Sunny Tuesday

Our days now start closer to seven in the morning rather than eight, a blessing in disguise thanks to the time change. I really love the extra hour in the morning, but does that mean I can force myself to get up on a regular basis? No, but that time change sure works wonders. Calvin started his day at the piano, and being earlier means he can spend that time with his dad, which is great since piano is something they like to do together. I started my day with coffee and a crossword. 

By nine we were busy researching mammoths—woolly mammoths, to be specific—and the next thing we knew it was almost noon. That's a lot to learn about woolly mammoths, plus I made him one out of felt (the population on the downstairs Cenozoic timeline is growing) while he filled out an animal report form on the fuzzy guy. The boy has a thing for mammoths these days. Along with penguins and indricotheres and...

In looking for more information on woolly mammoths we came across a great online guide to the La Brea Tar Pits, and that entertained us for quite a bit longer.

We watched Becoming Human (ep. 3) over lunch, then wandered outside to rake leaves, toss the football (he's getting pretty good), and pester the cat through the window. Plus we found some confused raspberries on our bush.

Pirate play and creativity, more prehistoric mammals on the felt line, and after dinner he read to me before bed because we can't seem to find the book that I had been reading to him. Where is that black hole in the house?

Just one day

We made a list in this morning of things we wanted to accomplish. We make lists a lot of mornings. Today there were so many things on our list that I think we were busy crossing things off from then until dinner, and even then we hadn't finished.

We both started with journal writing, then on to the piano, and finally we colored some Prehistoric Beasts.

Today was the last fall story time at the library and while we were there we searched for some books on early humans and cave painting. We found surprisingly little, but brought home what they had. Thankfully we already had one fantastic book on hand—First Painter, by Kathryn Lasky—that my mom had kindly checked out from her library for us (which we finally got to around bedtime).

Then, as we drove into the garage the sun came out, so we put on our warm things to head out for a walk and some nature collecting. We have been looking at the lessons in BFSU (B-2 and B-3) that deal with classification of things, recognizing the attributes of living things, and identifying the living as belonging to either the plant or animal kingdoms, so a hike with discussions of this kind was on our list.

When we got home we drank tomato soup from mugs and ate cheese and apples slices while we watched the second episode of Nova's Becoming Human. This is a series we stumbled upon thanks to Netflix recommendations and we've really enjoyed it. Lunchtime today was our third viewing :)

After lunch a little more piano, a little math, some geography worksheets, some Legos, some BFSU list making, some more fall leaf decoration making, and even some playing in the snow (snow!). Then finally some dinner making. Well, for me some dinner making, for Calvin some Highlights reading, since his new issue came in the mail today.

And even though we didn't get to everything on our list (more a problem with being over ambitious than with being lazy), we enjoyed what we did do so we'll count that a productive and successful day.

The great Dire Woof

We spent today with good friends, so while we started out with some chores, some piano practice, and some journal writing, we ended it with an early bedtime due exhaustion from wild giggling and activities. Legos, play kitchen, books, a walk to the park, and even a fall craft. The two little ones (who aren't so little any more) were lost in every kind of imaginary game they could think of. At one point they were hiding out in the toy tent—scientists on an expedition!—when the meat-eating Ollie-saur (or the Dire Woof, as they later named him) came lurking around and needed scaring away with loud shrieks and roars. It didn't really work, because he wanted to play, too, which meant that Ollie made the perfect play thing today, and that he is also passed out with exhaustion tonight.

We walked to the park, collecting things of beauty along the way, like brightly colored leaves that we brought home to laminate for hanging in the windows, or setting on the table. We were busy, we were happy, we had a great time.

November in the park

Sixty degrees in November called us to the park today. Actually, with the loss of the hour it called us first to get up too early, drink too much coffee to make up for it, and spend the first too many hours of sunshine sitting in the house playing with Legos, practicing the piano, and play-acting the felt, but then it called us to the park. Or, actually, next it called us to the library book sale in Ann Arbor where we picked up some treasures we're very excited about, but then—then—it finally called us outside. So that's where we went.

Confidence

Legos, piano, kitchen counter science, and romping outside in the brilliant fall sunshine are the things that have dominated the last few days here. Today was library book sale day and we came home with two bags of treasure to enjoy. Jon played in his first piano recital in years this afternoon and we all delighted in his talent, and in the family time that inevitably follows such an event. The leaves have just about all fallen by now, and hot tea and evening fire weather is just around the corner.

Our journey through history is now well into the Cenozoic Era, and this week we'll be touring some painted caves in France, and making our way to the land bridge and into the Americas, where our ancestors will meet up with some of the fantastic mammals we've been reading about.

In September I purchased an American history curriculum by Intellego. I was drawn to it for the same reason that I'm drawn to clothing ads in the Sunday paper—I have no confidence in my ability to plan appropriately, be it my clothes for a day, or a journey through the history of our continent.

So I bought the curriculum for the security it could provide. And you know what? It worked, in a Dumbo's feather kind of way. It took until now to get to it because we were delayed in the Paleo and Mesozoic Eras, which was fun, but now we've arrived in the Cenozoic and are at the moment of the Beringia land bridge, which is where Intellego picks up. This weekend I broke out the curriculum only to find that it is mostly a collection of links to other people's free curricula online, with suggestions for activities on the side. So you see, the more I read it, the more confident I am that I could have figured this all out for myself. I was looking for confidence, after all.