Goodbye details, hello highlights

Well, I think I'll revise my plan to quit tracking our unschooling.  I'm not going to count and log days in detail anymore, because I was spending too much time on it.  I'm going with highlights instead.

From tracking the days in detail, I've come to the conclusion that we are learning every day, and we are learning enough to count as a "school day" almost every day.  If we keep going at the same rate, we will have at least 240 "school days" by the end of June, when only 180 are required.  And, we probably won't keep going at the same rate, since we'll do more once summer is over and the neighbors are back in school.

But, although I feel like I should spend less time on it, I am liking having a log, so instead of counting days and making a detailed log, I'll just track the highlights.  You can assume we're still doing all the other stuff we do too.

Highlight from yesterday:  quillwork from Schwenkfelder Camp.  They're fish and bubbles with some seaweed.  Did you know Pennsylvania had the first paper factory in the colonies?

Also, make your own candy dots.  Unfortunately, the kit contained the wrong set of instructions, so we had to guess at the procedure and water/powder ratios.  Still fun.

One final highlight from yesterday.  Jane started reading this book, by her own free will.  Unschool win!

End of blog experiment

Well, I think I'm tired of trying to keep up with tracking our progress, so I'm going to stop!  I think this is a new blogging longevity record for me, though!  Thanks for reading!

Day 31/180: Early Pennsylvania History and Folk Music

Another four day camp at the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center started yesterday.  The topic for this week is Early Pennsylvania History and Folk Music.  After 40 minutes of reading in the car on the way there, Jane and the other campers were greeted with a selection of stone tools from the museum collections to examine.  I heard the word quartz, and learned from Jane that there were arrowheads, knives, axes, and more.  The topic of the first day was Native Americans.  They had popcorn for a snack, with no butter, just salt, Native American style, and Jane came home with a beaded necklace.  I am sure I will learn more when her folder comes home at the end of the week.  At pick up time, they were on to the Folk Music portion of the day.  Each camper brought an instrument if they played one, or, if not, were assigned a drum or triangle.  I heard Go Tell Aunt Rhody, and a few others while I waited.

Jane playing her ukulele, while the teacher leads on the violin.

Here, she takes a turn on the drum.  Earlier, she had a turn on the triangle.

After camp, reading on the way home, lunch, and swimming and outdoor play with the neighbors.  Then, a documentary on the Raft of El Dorado, a bit of theoretical physics on YouTube, ukulele, Little Women, and So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.

Day 30/180: Bead loom, Granite, Potions, and Pen pal

I'm catching up from the days my laptop was drying out from the latte spillage.  Monday morning, Jane brought out her bead loom and started working on a Christmas bracelet.

Fine motor skills

Then, she had a good amount of reading time on the way to a granite warehouse where we learned about choosing countertops and sinks, and about the process involved in templating and installing granite countertops.

For the kitchen?

For the bathroom?

Afterwards, we finally got around to testing a potion from her Muse magazine.  It didn't work, unfortunately.  The snail did not turn into an allicorn.  Note, the snail was not harmed in the attempt.  The snail perished before the experiment occurred.  Another note, we did not mean to kidnap the snail, it hitchhiked home from the creek on Jane's shirt.  We did our best to provide it with an adequate habitat, and it did survive for about two weeks.  But, it did not transform into an allicorn when the potion was applied.  Moral of the story:  even in a science magazine, you can't believe everything you read.

The recipe

Measuring

Mixing

Perhaps the snail didn't transform because it was already dead.  So, we tried a live subject.

She did not turn into an allicorn either.

Then, a letter to her pen pal, and some swimming and outdoor play time.

Followed by ukuleles, Little Women, and the end of the current Hitchhikers book.  They are now on to So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

Day 29/180: Wildwood and Splash Zone

I'm a couple days behind due to a latte on laptop incident.  Sunday, we learned about waterparks, the boardwalk, and the beach, with the added bonus of four hours of independent chapter book reading in the car.

Giant raft ride

The raft did not stay horizontal

Lazy river

Jane is now tall enough for ever ride at this waterpark!  She even did the Flow Rider, although we didn't get a photo.

Sunday morning = no lines = lots of raft rides, and tube slides, and all the slides

Lunch break

Churro and cheese sticks for Jane

She's heard how much she loved churros as a baby, now she knows what a churro is

Jackpot on the goldfish game - there's math here

Chasing seagulls while we set up

Seagulls taken care off, time for boogie boarding

And now, Jane will try her first atomic fire ball

Then, back to the waterpark to finish off the day, and two hours of reading on the way home.  She read the books from Saturday's used book store visit, Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life, and something else I'm having a hard time remembering right now.

Day 28/180: Contraption Parts, Mono Screenprinting, Better Living Through Chemistry, and Boaty McBoatface

Saturday began with a trip to Microcenter to pick up parts for a contraption.  The contraption with sense light in Jane's room at 9:00.  If the lamp is on, it will remind her to turn it off, and sing her a lullaby.  Ben and Jane are going to build it together.

Parts

We picked up the parts on the way to Second State Press for their Second Sunday family printmaking.  This week was mono-screenprinting structures.

The instructor explaining and demonstrating the technique.  Pre-prepared screens + watercolor crayons and pencils + ink = mono screenprinting

First, drawing on the screen with watercolor pencil

Then, coloring with watercolor crayon

Inking

Inking a little more

Ta da!

Adding more details after it dries

Killing some time

Olden days ice cream transport

Chemical Heritage Foundation museum - colors and dyes

TV commericals from the 1950s and 1960s - Better living through chemistry.  So many amazing new products, in so many amazing new colors, all from petroleum byproducts!  Yay!

Interactive periodic table - Hydrogen is flammable!

Atoms are like fairies

Chemist Jane

It may be unstable

Grand staircase

Grand air conditioning

Supper on a ship

Giant connect four

Good bye ship.  Note, the ship wasn't really Boaty McBoatface, but it was named Moshulu by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, before it became a restaurant.

On the way to screenprinting, Jane read six comic books, two of which were non-fiction history, so we also had to stop at a used bookstore to get her three new chapter books, which she started reading on the way home.