Monster Day at Camp Seymour

Yesterday was Monster Day for the Homeschoolers!  The first half of the day the kids learned about habitat and the four things that all critters need with the help of this cute little ditty (complete with hand motions and a funny voice):

Food, Water, Shelter, Space

Habitat is my kind of place!

We learned what kind of food, water, shelter, and space the forested areas around Camp Seymour had and wondered if Sasquatch would live here.  So we went on a hike to find out!

S reading about food and shelter on the trail

At the end of the hike, Sasquatch jumped out of the bushes!  I missed it because being hugely pregnant and hauling a toddler and a 4 year old slowed me way down...to the end of the line.  Some of the kids screamed, but no one believed it was actually Sasquatch....unless he wears tennis shoes.  IJ whispered to me that he knew all along that it was, "a guy in a monkey suit."  S told me he thought it was real for just a second.  F said, "Monkey!"

Sasquatch!

The second half of the day we explored Monster Squid!  This was the most absolute fun I have ever had at Camp Seymour!  But that is because I'm a science nerd and I've always loved hands-on activities like this.  Each kid got their very own squid to dissect!  Before the dissection, we talked about how scientists do things... they don't scream, "Ew!" or "Gross!"  They stoke their chins and say, "Hmmm...interesting," or "Cool!"

 

 S setting up his work station

I wondered how the camp would manage a dissection with large numbers of kids of varying ages and I was impressed!  The tables were covered in butcher paper.  Each kid drew their work space on the paper with crayons: a large rectangle for the squid, a small rectangle to keep their tools, and a circle for discarded parts.  The crayon wax helped keep the squid juice from soaking through the paper.   No wax trays, no scalpels, nothing extra to get in the way.

 

E meeting her squid for the first time

The kids learned the difference between tentacles and arms, looked at the beak, pulled out the brain, cut open the mantle, determined gender, looked at the gills, and talked about the different functions for the parts.

S pulling out the squid's brain

They learned about the classification of squid as a mollusk and cephlapod and found that the squid has a shell!

 

IJ with the squid's pen (or shell)

After they found the pen, they got to find the ink sack and make a squid ink pen.  They dipped the pen into the ink and were allowed to color on the table or on their hands.  My daughter, Mini-Me, did both.  But she did something that the leaders have never seen before...

She painted her finger nails!  I did wonder if a 4 year old would be able to handle a dissection.  But E is such a great student already!  She loves workbooks (I hear its a girl thing), so I shouldn't have been surprised that she had her squid neatly laid out in her work space and always remembered to put her tools away.

Serious S and Socialization (the school type, not the medicine type)

Another memory from Winter Camp: The Webelos leader thinks he is a funny guy.  He likes to pick a few kids out of the crowd and tease them, probably to show affection.  Unfortunately he picked S.  And my S can be a serious guy, especially when it comes to lighthearted teasing.  All weekend the leader asked S what his name was and if he was sure.  This, of course, came in handy after S's accident, but was purely annoying up until then.  To the point where S was seriously irritated and getting angry.

S with his sledding injuries (black eye developing)

So for last night's pack meeting I helped S prepare.  I told him to answer the Webelos leader's question with the leader's own name.  I taught him how to respond in a James Bond manner (you know, like Bond, James Bond).  When S told me he wasn't going to do it, I offered to pay him a dollar- but only if he did it in front of me and I could hear.

I told some other leaders what S was going to do and they offered to add money to what I already offered to pay S.  Hmmm... sounds like other people are irritated by this guy's teasing too!  But I didn't want S to think he could get paid by everyone every time he did something...smarmy.

So when I went to the front table with kids in tow to organize the Tiger awards, Webelos leader was there.  The first thing out of his mouth was, "Hey! What's your name?"  S responded in a calm and cool manner, "B***, J** B***."  The leader, who was all set to say, "Are you sure?" sat there with his mouth open for a second.  He dumbly repeated his own name.  And then he started to smile.  When he saw me pull a dollar out of my pocket and hand it to S with a big flourish, he knew the joke was on him.  And he laughed.  It was all in good fun.  The leader isn't a bad guy, just a little rough around the edges.  He did, after all, carry bleeding, sobbing S up the sledding trail to me after the tree incident.

