mercy, Me' by Marvin Gaye, and sang along with wooden spoons for microphones.. This led to a great talk about the environment, and the things we can do to help make things better for Mother Earth.

This evening, with dove into Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire with great excitement. This is the fattest book yet. I am looking forward to reading it to the family & then going to see the movie when it comes out in November.

We had a day home together, the Sunchild & I. My energy was low, and I wanted to respect that, and do what I could well, instead of pushing beyond into what I could only manage poorly.... We have been out the last few days, and it is grounding to be in our space for a chunk of time, as well.

This weekend we had a birthday party, which was fun, and involved things like running around madly, chasing snakes, and tug-of-war. Yesterday, we arose early to drive Papa to work, in order that we would have Dora to drive to the park for a homeschoolers gathering. We made it to the park, but we never did find them. We stopped in Chesterland instead, and hung out for a while there.

Last night, he had a sleepover at Nana & Grandpa's, and when he arrived, I was eager to start the day.

The Sunchild started off playing Bionicles, and I stayed present, and asked him questions about that universe. I studied the figures he made, and remade, for quite some time. We compared them to our bodies, and the articulation of the joints in each.

We played 2 kinds of Bingo today too. I made some with the Dolch words, and also some with time. We used pennies for markers, and got sidetracked several times into patternmaking with those. He also counted the numbers on the Dolch list, which were in 3 columns, and used his Stamp Game pieces to calculate the total. He also spent a bit of time at Math Cats, which is a wonderful resource I dug up last night. He liked the Architecture Blocks section and the Polygon Playground, and spent some time exploring the Interactive Multiplication table

We read Jonathan Livingston Seagull today. I had forgotten just how powerful of a book this is. The Sunchild learned today that "Heaven wasn't a place... it's inside of you", and that you can find it by "being the best that you can be at something." We had a lot of discussion throughout the book, as well. I should probably get in the habit of writing down notes during these talks.

Today, he was able to remember all day to refrain from poking me with his various weaponry. I had to confiscate one yesterday, after a well-defined & agreed-to boundary was crossed. He handled it well, at first. Then he began to feel sorry for himself, and it eventually escalated into full-blown Moon in Leo drama. I stayed pretty calm, and kept my sense of humor, mostly. We talked about it afterward, and he began to realize the importance of the lesson. I stressed that I need to feel that I can trust him not to randomly hit people. Today, he was very present with his weaponry play, and only forgot once, and immediately self-corrected. I let him know that I was very happy to see how much focus he has been putting forth today.
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