typical unschooling day

Thank you, Shoshana, for sharing this:
http://www.handsfreemama.com/2012/05/16/what-a-hands-free-summer-looks-like/

I am very impressed and inspired.  It is also good that the mom sounds like me: very interested in letting go, and very aware how hard it is for her to let go. I especially appreciate the piece at the end which allows one to see HOW letting go happens.

On this note, today we are unschooling. I had a miserable day yesterday, lots of yelling and screaming, both by me and by the kids. I have been thinking about calling the school year over for 6 yo.

Today went much better. First of all, my husband was home the whole day, so that made a huge difference. ( Last night he came home at 2 am, which did not add anything positive to my frazzled state). I went to work out,  came home to kids playing, 2 yo wearing pajamas with rain boots. I asked boys to get dressed, eat breakfast and daven. I told 8 yo that I would like to do chumash before his friends come in the afternoon and offered to do it right away. He wanted to do it after they come. I said, it will be dinnertime. We agreed on doing it while 2 yo napped, and, sure enough, when she went down, he sat with me. We tackled second Rashi (he did one yesterday, his choice). Today, he picked the one on "listen to her (Sarah's) voice". Boy, was he in for surprise! He did not expect to hear that Sarah had higher level nevuah than Avraham. And he remembered the Rashi from yesterday. He also wanted to do Siftei Chachamim--I was not ready for that. All in all, three pesukim today, one Rashi and he pulled out a few shorashim and answered questions.

Over the course of the day:

• I was informed that boys killed a snake, figured out how to squeeze its mouth open, buried it in the backyard to decompose, so they would have a complete skeleton
• 6 yo asked about 400 mile scale on a place-mat and 8 yo used that scale to calculate that there are 1650 miles vertically across US
• our old atlas was compared to even older Mir I Chelovek to a newer map
• the boys made underwater gardens in see-through containers
• 6 yo asked why we recycle and we discussed how reusing is recycling too
• the boys counted how many pits were in each watermelon slice
• I showed 8 yo Rashi on Gemara and how Mishna is inside Gemara
• 8 yo made cardboard boats
• the boys made a marble run, first out of K'NEX, then out of wooden blocks and train tracks. My husband told 8 yo about two angles which are formed by an inclined plane
• the boys got to operate Keurig machine in the bank ( we had some business there, so I bribed them with apple cider for sitting patiently). They noticed where the empty containers got dumped
• the boys noticed a blue bunting on our front lawn
• the stripes on the back of the chipmunk were counted
• the boys watched a Nova documentary on animals and excitedly told me how cuttlefish changes colors

I am probably forgetting something...

Over the course of the past day, I learned Rashi's biography. I found it funny that the most complete and least mystical one was on Wikipedia. 8 yo asked me why did Rashi use a special script, so I looked that up, too. I looked up shemitta and yovel, especially how to count. To see how not intuitive this is, click here. I also liked how today's Rashi tied into p'shat. I have learned that little bit about Sarah's insight so many times, but having to explain it forced me to get a new level of clarity.