One might think that my kids are too serious because they are homeschooled.  I assure you, they are not serious all the time.  But they do have their moments when they look like they are suspicious of whomever is talking to them.  I know they are just thinking of what they are going to say next, but they do look too serious when they do this.  I don't think it is a homeschooling thing.  I think they were just born this way.  They do have two sisters (hi girls!) who went through public school that take things very seriously themselves.  It took years of humor from M-who is very serious himself-plus a year of a funny school teacher to help A stop being so serious when she was younger.  Homeschooling just means I can catch the teasing issues faster and help them deal with it right away than if the teasing went on and on until the kid cracked and started fights or developed anxiety.  Education and socialization shouldn't be mixed.  They are both too important to have one affected by the other.

That's enough homeschool talk for now!

I Love Staying Home

I'm sitting here doing my morning computer routine and I suddenly had to tell someone anyone how much I love staying home!

F now has the nasty cold that E had last week and is coughing up a storm and needing her nose wiped every 30 seconds.  She slept poorly because she couldn't breathe and accidentally scratched her face while trying to wipe her face in her sleep.  She is ultra cuddly because she feels so yucky and doesn't feel like causing destruction on the same level as she was last week.

E and S are playing quietly in the lower living room.  IJ is still asleep.  We don't have to run off to any activities until tonight's Cub Scout pack meeting.  I have the whole day ahead of me, full of potential (catch up on kitchen? catch up on laundry?) and the possibility of partially sunny skies!

Why Boys Need Mothers

I received the titled forward from L this morning, just in time to dedicate this blog post to the dumb things boys do and why they need mothers...

...I did, after all, spend the weekend at Winter Camp with a bunch of Cub Scouts, some of which did not have their mothers present.  I was happy to "adopt" any boy who was missing his mother (and there were a few) and fill that spot in their heart temporarily.  I won't go into boring details about the lodge with the "rustic charm" or the "cozy" loft sleeping arrangements (substitute "run down" and "cramped" for the previous words).  I won't tell you about 20-something boys and their strange sleeping habits, their dads with their snoring, their sisters with their night terrors, or their mother's with their territorial issues.

I will tell you that by the time we left (early) on Saturday, the boys respected me and listened to my requests and the parents appreciated my ability to direct a bunch of crazy boys into lying in their beds quietly (even though they were not sleeping).  I guess being obviously hugely pregnant gave me special powers.  I didn't have to carry a single box (although I did load my own van when we packed), cook a single meal, wash a single dish, or fetch a single beverage.  I was pampered by Scouts and parents alike!

So now we come to the dumb boy part... enjoy our sledding pictures!

IJ is getting hard to photograph

He likes to hide from the camera

But he loves the snow and had a great time playing snow ball fights, sledding, and falling into tree wells.

S doesn't like the cold as much

But he had fun sledding

"Hey, watch this! Look what I can do!"

He did this more than once...

...and had to be pushed back to the van in the sled after he crashed into a tree (for the second time).  We thought he had a concussion and a broken nose, but he just had a scrape and needed some lunch and a nap.  He is just fine now.  But he informed me that he was "never ever ever going back to a mountain ever again as long as he lives."  And he told the Webelos leaders that he "was going to just ignore him if he kept asking him what his name was."

All in all, we had a great time (I left M and the girls at home).  I'm glad we had the chance to go try out Winter Camp with a group of people we didn't know very well.  And I'm super glad we left a day early so I could get a good night's sleep in my own bed with just my own children waking me up all night long!  And I'm thinking that next year we will try again...and bring the whole crew!

Funny Quotes

S: My extincts are telling me that we are going 25 miles an hour.  I always believe my extincts. [We were going 50 mph by the way]
I: My extincts tell me that I need to take a bath!  [He laughs crazily]
Me: I think you mean instincts...

The other night F snuggled up to me and said, "Eye luf yoo!"  My heart melted.  I remember every single first "I love you" from each of my kids.  The next morning F snuggled up to Daddy and said, "Eye luf... pants."  Disappointment!  But we all know that she loves him the best of all.

