What's on our coffee table today

Netflix - Beasts of the Southern Wild
VHS - Moonstruck
Magazine - Seventeen with Ke$ha on the cover
CD - Greybeards' LiG song list
DVD - Labyrinth
Books:
- Dinosaur A-Z: For kids who really love dinosaurs
- Calvin & Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book
- a few coffee table books that never leave
Hi-Q (a little puzzle game for one)
Coasters - because "Use a coaster" is one of the rules we do have in our house
My wrist brace (I never leave home without it)
MJ's bottom (attached to her body of course)

What unschooling looks like right this second

Child: studying diligently
Parents: doing their level best to distract her from her self-assigned homework

Result: entertaining role reversal

What unschooling looked like last night

MJ spent yesterday afternoon shopping with Grandma and GG. After, they went to Madison's school's holiday concert with Maddie's family. And then MJ went to spend the night with cousin Chelsea, taking advantage of the school district's already announced delayed start due to ice all over the freaking place.

Chloe, meanwhile, was engaged in her own pursuits. I had come home early to avoid an icy commute, so she kept me company while I did some mostly mindless work, eating (and annihilating) a couple of Cutie oranges while chatting about Chloe things. When I needed to concentrate, she got cozy on the couch with a couple of books. She spent some time with "Historic Haunted America" and then switched to "Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language." Every so often she would share one of the more amusing assaults, such as the headline "Juvenile Court Tries Shooting Suspects." I think my favorite was the sign from a Paris hotel elevator: "Please leave your values at the front desk."

We talked about the forecasted low of 11 degrees (I don't think it really went that low) and the measures Frank and I were taking to avoid frozen pipes.

Grandma came to visit for a while and we drank tea and tried to sell her on Firefly. We talked about poetry, and Chloe revealed that, while she had read my copy of "Rose" by Li-Young Lee, with its poetic narration of his sad experiences as a Chinese immigrant, she prefers poetry that rhymes. Grandma and I reminisced a bit about "Tapestry," the volume of poetry produced by the English department at my high school, and Chloe remembered reading some of my poems long ago.

I fished out Chloe's 12 Days of Christmas gift for the day, the latest issue of Shojo Beat (a manga magazine). She was thrilled! And then she was gone, happily reading away with only the occasional excited outburst. "Movies, Mom! Of some of the manga I read!"

Later, she dove back into "Anguished English" while I blogged about my lack of Christmas spirit. I think she finished it. We came together again over the horoscopes in Shojo Beat, which were better written than many I've seen, and I admired their clever use of their pimped-for-each-sun-sign mascot. I continued leafing through the magazine, much to her delight. We talked idly about the Year of the Ox and some Japanese home remedies for the common cold, and then we stumbled across a little blurb about a Shinto shrine right here in Washington. This inspired an excited trip to the Internet to read all about the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America, Shinto traditions, and so on. You could practically hear the pinging as she made connections to things learned previously from reading manga and watching anime.

After that, it was getting late, so I headed up to bed and she returned to "Haunted America." I just opened it at a random page to find out what sort of thing she might have read about. The story I landed on was about William Harrison and Tecumseh and touched on "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." Imagine that.

Water

I feel like blogging more but can think of nothing to say. "Water" keeps featuring in the titles I come up with. Maybe I'm thirsty.

On an unrelated subject, I've just eaten half a box of Aplets & Cotlets for dinner. Yum! One of Washington's finest products! That I managed to do this even though Frank and MJ are watching the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" downstairs, and I have seen and heard enough gushing brains to make me a little queasy, is a testament to the fine work done by Liberty Orchards for the past 80 years or so. Their history is fascinating and can be found here.

Chloe has vanished into her room, having discovered some forgotten treasures in my (deep) closet, which used to be her bedroom. I finally cleaned it out some last summer and organized her things-left-behind, but I guess I hadn't told her, because she was quite pleased when she went in there today. She found stuffed friends, the puppets she and MJ inherited from Lynn and me, various small mementos, and so on. It's like Christmas!

Earlier, she was rereading one of her books by Silver Ravenwolf, a magik/Wicca author, and was distressed to discover that Silver got her Norse mythology wrong. Chloe has done quite a bit of reading on/of Norse myths since the last time she read Silver's book, so she was able to immediately recognize the error when Silver said Freya was a moon goddess and Odin's wife. Not!

Me, I wouldn't have known the difference.

One of the concerns about homeschooling is that the kids will learn only what their parents know. Laughable concept to those of us living the life.

Another is that they will think only what their parents think. *snort* *snuffle* *guffaw* If that were true, most of my conversations with MJ in the past week could not have taken place, and the recent rather heated talk that MJ, Chloe, and I had about school would not have inspired me to introduce a talking stick into the mix. (We didn't have a talking stick handy, so we used my inhaler. This produced much laughter, but it did the job.)

How do I know what a talking stick is? I have no idea. I just picked it up somewhere. Maybe my kids told me, but I have the feeling the knowledge is older than they are. Maybe I saw one in a movie long ago. The closest I'd ever come to using one before this was passing around a little hacky-sack-type thing so a hearing-impaired coworker would know who was speaking.

Last night, Jon Stewart did this little "Devil Went Down to Georgia" thing to explain Georgia's runoff election process. MJ knew the song. How? I have no idea. Well, I have some idea: this is a woman with a serious passion for music. But this is also a 30-year-old novelty song! A country novelty song! Nevertheless, she got the joke.

Sandra Dodd has said that a lot of learning is about getting the joke, and vice versa.

Did you know I have a calm energy? Caren said so. It was news to me, but it's an interesting idea: Ronnie as calm person. Sometimes I probably manage it. And, hey, I have long fingernails now!

A new hopeful sign: Some abortion foes shifting focus
"...a growing number of antiabortion pastors, conservative academics and activists are setting aside efforts to outlaw abortion and instead are focusing on building social programs and developing other assistance for pregnant women to reduce the number of abortions."
Now maybe we can get something done.

Lieberman is being welcomed back into the fold. Ick.

Oops, gotta go, Chloe wants to use the computer. Later!

What unschooling looked like today

MJ asked me to report on her "good day."

