Homeschooling as a team

I've connected with some other families who are doing homeschooling this year. This week we've had several group activities that have been very productive. Ethan thinks we're just doing fun stuff. He doesn't think it's school unless we're having his formal one-on-one lessons in math or phonics. I suppose that's good. He's learning and he doesn't realize that it's school because it's rather natural. On Tuesday we did beeswax sculpting at Amy's house. The older girls got frustrated quickly because you really had to work at it to get the wax soft enough to sculpt. The mom's just jumped in and set the example making some really neat things which interested the kids to try again. Elle loved the beeswax and took a little bit of each color home in a baggie. The smell was very unique. It smelled somewhat of honey, but it also had a woodsey, naturalness to it. Hunter didn't like it, but I thought it was very calming.

On Thursday we went to Tilden park in Berkley. There were three moms and one homeschooling dad who all went together. Between the four parents we had 9 boys (including Garrett) and only 2 girls, Elle and Hannah. It was really nice to have the Dad influence on all those boys. At one point Hunter had to be plucked out of a tree because while climbing it his foot got wedged between some branches.
The main attraction was the farm and the nature center. After lunch we went on a nature walk around the lake. It was only a mile, but Elle got really worn out.
It was also amazing to watch the boys go into the pack mode and just start running. Poor Hannah felt a little overwhelmed. I don't think Elle minded too much, because she's outnumbered most of the time anyway. It was nice for me to have some other grownups to talk to who are of the same mindset. We considered it so much of a sucess that we are planning more fieldtrips together.

The Aquarium reopens!

We went to the Steinhart Aquarium today with Grandma. We usually go on our field trips on Thursdays and so I felt like it was a Thursday all day. I suppose it has something to do with habit or conditioning. Pavlov's dog...etc.

Every part of the new building and exhibits were spectacular! The one point of disappointment is that they are not yet reciprocal with all the other science museums and so our passes didn't work. As the singular negative point...I'd say that not bad at all! We arrived shortly after 10 and stayed until 3:30. We didn't see everything. There was a Tropical Rainforest exhibit in the middle of the building that the children were immediately drawn to. From the line to get into the habitat you could look down through the water and see the basement level where people were walking underneath. Hunter was especially excited to go "underwater". The tempureature got hotter and hotter as we progressed up all four levels of the rainforest habitat. It seems rather ironic to me that such a hot place is necessary to keep the rest of the world cool. The trees absorb the CO2 and produce oxygen keeping the ecosystem and the planet balanced just so. The butterflies thrive in that warm climate.
After the rain forest habitat we went to the basement and saw the fishes up close. There were color cards for the children to see all the different kinds of fish in the tank. We made a game to see if you could find all the fish and other animals on the card.

At the tide pool the children got to touch and hold starfish, sea urchins and abalone. A marine biologist explained how some starfish are predatory and some are scavengers. They eat by turning their stomachs inside out and dissolving their food with the digestive juices.

As a child I had seen some show about sea anemones and how they ate. My mom took us to an aquarium, and at the tide pool they had some in the deeper parts that weren't meant to touch. I feel bad about it now, but I took a star fish and put it into the sea anemone. Sure enough, it folded it up and ate it. I wonder if the staff was confused when they realized they were missing a starfish.

Rather than bring sandwiches with us I brought a whole loaf of bread, peanut butter and strawberry jelly. I made sandwiches on the spot. It seems to work out better that way especially if somebody wants more than one. We must be quite the sight! Since my mom came with us there are actually a few pictures of me, too. I just went through our picture files and since I'm usually the one taking the pictures, I'm in very few of them over the last five years.

The Alligator pond was just as I remembered it from our outings years ago. The railing was exactly the same. I suspect they took it out very carefully from the previous building to reuse it in the new one. There were two alligators that we saw. A green one and an albino one. Neither one was moving, but the kids all thought that the white one was fake. I tried to explain that it was albino and very much real. When we got home and reviewed the pictures I took they still thought it was fake.

