Unconditional Love and Physical Education

LIfe learning is so different than the way we learned in school ... learning by subjects.. now we'll do science, math, english, social studies.. life really is not divided up like that.. it's all mixed up together.. and there are so many "subjects" that we did not cover in elementary school.. like how to love yourself and others.. how to live from your heart, to really know yourself, to live from your own internal guide.. how to listen to yourself, your own interior guidance, to really feel deeply into yourself and be true to that.. nope i did not learn that in school or college or church. I am trying to model this for my kids, to encourage them to tap into their own gifts and talents.. to give them the space, support and encouragement to even know that they do have unique things to offer and to celebrate that we all have offerings, gifts and the beauty is in the diversity.. not in us all being the same, comparing ourselves to each other and competing..
One of the best parts about living next door to the Zeljo family is that they have 2 wonderful things.. puppies and babies.. I love other peoples dogs and other peoples babies!! Who better to learn this most valuable lesson of unconditional love from than animals and babies.. huh??? It's been such a joy to share space with this most wonderful family, we are so grateful..
While it's not easy to live your whole life at the beach and then move away.. the mountains here in Boulder are a pretty reasonable replacement.. here's Luc rock climbing at Mt Sanitas.. that's physical education right.. ok cross that off the list.

Luc reads a book..

One of the most interesting parts of unschooling (flying without a curriculum) is wondering when you child will actually want to read.. don't get me wrong... there's necessary reading and well.... book reading.. Reese learned to read kind of when he was 5, he started reading (or memorizing) Yu gi oh cards.. he memorized 100's of cards, but he didn't pick up a book and read it till he was 8. or 9.. the book was Diary of a Wimpy kid.. it was Kaia's book, she left it in my car, Reese picked it up and read it.. in a day I think.. in the last 2 years, he's maybe read 10 actual chapter books.. not the hottest topic around.. of course Luc must copy everything Reese the magnificent does.. even resisting reading.. Reese once said.. when i told him we were going to the library.. NOOOO the library is worse than the dentist... OMG we laughed about that for months..
Well I am happy to report that Reese got the newest Dairy of a Wimpy Kid book for Christmas and low and behold.. Luc picked it up the other day.. and started reading it.. and he's only 7... so go figure he beat Reese by at least a year.

Ali my neighboor and I hosted a fun Science class for the kids.. it went pretty well.. we had about 14 kids, 7 of them were into the science (none of ours mind you.. actually the were doing Physics - making a sailing paper airplanes) and I had a ball doing Wizard to attentive other peoples kids, while my wild one's did their own thing entirely. Here is beautiful Gianni.. in the Wizards hat.
Yes there is a reason that we homeschool. They are freestylers.. in life.. reminds me of Luc when he was 4 and i tried to teach him to ski.. there we were on the bunny hill.. i am telling him to do the pizza (wedge stop) and french fries (straight skies), he was not having it.. "I am not doing pizza or french fries!" and off he would go down the hill, really fast, at the bottom he would spin around several times and stop. this went on all day.. an instructor skiing by took one look at him and summed it up with one word.. "freestyler"! Yeah i replied.. in life!

Parties, Aerial Arts and Knex

There's nothing better than packing up all your stuff and digging it all out 6 months later, it's like rediscovering your old toys.. All of our Legos, Knex, beads for jewelry, if that was not enough, there was all the Christmas gifts too.. remote control cars... such abundance.. Reese built some amazing swords out of Knex.. then of course we had a battle.. Most of the fun involves some type of battle, wrestling, tickling, some kind of game that we are playing.. currently Reese is very involved in Maplestory, Runescape is out, Magic the Gathering is in, Luc also likes Maplestory, but he also likes Club Penguin again.. we've also rediscovered all our board games, Settlers of Caton, & Florence. We pulled out art sets out cause we had to make Birthday cards.. for Reese who turned 11 in Jan, NIckie, our neighboor, and Jon Jon who invited us to a Zip line party.
Luc got to have a private session at Frequent Flyers an aerial arts studio in town.. He loved it.. we definitely want to take some classes there soon, what a great work out too.

January in Boulder

After an amazing Christmas, we hit the road for Boulder, we had a great 2 day drive, got very excited when we saw the snow and arrived on Dec 27th at about 3pm.. i had a friend (the best kind of friends.. they ones that show up and help you move!) meet me at storage, i got a truck, we got my bed, couch and coffee table out of storage.. and i was moving into our new place by 6pm.. It was impressive, me and Shawn moved a king size bed up stairs.. i felt very proud of myself. Our new little apartment is a cottage behind my friend Ali and Jon's house in North Boulder, they homeschool their 4 boys (11, 7, 2 and 5 mos) and they got 2 puppies for Christmas, what more could we want. Our place is 2 blocks from a great park and even more important we are 3 blocks from Gamers Guild where Reese can walk and play Magic the Gathering with other kids (and adults) everyday. Yes Reese has made good friends with Budge the owner, a dad of 3, who seems to love to play Magic with Reese every afternoon, Reese had died and gone to heaven!
Luc was very happy to reconnect with his buddy Eya, a friend we met 3 years ago here in Boulder, they are Lego and game fiends.. with big off the chart energy... friends are what it's all about!
We took a great trip to the Denver Botanical Gardens to see a very famous sculpture exhibit.. the kids were a bit perplexed at the giant abstract sculptures, but we still spent an hour in the snow freezing our butts off seeing everyone of the pieces and doing our scavenger hunt, we made totems, played with clay and of course spent time in the hot house garden room. playing chase..