Live Free Learn Free Blog » Unschooling Life <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-256"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/06/18/the-woman-warrior/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to The Woman Warrior">The Woman Warrior</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> June 18th, 2007 at 10:55 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"> <div > Browsing NPR today, I found a wonderful piece by Diana Abu-Jaber about Maxine Hong Kingston’s achingly beautiful <i>The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts</i>. Click on the NPR link below to read the full article. </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #4c4c4c; background: #cccccc; border: solid 4px #336600; width: 100%; clear: left;"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #cccccc;"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;"> <tr> <td valign="top"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="clipmarks' clip-to-blog"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_icon/0e098f1a-6b73-4906-88d8-13d70e327443/F21BC3E8-E796-4596-8F52-5E06201B8A0C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11163242&ft=1&f=1" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11163242&ft=1&f=1" style="font-size: 11px;">www.npr.org</a></td> </tr> </table> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;"> <tr> <td valign="top"><br /> <div align="center"><img src="http://content3.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.npr.org/img/C318EA49-6359-4FC5-BF0C-D845E0D6B7D5" alt="Book Cover: "The Woman Warrior"" /></div> </td> </tr> </table> <div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;"> <tr> <td valign="top"><P>I flipped through it, curious. What <EM>was</EM> this? A novel, a collection, a memoir? I’d never encountered a book that made up so many of its own rules before. <EM>The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts</EM> begins with the familiar words: “‘You must not tell anyone,’ my mother said, ‘what I am about to tell you …’” It goes on to tell the story of a pregnant, adulterous woman who is terrorized by her village, and it ends with her drowning in a well. The story traces the links of what it’s like for those of us who live between identities. </P></td> </tr> </table> <div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;"> <tr> <td valign="top"><P>Raised in an Arab-American family, I knew what it meant to feel both proud of my heritage and yet ashamed by the scent of garlic in my lunch. I was a stranger everywhere, neither fully Arab nor fully American. Hong Kingston understood this wild strangeness, using a kind of oral narrative — Chinese-American “talk-stories” — to address the brutality of family, the terror of women imprisoned by the bonds of tradition. </P></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/06/18/the-woman-warrior/#respond" title="Comment on The Woman Warrior">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-243"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/04/14/kenzie-in-the-bluebonnets/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Kenzie in the Bluebonnets">Kenzie in the Bluebonnets</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> April 14th, 2007 at 12:00 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 don’t do Olan Mills or Sears. Instead, we head out into the Texas bluebonnets each year and let Kenzie be… well, <em>Kenzie</em>. This is the result.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/KenziePhotos/Bluebonnets/index.htm">Slideshow: Kenzie in the Bluebonnets, 2007</a></p> <p>Watch closely, and you might even see a photograph of me. It’s been rumored that a few exist. Find out whether or not the tales are true!</p> <p><img alt="Bluebonnets2.jpg" id="image246" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/Bluebonnets2.jpg" /> </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/04/14/kenzie-in-the-bluebonnets/#respond" title="Comment on Kenzie in the Bluebonnets">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-242"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/10/the-origin-of-an-artist/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to The Origin of an Artist">The Origin of an Artist</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> March 10th, 2007 at 2:20 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>It’s one in the morning, and Kenzie is drawing dragons. He’s been telling me about how he chose the wing color - something light and airy, almost see-through. A nice, soft greenish color called “deco aqua.” He’s shown me how he draws the wing “bones.” He’s explained how the teeth “fit together.” He’s paid special attention to the scales, the eyes, the claws.</p> <p>This is one of the reasons children need real art supplies. Crayola crayons simply aren’t adequate for blending, shading, or even filling in. Cheap colored pencils won’t do the trick, either. Kenzie requires real Prismacolor pencils in many shades. He has gotten more use out of his 120 piece pencil set than any other resource he owns. He will sit at his desk for hours, drawing under the “artist light” (an old-fashioned, quietly humming, flourescent desk lamp) and listening to old <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tmbg.com/">They Might Be Giants</a> or <a target="_blank" href="http://www2.cruzio.com/~keeper/AMLF.html">Animaniacs</a> songs. Every so often, I’ll hear the soft whir of the electric pencil sharpener.</p> <p>Before the Prismacolors, Kenzie rarely drew. Despite his father being an artist, I assumed he simply had no interest in creating visual art. I was wrong; he just had crappy supplies. As soon as he discovered the joy of working with high quality colored pencils, he began drawing constantly and soon took to calling himself an artist - which is certainly an apt descriptor. He isn’t much interested in paints or markers or other mediums at the moment, but his pencil set goes with him almost everywhere. It is his toolkit.