Cabin Fever

Having regular outings has one disadvantage for me in that when the children don't get out of the house after too long they go into distructo mode (due to overwhelming boredom) and the house gets torn apart. We got out of the house today to the Central Park in San Ramon. It is FANTASTIC!!!

There is a large mushroom shaped fountain in the middle of the children's area with a shallow pool that the children can play in. This is the head of a cement river that flows down to a beautiful man-made pond. The water comes out fairly cold, but on hot days it's rather refreshing!

All around the water play area are play equipment structures with swings, slides, things to climb on and sand pits. After a while the boys discovered that they could get sopping wet, go roll in the sand and then rinse off in the mushroom. They thought that was great fun and did it over and over. It wasn't until we got home that we realized they had worn the sun block off their shoulders with that little trick and they had a slight, yet uncomfortable sunburn.
Having Garrett join in our fun meant that our usual convoy of STUFF nearly tripled. Our steak out spot was quite impressive with all the bags and folding chairs...beach towels strewn about and the stroller decked out for the little prince.

I just sat and watched the children, which was great for Garrett and I. The one snag came when Elle, who is potty training came to tell me that she had to go to the bathroom. On the one hand I was thrilled that she was willing to go to the bathroom at the park and that I didn't have a raging mess to clean up...YUCK, but what do I do with all this STUFF and the baby? I couldn't haul everything to the bathroom. I put Garrett in the front pack and then had Ethan sit with our things while I walked her to the potty.

Sure enough, she pooped in the toilet. HURRAY!!! We called Daddy at work to share the excitement.

The next major attraction for Hunter and Ethan was a big sloppy mud pit, which ironically enough had a sign (covered in mud, of course) that said "Please no mud or sand in the water". Seeing as how the patrons of this particular area are mostly five and under and are most likely still illiterate, I'll have to assume that the sign was there as a matter of principle.

Last day out before four

In the summer time the Chabot Space and Science center has a children's Discovery Lab open during the week. We've gone during the regular school year and been disappointed that the hours for the Discovery Lab were open on weekends only. Since nothing has been happening on my end, I decided to get the kids out one last time before the baby decided to come. We saw a really great movie about all the planets made especially for kids. I learned something new!

We spent the rest of the morning in the Discovery Lab. The art project table was the biggest draw, but also the source of the most whining from both Ethan and Hunter who felt a creative block in creating what exactly they had in mind.

They also had a light table for tracing images. Since we had just seen the Cardboard Rocketship movie they were drawn more to the space images rather than the dinosaur tracings. Hunter found the children's microscope and looked at various slides. Ethan played with the in house computer.



Ethan has said for some time that he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. We encourage him as much as possible. He's told me that when he goes to the moon he's going to bring me back a moon rock. Cool! The only thing he says that he really doesn't like is that astronauts have to wear diapers.

We explored the astronaut exhibit which had on display a few examples of space food. Before we left we got some astronaut ice-cream which I've never had before and have always wanted to try. It tasted the same, but the temperature and texture were different. Ethan said he didn't like it. Elle and Hunter liked it well enough, probably because they didn't have any ice-cream like expectations. It was sugar. It was good enough for them.

The children got in line for a taste of getting around in space. The person was supposed to lie down and maneuver using only the levers on the walls or above them. There was an inner city summer group ahead of us. One of the little boys looked at Elle and then asked me, "Why did you dye her hair?" I didn't. "You mean it grows that way?!?" Yup. "Do you have a son?" I pointed to Ethan. "Oh."

The favorite exhibit by far was the ball vortex where you take wooden or metal balls and spin them around in a funnel. As they get closer to the bottom they go faster and faster. If they're high enough up someone is likely to grab your ball and wreck the pattern. The best part was getting the balls out of the bottom and starting them again.

As we were leaving Ethan saw an experiment in the yard where you could launch your own water rockets. He was very excited at the prospect. You had to put a nose on and cut out fins. Ethan and Hunter did theirs all on their own. I helped Elle with hers despite plenty of "do it myself" proclamations. The rockets were launched via pressurized air. It was simple, yet spectacular for the children. It was a great thing to end our day on.

