lifelong learning

down on the farm

2012-01-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the lovely weather and the New Year, we went to visit our friends farm down in Littlerock. The kids had a great time hanging out with the bunnies, and we are seriously contemplating the idea of small livestock ourselves. The kids assure me that they can remain unattached to the babies, as long as they can name the does and bucks. I am not so certain I can actualize the other end of the meat bunny concept. Luckily, I have been invited down for processing day, so I can discover empirically if it is something I can handle. What a way to start off the 2012!

2010-08-18T00:26:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy living that writing seems only a distant memory. One that I had better recall right quick, as I am gearing up to go back to college. With the Evergreen State College practically in my backyard, I feel almost compelled to make use of their assistance on my autodidactic path. Irony, that the parents are in college whilst the kids are homeschooled. But really, Evergreen has more in common with my homeschool ideals than many other colleges manage to pull off. To top it off, it was one of the 2 schools that I applied to back in high school, when a college degree was in my vision of the near future.

So now, 20 years later, and a whole lot more in touch with my essential self, I am going back to the task of getting an education, formally, and as a sophomore, to boot!

In other news, the Sunchild, at 10 1/2, is getting tall. And doing Aikido. And reading the Lord of the Rings (when he isn't reading Fablehaven, Warriors, or some other 'lighter' material.) He is steadily working through a Math book at his age level, and gaining comfort & confidence. He did well on his standardized test that I had him take to please the State of Washington. He is learning a bit of independence in doing errands to the local farm, and cooking some easy meals.

Ruby is a climbing monster, and I do believe it is no coincidence that I am finally starting to see grey hairs among my red ones. She loves the rope swing, and the play structure, and feeding her pack of imaginary dogs. She likes to count, and knows her letters, and we are even doing some pre-K writing stuff so she can 'do homework' like her big brother.

Papa has been away on a QiGong training, and we very much look forward to his return.

The garden is glorious this year, and keeping up with the harvest is keeping me rather busier in the kitchen than I am accustomed to being. I have tried my hand a 2 kinds of pickles, and the results are surprisingly yummy.

I hope to have a freezer full of goodies by the time harvest-time is over.

2010-05-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

The kale has gone to flower, and the spring food is emerging from the earth. Days are getting longer, with pink sunsets and twilights that last forever. And we are heading to New Mexico.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

2008-08-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

2007-06-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

I just came across this photo- I have no idea how old the Sunchild is in this picture, but he reminded me of Ruby, and it made me smile.

2007-06-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

The Sunchild is enjoying having a new yard a whole lot.

2007-04-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

I cannot seem to get a picture of just the Sunchild any longer. He & his sister are just too cute together. I just had to share this one!

2007-04-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

The Sunchild enjoyed testing out his new rain boots in Hammersley Inlet out in Shelton. The tide moved in rather fast. He put a stick in the sand and we used a stopwatch to learn that it moved landward 3 inches in 1 minute. A boot-high stick was almost submerged in 20 minutes. Logs and other flotsam were carried rapidly by, and we watched life go by, for while.

The blogging has been infrequent, as actual typing is difficult with a nursling. We are planning to move in about a month, and there is a lot to do in preparation. But when we arrive, we will have a yard, and trees, and greenery around us. I look forward to having a birdfeeder again.

2007-02-12T21:44:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of learning going on these days- about being a family of four. The Sunchild is learning about the sorts of things he can do for himself when mom is too busy nursing the Gem. He is developing a sense of confidence in his own abilities. It is fun to witness.

2007-01-22T11:36:00.000-08:00

Big brother is learning how to hold his little sister Ruby. Aren't they cute?

2006-11-28T10:28:00.000-08:00

We went out to McClane Creek again yesterday, since Papa hadn't had a chance to see the salmon running. The season is almost over for that, as illustrated by the dead salmon that the Sunchild is contemplating at the side of the creek. We did get to see them up close in the water, though, which was a treat. Seeing one of our favorite places after a rare snowfall was pretty special as well. Indigo was able to tell the males from the females by the shape of their mouths & the coloration of their skin. I am glad he remembered, because I sure didn't!

This morning, he finished off his Grade 1 Spelling Puzzles book that he has been working on. He handwriting is getting better in the sense that he has more of an idea of what he is aiming for. It is not as polished as it was when I sat at the table & corrected each mistake as it happened- there are still some backwards letters and his spacing could be better- but he seems a bit more comfortable with the whole idea. He really enjoyed finishing the book. It gave him a sense of accomplishment.

Off to the Freeschool now, for our homeschool playgroup day.

2006-11-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Snow! Yes, indeed, here in Olympia there is snow. By the time we got outside, it had turned rather slushy, and the trees were dripping like crazy. It wasn't raining yet, though, and we got a chance to build a nice snowman. The snow packed really well, so it might even last a few days.

This was much more his project than the last time we made snowmen, last winter. He really got the hang of rolling the ball through the snow to make it as big as possible. I think the pine branch arms were a very nice touch.

2006-11-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

We finally made it out to McClane Forest yesterday, and I am really glad we did. The Chum salmon are still running, and the creek is 3 times the size it was during our last visit. There was a Salmon Steward there answering questions, and the whole park was hopping.

We didn't get to see any active spawning, but we did see the salmon hanging out in the overhang in the picture. There was one who seemed to have already spawned, and who was guarding her eggs. We learned that the females have a horizontal line on them, and the males have the vertical lines along their sides. Also, the white patches on the salmon are a type of harmless fungus that grows on them once they hit fresh water & stop eating. We saw quite a few dead salmon, too, done with their biological imperative & now providing others with nutrients. The forest was full of the sound of water, and it was a beautiful day to be out in it.

2006-11-20T21:52:00.000-08:00

We had a fun adventure to the gaming store in Olympia. The Sunchild has a regular 'Magic the Gathering' date with our friend E, who suggested a trip to the store for more cards, his treat. Indigo had never seen such a store, and it was fun to look at all of the role-playing supplies that they had.

After much consideration, he finally chose a new red & black deck to play. Then we all headed out for Mexican food & looked at the cards. This new deck is rather advanced, strategically, so it will be interesting to watch him learn how to play it.

2006-11-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

We have been involved in a whole lot of activities lately, where it seems I often forget to bring my camera. We spent the weekend at home, which was a nice change of pace from all of the driving around we have been doing.

The Sunchild was ready for some bookwork the other day- and really liked the idea of a project that would illustrate his own American journey. He colored a map in, and numbered the states that he has been to. He chose different colors for each trip, and another color for states that he has lived in. He also glued labels on each state, and can read all of them now. He learned that he has been to 24 of the 50 states. Not bad for a 6yo!

In other news, the Sunchild began taking Kungfu lessons recently. A friend of ours is donating space and the instructor is only charging $5 a class. Very different than the expensive Santa Fe dojang I used to run! He is loving the class. I have been suggesting he practice his moves throughout the week, which is a nice way for him to blow off steam during the execptionally rainy days.

Park day has transformed into an indoor recess at the Freeschool. The Freeschool was kind enough to donate space to the TLCers to continue our weekly Tuesday group. It is a nice informal gathering where the kids do what they will, as long as they are respectful of each other & of the space. Afterwards, my friend W joined us with her kids for a downtown walk to Otto's. She is pregnant too, and we were both dying for one of their salads.

Speaking of the Freeschool, they are also getting more organized. They have a list of Saturday morning activities through the end of the year, and we are excited to be involved in that.

In the car last night, the Sunchild discoursed to me about the 4 levels of the Food Web; the Sun, source of all energy; Producers (which are plants); Primary Consumers (who eat the plants); and Secondary Consumers- and so on and so on until you get to the Biodegraders. He is definitely learning stuff all the time!

2006-10-31T21:50:00.000-08:00

The Sunchild was a Magic, the Gathering inspired Bat Creature. It was intensely cold here, so the trick or treating didn't last very long- but he was pleased with his haul.

2006-10-30T22:42:00.000-08:00

We went out to McClane forest today, but it was pretty chilly, and we didn't make it past the pond. There were ducks there, and the Sunchild enjoyed tossing pebbles in the pond, tricking the ducks into thinking he was throwing treats. On our way out, he found a woolly-bear caterpillar, and spent some time checking it out.

2006-10-29T20:48:00.000-08:00

The Sunchild loves to give kisses to 'da baby in da belly."

2006-10-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Magic the Gathering as literacy work:

"Mom?"

"What?"

"How do you say S Y P H O N ?"

"That's syphon, honey."

"How about V I G I L A N C E ?"

He is going to have a very interesting vocbulary due to this adventure in card games. Props to the goji-family to turning him on to it :D

2006-10-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

We finally made a trip to Tumwater Falls. I have been hearing about the salmon running there for a while, and it was definitely worth the trip. The trail starts up at the holding tanks, where the salmon who travel up the fish ladder get caught. Some are allowed to continue on their way; others are harvested for their eggs. The picture is from the bottom of the falls, at Capitol Lake, where the salmon are gathering courage for the next phase of their journey. The Sunchild & I talked about how cool salmon are, and how they don't give up when the going gets tough.

