Hiking with Crinkleroot

The temperatures had been hovering in the low teens for what seemed like weeks. It kept our outings limited to visiting other indoor locations or exploring only as far as the yard (which has hosted the Himalayas for equally as long so it's been a good place to explore, especially for my little Panda). We've been playing a lot of games, reading a lot of books, dabbling in  art, flying around the house performing magic; Winter hibernation doesn't have to mean boring.

Now, though, the sun has been out for days, for longer than it seems we've seen it all winter in fact. The Himalayas are starting to look more like the rolling landscape of Vermont and my Panda is increasingly disappointed by his habitat loss. The best thing about this weather, aside from the warm sun flooding our front room every evening and Jon getting home before dark, is the hiking situation: with compacted snow covering what will soon be muddy fields there are animal tracks to be found everywhere, and it's warm enough to go looking for them. There's rain lurking around the corner and with rain the opportunity will be lost, so, with Crinkleroot's Book of Animal Tracking tightly in tow, we took to the fields adjacent to our neighborhood and discovered far more than just our own hearts thankful for signs of thaw.

We've been tracking before. Calvin's pretty familiar with the tracks of humans, dogs, and deer. He found lots of deer tracks today.

A deer path through the stream.

And a new treat, raccoon tracks.

And we listened for birds.

We found chickadees (and heard all three calls)

And a tufted titmouse.

When we go home he was eager for some hot tea and a chance to get it all down in his journal.

Now we're ready for the rain threatening the rest of the week, and maybe for a return of the rain boots.

I've linked up to Nature Connections, a link party for nature lovers. Come join the fun!

Chess

Speaking of games. A few days ago he asked us about the chess set sitting on our bookshelf. It's a set that Jon brought back with him from a choir trip in Budapest—a pretty set of varying woods and simple carvings. Calvin was curious but it had been years since either of his parents had played and we were both a bit shaky on the general rules. At the used book store on Saturday morning we happened across a chess book by Usborne, aimed specifically at kids (or somewhat slow adults). For $2 it turned out to be a great find, and timely, too. We've added a few new rules to our repertoire each day since and we're slowly working up to a full game, or at least to one that makes sense. I've always wanted to learn how to really play chess. I think by the end of this journey I will owe most of my knowledge to my son.

The Story about Ping

The Story about Ping, by Marjorie flack, takes place in China and is a FIAR book, so we played around with it a bit over the past two weeks while we were gearing up for our Chinese New Year celebration. As a book I didn't find Ping all that exciting, but it wasn't unenjoyable, either. We spent most of our time focused on China or on art because that's what Calvin was most interested in.

Like most kids Calvin loves drawing and creating. The FIAR guidebook suggested using Ping as a springboard to discussing the representation of water in drawing, so we tried our hand at reflections and ripples.

I have a wall full of these pictures now and I love it.

My favorite of the whole bunch—Ping swimming up to the boat from behind.

Happy Chinese New Year

Today we made fortune cookies

Yesterday it was paper lanterns

All week we counted down with Chinese characters

We've actually been talking about China for nearly two weeks now. Calvin is infatuated with the Great Wall. Earlier in the week we watched a handful of National Geographic short videos on this wonder of the world.

The Yangtze was another source of interest, especially the Three Gorges Dam. We tapped into an Eyewitness book on China to get a little more information on these, and watched the mountains section of BBC's Planet Earth for more on the Himalayas. Per Calvin, this picture is: "The Himalayas and foothills and the Yangtze River and buildings that are flooded by the Yangtze River because of the Dam. And Ping sitting in the reeds and a truck loading a shark to eat for Chinese dinners."

Pandas also took a good portion of our time. We got a National Geographic video about Pandas  from the library (which he watched 3 times) and we have a Nature Conservancy book about pandas. He doesn't draw pandas right now, though, as he says "they are too black and white."

Winnie the Pooh

It's not so much the stories that I enjoy, and really the critters are quite annoying in their various caricatures, but there is something endearing about this enduring "classic" that has kept it in our lives. Or maybe it was the collection of stuffed Eeyores that survived my college days only to be heavily loved by a beautiful little boy. Yesterday I took him to a Wild Swan stage play of these perennial stories and characters. He was delighted. Rapt throughout the whole show (didn't even notice the little girl behind us, bawling and desperate to get away from the scary things on the stage, poor thing). At the end we met the characters outside. Calvin told Eeyore that he really liked the show, then asked him (her, really) what the tree (a large and enjoyable set piece) had been made of. To her answer of "wood" he then politely replied "yes, but what kind?" She had the grace to reply that he had stumped her, but she could tell him that it was supposed to be an Oak tree.