Summer School and Toads

Today, me and Fynn went out to look for turtles, snakes, and skunks. 

Or anything else we might come across.

The only plan i had was to follow Fynn- let him lead and offer only suggestions, no orders. 

(Unless absolutely necessary, which none were)

Fynn's only agenda was to look for animals.
And you may be thinking, but my kids always do what they want. I understand, i think that too. But th' truth is they're not. Kids are always being told what to do, what not to do, do this, do that, it's too early for this, it's too late for that. Maybe later. Well, what if we decide to let maybe later be now.
I dare you to set a time frame and allow your kids to decide what goes on for that time limit.
I've been trying to do this more and more often with Fynn and Rowan. Set a time limit, and as long as it's safe, let them do whatever they want to do.
My life has only gotten richer because of it.
 And i hope, and think, that theirs has too.

So we loaded up some water and lunch, tied th' net to th' roof of th' car, and off we went. 
To start with, I picked somewhere that neither of us had ever been to before. 

Th' first thing Fynn did was climb a tree to see how far he could go before it wouldn't hold him.

He made it most of the way up that tree.

Th' first thing i did was notice was a large patch of licorice.  

We walked around a few ponds, then found some brachiosuarus tracks and followed them.
I tried to stray th' path a few times but to no avail.
Fynn said we'd found th' tracks of a brachiosaurus dragging it's tail.
To me they looked an awful lot like tire tracks, but as i had not actually seen th' truck make th' tracks, i figured fynn's guess was as good as mine.
So we followed them.
It was about a hundred degrees outside.

After traveling for some time, including crossing an area where there seemed to dwell nothing but heat and biting flies, we saw a great blue heron. I thought it was a pteradactyl. 

Fynn said he was archaeopteryx, and that we should follow him, and see where he leads.

My dream come true i told him. 

So that's what we did, and he led us to the land of toads.

 And left us a feather too. An awful nice, though shy bird he was. 

This is a place where you have to be careful how you walk, or you will step on a toad.

And no one wants to do that.

And indeed we caught more than a few.

We started catching them and putting them in our net, which we had propped up in a willow bush. Just a few at a time, no more than four or five. 

They kept climbing out of th' net so we just kept refilling it throughout th' day, as we played and checked on it. 

Toads are easy to catch, and there was a toad everywhere you looked.  

Then we came to this tiny little pond, where all along the edge there were snails racing in th' same direction. If you've never seen snails race you don't know what yer missin.

We also found a lava rock, and a very pretty striped rock.

And alas, our respite from th' heat, a nice pool of calm deep water off th' river.

Time to lose th' shoes and go swimming, or "to feel like a whale" as Fynn said.

Last spring we went to Sea World to see th' whales and dolphins. 

We were sitting there watching the orca show, when all of a sudden we were hit in th' face by a tidal wave. After the initial shock, Fynn was so impressed with how big a splash an orca can make that we've been talking about it ever since. So here in th' pool Fynn put on a sea world show for me, till i had been splashed enough, then he used his shoes as the audience, while he sent tidal wave after tidal wave upon them. 

Then we started drawing dinosaurs in th' sand and splashing them, learning about erosion.

Geology in action.

We stopped every now and then to put more toads in th' net, we had a nice rotation going.
Then he wanted to know about how toads swim, so we caught one and put it in th' pool and watched it swim to shore. It was really neat, they put their forearms back against their sides and kick/paddle with their huge hind legs, swimming quickly and efficiently.

Once th' toad got to shore we saw how he looked just like th' sand he lived in. So we talked about camouflage. In the picture below there is a toad hopping, if there were no shadow, how long would it take to find that toad? They are very well adapted to their environment. We also noticed that the toads  we caught on th' sand were lighter colored than th' toads we caught in the muddier, more forested area.