The Sunchild also found a nice spot behind the rhodies, that he decided was the perfect spot to meditate. Thus inspired, we ohm'd for a bit, before heading back up the hill. Check out the web album for more photos of this hike.

2006-09-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

We headed down to the Olympia Timberland Library for a tree-planting today. The Sunchild helped plant a Canadian Red Chokecherry on the west side of the building. Then we had cake and headed over to the other side of the building, where the local Woodturners Club had set up a demonstration. One guy was making tops for the children, and when we arrived, Sun was the only one present. It was great because he got to watch the whole process, including coloring the top with Sharpies for decoration (while still on the lathe). He also watched the Woodturner teach another man how to use the tools on the lathe to make his own top. It was a good time.

There was also a puppet show & storytime, which was fun, but afterwards it was right back to the lathe. This time there was a line, and so we stayed and watched for a while, and then headed back home for dinner. He liked the fact that he was watching someone do the same work as Pop Mumper, and announced on the way home that he wanted to make things like bowls and tops and pottery when he grows up. I must admit, I really want to play with a lathe now too.

*****
I have just gotten back to writing after a wonderful visit with family. I have a lot of pictures & time to fill in, and will be backdating each entry to its appropriate slot. I also will be adding a Picasa WebAlbum, so keep a look out for that as well. Of course, this will take some time, and I do hope to keep somewhat current until then.

2006-09-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

The Sunchild reads the trailside sign while Nana tries to stay warm in the foggy cloudcover on Mount Rainier. We had a nice time, despite the fact that we never actually *saw* the mountain.

2006-09-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

We stopped at the Recycled Spirits of Iron Sculpture Garden in Elbe, Washington, on our way to Mount Rainier. The Sunchild's favorite piece was a huge giraffe; here he is hugging one of its legs. More pictures from this trip are at our Web Album.

2006-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

We visited our friend C out in Mud Bay. He had new chickens to check out, and of course, the rope swing, which is always a hit.

2006-09-16T17:00:00.001-07:00

We had a fabulous day out on the Puget Sound today. Grandpa rented a boat from Boston Harbor, and we went to Hope Island for a picnic and a hike. It was beautiful.

After lunch, we took a foray down Budd Inlet. Here is the Sunchild, helping Grandpa at the tiller. I got a turn at the tiller too, which was even more fun than I thought it would be.

2006-09-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

We spent the day at Percival Park, for Percival Play Day today. There were all sorts of activities and crafts to enjoy. The Sunchild especially enjoyed a visit aboard the Olympia Harbor Patrol boat. We learned that the Harbor Patrol is staffed entirely by volunteers, somewhat like a volunteer Fire Dept.

There were also face painters, craft tents, a bubble tent, and a climbing wall present. Indigo attempted the climbing wall for the first time ever, and is excited about pursuing that in the future.

2006-09-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

We took a nice hike down at McClane Creek Forest with Nana & Grandpa. It was a hot, dry day, and the forest smelled different than usual. Grandpa climbed up on the roots of this big, old cedar, and Indigo followed suit.

2006-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

At his request, we finally got rid of the training wheels. He is pretty confident on that thing, too. Thanks to Gramps Cutbirth for the wheels :D

2006-09-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

We went to visit our friend E this morning. He has a basement apartment, and lots of fun instruments to play with. Indigo, the Dragon Jedi, amused himself with the keyboard for the entire time.

2006-09-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here's another shot from our journey into dramatic self expression. He didn't enjoy getting the paint off nearly as much as he enjoyed bicycling around the neighborhood roaring his head off...

2006-09-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

We went down to Percival Landing to see the Lady Washington today. She is a replica of a merchant vessel that sailed the waters of the Puget Sound and surrounding areas back in the days of exploration. The original brig was sailed in the mid to late 1700s.

Of course, the Sunchild's favorite part was the cannons. And yes, they do work.

2006-08-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

We had a fun, creative, and productive day at home today. While I caught up on my many responsibilities, Indigo practiced a bit of writing, drew some pictures, and worked on some of his many masks. He is really enjoying playing dress-up lately, and I love how he is taking his costuming needs into his own hands.

He also pulled out the roll-end that I got from the Olympian a while back, and we made a huge map together. It is fun to draw on such a big scale. One of these days, I need to pull out the paints too, but I wasn't brave enough for that yesterday.

We have been watching a PBS documentary DVD on the history of Ireland. He liked the first episode the best, so far, about the prehistoric days, and the beautiful art & structures that the ancient people made. Last night went into the post St. Patrick era, with much talk about saints & monks. That kind of lost him, but he was very impressed to watch calligraphers practicing their art. We talked about what literacy & books meant in the ancient times, before printers, and publishers & bookstores and whatnot. When every book had to be written by hand, they were extremely precious. I think he resonated with this, as practicing his writing is something he has been struggling with lately.

2006-08-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

Sand in the City is going on this weekend, and we just had to go down & check it out. There were a ton of activities hosted by the Hands On Children's Museum, many with a Japanese theme. The Sunchild got to do a variety of craft projects, got his face painted, dug for treasure, played in a mamoth sandbox, and had a great time. It was a hot sunny day, and perfect for checking out the sand sculptures. His favorite ones were a great big pyramid and and a lion faced sphinx. Not surprising, really, as we have been on an Egyptian kick recently.

In other news, we had great tag sale luck yesterday too. We scored some new bookshelves (finally, a place to put library books that isn't on the floor!), a comfy new chair, and a hoard of good homeschooling games from another homeschooling family that is moving to Alaska. Included in these games was something called 'Mummy Rummy' which is a pictoral mummy game featuring ancient Egyptian artifacts. Since we have been reading and watching videos about King Tutankamun, this was a nicely timed find. Sun also bought a working electric train set, with the parts still in the boxes, and I found some Ravensburger puzzles, a partial advanced Chemistry set, Life, and the Worst Case Scenario board game. I think we will plenty to do once the rainy season kicks in.

2006-08-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

We finally made it back down to the 5th Avenue Bridge to watch the salmon, and this time, we remembered to bring the camera.

We saw a few salmon brave the torrent coming out from the dam, and we weren't the only ones who noticed. We were able to get a bit of video of a seal hunting in the rapids. This was especially neat, because it had been very hard to catch a good close up view of the seals, as they usually move rather fast.

We also had the good fortune to see a river otter up close. He was a cute little critter, and reminded me a lot of my old ferret Finneagan, who also is in the Mustelidae family. But this guy was no domesicated animal. He played in the water, hunting small fish & scratching his back on the open barnacles that adorn the concrete walls of the channel there. Eventually, we lost sight of him as he went upstream towards Capital Lake.

The seals had caught a salmon as we arrived. It took about 10 minutes for all the hubbub to die down between the 4 seals who were sharing the meal. Then they joined the others to hunt closer to the bridge. They are hard to see from above the water, but you can tell where they are by the patterns the fish make as they flee. Many of the salmon bear bright pink spots where they must have narrowly escaped becomes a seals meal.

The Sunchild had fun throwing pebbles into the water, and watching how the fish responded. If there were fish near the impact, the fish would scatter, but if they were far away, they were come closer to investigate. The smaller the pebble, the less effect it had.

2006-08-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

We pulled the Sunchild's compound bow out of the garage the other day. On our way up the pennisula last week, we had stopped at our friends house out in Mud Bay, and he had an archery target set up. He also had a rope swing, which was great fun too, but the archery target was pretty inspiring.

When we dug out the bow, the Sunchild had difficulty drawing it. He has been pretty persistant, though, and has been getting stronger every day.

There is a local archery place with beginner's shooting clinics. We hope to visit there real soon.

2006-08-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Road Trip! And it was about time. We were all going a bit crazy here in town, so a drive up the penninsula was in order. We drove up to Hoodsport, and then headed inland towards Lake Cushman. It was a lovely drive, and we made it into the national forest lands too. After driving, and stopping countless times, we finally had to park Dora, because we could see that the road was collapsing up ahead, and chancing it seemed like a bad idea.

As it turned out, there was a lovely waterfall a little ways away from where we parked. The guys climbed around and I took pictures, and we enjoyed the refreshing mountain air. We made it up to 3000ft before time constraints determined that we had to head back to Olympia. It was a beautiful day, and we are excited for our next journey to the mountains.

2006-08-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

We scored a great deal at the Goodwill yesterday: an almost complete DK Robotics set. The previous owner had cracked the battery housing on their first model, and must have given up at that point. With a little ingenuity, and a nice wide rubber band, we figured out how to get it working again.

