01Jan
12

Unschooling: Our November/December 2015 adventures

Here we all are! Kaitlyn, me (Joan), my mom (also Joan), Chris, and, of course, Sarah!

Here we all are! Kaitlyn, me (Joan), my mom (also Joan), Chris, and, of course, Sarah!

Happy 2016! I am so thankful that we are finishing – and starting – yet another year unschooling, living and learning together. Looking back, I really didn’t do nearly as much as I would have liked to on this blog in 2015, but I am grateful to those of you who have read and commented as we share some snippets from our journey.

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!
I’d like to do more short, “moment from our unschooling life” posts in 2016. I used to write almost every day about the odds and ends of our lives, and while I probably can’t keep up with that pace, I am hoping to share a bit more. That’s where you come in: If you’re reading this, what would you like to hear more about? The things we talk about? Our current favorite movies/books/TV shows/games? Places we go? Unschooling philosophy? I can certainly do my best to oblige, and to keep wrapping up some of what we do in these monthly posts.

(If this is your first time catching our month-in-review posts, welcome! Check out our archive of previous wrapups here for some more info on why we take this approach to documenting some of our unschooling learning adventures.)

You have to watch out for those tiny zombies. Really.

You have to watch out for those tiny zombies. Really.

Books

Ashar got a bunch of new books for Christmas that have added a ton to our reading experiences! Meanwhile, I just realized that I rarely share on here what I’m reading, but you can keep up with me on Goodreads, where I am diligent about listing my selections.

Ashar has not one but two Lovely Yetis, the larger one acquired at Christmas and the smaller one in Arizona earlier this year. Their names are A-Bomb (Abominable), and H-Bomb (Huge Abominable). Because of course.

Ashar has not one but two Lovely Yetis, the larger one acquired at Christmas and the smaller one in Arizona earlier this year. Their names are A-Bomb (Abominable), and H-Bomb (Huge Abominable). Because of course.

Movies and TV

Let me be honest: The holidays aren’t nearly as fun here as our photos make it look. Honestly, Ashar and I both get REALLY stressed out around this time of year, and anxiety is a constant companion. So the week between Christmas and New Year’s was basically spent sitting on the couch, watching movies and TV.

One of Sarah's random projects recently was sorting some stamps she received for free from an organization called Stamps Teach Plus. (Click this photo to check them out!)

One of Ashar’s random projects recently was sorting some stamps she received for free from an organization called Stamps Teach Plus. (Click this photo to check them out!)

I surprised Ashar and Kaitlyn with a Giant Penguin. His name is Hoogerheide. (We kind of have A Lot of Penguins. Click this photo to see more of them.)

I surprised Ashar and Kaitlyn with a Giant Penguin. His name is Hoogerheide. (We kind of have A Lot of Penguins. Click this photo to see more of them.)

Video, board and card games

Fall Ashar was hanging out at Pinchot Park, one of our favorite places.

Fall Ashar was hanging out at Pinchot Park, one of our favorite places.

Ashar engaged in some birthday cheek-smooshing with her dad, Chris, on his birthday.

Ashar engaged in some birthday cheek-smooshing with her dad, Chris, on his birthday.

Places, projects and odds and ends

Sarah's Christmas portrait.

Ashar’s Christmas portrait.

  • We went to a Hershey Bears game. They almost won.
  • Mom, Ashar, one of my mom’s friends and I went to tea in Hershey, then on New Year’s Day (I know, that’s technically January), Mom, Chris, Kaitlyn, Ashar and I went out for tea at our favorite tea room in York County.
  • Ashar, Kaitlyn and I saw the Chinese National Acrobats at the Strand, a local theater, with friends, then went out for pizza afterward.
  • We acquired a giant teddy bear that we named Einstein. Later, we acquired a giant penguin that we named Hoogerheide.
  • Unfortunately, on Veterans Day, we had to say goodbye to our amazing polydactyl cat Mitts, who had been sick for a while.
  • In happier cat news, we scared a different one of our cats with a cucumber.
    • Ashar sorted her Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. She has a few.