We also noticed that us and th' toads were not the only ones who come to this pool, there were tracks all over th' place. So we looked at the tracks and thought about who made them. We saw raccoon, deer, barefooted human, shoe footed human, and some very large unidentified tracks, that we thought maybe were from someone's large dog, or a wolf. We noticed their patterns, and thought about how the animals moved through the area, and whether or not the animals in question were nocturnal or diurnal, nocturnal animals being one of Fynn's new interests. "Wow," he said, "Papa, we were sleeping and there were nocturnal animals down here at th' pool, and now they are sleeping and we're down here." "That's right!" i said. That's a pretty cool thought. And a good way to share a small habitat.

Then Fynn wanted to throw his shoes in th' water. Crocs are cool because they float, something Fynn had never realized before. "Why do think your shoes float" i asked him. "I don't know" he replied, "i thought they would sink". "What if you had a shoe that was th' same size and shape as yours, but made out of a rock instead of foam, would it float or sink?" "It would sink." He said. 

Density. So we talked about mass and density, and whether things were more or less dense than each other, or than water. Then we threw things into the water to check our answers.

Then we started talking about water currents. Fynn was excited about this because yesterday we picked and ate wild currants. He liked it that it was th' same word with two different meanings. 

Again, we used th' shoes to demonstrate the idea of water currents. The shoes in th' pool floated slowly in a circle, eventually getting stuck in th' same place every time. As th' shoes floated around near th' fast moving water, we thought it would pick them up and carry them away, but it never did, they just went round and round and round. So we tossed them into th' fast moving part, and one of us would wait for them downstream and catch them. We did this for a while and then we stated using them and our hands to block th' water, and watched how th' current flowed around them.

Finally, it was time to go. I knew Fynn would stay there for th' rest of his life if i let him, so i started talking about lunch. He said "Oh papa, i love this place so much!" Eventually i suggested that we fill up our toad net one more time and go back to th' car and get our lunch. "Ok, he said "can we take some toads home with us and let some live in our back yard and keep some of them?" "Sure" i said, "as long as you take care of them."
Animal husbandry.
 He had already been taking pretty good care of his snakes, so i figured he could do it.

At last we made th' long trek back through th' heat to our car. When we were almost there he told me that he likes feeling like a whale better than this hot and dry. I agreed.
So we sat in th' shade and ate left over burritos and drank a can of warm flat sparkling water. We found shapes in th' clouds and talked about how much we liked this place, and that we need to bring mama and Old Ro (Fynn's nickname for Rowan) out here soon. I agreed.

Fynn had said before we went on this journey that he wanted to be out for four hours. We had no clocks and weren't thinking about time, but we stayed out for a little over three and half hours. Pretty close.

Back home we made a toad habitat in our pool, and Old Ro was really happy to see some toads. 
We decided that which ever ones didn't hop out of th' pool by the end of the day we would keep for a while and take care of. We did some research on toad care, and Fynn looked up images of toad habitats for us. At the end of th' day we had one toad, but we might go get him a friend.

All in all it was in incredible day. I had a lot more fun than i would have if i was trying to get Fynn to follow some plan of action that he was only partially interested in, and we covered so many topics- which as his homeschooling parents we're always thinking about. But Fynn wasn't at school, he was just playing and having th' time of his life- Th' concepts will stick with him better because he wasn't forced to learn anything, and we literally played around with all the ideas, so we got to see their real, practical value and application.  And, not being out in public, unhindered by social norms, he didn't have to try to fit in or not disturb anyone, not be autistic in other words. Often for a person with autism, it's really hard work to be around people with expectations of how you should be acting, and th' kids have little energy left to focus on learning. But when they are not pressured, when they are playing and having fun, they're one hundred percent available for learning.

I have been trying to be more active in our kids homeschool life, so it's not just Beth's job, and i think i've found a way that works and is fun for all of us. Follow th' Child... Stat doing this enough and you begin to wonder, who is really th' teacher here? Didn't Jesus say something about a child leading people? I look at th' world around us, see th' state it's in and think, ok, so we don't have it all figured out, time to toss th' curriculum and try something new, something old, something else.

Time to learn.

~Rico

More Pictures From Families In Action

Here are some more pics from FIA. (Thanks, Dawn!)

Thank you so much, volunteers and everyone who made this possible!

