Werk

In an attempt to clean out our office area (which is a desk in the living room, flanked by an armoire which holds a massive laser printer and all our office-y supplies plus a filing cabinet hidden in the coat closet), I went through our files to purge unnecessary documents to make room for more of Jon's random bits of paper which hold all his brilliant ideas (apparently). Since the main thing to rid the cabinet of were old bills and accounts that no longer exist yet have important information about my identity on them, I hauled out the shredder (also hidden in the coat closet). The boys heard its whirring and followed it to its source, where they found something delectably destructive to partake in with full parental blessings (minus lots of "watch your fingers!"). They took turns inserting two-year-old (and more) bills and papers of accounts with companies that no longer serve the greater metropolitan area at all. It was great relief to be rid of it and the boys had lots of fun with it.
In the end, I think we had five or six bags full of shredded paper to send to the recycling on Monday morning. I hauled it all out to the curb before realizing that Monday was a holiday and the trash and recycling would not be picked up until Tuesday. Ah well, at least it didn't rain.

Every Tuesday...

We've done very well making it to every one of our City Fresh days this year. Last year, the amount of a full share was quite overwhelming for us since Jon was working so much and we missed a few due to laziness and at times, vacation. This year, however, we've done quite well. The entire atmosphere is different this year too. The location is better - last year was in front of a church on a busy road and was basically a sidewalk. This year it's at a park in front of the library and connected to a large playground - the Dreaded Big Park (which is, incidentally, far less dreaded these days). A real community is forming now. There are lots of families with children, which wasn't the case last year, really, and we all hang out and let them play together quite a bit and chat with one another. I think several families have added the trip to the library as part of their weekly City Fresh excursion, just like us. I recognize people this year and see lots of folks I already knew who have joined.

There are several homeschooling families as well, which is nice to get to meet and talk with the mothers. School for the district started last week, so I've been talking to the other mothers about their informing the district of their intent to homeschool. Many of them are doing this for the first year, just like us (well, officially anyway), so there's lots of speculation about the assessment we have to do at the end of the year and what that will be like. It's nice to talk.

Meanwhile, the boys all run amok at the big park, climbing the adjacent mulberry tree, running behind the shrubbery in front of the library and stealing peaches from the crates. The boys spotted a large bumblebee.
I have always called and heard these called bumblebees and was never really quite sure if that was accurate. I sort of thought that "bumblebee" was synonymous with "honeybee" and that therefor this was something else altogether. Of course, thanks to the power of Google, I have discovered that it really is a bumblebee and it is in fact quite different from the honeybee. What did I do before Google? Apparently walked around with unverified facts stored in my head.
Bastian says "cheese!" He's wearing his new applique wolf shirt I got at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago. It's totally awesome and he loves it. Aleks wondered why I didn't get him a wolf shirt too.
Aleks and his buddies crouched down in their hideout under the three-story slide.

I sat on a bench with my veggies while they all played. This week was tomato, potatoes, peaches, corn, green peppers, squash, and cooking greens.
There were lots and lots and lots of peaches, so I ended up with extra.
Bastian and Aleks have grown accustomed to hanging out for a long while at City Fresh, playing with the other kids and stealing the peaches (spray-free) straight outta the crate and going to town getting sticky. I've tried to encourage them to at least ask.

Makin' Pie

Jon suggested we make pies to get through all our fruit from City Fresh extras, so I set out to make an apple pie totally from scratch. I'd seen my mother make pie crusts and had helped in the past, but never appreciated the entire process and its idiosyncrasies. Making pastry is weird. Anna visited for dinner and helped Aleks make the filling. First they chopped up all the apples. Anna pealed them and Aleks cut them into smaller pieces. Then he and Bastian took turns dumping ingredients into the mixing bowl and helping Anna stir.
Meanwhile, I made the crust very carefully according to the instructions in Joy of Cooking. I even added an apple design to top it off. The pie was delicious!


authors note - I realized that I am constantly talking of this Anna lady while I myself am an Anna. I'm not sure if that's confusing or not, but the Anna in the above picture is not me. That's my good friend, Anna, whose children are good friends with Aleks and Bastian. We both just happen to unschool, homebirth, knit, gossip endlessly, like movies, love Harry Potter, breastfeed half our lives, and are named Anna. We're the Annas. Just so you know.

Children's Botanical Garden

We visited the Botanical Gardens to get out of the house for a bit (and to make that membership worth it!). First they ran straight for the coy pond and gazed at the fish.
Then they ran amok for a good half hour with other kids, climbing rocks and acting like zombies and monsters. I sat and read Harry Potter. In the vegetable patch, there was giant pumpkin. I don't know what they did to get it so big. I want to carve it for Halloween (when we will be having a second Harry Potter party at Anna's request).
Bastian gets close to demonstrate for the camera how very large this jack-o-lantern potential is.
There's a little house in the garden for playing in whose roof is filled with plants. Bastian loves it, as though a little house were so novel (admittedly, we do not have one of our own).
He poked his head out of all the windows
and pulled the shutters closed. I guess he wanted to be alone.
Back in the vegetable patch, he insisted on shutting the gate as well (a very Benjamin Rabbit sort of gate, I might point out).
The garden was full of a bagillion plants. I wish I had a team of landscape experts to work in my yard.I find I like taking close up photos of plants. They are so lovely. Apparently marigolds are excellent for companion gardening as the deter some pests. I remember the one year my step-father found old packages of them and planted tons all along the garden's edge. Now it all makes so much sene.

