Unschooling (to us)

On Monday, June 18th, I had an interesting talk with the boys, mainly Pumpkin, about our unschooling.  I asked if they were enjoying unschooling and Pumpkin replied, "No. We don't do anything.  I just wander around all day."  Interesting, I thought.  So we talked.
 I asked him, "When you are playing your games on the computer what are you learning?"
"Nothing".
"You aren't reading the directions, spelling words, and learning new words?  Aren't you doing some math problems when you play games, too?"
"Well, yeah. I guess," he said.
  "Well that's language.  Math.  Science.  History.  Also you learn how a ship was built and a clarinet, right?"
 "Yes."
  "See you are learning, but in a different, interesting and fun way. When you watch your tv shows, repeatedly, it gets into your head and you are remembering it more and more."  "You tell me what you are interested in and we get all the information you want.  I see it like a firework," I told him.  "You get a spark and see how far it goes till it shines.  You were interested in the salamander you found.  You set up a tank, researched it, then it faded. Ssssssssss. Boom."
"Oh, O.K.  I see now."
"Let's see what other ways we can look at things and what we are learning, ok?"
"O.K."
I also added, "If you want to go back to the 'schooling' we were before let me know and you & I can."
"I'm still thinking about it, " her replied.  (I don't think he'll go there yet.)

Fireball Coyote of course is loving unschooling.

On Tuesday, we went to the local movie theater and watched the free movie  Diary of a Whimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules.

Pumpkin was talking about all the differences between the book and movie, he liked the book better. ;-)

Later, (Much later) that night they joined me in watching a great old time movie, Brigadoon!  They enjoyed it and starting asking "20 questions" about Scotland.  The next day we were heading to the library for "Scales and Tails", so we got books out.

On Wednesday, we did the summer reading program event, "Scales and Tails", 

& got books out on Scotland and England, too. (for the olympics)

Petting a Blue Tongue Skink from Australia. 

A Sinaloan Milk Snake & Ball Python.
They touched the Python.

A Rose ? Tarantula.
They couldn't touch it, but he walked it around
and showed the fangs.  The poor guy also had the hairs
that the tarantula kicked off in his throat for 3 weeks! YUCK!!!

Petting "Kip" the Chinchilla.
For every one of our hairs they have 20!

They touched the tail of an American Alligator. 

Keila, a Moluccan Cockatoo.

The boys really enjoyed meeting all the different animals.  They wanted to go to the 2 pm showing at the other library, too.  We watched our PBS Nature, Nova and Incredible Giants line up.



Thursday was a cleaning day for all and the boys "did their thing."

Wild Kratt's on PBS.org and other sites.

Alphabetizing his own mad dictionary.
 In addition to writing on the card if it was a noun, verb, adj., etc. :-)

Then a rousing game of Uno.

 Today, Friday, we had a homeschool group tour at Stumphouse Tunnel and Issaqueena Falls plus Walhalla Fish Hatchery.

We arrived an hour before everyone else, so we headed under the falls.

A tricky spot.

Hanging out under the falls. 

Was started around Civil War and never was finished.

The temperature is a constant 56*, nice & cool on a hot day!

Sadly they closed the first gate.  We use to go back a lot further.
(Not sure if the local university is making their Stumphouse  Tunnel Blue Cheese again.)

A mom found a crayfish.

 Lunch, then off to the hatchery.

Inside the hatchery building.

Growing big and strong.

"What do you do if one jumps out?" asks Fireball Coyote.
"We put them back in the tank," said Cody.
(Fireball Coyote asked this since there were some on the ground
 that were being stepped on, all ready dead.)

The covered part is the Broodstock area.

A male rainbow trout with a BIG kype.

Jumping out?!?

When you walked by any fish area they all jumped over each other thinking you were going to feed them.

Wonder if Pumpkin can think of some subject areas he learned about today.  hummmmm.

B.T.W.  ~ A parent asked a question of how much pounds of food = 1 pound of fish.  Do you know?
She said that (I think it was) 5lbs. of feed for a cow = 1lb. of meat.
 (Hint - a fish is less pounds of food.)
  Any guesses?

By, Pumpkin