Habitot

We went to Habitot for the first time in a while. They don't have free parking, which is probably why it's been so long. They've added quite a bit to their water play and grocery store since last we were there. The kids spent a lot of time in the water play area. They brought in little cars to make a car wash. The kids rode around in one and "washed" the other, which I thought was smart since they weren't getting themselves wet by washing both.

Elle spent a bit of time making the art project. They had several salad spinners with paper plates, paint and droppers for the paint. She would put drip paint onto her plate and then put the lid on and spin it making neat designs. Hunter had me write his name in paint and then spun it, which looked really cool. Ethan only put paint around the edges of his plate so the design looked rather striking.

I mostly just followed Elle around and let the boys run on their own. Habitot is the smallest of any of the places we go so they were relatively easy to keep track of. Hunter went and painted his face in the dress up area. Ethan and he played make believe in the space ship and launching station they had set up. In the construction zone Ethan used the building materials to build a "house". What he did was make an outline, kind of like a live architectural floor plan. He showed me everybody's bedrooms and the door and all the other aspects of his creation. It was impressive.

One of Elle's favorite things at any museum are the areas where she can pretend to be like Mom. She went into the little store and went shopping with a little grocery cart. She brought it over to me and we talked about all the things she picked out and she pretended to eat each one after we talked about it.

Cherubs to the farm

Cherubs has an annual trip to the farm that we participated in again. Cherubs is a 0-5 singing group that was organized as a retirement project by Atha Petty about 15 years ago. I haven't been going to Cherubs myself because the boys have out grown it and just run around and disrupt everybody else. So, Grandma has been taking Elle to Cherubs so she can enjoy it. She likes being with her other little friends and she'll come home and sing all the songs. I still participate in that I am helping them convert all their music from the tape system to CD's and digital. It makes the monthly music preparation MUCH quicker.

The farm sits in the middle of Vallejo in a residential neighborhood and right next to a school. I'm not sure it's a really good example of an operating farm because they're slightly disorganized and messy, but they've got all the token animals and a rather large collection of ducks and aggressive geese. Elle had a run in with two geese in particular that came down the path towards her honking loudly and weren't afraid of people in the least. Elle got VERY upset and started screaming and backed off the path over a vegetable of some sort. The geese were just eye level with her, and I'm sure I'd be scared too if something my size came at me like that.

The kids fed the animals little scraps of bread or leafy green stuff. We saw one of Grandma's turkeys that she donated to the farm two years ago. She had originally gotten two turkeys with the intention of making them Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. However, they got SO big that they were too much to handle in butchering, de-feathering and cooking. Fortunately for them, right?

We went through the whole place in about an hour, which I didn't expect. I brought a lunch. It worked out though because the boys stopped listening and I declared an end to the outing. They kept throwing rocks at the ducks despite more than one request to stop. Whenever we go anywhere I remind them as we are going in what happens when they stop listening. They faithfully reply in unison, "We go home." At least they know the consequences and more importantly that I'll follow through and do it. Poor Elle, who was also throwing rocks, had to be carried out kicking and screaming. I just reminded her all the way back to the car how she didn't listen and this was the consequence. I figure it saves me more headaches in the long run.

Exploring Nature

We went to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum today. We've been there before so I didn't bother to check the times. Much to my surprise the hours had changed and it didn't open until noon. Fortunately they have rather large grassy fields with play equipment right next door.

It's surprising to me how well the boys interact with other children...making friends very easily and making up games that anyone who wants to play, can. They're not discriminatory based on age. I think that's a big benefit of using the Thomas Jefferson model. “Grouping of children according to birth year can breed envy of those older, contempt for those younger, and alienation from siblings.” (Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education).

Elle decided to be adventurous and climb a tall bar structure with a steep slide. The only other way down was to climb back down the bars. Elle navigated fairly well up, but got stuck and couldn't figure out how to get down.

