What have you guys been doing?!

We've been doing lots of fun stuff lately. I guess that's one reason I have so neglected this blog. Of course we've been in lots of water. In August we met Faith, Easy, Malila, and Zola at Riis Park in Brooklyn.

Sitting in chairs: Esther & Malila

Sitting on a Towel: Ryan & Easy

Ethan had a really great time talking with Malila.At the end of August, we went to the Northeast Unschooling Conference in Massachusetts. We hung out with friends.

Drue and Ethan

We got tattoos.

We laughed...a lot!

Drue (Standing) Declan (Pointing) Ethan (Sitting) Ryan (Standing on a chair)

We even played some of our favorite board games.

We had sleepovers and even slept at some of them!

Ryan (Left bed) Amory (Sleeping bag next the right bed)
Doran (Right bed) Ethan (Sleeping bag in the foreground)

We tried out new pools like the one at the newly opened Shoreline Y.

Mimi, Ethan, and Doran

We had a visit from Aunt Kathie.

We tried out chocolate fondue. Doran wasn't as fond of it as everyone else. He enjoyed eating the fruit without dipping it.

Ryan, Ethan, Amory, & Doran

We went to Madison Square Park in NYC and then went to see the King Tut exhibit.

Ryan asked to have his picture taken on top of the tire swing structure.

Ethan on the tire swing.

For my birthday, Ethan made me chocolate brownies! He and Ryan lit the candles. Afterward Ryan had a blast re-lighting a candle and blowing it out until it became nothing more than a stub.

We've been having amazing sunsets here lately. This is one we saw from the top of East Rock.

East Rock has been Ryan's favorite place lately. He loves building cities in the sand pit and being buried up to his neck.

So, that's a little of what has occupied out time lately. Now it's time for me to go play with Ryan.

Travels and Friends

We've been very busy for the past few weeks. We went on a trip which started out in Plymouth, MA at an Unschooler's Camp Out. Where Ryan met a new friend, Mauve, and found she shared his love of sticks.

Ethan, Declan, and Will discovered a sunny place to relax.

I managed to get all the kids in one photo. This was Ryan's fire, but he decided to share. He built lots of fires on this trip and learned "black smithing" which is, apparently, the art of blacking one end of stick so that it can be used to write on rocks.
Next we went to Grammy's cabin in NH. The fun with fire theme continued there. Grammy liked the fires.
Ethan built his first fire with a little help from Ryan and Mimi.
In honor of In spite of it being Learn Nothing Day, Uncle Gareth showed Ethan a how to use a bow and arrows.
Mimi and Ba took the guys for a canoe ride. Of course anyone can ride in the canoe. It's much more challenging to get pulled along in an inner tube.
Ethan spent hours following the ducks in the pond. He quacked at them and they were very accommodating. He got really close to them. After a few hours, he announced that being a duck was great, but without feathers it gets pretty cold even if the lake is warm.

Water always looms large in our family, so went to Jacob Riis Park last Tuesday and caught some gnarly waves.
There were a few wipe outs, but both Ethan and Ryan are ready to go again tomorrow. They say this is the best beach in the world. I have to agree. It has been my favorite beach since childhood.
Amazing water fun continued at Jean's wonderful potluck. The food was yummy and there lots of cool unschoolers. Jean lives mere blocks from the ocean, so naturally, everyone headed there for an afternoon swim. It was a great time to catch up with friends, old and new.
I couldn't resist posting in this photo of Kim. Gotta love a girl who knows what to take to the beach.
Finally, we went to see the new Harry Potter movie on Sunday. Ethan wanted to wait to see it at an Imax with Ryan, all 3 mommies, Aunt Jo, and Uncle Joe. We met up in New Rochelle, NY and while we were walking to the theater, Ethan decided to pause to let Wolverine hang on a tree.
All in all, a very satisfying and refreshing few weeks.

What do you do all day?

Well, I guess that all depends on the day. Most days start with some television: Sponge Bob and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and then there's some DS playing. Both Ethan and Ryan like some quiet time when they wake up. Getting up going anywhere only happens when there's something we really want or have to do and can't put later in the day. After that, some breakfast is in order. Once all that is done, the day is wide open.

We might want to get dressed.

There might be an aluminum foil ice storm.
It could turn out to be day that calls out for body art.
Some days we go to kids' museums, like Kidcity with friends. In this case we went with Gabe and Justin. Ethan likes to keep things in balance.
Ryan is more into getting a different perspective.
We go to festivals, like the Arts and Ideas Festival in New Haven. I'm not sure if this counts as art, ideas, or both.

It's a safe bet that some of our days will include lots of water fun, like going to an indoor water park.

If it's your birthday and you are finally six years old, you could have a celebratory light saber fight with your brother.
Or you just just kick back at Ba's desk and watch some Star Wars videos on YouTube.
There has a been a lot woodchuck trap and release happening lately which looks like this:

This one wasn't the brightest of the 7 we caught. It took him a while to figure out how to get into the woods by going under the plastic fencing.We might even go to see the mayor during his monthly Mayor's Night In and get to sit on the special mayoral couch.
We unschool. Every day is its own adventure.

Evidence of Learning (Not what you think)

Three amazing things have happened in the past two days.

Thing one:
Ryan came in the kitchen and asked for tin foil. I gave him the roll we have that is out of the box and therefore doesn't have the serrated cutting edge. He took some and tried to wrap it around his leg. "I'm getting on my armor," he explained.

"That's great. You know," I started to tell him that he'd a need longer piece of foil to get it around his leg, but stopped myself. He crumpled up the piece, put it on the table and began adding more and more and more foil it making a big ball. I thought that he was using a lot of foil. "So, what are you making?" I asked carefully not saying that he had a lot more tin foil than I thought he would use.

"It's a boulder! It's going to fall down and then - wait! Like this see?" He dropped to the floor and pulled the foil ball onto his leg. "It falls on the guy like this and his leg is caught like this." Ryan began to squirm around the floor miming someone with a stuck leg. "But don't panic! He gets out when his friends come and help him." Then he took the ball of tin foil and ran back to his Rescue Hero guys.

Thing two:
Ryan asked me to get the markers so he could draw. (Side note: I can't wait until the craft room is re-arranged and he can get them all by himself. That will make him happy.) I got them and he sat at the table while Ethan, Esther, Jo, and I played Scrabble. I looked up and saw him coloring all over himself with marker. He looked like he had blue snot running down his face. I laughed and told him to go look in the mirror at how cool it was. So did everyone else.

Thing Three:
Ryan and Ethan were in the bathtub tonight getting water everywhere and drinking bathwater and spitting it out toasting anything they could think of toasting. Esther went in and put towels on the floor so the flood waters were somewhat contained. I thought it was great that they were having such a good time.

It occurred to me this evening that none of those things were problems. Tin foil just isn't that expensive and he really can't use "too much". I know where the store is located. Not only that, but I needn't tell anyone the obvious. I can trust my kids to see for themselves when they don't have enough tin foil to wrap around their legs. Non-toxic marker all over Ryan's face and body is just marker and it it doesn't mean people will look at me like there's something wrong with me for letting him draw on himself, and if they do, then that's their issue. Yes, flooding the bathroom will make the floor really wet and someone might trip and get hurt, but if towels get put down, it doesn't matter.

See? I can learn. I have three pieces of evidence.