State Fair Fun

"Beau" the calf of Borden milk

1200 lb pig

Texas Longhorn

Dinoguy and Trainboy are both dancing as they walk here - difficult to capture I guess.

This Lego Church scene won the "cool" award from Dinoguy.

The foot massage - a favorite toy to them, worked wonders for my feet!

Hide and seek was an interesting game in the cars. 2 kids, 2 adults makes it possible to keep an eye on them for now.

Homeschoolers can request free tickets to the state fair here. It's really nice, since they give free tickets to public school students and a day off from school to go there! We went on Thursday and had a great time! The weather had cooled off to a nice comfortable 70 approximately, so we dressed a bit warmer for the chill. (We're acclimating to the hot weather it seems!)

The boys were super excited to ride the "train that goes underground" and the bus to get to the fair, we entertained a lot of people I am sure on the ride down there. (We sprinted up the stairs to catch the train, barely making it - we were huffing and puffing for 5 minutes!)

First thing we did was hike to the "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit where the kids don aprons and "work" on a farm. This is something we missed last year by not getting in line early enough. It was a big hit and the boys asked later to go back and do it again. I was ready to go by then so it didn't happen.

Next we visited the feeding/petting barn and had a good time feeding some of the animals. Trainboy LOVED this, Dinoguy was more interested in seeing them than feeding or touching them. One of his favorite things to see was the dancing "Operation" guys - though he didn't want a picture with them - he loved watching them be silly and dance around.

We took a food break and tried the chicken fried bacon, BBQ baloney and had our corny dogs next before heading to the food and fiber building for more indoctrination education about crops and farming in Texas and our free mini Blue Bell ice cream cone. (Shhh....I am not a Blue Bell ice cream fan, which is practically a crime here in TX).

We then headed off to the livestock barns to find the milking demonstration. We saw sheep being sheared, Dinoguy almost got licked by a cow (several times - he figured out how to cause it and thought it was hilarious), learned that Brahman cows' hump is for cooling, saw the King bull, a Texas long horn, a 1200 pound pig, a cow pooping, and finally the milking demonstration. The saddest part was when it was over and they rinsed the equipment off right into the fresh milk. I had been sitting there thinking about that lovely fresh raw milk and then to see it wasted...I was very sad. Mmm...raw milk...

We were getting a bit tired now (or I was!) and Dinoguy was asking if it was time to go to the car show yet (there is a BIG auto show at the fair and the boys love to play in cars!) so we started to head that way, first trying the fried chocolate truffles (okay) and having some fried cheesecake (still awesome!) and heading thru the craft display to see King Tut made of butter. We saw many interesting things in the craft room and the butter sculpture before deciding for another break for funnel cake & fried grilled cheese. I gazed at the signs for fried moon pies and fried s'mores but knew I was full up and ready to head home so we headed for the car show before heading home.

Fixitman likes cars, if he could have an expensive collection hobby, it would probably contain many cars. The boys have developed an appreciation for them as well, though playing in them is the highlight of the car show. I pick cars with comfy seats mostly. Highlights of the car show this year included the Ford robot who answers questions like "What do you eat?" (deep voice) "Little children - would you like to come to dinner?" and the Jeep climbing wall. (Dinoguy went to the top twice! Trainboy wasn't interested.)

When we'd made our way through a good portion of the car show we left and visited Big Tex (camera batteries were dead of course) and the trains and to give Dinoguy his promised taste of cotton candy again. (He hated it last year and hated it this year - Trainboy on the other hand loved it.) Then we went and ran for the bus as it pulled in and headed home. Busy day full of fun, fried food and learning. Tired family afterwards!

Tuesday Oct 14

Woke up late, had green smoothies and eggs for breakfast.

To the midwife for a checkup. Boys are super helpful and aid in taking my blood pressure and hearing the babies heartbeat. Love child friendly places.

Went letterboxing in a nearby park to the midwife house. Found two stamps, good times.

Visited the party supply store for upcoming birthday celebration.

Baked miniature train and dinosaur cakes for frosting fun.

Put dinner in the oven, only messed it up a little bit.

Frosted cakes with boys and friend, had some fun.

Dinoguy played Age of Empires more - its his new thing he's trying to conquer.

Went to Family History Center, no one came in for help today.

Grandpa Actuary called and had some free time after business today, came to visit with BBQ and ice cream!

Played Scrabble Jr with Grandpa and kids.

Ate tasty ice cream, watched some Peep & The Big Wide World with Trainboy.

Took Sarge out for a walk and came back to help kids into bed.