I watched how Ethan noticed that Elle was not running around with them and started looking for her. When he found her at the top he organized himself and Hunter to help her down the slide. One of them was at the top and the other was encouraging her from the bottom with promises to catch her. They got her down safely and the games with their new friends continued. Later on Elle found a younger child than her and "helped" him on the slide. It was really quite cute, although I'm not sure he considered all of her interaction "help".

We had lunch on the picnic tables and then went in right when they opened at noon. The kids got half sheets of paper with different animals to find. I told them that they would get a prize if they found everything. They really liked the scavenger hunt. The only hard thing to find was the whale, which ironically enough was painted on the floor right under our noses.

We were watching the turtle out on her mat eating dandelions when we all heard snarls and roars coming from around the corner. The resident mountain lion was playing with her ball. She was rescued from a guy who kept her as a pet. He went out of town and asked the neighbor kid to throw a whole chicken from the store over the fence every day. He got curious and peeked through the fence and saw the mountain lion. She was badly emaciated and malnourished, not to mention she had been de-clawed. Fish and game seized her that day, but the muscular damage was long term. She looks healthy now, but she has a hard time moving around, so her small enclosure at the museum would have been too small for any other mountain lion, was just right for her.

Field trip days are always the best because I plan super easy dinners, the kids go to bed early and stay there and then I get to watch LOST.

A box for your pennies

I took the kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Ethan made a special request to go. The last time we went he discovered the ship wreck sand box where they plant pennies for the children to find. Ethan came prepared with an empty baby wipes box to collect his treasure in.

The museum is mostly outdoors, so sunblock is a MUST! For the boys it was a veritable paradise of things to do. They ran up along the nature trail and rang the bell then dug in the sand, played on the boat ran through the trees. All the while I'm thinking to myself..."They're going to SLEEP TONIGHT!"

I put the beeper bear on Hunter so I could call them if ever I lost sight of them. I went around with Elle in her sweet tender way and explored all the water exhibits and flowers. She liked to splash and play with the fishes, climb on the spiderweb. We even found some frogs that when you stroked their backs with a stick it sounded like a real frog croaking.

When lunch time rolled around I gathered them all together and sat down. No sooner did I get settled than a mom and a crying boy (about 3 or a young 4) came up to the table.

"My son said that your son (pointing to Hunter) hit him" Hunter had his back to the mom and her son. I asked him if he hit someone. Without even turning around he said, "The boy with the jacket?" Sure enough the boy had a jacket on.

Well, at least he owned up to it. I walked around the table, stood Hunter up on the bench so I could look him in the eye and said, "What happened?"
"Well, he was beating up a little guy and so I hit him" I had to make a FAST judgement call since the other mom was right there and expecting satisfaction. "You are NOT the police. You apologize to him." He did and I apologized to the mom as well.

I wonder if I made the right call...

We asked him more about it later at dinner. Apparently this boy was beating up a littler boy and according to Hunter, "he lost". Hunter is a very sensitive person, but also very physical. He felt obligated to defend the littler boy and so he hit the aggressor. But, then the bigger boy went running to his mom, 'cause now HE's the victim.

It's a hard call to make. I think there is almost a double standard. Children are required to get an adult for resolve, but adults are expected to step up and do something when it's their peers. That's what a real hero does, anyway. Unfortunately after years of training to 'get somebody else', those children grow up to adults who are paralyzed to act when it really matters.

I took the kids around to all the indoor activities after lunch. One of the rooms is a play model of all the marine-type BayArea spots, like the wharf, the docks, the bridges... and I laughed at their toll booth. $1.50. YA! Try again! At $4 a pop, I would LOVE for the bridge toll to be back down to $1.50. But, then again we get the free carpool lane if I time it just right.

