Beyond Climbing

 This is what we do in climbing areas when we aren't climbing.

Lincoln Lake gave us time to be silly, hike the dam, and use saplings as slingshots.

Getting in and out of Cowell was an adventure! Love Dove has more power than one would expect. She is a syncro at heart :)   Syncro is a 4 wheel drive Vanagon. 

 Exploring scenic vistas and natural areas is my favorite thing to do on climbing rest days. However, laundry, car maintenance, grocery shopping, paying bills, and some work needs to happen on those days too.  Life on the road still involves many of the everyday things we do in a house. That's another post.

  Here are some great scenic shots from a day of hiking to waterfalls. The hike to Pam's grotto was along the base of a cliff line.  The cliff line James and Phil were climbing.  It was a strenuous hike up; finding dead animal bones made the trip less arduous for T.  The cool mist and and pounding waterfall added to our delight. The icing on the cake was the trail back to camp; we followed the creek. Along and in the creek were HUGE moss and lichen covered boulders, hollowed out logs, and hundreds of mini waterfalls created by rocks.  E decided to play mother nature and move some of the rocks, thus changing a few mini waterfalls, create a whirpool, and build a dam.

Haw Creek Falls

And just for good measure we throw a few craft projects into our beyond climbing moments. Grammie sent us all new crocheted hats for Christmas.  James' was a little big so I unraveled a few rows which gave me enough yarn to create the old man beard for Terje!

I cannot even fathom how much beauty our country holds. We have barely scraped the surface of natural lands and each day I am in awe of the quiet places tucked away in our busy lives.

Time for a review

Ezra has been playing massive amounts of Over the hedge computer game. He is very dedicated and rarely asks for my help. I am glad to see such a commitment and dedication to something. He has also been more and more willing to sound out/read words. It is coming along. I have noticed multiplication creeping into his thoughts. I did introduce it last year so it maybe time to go over it again.

Terje is been coloring A LOT! He used to hate and refuse to color. He found some superhero coloring books and now he is a fiend. He is still enjoying coloring Manga characters. I hope this develops into a desire to learn to draw. He has been practicing letters on his own and with me. I try not to interrupt his letter learning because then he stops. He is also completing rhyming and non rhyming sentences in books we are reading. He signed his name on his Kings Island pass with no trouble! Last year it was a struggle to get 3 letters out of him.

They unloaded the washer/dryer yesterday. I know they can do more chores than i have them do and I believe we will get back to kids helping out more.

Dad took them to the Raptors (birds of prey) show at the library. they were high strung and only slightly interested in the birds. mostly they wanted to be the center of attention.

Also while watching Justice league this week they have been getting more into the plots and characters. They are learning their names, powers, and weaknesses.

Our Caterpillar Discovery!

Today Terje and I found a caterpillar on the parsley. (James and Ezra are in KY climbing)
So we got out the bug book and discovered it was a swallowtail!

We also discovered when you touch it a Y shaped soft horn shoots out of the head. It also secretes a foul smell!

Varified by

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/butterflies/swallowtail/swallowtail.htm#black

Frogs, well Toads

We have been reading a lot of factual frog books, as well as folk tales and fiction. It has been a fun experience to growing our toads.

We collected some tadpoles from a local pond. We set up their home in a 10gallon tank. It had rocks, sand, a live plant, and creek water. We watched them grow and develop. Then they started dying. We read more. Turns out they were toads. Well also tadpoles eat plants, Frogs and toads are canivoruos. So the fat in their tail stump sustains them from the time they get out of the water until the time they start eating meat:)

Once we learned that we let them go as soon as they would hop on the rocks. We are hopeful for their survival. They eat a lot of insects. MAybe they will eat some aphids from the garden. THe boys put several in the shady spots of the garden.

We need to build a toad house for the garden.

observing without disturbing

LEarning to Listen, watch, and observe without touching, making noise, and generally disturbing the animals around us.

I made the boys sit on a bench on the edge of Lotus Pond (CNC) for 5 minutes. We were quiet. We watched. We listened. We saw and heard things that we hadn't in the past. In the past they are touching the water, being loud, and scaring the animals away.

We are going to continue this practice. Maybe it will lead to a quiet meditation at home. That would be really useful.


It was also Art on the Trails day at the CNC. SO we packed up our water colors and headed off. We also used colored pencils that they supplied. Terje and I drew a daylily. Ezra drew a frog, tadpole, and eggs, and a pond. Then off to more flowers and the pond. Ezra used muck to paint muck around his pond picture.

We also used the watercolor paints to paint pond scenes.

We saw the toads that are brothers to ours. So we do really think they are toads and not frogs. The boys found a few large bullfrogs, leopard frogs, dragonflies, adn a huge tadpole. We learned bullfrog tadpoles can take a couple of years to mature. They (like frogs) bury themselves in the mud over winter and then continue growing in the spring.

Thursday May 10, 2007

Our garden is growing so well. we have eaten spinach and 1 strawberry.
The pole beans and teepee are set to go. So are the sunflowers and the raspberries!
lots of herbs too. Now it is time for momma to weed and mulch.

The tadpoles are getting active. they are swimming all over the tank. we can see little leg sprouts forming!

