Mothering Magazine -- Anger Management for Moms: "Let's face it, most stuff with kids is small stuff." -- This line is a good one. Yesterday evening, while DS2 was asleep and DH had just left for several hours, I put DS1's silverware in the dishwasher after dinner. He saw me do it. He didn't want me to close the dishwasher. I closed it anyway and he started crying and saying "open". After a couple of minutes of talking to him and trying to distract him, I just wondered, "why not open?" So I opened the dishwasher instead. He pulled out some silverware, and we talked about dishes, silverware, and even counted some. After a couple of minutes, he put the silverware back (after I asked him to), then he pushed the rolling drawer back in (without being asked), and closed the dishwasher. I'm glad I recognized that a couple of minutes playing with dirty dishes was better than several minutes of crying and having both of us going into the rest of the evening in a bad mood.

Upperroom | Devotional - God's Waves - a nice reminder of how children and parents can be reminder of God's interaction with humans.

The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School - Free Sample Chapter

Strewing Their Paths -- Today have been a very unworking day. I missed 2 hours, separately for dropping off my car for some recall work, then picking it up again. I've been reading a lot. I realized that I still learn best in the unschooling way. I've been reading like crazy about something that interests me right now, but have barely looked at a book that I "need" to read for work.

I've even thought of offering to homeschool my sister's kids (one is 3 1/2 now & the other is due this week). I know that 4 kids would normally be "a handful" if the adult was trying to get them to do the same thing at the same time. But in unschooling, that wouldn't be necessary at all. I'm even starting to try to come up with a catchy sounding name for our unaccredited private school (which is what Kansas homeschoolers have to be).

Mary Griffith - On Unschooling -- Saving some more links for future reference.

Late Night Learning

Exploration Place

DS1's daycare class went to a children's museum / activity center called Exploration Place on a field trip this morning. I went too. It was great fun! I tried not to point him toward or away from anything in particular. He loved climbing up a spiral staircase (about 2 floors worth) and checking out what was up there. I did carry him down, though, because they were metal and pretty tall, and very narrow at the center of the spiral. Since I didn't have a watch to know when our hour ("meet back here in an hour") was up, I did get a little nervous and we went looking for the others when all but 1 of the other kids and adults were no longer in sight. He kept saying "Wow! Wow! Wow!" when we got to the airplane / flight room. He also did very well taking turns with another boy (older, and not from our daycare) riding the 10 foot long "roller coaster". It was a great morning!

Unschooling.com's Message Boards -- Kansas Connections

NHEN New to Homeschooling - main page - Beginning Considering - Homeschooling Information from the National Home Education Network

Sandra Dodd on Unschooling

Unschooling the Gifted Child: Defining the Challenge from Within -- the definitions and information here may be very important for our family soon.

What is Unschooling? -- Mama's fantasy du jour.

When a Child Says "No." - The Natural Child Project -- We're starting to get lots of "no" answers and statements from DS1. I do already talk to him about his feelings and acknowledge that he is sad or hurt or upset. This goes a step further, though.

American Infertility Association Press Release: First IVF Registry - I read about this in Prevention magazine. I want to register DS1. I believe it is good to help with research, for the good of society and also for our possible benefit. I have not found out how to get him on the registry yet. It will be interesting to compare his general health with his younger brother, who was conceived without any medical assistance.

I did it!

DS1 spoke a complete 3 word sentence this morning: I did it. We were putting pop-beads together, and he hooked the 2 ends together to make a circle, then clearly said, "I did it." Wow!

Is Your Child Ready? -- DS1 shows some toilet training signs or being ready, but we're going to wait a while yet. We do encourage him to sit on his toilet whenever he wants, and he often sits next to it on the floor when having a BM in his diaper.

Chart Jungle's Free Charts