We spent the afternoon working on the half completed car robot. It was pretty neat. It used string with knots in it as it's program, with which it steered itself around the room. It was a bit difficult to control though. We are looking forward to working on some more robotics soon.

2006-08-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

We went on a long awaited trip to the State Capitol today. The Sunchild has been fascinated with the structure since we first moved to Olympia, and has often asked when we could make a trip. So today we did.

The Legislative Building is the cool one with the dome. It has fabulous steps out front, like something out of a law movie. The inside is done in several different kinds of marble, and it has that grand, echoing sound that you only find in large enclosures made of polished stone. We wandering upstairs, and saw the State Seal on the floor of the Rotunda. Indigo had hoped to be able to get a view from up inside the dome, but we were out of luck on that part.

We did visit the Senate Gallery, where I got to rest my weary feet on century old wooden benches with comfy leather cushions. We talked about laws, and how democracy works, and how we could come and watch the proceedings at some point when the state congress is in session.

We visited the State Receiving Room, too, and saw some more gorgeous marble. There was even some with patches in it the color of garnet. It was really quite beautiful.

We toured around the campus for a bit longer, but our bellies began to rumble, and we cut our tour short. But we did accomplish what we set out to do: visit the cool building with the big dome on it!

2006-08-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

We have been on a theatrical theme lately. All day today we, worked on masks. It was good fun. I had checked out a variety of drama books out of the library, and the Sunchild immediately wanted to make a robot mask. I set him up with some materials, cut the eyeholes, and he was off. We spray painted it too- he can only wear it for a few minutes at a time because it is still a bit stinky, but he is pretty pleased with the result.

We also worked on bird masks, which involved pulling out the acrylic paints and painting sheets of paper which we then cut into the shapes of feathers and glued onto a domino mask. We have plans to do even more of this sort of thing. The Sunchild thought it would be neat to make a crane mask out of plain white paper. It will be interesting to see what we come up with.

Earlier this week, we made it out to McClane Forest, and walked the long loop. Indigo brought a slingshot, and had fun teasing the ducks. He would shoot in a direction that they weren't, and then would rush to the spot, hoping to find bread or some other delectable. The lady Wood Ducks fell for it for much longer than the Mallards did.

I am reading a new homeschooling book "Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves" which is a autobiographical account of one families journey through homeschooling. Reading it has helped me to remove myself somewhat from the paper chase, and focus more on the learning that is already happening. We had a great time yesterday talking about scientific notation, after he picked up a calculator and started playing around with it. Our talk branched out into how one computes 10 to the 9th power. Then we started working with 2s, and he got that pattern as well. I don't expect him to remember it at a moments notice, but he was fascinated by the way the numbers were interacting in a way that just doesn't happen with worksheets. We talked about 9s, too, and they make pretty neat patterns as well.

Of course, as soon as I let go of the need to pressure him about paperwork, he announced "I think I want to start doing worksheets on Monday." The trick, for me, is to not nag him about it on Monday- because then it becomes about my need, not his.

2006-08-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Sunchild is working hard on his Lego fortress. He is intending to enter in their current contest, which is to design & build a fortress for the new Toa Inika.

It is rather intricate, and has lots of moving parts. Capturing it digitally is proving to be somewhat problematic.

2006-07-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

The Sunchild has developed a strong rekindling of his fascination with Lego recently. We cleaned up the trains, and now the space is filled with a large & detailed project, as well as the detrius such a building frenzy elicits. There is a contest at Lego to design a fortress for the new Bionicle Toa, the Inika. Five winners will be chosen in September. He was inspired by the idea of a goal to design for, and has been spending a lot more time in his room, working on it.

This morning, we spent a relaxing period just talking about the upcoming birth, looking at pictures & discussing what happens. We looked at the Sears Pregnancy Book, and Sheila Kitzinger's Homebirth. It was fun.

After a late breakfast, and a bit of tidying up, we found the stash of green felt that had been given to me by my fried Ian long ago in Santa Fe. From that, and following the directions in the book "Knights and Damsels", we fabricated a Robin Hood hat. This is apropos, as we watched the Errol Flynn version not too long ago. He has been running around in that, and his Jedi cloak, drawing arrows from an invisible quiver.

He also spent some time today working on his latest software adventure- Zoombini's Mountain Rescue- which is all about math and logic, and doesn't even use digits. Some of the problems are complex enough that I find them tricky, but he perserveres, trying to figure out how to crack the various codes.

We watched part of a movie this evening, too. It was about the Yogis in Tibet. It spoke of their lineage, their history, and the tragic events of the last century. It also showed their nonviolence, and there was an interview with the Dalai Lama. The Sunchild made me promise for us to wait to watch the rest of it with him. I think that means he likes it ;)

2006-07-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

We moved back into the realm of chemistry this week, and began studying gases. The Sunchild made CO2 gas by putting baking soda in a ballon, and attaching that balloon to a bottle that had vinegar in it. When the two mixed, the balloon was blown up. He also did something involving an egg, a glass, water, and salt. He was seeing how changing the density of the liquid influenced the buoyancy of the egg.

We joined the summer reading program at the library, and he has been making fair progress with that as well. He set himself a goal of 22 books over the summer, and has 8 more to go before he hands in his list to the library. The great thing is that he has read all of these books out loud to me, with some assistance with the more difficult words. He is really moving towards fluency. Most of what he has been reading lately have been Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer.

He has been tapering off on the paperwork, although several weeks ago, we bought a 2nd grade math workbook that he was really enjoying. I had been making a rule about doing some sort of paper activity every day, but I am thinking that I am going to ease up on that until autumn, and just let the summer play out as it will.

He has been getting into music again, as of late. Much to his papa's pleasure, he has been walking around with his guitar, and they once again went over how to play the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars. We have also been playing around with percussion, and drumming, and he loves playing the kazoo. I got some books out of the library on music for kids, so maybe we will learn a new song or two.

This afternoon, he had been playing Legos with his friend Muthu. He has been working on a piece for the latest Lego competition, and was excited to show it off to his friend. He is also looking forward to the return of his friend Tristan, which is one of the highlights of his week.

2006-07-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

It has been hot. Really hot. Finally hot enough, in fact, to warrant a trip to the beach. The water was refreshing, and the Sunchild was still very comfortable in the water. We spent the afternoon there with J & her friend M, and after we were suitably refreshed, we went to see M's house. He lives in an old Grange building, which is painted purple, and bears a sign announcing to arrivals that they have reached 'The Hall of the Woods'. There is enough space inside that they actually host roller-skating parties. And yes, that is a broomstick that the Sunchild is practicing his moves on. Apparently, M works with kids & video, and they had recently done a film that crossed Pirates of the Carribbean with Star Wars and the Harry Potter movies. There was a big sign that said 'Hogwarts' bearing testimony to the recent fun. Sun had a blast practicing his Quidditch moves, and is excited to go back and visit again sometime soon.

2006-07-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today we made a trip with our friend J to Mima Mounds. It is a pretty neat place, with regularly shaped 40ft mounds all across a prairie. Apparently, their origin is somewhat of a geological mystery. The foliage was wonderful, and there were nice interpretive areas with information on the plants we were seeing. We had a good time, and it was only slightly marred by the continuous gunfire we heard from the shooting range next door.

Since J was along, I actually got to be IN a picture! How is that for exciting? For photos of the mounds, follow the link above- their pictures came out a lot better than mine did.

2006-07-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

For chores today we cleaned up the Sunchild's room. It didn't need a whole lot of work, but we did sort all the lego pieces back into their proper bins. We also worked a bit on the train town that has overtaken his floor. It is funny how much more fun it is to play with when it looks like something coherent.

We went to the farmer's market today, after making blintzes for breakfast. Then we stopped at our friend J's house, where the Sunchild jumped for a bit on the trampoline. We found the book 'Miss Rumphius' on the shelf there, and just had to read it before returning home.

The gang of three managed to get along a lot more peacefully today. I think they are beginning to work things out. Luckily, we are down to just M until thursday, so things should remain a bit calmer until then.

2006-07-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

We played a round of DaVinci's Challenge this morning. We have yet to tally up the score, but the Sunchild is getting pretty good at this game.

We have been pretty regular about doing some sort of educational activity in the morning before playtime. After breakfast and chores, we sit down at the table and practice writing, or do math, or play a game or read or draw or do experiments. It has been a bit tricky keeping the focus, what with all the neighborhood kids passing back & forth in front of our window like fish in a tank. Luckily, one of our neighbors, M, also does some bookwork before he is allowed outside to play, so there is some community support in that. T has a hard time with it though, and tends to ring our doorbell excessively. Luckily, I am finally coming to terms with the fact that I can be a good influence on the neighborhood kids as well, and am trying to help him learn that ringing my doorbell a whole lot doesn't speed up Sun's appearance outside.

