Child-led Fun with Water!

We have a lot of impromptu sensory fun led and directed by Gumby; today was a lot of water play.  Gumby asked for water for Bert and Ernie.  Then, she said Bert wanted pink and Ernie wanted purple.  I also gave her this duck that grows in water - it's shown here as big as it grows.  It shrinks back down when dry, then will grow again.  It's fun :)  The duck wanted purple water also.  I threw in some water beads and an eye dropper, just incase ...

The fun continued outside where we have our poor man's swimming pool until we go and get a new pool.  It needed pink and purple water too.  These are currently Gumby's favorite colors!  We threw in some pony beads.  Can you tell in the picture if the float or sink?  If you can't, you should give it a try yourself and find out!

Rubber duckies, Gumby's awfully fond of you!  The dogs and cats (HAHA!) got baths, but I was too busy chuckling and Gumby was nude, so I dont have any action shots of that :P  She also found if she pushed the ducks down really hard that they would sucker themselves to the bottom of the pool.

What impromptu fun things have you thrown together with the kids lately?

Gumby's World: 2/5/2011-2/11/2011

The Gumby's World series is a journal of how we spend our days with Gumby :)

This past weekend, we went out and about with Gumby.  We had lunch at our favorite fast food Italian restaraunt with a good friend.  Gumby loves going out to eat.  We take her puzzles, coloring supplies and the iPad.  When we travel, we put her little potty on the back seat of the car.  It works just fine for potty breaks on the go!

Gumby got a couple of new toys.  One is a 18" tower with a funnel/spout that sand, water, rice and who knows what else can be poured into to make 2 wheels turn.  This led way to a renewed interest in the rice box.  

The other toy is a set of huge foam letters and numbers.  It is also a puzzle.  She has a lot of fun building, unbuilding, running, walking and romping on it.  I will admit - it is a very fun activity for Mamma too :)

Gumby mailed the Valentine's Day cards that she made last week for her Grandparents.  She was so excited.  She wanted to watch the episode of Special Agent Oso where he also mails a letter to a little girls Grandmother.  She really enjoys tieing shows into what she is actually doing. 

We made two trips to the library to play on the computer and with the large bead toys.  She is enjoying learning to use the mouse and is getting better at controlling it.  There are coloring games, bubble popping games and puzzles.  The puzzles need the most precise mouse control to select a piece then place it in the proper location.  It is nice because no button clicks are neccessary.

We played on the iPad, Cover Orange, of course.  She knows how to place pieces, which pieces roll, which ones do not roll, how to bump an Orange on one side and cause it to move, how to bump bombs and make them move pieces into place and more.  Along with hand eye coordination, cause and effect and basic physics concepts, the game is also building her vocabulary and her confidence. 

Gumby made several finger paintings this week.  We displayed them in the living room and kitchen.  The top one is done with brushes and sponges, with one hand print in the top left corner.  The bottom one is a more rare one done with her fingers.  She really loves using tools to paint; the ones where she puts her fingers and hands in it are always extra special. 

She has a kid's table that has letters and numbers embossed along the edges that can be rubbed over with crayons to make the letters on the paper.  She really enjoys this.  She names off the letters as she sees them appear.  Thanks to her Grammie and Grandpa for this table that used to be mine when I was little. 

We had loads of fun with her Nano HexBugs that she got for Christmas.  We built them a habitat out of blocks and gave them a paper towel roll tunnel.  These are awesome toys and have staying power.  They are always fun and there is always a new way to play and learn with them.

Gumby and I spend our days immersed in play.  She is constantly learning what she wants, when she wants and how she wants without having to separate life experiences into subjects or play time versus learning time.  It is all intermingled, inseparable and fun.  We follow her interests wherever they lead and encourage her to explore her world.  It is impossible to go through life, even one day, and not learn something - try it!  All learning is valuable.  Life is learning.

Gumby's World: 1/29/2011-2/4/2011

The Gumby's World series is a journal of how we spend our days with Gumby :)

This past week I re-organized Gumby's toy shelves by putting away things that she is not using and making what she does use (or would if she could easily get to it) more accessible.  Gumby now has a new space for arts and crafts that is within her reach.  It is still a little cluttered, but I hope to also be able to rotate some of the items to keep it new and interesting. 

We also got a large plastic flower shaped plate to hold current projects and/or new items.

The rearranging resulted in a re-discovery of forgotten music items such as music shakers, piano and drums.  We have been having fun making music and dancing! Putting her markers, crayons, glitter, window crayons, paper and coloring books where she can get to them has renewed her interest in art.  This week we colored, drew - she is refining her own Mickey Mouse drawing - and created Valentine's Day cards for family members.

Gumby's Mee Mou (Mickey Mouse), drawn by herself

We read books, built jigsaw puzzles, played with her Potato Heads, buried each other and built with pillows, played ball with her huge 24" ball (she kept laughing if we would bounce it on her head), ran around the island ... all favorite actives of hers!  She was also able to get to her rubber ducks easier so we sorted them into squeaking and non-squeaking kinds. 

Gumby also loves cooking and has since she was 7-8 months old or so.  She loves mixing, dumping, pouring and tasting.  This past week she helped me to make veggie paella, home made spaghetti sauce, veggie enchiladas and cookies. This time, she noticed the ingredients on the box of cookies showed that we needed eggs and water.

Another new and exciting thing she did was correctly read a book out loud to herself.  I know she probably has the story memorized and is describing the pictures, but it was both accurate, adorable and exciting!

