Volcano...

Ben is interested in volcanos. Noah and Hannah are too but this was Bens project today. He wanted to build a volcano. We found a bottle and went to the backyard. I gave him the option of building around it with clay which might take a bit longer or we could go to the back yard and pile dirt around the sides of it to make it look like a volcano. He opted for the dirt so he got digging. We couldn't get the dirt to the top but that didn't matter to Ben. He put baking soda (didn't measure), a little dish soap, and then some food coloring -red, blue and yellow- and finally Ben pour vinegar into the bottle and it bubbled out the top and ooozed down the sides. It was pretty cool to see. Hannah and Noah came to see the results and liked it. We might try the clay version in the future, but for now this was great!

Sunday...

This morning the kids took part in some more funshops like the bean bag toss and such but mostly we took advantage of the pool and went swimming. Everyone seemed to be out there getting some family time in or hanging with newly made friends. I went to listen to some of the presenters and everyone else tried to learn how to contradance. The kids were playing with each other and their new friends and didn't want to leave. But at the end of the day we had to come home and leave our fellow unschoolers. The end of the conference came and we can't wait to go to the next one!

Hannah and Hutton playing on the grass

This afternoon...

This conference is awesome, especially with all the stuff available for the kids to do and participate in. We aren't worried about missing the presenters because everything will be available on a download so we can catch up later. This afternoon Ben went to the Lego funshop (pic below) but before he did, he built this bowling lane for his mini bowling set. It is pretty detailed even with the ball return area and a table for sitting and having a drink....

Hannah loves the artsy funshops. This afternoon she did some art before going to the funshop that she really wanted to go to: the baby doll funshop. She brought her twin babies along and could not wait to share and have tea with the other kids with baby dolls.

Here is Ben in the Lego funshop. They dumped a bin of Legos on the table and the kids just got busy. They built and built for a long time and came up with some pretty cool stuff!

Here's Hannah enjoying her baby doll funshop. She was sharing her tea sets too. They set them all up with water and some fig newtons on the plates. So cute!

Good Vibrations...

We are at the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference this weekend for unschoolers and it has (so far) been awesome for both the kids and adults. There are so many people from all around the world. The activities are pretty terrific too. Yesterday, there was arts and crafts, international candy tasting and a family fair that were big hits. There was a concert last night with Amy Steinberg and she was awesome! Everyone celebrated, danced and played together. The kids fell asleep as their heads hit the pillow.

This morning the popular activity for Ben was rope making and he LOVED it. He ran to the room to get his bag of yarn and made a nice rope with it. I think we'll have to try to figure out how to make one of the contraptions to make rope and make some on our own. Hannah's favorite activities this morning were the journal making and binding, the drawing and rock painting. This afternoon we are all going to be busy doing dress-up, legos, baby doll fun and I'll sneak in some of the presentations too.

We are staying in a hotel so there is also swimming and playing in other rooms, meeting friends for lots of play time and exploration. Ben and Hannah have found some friends and are off discovering different things with them. Noah loves to hang out in the room, not much to do in there except for what we brought along but he's having fun.

We can't wait for this afternoon, a fun-filled schedule! I hope to get back on and blog about it later!

Sample painted rocks

Making rope

Ben and his rope

Colored pencils

Hannah and her drawing

The girls painting their rocks