Bugs, Boys and Boo Boos

Take a Walk

2012-01-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

The unseasonably warm weather we've been having in Massachusetts is weird. I'm expecting a horrific summer, or terrible snow storms in April. Darn global warming. The earth couldn't have warmed up that fast.
We took advantage of the 40 something degree weather today and went for a jaunt. Not only did we wear ourselves out, we exercised, breathed fresh air, collected pine cones for bird feeders/Christmas tree decorations, collected rocks, ran races and were just together.
Cesar Milan, you know, the Dog Whisperer, always reminds owners to just take their dog for a walk. That should be extended to kids. The boys were climbing the walls, tumbling over one another before we left. We've been home almost an hour and they're playing so quietly and cooperatively. Oh my, I should go knock on some wood...
I am totally famous for telling my kids to go play outside, but it's not the same as a.) going with them and b.) getting them to move. I don't know about your kids, but mine will be wrestling and throwing one another around inside the house. As soon as I get them outside they start doing individual activities...quietly. They'll come back in and immediately resume their wrestling matches. Um, so that's not what I had in mind.
I am with my boys 24/7. And I love it. But it's a whole different ball game when you take them out of the house and do something that doesn't involve lists or errands or other people. We just got to be out together.
I don't do this nearly as often as I'd like. The husband usually takes them on hikes into the woods so I can get stuff done around the house. I think I'll have to schedule in times like this from now on.

There's a collection of rocks in that sweatshirt pocket.

"I think that's Land Coral, mum."

He was in the middle of singing...

I almost died...they all actually stood still, posed and smiled...

Electrica Fun...or not...

2012-01-07T10:32:00.000-05:00

While making a lovely Buche de Noel courtesy of Nourished Kitchen, I turned to Eli to explain something about mixing the egg whites separately from the rest of the batter. When I turned back to Odin, who was standing immediately to my left, I hear a crack, see a spark, a spoon goes flying and he jumps back saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!!"
Apparently while I was momentarily engaged to the right, my inquisitive four-year-old took it upon himself to experiment with a metal measuring spoon and the outlet the mixer was plugged into.

The outlet is out. The outlet the fridge is working from is now out. My perpetual broth crock pot had to be moved. I have a call into my husband, who is hard at work today. Oy vey.
And yes, I have to admit that my initial reaction to the spark, spoon-throwing, cracking sound was not worthy of Mom of the Year...it involved expletives...loud, adult-content expletives. I did, however, reassess and then turned it into an extension of their electricity kit discussions..."remember, metal is a conductor? See how it it reacted to the electrical current?"
Off to locate an electrician...

Customizing Family Games

2012-01-07T08:58:00.000-05:00

I came home the other day to find this on the kitchen table.

I love that husband o'mine. Odin was thrilled to be operated on.

Keeping Track of Homeschool Progress

2012-01-07T08:53:00.000-05:00

We don't really do a lot of "school". At least, my kids don't think of the things we do as "school". The few things I do have them do are met with such resistance. For instance, I thought it was a good idea to have my kids track the temperature of the month by graphing it every day. They thought it was fun for all of 2 days. Then I was met with "Why DO I HAVE TO?!" Sigh.
"You don't have to, but I'd like for us to see how the weather changes."
"You're the worst mom EVER!"
Sigh, deep breath.
"Perhaps that is so. Let me pick you up so you can see the thermometer."

