Unschooling Tuesdays

Posted on February 15, 2011 by chase

I have decided to take a more structured approach to my blog at the moment and have a bit of a theme for each day of the week. That way I have less thinking to do when I sit down and write my posts and you the reader will know what to expect for each day of the week. If you want to read about the crafts you know to turn up on Wednesdays, if you are much more interested in unschooling you know that is discussed on Tuesdays. Here is my list for right now:

Monday: This moment, a review of what my life is like right now

Tuesday: Unschooling, a variety of discussions on unschooling and a spot for guest bloggers

Wednesday: Crafting, what I'm making, how it is going and the occasional tutorial

Thursday: Daily Life, could be cooking, crafting, thoughts on Maine or anything else that doesn't fit in other catagories

Friday: Just a Moment photo from this week and a chance to link with other blogs

Weekend: sometimes posting photos from the week and other times just family time with my kids.

So now you know what to expect each day from this blog, and I know what to get writing on! Hope you enjoy it and if you are interested in being a guest blogger on unschooling, feel free to contact me!

::this moment::

Posted on February 14, 2011 by chase

this moment I am

:: snuggled up with two sleeping daughters, one of which is gently snoring

:: sharing the bed with a sleeping ball of fur

:: wishing there were more hours in the day for knitting and sewing projects

:: wondering if the last of the snow storms has already fallen today

:: enjoying the sun who hasn't visited us for days

:: needing to find some time to stretch out today

:: working on setting up a daily blog rhythm and themes for each day of the week

:: loving the heartfelt little creative cards that were made for me today

:: hoping that the spring will continue to bring us gifts of bounty

:: perusing the stack of books that unexpectedly arrived in the mail today

:: thankful for lessons on a drop spindle coming later this week

:: happy to have not one but two drying racks to dry the cloths on

:: wanting you all to have had a wonderful heart-filled day.

Living Green

Posted on February 8, 2011 by chase

I have been living green as we call it now for almost as long as I can remember. My parents are not hippies, or at least my father is not. But we had a garden in almost every house we lived in, many of them rented. My mother dried our laundry on the clothesline outside. We only had one car until I was 15, not so much out of a conscious effort to be good on the environment as just the necessity of the pocket book. My mother started taking her own fabric bags to the grocery store back in 1994. I remember learning about reduce/reuse/recycle in the very early 90s and we were part of whatever recycling program each of the communities we lived in, from progressive Wisconsin who recycled just about everything back in 1990 to rural Kentucky where they pretty much just did pop cans.

I learned about turning off lights when they are not in use at a very young age, and conserving water as much as possible, even putting full milk jugs in the toilets so they would not use as much water when they flushed. My family always had a compost pile so that much of our daily waste was put on the garden. I remember one year for Christmas having an ongoing joke with my mother that I was getting a composting toilet for Christmas. I ended up getting a body pillow, but I would have been very happy with a composting toilet as well.

It has been with a bit of skepticism and also happiness that I have watched the "green" movement become more mainstream over the last 20 years. I no longer get strange looks when I bring my own bags to the grocery store and most small shops ask if you even want a bag when checking out. I say skepticism because I am not sure how long this will all last, right now it is hip and cool to be green and conserve resources and I hope that it will still be the case in 10 years time, but I am not so sure. Consumerism is rampant in our society and I think much of the current upswing in green and conservation is another way of saying we should all save our money and have victory gardens in the back yard.

I have pretty much stopped using the dryer. I had to dry my cloths in Florida due to all the pollen outside I was extremely allergic too. But here in Maine, line dried cloths are heaven. We also have an indoor drying rack which is wonderful this winter as I am not enthused about the idea of having to hang the laundry with gloves on. I read recently that the dryer is the biggest energy hog in the house and that if you add 1/2 cup of vinegar to your load it keeps your cloths from being quite so stiff.

In Florida we had our recyclables picked up once a week and trash got picked up twice a week because of the heat. Here where we live in Maine you take your own trash to the dump. I suppose you could pay someone else to do it if you wanted. You also take all of your recyclables. I thought I was really good at paying attention to the packaging, but now I really look at it. We do not go to the dump very often, it is not on our way to anything else, so I want to avoid having to go as much as possible. I try to use what we have here first before I go and buy (and therefore have to throw away) something else.

I have been thinking a lot about how conservation, environmentalism and just doing the right thing not only conserves resources and energy but how it can also save you money. That money is just another resource and we should work just as hard to save it. I do not mean by just making sure that we always use coupons and get the lowest price on things, but that we lower the number of things we need to buy, and that what we do buy lasts a long time. I know that sometimes it is better to buy something that it is a little more expensive to have it last much longer and therefore in reality cost less.