    Ashar sorted her Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. She has a few.

  • We talked about a giant salamander found in a cave in China.
  • Ashar enjoyed listening to music from and watching several performances of The Nutcracker. First, she saw it in Harrisburg with her grandparents, then she, Kaitlyn and I went to see three friends of hers dance in COBALT Dance Company’s Nutcracker in Lancaster! (And we watched the movie version, mentioned above.)
  • My best friend Nina came over and took great family photos of us right after Christmas.
  • In 4-H, Ashar did some really cool research about the migration habits of bats, and the alpaca club celebrated the holidays with a laser tag and bowling party, in which, in one laser tag game, the kids proudly beat the adults.

So what’s new with your family this month? Drop me a comment! I love hearing from all my “blog friends!”

12Nov
4

Unschooling: Our October 2015 and Free to Be adventures

The Wolfpack. Cam, Ashar, Chloe, Liv and Quinn spent almost every waking moment of Free to Be together. Now if only the others didn't live in Arizona and Texas...

The Wolfpack. Cam, Ashar, Chloe, Liv and Quinn spent almost every waking moment of Free to Be together. Now if only the others didn’t live in Arizona and Texas…

WOW. This was a packed month, and I know I’m not even going to begin to do it justice in this post. We, you know, drove across the country and back, took part in what I called a temporary unschooling commune, took some alpacas to a local group home, stuck Washi tape to every surface imaginable, saw a Shakespeare performance, saw a Dracula performance, and generally just packed in every minute with some adventure.

(If this is your first time catching our month-in-review posts, welcome! Check out our archive of previous wrapups here for some more info on why we take this approach to documenting some of our unschooling learning adventures.)

Ashar had her F2B posse; I had mine. We did not have a good name like "Wolfpack," but we were moms of four-fifths of the pack?

Ashar had her F2B posse; I had mine. We did not have a good name like “Wolfpack,” but we were moms of four-fifths of the pack?

All about Free to Be

Here’s the super-short version of the biggest event of our year: From Sept. 26 to Oct. 11, we drove to Phoenix, Arizona, and back, and from Oct. 1 to 4, we took part in the Free to Be Unschooling Conference in Phoenix. The drive there went by way of Chicago, Denver and the Four Corners, and the drive back took us through Texas and New Orleans.

Well, for a short roundup of some of my favorite takeaways from the conference itself, check out a column I wrote for our local newspaper, called Unschooling: What’s in your toolbox? I’d like to blog more here about this, the conceptual side of unschooling, when I get time, but that’s a good start.

By far the best part about Free to Be was just getting to hang out in person with people we’d known online for years. I really hate how we don’t have many unschooling friends locally, at least not ones we get to spend any kind of time with. If I could have my ladies over once a week and Ashar could have her friends visit… wow.

In good news, we’re seriously planning some mid-year meetups, because these kids miss each other like crazy, even with emails.

We visited the Four Corners Monument, ostensibly where the states of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado meet, but really entirely in New Mexico, as Ashar learned in her book from last month, "Maphead."

We visited the Four Corners Monument, ostensibly where the states of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado meet, but really entirely in New Mexico, as Ashar learned in her book from last month, “Maphead.”

At the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado, Ashar made a prehistoric pig friend.

At the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado, Ashar made a prehistoric pig friend.

Ashar and Beacon found a Spare-Ah and a Bonus Beacon at the Chicago Bean.

Ashar and Beacon found a Spare-Ah and a Bonus Beacon at the Chicago Bean.

