Springtime Again~ Chickens and Rubik's Cubes!

 

We recently got chickens for the first time! We are hoping to be collecting eggs within a few months :)

However, we realize the chickens are more "therapy pets" to us than anything else :) They really calm everyone down, and all the kids enjoy taking care of them. Chickens really make great pets!

When we first got them they were so tiny but within a couple days they grew out of their box! We got one Rhode Island Red, two Barred Rocks, and one California White. Their names are Ginger, Pepper, Licorice, and Lemon. Lemon is quite a character! Here is a pic of Rosie holding Lemon, who climbed right into her lap!

The boys (and Rosie too!) have recently gotten into Rubik's cubes and they are going cube crazy! I seriously never knew there were so many different kinds. They really enjoy these challenges every day and the cubes are both theraputic and inspiring to them- and math based- we use them as a big part of our schooling!

Here's just a bit of our cube collection, and Fynn solving an 11x11. He has gotten so good he has tutorials on his channel! https://www.youtube.com/@MrEFynn

And Rowan has designed his own puzzle based on a Rubik's cube.

More cubes! And Rowan holding one of the Barred Rocks

Rosie squealing with delight as chickens climb all over her!

Happy Learning!!

~b

October Fun!

Happy October, everybody!

Boy, this is one of our favorite times of year around here. It's just like one big celebration all the way till Christmas!

We made an October calendar using magazine cutouts to collage a paper bag rectangle.  Rowan gets to put up an orange pumpkin number every day!

We played "Bobbing for Apples" using ladles to scoop up ball "apples" and place them in a bucket!

We made a cool spider web to hang on our wall while watching The Magic School Bus: Spins a Web!

We've been eating popcorn for our show-time snack each day!

We did a laser light show using plastic jack-o-lanterns!

The kids have been "belly swinging" everyday, guesstimating how many mph they're swinging!

Rowan and I made cars characters out of play-dough! (Frank is eating his corn.)

Rowan lined up the pumpkin family: Rowan Pumpkin, Fynn Pumpkin, Mama Pumpkin, Papa Pumpkin, and Grandpa Pumpkin!

 Fynn made a giant clock on the kitchen floor!

We also posted a YouTube video about how to make licorice play-dough and spooky spiders!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpkOC9M4jU

What projects are your family working on this month?
We'd love to hear from you! 
Happy learning!
~Beth

Buffalo Berries

"Fynn, what do you want to do today?" 

This is how most of our days start. But he'd been planning this one for a while now. 

"I want to make a planet model all the way to Sedna."

So we said OK and geared up to go with him to Sedna, the furthest known dwarf planet, at the edge of the Kuiper belt. He'd only recently started riding a bike, and he's still using training wheels, but we've been riding farther and farther, and i had a hunch he could make this trip, though it would take us most of a day. He's seven and rarely runs out of energy. So we packed some snacks and Rowan helped air up the tires and off we went. 

Sedna is far away. Like, really far. If you made a scale model where one foot equals a million miles in space, Sedna would be about sixteen miles from the sun, which would be only the size of a bowling ball. We didn't go that far, but we did go a long way, about ten miles in all- Fynn's longest bike ride yet. 

We all had a great time riding and then stopping at every planet so Fynn could get off his bike and draw them on the ground. Here's Neptune (Full of Tunes!)  

A Praying Mantis caught Beth, and didn't want to let her go. Which was really cool because we've been watching Kung Fu Panda a lot lately. Fynn started eating soup, his most detested food, because of Kung Fu Panda. Never underestimate the power of television. We Stopped at a park for snacks, and basically just rode and rode and rode. Fynn did really well at staying on the right side of the bike trail, which took some effort and focus for him. He can concentrate when he's moving, and we can have conversations. Most of our conversations are him asking me questions he already knows the answer to, or him telling me to watch what he's doing. But when we're riding, or running, or bouncing or swinging, we talk about all kinds of things. I'll ride to Sedna and back for that.

After riding for a while we found a Silver Buffalo Berry Bush. (Sheperdia Canadensis) We were all hot and tired and this was a welcome treat. A wild berry that can't be bought in stores, you only have two weeks a year to harvest and eat them, so we take every chance we get to enjoy this delicacy. We filled up on berries and then continued on our way.

After crossing a few streets and riding through vast open spaces we made it to Sedna. We all felt a sense of accomplishment at having come this far. And since the river was right there we went for a swim to cool off and relax a bit. We played in the sand. Skipped rocks. Looked at fish and crawfish.  

On the way home we saw a beautiful bull snake. We shooed it off the trail so it wouldn't get run over. We stopped for lunch at Wendy's, and rode home through down town. Down town is not exactly a kid friendly place to ride, and we're really proud of how well Fynn did getting through there. We all got sunburnt and exhausted. We drank a lot of tea. We did a lot of math. We talked about bugs and snakes and floods and buffalo. The kids ate buffalo berries for the rest of the day and then Fynn got on his computer and typed in "how fast can buffalo run".  Apparently they can run forty miles an hour. We watched a few videos of buffalo running and then the kids turned into buffalo and ran around the yard until it was dark. It was a good day.

