FIMBY

I'm very pleased to share a web resource I recently stumbled on via a comment left on my blog.

Playful Learning is a website with blog posts that feature "simple, playful learning experiences that parents can easily share with their children". I personally like the simple part.

Discovering this website/blog comes at a perfect time. I find that the first months of late spring and early summer are intoxicating for my children and they want to be outside all day. It's bliss for me, I get so much indoor stuff done without distraction!

But mid-summer has hit and although the days are gorgeous the kids are less inclined to spend all day outdoors. That's ok, it's hotter and they need a break from the sun a bit (we don't like using sunscreen).

When they're indoors they craft and create. Now that we've found Playful Learning we'll have more inspiration for projects. But the really cool part is Playful Learning posts include aloud books and on-line resources that go along with the project.

Mariah, the educator and mother-mind behind Playful Learning, wants to "create a community of families who document and share their playful learning experiences so that we can learn from and collaborate with people around the world." So if you blog about cool activities with your kids pass them on to her. I shared the shadow puppets activity the kids created earlier this summer and she posted it on her site but added a materials and resources list complete with books and on-line videos. Wow, this woman's good!

If you have young children check it out. It's a great resource. If you forget where to to find it in the future (you should really add it to your RSS) I am featuring it in the sidebar of FIMBY Natural Family. It's the quintessential "how-to" for natural kiddo activities.

I Am an Artist by Pat Lowery Collins

An easy to read (2-3 sentences per page) and simply lovely book about the artist in each of us. Although it's directed towards young children and their innate curiosity and interest in the natural world, I think more adults should read this kind of book.

Do you see the world in an unique way? Then you're an artist. We're all artists. We should let our children and ourselves embrace and explore that.

One more note, I love this book's focus on the natural world and how we see it. You don't need paints, a camera, a sketchpad or fabrics to be an artist. You just need to get out into nature, open your eyes and ears and appreciate.


View all my reviews.

Thanks to a recent butterfly post at the lovely blog, gardenpath, the kids and I were able to easily identify this weekend visitor to the garden. Vanessa cardui, commonly known as Painted Lady.

Stepping off my local foods soapbox to get on my other favorite box, relaxed home education.

(If you're not interested in reading a rather long-ish post on the education of my beautiful and fascinating children, hop on over to Camera Happy for this week's backyard shot.)

In spite of it being the very middle of summer my mind is thinking about education. I define our family's "school" year, to the state, as September - August so I'm getting ready for our year end portfolio reviews next month. A very low key one-on-one meeting with another homeschool mom, who also happens to be a certified teacher.

She'll check over samples of Celine and Laurent's work and "oh" and "ah" at all their art, scribbles and projects and then assure the state that the kids have made "improvements". Simple as that. No tests and no "at grade level" assessment crap. Ok, that's a strong word for me but I hate grade level assessments. What are they supposed to mean?? Who says a grade two kid should know a, b or c? What if my child wants to know X, K & F? Maine doesn't require anything of this c**p and I love that.

So, what are my kids learning these days? Our youngest two, in addition to their marble painting, critter catches (this time of year there is always caterpillars, chrysalis' and cocoons in jars around our house) and catapult launches (small dangerous objects flying around Laurent's room) are delving into math, for fun. As in "can you print more math sheets for so I can take them to bed with me?". Mind you our 5 year old has to work with our 7 year old so she can read the numbers for him but he's picking up very fast.

Picture it: two pipsqueaks snuggling in bed together, giggling, while they do math "problems", and complaining when it's lights-out time.

What about our 9 year old? Anyone else wondering if this girl of mine does anything besides sew? No worries, she's quite well rounded. She also spends time scouring craft blogs for her next sewing project and thoroughly exhausting every book we own on doll/stuffie making. I agree, she's destined for Etsy.

Celine and Isabella

Other than that she reads, a lot. Especially fantasy, and she's currently interested in fictional stories about, you guessed it... dolls. Oh, and she's devouring all the fictional prequels and sequels to the Little House Series. As I write this she's re-reading her favorite Tin-Tin comics, go figure.

But what about, you know, her schooling? Funny, we think her interests are her schooling. It's what she is highly motivated to pursue (right now) and she is excelling. I can see the report card now: A in Doll Making.

Isabella: Up close and personal

Isabella

Ah, but what about the stuff she needs to know? If you're thinking traditional school subjects we sometimes do those too. In the fall the "my kids should really learn _______(fill in blank)" mood will strike around the same time I notice yellow school buses driving down my street. And during this time of harvest moon we'll return to a somewhat regular practice of math, spelling and handwriting. But I certainly don't consider those the sum or even the foundation of Celine's education.

I'll be honest, Celine is not as interested, as I wish she were, in pursuing some skills that I personally really value, like putting thoughts to paper or computer. But come to think of it, neither is her father. But man that girl can design, envision and sew like nobody's business and she will soon, if she hasn't already, surpass my own skill in that area. Not to mention she has an incredible vocabulary and understanding of language. Just the other day she was "having fun" (her words) with homophones. But when it comes right down to it, who's to say learning to spell, read or write is more important than learning to sew??

