Bird Again

Do you see what we see?

Just when I'm completely exasperated with the mom-at-home life, God gives me a nudge to say, "There are good things here." Today's tiny moment came with feathers. Ye olde minivan was about to shift into reverse and take the gang to our public pool for morning swimming lessons -- a chilly prospect on a 60-degree morning. William piped up with, "What's that animal in the garage?" Chipmunks do scamper along the wall from time to time, so that's what I thought he saw. It was not, though. "The bird on the bike," was his response to his own question. What no one but the three-year old saw was a baby robin, just a few days out of the egg, sitting on the handle bars of Erik's bike. I didn't relish the idea of trapping the bird in the garage while we were out, so I hopped out of the van to chase it away. It didn't move. In fact, as I reached for the bike, it opened it's little beak as if I had a big worm to offer. (Chorus of laughter from my own baby birds back in the van.) It sat on the bike staring at me as I rolled the bike out of the garage. Only as I parked the bike next to the house did it take flight, while doing what startled animals do ("Not on my bike!"), then aiming for -- and missing -- the neighbor's garage light. (Landing with accuracy is apparently an acquired skill.) We were go to go, right? Oh, no. Baby bird tried to come back as we were backing down the driveway, landing first on the van roof, then sitting in the middle of the driveway staring at us as we drove away.

Nature is weird and it takes a 3-year old to spot the silly.

Warren Dunes

Climbing to the top

Sawyer, Michigan -- Last Friday our family took advantage of the beautiful day to trek to to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan for a day at Warren Dunes State Park. On arrival we immediately set out to climb the dunes. Being naturally closer to the ground, it took almost no effort at all for the kids to scurry up the sandy steepness of Pikes Peak. We parents had barely caught our breath when we needed to regroup and direct the daring explorers to descend on kid-safe slopes. (They, of course, wanted to follow the groups of teenagers racing down the near-vertical drops of some paths.) Back on level ground, we moved over to the beach. Due to the day's wind and waves, swimming was off limits, but it didn't stop us from dipping toes in the chilly lake. The boys were thrilled with waves. Only the promise of ice cream pulled them away from the shore. (Anna, though a sand and water lover, was happier with her William away from the loud waves.) After that snack, we moved back to the dunes for a bit of hiking. The kids hiked like pros through the various trail landscapes and elevations. The last time we visited Lake Michigan, William was small enough that I foolishly tried to push a stroller up along the beach. What a change to have all three children capable of walking on their own two feet for a family hike.  There was some dragging at the end, but all perked up as the lake came back into view. 

The boys at the top of the Big Hill

No swimming due to wind and rip currents,
but the beach was fun anyway

Dipping toes in the icy water

All the way down!

After almost three miles of trail hiking,
little bodies get tired!

Sunny Day Slides

Summer Vacation, Day 2 -- For our first outing of summer vacation, Erik requested visiting his favorite park. It's a top choice because of several tall, steep slides. The park has smaller equipment for young kids, but it didn't take more than a few minutes before the lure of following his big brother and sister had William going down the BIG slides, too. "Mommy, I went down the big slide and I didn't break any bones!" Sunny day success.

Whee!

My boys

Miss Daredevil

My loves

Summer School Days

Summer Learning Station 2014

Summer Student 2014

While I was writing my post about our hatching robins, I realized that it had been a year since I had last written anything for this blog.  I began a post about our plans for summer learning and never got beyond selecting pictures. Time zips by! So here we are again at the beginning of the summer, just days beyond saying goodbye to another academic year and I have already instituted the Mom School: Summer 2015. Last year we had lists -- lists of want-to-do activities and must-do activities (chores and scholarly pursuits). It gave our summer some direction, but this year, I wanted more routine. One of the reasons my kids thrive in the classroom is due to the predictability of a clear routine. So, this year I spent an afternoon the weekend before school let out devising our summer schedule. While I don't intend for it to be rigid, having a daily and weekly plan has already made me feel more confident about the direction of our summer. The kids know exactly what I want them to do before they head out to play and we can all look forward to out-of-the house activities every week. We're only on day two of summer vacation and Tuesday didn't look at all like Monday or like our Summer Agenda. We have a direction, though, and that makes the long days of summer seem like opportunities to be enjoyed instead of hours to be endured -- even with the bickering already begun!

