I thought some more about unschooling math last night and decided that I would share some stories from the experiences we have had with our girls.

About the time that I felt God was leading me to unschooling math was the one thing that I worried about the most. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because I worried that they would get cheated at the store if they didn't know how to work with money or if they didn't know how to do certain problems then "I" would look bad. The bottom line was I needed to put aside my pride and place full trust in that fact that the one who created my kids created them to be able to learn and gain the knowledge they needed when they needed it, or most importantly when they were ready.

I did a lot of just observing my kids the first few weeks that we completely left any structured learning behind. Aly had a cardboard log cabin that her grandpa had given her and she was huge into pioneers. She wanted to build a fence to go around the cabin. So I got out the craft sticks we had, glue gun and the glue sticks. She is just 7yo at this time. She decided she wanted to glue them flat on top of one another and that they would be 6 high. She made one and then without prompting from me took that section and marked around the cabin to see how many she would have to make total to cover the circumference. I was amazed...it was math but she wasn't crying! See, math+Aly+mom= crying x 2. So then since I was running the glue gun she would say..."I have 4 craft sticks glued, I need 2more" or "I've got 7, here take one so I only have 6." I almost couldn't contain myself but I somehow managed to keep my mouth shut so that I didn't step in and mess up a totally natural learning experience. She made all of the sections she had estimated she would need and her estimate had been right. When the fence was done she was off in her imaginary world and I was floating on cloud 9.

Both of the bigs have learned coin value just by helping us count the change in the change jar and rolling it up. They played store with real money. Concepts of change took a while to learn because like most kids when they would give someone a dollar and then get back 6coins or so they would think that they had more simply because they had more pieces. An understanding of value came when they started spending money in the store.

Games that we have played over the years include home made and store bought ones. We have tangrams, tangoes,measuring tapes, rulers, paper, pencils, calculators,measuring cups, clocks, watches...you get the idea. Sum Swamp is a fun one for addition and subtraction facts. One we have right now that SiSi loves to play is Countdown. In this game addition, subtraction,multiplication, and division are used. I have made foam dice before and we have just rolled them across the room and then solved the equation. Flash cards are boring to most kids and I have a few boxes of them. When Sisi discovered them one day we wound up making a hide and seek game out of them. I would pick 10, hide them and she would find them and then solve the problem. These were all of her choosing.

One day a neighbor gave Aly a folder full of math worksheets that she had had for her kids as reinforcement activities through the summer. Aly showed them to me and I thought for sure they would just sit and be left alone. However she took them out and started working on them and taught herself with a little help here and there how to divide. She was ready and she wanted to learn. It clicked and again there were no tears.

One day we were all reading a book about ocean life that Sisi was given as a gift. We were reading about the giant squid and it gave the measurements. The girls wanted to know just how big that was, not in just words but as a visual. So we took out the heavy duty tape measure and began marking off the length in the front yard. They were amazed that a giant squid would have taken up the entire front yard!

Admittedly I have one that is more math inclined than the other. Right now there are some things we are looking into in regards to Aly that look like they will explain why she has always had such difficulty with math and the memorization aspect. She can do the work but it isn't there on an instant recall basis. This frustrates her and has begun to effect her self esteem. Still I wouldn't change anything that we have done because she has shown that when the mind is ready it will learn.

The public school system puts a number on when things should be learned leaving a lot of kids either bored because they are ahead of that number or behind because their minds are not ready to connect and learn those things.

I don't believe that every child is ready to read by the age of 6 or that multiplication should be memorized by the 4th grade.

Each child is unique, they learn for the way they were wired. I have 4 children that I interact with everyday and they all learn differently. Just think about which kid did what at what age etc. Some walk early, some talk later, some have great motor skills that keep you hopping because the dining room table isn't a place to climb. One will sleep better than another, one likes this food, the other doesn't. One can sit still and listen to a book, another has to be doing something in order to listen. If they develop differently then it goes without saying that they will learn differently.

If you google search "unschooling math" lots of articles will come up. This one is my favorite.

A good book to read is "Better Late than Early" by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. Sadly these two people aren't with us anymore but their wisdom lives on in this book and the others that they wrote.

I thought for sure I would be sore this morning but I am not. We made it out to the garden yesterday. We being the littles and SiSi, the only big that can and will rise before noon. We harvested radishes for the farmer's market Thursday and then weeded around the radishes that weren't quite ready for harvest. Emi had a lot of fun with the harvesting but then was disinterested after about 15min of weeding. Ace was not at all happy about the dirt on her hands! She just looked at me like I was nuts for bringing her. She did pick a few radishes though. I have hired, or at least think I have hired Aly to watch the littles for me on my next trip out. She will get a $1 for every hour I am out working. Since this is something I *want* to do and not something I *have* to do I don't mind her having some monetary gain.

