August 2008 topic: "normal" days

[Ren]

There are a lot of questions at the lists about what an "average" day looks like for an unschooler. I don't think there is necessarily an average day for us, every day is whatever we make it.

However, there is a certain rhythm and flow to our days and I think it's really helpful for newer unschoolers (or curious minds) to see what that might look like.

It's also fun to get a peek into other unschoolers days, as many of us are far-flung and the "average" is wildly different depending on interests, region and other factors.

So blog about a typical day and hopefully include lots of pictures and commentary on what is the "norm" for YOUR family! Or maybe there isn't a "norm".;)

Some things people might think about.....
What makes up the flow of days in your lives? Who is part of that flow? How do the changing seasons affect activities? What passions are driving each of you on a daily basis? What does your home base look like and how does that affect the daily flow? What sights/sounds are part of every day? How do your children (and you) interact with those sights/sounds?

And so on.....

Goddess said, "Let there be blogposts".
And there were blogposts.
And she saw that it was good.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You've all been so great about submitting your posts!! Thank you everyone for participating. It's been awesome to get a glimpse into your lives.:) So here they are folks. Enjoy!

Pam Genant of "Gentle Gull" shares one of their stay-at-home days. Sculpey horns, pizza for breakfast and Jaws is part of this day's "norm" for two always unschooled boys.
http://gentlegull.blogspot.com/2008/07/day-in-life.html

Faith Void at "Bearthmama" shares about wood nymphs running wild and some creek exploration. Naked baby butts, a grocery trip and some rain biking nicely round out this family's average day.
http://faithvoid.blogspot.com/2008/08/wednesday-30th-july.html


Sandra Dodd shares about newly dug potatoes and bird houses as the start of her day in Albuquerque New Mexico. Included in her two unschooling teens day are some really cool spiral waffles, a
social obligation, heating a wood-fired hot tub and people swirling in and out. There's also a peek into the inspiration behind the art for Learn Nothing Day!
http://familyrun.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2184370%3ABlogPost%...


Melissa at "Startling Lives" is a mother of seven busy unschooling children in Oklahoma. She shares the regular items, rooms and interesting places that make up the average flow of their days...for now.
http://startlinglives.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-carnivalaugust-runn...

Katherine at "Essentially Unschooling" tells of her young unschooler visiting a children's museum and shares their favorite current games, internet sites and tv networks.
http://katheande.blogspot.com/2008/08/normal-lorman-morlan-romnal.html


Julie Boerst shares lovely photos of Legos, strawberry building, body art, sweet snuggles and a picnic in the park that make up part of this day in the lives of the Boerst-Italiano family up in NY state.
http://familyrun.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2184370%3ABlogPost%...


Arun in Australia wrote about "snapshots" that capture his young children's interests and conversations at his very popular blog "The Parenting Pit".
These two blogposts are a year apart:

" Snapshots one" from July 2007
http://theparentingpit.com/2007/07/11/snapshots/
"Snapshots two" from July 2008
http://theparentingpit.com/2008/07/25/snapshot-two/


Schuyler over in the UK blogs about Chocobo Tales, learning about MILFS and a lovely bike ride through sugar beet fields at "Warts and All". What a scenic ride! Their Nori rolls looked especially yummy too.
http://waynforth.blogspot.com/2008/08/day-in-life.html

Some new unschoolers over in France talk about the joy of following your own routine and the unhurried mornings they now enjoy. Stop by and meet Lune, bubble and squeak:
http://bubbleandsqueak.fr/2008/07/07/our-typical-day/


Kim S blogs about swinging, crafts, K'nex and paper airplanes. She says "The more we relax into unschooling (it's only been a year for us), I realize that they are taking exactly what they need at the moment - no more, no less."
http://familyrun.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2184370%3ABlogPost%...


Take a peek into the household of Anna Kiss on three different days. Chicken pox get soothed with an oatmeal bath and then used for inspiration for some crafty fun. There's also some blackberry yumminess, running errands and pool fun in there over at "Sugar Boot and Weasel":
http://sugarboot.blogspot.com/2008/08/day-in-life-or-laziness.html
http://sugarboot.blogspot.com/2008/07/today.html
http://sugarboot.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post.html

Diana Jenner writes about "A typical day in an atypical life". Her daily glimpse is about water fun, super yummy sweets for a very cool coffee shop, a tree climbing boy and her local unschooling "tribe".
http://familyrun.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2184370%3ABlogPost%...

Kimzyn at "Relaxed Homeskool" did something really cool when she took her journals for several years and posted an entry for each August. It really highlights her journey towards unschooling and gives an interesting glimpse back into a small slice of her children's interests.
http://relaxedhomeskool.com/2008/08/03/a-typical-day-through-the-ages/

Heather at "Heather's Moving Castle" enjoys the dog days of summer with an emerging cicada and a butterfly discovery, plus a funny dog taking a bath in the wheelbarrow!
http://heathersmovingcastle.blogspot.com/2008/08/dog-days-of-summer...


Artsy fartsy Mum Laura Bowman of "SSSmommy" details her tape recording and crafting projects while her kids simultaneously pursue their thing, including a walk to the local comic store and watching some "Family Guy".
http://sssmommy.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-life.html

She later adds a post about a bubbly, swirly day with lotsa good friends (I'm happy to be included in that one!) which seems to be more of the "norm" up here in the Appalachians of Eastern TN. Some frogs are released to freedom after being temporary pets. Joy and learning can go right along with sadness.
http://sssmommy.blogspot.com/2008/08/another-day-in-this-life.html

Michele James-Parham talks about Kapla blocks, Leapster and hash browns in her "regular" day and they look forward to their favorite coffee shop re-opening at "Natural Attachment".
http://www.naturalattachment.com/wordpress/2008/08/04/a-day-in-the-...