We have been chugging along at the library's summer reading program, as well. He finished his 8th book this morning. All of the books for that list have been ones that he has been able to read aloud with very little help from me. It is fascinating to watch how quickly this reading thing is taking hold.

Yesterday, we did several math worksheets. They were about measurement- both volume and length. We played around with a ruler for a while, and measured things like the circumference of each of our wrists. Strangely enough, there was only 1 inch difference between us! He is excited to finish off this workbook so that we can find a new one to work on.

Well, he wants to do something with me, so I had better get off the computer and get to it!

2006-07-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

Our friend J just moved into a new house with a trampoline in the back yard. We had a housewarming party at her place on the 4th of July, where she cooked up a lovely mango salsa steak. We spent most of the evening there, with the Sunchild bouncing away on the trampoline. He and his papa were up there together for a while, and they had a blast. He has now mastered the butt-bounce & the 180. He can't wait to go back again.

We waited until that last possible moment before we drove over to Tumwater to watch the fireworks. That was fun too, but we were out pretty late. It was midnight before we made it home.

Papa left yesterday morning for Santa Fe. He is recording music with our friend Will down that way, and he took the Great Grey Hound as his chariot. He should be there in a few more hours.
We had a wonderful playdate at Priest Point yesterday, and met some new moms from MDC. There were a few more kids a bit older than Sun who he was having a blast with. After a grocery run, we made it home, and he got to play with the neighbors T & M. The interpersonal dynamics of this triangle are very interesting, and I have more to say on that at a later date. Suffice it to say that the Sunchild is getting a lot of diplomatic experience these days.

2006-07-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Unity in the Community festival down at Sylvester Park. It was organized as a response to a neo-nazi rally that had received a permit to gather on the Capitol steps today (a total of 11 nazis showed up- apparently our counter rally worked!). The Unity festival was pretty cool There were speakers from all sorts of local groups, from WROC to YA-YA Media, and many others as well. There was also live music, of varying flavors, with our friends in Rag Dharma playing when we arrived. There were plenty of activities for the children, as well, from a free tattoo stand (in the picture), to a game run by the Y camp staff involving a big parachute & lots of giggles & laughs.

There were a lot of people talking about diversity & how unwelcome the nazi presence is in Olympia. This led to some neat discussions with the Sunchild about nazism, racism, diversity, and prejudice. His favorite sign said "Nazism? That is so 1938!"

After the festival, we went to our friend's house, where the Sunchild could play with his buddies O & Q. There is a ton of land & trees & stuff for the boys to play with, and they always have a great creative time. We were glad to get a chance to see them, as they are travelling back east for a month or so to visit family.

2006-07-02T11:21:00.000-07:00

The neighbor's kitten decided to hang out with the boys today in the garage. I think the Sunchild was getting rather attached. Luckily, the kitty was pretty patient with the boys, who were a bit less than gentle at times. She had a hideout behind the washer & dryer that she could escape to when everything got too intense. I had to put my foot down, though, when I found the boys trying to make a litter box in the garage. The last thing we need is a neighborhood cat thinking that our garage is a fine place to pee!

2006-06-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-06-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-06-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-06-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-06-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-06-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-04-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

The Sunchild finally bought the Viking Ship that he has been waiting for. He had intended to buy it with his birthday & Yule monies, but there were none to be had. We researched online options, but they were expensive. He decided to be patient & wait for it to be in stores once more.

We went out on Wednesday, and he put it all together that evening while I was at work. The Midgard Serpent is the best part. It has interesting articulations & is well designed. We read all about his legends today, and learned that he is the brother of Fenris Wolf, and son of Loki.

Currently, we are listening to a novel called Whalesong, which is from the point of view of a humpback whale. It is so good that I think I am going to stop typing now, and listen to the story instead.

2006-03-29T06:34:00.000-08:00

The Sunchild decided to sort Legos yesterday. Usually, I am the one to attempt to create order out of chaos in the Lego area, with his resistant help. This time, he decided that he wanted to collect all of the white pieces into one area so that he could make something. I was doing some packing and whatnot, and began freeing up more containers for his project.

This picture shows the result. He wanted to sort by color, like he has seen at Mr. Cap's store, in Chesterland. It was actually much quicker than the schema I had been using, which was to sort by piece classification. This way is far more simple, and easier to put into practice. I like the way the buckets of pieces look rather like paints on a palette...

Spring is in the Air!

2006-03-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

...and that makes it all the more difficult to sit myself down and write about all the fun things we have been up to lately. The lupines and the lilies have poked their curious tips up into the air, and the weather is wet, but with a hint of warmth for a change. The sap is moving in the trees, the birds are dancing up a storm, and our stuff is slowly making its way into boxes and bags.

This past weekend, we had a chance to forget about moving for a little bit. We went to see The Wind in the Willows at the Cleveland Play House. (I was hoping for a more interesting link, but there isn't much of a write-up about the show.) We enjoyed the performance immensely. The Sunchild picked Badger as his favorite character.

Of course, Bionicles & Legos are never far from our agenda in these parts. We have been reading from the Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide, and this has inspired him to new feats of creativity with the material he already has. He had been making more buildings, robots, and working with the concept of scale. We sorted his collection again, which always helps smooth out the creative process. "It's amazing what you find when you bother to clean up!" he told me the other day. He has also been working on creating Rahi for his collection (Rahi means 'wild beast' in Bioniclespeak). I want to take pictures of them, but he is so prolific that it is hard to keep up!

We did discover Lego Digital Designer today. This is a neat program, which in many ways, reminds me of a simple CAD or designing program. He can choose from sets of differing pieces, manipulate them graphically, save his designs, and print out a brick list. In fact, (and here is the commercial application) he can even order his designs, with a custom built box to go with it. I don't know if we will get that far, but he did design something today and has printed out the bricklist in order to see what he already has in his collection.

He went rollerskating again this past Saturday. He is doing laps on his own now, with 46 seconds being his best lap time. I am excited to go with him soon & see his developing skill.

We have read (and listened to) quite a few stories (and audiobooks). We have one disc to go in The Hobbit, which is what we listened to whilst playing with Legos today. We also read a version of The Odyssey, and I caught him playing Bionicle & the Cyclops shortly thereafter. The Secrets of Droon are our latest series, and I have been keeping our stash of folktales & the lore of fantastical creatures well stocked from the library. Speaking of which, I think it is now time for a story...

2006-03-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

We had the car last Friday, so we went on a trip to the Chagrin North Nature Center. The very first thing the Sunchild did once we arrived was to go to the drawing table, grab supplies, and sit down to draw some birds from the identification poster. I sat and knitted for a while, and watched the birds.

Eventually, school let out, and children began to arrive at the Center. He made friends with a girl a few years older than himself, and with many giggles, they played in the nocturnal exhibit. They were being dragons, and were on a mission to save the animals from the forest fire by leading them to safety. This went on for some time, until it was time to head to the library. Luckily, we found quite a few good books on dragons, and have been reading about them all week long.

This artistic impulse has been prominent, as well. The Sunchild has been getting out paper, and drawing maps. He did this with his best buddy D last week, during their weekly get-together. He has been in a creative frenzy of cartography ever since, and plans on bringing all of his work with him on our next visit to D's house.

We have been drawing together, as well. We pulled out some of the dragon books, and tried our hands at drawing them. I showed him how I am not very adept at drawing dragons from my mind, because my mental image of them is unclear; yet when I copy something I can see, it becomes easier. He tried this approach with good success, and now his made up dragons are even better than ever.

I had the opportunity to go to the library alone last night (ah, the joy of it!) and found quite a few kid's videos on drawing, cartooning, and sketching. We watched one last week, and he really enjoyed it, so I wanted to give him some more choices to select from.

Today, he had a movie date with Nana. He will have a sleepover, and is going roller skating tomorrow. He has been doing this regularly (we all went last Sunday) and has been having a great time. It is good to get him interested in something active, as his geek genes show up in a strong tendency to spend endless hours indoors, fussing with minutae in awkward positions. We have been dancing lately, but not often enough. I hope to do more of that once we relocate to the West Coast.

Math Attack

2006-02-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

It has been a math sort of day. We have read 'How Much is a Million' a few times in the last few months, and he was looking at it again yesterday. He read the list from 10 to 1,000,000 correctly, and so I asked him about it this morning. He remembered it still. It sort of set the stage for the rest of the day.

We often play with numbers. He likes me to ask him questions like "How much is 43 plus 68?" He contemplates, and 9 times out of 10, gives me the correct answer. His process is not necessarily standard, but he arrives at his destination nonetheless. I love that I can allow him the ability to play with numbers like this, and not insist that he follow the prescribed way of achieving the answer. I think it is building a solid foundation of confidence and joy in numbers.

I printed out a worksheet of double digit adding this afternoon, and he successfully completed all of the questions. It was good practice for writing numbers, as we do most of our math mentally. His numbers are not as solid as his letters are getting, but luckily, he really enjoyed the worksheet, and asked if we can do more of them. Hopefully, this will give him the practice he needs to remember the directions of his numerals.