Bastian filling up a watering can, which he used to water the sand.
The lady working there recommended (several times) that he water plants instead of sand. So he did.
Barbara Kingsolver talks about the five-colored swiss chard she grows in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She claims her children would have blindfolded taste-tests to see if the colors tasted different. She claims that this is what happens when you don't have m&ms in the house, though in my experience, I've not seen evidence to support this claim. Thus, I think she's full of it. We were able to take a couple stems of this home and have it for dinner. I did not notice a difference in taste between the orange and the magenta, but it did taste quite good - much like spinach.
In the critter box were three giant fat Tomato Hornworms.
One of these can eat an entire tomato plant. They're kinda creepy.
The kids liked it, as they like all bugs.
On the way out, Aleks requested change to throw in the fountain. I don't believe either of them had ever done this before.
Aleks whispered to his penny (so Bastian did the same), telling it his wish before throwing it in.
And there the wishes sit. I wonder who grants them, what force that might be.

Hopscotchery

I tried to teach the boys hopscotch, while we played in the evening outside. I thought it might interest them greatly since they tend to bore of sidewalk chalk and always want to visit the neighbors over and over. I was quite wrong about it holding their interest, however. They did not try much to learn to hop on one foot and I desperately wanted to get back to reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for the fifth or sixth time (which, I was disappointed to learn after I'd started it, is quite fruitless as the movie release has been pushed back until Summer 2009). I abandoned the attempt.

I then looked up to discover them inventing their own method of hopscotch, if not for hopping, at least for drawing.

The Potions Master

I discover Aleks making a potion on the counter, a la Severus Snape.

Our Half-Blood Prince stole expensive organic ingredients from our spice cabinet and dumped them in a bowl, creating a noxious combination of unpleasant flavors.

The bubbling actually comes from the interaction between a packet of Emergen-C (lemon-lime, which when combined with the cocoa powder was delish! retch!) and a bit of soapy water. So it fizzed wonderfully, like a truly toxic concoction. I'm not sure precisely what this was intended to do, but we stored it in a test tube for a week.

Troll

For Aleks' birthday, I got Bastian a troll, a Minotaur, and Cerberus, the three-headed dog from Greek mythology:

the watchdog who guards the entrance to the lower world, the Hades. It is a child of the giant Typhon and Echidna, a monstrous creature herself, being half woman and half snake.

Originally, the dog was portrayed having fifty or hundred heads but was later pictured with only three heads (and sometimes with the tail of a serpent). Cerberus permitted new spirits to enter the realm of dead, but allowed none of them to leave. Only a few ever managed to sneak past the creature, among which Orpheus, who lulled it to sleep by playing his lyre, and Heracles, who brought it to the land of the living for a while (being the last of his Twelve Labors).

The need for a present for Bastian is the same reason I have to buy two of everything now that I have two children with similar likes and interests. It gets expensive.

It's a good thing I got them though, as both boys love them. Aleks drew the troll (which really I think is supposed to be an ogre, but we like trolls) while looking at it, which is a first, I believe. Googling it, I discovered that trolls and ogres are somewhat similar.

His observation skills were very nice. I love his artwork.


While in Dayton, my mother reminded me that some boys called me Troll in school. I had forgotten all about that. At first, I thought it was in high school and was developed by friends of mine (and really, that sounds like something they might have done), but now I recall that it was Richard Hadler in fourth or fifth grade. The jerk.

Bastian's Tattoo

Aleks gave Bastian a whole body tattoo with a giant skull on his chest.Bastian quite liked it.

Library/City Fresh

As every Tuesday, we traveled to Coventry Peace Park to pick up our farm share and visit the library and visit with our friends. We decided to stay the whole day as we went to the Food Co-op first for our other groceries, dropped them off at home, then headed to the library, then picked up our vegetables and waited for our friends to come. Usually there are a couple of women who bring their children with them who the kids play with, but most of the children were home sick. Jenny and Reilly come at the end because Jenny volunteers for City Fresh by collecting and typing their spreadsheet each week, so we waited a long time for them to come. Knowing this was the case, I packed peanut butter and jelly.
We sat down on some rocks and read one of our library books while we waited. It was a gardening alphabet book. I thought we'd look for some of the same fruits and vegetables we were getting in our half-share in the book. None of the words had anything to do with specific plants, but the pictures had plenty of fruits and veggies in them.
We got apples.
And peaches, which I helped moved from crate to bucket so the crates could go back to the farm, and which my children ate several of while they ran about with the children of the other volunteers. While moving the peaches, one of the organizers talked to me about helping the Food Co-op out as it is struggling. I serve on the board of the Food Co-op. I passed the information on at our board meeting and our produce manager is going to contact the gentleman. It was a nice connection to make. If I were staying in this city, I'd be more committed to making change. As it is, I'm leaving in a year and focused on other things...
There were watermelons, whose insides are yellow, extremely seedy, and delicious.
Eggplants which we turned into vegetable fajitas.
Along with the onion and green bell pepper...
The Kale is always my favorite. I love kale so much. It so wonderful fried in olive oil with garlic and I put it raw into smoothies for the boys. A friend's elbow was bothering her. We said - eat lots of kale! It's anti-inflammatory and a powerful anti-oxidant. It also helps prevent Rheumatoid Arthritis, promotes lung health, and helps cells in their detoxifying and cleansing processes. It's also good drizzled in oil and vinegar and eaten raw as a salad.
Beets. Which I'm so sick of.
The boys ran and ran with all the other boys.