She was on MySpace in the morning, and then she watched an episode of Buffy with Chloe. After that, they went to get a Monster at Safeway and to visit Frankie Fingers at the piercing parlor. From there, they walked to my brother's to visit cousin Chelsea. They talked with her about her day, then the three of them walked back to our house. They hung out for a bit, then went back to Safeway for tortellini. Then Chelsea and MJ watched "Fight Club" while Chloe hung out with the neighbor kids. After the movie, Chelsea and MJ walked back to Chelsea's to hang out some more. They watched that show where "that dude Bear goes into, like, wild places and brings a cameraman and does crazy, survival-tactics shit. He was in the Everglades and he was catching catfish by, like, letting them bite his fingers, 'cause they just clamp on. And then he killed one with his knife and ate it raw. And he also found, like, two washed-up shrimp boats and a house that got tossed around by a storm." Then MJ got a ride home, where she hung out outside with Chloe and the neighbor kids for a long time.

When she came back in, she took down all the photos that had been her wallpaper in her room. (She hasn't yet decided what to replace them with. In the meantime, it's freaking me out. It looks like she's moving out or something.) She all the photos in a box and started decorating the box with cutouts from the many magazines that take up big chunks of our shelves. She kept doing that while she and I watched "Accepted."

What she says she learned about:

• Economics
• Favoritism (Frankie doesn't make MJ pay for replacement balls for her nose rings any more)
• Social hierarchy in high schools
• Psychology
• Anarchy
• Multiple personality disorder
• Survival (At this point, she launched into a horrified description of how dude Bear peed on the catfish bites on his hand to sterilize them.)
• Interior decoration
• Arts and crafts
• Alternative education

What unschooling looked like today

What a great day!

In the morning, Frank slept (he's still shaking off the remnants of his cold/sinus infection). I blogged and read blogs. Chloe read a Diana Wynne Jones novel. MJ was on the Internet, but I don't know the specifics.

Then the girls and I decided we *had to* take advantage of our amazing, summerlike weather. We headed down (with MJ at the wheel) to Seattle to the U to see what the cherry trees were doing. Well, folks, the cherry trees were at their peak! It was stunning. MJ will probably post has posted a few pictures to her blog.

And the U was packed with students and tourists, most of them parked on the grass in the Quad, enjoying the sun and each other and the occasional drift of pink snow. The girls climbed a tree, and Chloe sketched some sakura blossoms (that might be redundant), and we chatted with a few Asian tourists, and it was a lovely, lovely hour.

Then we walked over to The Ave to have lunch at Ruby, a little spot we discovered last year when we came to visit the cherry trees. (Last year, we missed their peak even though it was earlier in the year. It's hard to predict and even harder to schedule our trip down.) Ruby serves up some nifty omelettes and some super-delish rice bowls (my favorite). The service is friendly but a bit relaxed, so we once again found ourselves fretting about the parking meter as we finished up lunch. Fortunately, MJ was done sooner and hiked to the car to plug some nickels. Then we walked The Ave, absorbing the interesting combination alternative/yuppie atmosphere. Chloe picked up a little silk-bound journal at my favorite import shop (the place where I found your dragonfly dish, Mary), and MJ and I lusted after shoes, but not at M.J. Feet where we really ought to have shopped.

After that, MJ drove us over to Green Lake where she got some great practice with more-than-four-way stops and waiting for an endless stream of pedestrians. The lake was PACKED. We perused the happenin' crowds while waiting at stop lights and found ourselves longing to live in Seattle. This happens from time to time.

After making our way back home, we settled in for some independent activities. MJ was back on the computer and Chloe made some more flower faeries. She's getting pretty creative with these. I should post a photo, but I'm underprepared for illustrating this post.

Grandma called and asked if we wanted to go to dinner with them. We were still pretty full from lunch, but we went along for fun anyway (and then "forced" ourselves to eat some enchiladas). Papa brought us some Obama t-shirts from Washington, D.C., where his friend Mike was a delegate (now sadly disillusioned after hearing Obama's pro-gun control remarks). At dinner, we talked about old movies and the American revolution and Fuzzy Wuzzies, and then Grandma got us (me) caught up on some names from my childhood.

Back at home, just a wee bit tipsy from a strawberry margarita and a half (or maybe three-quarters), I decided it was time to dance. I queued up all the songs that I would choose if I were in charge of the playlist for LIFE is Good, and the girls and I danced for more than an hour. They love and know all the words to "my" songs and Frank's, so they are pretty fun at a dance party.

And I got in my exercise for the day week month year-so-far.

Now, MJ is back on her computer. After writing this post, I'm dying of curiosity about what she's up to there. The glimpses I get on her blog are tantalizing. Care to share, MJ?

Chloe and Frank are in the basement, watching something or other together. And I am about ready to call it a day.

Taxes? What taxes? Who said anything about taxes?

A quick unschooling tour of the world

Recently in the Wide World of Unschooling...

• Dagney made and sold buttons - Massachusetts, U.S.A.
• Linnea danced in a hailstorm - U.K.
• Kyra shoveled the driveway - Minnesota, U.S.A.
• Effie started rockin' (ain't never gonna stop) - British Columbia, Canada
• Jake learned to read music - Oregon, U.S.A.
• Jesse and Owen Brawl'd - Virginia, U.S.A.
• Marty, Hunter, and Logan did battle in separate SCA tournaments - New Mexico and Washington, U.S.A.
• Chloe learned about massage techniques and practiced on her (grateful) mother - Washington, U.S.A.
• MJ demonstrated her compliment-ary vocabulary - Washington, U.S.A.
• M and Z got a new puppy - Australia
• Galaxy bonded with her sister - U.S.A.

Because they wanted to. Because they were free to.

Unschooling rocks!

What unschooling looked like this weekend

This weekend, I can't speak with much authority about how my kids spent their time or what they learned. I decided to do my monthly "day in the life" post anyway, because the increasing independence of a couple of teen unschoolers is part of what it's all about.

MJ is away from home, visiting Zenmomma and family and Harper in Corvallis, Oregon. She made her own travel plans, purchased her tickets online, did her own laundry, got her luggage packed, and kept her parents and Zenmomma informed so she'd have rides to and from the Greyhound stations. She's spent the weekend hanging out with an unknown number of other teens. She did this. She's probably also gotten to eat at Sunnyside Up at least once, something that causes her mother a measure of envy. Beyond that, I know not.

