Living Math at Work

My son purchased a computer game after looking for several days for something he may want. I love his process he goes through as it is such a frugal one that is so natural to him! He looks and looks between computer games, Xbox live games, and even books. He looks at Walmarts, Game Stop and online at Amazon.com, and after each look takes a day or two to THINK about it and see if it is really something he wants. He does not part with his money easily, and takes his time with the purchases he does decide to make.

When he finds something, he calculates the shipping costs or if there will be a sales tax, in order to make sure he has enough money and will not have to ask us to cover the difference if he by chance goes over. He makes sure he will not go over!

On this particular purchase, he went for a computer game which he received fairly quickly through the mail after he purchased it from Amazon.com. When he went to download it, he found he needed something downloaded in order to even run the game. Well this download has tons of updates it needed to do as it has never been downloaded on his computer. This is taking a painfully long time, we are talking DAYS to download! 

Each day he has been calculating gigabytes and estimating when the update may be complete.  He looks at how much gigabytes is downloading a day and comparing that with the percentage of how much it says it is downloading.


My daughter on the other hand has been using a lot of math skills that started with our grocery shopping endeavor. She knows her food has to last 2 weeks before our next shopping trip where she again will receive $50 for a 2 week period of food, making her own food choices. At the store, she was keeping a close eye on her purchases, determining how much more she could get, how many meals she needed and if she had enough for some snacks.

As we are completing week one after shopping, she was fully aware of going through her food a little too fast. She really started going through and thinking of all the meals she had left, how long it needed to last, did she have enough dinners? Enough Lunches? Cupcakes can be considered a meal, right?  How many days can a person go without food? How hungry will I be if I run out?  Wow I should have enough! ( after talking out all her meals left, and counting in the fact mom will cook family dinners on the weekends giving her 2 free meals!)

The other thing that happened this week is that we bought a brand new push lawn mower with a grass catcher on it. The neighbor then put their riding mower out by the road for sale, a highly used riding lawn mower.

This had her asking how much we spent on ours, so she could determine which would be the better buy.  Okay, well ours was $220 and the neighbors is for sale at $250. Ours is a little cheaper but requires much more work to mow the yard. But we saw how much the riding mower was breaking down all last summer...........highly used..........all the way around she determined OURS was the better buy.

While they do not always figure out math in a manner of how it is taught in the public school system, they are still highly capable of reasoning out problems in their own way.

Living Math gives them a reason to  figure out because it is real and in the moment, it is not separated from life. When you separate math from living, it becomes some abstract affair that just does not make sense for many no matter how many times someone tries to show you. Living Math gets them excited  to figure it out because it actually applies to something they want to know right here, in the moment.

It was a beautiful thing to watch as I got to "hear" them without interfering figure it out.

Radical Vanilla Muffins

Yesterday, my daughter asked if she could make some muffins, and wanted to know if you could make just plain vanilla muffins. I said SURE!

We did not have muffin cups, so decided to make the batter and put in a 13 x 9 greased pan.

She said she did not want me sitting on the couch answering questions ( she did this several times when I was couch bound) but rather wanted to know if I was up to being in the kitchen with her, to actually be involved helping with her creation. I said SURE!

Since I have a basic muffin mix I use from my head, I helped her with that but she decided on what type she wanted to make ( pure vanilla), decided she wanted to color it with dyes and layer it, decided she wanted to use an icing and things like that. She originally was going to use cinnamon too, but decided against that.

I told her muffins usually do not have icing so originally decided against that. However with only 2 Tablespoons of vanilla in the mix, they came out a tad on the plain side, so for what was left, she made the icing.

Making the icing was a great learning experience for her because she has never made it before. I forgot to tell her to cream in the butter to the confectioner sugar and then add VERY LITTLE Milk!

So yeah, she added too much milk and had to keep adding confectioner sugar until it was an icing consistency. Since she did not cream the butter in, there are bits of butter showing in the icing.

However it made for a very enjoyable afternoon for the two of us! I loved seeing her confidence and creative spark.

