unschool monday :: freestyle craft

Well our babymoon is drawing to a close... tomorrow actually. Its been very much holiday mode as we've all drifted gently through the days. Huz has had a chance to really reconnect with the owlets and spend time doing things with them. Origami continues to be a huge hit. The rest of the time has seen the owlets becoming relatively self sufficient.



They fling open the craft cupboard doors and help themselves to whatever is in there...



This week has seen them crafting fleece butterflies, collage, junk castles, experiments with paper, and numerous spirograph pictures.



Big owlet seems to have overcome her block with hand writing and is now annotating all her work... even her own body as on more than one occasion she and little owlet have taken to drawing on themselves with a black pen. Big owlet proudly presented her foot one morning, which was covered in a picture of her and her friend dressed as fairies with the words "best friends forever" and my first reaction was "yay! she's writing!!", before realising that much of her skin was covered in biro tattoos... little owlet was very proud of her "cartoons" too and annotated her designs with loads of tiny markings representing letters from her name.

Tomorrow we look at getting ready for our days without Huz around, getting organised and cleaning up the craft cupboard *sigh*. Freestyle craft is fantastic, but gee it leaves a trail of chaos sometimes...

Feel free to join in with our unschool mondays by adding your link below. Even if you don't unschool full time... perhaps you notice unschooling happening during the school week or you take a more traditional approach to home education and have a day off from time to time... Learning happens all the time and it'd be great to see what it looks like at your place!

{this moment}

Playing along with Soulemama

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

unschool monday :: life lessons

Well never let it be said that I'm not completely committed to my children's education. If I do say so myself, this spring unit study on birth and reproduction has been positively inspired! We've all learned so much!! Seriously though, there has been a great deal of learning going on around here despite a rather cruisy, mesmerised, baby gazing kind of week... Tiny owlet has mastered breastfeeding, sleeping and pooing with great aplomb. Her eyes are beginning to focus on us and interesting shadows and patches of light on the walls. Little owlet is coming to terms with being a big sister and finding a new level of independence. Her interests are mostly physical this week, asking to go to the playground daily. Big owlet is focussing on the academic, looking at measurement, currency and figuring out counting to 100 in tens, fives, twos and threes. Oh and the origami love continues. She made a paper cup smaller than tiny owlet's pinkie fingernail.

Its been lovely to watch them all at their varying stages and know that one day soon little owlet will begin reading and writing, big owlet will be moving onto more complex things as she masters the basics and tiny owlet will be walking, talking and doing all of the above... but all in good time and not too soon I hope!

Here's a little snippet of our day today. Tiny owlet's first foray into the big wide world...


If you are playing along with unschool monday this week, add your link below. xx

her creative space...

I've been preoccupied with other creative pursuits this week, so big owlet has taken over the creative reins today. I've been waiting for her to show an interest in origami. I had the paper, the how to books, suggested it from time to time, but no go. We watched the fantastic documentary Between The Folds on iView a few nights ago and her interest was finally sparked. So in true big owlet style, she completed most of the book...



And made a bowl full of little cups which we'll use for our activity advent calendar this year.

Visit some lovely creative peeps via Kirsty.

wordless wednesday :: first cuddles

more here

born yesterday...

I'd like to introduce you to Tiny Owlet... she is here at long last!! Tiny was born at 4.35am yesterday, in our lounge room and into my own hands. Her first moments were spent looking around and cooing rather than crying. She's 4.5kg of cute and perhaps not so tiny after all... in fact the largest of our owlet babies! She's incredibly peaceful and chose a lovely day to be born. The 15th of November marks 15yrs since Huz and I first met and 10yrs since he proposed :) Cute, huh? We're soaking her up and taking the days very quietly. xx

unschool monday :: look at them learning

Slow, lazy days here and the owlets have been entertaining themselves in the garden, playing with chalk on the concrete and learning all the time. What are they learning? If I put it into curriculum terms and edu-speak, they are learning about space, shape, time, literacy, colour theory... probably much more that I don't see too. Those times where they get totally absorbed in something they've chosen to do and Huz and I turn around and say "look at them learning!" Often tongue in cheek if there's an enormous mess accompanying the aforementioned activity... Its busy and exciting times like we are having right now that make me grateful that learning happens around the clock, in the quiet and free moments as well as the more structured activities we undertake.

I'd like to see how learning happens at your house too. I've read so many inspiring posts over the years on blogs as people observe and participate in their children's learning journey. It would be great to see that regularly... Perhaps you are home educators taking a more structured approach, but notice unschooling happening at other times of the day... Or maybe your children go to school and you take an unschooling approach after hours... Or perhaps your children aren't school age yet, but you are noticing how they learn every minute of the day... I'd love to see your experiences of how your children learn if you are willing to share. I've added a linky at the bottom of this post. If you feel like playing along each monday and seeing how learning happens at other people's houses, blog it, add your link and have a wander around. :)

Feel free to copy the unschool monday button in the sidebar and create a link back to this post if you'd like to join in each week too.