Another big day today...

NT was up early to watch PBS's Cyberchase on angles in bouncing.

The kids listened to Marlo Thomas' Free to Be You and Me while NT played with LEGOs and Lizzy played with the Bright Builders. They raced again on their 2-floor obstacle course and then NT read to me from his book on pet fish while I helped Lizzy get dressed. We discussed the meaning of the word "prone".

Grampy and Maria picked both kids up to go see Disney's The Princess and the Frog and took them to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Maria and NT pored over NT's fish books and Maria told him all about all the fish she used to keep. He really wants a big tank and is saving up. Right now he says he wants guppies.

John left work early so he could join us on our trek down to Honeymoon Creamery, just outside of Red Wing, to pick up the last of our fresh milk until spring. While John and I loaded up the milk, the kids romped around on the farm in the snow with the farm dog and got to see a very cold turkey who "leaked" out of the warm barn out into the snow!

On the way home we drove through the city of Red Wing and the kids commented on what a pretty town it is (especially all lit up and decorated for Christmas!). We decided when it warms up a little we would take a field trip to Red Wing and will check out all the cool places like the famous St. James Hotel and Red Wing pottery. NT was especially interested in the limestone bluffs and we told him how they use dynamite to blast the limestone apart so they can put a road right through a bluff. John showed him how you can see the lines where they drilled to insert the dynamite.

Later we stopped to check out the ski hills at Welch Village (the kids approved and want to ski there sometime this season), and then had burgers and crinkle fries at Wiederholt's in Miesville. There, NT and I read more from his fish books (he wants to do tons of research to get his tank!) and then played hangman while we waited for our food. Meantime, Lizzy played waitress and took John's order with her notebook and pen. NT did an experiment to see if he could numb his taste buds with an ice cube so that he couldn't taste the water in his glass (it tasted like iron). He said it worked.

By the time we passed the Koch refinery it was dark outside and the refinery is stunning with all the lights. The kids don't remember seeing it this way before and were quite impressed. We talked about how they change oil into gasoline for our cars there.

Just before home we stopped at our favorite Christmas light house a few blocks from home. The whole house is decorated with millions of tiny little colored lights that are perfectly synced to music on a special radio station you can turn on in your car. It is really impressive and the kids love it. We can't figure out just how they do it, but one of these years we plan to find out!

John took the kids skiing today at Buck Hill. They are both getting better and better!

Late this afternoon the kids watched the classic 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for the first time, wrestled, and ran their 2-floor obstacle course again.

NT and I read through an entire kid-friendly cookbook and wrote down all the recipes that sounded good to him so we can make a menu for next week that he will not complain about, and we organized his room and culled some of his books.

This evening NT and John had a Cub Scout meeting. They made a collage food pyramid and NT is only 6 beads away from his Tiger Cub Badge!

Tonight NT and John are watching PBS's NOVA on evolution...not sure NT will be able to stay awake for the whole thing, but he is fascinated!

This morning NT tried out a class at Leonardo's Basement where he joined six other boys for a half-day of "building stuff". First he got to take apart an old tape recorder and then he got to design and put together three of his own inventions, including one with a circuit that lit up a Christmas tree light.

Before we left for the class he asked why it was called "Leonardo's Basement" since Leonardo Da Vinci was a famous artist, and he was going to class to build things, not paint things. So while NT was in class, Lizzy and I went to the library and checked out several age-appropriate books on Leonardo Da Vinci.

We looked over the books this afternoon after class and discovered that Da Vinci was also very famous for being an inventor. We read that he lived over 500 years ago and learned about the Renaissance period. We discussed the definition of "ancestors". One of the books even has directions for lots of cool inventions that NT can do mostly on his own...after we collect a few things like cereal boxes and paper towel rolls.

While we were at the library, Lizzy and I discussed the courtesy of walking up and down the right-hand side of the stairway so as not to block others who were going the opposite direction.

This afternoon the kids listened to Marlo Thomas' Free to be You and Me on CD while building with their Magnatiles, setting up and running an obstacle course that they put together on two floors of the house, and setting up their own bowling alley using some of our over-sized cardboard blocks as pins. Nicholas tried out different balls to figure out which one was the best size and weight to knock over the "pins".

Later the kids helped me grate the cheese for the homemade pizza we made for dinner tonight.

