Pictures of Life

Little One fell asleep on the living room floor. I guess reading and playing with the metronome wore him out.

And then there is Butterfly… Yes, she is reading a book while she holds it with her toes…

A Wonderful Afternoon

What do our afternoons look like?

While Little One naps, the rest of us are pursuing great books.

A Gift for Her Sister

Butterfly wanted to make a canopy for Strawberry’s bed. I am not sure what spurred the thought, but she has been working on this project for several weeks. First she drew her plans, B helped her measure dimensions and then she and B went to the hardware store and bought PVC pipe. Together they built the frame for the canopy. Then she took an old sheet and measured the panels and cut it up. She sewed all the edges and today she presented her present to Strawberry. Strawberry loves her bed.

Math- Also known as Play

I was reading Life of Fred Cats to Pumpkin Pie today and Fred noted that we have all seen people mop and paint houses so we know what painters and cleaners are but we don’t watch mathematicians and therefore don’t know what they do. He said the secret is that mathematicians play and discover the world and numbers. So, that is what we did- how many numbers can be made into a box?

Conjoined Dandelion

It is dandelion season here and Butterfly was picking dandelions for bouquets, fritters, cookies, and fun. She found this one in our yard and asked for pictures of her discovery.  This flower was too cool to go in the cookies or fritters. It enjoyed an honored place in the center of our table until it wilted away.

Trip to the Zoo

Last week we had a week off from co-op. I coordinated a trip to the zoo. We had so much fun. It was delightful to go with other families who were more interested in the experience then seeing everything. As we went from exhibit to exhibit, we listened to the kids. When a kid got really excited about a particular animal, we stopped to look. We had lunch in the grassy field and played all along the way. One of the great things was that some of the children who had not had a chance to really connect all this year and develop better friendships got that chance. We also took the opportunity to feed the penguins since I was doing a product review and we have been learning about penguins.

Little One enjoyed the giraffes and the gorilla. He also had fun being pushed around by a slightly silly 12 year old brother.

National Park in the City

When I think of National Parks, I always think of places like Zion’s or Mount Rainier, or Yosemite. I never thought that a small building in the middle of the city would be a National Park… but I found one. Thanks to a project that Tiger needed to do for WI, Pumpkin Pie, Tiger, and I ventured into downtown Seattle to the Klondike Gold Rush museum. Inside, there are artifacts and displays about the Klondike Gold Rush and its impact on Seattle.

We learned about what goods were needed, how people lived, biographies of several gold rush individuals and families, including the founder of Nordstrom’s, and how they mined the gold. At various locations within the museum, there were places to take rubbings and emboss a “passport”. Pumpkin Pie enjoyed that.

I don’t consider myself a shoe person, but in the area that talked about the aftermath of the Gold Rush, there was a display about the beginnings of Nordstrom’s. Apparently, it started out as a shoe store that went national and eventually became a department store. No wonder they always have a great variety of shoes! The display of shoes was beautiful. I think I want those green boots! Pumpkin Pie loved the shoes. 

Just around the corner from the Klondike Gold Rush museum, is the Waterfall Park in the city. It is a small corner of a building with a waterfall, little tables and chairs, and beautiful garden. It has a sign that says that this park was built to commemorate the 100 year anniversary or the founding of UPS in that very spot. I had no idea that UPS was started in Seattle!

To end our field trip into the city, Tiger, Pumpkin Pie and I partook of some yummy chocolate.

I Can Read the Book at Home

I have been sitting on this post to finish up for several months. As B and I were talking about education, he said, “I can read the book at home!” and then he went on to tell me about how he had some professors who merely regurgitated the readings and others who lit a fire in class and sent them home to read. I think B sums up what I have been pondering and experiencing lately. Let me explain.

We belong to a small co-op which operates on principles of Leadership Education. We believe in Inspire not Require and Time not Content. I have been pondering these principles a lot lately. Add to that, I have been taking a course on How to Mentor from Oliver DeMille recently. In the first lesson he speaks a lot on the importance of time in small groups or with the mentor is to be changed NOT to receive information. Through a culmination of events, I must say, I surprise myself by agreeing 100%. There was a time when I wouldn’t have agreed with that- after all, class was the time to learn something! Now, I believe class time is the opportunity, especially in the Love of Learning and early Scholar phases to get a fire lit and send them home for more learning (this is NOT otherwise known as homework!)

