Live Free Learn Free Blog » 2005 » September <title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/themes/thirteen/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/rss/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/atom/" /> <link rel="pingback" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php" /> <style type="text/css"> </style> <link rel='archives' title='August 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='February 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/02/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/03/' /> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> </head> <body> <div id="headwrapper"> <div id="header"> <h1 id="title"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog">Live Free Learn Free Blog</a></h1> </div> </div> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="content"> <div class="post" id="post-69"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/09/head-colds-books-and-famous-people/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Head Colds, Books and Famous People">Head Colds, Books and Famous People</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> September 9th, 2005 at 11:24 pm (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p>For the past few weeks, I’ve been waking up with what feels like a terrible head cold each morning. It lasts for a few hours then fades away. I’m guessing allergies - perhaps dust. Anyway, today, I awoke with the same symptoms, only throughout the day, they worsened. I kept waiting for it to fade away, but it never did. Yup, I’ve actually come down with a cold - complete with chills and sweats. Ugh. And the huge Austin public library book sale is tomorrow morning…. It’s going to be one of those sales where you have to wait in line for an hour before it actually opens, dive for the books you want, and fight off other shoppers. I need to be at my best!</p> <p>Terry is a limo driver, and today he carried a man who played a <a href="http://www.chestertonchamber.org/OzStory11.html">Munchkin soldier</a> in The Wizard of Oz. He talked to him a bit about the movie and got his business card, which he gave to Kenzie. He also carried <a href="http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/jeffcorwin/bio/bio_01.html">Jeff Corwin</a> who told him to tell Kenzie, “Hi.” Kenzie’s been dancing around the bedroom and jumping on the bed singing, “I’m the luckiest boy in the world!” for quite a while, now. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/09/head-colds-books-and-famous-people/#respond" title="Comment on Head Colds, Books and Famous People">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-68"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/08/blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Blogging">Blogging</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> September 8th, 2005 at 11:33 pm (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>, <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/musings/" title="View all posts in Musings" rel="category tag">Musings</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p>The more I play around with Typepad, the happier I am about leaving Blogger behind. Typepad is simple, easily customizable, and offers so many more features than Blogger.com. I’ve uploaded a few dozen photos (easily), created lists of mine and Kenzie’s recently read books and my musical obsessions, and been able to play around with the colors and banner and such without working myself into an html frenzy. I couldn’t be happier.</p> <p>After surfing through blogs today, I created a list of other homeschooling (mostly unschooling) blogs. There’s nothing more inspiring than reading about other people’s lives. I spent a good deal of time this afternoon reading through some of my favorites and, as usual, came away with tons of creative ideas and a renewed excitement for this adventure we call unschooling. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/08/blogging/#respond" title="Comment on Blogging">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-67"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/08/cool-books-on-the-shelves/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Cool Books on the Shelves">Cool Books on the Shelves</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> September 8th, 2005 at 2:18 am (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p>Wandering around Half Price Books last night, I caught a glimpse of why it may be difficult for many parents to allow their children to direct their own learning. There were so many wonderful books on the shelves — books that just didn’t pique Kenzie’s interest. How easy it would be to say, "Let’s just do this twenty minutes a day. You’ll end up enjoying it. Really." </p> <p>But there’s an underlying message in those statements: "You can’t be trusted to direct your own learning. The things that interest you aren’t important. I know better than you." </p> <p>Instead, I looked to my child, learning joyfully, exploring his world without restraint. He’s learned to read, learned to work with numbers, learned to write. He draws, he sings, he plays a mean game of Battleship. He’s interested in Ancient Greek myths, chemistry, medieval Europe, constellations, religions, paleontology, Egyptology. He loves to kick his soccer ball, climb the neighbor’s tree, make pb&j sandwiches, help me with the magazine, listen to folk music, ride his bicycle, help our neighbor carry in groceries or water her yard, plant seeds, play with the dogs and cats, watch The Magic School Bus, dress in costumes, discuss Pokemon…. The list goes on and on and on. He’s kind, interesting, helpful, open-minded, and fun to be around. He inspires me daily. </p> <p>He is well-rounded and knows how to learn what interests him — more than I can say of most adults I meet. He certainly doesn’t need me to take control of his learning, no matter how cool those books on the store shelves might seem to me. