Mama's Unschooling Life

Sunday, August 21, 2005

~It's Been a Long Long Time!~

It seems like it's never a good time to sit down and work in here. I always want to wait until I can really pay attention to this but truthfully, if I wait that long, I won't have any kids at home to talk about! ;) So lets see what I've got to talk about...

Britt:

Had to restore her laptop today. She hasn't had to do that for quite a few months. She was really getting frustrated about getting the laptop back to wireless status. Took her a few hrs of trial and error but she got it! She jokingly said maybe she should restore people's computors for a living!

She's been doing allot of reading on the laptop too. And working on her live journal and keeping up w/friends that way, as well as email and IM.

She's also been going thru magazines that are her favs: Vogue, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, In Style, sometimes Glamour. I know there's more but I can't think of them. She's always looking for new make up tips and excercizes and healthy foods and ways to change her hair. I'm really impressed with her. She doesn't just skim the articles and pages in general, she digs in. Funny b/c she doesn't like to read books much, but will read these magazines all day and also read stuff that interests her on the net *all day long*! Reading is reading isn't it? I start to feel guilty and think she should be reading the classics but...

She's been working on her houses too. On paper and on software. The programs she has tho aren't that good for interior design. If you make the livingroom a certain color or pattern, all the rooms have that on their walls too. ??? Doesn't make sense to me. The exteriors are pretty cool. Diff amount of levels, materials(brick, siding, stucco) assorted shape and size windows that you have to make sure your measurements of the walls and windows correspond w/each other(Math) It also landscapes too. She makes some really cool backyards with pools and ponds and gazebos etc etc. You can even pick the color flowers you want! So why you can't do that w/the walls inside is beyond me.....

She was half way thru Unit 1 in SOS 10th gr and the computer crashed :( Of course we hadn't backed it up, so she started over yesterday. At least we know she'll have unit 1 down pat ;)

We've changed the livingroom twice this summer and the 1st time we switched the den and the diningroom too. She finished all the walls in her room. Still need the right bed set tho...

Britt's been cooking about half of the time and me the other. Homemade mac and cheese, stuffed shells, cookies, cherry shortbread etc. JJ(her cousin) spent part of the summer here and he is an excellent cook to learn from! He can take food items that don't even seem to go together and turn it into a gourmet meal!

He also did a little bit of art work too. Watercolors, shading, colored pencils. Britt dabbled in the water colors briefly. He's an awesome source of creativity.

We've been following the Natalee Holloway disappearance and discussing girls in clubs and the situations they are faced with and how not to lose your head etc. Also discussing how Aruban law is different and the same as in US. Geography works into this a well. Where is Aruba? What countries/Islands etc is it near? What language do they speak? How large/small is the island? What country are they part of? How big of a part does tourism play there? Tourists from where? We've also been talking about theories and fact/opinion and options to get results. We've discussed how "connections" work among groups of people. There have been discussions of what we would do differently if we were in the investigation. Its harder tho in this case to even *guess* whats going on b/c the Dutch/Aruban system is so different and closed compared to ours. Although, if the evidence is not that great, in the US, the kid might not even be in jail! So there's good and bad in all systems. None is perfect.

We followed the Idaho case about the Mom, bf and older son that were bound and killed and Shasta and Dylan were missing. That was really a strange situation w/not many clues. We both felt that the kids must still be alive b/c why else would they be taken? Well, that one ended up with a miracle ending in 1 aspect...Shasta was spotted w/the guy, she was saved, he was arrested. But Dylan was gone. The things that sweet little girl had to endure is unimaginable. That she is alive is amazing! God has things to do thru that girl! That monster of a himan in in jail and all kinds of things are coming out on him....we talked about how people cannot be trusted and how a rapist/molester/whatever does not necessarily look a certain way. Again, being aware and making smart choices are key. Not that Shasta had a choice. That she survived is a testimony in itself! (Btw, that was another whole Geography lesson too)