Some people really struggle with this- if they are not being fed content, how will they learn what they need to learn? I believe that through experience and lighting a fire of love for a topic the child will then have a motivation to go read more on it. For example, I just finished teaching a science class. It was hands on and I would classify it as more of a lab class than a lecture class. Indeed I only spent maybe 5-10 minutes or so talking to the kids as a group. In the time I was talking, I was asking for LOTS of input, showing small demonstrations, and giving the instructions for their experiences for the day. Even with my middle school class, it was NOT the time to lecture on the formula for acceleration or demonstrate how to calculate the force needed to move an object. My class was the opportunity to give the children experiences to teach them HOW Newton’s laws work, WHAT inertia is, WHAT thermal energy is and how it works in the world, etc. I looked for small opportunities throughout class to ask WHY? and get the children to ponder and come up with answers as to WHY something happened. My methods were accomplishing my goals. After a class on Newton’s 3 laws, one of the girls was reported to have gone home and spend time researching who Newton was, what his laws meant, and more. Other children related things they learned in my class to classes they took the next term. Still others asked me to teach more since they had learned so much and loved doing it.

Another example, Tiger and Butterfly are in a history class. When one thinks history class one usually thinks teacher at the front imparting the facts, dates, and other information. Instead, the children have been given a motivational system. They all started class sitting on the floor as “slaves” and through work outside of class, they can earn the privilege to sit on a cushion, sit in a chair, be given a glass of water with their chair, receive a scepter…. etc until they earn the privilege of being pharaoh. Most children will not attain the rank of pharaoh as it requires a huge amount of outside class work, but all are capable of it! During class, the mentors present an activity. This might be presented with a bit of background information as well as instructions for the activity. Also during class, the children present the things they have discovered or read about during the week. Each presentation earns a point on their journey towards pharaoh. I am not concerned with them not filling in the maps and being told all the details of a civilization because through the motivational system as well as the inspiration that comes from exposure without much information, they are coming home excited to explore more. They will get the other details reading at home.

Indeed, as B experienced in science labs at the university, class was not the time for the teacher to regurgitate the readings, as B said, “I can read the book at home.” Class is the time to give the students what can’t be done at home on their own or what might be more difficult to do on their own.

It’s in the Box

A few weeks ago I mentioned inspiration resources. Today, I created a learning box. Mary Ann Johnson was right- part of the magic of the box is the anticipation and the limited availability. She talks about locking it but that even if it isn’t locked, kids know how important that “lock” is to preserving the magic. My box is a large clear tub with a lid that snaps on. Butterfly commented that the box had “magical properties that would zap anyone other than mommy who opened it.” She asked me to open it when it was time to use the contents so she wouldn’t get zapped.

Today’s magic? Soap. I put my melt and pour soap supplies, a list of websites and experiments, frontier girls badge requirements and books into the box. I also told the children that the box would only be available until lunch time and then it would be closed up. They were so excited, they flew through cleaning up the rest of their room and eagerly gathered to learn.

First, we talked about safety, types of soap, read some books about soap, and then we watched a video of a science experiment on eScience (review of eScience coming soon). The girls were so excited. We learned about different types of colorants and ways to scent soap as well. Then, after watching a few short tutorials, we took some of the ideas we learned in the books and made some small bars of soap. After that, it was time to clean up and put the box away. The girls couldn’t wait to do more learning box the next day.

Strawberry was quite anxious to embed a toy in soap after seeing a picture in a book. She watched the video of how to do it and brought be a large Duplo to embed. When I told her that wasn’t going to work, she was not too thrilled. I promised to take her to the store to buy a rubber eraser toy to put in soap. The girls each picked a small eraser and we came home to embed toys. We then spent the next morning using our learning box and experimenting with colors, layering, embedding, and toys. True to personality, Butterfly created a soap sculpture. She chose an egg with a hatching chick and then created the next out of melt and pour soap. She carefully held her egg as still as possible as it set in the soap and then she twisted it ever so gently to form wrinkles across the top of the soap to resemble sticks. Strawberry made her soap with a toy in it, and Pumpkin Pie wanted to hide her toy completely in several layers of green. I wanted to play with a soap in a soap.

Then it was time to clean up and put the box away.

I wonder what the box will bring next week.

18 Hour Emergency Simulation

What would you do if there were a natural disaster and you lost power, water, gas, and couldn’t leave your home and medical care couldn’t reach you? How would you react? How would your family react? What preparations can you make now to better prepare for later?

For Tiger’s midterm, we did an earthquake simulation. We practiced what we would do if an earthquake hit- where would we go during the quake, what would we do after, and what do you do when the utilities that we love and take for granted were gone.

Although it was only 18 hours, we learned a few things. There are some things we were prepared for and others that we can do to be better prepared.

First- what do you do when the earthquake hits!? Initially, my children stood in the hall next to the picture frames looking at me and grinning that the simulation was starting. I asked them what they would do if it were real. Then they got under the table…

 

Review having a meeting spot- we have one but our children forgot about it. They all grouped up in a room but I wasn’t there and they weren’t with me at the meeting spot.

