Here's Our Homeschool This Week

This week, we've:

played endless games of Sorry; built lots with blocks--

--and I mean LOTS with blocks--

--judiciously spent saved Christmas/birthday money at our local toy/educational supplies store (thanks, Papa!); put together one of those damn Playmobil sets according to instructions (bought at aforementioned store with aforementioned birthday money)--

--made pretty things with pattern blocks, both on the carpet and with translucent plastic pattern blocks on the overhead projector (both of those sets being brand-new school supply purchases from that same store, but by the Momma this time); watched Extreme Engineering; played briefly with our brand-new Cuisenaire rods(love that school shopping!); goofed around with a laser level; and cut out paper snowflakes. Syd played some Curious George online and with a dot-to-dot computer game; stamped with number stamps; and helped me make banana cookies, pancakes, rainbow cupcakes, and vegetable soup.

We spent plenty of time at PBSKids.com; spent plenty more time with books independently, especially my Will, who is a reading machine of late; visited the library a couple of times; watched a little Electric Company (the new version, not the old); had chapters from Nancy Drew and Just So Stories at bedtime; and listened to four or five of the Magic Tree House audiobooks. I can't even tell you the books that Will has devoured this week, but they include some Boxcar Children titles, 101 Dalmatians, some Magic Tree House titles, some Nancy Drew titles, some Shel Silverstein, and other picture books, chapter books, non-fiction, and poetry that she's come across.

The kids have taken many beautiful photographs on beloved subjects--

--played with Colorforms (another new school supply purchase); helped me paint some pretty paint in the basement; and attended a scrapbooking class at the public library--

--which was VERY well enjoyed. Syd decorated some frames for some maps I'm going to tack to the walls in their playroom--

--colored with Sharpies and crayons and colored pencils and whatever else she could find; masterminded the design and construction of her new skirt; and worked on some balancing butterflies, project still in progress:

Syd finished filling out her reading program form and submitted it to the library, earning herself a book as a prize. She also did some handwriting copywork for fun and helped me label stuff.

Will watched a LOT of Blue's Clues, sigh, and some Walking with Dinosaurs (or Walking with Prehistoric Beasts or Walking with Early Mammals, etc.); attended Critter Junction, an animal program at the local library; took care of the tadpoles, some teeny froggies, and the odd caterpillar or spider for a while; researched strawberry plants, rainbows, the ocean, giant sea turtles, and I don't even recall what else; and, big sigh, took a field trip to the Emergency Room and experienced the treatment for a cracked tibia, x-rays and hard cast 3/4 up the thigh and all. 

We played the rain stick and the recorder; listened to the Muppets and Throwing Muses and some seriously inane kids' music and other CDs; and had any number of dance parties. In addition, Syd's goal is to learn to whistle, so there's been much practicing of that, and even a screening of a documentary on the International Whistling Competition.

We began the timeline!!! We've added the epochs and some info on dinosaurs and human evolution; Will has big plans to cut up an extra Smithsonian dinosaur encyclopedia that we have on hand, and I still need to mark out some basic demarcations from early humans to the present so that we know where to put stuff. Will's also been into the short video clips on the Liberty's Kids web site, although she's very annoyed that I insist on supervising her visits there, since it contains outside advertising.

We walked and biked and scooted downtown and all around; helped with chores like grocery shopping and cleaning and gardening--

--went swimming; had boisterous playdates with good friends; picked blackberries and peaches--

--played on various playgrounds, including one magical maneuver on the monkey bars too many (CRACK!); and, most recently, practiced and practiced and practiced walking on crutches.

And that's how we homeschooled this week. Please, let next week be uneventful.

I Can't Believe that We Ended Up in the E.R. AGAIN!!!

Exuberantly, she shouted, "Watch me!"

And then she leaped.

And this morning, she watches Sesame Street and plays with Colorforms, one splinted appendage stuck out awkwardly, uncomfortably, from her frame:

We go to the orthopedic pediatrician tomorrow morning for an evaluation and the hard cast.