I can not afford to buy a lot of organic food at the moment. But by spending less and adding some sweat I can grow food in my garden next year, preserve it and get close to organic in a way that is much more affordable than paying grocery store or even farm stand prices.

Can we pay as much attention to where our money is going as we do to where our trash is going? Let's not throw our money out with the garbage.

Valentine’s is Coming

Posted on February 7, 2011 by chase

The girls are pretty excited about Valentine's Day this year. I think they may still be hoping that Christmas will come back soon. We decided to make a few small things for their friends. Since most of them are girls the obvious choice was to make hair scrunchies. After doing some research on the internet I ended up making them up as I went along. My main goal was to make them very girly so I added ribbon to the fabric.

Valentine Scrunchies

You need quilting weight cotton fabric, 4 inches by width of fabric will make you two scrunchies.

Various ribbons I eyeballed and cut them around 2-4 inches in length depending on style

matching thread

hand needle

sewing machine and/or serger (or can sew it all by hand)

1/2" elastic – I used 5 1/2 inches per scrunchy for the girls

safety pin for threading elastic

I started out by cutting out my strips, 4 inches wide and the width of my fabric. Do not cut off your salvage ends! (I will explain why later on.) I needed to make 20 so that each of the girls got two and of course my girls need some as well. I ended up cutting out 10 strips, five from the red heart fabric you see below and the rest from other fabric.

Next came the most time consuming part of the whole project. I cut ribbon for each of the scrunchies, using five pieces of each. I cut out the ribbon as I needed it, that way if I got interrupted (as you know I did) I didn't have little pieces of ribbon everywhere. I did cut the ends of my ribbon at a 45 degree angle to keep fringing at bay. I eye balled the placement, one in the middle and two on each side, and my pieces ranged in length from 2-4 inches in length. Some of ribbons got left as just strips and some were folded in half to make loops. I was just using red and cream ribbon so I mixed up which ribbons I used where to keep it interesting.

I pinned each ribbon in place as I folded the fabric in half with the right sides together, allowing me to then just go straight to my sewing machine.

I chose to use my serger for stitching down the long end of the scrunchy, because I am giving these to young girls (six and under) and I am hoping that the extra stitches the serger provides will reinforce the seam and make it stronger. You can use your regular straight stitch on your sewing machine or even stitch it by hand if you need to.

Next you need to flip all of your tubes inside out. You can do this a variety of ways, with a loop turner if you have one. I used my fingers and a large knitting needle to push things through when I could no longer reach.

For the girls I cut 5 1/2 inch pieces of elastic, you may need longer ones for thicker hair, but I tried out 5 inches on my daughters and thought we needed just that little bit more.

Now you need to insert your elastic into your fabric tubes. You can attach a safety pin at one end to use to push them through. What I found worked the best for me was to go ahead and put the elastic into the tube, inserting it into the cut short end (not the end that has the salvage still attached). Holding onto the elastic, I went ahead and stitched the elastic down several times about 1/4 inch from the edge. This sealed that end of the scrunchy and held my elastic in place. I did not fold under that edge at all. With the elastic firmly attached at one end I threaded it through to the other end, it made it much easier than fighting with two loose ends.

Once you have your elastic coming out of the short end with the salvages you are going to need to stitch it down again. This time again do not fold in your ends, and stitch about 1/2 inch from the edge. You may want to back stitch to hold the elastic in place. Now you are almost done!

Tuck in the short end of your tube that has the raw edges into the end with the salvages, being careful not to twist your tube. Make sure to check the inside as of the tube as well as the side facing you to make sure you have tucked everything in.

Now using your hand needle take a running stitch across the scrunchy, making sure you have the raw edge tucked in and leaving your salvages sticking out. It may take a few stitches before it lays nicely but then it goes quickly. Be sure to bury your knots and cut any thread tails. Now fluff your gathering about and you're done.

{just a moment}

Posted on February 4, 2011 by chase

{A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo from this past week…. no words…. just a moment captured in time. If you feel inspired to share…. leave a link the comments with your moment.}

All That White Stuff

Posted on February 3, 2011 by chase

It has been 17 years since I last experienced a full winter season. I had a brief visit from January to April in New Hampshire in 2001, but one can hardly call that really experiencing winter. The last real winter I had was in rural Kentucky where we had one snow storm that closed everything down for a week (though I remember thinking there really wasn't that much snow having lived outside of Madison, WI only three years before) and at that time we lived in a house without central heat, just a wood stove that heated about one room.

I guess it makes sense then that this year winter would go big. I have to make up for all those missed ones right? I thought it was going to arrive much earlier than it did. I was really disappointed that we did not get any snow until December, I thought we would see some of the flakes in November… I must have said something out loud though, because the weather since Boxing Day sure has made up for it.

