The Joy of Reading.....

Whenever we are around kids who attend school, I am always amazed at how reading for them is often a chore, part of their homework, instead of the joyful pursuit that it is for my children (and me!). I will hear parents say things like, "Did you do your 15 minutes of reading yet?" or I will hear children complaining that they have to read! And, I remember being in school.....the books that I didn't chose to read, passages in a reading book that didn't interest me but were supposed to teach me some or another important skill, the books that were required. I still loved to read, but only when I could choose my own book (of course!).

What a different scene in our house! My kids LOVE to read, hear me (or Mike, Maddie, or Amelia) read, and even listen to books on tape in the car. They literally beg me to go to the library! And you should see the scene if I say no. :) Books are a huge part of every day in our lives. So, here are a few pictures of us reading and enjoying books. I once saw this saying,

"So Many Books, So Little Time." I couldn't agree more!

Happy Reading!

Leah has been LOVING dogs lately. She takes out so many dog books each week and has been learning about different breeds and other cool stuff about dogs!

Amelia is enjoying Highlights magazine, which we get each month. It is such a wonderful day when this magazine arrives.

Here are SOME of our returns last week. Maddie and Amelia take out tons of books each week (sometimes biweekly) and they read each and every one.

Some of my favorite books are cookbooks. I love to read them while I am in the kitchen. I also LOVE the day that Mother Earth News comes in the mail!

The Snowy Day....

I got this random e-mail yesterday titled, "What to do with your kids so that they won't become bored at home in all of this snow." Are you kidding me??? Bored? At home? Home is where my kids long to be....all of the time. In fact, sometimes, I have trouble getting them out the door.

Here is a glimpse of what our home was like during our blizzard yesterday.

While the snow piled up outside, (just look at our gate buried in the snow!)

Amelia had to do the hourly measurement with the yardstick (20+ inches on top of 25 inches!),

while Leah took some self portraits with my camera,

Ben played on his favorite, Club Penguin,

and I tried a new recipe from a favorite cookbook.

Meanwhile, Mike and Amelia worked on her snap circuit kit,

and we found lots of time to play games (Monopoly, Monopoly Jr., Cooties, etc.).

I just love when Leah and Ben take these amazing photographs! Their perspective is perfect!

Ben took some time to create a truck for his dog. I love how he used empty ribbon spools to create the wheels!

And Maddie decided to create a bag to hold all of her tap essentials (after not having a brush and holder with her this week).

And I continuously watch my little lettuce plants grow and dream of the spring day when I am harvesting them for a fresh salad!

Hope your day was filled with passion chasing too! :)

Art 101

I love art museums (ok...museums, in general)! So, it really drives me crazy to hear homeschoolers (not unschoolers, mind you) talking about trying to fulfill an art "requirement!" This should not be a task at all, as I see it. It is FUN to visit art museums and to create artwork at home. And, we are so fortunate to live near a really wonderful, small art museum....the Brandywine River Museum. What a beautiful place to spend a morning (and into the afternoon as it turned out...yeah for having no schedule!). Our local museum is filled with fabulous art work, especially from the Wyeths, wonderful childrens' programs, and a beautiful river to hang around after our visit. I mean, really, you can't come to the Brandywine River Museum without hanging out on Miss Gratz and Helen, the resident cow and pig statues that reside outside of the museum and beckon my children to climb on them! :)

A view of the river on this dreary and beautiful November day. One thing that I love is viewing the river in all seasons. In the summer and warm months, we picnic out here (ok, we actually picnic year round, even at times in the snow or rain), in the fall, we view the leaves turning crimson, and in the winter, we see the shadows of the leafless branches in the water. We notice how the current is moving, and we always know if it has rained a lot from the level of the river. We definitely feel at home out here.

My lens was partially covered in this picture, though I think it looks pretty neat this way. Here, all four of my explorers are sitting on Miss Gratz, the cow.

Another beautiful view of the river, with a railroad trestle in the distance.

I feel so lucky to live in the Brandywine Valley! After spending a fun morning at this museum, we took a small detour on the way home through the Brandywine Battlefield, where Washington's troops fought (and lost) a battle against General Howe and the British troops on Sept. 11, 1777. Very cool stuff!

Follow Your Passions......

In our house, we spend our days "Chasing our Passions!" So, here are some of our current passions.....

Mike has started brewing his own beer! His first batch was just bottled and so far it tastes great! We also are fermenting some local apple cider...lots of fun and good gifts for our "Handmade Holiday!"

Books are a passion for all of us in the Rehrman household! Amelia is very passionate about "Katy Kazoo" books, Maddie is enjoying the "Animal Ark" series, Ben and Leah love just about anything that I read to them especially the Arthur books and anything about ducks (for Leah). I am loving "Water for Elephants," and Mike is finally working through (my favorite) Harry Potter series.

We are especially passionate about each other! I LOVE spending each day with my children. What a gift!!!!

