Elias takes a few steps

Grocery Shopping

They don't have these carts anymore at Wal-Mart. The kids really liked them, and so did I. William likes walking some of the time, but he gets too tired by the end of a big shopping trip. Some of the time I carry Elias in the sling, but he likes the cart, too, and he's pretty heavy these days. This was also the day Will had saved his money to buy a wheelbarrow, and he had fun wheeling around some groceries in it.

Will is learning lots about money these days. He has several dollars in change, and he likes having me help him count it out. He recognizes the different coins, although he doesn't always remember their names yet. Elias eats Will's dropped coins, so we try to be careful with them. Will has a little black coin purse for them, but they don't always stay in there, of course.

He's very generous, as well, and frequently pulls out a coin or two with a smiling, "You can have some of my money, Mommy." We're hoping if we continue to be generous with him, he will learn to be generous as he grows. It seems to be working so far.

100% American 100% Mexican

The boys found some small flags to play with and Will learned which flag is for each of his home countries.

Little bananas

We got some fingerling bananas, and Will and Elias really liked them.

William learns photography

Our digital camera was a gift from Mark last December, and it has been a HUGE blessing! Not only has it made this blog possible, but because of its ability to take and delete as many pictures as we want sin pagar, William can experiment with photography at age 2. The above shot was taken in our bedroom mirror, and it's a good example of how we go about it--definitely team effort. Will tells me what he wants to photograph, I hold the camera steady, we both fiddle with camera options and zooming, Will takes the shot. Really, I'm just a tripod and manual for him. I consider all the photos to be totally his. These are his:











He's learning a lot--I'm sure much more than I can see. He has photographed almost everything in the house, including several blank walls, the computer, the TV both on and off, and many portraits of favorite toys. Who can say how much a child can learn by studying a photo he took himself of the light from a computer monitor or a series of the same place in his home at different times of day? The camera, as well as the internet connection, our local library, transportation, and cellular phones: all are inspiring and gratifying to have in our life. This time in history is marvelous for unschooling. When we've got the world at our fingertips, who needs school?

Music

We have music on in the house almost all the time. Recently Will began playing DJ. He had already learned how to use the switches and buttons on the stereo, and last week he asked how to get CDs out of their cases. Now he changes up the music many times throughout the day. Soon we'll need a larger music collection to keep up!

Yesterday he put on Jamie Laval's Irish fiddle album and improvised a fiddle for himself. Elias played backup recorder.

We're on the lookout for a festival or other live performances of instruments, especially fiddles, so the boys can see them close up. Will and Elias both enjoy the music at church a lot and Will recognizes and points out the instruments used during worship. He has a very accurate rhythmic sense, as well, and gets excited by drums and other percussion pieces. We watched the movie Drumline recently and Will ignored the non-musical parts, but ran back to the screen whenever the band started up and played along with the drums.

At 8 1/2 months, Elias is fascinated by music also and is amazing in his ability to manipulate instruments and toys. He likes to pluck and strum our student-size guitar, play one-note songs on the recorder, and shake maracas and tambourines. Both boys love the xylophone and piano, and Elias easily figured out how to use the xylophone mallets. His curiosity is expressed frequently through his hands and he wows everyone with his ability to pull levers, push buttons, and open lids and books and doors.

Playthings

Will and Elias like playing with anything at hand. Recently their favorite games have been playing in the sheets on the bed:

and poking each other through the laundry basket. Here's a video of that:

Elias and Will infect each other with their giggles. They get along beautifully...

...until they don't...

...but it's easily resolved.

Sunday at home

The Subaru is having problems and Fabian left early for the flea market, so we ended up not going to church yesterday. Instead, we played and read lots of books and William and Elias maneuvered around me as I did some reorganizing. Now that we have our pantry shelves (check 'em out), we have a whole empty bookcase! The office shelves were getting pretty stuffed, doubled in most cases with books blocking books and videos behind them.

Later, Will talked to me a bit about his dollar. He enjoys carrying around a dollar bill in either his hand, pocket, or some sort of bag. He reminded me that it is George Washington's face on the front, so we looked at more pictures of Washington in John Bowman's The History of the American Presidency. Will studied the pictures from Washington all the way up to Martin Van Buren (that's eight presidents and about 50 pages of the book), and asked numerous questions about them. He liked the pictures of Washington as General of the Continental Army, and we talked about going soon to Battleground Park in Greensboro to see the cannons.

We also watched some Raymond Briggs movies (Christmas is never out of season for William),

The Snowman and Father Christmas (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3), and, upon seeing Father Christmas drink a cup of tea, he jumped up and announced that we should have tea. So we did.