J had Nationals practice at a local high school. They have a big stage and an excellent sound system. It was just renovated and has huge screens on either side of the stage - we're having our recital there next year. And the show will be shown on the screens at the same time the kids perform it. Awesome. The kids ran all their numbers. I'm glad they're getting lots of practice. Yesterday the owner set up mock interviews for the ones going for Title. J said she was a little nervous, but it was fun.

After B drove me to work, he went back to pick up J at the high school and took the kids for some takeout. He found an Arby's whereby he had to call me to revel in his good luck (lol). I haven't had Arby's in like 20 years and told him he better get me some too!

There was a party tonight at the dance studio for one of our guest choreographers who is going away to California to college. He is an amazing person and it's so sad to see him go. The kids performed for him - lots of Team Rave stuff, he sang with one of the moms, he danced for us, they played big group games, and we all has lots of food and cake. W hung out with the owners son and 2 boys from J's team - they are 9-11 y/o. He doesn't have patience for the other 5-year-old boys. K stayed all night with the 12-year-old team, and J bounced around everywhere, mainly with her team, dancing all night, and so full of energy. We all had a fun time and got home after 11pm.

W is still insatiable with readalouds. We're still averaging at least 10 a day - mostly picture book stories that can be read aloud from cover to cover in about 15 minutes. He loves playing "find the word" at the end of the stories, where I pick a word and he has to find it in the book. He found his old Bob books and after every 3 books I read to him, he'll read me a whole Bob book. I guess he's starting to feel more confident in his reading abilities. He's learning so much with all this reading and listening and finding. He's also writing a lot more. He asks me "how do you spell ____ ", I spell it for him, and he turns it into a card for one of us, lol. And today he played addition games on iknowthat.com. He had to figure out the addition answers quick before the turtle met up with some life-threatening danger. Two problems correct and he saved the turtle. He was quickly answering ones like 5+4 and 2+6. He used his fingers at first, but when a problem repeated he would remember the answer. I thought that was cool. I can't help but be amazed at his enthusiasm and love for learning. And the best part is that life and learning can always be fun like this. Even when he does something difficult and challenging, it's still fun and will help him achieve a goal. And most everything he chooses to learn will be done in context, having meaning for him. I love unschooling.

And here's one of my favorite articles about unschooling:
I LIVE THEREFORE I LEARN