The kids have a song playing on the keyboard (one of those prerecorded songs where you just push a button and it plays). It is Jacob's favorite one, so he is always going back to start it again, and then he jumps up and down and spins around. :) His 2nd birthday was yesterday, so we went out to lunch today, then went to Mardel so he could play with the Thomas train set in the children's area, then Myles took them over to PetSmart for a few minutes. After we got home, Jayla and Jacob woke up from their very short naps in the van, and we watched the new VeggieTales DVD before opening presents and having cake and ice cream. Then Jacob got in his birthday suit (LOL) and took a bath with his new bugs that Jonathan got him. They are all in the bedroom now fighting over the bugs (not too bad....LOL) and dancing and playing with the other things he got. Jonathan just asked me if I could read the next chapter in "Little House in the Big Woods". I think we're on chapter five tonight! :) Jayla and Jonathan both are loving the book so far! One of our morning rituals during the week is to watch Little House on the Prairie every day, so I'm not surprised that they are really interested in the book. I've never read them before, so I am enjoying it just as much! :)

How cute! I just had some pretend birthday cake. Jayla shared it with me even though I didn't play school with her! (I really have no idea why she wanted to play school, but her version of school seems like a lot of fun!) She likes to serve pretend food all the time, but usually to her stuffed animals and dolls. She would probably like to run a restaurant, but I guess it's never occurred to her. :)

At the moment Jacob is in the bathtub, but I think he's ready to get out. Jayla is watching cartoons. She doesn't take regular naps anymore, but she still falls asleep occasionally. Oh! I didn't realize she had yarn, and she just informed me she knows how to tie a knot now! Great!!! She showed it to me, and it looks good! Jacob just ran in here naked, wet and laughing. LOL! Jonathan is making a spider out of pipe cleaners and is trying to decide the best method for hanging it from the ceiling.....looks like another pipe cleaner. Well, I guess he decided to hang if from the TV antennae instead. LOL!

This is fun, writing while it's actually happening! :) Gotta get off the computer now. Jacob is telling me "UP! UP! UP!" I guess he's ready for me to hold him now. :D

Unschooling Resources

************* 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/