I did some housework when we got back and the littles played. Then I had a huge sugar/chocolate craving and there was only a small Ghiradelli chocolate square in the house. Not enough to satisfy the craving. I found a recipe for homemade brownies and by 3:30pm we were eating the brownies.

Supper was actually cooked and ready before 6pm and then after a bit of kitchen duty I took the littles outside to play. SiSi joined me and brought a Which Way USA to work on. For those who aren't familiar with those, it is a geography puzzle book put out by Highlights. It comes with a workbook full of puzzles to work through and a state map. As  you work through each book you learn about significant people and places from each state.

I also worked on recovering the barstools that belong to my brother. I have the old cover off and all the pieces measured so I can make another cover. I just need a compass to draw the circular top. I might brave the stores today with the littles in tow. I would like to have both barstools finished by the weekend. I also plan on touching up the last chair I painted and starting another.

I was asked yesterday what educational pursuits we had planned for the summer. Some of our family members do not know we unschool. If they stopped by here to read, they would but I don't think many do. I used to hide it, now I just don't care. We are who we are and we do what we do because it works for our family. Anyway my response to the question was just to share with the person the current interests of the bigs.

Aly has a huge interest in the civil rights movement. She has a stack of books in her room right now that are mostly nonfiction along with a few historical novels from that time period. She was reading about some of the horrible things that happened during that and one of the murders against a black man that they shared about was in the town that some of my family live in now. We have talked about fear and how it can drive hate. We have talked about how for some people racism is a big part of their lives still. We have discussed how I feel that the civil rights movement wasn't just a black/white issue but that is was a people issue. That no matter, race, nationality or sex everyone deserves to be treated in a humane way. Not made to sit somewhere else, or drink from a different water fountain or made to shop at only certain stores just to name a few ugly things. I think about the state of things back then and wonder how on earth things like that actually were able to happen.

She asked me why no one did anything about the hangings, how people got away with it so often. So corruption came up, then injustice and morals and character.

None of this was a scope and sequence laid out for her. None of this was even suggested by me. Tucked in that stack of books is one about the Dust Bowl. It sound interesting to her so she checked it out. Another is a book from a series called opposing views. The book takes different subjects and gives opposing viewpoints to each one. Maybe that will lead to a desire to debate, maybe she will be more open to other's ideas or understand better where someone who thinks differently than she does is coming from.  

Then there is SiSi. She is big into mystery books and is rereading a favorite that she found at the library a few months back. She is also huge into the slip-n-slide and our neighbors new pool. So I guess you could say physics is a big part of her plans for this summer. Along with geography because not only does she like the Which Way USA books she gets another kit that is a World Geography book in a spy/intrigue form. Oh and she will be attending her first away from home, overnight camp in a couple of weeks. She is totally excited. Do not ask how mom is doing. I will exhale when she comes home safe and sound thank you very much!

The littles are doing the same things as the bigs....growing and exploring the world around them. It's also known as living life. I don't see what my kids do as educational pursuits so to speak, I see it as just a part of the path of living that will take them into adulthood where hopefully the desire to know more continues until they leave this world.

"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself. "
--George Bernard Shaw

AMEN!!!

 We had a really great weekend. My brother's girlfriend was in town so we went out garage saleing on Friday and Sat. It was the weekend when there are sales from the one side of the state to the other on the highway that runs through our town.

I hit the jackpot at one sale. I had been wanting a slide for the littles to play on outside and look what I got for $4!!!!

I couldn't believe my luck!! Then we traveled out to a barn sale and there were so many baby girl clothes there! Every sale prior to that had had a lot of boy clothes...no help to this mom of 5girls! When we pulled up though the first thing I saw was a doll sized umbrella stroller, something else that I have been looking for because we have one and the littles battle over it. I had SiSi run up to it and stand by it as there were other people coming up the driveway. While we were looking we found brand new never worn outfits for #5. She needs clothes since I haven't had a summer baby since '95 and I have nothing to hand down. There were water shoes for SiSi for when we hit the creek, a swim suit(hallelujah chorus) for Emi and a couple of more shirts for her to round out what she needs for the summer.

I spent $20 total for everything I got which also included some brand new books that I found at various other sales and a couple of large canvas bags.