Matt's on the phone at work cancelling baseball and swim class, and trying to score some foster kittens and two pairs of crutches, size extra-small (gotta have a pair for the sister, too, ya know).

She's not in pain, although she IS uncomfy (of course).

At least this is the kid that we've already met our deductible on.

Sydney the Fashion Designer

Sydney says, "I want you to make me a new skirt, Momma."

To buy time (I'm on the computer, perhap blogging, perhaps editing photographs, perhaps searching for books with timelines in them from the library), I tell her, "Draw me a picture of exactly what it looks like, and be sure to label it so that I know what it is."

Twenty minutes later (I'm still on the computer), and she brings me this:

Labelled and everything.

I just want five more minutes to finish my work, so now I say, "Okay, go look at my fabric and pick out what the skirt should be made of."

A full five minutes later (phew!) she brings me this button-down shirt that I bought for two dollars at the last
Goodwill sale:

I'd halfway planned it for some kind of patchwork, perhaps another I Spy quilt, but it does happen to look EXACTLY like Sydney's picture, so I lay into it with the shears, and one hour later:

Happy skirt, happy girl.

I sewed this skirt up differently from the other skirts that I've made Sydney, and differently from other tutorials that I've seen for skirts or dresses made from button-downs--the pocket is functional and wasn't moved, and the buttons are functional, including the buttons at the waist, and yet the skirt STILL is elasticized! It's like some kind of triumph of modern technology!

AND it's comfy:

AND she loves it:

I may not have so much of a stash-busting problem anymore, what with my own in-house fashion designer.

P.S. What else did I do this weekend? I bought a hoe for me and a hoe for the littles, I found and baked a vegan no-yeast pizza crust recipe, I drew a timeline on the basement wall, and I sewed some new sheets for the bed.

Willow the Photographer

Guess what we bought our brand-new six-year-old for her birthday?

She loves it. Here are just a few of the MANY HUNDREDS of photographs that she's taken in the last week or so:

Lots and Lots of Photos of Whatever is Around Her Anywhere We Go

Lots and Lots of Photos of Me (I am always around her anywhere we go)

Lots and Lots of Photos of Her own Sweet Self

I'm doing the editing and digital developing for her for now, because Will doesn't seem to be interested in her photos after she takes them (why look at photos when you can read?), but I do have a couple of child-friendly photo editing programs in mind to introduce to her, and I have made my peace that I will be visiting the Wal-mart photo kiosk, and often.

And then...scrapbooking?

Home: The Newest WIP

Ah, it's good to be home! The dishes didn't wash themselves while I was away, but my bed sure is comfy.

I am somehow unable to leave the house for a vacation without wrecking said house, so quite a bit of the last couple of days has been taken up with cleaning, and laundry, and those darn dishes, and cleaning some more. There's been plenty of weeding, although not enough, and some harvesting, and some reading and playing, walking, and swimming, and some working out of some homeschool kinks (I tried to be one of those mommas who is comfortable with letting the kiddos have free access to the TV, but I am NOT one of those mommas, at least not yet), and a lot of grocery shopping.

What there has not been a lot of is crafting or writing. The Matty and I have a tentative schedule, just recently, wherein I have one evening a week at home alone to craft, and one evening a week in the generally empty grad lounge on campus to write. I'm not good at keeping such promises to myself, and so I even wrote it on the calendar this time--I LOVE to mark things off of the calendar.

And that's how yesterday evening, while the Matty took the girls to the playground and to water our two gardens and who knows where else, bringing them comfy home just in time for bedtime, I got to stay home, watch Seven Pounds and Doubt on Netflix, and lay out and halfway piece Sydney's I Spy Quilt:

I cut accurately, and yet it has so far been a bitch to get perfect corners on this quilt, even with a walking foot. I'm settling now for more perfect seams than not, and I'm hoping that practice makes...well, perfect!

