dragon story

Dragon Story, a book by J.



Once there was a happy dragon.






Then he saw something that scared him.







So he got mad and acted mean.






Then he went and hid in his cave.





The End

Raven and River Adventure Circle

Finally! The long-awaited details on our Raven and River Adventure Circle, which we are in our third week of using. It is based (very tightly)on the text from the absolutely marvelous book "Raven and River" by Nancy White Carlstrom. (Which is inexplicably out of print -- how can that be??? It's THE best early spring children's book ever written!! Fortunately there are still good copies available used from private sellers, and our library has a copy of it as well.)

Anyway, the premise of the book is that Raven circles and sees various animals in their habitats preparing for Spring, and all working in it's own way to "wake the sleeping river". The text is a WONDERFUL work of poetry that captivated my kids from the first telling. And the way the book is broken down into segments about the various animals, then wraps them all together in the end, made it an absolute natural choice to use as a base for our early spring Adventure Circle!

Initially we start in the living room, circling, and I recite the first part of the text. We move into an Enki Kindergarten Movement Activity entitled "Spring is Coming" (an opening activity), and then sing our repeating verse -- a modified (by me) version of the "Kookaburra" song to jive with the section of the books we are discussing, and which we sing 3 times through while participating in an intensive sensory integration therapy activity. For the first section, about Raven, we swoop around the living room like a bird flying, singing:

Raven swoops in a circling quiver,
Gurgling and burbling like a flowing river.
R-r-rawk, r-r-awk, Raven, r-r-rawk, r-r-rawk, Raven,
Wake the sleeping River.

The next section of the book is about a red squirrel. I read the text, then we do the Enki activity "Squirrel Bounds" (a proprioceptive activity). We then sing our repeating verse as the kids scramble up and down the stairs:

Red Squirrel skitters up the spruce with a shimmer,
Bright eyes sparkle like a shining river.
Chit-chit, Red Squirrel, chit-chit, Red Squirrel,
Wake the sleeping River.


This is followed by a Ruffed Grouse, we do the Enki activity "Recorder Song -- Spring" (a mid-line activity which also practices recorder position and fingering), then our Ruffed Grouse verse is sung while the kids duck walk up and down the hall like a bird (see first photo):

Ruffed Grouse struts along here and thither,
Beating his wings like a humming river.
Thum thum, Ruffed Grouse, thum thum, Ruffed Grouse
Wake the sleeping River.

The next verse is about a wolf, who climbs a cliff, howls, then takes off running. We do the Enki activity "Foxes" (another mid-line activity), but modify the words to be about Wolves instead. During our repeating verse, the kids climb a cliff (J's loft), then crash (jump off) on Zoo Boy's bed below, then run down the hall and back (see second photo):

Wolf climbs the cliff with a shake and a shiver,
Howls and takes off like a running river.
Yowl-yowl, Wolf, yowl-yowl, Wolf,
Wake the sleeping River.


Next is the Snowshoe Hare -- we do the Enki activity "Rabbits" (a tactile finger-play), followed by bed jumping (see third photo) during our repeating verse:

Snowshoe Hare leaps fro and hither
Bounding o'er her path like a dancing river
Run-run, Snowshoe Hare, run-run, Snowshoe Hare
Wake the sleeping River.

This is followed by the Bear, after which we do "Bear Cubs" (a vestibular activity), and roll down the hall while singing our repeating verse (see fourth photo):

Bear wakes up in a yawning dither
Entering the light like a turning river.
Slap-flap, Bear, slap-flap, Bear,
Wake the sleeping River.

Next comes Beaver, followed by the Enki activity "Beaver" (a proprioceptive finger-play). For our repeating verse, the kids crawl back and forth through a tunnel (entering and exiting the beaver lodge) (as in the final photo):

Beaver waits inside when he senses the sliver
Ice beings to shift like a moving river.
Crack crack, Beaver, crack crack, Beaver,
Wake the sleeping River.

We then come full-circle back to Raven again, who circles (as we circle). A review of each of the sensory integration therapy activities follows (with one quick repetition of each activity). River then awakens and we do the Enki activity "Waters" (a tactile finger-play), followed by another quick review of each of the sensory activities, following the text as "River shimmers for red squirrel, hums with ruffed grouse, runs after wolf...", etc.

Finally, Raven and River together "gurgle and burble and roll their r's", and we join hands and circle for our last repeating verse, and the end of our Adventure Circle:

Raven and River gurgle and quiver,
Rolling their r's for Spring and the Giver.
R-r-rawk, r-r-rawk, Raven, r-r-rip, r-r-rip, River,
Flying, flowing, free.

under the sea

Today the kids' Museum Explorers class (part of their Monday Homeschool Classes) was about sea creatures -- hermit crabs, sea anemones, sea stars, coral, sea snails, sea urchins, lantern fish, and sea horses. J created the sea horse on the left, Zoo Boy the one on the right.