After muffin making, she wanted me to watch a Documentary on Netflix called "Bully"

It was heartbreaking to watch, but then my daughter always seems to pick some very heavy topics to become aware of some very serious issues. It is on the other hand a wonderful thing to see how compassionate she is on these subjects.

It really was a great day, enjoying every minute of it!

The Magic of Jello

As a homeschooling parent you just never really know what each day will bring or what to expect.  The next time you go to check if the jello will be ready enough to eat with dinner you may just find a playing card inserted in it?  A sure sign somebody in the house is taking up Magic as their latest pursuit..........

Loving My Smart Mouthed Babes.......

My daughter is at that wonderful age where being requested (nicely of course) to take a bath is like telling her you are about to throw acid all over her. She hates the idea of a bath yet once she gets in the water.........she will be in there for hours playing!

Today I asked her if she would please go take a bath.............her response?

"NO! For all you know I plan on becoming a beggar!...............................I better get started NOW!"


How do you respond to that? Um gee honey way to set a goal that me and your dad just KNOW you won't fail at! You can achieve that, we know you can!

Make a mother proud!

A beggar! WOW, what a fabulous idea! You are on to something there!

Gee, If mommy and daddy set that goal at your age, we would feel so amazingly rich right now in a trailer living on $1200 a month! Wow we would be a huge success!

Do you need help finding a bridge to sleep under?

Should we cover you up tonight with newspapers to keep warm?

My what a high bar you have set for yourself!


I love how my kids have a sense of humor and are so quick to come up with something so witty even though it may be laced with serious dark sarcasm in a moments time. I have never been good at quick responses and it seems like both my youngest always have something humorous and quick to say.

I think knowing, while I may not agree with them, they have always felt free to state what is on their mind without fearing getting into any trouble for what they say, feel and think. This has certainly lended a hand in a very honest, and open relationship. While comments may be laced in sarcasm and humor, it is always known that love is it's basis with an honest approach.

Celebrating their personalities for the individuals they are, has allowed a free flowing sense of humor to emerge, a humor that is just as individual as they are, that show cases how they piece the world together. Both my son and my daughter are quick with responses based on their own personal life experiences and who they are as individuals. It is a beautiful thing to witness. I love the fact they are free to express themselves fully, developing their humor within with no restrictions.

Free expression is a lovely thing and developing humor can go a long ways in coping with the real world. I love watching my children's humor and self expression develop without any inhibitions that may suppress who they truly are, at some later time. It is blossoming naturally and freely, where the individual is unfolding where I get a glimpse of the larger picture of who they are and it is lovely and beautiful in it's entirety!

What If

American Public Schools Taught about.............

1.) What Americans need to know about the European Debt Crisis?

2.) Money Management and Living within your means on a cash only commitment?

3.) Tolerance and understanding of religious differences, financial backgrounds, special needs children?

4.) How to have a successful and happy long lived marriage?

5.) Unit and Price comparison shopping and how to save money at the grocery store?

6.) Entrepreneurship and building your own businesses?

7.) How to become a Millionaire or how to retire early?

8.) How to think out of the box?

9.) Understanding the Society we live in?

10.) How to problem solve in real life situations?

11.) Obesity in America?

12.) basic wilderness survival skills?

13.) Consumerism and it's impact upon the environment?

14.) No lies but straight up American history?


Share with me your What If schools taught ideas in the comments below!

How to screw up Unschooling

1.) Live too much in your own "little world"

2.) Have no interest in learning new things

3.) Say NO all the time

4.) Have a bunch of arbitrary rules

5.) Get in your child's way

6.) Compare your child's learning to school peers and the public education model

7.) Say not now, I am busy too often

8.) Don't take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves

9.) Let fear dictate your decisions

10.) Criticize the child

11.) Devalue the learning in activities the child chooses to do

12.) Try to fit the child into the mold you have in your image for them

13.) Do not interact, play with or have conversations with your child

14.) Ignore the child much of the time

15.) Do not bring new and interesting things into the house

16.) Do not seek out new experiences

17.) Focus on the future of where your child may go rather than focus on the moment

18.) Do not celebrate the child for who they are in their authentic form

19.) Panic and throw textbooks and worksheets in front of them

20.) Do not facilitate a learning environment or fun activities

Reading Help Activity

Awhile ago, an online friend of mine who happened to work with Dyslexia children gave me this idea for an activity to use with my daughter. My daughter really works hard at reading but it is not something that is coming easy, perhaps she simply is not ready. Being interested in reading and being ready to read are really 2 different things. However I figured if this idea may help her along and make it easier for her to learn while finding it fun and enjoyable why not?