Busy day, good times.

Space Center Houston!

We are lucky to have a friend in Houston to stay with and visit. Other friends of ours could not go to this because there are still NO hotel rooms or campsites available in the area...the hurricane was only a month ago after all! Even more awesome was that my friend was going with us, pulling her older kids out of school for the awesome day. (It is hysterical to me that their school theme this year is space for the 50th anniversary of the Space Center but they aren't going to the Space Center at all this year?)

The space center was awesome. First we had an adventure getting there of course. The truck started overheating when I was about 30 minutes from our friend's house, and was completely out of antifreeze when I checked. So a ride with the heaters on in 90 degree weather and hoping nothing bad happened. Then I got to learn to add anti-freeze before every trip, since it seemed to be draining out (or really empty). I am very good at opening the hood of the truck now! Next adventure came in downtown Houston. The HOV lane in Houston ends in downtown. (Thank goodness for HOV lanes! We passed so many traffic jams! Houston traffic is awful!) You have to exit to go west on I-10 or go into downtown - and thanks to the lack of signage downtown, we got a little bit lost. Eventually we found our way back onto I-45 and made it to the Space Center.

The first thing the kids saw upon entering the Space Center museum was the GIANT play place. It was three stories of space themed fun! The kids made a mad dash for that play area and were gone within seconds. I saw them briefly if they came down the slides! There were monitors set up outside so parents could see inside on various levels. It looked like a blast and so we sat on the bleachers and waited until the kids were ready to explore the rest of the center. With tons of kiosks full of information and miniature computer games/activities, it wasn't long before the boys emerged, ready to check everything else out.

We learned and tried out many cool things. It was very much a wander around at your own pace, exploring the museum, attending presentations or trying crafts done especially for the day. One of the coolest was the landing a shuttle simulator. It was hard for me! I never succeeded. Dinoguy tried for a while, I know he came close, I don't know if he finished - I went to learn more about life inside a shuttle at a presentation around the corner with Trainboy while he kept trying. Then we went and shot paper rockets with an air compressor. These were the best toy ever! It was basically a paper cylinder with the ends cut into fins and the top taped into a nose, then shot up with a tube on a compressor. Very cool. We checked out some more of the giant planets exhibits and then headed to the make your own robotic arm area.

This consisted of using supplies to make an arm for picking things up. There were examples and a multitude of supplies and we went to it. Then there was an area of "moon rocks" and other objects for the kids to try picking up with their creations. We had a lot of fun there and then took a lunch break. After lunch we got into line for the tram tour. Usually the tram just takes you over to see Saturn 5, an actual rocket that NASA sent into space. For Homeschool day, the tram took you on a longer tour that included driving around campus, seeing a model rocket launch and visiting the training facility where they have full size models of a shuttle and parts of the Space Station that the astronauts use to practice with before going into Space.

After the tram tour, we went into a presentation on the current astronauts in space, and the ones who are headed up on the next mission. It opened with footage from a rocket launch on a big screen and then we moved into a room with a model of mission control and several TV screens. We saw live footage from mission control, images from the space station, and other cool stuff. After that the kids were ready to play again in the play place. This time Trainboy found a cool ball shooter way up on the third level and wasn't coming down. I suspect it was from tiredness. When he finally came down we headed out into the horrible traffic and decided to go find 2 nearby letterboxes first, hoping traffic would improve. They were cool letterboxes in the Challenger memorial park, we had a great time finding them. The boys both fell asleep on the ride back to our friend's house and went to bed earlier than usual for a vacation, probably because they were so tired!

I got to learn some more cake decorating skills for Dinoguy's upcoming birthday party that evening since my friend is an awesome cake decorator. Dinoguy wants to learn too so we'll be eating a lot of practice cake before then! What an awesome trip!

Last Child in the Woods

I finally finished the book. It is filled with interesting things, but was not an easy read for me. I think that part of that is the writing reminds me of a newspaper column, only it is way too long. The author, Richard Louv, was a columnist for 23 years.

The book is written mostly in a sappy remember the good old days style. It intersperses personal stories with statistics and research reports, swaying between being almost a scholarly book and a cute collection of personal experiences urging you to join the movement. Personal experiences have their place and are interesting to read. But they do not necessarily work logically as a way to build cases. So there are many flaws to the book. But it is an interesting read.

The author's world view seems to come from that of a middle to upper income father of schooled children and he writes mainly to other parents in a similar situation. As an unschooler, much of the experiences he writes about do not apply to me or my family since we have already left that system and already strongly believe in children having free time to explore their world.