Sat. was Alison's day to score big. My brother has been looking for barstools with backs for his apartment and the first sale we stopped at had two of them. they were marked $15 a piece but the guy sold them both for $15!! I also found an hanging closet organizer there that I am using to put the baby's clothes in. Now I just need one more for her diapers and we are set. I will be out again this coming weekend as long as the weather is nice.

Yesterday I worked on my chair project. No pictures for that yet...I want to post them all in one post. I also spray painted a barstool that we got for my brother on Friday. Now that it is painted I am going to recover the top of it and see how they work for him. They don't have backs but we got the pair for $5 and they are sturdy. While I was painting I was also tanning burning my back. It isn't too bad. I was always so dark complected as a kid and now as an adult I tend to burn before I tan.

After cleaning up my project mess Aly and I went to good will to see if we could get her summer needs taken care of. She is the only one that I have a hard time getting things at garage sales for. So we found some shorts to try but none of them worked. Can someone explain to me why they think the bottom of the shorts should only land one inch below the crotch??!! She did find a lot of cute Old Navy, Wet Seal and Ambercrombie tanks and shirts. She doesn't look for those specifically, I just pointed that out so that those who haven't stepped inside a goodwill can be aware that you can dress with those labels (if that matters to you) at a much cheaper price than going to their store and paying their outrageous prices. Maybe not Old Navy as much as the other two. Now all she needs are shorts that aren't too short, some capris and a couple of jeans that don't have holes in the knees. Holes in the knees don't bother me, it's just that she can't leave the holes alone and they get bigger extremely fast.

We didn't get to work on our garden yesterday because Jorry was sore from the side job he did on Sat. The poor guy could hardly move yesterday. So tonight, if his muscles aren't as sore we will go out there to work. This morning I am loading up the littles to go work in the garden our organic farmer has in.

Oh and in night weaning news last night was the 3rd night that Ace has not nursed in the night. Woo hooo! I am getting better sleep and this makes a huge difference during the day. I just tell her that nunnies are night night and she will either take a drink of water and roll over or she will snuggle in with me. She is also sleeping better with all the outside play time she is getting. She loves to be outside and hates to be brought in.

Ok I am off to get things together to go to the farm.

Have a great day!!

We went hunting for a swimsuit for Emi at good will yesterday. They only had one little girls suit and it wasn't her size. I was really bummed. She did find a pair of shoes she liked...she is a shoeaholic at the ripe old age of 3. She did not get it from her mom.

We tried the other thrift store in town and didn't find one there either. I might go to some further out today but the thought of spending the gas money makes it a slow decision.

Jorry came home last night to tell me that the owner of the new company he is working for has given us as much space as we want for an organic garden!!! Wooo hoooo. It means we have to drive to tend but not far. The fact that I will actually get to garden this year is just soo cool. I will also be helping our farmer friends with their organic garden this year. I hope to gain a lot of knowledge along with a bounty of veggies.

Jorry also landed a side job for this weekend. A timely bonus thank you God.

I am praying that we can find two offices to clean on the weekends so we can supplement our monthly income by $400 a month. This will allow us to rent something just a big bigger than what we are in now. We are also praying for a house to rent in the country.  Our neghborhood here is great and I would miss our wonderful neighbors but with #5 coming I am having a hard time stretching our space.

Ace had a rash on her stomach yesterday so I think she might have roseola. I noticed the rash after we got back from running around yesterday. It's not there this morning though so maybe not.

We watched National Treasure Book of Secrets last night. Well, we tried. The littles were on one last night and it made watching it challenging. I was very frustrated. So much so that I decided to take Jorry up on the idea of going to the movies this weekend instead of out to eat. This way I will actually get to watch the whole thing without interruption. Dinner AND a movie would be great but the budget only allows for one. I was pushing for dinner until I tried to watch the movie. We produced a bunch of night owls so there is no putting the littles to bed and then watching the movie. Unless of course we want to start watching it at 10pm or later. And since, according to our oldest two we are "old" we would likely fall asleep watching it.

Despite all the drama during the movie it was good.

Have a great day!!

Ace had no fever all day yesterday after I posted. She might have been dealing with teeth but I'm still thinking virus. Who knows, I'm just glad she is better.

Aly experienced her first betrayal from a friend yesterday. My heart aches for her and this experience. I know that it is part of life but I still feel like she has some of the worst luck when it comes to friends. I am still praying that she finds a good genuine friend that she connects with. Finding one that knows how to honor boundries would be a good start!

