Homeschooling at its best, outdoors and from the experts

 

The National Forest Service was running a special program for school-aged kids this week at one of our very close and very incredible parks.  It focused on orienteering, local wildlife, local fish and insects and local plants. Living in Southeast Alaska we spend LOTS of time indoors in the winter.  So when opportunities like this arise...and it's good weather...it's like the planets have aligned just for us.

Everything was hands on and outside.  The experts (park rangers, fish & wildlife biologists, etc) ran the classes.  The homeschooling moms mostly just watched (and learned). 

This is where I love to watch Laurel grow up and become her own person.  There are those adults out there with the special gift of treating children like small adults with fully valid points of view.  It is these few adults that really help kids shine and begin their own path to discovery and passionate exploration. Ms. Leslie Swada of the Forest Service is one of those people.  She seems to bring the best out of the kids that are ready to make that leap into learning something new.

There was so much to see and do and learn.  It was an exciting, fun and tiring day for us.  But it was WELL worth it.

Thanks to our local Forest Service crew!!    

Seriously...this is what it's like to homeschool in Southeast Alaska.  (at least when it's not raining)

The world I want my children to live in

Inspiration comes from so many places.  A book, a movie, a friend.  I read a lot of books and articles about being a better mom, better homeschooler, being more present in my life.  I read so much that sometimes I just have to put down whatever I'm reading and let my head rest.

And then---sometimes---you just have to touch the cover of a children's book to be inspired.

Then open up the pages and get lost in the amazing world that someone else has created.

And then realize that this is what you want for your children.

I want my children's lives to be like a Doris Burn illustration.

It's that simple.  

And what I find disturbing is that publishers seem to think that old is bad, and so they replace amazing with something that is brightly colored but completely devoid of passion and depth.  No offense to Joe Cepeda, but come on...I think even he can see the difference.  Doris Burn created a wonderland for children to live in for hours, a place for the imagination to roam even after the book is closed.  Why would any publisher think that some bright colors could replace that.  

 Ugh, what a shame.

Low Tide at Totem Bight

What the duck?!?!

             

                

                    Can you guess what we're thinking about?

We decided today to start raising our own backyard egg-layers. We had to choose between ducks and chicks and then decide how many we should start with.  YIKES!  We've been talking about starting a farm for so many years, this would be the first (second if you count the month of goats) step towards that goal.  We need to begin to learn the skills now so that when we do settle on a farm someday we'll at least know a little about what we're doing! 

We all sat down together to deliberate.  There was much discussion and much excitement. Both kids have strong opinions about what we should do. (Luke=chicks, Laurel=ducks) After many impassioned pleas we chose to start with ducks.  The word on the street (or the pond?) is that ducks are hardier and messier.  So here's my thinking...hardier means harder to kill (great for a family starting out) and messier means that anything else will seem easy after this.  So once we get used to the ducks, we'll add some chicks.  That sounds reasonable, right?  I almost went for both, but then I thought better of it.  We'll break ourselves in a bit.  Hopefully Roger won't mind them...he never did like those goats. 

Our eggs go in the incubator this weekend, so in a month we will have our own fluffballs. Stay tuned!

My Beautiful Alaska

Confidentially, if you asked me about Alaska in about 6 months, beautiful is not the adjective I'd use.

But today...today was a different story.  The sun shone so bright it made the ocean glitter outside of our windows this morning.  I spent my morning in a church of rainbow colors, the sun shining so bright the stained glass window behind us turned our skin and hair different colors.  Luke and I took turns grabbing handfuls of color and throwing them at each other.

This afternoon we spent five hours playing, climbing, fishing and hiking and Ward Lake.  So many other people we knew had the same idea because it seems we ran into a million people we knew.  (in a town of 8,000 running into a million people might not be possible...)

Meeting a Rockstar!

Despite living in a relatively small island community, we have a surprising amount of cultural activities.  And since it IS a small community there is a lot more interaction between the local artists and the people.  Ray Troll happens to be this families' favorite local artist..truly if you picked any one for my kids to be excited about meeting it would probably be Ray Troll. 

Leaping Salmon Sharks

 

Today at one of our museums there was a "lunch with the artists" event, with a bunch of the local artists who have pieces on display at the current Reflections exhibit. (My favorite exhibit over there so far.) 

They've already had two homeschool events in the new exhibit, giving kids a chance to learn about our local salmon fishery, see some new art and try their hand at their own projects.  While we were there I saw the ad for the lunch with the artists, and that Ray Troll would be there.  My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE his work.  His bold colors and imaginative scenes make for some great (and fun!) art.  I think it really speaks to the flavor of Ketchikan...in part because his work is all over town, from our city buses to the local shops.

When Ray Troll got up to speak about his work Laurel gasped in excitement.  She hung on every word he said, posed for a picture and asked a few questions.  As a side benefit she also got to have lunch with her dad and just chill out.  (Luke was disappointed to miss it, he's actually an even bigger fan of Mr. Troll's work)

It's good to be a homeschooler.  And it's good to live in a place with a feeling of true community spirit.  

Three Trails in Three Weeks

I'm trying to get Laurel to love hiking.  I don't know if I loved hiking as a kid...I don't think we did much formal hiking.  I certainly remember exploring the woods as a kid, and as an adult I enjoy the journey and the destination of a hike.  But it's hard to convince a kid that her burning thighs are a good thing.  But despite the burning thighs and 3 mile round trip---she did pretty well. 

She was in charge of the camera for a while, which she loves.  And she had her long-missing grey bunny returned this week...so he tagged along.  But somewhere around the 2 mile mark the complaints started coming...and coming...and coming. 

Thankfully there were little distractions along the way, like this random Easter egg tree that we found about midway through the hike.

And these bones she found.  She considers found bones to be of great scientific importance, so she stopped and photographed them for a while.  She thinks it's a deer, we'll have to research that a bit.  She was able to find the skull, and two pieces of the lower jaw (teeth included), a lot of vertebrae and ribs and a mostly intact spinal column. 

Roger of course just wanted to eat her scientific discovery. 

The sun was out and the view was just gorgeous, especially the walk back on the main road.  The view of the mountains around each bend is breathtaking.  And despite being 43 degrees still, we found ourselves stripping off the hats and coats towards the end of the hike. 

Sometimes I think Alaska is a special gift, just for us.