HB #4- Sleep with Butterflies August 21, 2008

What you’ll find in this episode:

Sleep with Butterflies- Unschooling sleep

Exploring child-led sleep patterns

Frustration/anger surrounding bedtime- mythical vs. actual bedtime scenarios

Quiet minds, focused play

‘Adult’ time

Coping with grouchy days

Free kids are happy kids

Click here for a direct link to the show.

Are you ready for a complete shift in life philosophy? To respect your children as the people they are rather than concerning yourself with what they will become? Do you mean it when you say that you will be happy as long as your children are happy- no matter what? These only sound cliche if you aren’t able to recognize that children are capable of directing their own lives. As unschoolers and gentle parents we understand and live this. Humans Being will discuss facets of unschooling and gentle parenting as well as how they relate and work in our family and others. We’ll talk about a variety of unschooling philosophies, literature, and media as well as hearing from unschoolers all over the world who will share their experiences.

A Zoo-y Weekend August 21, 2008

Chris went to the gym to play basketball Saturday morning. We decided to follow shortly after with our wheels. After watching Daddy play ball for a few minutes, the kids on their bikes and I on my rollerblades wheeled the mile to the playground, played hide-and-seek there, and then wheeled back to the car.

We spent a lazy afternoon playing at the house and cleaning the (blech) car. Temps have been mild recently so it’s a great time to do these things! Chris and I went off in the evening with Justin and Sara to see The Dave Matthews Band in Dallas. Due to the late night, they stayed over and the kids were ecstatic to see them in the morning!

After being worn out by the kids, Justin and Sara went home and we went to the Ft. Worth Zoo!

The flamingos are always a favorite and were our first stop.

Elijah loves the new aviary area. He spent quite a while enjoying the ducks and swans.

Sadie had to show Daddy this bird. Guess what? It’s part of the goose family!

We escaped the bees of the picnic area by snacking on the go.

The baby chimpanzees are hysterical. One little guy was very busy ripping fabric into strips and trying to tie them around himself. Amazing. The kids noted the similarity between primates hands and our own.

Some fun facts: The Ibex is a male- we know this because his horns make a semi-circle. The female’s horns grow only to about 15″. She was up on the cliff. The black rhino has a prehensile lip that he can use to grab things with- this one was grabbing the bamboo through the fence. The Asian elephant has ears that are smaller than those of the African elephant. Elephants’ ears have a vast blood supply close to the surface of the skin- flapping them helps to cool the blood as it returns to their core. This helps them to keep cool in the heat. Why do you think African elephants have bigger ears?? Meerkats have a very organized society and live in a series of connecting tunnels.

Elijah the Builder August 20, 2008

Can he build it! Yes he can! He’s building with everything he can get his hands on.

These days he’s building vehicles-

with all sorts of different sets.

This set is called Fusion- they’re fantastic.

These are K’Nex. He got them for Christmas but only lately has become fascinated with them.

This is a $4 Lego kit that makes a racecar. Elijah has redesigned the racecar about 1,000,000 times. Here is a truck- he’s branching out.

Music Makers August 17, 2008

As we waited for the shredded paper to soak up the water to blend into pulp (see papermaking post), Sadie felt inspired and emptied out the cabinet that holds the pots and pans. She arranged them carefully and requested some different tools with which she could make a variety of sounds- metal, wood, plastic. 

Elijah was quietly building and rebuilding various styles of Lego racecars on the stairs when he heard the ‘music’ and was invited by Sadie to join.

They got their jam on together…

Papermaking! August 17, 2008

Anna and Gretchen gave Sadie this cool papermaking kit for her birthday. I have been wanting to do this forever but the ‘adult’ kit that I have is much less user-friendly and I haven’t gotten past the planning phase. We dove right in with this and it’s great!!! Above are the kids tearing up local newspapers and advertisement pages.

Here is the torn paper put into the blender from the kit (not user-friendly and very easy to break) and my blender with water. The torn paper sits in the water for several hours until it can easily be blended into pulp. It blends into a grey color and we used some red food coloring in an attempt to make pink paper. Instead we ended up making purple as the red mixed with the grey.

We pour the pulp into the tray and eagerly read the directions to figure out the process.

Sadie assembles the shape tray and puts the sloppy pulp (look at that face!) into the shape she has chosen for her paper. We used every shape in the kit.

Then we remembered the chrysanthemums we pressed last year and dug out the flower press- in which they were still sitting- and mixed them into the pulp!

Once we had used every shape in the kit at least once, we realized we could use anything that would make a shape over the screen. We started using some cookie cutters until we had filled my giant cooling rack with sheets of paper that were left to dry for about 24 hours). Sadie has already given out all of the pieces of paper before I could get a picture of them laid out. We do still have a whole bunch of the pulp left and will definitely be making more! Thanks for this cool gift Anna and Gretchen!