Then I thought it was a good idea to chart Eli's money saving. He's saving for a Nintendo DS. Ugh. I am not very excited about this, but it's his money and if he actually saves for one, I'll be completely impressed, and he'll learn about the value of saving...right? I also thought it be useful to track what we've done so far this school year. We're more unschooly/interest-led than anything else, so it was tricky. The only way I keep track of things is via blog, photos and calendar. I had to look through all of those things, month by month. Then I put all the activities on a spreadsheet categorized by subject. Holy cannoli, Batman. That was time consuming. But, it was also validating. As a homeschool mom, I get the anxiety driven by not knowing if my kids are learning enough or are where they are "supposed" to be by school standards. To me, it looks like we've done a lot. I filled up spreadsheet after spreadsheet of academia. I then showed it to my husband who had previously laughed at me for snapping pictures of the kids at the playground and holiday parties, jokingly saying, "You're just going to use everything they do as curriculum, aren't you?" You bet, baby. I then pointed out all the things they've done and how it applies scholastically. Eyebrows went up..."Really, the grocery store applies?" You bet, baby.
I now mean to keep track a little better, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Happy New Year, 2012

2012-01-07T08:06:00.000-05:00

The holiday crazies have now passed us. While I love the holidays, even the crazies, I love the calm after the storm...and the re-energized activities that find their way into our lives again.
We have spent the past couple of weeks doing a lot at home. We took New Year's weekend and rearranged a lot of furniture and created more usable space. It was a great way to start off the year.
We swapped out old activities for new ones. The boys were taking some nature classes. They have ceased their desire to take those classes and opted for something more active - karate. We'll be doing a lot of nature based activities in Cub Scouts, yes, you heard it right...Cub Scouts. I've started our own homeschool Cub Scout pack. This ought to be fun!
We finally found an economically right karate studio for the boys. Incidentally, it has a homeschool class smack dab in the middle of the day - not at dinner time. Their previous instructor was really calm and the class was subdued. This new guy...holy cannoli...he's loud and forceful. The boys love it.

"Mom, I need my face painted like a ninja so at karate everyone will know i'm a ninja."

We've started swimming at the local center again. Yesterday was our first invasion. Between seven and eight homeschool families showed up for this family time swim. I had to giggle a bit. The lifeguard sure hadn't planned on a busy morning! She had to call in another lifeguard and did this with a look of horror on her face. I felt a little bad for the moms with their under-one-year-old babies, though. They sure weren't expecting a bunch of older kids jumping into the pool!
While I'm not enjoying the cold, I am enjoying the new opportunities that it brings every year!

Dog Biscuits

2011-12-22T23:03:00.000-05:00

Grandma, if you're reading this, perchance, go away.
Okay, now that that's dealt with...
The boys decided they'd love to make dog biscuits for grandma's new dog, Buddy. Buddy is the sweetest Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier. And he's 6 months old.
I found a recipe by Googling. I can't remember which recipe it is and I've misplaced the print out of the recipe. Yes, I'm that organized and helpful.
We all gathered around the table and got to making the biscuits. Measuring was off...some of the little ones don't quite understand that in order to complete the measure you've got to fill the spoon or cup...
They enjoyed kneading and stirring the dough. They wanted to taste it...2 liked it and one just about threw up.
Ingredients: 5-6 cups whole wheat flour, 1.5 cups chicken broth, 4 garlic cloves, 2 tbs parsley, and the rest I cannot remember.
The recipe called for rolling out the dough to a 1/4" thick, cutting and baking for 30 minutes, then flipping them all over and baking for another 15 minutes, turning off the oven and letting them sit there overnight so they get all crispy. Um, so we rolled out the dough to a 1/4" thick. The kids fought over who's turn it was to cut and how many they could cut before the next child could partake. They were baked for 30 minutes and were way crispy. So I didn't flip them over or leave them in the oven all night.
I'm wondering if Buddy will ever get to taste these treats. I asked my husband, "If you had a dog and someone made him treats, would you feed them to him?" He said, "I'd say 'thank you' very politely and mean it." Well, that didn't answer my question. Then he said, "Maybe." I think that's better...
We didn't have dog bone shaped cookie cutters. The boys also thought our Christmas cookie cutters were too big. So, we used a biscuit cutter and a knife. Check out these masterpieces!

Using the garlic press...Oh, look, there is yeast!
There was yeast in the biscuits. One more ingredient uncovered....2 tsp.