Meanwhile, we continue to play with numbers, in the same way we play with language and rhyming throughout our day.

Lake County Farm Park

2006-02-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

We took a field trip with Nana today to the Lake County Farm Park. The annual quilt show was on, and we had a great time looking at all of the different submissions. In addition to the prizes awarded by the judges, there will also be several 'People's Choice Awards', determined by votes placed in the ballot box by the door.

We went through the whole exhibit several times, as we all decided which quilts we would be voting for. It was hard to decide, and we each chose different ones. I think the Sunchild had a lot of fun spying from behind the different quilts. He is very much into hiding these days.

It didn't feel very much like Spring yet today, but the animals know it is approaching. There were all sorts of new creatures in the barn at the FarmPark. We saw baby Nubian goats, tiny lambs, and 3 day old piglets too. Next door to the newborn pigs were a litter that were about a month old, and they were a riot! The pounced on each other & played like little puppies. I tried to capture some of their antics on video, but they calmed down as I pulled it out. Then the Mama Sow rearranged her bulk so that the piglets could nurse. I did manage to capture that on the camera, and it was rather amusing.

Before we left, we visited the stables, and hung out with the horses for a wee bit. There was a massive black Clydesdale mare named Jennifer, who caught my eye. The Sunchild approached a woman who was grooming a mule. She was a FarmPark volunteer, who made time to come down & exercise some of the horses there. We watched her ride in the arena for a while before we left.

In the main building, they have a space known as the 'Dairy Parlor'. They do milkings in there, and if you time it right, you can watch. We missed the milking time, but we were there for a demonstration. One of the staff brought a beautiful Swiss Brown Cow up onto the milking platform, and described for the small audience what the various tubes & devices were for. Then he invited us all up to give it a try! The Sunchild wasn't too sure that he wanted anything to do with that, but I convinced him to come up & watch me do it. Of course, once he saw how easy it was, he wanted to give it a try as well. He managed to do it on the first go. We both got a thrill out of trying something new on this trip!

2006-02-19T08:21:00.000-08:00

We had some lovely weather last week, which inspired us to get out and play. The playground was swamped by all of the snowmelt, especially near the swingset.

The Sunchild got the idea that we could drain the huge puddle if we dug some drainage ditches leading from it. This project was somewhat complicated by the railroad tie edging that was sunk into the perimeter of the playground. Luckily, we found a weak spot in the wall, and with much effort & concentration, were able to bring the water level down somewhat.

In other news, the Sunchild and his Papa went rollerskating with the Grandparents yesterday. They both had a great time, and I am looking forward to going with them one of these days.

We have been working intermittently on handwriting lately. I have been stressing the importance of working on the lower case alphabet, due to its predominance in printed text. Luckily, the Sunchild is interested. He received some cards for Valentine's day, and has been writing thank-you's in return. He gets his practice this way, yet I don't have to force the issue, as he recognizes the importance of expressing gratitude. Besides, it is a lot more fun to write something with content than it is to write boring lists of words or letters. His handwriting is improving dramatically, too, so I am confident that we are on the right path in this.

He has recently spent some of his Yuletide & birthday monies on new Bionicles from Ebay. We talked a lot about getting the most bang for your buck in this way. He spent about $20, and got 4 canisters of Bionicles, whereas they are about $9 apiece in the stores. He enjoyed the auction immensely, and wanted to keep on shopping, but I insisted that we wait a bit, since he has one more item on the way. We are keeping an eye out for a Viking ship in the meanwhile. The Sunchild would like to add: "When we do get back into buying things on Ebay, I would like to look for more Borrahk-Kal." I think he especially enjoys the fact that he can add to his collection, while not being limited to the one or two sets currently available in stores. This is opening his eyes a bit further to the nature of commerce in the modern world.

2006-02-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

Today has been "Electricity Day". We worked some more with his Snap Circuits set, exploring the different ways electricity can move through a circuit. I read quite a few sections from David MacCauley's "How Things Work" book, to help both of us get a better understanding of electricity.

Then we explored the new electricity kit which he got from his Nana & Grandpa for his birthday. It is called "ElectroWizard Inventions" and it is a lot of fun. We actually worked with it a bit yesterday, but were unable to completely 'grok' what was happening without additional research. Hence, this mornings reading selections.

After delving into the nature of electrons, we pulled the kit back out & set up the motor again. He is able to explain why the coil turns, and what is causing the light to flicker (I caught that on video!) We also made a telegraph, which was less successful, although we did get it to work a bit. The next project is a working radio. I think we need to save that one for after lunch.

I really enjoy watching him delve into things. He has been moving between both of his electrical kits while I have been blogging, and is experimenting with his own creations. He explained the concept of resistance to me today, using as a metaphor narrow roads where only one car can fit, and larger roads, where the traffic doesn't get as backed up. It makes me glad that I don't have to interrupt his learning process so that he can be shuttled off to Spelling class, or Gym. I like that he is able to feed his intellect until his appetite is satiated.

2006-01-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

The party was great! We did exactly one of all the scheduled activites, which was to pull out the gift bags, and have the boys put together their lego pods. A wonderful time was had by all, and the grown-ups got to hang out & chat because I let go of any need to organize things. The boys were completely able to entertain themselves, and I figured, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

His new get-up here came from our friends in Chesterland, and he had a blast with it, when I finally allowed him to open it up. I figured that a single sword, shield, and mask set wouldn't help maintain peace at an indoor party for 4 boys.

We bought him the Lego Viking fortress, which was a huge hit. We began putting it together last night, after sushi with Nana & Grandpa. He finished most of it on his own this morning. It was quite a lot of fun to put together with him. He has a good sense of fairness, and we would each work in mirror image of each other. He would wait for me to finish, before moving on to the next part of the instructions. Now, the whole fortress is complete, and accompanied by various other lego creations. Above, on the little table, stand the Bionicle team. They are the beings that the Vikings must defend themselves from. He wants to try & film a stop action animation about it tomorrow.

All in all, I must say that it has been a fantastic birthday weekend.

2006-01-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Sun!!!

2006-01-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the cake before I took it out of the pan this evening....

2006-01-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

The Sunchild has been working on his birthday party all day long. We put together goody bags for his friends, wrote a list of activities and a plan of action, and baked his cake today. We also talked about what if some of the activities don't go over all that well, and how we could just move on to the next activity. (He has 7. It's a two hour party. I think we have some wiggle room.)

We made Lego bingo boards, and sorted the pieces for playing that. This evening, he told me that he thought they could play Battleship, too. He is going to work on the set up for that game tomorrow while I am at work.

We also bought Twister. He & I played it yesterday, and were giggling madly by the end of it. I think it is a bit trickier than I remember. It probably has something to do with being taller.

The cake is baked. It still has to be assembled, which will happen tomorrow night, after we get home from sushi at Otani's. Nana & Grandpa asked the Sunchild what he wanted for birthday dinner (and considering I have to work all day, it will be nice to eat out), and he said sushi.

I am still trying to wrap my brain around the reality that he will be six years old tomorrow. I told him this afternoon, that six years ago today, I was already hard at work, birthing him into this world.

Now, I must go deal with the cake.

2006-01-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a very atypical day for Ohio, in January. The weather was in the 50s, and so we headed to theNature Center at the Chagrin North Metroparks in Mayfield Village. We went for a walk outside, watching the raindrops hit the duckpond, and on our way to the Visitor Center, we realized that the Nature Center was open.

The Nature Center has a lot of hands on activities for kids. They also have several rescue owls, who have suffered various injuries, and cannot be released to the wild. The Center is staffed by volunteers, and has a wonderful birdfeeder & lookout window. We learned a bit more about recognizing different birds, and also about a tally-sheet project through the University of Cornell. We hope to become more involved with that in the future.

The visit was quite a hit. The Sunchild has requested to make it a regular part of our educational adventure.

2006-01-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

Ancient History has become the latest trend in learning around here. The Sunchild asked me to reserve some materials from the library on Vikings, and we have read a book & watched a video so far. When I was at the library, I picked up a couple of other books as well. This morning, we read Discovering the Iceman, which talks about a mummy found in the Alps in 1991. The body was approximately 5300 years old, and very well preserved. The Sunchild found the story fascinating, and was very interested in the timeline presented at the end of the book.

Luckily, I also got out a more general book on ancient civilizations. He has been flipping through it this morning, and found inspiration for a new Lego creation.

2006-01-05T12:04:00.000-08:00

We spent some time today sitting down with a book from the library called Oak Tree. It is a lovely work about a year in the life of an oak, and the web of life that surrounds it. The book had lovely drawings, and each animal that was mentioned got a side blurb with additional data. The Sunchild, upon the first time a size was mentioned, immediately got up to get a measuring stick. It was fun to watch him look up the size for each animal, and begin to get a handle on what an inch actually looks like.

