WE'VE MOVED!

Jarjusey Kunda is on the move!!!! We are merging with Nakita Baby!!!

It's been a long, long, long while, but I promise to update you on EVERYthing that's been going on since October.... You see, I keep this little thing called a calendar : ) I am probably the only person out there that has not yet converted to the electronic keeper! But see.... now I have all updates to give you! Just scoot on over to: www.nakitababy.com

Jarjusey Kunda and Nakita Baby have merged! You will find ALL of Jarjusey Kunda archives there, and ALL of the newest updates!

Be patient as everything is in the updating process ; )

That's.... www.nakitababy.com

C'ya there!

I'm on a roll

(Halloween Store #1---?! ; )

So yes, after my last post, I figure 'why not? I'm on a roll!'

It's been quite awhile since I've posted, and rightfully so... our life has been so stinkin' busy lately I'm not sure whether I'm going or going or whether it's Tuesday or Friday.... let alone October or December!

The weather's been chilly and I'm not diggin' the chill. I LOVE the fall colors though, so I will bite my tongue and enjoy the season for what it's offering. It seems to be a really nice fall... longer lasting than the past ones, probably because it's chilly out. So, since my last post, the classes had been kickin' into full gear and I think I was loosing ground a bit. It's the first session/season where they ALL were doing classes, and all had a LOTS of interests too. It was hard to say 'no' to absolutely anything until we ran out of money! ; )

But some things have stuck and some gone to the way-side. The guitar class seems to have been one to go to the way-side. I think both Seringe and Kaidin lost interest (though I'm sure Seringe would never admit to that one! ; ) Kaidin admitted that it was just not what he expected. It was tougher than he thought it might be, and he did not have that much in him to not only make it through the class, but also to practice. He did not love it that much but says that eventually (some day) he would revisit the idea.

The cooking class was a flop as well. The kids were not learning much at all and I should have known this by the location in which it was offered. The Park Dist to which this was hosted suggested that it might have been some sort of after-school cooking-prep class and that was exactly what it entailed. So they really did not learn much than they already knew. And at home they actually cook with me.... hot stuff, measure, cut using knives. So this prep of afterschool snack stuff was just not cutting it for anyone. So that (kinda gladly... due to schedule) went to the way-side.

Dahlia is WAY diggin' her sports classes. Basketball is a huge hit. Soccer not so-much-so, but she loves to run, so she loves it anyway.... and gymnastics is probably at the top of her fav's list right now. She and I still doing clay, but coming to the end and I think she's totally ready to get into her own clay class... hopefully with a groovy homeschool mom that teaches clay here in Evanston. I think D tends to lean on me too much for her creativity when I'm around and she's ready to do it on her own. She's so artistic and creative, she'd love it. We'll have to figure some other mom-daughter time aside from clay... And... girls club has been a huge hit. We've had lots of fun with that one. Lots of games, projects, puzzles, and barbies.... To come.... a Halloween Tea Party in costumes of course!

Kaidin is totally diggin' the math class/club that a homeschool mom has organized. Go figure. He's enjoyed the new friendships his made with older kids and really adjusted quite well with in the group. His animation class has been really fun as well and they've accomplished their first claymation movie! This week we are going to do some halloween-based movie with stick-puppets. Should be lots of fun. Since guitar and cooking was ousted from his schedule, he seems quite satisfied with what's on his plate right now. Content and not over-strung. I think he was feeling the pull-in-all-directions feel that I was experiencing, so I'm glad that he appears to be happy with things as they are now.

They both will start a new thing in a couple weeks. D is joining the girl scouts, which I think she will love! During that same time they are hosting a Brothers of the Girl Scouts, boys-type club, and Kaidin is really excited about that one. So that will be a nice commencement as some of these other things start to end.

Big Shea is still in music. He just LOVES himself some Ms Leah. She is just so dang sweet and he digs that class immensely. He is a true music lover and its so awesome to see him take to it, the teacher, and the other babies so easily. He's quite the socialite of the 3 of them! I am thinking he may get into a parent-child gymnastics class too... But maybe right after the holidays. He just LOVES Dahlia's classes and some days it's really hard to keep him on the sidelines and from jumping into the middle of her class! ; ) I think he would love an active class like that... so that's something we are considering for the near future.