Cutting biscuits is very serious business.

Shmorgasboard of biscuits...

Mmmm...crispy.

I will totally not blame grandma if these end up in the trash. However, I'm hopeful that she'll allow the kids to give Buddy one.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-20T19:22:00.000-05:00

I made this little guy on a whim. We started out making snowmen with the large sized pom poms. Then our snowmen needed scenes, trees and santas. This santa was pretty easy to make. The head is a pom pom. The body is a pom pom wrapped in a square of red felt. The arms and legs are rolled up pieces of felt. The boots are triangular pieces of black felt glued to the leg to look like a boot. The hat is a triangular piece of felt wrapped around the pom pom and glued together. Everything is hot-glued together. I like hot glue.

This was our Christmas tree ornament. It's stuffed with Poly-fil, hot-glued and beaded. I had more insight to take pictures of the tree. The santas went by so fast I didn't even think of documenting every step.

Lastly, we experimented with an ornament idea from another site. The melted snowman ornament. Too cute of an idea. I tried. I don't know if I need an industrial sized hot glue gun, but I couldn't get the glue out fast enough before the existing glue started to cool and harden. Hers are much cuter than mine. This is what ours ended up looking like:

Not very cute. Now I have a zillion little black hats...

Date Night

2011-12-20T19:08:00.000-05:00

I find it weirdly interesting how cyclical life is. I see this in my blogging, for one. I also see it in my parenting, my interests, the boys' interests and behaviors. For example, I blog religiously for a few days, maybe even a week. Then, my photos pile up (on my desktop...my computer screen desktop, that is). I keep thinking of things I want to blog about and keep a running list in the back of my mind. When I finally find some time (or remember to blog instead of watching The Wonder Years on Hulu) I have so many things to blog about that I end up with "Highlights"...and all my fabulous blogging ideas are lost somewhere in the depths of my mind that only a pill, like in the movie Limitless, could extract. It is only now that I look back at my postings and the "highlights" of the month...I've already posted about most of them. What? Has it really only been 13 days since my last post? And where are the pictures of all that we've done in those 13 days?
I'd like to think we've been busy. I'd like to say that perhaps I've been so busy that there just weren't photo opportunities. Bwahahahaha.

Last week I went on a date night with Odin. I try to do this every so often with each of the boys. Odin loves to visit Whole Foods and "the samples"...so we did that. Then we cruised around the plaza and did a little bit of everything there.

This was him posing...on purpose. He was mighty pleased with this one.

Eating Gum drop candies. He was elated.

Video games...

Ice cream
(by the way, why do people rave about this ice cream? I thought it was gross.)

Next month is my date night with Eli. He'd like to do everything Odin and I did. Just replace Odin's face with Eli's and I'm sure it'll represent very well.

What's With The Weather?! ...and some mud fun...

2011-12-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

It's December 7, 2011. I am in Massachusetts. It is 52 degrees out. What in the world?!
My husband said, "This is going to be a warm winter!" My brother-in-law said, "Farmer's Almanac said we're going to have a very snowy winter!" We'll see.
A mama I know is trying to graph the weather to show how November and December are the cold months. It's not working out so well. After saying, "So, are November and December warm or cold months?", they responded with, "WARM!", very emphatically.
All I know is that it's raining and my kids were out there having a blast. Let your kids out, in the rain, to play in the mud. It's good for them. And it gives you a moment's peace before you need to mop the floor, do some laundry and give baths.

Millis Wonderland

2011-12-06T21:51:00.000-05:00

Every year we take the kids to Millis Wonderland. In case you haven't heard about it, check out the link. It's free. It's festive. It's crazy. We love it. We let the kids ride through it unbuckled...*gasp!* We drink hot cocoa. It only takes about ten minutes with no traffic, like tonight. On a busy night, you might be in line for miles, it seems, for well over an hour. I think last year we waited an hour and a half. It was horrible. I came prepared for a 1/2 hour wait. Then it got insane with tears and screams. We ended up leaving after that hour and a half. We went back on a different night...a weekday night. Tonight was perfect. It's Tuesday and raining. We went through twice with the kids hanging out of the car windows. Yes, we were the crazy ones. Don't worry, everyone was all buckled up once we got to the end and were on the street. Merry, Merry! Enjoy a sampling of the sights!