Of course we've been watching news about Iraq which has had quite a few different lessons: The constructing of their new government, working n their new constitution and its delay of 7 days so far. Another story coming from Iraq at different angle is the Cindy Sheehan story. This the mother whose son died fighting the war last yr. SHe is camped outside Pres Bush's ranch demanding to meet w/him directly. She wants to tell him that he murdered her son and that our armed forces should live Iraq immed. These are some of our thoughts on this: Should he then meet with every deceased soldier's family members? Why is she dishonoring her son and his decision to join the armed forces? We read on one news website (FOX) that a soldier emailed in with histake on her stance. It really struck us and I hope she saw it too. This soldier felt that she was dishonoring/discouraging every person in our military over there. Men and women who put their lives on the line every day to make this world safer. He felt personally hurt that the mother of a soldier would act this way and he even asked what she thought her son would say if he could comment on her actions. Hmmmm.

We've been following the Gaza withdrawl too. I don't know much at all about that and I told Britt we could dig up some history on that. I do know that this is a very big deal. More Geography, history, current events and some religious discssions are coming out of this one.

(For not using allot of books, we sure are learning allot of Geography, history, current events and Math)

Oh! We followed the shuttle from take off to touchdown...even went outside to try to see take-off but there were too many clouds over here that am. We discussed temperatures as something goes thru the atmosphere and how material can be affected. Talked about the booster falling away at the appropriate time etc. The pics fdrom space are always incredible! We also discussed re-entering the atmosphere and what can go wrong (based on the challenger accident a few yrs ago) (I believe it was) and then the shuttle "hitched a ride" back to FL this week. Even tho they didn't land on their 1st day of choice due to weather changes in FL, they did land the 2nd in Houston

Then there is always the every day stuff like chores, taking care of Squirt the turtle, Harley's care and feeding. She's been trimming him slowly to give him a short spiky coat for a while. She's about half done.

Then there was the day her cell phone wouldn't charge. The holes where the attachment goes were messed up. We asked Dad to look at it. He took the whole thing apart, Literally pried it apart. And by the time he was done, it not only wouldn'r charge, but it wouldn't turn on. Or close right. LOL! She was not happy! You do not ever leave her w/out her cell. Sooo to my shock she took the whole thing back apart, slowly put it back together, and worked on it til she got it to light up, and then dial, ring and get the screen to work! The only thing that still doesn't work right is the camera part, but she has her digital. She's turning into technical woman! LOL!

Add photography to the education too! SHe loves that digital camera and has taken tons of pics and learned about all kinds of option on the camera as well as what you can do with it once you download them to the laptop. She hates directions and manuals but does very well figuring this stuff out on her own. Only when she has no other choiice will she go to the manual. For a person who hates math and english/spelling etc she does pretty well!

Gardening has been an activity this summer as well. Weedpulling, plants, trimming all the crepe myrtles, extending the koi pond area and taking out bushes and vines. Care of the fish in the pond too. We learned how loud a frog can croak and the breaking point of a human's patience for that noise! (Mama is the human and 3am is the breaking point)

Her friend Simone is visiting from Germany for a month. They always have allot of fun together and catch up on all they have done while apart. She'll be back for Christmas and prob spring break too. Shane took them and Syd(Britt's cousin) up to Busch Gardens in Tampa for 1 day a few weeks ago. They love the rollercoasters etc! They followed the trails that lead to the different habitats and watched the animals in each of them.

While Sydney was here in FL, Britt got to spend some time @ Syd's grandparents on her mom's side. The grandma(Sonnee) loves interior design and she favors contemporary/modern with a shot of funky. Yes a grandma. Britt really enjoyed that. She went to the beach with them several times too.

I know there's a ton more of things we have read, looked at, discussed, seen, participated in, experienced etc but this enough ro write for one night. I started this @ midnite and its now after 2am!

Gotta get to sleep! The kids will be up around 9ish.....
G'nite!
~mama

Mama loves u... 12:07 AM

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