Summer at the Schoolhouse

This week brought more lovely summer days. Santi did a lot of pea picking, neighborhood walks and cooking (pizza, orange juice and tortillas). Julian has assembled a box of “parts” from a visit to Scrap, that have evolved into several inventions over the past week or two. He later taped two episodes of “The Big Kitchen with Food” with Chef Julian, which are in the edit room as we speak. The whole bunch of us gathered bricks from a construction site a few blocks away that Kristen turned into a garden bed wall. There are a million basil sprouts in our garden. Ben has been playing the organ every day and has figured out how to make that specific sound that you hear in that one Styx song.  Clarissa has joined us for a few bike rides to visit friends or to play at the park and see the farmers market. Check out various photos here.

Kristen also did more research into the world of nonprofits through the Oregon Business Center, attended a class on recordkeeping and taxes for childcare providers, auric reading and continued to explore the deschooling path.

Strawberries

The urban strawberry field bore fruit this week for the first time since we planted it almost two years ago. We are delighted. Kristen spent a lot of time working on business and administrative details since Santi was on break this week with his family. (We are now registered with the state of Oregon and the IRS as an “official” business.)

Our theme this week for learners at the schoolhouse have been machines of all sorts. (see latest photos here) Lots of rides on the road train, we’ve acquired and lost (returned or disassembled) four different sewing machines. Julian has created various new inventions with a variety of parts. Ben received the long awaited Hammond Organ with a Leslie Speaker which has already been played, polished, tweaked and repaired several times.

In terms of professional development, Kristen had the chance to visit Village Free School and is currently seeking out a support network of other relationship-based businesses in the Portland area. She has also registered for further trainings at Child Care Resource and Referral toward licensing, and is looking into attending the Nonviolence as a Way of Life Conference in September at the University of Oregon.