Chloe has spent the weekend in a series of self-directed activities. She does this often, having long periods where she is busy doing her own thing and we see her only intermittently. The specific activities I know are:

* She got out all the Harry Potter books and made a list of the more significant character deaths, then discussed this list with us in some detail.
* She created a Harry Potter guild on Neopets and then put together a detailed and interesting guild Web site on Freewebs. (I'll share the URL if I remember to get permission.)
* She made homemade thank-you notes for her Christmas gifts from out-of-town relatives. (I don't know if she finished this task, and now she's away, too, so if you are one of these generous people and never receive a thank-you note, you'll at least know that her heart was in the right place.)
* She spent a long session playing with the rats.
* She tolerated her parents' football frenzy (and then comforted us afterward).
* She and I read "Son of the Morning" by Linda Howard aloud together, skimming from good part to good part, and discussed what it might be like to find ourselves cut off from our routines, support base, money, lifestyle, etc. This book is part historical mystery, so we also discussed the Knights Templar, Friday the 13th, and what languages an educated person might have known in the 14th century.
* She got herself ready and packed so she could start the three-week dogsitting job that she and MJ have taken on. (She agreed to take the first shift so MJ could go to Oregon.)

Beyond those, I know not.

When Chiara came to live with us, she created a new e-mail account, which she still has (but rarely checks) to this day. It includes the phrase "il grande volo di Chiara," or "the grand flight of Chiara." I always loved that, and if you know Chiara, you know how perfect it is for her. But that is what unschooling is all about: watching our kids take flight. And that is what unschooling looked like this weekend.

What unschooling looked like yesterday

I am home sick with a cold, so I snuggled into Frank's new recliner with a notebook and kept track of most everything the girls did yesterday. Like all days in an unschooler's life, it was all about the small moments that connect to other small moments, that connect to other small moments, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Morning
Chloe has cycled into a day schedule, so she was the first one up. She spent the early hours crocheting a scarf and reading "Drowned Wednesday," the third book in the "Keys to the Kingdom" series by Garth Nix. When I got up, she joined me in the livingroom for a private chat. (Let me just say for the record that one big reason I write about acceptance so much is that I see how much pain rejection causes my kids.) While we talked, she finished her scarf and added a clever little crocheted pom-pom to each end.

MJ was up late and then picked up again this morning with the following activities: writing in her journal, touching base with pals on MySpace, reading blogs, researching drinking and smoking restrictions in Italy and Ireland, and planning her photography for the trip we hope to make there next fall. (Side note: Frank and I were *thrilled* to learn that both countries have recently instituted bans on smoking in public places. Yay!)

Afternoon
Later, we all came together in the livingroom for some family conversation. Topics ranged from "Look! There's a moose!" (an inside joke with their cousins); driver's ed and MJ's unique visualization technique (she puts other characters where she's supposed to be and has them walk through the routine, such as having a hopped-up chipmunk doing the walkaround); knock-knock jokes; crocheting; Christmas shopping and decorating; food; the "Golden Compass" (which they saw Sunday), original sin, the role of religion and the Church in society, and whether Philip Pullman's atheism necessarily means he had an agenda when he wrote the book. We also shared a moment of grief over Gillian's egg.

Then Frank and MJ had to leave for driver's ed.

Evening
Chloe and I talked about the distribution of the world's religions. I got on the Internet and found maps and piecharts that are fascinating but perhaps not organized quite the way we would do it. (For instance, we wondered whether Catholicism, Mormonism, and evangelical Christianity can really be grouped together...?)

Next, we talked about the girls' recent trip to the mall with their cousins. Chloe was frustrated because MJ and the other girls wouldn't let her nap during the return bus ride. We brainstormed their possible reasons, and then asked MJ when she got home (they wanted to help her stay on a daytime schedule, and no real reason).

Frank brought home some delicious Romio's spaghetti for his poor, sick wiff. While I ate, we talked about oil painting — or rather oil-paint drying, since Chloe's oil painting from a week ago is still tacky in places. From there, the conversation touched on sleep, metabolism, melatonin, housing, mortgages, privacy, overpopulation, living in the desert, honor, respect, worship, whether Jesus' love was conditional, and how one might fall prey to one's own weaknesses. Chloe also went through my calendar page by page, and we talked about our plans for the coming year and the meaning of various holidays.

Chloe went to bed early, so MJ — after another stint on the computer, reading Zenmomma and creating an animated greeting card on jibjab.com — and Frank and I watched "Men in Black." Then she and I stayed up WAY too late for a couple of sickies, watching "Firefly" episodes and the abysmal film version of "Queen of the Damned" (from the excellent book by Anne Rice).

Academic translations
comparative religions
philosophy
arts and crafts
biology
reading
writing
photography
civics
statistics
financial planning
oral reports
sociology
memory tricks
environmental sciences
...and whatever dozens of subjects they encountered in their literary and Internet "travels" yesterday

What unschooling looked like today

MJ spent most of the day working: my mom hired her to dogsit Angelo for the day. Since this is not an especially labor-intensive task, she also did some reading and movie viewing. She finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, a book we all enthusiastically recommend and which, academically speaking, covers more subjects that I can list. I'm not sure what movies she watched, will update later if I remember to get more details.

The work part of her day involved administering doggie medicines and food and acting as walk companion.

Chloe spent the day visiting unschooling pals Logan, Hunter, and Kyla. Sounds like it was a very physical day, with lots of running around shooting each other with Airsoft guns. (Don't worry, they wear goggles!)

Frank and I had a rare day sans kids. We used part of it to start our Christmas shopping, because we're anticipating a very busy November and December since MJ will have driver's ed three nights a week. Plus driving practice. Oy. Anyway, after shopping, we watched Casablanca.

MJ stayed over at my mom's, but late Saturday night, we went out to pick up Chloe. I'd been feeling headachy on and off all evening, and somehow the round trip out to Snohomish did me in. I had my usual, best-not-discussed-in-public response to a migraine the minute we got home, then put myself right to bed. By morning, I was fine. Very odd; I don't think I've had a migraine since I was 16.

Academic translations (excluding parental activities):
Development of A Sense of Responsibility
Physical education
Socialization
Lesser included subjects: math, history, physics, English, sociology, French, geography, psychology of grief, human anatomy, etc.

What unschooling looked like today

I'm a little late with my mid-month look at unschooling...

We had a lazy morning, with MJ the only one to do much more than lounge and read. She listened to music, spent some time writing in her journal, and hung out on MySpace for a while. Later, Frank and I watched the Seahawks. Chloe—who has cycled back into a swing-shift sort of schedule after several camp-inspired weeks as a day-tripper—finally appeared and fixed herself some breakfast. She ate, then settled down with her laptop. She is doing a practice run at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), getting herself psyched up for their November sprint. (The goal is to write 50,000 words in those 30 days, and the reward is satisfaction and a certificate that says you did it.)

