Trekking up Mt. Diablo

I have this vivid memory...

I'm 15. Riding my bike on some back country road, and the sun is setting. To my right is a field, an expansive field with bunches and bunches of wild bushes lining the next quarter-mile home. On the horizon are the purple peaks of Mt. Diablo, and as I ride back, dozens of butterflies startle out of the bushes and fly all around me.

Every time I spy the western horizon, I catch a glimpse of Mt. Diablo and remember that quiet little memory. Sometimes when I look at it, I remember how we took Aidyn "hiking" when he was only four months old. Now I can look at it with even more memories.

For Father's Day, we trekked to Mt. Diablo with a now 6- (and a half, I might add!) year-old. Before heading out, we filled our tummies at Red Robin's.

Yuuum.

I took a few "before" photos. You know, just in case we turned up missing and all they found was our camera.

Then, we were ready to rock 'n' roll. We immediately took the Summit Trail, wanting to get a good view of the state surrounding us.

Up, up, up...

Stopping to take in the view (and a good breath or two!)

When we reached the summit, we climbed up to an observation deck with all around views of the area.

Aidyn, getting a peak at the Central Valley.

Checking out the much-more-interesting Bay Area.

After our view from the top, we decided to slink along some more trails. We quickly found the Mary Bowerman Trail, dedicated to the botanist as an educational trail to "discover how nature has created and altered this peak that is part of our landscape," so says the trail map.

The Mary Bowerman Trail was essentially a loop trail crowning the southern peak of Mt. Diablo. Along the trail were 14 stop points, and the trail map enlightened us to a particular geologic feature, flora, and/or fauna.

Here's Aidyn on the northern side of the southern peak. Yeah. Basically we were standing "in between" the two peaks facing the northern one. On our left was the Bay Area, with its waterways, and cities speckled everywhere. To the right was the Central Valley (where we live), with its flat, flat terrain that goes on for miles and miles and miles and offers next to nothing exciting to look at.

Kidding. It was pretty neat telling Aidyn that we live in that direction and that anyone over there can clearly see these mountain peaks.

  Along the trail, we learned to identify:

• poison oak (right after we found that Aidyn was standing in it. The thrill of ohmygodyou'restandinginpoisonoak! helps education to sink in, right?)
• greenstone
• graywacke (and the accompanying quartz)
• chert
• oak trees
• chapparal
• a monolith
• wild oats
• foxtails (Pffft, like those aren't common where we live)
• a sagebrush lizard
• juniper
• yerba santa, and
• chamise

Aidyn and I amongst a sea of chert. That's right, we learned what chert is. Before yesterday, I wasn't even aware that it was a word.

Then we came across a monolith made completely of chert, and Aidyn couldn't resist climbing it. It's such a fine line between protecting your children and encouraging them to embrace risks and challenge them to face fears.

I did the in-between tactic. Encouraged him to (carefully!) climb the rock whilst biting my lip, cringing, and telling David to "Ohmygod, make sure he doesn't fall, but don't let him know you're a guard rail."

::Squirm::

It still makes me cringe.

Aidyn taught me later how to better climb these rugged peaks. By this time, he had confidently accepted my goading (heh) that he was typical mountain-climbing Capricorn-goat.

At the end of our hike, we met a small group of straggling hikers who said that had been on the trails since 6am. The four we met were exhausted and had another ten-hour hike back down the entire mountain. The other half of their team had lagged behind and were still out there. We eventually drove them out and to their cars so that they could pick up the rest of their party.

On the way, Aidyn decided to chum it up and tell these two guys his whole. life. story. The poor guys had been through enough, but they politely listened to Aidyn and his tales.

Overall, it was both a fun and educational hike so double score for us.

But Don't Take MY Word for It

Butterfly in the sky...I can go twice as high...

Take a look. It's in a book. It's Reading Rainbooow.

Okay, sorry.

I took a trip down Nostalgia Lane, feeling like LeVar Burton was an old-time pal o' mine. Watching Reading Rainbow is a first for Aidyn though, and I found a fitting one for our current unit study.

image from all-free-download.com

LeVar taught us all about the rainforest biome and the specialized habitat that rainforest animals and plants need. We then listened to The Salamander Room, a FIAR classic. Aidyn squeed with delight when one of the book reviewers at the end recommended The Great Kapok Tree, one of our favorite RF books.

If you're feeling particularly nostalgic or want to learn more about the rainforest, watch this episode.