The book Gumby read aloud to herself

Gumby loves having the TV on with either Mickey Mouse or Special Agent Oso, usually for company, background noise or ideas.  Sometimes, I worry about having the TV on all of the time, but looking through this list of what we did last week, I guess we do things!

We definitely are not opposed to technology, Deeda and I both having degrees in Computer Science and we always partake in technology together.  As such, Gumby is quite proficient at working our touch screen cell phones, Wii, and iPad.  Her favorite thing to do on the phones is a sliding puzzle of Mickey and company.  Who else? :)  On the Wii, she likes to ski, race cars and shoot targets.  Usually she watches myself or Deeda play, but sometimes will play herself.  She does know how to take games out, put them back into the case, get a new game out of the case and load it into the Wii. 

Skiing on Wii with Mamma

On the iPad, she enjoys cooking food and rearranging furniture in a restaurant, puzzles, drawing, coloring, hopping frogs or just about anything else.  Lately, her favorite game is this physics strategy/puzzle game called Cover Orange. 

 

Gumby Enjoying Cover Orange on the iPad with Deeda

Gumby and I spend our days immersed in play.  She is constantly learning what she wants, when she wants and how she wants without having to separate life experiences into subjects or play time versus learning time.  It is all intermingled, inseparable and fun.  We follow her interests wherever they lead and encourage her to explore her world.  It is impossible to go through life, even one day, and not learn something - try it!  All learning is valuable.  Life is learning.

Wordless Wednesday: Yellow Volcanos!

1, 2 O's

Gumby decided she wanted to go to the mall last week.  We always have such a great time at the mall, but her favorite place may not be what you expect.  We are lucky that our particular mall has an indoor children’s play area with large rubbery toys to climb and play on.  Gumby likes to jump out of the huge butterfly into my arms.  She also likes looking at the different items, decorations, mirrors … one can find all sorts of things at the mall.  One day we bought her a bamboo with yellow water beads.  Every time we walk past the bamboo stand, she reminds me that she “has yelly at home.”    Today, she enjoyed counting the letters that made up the names of the different stores.  Bonworth has “1, 2 O’s.” and “just 1 B.”

Today, Gumby jumped off the large butterfly a few times, and then it was time to hit the highlight of the mall:  “I need go bookstore!”  Yes, Gumby’s favorite thing to do at the mall is to go to the bookstore, in the back where she knows the children’s books are located.  We read together.  She has a few favorites, some seasonal, others not.  She enjoys “Goodnight Gorilla” and “The Hungry Caterpillar”.  Today we found a cool pop-up book where she could pull tabs, match up patterns and count. 

Learning is always taking place; sometimes you are not even aware that it is.  Other  times, if one stops to think about it, one may realize that the trip to the mall covered physical education, math,  reading and science just to name a few.

Who, What, Where, When and Why?

    

     Lately, Gumby has been into solving jigsaw puzzles - constantly!  It is her absolute favorite pastime and she does it for the majority of the day: sometimes alone, sometimes with me or Deeda, sometimes using little wooden puzzles (new or the ones that I used to build that my mother saved and gave to her) and sometimes on the iPad.  This is the 21st century, right! :)  If she is not honing her problem solving, critical thinking or shape recognition skills, one may find her in an imaginative game of make believe with her favorite characters from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Perhaps she is burying them in her rice box, meticulously lining them up like a choo choo train or tucking them neatly into bed as she names them and describes what color blanket she is using to cover them.  In any case, she is learning.

     She is following her interests, learning at her own pace and learning about what is interesting and important to her.  Anyone who has young children will say how amazing it is to watch them learn new things; and, it is.  They are always learning something new.  They are so curious by nature.  Our family journey with Gumby has been deeply rooted in following our instincts of trusting Gumby to communicate her needs to us.  Unschooling is a continuation of that journey. 

     Unschooling is an approach to homeschooling that follows the way people naturally learn, just as described in the first paragraph.  Unschooling holds that learning cannot be separated from life, it is always happening and it is always useful.  Learning need not be broken up into "subjects" because in life, all subjects are intertwined.  People gain more true knowledge when they are learning about something they are truly interested in and can explore in the way that best suits them.  Everyone has their own unique style of learning such as reading books, going places, hands on, etc. 

     As Gumby's parents, our role will be to facilitate, support and trust in Gumby.  We will trust that as she follows her interests, she will learn what she needs when she needs it.  We will provide her with interesting options, activities and choices along the way.  We will be available to help her by answering her questions honestly and openly or helping her to find answers - when she asks for our help.

     This is what I have learned on my unschooling journey thus far.  With breastfeeding, I could never measure in ounces how much milk Gumby had.  I trusted that she knew when she was hungry and when she was full.  As she was ready to start solid foods, after six months of age, we let her eat table food and feed herself.  Again, I could not quantify how much of this or that she was eating, but instead trusted that she knew what she needed.  Unschooling, to me, seems similar in that I may not be able to quantify in "subjects" what Gumby is learning, but I have trusted her this far along the way and it has worked out amazingly.  

     I started this blog as a way of journaling what is learned, by Gumby and by myself.  Why?  Well, perhaps the same reason as when I started nursing my little precious newborn that I kept track of "how long" and "how often" she nursed.  It can be hard to let go of quantifying sometimes.  I started it because I may need some record of what she is learning for state schooling requirement purposes.  And, I started it to share our experiences.  I think it will be fun :)

     That sums it up for my first ever blog entry.  What did you like?  What didn't you like?  And, what else can I write about?  I have my own ideas, but look forward to suggestions :)

     For tons of unschooling information, visit www.sandradodd.com