OH MY GOD THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY

Okay, I am trying to be good about this weather, but.....I HATE IT. I am not handling it this summer. It is gross. On top of that I have some sort of throat infection and have been running a 102-103 temperature.I can hardly swallow water. It is not pleasant. For all I know I have malaria or lymes because the abundance of bugs. I have never seen so many freakin' bugs.  What's gonna get you first when you step out the door..the wall of humidity...the wall of mosquitoes, or the toads. So many toads. Clearly, they are loving the buffet of bugs, and hopefully their abodes.  

Retta is not feeling well either. We have watched more movies in the last couple days than should be legally allowed. See...the temps are getting to me...I am an unschooler and I am talking should's and shouldn't's.

Back to bed for now, with my bowl if ice cubes.....I will be back in the swing of things soon, or I will catch a fast plane to Alaska!!! 

                         

New Journal

Just wanted to announce the creation of a new blog related to my book, Around the Family Table.  Check it out.

Habitat for Humanity Toad Style

In the process of cleaning up rooms we found a couple of plastic hamper lids that we don't use. Hmmmm....perfect mud pond containers for our toads. We placed one near our thicket and the other on the edge of the woods. We just fill them with fresh water each day. The toads and lizards love them.

In the first picture, we used an old bird observation box (that never worked), turned it on its' side and it makes a great toad abode. In the second picture, if you look to the right, we used an old plastic pot turned on its' side and camouflaged.

The lids worked really well. Hopefully we can get some picture of our residents as they move in.

                                      

Musa is still working hard on his dam building skills. He created a waterfall that runs down the hill and is attempting to dam it up at the bottom. It is fun to watch him problem solve.   

                                                                     

                                       

Retta's Art Studio

 Retta never plays in her room. She is also terrified of her room at night and always slept elsewhere. She has this great big room full of toys and she never went in and touched any of them. She has never been thrilled with toys, but out of some sort of robotic habit I would still buy them. Then they would lay on the floor untouched.

She spends most of her time at her desk in the office, in the garage or outside. It is not that I felt she needed to be in her room all the time but wanted to make it a space she would enjoy.

So we sat down in her room and I asked her what she wanted. We went through all the toys she had and she could decide what she wanted and what she wanted to sell or give to the thrift store.

It was an eye opening experience.

She said she wanted a "art studio" and wanted to change the furniture around. She kept three little baby dolls, only one doll bed that her Dad made. She kept a set of legos, her stuffed animals, and a few zoo animal figures. EVERYTHING ELSE went. I was very surprised.

She then choose the wall for her art studio and marked off the size. We also put her art easel, all of her paints and brushes, and a table and chairs nearby. She set up her shelves with crayons, markers, palettes, pencils, beads, and other craft suplies.

She has figured out if she uses watercolors on the wall it washes off easily with a rag so she can create and re-create wall art.

Guess what? She won't leave her room. She loves it. She even sleeps in her own bed now...she says it is a safe room now.

I love the part that she can write on the walls. I always wanted my own house that I could do whatever I wanted!!!! I might make my own graffiti wall.

 

Certificate

                   CERTIFICATE OF EMPOWERMENT

As bearer of this certificate you are no longer required to depend on the advice of experts. You may step back and view the entire world-not just your home, neighborhood or town, but the whole Earth-as a learning experience, a laboratory containing languages (and native speakers thereof), plants, animals, history, geology, weather (real live weather, in the sky, not in a book), music,  art , mathematics, physics, engineering, foods, human dynamics, and ideas 
without end. Although collections of these treasures have been located in museums for your convenience, they are to be found everywhere else, too. 

This authorizes you to experiment; to trust and enjoy your kids; to rejoice when your children surpass you in skill, knowledge or wisdom; to make mistakes, and to say "I don't know." Furthermore, you may allow your children to 
experience boredom without taking full responsibility for finding them something 
to do.  

Henceforth you shall neither be required nor expected to finish everything you start. Projects, books, experiments and plans may be discontinued as soon as something more interesting comes along (or for any other reason) without penalty, and picked up again at any time in the future (or never). You may reclaim control of your family's daily life, and take what steps you feel necessary to protect your children from physical, emotional or social harm. 

