Tonight we made hula hoops. Wow, what a lot of fun. We followed the instructions you’ll find in my links and they worked perfectly! So far we have made three hoops. One is giant and the easiest for Norm and for me. The others are smaller, but still a lot bigger than the ones you see at toys r us. We tried different things to go inside for weight and noise making. Red lentils make a soft sandy sound but we all prefer black beans. (dried of course!)
Amelia is the champion; it’s as if she was created to hoop. If she doesn’t end up being a bestselling author, or a famous cellist, or a fabulous tray balancing waitress… she could run away with a circus as a hooper.
Next will come the decorating. The hoops are black and we got electrical tape in orange, violet, and blue. We might try stickers too. We were thinking about spray painting them but it seems like it might crack and rub off on clothing.
We had such fun out in the yard hooping tonight! It’s still nice out even though it’s dark. It rained earlier today so the air is very fresh and wonderful.
I love unschooling; it’s summer vacation for the school kids. (I think) But learning and fun know no season at our house. (and no time of day either!) I could rattle on and on about PE and science, and even social studies as we talked about hula dancing. But that would bore me before I finished. You know, we had a blast tonight and we made some great memories. I wonder if I’ll have bruises on my waist tomorrow.
Sharon
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That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the 2006 football world cup will begin on June 6th. It’s a funny thing about sports and this family. We don’t watch or participate in sports. I mean, not at all, when it comes to the Mariners, we find that we DON’T gotta love those guys. Most of us probably couldn’t tell you the dates of football or basketball season. But we do make two exceptions: the Olympics and the World Cup. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not even really the sports involved. We don’t watch skiing or swimming at other times. We would be unlikely to go out of our way to watch a soccer match unless we knew one of the players.
For us, maybe it’s not the sports involved in these events, it’s something more than that. Something about the international cooperation. I think it gives us hope for the world. Sure we find it exciting to watch the best in the world playing at their life long best. The enthusiasm is infectious. The the skill of the finely tuned and shaped bodies is like a fast, dirty, and sweaty ballet.
But deeper than that, knowing that there are people all over the world, we are reminded that the rest of the world is out there. They are cheering along in languages we don’t know and might not ever have heard of.
We cheer for teams who play well. Teams who are from countries we have a fondness for. Sometimes we cheer for teams we feel sorry for. The USA team is not one of the best, I think that’s something we like about the world cup too. It gives us a taste of what so many other people get everyday. Going into a competition without the cockiness of certainly. I’m proud of the American Soccer team because they seem to know what they are there for. They play hard and they lose a lot. I suspect most American groups wouldn’t do the same, that a great number of our military recruits wouldn’t dream of signing up if they didn’t expect to win.
The American soccer team goes in hoping to win, but know they are up against some very fine teams. They go in because they love soccer.
Anyway, It’s only six days away. I hope I get to see a lot of it.
Sharon
Tonight was the night Madeline has been waiting for and talking about for weeks. It was the Limelight Awards at youth group. Last week they made music videos and tonight was the award event. As described in an earlier post, Madeline wore a fabulous dress we found at Goodwill. She also had on some very stylish black shoes and a fun plastic tiara she borrowed from her friend. I took some pictures of her but I'm not much of a photographer. I'll post one as soon as I can get my hubby to get them into the computer.
She looked incredible and had a lot of fun.
Sharon
