New yarn and unschooling/child-directed learning

First things first...new yarn!! Isn't it all gorgeous?! As some of you may have read, I mentioned in my last post that I was struggling with trying to find sock yarn for the many sock recipients at my house. A wonderful, gracious friend from our knitting group supplied me with this wonderful bounty of sock yarn! My mom and I went to visit June yesterday and had a wonderful time. We knitted and talked spinning and yarn for a couple of hours. Is there anything better?! It almost made up for us missing knitting group at B&N this week. Ladies, we missed you all so much!The only problem I am facing now is, I want all this great yarn for myself! LOL You will be seeing projects from this yarn very soon I am sure.

Speaking of which, I am motoring along with my legwarmers, trying to be able to use some pretty yarn for another project. I know it's not very appreciative of me, but I am tired of this
plain blue yarn...Anyway, I worked on these all last night during a movie (Errol Flynn's Robin Hood) and I think I have made some headway.
It feels like I am getting nowhere on this project after doing a couple of pairs of socks! After discovering that the ribbing at the top of these was too big, I was despairing of ever getting them to fit right...Lo and behold, my mom came to my rescue in suggesting that I just make the existing ribbing be at the bottom instead. What a great idea! I don't know why, but it had never even entered my mind...As you cans see, I am still working on my thinking-out-of-the-box skills :)

So, onto the non-knitting part of my life (is there such a thing? LOL), we have been busy with our homeschooling activities this week. We went with our history club to Greenville, KY on a field trip to learn about coal mining. We had a good time, and I think the littles all learned a lot.
As you may already know, our homeschooling style runs toward unschooling. If you don't know what unschooling is, here's a brief description- Unschooling is really child-directed learning in which the child follows their own interests, learning what they are interested in! We direct the interests of our littles, but we don't put age limits or grade limits on them...basically allowing them to focus on anything they want. It's so amazing how this works, because you would assume that children would naturally shy away from educational activities but the opposite is actually true! We have them picking up their math workbooks all by themselves, they play with the
globe, they quiz each other on math facts or music notes all on their own. In short, they learn what they need to, but on their own timetable, when they have a desire to learn it- therefore, they remember what they learn. It's not traditional, but it works for us and I love it. I wanted to share this great example of a project that Kelsey (9 yrs.) did while "playing" :) We try to make all the resources available for them to use, then let them use them at will. It's amazing how much a child learns while they are having fun! I have another blog that has resources for unschooling that we have found including websites, books, movies, etc. I am slowly adding to it as I come across things that we use and enjoy. Anyway, that's a part of our lives that you are now a part of! :)


I have to share this adorable picture of my mom's chihuahua, Bisou...he happens to be in Bailey's bed and it's way too big for him! LOL Isn't he the cutest?!