</p> <p>My son, the artist. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/10/the-origin-of-an-artist/#respond" title="Comment on The Origin of an Artist">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-241"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/05/our-day-so-far/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Our Day So Far….">Our Day So Far….</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> March 5th, 2007 at 3:31 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>We didn’t have anything planned for today. When we got up, we had some breakfast, and I worked for a bit while Kenzie watched <a target="_blank" href="http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Muppet_Movie"><em>The Muppet Movie</em></a>. He then read some of <a target="_blank" href="http://astore.amazon.com/thejimhensoncomp/detail/0810991845"><em>Jim Henson’s Designs and Doodles: A Muppet Sketchbook</em></a>.</p> <p>After Kenzie did a few rpgs on Neopets, he, dh and I all walked through the neighborhood to the local Mexican restaurant. On our walk, we talked about what we want to happen when we die - funeral-wise. It was actually a lighthearted conversation! We stopped to look at the fish in the stream and decided they were <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/">bluegills</a>. We also watched several <a target="_blank" href="http://whatsthatbug.com/images/stink_mating_taiwan.jpg">stink bug couples mating</a>! After lunch, we walked to the thrift store where we each found some good books and movies. On the way back, we stopped to look into shop windows and talk about what sort of shops we’d open in each space.</p> <p>Now, Kenzie’s outside playing and riding his bicycle. Who knows what the evening will bring. Looks like it might involve some cookie-making. Yum! </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/05/our-day-so-far/#respond" title="Comment on Our Day So Far....">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-240"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/29/lflf-on-natural-child/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to LFLF on The Natural Child Project">LFLF on The Natural Child Project</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> January 29th, 2007 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>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p><em>Live Free Learn Free</em> can now be bought through <a target="_blank" href="http://www.naturalchild.org/">The Natural Child Project</a>. We are honored to be affiliated with such a compassionate and insightful organization. You can find us at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.naturalchild.org/shop/magazines/livefree.html">http://www.naturalchild.org/shop/magazines/livefree.html</a>.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.naturalchild.org/site_of_the_month/lflf.html"><img id="image239" alt="ncp_award.gif" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/ncp_award.gif" /></a> </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/29/lflf-on-natural-child/#respond" title="Comment on LFLF on The Natural Child Project">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-237"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/27/balanced/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Balanced?">Balanced?</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> January 27th, 2007 at 2:59 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>Suddenly, it seems, there are a lot of articles on unschooling floating around. More often than not, they’re not purely positive, not purely negative, but what we’ve come to call “balanced.” But, are they really? The word “balanced” implies that both sides are equally credible, but this is almost never the case.</p> <p>Here’s a recent example: In the December 9, 2006 edition of The Patriot Ledger, Sydney Schwartz has a rather mediocre piece about unschooling called “<a target="_blank" href="http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2006/12/09/news/news01.txt">When DROPOUT isn’t a bad word</a>.” The article has one stand-out feature, however, that drew me right in: it focuses on older unschoolers. <em>Great!</em> I thought to myself. <em>We need more articles like this!</em> And then, of course, I came upon The Expert.</p> <p>The Expert generally has a title (often PhD), and is almost always a professor of education at a college somewhere. This Expert happened to be Lorne Ranstrom, chair of the division of teacher education at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy. His take on unschooling?</p> <blockquote><p>‘Schools provide sort of a liberal arts education. You get well-rounded. Does that happen in an unschooled situation? Who’s in charge of that kind of teaching? Is it her parents? Is she pretty much on her own?’</p></blockquote> <p>It seems that this “Expert” isn’t the least bit familiar with what unschooling entails. After a thorough Google search, his name doesn’t appear connected to “homeschooling,” “home schooling,” “home education,” “unschooling” or any other term that might imply he knows what he’s talking about. That’s not surprising.</p> <p>So, is that the norm for Experts who appear in unschooling articles? You bet. After searching through dozens of online articles and scouring the Internet for a connection between any Expert and homeschooling, I came up empty handed.</p> <p>So, how are these Experts chosen? Are their names drawn from a hat? Are they picked randomly from a well-thumbed telephone book? My best guess is that, in most cases, the journalist calls up the department of education at the local university and leaves a message. After a while, someone calls her back, and that’s The Expert. She tries her best to explain this novel, strange trend called “un-schooling” to her newfound Expert - “It’s where kids do whatever they want all day and the parents don’t teach them anything. Have you heard of it?” - and then asks for his opinion.