Hosting a Camp out in September!

When most will be going back to school, I am so excited to be hosting an Undead/Unschooling week long camp out in September!  I have made some of the most wonderful connections with some of the most amazing woman and families through my journey with breast cancer combined with our unschooling lifestyle that I am beyond grateful for this chance to have invited them and host a camp out.

I have formed some extremely deep online connections for a year and a half now since I reached out at the beginning of my diagnosis. They were my life line while I not only fought for my life, but struggled with feelings of guilt and a desire to give up our unschooling lifestyle as well. It took me a little to renew my faith and energy in unschooling through a terminal illness, in the end I embraced it and so grateful we did not give up! These beautiful souls, pulled me along while I could not get out of bed, laughed with me, celebrated my small accomplishments with me, cried with me, cyber hugged me and were always there. This camp out will be our first meeting face to face and I am just excited beyond words at this opportunity.

I had decided, if I could not financially afford traveling, nor would my health allow me to commit to traveling to some of these fantastic unschooling events and conventions than I would host my own! It has been wonderful having everyone pull together to make this happen and they will all be coming to pitch their tents in my yard........and having just a grand old time... what a way to start a brand new year!

Tents, bonfires, good food, fantastic company, lots of laughter, a little wine perhaps, strong coffee, amazing teens, preteens and preschoolers! S,mores, hugs, tears, love and the most incredible, inspiring, fun loving, amazing woman I have met ( there are many more that could not come that we will think of but so happy for the ones that can make it!)

I never underestimate the power of online connections..........they are just as real as meeting someone in person given time to develop the relationships. I have been blessed over many years to have gone on to meet some in person and now I get to meet a whole group at once! This is going to ROCK!

Day 13: Garden Space

I don't have pictures yet but we have started preparing the beds for gardens which creates a small portion of outdoors learning space!

I know I am struggling to keep on track of this habitat for learning project but as long as I continue to add new things ( while perhaps not daily yet!) I am happy that we are at least progressing!

A garden will be a focal point of outdoor learning space however and already we have prepared a small bed of about 14 x 8.  I want to add on about the same amount to this for this year and this will be our vegetable garden space.

We have also bought pots at a local thrift store and vertical gardening methods will be blended in as well! We have bought all our seeds and will plant some indoors as well like tomato's and green peppers.

We also have purchased a grape vine, blackberry bush, blueberry bush and strawberries. I have some lattice I plan on incorporating as well.

We are really excited to be adding green growing things to our learning habitat and getting our hands dirty! I will post pictures of it soon and keep up photos of the garden progress!

Share your learning spaces in the comments, we love to be inspired!

Day 12 Math Collage

Day 13 I had a lot of fun creating this Math Collage simply by printing things off I found useful or interesting to add to a large piece of poster board.

The Center Focal point of this collage is a times table grid and then the rest is decorated with optical illusions, directions for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions and a few famous mathematicians with a brief bio of them as well. Included in the Mathematicians is Albert Einstein and some of his quotes, Fibonacci, Euclid and Isaac Newton.

Both kids found thought is was pretty cool and are enjoying it even though right after I hung it up and walked down the hall I heard my daughter shouting...."HEY! MOM A PICTURE IS MOVING!" haha

My son really loved the photos and brief bio's of the Mathematicians.

Also with our Periodic Table of Elements shower curtain it is now pretty funny that anytime someone goes to use the bathroom, they come out shouting what the symbol for this and that is!

To me it is creating these simple things, these precious little learning areas that present learning in fun and interesting ways that make it all worth while.

Truth be told, how often would you look at the Periodic Table or use it if presented only in a textbook?

On the shower curtain, you are looking at it and studying it many times in the course of a day!

The Math Collage only took about an hour or so to make including time to locate things online I wanted to print and use for it. Also it was FUN, I found it a very enjoyable activity that both children loved when it was finished. It not only has an interesting look appeal but has a practical use as well as a working collage with the fraction rules and multiplication grid that can be referenced throughout the day. Not only that but they get to keep fresh in their minds who the mathematicians behind it all were, when they were born and such.

