It’s Child’s Play

Yesterday we went to the Children’s Museum of Cleveland for their First Monday event. Every first Monday of the month is free and because I usually work on Mondays we have never been able to attend. It was incredibly packed as you can imagine but since we were one of the first to arrive it wasn’t too bad for the most part. The museum is divided into “exhibits” or themed play areas like a working grocery store, a giant water table, and a farm area complete with tractor and hay loft. We didn’t go into the barn area because it is meant for kids under 4 and two out of the three would have been a little too big. The hit of the place though is their special exhibit, this season it is a dinosaur digging area with over 60 tons of indoor sandy fun!!

If you have little ones the museum is a really fun place to visit. It is designed for ages 8 and under so we are reaching the end of it’s appeal for Gabby, which makes it tricky for me. I definitely would recommend going on an “off” time so that your little one can get to experience all the fun areas- Amelia really enjoyed pretending to be a doctor and “fixing” Gabby’s pretend broken arm while Moira loved the house and water play. Everyone loved the grocery store area where Gabby was a banker, doling out money to tons of kids. And let’s not forget all the learning that happens naturally when kids play-

• Building and creating architectural structures
• Understanding the different food groups
• Organizing food in the grocery store by category (i.e. fruits, vegetables, grains)
• Counting money in the bank
• Learning seat belt safety and traffic safety rules
• Observing how dams and various objects affect water flow
• Gross motor skills from digging in the sand and pouring
• Learning about paleontologists and site digs

Yay for another unschooling field trip and cheers for another of Cleveland’s wonderful places to visit!!

 

Johnson Wetland Center

Today we ventured out into one of the many nature reservations in our area, Sandy Ridge Reservation. We are fortunate enough to have a whole metropark system in the greater Cleveland area, this one featuring a huge wetland area. I am trying to encourage the girls to observe more when we are outside instead of racing around like crazy people, teaching them to write down our observations, and how to do quick sketches of animals and plants as we walk along.

This particular area is simply chock full of wildlife from deer to snakes (shudder!) from cranes to snapping turtles. We saw no less than 20 deer, a garter snake, tons of monarch butterflies, and so much more… it was lovely! As the girls walked along we talked about how the butterflies are endangered, how the deer are filling up in preparation for the winter coming up, and how birds and other animals migrate to warmer places when it snows.  Moira was especially interested in the rocks, moss, and wildflowers!

There was a special display of creepy creatures to look at, both alive and preserved, icky things like spider eggs to look at in microscopes, and plenty of art & play materials. Very cool!

Here are some pictures from today’s field trip!

Is It True Learning?

A trip to a locally owned bookstore today!

My inbox is already filled with tips and tricks about how to prevent the dreaded “summer slide” from happening and I hit delete without even reading. Honestly they piss me off. For those of you who don’t know that term, it means the percentage of knowledge “lost” over the summer break because kids aren’t sitting at desks for 6 hours a day doing worksheets and mandatory reading. A commercial for a learning center here in Cleveland said that it is as high as 40%.  My question then is, “Was the knowledge really learned if so easily it can be forgotten?”.

The headlines scream budget cuts, failing grades, teacher layoffs, grading scandals. Does anyone else see that our nation’s educational system is a train wreck? And we expect more and more from our children to try to keep up with countries like China and the Netherlands, pressuring Kindergarteners to be able to read by the end of the year and saddling elementary school children with hours of homework, which is in fact hurting the nation. As a homeschooler I am lucky enough to be in charge of my children’s education but that doesn’t make me ignorant to the fact that every child deserves a better education than what is out there right now.

Children want to learn about this vast world around them, they need tools and facilitators to help that journey, but they don’t need us to bombard them with extra workbooks and mandatory reading. True learning isn’t something that is easily forgotten. If your child was taught about measurements to prepare for a test, took the test and passed, then a few weeks later you ask the child about measuring and the child does not remember, then I believe that the lesson wasn’t truly learned. Make sense?

