the boy turns seven

Yes, it's all true, Zoo Boy turned 7 today! He was half-excited, half-worried in the days leading up to it (a vast improvement over turning 6, which he was 100% dreading). But, as usual, it was all good once it happened!

Both boys are suffering from the tail end of an upper respiratory virus that has them sounding like they're going to cough up a lung, so we hung out at home today and celebrated quietly, in hopes that the sound less horrifying by tomorrow, which is when the party is.

In this first photo, he's checking out the "Bakuguantlet" that Mimi and Grampy gave him. (Thanks, Mimi and Grampy, it's what he wanted most of all! Look for him wearing it on his arm in the last photo.)


We had a little cake, both because you can't celebrate a birthday without a cake, and, more importantly, because Mommy had to try out her idea for a Bakugan cake on something small before a couple of dozen party guests see the real, much larger one. (Under that black bar is the boy's name, but since he goes incognito on the blog, I figured I'd obscure it.)


Blowing out the big "7" candle. He liked the cake. ("Thank you Mommy for this delicious cake," LOL, I love that kid!) I hope he's not disappointed with tomorrow's cake, he refuses to look at it to approve it, saying he wants it to be a surprise. Pressure on me!!!








Opening his gift from J. J shopping on his own this year, telling me before I ever had a chance to ask what he wanted to get him. Given the delighted look on Zoo Boy's face, I guess he done good. He did, however, have trouble keeping anything a secret, spilling the beans on more than one of the gifts, so I'll be careful how much information I share with him in the future....

All outfitted with his new Bakugauntlet, stocked with his new Bakugan cards, and a battle all laid out on his Bakugan battle field (a gift from The Map Man and I). He and J spent the whole afternoon brawling, which made for a happy, happy birthday for The Boy.

science!

The kids had a day of science classes at The Children's Museum yesterday. J had his own schedule and map, and managed to get himself to his own classes all day long, so I didn't have any opportunity to photograph him. But I tagged along to all of Zoo Boy's classes (a bit of a necessity if I expect him to actually stay IN his classes...) so I got a lot of pics of him doing experiments, observations, and projects, so we can follow him below.

J attended classes for kids in grades 3-5. His first was on the Water Cycle, the next was on Weather and Space (in the planetarium), the third was about aerodynamics and race car construction, and the fourth was on chemistry. His favorite was chemistry (as I suspected it might be).

Zoo Boy's classes were geared for pre-K through 1st grade. His first class was in the planetarium, where they showed a cute program about two boys who build a cardboard rocket and visit all the planets in our solar system. (I had a nice little nap during the show.) His second class was a chemistry class about Polymers, and the kids created slime. Predictably, the Boy didn't want to handle the slime, so I had to assist him with all of the experiments they did with them to try to determine whether slime is a liquid or a solid.



Next he had a biology class about the life and habits of red worms. Also predictably, he didn't want to look in the bin of compost the worms lived in (and honestly, I don't blame him, it smelled just awful), nor did he want to touch the worm he was assigned to study. Fortunately he had a lab partner who was more than willing to do the more sensory-challenging portions of the experiments, and after much reassurance from me that nobody was going to make him do anything he didn't want to, he managed to participate more or less fully in the class.

His final class was about magnets and discovering which objects they attract, and how they interact with each other.

At the end of the day, we all met in the planetarium for a cool presentation about lasers. It was a really fun day for the kids, and we walked Kiri (who hung out in the van while we were in classes) at lunchtime and after we were done, so she had fun, too.

I was grateful for the opportunity to observe Zoo Boy amongst a large group of his peers -- 30 or so similarly aged homeschooled children. I've known right along that he kind of sticks out in a group of typically schooled children, but some of that I blame on the difference in their learning environments. But getting to watch him and see the same differences amongst a good sampling of same-aged homeschooled kids was a bit of an "ah ha" experience for me. Clearly he's academically advanced, and just as clearly he's quite emotionally immature, both of which I only had a vague feel for. Combined with his lingering sensory issues, it gives The Map Man and I some fodder for more thinking on and discussing the subject of meeting his needs.

sugaring time

It's an annual tradition for us to read the Enki Education Kindergarten Nature Story "Sugaring Time." Each year we approach the artistic digestion differently, however, and this year I decided that painting would serve our needs nicely. After recalling the story, I started by talking about Old Maple feeling the East Wind starting to blow during the day, and the North Wind returning at night, while we painted our entire paper yellow with broad, long brush strokes. (This first painting is J's.)