Ezra read Brown Bear, Brown Bear today! Little to no problems!

Terje is starting to really recognize beginning sounds. He continues to rhyme words. I can hear Ezra trying to join in on the rhyming. Progress!!!

Terje finally stopped and listened to directions today! Can this please continue. a lot of our differences are over his in ability to listen to the WHOLE directions 1st.

Ezra and I set up a rope in the tree. Then we used the ascenders to climb a little way up. E flew up no problem. Terje had problems until he listened to the full directions.

They found all sorts of snails, slugs, and bugs in the neighbor's wood pile.

Ezra and I started to build, actually formulate a plan for a container water feature. We will get Dad's help with the logistics:) I think we may already own many of the parts. That's always good!

Thursday April 5, 2007

Aquarium with a plan.
We took notebooks and crayons so the boys drew fish/animals. Then we wrote their names down. I'd like to take this a step further and locate there homes on a world map..problem is i need a world map:) Terje also drew a picture of Jared. He is starting to add detail to his artwork.
Also Sharks and Starfish


The notebooks actually caused them to slow down and look at the animals. it gave me some time to read about a few of them.

Ezra is reviewing the 100 chart.

We read What is God? Terje wasn't interested but I can tell Ezra feels the feeling of God. It is kinda a segway into Easter.

Terje glued some work/pictures into his portfolio. Now I need Ezra to catch up on his portfolio.

We discussed the guinea pigs and how they depend on E and T to tke care of them. Which then led to the ? of who will care for them when we are gone? glad to see they get the point.
Getting them to pick up their legos was a struggle that tried my patience. They did it..then i taught T how to wrap up the vacumm cord. Meanwhile Ezra unloaded the dryer and washer! I was thankful for the help at that point. Slowly but surely I will get the boys to help around the house.

Monday 26, 2007

Nature Center- Wildflower trail with Katie and her kids. A little over a mile. Kids whiny at first...1st real hike of the season.

Beautiful flowers. Lots of lesser celandine, white trout lily, and salt and pepper.

Some mud, not bad.

Fynn and Clover came home with us. Inside/Outside...games, walks around the yard and creek.

Looked and saw lots of Forsythia on the way to drop off F & C.

Terje is now pointing them out to me:) and saying their name. Call it a flower and they call it a flower. Call it a forsythia and they will too!

Snake

*SNAKE! They found a snake in the backyard. killed it (chris) and put it in a plastic bag (we thought it was dead and this would be a cleaner way for the little ones to check it out.) It was alive still. so i say it once on the side of the tree....that'll kill it. Inside it popped out of the bag
and everyone went running! It died though. Then tossed it into the creek to float away.

*ezra has the snake on the end of a stick...OPPORTUNITY called...impromptu science class. I disected the snake for the kids. Karissa, Ezra, Terje, and Sammie watched as i cut into it pointed out different parts. Then Sammie used a stick and pulled at the intenstines... THEY FLEW UP AND HIT HER IN THE LIP! She was cool about it. We wiped it off and continuied. Ezra wants to keep the skin so we (okay me) skinned it and he is going to try to tan it. I found some directions online and i think i have the ingredients. Nobody wanted to cook and eat it. Good thing it's only a garter snake and i don't know how to cook snakemeat. well i didn't know how to skin one until today. slice it lengthwise , cut off the head, and the skin peels off like a pair of nylons

I wrote that about 2 wks ago. We soaked it in 1/2 rubbing alcohol and 1/2 gylcerin for 4 days. Rinsed it and viola! we have snake skin on our back porch adn we don't care now! But it was a very cool experience that I don't feel the need to do again.

flew by

this week has flown by! it was beautiful weather that was warm. it called us outside. the nature center, building stories in Abner's Cabin, staying the night at Jacob's house, playing, investigating, and exploring the creek, the woods, and our yard. digging in the dirt, seeing flowers spring up, digging up bulbs just to see what they look like, snakes, dirt bikes, building a raft.

Last night we had our water tested. Terje lay in the bedroom "reading" cat woman. Ezra joined the adults for the experiments. a few drops of this and that in our water and her purified water...what water would you want to bath in? drink? our water is horrid but it's not great. Ezra finished the evening by creating his own samples and experiments using healthy liver tonic, soap, and water. he actively participated in the conversation. the sales woman was amazed by his ability to communicate with her. I use the word communicate because that is one of Ezra's favorite words right now!

Today we got 2 guinea pigs. after considering and reading about hamsters, turtles, chinchillas, ferrets, lizards, and hedgehogs we went with the guineas. although i plan on getting a hedgehog. Their names are Linny and Ming Ming! The wonder pets!

We finished reading Stuart little. Terje was only half interested. Ezra listened intently until the last chapter. i think, I'll ask tomorrow, he was slightly disappointed by the ending. It had no closure. Now we must make something fun to show that we read and understood Stuart little. a discussion for tomorrow.

Make time for 1 on 1 conversations with each boy.

Also the boys were making music on multiple instuments this afternoon. Ezra wrote down the music, in his own way. He also had Austin draw pictures of the instruments he used.

A few days back the boys were doing yoga and Ezra drew poses and had me write down the names. I have got to can those. they were cool.