I also thought it was worth mentioning that all throughout the day today, E. kept saying, "I was wondering why.... or I was thinking about.... or I wonder if...." Even Big Daddy caught onto it. Perhaps she felt "heard" today and knew that if she wanted to know things that she just had to ask and we would be there to help her learn about whatever interests her.

I can already feel myself becoming more "in-tune" with the girls. It's nice.

So THIS is how unschooling works. I spent all night reading up on it, fretting about it, and wondering how in the world it works. Big Daddy asked me if I had a plan for tomorrow. I listed several cool projects I wanted to do with the girls and went to sleep. Well, NONE of those plans happened today. But I pushed those plans aside and followed their lead. I'm so glad that I did.

I woke up to the sound of E. hissing like a snake. "I'm a snake mommy!," she said. "I'm a nice snake, not the kind that will hurt you." We played mean snake/nice snake for a while and then I remembered that we had several books on reptiles. I pulled them out and she was so excited. We laughed at the pictures. Several times I would try to read some of the words about the snakes/reptiles or try to read their names. She had a little patience for this, but I tried desperately not to push it. A. must have heard us laughing and oowing and awwing over the pictures because soon she woke up and joined us on the couch looking at pictures. "Daddy told me (such and such) about this snake. At camp they caught this kind of snake. It's the most poisonous in N. America. Did you know that the constrictors are the longest snakes." Wow! How in the world did she know all of this. Where did she pick up such a plethora of info on the reptile world? She wanted to know more about each snake and E. obliged.

I asked E. what letter snake starts with and told her about the letter S. We traced them on her leg, saw snakes in our reptile books that were making the S shape and talked about how snakes even make the S sound... hisssss. She didn't want to try writing the letter S on paper so I didn' push it.

We got out playdough and made little snake families. I put scales and little details on mine and coiled it up like a constrictor. The kids weren't interested in making detailed snakes or identifying them... just wanted to be creative and invent their own snakes. I didn't push.

A. tired of that and decided to try some finger knitting. She still only lasted 5 minutes, but she did it on her own accord and enjoyed it for the time it lasted. Maybe one day I'll look in her room and see her finishing up a whole scarf.

We moved their bookshelf into their room and the girls played library.

E. brought out her Bible picture book to me and asked me to read the story about Moses and the Red Sea.

We designed a snow motif shelf for their collection of snow babies that Great Grandmother gave us. A. wanted elevation so she used some white plastic bowls to elevate some of them.

A. asked me if snakes have ears. I didn't know so we went straight to the internet. Thank goodness for the internet! We checked out a site with a diagram of the internal organs of a snake and read that a snake has no outside ears, but the do hear sound through internal ear holes that register the vibration of sound. We learned a few other cool facts, but scrolled down to the bottom of the page to find this picture of conjoined snakes.



We read some interesting facts about them. A and E. were blown away by this and couldn't believe that it was real. And then I showed them a clip on Youtube about these conjoined twins.



They were mesmerized. We talked about the implications of being a conjoined twin and VERY lightly touched on how they got that way. They asked interesting questions and thought very critically about the difficulties and benefits of being a conjoined twin.

On our way out to the reptile store today a neighbor actually came to our house and asked Big Daddy to take a lizard from out of her washer. It seems that the lizard went for a swim while she did her wash and now she was too afraid to handle the lizard and wanted Big Daddy to help. The girls were all over this. E. (who is fearless when it comes to lizards and frogs... much more so then A.), picked him up and carried him home. We put him in a jar with holes and A. gathered some materials to make his home "cozy" (she is always nesting:). It was odd that today, of all days, our neighbor would come over with a lizard problem... just the same day that we were studying reptiles. Really. How often does that happen? I may be overdoing it, but it just felt like a sign from God that we are going in the right direction... that I should trust Him to provide wonderful opportunities along the way and that He will make sure that they learn all that He intends for them to learn.

We went to the reptile store and saw some really cool bearded dragons, a ball python and different kinds of geckos. We saw the lady feeding the lizards crickets. They were amazed that their tongues stuck out so far and grabbed a hold of the cricket.