Ahhh.... so other than that full log, Halloween is filling the air in this household! It was the end of Sept. when K wanted all the decorations up and hit EVERY halloween store in a 10 mi radius of us. He just LOVES the holiday and that love rubs off on all of us! It's quite an adventure this whole month doing ALL halloweeny stuff.... His mind really seems to flourish with creativity now too... Huh... maybe thus the reading?!?! Not sure!

But other cool stuff this month (a list seems most easiest ; )

- Went to an "insect zoo" with Grandpa at the Kohls Childrens Museum. HA... have to laugh at this one b/c the "zoo" was 3 cages of creepy bugs... But it was so fun to play with Grandpa outside in the new park area there and they had lots of fun regardless.

- Visited an Evanston Fire Station for the National Fire Safety week.... great pix (see below).

- Full Moon Jam... hopefully not the last of the season! But it was so great to get out and the weather was very pleasant for us! We actually SAW the full moon this time!

- I had a host family event at Wagner Farm. It was pretty well-attended, and good time had by all. Lot's of pix at: http://ajarjusey.aupairnews.com

- Playdates with new friends. We've gotten to know a new family to EHE and the kids really dig their daughter. So it's been really fun to be able to meet up with them and play... get to know them more and more.

- The kids attended a workshop with children's book illustrator Klass Verplancke from Belgium at the EPL. They had a fun time learning illustrating techniques, but even more-so building an amazing project from the ground-up with this dynamic man! It was also SO great to see EPL finally offer something so fantastic for the kids! It's about $*# time!

- We also visited a Magic and Illusion show at the MGPL with Grandpa. Much fun had by all. This ol'-time magician did some classic tricks and many new, and super entertaining for all!

- Let's not forget the lego building workshop at the MGPL as well! That was the fastest hour of K's life, he so eloquently stated when we left! He had tons of fun building, as did Dahlia.... great fun had by all.

- K lost another tooth! FINALLY on this one. It's been loose for months and I was getting a lil' worried that it was getting stuck in there as the two bigger teeth were growing in and pushing.... but yea! It's out and lots of space now for other teeth to do their thing!

- Mask building... partly in lieu of the holiday, but also just because we love masks... the kids are I are in a building session of masks. This time around we sculpted their faces and they are building on molds of their faces! Don't have the complete project yet..... it's very much been a work in progress. But it's been fun! More painting to be done and they are really enjoying it! I'll post final pix when they finally finish.

We also need to throw in there a few park days, playdates and other fun stuff. On a personal note, I was able to attend two personal-big-people gathering so far, and I think one more this month! I went to the NUG tea and that was just lots of fun for me. Not only new people to mingle with, but a lovely gathering hosted by a NUG member in her home. Very nice indeed. Today I was at the EHE parent's social at Wild Tree and enjoyed a yummy banana coconut muffin and great company!!! Then proceeded to the monthly meeting with the au pairs where we hosted a halloween party for them. That really seemed to run smoothly and they seemed to have a great time!

We have a fun Shedd Aquarium visit happening this week. A field trip was planned for homeschooling families and we jumped on board for the super low price of $4 per adult! Can't be beat really. Seringe is even taking the day off to enjoy it with us! Should be really fun. We have friends in town from Portland that we are meeting up with, and Dahlia hopefully will check out a yoga workshop for kiddos.... Lot's more fun stuff I'll update on once it all happens... Day in the life over here is 'Just b/c it's on the calendar does not mean it will actually happen!" ; )

Halloween is coming oh-so-soon and the kids are so excited for trick-o-treating. I think G'pa is coming over to venture out with us. So that will be fun!!!