My daughter now wants me to create one that is all on the optics and optical illusions..........

Another great idea added to my getting larger everyday list of ideas! LOL

Day 11 : Maximizing Small Space

Did I mention we have a very small space to work with? LOL this tends to limit what we can do so when I saw this fabulous shower curtain I was like OH YEAH, I can use a space I never before would of considered!

While the kids both think we went off our rockers, the adults of the house all think this is just way too cool. Of course while the kids verbalize the fact they think we are dorky and nuts, they are actually having a fun time looking and studying the periodic table of elements anytime they enter our bathroom!

This goes to show you, when displaying an interesting learning environment, no space is off limits and anything and any space can be used in some fun and interesting fashion.

This also has me thinking of transforming the bathroom into a total chemistry theme, you know beakers for toothbrush holders, large test tubes to display bath salts and beads, and even maybe getting some chemistry themed fabrics at http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/605759  to hide the laundry area which is through a door way in t he bathroom.

Off to do another project for our Habitat for Learning 365 project.........................

Day 7 Purge and Organize

Remember the girls bedroom I JUST did awhile back? Within a day it was back to the mess you see in the first 2 photos so something was needed to help organize this greatly used space.

This is the bedroom all three kids use from time to time when they want privacy or somewhere quiet to do some sort of activity.

So off to Walmarts we went and for $25 got the over the door shoe organizer and the 3 bin laundry hamper.

Me and my adult daughter tackled it yesterday and with somewhere to put things had it clean and organized in 30 minutes! What a HUGE difference it made in their tiny 8 x 6 room.

There are two things that always seem to leave their room in a state of chaos, Webkinz and Material scraps.

So in the 3 bin laundry hamper, we used 1 bin for Webkinz, 1 for odd and end toys that are too big for the pocket organizer and the last bin for her material where she is always using, cutting and making doll and stuffed toy clothes with. Glad it got organized, it let me know her material pile has been drastically reduced and really needs to be replenished for all her sewing projects!

A plastic bin of building blocks and a small plastic tray holding an assortment of coloring pencils, crayons and scissors slid, neatly right under the laundry unit.

In the pocket organizer we put hair ties, barbie clothes, nintendo ds and games, littlest pet shop toys and things like that.

We moved the book shelf that use to be where the laundry bin is now at and it fit perfectly in the space by their door under their light switch and available plug outlet. This made a perfect place to put their radio and CD player.

Everyone is delighted with this new found space that can now stay organized and always ready to be used!

I have a few more ideas for this space BUT I am very surprised at how just two very simple things could make such a huge difference!

Day 6: As You May of Guessed

Yup another day of Decluttering, Purging what ever you may call it and OH HOW it seems so BORING! I was able to throw out 2 more large garbage bags of clutter AND box up and price 2 more boxes for a Garage Sale! BUT while the whole decluttering and organizing my seem dull I see it as a necessary step in the process of the Habitat for Learning Project.

If my plan is to create a flowing and interesting learning space, I need to clear out all the items taking up space that is useless to us. In order to bring things in, things have to go out! Otherwise you end up with ........... WELL, NO SPACE! And to let creativity flow, you need clean, fresh.........SPACE.

So while decluttering is by all standards MUNDANE.........or in some aspects I guess it could be considered, treasure hunting depending on what you find.........in my opinion, it is an absolute MUST that needs to happen PRIOR to anything else when deciding to launch a project.

It is not much fun to have items needed crammed and buried among a ton of stuff that is not needed and only clutter......everything so unorganized where you can not find anything and waste precious time searching.It is so much easier to have things clean, decluttered and all organized in which creativity can flow and time is not wasted on always having to stop and search for things.