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/08/cool-books-on-the-shelves/#respond" title="Comment on Cool Books on the Shelves">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-66"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/06/were-back/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to We’re Back">We’re Back</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> September 6th, 2005 at 11:58 am (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p>We’ve made it back from the RE conference. What a time! Kenzie and Terry spent the weekend visiting dinosaur museums and generally having a ball. At the <a href="http://www.dallasdino.org/">Dallas Museum of Natural History</a>, they marveled at the skeletal casts of tyrannosaurus Rex and other dinosaurs, and they watched paleontologists at work. There were even dinosaurs made from car bumpers! Then, they visited the <a href="http://www.dallas-zoo.org/aq/aq.asp?page=aq">Dallas Aquarium</a> where they saw a huge swimming snapping turtle covered in moss, several kinds of shark, piranhas, and more. The next day, they drove to Ft. Worth to visit the <a href="http://www.fwmuseum.org/home/index.html">Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History</a>: giant dino dig, Imax film about t. Rex, planetarium show on the death of the dinosaurs, hands-on paleontology exhibit, as well as lots of cool science museum stuff. They spent all day there digging dinosaur “bones,” spinning elaborate tops, making huge soap bubbles…. Unfortunately, our digital camera is gasping its last breath, and we were only able to get a few photos of the weekend. Here’s Kenzie playing with bubbles and tops (click to enlarge). </p> <p><a href="http://livefreelearnfree.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/bubble_boy_4_2.JPG"><img width="200" height="169" border="0" alt="Bubble_boy_4_2" src="http://livefreelearnfree.typepad.com/editor/images/bubble_boy_4_2.JPG" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://livefreelearnfree.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/bubble_boy_6_1.JPG"><img width="200" height="98" border="0" alt="Bubble_boy_6_1" src="http://livefreelearnfree.typepad.com/editor/images/bubble_boy_6_1.JPG" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://livefreelearnfree.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/tops_1.JPG"><img width="200" height="270" border="0" alt="Tops_1" src="http://livefreelearnfree.typepad.com/editor/images/tops_1.JPG" /></a></p> </p> <p>The conference, itself, was nice. Since I went to the workshops and such alone, I used it as a time to relax and catch my breath a bit. I met several interesting people and was consistently impressed with all the kind and well-mannered kids around me. All in all, it was a good weekend. </p> <p>Kenzie’s watched much of the coverage of Katrina as it came through and<br /> of its aftermath. Seeing stranded children was difficult for him, and<br /> he wanted to do something. We spent yesterday gathering things from around the house to donate to victims of the hurricane. There are several thousand staying in Austin, and there’s a drop-off place not too far from here. Kenzie filled bags with some of his books and toys, as well as a good-sized deck of Pokemon cards. We’ll finish going through closets and take the bags to the donation center today or tomorrow. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/06/were-back/#respond" title="Comment on We're Back">Comments</a> </p> </div> <p> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/"></a> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/"></a> · <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/">Next entries »</a> </p> </div> <div id="sidebar"> <ul> <li id="meta"> <h2>Meta</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-login.php">Login</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" title="Syndicate this site using RSS">Entries <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/comments/feed/" title="The latest comments to all posts in RSS">Comments <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> </ul> </li> <li id="search"> <form method="get" id="searchform" action="/blog/index.php"> <p> <input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s" /> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" class="submit" value="Search" /> </p> </form> </li> </ul> </div> <div id="footer"> <p> <a href="http://wordpress.org" title="Powered by Wordpress, state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform.">Powered by Wordpress</a> · Design by <a href="http://beccary.com" title="Theme designed by Beccary">Beccary</a> and <a href="http://weblogs.us" title="Theme sponsored by Weblogs.us">Weblogs.us</a> · <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer" title="This page validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional"><abbr title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language">XHTML</abbr></a> · <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer" title="This page validates as CSS"><abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr></a> </p> </div> </div>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> var sc_project=605365; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_partition=4; var sc_security="d224bf47"; </script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js"></script><noscript><a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://c5.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=605365&java=0&security=d224bf47&invisible=1" alt="free stats" border="0"></a> </noscript>  </body> </html>