After we had seen all the inside stuff, Ethan and Hunter insisted that they wanted to go dig for more pennies. I told them I expected them to stay at the boat and it would be OK. I took Elle around the nature walk. As we came out and I went looking for the boys at the treasure boat...they were not there. Before I could push the button to signal that I was looking for them I heard over the walkie-talkie of an employee walking by, "We've got two curly headed blond boys looking for their mom at the tot-spot." I turned around and said, "That's me." The boys had given their names and mine and told them I had black hair. Well, close.

Ethan had collected 32 pennies. He carried his 'treasure chest' around with him all day. Unfortunately the cheapest thing in the little store was 39 cents. So, he took his pennies home.

Which Zoo? Zeum!

This morning we decided to go to the zoo. We invited Daddy along and he drove. We packed lunches, lathered up with sunblock and confirmed that we had passes to get in.
When the time came to split for Oakland or San Fransisco, Daddy went towards San Fransisco and I started objecting and telling him to turn around. Unfortunately we were committed, so into San Fransisco we went. Apparently we had a slight miscommunication. I have passes for the Oakland Zoo, he thought we were going to San Fransisco. Oh, well. Let's see what there is to do.

We haven't ever been to Zeum, and it was right off the bridge so we stopped there to check it out. We parked in the Metronome parking garage...again we were committed...and walked down the block to Zeum. They didn't open until 1pm. It was only 10:30. OK. Let's walk to the Academy of Sciences. They were closed due to their move back into the Golden Gate park. AUGH! FOILED AGAIN!

We killed some time in the mall, where it was discovered that our Oakland Zoo passes expired two days before. I guess it was a good thing we went into San Francisco after all.
We went to Burlington Coat Factory and got Elle some pretty nightgowns. She loves to wear dresses and has, on many occasions, gotten out of bed to put on a dress.

We walked back over to Zeum, let the kids go on the merry-go-round had our lunch in the rotunda and then let the kids play in the park right there. The slides were AWESOME!

We got right in when it opened.

There were several green screen production areas where you could make a commercial, or music video or news cast. After you were done you had the option to save your project and produce it to a DVD to take home.

We got into the lower green room, but didn't realize we were supposed to pick a project first. By the time I got that set up, their interest had waned and moved on to something else. They made masks, tried on costumes and worked briefly on sound effects. It was a great museum, but I think more suited for older children who have a longer attention span.

There was a field trip there, and when they were done making a clay-mation, we got to go in and use it. Ethan made a Superhero and I helped Elle make a person. We set them up on a stage and did a frame by frame and produced the following three second video.

School and Children's Museum of Vegas

The second day of the Con-Ag Expo, I wasn't all that interested, but I did want to go to a local LDS private school that Karen told me about; American Heritage. The school was based on the model in American Fork.

I called one of Karen's friends who has a child enrolled to ask her about how she liked it and what she liked most. It was interesting to get her feedback, because a lot of the positives for her were basic things that are already in the model for Bridges Academy.

Karen and Mathew went with me to visit the school. I liked that they blended Biblical and secular history and made an understanding, appreciation and love of America's founding an important part of the curriculum. They were operating out of a temporary location in a strip mall, but given their sparse circumstances I think there was still magic in the classroom. I got a good overview of their approach as I stepped into each classroom. One classroom was quoting Shakespeare, one classroom was discussing Christ's admonition to be as "wise as serpents, but as harmless as doves" and the contrast between Satan and the Holy Spirit. One classroom was going over US History, anther working on math. In their main auditorium they had booths set up for their science fair. We spent about an hour looking around and I was taking pictures like mad (with permission from the Principle, of course). He showed us a short video from the American Fork school. It was impressive. After it was over I turned to Karen and she had tears in her eyes. She said that I should move there so I could send my kids.

After the school we went to the Lied Discovery Children's Museum. It was rated in the top 50 in the US, so I was excited to visit. I took about 200 pictures. You gotta love digital cameras! There were a lot of experiments that were exactly like ones at the Exploritorium. My favorites were the grocery store, the green screen, the under five area, and the ball movers.
Ethan especially liked the green screen. He kept going back to it and playing soccer, or volleyball or hockey. Karen was surprised that they're weren't more people there. She said that usually when they go the place is packed with children from field trips.