OMG ... it's really true

So ok... here I am totally attempting to live life as it feels right inside of me. Not the easiest thing to do when you were raised.... um... pretty much the exact opposite and you have 35 years to undo! But yea, what I mean is this whole "radical" unschooly-ness that our lives have evolved to, or into... or still evolving into, but definitely aspiring to. This way of life is so important to me. It feels so right inside, yet I have a very hard time in fully encapsulating it to its fullest, all at once, in its full entirety. I'm definitely headed that way, and by many (other people's) standards, they may suggest I'm already there. I find myself battling a few things here and there, and hey... none of us is perfect. Still have a slip up here and there.... BUT this past Friday I had one of these moments in which a giganti-normous revelation came to me and UGH... the clouds of doubt that ever might have been have cleared the skies and left them light blue and sunny from here on out. And here's what I mean by that....

I totally have always supported the idea of child-led "education". I love the idea that learning and living should never be separated. And, well, basically truly and whole-heartedly support and attempt to live as a radical unschooler. Let's face it, our family lives have just sort of always been that way. It was sort of inevitable, but really... honestly... I did not know it at the time that I had Kaidin. Seriously. No one could have told me that this was our path at that time. Something we have just ventured down as it's come along and trying so hard to listen to my heart and head and not all of that outside noise that has muddled most of my upbringing. Not always an easy thing to do.

So... yes.... I'm rambling over this monumental moment because it's something that happens in your life that you then say to yourself, "AHHHHHHHHHH.... now THIS is what I really believed and LOOK...... HERE it is!"....

And that moment.... just this past Friday night at bedtime, our very typical routine to the evening is climbing into bed and reading lots and lots.... Kaidin starts pointing to a ton of words on the page and reading them out loud. I conquer that he's reading things very correctly and he's getting all excited. He runs out of the room and grabs a Dr. Seuse book and begins reading it. Actually sounding things out and figuring out and making sense of rhyming words! He then DECLARES himself a reader, which to this date he would have never done!

I had always stood in his defense that he was a reader (to those who very annoyingly pester him to find out if he reads). He would always say "not yet" even though he had the full ability to read. He did not deem himself a reader because he was not fluent. Partly as a boost to his esteem and not to deter from his ability to read, I would say, "he can read, he's not fluent yet but the ability is there." He really could have cared less. He never seemed frustrated about it, and he was quite at ease with the process. I had always known that Kaidin is much of a perfectionist. I know that he does not like to do anything unless it is perfect and it comes out smoothly, and much of this happens through is internalizing. He likes to master things internally before he would actually do them outwardly. And then and only then, would he deem himself a title of that task at hand. So I just knew that reading would come much of the same way. It would just magically happen this way one day (this same thing happened when he wrote his name for the first time.... I totally was humoring him when he asked if I wanted to see him write it (at age 4) and he just picked up a pen and wrote it for me... I teared up then!)

Any rate... I knew this time would come, and this is just one of those things that again proves to myself that we are on the right path. And it's not just about the reading or the ability to read. It's the trust that has come and been built along with this. It's the love of learning and experiencing everything and the safe-zone to make the mistakes and grow with out scrutiny. And even most important to me as a mother, the amazing relationships I am so lucky and fortunate to have and to build for and with my children. Ugh.... at that point, I go speechless.

This is an amazing journey!

Apple Picking!

We finally made the adventure out to pick some apples. It was a marvelous day! The weather could not have been more perfect. The location, the orchard. We packed a picnic and sat among the orchard with other apple pickers, admiring the beautiful trees. It was a really fun day, and... I've already made my very first apple pie! YUM!

Fall

A bit ridiculous that it is already Fall. It truly feels like Fall as well. I was so hoping for the extended, or "Indian Summers," we were so lucky to have the last couple of years. The trees are already starting to turn colors. And as much as I just LOVE the site of Fall, I am just so not ready for the inevitable Winter right around the corner. Yuck. Focus, right? Focus on this gorgeous season and don't look to far ahead.... That's my mantra for this week and the weeks ahead. (The colors are really starting and it's beautiful!)