Because we unschool and let the girl’s interests dictate the lessons, the information matters more and is built upon. AJ is doing the same math as Gabby, Gabby is learning about animal families and a deeper understanding of the various ecosystems, and even Moira is learning with her sisters. It is a pretty amazing thing when out of the blue your 4 year old announces that “two 3′s and three 1′s makes 9″ and then continues to tell you that “300, 60, and 4 equals 364″! No worksheets, drills, flashcards, or nonsense… just discovery (and lots of praise from Mama!). Every day there is some kind of discovery, deeper question, and demand for more information about topics of interest. I love it!

I hope that those same parents who complain on Facebook about too much homework, lack of recess, standardized tests that make no sense (Florida, hmph!) actually start to speak up and demand a change to the system instead of blindly following along the path. Do something about it, speak up, write letters!

As for my kids, we are going to continue doing what we do, weekly trips to the library, cooking lessons, lots of time outside, and plenty of opportunity for questions, experiments, and true learning. I hope you do the same and really enjoy the summer!

Facelift

One of the things I enjoy most about blogging is the sheer visual-ness of it. Headers, photos, buttons, ads, links… all custom designed to fit your own theme or mood. Well, yesterday after posting I took a look at my own theme and decided that I wanted a new look for the upcoming season. The wonderful thing about WordPress is how easy it is to change your look to something that fits your personality and taste. You have to be a little bit patient and look hard because there is always a bit of tweaking to do, but there truly is a look for everyone out there.

I also updated the pages at the top of the page to include information about how I parent and links about unschooling, something that I am getting more comfortable talking about. They are still being expanded on but at least there is a start there. =) I am considering having some ad space as well, I don’t want the pages to get cluttered with ads that distract from the content but I have been asked by a few Etsians about having ads up. It is something I may consider for the future.

Hmmmm, what else?

Last night I wasn’t feeling too hot, sneezing so much that I got a bloody nose and a headache to boot. This morning luckily I woke up better though and so made the snap decision to keep my promise and take the girls to the zoo. I was very thankful we live only 5 minutes away because I wanted to get there before it opened and we had all just woken up at 9. (Mondays are free for county residents and are typically PACKED if the weather is nice!) What a surprise, when we park one of our very good homeschooling friends also pulls up with her boys! It was really awesome to walk around with them and let the kids enjoy the beautiful day. Moira shouted “HI!” to every animal that she saw in delight… she is definitely my daughter. Seriously, this baby loves all animals!

Here are a couple pics from this morning. We didn’t stay too long because none of us are fans of the huge crowds but saw just enough to satisfy everyone. I loved the meerkats the most… think I can convince Klint to let me have a few?

AJ discovered that she makes a pretty good vet and patched up a few animals, we got to see a checkup on a Singing Dog from Australia, and heard plenty of roaring from the big cats. (They were all in a mood apparently!) All in all, a very successful day.

Come back and take a peek at the various pages that I am working on, links about gentle parenting, unschooling, and more to come!

Vintagey Goodness

Yesterday I got a little bit of time to myself and I headed to a favorite store that I really can’t go to with the kids, a lovely vintage store called Flower Child. This is a treasure trove of vintage clothes, kitchenware, toys, home decor, and more. It screams color, fun, and breakable, lol, hence I can’t take the kids with me. I periodically go there to see what Pyrex they have and scope out cute shoes. Lucky for me women had tinier feet back then and my kid sized feet can actually fit vintage heels! Oh, and did I mention all the strawberry goodness there? Yes! If you like strawberries then vintage stores are a gold mine.

It was really nice to just stroll around this HUGE store, discover clothes from the Mexican 60′s or a 50′s kitchen, browse around without having to worry about little fingers reaching for everything, and just catch a breathe. =) If you are in the Cleveland area and want a neat experience I highly encourage you to check this awesome vintage store out! (And if you must bring the kids you can take them next door to Big Fun Cleveland, a cool store with vintage toys!)