Places, projects and odds and ends from our road trip

So, besides the conference itself, we had a huge vacation to, you know, everywhere. Some highlights:

  • Chicago: We saw the Bean, Navy Pier and a cool comic store. Also two stadiums. (Stadia?)
  • Denver: We went to the Museum of Science and Nature, saw two more stadiums and hung out in the outdoor mall.
  • Four Corners: Ashar and Chris had read about the Four Corners Monument in Ken Jennings’ Maphead, and of course Ashar wanted to see it.
  • Fish and butterflies: With Kaitlyn’s parents, who live in Arizona and who we luckily got to spend some time with, we visited the Sea Life Aquarium and Butterfly Wonderland, as well as the San Xavier del Bac Mission outside Tucson.
  • Texas: It’s big. We got to stay the night with friends, and we saw the Astros’ stadium. (See a theme?)
  • New Orleans: We went to the Riverwalk and, as a huge highlight of the trip, the National World War II Museum, which deserves its own post for sure. (This was a recommendation of a reader, so THANK YOU!)
  • The South: While driving outside Birmingham and Selma, we talked about the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. Then we went to Atlanta, entirely so that I could see the CDC headquarters.
  • Washi tape: At Free to Be, I went to a workshop on decorating notebooks and planners with Washi tape. I showed Ashar and Kaitlyn, and then we bought a lot of Washi tape, and we stuck it to everything conceivable, a project which continues now that we’re home.
  • Podcasts: We mixed up our on-the-road audio, but a big part of it included some neat podcasts, everything from Hardcore History to Stuff You Missed in History Class to Stuff to Blow Your Mind to Stuff You Should Know… they were amazing.
We took an hourlong detour into Atlanta so I could get my picture taken in front of the CDC headquarters, in the rain, on a Saturday night. This was basically a bucket-list item for me; I hope to work for the CDC some day.

We took an hourlong detour into Atlanta so I could get my picture taken in front of the CDC headquarters, in the rain, on a Saturday night. This was basically a bucket-list item for me; I hope to work for the CDC some day.

Books

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!
This month, Ashar finished two huge books she’d spent a couple months each on!

You can read more about both of the first two in last month’s roundup.

Ashar (complete with airbrush tattoo) made friends with this Gray Cracker butterfly at Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Ashar (complete with airbrush tattoo) made friends with this Gray Cracker butterfly at Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Movies and TV

  • The Martian – Kaitlyn and I had read the book; Ashar and Chris had not. We all liked the movie, though!
  • The I.T. Crowd
  • We Bare Bears
  • Numb3rs
  • The Breakfast Club – Ashar and her crew watched this late one night while eating pizza in the teen lounge at Free to Be. Can you think of a more stereotypically teen thing?
We went to both the Sea Life aquarium and a butterfly garden with Kaitlyn's parents, Paul and JoAnne, in Phoenix. Oh, also, the penguin's name is Phoenix.

We went to both the Sea Life aquarium and a butterfly garden with Kaitlyn’s parents, Paul and JoAnne, in Phoenix. Oh, also, the penguin’s name is Phoenix.

Video, board and card games

In amazing serendipity, our drive home from Free to Be took us through the Texas town where Sarah's friends Cam and Liv (and my friend Rachel, and her husband, Josh) live. So we spent the night, and Ashar and Cam played Mortal Kombat until 8 a.m.

In amazing serendipity, our drive home from Free to Be took us through the Texas town where Ashar’s friends Cam and Liv (and my friend Rachel, and her husband, Josh) live. So we spent the night, and Ashar and Cam played Mortal Kombat until 8 a.m.

Places, projects and odds and ends from non-trip times

The funny thing is, we actually did more this month besides the trip than we do in a lot of months.

  • Theater: We saw a stage play of Dracula that featured both a coworker of Kaitlyn’s and a longtime friend of mine, and then on Halloween, we went to see a “Shakespeare in the Barn” production of Macbeth put on amazingly well by local arts group Orangemite Studios. THAT starred, as the three witches, three women who taught English at my high school. It was epic.
  • Music: My high school holds a band show for local noncompetitive marching bands every year, and this year’s was on Halloween. I try to go every fall.
  • 4-H: Ashar and her club took their alpacas to visit the residents at the Margaret E. Moul Home, a residence for people with disabilities in our neighborhood. That was such an amazing experience. (Not for the alpacas, though, to be honest. They were pretty unhappy with the whole deal.) For her Wildlife Watchers club, Ashar put together an awesome presentation on bats.

So what’s new with your family this month? Drop me a comment! I love hearing from all my “blog friends!”