At 2:30, we tore ourselves away from the game to head down to Seattle (listening to radio coverage of the game all the way, of course). We went to Matthews Park on Lake Washington where we helped our friend Aeron celebrate her 7th birthday. We met several new kids and adults, frosted cupcakes, did some arts and crafts, destroyed a piñata (way to go, MJ!), blew bubbles, and tormented the local wildlife, then some of us settled down to chat and listen to Frank play guitar. The rest played at the playground.

From there, we headed up to Capitol Hill to the Baptist church where Frank plays volleyball every Sunday night. We were early, so we stopped in at Tacos Guaymas for a bite to eat. I introduced MJ to their little open-faced tacos—a great excuse for eating pico de gallo—and MJ introduced us to horchata, a sweet, milky beverage made from rice and flavored with cinnamon. We mostly preferred Frank's Jarritos Mandarina, but it was fun to try something new.

At the church, the girls and I settled in to entertain ourselves while Frank played v-ball. MJ plays there sometimes, but she elected to protect her nose today, so the three of us alternated between watching the action and hanging out in the rec room. I listened to a book on CD briefly, then kept Chloe company while she made some Halloween art. We fiddled on the piano. MJ listened to her iPod.

Then one of the regulars (a church member) suggested we go try out the bowling alley. Turns out the church has its own, two old-fashioned lanes where human hands have to do a lot of the resetting of pins. This was a fascinating experience, and a lot of hard work! The "pit" at the end of the lane was surprisingly spacious once we'd crawled under the (nonfunctioning) pin setter. There's a long, elevated bench back there where the pin boys can sit, taking care to keep their feet out of the way of flying pins, and there's a nifty force-of-gravity ball-return ramp that was fun to play with. (ZP bonus: a fascinating article about bowling that mentions pin boys and one just about pin boys)

We finished up the evening back in the rec room having some carrot cake and chatting with the players. They're a friendly bunch and only ribbed MJ a little about her nose ring.

Now, we're settled in back at home, spread to the four corners of the house. Frank is watching TV in the basement, MJ is going through her photo collection in her room, Chloe is back at work on her novel in the homeschool room (formerly our diningroom), and I'm upstairs blogging.

I'm supposed to do an academic translation of our day now, but I'm tuckered out and not feeling very interested in that. Maybe my readers would like to help me out by taking a stab at it in the comments...?

What unschooling looked like in the middle of the night

I usually try to avoid making a big deal of the schoolish moments that happen in our house, because it tends to make non-unschoolers (schoolers?) think that unschooling *only* works when schoolish moments happen. But this was too cool, so I have to talk about it.

Last night, Chloe confessed that she isn't sure she's acquiring skills marketable enough to land a job when she's old enough. We talked about her options some, then I made an offhand comment about her abilities as a proofreader. One thing led to another and we were soon huddled around the computer playing with words. I typed out a series of flawed sentences, then Chloe corrected them. It was so fun! We played with changing punctuation to completely change the meaning of a sentence, and we found some badly written paragraphs on the Internet that she and I fixed in different ways. This went on until three in the morning!

Here are a couple of examples that made her laugh. The first I borrowed from a recent discussion of punctuation on Grammar Geeks.

Woman without her man is a savage.
Woman: without her, man is a savage.

Real men don't eat spinach, but I like it.
Real men don't eat, Spinach, but I like it.

I discovered to my delight that Chloe knows how to punctuate speech perfectly, and she—normally the queen of lowercase—knows perfectly well that the pronoun "I" is always capitalized. What can I say? Such things are near and dear to my heart.

She told me one of her pet peeves from reading fan fiction. I will share it here in the hopes that somebody somewhere will see the error of his ways. She says fan-fiction authors often write spoken questions like this:

"Are you crazy" he asked?

That is very bad indeed, and I can only thank my lucky stars that I have never come across such wretched punctuating. Here is the corrected question:

"Are you crazy?" he asked.

With Chloe reassured of her skills, we talked about how this is one of the perils of unschooling: sometimes unschooled kids have little idea of how much they have learned. Kids in school get regular validation (or correction), and they are constantly compared to their schoolmates, so they have some feel for where in the spectrum their knowledge falls. Unschooled kids know that they are experts or budding experts in the areas they are passionate about (manga, music, karate, Swahili, whatever), but they don't always realize how much general knowledge they've acquired. So, Chloe had no idea she is an expert at grammar and punctuation, and she will tell you that she is bad at math, just after she's added a column of numbers in her head or worked a fraction problem effortlessly. We'll work on it.

What unschooling looked like yesterday in MJ's words

One of the perils of being a working mom is that I sometimes get disconnected from what's happening at home. This is such a time, and since I wanted this month's "What unschooling looked like" post to be about a day at home instead of a day at the Oregon Country Fair, I had to ask the girls to describe their day for me. We picked yesterday.

Well, I've just received MJ's description of her day. She ought be be writing this blog! So, here's yesterday, in MJ's words:

Woke up with a sore throat, thought I had Chloe's cold, so I called in sick to Hope for Horses, but it wore off later. Watched Return of the Living Dead. Had a fight with Chloe over yogurt, of all things. Fight was resolved. Had pseudo White Castle burgers, continued the movie. Watched The Fifth Element and updated my profile on MySpace. At the same time. Yay for multitasking!

Then I got the brilliant idea to convince my still-sick sister to go to the thrift store with me. It took me quite a while and I composed a list of things I'd do if she came:

Things MJ Will Do If Chloe Goes to the Thrift Store
1. Buy her Toblerones
2. Buy her Things at the Store
3. A Fuckin' Happy Dance
4. Develop Contacts Within NASA and Send Her to the Moon
5. Write Another Chapter of My FanFic
6. Write 55 Pages of Vanguard in a Week
7. Let her Tug On My Piercings Once They're (Gotten and) Healed
8. Take her to get her Laptop Fixed
9. Take AMAZING MySpace Photos Of Her
10. Once her Laptop Is Fixed, I'll Make Her 4 AMVs With Songs of her Choosing
11. Help her look Fabulous (or not) On Any Day Of her Choosing . . . Ever
12. Dance With Her At Steve and Mary's Wedding
13. Watch .hack//SIGN, Deathnote, Tokyo Mew Mew and Any Others.
14. Help Her Write *Eight Days a Week* and *Madame Sarah's School For Strangers*
15. Stop Bugging her to Go to Concerts
16. Take her to IRELAND!!!
17. Find Loki and Make Friends.

