Taekwondo Promotions

We did it again. Aseem, Supriya and I passed our testing today. Next week we will get our new belts: Green for Supriya, Orange for Aseem and Yellow for me.

Pogo stick

Here is Supriya catching some air on her new Pogo stick. We have had one with training braces for many years now. Supriya mastered it only in the last few months and I decided to buy her a regular one. She promptly mastered that as well. Aseem is well on his way to mastering the littler one, but the poor kid weighs only 33 lbs and the bigger Pogo stick doesn't even budge when he stands on it! He is very disappointed.

I drew a figure-of-8 in the backyard for Supriya to practice her skills. Well, that was too easy. So we drew a double figure-of-8. Even that was too easy. So I added obstacles in the way, and you can see Supriya jumping over the frisbee. She needs a bigger challenge with her toy and I am stumped...

Homeschooling Comics

Some great stuff here: http://www.inflatablestudios.com/. Scroll down for some groovy T-shirts and other merchandise...

Folk Rhythms DVD by David Holt

We have watched "Folk rhythms: learn to play spoons, bones, washboard, hambone and the paper bag" by David Holt (Homespun Tapes) a number of times now. Highly recommended! He is very accomplished, smooth and fun to watch.

This last week Supriya and I spent some quality time on it and learned to play spoons. I played 2 actual spoons and Supriya played the Metal Spoons (such as the one seen here) . Once we got the basic rhythms down, we started singing simple songs. For the last couple of days Supriya and I have been singing with me on the piano and she with the spoons. She sings the verse of "Yankee doodle dandy" and I sing the chorus. We also sang "Follow the drinking gourd". It has a more complicated swing rhythm, but she kept at it and did a fairly good job. Looks like we have a two person band forming right here...

Supriya's Singing

Supriya did her first significant solo this week in the second concert of AllTogetherNow family chorus. She really did a fine job, showing no signs of nerves. The director who directed the song wrote an email to Supriya congratulating her. She also asked whether Supriya is interested in doing more solos next year. So Supriya says with an attitude of isn't-it-obvious? , "What do you think?!" She is really turned on to singing and performing. As far as I am concerned, the chorus has accomplished its mission!

Camelot Cohousing

It's official - we have joined Camelot Cohousing! Given the constituency of Camelot, it looks like a mecca for unschoolers. The whole project started as a bunch of friends in SCA saying, "Hey, if we all lived nearby, we could do this all the time!" And so it has come to pass, slowly and steadily.

We see a huge potential for our kids. The adults here are seriously into play. One makes knives in his basement. One specializes in throwing weapons. Many are into sewing and knitting - and making medieval stuff like chain-mail. There are several musicians, and we are already planning a Camelot Chorus. There are many handy people, including a professional contractor. Then there is a vet. They all represent a huge pool of resources who can potentially act as mentors to Supriya and Aseem.

It looks like we will be moving in around this time next year.