I have always been passionate about cooking and eating good and healthy food. Now, I am convinced that to keep the "piggy flu" away, we must feed nothing but healthy food into our bodies! Here is some beautiful swiss chard that I bought from our neighbor, who has a greenhouse. I normally would have this coming from our own garden, but the deer got there before we could! :)

I combine that beautiful swiss chard with ground flax seeds, goji berries, blueberries, cherries, bananas, and anything else that seems yummy and healthy to create a FABULOUS smoothie! Ben, in particular, drinks this ALL DAY! You know what they say? A smoothie a day keeps the doctor away!

Spending time laughing and reading on the sofa. What a way to pass the day!

And I leave you with Ben! He was taking pictures of himself under the blanket for a LONG time! This was the funniest of the bunch. What a spirit that boy has!

So, chase your passions! Let all the wonders of the beautiful world be your teachers! Long live life learners!

Scrabble Time

Amelia and I like to play Scrabble. It's been amazing, really, to watch Amelia spell. She is a wonderful speller, though she does not love to read (incidentally, she IS a great reader). Let me clarify....she doesn't love to read books (except joke books!). She loves to read anything on the computer! She is WILD about the computer! And, because of this passion, she is wild about spelling and typing (and she is darn good, too).

So, today, when she wanted to play Scrabble, I got excited. It is really fun to play first games like Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land with your children. But, for me, I REALLY enjoy playing games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Mancala, and Sorry! It is so much fun! And, as with everything, the learning that comes with each of these games is extraordinary. Today, Amelia was using a calculator to keep score, doing mental math, using a dictionary, not to mention creating really cool words....her highest scoring word was "Ninja." :)

I'm so glad that my children are not learning dictionary skills by being forced to look up words on a worksheet. Much more fun (and REAL) to play Scrabble!

A Little John Holt Inspiration....

"Among the many things I have learned about children, learned by many, many years of hanging out with them, watching carefully what they do, and thinking about it, is that children are natural learners."

--John Holt "Learning All the Time"

Leah having a ball at the park! I was thinking about all of the parks that we spend time at throughout the year. As a child, we didn't go to a lot of parks, though I have great parents who took us lots of wonderful places. Upon thinking about it more, I realized that we probably didn't do the park thing because we were in school so much of the time. And, the playground at school is the one that I remember most.

I'm so glad that my kids have the joy of comparing parks. Today, when we arrived at our weekly park day, the kids exclaimed, "Oh, this is my FAVORITE park!" Cool!

Maddie writing down all kinds of information related to her "My Little Ponies." It's amazing how much my children write.....I believe because they are never forced to. Today, Maddie and Amelia wrote SO MUCH! And, all of it was important to them. In the words of Maddie today, "If you give her a Bath Make Shur that you do not get too much watar on her" (writing about Fluttershy).

Ben has been creating AMAZING castles lately! They are very beautiful and almost completely (or completely) symmetrical. What a wonderful way to "learn" about this important mathematical concept. And, so much more fun and natural than circling the symmetrical object on a worksheet. Go Ben!

Amelia reading a library book at our kitchen table. Reading is such a natural part of our day. It is also my favorite part of the day. In particular, I love reading before bed (with a flashlight) in my childrens' room. What a magical time and what adventures we go on! In the last month alone, we have been on the prairie for the book, "Skylark," and to England for a special book called, "Mandy." Now, we are traveling back to WWII with Molly, one of the American Girls.

Yesterday, as the kids and I were waiting for Maddie's tap class to be finished, we watched a 1st grader reading to his mom. Actually, he was reading in order to get an assignment done.....30 minutes of reading each night (ok, I was eavesdropping a little....it's a small room, really!). So, the mom was typing something into her cell phone (oh, I can't stand this!) and he was "reading." Can that really be called reading??? Being forced to read something! Reading is wonderful, magical, an adventure....why should it be forced???? UGH!!!! I'm again so glad to have my children away from school, where they force kids to read! (enough of that soap box)

Let's finish with something positive from one of my favs....John Holt!

"Children learn from anything and everything they see. They learn wherever they are, not just in special learning places. They learn much more from things, natural or made, that are real and significant in the world in their own right and not just made in order to help children learn.........We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions.....and helping them explore the things they are most interested in."

--John Holt "Learning All the Time"

Rock on, John!

Random Acts of Kindness...pass it on!

On the Radical Unschooling yahoo group, Dayna Martin mentioned that her family was trying to intentionally practice "Random Acts of Kindness." This inspired me to have a conversation with my young people and see what they thought. They were excited immediately! In the last few days, this has led to so much awareness of the beauty in others and the kindness that so many others bestow upon our family. Here is a partial list of the kindnesses that I have witnessed in the last few days....

*Maddie, Amelia, and Ben wrote letters to Bubbi (my grandmom who is fairly lonely), GG (my other grandmom) and my mom and dad. All were meant to pick up the spirits of those who will receive them!

*Wel brought pumpkins and warm apple cider to park day to share with us all. Thanks, Wel! This inspired Amelia to want to bake cookies to bring to park day next week. Pass it on...

