May 29, 2017

May Unschooling & Hope's Birthday

Hope turned 7 last week!

We had a REALLY low key celebration but it was just as much fun as previous years! Hope was so excited (and the New Moon was waxing) that she stayed up all night before her Birthday. She requested a plush Unico toy and Hungry, Hungry Hippos, which she was so happy to open and receive!

She played with her new toys joyfully until she could play no more and then crashed for the day around noon. The next few days were full of organic homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Bars, homemade Vanilla Nice Cream ( with real vanilla bean ) and giant Chocolate Chip Cookies as well as playing and spending lots of time together. We even forgot to blow out candles! But you know, the traditions we practiced up until now were expensive, stressful and wasteful. Decorations that end up in the land fill, excessive intake of low-nutrition food, lots of gifts and a big event. And it was restricted to one day a year. Now, we've made a plan, with Hope's consent, to celebrate all the time with eco-friendly wrapped gifts, natural zero-waste decorations and to have events all year round that are exciting and fun excursions to experience together.

This past week we also had Hope's Fairy Godparents over for a few nights. Their visits are always source of joy for our family and Hope loves socializing with them. They brought over an amazing keyboard they no longer needed and so Hope and I have been enjoying freestyle music lessons.

Hope's wonderful Grand (Great Grandmother) snagged a new-to-us trampoline which Hope, immediately after getting it inside, turned into a really cool chill out place!