2006-01-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here is the Sunchild looking at his model Lego Racer that he submitted to Cap Toys for their window display. The larger works in the background were built by a local high school teacher who works Lego models in his spare time. Does anyone recognize the red building?

Mr. Cap gave the Sunchild a 10% discount on his purchases that day, due to his submission of an item for display. This piece of information was very exciting for him, as he was already planning his next submission, and is hoping to get a discount in the future, as well.

2005-12-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

The Lego festivities continued yesterday, with the Sunchild building some creations for the Lego Club's 'Cool Creations' site. I have not figured out how to link to it yet, but when I do, I will post links here.

He now has his own page there where he can view his submitted works. He also enjoys browsing through the other models that members have submitted. Who knows? Maybe one of his submissions will get published in the Lego magazine someday...

2005-12-29T11:44:00.000-08:00

The Sunchild is fascinated with one of his new Christmas gifts: Snap Circuits Jr., by Elenco. This was a present from his Grandpa, and boy, was it a hit. We have worked through quite a few of the experiments so far, and learned about differents kinds of circuits: open vs closed, series vs parellel, and things like resistors. I think I am learning a lot from this toy too!

Life is getting somewhat back to normal, whatever that means. There are new things to play with, stories to read, and thank you's to write. In fact, the Sunchild came up with a grand plan today, as the tedium set in around thank you #3, "Why don't I just write this once, and then copy it & mail it to everybody?". Considering today's letter took almost 45 minutes to complete, I thought we could work with this idea. I promised him that if he made it nice & legible, we could use it as a card for everyone, and he could address & decorate each one individually. He thought this idea was great, and proceeded to make a very nice letter. I kept the orginal for his homeschool notebook.

Today, we are photographing his Lego creations so that we can post pictures online at his blog, Sunspot. He hasn't posted much there yet, but I sense an upswelling in enthusiasm. He also wants to send his photos in to Lego club, and that is very exciting.

Now it is time to get to work on Sunspot.

2005-12-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

Merry Yule!! The season is upon us, with all of the bustle that it entails. We have been crafting up a storm. I had several gift projects in the works, and the Sunchild came up with a good crafting gift idea as well. We had a good time planning our giving.

We got a tree this past Sunday. I had every intention of going and cutting our own, but the one place that I knew of was closed! We bought one from a local nursery, and had a blast decorating it. The apartment smells wonderful.

The arrival of an influx of mail began last week, with cards from all over the country. The ones with pictures are the best, because we get to talk about who they are, and what he remembers about them. They are all hanging around the apartment, adding to the holiday cheer. In one of them, from my Nana, is a check made out to the Sunchild. I explained that it is customary to sign the back of a check in order to trade it for cash. He found this inspiring enough to be open to the idea of working on handwriting every day. I know that I can use the practice as well!

We celebrated the Solstice Eve, as both of the working members of this family had outside commitments on Yule itself. We agreed to open one present each, and save the rest for Christmas, when we can spend the whole day together. M & I exchanged blades from the Japan Woodworker. M picked out a beauiful kitchen knife for me, and I had ordered a carving set for him. The Sunchild opened his Taka Nuva that I found on ebay last month. Considering that we had an troublesome week with the car, it was nice to have a little celebration together.

2005-12-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

We have had 3 snowstorms since the week of Thanksgiving, and it isn't even Winter yet! Today, we finally got out into it, and went sledding with our friends. We had the sledding hill all to ourselves, and it was packed down well, yet not icy at all.

The boys had a great time, although we didn't get any action pictures, as I was too busy sledding, myself.

There is nothing like an active day in the snow, when you are dressed just right, and moving enough to stay nice and warm.

The sledding hill is rather steep, but the Sunchild dove right in, and chose the disc sleds, because they went the fastest. I can't wait to go again with Papa.

2005-12-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

We had a crafty sort of day today, while we listened to Native American folktales. The Sunchild made his first sewing project. The embroidery hoop made it pretty simple, and he quickly learned to pay attention to where the thread was so as to avoid loops around the hoop itself.

He eventually dismantled the pipecleaner part of his project, as he wanted to use them to make a crown. I hemmed his little sampler, though, and intend to keep it with his other homeschooling materials.

2005-12-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

We have been combining math & literacy skills in a fun and holistic way. The Lego fascination continues, and we have built a nice castle, in an open, dollhouse style, so that he can play the inside from the back, yet the outside appears fortified. We reorganized the playspace, once again, as well as his Papa's workbench area. The house feels more open, and everybody has enough space to follow their creative muse, without infringing too much on everyone else.

While we play Legos, draw, write, and craft, we continue to listen to stories. Today, Fireside Tales- More Lessons From the Animal People, is playing, which is a collection of Native American Stories. I also spent some time requesting a nice spectrum of additional resources from our local library today. Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Arabian Nights, Hanukkah Tales, and Stories from the Old Testament, are just a few of the titles that we are looking forward to hearing.

Somehow, we are tapping into the ancient Bardic tradition, learning the stories, following the storylines, contemplating cause & effect and the laws of karma, as well as learning the same tales that children around the world have grown up with. I feel that this is excellent preparation for reading and writing, and is developing his love of a good story, while improving his memory and filling in a bit more of his world view.

2005-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone, with all of the accessory intensity that holidays and get-togethers always have. The Sunchild's Nanny & Gramps (my mom, and my grandfather) came to celebrate the holiday with us. The Sunchild's uncle also came to the festivities, accompanied by his roommate. We had a wonderful, though brief visit, and a good time was had by all.

The Sunchild and his uncle spent a couple of hours playing with the Magic, the Gathering decks that I have had kicking around. They were given to me by a friend of mine, back when I lived in Santa Fe, upon my admission that I had indeed often spent long evenings playing Magic in my past. It took until Steve's visit, though, for them to find their way into willing hands. Now the Sunchild is very excited to play, and I am hoping that I remember how!

We had the truck yesterday, and so went out & about on various adventures. We had a nice lengthy library visit, and restocked our media supplies with new material. The Sunchild asked the librarian if she had any Lego books, and she came up with The Ultimate Lego Book, which is really quite amazing. There are pictures and descriptions of the models made for the LegoLand themeparks, including a reproduction of Mt. Rushmore, the Empire State Building, and Grand Central Station.

This has inspired us to go to Cap Toys, in Chesterland, and see the models there. We also learned that this little store, run by a toy train hobbiest, is a great place to buy individual pieces. We went in order to see if they had Lego separator tools (they did), and left with Buckbeak, and a bagful of scorpions. Today, we re-sorted his collection once more, so that he can move on to more ambitious projects.

2005-11-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

"I took something from Nature. Now I want to give something back to Nature." - the Sunchild, gathering seeds together.

2005-11-19T19:43:00.000-08:00

The Sunchild gets in touch with both his Viking & his Pirate roots.

Isn't he fierce?

2005-11-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

I was at work all day today, while the guys whiled away the day working wood and whatnot. They took another trip to Western Reserve Hardwoods, and picked up some wood for Papa's guitar. The Sunchild is working on a wooden robot, for which the first part he has crafted is a battle-ax. He is hoping to get more wood for his project soon. It is fun to watch the two of them crafting away on the kitchen table. Who knew apartment living could be so much fun?

After a while, the glue was deemed to be dry, and his clamps were removed. All seemed well & sturdy, and so the Sunchild put his new creation through it's paces.

2005-11-17T20:56:00.000-08:00

"It's easy to complicate things, but not easy to do something that is complicated." an observation by the Sunchild...

2005-11-16T18:56:00.000-08:00

I asked the Sunchild if he would read me "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" this morning, and he was more than happy to oblige. I read about every third page, and he read me the rest. It is neat to see his reading skills getting better all the time.

Shortly afterwards, we made a trip to the toy store. He had decided to spend some of his allowance on some new Bionicle Rahaga. We also revamped the play area in the last few days, and he has a large number of Lego projects on display. He wants to take some pictures of his best ones, so that we can post them at Lego Club, and perhaps even enter a contest.

We finished the first Bionicle book today. I like having a better understanding of this gameworld that he is hanging out in. It reminds me of my role-playing days, back in my 20s, when my friends and I would spend hours creating fantastic, mythological, multi-author realms, and having adventures within. It is also a good focus in our current unschooling adventure. I know he is learning all sorts of interesting things about engineering: levers, pulleys, gears & gear-ratios, articulations (yes, he is the son of an anatomy geek), structural stability, and so on. He loves when I read the books to him, adding a literacy element as well.

Meanwhile, I print things out from the Net that I feel he might enjoy, and sometimes he does, and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes, it takes a while, and he finds interest in something from a ways back.

