Springy Outing

At the end of last week, when spring had officially come, we were well enough from our bad colds to get out of the house, but really not well enough to go visit anyone, just in case. But we had to go somewhere – it was poor Artemis’ spring break, and we’d spent most of it house bound, coughing up our lungs. So…Friday afternoon was beautiful and sunny and we packed up ourselves and headed down to Pike Place Market. We got honey sticks and free samples and poked around in the stalls and the funky shops below. It was a perfect low-impact taste of spring and color and street musicians and sunshine and people. And we conjectured that if we got anyone sick it would be someone we don’t know. (!) (But I don’t really think we did. We coughed into our sleeves.)IMG_8595 Oh, those gorgeous stalls of unending flowers! How can you resist taking pictures? IMG_8596You can’t. So I didn’t. {Sigh}IMG_8594The chillins and a lady we don’t know. Did we get her sick? I hope not! IMG_8597 And of course, a visit to Rachel the Pig. After I took it, I was stunned to see that all the kids are looking and smiling at the camera! At least mostly smiling, smiling enough for me. We went home with a lovely bouquet of tulips, a little specialty gluten-free pasta and happy springy feelings.

A Little Mushroom

Because there is so much to do to get ready for the Big Plan, and because there is so much to do just to carry on Normal Homeschool Life, and because I need to plan my Easter menu and Spring Clean the house, yesterday it became imperative to hand make a little Mushroom. Some days are like that. IMG_8632 I’ve always had a thing for Mushrooms. The first time I saw one of the red and white polka-dotted ones growing under a tree in real life I almost fell over in surprise, and then I crouched quietly nearby to see if the fairies would appear.  I can’t claim the inspiration – I saw one posted on etsy.com. In German this kind of mushroom is called Fliegenpilz – Flying Mushroom – why? I do not know, but it adds to their charm. Now Mr. Bunny has a place to wait in out of the elements.

Always! Always!

Hermes’ came home from preschool last week with a little paper book he had made in honor of BEAR: Be Excited About Reading Month. I will share with you just because it made me happy. On the cover it said: Hermes’ Book. On the inside his teacher Mrs. Debbie had written down what he dictated:

Thomas the Tank Engine 1st he was covered in chocolate. Now I love bikes. I love parks always! always!

  Now that, my friends, is what I call a good plot and descriptive words. I love a good story. always! always!

Easter Tree

IMG_8557 Yesterday the children and I set up our Easter Tree. I cut off a few low-lying lilac branches and anchored them in a florist frog at the bottom of my pot, with a little bit of water, so hopefully the leaves won’t dry out too fast. Then I covered the frog with pretty pebbles. The eggs are suspended on thread attached to the eggs with a dab of glue from the glue gun. At the top are quail eggs which are so dainty and pretty they don’t need any more decoration. We get them at the Asian market, and we blow all our eggs out with our Blas-Fix egg pump. We’ve begun painting our eggs with watercolors – the enjoyment of the process lasts longer and one can be more intricate with designs.  We can also steer our decorations away from craaaaazy bunnies and toward the natural world and spiritual significance. But we’ll probably also dye some hard boiled eggs for eating fun.  IMG_8561 painted by Artemis IMG_8562 by Mama and Athena IMG_8558 painted by Mama IMG_8584 painted by Apollo  IMG_8573 The egg in the foreground is painted by Hermes. The speckled green one was painted naturally by Felicity, our Auracana hen who was mysteriously “taken up” on Christmas Day. We have her lovely egg to remember her by. Further back is a sailboat painted by Athena. Notice Mr. Bunny not being crazy, but calm and still. IMG_8575 Our inspiration – Tasha Tudor once again. Blessed Holy Easter Season

The Science Fair

Our homeschool support group’s annual Science Fair was just over a week ago, and I’m going to use this space for a little wrap-up and closure. This year I had the honor of being The Science Fair Lady (coordinator is the proper title, but I think Science Fair Lady has a rather flamboyant ring to it, don’t you?)  That means mostly that I got to update all the very organized files that the former Science Fair Lady passed on to me. She’d been the SFL since this particular Fair’s inception, and she was ready for a break. So it really wasn’t too much work, but it did take up a bit of our free time last week to update the files, communicate with the participants, organize our judges, print out the fancy certificates, re-print out the fancy certificates after I realized that I’d forgotten to update the part of the certificate that said “2009”, quick trip to the office store to get the fancy certificate paper so I could re-print them, etc. etc. We had a nice group of 16 young scientists with projects ranging from Buoyancy to Water Rockets to Hammering Forces to Packing Materials to Popcorn and more. We had three excellent judges who arrived early with properly solemn judging faces. All the children set up their displays, waited somewhat nervously until their turn for judging, and then showed lines of concentration across their faces as they explained the workings of their particular experiments.  At one point I grew worried that perhaps our judges, being fresh this year and wanting to do their official best, might be taking their role too seriously, as I saw a couple stricken faces and prolonged interviews. I wondered aloud to Former Science Fair Lady, who was in attendance and standing nearby, if I should tell the judges to be a little more lenient and let things slide a little. “No Way!” said that wise FSFL, “This is Real Life! This is the Science Fair, not the Literature Fair, there are yes and no questions, with right and wrong answers. Maybe not everyone will get a ribbon, and that is real life.” Yikes! Okay, I thought trepidatiously, since it was her young daughter who was looking the most stricken!  I am one of those troubling American parents who grew up with affirmative action; I want everyone to get a trophy! I want everybody to be happy!  Smiles all around! Well, it all turned out okay. After the judges finished there were refreshments while I tallied things up in the room next door and stapled the correct color ribbon on the certificates. Then the award ceremony! I got to be all official and shake hands with each of the students as I handed out their certificates. Then it was time to clean up and put away, and my one regret about being SFL was that I didn’t have enough time to read the displays and learn from them myself. As we were packing up, three brothers approached me to say thanks and they told me how excited they were this year to earn the blue ribbon. Last year they hadn’t gotten the blue, and they had worked really hard for it this year. That made their accomplishment very satisfying. It showed me that if I spare someone the disappointment of not getting a blue ribbon, I may be keeping them from the drive to excel, improve and accomplish which brings its own sweeter rewards.  I love science – at least science at this fun experimental level. And I love that after three years of science fair, my kids really have a handle on what the Scientific Method is and how to use it. Somehow I never really learned all the steps until…well, when we signed up for the Science Fair two years ago! What I really love about learning science is that better understanding how the world is put together gives us all the more reason to glorify God for His amazing creation. He made it all for us to live in and enjoy, and somehow, despite the impression that some professional scientists give that they’ve got the how and why all worked out, I suspect we’ve only just scratched the surface. Take courage, young scientists, there’s a lot more to discover! Thank Him for it!