Right now Jacob and Jack are playing with cars and their new bridge (some PVC trim left over from trimming the door). Jacob just drew a circle on a piece of paper and described to me that it is a racetrack and showed me where the cars drive on it (like one of those little maps in the bottome corner of a video game). He has been playing with cars and his new bridge all morning!

Jayla is still watching cooking shows. She has seen bits and pieces of some before, but this morning she has been glued to the TV like she can't get enough of it! She even told me in great detail about how to make this one particular cake. I was surprised at how much she remembered! Right now they are mashing avocadoes.....it looks like guacamole, which she hates, but she LOVES plain avocado. It is one of her favorite foods.

Jonathan is having a hard time getting along with others this morning, so I sent him to his bed for a few minutes to calm down and read. He was reading about sharks, but I think he is watching the cooking show right now (in the same room). He just asked me if we could finish his super-hero story (I just type out what he makes up), so I guess we'll do that now.

Right now my kids are all laying in bed, talking and playing. Jayla is adding numbers and quizzing me. Jonathan is "educating" her further in her math. She asked me if I knew what 6 + 6 was and then told me the correct answer, 12. Then Jonathan told her that 12 + 12 was 24, so 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 24, which is also the same as 6 x 4! I love it when they learn good things from each other, especially when they are right! LOL!

Without any formal training in spelling, grammar or handwriting, Jonathan is working on his first "official" comic book. (He has written a story before, but this one is comic book form with lots of pictures and bubbles, etc.) Super-heroes are his passion in life, apparently, that and animals of all kinds (we caught a snake today, in fact). He has created over 20 super heroes and villains. Some are still being developed and some he created a couple of years ago.

So just now, Jonathan got a quick lesson in writing. Daddy was reading his comic book and just *had* to correct him. There really weren't that many errors, but he spelled two words wrong ('arownd' and 'thru'....they look right, at least!) and was hyphenating words incorrectly. We didn't mention the misspelled words. In about 2 minutes though (maybe less), he learned about syllables and hyphenating and correctly hyphenated about 5 words! He's a quick learner, especially since we didn't push it on him but waited until he was ready! Now it will stick, and he doesn't feel horrible for doing it wrong! :)

Right now Jack (14 months) is playing with a plastic spoon, using it as a drum, and a big piece of plastic. It's like the clear plastic that covers packages. I'm not sure where he got it, but he is making all kinds of music with it.

Jacob (3) is building a train track and playing with the train set. He sleeps with it sometimes. LOL!

Jayla (6) is spritzing some body spray on the back of Jack's head. This is little girl "glamour" stuff that she got when she spent the week with her Aunt Amy in TX. They did all kinds of girly things together. :)

Jonathan has about 30 or so little tiny clay pots. He is stacking them, lining them up and trying not to break any more!

That's about it for this moment! I think I'll go make us all something to eat now. :)

Right now my two little girls are both sitting at the computer doing starfall.My son is watching t.v and my oldest daughter got a job and today is her second day of work.

If you guys go to skate fever in Tuttle be sure and say hi to her.Homeschool skate day is this Friday or the second Friday of each month.Here is her fixing to go to work a few minutes ago.
:o( My baby is growing up.Does she look old enough to work? She is only 14!She has been looking for a job for months now.She finally found one that will let her work at her age.

Grace and Peace,
Nicole

Jonathan is busy at the moment making as much chalk dust as he can. This is just after he took so much time cleaning the chalk board with a magic eraser, and he started yesterday! They've been drawing all morning. It needs another cleaning! He's also singing the same song over and over and over again. Oh wait! New song! And Jayla is joining in now. :)

Jayla is drawing on paper. They keep arguing off and on, but they are completely working it out on their own. (I often have to step in when Jacob is involved, but as he is getting older, he's getting more mature about it too.) She has been playing with an imaginary friend this morning too. She's never had one before but has seen them on cartoons, so she thought it might be cool to have one of her own. It works out great since I am sometimes tied up when she is tired of the boys! She and her imaginary friend played tic-tac-toe for a while earlier after Jonathan got tired of playing.

Jacob is all over the place right now. He wants to ride his bike on the street, but I told him he needs to keep it in the yard for now until we can all go out together. He's also playing with Bristle Blocks. They love those things! Apparently Jack just bumped into him. His tower fell and he yelled "Grrr! It's all your fault, Jack!" LOL! He doesn't normally get mad at Jack! He is learning to either move away from him or give him his own toys!

