R2's Celebration of Learning

Last night, R2 had the opportunity to present her work from her projects class to an authentic audience of family and friends. She was one of six students to present her work to our audience. This year in Projects, they have been studying local native plants and animals and ways to promote sustainability on their school campus. Her oral presentation and creative portion comprised raccoons (procyon lotor):

Oral presentation from the point of view of the raccoon.

Explaining the raccoon's place in the food web.

For her creative piece, R2 decided to make a documentary on raccoons. She examined and described a genuine raccoon pelt, interviewed a local ranger who is a raccoon expert, and documented the stories of some raccoon enthusiasts. The file is too big to post here, but trust me, it's an excellent first film!

R2 describing the pelt on film.

After the presentations, R2 took us on a tour of the sustainable gardens her Projects class created this year, including: a pollinator garden, a wild animal habitat (with bird baths), and a native plant garden (with rainwater captures!).

Monarch caterpillar in the pollinator garden right outside her classroom.

Happy caterpillar on a milkweed plant.

The students created these gardens (with adult guidance), complete with native plants, decomposed granite pathways, mulch, rainwater captures, signage and lots of love. It's not visible in this photo, but there is a mole cemetery along one border.

Fountain grass is common here, but non-native and invasive. They pulled it all out!

R2 was assigned to research, plant and care for a "Paseo Rancho Lilac Verbena"
The garden has dense, clay soil, but R2's plant requires soil that drains well. To solve the problem, she decided to dig a larger hole than usual and mix in some compost before planting. Her verbena is thriving!

R2's sculpture of a raccoon and a trash can.

We are so proud of all of her work and growth and learning this year! R1 told her that hour we spent with her guiding us through her processes and accomplishments was better than any report card full of As. Her response was, "What's an A?". . . Success!

The Whistler

C2 whistles all the time. It's unconscious and beautiful. I interpret it as a sign of contentment.
Today, he is in charge of preparing all the flowers for Mother's Day. He whistles while he works.

Ducks

While watching two drakes battle it out over a duck and nearly drowning her in the process (the irony is not lost on me), C2 asked: "Why are they doing that?"

Me: "The boy ducks are fighting over who is going to mate with the girl duck. Sometimes that's how nature works."

C2: "That seems kind of silly. They could just do eeny meeny miney mo. Or bubble gum, bubble gum. Or measure to see who is taller. Or whose wings are bigger. Something!"

I Am Smart and Kind

R2 with friends on Picture Day. The entire look is her own.

A couple of days ago we had goal-setting conferences at school. Each advisor (teacher) meets with every student and her/his parents to set academic and self-efficacy (behavior) goals for the school year. They start with where the child is currently and go from there. R2's advisor (Ms. B) took the time to write down and share a description of my little girl. I have to say I was blown away by the accuracy and beauty of the portrait she outlined--she sees my daughter, the whole child. She was very perceptive. I loved the way she spoke to R2: with obvious respect. Ms. B framed everything--R2's strengths as well as the things she needs to work on--in such a positive way that R2 didn't touch the ground for the rest of the day. I don't think she even knows what happened to her in that meeting, but the effect was profound on her and on me. I learned a big, fat parenting (read: mothering) lesson in those 15 minutes.

This same advisor also helped her students create poems about themselves. Here is R2's. I love it:

[I made the mistake of publishing R2's poem without her permission. She has requested that I remove it. If you had a chance to read it, count yourself lucky.]

August Adventures

We shamelessly escaped to the beach for the second half of summer. We have one week left before we have to return to reality, aka school. We've had so much fun on our many adventures! Really, the whole summer has been amazing. The kids are at perfect ages for all kinds of wonderful adventures, wherever we are. Here are a couple of highlights:

