SmART Cuban

I have times when I feel inadequate to homeschool my kids.
Not that I can't do stuff, I totally know I can.
It's just that I've never been much of an academic.
I'm more of the right brain, emotionally driven, wow-what-a-great-color artistic type.

And I can do a lot of stuff, except maybe algebra and seriously, name five people that you personally know who use algebra in their every day life. (*crickets chirping* "Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?") I thought so.

So my poor homeschooled kids are saddled with a teacher who has something much more akin to hair-brained schemes as opposed to actual lesson plans. (Okay, shut up. I do make lesson plans, they just happen to be a little loosey-goosey. =D)

But when it's time for field trips.... Look out. I am queen of the unusual-yet-interesting-to-young-minds field trip. (Someone fetch me my tiara!)

I take my kids to live theater, to concerts, to art shows, to museums. We scour flea markets and take the train somewhere. Silly, fun, off-beat stuff. That's what I do best.

For summer "school" we are busy making and designing lots of craft-type projects. From making Adirondack chairs to knitting berets. I figured that in our "school" my mentoring is worth something. ;-)

So yesterday was a beautiful day in So Cal. The sun came out, the temperature hovered in the low 70's with a slight breeze that sang to us...."come and be a part of this!"

And so obediently we followed the siren song and found ourselves in the cradle of our creative coast: The Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival.

My niece Natalie is working at the festival this year which secured our free entry. Thanks, Nat! You know, I have quite the large family scattered all over So Cal - we may never have to pay admission to anything ever again! (sorry, digressed into fantasy there for a moment...) ;-)

Nat works in the ceramic booth, teaching kids how to make pottery on a wheel. Isn't that amazingly cool? She met us outside still sporting her dirty I'm-a-total-working-artist apron.

The Sawdust Festival is made up of local Laguna Beach artists and crafts-people so there's a little bit of just about everything and most prices are pretty reasonable, especially for the jewelry.

Of course, we bought stuff!

And we walked around, and took in the live music, and ate food, and clowned around. Actually, we brought Adam, which is the same as bringing our own personal clown. (He totally thought he looked piratey with that elaborate earring. Umm... wrong, son. You just look fashion-challenged. (It was a very cool design that just hung inside your ear, no piercing necessary, but that's not important right now.)

The kids and I felt totally inspired. I think that's what art does to you. At least that's what it does to me. It gets me a little more connected with my true heart. And I like that.

Look at all the fun stuff we saw:

By the time we left, with all our fun purchases, we were all in receptive and creative moods. Lucy immediately started working on another creative project and begging for a trip to our local craft store. Jonathan started asking if welding torches were simple to come by. (uh-oh)

I take my parenting and educating job pretty seriously. My goal is to get them to love to learn, to think, to appreciate hard work and embrace their own gifts. I counted this day successful in moving towards that goal.

Having said that, I also know that there are other life-lessons to be learned that I, as their mom, can't possibly teach them, and I know that.