*Leslee, our wonderful next door neighbor, arranged for the children and I to visit her friend, Jenny today. Jenny has chickens, sheep, a greenhouse, and many other wonderful things to share on her homestead. What a wonderful time chasing the black kitten, feeding the chickens, gathering eggs and Nasturtium seeds, touring the greenhouse, seeing the beehives, ......

*Last week, Leslee, who just retired from working in a school, took a few hours to really show the children and me around her property. She took so much time explaining so many wonderful things and we learned so much. She also said that we were welcome to roam around her meadow and woods whenever we wanted. Her passion for nature inspired us to create fairy homes for the rest of the afternoon!

*Amelia is having a bike rally to raise money for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). She created a flyer on the computer and wanted to make copies of it to distribute around our area. The man at the copy store this afternoon made her 50 copies at no charge because he thought it was amazing of her to do this, and he wanted to support her!

*Mike, my wonderful husband, who was always a doubter of unschooling (until Maddie and Amelia actually went to school) left me a fabulous, positive comment on my last post supporting our unschooling ways. Yeah!

Kindness is everywhere! And, when you start to really notice it, life becomes even more beautiful!

We are Back!

We are back! Back to "unschooling," back to living out our passions day after day, back to living together in joy, back to spending our days together....back to OUR basics.

After sending Maddie and Amelia to school this year, I quickly realized that I had made a mistake. No, I take that back. It wasn't a mistake. I had to see for myself what school would be like for them. Yet, it was full of all the things that I no longer believe in.....learning that is not meaningful, extrinsic rewards, a condescending attitude towards children (not that I ever believed in that), living our day by the clock (when to take and pick up), and a clear lack of FREEDOM, in every sense of the word.

It clearly was not the right place for my children!

So, now we are back to living each day filled with all of the important stuff of life........

Hours at the library finding treasures, followed by lots of reading!

Science experiments at the table totally thought up by Amelia! Testing to see what liquids will make pennies shine the most. Ben and Leah are in the background experimenting with their favorite....baking soda and vinegar. Volcano, anyone??? :)

Creating fairy homes in our yard on a beautiful autumn day. Enjoying nature!

Maddie's natural enthusiasm as she is explaining to me about a new project that she wants to try. She read about this in a book.....she is going to send a small stuffed animal to a pen pal in Maine who will then send it on to someone else, all the time writing about the animal's adventures. Cool!

My feet are now back on the ground. I feel confident knowing that I am doing the best thing for my children by keeping them home...... No, not home, but in the world.....EXPLORING our world everyday!

"Living is learning and when kids are living fully and energetically and happily they are learning a lot, even if we don't always know what it is. "

~John Holt ~ in a letter to Joan Pitkin, October 22, 1971 
From: "A Life Worth Living, Selected Letters of John Holt", 
Edited by Susannah Sheffer

Our lives have been all about Webkinz lately!  All four of my children are crazy about it!  We only have one computer but they literally spend hours in front of it.   Sometimes, I worry about this.  I call myself an "unschooler," but I still worry what my children are "learning" from Webkinz.  How could it be good, I sometimes think, to be in front of a computer screen on a beautiful Spring day?  
Well, why not?  They are so PASSIONATE about this game!  They are excited everyday to see how they will do in their favorite game (spelling, math, reading, hand eye coordination.....says my old worried self who tries NOT to see school subjects in our day).  They can't wait to see if they can afford a new style of bed for their Webkinz room (again, math, budgeting).  They cheer each other on, we have family tournaments, they watch mommy play her favorite, "Zacky's Quest," which reminds me of "Frogger" from back in the day.  It is all GOOD!  It is so much FUN!  And, it is their current passion!  Besides, they still had fun today running outside in the beautiful sunshine.....after they each had their turn on the "Wheel of Wow!"

A Question of Semantics

I have been struggling lately with the word, "Homeschooling."  To me, it implies that our family is at home hitting the books instead of doing the same thing at school.  This is the furthest thing from the truth!  Actually, we do "hit the books," but they are usually library books of my young people's choosing.  :)

It happens often when we are out and about, as we so often are.  Someone will ask how old Maddie and Amelia are and then say, "Is there no school today?"  They reply, "We homeschool."  That is met with different replies depending on the person, but generally it is something like, "Oh, your mom is your teacher."  (No, the world is their teacher.  They LIVE!)  Or, "You must have been a teacher in order to know how to teach your children."  (Yes, I was a teacher, but it has nothing to do with what goes on in our daily lives).  Or, "I could never do that!  You must be so patient." (No, I'm not always patient, but I do LOVE being with my children and I am GRATEFUL that we can spend our days together!).  

I would love to think of another term besides "homeschooling" or even "unschooling."  Unschooling is fine to say in the homeschooling crowd; they know sort of what you mean.  The outside world has no idea who John Holt is or what I mean by "life learning."  

So, if anybody has any advice, I'd love to hear it!  For now, we will continue to muddle through the questions....and enjoy our life of learning together!