</p> <p>Fairly easy solution, and since there are so few researchers who tackle homeschooling issues, what choice does she have? She has to write a “balanced” article, doesn’t she? She has to have Experts. She has to show the “other side.” And she can’t spend months researching.</p> <p>That’s why I try my best (really, I do) to look the other way when the requisite skeptical Expert appears. But it’s difficult to hold my tongue (or my typing fingers) when The Expert has obviously never heard of unschooling before.</p> <p>Perhaps we should write our own articles. Any unschooling journalists out there?</p> <p>UPDATE 1/30/07: A <a target="_blank" href="http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070128/FEATURES01/701280371">recent Tennessean article</a> just made me smile. The author, Bonna de la Cruz, writes, “‘It’s risky to put all the eggs in the child’s basket,’ said Mary Jane Moran, an assistant professor of child and family studies at the University of Tennessee, where she instructs future teachers of pre-kindergarten to third-graders. <em><strong>She has not studied unschooling.</strong></em>”</p> <p>Thanks, Ms. De la Cruz. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/27/balanced/#respond" title="Comment on Balanced?">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-236"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/26/nice-article-terrible-title/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Nice Article, Terrible Title">Nice Article, Terrible Title</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> January 26th, 2007 at 10:01 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 once, an article without the seemingly requisite anti-unschooling “expert” thrown in.</p> <blockquote><p><strong>‘Unschooling’ Appeals to Some </strong><br /> <em>by Katherine Evans</em></p> <p>Mack Burton, a 9-year old who lives in Pinehurst, doesn’t attend school and has no set curriculum for learning.</p> <p>On any given day, he wakes up when he wants to, walks around barefoot, and hunkers down in a big dish chair to play video games or work on a Lego project.</p> <p><em>Read more at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.thepilot.com/stories/20070116/news/local/20070116unschooling.html">ThePilot.com</a>. </em></p></blockquote> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/26/nice-article-terrible-title/#respond" title="Comment on Nice Article, Terrible Title">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-234"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/24/2-articles-uploaded/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to 2 New Articles Uploaded">2 New Articles Uploaded</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> January 24th, 2007 at 1:29 am (<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/the-magazine/" title="View all posts in The Magazine" rel="category tag">The Magazine</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p>We’ve uploaded two articles from the most recent issue of <em>Live Free Learn Free</em> to our website.</p> <blockquote><p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="3">Learning Together: Mixing Unschooling and University<br /> </font></strong><font size="3"> <em><font size="2">by Rebecca Ellis</font></em></font></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I’m a part-time university student at a large research university in Ontario, Canada. Currently, I’m working on a Bachelor of Arts in Socio-cultural Anthropology. In a few weeks, I’ll be presenting a paper at an academic conference for the first time. My long term goal is to get a PhD in Anthropology. </font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> I am also an unschooling mother of two.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Read more at the <em>Live Free Learn Free</em> Website: <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/13Ellis.html">Learning Together</a></font></p></blockquote> <p>and</p> <blockquote><p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="3">Abundance<br /> </font></strong><font size="3"> <em><font size="2">by Mary Thomas Draper </font></em></font></font></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Whenever my husband tells me I am crazy, I know I am on to something. One day last November I told him about a family that lived in a cabin in the woods on $500 a year. I imagined their lives to be particularly rich without any of the material trappings. The thought of raising our young son close to nature with the full attention of both of his parents seemed ideal to me. No distractions. The focus could be on what is essential in life.</font></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Read more at the <em>Live Free Learn Free</em> website: <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/13Draper.html">Abundance</a></font></p></blockquote> <p>Browse through articles from each of the back issues at the <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/UR/General/LFLF_Articles.htm">LFLF Articles page</a>. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/24/2-articles-uploaded/#respond" title="Comment on 2 New Articles Uploaded">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-223"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/06/kenzies-christmas-in-photos/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Kenzie’s Christmas in Photos">Kenzie’s Christmas in Photos</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> January 6th, 2007 at 6:30 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>These were all taken by my brother Sean with his new camera.</p> <p><img alt="Kenzie-close-up.jpg" id="image227" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Kenzie-close-up.jpg" /></p> <p>I just had to put this one in. We’re at my parents’ house opening presents, and Sean snapped this close-up.