In my last post I confessed my excitement towards Spring and mentioned how it had snowed. Well in case you didn’t hear the Midwest was hit with yet another snow storm. As I look out my window now as I type this there is snow on the ground. Even if it does melt by Easter it will still be way too muddy outdoors for an egg hunt. Guess we will just need to move it indoors this year. Oh well I reminded myself of last summer and 106 degree temps and drought and actually I am thankful for the snow, I am ready for it to be over too but indeed thankful.
I am thankful we had enough wood to get us through the prolonged winter. I am thankful for the money it has saved us this year (since having it installed it has paid for itself already by allowing us to skip a months electricity payment every year, one year even 2 ). I am thankful our freezers are full of another years worth of nourishment for our bodies. I am thankful that we have learned how to make half a steer, a hog, 20 chickens (and a turkey) stretch a year for our family of 4 (those of us still living at home that is).
I am thankful I can shake the hands and know the farmers personally who raised and processed our food. I am thankful I have learned how to replace dairy in some recipes with the beautiful stock the animals have provided us and how nothing has been wasted. Though we are not vegetarians one of our families principles is that the animals that lose their life to nourish ours be treated with utmost respect even after death.
Even though the way we educate may have changed our principles have not. I do not need to “teach” the girls how to be respectful they learn respect by Papa and I showing respect to them, to each other, and others who deserve to be respected. I do not need to “teach” the girls to be thankful, they learn thankfulness by Papa and I being thankful. When out to eat and being served we tell our waiter/waitress thank you for their service. When Papa runs to the store to get milk because I may not feel like it I make sure to tell him thank you in front of the girls. In other words we practice what we preach. 🙂
Another point that some tend to not quite understand about radical unschooling is “If children are not made to follow rules how on earth will they ever learn them?” It doesn’t take long for me to understand where a disrespectful child may have picked up their manners when I see their parents acting the exact same way.
Another principle that is important to our family is the respect we show Mother Earth, again one that did not need to be “taught” to the girls but instead that they naturally picked up on from Papa and I composting, buying used when we can, and recycling. Something else we have done since the beginning is celebrate Earth Hour which took place Saturday.
Like every year we played games to lantern light.
Our favorites are Charades and we like to play the game where one person starts a story and everyone adds on to it. Sometimes we finish the evening with the lights off and act out our favorite stories or movies.
Since I mentioned games there was more Frog Juice, Disney Headbanz, Disney Pictionary, and the board game Clue, where Little Sis can now read and follow along all on her own. Papa and Little Sis played more Connect 4 and we played more Pac-Man Party and Mario Party 8 on the Wii.
We decorated the board for Spring and have been playing around a bit where you create other words from the letters that describe a word you choose.
It is harder than you may think.
Miss Sky created another new board on Pinterest called Good Graphic Movies where she has been pinning her favorites and doing reasearch on others she wants to see like the original King Kong and Godzilla.
She likes to read the reviews and has found lots of new favorites like The Incredible Shrinking man. She has also been doing reasearch on Native American weapons to help get ideas for creating her own weapons for her manga story. Oh and more Scribblenauts and Electroplanton on the 3DS.
Our family movie was The Hobbit. Our favorite cashier, we always go to her aisle even when she has a long line, from the grocery store informed us it was a 2 parter that we did not know and I am glad she did because I would have been even more disappointed. I love Peter Jackson’s movies and understand why Lord of the Rings needed to be 3 movies but not the Hobbit. However I loved who he picked to play Bilbo and there was lots more humor than LotR. It really is beautifully made, we just didn’t want to wait longer to see the conclusion. 😦 We did enjoy picking out the tie-ins from the other movies too.
Wishing peace for the journey.