Evening Hike

We hadn't been to Rocky River in a long while and The Last Child in the Woods kinda weighs on me even though I've never read it, so Anna and I took the kids for an evening hike. As we walked, we realized that we hadn't been in ages and wondered why. It seemed like we only tend to go there in the spring and fall and somehow skip the summertime. The undergrowth was wild and unruly and there was poison ivy everywhere, which we kept shrieking at the kids to step away from. Bastian did, in the end, walk right into some, and I rubbed him and his shoes down with rubbing alcohol and bathed them and gave him rhus tox as soon as we got home. Nothing developed. Of course, now I've read in National Goegraphic magazine that poisony ivy (which, thanks to global warming is becoming more and more prevalent) usually doesn't produce a rash upon the first exposure. Apparently, the body recognizes the oil with subsequent exposures and acts against it in the form of a nasty rash that spreads. Great. Sounds to me like the chicken pox/shingles phenomenon which I learned all about when the kids had pox.

An initial exposure is necessary to "sensitize" the patient; In other words, you get "one free pass". A subsequent exposure will result in an allergic reaction if the plant oil remains in contact with the skin for as little as 10 to 15 miniutes. The resulting rash begins after a 12 to 48 hour delay and persists for about two weeks up to four weeks or longer.

Great, in looking up that bit, I also disovered this gem:

The entire plant, except the pollen, is toxic throughout the year, even during the winter months when the branches and stems are leafless.

Fantastic.

As always, first thing is first, the children giggle and squeal excitedly at seeing one another, followed by running far off down the trail and immediately climbing the wall and nearly plunging to their deaths (though not really).
Aleks and Jonas hopped down from the wall and immediately started trying to go straight up the gigantic staircase to the top of the ridge. We reminded them that this was far too exhausting for us old ladies and that we preferred the long way around. Thus, down they came.
Anna found a dead cicada which Aleks carried around for a bit and everyone examined. They're all really into bugs, or er, entymology. Last year, Aleks was really into cicadas in particular and carried a million of their shed exoskeletons around in a plastic baggy. I think I finally disposed of that this past winter as it was, um, quite gross, really.
After climbing the somewhat tall staircase on the other side of the ridge, the kids found another cicada carcass and examined the two corpses side by side.
The kids took a different route than usual and along a mystery path that cut straight through the wood, we noticed all these downed trees. We think there must have been a wood-boring insect of some sort to kill so many. I do know from last falls' leaf collection that there are lots of Ash trees here, so it may have been the Banded Ash Borer.
Bastian wouldn't let me up onto the viewing platform. He claimed it for his own as though he were King of the Wood.
Anna distracted the children from whining with this seed fluff. I like the idea of these being fairies.
The boys grabbed sticks to hunt the poor dear, though.
At last we reached the summit.
It seemed some earth had fallen away since our last visit. The board did not look substantial enough to hold back someone heavy. Scared me a bit.
After all, the fall is probably several hundred feet. The boys, especially Bastian for being so short, tend to climb too high on the fence, which also makes me nervous.
Coming down the tremendously steep staircase, which also makes me nervous, especially as Aleks walks straight down rather quickly without holding onto the railing, I spotted a muskrat off in the pond. Once down, I took the boys to the edge of the pond to point it out more clearly and had to explain what a rodent is.
Walking past the nature center towards the parking lot, they spotted another interesting bug.
Another, albeit smaller, assassin bug. Or possibly a leaf-footed bug. I'm very confused about bug identification. Will have to submit my photos to the bugguide.net.
After our lovely hike and some fussing about parting, I took Aleks and Bastian for ice cream, which we all enjoyed very much and got us all tuckered out for a bath and bedtime once we arrived home. All in all, a lovely evening.