Once all cleaned and organized, it becomes much easier to work on creating and instilling items of value into the home creating an atmosphere that is in much more harmony to the vibrations of your unique family.

Until then, I am afraid you will have to be succumbed to a few more boring posts........ I estimate another 2 or 3 days of decluttering......if my back holds up to the task that is.......I am not a spring chicken anymore you know!

Day 5 Purging Continues.....

Day 5 was another purging day and while my plan was not to start on the girls room, Corin has been looking for a certain Nintendo DS game, so I figured the only way to know for sure was to tackle the scary project of their bedroom. I cleaned out their closet, bookshelves and the floor, even removing their mattresses from the room to do a complete vacuuming.

Scraps of paper, fabric and some broken toys cluttered their room considerably along with bags thrown in the closet from Corins method of hide to clean days! I removed a whole 60 gallon garbage bag of JUNK from their room! But I also uncovered toys that had been buried in bags in the closet that has not seen the light of day in months.

Nicole, our adult daughter has been away visiting family for a week and may be gone for another week or two so Corin slid her sisters mattress under hers to make 1 bed for the time being giving her more floor space.

She has been delighted to not only have her floor space but that I have uncovered her building blocks as well and has been busy busy busy building and playing with them in her new clean space , where there is room to create and discover!

I did not find anything new to add to the garage sale boxes BUT removing a whole garbage bag of stuff to throw out felt great even if I overdid it a little bit and needed a very hot bath afterwards! I love making a clean space that is organized where the kids enjoy being in that space to do what they like in.

It seems when you clean and organize, children take great delight in being in that area to have the room to make a mess! I may get this place clean and organized top to bottom yet and I am getting excited that once I have that out of the way what we can do to build a fun learning space in!

I plan on being able to perhaps use some of our tax refund  on their learning space and that is really starting to excite me!

Day 4: Purging

WOW, how does one accumulate so much in just a years time? AMAZING! I am starting to realize my purging, cleaning and organizing may not be near the simple task I originally thought it to be!

Now I did have normal cleaning to do today so perhaps that is why it seemed to go slower than wanted. BUT I did manage to tag 2 boxes worth of stuff with price tags on them and store them for a summer garage sale! Corin even started pitching in and bringing me things she no longer wanted ( with the stipulation of course that with it being her stuff, she gets the money at the sale for any items of hers that sell!)

I got one whole cupboard in the kitchen cleaned out and re-purposed now storing extra paper towels and dog food, where it was just a pile of plastic walmart shopping bags which are now reduced to two brown bags full and under the kitchen sink!

I threw out a bunch of useless stuff today as well, and had Shae go through all his Xbox games weeding out ones he no longer plays to go in the garage sale boxes.

We moved the hamster and all his related things to the top shelf of the bookshelf in the living room and cleared off the rest of the stuff and now have a clear computer desk...............again that Corin seems to be claiming. She of course set out right away, cutting, slicing and dicing making a big mess on it while I was busting butt cleaning and going through things! Sigh, my little sweet tornado she is! Anyway she is delighted with a clean surface to do with as she pleases, she has moved her puzzles to the desk as she realized she would be able to work on the puzzles on that table without it getting disturbed.

I have a long ways to go, but it felt great to get a good start on it today and have both children pitching in with little tasks that were of big help in the long run.

I am hoping to get the rest of the kitchen and living room areas done tomorrow and then get on to the scarier bedrooms!

I am also hoping that while doing all this purging I will be able to find some interesting things to display and do with the kids!

Day 3: More inspiration!

Day 3 found me thinking............what about some kind of a Math Mural or something! So I turned to my friend GOOGLE and was amazed and inspired by what I found!

Now I live in a rental so I can not go about just painting walls and such BUT I  thought maybe I can use the idea for Math Murals and paint something on Canvas, OR get fabric paint and paint a white sheet that can then get attatched to the ceiling or create Curtains for the windows designed with a Math Concept.

