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I haven’t made any posts lately about our Homelearning Community House. It is not because we haven’t been doing anything, but because we have been doing so much, I haven’t had time to write about it.
One thing we have all noticed is that we are having so much fun focusing on our community that other things are falling to the wayside – like laundry, grocery shopping, & cooking dinner. We also haven’t been driving much. Why bother with the trip to Science World, packing lunch and paying for parking, when we are busy dying wool with Kool-ade in the kitchen. In fact I have hardly gotten into a car all season and I love it.
WOOL DYING
THEATRE
One of the biggest thing we did this fall was Romeo & Juliet with our group, the Burrardview Homelearner’s Cooperative. It was a lot of work and there were many times we wanted to quit. It was frustrating when we had to stop something wonderful that was spontaneously happening and make the kids work on the play. It is difficult to balance structured and free activity. If you have too much structured activity it can really start to make things difficult. I realized that I really value having the freedom to follow things as they come as apposed to having to do something.
At the same time I feel that the kids really got a lot out all the hard work they put into Romeo and Juliet. It was very ambitious and we asked a lot of all of them. The youngest kids were six, and performing Shakespeare in front of over 100 people, remembering their lines, projecting and remembering when to exit and enter was a great accomplishment. I think they all had a lot of fun performing. Cassius needed stitches in his lip a few days before and could just talk by the time of the show. Despite it, he tried his best and had a great time.
Romeo and Juliet was a bit too real for Cassius & Anja, who both managed to play the title roles without looking into each other eyes. They adore each other but saying it in front of an audience was a challenge.
Cassius and Anja as Romeo and Juliet
All the kids also except for Paris and Thomas went over to the Northshore on Wednesdays for musical theatre, led by another homeschool parent. Our group performed our show and the musicals at the the Northshore Homelearner’s Winter showcase. 
FRIENDS
CYCLING
We have missed a few wonderful activities at Rosalind’s house because my house doesn’t wake up as early as the other houses. Rosalind has managed to get us up out of our cosy beds for a morning of bike riding, so I ‘m willing to make the effort to change my ways for the right event.
Rosalind, helping Paris remove his training wheels
Speaking of physical activity. I think this is the number one thing the kids are getting out of being together.They swim, climb, wrestle, bike and hike together. They RUN constantly, inside, outside – everywhere! They can play hide and seek anywhere, and they play it running. I think it must be a very important thing for them to do or else they wouldn’t want to do it so much. The older kids are as involved as the younger ones, and they play together effortlessly.
BAKING
Anja loves cooking and she is always interested in what I am making and gives me much needed tips. She likes to go over to Rosalind’s to help her bake. She is a wonderful help!
Making Cookies
GARDEN CO-OP
Rosalind is very good at getting involved with the community and is extremely inspiring. We bought a share in a local organic farm she is very active in, for 2009. I’m going to have to learn how to cook turnip,celeriac, and parsnips. I’m looking forward to visiting the farm in the Spring.
MUSIC
My Quintet of homelearning moms meets on Fridays. We often have nine kids playing peacefully in the living room while we play. Anja often listens at the door. Anja and I worked on jingle bells together (cello/piano) which was really fun, even if I did do the worst performance of my life at the Seniors Centre – Anja was great.
Rosalind had rented a child’s cello and would bring it along to rehearsals. Paris loved it!
DISHES
The most wonderful thing that happened this fall is that I bought a dishwasher – Rosalind and Tamara must be very relieved after all the dishes they have washed! At one point the downstairs toilet wash plugged {playmobile}, there was no dishwasher of course, no facet on the kitchen sink , and when there was, there was no hot water. You had to get buckets of hot water from the bathtub, which doesn’t really turn off. Tamara and Dallas installed a new hot water facet in my kitchen as a birthday surprise!
THE NEW YEAR
Our plans for the New Year so far include an art class in the garage, crystal making, light experiments & playing games and the Noble knights of knowledge, and drinking lots of tea.
The beginnings of a sugar crystal
A much loved Christmas present from Auntie Tara
Paris is now three and a half. He is still taking things apart, but has developed a new obsession as well: The Alphabet
When I first put starfall.com on for him he couldn’t figure out how to use the mouse – but by two weeks later he had figured out not only how to turn the computer on himself, find starfall, work all the controls, and dump my hard drive into the trash – and he also managed to learn his alphabet too. I was a little worried about how much time he spent watching it – but had to admit his interest was high and he was learning super fast all on his own volition.
Just to make myself feel better I pulled out all the letter puzzles, cards & magnets, that every unschooler has at the back of their closet. We started doing the puzzles together and reading the books and he is thrilled. I am amazed about how much somebody can talk about letters. He talks about them non-stop.
Paris asks me to put my finger under the word I am reading in his Dr.Suess books.
Paris has added the Cat in The Hat to his beloved list of cats.
He is also interested in counting and has developed a very interesting strategy . He orders me the count things in a chant at the same time as him over and over again. He’ll count up to four then make the rest up but I can tell this is his way of figuring it all out.
Cassius: “I think all the characters are awsome. It’s a really good adventure story and most of the drawings are amazing. I like Bone’s cousins, Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone. They are funny.
The story is about Fone Bone and his two cousins, who get chased out of Boneville and get sepperated in the middle of the desert. Fone Bone meets a young girl named Thorn, who tries to help him find his cousins and get back to Boneville. They go on crazy adventures till they find his cousins. But when they find his cousins, his cousin Phoney Bone gets them into a lot more trouble. Then they have to save the valley as well as themselves.”
Anja and Cassius pulled out the game of LIFE the other day and played the whole game from beginning to end. They asked me over to tell them how to read the numbers on the money, cards and board. Two minutes of explanation and they now know how to read and add thousands.
The money comes in $5000,$10,000,$20,000,$50,000,$100,000 dollar bills. You might get to collect 85,000 when you pass pay day, for example – so you need to be able to add the money. At the end I helped them add up all their money to see who had won.
Six months ago they would have sat down any either played for five minutes or just pretended to play so it was really neat to see they have reached a new level of concentration and understanding.
Cassius and I are really enjoying the Artemis Fowl books. Cassius’ interest started by listening to a few of the audio books and now he wants to read the books himself. He’ll have to wait until I’m done the Opal Deception before he can read it though!
The First Artemis Fowl Book
