A Good Day

Although I know it will not always be like this--heck, I've already experienced enough days not like this to know that--today was a good day. Good in that I was able to witness, in a very relaxed way, the ability of my children to dictate what and how they learn. I couldn't help but shake my head when I looked at the clock and realized that by 7:30 a.m., Aidan had already shown me what he knew regarding geography, national and state monuments, and an assortment of math concepts. It was such a fluid and natural course that I had to just step back and watch it go.

Since the time change, we wake up about 6:30ish, which is fine with me because I am a morning person. The house was still quiet so we decided to read on the sofa. August woke up and joined us with his early morning good natured self. We began reading a book titled Z is for Zookeeper by Marie and Roland Smith. This has been a good book to read to both boys at the same time because it has two reading levels included for each letter of the alphabet. An example is the easy verse for the letter P. "P is for Penguins jumping in the pool. A zookeeper's job is keeping them cool." This is sing-song-y in a way that engages August but in the margin they have much more detailed information regarding penguins--their habitats, eating habits, how they care for them in the zoo, etc. that engages Aidan. So in reading this passage about penguins this morning we learned that there are 17 different species of penguins and all of them are found in the southern hemisphere. I casually asked him if he knew what the southern hemisphere was. He said that he didn't. So then I asked him if he remembered how on his globe there was a line that went around the middle of the planet. Yes, he did. So then I explained that everything above that line was in the northern hemisphere and below, in the southern. A moment of silence as everything was assimilated and then Aidan said, "There's a line like that on the globe that goes over where St. Louis is." I wasn't sure where he was going with this so we went and got his little globe (great buy from the Target dollar bin!). He found St. Louis and pointed to what , sure enough, was a line crossing directly over the city horizontally. This led into a discussion about lines of latitude and longitude and other geographical terms. He then asked if we could look up information about the state of Missouri that was on the website that we had looked at a couple of days ago.

So, to make a long story short, I let him explore the website on his own while I went to make breakfast. He kept calling me in to tell him about what he found or to tell me something that he was able to figure out on his own from pictures or symbols. After awhile on that, he then picked up this great book that I got at our neighborhood thrift store for $2 titled Anno's Math Games by Mitsumasa Anno. It is such a fun book. As the writer explains in his notes to parents and teachers, "While many people equate mathematics with arithmetic, its real meaning relates to much more than merely manipulating numbers. Above all, it represents a way of thinking about things."
Aidan totally gets this book and I think it will serve him well as an introduction to the world of math. He "read" through it until his waffle was ready. All of this before breakfast and it was all so natural. This is what this journey is all about and I am loving every minute of it.

A website for you

If I could get away with it, I would spend a great majority of my time looking at the world around me like the folks at Hilton Pond, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to education, research, and conservation. The man who started it, Bill Hilton, Jr., was a graduate student in ornithology who relocated to South Carolina from Minnesota in order to teach high school biology. He and his family bought a farm and the rest is history. Bill has a nature blog titled This Week at Hilton Pond. The writing is extensive and thorough and the pictures are amazing. He writes weekly so make sure to check back from time to time.

Darn

Well, I've already managed to slip up and miss a day of blogging for National Blog Posting Month. I certainly didn't mean to, honestly. Last night I was all set to snuggle into bed and write about our day at the park, complete with pictures and the usual commentary, but John was using the computer when I was ready. Although he promised that he wouldn't take long, the next thing I knew, I had crawled under the covers and fallen asleep.

It was 9:00.

Granted, it was the first day of Daylight Savings and my body felt like it was 10:00, but really. I haven't gone to bed that early since... I can't remember. So, I woke up today and realized what had happened. Oh well, so I won't get a chance to win a random price. I'm trying not to let my slip up knock the wind out of me. I would like to continue to write something everyday as I think its good for me.

On another note, I dropped my camera yesterday and the top part of the button you push to take pictures popped off. It will still turn on and off, you can zoom in and out and you can view pictures you've already taken--you just can't take any pictures. AAUUGGHH!! I have come to love that little camera and especially love how it adds to this blog endeavor. I sincerely hope that I can either find that little top in my driveway (Daddy, where are you when I need you?) or that it can be repaired.

What is this?

Can anyone tell me what this is? It's some kind of crazy huge weed that shows up in our yard every year at the end of summer/beginning of fall. It's about 3-4 feet in height (yes, we let it get that high! Although John and I have differing views than some of our neighbors on exactly how long you can go before you must cut the stuff growing on your property, this thing does grow in a part of the yard that is not really "lawn" per se), it has a deep cranberry colored stalk as well as stems, large hosta looking leaves and, to the kids utter delight, these dark purple berries that grow like grapes. The kids have been warned, beyond what is reasonable probably, that these beautiful purple orbs are VERY POISONOUS. I don't know that to be true since I don't know what the heck this plant is, but it's obviously better to land on the side of the living than the alternative. Although I would like to be able to identify this plant by it's correct name to my children , they could care less. These berries have been the secret ingredient in their huge pot of mud soup, mini bombs thrown at an apparent enemy, and a general all purpose fun thing to squish at every opportunity. I, personally, would love to use it as a natural dye in something because its color is truly exquisite. But I would also love to know what it is. Anyone? Just post it in the comments section if you know.

Pumpkin experiment

We have decided to do a pumpkin experiment. The boys both picked places to place their pumpkins in our crazily overgrown backyard and both pumpkins ended up on top of tree stumps, interestingly enough. The plan is to watch them deteriorate and see what critters take advantage of their strategic placement. This is a risky endeavor, I suppose, since we have spotted rats in our yard before (okay, to be honest, we've more than "spotted" rats in our yard. In fact, John has been photographed assassinating one outside our kitchen window but that doesn't really have anything to do with this project). Hopefully, the liveliest thing that will take up residence in our forlorn squashes will be crazy mold. Either way, it should make for a fun timelapse photo experience, don't you think?

I'm up for the challenge

So I've gone and signed myself up for

NaBloPoMo

National Blog Posting Month

The challenge is to post something everyday in November. There are prizes randomly awarded for those who manage to pull this off so, of course, that's what got me to sign on. Seriously though, I think the challenge is good and is the kind of nudge I need to be more disciplined about writing in general. It will be interesting to see if I can take the minutia of our lives, chisel away the mundane and uncover the gem. I hope you'll join me on this journey.

On sword play...

In doing some research for some possible book purchases I stumbled across this quote. I thought I'd post it here as consolation for me and as insight for you, regarding my swashbuckling son, Aidan.

G. K. Chesterton wrote in a 1906 magazine article:

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A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting; a child always stands for the good militarism as against the bad. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression. The child's hero is never the man or boy who attempts by his mere personal force to extend his mere personal influence. In all boys' books, in all boys' conversation, the hero is one person and the bully the other. That combination of the hero and bully in one, which people now call the Strong Man or the Superman, would be simply unintelligible to any schoolboy....

But really to talk of this small human creature, who never picks up an umbrella without trying to use it as a sword, who will hardly read a book in which there is no fighting, who out of the Bible itself generally remembers the "bluggy" [bloody] parts, who never walks down the garden without imagining himself to be stuck all over with swords and daggers--to take this human creature and talk about the wickedness of teaching him to be military, seems rather a wild piece of humour. He has already not only the tradition of fighting, but a far manlier and more genial tradition of fighting than our own. No; I am not in favour of the child being taught militarism. I am in favour of the child teaching it.
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