We have had at least five major snow falls since December 26th with the last one coming down yesterday, and all of them being at least five inches. As you can see it has been piling up around here….

Leigh has played with some of the snow on the picnic table but by and large it has gone mainly untouched….

The birds have knocked some snow off the feeder, but frankly I don't think it could hold any more.

Reportedly the groundhog did not see his shadow yesterday. When I was growing up we were told if he saw his shadow there would be 6 more weeks of winter, and if he did not that spring would be just around the corner. I always wanted him to see his shadow because 6 weeks is finite, and just around the corner, well that could take forever! But today they are saying that since he did not see his shadow that means an early spring…. Somehow I'm not buying it. I also find it hard to believe in global warming with the extra cold air and snow we have gotten so far this season. Is anyone else coming to that conclusion?

However I am not counting the days until Spring. Rhiannon and Lolly are and maybe even Leigh. But I'm not. I've always been a winter baby. I look around at all the snow on the ground, and every time someone mentions spring, all I can think about is the melt and all the mud.

Looking forward to mud season anyone?

The Birds and the Bees

Posted on February 2, 2011 by chase

I have been reminded a lot lately of just how "old" my young daughters are getting. Rhiannon is suddenly asking so many more questions than ever before. They have required more lenghthly explanations as well. One of the most facinating topics for her lately has been about the birds and the bees, or rather how babies are born.

I remember learning the facts of life at about the same age as her, but in that case my mother was pregnant with my little brother, (and no I am not so that is not what has been triggering the questions). I think what started it all is the fact that I never, ever, get to go the bathroom by myself. I usually have at least one, if not both girls in and out of the bathroom with me, and on the rare ocassions they are asleep or busy doing something else and do not notice my absence, one of the cats decides it is the perfect time to come at talk to me.

Because I use the Keeper during my menstrual cycle, and I think because I have been home with them constantly since moving to Maine, when it is that time of the month there has been lots of questions. A few months ago both girls insisted on turning their back if I was dealing with "the blood stuff" as they dubbed it, or even leaving the room. Which was wonderful in my mind. But after a cycle or two Rhiannon got more curious. I tried to explain that it only happens about once a month, to quiet the top of their lung announcing in every public restroom "Mum, do you have to deal with the blood stuff again?". I thought I had already been thoroughly embarrassed in the restroom, but that took it to a whole new level.

This cycle, Rhiannon was full of questions, how does the baby get made (we talked about the eggs and the seed from Daddy), does the baby fall out when you are going to the bathroom, throwing up, sneezing, coughing etc.? I try to answer each question simply and stopping when she tells me to stop or that she doesn't want to hear any more. This cycle we talked about what the menstrual fluid actually was, that it was because the egg didn't get implanted. After that Rhiannon has been pretending to be pregnant, and announcing that she and her pretend husband are going to have 6 kids, four girls and then two boys I think. I find it all quite amusing because she hasn't been making her tummy look any bigger than normal, she just talks about being pregnant. She recently asked how exactly the baby comes out of the uterus… and made quite a face at the answer. I think at this point the only bit she is missing is how the sperm actually gets to meet the egg….

I don't figure the questions are going to stop anytime soon. I guess Leigh should be grateful she hasn't been asking him. There have been lots of other questions about other things as well, like snowflakes and how to cook such and such and why this happens when we do that. I am very grateful for learning where the picture science books are at the library this week, I guess I should see what they have on the reproductive cycle. Any good suggestions of books I should be looking for? When did your kids start asking these questions? Any embarrassing moments? Please share as we are all in this together.

Did you Want to Hear My Voice?

Posted on January 25, 2011 by chase

I’m in a Podcast, I’m in a Podcast!

Okay shouting aside, I am pleased to announce that I am in a podcast on being an unschooler.

Being homeschooled in the late 80s and all the 90s, long before anyone knew about the internet, was at times very lonely. I did not know that many other homeschoolers in my community and we moved around quite a lot. I will always be very grateful to Growing Without Schooling and Home Education Magazine, not so much for the articles, but for the fact that they let us kids list classified ads for other pen-pals. For a girl who had lived in 5 states and 7 houses by the time she was 14 this was invaluable. Some of my longest friendships started with those classified, my best friend that I have known since we were 12, and even how I met my husband is all from those classifieds.

Peter Kowalke is one of the homeschoolers I met through writing. We met sometime in the early 90s as fellow contributors to another homeschoolers self-published magazine of fictional works. We had a bit of a love-hate relationship with my writing what Peter calls his “first piece of hate mail”, and I think the only piece I have ever written. But what can I say, we all do strange things as teenagers?