Afterwards, we played rainforest games here. We learned about the layers of the forest: emergent, canopy, understory, and forest floor. The task was to assign different plants and animals in the correct layer.

Then we tracked the process of banana and chocolate manufacturing, respectively. Purty neat.


And THEN, even though it has nothing to do with Adventureland...

we went and saw a bee show at our local library. But it was so fun and informational! Made me want to raid a honey hive and suck honey through their hexagonal cells, but that would be impolite. We did, however, leave with some yummy blackberry honey samples, some honey sticks, and an activity book to color.

image from dublinlibrary.com

The Call of the Wild Rainforest

Apparently, the internet is teeming with resources about the rainforest. There are so many directions to go, vines on which to swing, and giant Amazon lily pads to jump off that we're just going to dive right in and see what happens.

I've plucked a number of rainforesty books from our local library including:

image from www.bookapex.com

image from www.yourbooksworld.com

image from www.imaginechildhood.com

Search "The Great Kapok Tree" itself and you'll find tons of go-along lesson plans, like the one at Homeschool Share.

We also picked up a fun video about rainforest animals, plus I have some cartoon movie back-ups in case I get desperate:

1. Fern Gully
2. Rio

My mind is going blank. Can anyone think of any more?

My plan for today is to go grocery shopping in the rainforest (insert dramatic music).

Okay, not really. But we are going to take a list of foods (mostly fruits) naturally found in the rainforests and make a Rainforest Fruit Salad when we get back home. I constructed my list with the help of this site.

I've also read other blogs where daring parents replicate the rainforest biome using moist foods like buttered bread, celery, along with ground-up Oreos. Yum indeed.

We'll swing from that vine when we get to it, I suppose.

Feed Your Face

So I cannot afford the high-end wrinkle-reducing comes-in-the-tiniest-container-ever-made face cream or the cancer that might possibly go with it. I must improvise.

By improvise, I mean using stuff from my kitchen that will go to waste if I don't find some use for it now!

Whenever that happens, I make an avocado conconction. Basically, I mash up one whole avocado until it is a bowlful of creamy goodness. Depending on my mood (or the availability of resources), I add one or more of the following:

• a drizzle of honey
• a spoonful of olive oil
• a pinch of sugar (for exfoliation)
• warm water
• a squirt of lemon juice
• egg yolk, or
• half a banana that is quickly ripening to the point of no return

After opening my pores with a couple splashes of warm water, I slather the gunk all over my face.

Education, then, comes in at least two forms:

1. Chasing Aidyn around the house as a zombie, thereby teaching him about special effects make-up and acting.

     2. Answering his question, "why are you doing that?" as he's covering his mouth in absolute disgust, with "avocadoes have vitamins in them, which are good for your skin. Vitamins like E, A, K...Ya know, you don't only get yer vitamins from eating them."

I apologize that no picture with accompany this post. Use your imagination (or try it yourself!).

How Do Ya Bubble in Riding Bikes and Scaling Fences on This Here Standardized Test?

Anyone who has decided to homeschool has, as a result, tormented themselves with weighing the pros and cons, scouring books upon books on the subject, confessing to  friends and family, and bashing themselves over the head just wishing they could prognosticate the outcome.

It wasn't an overnight whim, in other words.

After prechool-homeschooling Aidyn, we sent him to public school kindergarten (mostly because I was full-time at my uni and working), but we kept a running dialogue about returning to homeschooling.

Ever since deciding (as in not signing him up for first grade at his previous school and instead enlisting at a home-based charter school), I've let some outside concerns trickle in.

The most common is what about socialization?

He did build a good circle of six-year-old pals there, and I worried about whether he'd be exposed to as many social situations.

But, as I've been worrying, he has spent his time (on most days from about noon  until we force him inside  to 8 o'clock) playing with the neighborhood kids, riding bikes and scooters, winding toy trains through self-paved dirt paths, "playing school" with the two little girls that frequent the area, having dance-offs, and bursting in the house every other hour for help solving a social gaffe.

And I feel silly.

Even the other day at work, someone asked about the ins and outs of this here charter school and the field trips they organize.

This coworker offered, "Well, at least he can socialize with other kids once in a while."

Yeah.

I think I've taught more social ettiquette in these few weeks of summer break than ever before, but it's a slippery slope. I don't want to be the orge of social reform. I want Aidyn to learn to handle squabbles and cooperative play on his own.

Around 4pm on many days, I see the abandoned chapter books on our coffee table and debate whether or not to call Aidyn in to read.