J (in gray) and Zoo Boy (in red) investigate a selection of sea stars. They also got to handle pieces of coral, a dried sea horse, and live hermit crabs.







Ms. Nikki has the class's undivided attention as she shows them treasures from the museum's collections.




The class does an observation of Hermit Crab behavior. (There are two crabs in the center of this circle -- a little hard to see.) The kids note on their record sheets whenever the crabs move, hide, or touch something. These crabs were movers -- most of the recorded observations were of motion.

Ms. Nikki reads from the book "Mr. Seahorse" while the kids work on their sea horse artwork.

On the way home, Zoo Boy was muttering to himself, and I caught segments of the dialog. "...Then the male octopus reaches out with his giant tentacle..." and "...when the dolphin surfaces, it takes a deep breath, then dives to the ocean depths...", all in a very dramatic-sounding documentary type voice. I listened for awhile, and heard J ask him "What's all that from?" Zoo Boy answered, very matter-of-fact,"from my new movie, 'Discovering Sea Creatures" (a movie that exists only in his head -- at least at this point). More proof for my long-standing theory that Zoo Boy is going to grow up to be the next Jacques Cousteau.

spring vacation

I am playing a bit of catch-up at this point, so be sure to look behind this post for two others I just posted this evening!


Our precariously teetering use of curriculum materials last week came to a grinding halt this week, and by Tuesday night I realized that I would do best just to call this a vacation week and start anew next week. It was the only logical choice to be made, given the way the week was turning out.

In the meantime, there's just no stopping the learning from happening! Here the kids (center top of photo) are participating in creating animal habitats in their Museum Explorers class on Monday.

And here are the habitats they created! Zoo Boy's is on the bottom left, J's is on the bottom right. They used a combination of animal stamps and paints to create a habitat for the animals they chose. My favorite part about J's creation is the hand print (hard to see, but it's in the upper left corner of his painting). He was sitting there contemplating his page and what he already had on it, when he reached out and used his hand like a stamp to add himself to the habitat. Pretty cool stroke of creativity!

Zoo Boy had double creativity-duty that day, making this bunny bag in his Monday Munchkins class.

Tuesday we had to cut our usual rhythms short due to my having a dental appointment. My dentist is in the town I grew up in, so I dropped the kids with my parents and headed off for my cleaning. Unfortunately, they found a problem that had to be dealt with ASAP, so we wound up having an impromptu pajama party at my parent's house (didn't make sense to drive all the way home that evening just to turn around and drive all the way back up there the next morning), and didn't get home until mid-afternoon on Wednesday. Talk about a way to kill a week's plans! By then I had long since abandoned any attempt at curriculum, which served us well come Thursday, as I had a lunch meeting with a friend (at a McDonalds with a playland so that the kids could play while we visited), which would have messed up any attempt at "school" that day anyway.

On Friday, we headed out to the children's museum for Zoo Boy's uber-cute class called Spoonfuls of Sugar, then caught up with some homeschooling pals at yet another McDonald's playland, after which we drifted over to a bookstore for some fun and reading.


Winding up our week, J and I had a date with those same homeschooling friends at the Springfield Museums, where we took in a planetarium show (here's J in front of the star ball in the planetarium) and checked out a really cool art museum.

Family Story Time went on as usual, and we read Floss, by Kim Lewis; Spring: An Alphabet Acrostic, by Steven Schnur, illustrated by Leslie Evans; and The Story of the Root Children, by Sibylle von Olfers (a very appropriate follow-up to last week's selection, Mother Earth and Her Children).

Next week: One more week of Raven and River Adventure Circle (which I promise I will FINALLY blog about!). I'm already putting the finishing touches on our next adventure circle, which will be Five Little Ducks.

art museum

On Saturday I took J for a "Mom and Me" day to the Springfield Museums. We wandered about the Science Museum a bit with some homeschooling friends we met there, and then we all attended a Planetarium Show about the beginnings of life on Earth, and the possibility of life on other planets. But the really cool part of the day was checking out another museum on the same grounds -- the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum. J really enjoyed exploring the Hall of Sculptures, which had quite a few reproductions of famous works of art.

The best part of this museum is the Art Discovery Hall. This brightly painted hallway is filled with activity stations exploring Eastern art activities. We spent the bulk of our time at the museum there, and we are sure to return with Zoo Boy as well, as I'm sure he'd love to spend some time in there, too.

J works on an origami project, making a crane. They had step-by-step directions, but it was VERY complicated, and he needed quite a bit of help from me. In the end, our crane looked a lot like a lame duck....