We stayed until about 2 o'clock until the guys called to go home. We left for home after that and didn't get home until about 12:30 am. I think it was better for Ethan, since he got to sleep most of the way.

Outing day

I took the children to the Tech in San Jose today. We had been there once before to see Body Worlds.

There was a hands-on experiment that the boys got to participate in to clean "dirty" water. They used alum to precipitate the "dirt" out of the water. Then they made a water filtration system using two sizes of sand and small rocks held in by a coffee filter. The water came out looking murky, but much cleaner than when it went in.

After our experiment, we spent about an hour exploring the computer exhibits before going to see the Tiger movie at the dome theatre.

The screen was more of a dome which created an artificial feeling of movement because as you're looking straight ahead, the screen fills up your peripheral vision as well. Hunter is a very physical person and so the feeling of movement while sitting in his seat was unnerving for him. Elle, on the other hand felt like she was going to fall because the seating was very steep. She sat on my lap during the movie and held on with a death grip the whole movie. Ethan thought it was fun.

We stayed until about 3 o'clock exploring all the different exhibits. Unfortunately they were remodeling the younger children's areas, which were the favorites the last time we visited.

The parking garage that did validation with the Tech had a broken down elevator. We, of course, parked on the top level and since I had the stroller, we had to walk through the garage all the way down...and then back up at the end of the day.

After we got home Elle went into the yard and started picking wildflowers out of the front yard to give to everyone. It was so picturesque I couldn't help myself.

Puttin' on some miles

I wanted to take the kids to a museum we haven't been to before, so I found one in Davis that looked fun. However, when I checked the hours it didn't open until 2pm. WHAT!!? So, instead we drove all the way down to Stockton to the one Grandma took Elle to a few weeks ago. It was quite the drive. Meanwhile, Michael drove all the way up to Yuba to get some plans for a bid and talk to a city engineer. Our whole family were driving all over Northern California.

Elle's favorite part was the little play house in the babies area where she could pretend to make dinner. She wanted me to sit at the table so she could serve me dinner. Hunter wanted to play too, but she'd get mad if he'd take something that wasn't specifically given to him.

Hunter's favorite part was the police motercycle. It didn't make any lights or noise, but he liked to climb up and pretend to ride it.


Something that I really liked, but the kids only explored briefly was an area completely dedicated to the medical field. They had an X-ray area, Doctor's waiting room, Emergency room and Ambulance backed in. I thought it was a great idea! The kids weren't really interested so they moved on and didn't take much time to pretend other than trying out the gurney in the ambulance.





Another huge hit was the pretend grocery store complete with beeping checkout counter. Much of the bar coded merchandise was damaged and donated by Food 4 Less. There was a produce aisle, a bakery section, a meat cooler (all of the food was very high quality pretend...very realistic, too)

The kids would make rounds putting things in their baskets. Elle liked the pastry section the best, probably because it was the easiest to reach. After they would check out I would take the carts back around and put everything back were it came from.



There was also a news studio where the kids got to see themselves on TV. Ethan wanted to know if he would see himself later on the news, but I explaned that it was closed circuit system and we were the only ones watching.

Before we went home we stopped by the Arts and Crafts room. Of all the children's museums with such a thing, this was by far the best, most well stocked crafts room. Each of the children made a Valentine to give to Daddy. Ethan was highly critical of his work and kept starting over. Elle was most interested in pouring out as much glue as possible upon which I would sprinkle cut paper. Hunter made the most detailed Valentine, but what what most sweet is that he wanted me to write a message to Daddy that went, "For Daddy, I love him". I made a Valentine, too. My working on a project seemed to help keep the kids focused on completing a project, but Ethan just got more frustrated because his didn't look like he wanted it to.

We finished off the day at the paint wall, which was ....extreme. I'm not sure I like the look of layered paint. Even if it was done by kids. My favorite paint wall to date was the one in San Jose.