A Picture of unSchool Our Way....

I don't often share daily happenings in our lives with y'all, but I thought it would be fun to share what we are working on in unschool this week.

Alea got a book for her birthday about a young Christian girl who lived during the Depression. She loves those fictional historical diaries. It has a chart in it that details the cost of several items during the 1920's. So we decided to do a comparison of the price of living during the 1920's and today. So first we designed a spreadsheet. Kasi and Alea both got to learn how to design a chart and practiced on the computer designing their own spreadsheets using Microsoft Works. I think we now have in progress a spreadsheet of their Build-a-Bears, and how many shirts, shoes, etc, each of their two animals have. Then we headed into town to spend the day travelling to MANY stores to check on current costs. The chart had food, clothes, appliances, toys, vehicles, and even items such as the movies or a travelling circus, and private music lessons. We should be finishing our charts today. Maybe I will post them next week. It has been quite fun and very informative.

The girls reached their 30 book reward level a couple of weeks ago, but I have not been feeling great, so we have been holding off. Their reward for reading 30 books was a trip to Dan Nicholas Park to do the 'gem mine' and play in the water fountain park they have there. The gem mine is really cool. You are given a bucket of sand with various unfinished 'gems' which you take down to the flume and get to pan for your own gems. They give you a chart for identifying your new treasures. You can even have them polished and made into jewelry.

Alea and Kasi helped me with chores, learning to sort and spray laundry, and what is washed in warm and cold. We were actually trying to stall so that we could head out after lunch time for a surprise visit to Daddy at work. The girls made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, we loaded the van with our lunch, and we surprised Daddy at work. We told him we stopped by to kidnap him and take him with us to the park. He did not resist. We all had a wonderful time panning for gems and then Daddy and I sat in the shade watching the girls play in the water. Ah, the life. We hated to have to leave.

After we got home and ate supper, the girls and I finished out the day by making coconut, blueberry, banana bread following a recipe I found at the Hungry Housewife blog. Yummy! We made one change though - substituting honey for half of the sugar. And I don't think that I reduced the liquid by quite enough to compensate for the change since they kind of sunk. But they are delicious. And honey makes them moist, and adds nutrients. Kasi and Alea each made three mini loaves, so we are going to be swimming in sweetness this weekend.

Well, today we are finishing up our spreadsheets and heading to the library. Tootles! Hope you enjoy the slideshow.