You know what Jack is doing at the moment! LOL!

As I try to breathe through all the dust that is accumulating, I think I will open the door and have them take a break to clean. We've got lots of laundry to put away!

To learn more about unschooling.....

Warning: This is a long list, and I haven't even checked them all out myself, so I can't promise you all the content will be from a Biblical perspective (probably not) or have only *good* pictures and text on them!

-----------------------------------------------------

Unschooling 101

************* BOOKS *************

Learning All the Time by John Caldwell Holt
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0201550911

How Children Learn by John Caldwell Holt 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0201484048

How Children Fail by John Caldwell Holt
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0201484021

Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling by John Holt and Patrick Farenga
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0738206946

Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better by John Caldwell Holt
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0525134379

Moving a Puddle and Other Essaysby Sandra Dodd
http://sandradodd.com/puddlebook

The Relaxed Home School: A Family Productionby Mary Hood
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0963974009

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How To Quit School and Get a Real Life & Education by Grace Llewellyn
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0962959170

Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go To School by Grace Llewellyn
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0962959138

The Homeschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0761501924

The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child's Classroomby Mary Griffith
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0761512764

The Art of Education: Reclaiming Your Family, Community and Self by Linda Dobson
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0913677140

The Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 101 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voices by Linda Dobson
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0761535705

Homeschooling Our Children; Unschooling Ourselves by Alison McKee
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0965780627

Deschooling Our Lives by Matt Hern
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0865713421

Parenting a Free Child: An Unschooled Lifeby Rue Kream
http://www.freechild.info/

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0865714487

A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls by Susanna Sheffer http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0867094052

In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child's Multiple Intelligencesby Thomas Armstrong 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1585420514

Seven Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Multiple Intelligencesby Thomas Armstrong 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0452281377

You're Smarter Than You Think: A Kid's Guide to Multiple Intelligences by Thomas Armstrong
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1575421135

For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer MacAulay
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/089107290X

Learning At Home: A Mother's Guide To Homeschooling by Marty Layne
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0968293824

Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow.: Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Loveby David H. Albert
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1567513700

Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery by David Albert
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1567512321

The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond & Dorothy Moore
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0785281754

Better Late Than Earlyby Raymond & Dorothy Moore
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0883490498

School Can Waitby Raymond & Dorothy Moore
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0842513140

Coloring Outside the Lines by Roger Schank 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0060930772

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, As, Praise & Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0618001816

The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School by Valerie Fitzenreiter
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0972941606

Growing Without Schooling: A Record of a Grassroots Movement by John Holt, Susannah Sheffer 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0913677108

The Day I Became an Autodidactby Kendall Hailey
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0440550130

The Book of Learning and Forgettingby Frank Smith 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/080773750X

Better Than School: One Family's Declaration of Independence by Nancy Wallace 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0943914051

Child's Work: Taking Children's Choices Seriously by Nancy Wallace
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/091367706X

And the Children Played by Patricia Joudry
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0912766166

With Consent: Parenting for All to Win by Jan Fortune-Wood 
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1900219247

Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0714508799

*************PERIODICALS*************

Home Education Magazine: 
http://www.homeedmag.com/index.html

Live Free, Learn Free:
http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/

Life Learning:
http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com

*************WEBSITES*************

Unschooling Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling

Unschooling.com:
http://www.unschooling.com (See "Library" & "Message Boards")

Car Talk Guys:
Education:
The Learning of Skills We Will Never Need?
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/

The Education Forum
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/Education/

The New Theory of Learning
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/Education/r-rlast15.html

The Education Forum II
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/Education/index2.html

Autodidactic Press:
http://www.autodidactic.com

Libertarian Unschooling:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6529/index1.html

Unschooling Undefined:
http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/UnschoolingUndefined.html

Home's Cool A to Z:
http://www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/methods/Unschooling.htm

Sandra Dodd:
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling.html

Child-led Natural Learning:
http://www.alternative-learning.org

Delight-Driven Learning:
http://home-educate.com/unschooling/index.shtml

Family Unschoolers Network:
http://www.fun-books.com

The Natural Child Project:
http://www.naturalchild.com/guest/earl_stevens.html

AHA Information Page:
http://www.americanhomeschoolassociation.org/info.html

Amy Bell's Natural Learning:
http://home.rmci.net/abell/

Alfie Kohn:
http://www.alfiekohn.org/articles.htm

Search Google for thousands more unschooling resources!
http://www.google.com