The concept of the natural frontiers as they have progressed thru America's history were fascinating to me. The idea of opening and building the fourth frontier was a lovely story, though I don't see it as realistic. It simply doesn't account for those of varying income levels and lifestyles.

The first frontier was the actual frontier our pioneer ancestors went out and tamed. Think of mountain men, explorers like Lewis & Clark, and Davy Crockett. It was theorized to have closed in America in 1890 by Frederick Jackson Turner, with the first census where there wasn't a continuous line of frontier on the map of the USA. The second frontier was the "Disney" view of the first frontier, think the Davy Crockett movie. with family farms being something almost everyone had a connection to - either from living on one or having a relative on one. This frontier ended in 1990, with the fact that the farm survey was now irrevelent in the US Census now that less than 1.9% of households were on farms - down from 40% in 1900. The third frontier is where we now live today.

Louv characterizes the third frontier by five trends. The severing of the public and private mind from the origins of our food, the disappearing line between machines, humans and other animals, our relationship with animals becoming increasingly only intellectual, the invasion of cities by wild animals, and the rise of a new kind of suburbia. I think this book is worth reading just to read about this thesis on the third frontier. Another large part of this third frontier is the criminalization of natural play. Where tree house building is illegal and exploring nature is to be done only with our eyes, not with our hands.

At the end of the book, Louv comes back and presents his idea for the establishment of the fourth frontier where we live in small green village suburbs. Where kids can freely explore nature and interact with it. He uses a story as the framework and draws the ideas from things that are actually happening in America. Green neighborhoods are being built or tried out.

The middle of the book is a muddy meandering walk through interesting ideas such as how nature might be the cure to ADHD, depression, obesity and our national spirituality. They all tie into the main thesis of the frontier, but we get lost easily from that. He talks about the legal threats that scare us all from allowing kids to climb trees or play together. The lack of natural history and interaction with nature in the schools is discussed and then places where camp and nature reform are creeping into life are heralded. Europe is greener than the USA in terms of green spaces within the cities and this is explored. There are so many good ideas in the middle, but how it ties into the whole book is hard to remember at times. The exposure to new ideas and things people are doing to involve children more in nature is certainly worthwhile.

For me, I giggle when he discusses the uselessness of the pervasive standardized tests that are taking over and controlling what is taught in the schools and then turns around and uses statistics like those culled from tests to describe what they ought to be doing. We certainly live in a society that does not understand and as a result, revers statistics. I said earlier how his use of personal experiences and stories can take away from the scholarly evidence in the book - there is a place for personal experiences in scholarly research, it is all in how you use it and approach it. Heartstring pulling isn't quite what you want.

Behind the index of the book in my edition is a field guide to the book with one hundred ideas of how to get involved, get back to nature and change our community for the better. This resource list makes the book valuable as well.

So I recommend you read the book. Or browse it at least, perhaps treating the sections as essays. Free play, and interaction with nature is a good thing. Forcing it on kids is not. How much time are you spending outside?

Katydid

We learned what a katydid is this week! One fell out of a tree in front of me and seemed hurt, and I watched it, wondering what it was. Dinoguy joined me in observing the bug and we moved it to our slide to take pictures after a while. I think one of its legs was hurt since it couldn't stand up. I emailed What's that bug? a photo to ask for identification and got the one word answer katydid back so I guess its a pretty common boring one, but we spent a while watching it. Dinoguy tried to feed it a few things - leaves, bark, grass. It would not eat or get up, and the next day it was no longer breathing. Trainboy also checked it out and surprisingly, Sarge had no interest in it. (He normally tortures bugs and tries to eat them if he finds them).

Its feet would hold on tightly to a stick if we put one near. We could clearly see it breathing and all its parts - the large mouth and eyes were interesting! We counted his legs (6) and noticed one was bent funny. I now notice he (or she) was missing antennae. That was probably more fatal than the bent leg.

Okay maybe you knew what a katydid was and think its sad that I didn't until now. Fixitman said he knew. But then he grew up in the country and I was a city girl. There is a surprisingly diverse looking range of bugs (to me) that are kinds of katydids! The photos of various ones at What's that bug? were fascinating. I didn't know the mormon cricket was a type of katydid! (or that it was so ugly!) Dinoguy's favorite is the polyancistrus loripes. I thought the fact that they sometimes change color to blend in (the pink one!) is awesome! We also thought the photo of the katydid laying eggs sideways was cool.

