Thursday, October 20, 2005

twists and turns

One thing about being flexible-you sure do take some unusual and unexpected twists and turns.

We have lately been distracted from a normal routine by trying to get our barn and property ready for our horses. So, school has been allowed to happen naturally. Now this is not a huge stretch for us-we tend towards an unschoolish attitude anyway. But never to this extent.
Well...surprise! it works!
Example:
I did not have time to think of a prompt for our regular friday morning freewrite. On the way out to the barn I told Superboy to "write."
"About what?"
"Anything you want. Just write until I get back-about 15 minutes. Don't worry about spelling or grammar. Use the computer to type it if you want."
I slipped out the door, figuring I'd get the usual "I can't think of anything..." results when I came back.
Boy was I surprised! It took me more like 30 minutes, and Superboy had typed an entire page! He found a picture of an anime-style knight and it inspired him to begin a story. And he has been working on it voluntarily every day since! He says he wants to make it into a book. It has chapters and dialog and it is funny!
And it is entirely his! Hooray!
What else?
I rented "Phantom of the Opera," the new movie version, from Netflix (Netflix is the best idea since sliced bread, by the way). Not my usual fare, but I'm trying to branch out...I loved it. Loved it!
Thinking it might be a little halloweenish in spirit, I put it on for the kids. They are mad about it!!!!! Who would've thought? They go around humming tunes from the movie. They quote it! They watch it over and over! They begged me to order the soundtrack (I did, of course!). Superboy wants to take piano lessons! (wish I had a piano...).
We have not had an entire family hit like this since "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?"
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Also... binary! Inspired by the book "G is for Googol," we figured it out last night and made a chart and now superboy can write any number (Ok, theoretically) in binary. It was fun, even at 8pm!
JBug is doing a wonderful job of learning her letters and their sounds. Wish I could take more credit, but it is largely due to a video by leapfrog-letter factory, or something like that.

Good stuff going on here!
I don't think I'd want to unschool all the time, but the experience of this week has made me less nervous about those times when I know there will be interruptions.
Gotta go... time for another round of "Phantom..."

1 comment:

barbara said...

Boy do I know what you mean about twists and turns Theresa. lol

Hope all is going well getting things together for the horses. School here has been of the "unschooling" variety too. Isn't it amazing what happens when we "just let it". :)

Josh is so excited Superboy wrote a story. He has written one too for a Friday Freewrite lol. He would love it if they could share their stories with each other.

I haven't seen Phantom yet but my daughters watched it together and loved it! Josh watched parts of it with them.

I am so glad you are enjoying G is for Google. We have had alot of fun with it too.

I know just what you mean about not unschooling all the time. It makes me too nervous lol.

Sounds like lots of fun things going on at your house :)