Lynn from the UK writes about travel plans and early morning snuggles over at "A Life Worth Living". It's a great example of how plans can change midstream and casual conversation swirl up interesting topics.
http://alifeworthliving-lynn.blogspot.com/2008/08/typical-day.html

Jules at "Black Locust Manor" in NY has children who try their hand at being structural engineers for a dam during water play and whose questions lead to some vocabulary exploration. A potentially embarrassing moment, some frogs in the bog and an impromptu anatomy
diversion round out their busy day.
http://blacklocustmanor.blogspot.com/2008/08/random-day.html


Sylvia Toyama of Albuquerque NM shares a day from their lives at "Our Hapa Home". An excursion with their local unschooling tribe
(http://ironwoodfarmproject.blogspot.com/), some money juggling (a reminder that math and kind strangers are everywhere) and a bit of Grand Theft Auto are some of the bits from their day.
http://ourhapahome.blogspot.com/2008/08/normal-day.html


Mary K at "Unschooling Supermom" stays busy with marshmallow counting, running errands and some favorite television shows.
http://unschoolingsupermom.blogspot.com/2008/08/day-with-us.html


Stephanie at "Learning Through Living" writes about secret missions, World of Warcraft, favorite games and baseball as parts of their daily landscape.
http://learningthroughliving-stephanie.blogspot.com/2008/08/around-here.html

Youtube and google swirl up some learning and fun for Gwen's family up in Oregon. Check out some of the fun videos they found over at "Tip-toe-ing outside the mainstream" and read about
the day-after-a-birthday-party enjoyment.
http://lifeisjustthis.livejournal.com/229598.html

The regular flow of Sundays at the Hubbard house in Georgia.
We are reminded at "Nothing short of thankful" that time spent connecting is always a joy and it doesn't take a bunch of planned activities to have that.
http://thehubb4.blogspot.com/2008/07/sundays.html


Gillian Goddard in Trinidad & Tobago writes a post titled "In Tune with Spirit" over at "Grounding". Her blog focuses on their families organic shop,which is the only one in their part of the world! In this short post she talks about the daily things that make her heart sing
and keep her connected with her children and the earth.
http://groundinggroundinggrounded.blogspot.com/2008/06/in-tune-with...


Heather at "SwissArmyWife" tells about a regular day that turned into
not-so-regular for them. Read about how she advocates for her child as she helps him navigate a painful and not-fun hospital visit because of a broken leg. I love how it highlights the very heart
of unschooling philosophy, even during a traumatic event.
http://www.swissarmywife.net/2008/08/broken-bones.html

Bekah tries out blogging for the first time and shares about how days spent mostly at home with very young children are never mundane, even with a rhythm and flow that has a lot of sameness.
http://familyrun.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2184370%3ABlogPost%...

Lyssa at "Hope, Fun and Feathers" in Maryland, reminds us that every day is differentwhen following the rhythm of your interests. An arborist visit and some zucchini bread and tea are on their menu for the day:
http://hopefunandfeathers.blogspot.com/2008/08/typical-day-not-so-t...


And finally, I posted over at Learning in Freedom:

A conglomeration of various "average" days and recent activities from the mountains of Eastern TN where the weather is fine and the unschooling tribe a delightful swirl of energy!
http://radicalunschooling.blogspot.com/2008/08/average-days.html

And another post about playing in the streets!
http://radicalunschooling.blogspot.com/2008/08/dont-play-in-streets...

[Ren]

I meant to put the deadline here too! Have all links to me by August 5th for inclusion in the carnival.:)

[laura b]

oh i love this topic!!! i used to publish a little magazine for stay at home moms and one of the regular features was called "a day in the life" that was just like this, because people always always ask "what do you DO all day??" and my favorite "don't you get BORED?" and "oh i could NEVER stay home all day and do NOTHING." LOL...so this is a perfect topic for unschoolers because i think so many people just can't imagine it, what it looks like and such. even though most of the readers will be other unschoolers, there are other people out there in the world that read our blogs too...so this is going to be very fun!!

thanks ren!!

[Ren]

I'm posting here again so it will stay active.:)
Start sending those blog links in people!! August 5th is approaching fast. Let's see how "normal" you can all be.
Like THAT'S going to happen.

Haha!

[Melissa]

That's like...five days away! I work better under pressure ;-)

[Denise]

Oh, great topic! :)

[Katherine]

Hey... I'm not a devoted blogger and this might be a nice push to blog, especially if it means people might read it. Otherwise I could just write a diary or think my own thoughts and be done with it. Great way to share our blogging. Pictures pictures... good too. Love seeing what others are doing and sort of recording and storying my family's stuff too.

[Ren]

Do it!!
I've got two entries so far and I'll be doing something, so we need MORE! Let's make this a really great blog carnival full of different posts. C'mon folks..I need ya.:)

[Julie B]

We started at 9:29 tonight and will try to document a full 24 hours. :-) Hoping to go to bed soon...

[Faith]

How do you send your link?

[Faith]

ok, "where" would have been a more accurate question.

[Katherine]

Click on Ren's picture to go to her profile and click on send her a message. She is compiling the blog info from messages sent to her and putting them all in one entry for August. Next month it will be a different topic and she will do the same thing for that month.

[anna kiss]

I have to add you as a friend before I can send you a message apparently?