Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! The holidays and traveling sure have taken their toll! We've had way too many cookies. So now it's time to get started on our new year's resolutions and get back into shape. Thanks to cousin Sean for the lovely pics.

Unschooling

Huh? What's that? I know many of our family and friends have questions (and concerns) about our choice to unschool. It is an unconventional approach, but one that we know is the right one for our family. So, what is it? It's a way of life for us. One in which we understand that learning is the byproduct of living and doesn't need to happen in a controlled or directed environment. Our children learn every day through experiencing the world and pursuing their interests. Our role is as their partner, their facilitator, to show them the world and support their choices.

We've realized that what matters most to us is that our children have freedom - true freedom. Freedom of choice, thought, movement, and freedom from imposed expectations and social norms, and especially freedom from the unconscious patterns of thinking and behavior that can be impressed into them through formal schooling. Who they are is formed by their own direction and choice, without the influence of other's desires or imposed measures of success, however well meaning or subtle.

If you have the time, you can watch this video to help you further understand unschooling. This woman, Astra Taylor, is amazing and was unschooled herself. She's a documentary film maker, and is clearly incredibly bright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwIyy1Fi-4Q

We hope everyone knows that our choices are not a judgment or criticism of other's choices. We see it this way -- we can affect only what we can affect. Through unschooling we've found freedom for our family and we have a truly joyful and fulfilling life for ourselves and our children. And if that joy ripples out to affect others experiences and initiate conversation and understanding about how to live differently and in a truly fulfilling way, we've done something useful.

Fun stuff...

We went bowling on Thursday night. Levon won the first game - he's an ace-in-the-hole with a ramp and bumpers! Then Friday we went swimming (indoor, of course) at a place that has a water slide, wave pool, whirlpool and lazy river. Cousins Austin and Sean came to both and we all had a great time. The best part for me is that I didn't have to go into the water! Gotta love older, capable cousins! It sucks to forget the camera though. There's no visual record of these fun outings.

We did manage to get a picture of the boys in the hot tub. It was about 15 degrees out, but the tub was a warm 104. Ezzy and Levon jumped out of the tub and into the snow, just to try it out, at James' goading. They quickly learned that it's a very uncomfortable experience. And today Levon has a cold...hmmmm.

Jurasic Shark

Spent the day at the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. The boys had a great time, and they had a really fun science guy there who did dozens of experiments like the effects of low atmospheric pressure in a sealed environment on a marshmallow. Spoiler alert: It gets HUGE!

Boing, Boing, Bong!

There's a great trampoline gym nearby. Ezzy has been taking gymnastics classes there every monday.

Snow Scooters

The boys got a couple of really cool "snow scooters" from their aunt and uncle. So after a couple of hours of assembly... we went outside and made use of them. Levon's favorite thing to do was to get moving down the hill really fast and crank the handlebars hard to the left making the scooter spin out! Very Fun!

Very Merry Christmas

Well we're a couple days late in posting, but that's just because we're having so much fun!

The boys had a wonderful Christmas. Lot's of fun, food and family... not necessarily in that order. Santa brought a bunch of new legos, toys, candy and even some clothes, yuk!

Hope you all had a great day as well.

Merry Christmas!