At clean-up time we talked about estimating and NT estimated how long it would take them to clean up the living room and then we played "beat the clock" to get it done. He overestimated the amount of time he thought it would take them by quite a bit!

Lizzy helped her daddy make a special dessert tonight to eat during the Vikings game, which NT and John are watching now. NT is getting really good at following the game, picking up the terminology, and understanding how the teams can get points in different ways.

The kids spent most of the day tearing around the house, wrestling, playing basketball (NT was trying to teach Lizzy how to play after he saw the Timberwolves game last night), building pillow forts, and jumping off the furniture onto the pillow forts.

NT listened to an entire Encyclopedia Brown book on CD.

In the late afternoon both kids spent almost two hours playing outside in the snow with the neighbors.

This evening John and NT watched a fascinating segment on 60 Minutes about Birdmen and then NT retired to bed to work on a spelling workbook.

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity with Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and many, many inches of snow.

The kids got to play in the snow and then with their Pye-side cousins on Christmas Eve, and they've gotten to spend time with other family the past couple of days as well. They've decorated cookies with Minna, built a white chocolate "gingerbread" house with Grandpa Alan, made some origami birds, played a new board game with Grandpa Elliott and Katie, and, of course, they've eaten tons of food--even tried some new things like Welsh rarebit and lingonberries!

Last night we did our annual Christmas lights drive around the neighborhood (in the rain!).

We've kept up with our reading and are almost done with our current Hardy Boys mystery.

This afternoon John and NT got out the new microscope he got from Bob and learned how to use it. They looked at all kinds of things, including holly leaves, the water from the holly vase, Lizzy's ribbons, and some of my sourdough starter.

Tonight NT is at the Timberwolves game downtown with Grampy.

This morning NT watched PBS's Cyberchase where the subject was number and operations.

After breakfast he built a structure with his Magnatiles and then disappeared to his basement workshop where he created his own Secret Decoder (note to self: get him some brads!) before it was time to leave for today's field trip.

We picked Minna up bright and early and headed to the Minnesota Children's Museum to check out their new dinosaur display which was really impressive! The kids dug for fossils, learned cool dino facts and saw what North America looked like 65, 75, and 85 million years ago. We stayed at the museum for over 3 hours! Besides the dinos they did a craft, played in the kitchen/restaurant, made a music video, worked with other kids in the factory, and NT worked for quite a while with the hydraulics in the water room--it is so cool to watch him figure things out that even most adults can't do!

After the museum Minna treated us to a fancy (for us) lunch at Fabulous Fern's and then it was home to finish up the crafts they've been working on for the cousins while they listened to more Encyclopedia Brown mysteries on audio book.

After dinner John walked the kids over to Ellie's and then to Debbie's to deliver some homemade toffee--an event they look forward to every year!

This morning NT was up bright and early, as usual, to watch PBS's Cyberchase where today's topic was observing and tracking animal behavior.

We read several chapters of our current Hardy Boys mystery and looked up the words "spume" and "cowling" in the dictionary. We also read Silver Spurs by Minnesota author Robert R. Knigge, the story of the elf who helps Santa get into homes like ours that have no chimney!

NT was working on new paper airplane models from one of his books again this morning. I showed him how to use a ruler to make a 6" x 6" square out of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper for one of his planes. I also showed him how to make and use a template so he didn't need to keep measuring out 6 x 6 squares whenever he needed one.

Lizzy practiced reading some of her alphabet letters, and then we ran last-minute pre-holiday errands. Along the way we discussed the difference between "building" and "remodeling". We also explained to Lizzy what an "advertisement" is, and I quizzed NT on the "tricks" of multiplication when the numbers have zeros in them, like 10 or 50 or 600.

We stopped at the library for a new round of books, including some for NT on keeping fish as pets since he is really hoping for a big fish tank (the kind that requires lights and filters and heaters...) around his birthday.

The kids spent the late afternoon working on crafts for some of their cousins while listening to an audio book of Encyclopedia Brown mysteries.

This morning NT was up early as usual to learn about grids on PBS's Cyberchase.

Afterward, I read several chapters of Hardy Boys The Secret of the Old Mill aloud while NT designed and created a "Vikings" banner on the floor next to me. He cut the letters freehand out of construction paper and then we punched holes and strung them all together on a ribbon. We talked about spacing and balance and he learned that he needed to string the letters on in reverse so the letters were in the right order when it was all done.

