day at the zoo

I'm falling dreadfully behind in my blogging again, will try to catch up this weekend. Meanwhile, enjoy some photos from Tuesday's tremendously fun, outrageously awesome afternoon at the Forest Park Zoo in Springfield, MA, with our friends Kyra and Fluffy:

All in all, a wonderful place to hang out with good friends on a late spring afternoon!

those pesky, tappin' feet

(A little background information -- when J decided he wanted to dance, we discussed which types of dance he was interested in. He informed me that he was not interested in tap, which honestly surprised me, but as a result we did not sign him up for tap, nor has he ever had any instruction in tap. So imagine my surprise at the fact that he seems to have picked up a variety of tap moves just by watching recitals, other kids' classes, and So You Think You Can Dance.)

Setting: Isle of a local hardware store. J has just completed a series of complicated tap steps down the isle, which provided a satisfying echo-y tap sound to his steps.

Me: Hey, J, if you want to do tap, we can sign you up for a tap class, you know.

J: Yeah, I know. No thanks. I'm not interested in tap.

Me: Uh huh. That's what you keep saying. Yet every time I turn around, you're doing a tap dance.

J: Well, my brain says I'm not interested in tap, but sometimes my feet have their own ideas.

talent show

On Monday evening J and I participated in a Talent Show held by the Monday Homeschool Classes group. Many, MANY talented homeschooled students and parents showed off their "stuff" to a room packed with families from the MHC community. We all had a fabulous time, and enjoyed a potluck social afterwards. We're looking forward to this becoming an annual event (hint, hint....).

Here we are during our portion of the show:

race for the cure

Our family joined our friends Al (on the left) and Penney (next to him) to walk in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Hartford today, in honor of our friend Christine. The kids were really excited to be doing something that raises money to give to scientists working to find a cure for Breast Cancer, especially scientists that are working to help one of our friends!

So we strapped on our walking shoes and took to the streets of Hartford! It was nice of the lines of Thunderstorms to give us a break and let the sun shine on us while we walked in the shadow of our State Capitol Building:

Here we are at the start line, with Penney waving to me. It was a very hot, humid day, but Bushnell Park has lots of beautiful mature trees, and we were able to walk in the shade more often than we were forced to tolerate the sun.

Our family, hot and tired yet victorious, in front of the famous Soldier and Sailor's Memorial Arch.

Zoo Boy in particular had a wonderful time today. He said it's one of the funnest things we've done, and is already looking forward to next year's walk. Here he is on the park playground where the kids played for an hour or so after the walk.

One of the really cool things about Bushnell Park is their famous carousel. And one of the really cool things about today was that the folks that run the carousel allowed those of us participating in the walk to ride for free! Here's my 3 guys enjoying their free ride. (I opted out of the go-round-and-round-and-vomit experience. Have I mentioned that I have serious vestibular problems?!)

The carousel is beautifully restored, and maintained and run by the Connecticut Carousel Museum. The horses are just gorgeous, as is the carousel house, which boasts some of the coolest stained glass borders I've ever seen!

Penney and Al got in on the carousel action as well.

You can click here to make a donation to help further the race for a cure for Breast Cancer.

hurricane

Here's the paintings from the last day of our storm mini-block. It was the perfect lite transition out of our West African cultural unit so that we can move into one final short math block before the "end" of our school year. Above is J's painting, below is Zoo Boy's, I'll explain the entire process in detail in a minute. We launched into this painting after recalling yesterday's story that depicted a hurricane's energy. J was VERY enthusiastic about the recall, not letting Zoo Boy or I get a word in. Clearly the story spoke to him very nicely!

So after J's recall, we sat down at our paint boards and I made up a little story on the spot about a sailors who wake up to a red sky in the morning. I quoted the rhyme "Red sky at night, sailor's delight, Red sky in morning, sailors take warning." Repeating his rhyme, he goes about the ship waking up other sailors, each time they repeat the rhyme. Finally they decide to wake up the Captain, who commends them all for waking him, because, after all, "Red sky in morning, sailors take warning." And he commanded them to make ready to set sail for safer harbors. (The entire time I was telling this, we were painting our entire paper -- filling our entire sky -- with red paint. I said things like "the entire sky was red, from east to west and north to south".)

The sailors hurried to set sail. As they raised the sails and battened down the hatches, clouds began gathering overhead. (At that point we loaded our brushes with blue and dabbed the blue onto our red paper.) Soon they were underway, trying to beat the storm to the harbor. The winds picked up, hurrying them on their way. The clouds grew closer and closer together, and the sailors could hear the booming of thunder and the crackle of lightening. (We start swirling our blue-loaded brushes around and between the dabs, connecting them, over-painting them.)

