My last attempt at updating this blog was almost a year ago. I've been thinking a lot lately about unschooling. Perhaps because kiddo #1 is now 18 and it feels like a milestone of sorts that we've made it this far without sending a kid to school. We had a celebration in June that I will write about soon.
I write, mostly because I remember the time I spent, when my children were much younger, hungry to read about what others who called themselves unschoolers were doing. Perhaps my window for followers is long past, but feeding my own satisfaction of documenting day-to-day doings is worthy enough.
The kids and I have recently shifted our schedule so that we spend the early morning hours at home together. We've been making our way to the office each day at about 10:30 where we typically work on individual projects and focuses.
Kaman shares a room with the cat and the copy machine. If I'm being honest, he spends much of his day on the computer, and I am probably entirely incapable, at this point, of describing exactly what he is into as it is all well beyond me and over my head. He would tell you he enjoys geopolitical history. His grasp of European geography is amazing. I would say that much of this has been sparked by games such as Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV. He plays these games (and others) and then he searches places and events online and reads and reads and reads. His following of current world events has helped me make connections through history better than I probably ever have in my life. It's helpful, of course, that these topics also are of interest to my husband, but I've seen Rand scrambling more than once to "catch up" with a topic they've been discussing.
Kaman has been learning computer programming -- he has a mentor he meets with once a week (or did until this month -- they will take a break for the summer/4-H fair prep time, and likely start again in the fall). He has dabbled at making videos about his computer gaming and he's written a few game reviews. He keeps a Tumblr account that I try to follow in order to maintain some inkling of what is going on in his brain. He's been reading voraciously of late. Re-reading series that he loves and picking up new ones. I'll have to ask him for a list. I know the discussion is a lot about mythology and critiquing the job the movies have done with various books, but I honestly couldn't tell you the names of the books he's been reading lately.
Kaman and I had the rare morning home alone together today. We reviewed some math stuff. He spends quite a bit of time on Khan Academy and I was being the nosey mom, wondering where it had led him. We updated his 4-H records and I helped him make a list of projects he is committing to taking to the fair. Then we played a Wii game that he bought me for Christmas. Kaman played big time Santa this year and saved his money to buy a new system, as well as a game for each member of the family. My game was called Rayman Legends. My interpretation of the game is that it was perhaps designed with young players in mind. Multiples can play at one time, and there is a character named Murphy where you can use the touch screen rather than a joystick controller... a hand player unit? Anyway, it allows me to play along with Kaman without getting too frustrated by my lack of skill. In fact, I think I've become quite good at it. We've played together several times since Christmas and today I actually finished a section of the game myself.
Middle kid, Maddie, is at camp this week. She left, very excited on Monday, as this is her first year attending as a camp counselor.
The eldest kiddo had a babysitting job today. She took the car and left the house before I did.
This evening we had a mowing party. Got most of the yard done.
I feel a bit like our German Shepherd dog. I keep looking around, wondering where I've misplaced the third kid.
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