Unschooling a 2 Year Old

I've had a few people ask me when I plan to start unschooling Echo. I always do a little inward sigh when this happens because unschooling is so hard to explain (not that I don't love talking about it!). The thing is, unschooling is a lifestyle. There is no start, or I guess it would be more accurate to say that we start at birth and we never ever stop. We do a lot of "educational" things with Echo every day but it boils down to following her interests and exploring the things she wants to explore. My job as an unschooling mom is to provide her with the materials she needs and expose her to as much as possible so she can discover new interests.

For example: Echo has recently developed a strong interest in Winnie the Pooh. She is crazy about anything to do with Pooh and his friends. She talks about them all the time and can't get enough of reading pooh stories. We want to encourage her passion for Pooh as much as possible and have found her as many Pooh related resources as we can. We checked out pooh books from the library, My parents gave us a huge stash of Pooh books they got at the used book store along with some pooh figurines she can play with with. Eric's parents got her a plush pooh doll that she likes to sleep with and pretend to cook for. We have sticker books, classic pooh stories, modern pooh stories and we have watched every pooh cartoon we can get our hands on multiple times.

By following her interest and doing something she loves with her we are showing her the things she cares about are important to us. She is learning all kinds of things through imaginative play and language arts (if you want to put educational labels on things which I generally don't do). It is so exciting to watch her delve really deep in to something and it's amazing all the unintended things she learns just from exploring a subject she is passionate about.

Echo spends her days playing outside (see her amazing rock tower in the photos above), reading (us reading out loud to her and her looking through books on her own), painting and drawing, building with blocks, working puzzles, and cooking (both pretend and real). She also practices cutting, glueing, working with play dough, and sewing on the sewing machine. We take her to the library, the botanical gardens, craft and story time at Whole Foods, museums, parks, on everyday errands like the grocery store and hiking when we have the time. We have struggled with how to address boundaries for media but have settled in to a nice routine of having a family movie night a few times a week.

I'm sure I'll be writing a lot about our unschooling journey throughout the years but but this is how it works in the early years (and really later on too). We do what we do, we live our lives and we learn along the way.

September Photos

September is one of my favorite months. The weather starts to get nicer, Fall officially begins, and it's the month my first little girl was born! Here are some photos of the fun times we had last month including a trip to the aquarium for Echo's Birthday!

Hanging out with Milo and Adam

Eric gets some quality time with Clover

She's getting cuter all the time

The Birthday girl makes her first trip to the aquarium

Sister love

Opening presents

Upcycled Diaper Clutch

I stopped carrying a diaper bag and started just carrying a large regular purse this year. My old diaper bag was falling apart and diaper bags are crazy expensive. I love my large purse but the problem is it doesn't have a ton of pockets to store things so it ends up being a hot mess of disorganization. To help with that problem I whipped up this little envelope pouch to store diapers in.

It's made from an old shirt and pair of pants that my brother was getting rid of, I love being able to salvage material from something and giving ti a new life! It came out a little wonky because I was in a hurry and didn't use a pattern or really measure anything but it's still cute and serves it's purpose.

I was able to use some Pentel Fabric Fun Dye Sticks to add a little leaf design. This dye sticks were a present from Eric years ago and I never got around to using them until just now but I am already sold! They are so cool! They go on like oil pastel but then you can iron them to set the dye and the design becomes permanent and machine washable. I see myself using these in lots of projects to come.

Why I Blog

Sometimes I feel a little selfish and foolish for keeping a blog. It can seem a little self indulgent from time to time and I can't help but feel guilty for spending time on it when I need to be doing about a million other things. However I had a conversation with my mom the other day that made me think about things a little differently.

We were talking about what books we were reading and making time to read and my mom commented on how when you are a kid you are encouraged to read as much as possible and it is viewed as a really positive way to spend your time. When you grow up however, you suddenly feel that you are being "lazy" when you spend time reading and it can be viewed by some as a waste of time (especially if you are reading fiction). I realized that blogging could be viewed the same way. If my kids wanted to start a blog (you know, once they are reading and writing age) I would be thrilled! It is a good exercise in writing and documenting the projects you do. Not to mention the fact that it's relaxing and works like a journal in that it can be a therapeutic way to express thoughts and feelings.

It's easy to get in to a mindset when you are done with formal schooling where you don't value you the things that once brought you joy and that are in fact, a way to broaden your mind and experiences. For example, I rarely make time for my own personal art projects any more. This is something that I used to spend a ton of time on, it makes me sad that I've kind of lost the thrill of making art for no reason other than my own personal fulfillment. Maybe when the kids get a little older I will make time to get back to it. Right now I am just focusing on some other art forms such as cooking, sewing and writing this blog!

When I think of the example I want to set for my kids, it's so important that they see me pursuing my own projects and things that I love. I want to instill in them the love of learning and creating that I have and that can be all too easy to forget about when you get caught up in the day to day grind. My blog posting may come and go in terms of regularity, but as long as it's something I enjoy and find value in I will try to keep it up!