Anways I was soooooooooo Inspired by these wonderful sites that show photos of math murals! Amazing!

Mr. Goodrich Math Class

Google Photos of Math Murals

Math Murals Blogspot

These are all worth checking out, and are quite awesome, Perhaps I could even use this kind of idea to make an outside wall somewhere and create a mural for our outdoor learning space.........

No matter what I come up with in the end, looking up Math Murals inspired me in so many ways!

Day 2: Inspiration

So after yesterday's assessment and the conclusion our learning space is drab, boring and well pathetic in a very sad way, today I turned to the web for a little inspiration!

I do not want to turn our home into a copy of a public school classroom, however I want it inviting and an environment in which learning flows and is inspired in a highly motivational way. One that adds interest and beauty within the home too. Today I poured over sites and homeschool set ups and while much of what I found was aimed for a younger crowd than my 10 year old daughter and 13 year old son, I did find inspiration!

Would you like to visit some of the places I did? Also I would love if you left links here that showcase photos of your own homeschool learning spaces!

Try  http://makingtimeformommy.com/2010/11/09/ten-homeschool-setups-i-love/

Then go to http://www.montessori-home-schooling.com/teach-montessori-at-home/home-set-up.aspx

Then you will want to check out http://satorismiles.com/homeschool-room-photos/

Be sure to stop by http://mariancastle.blogspot.com/2006/09/education-is-atmosphere-discipline-and.html


These are all inspiring links of creating pleasing to the eye and inviting learning spaces. As I said I have 2 older kids to keep in mind as we create our own space here as well as what they are interested in. However I was inspired by the links I shared and am thinking, thinking, thinking and contemplating the very limited space we have available as of right now, in our moment.

What does your learning space look like? Be sure to leave a link to photos in the comment section! We would love to see them!

Day 1 :Assessment

                                             

Day 1 of my Habitat for Learning project started with an Assessment of our small space we have to start with. We live in a 2 bedroom 14 x 70 trailer which is about 800 square feet of space for 5 people, a cat, a dog and a hamster.  As you can see from the few photos I have shared here ( these are not all of them, they do not show my daughters room or the kitchen) I do not like what I see at all!.

My observation of the situation shows

1.) Clutter and chaos of a total lack of organization within the  home (it is not easy in such small quarters!)

2.) Lacking in so many ways! Beauty, inspiration, creativity, organization, order, learning materials, fun...

3.) BORING- with a capital B 

4.) Non motivational-  there is nothing to inspire or motivate on really any level!

5.) Things are hard to get to due in large part to lack of organization!

6.) Total Waste of space that IS available!

7.) Outside space is blank, flat and totally boring with lots of room to improve upon!


Okay so my bad and I am very embarrassed to show these BEFORE photos, yet it is our starting point of what we have to work with and yes clutter is a huge problem in small space that is shared by many.

If I KNOW company is coming ( I usually do know!) then of course I run through and clean off all the surfaces, vacuum and pick up the blankets in the living room from where my son sleeps on a pulled out mattress at night. Yet if you were to surprise me, you would see exactly what it shows in the photos, a tad on the cluttered side!

Surface areas in my home fill up quickly as everyone drops everything on them..........for me at some point to pick up! Hubby is no exception, he is a big part of that problem actually!

I defiantly need to exchange the blankets covering windows with something much prettier!

Anyways these photos show my assessment of our learning space right now, in a state of crisis I would say and is  in need of a major face lift as this is NOT the learning atmosphere I want to give to my children.

I want a space that allows a natural flow of learning throughout the day, that is organized and things are easy to get to. I want it to inspire learning, creativity and the imagination that has no boundaries between learning and fun. I want our space to motivate, to ignite wonder and passion.

It will take cleaning, planning, organizing and yes even money, which I will all be working on throughout this project!

I can not wait to see it transform , of course as I work on the space we have now......... I will also be working on getting a place of our own that has a tad more space to work with!