Adventures and Home Depot

You may have noticed that Home Depot craft day is popular at our house. We have made it every month for 6 months in a row now I think. Dinoguy can tell you what the craft will be the next month and we even remember their aprons and have all the various craft pins on the aprons now. We're organized and ready to roll!

Except that it is a Saturday morning and getting out of the house early is hard on Saturday mornings. (Really most mornings its hard!) The craft period runs from 9 am - noon at most places, but they may run out of kits if you go too late. Depends on the craft's popularity, the number of kits ordered, the number of people who show up...

Today the craft was a whistle firetruck. We went to the first store and they had recently run out of crafts. It was only 10:40am, so instead of making another flag pole or goal post we decided to go to another store and hope they hadn't run out yet. Called a bunch of people for map help since Fixitman doesn't have a crackberry anymore and off we were.

We got there right at 11 and couldn't find it anywhere. I ask at customer service and was told rather snippily that it was already over, which I couldn't believe, since it was only 11. Usually they hand out left over previous crafts if they run out, not shut down! We start for the next Home Depot and they have just run out too. It is now about 11:30 and I'm thinking we're out of luck on the fire truck craft. I have explained this possibility to the boys in the car and we get kits for another goal post and head to work on them.

Then Dinoguy bursts into tears he's so upset. We decide to head home and make them at home instead. Fixitman decides to try one more store. I figure instead of unloading and loading he can just run in and see if they have any more fire trucks and call me if so.

We get there at 11:45 am and they are in the parking lot with a bounce house, ambulance, football toss and clown! Most importantly, they still have fire truck kits! The boys are seriously relieved and we take them over to work on them. Sarge gets loved on by other people who walk by while I help Trainboy build his and Fixitman helps Dinoguy. We finish about 12:30 and head home with two happy kids with their new toys.

Yay for happy endings! I told Dinoguy that next month he should jump up and down on his Dad until he gets up and takes them to Home Depot right at 9. :D

Park fun and reusing plastic bags

At this park day, there was lots of sand play, light sabers, bike riding and explorations about how high up you can fill a slide with rocks. Meanwhile the mamas (and a few kids) learned how to turn plastic bags into a 2 ply yarn and crochet it into reusable bags. I was excited to learn how to do that, and the boys had great fun. Dinoguy wants to learn to crochet the bags too, but was fine with learning later from me so he could play while we were at the park. It was hard to let Trainboy ride his bike where he did, he ventured farther away from me than I he has in my memory, though I could still see him. He is gaining independence and confidence on the bike.

Park play

Our first park day this week was after the ultrasound. We met a bunch of friends at the park, which always means a good time. Fixitman took some cute pictures, unfortunately the ones of Dinoguy are out of focus. This park is an awesome wooden castle type park full of fun things to climb, hang on, jump on, and overall play pretend at. The kids were involved in several games of various types from good guys/bad guys to follow the leader. Trainboy and I also played a game of acorn people.

John Taylor Gatto interview

This is a fascinating interview to read. Click here.

I agree with so much of what he says. I'm curious what others' reactions are.

I haven't read any of his books yet, and think they might well be worth it after this interesting interview. I identify with him, having spent some time in the education system and come away feeling like it was broken and the solution for my family was outside the system.

Even as I do not think public school is the best place for my kids, I recognize that others' circumstances are different and have different solutions. Variety is the spice of life right? :)

When my own kids are grown, reform in the schools (mathematics centered) is something I am pretty sure I will be pursuing. The flaw that is becoming more difficult for me as a "math teacher" though is that the arbitrary divide of subjects. I think math subjects, like arithmetic, algebra and geometry are best taught and experienced through other subjects like gardening, crafting, music, visual arts, science, computers, cooking, games, letterboxing, etc. Not in the "let's do word problems" style as much as what happens living real life and pursuing interests.

And again, I think the best thing for kids is playing. I know I still learn through play though my play is much more structured than my kids now. But that doesn't make my play better than theirs. So my kids are not taking structured classes, especially while they are young. I am exposing them to new ideas, new surroundings, new experiences. I am making sure there are rich opportunities for play and discovery and exploration. I am being an example by learning all the time myself.

We're going to have a girl!

We were able to have an ultrasound yesterday and see our baby to be. She is healthy and big and growing well. She is also clearly a girl.
After the miscarriages, I am in awe of the miracle of this healthy child growing inside me. I think we are finally allowing ourselves to really believe that we will have a baby joining our family soon.The boys were very excited to see their baby sister on the ultrasound and get their own picture of her from the tech. They showed them off to friends at the park later that day.