Cray Pas Fun!

2011-12-05T20:03:00.000-05:00

Another fabulous art class with the wonderful Ms. J at the local library. The kids were introduced, or reintroduced, to oil pastels. I have a love/hate relationship with these things. I've loved them forever. Then I had children. While I love doing messy projects with them, oil pastels does not fall into that category. I know my concerns are completely ridiculous. It's one of the weird pet peeves I have, I suppose. The kids spent about a half an hour experimenting with oil pastels. It was cool to see what each kid came up with. There were happy faces, Christmas trees, get well cards, monsters, cars and food.
The kids had fun. There were smudges everywhere. The world didn't end and I'm okay.

Okay, so this is not oil pasteling...but they were so cute in the children's library I had to take a picture of them.

Gingerbread Cookies

2011-12-05T00:08:00.000-05:00

I got our recipe from Simply Recipes. I have a tendency to try to stay away from things I have to roll out. I have this notion that it's hard. I know, I sound like a weenie. Rolling out dough used to be this thing only accomplished bakers did. I was not an accomplished baker. So I avoided it. Pillsbury made a fine pie crust. And there's nothing wrong with chocolate chip cookies. Well, now that I care about my food, Pillsbury no longer makes the cut. And when your kids want gingerbread cookies, telling them that chocolate chip cookie shaped men are the same is not an option. I'm getting better at it. I can now roll out the dough less than 1/2 an inch thick. Confidence is key, I think. I still don't know the specifics of the whys and hows of it all. Nor do I really care to. I just know that this recipe worked well. The cookies came out beautifully. Although, they did stick to the cookie sheet. I also used a cookie sheet I rarely use because it simply sucks, but when you've got Legos on one and Playdoh on the other, the choices are limited. The boys inhaled the cookies. I swear. They were there and then they were gone. All that was left were little voices telling me I hated them because I was obviously lying about the non-existence of any more cookies. This is what happens when you indulge your children right before bed. The Royal Icing came out beautifully as well. This was just a good cookie. Thanks, Simply Recipes. It really was simple.

Making Raw Butter

2011-12-04T23:52:00.000-05:00

After all that holiday cheer with trimming the tree and all, the kids wanted to make gingerbread cookies. However, we did not have enough butter. Enter in Ms. Resourceful. I grabbed the pitcher of raw milk. The cream was sitting right on top. I scooped it right off and poured it into some canning jars. I ended up with 2 cups without dipping into the milk. There was still about a 1/2 inch of cream sitting on top, but I didn't want to risk dipping into the milk. Plus, that cream is yummy in the milk!
I put the lids on, handed them to the kids and told them to shake. I hope this video makes you smile. It makes me giggle...a lot.

I've made butter with pasteurized cream before. It doesn't take that long. This took forever. My kids shook, and shook. I ended up holding a jar in each hand and shook. And shook. And shook. I finally poured them into a bowl, grabbed the beaters and beat that cream. And beat. And beat. I didn't time it, but it took at least five minutes on the highest speed available before it even began to resemble something that had been whipped. I then poured it back into the jars.

Add caption

Once I put the whipped cream into the jars I started shaking again. It quickly turned consistency.

Before shaking and after shaking

Starting to separate the buttermilk

Buttermilk surrounding the butter

1 gallon of milk yielded 3/4 cup of butter

It took longer than anticipated, but it was such a great experience for us. My boys were amazed at the transformation. It was also very satisfying to be able to create butter for the cookies we then made. I love really knowing what we put into our bodies.