She agreed and we got ready, went to the bank, crossed the street to the bus stop, waited, bought gum, waited, got on the bus and went to the Thrift Store. I looked for clothes for Rocky Horror and Chloe looked for dresses. She tried on two fancy ones and I took pictures. We shopped some more, added up how much we were spending and checked out. The guy that rang us up was the hot gay guy I saw at Pride. We chatted with him about Rocky Horror while we checked out. He said he liked my shirt (the one with the rib bird cage).

We left and got on the bus for home. We got off and went to the grocery to get the promised Toblerones (and to look for Vincente, Sexy Bagger Boy), but they had none. We got a Snapple and walked home. Chloe put on her dress and showed Alecia and Lilly [neighbors] and I showed them what I'd bought. Went inside, found the hot glue gun, and listened to Countdown while I glued, in tiny pearl beads, the letters D-A-N-C onto the red shoes I bought. In time, they'll say Dance the Blues. Checked MySpace. Sewed up a hole in my jeans, made the lace gloves I bought into fingerless lace gloves. Read FanFiction, drank Snapple, blah blahh blahhh.

Talked to Conor on MySpace for a while and I was made a Goddess. I declared that the 11th Commandment was 'Thou Shalt Watch Fight Club.' We talked anime, then I went to bed, but not before writing a journal entry about Cody, Alex Beam, and Conor. Woke up this morning and got on MySpace. Talked to Madelyn, tried to make plans for Rocky Votolato [rock band concert tonight], made plans for El Corazon [rock festival tomorrow night]. Downloaded a ton of music, listened to more, talked to Mom, showered. I have yet to eat. It's gonna be a good day.

Academic translation by Ronnie:
Clearly, writing was involved! :-)
Art of negotiation
Socializing and socialization and lots of it
Home ec
Art class
Current events
Math at the bank and while shopping

About MySpace:
Beyond its value for socializing, "playing" on MySpace leads to a lot of learning. To achieve the profile one desires, one might have to learn some HTML coding, look up facts, or do art projects (such as MJ's Visual DNA, a collage of images and words that illustrate her view of herself). And then there's the conversations! I stay out of her MySpace business for the most part, but I can give you two examples from my own recent MySpace cruising:
1) I joined a group called Grammar Geeks. We talk about grammar. It's really fun, really wonderful to be in the company of so many people who write well, and I've learned a few things I never knew.
2) Every so often, a quiz comes through. I recently got to think up a variety of words that start with the first letter of my name. It was challenging, creative, and fun, and I Googled a couple of different things in my effort to provide unique and interesting answers. (Using Google always leads to learning, in case you were unaware!)

About the movies:
"Return of the Living Dead" is a spoof zombie flick that contains lots of cultural reference jokes. MJ gets all the jokes. I've learned not to underestimate the value of this kind of knowledge! There are no ivory towers around here.

"The Fifth Element," besides being a visual treat and an entertaining movie, deals with some interesting themes: what it means to be human and whether sacrifices to preserve humanity are worthwhile.

Chloe's description is still forthcoming, so I might post more later.

What unschooling looked like this weekend

The chosen unschooling day for this month is Saturday, June 16th, but I'll include Friday and Sunday, just 'cause fun stuff went on then, too.

Friday
MJ went with me to work. While I did my "chores," she hung out in a nearby empty office, listening to music, reading, and writing, then the two of us went to cousin Sonya's for a product party. Sonya's friend Sarah is selling Body Shop items, with the focus of this party being our fabulous feet. So, MJ and I did the beauty thang for a couple of hours, soaking and slathering our feet, and then (in my case) spending what was probably a silly amount of money on lotions. We'll see what I end up actually using. :-)

Conversation at the party covered a wide range of subjects: free trade, product testing on animals, child-rearing philosophies, the "terrible" twos (I have never found them terrible), Sonya stories (I had the best ones, since—except for her mom, Grace—I was the one there who has known Son longest), recent Popes, Germany (there were a couple German women there), international moves, and Catholic marriage and annulment rules.

Hmm. I have no idea how Chloe spent her day. Well, I have some idea—I'm sure it included reading, writing, and/or activities on the laptop—but I don't know exactly. Okay, I asked her. Friday evening, she watched "Shop Around the Corner" with Frank, and then she spent the night watching "Inuyasha" anime and Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai"—the latter having been inspired by her recent passion for eating ramen, added to a mention of Toshiro Mifune (one of the stars of "Seven Samurai" and Japan's greatest film samurai) in one of her manga books. She also read and wrote fanfiction.

Saturday
MJ and I got up early, grabbed Chloe (who was still up), and hustled down to Qwest Field for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. What a great time! We joined the 5K walk (there are also competitive runs) and found ourselves part of a phenomenal crowd of people. We got to the start line about 20 minutes early (despite being definite last-minute registrants), so it wasn't until we had hiked up the viaduct and could look back that we got to see exactly what we were involved in. There was a sea of pink and white shirts as far as the eye could see! The turnout was tremendous! I think half of Seattle was there!

The course goes up onto the Alaskan Way Viaduct, with all its great views of the waterfront, West Seattle, the ferries, and the Sound, and then loops back down around to the party at Qwest Field. Being up on the viaduct was really fun. When they weren't walking arm in arm with me, the girls were right up on the side ledge, looking down at the waterfront and (on the return half) the walkers coming up behind us. We waved like madwomen and watched all the amazing people: men, women, and kids of all ages, races, religions, and sexual orientation, with most people wearing hot pink signs bearing the names of the breast cancer survivors and victims they were walking to honor. We saw teams from businesses, the Teamsters, a mosque, and a bunch of family-and-friend groups. Very inspiring! You can all count on being invited to join our team next year!

Jean Enersen, a local newswoman, was one of the masters of ceremony. She said Seattle has both a higher-than-average breast cancer rate and a higher-than-average cure rate (90%!). And the race brings in more than two million dollars!

After the race, we enjoyed the Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder drumcorp at the finish line, then wandered inside the stadium for the rare treat of being down on the football field. There was a big band orchestra playing, and the field was dotted with sponsor booths where some fun free stuff was available: bagels and water from the organizers, Yoplait yogurt, key chains from the Boeing credit union, signed Seagals posters, pink bracelets from the Shane Co., and Swedish Fish from Swedish Hospital.

