As Keilee gets older we get more ‘unschooley’. Do you like that word I just made up? 🙂 I have talked to many of you about the fact that I get ‘freaked’ out at times with the ‘oh my gosh what if she doesn’t know this or that’, but those moments are coming further and farther apart.
She is so passionate about so many things that I don’t worry.† Now she isn’t passionate about every.single.thing but really….how many times have you ever had to diagram a sentence since school?
I am a firm believer that in this world we live in, this world with instant access to anything in the entire world you want to know literally at [or under] your fingertips, I shouldn’t sweat the little things.† Want to learn to knit? fish? make a cake? do an algebraic equation? quilt? learn about force and motion?† Battle of Gettysburg?† Quantum Physics? make butter? Calculus?† Go to YouTube, or TED talks, or Khan Academy or Google it.† I will bet you within 5 minutes you will be exactly where you need to be to learn ANYTHING.† You can go as deep as you want into the Rabbit hole.
So…here is where her rabbit holes led us this week…..
Cupcakes in Co-op class:
She finished Book 2 of the series she is reading.† She LOVES these books.† I grabbed the rest of the series on the iPad at this site.† Free.
She made a video with Video Star using “Castle on the Cloud” from Les Miserables.† This was her look for ‘the lady all in white’, I didn’t take a picture of her as Cosette.
Here is the Video:
She got this book from Amazon.† It has been in my Cart for 8 months…at least.† It wasn’t the cheapest book, but it is glorious for my animal loving girl.† She was giddy.† She has spent hours and hours reading and sharing information with me.
She decided to do a poster on Animals after seeing the awesome poster that Lauren, Susan’s daughter over at “Learning All the Time” did.
She got contacts this week!† The first of January she learned that she needed glasses all the time.† She has noticed a huge difference with and without them so I told her I would get her contacts.† I remember getting them when I was 15.† I wanted them so badly.† She went, got fitted and has worn them every day with zero problem.† I am so proud of her.
She decided to make a report on New York City which morphed in New York in general.† She did the poster and then made a Power Point presentation on the iPad.
Here are some shots from the PP presentation [For some reason I had her ‘decorated’ hand in both collages…oh well. 🙂
She also called 2 Vet clinics about volunteering.† Then she sat down and wrote a letter to one of the doctors about why she wanted to volunteer.† She is so passionate about animals.† I don’t think I had passions at 13.
We met friends for dinner since one of our friends is moving to Texas for a few months. Keilee had to ham it up when she saw this man!
We threw our pumpkins outside to see if they will decompose and maybe we will have pumpkins next year.† They just now started decomposing!† And even then Keilee had to knock them with a brick to get them going.
Keilee is in a play, Father of the Bride.† She has a small role but the character is SO cute.† She gets to use a very thick stereotypical New Jersey accent and it should be really funny.† [Not like your lovely accent Theresa ;)]
1. Father of the Bride
2. Animal book
3. Cupcakes Keilee made for our church staff on Baptism Sunday.
What we are watching on Netflix/ Streaming and DVD’s
1. The Mentalist, Season 4 [I LOVE Patrick Jane.† LOVE HIM]
2. Dog Decoded: Nova
3. National Geographic Explorer/25 Years
4. Animal Atlas – Animal Mysteries
Apps we are playing:
1.† Backgammon [We have spent many an hour playing this game.† I was so glad to teach††† Kei how to play]
2.† Family Feud& Friends[Thanks Jenn!]
3. Line Runner [I STINK at this, Kei isn’t that much better :)]
4.† Geared HD
5. Starry Sky [Very fun and educational, Kei is MUCH better at this than I am]
6.† Ruzzle
7. Bad Piggies
8. IDaft
9. Vine [A word about Vine, it is all the rage and it has great potential but it needs work.† It is made by Twitter and basically similar to Instagram but you post 6 second videos.† The problem is there is NO blocking and there is Porn on there.† I have a feeling they will be making changes very soon and Keilee does have an account but she is never allowed on there unless I check it first to see what the ‘Activity’ has been.† I am HomeschoolGirls and she is Keilee
So all in all a great week for us both.† I am so ready for Spring even though we didn’t get snow.† I wouldn’t mind one little snow, around 4″, that lasts about 24 hours.† 🙂
Hope your week has been awesome,
Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”† The Matrix
Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
So, I read this last week but never had a chance to comment:/
Just wanted to say that you girls are amazing!
