Natural Attachment

June 30, 2009

Bits & Pieces & No Hugging

Dress up is always evolving around here. It comes and it goes. The latest installment is Elijah as DJ Lance Rock of Yo Gabba Gabba.

DJ Lance Rock

DJ Lance Rock

DJ Lance Rock -- some more

DJ Lance Rock -- some more

We also revisited a gift from Great-Grandma from awhile back. We made snakes.

snake

snake

There are always battles going on over here. Lately, beating each other silly with cardboard tubes is where it’s at…

on guard

on guard

Then there was that whole street-wide yard sale. All the houses on our street decided to have yard sales on the same day. It turned out fairly well. Despite the rain threatening to drench us all it was a great day. The best part was having all the neighbors out and seeing each other visit, swap and have fun. One neighbor even brought out the grill and started grilling up food to sell and for the other neighbors…but she’s just awesome like that anyway :) Alas, no pictures.

On Sunday we had our First Annual Ice Cream, Jazz, Water Balloon/Gun and Champagne Fun Fest. We opened our house to pretty much anyone and everyone. It was a success. People of all ages and backgrounds came to hang out, pig out and make friends. Our first visitors showed up a little after two and the last visitors excused themselves around 9:30 or so. We still have SO MUCH ice cream it is sickening! The good news, is that we won’t have to buy it for awhile :)

I learned that I am not the person to fill up water balloons, because I turn them into deadly weapons. Apparently, you are supposed to fill them up really full, which I didn’t do and unless you were line-driving them into people, they wouldn’t pop. Next year, I will recuse myself from that duty and we’ll just stick to buckets, cups and squirt guns. I have to say that it was really fun despite my death bombs!

Again, alas, there are no pictures. I am beginning to think I have a problem. Is there a way to surgically affix a camera to one’s self?

I managed to get 13 seedlings/plants in the ground in our home garden after picking up the yard yesterday. Hopefully, they will make it and we’ll be eating more from our yard soon. I wasn’t on the ball this year for some reason. I think I have just been so overwhelmed with all the BIG things we’ve been planning and getting ready for and the ones that we’ve already adventured through.

And last, while pretending to be DJ Lance, I told Elijah more about how school children are not being allowed to share in the human experience by way of hugging. Here’s his reaction in a photograph:

really, are you kidding me? no hugs? people are weird mum.

"really, are you kidding me? no hugs? people are weird mum."

Really!?! I mean really? (thank you Seth Meyers) No hugging? At what point are you allowed to be human at school? Wait, at no point, because that would mean that your autonomy would be respected and you could think critically and realize that you’d be much better off living and learning in the REAL WORLD and not in a brick box only reading about the Real World all day.

Ban hugging in school? Is it wrong that I totally agree with the little story in the beginning of this…”Well,” said the mother. “You did what you felt like doing — and so did he.” Don’t just think you can hug my son — try asking or waiting for him to make the move.

You There! No Hugging!

Where Students Can’t Hug

I say, all these tight-ass school board types need some Free Hugs, because obviously they are deprived of human touch and love.

June 1, 2009

It’s the Special (little) Things

Filed under: Grub, Life, Photographs — Tags: , , , , — michele james-parham @ 12:53 pm
even 5 yr old boys understand ice cream tastes better out of pretty cups

even 5 yr old boys understand ice cream tastes better out of 'pretty' cups

Just a little cup that I picked up from the thrift store a few weeks back. Elijah immediately thought that it was the perfect ice cream cup. So, it now lives in his kitchen drawer. Life is Good!

September 7, 2008

Week in Review 3

Filed under: Life, Radical Unschooling, Unschlog — Tags: , , , , , , , — michele james-parham @ 8:08 pm

We went to the Andy Warhol Museum and the Weekend Art Factory in its basement. We played with Legos, made stained ‘glass’ pictures (loving E’s ’share the road’ sign on his), screen printed and had fun goofing off in the photo booth.





We bused across town for Oh Yeah! ice cream again…this time for breakfast (okay, so really it was late enough to be considered lunch)! On the walk over from our bus stop, I caught a picture of a friendly alien…he lives near Highland and Baum, right next to Abay. When we left Oh Yeah!, we decided to go eat tasty food at none other than Tasty!




The kiddo and I walked around downtown, visited Point State Park for the first time and walked around down by the river for about three hours.



There was watercolour painting at dusk in the driveway. William painted a robot, Elijah got abstract on a piece of cardboard and I painted an anglerfish.




E & I played at War Memorial Park (which had a creek, totally cool) with new radical unschooling friends! Afterwards he and I ate dinner downtown at the Backstage Bar by Katz Plaza and I had to take a picture of the sign that is posted.

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