He also discovered a scavenger hunt based on this exhibit, the Wall of Symbols. They also offered prizes (small folding fans) for kids that complete the scavenger hunt, but he wasn't even interested in a prize, he just loves doing scavenger hunts, and had no problem filling out his entire sheet, with an occassional bit of help from me.

J searches the hall for items from the scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, I read up on the Chinese Zodiac, and discovered that J was born in the Year of the Dragon, and Zoo Boy was born in the Year of the Goat (Ram, Sheep, there seems to be some confusion about exactly which animal it is!!).

While J and I were exploring museums, Zoo Boy and The Map Man had their own adventures. Next Saturday, we'll swap, and Zoo Boy and I will have our own special adventure while J hangs with The Man. While we hate to miss out on family time all together, we're finding it's beneficial for the boys to have some time with each of us on their own, and some time on their own in general.

a spoonful of sugar

Playing a little catch-up with my blog -- so much fun stuff has been happening this past week, and I'm having trouble finding time to post about it all!

On Friday Zoo Boy (towards the right side of the group, looking intently at what the teacher is showing them) participated in an adorable museum program entitled "Spoonfuls of Sugar", which was a series of activities based on Mary Poppins. They did sidewalk paintings, rode imaginary carousel horses, pretended they were chimney sweeps, had a tea party on the ceiling, and, of course, flew a kite. Zoo Boy had a BLAST!

I caught what glimpses I could of the class through the classroom door. Here the kids are on the stage doing some sort of game with blocks and paper shapes. (Zoo Boy is towards the back end of the line, with a navy and gray shirt on.)


The class flies their "kite", a parachute (Zoo Boy in the back towards the right side of the pic.) The Boy couldn't wait to tell J and me the details of class, and showed us the bird and chalk drawing he made. All 3 of us left the museum singing "Let's Go Fly A Kite" to the smiles of the museum staff.

While Zoo Boy was in class, J occupied himself with reading. Meanwhile I got some curriculum planning done. I'm thinking I might use time that Zoo Boy is occupied with classes a bit more productively with J. When J is in class, Zoo Boy is content to hook up with other kids in the museum and play. J is just enough older than the little kids that are running about to feel that his time is better spent reading. There's so much stuff in the Enki curriculum that I'd love to do with him but that Zoo Boy isn't ready for yet, I'm thinking that I might be able to take advantage of Zoo Boy's enthusiasm for classes to involve J in projects and activities of his own.

J and I did get to attend a live animal program. And since we were the only people in attendance, J got to pick which animal he wanted to meet. He selected the ball python. So he got a personal lesson in the care and feeding of pet snakes.

weekly (late!) summary, week 26, spring #2

I know, I know! This is several days later than it should be, and I apologize to those of you who have actually been waiting for it. My only excuse is that, more and more, my life is getting in the way of my blogging. We're just out there having too much fun, there's not enough time to sit here and type!

Anyway, it's been a ridiculously busy week, what with that start of our Monday Homeschool Classes Spring semester, with both kids booked to the gills, and a museum class for J the following day, where he created all the wonders in this picture. We also visited a couple of the museums in Springfield, MA.



The weather this week was a lot like this -- not particularly spring-like. I did a bit of soul-searching and discovered that I've been trying to "push" the spring thing a bit too much, so we dropped curriculum story for this week and next, and are just concentrating on our Raven and River Adventure Circle (which I keep promising I'll blog about, and so I will!).

We topped out our week with a festival celebrating the Spring Equinox. The Map Man said that really, the spring celebration should have begun on Imbolc, at the start of February. (That's the pagan holy day that demarcates the beginning of rebirth -- makes sense, as traditionally this is when many early spring animals are being born in their dens, shepherds' flocks are lambing, and trees are being tapped at the start of the maple sugaring season.) But, I'm sorry, there is no way I'm celebrating Spring in the heart of frozen winter around here. I have trouble enough celebrating it in March! (Snow is forecast for tonight, and they're predicting a big storm at the end of the week -- Spring my BUTT!!)

But anyway, it was really fun celebrating regardless!

And I know you all want to see what the baby birdies are looking like now, so here they are. This will be my last weekly update on them, since they are now full-fledged adolescents, no longer babies. Cute, no?? That's Huckleberry nearest the camera, Raspberry in the middle, and Blueberry furthest away. (Oh, and proud papa Pineapple in the background, who thinks his kids are crazy for happily stepping up onto our hands and letting us carry them around.)

Family Story Time books this week were: It's Spring, by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Susan Swan; Goose's Story, by Cari Best, illustrated by Holly Meade (this is a very sweet story about overcoming a disability, my kids just loved it!); and the beautiful Mother Earth and Her Children, by Sibylle Von Olfers, illustrated by Sieglinde Schoen Smith.