(As an aside, no one ever says, but what about ed-u-CA-tion?)

But I realize that, through play, he is learning so many things that I cannot quantify, measure, or bubble in on a standardized test. Through the course of these summer days, I see him learning about friendship, building common bonds, the development of physical skills (like scaling the fence and giving his mother a heart attach. I'm better now), negotiation, and delving into a land of make-believe.

I've also learned that, most importantly, I need to just chill out.

Magic Dan and Dreaming Big

Yesterday, Aidyn and I visited our local library to see Magic Dan. As he does every year, Magic Dan wowed the crowd with his magic tricks and fast-paced punchlines. I saw delight in Aidyn's eyes as Magic Dan pulled a six-foot wand from his tiny, tiny hat. But what I most loved about Magic Dan's performance was his ability to encourage every child to wave their little magic wand-fingers and say, "I am special."

The theme of his show and the library's reading program this summer is Dream Big.

from 123rf.com

The freedom of summer and the theme of dreaming big is pervasive in homeschooling. In the summer, children spend much of their time outdoors, playing with the neighborhood children (who are all ages and come from many backgrounds), discovering ladybugs and other fauna, cracking open random books they found on a shelf, walking through the library aisles, and coming up with inventive ways to spend their time. Homeschoolers gravitate toward this same attitude all year round. We use the world to school our children because we have big dreams for them. We want more than imprisonment in a brick-and-mortar building, seated at desks, and learning what will be most useful for passing a state standardized test.

No.

We want them to trust their curiosities and follow them. Experiment with the world. Notice the intricacies of the planet with awe and wonderment. Go ahead and squish your hands into the mud so long as you share what it feels like. Follow a single question through books, an internet search, interviews of family members and experts, documentaries, and personal reasoning until you quench that query. We want them to think of learning as all-around-us, hidden in books on our shelves and waiting wide open in the big wide world.

from squidoo.com/raining

That's why when I hear a naysayer quipping, "but then they're stuck in the house all day with no socialization," I try very hard not to laugh.

Game day; or, How I Snuck in Education Today

Yesterday morning, we hosted a little alphabet scavenger hunt for Aidyn and his neighborhood pals.

First, I wrote out one letter per index card. Next, I wrote the names of items one could find out-of-doors, like air conditioning unit, bush, cement, and so on. Things got tricky around letters I, Q, and V, but I used some of my son's outdoor toys. For Q, I found a quadrilateral block, for instance.

We then handed out the alphabet cards with just the letters. Then each child hunted for their specific letters. I was pleased to see them helping each other.

"I found one! It's a hole! Does anyone have an "H"?"

The whole hunt was a success, and the kids had a ball learning.

Later that day we tweaked the game (mostly because we couldn't think of 26 more outdoor items that would fit each letter). This time we used only the alphabet cards and challenged them to find things outside that start with A, B, C, and so on.

That's when I saw them flexing some creative muscle. For instance (totally on his own!), when we got to Q, Aidyn stormed off and said, pseudo-dramatically, "I quit!"

To which the other kids shouted, "He's quiting! Quiting starts with Q!"

I really don't think they'll ever forget that "quit" starts with a Q.

During a quiet part of the day, when Aidyn's pals went out shopping, we sat at the table and played some M&M math. I had printed out an M&M worksheet earlier that day and drew some M&Ms on the back in a one-to-one order to play around with greater than or less than signs.

Before we cracked open two fun size packets of the colorful candy, Aidyn estimated how much of each color were in the bags. We then dumped them out on the table, and, one color at a time, counted them and graphed them.

Along the way, we made observations about how much more this color had than another, which had the most, and which had the least.

After graphing them, Aidyn filled out the greater than or less than signs and made sure to give each one teeth.

Of course, after M&M math, we gobbled them up.

Continuing our learning about explorers (even pint-sized ones), we watched the sequel to An American Tail, entitled Fievel Goes West.

We talked about western exploration at the time, the pursuit for a better life, a new frontier, and the prospect of gold. We also did nothing at all but laugh at Tiger's  silly antics.

And finally, later that day, Aidyn and his friend K played with Google Earth. I heard them "go to Mars" and look for aliens before asking if I could zoom in on our neighborhood back on Earth. They played with it at street-level and explored the streets, saying "I recognize that house! There's Mama's favorite restaurant!" etc.

Overall, it was a fun, learning-filled day (and the kids never suspected!)