E has a cold, so she missed Homeschool Rollerskating yesterday and stayed home with Dad and Grandad.  She watched Up, one of her favorite movies.  After it was over, she turned to Grandad and asked, "Grandad, how many more days will you be alive?"  She obviously made the link between Mr. Frederickson and Grandad.

I'm off for most of the weekend with the boys for the dreaded Cub Scout Winter Camp that we fund raised for in the freezing cold, selling pathetic little Christmas trees... I'm not excited, in fact I'm dreading it.  But I will DO MY BEST to behave and have a positive attitude about the whole thing.  After all, I might have fun!

Up A Tree

Today has been lovely, sunny, and warm.  Warm enough to go outside with no shoes and no pants (if you are a under the age of two) and spend some time riding bikes, playing with pine cones, and soaking up some Vitamin D. 

 A beautiful day for climbing trees too!

What is M doing climbing that ladder?  Let's take a closer look...

Poor Ling-Ling.  Chased up the tree by the Stupid Pathetic Doberman.  And M couldn't reach the poor kitty with such a short ladder.

So M pulled out the big guns and used Scratchy's Ladder.  Why is this Scratchy's Ladder?  And who is Scratchy?  Why, he's my old cat that I got back before I married M.  He moved down to Twin Firs and immediately got stuck in the highest tree on our property.  M had to buy this ladder just to get him down (plus create a scary climbing harness out of a rope).  I can't believe M risked his life to get my stupid cat out of a tree.

It's nice when you get more use out of something like a 30ft ladder:

Look at that cat-rescuing action!  And how does Ling-Ling feel about this?  Let's take a closer look:

My Hero!

Camp Rainy Day Weekend

On Friday, tired of the rain, but thankful the rain fills my well, I set up Camp Rainy Day for the kids. We've had this for a few years now, but I usually keep it hidden away and surprise them with indoor camping when I'm desperate.  With a roaring (camp) fire in the background, two tents, and a fun crawl-through tube, Camp Rainy Day was complete.  Or was it?

S and E (IJ is crawling through the tube)

E, the Little Rabbit

What were we missing?  Indoor S'mores!  But not your typical melt-in-the-microwave S'mores!  I made peppermint marshmallow all by myself!  And then bought some chocolate wafer cookies to eat it on (because it was gross by itself)!

F says MMMMmmmmm!

The best part about rainy weekends is getting enough work done to justify spending a few hours developing my sewing skills.  Yes, I'm feeling the only-three-months-until-the-baby-is-born anxiety.  Today I sewed five pairs of wool pants out of old sweaters that were given to me.  They are lambswool and very very soft.  And funky!  E has a great sense of style:

E wearing funky pants!

SpongeBob Neandertal-Felted-Wool Pants

I forgot to tell M not to put my wool pants for cloth diapering in the dirty diaper pail.  Wahhhh!  I found my second favorite pair of wool shorts SHRUNK and FELTED in the washing machine today!  See how small they are (F's right hand)? 

They fit SpongeBob (M's cartoon counterpart) now!  M said, "Well, what's-his-name can wear them now."  Yes, he is referring to our next son.  Only these shorts are pink and purple with only a tiny bit of blue.  And of course it was my fault because I didn't dig through the dirty diapers before I washed them. Um, EW! I never do that, nor would I ever! "There could have been a fork in there," he said.  I would ask HOW? but he does have a point...strange things end up in strange places when there are toddlers in the house.

Good thing I finished those nice thick warm pants that she is wearing this morning.  And I can start another pair anytime... I'm just warning you M, there might not be any dinner tonight!  I'll be busy knitting!

A Long Day

Yesterday we had a long day.  We, meaning the four kids and I, left at 9:00 am for an appointment with the midwife.  We had my tire looked at and refilled (oops, I should have done that a long time ago).  We went to the YMCA for a gymnastics class, to Costco for lunch with Grandma and shopping, back to the YMCA for Homeschool PE and swim lessons, and finally home by 5:30.  I quickly made dinner (leftovers from the two previous nights mixed together and served with chips), put the kids in their pajamas, and left again at 6:10 to take IJ, S, and E to Pioneer Club for a pajama party.  What fun!