</p> <p><img alt="Kenzie-with-guitar.jpg" id="image228" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Kenzie-with-guitar.jpg" /></p> <p>Kenzie next to the new guitar my parents got for him. It’s sooo much better than the old toy guitar he has. We have several that are full-sized, but he’s simply too small to be able to play them, yet.</p> <p><img alt="Kenzie-with-wand.jpg" id="image229" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Kenzie-with-wand.jpg" /></p> <p>Ah, another present from his grandparents. This is the wand that came in a wand-making kit. He’s been casting spells left and right since Christmas.</p> <p><img alt="Terry-and-video-game.jpg" id="image230" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Terry-and-video-game.jpg" /></p> <p>From my parents’ house, we drove to Arlington (Texas), like we do every year, to be with extended family. Here’s Terry (and me) checking out the new arcade console in my my Aunt and Uncle’s gameroom. This thing was amazing! There were dozens of vintage games, all free to play. Terry got caught up playing Galaga. My mother spent a while trying to get Frogger across the street. I tried my hand at a billiards game, but was fairly unsuccessful. Good thing it didn’t cost a quarter!</p> <p><img alt="Jerry-playing-shuffleboard.jpg" id="image224" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Jerry-playing-shuffleboard.jpg" /></p> <p>Here’s my father playing shuffleboard in the game room. He and Sean got quite good at it!</p> <p><img alt="Kenzie-and-Mimi.jpg" id="image226" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Kenzie-and-Mimi.jpg" /></p> <p>Here’s Kenzie with my grandmother, Mimi. She and I had the loveliest conversation that day. She’s in her nineties, and spunky as ever. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/06/kenzies-christmas-in-photos/#respond" title="Comment on Kenzie's Christmas in Photos">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-219"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/12/24/visiting-santa/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Visiting Santa">Visiting Santa</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> December 24th, 2006 at 1:49 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>Kenzie went to see Santa the other day. We made sure to go before school let out for winter break, so the line wasn’t too terrible. Of course, while we stood there, next to several other children, looking at the cheesy, lifeless mall decorations and listening to the musack, Kenzie decided to start singing passages from his new favorite Christmas song, “The Pretty Little Dolly” by Mona Abboud.</p> <p>Spoken:<em>“Dear Santa Claus - My mommy and daddy said that if I was very good I could have whatever I wanted for Christmas. Well, I would like a DOLLY for Christmas. It is a very special dolly. I saw it advertised on television. In case you don’t know which dolly I mean, I will try to describe it to you.”</em></p> <p><em>The pretty little dolly can sit<br /> The pretty little dolly can stand<br /> She will even walk around the room<br /> If you take her hand!</em></p> <p><em>The pretty little dolly can turn<br /> The pretty little dolly can dance<br /> If you feed her water through a tube<br /> She’ll wet her pants!</em></p> <p><em>Close to fires<br /> She perspires<br /> If you give her a playful squeeze<br /> She will cough and belch and sneeze!</em></p> <p><em>Oh, the pretty little dolly’s so cute!<br /> The pretty little dolly’s so REAL!<br /> If you take her out into the sun, she burns<br /> And three days later she’ll peel!</em></p> <p><em>The pretty little dolly can sing<br /> The pretty little dolly can shout<br /> Hold her footsies high above her head<br /> And she passes out!</em></p> <p><em>The pretty little dolly can plead<br /> The pretty little dolly can beg<br /> And she screams in realistic pain<br /> When you break her leg!</em></p> <p><em>Heavy drinking<br /> Gets her stinking<br /> On her back you can turn a key<br /> And she goes through puberty!</em></p> <p><em>Oh, the pretty little dolly can wail<br /> The pretty little dolly can cry<br /> If you put a plastic bag around her head<br /> She’ll choke, turn purple, and DIE!</em></p> <p><em>So Santa.. remember your part…<br /> Don’t break a little girl’s heart…<br /> Don’t forget this Christmas the pretty little dolly<br /> Is the present you must leave<br /> Remember that, fat boy<br /> BRING THAT KID if you wanna see New Year’s eve!</em></p> <p>Needless to say, the children and parents around us got quite an earful. I’m fairly certain he also sang a few verses from Weird Al’s “Christmas at Ground Zero,” and I seem to recall discussing my favorite, “Let’s Have a Drug Free Christmas” by Tim Cavanagh. It wasn’t until we finished and were hunting for an Icee that it hit me: the people in line must have thought we were nuts! Thinking about it still makes me laugh.</p> <p>Anyway, while we didn’t buy the standard Santa photos ($25 per 8.5×11 sheet!), we did get a few good digital camera shots. These are my favorites:</p> <p><img alt="Kenzie-with-Santa.jpg" id="image218" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Kenzie-with-Santa.jpg" /></p> <p><img id="image220" alt="Kenzie-with-Santa-2.jpg" src="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Kenzie-with-Santa-2.jpg" /></p> <p>He asked Santa for books - lots of books: Greek mythology, Egyptian history, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Santa promised to deliver. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/12/24/visiting-santa/#comments" title="Comment on Visiting Santa">1 Comments</a> </p> </div> <p> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/"></a><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/page/3/">« Previous entries</a> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/"></a> · <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/page/3/"></a> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/">Next entries »</a><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/page/3/"></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>