I have to keep in mind the dimensions of this learning, and that there is plenty of time to cover things like timelines, and science experiments, and whatnot. These days, the kitchen is our laboratory, we get history and culture through stories. He loves number play, and we engage in it spontaneously throughout the day. We read a whole lot, and he is starting to be part of those who read aloud. I think he was inspired by his friend Daniel the other day, who read him 2 Dr. Suess books during their playdate. He picks up the pen when he has something to write. He practices woodwork with his Papa.

There is a whole lotta learning going on.

2005-11-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

We have discovered Sudoku in our home. I went to my friend's house last night (the one who got me hooked!) and she showed me some ways to make the solving of the puzzle more orderly. I have been playing the computer version for the last few days, and am beginning to get the hang of it. Today, I printed out a few, and did them on paper with the Sunchild. He really enjoyed the process of elimination, and applying logic to the puzzle. He is currently designing his own Sudoku puzzle- he thought it would be neat to make one which has colors instead of numbers as the pattern element.

2005-11-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

We finished Goblet of Fire this evening. We jammed through the last few chapters in the rush to learn all of the things that were being revealed. The excitement is mounting for the release of the movie.

And I am glad I can read something else for a change of pace :)

2005-11-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

The Sunchild & I had a fun morning yesterday. We snuggled & cuddled & hung out in his top bunk, playing with his stuffed animals, and just having a grand silly giggly time. He even decided on a name for a boy doll (Harry) that I found for him ages & ages ago, which at the time, he insisted that he would never, ever play with.

Unfortunately, I couldn't leave well enough alone. Somewhere along the line, I started feeling anxious about our lack of 'real' work. My mother is coming to visit soon, and once again, I am feeling a bit of internal pressure to prove that this homeschool adventure is the best way for the Sunchild to learn. Lately, we have done very little of the kind of work which leaves a paper trail. I know that Kindergarteners countrywide are bringing home masses of papers each week, proving just how much they are learning. Of course, I know that it is quality, not quantity, that counts. Yet, in the process of daily living, it can be hard to hold on to that idea.

So after lunch, I tried to interest the Sunchild in all sorts of 'educational' activities. We did play with money counting for a while, which he did enjoy. I also brought out a puzzle for us to do. He thought he wanted to do it with me, but after a while, I realized that I was the only one putting the pieces together, and left the project table in a huff. Ironically, he is currently sitting quietly at the table, and finishing it up. It just is another bit of evidence that force doesn't work, and that interest is what catalyzes learning, not pressure.

What he did want to do yesterday, was work with his Legos. His creations are getting more elaborate, and are including more moving parts. We are still working on integrating his need for workspace with my need for order. I think that the art of Compromise will probably be a big part of this lesson for both of us.

This morning, during our daily morning gigglecuddle, we started playing with numbers, and working with addition patterns. I asked him to add various numbers to ten, and surprised him by asking him what 15 and 10 made. He said he didn't know, so I asked him what plus 10 makes 15. He said 5. So I pointed out that the question could be looked at as 10+10+5, which he answered correctly. In fact, he thought it was pretty cool, and kept asking for more & harder questions. We ended up at 110+110, which he worked out, with a bit of prompting... but his tendency is still to think of 2 100s as 102, so we need to work with some manipulatives to concretize the idea. But this time, I am going to work a lot harder to control my impatience, and wait for the moment when his interest is ripe.

He just finished the puzzle, all by himself.

2005-11-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was another mad story day. We finally finished The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, which was rather enjoyable. I would often stop, and see how the Sunchild's critical thinking skills were processing the story. It was fun to ask him what he thought would happen next, and to see what sort of details he would remember from previous chapters.

He is still very much into the audio-books, as well. We have borrowed several from the library, and the current favorite is one read by Jim Weiss, called Tell Me a Story: A Treasury of Classics. Whenever it is time to work in the kitchen, I can count on the Sunchild to go and find the CD player, and get the stories happening. The added benefit for me is that it is no longer a struggle to get him to take part in cooking & cleaning!

After finishing the Narnia book yesterday, we began Tale of the Toa, which I borrowed from the library. We have only read 4 chapters, but I am convinced that all of the unschoolers that I have been reading are correct. The Sunchild is very interested in Bionicles these days. Some days, I struggle with the commercialism of his chosen fad, but most of the time I can honor his choice.. Since he is so intensely interested in them, I thought that adding a reading dimension to his Bionicle play could be very appropriate. So far, he has been sitting right next to me while I read, and will read words & sentences that I point out to him. His interest is already captured, and he wants to know what the words on the page say.

2005-11-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

We have reached Chapter 29 of the Goblet of Fire. Only 9 more chapters to go. The first 2 tasks have been completed, and many things are beginning to come clear.

I am glad that I have read this book before, at I feel rather at ease with the characters, and very much enjoy reading it aloud to my family. The upcoming release of the movie (November 18th, in case you were wondering) gives us a time goal, and I am certain that we will be able to finish the book before the movie comes out. I look forward to seeing it in the theatre with the Sunchild. It will be our first movie out together. I know that it will be pretty intense, and we have been discussing which parts we expect will be the scariest. I don't think that this one will be as frightening as Prisoner of Azkaban was, though. The story line isn't as dark.

The Sunchild and I have really been enjoying our story-based approach to learning, these days. We experience stories (books, audiobooks, movies) and discuss them throughout the day. It is interesting to watch which pieces of what stories come back up for further discussion. Sometimes, I hear him re-telling parts of the stories aloud. Other times, he makes up his own stories, which is something I have not heard him do much before now. It seems as if he is getting a 'feel' for the whole artform of stories, and continuity and rhythm & flow.

2005-11-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

We went to the Cleveland Zoo today, with our friends from Chesterland. It was a spur of the moment sort of adventure, and we had a wonderful time.

The Sunchild's favorite exhibit was the Sea Creatures. He liked the sharks a whole lot, because they had the biggest tank. There was one shark who was 'floating and sleeping' and that fascinated him.

He also liked the Giraffes and the Snow Leopard. One of the highlights of the day was using the 'penny-squisher' which had gears and levers and turned pennies into little souveniers. Of course, once he made one, all of the kids wanted to do it. It took some effort, but the gearworks inside were visible, and turning the crank to achieve a result made all of the kids happy.

Inside of the Wolf House, we saw a Bald Eagle and a cutaway view of a pond. The Sunchild also got to operate a remote camera with a TV output, that was controlled by joystick. He never did find the wolves that way, but he had a lot of fun, all the same.

When we told Papa about our adventures, he said that he would like to go. So we hope to return, and see more of the exhibits on our next visit.

2005-11-03T08:47:00.000-08:00

We have been busy lately, with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I found some 100 piece puzzles at Marc's recently, and we have been having fun doing them while listening to Irish folktales. The Sunchild especially enjoys the tale of Finn MacCoul, and how his clever wife Oona helped him to trick the giant Cuculain, and so, avoided a fight. I try very hard to do as little of the puzzles as possible, and watch his thought processes as he searches for the next piece. This is the perfect size for him, and I mostly help with the edge, and then sit back and watch him go to work.

We have been doing quite a bit of baking lately too. He enjoys measuring out the ingredients, and mixing them up. The best part, though, is when you get to play with the dough! We have recently made pesto pizza bread, rice pudding, virginia spoonbread, and homemade biscuits to go with sausage and gravy.

We made an assortment of different paper airplanes yesterday. It was a nice day out, so we took one to the playground to see how it flew in the wind & wide open spaces. Sometimes, we were able to make it do loop-de-loops.

Yesterday evening, and continuing into today, the Sunchild has been especially keen to work the Play-Dough. He is currently working on making 'candy'. It is very interesting to watch how he can be thoroughly bored with something, and then, after it has been hidden away long enough, he is once again able to look at it with fresh eyes.

2005-10-30T20:10:00.000-08:00

It was a gorgeous fall day today, sunny, and warm, and all aglow with drifting leaves. We journeyed to South Chagrin Reservation's Squaw Rock, and went hiking up a beautiful ravine. The Sunchild showed his excellent off-roading skills, and was quite confident in his climbing. I will admit to being a bit nervous, especially in the wet & slippery spots, but I made it through with grace.

After enjoying our autumnal walk, we stopped at the library for our weekly trip. Everyone stocked up on various supplies. Papa brought home a plethora of new woodworking books. Sun found three Magic Schoolbus videos that he wanted to watch again. He told me today that he has three favorite kinds of movies: Popular Mechanics for Kids, Magic Schoolbus, and Bionicles. I thought that 2 out of 3 being educational is a pretty good sign. I found some more audiobooks, including several cultural folktale collections to listen to with the Sunchild. We have been enjoying the Tales from Old Ireland, and the Conference of Birds, and I thought we could continue in this vein.

