Pumpkin Picking!

Oh man.  Sorry I haven't posted in forever!  So much has been going on lately.  It's been a busy last month.  But I'm happy to announce, that Fall has arrived and thus Halloween!  My favorite holiday!  We found this awesome pumpkin farm not too far from our home called Single Palm Pumpkins.  Such a great little family farm and very inexpensive!  $5 for a pumpkin.  Any size pumpkin.  You can't beat that.

Orion had so much fun.  But alas, it got close to his nap time, so we had to cut it short.  But he loved it!!  Here are some pictures of our day:

Orion petting the pot-bellied pig Floyd

Sitting in the tire swing

Amongst the corn field

Honeybee pollinating this gorgeous flower

Orion found a pumpkin he liked

Taking the pumpkins back to the farm

Counting Begins

This is such an awesome time for getting our children ready for the basic skills they will need later in life.  It's so easy to just follow the lead of your child and to see the joy it brings them.

Earlier this week, my husband brought out a blanket that Orion's great grandmother made him.  It is a "street scene" blanket that looks like a 2 dimensional town.  It's really cute with a Post Office, Fire Department, and of course: bear figures as the townsfolk.

I've taken some of Orion's toys and pretended they were walking the sidewalks and Orion thinks it's hilarious to watch them go to each of the little stops in town.  After a while though, he finally started realizing that there were bears on the blanket.  He kept pointing to them and saying, "mmm!"  And I would respond "yes, that is a firefighter bear" (etc.).  Since he kept doing it--and we all know once kids find something that entertains them, it becomes repetitive for the next 15 minutes--I started counting the bears for them.  He would point and I would count.  He loved it!  We are actively working together on numbers, counting, and sorting.  So easy right?

The best part is when you see how what you did earlier correlates to something later in the day.  Orion has a counting book with pop out pictures and this was hours later that he brought the counting book to me and started pointing at the numbers.  Of course when I started counting, you could see his face light up because he was making that connection to what we had done earlier that day.  It's brilliant to see the mind of my son grasping ideas.  It makes me trust that this path is going to be one filled with happiness, fun, and lots of learning!

Zoo Day

The day is glorious!  It's been storming in the Sierras and the storm has finally moved over Fresno which means we are getting a wondrous break from the 90 to 100 degree heat!  We decided to spend this day right by visiting the Fresno Chaffee Zoo.  We knew the animals would be out and about today; perfect for learning and pictures.  I remembered the camera. :)

The zoo is quite spacious and is completely covered by a canopy of trees.  It's very well taken care of and we were very pleased with all of the exhibits.  They seem to really take great care of the animals.  It makes me so sad to visit zoos where you can tell that they are in desperate need of money.  It's the animals who suffer.

But not this one!  Orion loves animals.  He's always pointing them out in his books and on tv.  So we knew he would love the zoo.  We visited the reptile house where we saw many native reptiles as well as many from other parts of the world.  Orion especially loved the aquarium with the fish and turtle. 

We then went off to see the elephants which Orion pointed to right away as one of his vocabulary books has a picture of an elephant in it.  We got a good video of one eating his grass.

We then had lunch and explored the rest of the zoo.  Tigers, giraffes, and some feisty tapirs!  I wish I would have gotten a video of them chasing each other.  It was hilarious.

We also spent some time in the petting zoo.  This was Orion's first time being very close to any animals other than a dog or cat.  They even had little brushes where the kids could brush the goats.  Orion was in love!  As you can tell by his "hug".

I think the best part of our day though was the bird show.  Orion loves birds so when they flew overhead doing their tricks, Orion was so happy!  He was so excited, he was clapping my hands for me.  Maybe a future veterinarian, zoologist, or marine biologist could be Orion's path.  Who knows?  We're just getting started. :)

Future Astronaut?

There is this small outdoor park called the Discovery Center right by Jared's work.  They have a cactus garden, flower garden, turtle pond, and various other "attractions" for kids to look at.  One thing that they have is a rocket capsule for kids to climb into.  It's actually built at a slant, so it's like you are blasting off.  And inside there is a whole dashboard full of buttons, knobs, and wheels.

We've always joked that Orion is going to be an astronaut because his favorite thing in the sky is the moon.  He literally screams every time he sees it.  So we knew the rocket would be of interest.  He probably would have hung out in there all day.  There were buttons to push, knobs to turn, and there was another little boy in there as his copilot!  I'm really bad about bringing the camera with me, so next time I will get some pictures.