Trimmin' the Tree

2011-12-04T23:31:00.000-05:00

For the past 6 years we have had a fake Christmas tree. With a new baby, I didn't want to deal. With a toddler, I didn't want the danger of him eating pine needles. With a pre-preschooler and a new baby, I didn't want a toppled over tree or a fire hazard. As you can see my fears started to progress. This year I finally said, "Ba Humbug" to the fake tree. I had always envisioned our family trekking out into a forest of pine trees, picking out the perfect one and chopping down. I found a local tree farm and we headed there this weekend.

What I hadn't envisioned: the saw not really making a cut, the kids being bored and my husband flagging down the guy on the ATV with a chainsaw. The tree was cut and on the ground in about 3 seconds.

My husband suggested we go for a tall and thin tree. I was not on board with that suggestion. It reminded me of the artificial tree in our basement. I wanted a Christmas tree, you know what I mean? I opted for the fuller one. Once it was in our living room, I saw the error of my ways. That darling man of mine had to literally trim that tree. He was covered in sap and needles by the time it was all said and done. Let's keep this all hush, hush. I don't need to hear him say, "I told you so!" We decorated it the next day. Again, I envisioned the family in matching sweaters, singing carols and everyone all a-cheer. Right, because that would ever happen. We had Christmas music playing. The box of decorations got dropped by an over eager child. Ornaments were broken. Ornaments were argued over. Children were crying. Parents were taking deep breaths.

My favorite part of decorating the tree is the star. Our star is cardboard and aluminum foil. Back when the hubs was a wee one, his family didn't have a star, for some reason or another. So, his mom cut some cardboard and wrapped it in foil. After she passed away, we got the box of Christmas decorations she had kept. Every year we put this star on the top of our tree. This year was the first year we needed to re-foil it. It's still as beautiful as ever.
Five ornaments were broken. Two were moldy - think applesauce and cinnamon. A few others lost their hanging apparatus. We'll be spending a few days making more ornaments. Gotta cover that tree!

Knights and Kings

2011-11-30T13:41:00.000-05:00

I suppose I should be a bit more organized with our "studies". However, I think learning about things sporadically kind of works for our kids. Right now they are very interested in Greek Myths, knights/kings/castles, and the Stone Age.

I swear he was a lot happier about the whole "you be the queen and I'm the king" thing.

The book was terribly cute. There were a lot of drawing ideas, versus craft ideas. And if you don't have more than construction paper at home, you're not doing a whole heck of a lot. There was a great sword and castle activities, but they required cardboard. We didn't have cardboard. There were 2 very sad faces for a little while. Note to self: save cardboard.

Fun with Clay

2011-11-30T13:33:00.000-05:00

Our lovely friend, Miss J, has put together a series of open-ended art classes for our kids. It's a mixed media class. One week there was finger painting. Another week there was tempera paints. The most recent was clay. Not Playdoh, but clay. How fun!
We utilize the local library for these classes...for free. As long as we clean up and behave appropriately, we are welcomed back with open arms. We're really fortunate to have such a valuable resource.

The Art of the Brick

2011-11-30T13:27:00.000-05:00

This exhibit was amazing. We decided to bring the kids on a day the center was closed. For a fee, we were allowed uninterrupted access to the exhibit. Uninterrupted meaning no other patrons. The works of art are made entirely of Legos. The kids were amazed. They wanted to touch. We got spoken to a lot because of the very handsy children. Oh well. They're kids. Outside from my own personal issue with the attendants, they were very thorough. There was a 45-minute tour on the pieces themselves. It was a little too intensive for the under 5 crowd, but the older kids really took away a lot. On any other day, the exhibit is free to the public. If you can go see one like it.

My kids did not come home and try to build amazing things out of Legos. They wrestled with their dad.

Nathan Sawaya's signature piece.

Standing just far enough behind the "line" as not to disrupt the exhibit...

