Last days of summer...... :)

We've been so busy that I haven't been blogging as much about our busyness! Here are some random shots of what we were up to the last days of summer.....

Kathrynn's new favorite thing to do... sewing! At the class she is taking she gets to use a $1500 sewing machine.... not quite like the simple one we have at home :)

By the end of the summer she figure out how to get across the bars.... Serious muscle power!

Our friend Dani reading to the kids at the library.... where we spend our Tuesday mornings :)

Kathrynn putting on a puppet show at the library...


Cora and Kathrynn squealing with glee at our local roller derby bout..... The kids LOVE going to roller derby- not always for the bout but for the great gymnasium where they run around :)

Kathrynn dressed up as a flower super hero!


More play time at Delilah's pet shop..... oh how we love the puppies!!!

Kathrynn practicing her moves at open gym, where we go every friday before her gymnastics class......
Hanging out at the pool on the last day they were open... :)

Hanging out w/ Cornelius the snake, at Wonderlab, our local science museum.

Joys of radically unschooling......

Anne, the list owner of shinewithunschooling (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shinewithunschooling/?yguid=281150272) asked this question the other day on her list:

"What did you *used* to think was True (but is not)?"

I answered this question in a round about way, maybe writing more about "what I never thought was true for", rather then what i used to think was true....
This is what I wrote:


I think for me it is how kathrynn grasps hold of her passions and just moves so effortlessly because on an inner force inside herself..... this simply AMAZES me.
Like when she woke up one day about a month ago and sat on the floor and started writing out math equations in crayon on a pice of paper..... I looked at her, wondering WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?!?!? And it came from with in her.... an innate desire to learn and process and figure out her world, which involved numbers! How amazingly natural it was for her.... how i never would have thought that would be something a 6 yo would do for fun!

How today when we went to her "quilting" class, which is more like a sewing class and she spent time after class to continue working on her own projects on the machine.... after all the other kid were done and packed up..... and she declared today that she would be a sewing astronaut bc she has a new found passion for sewing on the sewing machine, and an old passion for space....... :)

Anything and everything has potential to be a passion for her.... the world is her oyster.... and she tastes and dabbles and just loves the buffet that life has for her to try out.......

Living this radical unschooling life, has led me to understand how much passion can exist in a being, who is free to be who she wants to be.......
-------------------------------

I think that last sentence says it all.... I never understood the passion that can exist in kids...
And this passion can show itself in all kinds of ways- in sports, in quiet solitude, in art, in watching tv or movies, in music, in PLAY! I think more then anything, those passions are alive from moment to moment. Because I do not (to the best of my ability!!!! hey, i'm not perfect yet!!) squash, shame or limit Kathrynn's exploration of her world, she continues to move through the world with these passions.
Maybe its just coincidence- maybe i just have a kid full of passion! I'm sure that's partly the case. AND I think that her uninhibited movement through the world keeps those passions alive and truly accessible to her. In either case, I know one thing is true...... I love this unschooling journey we are on! :)

Lake Griffey Joy on Labor Day

What to do on a Labor's Day afternoon....... We headed over for a canoe ride and short hike.....


Kathrynn says she loves canoes because they are so relaxing and easy..... <>. We had a nice canoe ride that day- the sky opened up and the sun came out while out on the lake. My strokes improved and we actually went forward most of the trip! lol




We went for a hike along the lake bank......



Found a cute little animal on our way..... a little boy who came by called it a tree frog, but I'm thinking it might have been some kind of toad.....

Hikers need their energy! :)
A lovely little adventure, 5 minutes outside of Bloomington...... Lovely! <3

Sometimes you just have to sneeze!

One day Kathrynn couldn't stop sneezing!!!!

This went on for about 15 minutes total, and I just couldn't resist not getting a bit of this on video.
The first clip is the funniest to me, but because of the way I was holding the camera you couldn't actually see her much, just the outline of the book she was reading. The second clip was a bit toned down, probably because she noticed that I was holding the camera , lol!

Girls sleep over :P

When our husbands are out of town we get together for a girls sleep over (ok, Liam is a boy, but he was in bed already and usually stays out of the girls way :P)

We all gathered around on the floor and painted our toe nails. :P



Kathrynn and Virginia came up w/ an elaborate production- unfortunately my camera was about out of batteries so i only got a few shots, but it was amazing to watch the girls put on their show! It was kinda Laurel and Hardy meets clowns from the French circus. ha!


Our families always have a ton of fun together. :) xoxox

Visiting Luke Rhode's Family Farm

Luke Rhode's farm is about 45 minutes southwest of Bloomington. We get our eggs, beef and pork from Luke as often as we can. Kathrynn has a dairy allergy, otherwise we'd probably be getting his awesome raw organic milk as well!
Kathrynn loves visiting this farm so much! We went last year and we were the only visitors due to the weather! We had a personal tour of Luke's property. :)
This year the weather was perfect and it was crowded with Luke's patrons. :)

Luke has two areas for has 2,000 chickens. One area is for the youngest chickens, and the other area is for the older chickens. Both sites were filled with eggs! Kathrynn had a great time gathering the eggs. :P
You can see the school buses in the shots- that is where the majority of eggs were laid, and where one of the clips was recorded.





I loved how the cows and chickens lived together. :)



Here is the guard dog for the chickens, who was all for hanging out under the bus while we checked out Luke's farm. :)


Next it was time to see how Luke's cows are milked. First the cows are gathered down to the milking building, and then they are brought into the milking room. Their utters are cleaned and then the milking machines (whatever they are called!) are attached to the utters.


The hoses go to a large tank in the next room where the milk stored in a cooler until ready to be sold.

Our future bacon.......


Thanks to Luke and his family for sharing their farm with us for a day! :)