Sunny Day

The girls were such troopers (sort of) during days and days in Boston that I didn't have the heart to take them on the detour by Washington, D.C. that I'd been planning for the drive home. Sure, Syd's a big fan of inter-city mass transportation, and Willow would looooooooove the Smithsonian, but it just felt like it was time for something much more young child-centered.

Instead, we went to a place where there was a sunny day.

A place where everything was a-ok.

Yep, we went to Sesame Place.

Was it naive of me to be surprised that Sesame Place was completey un-educational? It was, however, an excellent full-size, child-friendly amusement park. The kids got to ride some pretty great rides that you don't usually find available for the child set, including a full-on and only slightly scaled-down roller coaster--it had the height and the big drops and the speed and everything. Here's Will and the Dadda ready to ride:

Moment of truth, can you tell? Fortunately, five seconds in she seemed to be doing just fine:

Sydney and I were in the car just in front of them. As soon as the ride was over, I asked her, "Did you like the roller coaster?" "NO!" she replied. Of course, when I asked her again at the end of the day, it turns out that the roller coaster was her favorite ride. Go figure.

Fortunately, there were many mild rides, as well:

And MANY water rides, thank goodness, because otherwise I think the day would have been unbearably hot and full of whines.

And there was active stuff--

--and parades--

--and shows--

--and yummy over-priced theme-driven munchies--

Sydney was way into character hugs, and so she met Oscar the Grouch and Elmo and Zoe and my personal favorite, Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster's costume is the least cumbersome and so, when he saw Sydney coming, he was able to get down on his knees and give her a great, big bear hug. She was thrilled.

Sydney didn't get to meet her own favorite character, but she did catch up with her later at the gift shop, and so they ended up going home together:

Willow completely refused to meet any of the Sesame Street characters, but shrubbery, it turns out, was acceptable:

As for me, I can't tell you how happy I felt when I spotted this sign--

--or when I stopped for a little breather on this particular stoop:

Yep, it was a sunny day.

Museum of Science, Museum of History

I tell you what, if there is anything that we did not see in Boston, it is not for lack of walking fast and changing lines on the T three times and walking fast a little more. We did that town until it was DONE.

Among the doings?

• Duck Tour
• Faneuil House
• New England Aquarium
• Sea Rex
• Mike's Pastry
• Boston Harbor
• Harvard
• Boston Public Garden
• Zakim Bridge
• Old State House

And etc.

I have a love/hate relationship with science museums. I take the girls to a lot of them using our ASTC Passport, and I know what I like, and I know what I do NOT like. I like a low-key museum, not one filled with frenetic activity. I like a museum in which the collections are arranged thematically, not helter-skelter. I like a museum with ample lighting. I like a museum with ample seating. I like a museum that is not loud.

The Exploratorium in San Francisco is my baseline for a science museum that I cannot stand. The girls love it, but it's frenetic, constantly crowded, jam-packed with a new exhibit every few steps, and it's LOUD. The Boston Museum of Science, in contrast, has exellent thematic arrangements and is spacious. It is, however, crowded and loud and doesn't have enough seating. We enjoyed the unusual exhibits, such as the one on nanotechnology--

--and there was a great cheering of cheers and clapping of claps during the amazing electricity show--

--and Uncle Chad hit the girls up with some truly excellent swag in the museum gift shop, but all the same, I far more enjoyed the far quieter, far more peaceful time that we spent the next day at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, also an ASTC Passport member.

While Sydney pulled Uncle Chad by the hand on a whirlwind tour of the museum, and Poppa toured the place with his headphones on, the Willowsaurus and I looked at every single dead stuffed thing, read every single label, in that entire place. From skulls--

--to butterflies--

--we saw it all. We lingered a goodly amount in the prehistory gallery, of course, saying howdy to the 42-foot kronosaurus and the plateosaurus and other awesome and unusual specimens--

--but all the other stuffed critters and skeletons and bony bits were quite engrossing, as well:

I tell you, we did that place until it was done. But then, but THEN, after the museum, eating a picnic lunch on the Harvard campus, the Poppa says to me, "Did you see the meteors?"

NO!!!!!

