Monday, January 12, 2009

Ohio Caverns


Last week I took the girls to the Ohio Caverns. Caitlin has recently become interested in crystals and rocks. The caverns are about 2 hours away in Liberty, OH. Just a little bit past Springfield. There was a 45 minute, mile long tour which turned out to be private since we were the only visitors for that one. The girls seemed to enjoy it. It's not every day you get to walk around under the ground. It's deepest point is 100 feet below ground level.

On the way home we made an important discovery. Steak and Shake has a happy hour!!! We ordered 3 large chocolate shakes and I was ready to hand over my 9 dollars when the guy opened the window and asked for a much smaller amount. I thought maybe he didn't hear my order right and that's when he told us it was 50% off because of happy hour. Now that's a happy hour I can get excited about.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Caitlin's Drawings


































Caitlin creates really cool pictures in MS Paint. They are inspired by characters in her Warriors books and stories she is writing. She wants a graphics tablet for Christmas so she can test out her drawing skills using a tablet instead of a mouse. I'm not sure if I need to get her a better software package to make her drawings. We tried Corel Painter X but it was too complicated.
























































Monday, December 1, 2008

She Devoured It!!

Caitlin finished the latest Warriors book in one day (all 300+ pages). Luckily the Romeo Crumb books that I had ordered off Amazon came the day before Thanksgiving so she wasn't too terribly bored at her Uncle Ron's house. Ron lives in the middle of nowhere, IN and doesn't have wireless or even high speed internet access. A whole day without internet access is torture for Caitlin. I wish she could get used to the laptop so she could at least write when we don't have internet access. Uncle Ron gave her the first two Harry Potter books which I've been trying to get her interested in reading. I might read them too!!


Tuesday, November 25, 2008

New Warriors Book!!!


Tomorrow morning we're headed to Borders to buy the latest Warriors book. Caitlin is a fanatic and owns every book. She started reading them a little over a year ago when we first started unschooling. At first we read them together because they were a little challenging but before the end of the first chapter she was off reading them by herself. She always knows exactly when the next book is being released and begs me to take her to Borders that morning to purchase it. What mother can say no to that? These books have done a lot to teach Caitlin grammar and vocabulary.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

A New Format


This blog will now contain fun stuff about our school days. I guess it could be not so fun stuff too but we probably won't want to share that stuff. I won't spend a lot of time talking about unschooling. If you're curious you can google it. I decided to unschool a little over a year ago when I realized that Caitlin was learning like crazy with little or no help from me. Left to her own devices she was learning about everything that was interesting to her. When we did traditional school she often felt frustrated and bored.


Caitlin spends a lot of time writing, reading, drawing, and playing on the computer. She has dabbled in acting but isn't really passionate about it. Most things involving large groups of people stress her out so she keeps to herself most days. She does like hanging out with friends occasionally. Cats are her passion and that's what she writes and draws about. Writing and reading have done wonders for her grammar, vocabulary, and reading level. She loves the Warrior books and also enjoyed the Twilight series. I spend tons of time scoping out new cat books to keep her reading. When I have more time I will supply her reading list.



Shannon is a photographer and plans to study that after she finishes high school. She isn't sure whether that will involve college or art school. Right now she's very passionate about her youth group at St. Clair Ave. Baptist Church. She's a youth leader and heads up the drama team. Thankfully she had some really good youth pastors that valued her gifts and talents enough to encourage her to become a leader. Shannon has a beautiful singing voice too but so far we haven't found the right place to use that gift. She's a good actor too and has been in a few shows at the Fairfield Community Arts Center. Don't mention Saxon math around her or she just might stab you.


Stay tuned for more on our learning adventures.