Gorgeous. And that's a man and boy, not a man and woman.

Eli's favorite piece.

In the play center before the tour.

Grammy.

November 2011

2011-11-30T13:12:00.000-05:00

Again, where has the time gone? Between the holidays and the kids and well, life, the days have flown by. Now it's the last day of the month. I still need an inspection sticker. Is it really 55 degrees out???

Highlights from this month:

First time with Fimo clay

"We're going to make you cupcakes for your birthday, but you need to know it's going to come from a box and a jar and a tube", says my husband to me.

Birthday pizzas

Halloween Odin

Halloween Eli

Day before Halloween Silas

Inside the house Long Jump for cold days.

Personal bests

Cold days + boys = owning an exercise bar.

Climbing the walls

November fishing did not yield fish.

Spooky Halloween children.

The family.

New Things

2011-11-09T19:29:00.000-05:00

I decided my blog needed a new look. Something a bit simpler.

My home, however, is getting a more complicated look. I'm redecorating. Uh-oh.

I now have a yellow and gold wall instead of orange and copper. My kitchen walls are brownish instead of blue. Our front door is reddish. Our back door is reddish. I have some curtains.

Our old house is low on outlets. We have extension cords everywhere. On the list: hire an electrician

Next on the list: stripping.

No, not that kind of stripping. I'm just not that kind of girl.

Paint stripping. Off the cabinets. Oh boy.

I have a sink full of dishes or else I'd take a picture and show you the cabinet situation.

We no longer have a toaster or microwave. Yay!

I had to stand the husband in front of the microwave and ask him what he uses it for. He said, "Um, well, to heat things up. I just used it...the other week. Oh, well. To boil water?" He brought it in to work so other people can kill themselves slowly by using it. I Freecycled the toaster.

Baking with my kids = cake without baking soda and with a bloody army guy scene.

My oldest turned 6...*tear*...where has the time gone?!

I Freecycled toys and other kitchen gadgets. Get out of my house!

I received a wooden cabinet from another Freecycler.

Isn't it gorgeous???

Wait. That was when I received it. An 8-year-old girl used it for storing her toys.
Hmmm...where did that picture go? Ah, here it is:

After a few coats of paint.

I should have taken these photos during the day, but I'm not that organized. Have the kids learned a thing this week? Not a whole heck of a lot. Consider this physical education week.

Painting with Your Feet...

2011-11-03T20:58:00.000-04:00

...turns into a game of Slip-and-Slide...

As for homeschooling...this is an art class utilizing paint and feet...it totally counts.

Halloween 2011...

2011-10-23T15:02:00.000-04:00

I love Halloween. It encompasses a super fun transition from the warmer to the cooler days. Some might just say, "I love Fall." But, my love for the season ends when it's too cold to go outside without a jacket and all the leaves are off the tree. I do not love the Thanksgiving season. Granted, there are 4 seasons, but the holidays around this time categorize a season more than the season itself. I love the Christmas season, too. I do not love the bitter cold days of January and February. And the Valentine season just doesn't really exist. Tax season, now there's a season to look forward to!
I'll stop being fresh now.

Starburst Fangs

This is the man I married...

Halloween festivities are never complete without face painting.

Our spooky window #1

Spooky window #2

Worms...because worms are scary.

BRAINS!

Back to the Halloween season...
The hubs brought the tradition of rolling out Starburst candy and cutting out teeth into our home from his childhood. Nothing says I Love You like tooth decay.
Every year I volunteer at the local community center at their Haunted Halls. This year was the first year the hubs brought the kids. My four-year-old couldn't wait to go into the super haunted house. There were 3 sections. An activities room for the littles, a medium-scary room for the slightly older, and the super spooky haunted halls. My oldest only wanted to stay in the littles room with me. The other three went into the medium-scary room and fared well. The hubs and the very eager 4-year-old ventured into the haunted halls, child yanking adult fiercely across the building with excitement! I saw them exit. Odin was walking slowly, eyes unblinking. "Hey buddy, how was it?" He looked up at his dad. The hubs says, "It's okay, you can tell her."
"Mom. There was this guy. With a chainsaw. Trying to cut off another guys....head."
"Are you okay, man? Will I need to send you to therapy in a few years?"
"I was scared, mom." He gives me a big hug and then was on his way, telling his brothers all about the things he saw, telling them he wasn't scared at all.