(Zoo Boy's painting.) We then sang "Sleep Root Children" (from the story) while using an arcing brush stroke with the blue. We finished by singing "Haul Sweet Water" (also from the story) while dabbing on the red. The boys readily recognized the maple tree with sap buckets in my painting (below) and J's (although I never said a word about it). Zoo Boy forgot to wipe off his brush before loading it with red paint and wound up with a sear of purple instead of red sap buckets. But we all kind of like it this way anyway.

The next day we participated in a Maple Sugaring program at a local park's sugar house. This is also a yearly tradition of ours, although my guess is this is the last year we'll bother with the class -- the boys knew all the answers to all the questions. Next year we'll just tap our own trees and make our own sugar and syrup. I feel that sugaring is a legacy for kids growing up in New England.

No work on the seasonal sugaring activities would be complete without tasting sap, syrup, and maple candies. This is a hard maple drop, a bit different than the type of maple sugar candy we usually buy and make.

My painting, for anyone who might be interested. (By the way, if I were to do it over, I would let the painting dry before adding the buckets so that they were crisper.)

getting ready to spring

The snow is melting, the temps are above freezing during the day and not too far below it at night, and there's every indication that spring is on it's way! So it's been a good week to focus on Science and Nature Stories, and I picked an appropriate poem, the first verse of "March" by R.W. Emerson

O such a commotion under the ground,

When March said "Ho, there! Ho!"

Such spreading of rootlets far and wide,

Such whisperings to and fro.

"Are you ready?" the Snow Drop asked,

"'Tis time to start, you know."

"Almost, my dear!" the Scilla replied,

"I'll follow as soon as you go."

Then "Ha! ha! ha!" a chorus came

Of laughter sweet and low,

From millions of flowers under the ground,

Yes, millions beginning to grow.

Feels nice to be out walking again in the mornings! It's not every day yet, just those where the temperatures are above 35 by the time we'd be heading out, but slowly morning walks will replace our morning exercise routine. (These dogs are Grace and Joy; Kiri is too little yet to walk as far as we do.)

J's journal entry for this week above, with a spring theme! Zoo Boy's below with a Pokemon theme, as usual.

Kiri

Ok, I've got a ton of catching up to do, but I figure I'll get flailed if I don't post some more puppy pictures first, so here you go!

Kiri's a pretty mellow gal, I mean, for a Lab puppy. She's a big-time snuggler, and her favorite game is holding as big a toy as she can possibly fit in her mouth and moaning and wagging her tail wildly while smushing her head into whatever human body part is available. She's taken to farm-living like a champ, and she's a really nice little gal to have around the house. Oh, and she travels well, which is important for the homeschooling family on-the-go. She's pretty much the perfect puppy. (And yes, for those of you keeping track, I actually used the words "perfect" and "Lab" in the same paragraph.)


So far, she spends her days romping in the fields with the kids and their friends...









...playing with whoever is available...










...and sleeping. Lots and lots of sleeping.









Lots of it. (I don't normally sleep with my glasses on, but The Map Man apparently caught me after I dozed off the other night....Thanks, Honey....)


Of course, you'd sleep a lot too if you were running around with a wild pack of kids all day. Trust me.

quick puppy info

Ok, ok, sheesh, don't you people know I'm busy! LOL

I promise many, many (MANY!) more pictures as we go along, but for now here's the basics:

Name: Kiri (registered name to be determined)

Breed: Labrador Retriever (you know, just in case nobody figured that out!) This is our very first Lab (and honestly not a breed I ever thought I'd own), but not our first gun dog, although we've been without "a proper gun dog" for some time.

Age: 12 weeks-ish (I don't actually know her birthdate, some else takes care of those details!)

Breeder: My friend Anne of Radiance Labradors -- Kiri's parents are Boomer and Connie -- go find them on her web page!

How it happened: Trust me, this wasn't planned. But Kiri (under a different name) came to visit for a few days (aka "Anne's evil plan") and was an absolutely perfect fit for our household. This is a pretty special puppy, and we're not stupid enough not to recognize that.

Her future: Anne and I are co-owning this pupperoni. That way Anne can show her and breed her and do whatever labradorian type things need to be done with a puppy of this caliber, and we can love her up and train her to do ridiculous things. Win-win situation for us all!!

We are all in puppy heaven! (Well, with the exception of the Collies who seem think this is the worst decision I've ever made. They'll get over it.)

look what we did....