Caped Crusaders August 15, 2008

We ventured down to the drainage area for some mucking! One good Texas rain and the gully that was completely dry yesterday was raging today!

Lulu was thrilled to come and roam off-leash. She was a super-good-girl and came every time neurotic-Mama called.

Sadie climbs down the ‘falls’ after she sees Elijah do it. ‘I think I should do that too!’ she says.

Elijah was in his glory. He was so happy to have his boots full of water and stuck in the clay ‘muck’ and explore and throw rocks and climb around. He took us on an excursion upstream and under the main road (yes, through the drainage tunnel- I was the only one that had to fold in half- I mean duck- to get through). He would’ve kept going too had neurotic-Mama not asked to turn around because she forgot Lulu’s leash back at the falls. We hit the wet playground for a few minutes and then picked up the trash that the rushing water had dropped by the bridge on our way back home.

3 dirty kids got baths when we got home.

Sadie’s Birthday- Continued August 15, 2008

Somehow my pictures are not in order (and neither is my brain). Here is what we did on Sadie’s actual birthday!

We generally just hung around a played most of the morning and early afternoon. Sadie opened presents that came in the mail from family and also presents from Chris and I.

Elijah needed a haircut and, as his response generally seems to be ‘the day after tomorrow will be haircut day’ when it is brought up and I brought it up two days ago- off we went to Cool Cuts 4 Kids where he proceeded to play MarioCart with Chris until his name was called. Sorry- no after picture but it’s very cute. See the marble run post.

We went to Chili’s for linner (somewhere between lunchtime and dinnertime).

Somehow the waiters/waitress knew it was Sadie’s birthday and magically brought molten chocolate cake and a song.

A Day with the Kanes August 15, 2008

No more country Kanes. We had a playdate with them at their new/old house in suburbia!

Brett and Elijah got down to business playing trains and talking Transformers.

Sadie, Kaylee, and Kenzie played with the assortment of kitties.

Some crazy rough housing on the couch.

And a whole lot of Scooby Doo. Elijah and Sadie were just asking about Scooby yesterday. Here it is! They seemed to enjoy it.

And lots of outdoor play on a hot day. The Kanes backyard looks like a playland. It was lots of (hot) fun! Thanks Kanes for a great day!

Recycled Marble Run August 14, 2008

After playing with and marveling at Ehlayna and Ethan’s homemade marble run, Elijah has been intense about constructing our own. With some recycling and time on our hands, we went to town.

Elijah did a lot of preliminary testing. The long-term planning piece was a little much for him and the possibilities were so endless that it was a bit overwhelming. He definitely knew he wanted two launchings at the top. There was the ongoing discussion of whether they should mimic each other or be entirely different and whether they should converge at any point. He finally decided to make two runs exactly the same that would end in the juice bottle at the bottom. It was a little tricky figuring a way that the juice bottle could be extracted once all the marbles had been used so that we could get them back but we did it!

Here it is! I have video but it’s one of those tip your head or computer sideways because I love the long angle shots I’ll get one another time but here’s how it goes. The marble goes down the first ramp and into the little water bottle, then down a speedy ramp that leads to the outside of the box where it hits a bell and goes back into the box via a tube, it shoots out of the tube and into the Coke bottle where it whirls round and round and finally goes out the top of the Coke bottle, into a funnel, and through a tube into the juice bottle which hangs out of the front of the box. This thing is so fun, I drop a marble in almost every time I walk by.

Sadie’s Room Redo August 14, 2008

According to Sadie, neither her clothes nor her room fit her anymore now that she’s 4. The push for a ‘big girl bed’ began last year around this time. I can’t believe another year has gone by- it’s time. So on Sadie’s 4th birthday, her crib was disassembled and put aside. It seemed rather momentous. We found a great twin mattress/box spring/frame on craigslist for an equally great deal. While at Goodwill, we found a fabulous vanity. Sadie and I looked at each other and both said how great it would be for her room. But it had been horribly defaced by some well-meaning mother who had painted some ‘love thy sister’ shenanigans on it along with bumpy flowers and bees. That would just not do.

Sadie helped me to paint it for a bit and then moved on with Elijah to play with the random hardware box and some wood pieces. They hammered in nails and screwed in some hinges all the while making up new things they could build- all of which were way more complicated than they would endeavor today.

I forgot to take a before picture but you can see some of the painting on the front of the drawer here. It’s a really cool piece of furniture, though. I also had to replace one of the drawer runners so it would pull evenly. No problem!

And here it is- the finished product. Her room has a fresh coat of The Fresh Aire Choice paint (VOC free, environmentally and people friendly), has been organized with some coordinating bins a la the dorm section, a twin bed (with my duvet/sham from college), and a new vanity (she’s so excited to have drawers for her clothes). Inexpensive, beautiful and Earth-friendly. She’s so pleased and proud and invites us over all the time.