We've always been interested in Native America. My dad, Fynn's grandpa, is Native American, though Fynn's never met him and I haven't seen him since I was two. Fynn and Rowan have not yet shown much interest though. But now, because of these berries, they've become fascinated with the buffalo, and that can only lead to Native America.The next morning we watched videos of buffalo on youtube and talked about how the buffalo used to cover this area. About how a lady who lived here a hundred years ago said it took a herd eight hours to pass her house, and how some of the settlers killed almost all of them to starve out the indians. About how the indians that lived around here lived with and loved the buffalo, and how they took care of each other. We talked about all this while eating buffalo berries.

We make planet models everyday, who'da thunk we'd learn so much on this trip. What's that old saying about doing the same thing and expecting different results? We must be crazy.

Flood Chasers

Flood Chasers

flood 6

Well, we went out to make our usual five mile long solar system model when something unexpected happened- our route was blocked by floodwater.

 Fynn hopped up on the bike and we forded one flood after another as they got deeper and deeper, with the water eventually rising above the bicycle's hubs. By this time we had mustered up a healthy fear of flooding. We came to the area pictured in the photo above (flood 6) and got really scared. I kept reassuring him that we were not going to ride through that, but we did have to turn around and ride back. He was on the verge of panic and clutched me tightly as we rode back to dry land, fording the flooded areas, which he named flood 1,2,3,4,5, and 6. He was now completely terrified of floods, and also totally obsessed with them. It should not surprise me, it's what Fynn does, he becomes obsessed with anything that scares him. He talks about it, learns about it, makes models of it. And somehow this helps him get over his fears, and, next to laughter, it's one of his best motives for learning.

As we rode home, we talked about flooding. He told me he was sorry for fussing, that he just got scared he was gonna get washed away. He asked me why the bike trail flooded, and we talked about rivers, and flood plains. We talked about erosion, and saw areas where the trail or riverbank had collapsed. We talked about storms, and what happens to the animals that live in these flooded areas. I told him what it was like growing up in east Texas and living through hurricanes and floods, and how one time, after a big flood, i had seen a house stuck way up in a tree. He loved that story.

As soon as we got home he got on his computer and looked up floods. He spent the next couple of hours looking at pictures and videos of them. Then he filled our pool with dirt and water to make his own flood. Later on he came up to me and said "Ok Papa, we're flood chasers, so can we go look for some more floods?" I said sure, so we gathered up Rowan and we headed off to another section of river known for flooding. Fynn was careful not to let Rowan get too close to the water, as he is the kind of kid who will dive right in. It was nice having an extra person to watch out for him. We told everyone we saw we were flood chasers. Some of them looked at us as though we'd said the moon was a great piece of cheese and we were going to eat it. But we were in awe of the power of water, we didn't care what they thought. We watched massive pieces of driftwood floating down the river, saw dams made of all kinds of debris. Stood on a bridge watching the water rush below us. Fynn said it looked like we were on a boat. "How fast are we going" he asked. Perhaps wisely, neither of the kids would even stick a toe in the water.

A couple of days later we went back to the first flood that had so captured Fynn's imagination. We had to pass a sign warning of the flooded trail, and Fynn made me read it to him over and over, then had me take his and Rowan's picture standing by it. By this time the water had gone down quite a bit. Floods 1-5 were not there anymore, only flood 6, the big scary one. But now we were on foot, and it was crossable. I stepped into the water to show the kids that it wasn't too deep and Fynn started to panic again. I told him it was safe, and walked out to the middle and then back to show him. Then Rowan wanted to walk through it too, so I convinced Fynn to climb on my back and together the three of us walked through the flood safely to the other side.

 On the way back Fynn let me put him down in the middle and he walked through the water by himself. He was so proud of himself for doing something he was scared of. He stopped every person we saw on the trail and told them that he had walked through the flood and asked them if they were going to walk through the flood too. He was hopping up and down and flapping his arms and could barely speak through his excitement. We caught a toad and let it go. Fynn loved the idea of toads being born as tadpoles in the water. When we got home he was so excited about walking through the flood that he did something that we thought he might never do. I'm going to respect his privacy on this one but let me just say that it is a big deal. This led to other smaller breakthroughs for him, like flushing the toilet, which used to scare him, and blowing his nose, which also scared him. It's amazing to watch how conquering one fear flooded him with the courage to face his other fears. It is said that bravery is not the lack of fear but rather the ability to face your fears head on. If this is so Fynn is the bravest person I know. 

The next day Beth, Fynn, and Rowan got out their science bucket and made a model town to flood. The power of nature had instilled fear and awe, as it should. We learned about geology, meteorology, earth science, physics and density, climatology and topography, maths relating to speed and distance. We read all the flood warning signs and learned some new words. We covered history, talking about past floods both here where we live and in the area i grew up in. It was a flood of knowledge. 

As the waters receded we were left with places at once both familiar and strange. Old, yet new. We are flood chasers. We chased this flood, and it changed us. It told us a story, offered insight, into ourselves, and the ways of nature. We are like the land, the same, yet different. Old things have been washed away, new ones washed in. Old places to explore, new things to discover. So go, find your passions, and your fears, be brave, and chase them. You may be surprised at what you discover.

Flood!