Aleks' Birthday List Fulfilled

Since I told the whole family about Aleks' Birthday List, my mother went to great lengths to ensure that what he wanted was fulfilled. Firstly, she drove clear across town to the Krispy Kreme factory to acquire doughnuts for breakfast that were not only delicious, but hot off the factory line. She also brought back hats. From left to right, Bastian, Jon, Lavinia, Aleks, and Jonas. Lavinia and Jonas spent the night with their mom, Anna, at my mother's farm (for lack of a better word, though it's only five acres and not a working farm). Aunt Lilly, my little sister, road the Megabus down from school in Chicago especially for Aleks' big day. Aunt Natty was unfortunately stuck in France, plotting her premature escape from the Riviera where she'd spent the last several weeks acting as an au pair for a snobbish rich family. She could no longer stomach it, quit and ran away to Paris in the wee hours of the morning.
Everyone took a turn with the hats. I am cruel and put photos of Anna without makeup online.
As we waited for the guests to arrive, Aleks opened the gift from Lilly, which included a Millennium Falcon key chain and an Exo-force Lego set, both from the Lego store in Chicago, which we hope to visit with Max and Otto some day. Aleks and Jonas immediately set to work constructing the robot spider thing.
Throughout the day, Bastian broke into the chicken pen to chase chickens.
His older cousins were all a little wary of catching them, but Bastian showed 'em how to do it: you simply grab the tail of the nearest hen, get a grip on the body and hug.
Braden was eventually successful in grabbing one of his own. Grandpa Jim tells us this is actually a rooster, though I'm not certain. It doesn't look like a rooster to me, but when you order twenty-five chickens (or more) from McMurray Hatchery, you get a 26th random "rare" chick free and it's always a rooster, even if you asked that they sex all the other eggs to be female.
Aleks is an old pro at chicken chasing, but it's Bastian's bravery that gave him the motivation to grab hold and squeeze.
Jonas was all upset about something and while his mother tried to talk to him about it on the side porch, I noticed this Giant Crane Fly on one of the posts. I knew what it was immediately as just the other day I'd been reading Piglet68's unschooling blog and she and her daughter had discovered one in their garage. I'd never seen one before, so it was quite exciting. Plus they're huge! Apparently in the UK and Canada they call these Daddy Long Legs. Here in the states, Daddy Long Legs are Harvestmen Insects, which everyone thinks is a spider, but is not. These are much bigger than Harvestmen.
During the early spring, Aunt Natty had started making a piñata for her boss at the restaurant she worked at when he requested that someone make him one. It was supposed to be a lion, I think, though I don't have any recollection of what it was for. She got a balloon filled up and a thin layer of paper mâché done when she found out her boss went ahead and bought one. She brought her unfinished work home, thinking Aleks and Bastian could do something with it. We left it at my mother's house and Grandma Cat got the idea to make a piñata for Aleks' birthday. She had Aunt Lilly put some legs and a tail on the rotund frame in order to make it resemble a pig. When we arrived on Friday, Lilly and I painted it purple with green spots according to Aleks' instructions. It ended up looking more like a manatee with legs than anything, and an oddly colored one at that.
Papa Logan got all stressed out about the kids flinging a stick around and about their lining up to take a swing. We ignored him. Bastian went first, as we ordered the line from youngest to oldest.
Then was Aleks and Bastian's cousin Emmalyn, who is 4. My step-sister and I had four kids in about four-and-a-half years. For six weeks every sumer, they're in perfect age order. Since Noah turned 7 in July, we are past that six week mark now.
Then Lavinia, who is also 4.
Then Aleks who is my big boy at 6!
Then Noah who turned 7 July 17th, which is also our good friend Martha's birthday, though she turned 53.
Noah did it! The manapig went flying and broke in half. The kids scrambled for healthy treats, which included miniature activity books, fruit leather, mini telescopes, and plastic insect finger puppets, which are always a good time. Who ever heard of a healthy piñata? How disappointing! I was quite thrilled, myself, as the children had started the day with doughnuts and moved on to ice cream and cake.
Since Braden, at age 12, missed his turn, he destroyed the rest of our pig/manatee in the yard.
Last year at Sunfest, some French rockers who were makin' eyes at me in the Hilton pool thought Lilly and Matt were the parents of my children because they were playing with them while I took a dip in the hot tub. This picture of Matt and Bastian playing with the Star Wars "guys" Matt got Aleks for his birthday makes them look like they are the proud parents to one Sebastian Diego. They're a little young, but they make such a cute family.
Grandma Cat got this awesome idea to buy a hand-crank ice cream maker and a raw milk share to make ice cream to go with our cake. The milk share didn't come through in time, but we made the ice cream - sweet cream flavor. All the kids took a turn.
I'm reminded of our wedding when for some reason we did the Limbo (which I'd thereforto never done in my life). All the photographers commented on how easy it was to record the guests by just standing at the end of the line. Same goes with getting the kids in action, making the ice cream (and hitting the piñata as well).
Grandma Cat figures that once environmental catastrophe combined with a falling dollar and skyrocketing prices on everything leads to a severe Depression (zombie apocalypse), we'll be able to make our own fun. We'll probably need a cow too, though.
Someone said something about Bastian having one facial expression. I pointed out that he was simply concentrating. They thought he looked unhappy. I caught his attention briefly and he did smile for me. He was quite enjoying this actually, but needed a serious face in order to focus.
The cannister spins in the bucket of ice. Rock salt is added to the top, forcing the ice to melt, which absorbs the temperature of the cream solution and lowers the overall temp from 32 degrees to somewhere between 8 to 12. Or something like that:

Rock salt forces the ice surrounding the can of ice cream mix to melt. The "brine solution" or liquid that forms in the wooden bucket absorbs heat from the mix and gradually lowers the temperature of the mix until it begins to freeze. If there were no salt added to the ice, it would melt at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and eventually the ice water and mix would come to equilibrium at 32 degrees. The ice cream mix, however, does not begin to freeze until its temperature falls below 27 degrees. Therefore, in order to freeze the mix, we need a salt concentration, or a ratio of 5 cups of ice to 1 cups of salt. At this concentration, our brine temperature should remain constant at 8 to 12 degrees F. This will give the rapid cooling and freezing that is essential to making smooth creamy ice cream.

The mix looked pretty gross after, what with the milk mixture Grandma Cat spilled while pouring, plus the salt and the melty ice water.
My mom made a sour milk cake, which has turned into the go-to for birthdays. That happened sometime in the last few years, though I can't recall quite why exactly. I guess everyone just loves it. Braden does not like icing, I am told, so Cat left a corner of the cake uncovered just for him.
Aleks was so thrilled with being the birthday boy.