I love all the creative, hands-on, interest led learning y’all accomplished. And the best part is that Kei seems so happy and engaged in her learning. That just makes it all worthwhile, doesn’t it?!
The animal book is amazing- I should look into it for Molly. And writing letters to the vet’s office to request an opportunity to volunteer is awesome! I do hope it works out for her:)
@ Karen: OK, just a little embarrassed, but she was a VERY good lip-syncer then!! 🙂
P.S. Although I no longer homeschool, I find MYSELF traveling through those rabbit holes! I love learning so much and there are just never enough hours in the day. But, no, I wasn’t like this as a child. I wish I could bottle it up and pass it around!
Enjoy learning!
What a wonderful week! And, how wonderful that your daughter is so passionate. It sounds like you two are living a wonderful life!
As far as animals, my daughter LOVES them, too! She has since she was very little and has never wanted to be anything but a vet… just like my sister… both in the fact that she LOVED animals when she was young & she is now a vet! My daughter has got to volunteer with her several times and would more often if we lived closer.
And, thanks for sharing the music video again! It’s wonderful! The firt time I saw one of these was on your blog and now my daughter loves making videos, too!
Awesome post, Karen! You and Kei are so inspiring. I can’t wait to hear how things go with the vet clinics.
Looks like a great week and some wonderful passions to pursue. The video is great. I totally agree with your thoughts about instant knowledge through the internet and we shouldn’t worry so much about gaps in our children’s education. Anything they want to know they can find. Learning the basics and letting them pursue their passions wiill get them far.
Blessings
Diane
It’s so funny because I feel like we’ve gone the other way – from very unschooly to more curriculum based, while still unschooly. That is to say that Davan does Rosetta Stone and writes reports and does Life of Fred now where she used to just read, play games and learn by osmosis, it seems. Of course, as she’s the one choosing to do these things, it’s still unschool.
I loved the videos. Thanks for sharing!
I hope that report on NYC has made you want to come visit us soon!! Road trip in your near future???? hmmmm???
I was thinking about Keilee this week. One of the girls in our new co-op is named Scout after Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and I was thinking that I should get my girls to read that soon. Then I was thinking how Keilee knows all of these great literary works because of her theater! What an awesome way to learn!! I think you have nothing at all to worry about!!
Our co-op is really changing me BIG TIME. Most of the families are very interest-led and we have these long talks about how you can look up anything on your iphone it’s not important to memorize facts anymore…it’s a way of thinking, a way of being creative that is important!
I love how your dd has passions and drive to explore them. I wish my kids were more driven to learn new things. It seems like when I leave them to their own devices they play with legos, outside and on computer games. I would love it if you did a post on how you guided her to do projects and learn new activities.
Blessings, Dawn
Just Wow! Your daughter’s work, passion and creativity never cease to amaze me. Can she come and rub elbows with my kids? lol. 🙂 I truly love the posters, videos and cupcakes. I love seeing your posts. Have a wonderful weekend! Many blessings, Lisa
@ Joan:
She is lip syncing. Video Star only lets you lip sync. She was grinning when she heard she thought it was her. She WISHES she sang like that. 🙂
This looks like an awesome week!! Jenna and I just watched Keilee’s Castle on the Cloud video..great 🙂 And, I am going to show Lauren Keilee’s animal poster…so cool! Jenna clapped when she saw it!
I completely and totally agree with you about the rabbit hole/unschooly stuff 😀 (btw, I can’t remember a single time I’ve had to diagram a sentence!!!)
To be clear, I’m not being dumb – that IS Kei singing, right? Or is she lip-syncing?
You ladies have had an awesome week! I love Keilee’s poster – and her video!! My word, I’m blown away at her talent. Videos of me singing (were there any allowed to exist) would potentially frighten babies and set dogs howling!! 😉
You have the best resources, Karen. I SO admire Kei’s drive and determination to learn things. You have done something right, that is FOR SURE. Thanks for the link to the site with the free ebooks. Excellent!
So glad we are friends. One day I will meet you in person 🙂
It looks like it was a perfect school week to me! Kei’s animal poster really reminds me of our Zoo studies this week. I hope to show some of the boys’ work they have done on them in a week or so. It is a delight to see your weekly wrap-up posts.