We returned home (after a quick indulgence stop at Starbucks—love those caramel Frappucinos!), had a moment's rest, and then got ready for a swimming party. One of MJ's volleyball teammates hosted a little bash at her family's indoor pool. We all enjoyed each other's tasty food contributions, the kids and the coach swam for hours, the rest of us chatted, and a visitor dog ended up nearly getting stuck in the oily, smelly mud of the nearby slough. Great fun!

Chloe napped some at the party, which I'm sure the other parents found a bit odd, but then I found their school stories a bit odd, too. One girl on the team was recently punished by the school for a "Step 4" offense, meaning an offense that is worse than Steps 1 through 3. Other Step 4 offenses include things like vandalism and assault. She was humiliated in front of the whole school and prohibited from attending the last school dance, and her parents were asked to come in for a conference. Her offense? Chewing gum on her way off school property at the end of the day.

Another mom talked about the wasted time spent at her daughter's school on some loosey-goosey behavior review. Kids are given the opportunity to publicly tattle on any other kids who interfered with their schooling, then the accused kids get disciplined, and a note is sent home to their parents that says they didn't "make their day." The mom says the system is rife with flaws, including excessive tattling by certain kids and the fact that students spend half an hour a day or more on this process, which amounts to 90 hours each school year!

The girls and Frank and I discussed all this in depth on the way home.

After a quiet hour or two at home—Frank and Chloe napped, MJ and I watched TV—we went out to the drive-in picture show. Going to the drive-in is always a fun family evening marred by inconsiderate moviegoers (headlights and engines on during the show, cigarette smoke wafting into our car, people leaving early to avoid the exit line that can also be avoided by waiting five minutes after the end, etc.), and last night was no exception. Also, the movies were, at best, mindless entertainment ("Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and "Ocean's Thirteen"). But no regrets! We pulled the van in backward, lifted the hatch, and sprawled on cushions and pillows in a big heap of Maiers. The back door makes a great rainshield, too!

There was an SUV full of kids in the stall next to us. They were cleancut and attractive, around 16 or 17 years old, wearing Hollister t-shirts and blowing their lungs away on clouds of cigarette smoke. Sad.

We got home about 2 a.m. and collapsed into our beds. Well, MJ collapsed on the couch because she is in the middle of rearranging her room; her bed is covered with posters and photos awaiting attachment to the walls.

Sunday
Father's Day! We slept in until 11, so we didn't have time for much more this morning than getting ready to go out to the beach. We spent a pleasant afternoon at my mom's, helping Tom, Frank, Erik, and Chris celebrate fatherhood. Pork roast, pesto, and a pack of kids. (That last item was not on the menu!)

This evening, I'm cycling loads of laundry and blogging, MJ and Frank are gone to play volleyball at the Baptist church in Seattle, and Chloe is developing her latest manga idea—one based on her own life. She says she is exaggerating all of our character traits to make us more interesting. :-)

Academic translations
I hope this isn't necessary! The benefits of and learning involved in a busy weekend like this should be obvious!

But maybe not. A few years back, we had a busy period, and I got concerned that my kids weren't learning anything because we never had time to do what I thought of as our "learning routine"—that time spent at home with access to books, the Internet, the library, the TV, the art and math and science supplies, and what have you. I posted this concern to one of the unschooling discussion groups and got myself (gently) scolded. "Let me get this straight," another mom responded. "Your kids are busy and happy, with lots of activities and social time, with their parents right by their sides to support them and answer questions, but you're worried they aren't learning?"

I had to be reminded to see the trees for the forest!

The kind of learning that happens during a weekend like the one we've just had isn't easy to quantify. It's about community, contribution, and involvement. It's about conversational skills and tolerance (e.g., how to be polite when someone thinks daycare or school is the best place for her kid), traditions and routines, exploration and experimentation, and finding balance in a busy world. It's about LIFE.

For the sticklers, it was also about physical fitness, medicine, women's health, skin care, interpersonal communication, general science (e.g., our discussion of tachyon beams at the drive-in), sociology, comparative religion, art, fashion design (Chloe has to costume her manga creations), interior decorating, parenting skills (something that ought to be taught in school!), creative writing, Japanese history and culture, German geography and language, mathematics, educational (?) philosophies, and, of course, community service.

To learn how to donate to Susan G. Komen, click here.

What unschooling looked like yesterday

Chloe spent the early morning working on an Anime Music Video (AMV), which is a little movie made of anime clips, usually themed, set to one or more songs. Unfortunately, the thing crashed just as she was completing it and she lost most of her work. This is an excellent example of how unschoolers learn to deal with the frustrations life throws their way. (Some people argue that, because we say "Yes" to our kids so much, unschooled kids are too sheltered from real life. These people seem to think we have to create or foster stress and unhappiness in our kids' lives, as if real life won't provide them with enough practice—in which case, I have to wonder why they think our kids need practice. It's not very logical, but it's another argument we come up against again and again.)

Starting our day with Chloe's tears was sad, but it was nice watching MJ offer comfort and computer assistance. They went off to the basement, where Chloe had been working, to see what they could salvage. Not having any luck, they cheered themselves up by watching Dane Cook comedy videos on YouTube. Then Chloe went to sleep there on the futon, and MJ started making AMVs of her own.

Sidebar about AMVs: These little movies are very clever. The creator must search through dozens of anime clips to find scenes that suit the music selections and/or the theme of the video. In many, one character is "singing" the song, so clips have to be located where the movements of the character's mouth fit the words of the song. MJ and Chloe have both made Fruits Basket "theme song" videos; these contain clips of each of the major characters in the show, with one song snippet per character. They've pulled together some varied and clever music choices. Another example is the "Green Fields of France" video Chloe made. The song is a rather political tune about a WWI soldier who dies on those green fields. Chloe watched someone else's AMV that used Full Metal Alchemist characters and decided to try one using Fruits Basket characters. It was a challenge, since (a) there are no soldiers in Fruits Basket, and (2) nobody dies. But she pulled together a great collection of clips, all very somber and moody, and made a cool little movie. On a lighter note, she made one set to "Come Dancing" that is full of dance scenes and chuckles.

In the afternoon, we set off for our second-week-in-a-row get-together with some other unschoolers. It was a gorgeous, hot day, so this gathering took place at our friends' house on Lake Roesiger. Oh, man, those kids had fun. They shivered their way into the lake a few times and ran around the yard throwing foam SCA javelins at each other and walked to the store for ice cream and just generally enjoyed each other's company.