And how horrible for me because once again F had a late nap and stayed up late.  And once again I had to stay up with her while she watched Winnie the Pooh.  These busy afternoons are ruining my life!  But I was up on time, ready for school...yet had no students.  When S sleeps late, I let him.  Especially when my mom says things like, "Your kids look really tired."  Maybe they need more of this:

When pregnant ladies get cravings

I did not actually drink this whole thing, although I was tempted.  I had to share this wonderful concoction of spinach, strawberry, orange, banana, cucumber, nutritional yeast, and chia seeds.

Happy Birthday to Me! Part 2

What a great birthday!  My birthday celebration lasted almost as long as my 18th birthday, which took me a week to celebrate.

After gorging on free cake, I took off for the weekend SANS KIDS to visit one of my best friends (and faithful blog readers- Hello C!) from my hometown.  She pampered me with tasty treats and a wonderful dinner and a surprise visit from two other mom friends!  I had so much fun catching up with the women with whom I spent IJ and S's  toddler/preschool years!  And just for fun, here is a picture of us (with baby E and C's baby D, and AM's little girl N) from a long time ago...but really, just from 2006:

What fun we had during those early morning coffee hours!  Some of the best days of my life!  But back to my birthday party: We played C's Wii Fit and watched a chick flick and ate ice cream sandwiches!  What could be more fun?  After playing downhill skiing as pregnant as I am, I decided I really want a Wii...

The next morning C and I went to the movies and watched another chick flick.  After we said goodbye, I stopped at Value Village and scored a ton of winter items and a few books for my kids. Cha-ching!  I love getting a good deal!

After a long lonely drive home, I was greeted by a smiling S, a smiling E, and an F who just wanted UP!  M had taken good care of the kids for the 36 hours he had them.  He really needs these weekends so he can remember how difficult my job is.  I helped him by cleaning up the kitchen that night, just like he does for me.

Yesterday was my real birthday, but it was also a work day.  I stuck to my schedule, even though my kids slept late.  I knew they had an exciting weekend, so I had a hard time waking them up...so I didn't.  S slept until 8:00!  I could barely get IJ awake at 9:00!  But I cracked that whip and got those kids in gear and had their school work done by the time we had to go to the YMCA.  I received Happy Birthday phone calls from L and my mom while on the road.  M called me too.  He wanted to tell me he was on his way home from work.  After the long phone conversation was over, I reminded him that today was my birthday.  He said, "I knew that. Happy Birthday."   Uhh... Well I shouldn't complain, he took the kids all weekend and had to put up with F running down the hallway in the middle of the night.

When I finally got home (these YMCA days are so long), M surprised me with a nice dinner.  Not what I had left in the crockpot before I left, but real food!  And he set up a private dinner-for-two in the playroom, complete with drippy candles, non-alcoholic beer in M's grandparent's crystal champagne glasses, and music.  He claims he knew all along that today was my birthday, but he wanted me to think he forgot... I'm not sure I believe him, but whatever.  The kids were banned to the downstairs to watch movies (on a school night) to which they happily agreed.  We had a lovely dinner, sitting in the playroom surrounded by toys.  IJ interrupted once, to ask if he could eat a banana, and got to peek in at the scene.  He told me later it was "like a France dinner, only without the record player."  We think he was taking notes on how to woo his lady when he's a man.

Blurry picture (it's dark) but isn't it nice?

The only fly in the ointment?  F.  She didn't nap too well because of our YMCA schedule.  She slept about 15 minutes.  So by the time we were ready for dinner, she was falling asleep on her daddy's shoulder.  And she slept through dinner, giving us a true private dinner.  This was good when we thought she was down for the night.  But she was up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, at 9:00.  Guess who spent her birthday night snoozing on the couch waiting for F to get sleepy?  Me-so exhausted by this point I could barely keep my eyes open.  M has a survey today-in flood waters! Otherwise he would have done it.