After cake and delicious (if soft) homemade ice cream, Aleks and Bastian led a sudden expedition up the fallen tree branch that's been in the yard the last three years. It's still somewhat attached so the smaller branches still produce leaves. It's quite sturdy, but made Papa Logan have his usual freak-out.
None of the younger kids but Bastian and Aleks could actually make it up the tree.
Even Braden found it tricky making it all the way up.
Since Papa Logan was freaking out, and getting back down the tree is quite a bit more difficult, Jon and I grabbed a ladder to save the children from sitting up there indefinitely.
They were okay with the rescue, as it gave them the opportunity to climb down a ladder.
After the rescue, I looked up to the back patio to see everyone standing up, as though something very dramatic was happening. As they hadn't been standing when everyone got in the tree, I was confused why the sudden commotion now that everyone was out of the tree. As it happens, they were all observing a Snowberry Clearwing Moth in the butterfly bush. Papa Logan claimed it was a Queen Hornet, which made no sense to me. Grandma Cat said it was a fairy. Everyone else was completely confused, thinking it looked like a cross between a bee, a humming bird, and a butterfly. Sure enough, what we saw was a Hummingbird Moth. I had seen them before, but never had the cause of a blog to actually remember to google the dang things. They are weird, for sure.
In trying to photograph the fairy/hummingbird/moth/bee, I also spied this Wheel Bug.
After things died down, we captured the Giant Crane Fly and the Wheel Bug (plus a second Wheel Bug nearby) and stuck them in our hermit crab box for awhile. We tried to find things for them to eat, but nobody ate anything. They were all quite frightened of one another though. In the evening, we left the box open for them to escape and it was empty the next day. It's interesting, because we first found an Assassin Bug last year during Aleks' birthday, along with a huge Praying Mantis. Grandma Cat's house is clearly surrounded by awesome insects.
While Anna and I roamed the yard trying to collect Japanese Beetles to feed the Wheel Bugs, Bastian laid down for a nap in the center of the yard. I don't think he fell asleep fully, but he stayed here for quite a bit, soaking up the evening sun.

All things considered, Aleks' Birthday list was not quite fulfilled, though it was supplemented with other activities that I believe made it all quite worth it. Let us review:

• have donuts for breakfast ✓
• eat ice cream and birthday cake ✓
• pick tomatoes - not accomplished, though Aleks seemed to have forgotten about it anyway
  
• dig for treasure and toys in the sandbox ✓ - Grandma Cat bought boxes of chalk, which we buried and the kids all dug up and got to take home as favors
  
• feed the chickens ✓ - mostly they chased them though
  
• play video games on the television - not accomplished, though attempted. Video games were played online, however
  
• have a race - suggested, but not actually attempted, as Jonas did not feel like racing
  
• receive presents ✓
• talk on the phone with Jonas while standing beside him - not accomplished, much to my disappointment. The bizarreness of this request made me really want to see it and document it. I think they have actually done it before, though, so it's no real loss.
  

Evolution of the Linear

Bastian's marble run structures are becoming steadily more complex. He's taken to finding new ways to place the pieces, new places to put the marbles in, and added other types of blocks to build up rather than just over and out. It begins to extend half the length of the dining room.
He places some of the marble run pieces upside down and puts the marbles in the holes where they stay underneath. He also balanced ABC blocks in the half-pipe blocks.

We're Official!

In Ohio, the compulsory school attendance laws require that we notify our school district of our intent to homeschool and at the end of the year submit an assessment. At the beginning of last week, I completed our notification form and sent it in. I got my reply from the school district today that our notification met the requirements and my son is excused from compulsory attendance. Yippie!

The Home Schooling Notification Forms that you submitted to educate your child at home have been reviewed. We have determined that the information provided in this notification form meets the requirements of the Rules for Home Education as stated in Chapter 3301-34 of the Administrative Code of Ohio. Therefore, Aleksander is excused from school attendance for the 2008-2009 school year. This excuse from school will end on June 4, 2009.

It's pretty funny, because the notification form I sent in included a rough unschooling curriculum and materials list another mom on a list somewhere wrote years ago. It's been pretty much making the rounds and we're all using it verbatim as it's vague enough to work quite well without edits. Here it is, if you're interested:

Brief Outline of Material to be Covered:

1.Language, Reading, Spelling and Writing
a.Reading books will be chosen by our family throughout the year.
b.Spelling words will be gathered from reading books.
c.Grammar, punctuation and sentence structure will be learned by reading well-written works.
d. Writing will be incorporated into the entire educational process.

2.Geography, History, Government
a.Study of basic world geography
b.Detailed study of history focusing on specific topics chosen by the family throughout the year, this will include Ohio history, U.S. history and world history.
c.Study of cultures and cultural differences (including comparative religion)
d.Comparative study of different types of government and their development through the ages.

3.Mathematics
a.Number puzzles and games as a means of learning
b.Use of manipulatives for concrete operations
c.Computer Science at an age appropriate level

4.Science
a.Hands on experiments to teach physical, chemical and electrical science
b.Visits to science centers; COSI, Great Lakes Science Center, etc.
c.Nature study, especially during camping trips and hikes
d.Biological science, physics, geology as desired by family

5.Health is part of everyday life and is handled as such

6.Physical Education
a. As an active family we feel our children get plenty of exercise and this category is just a part of living. We also participate in weekly gymnastics and swimming.

7.Fine arts, including music
a.Visits to various museums and art institutes
b.Exposure to almost every type of music through our family collection, music borrowed from local libraries, and online radio.
c.Hands on exposure to many art mediums, including clay, drawing, painting, textile arts, woodworking and basic crafting

8.First aid, safety and fire prevention is part of everyday life and is handled as such


Materials List:

Our books will be chosen from a wide selection of books as we proceed through the year. In addition to the large selection of books we own, we also have access to many other families' collections. We have library cards from several libraries in the area and are such frequent visitors that the librarians know us.

