New group - NWA Life Learners

My friend Denise and I decided to start an unschooling group in our area. There are five moms that meet regularly...including us. More have signed up on the yahoo group (about 18 total I think) but haven't participated yet. It would be nice if the group grew big enough for more variety of interaction yet still small enough for intimate relationships. I am thinking about ways to spread the word about the group and see what happens!

Sadie's Wonderful Manifestation

Sometimes I think to myself, I would like to talk to my kids aboutLaw of Attraction (LOA) so they know how things work. Then we could learn together. How great that would be. And I haven't changed my mind about that but I think I'm going to wait, sit back a bit and enjoy watching them to see what they do with what they already know.



Sadie is in her second year of deschooling and so many times I have wondered how long it would take for her to find a passion. The thing that has been talked of most was acting. It was always mentioned infrequently (yet passionately) but she never asked about signing up for classes or anything. I did some looking around for resources and found a few options but I never felt inspired to act on anything. I thought that was weird and sometimes felt guilty about it. Even though Sadie was not complaining.



So last month we heard an ad on the radio about an audition for new talent. She wanted to go and she WAS adamant. I admit, I rolled my eyes (to myself of course). Not about her but to the fact that there are scams out there that she doesn't know about, I didn't want her to be disappointed, etc. Side note: I never thought about not being able to manifest things you don't know about. She finally just handed the phone to me and said, "Mom, Call." There was no way I could ignore the passion in that, I had been waiting for it and of course it just had to ruffle my feathers a little bit!

So I called and got the info. I went to their website and WOW it looked legit. It looked promising and I got a little excited! So I registered her for the audition which was a couple of days away.

We went to the audition on Thursday and I got even more excited after learning more about the process and the businesses involved. I had no idea there was anything like this available to wanna be actors/actresses. How cool!!! It works like this....If the talent scout thinks you have what it takes to be in the business after seeing you audition, they call you back the next day. That means you rock and you are invited to go to a national competetion to expose you to the top VIPs in the business all in one week. They are always looking for new faces too. Check out http://www.millielewis.com/ to learn more if interested.

And the point of this post is............drum roll please........on Friday Sadie was called back! And I knew she would be. (I got to watch her and everyone audition.) We had to have $500 down to accept. Stan's dad sponsered that. We were in shock how everything happened so fast. The competition itself is a little over $3000. Then we will have to cover photo shoots, travel expenses and misc. stuff. But who cares? What an adventure!

On Saturday we went to the first rehearsal where we practiced runway posing, walking, and turning. Even the parents! It was fun to be up there and it was fun to see other parents doing it also :) The next rehearsal is the 18th. We look forward to it!

Sadie manifested an awsome route to fulfill her dreams! Definately without proding from me. :)

Rethinking Education Conference

A snap shot of the 3 generations at 6 am before we hit the road to the RE in Dallas!

We saw a rainbow on the way :)

A cool cardboard yurt!

A girl playing in the lego pile.

Mom took a shot of me at dinner. Cheese!

Sadie with her new friends.

Sadie chilling in the back jamming to music.

Wow, I'm beening meaning to write about this and other topics for some time now. I think I am going to post what I intend to write about and come back to it when I have some time. It will always be a work in progress that way but perhaps I will get to it more. Also it will keep things in a real time frame. Trying to complete a whole post complete with everything I want to say is not working. If anyone is reading this, realize I am just talking to myself here. My intention for my blog is for my personal benefit, a journal that can't get lost in my house. If someone gets something from it - cool! Just want people to know that - yes!- I AM talking to myself. I do it all the time :) And I do anwser myself too sometimes! (smile)

Sebastian tries school on for size

Sebastian wanted to give school and try and see what it is all about. It didn't take too long for him to mention homeschooling. We talked though and I encouraged him to continue a little longer to be sure, he was willing. On the 9th day of school Sadie and I left for the Rethinking Education conference. Almost all of us were having sinus issues so he just stayed home with Dad and Sister for the school days we were gone. The night before going back to school he said he just wanted to homeschool (third time since the start). He was very matter of fact, didn't mention any trauma attached to it, so I figured he had really had his fill. So we turned the papers in the next day. He hasn't brought up going back or even missing it. I am totally biased to unschooling but I tried very hard to be as neutral as possible. We talked a lot about the differences between homeshooling and attending a school. His first complaint was not being able to draw what we wanted to draw. The second situation involved trying out riding the bus home and the driver yelled at him for "opening the window". We think he might have tripped an emergency lever! The third time he was distaught about a girl following him around and was ready to stay at home. It was a neat experience.

Sadie got an Angel Doo!
Shelbie decided she needed to rest and say "Hi" to passerbys.
Sebastian showed off his pop gun to passerbys.
Dad helps Shelbie race Sebastian in a game!
Jannie and Sadie about is scramble.

The Kids Having Fun!

Some Funny Pics From Celebration City

Here is our western pic and me and Sadie, then mom and Sadie in the big chair. That was so fun :)

Our Dinner at Nine O'Clock PM

Our Most Recent Adventure - Branson, Mo

We went to Celebration City and totally over did it! Our planned one day trip turned into two and almost tow weeks later, we are still trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm going to upload some pics and attempt embedding videos.

