Lots Going On

Right now Brenna and I are at my Mom's house taking care of Keira (my niece) because Mom had to run some errands real quick. Keira has not gone to day care these past two weeks because of the swine flu going around. My Mom and I have been taking turns having her and I have to say, she is sooo cute and so much fun to be around. She'll be two in September and is growing so much, mentally and physically. My Mom watches her every week on Thursday's and I have just volunteered to watch her on Tuesday's. So now she will only be going to day care every other day and the days she's with my Mom and I she'll get plenty of rest and be with family, which I think is so important. Brenna loves playing with her and you can tell that Keira looks up to her so much. So it will be good for the both of them being able to spend more time with each other.

My Mom just got home and Keira is now napping and Brenna and Mom are in the kitchen making cookies. Brenna gets her own bowl and measures all of her own ingredients. Mom quizzes her a lot on the math part of cooking, which I think is a wonderful way to learn. I just heard my Mom ask her something and Brenna immediately responded with the answer of four (I did not hear the question). Mom asked her how she knew that and Brenna said, "Because two times two is four!" Who said you need a curriculum to teach kids math? Math is part of most everything in life and Brenna learns it by just being alive and being curious.

Anyways, I have been crazy busy this week getting things ready for yet another camping trip. YEAH! This time my Mom and Dad are going with us - finally! I've been wanting them to come camping with us for a while now. We'll be leaving later this week to go to a family reunion and then off to the woods we go. :) I'll have lots of pictures to post when we get back.

I have also been pretty engrossed in a couple books lately too. I just finished reading The Unschooling Unmanual, which is fabulous - in fact, I read it twice! I think in a recent post I quoted some things from it. I really wish I could quote the whole book because I want everyone to read it! Oh the way it would change your thinking about learning entirely! I want my Mom, as well as Brendon, to read it because I feel that it will give them a lot of insight as to why I have chosen to do what I do with Brenna. Don't get me wrong, Brendon is completely supportive and trusts me unconditionally when it comes to Brenna's life. But he has seen first hand how much she gets out of it, so it makes it easier for him to "get it". The book is only 91 pages though and I think if he read it, it would explain things much better then I have ever been able to and might give him a couple of "Ah ha!" moments. My Mom......I think she thinks I'm crazy. LOL Okay, maybe not crazy but I don't think she quite "gets it". But it IS hard for most people to grasp the concept of unschooling because it is so foreign and totally different then what most people grew up doing. It's taken me a while, as well as a lot of research and books, to get what it is really all about. I feel so passionate about it because of all the information that I have acquired and because of all of my "Ah ha!" moments. Most people think kids hate anything to do with learning (because of schools taking the fun away from it and not letting children follow their own interests) so if given complete freedom with WHAT they learn, most will assume that they won't want to learn anything at all. How totally false that is! I used to think that too. But everything that I have read about unschooling makes so much sense and I see it everyday with Brenna. Children really do want to learn and they want to learn as much as they possibly can - how could they not?
I'll post about my book I'm in the process of reading next time. It's called The Natural Child - Parenting From the Heart. So far it's an excellent read!

Anyway, Brenna wants to play on the computer so I'll end this for now. I'll post again when we get back from our trip. :)