So here I am, 9:30 in the morning.  I overslept because of my late night.  Dishes from cooking two dinners are in the sink and all over the counter.  The kids' dinner dishes are still on my school/dining room table, which also needs to be wiped off.  The kids are off deeply engrossed in play (the kind I have a hard time interrupting because it is so productive).  I'm way way behind and I haven't even started.  And I have a Cub Scout meeting tonight that I haven't planned yet.  Today will be...interesting.  And will the catch-up work today be worth my evening off last night?  Oh yes. Totally!  What a great birthday!  And a special thanks to C and M for working especially hard to remind me how loved I am!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I know it really isn't my birthday, but it's close enough!  Today I happened to be at the local church just after the Food Bank passed out all the foods and bakery goods that had a pull date of today.  And there just happened to be a sheet cake that no one wanted.  So I took it! (Along with 15 or so loaves of bread that are turning hard...they might be useful for something-wink, wink.)

I brought it home and personalized it with leftover Christmas cookie frosting.  I'm obviously not a pro.  Happy Birthday to ME!

Now I Have Plenty of Time...

...to play on the computer because THIS child took a very long nap tonight.  She is now happily watching an old Winnie the Pooh movie while her siblings and father are snug in their beds.  So much for my new plan.

But I do have to say, my school day went just as well as it did yesterday, even with F getting up early and interfering with math.  Even my housework day went as planned... one idea that crash landed in my brain yesterday was there are seven people eating three meals a day (at least) in this house!  And I cook all those meals (except of course when my dearest most precious husband cooks) instead of opening boxes or cans.  And one independent person cooks his own meals on top of what I cook, but doesn't wash his own dishes.  No wonder I can't keep up with the dishes!  I'm still trying to do the whole day's worth after dinner like I've done my whole life.  I've calculated that I need to run the dishwasher twice a day.  And two days later we have conquered the dish problem.  DUH!

My Big Secret...

...my solution to all life's problems is get up and out of bed before the kids!  This may seem a no-brainer, but S gets up really early.  That is just his natural rhythm and something he has in common with his dad.  He is an Early Bird in search of worms.  But I'm the Second Mouse that gets the cheese, much like IJ.  We like to sleep a little later.  Normally I would get up at 7:00 or 7:30.  But to beat the day I have to set the alarm and get up at 6:30.  And this half hour makes a huge difference!  I don't always beat S up, but at least I have a head start on everyone else.  I start the porridge/oatmeal while I make my coffee, turn off the stove, and let breakfast sit and cook on its own heat until people are ready to eat.

Part of starting my day early is starting the boys' days early.  While I'm still waking up and drinking my coffee, I have S read out loud to me.  Then I give him his breakfast and wake IJ up and have him read out loud to me (while still waking up myself and drinking my coffee).  But I have to be careful; if E or F wake up, my day gets a little crazy (which happened today when F woke up).  The hard part of homeschooling is keeping the preschooler and toddler quiet and out of trouble!  So the boys and I work as quickly as we can on language arts and math before the girls get up.  We were done with LA (reading, writing, penmanship, and grammar), geography, critical thinking (IJ only), and math by 8:45 when E came skipping down the hallway.

The boys like this plan so far.  We are still in our experimental phase.  And there are lots of other parts to my plan as well.  But getting everything done early means they get to play earlier and for longer periods of time without interruptions (from me).

Since the computer is often a factor in my inability to get anything done (can you say side tracked?), I'm signing off for now.  IJ wants to play Mancala with me!

First Day of School 2010

This has been the best day of the year so far.  The first day of school!  Vacation is over!  Hooray!  Funny how I sound like I sent my kids off to public school on a school bus.

By the end of December, I was seriously considering it.  By the time I declared Christmas Vacation, my life was falling apart.  F was destroying the house and getting into everything.  And I'm not talking emptying the pots and pans; I'm talking about the possibility that she ate dirty kitty litter!  My house was a mess.  I was behind in everything.  We all forgot how to speak nicely to one another and spent days yelling.  IJ and S constantly fought.  E was a brat.  M and I were either arguing with each other or with Grandad.

I asked myself, "How can I possibly do it all?  How can I possibly do some?  How can I keep up with the needs of every single different personality in my home?  How can I make whole wheat, no fat, low calorie sweet treats (does such a thing exist?) for my father-in-law? How can I help my husband get out the door every morning with a healthy lunch packed?  How can I help IJ meet other kids his age and stop mourning his old home?  How can I meet other moms and stop mourning my old home?  How can I teach the two boys without constantly stopping to take care of the preschooler and toddler?  How can I give E the same opportunities her older brothers got at age four?  How can I keep F from poisoning herself or falling off something high?  Why can't I keep up with the dishes, the laundry, the dusting, the picking up, etc, etc, etc???  And what the heck am I going to do in April when we have another baby?????"