I found these two books at a library sale .
We will be reading selections from them daily. 

Summer Plans 2015: Our daily agenda and summer binder. The binder contains the Summer Routine, miscellaneous worksheets, writing prompts for journals, summer reading program logs, "To Make" and "To Go" ideas, and a "Been There" section.  

Summer Plans 2014: Lists!

Another Mom School student from 2014:
So much growth in a year! 

Empty Nest

The arrival of chick eggs in the first grade classroom is a highly anticipated event, but once those cute little fluff balls have hatched they only get to stick around to delight their 6- and 7-year old caretakers for a few days. So, when the chicks left for their new farm home last Friday, it was a sad day for Anna. Spring is a season of much new life, though, and that very evening we noticed that the activity in the nest a mama robin had thoughtfully constructed above our deck had changed. Instead of  just a mother bird, a shell and some tiny beaks were visible. The baby birds had hatched!

Our newly-hatched babies 

During this past week, we have seen mama come and go from her nest with a beak-full of lunch for the little ones. When our observations have been too close, she has alerted us from a nearby tree that we should back off. The nest is situated in the bend of a downspout just under the roof overhang, far from the reach of human or wildlife intruders. Unfortunately, a certain other creature has noted mom's comings and goings with interest:  our ever-watchful Cleo. This same 68-pound canine wonder recently got herself stuck under the same deck while hot on the trail of a likely raccoon invader. The usual tension of the natural world had been set into motion.

Stuck Dog

On the last day of school, I let out the dog first thing in the morning and noticed that the three babies had gotten huge. How such bird-sized creatures fit in a small nest amazed me. I called the kids to look and Anna headed outside with Cleo to observe. Back inside, I was getting breakfast ready when a commotion was heard and the brown and white blur of an enthusiastic dog was observed out the back window. The small birds had attempted to take flight and Cleo gave chase. Outside I ran shouting my sternest, "Cleo, NO!" as she snuffled at something in the grass right in front of our swing set. After dragging a reluctant dog inside as nervous children looked on, I investigated a very still little bird. Back inside, I tried to explain that Cleo was not trying to be mean, but baby birds have to learn to fly fast or predators will be after them. Jamieson then went out to check on the bird and discovered that it was alive. So we left it alone and went about our before-school preparations when not 10 minutes later who should appear on the deck staring into the window, but a lively baby bird. Was it looking for its canine friend or giving all of us a defiant "nah-nah-nah-nah"?

What a saga for a beautiful May morning: the excitement of a baby birds leaving the nest on our last day of school, the sadness of a dog vs. bird showdown in front of the kids, and the joy of the bird surviving its first treacherous flight. As we watched, the baby bird on the deck turned and took flight again, soared across the yard, then crashed straight into the fence and fell  into the shrubbery. Sigh. From the other side of the yard, Mama Bird zoomed down to tend her feckless flier and our breakfast resumed. Last day of school metaphor writ large: The babies may be ready to try new things, but they still need their mom close by.

Summer Vacation, Day 3: Mommmmm!!!!

Parenting dilemma of the summer: When the cries of "Mommmmmm!" let loose, do you drop what you are doing and respond right away because, gosh, these darlings are only young once and they have a need! Or, do you try to make your eye roll as subtle as possible and sweeten your, "Just wait a moment" because, sheesh, these kids need to learn not to be so darn demanding!

I think you can tell which way I'm leaning here. (I'm not just folding laundry in another room, I'm teaching delayed gratification. It's just not taking hold.)

Does it influence your answer to my dilemma if the eightieth "Mommmmmmm" was followed by "Erik said I'm small!" Or the eighty-first was "Can you put the card table in my room?"