So I don't know how this month slipped right by us. Oh, yes, let me recall... classes started up. On the one hand, it's been fabulous, and on the other it's been chaotic. Nothing horrible about it at all, just far different than our lovely lazy summer days. I think I may have mentioned in a previous post that the kids really poured on the classes this session. The great news is that everyone loves everything they are in right now. So at the very least we have not had to go through the oh-so-fun-refund-request-and-obtaining-process! ; ) Oh I just hate having to do that.

So D's done her Gymnastics, Basketball/Soccer, Clay Class and Girls Club. She loves them all. She starts cooking class with K tomorrow, and even registered for Girl Scouts today. I think she's really going to love that group. And I just can't believe how excited she is to do this all on her own. That's really huge! It's been so amazingly awesome to witness this huge growth in her in the last month or so. She's such a cool chick... man I'm a lucky mama.

K is into his Animation/Movie Making Club, Math and Guitar. He too will start cooking tomorrow and I'm very eager to see how that pans out! ; ) The boy who says he'll be a famous chef some day but really has yet to step foot in the kitchen! Guitar does not seem to be as much of a thrill anymore, but I am really proud of him for sticking with the class and practicing with Seringe (almost) nightly. They both seem to really want to learn the basics, but not overly eager to master. We will just see how that might all pan out. They may very well surprise me and decide on another session. Just don't know.

S is still in his music class and just super-duper loves it. He's picking up words left and right and it's incredible. He's such a little character. Quite determined, lovable, and yet very very good at bossing each of us around. I seem him already super eager to join in on D's gym-type classes and I thin I will need to find him something to rumble and tumble on very soon. It's very difficult to have him at those classes and have him try to watch. He really wants to participate so badly!

Work's been good and hopefully have found a couple more PT gigs to help supplement a little bit. Really hoping that all pans out as expected; some transcribing work, at-home office work for a realtor, and a pt babysitting gig as well. If all works out it would lend itself to a very nice supplement as well as an incredible fit(squeeze) into our schedules as well.

We've are so blessed. There is just so much to be grateful for. Ah... life is great.

Seven Sins

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200909/seven-sins-our-system-forced-education

CCAP on Evanston TV!

This is a 9 min clip of the 30 min show running for the whole month of September! Yea!

Summer coming to an end

Well, it's already the last day of August and man this summer has just flown by. It was not much of the 'true' Chicago weather that we are used to, so in a way feels like we were gipped a bit. It's been in the mid to upper 60's the last couple of days and just does not seem fair to be this temp at this point in the summer! But I'm hopeful we will experience the indian summers we've been lucky to have the last 2, or so, years. It would be wonderful to know that we will get another warm bout... even just a bit of it.

Dahlia's first "how to" video.... She's a natural...

Check out some of Kaidin's at: http://kaidinjarjusey.blogspot.com/ (I think he has tons of updating to do as he has over 20 dvd's of over 2hours of footage each! He's been busy this summer!!!)

So... let's see, our August was quite busy. We did lots of beach and pool time, visited family in Waukonda, park days and playdates. We were up in Waukegan one day to see the Nina and the Pinta replicas. That was a fun day trip on the train. We visited Volo bog with our family from/in Waukonda and that was quite an interesting lil' trip. Had our international pen pal group gathering, helped friends pack up for their move, scoured tons and tons of garage sales and were unfortunate to not find any camping equipment what-so-ever. But all fo the pool and beach time made up for it! ; )

For work, I found a local woman to do a tv show on me and Cultural Care on the local Evanston tv station. I did this long interview, and she also snap-shot 2 local host families and au pairs, as well as visited my au pair meeting this month to interview a couple au pairs. It's airing this week, and for the whole month of September! I'm excited to see the final product. We had gotten to see snips of it along the way b/c I asked her if I could bring Kaidin by to see the studio and editing process. He's still 110% into filming and he was so stoked to know that mommy was going to be on tv. He is sure we are going to be famous now. Too funny. Anyway, she was really cool with him coming by to see the process and he got to see editing in action, as well as the live tv shows in progress there. Very fun.

The week ahead is pretty mellow and I'm happy for that one. Tomorrow we are headed to a tie-dye party and I'm excited to do this! I have not done this since in The Gambia, so this will be super fun. We stocked up on stuff to dye, so this will be an interesting feat with Shea in tow. He's doomed to end up face first in the dye.