He loved it though.  Unschooling is all about giving kids the opportunity to explore everything around them and letting them pursue what interests them.  I have a feeling we're going to have a child who loves astronomy!  Next stop is the planetarium at Fresno State University.  They have weekend showings so hopefully Jared can get off work early enough for us to go.  I think Orion will love it! :)

Reading Time

Reading is one of those "subjects" that really freak out those who don't unschool.  Public education tells us that reading starts at age 5 and should be finished by about age 8.  In those 3 years, you have to cram in phonology, inflection, spelling, punctuation, etc.  That's a lot to learn in just 3 short years!!  If reading works so well in public education, then why do we have so many students struggling in remedial reading programs?  And don't get me started on those who are English Language Learners.

If children are allowed to read when it becomes interesting to them and their brains are mature enough to understand how the English language works, then reading becomes second nature.  We have some kids who read at 3 and some kids who read at 9 and beyond.  If reading is not forced upon the child, you will have some kids trying to read encyclopedias at 10 years old!  And wouldn't we all love a child who loves reading?  Not because they have to, but because they want to.

Orion signing "fish"

Letting our children explore books on their own and reading to them as much as we can, are the building blocks of learning to read.  It starts with pictures and interpreting "what's going on" and then moving to pictures associated with words, and then putting words together to form sentences.  And so on.

Here's a video of Orion reading one of his favorite books.  He loves opening the flaps and pointing at things for me to tell him what they are.  He does not talk very much, but he knows so many words!  All we did was stock his bookshelf with colorful books; some of them age appropriate and some of them more advanced.  But a book is a book.  He finds them fascinating.  And that is a great start in unschooling!

Are They Learning?

As our son gets older, the inevitable question will always pop up: how do you know he is learning?  Well, how did I know when he learned to walk?  Because he got up one day and walked!  Learning does not have to take place at a table with a pencil in one hand and a book in the other.  Learning is happening all the time by what we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch.  Babies and toddlers are perfect examples of unschoolers.

They are drawn to what is interesting and will stop when they don't need it or it is no longer interesting.  And don't we as parents provide them the environment in which to explore?  Well, that's unschooling!  Right now, Orion loves vocabulary picture books.  He has these hard cover books with bright, colorful pictures, and the word of the picture underneath.  He's not saying the words himself, but he loves to point and have us say the words to him.  But if you ask him, where the "duck" is, he will point it out.  It's amazing to see how much your baby knows without them being able to communicate it just yet.

This is the perfect time in which we can trust that our children can learn without the rigidity of school.  If you have a young child, watch them during the day.  Watch how their mind works by what they are drawn to and what intrigues them.  Then nurture that.  It's incredible!

Introductions and Philosophy

Hi!  I'm Toni and stay at home mom to  my almost 17 month old son Orion.  Since the day he was born, my husband and I have always attended to his needs and will continue to do so for the rest of his life.  Attachment parenting is the term coined for responding to a baby's needs to ensure they trust us to meet their needs.  It can come in the form of breast feeding on demand, wearing baby close, sleeping together, and staying close through their first years of life.  This way of parenting was completely natural to us and I fully believe my son will be better for it.

We've never used a crib.  We have one, but it's full of his stuffed animals and cloth diapers.  We bought bottles that still sit unused in their packaging.  We never needed gauze or vaseline because I'm very adamant about leaving boys intact.  There's nothing dirty, ugly, or bizarre about my son's genitals.  The way he exited my body will be the way he exits this Earth.

As he grows older, and starts exploring the world around him, my husband and I are becoming more aware of how we'd like our son to be raised and how to learn about life.  Radical unschooling seems to be that fit for us.  A brief overview: radical unschooling is not living a life without boundaries.  In my opinion, it is about setting up an environment for our son in which he is safe and allowed to explore at his own pace and do what interests him because he desires it.  We give him the tools and he uses them.

It may sound very strange to many people who want to control their children and set limits for them for everything from bedtime to television.  But to me, that sounds like we can't trust our children.  And without trust, it's hard to respect.  And we would all love for our children to respect us.  So it's our job to show them first.  I've read many studies that show how timeouts and punishments don't work.  And if we keep trying to stifle our children, one day they will rebel.  But if from the beginning we explain our decisions to them and allow them to be a part of the problem solving process, we find a child who can trust us and communicate!

It's takes a lot to be able to live this lifestyle.  To trust that our child will "turn out okay."  But many families across the world are becoming more and more "radical" in their approach to life.  This blog will chronicle our lives on this journey mainly focusing on how we will unschool our son in education.  We're very excited to see where this all will take us and we're very excited for you to join us.

Questions about unschooling or living a life without control?  Please visit Joyfully Rejoicing.