Phones may or may not work- this was Tiger calling B to check in.

There will be a mess and having a safe way to contain the baby is important. We had downed cans and broken glass (simulated by rice on the floor) to keep the baby out of. Before we did any cleaning up, we set up a baby-safe area right away.

Eating dinner in the dark is kind of fun. But having enough light is important. We only had 6 tea lights going. We should have had the larger candle holder that puts the light higher to reflect.

Having a box with all our picnic supplies available was REALLY nice. Without water, dinner cleanup is a pain so paper products was nice. Obviously in a real emergency these would get used up, but for the first 72 hours having them will make life so much easier.

I don’t mind being without power for a few hours or even 24 hours, but not having running water is not fun. We drained water off our water heater to use, but we didn’t want to use it up because if the situation were real, how far would 40 gallons go? We wanted to practice conserving water and finding water. Below are some pictures of us getting creative- since we had no water and it was raining, we put buckets outside to collect rain water.

Lesson learned: Fill up water barrels, obtain rain barrels, make sure to have an adequate utensil easily accessible to open the water heater faucet and turn it off properly to access the water. Additionally, we need to set up our water filter buckets. I used to think I was fine- I do own a water distiller (which sadly has been broken for a bit) but I would be out of luck without some sort of power… I then bought a ceramic gravity fed filter.

I love my butane stove! I wish I had 2. Cooking for a family of 7 on 1 burner takes time. Some things need a griddle and I can’t do that with 1. If I had 2 I could put them side by side and create a space for a griddle. Also, I would be able to cook in both the top and bottom of my thermal cooker at the same time if I had 2 stoves. This would extend the amount of cooking I could do with the butane cans.

Being without amenities can be unsettling to children who don’t understand what is going on. Strawberry kept asking me to turn on the lights. She also asked when our practice would be over. She did not like the lack of lights or water. In a real situation, it would have been nice to have some sort of toy to give her to help occupy her while we were cleaning up and trying to get dinner started and to help her not feel stressed.

The morning after the simulation began, we finished packing up food and some extra supplies in a kit- a roll of blue tape and permanent marker made it into our box as well as scissors. I need to buy a lighter to add as well. I also added some paper bowls and plastic spoons and baggies to get us through at least one meal without having to get into the picnic box. Also, I added some chocolate chip bunny crackers- a treat to brighten an emergency. The food we included was 8 cans of veggie soup, some fruit squeeze sauces, 2 cups of chia seeds, a can of freeze dried peaches, rice milk in aseptic packing, Lara bars, and bunny crackers. We also have flashlights, a radio, batteries, sponges, diaper wipes, trash bags, and a few other odds and ends. 

Other lessons:

We had most of the items we would have needed, but not all of them were easily accessible.. For example, B determined that for the simulation, Tiger would have a broken foot. I couldn’t find the crutches anywhere because B had put them up higher than I could reach or see.

Emergency Preparedness?

What would you do in a natural disaster? Would your children know what to do if there was an earthquake? How would you cook? What would you do if there were no water? My family is about to find out. We are going to be doing a natural disaster simulation. We will be going without power, water, and gas for 24 hours. Since it is only a simulation, we are leaving our refrigerator and freezer powered so we don’t lose food, and we won’t be turning the gas off at the source- just not using the gas fireplace, stove, or furnace.

Some of my kids are dreading this and others are really excited.  Those that are dreading it are only dreading that they don’t know when it will happen and they are hoping that nothing fun/important is impacted.

Originally, we set about to do this because it is Tiger’s midterm, but now, we are doing it for ourselves. B went through and created a realistic scenario (parents were provided some scenarios but none were super realistic or necessarily applicable to our area) and put together the plan. Now I will need to execute it.

See you in 24 hours- hopefully I will have some decent pictures.

Snow Day

Last week we had a snow day! We really haven’t had much snow this year, even the little bit we got didn’t stick around long. The big kids ran off to play leaving B and I with Strawberry and Little One. We bundled up Little One, put on a pair of snow boots that are tad too big for him, and headed out. Unlike the rest of my kids, Little One enjoyed poking his fingers in the snow and even didn’t mind trying to walk. I remember both Pumpkin Pie and Strawberry at about 15-18 months and they hated the snow and clunky boots. They just sat and fussed after about a minute. Little One laughed. After struggling to stand up a few times, he took off and didn’t care that the snow was slippery and hard to walk in and his boots were too big and stiff.

Strawberry enjoyed making lots of snow angels.

As we walked home from our walk, the big kids were staging for a snowball attack… B was ready for them though.