It was enough for me to seriously consider giving up on homeschool.  Even though I know homeschool is superior to public school in every sense.

I spent the time between Christmas and New Year purging and cleaning the things in my home.  M spent his entire vacation fixing things up and helping streamline the house.  And then I spent the time between New Year and last night cleaning and purging my daily routines, my tactics for handling school, and my attitude.

 IJ holding his geoboard creation: Mew from Pokemon

And today I had a good day, with all academia done before lunch.  Just the way I like it.  What did I do differently?  What caused this wonderful shift?  I'll never tell.  At least not until I try again tomorrow, just to make sure this isn't a fluke.  After all, I am a scientist by training.  I can't possibly assume causation based upon a single datum.  There are so many factors at work here.  I need replication.  I might have to run a multivariate test or two to check the significance of my results...

"More Fun Than Springbok Watusi!"

Springbok Wastusi is the name of the African stew that Grandad insisted we make a few years ago.  He tells us it is traditionally made in a hollowed out pumpkin that is buried with hot coals and left to cook slowly for a day or so.  When he brought the ingredients to our old house for M to make, he added other...ingredients not native to Africa.  Like cactus.  The stew was so funny that we secretly video taped the whole dinner.  Someday when we have super duper technology I will post that video!

Grandad oversees the cooking to make sure M doesn't make a mistake, and that he uses only the highest quality of slimy sea flora and fauna.

So last night we had our Korean Feast.  M said he hasn't had so much fun making dinner since the night of the Springbok Watusi.  Here are some super funny pictures of the kids, going from denial to cleaning their plates!  The menu included a stir fry of carrots, celery, seaweed, octopus, periwinkle snails, green mussels, and little tiny fish.  This was served over a bed of sweet black rice.

Octopus on my fork, with a tiny fish underneath

S was the first to accept his dinner, as is.  He delights in being the "good kid" when his siblings are acting up.

S with a green mussel.

E, in denial

E's favorite part of her dinner was the tiny fish.  She...fished through her stir fry eating the tiny fish and asking for her brothers' fish in exchange for bits of snail and octopus.  And then she chose going to bed over finishing her dinner, which she ate 20 minutes later when she got bored.

F and her tiny fish

F ate some seaweed and tiny fish, but she preferred the appetizer plate over her dinner: pickled okra and palm hearts.  Yeah, I know those aren't Korean, but you never know what Grandad is going to put on the table at dinner time.

IJ and a green mussel

IJ's favorite part was the octopus.  He picked through his stir fry, much like E, finding the octopus pieces and pulling the tentacles off one by one.  Kids are so weird sometimes.

This morning the Early Bird Club (Grandad, M, and S) ate fish cakes with ginger paste and hard-boiled quail's eggs.  I'll stick to coffee and oatmeal... although I did eat some quail egg.  Tastes like chicken egg!  The great thing about this Korean feast was the price.  This seafood at a grocery store would have cost three or fours times as much as it cost us.  And a plate of seafood at a fancy restaurant...ugh.  But if one is brave enough to take Grandad to the Korean market, the price plummets.  The dinner cost about... $20.  Not bad for a fancy dinner for seven people!

A New Year, A New Beginning

That is what I will tell myself.  Everyday.  New Year is a good time for us not to make lame resolutions, but to renew our efforts around here.  In years past, we've set up our schoolroom, reorganized the playroom, rearranged the living room...but that was at old our home.

The Upper Living Room with F inspecting a camp roll.

Here at Twin Firs, we are (once again) trying to figure out how to make our living space our living space.  We've emptied a few closets, made a Goodwill pile, hung some pictures, and threw a bunch of old stuff away.  An old copy of How to Make Friends and Influence People.  Some jackets M wore as a teenager.  Some old posters that belonged to M's sister when she was a little girl.  We are sweeping out the ghosts of the past to make room for our future!

And our Korean Feast was postponed until tomorrow night.  Too many leftovers!