When we got home at 8, tired and happy, MJ discovered that Verizon had deleted three batches of concert tickets from her inbox. Ack! Scary moment. (TicketMaster very kindly resent them this morning, so I don't have to pay back all the people MJ bought tickets for. Phew!)

While Frank, Chloe, and I watched House, MJ ran a load of laundry, planned AMVs, and thought about what she wants to wear when she works the Sons of Italy fundraiser spaghetti feed this Saturday. (She got her food handler's card on Monday, and we're going shopping for a red, white, and/or green apron today.) Then Frank, MJ, and Chloe settled in to watch Mind of Mencia while I read my book and fell asleep on the couch.

Academic interpretation: computer class, political science, phys ed, socializing and socialization, and whatever educators call it when they have students do art projects about literature. Ah, here's one thing Washington State says 8th graders will do: "Expand comprehension by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information and ideas..." And then there's this:

"In eighth grade, students integrate observation skills and a variety of listening strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of auditory and visual information... They are able to analyze cultural principles, beliefs, and world views, including their own. Students use language and other communication strategies to find a common code for communication."

In other words, they'll do book reports, oral presentations, and art projects to illustrate their comprehension of what they've read, watched, and listened to. Hmmm, sounds like unschooling.

Experiencing acceptance

or "What unschooling looked like this weekend"

Greetings from the rejuvenated and inspired Maier family! We returned home yesterday from a long weekend in Corvallis, OR, where we attended the LIFE Is Good Unschooling Conference (with LIFE standing for Learning in Freedom Everyday). It was an exceptionally rewarding experience. I've been blogging in my head all weekend and will now do my best to recall all the cool stuff I wanted to share.

First and foremost, I want to try to describe what it was like to take my kids to a place where kids are really, truly accepted Just the Way They Are. We had probably 150 kids running free in that hotel (unschooling families occupied all but five of the rooms). They laughed, they ran, they dangled pipe-cleaner creations into the lobby, they played games in hallways, they had discussions and art sessions on stairwell landings, they swam in the pool, they rode skateboards in the parking lot. And they didn't get scolded or frowned at, and no one thought less of their parents for their behavior. Instead, they got indulgent smiles and laughter and sharing and other kids' parents pitching in to the fun.

It was amazing and nourishing and such a relief to be surrounded by people who looked at my teenagers with interest and friendliness instead of with the suspicion and judgmentalness and near-fear that they (and we) are faced with in society as a whole.

And do you know what? Nothing got broken or damaged. The nights were amazingly quiet and peaceful (especially considering most of the kids don't have bedtimes). The kids never fought -- not once -- and tears were very, very rare. There were moms nursing babies anywhere they felt like it, colorful signs on room doors, room doors propped open in invitation, conversations happening EVERYWHERE between people of all ages, and joy in the air so tangible that hotel staff members commented on it and asked to be invited to our next conference.

Some highlights:
* Listening to a speech called "Math Happens." It was given by engineer and math tutor and unschooling mom Mary Lewis, and it served to ease away the last wispy bits of my concern that unschooling math is "iffy." Turns out schooling math is pretty darned "iffy," too. (Did you know that 55% of college freshmen [that is, high school grads who've been accepted into college] are not prepared for college math courses?) She talked about how schooling begins immediately to interfere with the brain's natural ability to do computation by taking math out of the physical too early and moving it into the abstract. Also, that's when we start to tell kids they're "wrong" about math, thereby injecting fear and doubt into something that should be as natural as breathing. She said every one of her students (mostly math-phobic adults returning to school) would have been better off if they hadn't had a single math lesson during their childhoods. And she cemented my understanding of the difference between math computation (can be done on a calculator) and math concepts (must be understood by the brain) and how schooling tends to promote the former to the neglect of the latter.
* Seeing all the awesome, diverse, and interesting unschooled teens in general, but especially during the Teen Panel, when a brave group of volunteers answered questions about life as unschooled teens. Summing up some of their answers, I can tell you they have big plans for the future, they don't always fit in with schooled kids but don't find schooled kids all that interesting, their schooled friends don't seem to envy them (this surprised me because I am terribly retroactively envious of their lives), they bristle when asked if they wish they had more outside motivation -- they motivate themselves, thank you very much -- and their parents began talking to them about sex so long ago that they can't really remember when it started. Summing up my impressions, I can tell you they are articulate, entertaining, and the most settled and directed group of young people I've ever met.
* Sitting in our room with the door open, listening to Frank play his guitar and greeting all the people who wandered in to check us out.
* Finding Chloe and her new friend, Connor (16), asleep on a landing one afternoon, catching up after staying awake with a bunch of other kids all of the night before.
* Hanging out in Diana's room, playing with my new friend Fergus (3), who is just about the cutest little guy I've ever met. He has blond hair past his shoulders, a wicked grin, and a very firm concept of his own personal space. Nobody touches Fergus without his permission. I love that his parents support him in that.
* Going to the nearby Chinese buffet place with Frank, MJ, Chloe, and our friends Jaime (11), Mera (8), and Aeron (6), and watching the HUGE joy on all the girls' faces as they filled their own plates with whatever looked good. This included a fair amount of pudding, interestingly enough.
* Having long conversations with the girls' mom, Toast, who is easing her way into unschooling, and feeling like maybe I'm helping them on that journey.
* Watching the talent show Saturday night and seeing the way the crowd encouraged and applauded a variety of performers for more than two hours. Acts ranged from singers, to jugglers, to dancers, to skateboarders, to musicians, to an apparently quadruple-jointed lad who could practically turn his arms and legs inside out. Every single act was warmly received. My favorite was Mera, who performed a song she wrote herself, about how at this gathering we were all superstars.
* Stretching out on my bed with Mera about midnight one night to have a serious discussion about Battlestar Galactica and Heroes, then walking her back to her room through the quiet hotel.
* Dancing the night away at Sunday night's Barefoot Boogie. It reminded me of a Maier wedding, with everybody dancing with whomever was handy, regardless of age and gender and usually in groups of six or more. The conga line was gigantic and intense and prompted one of the few times the kids were asked to settle down just a little.
* Meeting some of my online friends, including the woman who organizes Live and Learn, the East Coast unschooling conference. She asked if I'd be interested in speaking at the 2008 one! Hmm, let me think...
* Leaving MJ behind because she couldn't bear for it to end. She's still in Corvallis with some friends from camp and will be returning tomorrow, although we still might not see her 'cause she's headed to their place on Whidbey first. I talked to her today and she said, "I'll see you Monday at the latest!"