CSA Fun

2011-10-13T15:32:00.001-04:00

We headed to our csa today to pick up our last share. I am not looking forward to buying vegetables next week! And sometimes, it's not just about the vegetables...

Gorgeous oranges and yellows

Mud puddles to boys are like flames for moths.

It's all fun and games until there is mud in your eye

Brussel Sprouts

"I am all muddy!"

Sinister contemplating

Rethinking the whole mud-jumping idea

Muddy lashes

Yes, there's a child lying in the muddiness...

Grabbing mud for mud ball throwing...this never ends well.

Dry and toasty with Pirate Booty

Mud-laden garments

Feeding a Catfish

2011-10-11T20:40:00.000-04:00

There are moments as a mom where you reach ultimate coolness. When they're little, everything you do is awesome to your kids. When their friends are around, it's very crucial to time your cool moments perfectly so that everyone sees. (I'm hoping you don't really think I do this on purpose.)
Today, we visited the Ecotarium...again. We were invited by friends, and who can turn down an invite? Not I.

While there we hung out on the dock in the lower pond area. I had no idea this place existed until a few weeks ago when the boys and I were there. However, it was closed the day we went. Today it was open. The boys saw fish in the murky waters. I had crusts from sandwiches left over in my bag. (No, that wasn't the cool part) We started feeding the fish. Kivvers, Sunfish, Pumpkinseed fish. Not really sure what they were called, but they're in every pond we go to. Little Ankle Biters is what I call them.

One kids suddenly yells, "Catfish!"

We all crane our necks to see. A few moments later I saw it. The only catfish I've seen is in a tank in my house when I was 8-years-old. It was not nearly as large as this guy.

One of the kids had his stick (they were trying to catch fish with just a stick) dangling above the water. A catfish came over and stuck it's mouth above the water and tried to bite the stick. I have to admit, it was a wee bit freaky. They are not cute little fellers.

I had an idea. (Get ready...here it comes...) I got a piece of sandwich crust, big enough to hold and dangle in the water. I had my camera in one hand, the crust in the other. I dangled. I hovered. Then the catfish came.

Yeah, that's right. Who's cool now?

Okay, so the kids thought I was cool for a second. My friend and I thought I was cool for way longer. I still think I'm cool and it's hours later and I'm blogging about it. I hope it doesn't go to my head.

Backyard Swamp and Frogs!

2011-10-09T10:52:00.001-04:00

Some friends of ours have this great backyard. There is a swamp against the furthermost point of their yard. I can't imagine the flooding that must occur when the rains are at their peak, but the fun the kids had the other day makes the whole potential flooding worth it. Almost. As a homeschooling mom, everything is a learning opportunity, whether my kids realize it or not. We talked about frog lifespans - did you know frogs can live from 4 to 10 years out in the wild, but many don't because of predators?

There's something so natural about a boy and his frog.

Impromptu frog habitat

We talked about frog habitats - how too much or too little sun can affect them...what frogs need to live. Air, food, water. They hibernate in the mud at the bottom of ponds. Frogs are also amphibians, which means they live part of their life in water and part of it on land. They will also keep growing for up to 5 years.

There's nothing like being barefoot and almost knee-deep in mud

In captivity, a frog can live up to 40 years!

