Ligers, Tigons and Leopons

Liger Mane
Originally uploaded by Batian_Lion

Did you know that in captivity lions and tigers can breed? I sure didn't. Here is a Liger: a cross between a male lion and tigress. Cool!

Can you tell we have been reading about Wild Cats?

Coming to Terms

Yesterday we gave away our baby things. The whole bit: crib, bassinet, swing, car seat, stroller, comforter, etc. We gave away the things but not the memories.

That is what I remind myself. I was surprised that it was hard to give the things away. After leaving my country and leaving things behind, I have never been attached to things. But parting with these baby articles was harder than I thought.

I don't think is the things. It is coming to terms with where we are in life. We are not the young ones, starting out our families. We are not the ones expecting joyfully and anxiously for the arrival of that little baby. No. We are the ones that been there and done that. We are the ones looking back and remembering. We are the ones in the middle of this journey we call life, trying hard to raised those kids we joyfully and anxiously expected. We are the ones in the trenches.

It is coming to terms with our kids growing up and we growing older. They are not the babies they once were and we are not the young couple we once were. It is like being in the middle of a trip and looking back to where you came from. But it is also looking ahead and seeing the part that you haven't yet trudged. It is trying hard not to be afraid at what is still ahead of us. It is holding tight to the promises of Jesus that he will always be with those who love them. It is coming to terms with what we haven't accomplished and being thankful for what we have achieved. It is, I tell myself, not about regrets. It is about embracing what there is to come. Joyfully, confidently, unafraid, expectantly waiting for the marvels God is going to do with what we have offered him: our lives and the lives of our children.

"Unschooling Experiment" - Day 1

After Gabi left for her last Classical Conversations session of the year, the ones left at home embarked in our "unschooling experiment". If I want to be honest with myself, this is not true unschooling. It is MY version. The only version I can feel comfortable at the moment.
Alex did his alloted section of math. In the meantime I read to Nicolas. He picked several books from a stack of library books. We didn't get to read them all. We read:

• The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer
• Henry Builds a Cabin by D. B. Johnson

Alex joined us after he finished and we started reading about Wild Cats. This trail was inspired by a friend of Nicolas who came to play yesterday. She wanted to play "Wild Cats".
Seizing the opportunity ( you know how homeschool moms are always looking for teachable moments :-) )I went to the library and came with a stack of Wild Cats books. So far we have read two:

• Really Big Cats by Allan Fowler
• Scary Creatures: Big Cats by Penny Clarke and Terry Riley

After reading we moved to the computer and found this The kids had a good time watching the clips. My tenderhearted son was mad at a lion for killings some cubs. "Lions are mean," he said. We talked about the violence of the animal world, the survival of the strongest and how animals can't help themselves. They can't reflect on their behavior.

After lunch we went to the nursery to buy some plants. The seasons offer such and opportunity for learning. We are going to be talking about all things botany in the next few days. When we got back home we (all mostly I) planted.

Some got planted.
Some are still waiting...

Hard at Work

Adding Some Color

Unschooling Experiment

Every single time I read a post on unschooling my heart ticks faster. I so want to try this. I so want to see my kids own their own learning life. I want them to follow their passions and discover new ones. I want them to learn how to think for themselves. I want them to think out of the box.

The thing is that I don't think I can do it. I don't know how to go about it. We are at a perfect place to try an experiment. We just finished our first year with Classical Conversations
It has been a great year. Now we have about a month before the "official" school year is over. We got a lot done this year. Now I feel I could try my hand at something more relaxed. I would like to pursue some art, some gardening, some nature walks. Or I could try letting my kids, especially A., to be the one leading the way. Honestly, I don't know how to do that. I don't fill comfortable just letting him be. I think that for us "flexibility within structure" would work better. Tons of ideas flow through my mind:

• I could re-implement some of Bravewriter ideas. We used to do teatime and read poetry and freewrites. The kids loved them.
  
• I could do make sure we read poetry every day. One poem a day. I have several Spring poetry books on hold at the library. I could combine those with the teatime.
  
• I could do some art. I have discovered some interesting blogs on art lately here and here. They both look interesting, and they seem to have lots of resources for me to explore. I am creating a list of projects for the summer.
• I could try our hands at some architecture, one of A.' passions. They have some cool links to explore.
• I could do more science. We discovered this videos from Youtube. We can explore these more and see where it would take us.
• I could let him work on a project from the Dangerous Book for Boys.
  

I guess I can present this list to A. and let him choose. I could also take him to the library and let the pick some books. The thing that makes me hesitate is this: I want to have something to show for our efforts. I would like to have a lapbook or a narration or something that would say loud and clear:"You have accomplished something!"

This brings me to a complete new thought: Why do I feel as if I have to have something to show or as if the accomplishment has to be measurable? Whose accomplishment should it be mine or my children's? Do I need to prove myself to someone? Why I feel so scared to try this?

Trying this Again

This is my second attempt at blogging. I have been thinking about pros and cons:

Pros:

• It would give me a place to organize my thoughts.
• My in-laws would love to have a place to follow the kids and our family .
  
• It would serve as a record of our learning.
• It would give me some practice in writing.
• It would give Mark a chance to peek in on our days. If I can write what I think, it would give him a chance to read what I am thinking. We don't always have time to talk and hash out my thoughts on the kids education and day to day endeavors

Cons:

• It can take time.
• It can feed my tendency to accumulate information without really putting it into practice.
• It makes me feel vulnerable to actually share what I am doing and thinking (not that very many people would read it but the possibility is there)

Let's see how it goes this time!