Celine's childhood, all three kiddos in fact, is not about acquiring school subject knowledge. It's about the freedom to learn, grow, explore, experience, play, create, fail and succeed in the safety of a family's unconditional love and support. That's what I call an education.

The kids hijacked my plans for the day. That's a reality of child-led learning. You go with try to go with the flow. Depending on the day I am able to do this to varying degrees of success. Flexibility, for me, is the hardest part of relaxed homeschooling, setting aside my goals to help the kids accomplish theirs.

The goals lately have been largely dictated by beautiful summer weather - picking berries, going to the beach, preparing for and having picnics, visiting farmer's markets and weekly farm pick-ups. But regardless of the time of year my kids just gotta' craft and today was one of those days.

Celine is largely self-sufficient in this area now and is an amazing doll designer and small stuffies seamstress. The younger two are kind of left behind in this regard and need my help to complete anything really substantial. Today's project, totally kid inspired, was to sew snakes. So I found instructions for a Braided Craft Snake and used the craft to teach my 5 & 7 year old how to sew on the machine (they both can hand stitch easily) and braid. I had no choice really with them begging me to teach them how to machine sew.

Laurent first time machine sewing

Snake Charmer Brienne

Laurent's snake hangin out in the garden

While we were machine sewing and braiding Celine was finishing her stuffed sea lion. She found the pattern in the ancient book The Big Book of Soft Toys by Mabs Tyler, passed down to us by a friend. She did the whole project herself and had the most ingenious idea of sewing magnets into the nose and ball as a means for them to stick together instead of the pattern's suggestion of sewing them. This daughter of mine simply rocks in stuffie design and sewing!

Celine hand stitching sea lion

Celine's sea lion: isn't that ball so adorable?
So, the day was different than planned and I won't get to the farm till after supper. The beautiful thing is everyone is so busy with their new homemade toys that I have some moments of solitude. What do I do with moments of solitude? Write about how talented my kids are... I'm hopeless.

Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
A gorgeous book of science, poetry and art. We love exploring meadows and we loved this book! If we were a book-buying family (we're library lenders) I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

It's everything a good's childrens book should be. Beautiful and engaging to look at, full of lovely language and you learn a lot too. I don't think that last point is a pre-requisite for a good childrens book but it's a triple bonus when all three come together.


View all my reviews.

A couple months ago, when the first warmish days of spring arrived, we unceremoniously* dropped the more formal aspects of our homeschooling. Our idea of formal meaning setting aside time for scripture memory, math, spelling and handwriting practice, about an hour a few days a week. We have kept up our daily reading because what's life without books.

We never did pick up the pieces from that fall out but I've tidily shelved the workbooks away till September when the kids are ready for a change and I'm ready for more structure.

So, what are the kids up to these days? Lots of interesting stuff, as usual.

• Celine is taking English style horse riding lessons.
• Growing grass caterpillars.
  
• Following directions and building paper airplanes, when the directions are tricky I get in on the action too.
  
• The usual springtime activity of studying slugs & snails.
  
• Laurent's doing the drawing tutorials on Jan Brett's website.
  
• Brienne's writing every chance she gets, she especially loves her little journal where she writes pages and pages of random letters.
  
• Visiting farms as usual.
  
• And of course we're in the garden, going to the "lie-berry" and just hanging out.

A spring-full of learning.

*I use the word unceremoniously on purpose since we don't have any end of the school year ceremony or recognition. The kids are always learning and year round I record their major and often minor learning advances in a portfolio style binder. We don't track the kids learning in the school-type manner of passes, failures and promotion to higher grades. We evaluate based on the simple adages of "whatever you do, do your best" and "learn from your mistakes".

The kids and I spent the morning at the Nutrition Center Kitchen cooking with the Lots To Gardens crew, preparing food for a supper & live music fund raiser at the Franco-American Heritage Center tonight.
Nutrition Center Kitchen
We love what Lots to Gardens does, "challeng(ing) the cycles of poverty and hunger in our community by empowering people to produce and access fresh, nutritious food at the community level. Working towards a sustainable food system by focusing on developing local youth and adult leadership, creating fair access to food, and building community capacity."

We also love the people at LtGs, our friends, who are working so hard to improve our community and people's lives.

Laurent told me in car on the way "I love cooking with Lots to Gardens". Well said Buddy, I agree.

Laurent and Celine's combined drawing of the peafowl we saw today at Claybrook Farm.

Brienne and Celine's collaborative drawing.

(notice the horses in background - too cute)

I love being an urban family, with a 5 minute walk to work for Daddy, yet 15 minutes from real, honest-to-goodness farms. The kind with horses, cows, chickens, llamas, organic vegetables, pastures and occasionally pea fowl. Not gazillion acre soybean or corn "operations". I love Maine.

This morning Celine started riding lessons at Claybrook Farms in Turner. A horsey kind of farm that also happens to home to about 30 pea fowl - too cool.

On the way home we stopped at Nezinscot Farm for fresh cinnamon buns.

While we were eating, out in the sunshine by the vegetable gardens Celine said, "I feel so lucky that you're my parents". Fishing for further compliments I asked why she felt that way. "Well, we don't have to go to school and you feed us so healthy", (cinnamon buns notwithstanding).

Thanks Celine, it's nice to be appreciated once in awhile.