Alrik has discovered the joys of Google Slides (PowerPoint-like presentations).
It all started when he made me watch multiple inane YouTube videos that were quizzes purporting to help you discern things like what color you should dye your hair, but then all the questions would be things like, "What kind of flowers would you grow in a garden?" and "If you could be any type of animal, which would you be? Now choose from these three options."
To celebrate the nonsense, I made my own quiz that I forced my family to complete:
Feel free to total up your numbers, and do let me know which animal you are!
I've been finding myself sharing posts on my Facebook page about how big kids are sweethearts, too. About how we often attribute malice or disinterest to the gangly tweens and teens with the earbuds in and the cool scowl on their faces, and we don't look further to see the tender, thoughtful souls beneath.
Living with a sweetheart of a 12-year-old who's now wearing men's shoes and is about to outgrow his aunt by height, I know firsthand that appearances can be deceiving and that the warmest hearts can beat beneath the pulled-up hoodies of adolescence.
Alrik has decided that it's time he broke into the glamorous world of YouTubing. He has done so with aplomb, with the release of his own channel, DitDoo's World.
DitDoo is what his baby brother inexplicably started calling him when he learned to talk, and we stuck with it. Karsten has strong opinions about things like what your favorite color is or how to pronounce your name, and we've found there's no point in arguing with him.
Anyway, DitDoo's World has everything fabulous a 6-year-old can offer, to wit:
Journal entries featuring illustrations of adorable dreams
Inventions like the wearable phone glove and paper-tube robot arms,
which the world will be clamoring for as soon as these vids goes viral
DitDoo the author's own books, self-illustrated and self-published with love
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It's time for my annual roundup of coupons and deals sent to me by my affiliate partners. These are companies I support and recommend and whose savings I'd like to pass along to you for your holiday shopping! If you shop through my links, it costs you nothing extra and I get a little reward from the company to support my blogging. Thank you!
Alrik is such a sprite of a child. He was the baby who was born peacefully and precipitously at home, in our first unassisted homebirth, and he was smaller enough than Mikko that my first thought on his emerging was, Oh, no, where's the rest of him? I guess I worried maybe his legs had broken off inside.
But, no, he was just somewhat petite, and he grew more elfin by the day, our skinny, wiry little boy with round Disney eyes and energy for days. Always dancing, always running, always talking.
"Can I say something?" is his catchphrase. And then he does.
He introduces me to his imaginary friends and asks me to join him in Minecraft World, which is a realm he made up that adapts to any sort of creative play. Sometimes he's fighting zombies. Sometimes he's a samurai. Sometimes he's a human who turns into a cat when he brushes against you. He tells me what to do to participate adequately.
I recently took a quiz on "What Kind of Homeschooler Are You?" posted by my friend Jennifer on Facebook as found on the blog Eclectic Homeschooling. My results were mostly what I expected — high emphasis on natural, child-led learning and a low emphasis on "school at home."
But what I was even more interested in was finding out if my kids agreed with my philosophy on learning. After all, how could I believe in child-led learning if my children didn't think that was a worthy goal? That's kind of a head-scratcher, isn't it? But I do think I'd adapt our unschooling approach to be more schooly if that's what our kids needed from us.
So, I had 9-year-old Mikko take the quiz, going through each question with him to be sure I understood his point of view. Our results were as follows. Mine is the first number, and Mikko's is the second. I've rearranged them into descending order to make it easier to scan.
A story: My old church supported several Karen refugee families from Myanmar. The Karen are a Christian and Buddhist ethnic minority group in Myanmar (Burma) who were forced from their homes, their villages destroyed, and fled from violence and ethnic cleansing in a Burmese civil war into hiding in the surrounding jungles. Not the pretty Jungle Book jungles but mountainous ones that grow cold and inhospitable, with little food to forage.
The fortunate ones were able to cross the border into Thai refugee camps. The very fortunate ones were able to make their way from Thailand to settle in other nations, such as the Karen community in the south Seattle area. This was not their wish, though. They miss their homes desperately and find it hard to adjust to a new life in a new land where they're definite minorities. As one woman said in an interview with CNN: "[I]f the situation in Burma changes, I hope to go back to my country."
Here's the part of this experience that has stuck with me for years now. A group of internally displaced Karen people still running and hiding in the mountain forests wrote our church for assistance. We raised money regularly to try to get supplies to them and sent words of support and encouragement. In this letter back to us, they asked in particular for one thing: a bone saw. They had been performing amputations on horribly injured members of their community with whatever sharp implements they had to hand. They wanted a bone saw to ease the process.
