The timeline is expanding

Where before it was confined to our upper hallway, now it has taken over one wall of the front entryway as well. We found, albeit appropriately, that the Cenozoic Era on the standard timeline just wasn't big enough to hold all of the felt creatures Calvin wanted to have, so we created a "zoomed inset" and hung it on the downstairs wall. The labels aren't on it yet, and only some of the creatures are done, but these may be some of Calvin's favorites so far.

Prehistory continued

After what turned out to be almost a full week of celebrating Halloween/All Hallow's Eve/Samhain/what have you, I think things returned to normal today. Laundry, park walk, leftovers...all the good stuff, including prehistory. About a week ago we finished the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras, and by finished I mostly mean that we designed and created the felt for those eras and we've read all the books we could find at the library. We've also meandered into the Cenozoic Era, enjoying Walking With Prehisoric Beasts and a number of library books, but I'm behind on the felt. In fact, with all the creatures he's designed for me to make we're considering an additional timeline, zoomed in on the Cenozoic. Not a bad idea as we get into Walking With Cavemen, and the A Day With... book series by Fiorenzo Facchini (Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Neanderthal Man, and Sapiens—books we seriously love). Next up: the land bridge and occupation of the Americas. We're having a really good time with this.

How my five year old beat me in Monopoly

Actually, that can't be what this post is about because I'm not really sure how it happened. No I wasn't playing seriously cut throat or anything, but it's not like I let him win, either. I think the real key is that at five you don't have a strong sense of risk/benefit analysis so caution tends not to get in the way when luck is there to help you out. In any case, I ended up with a total of $63 to my name, all properties mortgaged, and I owed him $1,150 for the rent on Illinois Ave with hotel. If nothing else I'm finding that Monopoly is a great way to use math, especially creative math and math in your head, and it's also a great way to stretch patience, memory, and attention—we'd been playing this game on and off for two days.

It's been great to have a couple of days just at home. Math, monopoly, making dinner. A little piano, a lot of coloring and art. Calvin made a model T-Rex (which he affectionately dubbed "Model T"), and he's got a dinosaur diorama in the making (he's still on the background painting phase). He wrote a book on matters, as in the states of matter. We're making our way into the Cenozoic era finally so we re-watched Walking with Prehistoric Beasts and we'll do the same with Walking with Cave Men. No video is perfect, but we've been happy with this series in general and of course Calvin loves them.

Prehistory on a time line

The furnace installers were here all day today, so now we have a working furnace with a new thermostat that will take weeks to learn how to use (so far we have learned how to change the font of the display).

But with workers in the house from 8:30 until 5:30 Calvin and I found ourselves home bound. That's not always a bad thing. I have piles of laundry to catch up on, surfaces to dust, and plants to water, and today was the perfect day to do all those things. It was also the perfect day to move all the dining room furniture and drag out the felt to make a massive interactive timeline of evolution. We got all the epochs and periods and massive extinctions marked, and the Cambrian creatures are made. Maybe I'll get to the laundry tomorrow.

Since Calvin's sudden fascination with prehistoric evolution I've been drooling over the Charlie's Playhouse site. This is a great find for any family interested in teaching the subject, especially if they have extra money floating around. We have a new furnace instead, so no matter how much I wanted to order that really awesome 18 foot fold out book play mat thing, it wasn't going to happen. Instead, it became the inspiration for our own 12 foot (because that's the length of our longest uninterrupted wall) interactive felt version of the Charlie's Playhouse timeline. Ours has removable prehistoric creatures and a lot of our own time, energy, study, and thought put into it. We've only filled in the first period so far, but there's plenty of time (ha ha).

We also read Bang! The Universe Verse and It's Alive, both by James Lu Dunbar, both entertaining if nothing else. And we played Mammoth Hunt, practiced the piano, ran through the yard (which needs rain again), and Calvin filled in a dinosaur color by addition sheet. But all of that is moot comparatively.

Linking up to

Field trip—UofM Museum of Natural History

Calvin had his five year old doctor appointment today, only almost two months late. We're late because when I called to make the appointment his pediatrician was booked for the next three months, and we didn't go through a ped selection process in order to see some other doctor the one time each year we end up in the office. I love our pediatrician, and the wait was well worth it. He's always put Calvin at ease, and been happy to answer any questions I may have. I've always figured that we're doing our job right if the visit is merely an affirmation of things that are going on at home, and he has always been conscious and supportive of our decisions.

But no matter how fantastic of a visit it was, there were two shots waiting at the end of it. I knew they were coming. Calvin knew they were coming. When we talked about them yesterday I was honest in telling him that they would hurt for a short while, probably not even as long as the wasp sting he had gotten last Friday and had forgotten by Saturday. I offered him, as something to look forward to, as a reward for braving a tough situation, his choice between going to the splash zone, going to the movies (his first time), and going to the University of Michigan's Museum of Natural History. I was kind of looking forward to a movie (they are very air conditioned, after all), but he chose the museum. And that's my boy.

During the latter of my college years the Museum of Natural History was my home away from home. I attended several classes in the rooms down those hallways, dissected animals and identified species by their skulls in the labs, and had long, drawn out conversations with professors, T.A.s, and other students while sitting in the rotunda. These are my favorite memories from school, and walking back into the building, which has hardly changed, was like being transported. Except for the overly excited five year old who had too much innate curiosity and unquenchable exuberance to be anything like the kids I went to class with (or myself).

Mastodons

Calvin loved the exhibits. The museum has the feel of something assembled almost as an after-thought, as you walk in amidst signs warning you from research wings and labs and classrooms left and right. You pay by honest donation, you take your own tours, some things are behind glass while others are not, and only some are touchable, but it is up to your own guess as to which those things are.

Proboscideans

Basilosaurus isis

Basilosaurus isis

But the mastodons and the Allosaurus are right there, two feet away, as large as life, and they are oh so impressive that way. And the fact that they are squeezed into an overcrowded, un-air conditioned room along with 70 year old cases of even older fossils, sculptures, and drawings, gives them a purely academic feel that is inspiring.

Allosaurus

Allosaurus

Tyrannosaurus rex skull

There is no real flow, but each section is a world unto itself, full of things to discover. The writing also has the flavor of academia, as in long winded and excessive to read, but Calvin actually absorbed quite a bit of it before succumbing to exhaustion (or heat stroke, one of the two).

Pterosaur

Hadrosaur

There are two more floors, current Michigan fauna and biology, and a planetarium that we have yet to explore, but that's the great thing about being close: we can come back. He was so thrilled with it that I think I see it again in the near future, which is actually better than trying to go during the school year anyhow.

For more info:

The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History