Some cool frog sites:
http://ed.fnal.gov/projects/frogs/greenfroginfo.html
http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/anurans/Hylchrver/Hyl_chrver.html
http://www.naturesound.com/frogs/frogs.html
http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/frogs/activities.htm
http://www.pondfilter.com/the-frog-pond-a-froggy-guide-for-kids.aspx

Theme Unit - The Rain Forest and Jungle

2011-10-09T10:25:00.000-04:00

Here's how it started: "Mom, I want to learn about all animals", said Eli. "Dude, you've got to narrow it down. What kind of animals?", said mom. "All animals", replied Eli. Repeat what mom said again, then add in a few categories to choose from. Rain forest/Jungle animals was not on the example list. Then my first question was, "What is the difference between the Jungle and the Rain forest...is there a difference?" Apparently, there is. Taken from sites like ehow.com, wisegeek.com and differencebetween.net, I was able to formulate a distinction. Basically, a rain forest has taller trees and a thicker canopy (top of trees) with less growth in the understory (ground level). The jungle can be independent of a rain forest, however it is also usually found surrounding a rain forest, as the trees thin out and more sunlight is let in. The jungle has more growth in the understory. Here is a list from differencebetween:

Summary:

1.A rain forest has a very thick canopy of tall trees, making it very difficult for light to penetrate to the ground level which makes it difficult for plants to flourish. A jungle floor on the other hand will usually have a thick undergrowth of plants and vegetation.

2.If part of a rain forest is cleared, the remaining trees will let in more light towards the forest floor, thus encouraging growth of vegetation, and thereby making a jungle out of a former rain forest.

3.Forests in the Indian sub-continent have always been known as jungles, whereas the rain forests have really been identified with the Amazonian basin in Brazil.

4.Another difference lies in the importance of tropical rain forests to the ecological health of the earth, which is immense. In comparison, jungles have a relatively minor impact.

I was ready to move on.
Eli wanted to make a mural. I started printing out rain forest/jungle related activities off different sites. We have a subscription to edHelper.com. They have worksheets and activities related to just about everything the typical school-aged child will want or need to know. I found all sorts of things to print out. I'm pretty sure I got overzealous and printed out way too many things.

We worked for 2 hours. Eli colored in a lion and giraffe, created a pond, hippo and tiger. We created a Morpho butterfly. I found a map of Africa, enlarged it and printed it out. We spent another 2 hours the next day. Then he was done. But I have worksheets and booklets to color and read and word searches!

We've since taken a break. We visited the library yesterday and found a ton of books on the subject at hand. However, we could only take out three on one subject. I was told to put 7 books back. Whoops.

We own a copy of The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. I ordered A Guide for Using The Great Kapok Tree in the Classroom. Okay, so we're not in a classroom, but it's still useful. I was able to get the guide for $4.00 from Amazon. It was a used, old library copy for a penny, but then they charge $3.99 for shipping. Because I get Prime shipping and it was in the a.m. when I ordered it, I received it the next day.

In a few weeks, we'll wrap up our rain forest/jungle exploration with a trip to Roger Williams Zoo in Rhode Island, where they have a Tropical America exhibit. It'll be cold by then, so I'm not sure how much will actually be exhibited. We'll also take some time out to visit the Butterfly Place again. They have Blue Morpho butterflies, which can only be found naturally in the rain forests of South America.
We watched Rio, which isn't educational at all, but does take place in the Brazilian Rain forest and is pretty funny. We also watched Go Deigo Go! It's a Bug World. My two-year-old picked it out at the library. I've also found some rain forest movies on Netflix.
What I've learned from this - Kids generally want some information and parents get more excited and expect lesson plan after lesson plan to get completed. Some other homeschool mommas and I chatted regarding this topic...we were all overzealous and super excited there was a topic our child was interested in. If our Kindergarten-aged children were actually in school, they would probably spend the same amount of time over a period of a month on one topic as we do in a few days. I have to keep reminding myself of that. And that when my kids' desire for a topic has been sated, to just stop, regardless of how excited I am. Well, unless it's driving them to want more.