Activities

I have always said that I want Scout to not have too scheduled a life. Lots of free time to play and enjoy being a kid, thats what is important. She does go to more activities than we thought she would. But she LOVES them all. So now we think it is important to expose her to as much as we can and let her decide what she wants to participate in...whether it is many or few or none. We know she loves them. We always ask if she wants to go, if she says no we would stay home. It never happens. If there is a week off she has a sense that too much time has gone by and starts asking to go back. She still has lots of time everyday to be free as a lamb and always will...the beauty of unschooling.

Tonight was swimming. She has been going every week since she was 6 months old (we took the summer off but went swimming at the beach every week).

We just want her to have fun, to enjoy being in the water. She will learn all she needs in her own time.

And she has, she swims with a bubble, jumps off the side, goes underwater, blows bubbles and can climb out on her own.

It is great family time, we always try to be there together.

Tonight she floated. Look at that right foot, such effort and concentration.

She did it on her own. Floated. No one asked her to try it.

Life is Good... and happy!

Swimming lessons

Scout was very happy that swimming lessons have started again. The last day of her last session she swam on her own for the first time. She stated up last night right where she left off!

She is very proud of herself and all smiles.

Swimming surprise

Scout has been going to swimming lessons since she was 6 months old. She has always loved it, we have been going once a week, just about every week, every since she started.

arriving at the pool....

bubble on.....

as she went down the ramp she just jumped in!

Look at that grin, she loved it.

she comes up from under the water, spits out the water and swims!

She swam about 15 feet the first time, without any assistance other then the bubble.

She swims to the side and climbs out.....

and leaps off to do it all over again!

After swim class we visited Santa. Sponsored by the Sandwich Fire Department.

She enjoyed the fire and cocoa much better then that scary old elf!

Animal encounters

Recently we have had some fun animal encounters. The most fascinating aspect is learning how normal these are for Scout. Everyday she is surrounded by animals, walking freely around her. She is able to walk up and touch them at will. When these "wild" animals come close to us she doesn't act any differently then she does when it is a domestic animal. With both she enjoys observing them, very rarely moving quickly toward them or touching aggressively. She is never frightened, even when feeding wild baby ducks and they grab at her fingers when the food has run out. She looked at us with a questioning face while it was happening and when  we explained they were hungry her face softened as if she understood. She is so remarkable.

Feeding squirrels and pigeons in the park in Boston.

"Knuckles!!!"

Swimming with baby ducks in Snake Pond. We have decided to come here Wednesday night for the summer instead of going to the Y for swimming lessons. We all go together and bring a picnic dinner. W stayed last night for about 2 hours. We had a blast.

Scout feeding the baby ducks some of her pretzels.

Little swimmer

Scout just finished her first session of swimming lessons. The last night she learned to sit on the edge of the pool and rock herself until she was "diving" in....over and over and over. She loved the night that we did PFD orieentation, as you will see in the photos. She floated, was lifted out by the handle and fell in (for training purposes) off the edge. She took it all in stride, like everything else!

She is almost crawling!

Scout is on the verge of crawling. She can roll all around now and just cracks herself up that she can do it. She bends over backwards and hangs her head upside down over pillows. She can get her stomach way off the ground and can get her knees up under herself...just not at the same time yet. She is fun to watch play with her toys. She can sit up really well alone and enjoys figuring out how her toys work. Her favorite toy is the jumpy in the doorway. She pounds away hard with her legs, reaching out to pet the dogs any time they walk by. She is starting to feed herself now. She can eat Cherios by herself and cold pieces of pancake. She has also learned to pick up her water bottle with a straw and get it to her mouth alone. One time, while lying in her stroller she picked it up with her feet, passed it to her hands and then had a drink! She is always moving and we are expecting to be really worn out once she gets mobile! her first session of swimming lessons is ending tomorrow, she loves to swim. She always kicks her feet and last week was also splashing her hands at the same time. She will start the next session in a couple weeks.