I'll Be Seeing You

In some new unfamiliar places. I've been getting around lately, and haven't told you about my adventures.

Eren, our favorite Vintage Chica, interviewed me for her Summer Unschooling series.


Helen, purveyor of Homeschool Style Bytes, shared my recipe for homeschooling.



Kelly, of The Misadventures of Kelly and Kelly, interviewed me about sewing.


And finally, our local magazine for parents, Sacramento Parent, published my article about unschooling, in which I share my recent interview with Mary Griffith, author of The Unschooling Handbook.

Also in the Sacramento Parent magazine this month is an article on the class size increase here in California (have you heard we have no money?), written by Lisa of Paper Cup Poet. She asked me what we're doing in response to the school crisis:

Molly Dunham, a mother of two who lives in Auburn, joined her neighbor in creating a math and science club for their neighborhood kids (ages 4-11) when he saw less-than-challenging lessons coming home from his children’s school. Their first project involved hatching 1,000 turkey eggs. “We charted how many were hens and how many were toms. At the end we graphed the results on the computer and printed out a bell curve, then discussed probability.” At their second meeting, the group built a geodesic dome out of newspaper. “The kids worked together, rolling up newspaper into tubes, taping the tubes together… it was a blast!”

My neighbor and I hatched the math and science club idea a few months ago. He hosted the first meeting back in May, and yes, we hatched 1000 turkey eggs. By turkey eggs I mean flipped coins, heads = hens, tails = toms. We put ten coins in a clear plastic container with a lid (taped on), put the ten children in five pairs, and had each pair flip the container of coins 20 times and record the results. Five pairs x ten coins x 20 times = 1000 coin flips.

My neighbor set up a spread sheet and had the two oldest kids in our group enter the results. He then generated a bar graph, and sure enough, it was a bell curve. It was also a great way to introduce probability in a hands on, visual way.

Our next math and science club meeting was also quite visual and hands-on. We made a geodesic dome out of newspaper.





This project involved problem solving and cooperation, as well as A LOT of newspaper. The kids and I will definitely do this project again.



Our neighborhood group has met five times so far, and we've done some amazing projects. I've learned quite a bit myself. I planned on sharing the rest of our activities with you this week, but we received an unexpected invitation to go camping tomorrow. So instead, you'll be seeing me next week.



I've started my Summer Lovin' link list on the right hand side bar, and will continue to fill it with fun and frugal activities that we're enjoying this summer. Feel free to share any fun and frugal ideas so that we can try them too!