While reading the Hardy Boys we looked up the word "counterfeit" and "oppressive" and talked about what a thesaurus is vs. a dictionary. We talked about what the word "descriptive" means and looked up the words "happy" and "sad" in the thesaurus.

NT and I practiced using a tape measure to measure the table he made for me earlier this year so Grandpa Alan can help him add braces so it doesn't wobble. We measure in both feet and inches and talked about which direction to pull the tape measure in when you are measuring something that goes all the way to the floor.

Liz went to visit Minna & Grandpa Alan where they practiced writing "Sebastien" and watched The Nutcracker ballet on DVD.

NT had one of his favorite friends, Brenna, over and they played both indoors and out for several hours--pirates, Marbulous, sword fights, football (in the living room!), wrestling...they never run out of ideas when they are together!

Late this afternoon NT & Liz set up their own makeshift bowling alley in the living room using cardboard building blocks for bowling pins.

NT wrapped up the long day by quietly working on more paper airplanes out of one of his library books.

Today was a big day.

The kids spent much of the morning playing beautifully together with the Princess Castle, though for a bit NT was heavily engaged in making and testing paper airplanes by following the instructions in a couple of books we got from the library. He also spent some time drawing in his room with his little sister snuggled next to him watching.

This afternoon and evening we attended two holiday parties--one at a neighborhood bowling alley where the kids got to bowl with friends Auggie and Louisa, and one at the neighbors' house where they got to catch up with all their neighborhood buddies and get a little crazy.

Tonight NT and John are watching the Vikings game together, though NT is likely to be asleep well before the first quarter ends!

This morning NT helped me make breakfast (Minna showed him a great way to crack eggs that works well for him every time!) and then John took the kids for a run around the neighborhood. Afterward, they played outside in the snow for quite awhile and then went sledding at the golf course.

This afternoon the kids and I walked over to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a movie based on the book of the same name by Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett. It was Liz's first movie in a theater and she loved it.

Since the theater only takes cash and we rarely carry any, I borrowed cash from NT. John took the opportunity to explain to NT that he should charge me interest and explained to him that's how banks make money. I also had NT figure out how much it would cost for the three of us to see the movie ($2 x 3 people) and asked him to figure out how much change I would get back from the cashier.

Earlier in the day NT asked me how people could afford to retire--where do they get money? I explained the concept (and importance) of saving and investing for retirement.

We also discussed, at length, alternate meanings of the word "sharp": That looks sharp and Be there at 5:00 sharp.

The kids were engaged in imaginative play together for quite awhile this afternoon.

This evening the kids helped John put together Liz's castle, NT and I walked the dog around the neighborhood and looked at all the Christmas lights, and NT watched PBS's This Old House before bed "so I can give Daddy some tips".

Today was our first "official" day trying out the unschooling life. Of course, it wasn't any different than any other day, except that I was much more aware of what the kids were learning and absorbing as we went about our business.

NT started the morning bright and early watching Cyberchase on PBS, where he learned about measuring the passage of time.

Later, we picked Minna up and went downtown to see the 8th floor Macy's holiday story, A Day in the Life of an Elf. We arrived just as it opened so we almost had the place to ourselves, giving the kids as much time and space as they liked to check out each animated scene.

Afterward, the kids burned off some energy running around in the skyway while we tracked John down and then walked over to Peter's Grill--the "oldest continually operating restaurant in the city" (94 years!)--where Minna treated us to brunch.

This afternoon NT spent several hours building and rebuilding structures with his new Marbulous set from Gramma Ruth. He talked about gravity and angles as he re-engineered his designs to make the marbles go faster or take different paths. For a little while he had some help from Grandpa Alan.

We read Hardy Boys' Secret of the Old Mill out loud for about an hour. NT asked if he could stop me if he heard a word he didn't understand so I could explain it to him. Today he learned what "genuine" means.

NT also spent quite a bit of time in his basement "studio" working on various crafts, including some pretty cool monsters he fashioned out of sparkly pipe cleaners.

After LL's nap we watched a DVD of Swan Lake from the library so she could see real ballerinas perform. Interestingly, her brother seemed much more interested in the performance than she was!

NT read a book about the Titanic to himself at bedtime. He is really fascinated by shipwrecks. We talked about how scary it must have been for the people who were on the ship when it went down.