We have educational computer programs in many subjects, including science, math, language and history.

We have a wide variety of music and stories on CD as well as the ability to obtain more through library loans.

Our family owns many educational kits, manipulatives, games, and workbooks for the kids to use throughout the year.

Access to the Internet provides supplementary material (including worksheets and games) on many subjects as well as many interactive sites geared toward my child's age and abilities.

We make frequent visits to museums, zoos, and science centers as well as field trips to various types of factories, farms and other interesting sites.

Above all, the most important basic teaching material we intend to use, is the knowledge in our own heads. As educating parents there can be no more readily accessible source than the knowledge we have gained over the years and the ability to pass it on in a one on one environment.

In fact, I just realized that I kept in gymnastics and swimming, which we don't actually do. Oops.

Sick Days

Aleks finally got better on Tuesday, but by Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Bastian had become vomitous in his stead. So another day remaining indoors. Bastian is at least very good at puking. Several times he brought his bowl to me and said, "my 'tomach hurt," with a sad little face. I'd tell him to sit down and he'd throw up into his bowl. So neat. He did pretty well and was less lethargic than Aleks. I think I prefer the lethargy, however, as it makes caring for a sick child simpler.

Mid-day I went out to run some errands, mainly to pick up birthday presents for Aleks. They are now hidden in the trunk of our car, awaiting transport to Grandma's house (provided we all remain well for the duration of the week). I also finally found the thrift store I'd heard was in the area I'd gone shopping, but had never found (because it's hidden!), so I went thrifting. I found a shirt, tank top, and two skirts for myself, a B is for Bob short-sleeved shirt, an appliqué wolf shirt and two pairs of much-needed shorts for Bastian, and Connect Four (originally, I just learned, The Captain's Mistress) and a Zoob Mover set for both boys. They were thrilled (by the games, not the clothes, of course!).

They immediately played Connect Four, then broke out the Zoob set. We already have a small Zoob collection (substantial enough, though) and I figured for the price, even if it didn't work, the extra pieces would be worth it. We found that with partially-charged batteries, it kind of worked. We'll have to try it out with fully charged batteries later.
They put together this "dinosaur" with long scary clamping arms that to me resembled some kind of scorpion or something. The weird feeler-like mouth added to that notion as well.
Three dollars! Can you believe it?!?
In the evening, Bastian seemed to feel a bit better and they headed outside to blow bubbles on the porch. This lead, in fairly quick order, to riding bikes around the house.
Bastian has yet to feel confident on the tricycle and insists on continuing to use his push-along car. I did manage to convince Aleks to ride the big bike more though. He was still on the trike for a long time, despite having had the big bike since Christmas.
I turned the compost and brought the boys back to check out all the fat worms. Our pile is nice and big and the earth underneath moist and dark and rich from all the food bits my boys refuse to eat (no matter how we size the portions!).
We talked about how the worms feed on all the old food and poop out dirt.
Aleks knows how important the worms are for good earth and for growing things. He digs 'em. Literally.
After getting all sorts of dirty outside, we retired indoors for a bath, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Scooby Doo, and more vomiting. They watched Scooby Doo on Zombie Island and whenever the music would come on and the zombies would take chase, Aleks would come show me how he was a zombie. He insisted that I document this.
He stepped gradually closer
and closer,
pausing dramatically so I could properly capture it,
until he was so close he became but a blur.
Bastian was doing so well with his illness, that I kept thinking he was over it. Until he wasn't. We had to take a second bath after he ruined my quilt, sheets, skirt, leg, arm, and sadly, my Alex Cuba t-shirt. I got the stain out luckily.

While in the basement, I spied this crazy nasty super-duper creepy bug. I'd seen them before, though not in awhile, and had forgotten what they were really called. I brought Aleks down to see it and we shivered together as it moved, its fifteen pairs of legs gliding effortlessly over the wall and moving in creepy, crawly unison. It makes me draw in my breath and my spine shiver just thinking about it.
We looked it up online and discovered that it is a House Centipede.

Order: Scutigeromorpha
Family: Scutigeridae
Genus and species: Scutigera coleoptrata (Linnaeus)

S. coleoptrata is probably indigenous in the Mediterranean region, but it has spread through much of Europe, Asia, and North America. In the United States, it has spread from the southern states and Mexico. It reached Pennsylvania in 1849, New York in 1885, and Massachusetts about 1890, and it is now extends westward to the Rocky Mountains and beyond.

In captivity, house centipedes feed readily on cockroach nymphs, flies, moths, bedbugs, crickets, silverfish, earwigs, and other insects and small spiders. They capture prey by half pouncing and half lassoing them. They can capture several prey items at one time. They feed on one specimen while holding the others with their quivering, lashing appendages.

Although house centipedes are not aggressive, and their jaws are not powerful enough to break human skin easily, they will sometimes bite in self-defense. Severe swelling and pain can result from the venom injected, but in most cases the bite is no worse than the sting of a bee.

Aleks' Birthday List

We're supposed to go to Dayton to visit my parents for Aleks' 6th birthday on Saturday. We have big plans that Anna, Jonas, and Lavinia will all go down on Friday night and spend the night with us there, having a lovely little sleepover plus the party the next day. They came last year, but didn't stay the night. Aleks was vomitous Sunday and Monday, but felt a lot better on Tuesday. Of course now Bastian has it. I'm dosing myself up with Emergen-C and oscillococcinum in an attempt to avoid it and hope that no one else is sick, ruining the birthday festivities.