THAT is what a refugee is. It's a person who's thankful for a bone saw. It's a person whose current greatest wish is an appropriate instrument to perform major surgery in the open air of a jungle as they're running for their lives.
My kids are all night owls, which means they tend to gain energy as bedtime approaches. To help them calm their bodies and minds, I started a simple nighttime relaxation technique with the older two. My nine-year-old appreciates it the most and will ask for it nearly every night. Mikko and I both have the characteristic of needing a looong time to fall asleep, and he can get anxious about it. This sort of relaxation time helps put him at ease.
If you already have a background of relaxation scripts, you can adapt ones you love. I called upon my own childhood, when my parents offered me some simple relaxation ideas when I kept stealing into their room each night to whisper that I couldn't fall asleep, and my experiences with Hypnobabies childbirth hypnosis, which helped me through three unmedicated births.
Have your child lie down and begin in a calm, soothing voice:
Squeeze your toes … and your feet … and your legs … all the way up to your bottom [or whatever word you use; we're a butt family].
Have them practice isolating each muscle in turn. Mikko has coordination difficulties so at first had to use his hands to assist him in highlighting each body part to contract; however a kid needs to do it is fine.
(Side note: Alrik, age 5, asked for "Wrecking Ball" to be next.)
"'The water sustains me,'" Mikko quotes. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Well, I say, it could be twofold: Water gives life, and it also holds you as you float. It's maybe a song about letting go and letting the water support you.
"I don't like floating," Mikko says. "I don't like that feeling of leaning back in the water."
This is appropriate field-trip attire
for an unschooler.
Take notes.
While I was at the playground on a warm summer's day, I was amusing myself trying to pick out the homeschooled kids.
It all started because Alrik, in his sparkliest My Little Pony shirt, was trying to play with a group of boys who were not at all interested in playing with him. I sized up their appropriate-length hair and matching gender-specific clothing and concluded that they probably all went to school together and weren't open to a newcomer. (Fair enough.)
After that, I glanced around to try to locate some easier targets for his overtures. Where my weirdo unschool kids at?
I saw one boy with longish hair in long sleeves and unmatched shorts. Possible.
I saw one girl in head-to-toe but unmatching pink leopard print. Maybe.
I saw one boy in patterned leggings. Probable.
Then a kid arrived in Christmas jammies and rainboots. Definitely.
Among some unschooler friends of mine, talk turned to school uniforms on little kids, and we decided to make out a list of appropriate school attire for unschoolers. Shannon compiled the following list, and I will add to it:
Recently I was talking with a nanny who was telling me why the kids she cares for ended up with Sesame Street shoes. She was apologetic in explaining it: It was all they had left! They were on clearance, in their size, so we had to make do!
Meanwhile, she full knows my kids are nearly always in head-to-toe character-branded nonsense: My Little Pony Crocs, Minecraft and Five Nights at Freddy's and Star Wars T-shirts, Spider-Man and Power Rangers hoodies, plus assorted accessories. As if I would be judging her.
When I grew up, I wasn't allowed to wear characters. Well, that's too strong, but my mother "didn't care" for such fashion choices, and I was persuadable, so I had my Wonder Woman Underoos to wear in private but very demure and girly clothing to wear above.
Before I had children (and this is possibly the idealistic realm in which my nanny friend resides), I assumed their clothing would be similarly character-neutral. Not for me the Thomas the Train shirts and Elmo hats and Caillou sandals (I'm just making things up now). I eschewed even hand-me-downs and gifts that featured recognizable brands. My kids would wear cute things that wouldn't date them in photographs to a particular cultural period, clothing that was bright and whimsical and classically childlike.
And so it went…until my first child developed opinions.
Remember, the hunt is fun on its own — the prize doesn't have to be anything fancy. It could be a favorite stuffed animal who's "hiding" or a couple of coins … er … pirate doubloons.
All you need to do to set up the scavenger hunt is write down clues and hide them through the house or yard. The last clue should lead to the prize. Simple enough, but here are seven tips to pull it off like a boss.
Tip #1: I find a good number of clues is around 8 — it's enough to keep kids interested but not frustrated. Aim lower for younger kids and higher for older.
Tip #2: If you have multiple locations to plant clues, vary location as much as possible between clues. For instance, have one clue be outside and the next inside, or one upstairs and the next downstairs, the next in the basement and the next in the attic. Most kids have a lot of energy, so take advantage and run them around.
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living.
Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