Turns out there was a whole other half to the museum! On the OTHER side of the gift shop! Which we did not see! With meteors! And gems! and realistic glass flowers!

We might still be there yet.

A Week at the Beach

Our week at the beach house is nearly over. Here's how we spent that precious, precious ocean time:

Time very well spent, I'd say.

Make Way for Ducklings (and Also Little Kids)

When you bring children to Boston, you simply must bring them to the Boston Public Garden, because the Boston Public Garden is where Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack live.

First, you can feed the crusts of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich to the real ducks and ducklings of Boston Public Garden, happily living on and around their own island in the Boston Public Garden Lagoon:

Then, of course, you have to ride the swan boats around the lagoon, although I doubt that you'll find any peanut vendors.

I suggest that you do not attempt to actually retrace Mrs. Mallard's path. It's a dangerous trip--that's why she needed the help of Michael and the other police officers.

I do suggest that you eat a huge ice cream cone, however, then keep walking down the path, and soon you'll come upon a wonderful surprise--Mrs. Mallard and all eight ducklings!

They're a little bigger than life-size, and they don't mind at all if you stand on them--

--or even hop on Mrs. Mallard herself for a brief ride.

After that, feel free to spend the rest of the day as you choose, but after you bring your children back home again for the night, you know what I suggest for a bedtime story...

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Wish You Were Here

We're at the beach:

Life is sweet.

New York, 130 Million Years Before the Dinosaurs

That's where we spent the morning.

In my quest to find the nerdiest things for us to do on our vacation, I researched and discovered a little place just south of Buffalo, called the Penn Dixie Paleontological and Outdoor Education Center. It's HELLA hard to find, since its street may be slightly made up and thus doesn't appear on GPS, and nobody answers the phone for you to ask. Fortunately, this one lady in a CVS by the highway lives near Penn Dixie, and she told us how to get there. Thanks, CVS lady!

I was a little worrried that, after spending almost an hour trying to find the place and shelling out almost 30 bucks to get in and rent tools, the place wouldn't be worth it.

Um...it's worth it:

It's WAY worth it:

Most recently, the Penn Dixie site was a mine for shale that was then crushed up and used in cement. Less recently, as in 130 million years before dinosaurs recently, the shale was the bottom of a tropical sea, and many little critters died there and sunk into the mud, which gradually transformed into shale, of which the top was later mined off, rendering what's beneath oh-so-visible to your average fossil hunter.

Shale is more fragile than and erodes more easily than fossils, so you can actually just walk around on this moonscape that is the Penn Dixie site and spy, among the crumbling shale at your feet, fossils wherever you look. They're plentiful--

--if you learn how to see them:

Willow and Sydney had the time of their little lives. Sydney, perhaps because she's so low to the ground already, kept spying and picking up these HUGE fossils--crinoids like the ones we find at home, sure, but also huge horn corals, and brachiopods that look just like clam shells, and pelecypods--and Willow blissfully spent time at one self-proclaimed "dig site" after another, sometimes just running to and fro giddily, not knowing where to go next it was all so exciting:

As for me, I dipped around for a while, but then I found a section of dried creek bed that had a good bit of exposed shale. Shale is so fragile that you can practically peel it up in these thin layers, and if you run out of fault lines to start peeling up at you can just give the shale a little thunk with your hammer and you've instantly got a ton of brand-new fault lines. So I grubbed happily right alongside the babies--

--primarily on the look-out for trilobytes, which I have become obsessed with. I didn't luck out enough to find a whole trilobyte, but I did manage to ease numerous partial trilobyte fossils out of their slate resting grounds.

Thank goodness that it eventually started to pour down rain, because otherwise we would have spent the entire day there at Penn Dixie, Matt growing increasingly crazy with frustration at our lack of getting back on the road. Getting back on the road is Matt's main source of amusement when we travel, and he does not as a rule enjoy anything that might hinder us getting back on the road where we belong. He tolerated with good nature a brief visit to Past and Present, a little fossil shop temptingly near Penn Dixie, and then back on the road we got.