Upon feeling better on Tuesday (despite early day lethargy), Aleks started talking extensively about everything he wants to do on his birthday. Based on a conversation we had a few weeks ago, he's decided that he's in charge that day. He even drew this list of all the things he would like to do.
As far as I remember from his chattering, he would like to

• have donuts for breakfast
• eat ice cream and birthday cake
• pick tomatoes
• dig for treasure and toys in the sandbox
• feed the chickens
• play video games on the television
• have a race
• receive presents
• talk on the phone with Jonas while standing beside him

This last one is particularly interesting - what a goal! He thinks it's hysterical, which of course it is.

Recent Acquisitions

Some recent creations in our house, since I've finally found the time (what with Aleks puking all last night) to scan them in...

Bastian's watercolor and blackberry painting...Another watercolor from the same day. The unbleached paper really absorbs nicely and gives it a nice background.
Aleks woke me one morning a couple of weeks ago and made me write this letter to Santa Claus. Normally, I am very careful when taking dictation to write in a way that he might recognize the letters and some of the words, using all capital letters and print handwriting, but I was half-asleep and opted for my normal illegible hybrid for speed. The letter explains this thing he's been talking about ever since:

Dear Santa,
I want you to get me a giant robot lizard with ice lasers that can change things to a block of ice and which can transform from a giant robot lizard into a green car. Don't forget and from a car to tiny green ball for only playing in the forest and get rid of bullies when I see one.
ALEKS

I later noticed that the drawing had bunches of arrows as though it were a schematic. I also asked why he needed to write to Santa so urgently. He explained that it was so Santa would have time to build this giant green robot lizard, which, I am told, is to be ten feet tall.
This is the plan for our poxy chicken, which I drew, but then Bastian drew circles around it with each of the different colored markers, demonstrating to me that he is indeed developmentally appropriate for his age.

Birthday Party Invitations

Since Aleks was all pukey, I decided it was finally time to work on the invitations for his party, which will likely not even reach the guests before the intended day. Luckily, they've all already been invited by phone or in person, so it doesn't much matter. I wanted to use drawings of Aleks' and print the information on top of them. I thought this was an excellent way to dispose of some of the million drawings littering the house and share his work at the same time.

When he saw what I'd done, however, Aleksander was not pleased. When I needed more invites, we had to do something else. So we used the Bakugan cards I'd scanned as a background and made a new sheet. He appreciated this much better, though was still confused about why I'd want to use his art. Because it's freaking awesome, of course!

My son, the genius, at age 3

We bought a book of mazes for Aleks a number of weeks ago. He spent the first day or two doing a few of them, but lost interest fairly quickly. Bastian, however, picked it up today and started doing the mazes. At first I thought he was just scribbling in the book (and there are indeed a few pages of that), but then I saw him actually working on the mazes.He goes the wrong way at first sometimes, but corrects himself. He does seem to get the rules.
And he always gets there in the end. What a brilliant young man, I must say.

Don't Go in the Water

Having warned the children that I would rather they didn't go in the creek owing to the fact that I recently disposed of two pairs of sandals just like the ones Bastian was wearing due to too much going into ponds and creeks and puddles and wading pools while wearing them as well as the fact that the entire creek bed was covered in bits of slate (and some bits of glass) and would slice bare feet to bits, they went in anyway, of course.
At first it was just over the rocks, with bits of shoe poking in, but eventually the younger brother followed and that whole idea of staying above the waterflow went to hell.
Then there was much running away despite calling after and me with my head aching anyway from not enough sleep, stood on the creek bank watching and chatting with Anna as our children splashed and waded, deeper and deeper, eventually soaking most of their clothes.

Upon retrieving them, we walked up the path through a meadow, far from the creek and its banks full of poison ivy, along a trail, over a bridge and past old railroad supports that stretched cross the road and peaked through the overgrowth on the other side.
Along the path, the boys spotted a centipede. They threatened to squash it and we warned them not to touch it due to the possibility of bites or stings. Anna explained about the delicate nature of ecosystems and how the centipede needed to be there to eat the things it ate and help keep the other populations of insects and animals and plants in check (though I don't think any of us have any idea what centipedes actually eat).
We reached a field with a picnic area where we sat down for a bit while the boys played with the dogs.
My sons love playing with animals. Aleks periodically asks me to get him a dog or a cat or both. We uh, don't have space/time/energy for a pet at this juncture. So we have to visit the pets of our friends.
Bastian's feet were stained red from playing in the creek. We removed the shoes and set them in the sun for a bit.

Then all the kids played in a water fountain and spigot for a long time, drowning daddy long legs and committing other assorted acts of violence. It was quite a nice break for the moms, however. We sat on a bench and just watched from afar while they ran and made lots of mud.

Attack of the Blue Ghost

Aleks being a Blue Ghost in Jonas' Body Sock, which he thought was great fun. In fact, they all did and chased each other around making monster sounds and nearly killing each other (body sock + slick hardwood floor + pushing = bad idea). While googling where to buy one, I came across this bizarre story. I swear they used to use these for fun and not just therapy.