North Wind rushed in and pushed on one side of the storms. (With broad strokes we brought our blue-loaded paint brushes from the upper left corner of the page, and then allowed it to swirl in a circle counter-clockwise around the page.) South Wind rushed in and pushed on the other side. (We repeat the same thing, only bringing our brush stroke up from the lower right hand corner of the page, again swirling it around the page counter-clockwise.) Round and around the storm swirled. (We kept moving the brush around and around, making a circle, leaving an empty spot in the middle.) The sailors made it safe into the harbor and quickly lowered the sails and tied down the ship's rigging. (The more we swirl with the brushes, the more our paint is blended into purple.)

Here's my painting:

The boys loved the progression of this block, and were wondering what sort of storm stories we'd be reading about today. But that was enough -- the Thunderstorms that have been rolling through all week provides plenty of back-up for this grounding. Incidentally, although the science is built subtly into all of the stories I told, we don't discuss the actual science. I just allow it to become part of the kids' natural understanding of the world. The extra focus of this block, stringing 3 separate stories on the same/similar topic together, is just enough contraction for them to be able to move freely in and out of the actual experience of living through thunderstorms.

thunderstorm

We read an Enki 1st Grade Nature Story on Wednesday called "Thunder" and used it as inspiration for some thunderstorm-inspired paintings yesterday. I led the kids in a variety of methods , which I'll describe in detail in a minute. J's painting is above, Zoo Boy's below.

While I led the painting I told a little tale which was similar to the story. First I talked about what a hot, humid, sticky day it was, and how the heat was everywhere, as we filled the lower half of our paper with yellow. Then I talked about the bright, bright blue sky, without a single cloud, nothing to protect the earth from the hot summer sun, as we filled the upper half of the page with a diluted blue.

Then I introduced the boy, who was looking for relief from the hot sun, and discovered that the cornfield provided a little shade and relief from the heat. While I talked about that, we used the blue that was already on our brushes from painting the sky to draw vertical lines through the yellow part, then cross-lines to make them look something like cornstalks. I talked about how the broad leaves on the corn stalks shaded the ground below (as we brushed back and forth along the bottom of the page to create green there as well) and how the boy laid down to rest on the cool earth beneath the corn stalks.

Then I added more concentrated blue paint to their blue paint jars and had them mix it in. We then loaded our brushed with that more intense blue paint, and as I talked about dark clouds building in the sky, we used our brushes in a swirling motion to darken our sky. Then we opened up the red and loaded our brushes with that. Crack! Lightening sizzled through the air (and we zig-zagged our brushed down the page). The sky got angrier and darker (we blended red into our clouds to create purple). And finally the sky opened up and rain began to pour down (we flicked our brushes at the painting, creating dark purple spots).

After we cleaned our brushes, we also flicked water at the page, creating diluted spots. As we did the flicking, I talked about how the boy ran for home and climbed into his mother's lap to watch the storm with her.

The boys are really enjoying the progression of our nature stories this week. We started with the very basic Kindergarten story about rain and the water cycle (which provided us with a great verse that we've used as our poem and handwriting practice work for the week!). Then we moved on to this 1st grade thunderstorm story, so a bit further along both with the maturity level of the story and the intensity of the storm. Yesterday I told them a story about Hurricanes that another Enki-using Mom wrote during a course we took this past year (with the goal of creating some 2nd Grade Nature Stories that may be used in a future Enki publication). The energy of that story definitely spoke to them differently than the energy of the other two stories, as it's closer to the energy we see around here on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to painting from that story today!

storming into summer

Meteorologically, it's Summer here. And we're feeling it. Hot, humid days punctuated by violent thunderstorms, it sure feels like Summer. We've lost that schooling drive, and want to spend most of the day wandering about in sleeveless shirts and shorts. We're slipping out of our West African vibe (much to my chagrin, it's a culture that speaks to me) and into a Summer-like groove. Our tribal dancing has been replaced with leisurely strolls, our introspective stories with light science fare. Above is J's painting inspired by the verses from the "Old Mother Raincloud" story from the Enki Education Kindergarten Nature Story collection. (I don't care that the stories are intended for 5 year olds, my kids and I still love them.) Below is Zoo Boy's painting. We're having a short, 4-day storm block, highlighted by real honest-to-goodness thunder storms.

These paintings were a combination of color mood and gesture painting. Below is mine. One of my better efforts, it doesn't make me cringe to look at. Much. Still, just LOOK at the work the boys do. So much less inhibited than mine. Ah well, the first step is to actually pick up the brush -- there was a time I wasn't even able to do that without shaking with fear.

A little more on our little storm block as the week progresses. And a lot more on our summer plans as the month progresses into the honest-to-goodness start of Summer.