Peter has gone on to become a journalist, and one of his passions is talking to us “grown up” home and unschoolers. Peter asked me last August if we could do a podcast together, and via Skype we talked for a couple of hours. Peter has now released that podcast on his website Unschooler.com I am typing this next to my two girls who are suppose to be falling asleep so I haven’t had a chance yet to relisten to what we talked about, but I do remember talking about my business, my history with unschooling and what it is like to unschool my girls.

I hope you enjoy listening to the podcast (I know my family will at least) and check out Peter’s site while you are there, it’s pretty cool!

Quiet

Posted on January 24, 2011 by chase

Things are slowly getting better here. Leigh still has a pretty bad cough and Rhiannon still has a running nose but Lolly and I seem to be on the mend. We keep getting more snow here, so I guess my impatience for snow for the last two months has finally caught up with me. Another example of being careful for what you wish for right?

I was turning the car around this morning (which is a feat as I have to go backwards out of the driveway, down the street and then turn around and go backwards back in, in the narrow gap I shoveled out the other week when we got 12 – 14 inches of snow) and had the radio on and they said that the high on Sunday was going to be 15 F! That is the high for the day, we have only had a few nights this winter where it has gotten lower than that, so it will be interesting to see what Leigh makes of it and how much oil we go through heating the small portion of the house we keep warm.

We have been doing a lot of reading here lately, especially now that I got my voice back. There for a while Lolly was desperate to be read to but both Leigh and I would start coughing almost immediately. My aunt gave us a bunch of picture books with corresponding turn-the-page-when-it-beeps tapes. The first one I tried for her my machine ate the tape and she wasn't interested in trying another one. I thought it would have been a good solution for her, but I guess when you are two and half these things do not always work.

We have completely read Mary Poppins since the beginning of January and are now on to Mary Poppins Comes Back. We have discovered thanks to the library a wonderful collection of seasonal books by Lynn Plourde. I recently got Summer's Vacation and Springs Sprung from eBay, but it looks like Winter Waits will be hard to find. Wild Child is easily available still from eBay.

I hope to be more regular in posting now that everyone is feeling better. This is the first winter I have had in about ten years and I find a great need to draw in this time of year. I yearn to sit and knit for hours. Of course that doesn't happen around here very often!

Drip, drip, drip….

Posted on January 12, 2011 by chase

Went our noses. Even though I have over two dozen hankerchiefs I am out of them again. The laundry keeps piling up and so does the dishes. Especially this week when I am the only one making trips downstairs to the kitchen. There is lots of whining going on, everyone is doing it, our nerves are fried – maybe from all those dripping noses? This cold just keeps going on…

When moving from south Florida to coastal Maine, we expected that our first winter here would be an adjustment. I expected that we would get sick, and have colds. Almost 2000 mile difference will do that to a person. Plus having two little girls who interact with other children, it's not quite as bad as daycare syndrome, but it is worse than I expected. I feel as though someone has been sick with something since November, or maybe it was October? I just get caught up on the chores and get back into a routine (albeit a different one each time) and once again someone is sick.

But I am not going to dwell on this, as it to will pass. Instead I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about some of the natural remedies we have been trying and what has worked and what hasn't. I am still trying to work out how to convince the girls that sometimes things don't taste yummy but still help you feel better. A spoonful of sugar anyone?

We have been taking a lot of Airborne and Emergen-C around here. Airborne with its echineacia doesn't work for me (yeah I am one of those strange people who is actually allergic or at least has a bad reaction to that miracle herb). Sometimes we can get Rhiannon to take her "fizzy drink" and some days she could care less. Lolly will never drink any of them. But since she is still breastfeeding I don't worry so much about her.

I tried making the Rosehip Syrup from Grow Your Own Drugs . But I added the optional clove to the recipe and the kids won't touch it. The grown ups think it is pretty good though.

I did make Cherry Syrup yesterday and that Rhiannon will take happily, though Lolly has only had part of a spoonful one day, she did eat the left over cherries.

I mixed up garlic honey today. You take two heads of garlic, peel and crush them. (And cry over the allium.) Leave them to sit for 15 minutes on the counter. Then I crushed them with the garlic press and felt like an absolute wimp doing it. I also learned that garlic gets incredibly sticky after a while… Cover with honey and leave overnight. Then you take by the teaspoonful as needed. It is suppose to be good for colds, coughs and sore throats, symptoms I think we all have at the moment.

I have the ingredients to make sage honey as well, which I might be able to get the girls to try, I am pretty sure the garlic honey will get rejected. Of course we make lemon honey tea, drink Gypsy Cold Care and just try and push liquids.

What have you found that isn't a drug that helps your family feel better? Did you find any good ways to convince your children to try those remedies that just look or smell or taste funny?