You have leave to think your own thoughts, and to encourage your children to think theirs.

 
Each person who reads and understands this is authorized to extend these privileges to others, by reproducing and distributing this certificate or by creating another of his/her own design. Those who don't feel the need to obtain approval to experiment, to think, or to do things they've never seen others do are exempt, as they didn't need permission in the first place.

Sandra Dodd

Salad for Dinner

 

 

All of our hard work has paid off. We are now getting daily harvests from our garden.

We are thrilled.

Bread

Musa and Retta were interested in how flour was made from wheat. After some book and internet research we decided to see if we could make flour from some ordinary grains we had in our cupboard.

Retta ground some oatmeal and made a great loaf of oatmeal bread.

Musa ground some flaxseeds into flour and made a very high fiber flaxseed, banana and date bread.

Yummmm....ohhhhh, the smell of the house when baking...a hot slice out of the oven with a drizzle of butter and honey.

Nice.

Retta Original

I bought Retta some actual art supplies. The good stuff. The real stuff. Professional oils and watercolors. Canvas. Quality brushes. A palette.

What a difference good supplies make. It is so much easier to make the art you desire with quality tools. Retta was happy.

The above picture was done with both watercolor and oil.

She explained that the bluebird is getting a shot of sunshine in his feathers, and the feathers are going up to the sun and growing. The green on the left is a Daddy Long Leg Spider and web.

Dennis

We send positive energy and intention of strength, courage and healing to all the people, pets, wildlife, trees, plants that lie in the path of Hurricane Dennis. We embrace the circle of life and bow to the power and wisdom of Mother Nature.

                              

Puppet Shows, Legos and Story Problems

We had a quiet day, hanging around the house talking and playing. No structure, no planned activities, just going with the moment. It started clouding up this afternoon as we wait for Cindy to make her appearance. We are under a flood watch and are expecting 2-6 inches of rain. We need it. Not that much all at once, but we need it. Musa and Retta are hoping for another "river" to form on the side of the property. They have their variouss sailing vessels ready for action.

Musa waxes and wanes on his Legos. He seems back into them lately. He has made 4 or 5 amazing looking creatures. I think it helps focus and relax him some.

Retta and Musa put on an impromtu sock puppet show for me. It was quite involved and very funny. As usual there were fire engines, police, emergency room visits and chase games and Retta threw in a couple of  "ferocious Kodiac bears from Alaska." There was lots of gigling.

                                        

Musa and I have also been working on some real life math problems. It is great to see him sort of freeze at the beginning, but as he takes his time and draws pictures and takes it step by step he gets it. It is so cool to see the light bulb go off and he always feels so successful. We have to freedom to take our time and really work on it (or not) until it makes sense.

C'mon Cindy...were are ready to sail!!!!

Titantic

This weekend we went to the Maryland Science Center and saw the Titantic exibit and a couple Imax films. Anna went with us,  the kids enjoyed showing her around.

We started by just walking around some of the usual exibits and then went to the first Imax film-fighter jets. Musa LOVED it, Retta said it was way too loud, Anna and I both realized it was nothing but a VERY LARGE recruitment film. The words freedom, pride and respect were extremely over used. Oh well...

                                      

The Titantic Exhibit was great. As you enter the exhibit thay give you a ticket that contains one of the real passengers name and history. We were all first class passengers. Anna was returning home from a honeymoon in Egypt, Italy, Spain and France.  Musa was a world famous and very rich jeweler, heading to a jewelry show. . Retta was on her way to Atlanta to watch her son graduate from medical school. I was married to a famous Broadway producer and was returning from a vacation. I slipped and broke my arm on the boat. (Of, course)

The artifacts were awesome to see up close. It was remarkable that these items were recovered. About halfway through the rooms we all noticed it was getting colder and we started grumbling about needing to turn down the air conditioner. Then you find yourself in the "iceberg room" and you are reminded why it was so cold. They ask you to touch this huge piece of ice and imagine that the water was much colder on  the day the boat sank. Powerful.

                                           

Musa spent a long time looking at the scale model of the boat. He had that familiar look in his eye. It is clear he was there.  

                                         

Then on to see the 3-D Bugs Imax. Very entertaining. 

                                              

A long, but great day.