Learning to Sew with Echo

Cloud pillow, made by Echo and I

You may or may not remember that I started teaching myself to sew shortly before Echo was born. I got a cheap sewing machine at a thrift store and upgraded fairly quickly to something new once I found out how much I loved sewing. Sadly I don't have a ton of time for all the sewing projects I want to do lately but I am beyond excited that Echo has expressed an interest in learning how to use the machine. I've started Helping her make a few projects and wanted to show them off here.

Echo's blanket

I started by letting her sew on pieces of construction paper. I put the pedal on the table so she can press it with her hand while I guide the paper through the machine. After she had that down she started sewing scraps of fabric together to make a "blanket". She really likes getting to try different types of stitches, especially the embroidery stitches, on the machine.

After we worked on her blanket some I helped her make a pillow for her room (top picture). I did all the cutting of course, her cutting skills are getting much better but fabric is hard to cut and cutting out specific shapes is still beyond her. I let her help with the sewing though and she helped stuff the pillow which was probably her favorite part. Now she gets to sleep on a pillow that she helped to make every night! I really hope that her interest in sewing continues and that I get to help her on lots of future projects!

Echo Turning Two

Today my baby girl is turning two! Words can't describe how much I love this sweet daughter of mine. Over the past two years I have watched her grow and change, emerging in to a beautiful, confidant and fun little girl. That's right, she's not my baby any more, she is a full blown little girl!

I continually marvel at her sense of humor and her amazing personality. She has brought so much love and light in to our lives.

Watching Echo with Clover has been such a joy this year. She has proved herself to be loving and nurturing to her little sister. I have confidence that she will always be there for her and that they will be great friends.

I don't have time to write all I would like to today, instead I will go spend time with my extraordinary daughter on her special day. I love you Echo! I'm so happy I get to be your mommy!

Repurposing the Loft

A start to the new layout for the loft

In the almost four years we have lived in this house the loft space has undergone a number of reincarnations. It's served as an office, a studio, a family room/den, and a TV room in our short years here. As Echo gets older we are realizing the need to transform the space yet again and we have big plans this time!

I have always appreciated this space as a bonus room, giving us the extra space for whatever we needed it for at the time. Now that Echo is getting big enough to play with toys, do art projects and generally interact with the world around her more we want to create a "work space" that the whole family can use. I have recently been reading up on something called Project Based Home Schooling (check out the blog to learn more http://project-based-homeschooling.com/camp-creek-blog) and realizing the importance of giving the kids as well as ourselves a dedicated project space where we can experiment, make a mess and spread out whatever projects we are working on. Project based home schooling is a lot like unscholling in that it is child directed and the parents act as mentors and facilitators but it is a little more structured than what I would like to do with our kids. Nonetheless, it is a really exciting way to learn and there are lots of ideas I plan to incorporate in to our lives as the kids get older.

Reading nook

We have a lot of ideas for this space and want to make it an important part of our family life. It will need lots of storage for art supplies, books, blocks, puzzles, games, media and raw materials that can be used to create. We also want lots of floor space for work and play (which should be basically the same thing for kids, at least as far as I'm concerned).

Eric usually reads to us while we do art or work puzzles so we left a big comfy chair that he can sit in while he reads. It's positioned nicely by the window so it's a nice place to day dream as well, and it's big enough for the girls to snuggle up and look at pictures in the books we read.

The most important aspect of the work space however is giving Echo (and later Clover) her own space to work. So we started by lowering an existing table to kid height and stocking it with materials. It is still a tiny bit tall for her so we put out a chair that is her size as well as a floor cushion she can stand on.

Echo's desk

 I put out paper, glue, beads, buttons, scissors, stickers, natural materials like sea shells and acorns, colored pencils and office supplies to name a few. The idea is to provide her with exciting and stimulating materials and let her take the lead on what she wants to do with them. She has been very interested in learning how to cut and sew lately so I have been working with her a lot on that.

Supplies to inspire Echo

Speaking of sewing, I also made space for my sewing machine and computer in the loft. This lets me work on my projects right alongside Echo. If you are going to raise self directed learners one of the best things you can do is show them what life long learning looks like and be passionate about your own projects as well as theirs. Luckily I always have a million projects I want to do so this is no problem for me ;-) We moved my computer to the standing desk that Eric used to use before he moved his office to our basement and it is a great resource for looking up tutorials, playing music or watching videos.

Our next step will be to install more shelving and move the rest of our reference books up to the project space (these will range from art books to music books, computer programing books to writing books, pretty much anything you can think of). We also want to rip up the carpet and put in some kind of hard floor that is better for building blocks and doing messy art projects. I want to make this a priority over the next year so that we have it full functional by the time Echo is 3 and Clover is 1. We have started to get some use out of it already and it has been a wonderful place to hang out as a family so far!