So the idea is to write out words but write the vowels in a different color than the rest of the word. We are just doing a simple notebook and am starting by going through the alphabet writing down 8 or 9 new vocab words a day.  While writing the vowels in different colors DID indeed seem to help a lot, Corin asked if I would write out different colors by the syllables rather than vowels. So we tried it and for Corin writing syllables in different colors really helped by leaps and bounds.

Whether it is helping her to slow down, or making it easier for her to break up the words, or just the different colors are helping send the messages in clearer images to her brain, not sure. What I do know is that she is really really enjoying this activity and it IS making reading words much easier for her! Once we go through the new day's vocab words, she likes to then work backwards going over each page again!

I have never pressured her to read and have always taken a relaxed approach with her, being very patient helping her sound out words when she wanted help. It has been a very natural process, a natural process her brother seemed to be able to do over night when one day at 8 years old it simply clicked for him and he knew how. For Corin, it has been a much longer journey, one she has gotten frustrated with many of times for how difficult it seemed to her. Is she Dyslexic? maybe, she has aunts that are, I suppose it may depend on how you look at learning disabilities and the labels that are used for them.

Regardless of the reasons she is only beginning to grasp how to read at 10, I am confident that when she is ready, she will read. I am confident that many other unschoolers report their children learning to read at 10, 12 and sometimes even as late as 14 and that when they do, you do not see a gap. I am confident that while one child is ready to learn to read by age 8 that another child is not ready and that is perfectly okay, that forces the issue may cause much more harm than good. I am confident that as my daughter has struggled in this area for quite a while now, that the way we have allowed it to develop naturally, with no pressure, crying or shouting, that she still LOVES to read and has a deep love for books. I am happy to have found an activity that she finds really fun and that is making a difficult task, easier and more enjoyable for her.

A few happenings this week..

Dear Friends, Readers and Fellow Bloggers,

Our Indian Summer has come to an end and chilly windy days have fallen across Central Michigan bringing down the pretty yellow, reds and orange leaves that brings life into the autumn Michigan scenery. The promise of the coming winter is here, you can feel it in the air and with the dampness of the area brings the chilliness within your very bones where the warmth of a house is a very welcoming place to be!

It is almost time to put the bikes in the shed, a day the kids are NOT looking forward to, but perhaps sledding in the snow will take over this seasonal delight replacing all the bike riding.

Shae continues his reading "The Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn" which is fascinating as he always comes to me to tell me about what he has read about when he is done. It is a fun way for me to hear about the days of Custer and for a split moment, I am transported in time to another time, another place, a different way of life than our modern world provides.

Late into the scene we have Discovered the LOST seasons, when they started we must of been into some other shows of the time. However we all love this series and have been renting them from Netflix along with Dr. Who.  We just finished Disc 2 of Season 1 in LOST and can not wait to get the next one! It has also been bringing up some very interesting discussions and What if scenarios. We like playing out What IF scenarios here and exploring different options in this fashion.

We have also been doing work a few days a week in our Math Journals which was originally the kids idea and since we have so much fun doing them, it continues.

Trips to Walmarts have been a blast and far from boring- we explore the store together, laughing, being silly, even verging on the side for sure of being childish! Picking up things we have never seen before and loudly giving a "WOOOOO AMAZING!"  It keeps it light, fun and well WONDERFUL. While others may complain about walmarts and well shopping in general, we take full advantage of making it a fun adventure and a time of family connections while exploring new foods and gadgets. Sometimes it is a simple exercise in dreaming of things you would buy if you had the money that moment in time.......... or of the better days about to come your way. We most always bring back a new food to try, that has just been waiting for us to discover it!