We will see grandpa this week, do a park day and hopefully hang with our close buddies. The weekend starts on months of classes. Kaidin and Seringe are starting a parent/child guitar class for the next 8 Saturdays. They will totally love it I hope. They both are dying to learn and this will be a wonderful thing they can do together.

From there the classes only keep starting up and things pile on to our schedule. It will all be fun, but so different from what we've had our plates that I'm a little nervous. The last 1-1.5 weeks has been really rough on me personally. I have had fleating thoughts of school not being that half bad. What happens is the sibling rivalry kicks in and I start to loose it immensely. I really have an extremely tough time with the fighting between the older two. Fortunately, I do know and see that it's just frustrations being taken out on each other. I'm not sure that's a good thing or bad. But each night they go to bed saying they love each other and wishing each other a good night. I have to believe that this time together is stregthening and not detrimental... I'm sure there is a list too long to count that would like to tell me otherwise. But I just can't buy it. I can see the positives. I can see that home/unschooling builds stronger families and that's really one of #1 reasons for doing so. Ugh. But in that heat of the moment, I really can be thrown. I am really a very peaceful -type person. I am very auditory sensitive I have discovered even more so lately. And when they go at it, I really get way too involved. I have figured this out fortunately, and the last few days have been SO much better for me. And I think my less-intense-involvement has minimized it for them as well. At any rate... it's been good lately. Case in point... today we went to the thrift store's half-off day and it was chaotic.... insanely packed full of people. But we actually had a really great day. Got the kids a full wardrobe full of clothes and even did a Target stop for shoes. It was pleasant, we all enjoyed it a ton and they argued next to none. If I can remain a bit more distant to this going on, maybe it would happen less and less. Or at the very least, I would feel more at peace and not overly stressed out by it. At any rate, helping them through those frustrations is important to me and I'd like that good things caome from it.

So the Fall is bringing us loads of classes, and it really should be fun once we get into the swing of things and the changes in our carefree summer schedule. Dahlia will be doing clay (with me), and then on her own, she'll be taking gymnastics, intro to soccer and basketball, and a girls cooking class. Kaidin will be doing the guitar with Seringe, a math games group, a cooking class for boys, and a drama course ("Dragon Fighting")... possibly a clowing class as well but that one is still in the works and may not happen, not sure. Shea is taking a Kindermusik class which he loves loves loves. And if that weren't enough, Kaidin is teaching his own animation class in our home on Wednesdays, which will alternate each week with Dahlia's Girls Club. It's going to be a full schedule for all. I'm just trying to figure out where I can stick in a couple exercise classes for me ; )

I really hope to get our family apple picking this year and we have various other things we'd like to accomplish, visit, see and do!

Big D

Tonight... we're laying in bed and she says, "Mommy there are 2 kinds of gods. There is the one that you just say, and then there is the other one... he's a guy.".... I reply with something like "oh really now.... " and then she comes back with, "Oh yea, there is 'god bless you' and she's a girl"....

Fun on FB

Great quotes I want to remember:

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you'll make one!"

"Assumptions allow the best in life to pass you by."

Goin' too fast

It's really crazy how summer seems to be flying by. Already this weekend we are welcoming August and it just feels like it's barely begun! We've been quite busy, clearly b/c I have not update our blog in so long, so it's at least been a fun summer at that.

We checked out Kenosha for the second time. We had a really wonderful weekend. Stayed at a place with a pool and enjoyed both Racine and Kenosha. Did the 4th in downtown Kenosha on the harbor and that was quite an interesting venue! The firework show was fantastic, but the traffic out of town, not so much..... enjoyed lots and lots of the pool and toodled around the outlet mall just next to the highway. All in all, I'd love to live there and Seringe would not. His verdict came days after returning and he's quite content not making the leap up there. So we are sorta on hold and seeing what happens with the new landlord/management team and our lease for the matter...