We are now more than halfway through The Goblet of Fire. I know that he will appreciate these books much more when he is older, and can relate to more of the material. He does enjoy the story and the characters very much, however, and we have many good conversations about the plot. He has been thinking ahead, and is learning to try and figure out what might happen next in the story. On that note, I did bring home an audiobook by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- perhaps he will enjoy the mystery format as well.

2005-10-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

Today has been an interesting journey into the concept of organization skills. The Sunchild announced that he wanted to make a Bionicle book this morning. He wanted to organize his manuals & magazines in a way that makes sense.

I found a 3-ring notebook in the closet, and pulled out the tape, the 3-hole punch, and the bag of paperboard recycling. We made numerous pouches, which he then decorated, so that it is easier to determine what goes in each pouch. In going through his paper collection, he found quite a few things that he hadn't seen in a long time. He is beginning to appreciate the idea of putting things away so they are easy to find the next time you go looking for them. He has been enjoying arranging the pockets in the most appealing order. It is much more practical than just throwing them willy-nilly into a shoebox.

2005-10-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

I think that the birdfeeder is going to be an ongoing source of interest and entertainment. It has a bit of a spiritual quality to it, as well. We fill the feeder, helping the wildlife who have had even more of their habitat destroyed in our local neighborhood, and in some small way we give back to the Big Mama.

And in honor of the bounty of harvest-time, we have spread seed in the garden, and the herb containers & even on the plants hanging from the rail. Last night, some industrious creature spilled the herb pots, and there is now seed all over the porch. The Sunchild wanted to sweep it up, but I suggested that we leave it, as it would likely afford us a better view of our visitors. He saw the chipmunk first, and we watched it stuff its mouth, amazed by the quantity that it could fit inside. He practiced his 'hunter's walk', and slowly moved as close to the window as he could. Later on, a Dark Eyed Junco came to visit, the first one I have seen this season. The sparrows come in droves, accompanied by the doves. The are so numerous, they flatten the damp grass, so it reflects the silver sky. We keep the Peterson's Guide on the side table so that we can reach for it in case of any new visitors.

We also finished Lord of the Rings today. I am glad that he has heard the story now, although I realize that it was in many senses, rather advanced for him. However, with a bit of help in remembering which character was which, he understood quite a lot of the story, and has picked up some wonderful vocabulary as well. I love it when he answers a question with 'yes, I think I shall."

We went for a bike ride today, in drizzly wet weather, with bags on the seats to keep our bottoms dry. He finally decided to spend some of his savings on a couple of new Rahi Tamers. Now he has the red one, the blue one, and the white one, and he has been creating dramatic scenerios all afternoon. Their small size makes them easier to postition. I believe we will be making some movies with these new characters very soon.

2005-10-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

This is the current state of the Workshop, on the interior of the Castle. He has been busy today, after a nice walk at Sunset Pond with my friend Cory & the kids. He re-discovered his Lego Contraptions book that we purchased at the Great Lakes Science Center on our first trip there. He made the 'Automatic Field Goal Kicker,' finding all of the pieces himself, and with very little overall help from me. He is now practicing field goals, and perfecting his designs.

We are also listening to a playlist that I put together for us. It has a lot of very singable songs, and we are beginning to build a repetoire.

2005-10-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

We transformed the apartment today, Sun & I.

He has been hiding under his paper castle, which is on his table, atop several sarongs which are tied on to it. Today, we added wings to his dungeon. There is now a lava room, for extra hiding. We even created a door out of cardboard and another sarong. And best of all: all of his building toys fit inside! We brought out his bin storage rack, brought the legos out of hibernation, and sorted it into the bins. He has a workspace he is pleased with, and I have a living room that is pleasant to be in, and no danger to tired feet.

We also put up the black & gold sun tapestry from Jude. It changes the feel of the living room in a very wonderful day.

Now, the Sunchild has his own space that he can lay claim to, and be creative in. He was very excited by this whole production. He was wearing his sword and shield for a large part of the day, and did a generous part of the organizing & planning of where things would go. I named him "Sir Hide a Lot" & he said that I was "Sir Clean a Lot".

I feel that a lot of stagnant energy got cleaned up today.

2005-10-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

We picked up some autumn stencils at Target today, on our weekly window shopping trip. The Sunchild is planning his Yule list, or perhaps I should say editing it. He has been working on it ever since last year, when the whirlwind of Yule, Christmas, and his birthday hooked him into the 'get more stuff'' paradigm of our culture. Luckily, I told him to start his list last winter, and he has been working on it ever since.

We played around with the stencils for awhile, which transitioned into free drawing. This made me very happy, as he used to draw all the time when he was in Montessori school, and his desire to do that has evaporated since he stopped attending there. I have tried to intrigue him numerous times, but it always felt like a struggle, and I felt that I should follow the unschooling paradigm, and just let him be for a while.

The deschooling process is tricky. Every so often I get the urge to break out the worksheets, and do something, anything, which I can show off as 'progress'. Generally, these moments pass, though, and I can compromise by leaving them somewhere that he will see them. If he is interested, he will ask to do them. Meanwhile, I work on ways to capture his interest without forcing the issue. I really feel aligned with the idea of child-led learning, but as a product of our hurried culture, sometimes it is very hard for me to back off.

He enjoyed drawing immensely, today, and told me stories about what he drew. We went hunting for our other stencils, and found a Sand Art set in the closet that my friend Sunmountain & her family gave him last year for his birthday. He played with that for a couple of hours, while I cooked dinner and cleaned up a bit.

We have been playing Rummy 500, over the past week or so. We play with all of our cards out, so I can help him to spot his patterns. He is getting better at seeing them, as well as organizing the cards so the patterns are more obvious. He also is becoming quite proficient in counting by 5s, 10s & 15s. He startled his papa today by announcing that "3 15s make 45."

Earlier today, I asked him if he wanted to read a Clifford book with me. We generally switch off, line by line. He told me, "I don't really feel inclined to do that at the moment." I love how he picks up vocabulary from the books we read & listen to together.

About the deschooling.... really, I need to remind myself not to judge our progress by how busy we are. Being busy as a goal in and of itself is something I learned in Catholic school. It is a strong part of our culture, but as David Elkind reminded me in The Hurried Child, which I just finished, it is not necessarily a healthy one. It is definitely not a legacy I wish to pass on.

2005-10-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

I see now that the whole idea that I would be able to treat this blog as a daily log of our activities was misguided in its conception. A record, perhaps. A journal. But a log, seems somehow to imply the need for justification, and in that, has similarities to the whole spreadsheet experience.

I still want to journal our days, but more in the way of a naturalist, recording things of note, in a more graceful rhythm.

We do so much in our days. Every day is full of learning, and growing, and relating. Some of the things we experience go on for cycles longer than a day, and to chop them into their daily parts does them a disservice.

I am learning to listen more, and to talk less. I am learning to observe, to discover what the Sunchild is exploring, and joining him as a willing participant. It is challenging, at times. He so loves his Bionicles, and I sometimes want to do something else. When I observe him doing his own uninterrupted thing, I see that he is exploring balance, and creative thinking... he is discovering martial arts stances as he makes his sculptures stand upright. He played with the digital camera, taking pictures of his creations while I made dinner. And all of this against a rich background of stories, as we discuss things like church, and history, and castles, and crusades. Tolkein (the BBC radio production), The Chronicles of Narnia, King Arthur & Merlin, Irish Folktakes, Harry Potter, and The Conference of Birds. He weaves these into his own tales, using his bionicle sculptures as the characters, and mixing the storyrealms up in great Gaiman fashion.

If the amount of peace we have in our house right now is any indication (and all the great books would likely concur), we are on the right path.

Thanks and praises to the Great Being.

2005-10-10T06:07:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend it has been. Of course, on Saturday, I worked at the restaurant. El Gato & the Sunchild both went to Nana & Grandpa's house so that they could help Nana paint Sun's room over there. Well, mostly that was Papa who helped. The Sunchild had a Grandpa day, and they puttered about, built with Construx, and finished reading Paddle to the Sea.

Sunday was our family day. We slept in, while we let the Sunchild watch the Bionicle movie one last time. Then we straightened the house a bit, and I made migas for brunch. We each worked on our various projects (El Gato has glued the first pieces of his guitar neck!) and relaxed for a few hours.

We got motivated in the early afternoon to venture out. We headed to the library, where the Sunchild asked the librarian to help him to locate the next Bionicle movie. Hopefully, this one won't have white lines & varying noise levels throughout the entire thing.

From there, we headed to the Metroparks. They were having a Wood Duck Festival, as this weekend is the best time of year to see them as they head for warmer climates. There were a variety of activities, and the little Nature Center was open, so we spent some time in there. I especially enjoyed hanging out with the owls, as I am currently reading The Owl Papers by Maslow, and have been thinking a lot about the night predators of the sky.

We had a very nice day today, taking our time, and just being family together. I think we need more days like that, with little constraint on our time & energy, to just follow the moment as it arises....