A Fort Under Construction

The kids painted the floor.

Dad cut the floor to fit (with mom's measurements :)
Spontaneous session of Shana Banana Yoga!




Uh, guess we need a new hammer!





So, like how are we gonna do this?


(Excuse the out-of-order pictures!)

After several unexpected runs to Lowe's and three days later, the fort is complete. We didn't think it would take that long, but hey, we did it from scratch and we are amateurs. We are pleased with it and the most important thing was how much fun we had working as a team. Stan is still dreaming up other additions for it and our kids as well as the neighborhood kids seem to really be enjoying it!

Oh how time flies!

I can hardly believe it has been 2 months since I've paid attention to our blog. Whew! Then again we have been busy. I'll regress later. For now, Stan is home on vacation and we are building a playhouse for the kids. He and Sadie just got back from getting another hammer since ours broke...can you believe that! So I am excited to go join the fun....until later :)

'sperments

Sebastian just informed me that I am a "sperment Mom." He and Shelbie are playing the 'sperment game. We just came in from the back yard and 'spermenting with cornstarch and water. How cool to play with, even for a 30 year old mom :)

Sebastian showed an interest in mixing things recently when he mixed...I...uh....mean.. spermentedwith dish soap and water to make magic cleaning stuff, whick inspired him to clean things around the kitchen for about an hour that day. It was so fun. We talked and questioned and pondered.

So today I thought I'd share the cornstarch/water 'sperment I know. They had a blast! After coming in, Sebastian was obviously reminded of his aformentioned 'sperment because he just made up another batch. He and Shelbie are playing a 'sperment game so I've been informed and I have been dubbed the 'sperment Mom, how cool :)

He brought his 'sperment over to me and told me that he tricked Sadie's dirty dish into being clean with his 'sperment. Then he took it outside, to clean I assume. I saw him wander back into the kitchen to stir up another batch. When bringing it back in he asked why people did 'sperments and I asked him why he did. "To clean" he replied with a tone bordering on a polite "duh." "Oh. There must be other reasons why too."

He moved on to ask me if I knew how dirty things "getses" and if I remembered how to use the 'sperment. Of course, I held my tongue and DID NOT say "Who do you think that woman is that buzzes around our house in a cleaning frenzy?" I refrained :) Instead, I choose to be amazed how much pleasure I get from watching my son discover dirtiness in the house and his enjoyment of cleaning and learning! And the best part, how Shelbie and Sebastian are playing together :)

Now I'm being informed we need more 'sperments. Hmmmmm, I've been thinking about that.

Stay tuned...

Getting back at it

I missed a few days. Since I'm creating this to be a regular part of my routine, I'll recap the last few days.

Things have been eventful since my last post. Thursday we met with our group and a mom and kids we had met showed up. Along with them was another set of kids (mother working). Sadie made two new friends that day. They hit it right off. They all ended up going to one girl's house for the evening. I am so happy about us making new friends. Turns out I had some connections with the moms too. Then the girls decided to have a sleepover, but Sadie decided to just go back the next day.

Then Friday Sebastian, Shelbie and I went to grab a bite at McDoo's. They played, I read when I wasn't wanted or needed. After picking Sadie up, we picked up a salad and pizza and headed for GG's (my grandmother) and visited with her.

Saturday we had a suprise visit from my parents and niece, she ended up staying the night. And Stan and I took some time to hang out and just be after the little ones were asleep.

Sunday we got busy around the house and were really productive. Yeah!!!! What a way to start the week. Stan was awesome, he helped me get some things done that I had been itching to do and even more than that. What a guy :)

This morning I'm getting ready to take the kids to my SIL so I can go run an errand. The weather is predicted to be nice and we are ready for that change. We had a cozy fire last night. So we'll probably go to the park. Yippe!

First Mom's Night Out

Wow, how refreshing to get out of the house, mingle with 2 other moms (of course there is talk about the kids!) and feel some freedom to just be. I have been meeting with this small unschooling group since summer '06, although winter was a little slow for get-togethers. Hibernation happens. After a bite to eat, one mom returned home to be there for a sick teenager and the other mom and I headed for a piano bar.

Since the place was not kicking yet, we had it to ourselves to share some stories and to get to know each other better. She has been unschooling for years and I love to hear any related accounts.

Looking forward to other MNO in the future. It's great to have support :)

Ok, how about a real 1st post....

This is rather neat. I love to write and read. Finding my way in home learning has, of course, led me to read. And lately, thanks to a fellow unschooler, I have been gorging on Home Learning Magazines. Also lately I have been journaling here and there, literally. So when I read an article about blogging, I looked at it in a new light. Previously, my thinking was that it would just be one more thing to do. The article's author however shed a new light on it for me. Let's see, it might spark an interest for my daughter, family can read about what we are doing on their own time, and I will have a record of our journey (my online journal) that I won't have to keep track of or worry about its destruction. How wonderful! So with my fresh enthusiasm, I look forward to making this a regular activity!

First Post

Doing a test run here to see how this will turn out, etc. Will the date be auto added? Hmmmm.....let's see.