We aren't talking life or death issues here.

Did I mention it's raining today? The kids are having a great day. Legos, living room caves, "campfires" in the basement, etc. They just want me appraised of every moment. Awesome.

Summer Vacation, Days 1 & 2

Two days of summer vacation under our belts ... wait, no one here wears belts! Ah, lazy summer days!

We started low-key yesterday with nothing nothing to do and nowhere to go. We had some fitful discussions of what to do during our three months of summer -- fun things, scholarly things, house-cleaning things. When presented with the big "What do you want to do this summer?" question, the answer from the kids was, "Let's fill up all our pools in the yard!" (That would be two small, inflatable wading pools and one wading pool big enough for all of us to sit in simultaneously.)  That's it. Is there anywhere else that you'd like to go, anyone. "How about the park? The one with the really big slide?" That's a 10 minute drive from home, so not a difficult outing. Anything else? Anything? Anything? "Museum of Science and Industry?" says he who wants to see "The Great Train Story" again. So, the Summer Bucket List is a little empty, but we here at Olsen Central always have been homebodies and we like it that way.

Monday, the kids played together fairly well. (That means, of course, no blood and minimal bruising.) Old toys and puzzles were rediscovered and re-loved. No one got sand in their eyes in the sandbox. Popsicles were shared. Chores were done, because that's how to make Mom say yes to computer or TV time. We even cracked open the summer workbooks (because I am that mom) to absolutely no complaining. (When you specifically buy the book that tells a child what page to do on each day, do you stop the child from working ahead and hand that scholar a different workbook or just let her go?) The day was a going well, until dinner when one of our number became unexpectedly and dramatically ill. Yikes! All I could say was, at least this doesn't always happen in the middle of the night!

Summer, Day 2: Ill child is much improved. Maybe dinner was just really unappealing. We eased into the morning and had another eager round of workbooking. I'm impressed at how easily the kids take to doing these Summer Bridge workbooks. We've done them for three years now. (Yes, Erik will be just a third grader in the fall.) I learned the year William was born that it doesn't work to say go do a workbook page and let it get done in another room with no supervision. So, choosing a series that is paced for summer work between specific grades is very helpful. This year I also have on hand some other workbooks for specific areas I'd like to see extra practice: subtraction and cursive writing for Erik and sight words for Anna. It really doesn't take them too long to plow through some pages and they like having the routine of it. After lunch, we have devotion and reading time, which we tie into the library's summer reading program, (but we would do no matter what). Before the day is done, I also like to have the kids write a journal entry of some sort.  To be perfectly honest, sometimes it's nice to spread out these tasks so when the kids ask to do things I'd like to drag my feet on ("Can I watch a show?") I have a list of chores and academic things that need to get done first.

One of the challenges of summer break can be the necessity of having my whole crew come with me as I do errands. Keeping three kids in roughly the same area of Target while shopping for the week's necessities is no small challenge. I have not forgotten how dull shopping can be for a kid, which is what I jokingly said the kids should write about for their journal tonight. Anna instead went with "I ate strawberries." Erik wrote an epic analysis of the Power Trains/Power City sets that he saw in the toy section. Later I parked him in front of the computer and told him to do some price research on Amazon and see what he could learn. As long as a kid is going to be fixated on a toy, I might as well get him to do some comparison shopping. (Then we threw a wrench in the works and told him that the Lego trains really are going to last much longer even though they cost more. Now he's back to studying the Lego City train sets.)

Jamieson took this picture while were reading Harry outside.
So serious!

From a mom point of view, the great accomplishment of the past two days has been already hooking the kids on a new book. Last week Erik brought home  Lego Harry Potter: Building the Magical World.  He brings home every book the library has about Lego, but it made me think maybe it was time to bring out Harry. So, we did. We started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone yesterday. We're on the third chapter today and the kids are captivated. They get really annoyed when I put the book down at the end of a chapter. This is going to be a perfect summer read for them.