Mission San Juan Capistrano: A couple of weeks ago, R1's cousin (JA) and I took the kids to the mission for a little history, a little culture and a little art. Each week day, the MSJC offers an art or craft for kids that relates to life as it would have been when the mission was fully active. We went on a Tuesday, which was adobe structure day. I assumed that this activity would be the thing that kept their interest and that they would only be interested in a quick glance around the rest of the mission. Much to my delight, I was absolutely wrong. MSJC has a self-guided, audio tour and map designed for children. R2 and C2 loved it. At some points, they wanted even more information, so they grabbed my audio device and listened for further detail. Their 45 minute tour ended up being almost 2 hours because they were so engaged. We nearly missed the adobe craft, but we squeezed ourselves in just before they closed it to newcomers. We spent another good hour working on the adobe. They had quite a system: JA and I made the bricks while they built the houses with bricks and mortar. They added some personalized details--R2 made a chair for her house, as well as a molcajete (she had examined authentic samples on her tour) that she placed outside. C2 also made a chair, and he added some nice structural detail. They were so busy that they skipped lunch. Anyone who knows my children, knows that this is unheard of.

In the end, I had to beg everyone to please go to lunch because they wanted to continue investigating the mission and shopping in the store. (It was 2:30, and I, for one, was starving).  We had a great day!

Adobe builders, hard at work.

Finished masterpieces.

These bells are still used regularly.

Trestles: Earlier this week, we headed to a local surfers mecca. We had to hike in a bit, since there's no parking close by. The kids were loving the excitement of the unknown. (FYI-they had no interest in food again).

You can see, in part, where "TRESTLES" has been engraved on the new concrete trestle.

When we arrived, we immediately went and straddled the county line. Then we spent the rest of the day in San Diego county.

The kids were amazed by the "real surfers" they saw there. However, Mother Nature really blew our minds.

Low tide provided hours of enjoyment.

Living, itty bitty starfish.

Snail attached to R2's toes (she screamed).

Colorful sea slug-like thing, sea star, C2's hand, etc.

Not living lobster.

The most amazing thing to me was this, which we saw thanks to R2's eagle eye (Can you tell what it is?):

See its eyes?

See its legs? Head?

See how it changed color to camouflage itself on C2's hand?

We don't know if it was an octopus or a squid, but we loved that it visited with us. So incredible and so beautiful! What a great day!

Big Transition

C2 had a blissful nursery school experience--four years with mostly the same classroom full of friends. He loved to play with all of them, boys and girls alike. He seemed to move seamlessly from group to group. Two of them are like brothers to him. His nursery school teachers were all magical. Every child should have that experience. He also went with me every day for three years to take R2 to her elementary school. All of the teachers know him by name and greet him with genuine enthusiasm every time they see him.  Is he interested in moving on to kindergarten? The answer is a resounding NO. His current plan is to stay home with me every day. It doesn't matter to him that he gets to be at the same school with R2.  Nor does he care that he is familiar with the campus and knows the teachers are kind. He is not going to kindergarten, and that's that...according to him.

When the email came inviting us to the new kindergartener picnic and play date, I was determined to take him no matter what. It required a bit of strategy. We left R1 and R2 at the beach and went home together for some mommy-son time the day before. We had delicious dessert once we got home (a couple of times). We spent some fun time with Grandy. In the evening he expressed his wish to not go to the play date (for the 20th time). The morning of the play date (today), I agreed that he did not have to talk to anyone if he didn't want to. He agreed that he would at least look at faces so he'd know who the teachers were and who some of his classmates would be.  It worked out pretty well. He was silent with all adults, but one of the teachers got a wimpy handshake out of him. I swear he almost smiled at her. He ran around with a few boys and generally had fun playing. He made my name tag for me--my favorite part of the experience.

Of course, he'll be fine. Everyone knows that. The reality is, sending my baby to kindergarten might be a bigger transition for me than for him. Maybe home school is the answer.

Quips and Pics

Huge chunk of York Peppermint Patty in his shake!

1) Last week, as were getting on the onramp to the freeway, an elderly man on crutches crossed in front of us. C2 said authoritatively, "Mom, don't run that guy over. He's already hurt."

Cutest girl posing for her photog bro.

2) A couple of days ago, the kids and I were walking to the beach when R2 gasped and pointed to the sidewalk, "Oh my gosh! That has to be the queen!" I looked and saw a large honeybee with a black abdomen. "How do you know it's the queen?" I asked. "Because she's huge." She looked at it again and said, "Except...she's not wearing a crown...so maybe not."

I didn't know this was happening until it already happened...