Some lowlights:
* For us, it had to end.
* The spirituality chat that edged into Christian bashing. I have my own problems with fundamentalist Christianity, but it was unpleasant having the chat leader go negative during what was supposed to be an inclusive chat. She has reasons for her anger (e.g., a fundamentalist minister visited the hospital where her daughter lay dying of cancer and announced that 9yo Hannah was surely going to Hell), but I wish she hadn't expressed it there.
* The night guard at the hotel, thereafter dubbed "Señor Grumpy Pants," who was mean to the people who were still in the pool at 10 when he came to close it down for the night. A smiling "Time to call it a night" would have achieved his goal, you know?
* Not getting much sleep the first night because the girls kept coming into the room. At 2 and 4, it was to use the bathroom (even though there are public restrooms on the ground floor!), and at 6 it was to get their swimsuits. Lotta interruptions for a couple long past the infant-and-toddler stage of parenting.
* Experiencing huge envy of the parents who are unschooling their kids from birth.

But none of those detracted much from a singularly amazing experience. I am totally recharged and ready to dive into life!! AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR'S CONFERENCE!!

Want to go with us?

What unschooling looked like today

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post like this! Life is so fast.

MJ and Chloe are on a nightowl schedule right now, so I'll start this from last night.

Frank and MJ watched movies together last night, most with a sci-fi/horror bent. They finished up their mini-festival with some wretched Traci Lords disaster movie on the SciFi channel. You should have heard the blistering commentary drifting up the stairs! They were having a great time together, but there was scientific discussion about earthquakes and other phenomena, plus technical analysis of the craft of moviemaking.

Meanwhile, Chloe and I were hanging out upstairs. We read together some; talked about books; talked about translating unschooling activities into schoolish terms (she's fascinated by this); discussed global warming, the recent release of a rather grim draft report by a couple thousand of the world's scientists, and what our personal response to this report might be; talked about activism and what one person might (or might not) accomplish; talked about the human circulatory system, the benefits of stretching, and deep vein thrombosis; talked about the escapist value of traveling and flights of fantasy; talked about Ireland and England and the recent revelation/confirmation that the Irish and the English are, genetically speaking, one race and how it's cultural and political lines that separate them really; talked about the huge changes wrought on society by the Internet and how we don't really know the long-term effects of same. There's probably more. So, in schoolish terms, we hit on several branches of science, political science, sociology, history, and philosophy. And there's probably more.

After Frank and I crashed, MJ, who is not usually a nightowl, decided to see if she could stay up all night with the help of four frappuccinos. What do you know, she could! Health class, plus a little scientific method, plus a life lesson.

She spent the night writing. Enough said.

Chloe is habitually a nightowl and last night was no exception. She read some of "Hexwood" by Diana Wynne Jones, spent some time reading on fanfiction.net, created an illustrated fairy tale in a mini-book of her own design, and played pretend with her stuffed animals for a while. Oh, yes, and she and MJ had a whispered but nevertheless lively discussion in the livingroom at about six a.m., much to my dismay. Language arts obviously, art, imaginative play to explore interpersonal relationships, and socialization.

Today has been spent in individual pursuits. MJ is still awake and has done more writing. Now she and Frank are continuing their filmfest. Chloe is awake again and has been flitting between book and TV. Both girls and Frank have provided input into my blogging. We have about three hours left in this 24-hour-period, but I'm going to close this post out. There's enough here for you to get the idea. :-)

What unschooling looked like today

This is the first in a series of peeks into our unschooling routine (or lack thereof). I'll shoot for posting one mid-month each month.

But first, a quote from Chloe: "The purpose of unschooling is to make sure everyone in your family is happy with their life."

I couldn't have said it better. And now, the report on today.

Both girls are a little under the weather, so it was a pretty sedate day today. Nevertheless, there are a bunch of activities to report. In addition to the activities in the list below, both girls reviewed my last blog post for accuracy. They're my subject-matter experts. :-)

Chloe
Read some fanfiction
IM'd with MJ (yes, MJ was in the next room)
Chatted over AIM with the Mini Skirt Army
Set up a new blog (she's not sharing it yet)
Discussed Fruits Basket (a manga series)
Plugged different dates into a zodiac calendar online
Watched the last disk of Full Metal Alchemist
Talked philosophy with Mom
Played with the rats
Had a pillow tug-of-war with MJ

MJ
Reread select passages in Eragon
Worked on her 2nd sci-fi novel, including a swordfight that is "completely badass"
IM'd with Chloe and a friend from NBTSC
Made plans with her cousin for Saturday night
Checked in on MySpace
Discussed Fruits Basket (a manga series)
Watched some South Park and the last disk of FMA
Talked philosophy with Mom
Updated our Netflix queue
.....(Alert: MJ's movie, "Zoo," is coming soon!)
Played with the rats
Had a pillow tug-o-war with Chloe
Listened to her iPod

I've been asked to clarify that the IM conversation between the two girls was actually an icon war. Just don't ask me to explain that. :-)

Academic translations for a few of those activities
Several:
Socialization!
Language arts (creative writing, editing, critical thinking, book reports)

Zodiac web site: Math - Chloe was calculating years of birth for Fruits Basket characters

FMA: alchemy vs. science and mechanics, history (WWI, zeppelins and the blitz, and the build-up to WWII), seven deadly sins

Fruits Basket: Japanese culture, names, language, Chinese zodiac, biology, and Choir (they sang the FMA and Fruits Basket theme songs together - in Japanese!)

iPod: Music Appreciation and Music of the World (it's a very eclectic collection)

Pillow fight: PE, of course!

----------------
P.S. After I posted this, the girls and I went back to our individual activities, MJ still listening to her iPod and Chloe fiddling with my deck of cards. I got on YouTube because I wanted to hear "Spirit in the Sky" (don't ask me why). I found one clip of the 45 going 'round and 'round, with a comment attached that the center dealie on the record looked like a swastika. Someone then pointed out that the swastika was originally a Hindu symbol, which I didn't know, so I got on Wikipedia to learn more. My expressions of surprise and interest drew attention from the girls, so we finished up the day with another impromptu history lesson. These weird little chains of connections are one of the reasons unschooling works so well. That's another big subject and one I'd love to expound on more, but I'm going to call it a day.

The girls don't seem anywhere ready for sleep, though. Guess they'll have to continue their learning without me.