As part of our explorations in chemistry, the Sunchild made a candle yesterday. We began by exploring the different states of matter, and then melted some wax in a double boiler setup. Then he began dipping his wick.

It took him quite a while, and he had a blast with it. He colored the wax with a 2 blue crayons, because, of course, 'my name means blue!'

We have yet to turn the wax into the 3rd state of matter. Soon we will burn the candle, and see how it can turn into gas.

In other news, the neighborhood is rockin' today. He met 2 more 5 year olds that live a bit further down the street this morning. This afternoon he has been playing with a boy who lives in the same building as we do. He just arrived back with his mom & sister, from a 4 month trip to India. They have been recovering from jetlag, and today was the first time the boy has been up to playing during the day. Right now, they are at his place, playing hotwheels. I am really glad we found such a nice kid-friendly neighborhood to live in. 

We went back to McClane Forest today, and it was a good thing, too. It was incredibly hot, and the stump groves were shady & cool. Papa came with us this time, and we brought a picnic to share by the creek. We lazed around for an hour or so, wading in the rather cold water, throwing stones, digging in the mud, and relaxing, and then we headed back into town to help a friend move.

I am so grateful to have clean water for the Sunchild to play in! 

It hasn't all been park days and parties though... We recently went through a period in which I became 'Enforcer Mom', and made him do several lines of writing every day. I think the chaos of the move caused me to feel the need to exert some control over the learning process.

So we had about 2 weeks of working on print, which became more of a struggle the longer it went on. We finished the alphabet, and I was once again reminded of my ideals regarding child-led learning. I announced the end of the forced writing program.

The very next day, at the Sunchild's request, we headed to the store, and picked up a book on cursive writing. Apparently, this form of the written word intrigues him. He has been enjoying exploring this much more flowing form of writing, and I think he is finally understanding the idea behind making each letter the in the same way each time... and, since it was his idea, I haven't had to push it at all. Oh, that's right. I know learning happens like that- I just forget, sometimes, in the moment...

This afternoon, he has been spending hours working with his electricity sets. In fact, he is still at it... 

Happy Solstice!!! We celebrated the longest day in a wonderful way yesterday. We met up with a bunch of families that we met at the Olympia FreeSchool, and had a big ol' potluck. It was at Jade's house, and she just happens to live on a U-Pick blueberry farm with Jared, and their kids Stella & Ezra. Stella & the Sunchild were very happy to see each other again. There were a ton of other kids there too, and good food, and a big lawn for frisbee & ballplay, and random running amok.

Silly me forgot my camera. I don't know if I would have thought to use it, though. I was busy chatting with my new parent friends. It is neat to find so many like minded people.

We have a pizza party planned for Friday, too. That should be a good time.

Well, we have a playdate at Priest Point Park, so we gotta run!

This week has been rather eventful. We made some new friends and had outings with them on three different days. On Wednesday, we headed up to Burfoot County Park, in order to experience the lowest tides of the year.

It was a pretty neat experience. The mudflats stretched out forever, and the place was overrun by sand-dollars. Not the bright white ones that you find on the eastern shores, but dark, furry, living sand-dollars. They were everywhere. The boys had fun collecting the shells of the dead ones, and learning to tell one from the other. They also found baby crabs & a shell full of tiny little hermit crabs. We stayed until the tide came back in, and the time got late. The Sunchild, was tired and muddy, and very glad to have had a long afternoon playing in the muck with some new friends.

On Thursday, we left early and headed out to Spooner's Berry Farm. The strawberries are ripe, and only $1.15 a pound when you pick them yourself. Once again, the boys ran about, playing in the grass, picking berries, and learning to avoid stepping on the plants. I had to cut myself off after a bit- I think 9lbs was plenty for us- at least for this week! We have been living in strawberry heaven, too. I even melted some fine Callebaut chocolate in a makeshift double-boiler to dip the strawberries in. A few minutes in the fridge, and ooh-la-la!!

Friday was our friends college graduation. Luckily for us, it was at Evergreen State College, where things tend toward the unconventional. It was entertaining to see the various outfits & costumes that some of the graduates wore to the event. There was even a person in medieval chain mail, with a silver mask, and raven wings. I am not quite sure what the message was supposed to be, but the Sunchild was delighted.

We have also been getting back into the groove of some of the more traditional educational activities. He has been practicing his writing, with the aim of sending off some letters that he has promised to write. We also just finished a book called Knights, by Catherine Daly-Weir, which is a second grade reader. We switched off reading aloud, line by line. It was much more interesting than many of the earlier readers that he could manage on his own.

He has developed an interest in chemistry as of late, as well. This is neat because we know someone who is a chemistry major at Evergreen who has offered to tutor him. He is excited to pursue that. His favorite chemistry fact is the transition of silver nitrate into copper nitrate (with the silver coming out of solution) by the addition of copper wire. We have yet to perform the experiment (where does one get silver nitrate, anyway?)- but he has found it in several books about chemistry, and loves to explain what is going on to anyone who will listen.

Well, there is more I could write about, but the Sunchild has an agenda involving an experiment, and he needs my help. I will have to write again some other time. 

The Sunchild spent a week and a half building a paper mache volcano (which looks quite a bit like Mount Rainer) with his papa. It took several days- from building the infrastructure, to filling in the spaces and making a nice smooth surface that could be painted. They spray painted it with primer gray, and then highlighted it with a beautiful pearlescent white.

He waited patiently for his friend from next door to be around so that they could explode the volcano together. Hidden inside the volcano is a plastic water bottle, which they primed with baking soda. Then, they added a combination of Red #40 food coloring and white vinegar. This, of course, was only after a large community of Legos, Hot Wheels, and other toys were assembled at the base of the volcano. It was interesting to see which direction the lava flowed. They had a great time, and this volcano experiment has catalyzed an interest in chemistry for the Sunchild. I got quite a bit of video footage, but rather few stills.

The Sunchild wants to add:

Side post: The vinegar and baking soda is what caused the explosion. This happened because when vinegar and baking soda connect, they fizz up, and that is exactly what happened. And, it got all over the Legos.

The blogging has been lagging lately, as the process of settling into our new home is rather time consuming, but I did want to share this picture of the Sunchild under a tree-tunnel at McClane Nature Trail the other day.

We had a great time, and got some wonderful exercise in the great outdoors, and learned a thing or two about the local ecology. A picnic lunch while birdwatching was very relaxing. We are excited to go back again soon. 

The Sunchild read the book ‘Ferdinand’ aloud to me over the last two days. I read it to him several days ago, and he chose it as his book to read aloud yesterday. It is fascinating to see how he is diving into the world of reading.

It has been topsy turvy in our family over the last two months. Between gearing up to leave Ohio, and the whole journey across the continent, consistent reading fell rather by the wayside. Now that we are somewhat settled into our new home, and are gaining our bearings as Olympian residents, it is becoming easier to make time for more school-like activities.

Of course, I wouldn’t want to mislead anyone. We learned a lot about geography and map-reading as we journeyed west. One of our rituals upon getting to a motel was to pull out the map and see what path we had traveled since morning. He also got a big folder from his Nana & Grandpa that has spaces for all of the state quarters. They are arranged on a large map, and colored according to their entry into the Union, and searching for quarters has been another favorite activity.

We did a lot of math on the road as well. Somehow, road trips are rather conducive to math studies. Between speed, distance, cost of gas, and travel time, there are lots of ways to play with numbers.

He kept a journal for the trip, and drew some great stuff.

And now, he has decided that he wants to learn to read. He is finding joy in it, too, and that is the beautiful part to behold.