K lost a tooth on that exciting trip, though it seemed less exciting to him b/c he's lost so many already. But it was quite funny how he totally panics when the tooth actually falls out. He's just sure he's going to have to be rushed to the ER due to blood loss or something. He's quite the hilarious paranoia ham...

We enjoyed a Full Moon Jam with Seringe this past month and he really seemed to enjoy. He's longing to get some jembe's sent to us from TG, and that will soon come our way. We dragged Grandpa out to join us, but only caught him on the tail end before people were wrapping up and the kiddos were dying to crawl into bed. Many of these late summer nights have gotten them to realize they just don't dig staying up late. They always think they do, but when they actually do, they complain to all ends of the earth. They have experienced plenty this summer that has opened their eyes to the joy of sleeping and that earlier bedtime routines are not so bad afterall.

International Pen Pal group met this month as well. We gained two new matches. One in Morocco and the other in Armenia. Good crowd came out to write to these gals and it's really fun to have multiple matches to keep in touch with. The kids are really diggin' getting to know kids in different parts of the world.

We had our EHE family picnic which was really nice. Great weather, lots of families showed up. The kids had a blast as it seems they had not seen that crowd in its in entirity for most of this summer. So they were excited to see everyone together. They had quite the game going when I had to call it end for our fam so I could head to an au pair meeting.

We've visted The Grove and hit the bike races at the Northbrook Velodrome with Grandpa and gotten in a few visits with Grandma as well. In between all of the days at the beaches and park, we also did the Ethnic Arts Festival where Dahlia and I spent no less thatn five hours at the family art tent! She'd did every project there, and she just LOVED every single second of it. Of course the boys were not overly thrilled, so the following day we came back to the do the music portion of the festival. Everyone was satisfied at that point. ; )

We said goodbye to our dear friend Fran Tomandl. That lovely lady passed away mid-July and it was a bitter sweet goodbye. She was such a blessing in so may of our lives and she will be missed dearly. I am sure I will be inspired to write more about her soon, but for now, I keep my joy, peace, sadness selfishly to myself while I ponder it all over.

Exciting news for me is that I feel I've really found a nitche/path for myself. I am eager to embark on a new journey in my life, and that is becoming a prenatal massage therapist and certified doula! Oh, this is a long road ahead with nursing baby at home, but I am very excited about this. I feel like this will be a field that I will be quite content in. Pregnancy and childbirth have been so life-changing for me that I want to give to those women about to embark on the journey themselves. I hope I can be great at what I've chosen to do, and look forward to the future of a fulfilling employment where I feel blessed to do what I am certified to do.

My book is done! I think I've updated on that one, but I'm in the proofing stage now which is not the easiest process in the world! Eager to get my site up and running and seeing if I can sell a few copies! That would be exciting!

Today we headed down to the Chicago Historical Museum b/c it was their free day and we've never been. Cool lil' place with lots of stuff. I particularly enjoyed it. The kids got into until hunger set in, and they were set on having a picnic outside near the zoo, not inside in the cafeteria. So we cut the visit kinda short, but will head back. Did the picnic in the park and then headed to the farm/zoo. Quite a busy day there, and that always rubs K the wrong way. He's not a fan of crowds, well neither are the rest of us. But the difference is he'd rather not be there at all than just deal with it and enjoy the day. ; ) He did do quite well though, and we had a nice day. It finally felt like summer too!

So as I reflected on what else we had planned this week I realized, MAN August is hitting us this weekend and this time is flying by so so fast! Just hope this warm(er) weather holds out for us!

Ahhhh..... love.....

Last night Seringe and I were sittin' around watching America's Got Talent and the kids were coming in and out watching something else on the other TV, but coming in once in a while to catch a snuggle and then go back to their program. At one point, Kaidin was sitting with us and said, "Mommy, do you think you would ever be on America's Got Talent?" I chuckled, finding that quite a funny joke and replied, "Nope, don't think so". Seringe then pipes up and says, "She doesn't need to, she's already got the largest talent on earth. Raising and caring for you 3 is the greatest talent of all." AWE... How can you not go soft hearing that?!?! ; )