Watching the News every night is a family endeavor as well and never fails to bring on discussions of world and local events about cultures, inner cities, economy, wall street, violent crimes and weather.

I feel very blessed to have a way of living with those I love the way we live our lifestyles. While it may not be for everyone, this is what works for us. I am So Blessed!

Of course this is just a few things that has been going on in our world, talking about everything this week, would, well take a week to write and talk about!

Thursday Unschooling Tips: Tip #2

How To Be Really Alive!

Live juicy. Stamp out conformity.
Stay in bed all day. Dream of gypsy
Wagons. Find snails making love.
... Develop an astounding appetite for books.
Drink sunsets. Draw out your feelings.
Amaze yourself. Be ridiculous. Stop
worrying. Now. If not now, then when?
Make yes your favourite word. Marry
yourself. Dry your clothes in the sun.
Eat mangoes naked. Keep toys in the
bathtub. Spin yourself dizzy. Hang
upside down. Follow a child. Celebrate
an old person. Send a love letter to your-
self. Be advanced. Try endearing. Invent
a new way to love. Transform negatives.
Delight someone. Wear pajamas to a
drive-in movie. Allow yourself to feel
rich without money. Be who you truly
are and the money will follow. Believe
in everything. You are always on
your way to a miracle.

The miracle is you.

 

I saw this post surfing the web the other day given to the poster from a friend of theirs, it did not state the author so I am afraid I can not give credit to them, if you know who wrote this please leave a comment letting me know so I can give proper credit! However I found it very fitting for an Unschooling Tips thread so wanted to share it with you as Tip #2!

 

I would like to add to this by saying:

 

How to Really be Alive continued........

 

Climb a Tree, hunt for fairies in a magic meadow,

go grocery shopping in your pajamas,

make a stranger smile, do an act of kindness,

do many acts of kindess,

open doors, don't close them, sing loudly,

dance under a full moon, cloud watch,

try a food you have never tried before,

throw a party just because,

play in the mud barefoot, talk to plants,

giggle, no reason just start giggling!

Dance in the grocery aisle,

learn a new skill, research and come to your

own conclusions, remove the limits you have

imposed upon yourself.

Be spontaneous.

Play in the rain, hug yourself, send flowers to yourself,

live like there is only today!

My Heart Still Bleeds

While my drum beat may be different,
my heart still bleeds,
when your critical views wonder
about my parenting skills meeting that
of my children's needs.
I am simply planting a variety of different seeds,
to grow a different journey than that of the past.
But yes, my heart still bleeds.

Schooling, education, learning,
coerced, threatened, arbitrary or real
natural. flowing,
GLOWING.
Nobody on this planet is all knowing.
Yet they are learning all the same
GROWING.

While my drum beat may be different,
my heart still bleeds,
when your critical views wonder
about my parenting skills meeting that
of my children's needs.
I am simply planting a variety of different seeds,
to grow a different journey than that of the past.
But yes, my heart still bleeds.

Freedom to make choices,
That was the plan
all along.
WRONG
I walk the steps of a different song.
If I do not follow the crowd, you say I don't
BELONG.

While my drum beat may be different,
my heart still bleeds,
when your critical views wonder
about my parenting skills meeting that
of my children's needs.
I am simply planting a variety of different seeds,
to grow a different journey than that of the past.
But yes, my heart still bleeds.

Yet despite your concern,
my children delight in growing,
and yearning,
LEARNING.
where the wonder of the world
around them lies in their belly,
BURNING.

While my drum beat may be different,
my heart still bleeds,
when your critical views wonder
about my parenting skills meeting that
of my children's needs.
I am simply planting a variety of different seeds,
to grow a different journey than that of the past.
But yes, my heart still bleeds.

Thursday Unschooling Tips: Tip #1

Hello Fellow Friends, Readers and Bloggers!  I thought I would start a regular posting on Thursdays for Thursday Unschooling Tips! I will make these posts every Thursday offering tips on living a joyful unschooling lifestyle! Remember that the goal of unschooling is not education but rather a lifestyle of passion, joyful living, happiness and following one's one unique spirit of being the best they can be. The education and learning are simply by-products and side effects of living a full enriching life that builds deep connections within the family unit!