Families In Action Retreat

This weekend we had the opportunity to participate in something really awesome. It was the Families in Action Retreat put on by The Arc for families of kids with developmental/ intellectual disabilities. We weren't really sure what to expect, but we are so glad we went!

There were so many wonderful things about this event. Here is the view out the window of the (first) room where we stayed. This is at the YMCA in Estes Park, Colorado. The mountains set the backdrop for the entire weekend. What a beautiful place!

We got to meet so many amazing families from different backgrounds! There was a woman who has raised her two autistic sons who now live on their own and are in their sixties... There was a mom who spoke alongside a daughter who had had severe disabilities when she was younger but had gotten through them and was even volunteering in the child care... One family had adopted a son who they later found out had severe disabilities and they shared their story of hope with us... There was one family who mother, father, and child all had autism and they told how this retreat gave them hope and a new beginning... just to list a few.

A great thing about this retreat is that everyone was so accepting. And there were so many awesome kids there! All kinds of kids! Everything from severely disabled to kids with no disabilities at all. And they all played together, and you couldn't really tell who was who most of the time. Everyone was included, and no one was left out. There were no "oddball" kids, no teasing, no bullying.

There were a lot of wonderful talks, and it was great meeting all those families, and the food was good too, but the real highlight for me was the child care. The volunteers were awesome accepting people who were willing to do whatever it took to help those kids. Kids had assigned buddies who were dedicated to make it a great time for them. The volunteers were young and old, typical AND disabled, which I thought was really cool! There were so many fun things to do~ bubbles and sidewalk chalk, giant bouncy balls, a sensory room (down time), blocks, books, stuffed animals, blanket tents, parachute games, museum and library, swimming pool and playground, painting and coloring... so kids could really choose what made them feel good.

I was really proud of Rowan for actually going to his "class" in the mornings. That was a first for him. I was so happy for Fynn because I could tell he was having an AWESOME time with his buddies. They really treated him so special. Actually, all of the volunteers treated all of the kids so special.  After living in a world where you're always the naughty kid in the class, this is what these kids really need. That is why this is the highlight of my weekend. This is something I want to take home with me. This is what EVERY kid deserves EVERY day~ to be understood, to be treated like they really matter, to have their needs met...

Here's a pic of Fynn painting a ceramic Tyrannosaurus. He hasn't wanted to paint anything in a long time, but when we picked him up that day, there it was. He also painted a whale piggy bank.

(This is Fynn holding a huge elk antler at the museum. His buddies took a lot of pics. Rowan didn't go with his buddies so much, so less pics.  We didn't take any pics cause there was no time!)

Like I said, everyone was accepted and included. Each kid was known for something. Everyone was special. Fynn became known as the dinosaur kid because he took his stuffed Brachiosaurus with him everywhere.  An older kid was known for wearing a dinosaur hat all the time. One little guy became known as "Elevator Man" because all he wanted to do was ride the elevator up and down. (And that was perfectly fine!) Even Rico became known for his unique shoes :) (Sorry this was the only pic I could find of you!)

It was so wonderful for us parents to let our guard down because we were in a safe environment where we knew no one would judge our parenting skills, no one would judge our kids because of their behavior; we were all in the same boat. One time, during a talk a bunch of kids started yelling right outside the door (I think one of them was actually Fynn) and then a huge round table rolled into the room. And it was no problem! People just laughed. No big deal, anything goes here.

 After the first night at the retreat, when we woke up we found water everywhere. It turned out that a water line in the wall had broke and we had to relocate. Fynn and Rowan called this "The Tidal Wave".  On the last day, before everyone left, Fynn and a friend were sliding down what they called "The Rock Slide". It was just a dirt path on a steep hill that was formed when they slid down it.  When I asked Fynn what his favorite things were that happened this weekend he told me:

1. The Rock Slide
2. The Tidal Wave

So, there you go.

There are so many more wonderful things that were talked about or that happened at the retreat, but I'll stop here. If we acquire any more pics from the retreat we'll post those as well.

Later! ~Beth