I am almost 32weeks I think. I haven't looked at my ticker lately but I think I am close. This means of course that I really need to order our birthing supplies. My midwife comes today so I will have to remember to ask her for the ordering information.

I am feeling very large and am having a hard time being an active mom. My energy is low and even though I have upped my iron I still feel non-plus about being a mom to 4 kiddos. Anytime I think about going to the park or getting out in the yard with the kids all I can think about is the protruding belly in front of me and how it makes everything a little more challenging to do. I am trying to remind myself that this is the last time I will experience the movements inside and the last time I will have a large belly that shows the world that I am carrying a new life. Still, I find the tv on more and my behind on the couch more often than I find myself living life with my kids.

This has taken me by surprise since the pregnancy has been the easiest of them all.

Maybe today we will make homemade playdough or something fun like that.

Wanna come play? Maybe your company would motivate my large pregnant self to engage in life!

Edited to add because I don't want to forget...last night while on the couch Emi was snuggled up with me and she said "I love you mommy, you are my best mommy."

Well the night wasn't too bad. When I went to bed Ace's temp was 102.8. She rested well until about 4am and then she had a hard time falling into a deep sleep. She drank down almost a full sippy cup of water. I feel bad because I know she isn't getting much of anything when she nurses besides comfort.

When we woke up this morning her temp was down to 99.6. She is eating watermelon and watching Little Einsteins with her sister. There are no other symptoms. She took another dose of belladona for me. I couldn't get her to take one last night when the temp was at its highest.

I'll just watch her today. Probably just some virus her body is battling.

Not that I anticipated being gone. We had no internet connection for almost a week.

I haven't even begun to catch up with everyone here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. My brother and his girlfriend came over today for a cookout. We had chicken kabobs, honeylime marinated chicken breasts, sausage,and hot dogs. Then there was fried okra, baked beans, Vera's salad, various cut up veggies and for dessert southern style banana pudding and/or yellow cake with chocolate frosting. 

Ace started running a fever right before her nap. It wasn't high then but when she woke up it was 102. It decreased after a dose of homeopathic belladona but then went back up again. Although it wasn't as high. She just cuddled and nursed and then fell back to sleep around 4pm. When she woke after that nap I tried to redose her but she wouldn't take it. The fever did go down and she actually got out of my lap and walked around and then ate watermelon. I'm not sure what she is fighting off but I am prepared for a long night.

The bigs are away spending the night with friends. I mentioned to Jorry that while I wouldn't change things, if we didn't have the littles we would have the house to ourselves. He proceeded to say that we wouldn't know what to do. I could think of a few things.

Oh I almost forgot. I took Aly swimsuit shopping Sat. It turned out a lot better than I had anticipated although her father wishes we had bought her the full body wet suit we had talked about. We went for a tankini but all of the ones at Target were a little to momish so we wound up with two bikinis. I could have gone to other stores but I liked what we found and since we had the littles with us hitting the one store was all I was up for. Remember I am 30weeks pregnant so just thinking about doing something like shopping is draining...forget actually doing it!!

She did agree to me buying her a wrap for when she isn't in the water. This is for her dad who is having a hard time thinking about what boys will be thinking about his daughter. He only has to go through this 4 more times.

Ok so there is the mundane that is my life!

Aly had her allergist appointment yesterday. We actually got out of the door on time, got gas, grabbed some food and headed there with time to spare for me to get lost as usual. I missed the last road, thinking it would be a large cross street when it was a small side street. Oh well it's my life and I plan accordingly! LOL

We got there and met the allergist who was a nice enough guy in the beginning but by the end of the day when I had had time to reflect on the appointment was not the least bit helpful.

They did a skin test which was not as painful as Aly expected and she handled it just fine.

He kept saying "I usually see 6month olds with this condition not almost 13yo." I wanted to say well she's the exception so now you have to work beyond your scope and help us. I think he repeated that sentence about 3 times.

The test showed that she is allergic to dust mites. Come again?? He didn't even test her for an allergy to brazil nuts after we told him she broke out in hives on her face after handling one. He then proceeds to tell me that he has never known dustmites to cause excema. So I ask him what symptoms she would be showing with an allergy to dustmites and he said sneezing fits, itchy eyes etc. None of these things are things that she deals with!! So now she supposedly has an allergy to dustmites and we still have no answers as to what is causing the excema.

Then to top things off he writes a prescription for a steriod cream and says "Don't apply it to your face because it will make you ugly. You don't care about making your arms ugly because they already are."