So here is Tip number 1.................(Drum roll please!)


Tip #1:
Take Great Delight in Discovering The Wonder of Each Moment!

Children are often experts in this area that adults tend to forget as they get older and LIFE takes over. However if we can consciously shift back to living in the present and pay attention to what we are doing in the here and now and look upon it with wonder, we can begin to see the beauty of the moment. Living in the present allows us to fully enjoy the moment.

Many of us get so busy we are always thinking of yesterday or what our many tomorrows may hold, stressing about all the what if scenarios rushing through our brain. But if we train ourselves to focus ONLY on our NOWS, a flower of the most amazing beauty unfolds before our eyes elevating our vibrations of joy and wonder.

Whether it is a Delicious meal we are preparing to nourish our loved ones, pulling weeds in the garden, cleaning our home in order to create space for our children's imaginations to have a clean canvas to create in, reading a book, playing a game with our children, or even running to our local store for groceries, LIVE IN THAT moment and do whatever you can do to make it fun, enjoyable, exciting and full of wonder! It is only boring if your thoughts tell yourself it is boring, but it really does not have to be if you fully live in the moments as they happen.

Life will open up to flow simply and joyously when we consciously live in the present and live it as in the wonder of a child's eyes. Moods and thoughts are contagious as well so if you are modeling PRESENT LIVING most likely other family members will follow suit as well. Joy is an emotion, one we can choose to live in paying attention to the moment, moments that can take our breath away when we get out of the past or the future.

Learn to train yourself to live in the moment full of wonder and see how many moments you can make breathless that allows your spirit to soar and raise your vibrations to a new level of joy!

Simply Homeschooled

Simply Homeschooled- keep it simple-keep it real.

To be honest, here at Simply Homeschooled I have no clue what this year will bring even though we are all really excited about another year. While I do not like using labels we do tend to largely follow the philosophy of Unschooling. Unschooling is just one of many methods of homeschooling that is largely child focused and child-led learning that is not forced or coerced in anyway but is allowed to flow creatively and naturally.

Simply Homeschooled is kept in simple terms by not spending large amounts of time in planning. While in fact this year I have planned a little bit as far was what subjects we will be starting, those are the subjects of our interest at the moment. These are only abstractly planned as a way of knowing where to focus our financial learning funds at the moment yet is really nothing set in stone and can be adapted and changed as needed.

I do think for this year I may brainstorm some goals for the year and come up with activities based off those goals, not looking for teachable moments of course but just trying to creatively come up with activities my kids will find interesting as well as engaging and entertaining in order to reach our goals for this year. I will have to do another post after I have brainstormed this years goals.

As for keeping Simply Homeschooled real it means just that really - KEEP IT REAL! This means many of what we choose to do or learn this year will have meaningful connections that is applied to REAL life as learning should not be separated from living. Learning and Living Co-exist together in a continual cycle and not separate of each other. That is why for example we will be working on LIVING MATH this year where connections will be made from real life examples of the daily usages math has in our lives.

I think much of my excitement is coming from this antsy build up of energy and a need for action, to be shaken out of our mundane routine and propelled into a world of inspiration, action, new experiences, joyful living and the connectedness we always build as a family on this journey. Not that our life is mundane or anything but for the last year it has seemed to have gone at a slow pace due to circumstances. At times it can seem mundane and too much of a routine for my tastes, yet I have always thrived on change and shaking things up.

There seems to be an excitement for this year that is far more than any other year has brought, I am not sure why but it is there. Not just on my part either but on the whole family, perhaps there is an unforeseen reason for all the excitement that will be revealed in due time. Perhaps it is due to we have gotten through 3 years of being unschoolers and this 4rth year is bringing true unschooling into our lives where we are not worried about others opinions, we are not trying to grasp and understand the philosophy but we can LIVE the philosophy this year. Whatever the reason, this excitement larger than life is undeniably there this year for each member and I know this will be a remarkable year that I plan to enjoy the ride on!

Hope everyone has a fantastic year regardless of the method of homeschooling you do!