I will admit that they tired of it fast and spent most of their time petting the cat that lived at the store:) I didn't push it (although, I wanted too:). We bought some small crickets for our new pet lizard.

On the way home I stopped by an Education store to pick up an item that I had ordered. The girls went to a Fish store next door and came back telling me about the very cool puffer fish. I'm thinking frequent trips to pet stores and zoos will keep their interest up in learning about all kinds of creatures.

When we got home the girls played happily outside until A. decided to let our pet lizard go into the wild. Why she did this I have no idea. E. was so upset about this. She cried hysterically for a very long time. I put A. in her bed for a time out for doing it. She didn't consult the rest of the family before she made the decision and needed some time to think about her actions. She felt terrible about it once she realized how upset E. was. She made E. a picture of the lizard. She DID actually write on the card. It wasn't much, but I was thrilled to see her writing!

Before dinner we broke out the new "toy" I got from the Education store. It's attribute blocks that form patterns and/or make pictures. E. tried it a few times, but grew frustrated easily. She soon wanted to get rid of the picture pattern and do her "own thing." A. never did use any of the picture patterns and insisted on during her own thing to. The old Mommy would have insisted that they do the puzzle until they completed it. Not this time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they both made pretty incredible patterns of their own. It seems that both my girls would prefer to think "outside of the box" and create their own things.

E. brought out a book about idioms, of all things! We read through it and soon A. had joined us. They both really enjoyed this. A. seemed to get a few of them, but E. mostly just liked the funny illustrations. We discussed other popular idioms. Perhaps I should find some more on the internet and print them off. Maybe they would enjoy that. I was glad that we did get some "Language Arts" in today:)

We created snowmen and other "creatures" out of marshmellows tonight. It was suppose to look like this.



I started off giving directions, but soon enough they had their own way of doing things:) E. made a snow monster with many toothpicks hanging from every where. A. made a mama snowman and a baby. Then she drew a house for them to live in and put the baby in a crib. So A! This didn't hold their interest nearly as long as it held mine:)

We read more of our Little House book today. This is starting to not hold their interest anymore. We're almost done. We'll see if they make it to the end.

All in all, it was an exciting day. I felt thrilled to follow them on this journey today and watched it unfold before my eyes in a way that I never could have planned on my own... or if I had, it wouldn't have been half as much fun. I do see how this could get so tiresome, trying to "fan their flames" and follow their rabbit trails. They are energetic and eager little girls... my old, out of shape self is just going to have to learn how to keep up. God give me strength!

It was also neat to notice how they fed off of each other's interests.

A. went to cake decorating class and drama class. She loves these two classes... loves to be creative... loves to imagine.

Rented and watched Felicity. A. noted the way they always talked so politely and formally and started calling me "Mother".

Watched Extreme Makeover home edition. The girls love this. Like helping those in need. E. says when someone's house gets old that she wants to build them a new one... maybe I should look into some kind of architect books... or at least building homes type crafts.

Learned to finger knit. She liked this but her attention span was so small. She started this twice... each time spending only 5 min. each. She LOVED the scarf that I made her and wanted to wear it right away.

Went to Subway. They have Wizards of Waverly Place toys. On the toy they asked a bunch of trivia questions about the show. She got almost every single one right and was so excited. She really absorbs and remembers the things she is interested in and delights at showing that off to others.

E. took off her own clothes and put her own PJs on for the first time... was SO SO SO proud of herself.

We read a couple chapters of Little House Christmas book.

Ended with two books on tape: Cinderella and Fox and the Hound.

A. stayed up for about 30 min. reading her Felicity #2 book. I assumed that I would read these books aloud to her, as I was afraid she couldn't read them on her own. I haven't set any "times" when she HAS to read. In the past, she has begged to ONLY read ONE chapter... didn't want to read more (and these were books that SHE chose and SHE liked... but I made her sit down and read them a little each day.) She read the first Felicity book all in one day and is now nearly done with the second. Hmmm...

No writing today. She needs to write more without me forcing it. Hmmm...