jumping in

We usually go our own way.  Do our own thing. Our connections with other home schooling and unschooling families in our city is friendly & light but seldom in person.  

Last month one of our fellow off trail adventurers sent us an invite to join an FB group for teens... so we met up with them at a local trampoline park.  

We couldn't stay as long as the group but Beach had a good time.  Played dodge ball even won a round or two.  

Thanks for the outing! Hope to see you all next time.  

stem, drinking straw roller coaster

weekending early November

grandma julie day and the gym shirt blanket

We call it Grandma Julie day. The day my parents (when they aren't traveling) come and pick Beach up to give me a "day off".  It started when Beach began homeschooling and I think we all believed she would outgrow it by now. Well, all of except for my dad who thought I would grow homeschooling.

What we failed to count in is how amazing and dynamic my mom is. On the days Beach is with my parents... I don't really know how to say this.... it's as if she steps back in time into my own childhood. Back to a home full of sunshine and attention.  

But it's not just a day off from school and chores for her. It's not just a day of getting to eat white bread and ice cream while watching old cartoons. She learns a lot hanging out in the world of my parents.  

Yesterday I sent Beach off with an armload of gym t-shirts and an idea about sewing a blanket. I thought maybe they would get as far as cutting most of them into squares but no, she was returned to me with an upcycled old gym shirt quilt ready for the backing.    

My mom is awesome. 

child of mine

Inside my photo folder on my computer's desktop is a folder titled: child of mine.  As you would expect it contains pics of Beach and her siblings, most of which I have taken.  I am our family's historian.  I am the whole documentary crew chasing after them.  

If you think the older ones got off easier than Beach with less of their life captured on film you'd be wrong.  I have volumes of photo and scrapbooks on them.

Beach, of course, is the one who won't be satisfied with my view being the only one on record of her world. As always she sees things in her own way. This new camera is turning out to be very much like the transition from glasses to contacts.  Suddenly what she has dreamed to be out there, what is possible comes into view.

And the little kid with "bad" eyes shows us a new way to see the world.

  [photos by E. Beach Ries]

Halloween 2016