Here Be Dragons

Aleks wanted me to make a dragon for him the day we made the poxy chicken, but we were making the chicken and eventually he got distracted about the chicken, but I kept the dragon in mind anyway. So a few days pass, and we're in dire need of something creative or challenging as things have gotten a bit stagnant at the house with all the being inside with chicken pox and later just sheer laziness, so I pull out the dragon idea again. Aleks thinks it's awesome. We discuss what kind of dragon he would like, whether a traditional European type dragon

Or an Asian dragon like the Eric Carle sticker Bastian recently stuck to the window in their room:

Aleks is determined that the collage dragon be like the Eric Carle one and that we make it one hundred feet long. He scales it back almost immediately to a much more reasonable fifty-foot paper dragon. I tell him that first we need to plan it out, so we all get out our sketchbooks to draw the Eric Carle dragon so we know how the parts need to go together. And we draw dragons, even Bastian:
My dragon.
Aleks' dragon.
Bastian's dragon.

Then we spend some time ripping out blues and greens for the scales from magazines in our collage supply box, but get distracted by other things and the amount of blue and green we will be needing for a fifty foot dragon, so the project rests until another day... Surely there will be updates...

Visit to Anna's

We seem to be going to Anna's to visit the kids and hang out about once a week now at least. She has these mystery squash/melon vines popping up all over her garden. We lifted the plastic pool to empty the rainwater grossness and discovered a bunch of earthworms, which Bastian helped gather to put in the garden. Since it had been awhile since it had rained, the ground was really too dry for them, so Bastian watered the plants to make things nice and loose. He pretty much crushed the bell pepper though.
Lavinia insisted I take a picture of her. Apparently this is a smile.
The boys put all the backyard toys together to form a big double slide.
Bastian, who is terrified of the three-story slide at the Dreaded Big Park, had zero fear of this thing.

It Seemed Like Such a Good Idea at the Time

Painting outside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon seemed like a really good idea. I brought out a map so I could paint it along side the boys with their giant sheet of paper. And the new paints were nice too. It all starts out so lovely. Boys painting. Papa playing catch in the yard with the neighbor.
Then zombie hands.
And of course mimicked zombie hands.
Then some spreading paint around.
And some spilling paint for more zombie hands (and legs).
Then some wading in it like we were squashing grapes.
And the whole body and both kids are involved suddenly. The paper is tearing and they're running off around the house, touching things with paint that they need not touch.
I try to encourage a good rinse in the hose.
More running around, nearing the house, trying to go in the back door...
And we go inside for a bath...the end.

Day in the Life... or Laziness

Since our mobility is limited due to Bastian's lousy chicken pox, I had to think of things to do indoors. With normal amounts of putzing around in the morning plus normal amounts of computer time, I brought out the collage box. The kids took a minor interest, Aleks cutting a few things, then going back to Lego building, trying to escape to outside to visit the neighbors, and playing games on the laptop. Bastian wanted to watch "my moo-ee!!!" (Dora the Explorer videos, gag) over and over and freaked out whenever anyone got in his way, whether simply to touch the dvd case (in the circumstance of Aleksander's interference) or to actually try to use the computer he was watching on whether he was currently absorbed or not (in the case of me). I got little done in the way of collaging before Bastian was itching just way too much and needed a good oatmeal soak. He was completely opposed to actually getting in the bath, so I just made bath up in a bucket again and used cheesecloth and my hands to rub it on the itchy bits.
He liked playing with the goop as well.
He looked so awful today. The sores around his mouth had multiplied and burst open. It seems that his face is quite populated, about as evenly as his back and belly. His limbs have it least. He actually has one in his right eye as well. I think it's just inside the corner nearest his nose. I can't see it, but it's all red around the rim and oozes gunk.
Bastian's been into taking pictures lately, which makes me quite nervous, but his shrieks from taking the camera away seem to irritate me more than my anxiety.
He's also been building these designs with the marble run, not actually stacking them, just arranging them intricately. He's now added marbles to it. Eventually they scatter all over and I've spent many many hours now chasing down marbles underneath all our furniture. He took this close-up himself, which I quite like.
Finally, I finished my collage project, which was a chicken with pox to go on the window, a little like a warning of quarantine. I drew a chicken first as a guide, which Bastian circled with each of the different colored markers. He doesn't draw at all yet, so I'm thrilled to see the circles. It's something and according to some list I found online, a good indicator of being aligned with his developmental age.
A close up, so you can see the pox.
Bastian did some cutting and pasting after seeing my chicken as well. I found the cutting of the eyes to be a little creepy. So are models though, really.
Here's his design, overlayed on some Google Maps print out that we don't need anymore. Maps are really fun to work with, actually. I want to paint on some. We have a bunch from old National Geographic magazines.
Once our art was done, some boys came to play for a bit. They played Lego, video games, and blew up balloons. It was good to have visitors since we're not taking Bastian out in public really.

Water Experiment

While watching the neighbor boys (who are both 24-year old bio-medical engineering graduate students) hit golf balls around the yard, Aleks turned on their hose, which sprayed all over him and the driveway. He continued to add more water to the puddles, turning the water on after every time I'd turn it off. Then he started following the trail to see how far the water would go and if it would make it to the street.Bastian joined in and they watched it pool over the cracks very intently.
We tried pushing the larger pools forward, to add to it, but the ground was hot and soaked a lot of it up.

We had to add more water a few times. Eventually it made it though and started flowing in the gutter.
Then Anna, Jonas, and Lavinia came to visit and the kids played Lego all night.