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Learning in Freedom

Welcome to Learning in Freedom, a blog all about the learning adventures (and mishaps) of the Allen family. My four children are unschooled, following their interests and passions every day and living the lives of their choosing. The purpose of this blog is to share our every day lives (and my not-so-humble opinons) with anyone interested in stopping by. We hope this will give a glimpse of how natural learning unfolds from day to day......

Monday, August 16, 2004

A day with Jalen

Jalen and I did some trekking for next year's conference today. He and I checked out three hotel site's rooms....places I'd been looking at, but needed to see the actual rooms. He was such a trooper, pointing at this and that and getting excited at the view "ooh, see the beach Mom!!" At the boardwalk we picked up a beach towel and plastic crab for our raffle donation to accompany the free registration for next year's conference. He was especially interested in all the toy cars (big surprise) and some plastic animals. I only convinced him to leave with me by promising a trip to the Dollar Store.

We stopped at the Welcome Center near Graffitti bridge to gather brochures of local interests, made an emergency "poop" stop (Jalen was dancing up and down, holding his crotch and shouting "I need go poop Mom" in the middle of the very quiet center) and then stood at the edge of the walkway to observe hermit crabs, pelicans and "alien flower" (some kind of sea plant). I watched him trying to hold his head up as we drove back North, eyes mostly closed, but determined to stay with me for the next stop. Sweet, sleepy little boy.

The Dollar store got some of our money next, as we picked up some sweet treats and a few more items for the raffle package. I'm sure they didn't appreciate my barefoot wildchild running amok, but he loves the freedom of toes without shoes, so dirty, black feet were the result of his frolics.
With toy cars and "Dots" (gummy candy) in hand, we finally headed for home. My little side-kick and I had a great day, and we even accomplished the goal: to figure out where the conference would be held. He liked the same place I was leaning towards anyway...worked out great!
I really love spending time with him one on one, he's a different person.:)
Sierra got home from Tori's at 11:30pm, with a cape she'd sewn and a new friend called "Seymour"...a stuffed dog from Wal-Mart.

The boys have recently discovered Dungeons and Dragons. I picked up the rule book and some dice tonight, they may never emerge from the basement again! When I was with Jared at TBS comics tonight, some older kids (early 20's ) commented how lucky he was that his mother was supporting his D&D interest. When we mentioned he didn't have to go to school, they positively flipped! "Do you want to adopt?" was one response. They told him he had the coolest mom in the world. On the one hand, It's nice to be appreciated in a world that mostly mocks the way we live...on the other hand, it's incredibly sad that support for a child's interests is that big of a deal! Don't parent's OWE that to their children?

Talked to Dad tonight, he and Nancy spent the weekend in Valdez with CarolAnne and Nancy (Dad's sisters). Wish we could get up there soon..I sure miss Busby Island. It's time to head North again soon....I'm getting the itch!

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