Lego building and dioramas:
Jules's dollhouse: You can't see all the details in the photo, but she's been making this all winter by herself. There's some sewing, some tape. Many of the household items have been fashioned out of sculpey. Up in the attic, there's lots of winter stores made from pipe cleaners and salvaged packaging—if I recall correctly, she has lots of pumpkins and gourds, onions, and lettuce. The circular blocks out in front represent the well, and the smaller building on the side is the barn with a goat stall and yellow straw bales in the loft. We have plans to begin knitting some oxen for her family, but I have to figure out how to cast on again before we get started. (It's hard to have to wait for mama to get stuff done!) Much of this is a spin-off of our reading this winter. Jules really loves the Little House on the Prairie series.
Gaming: Of course, there's been plenty of gaming around here between the new ds's and the gamecube. Computer games, too, hold loads of fun and learning. Sam's particular favorites right now are Call of Duty for the gamecube and Ages of Empire/ Mythology for the computer. These games have played into Sam's interest with guns and have spawned a huge interest in World War II.
Embroidery:
And, of course, lots of other fun stuff. Reading is exploding around here, as we've enjoyed many, many books this winter. While we've always enjoyed reading, this has been the winter of the series book: Series of Unfortunate Events, Circle of Magic, Little House on the Prairie, Artemis Fowl. Both Emily and Julia are jumping into reading books on their own, and Emily in particular is becoming quite fluent, quite quickly, reading the Mysteries of Droon series on her own now. It's wonderful to watch all their interests emerge and overlap and lead into other things—the organic nature of learning is absolutely thrilling to see unfold.
5 comments:
Regarding Sam's budding interest in World War II, have you guys watched Band of Brothers? It might be too graphic for a seven-year-old but we've really been enjoying the series. It's much more realistic and less dramatic than some of the other stuff I've seen relating to WWII.
Are those from the cloth doll blanks I sent? They look very cool. What a great looking doll house.
Jayn has recently become fascinated by Nancy Drew, to a greater extent than ever. We are reading the books starting from the beginning, which were written in 1930. It is funny to realize how different things were even then - how folks didn't automatically have a phone in their house for example, never mind about cel phones.
Thanks for the recommendation, Maggie; we'll have to check it out.
Yes Robyn, those are your much-loved dolls! I meant to mention that when I was posting, but forgot. Thank you so much for sending three! While Sam wasn't interested at first and gave his to Julia, now that they're all playing little house on the prairie, he gets to be farmer boy.
Oh, and all the dolls have recently been made upgraded sewn clothing. No more tape. *grin* And they've gotten a stylin' new covered wagon as well.
Jules is also getting into the Nancy Drew. We got a few of the newer books on cd out of the library, and she's asking for more. So, the old copies we have are in our reading queue now.
Hope all is well with you!
I haven't read here in so long. I'm loving seeing what your guys are up to! We are just starting "These Happy Golden Years" in the Little House series and I never read that one as a girl so am eager (more so than them) to get to the Almanzo getting together with Laura part.
I'm glad to have found your blog again...how wonderful that both girls are reading on their own- that wasn't the case the last time I was here. I love to hear how unschoolers learn to read in their own time and in their own way.
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