Pioneers - A Simple Life

I went to a class on "Unit Studies" about a week ago.  Since we are no longer "wasting resources" (see the headgates.org article) or doing little crafts, some of the unit study ideas did not pertain to us.  However, I did get some good ideas about how to inspire learning activities during free time.  I'll write a different post about all of that, this post is about our current "Unit Study" - the pioneers.

Remember how I got rid of 5 garbage bags worth of toys in our toy room?  Well, I realized recently that it wasn't enough.  Keri's article recommended that a home have 10-15 toys total (not per child).  I can't go that far yet (baby steps!), but I did ask the kids to pick out their 10 most favorite toys and we would get rid of all of the rest.

Little Miss cried at first.  She didn't want to keep only 10 toys!  There were just so many cute stuffed animals that she loved.  I told her I would work with her and if there were certain things she couldn't part with, we could talk about keeping them.

Here is where our "Pioneer Unit Study" comes in.  I've mentioned before that we've been reading the "Little House on the Prairie" book series for the last several months.  My children were delighted when we would read about the Ingalls' Christmases and how happy they would be to receive a pair of mittens or a piece of candy in their stockings.  They loved the part when the Ingalls' were able to get glass windows for their little cabin.  There were so many times as we read that the kids and I would realize how many things we take for granted.

After the Unit Studies class, I decided to do a little unit study on pioneers.  A unit study is when you take a theme and do your "school" around that theme (read a book about it together, field trips, activities, math that pertains to it, etc.)  I didn't realize it before I went to this class, but that is how I teach my kids already.  The class did help me clarify a few things about how to do it though.

There are several things I wanted to incorporate into our pioneer unit study (things I've been wanting to learn, like to cooking outdoors - we're making a fire pit in our backyard, sewing bonnets, book binding, etc), but among them are: simplifying our things and planting a garden.  Isn't it convenient that it just so happens that we were going to be doing those things anyway?  Having a "theme" just makes it a little more fun :-)

Anyway, reading the Little House books has helped my children "catch the vision" of living life without so many distraction in the way.  As they were looking through their toys to find their 10 most favorite, they called each other Laura (Spice), Carrie (Little Miss), Almanzo (Bud) and Cap (Bazinks).  Ray was Baby Ray (The Ingalls had a Baby Grace - so my kids thought of calling our baby Baby Gray, then they realized Gray rhymed with Ray - "Hey Mom, that what you call him on your blog!" and so he became Baby Ray).

Here are some of the comments I heard as we were tossing things into the D.I. bag:
Spice: "Our life is going to be so nice now! We can be happy with just some mittens for presents - I do like clothes." (I think she was trying to express that they'll appreciate what they have a lot more).
Little Miss (smiling - she enjoyed herself once she got in the spirit of things) "Laura just had one baby doll."
Bud: "We won't have a big mess to clean up now when friends come over!"
Bazinks: "Wait!  Don't give that one to D.I.!"  (He hasn't caught the vision yet :-) )

We couldn't quite narrow it down to 10 things each, however.  In addition to the 10 items, I let them pick their most favorite dress ups, a couple of doll houses, and puppets.  I also allowed a couple of sets to count as an item, in other words, one set counted as one item (Bud kept a set of dinosaurs for one of his items and the girls kept a set of baby items - blankets, bottles, clothes for one of their items).

I must admit, that it was harder for me to part with some of the things than it was for them.  I knew how much they cost!  They wanted to keep a $1 stuffed animal, but were willing to let go of the $50 Bitty Baby!  I made myself stay quiet and let it go.

Here are the 10 times that they kept:
Girls: 2 baby dolls each, a few stuffed animals, baby things, trolls (?!?)
Boys: Light sabers, cars, airplanes, dinosaurs and a few stuffed animals (Bazinks is attached to Care Bears).

I also kept the blocks, ropes, blankets, tinker toys, shopping register, and the bins the toys were in (they love playing with those bins!).

I couldn't get rid of the legos, but I did put them, and the dart guns, in the storage closet - to be taken out on special occasions (like when they want to have a dart-gun war with their dad or they feel the need to build something).

Once I got over the initial anxiety, it felt so nice to be rid of all those "things" cluttering up our lives.

Another thing I have done is that I made two rooms in the house "off-limits" to the children.  They are not allowed into the "Project Room" (it used to be called the "Craft Room", but I had to change the name since we no longer make crafts ;-) ) without an adult present (this is where I keep the sewing things, beads, loose paper, paint, play-dough, advanced art supplies, science things, and such).

They are not allowed in the computer room either (they were attracted to photo shop and all the loose paper).

Things are so much simpler.

Life is so much more peaceful.

We seem to be able to see each other more clearly, and the truth around us, without all that stuff skewing our view.

*We went to "Baby Animal Days" last week. The children got to pet many baby animals and then Bud decided to participate in a "Muttun Busting" event.  The kids were placed on top of wild sheep that tried to buck them off.  I'm not sure why we allowed it, but Bud had a great time.  He won first place.  He stayed on for close to 8 seconds!  He was very proud when the announcer announced "And first place goes to.... Wild Bud!"  Here are the snap shots:

That's my pioneering cowboy!