Hello you inconsiderate oaf!! She already deals with depression and self confidence issues because her skin is so bad on her arms. She doesn't need your stoopid remarks to make things worse. Ugh I should have said something but we just grabbed our things and left. I will NOT be filling the prescription anyway. We DO care about thinning the skin out on her arms and I do care about forcing the stuff back into her system and making her asthma worse.

So an entire day lost and no positive results to show from it except that we wont' be returning to that office.

I did call our homeopath and we have a plan in place. Aly is in agreement, she doesn't want to use the cream and she felt the last remedy she took made improvements so that is a positive. I redosed her last night and we will see how things go. I am also upping her cod liver oil intake, adding a B12 supplement and getting her back to the tanner a couple of times a week.

We got our stimulas check. Woo hoo we get to get caught up on bills. So much for us stimulating anything.

Oh and I learned last night that gas was $1.49gal when Bush took office. Can someone please explain to me why there seems to be nothing that can be done about the gas prices??? I think we should have a national boycott and all of us that can shouldn't by gas and that all the truck drivers in this country should park their trucks.

I know, I know it won't happen and my idea is probably completely flawed. I'm just frustrated that anything we think about doing is currently affected by how much gas it is going to take to get there.

Ok I will end my depressing post here.

I'm here but not here.

I finally got to start a project this weekend that I have been wanting to work on since last fall. It involves paint,a saw, wood, cloth and sewing. I will post pictures when I am done with the first one.

My belly is growing and I have reached the stage where no clothes feels best. I am sure that is more than some of you would like to know but hey this is me, what do you expect?

I knitted another dishcloth. It had a dolphin in it. Sorry no pictures.

I have to order the circular needles that I need so I can knit a wool soaker for this baby. Totally frustrating to only find one set of needles that I needed.

Hmm what else......

I will begin night weaning Ace tonight. I have to have more sleep and while tandem night nursing has happened in this house before I just don't feel that I can bring myself to do it again.

Oh my little brother had to return something to Good Will yesterday and invited me along. My awesome husband stayed home with all of the kids. Josh took me out to eat..it was great. Then we went to the Good Will and I hit the jackpot on beach themed room decorations for Aly. She will be 13 next month and wants to have her room decorated. I got three bags of items for $16!!! One thing was a nice framed print with a picture of what else..the beach! Almost everything I picked up was the half off color. I also found some great half priced stuff for my brother's apartment. He has declared that he is taking me more often!

SiSi's soccer season ended. No wins again but she had fun. Apparently at the last game one of our friends(a mom) was really yelling for the girls and coacing them. She turned around to see my husband and brother back there and said "Sorry" like she shouldn't have been doing what the coach was supposed to be doing. My brother said "Well, someone needs to coach them." I guess the coach was just sitting on the bench the entire game not giving any instruction at all. If things work out Josh is thinking about volunteering to coach in the fall. He will make a great coach.

Emi is 3.5. For those of you who have walked the path of having a 3.5 year old I don't think I need to expound. For those of you who don't have kids I think you could become quite rich if you could find a way to skip the 3rd year all together.

I also think that it is ultimately wrong to have to parent a 3.5yo and an almost 13yo at the same time.

I am off to start some laundry since I didn't do any all weekend.

Have a great day!!

I am well now. Yucky couple of days.

I have officially decided that I will not be celebrating Mother's Day next year.

My family loves me but the day never turns out the way I have it in my mind. It's not even a day involving having to spend money. <sigh>

I always come away from the day being bummed about how it went or didn't go.

So I will send a card to my mom and he will send one to his and we will call it just another day. This way I won't have to wade through big emotions. It's just better that way. And no, it isn't because I am pregnant, this happens every Mother's Day.

Let's see what else is going on.

I am working on another dishcloth. It's almost done but Ace got a hold of it yesterday and I have some repair work to do.

Aly and I are reading Pride and Prejudice. We got through the first 5 chapters yesterday. It is challenging to read at times and I find myself having to slow down and really chew on the words.

Sisi is having some problems with her mood disorder so we are working on some remedies. This reminds me that I need to call my homeopath today.

The littles and I had a great morning yesterday. We played with silks and pretend to be butterflies. Then we pretended to be different animals. We played with their kitchen and made some kickin' imaginary spaghetti. Then we listened to a cd from the library.

Life calls so I will end here.

Just wanted to edit and say that I did tell them exactly what I wanted. That in and of itself is what causes the big emotions because there is no guessing and they still don't get it.