4th of July

It's 4th of July which is a great holiday for celebrating our independence--and Booster and I have been doing that by reading books about the American Revolution and the Declaration itself (There's a great version of the Declaration illustrated by Sam Fink. That uses humor to help elementary aged children make sense of document that can be confusing at times to say the least). She can now tell you who said, "Give me liberty or give me death", she can tell a story about Paul Revere's midnight ride and is still a bit perplexed about what all this commotion had to do with taxes. It's hard to understand the pain of taxes if you have never had a job.

One thing I am loving today about the 4th of July is that I don't even have to give lip service to the idea of going to bed at a reasonable hour. The fireworks don't even start until 9:15 so we don't even need to pretend that we are going bed at a time that would seem reasonable during the school year. The girls have been staying up way too late this summer; we are not doing too well in the maintaining a consistent schedule category.

Sandy, Messy and Happy

"It's not so important to know as to feel when introducing a young child to the natural world."

Rachel Carson

Montessori Papa and I make an effort to get our children outside. We bike often. We take them to swim (in a pool, okay, so not that natural of a setting), we garden, but really nothing compares to the experience of camping for allowing our kids a chance to experience their lives in a different way.

Both Thumper and Booster love camping. Unfortunately, as I get older, I've come to like it less than I did as a younger woman when I spent months camping across the western United States and Canada. I LOVED camping back then. Now I can really see the appeal of staying at a nice bed and breakfast; however, when I see their reactions, I know that we've chosen the right kind of family vacation.

This time, newly three year old Thumper went wild. Within a minute of arriving at our sandy campsite, she was naked and in the sand. Really IN the sand. She rolled around, attempted a slip n' slide maneuver, twisted her body into yoga poses, and covered herself in it until she was a dusty, sandy mess.

At the beach, she jumped and giggled and screamed with the ocean. She was a sight to see.

Booster made a campfire all by herself and rejoiced in flying her flag on a very windy beach. The second day with her kite, I saw her using the techniques her father had shown her with confidence. I was so pleased for her. She was having such a wonderful time.

Unfortunately, we might not be able to camp again this year since we will be vacationing with my parents in July and moving in August this year. Throughout the trip, I kept thinking about Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. I was feeling more committed than ever to giving them natural experiences like camping.

Down on the Farm

We are the proud owners of an ant farm. Booster received one for her birthday way back last summer. It took me awhile to reconcile myself to keeping ants, which under other circumstances we would seek to kill if they were in the house. By the time I got organized enough to order the ants, it was way too cold for the company to ship them.

So seemingly out of the blue, we received a small, test tube shape container full of ants last week. Excitement! Both girls were dying to get a look at the corps of ants crawling around in this very small container (I can't imagine what the ants were thinking during their journey, crawling over one another and nibbling on a little green food pellet.)

Since it was spring break, Montessori Papa happened to be home. This was a good opportunity to see our two styles in action. I like to read directions and plan out a course of action. He likes to experience the intensity of the moment. I had Booster place the ants in the fridge as the directions indicated and was prepared to wait the full 15 minutes for the ants to became placid and easy to work with. Montessori Papa was raring to go so we actually only waited a few minutes before our ants were out of the shoot and racing all over our coffee table. Quick as a jackrabbit, Montessori Papa was scooping up ants as we all tried to shepherd them into their habitat.

Happily, all ants were found and only one was lost due to his injuries.

Both girls have been fascinated with the ants, and we've had many questions, some answers and lots of observation time. The great thing about ants from a teacher's perspective is that they very clearly illustrate the three body part areas of an insect (head, thorax and abdomen). They're a good examplar of an insect.

More ant education will be coming to our house as the questions must turn to research at the local library. We can't resist; we have absolutely no self control at that place.
This post is written in honor of Why Mommy of Toddler Planet with great admiration for her love of science and learning, always questioning, always seeking to understand.

The Homefront

So, Booster is fascinated by the homefront during WWII. The Big One is not a topic that I wanted to go into any great detail with my seven-year-old, but here we are. She started with Welcome to Molly's World. (Molly is the American Girl character that represents the generation that grew up during the war.) For some reason, Booster was extremely curious about the need for blackouts and how they were organized.

I remember my grandmother talking about her experiences during the war, including getting around during blackouts (Americans during the war were evidently very cautious because my midwestern hometown participated.), painting on nylon seams, and going to the USO to wait for her serviceman husband. Now through conversation with Booster's paternal grandfather we know that her great grandfather was a warden. (She knows that her great grandfathers on my side all served in the Pacific Theater.)

So, we've read a lot of Molly's World and then moved on the war years' books in the Tomie DePaola 26 Fairmount Avenue series (which by the way is a great chapter book series for kindergartners up until the War Years books which are clearly marked as such). These nonfiction books very clearly illustrated to Booster how a child would have been affected by the war and the changes that happened at home from colder schools to gas rationing to having family members leave for the service.

I was reluctant to follow her and encourage her on this journey because some of the issues that WWII bring up are quite difficult to explain and painful to contemplate, most notably the Holocaust. Last week, Booster asked me in the car who Anne Frank was. So we had a brief and truthful conversation about concentration camps without her asking too many detailed questions about them which was a huge relief to me.

In all of these conversations, she really doesn't have a good comprehension of politics and why one country would want to take over another one so she comes back to wondering why it all happened. How can I explain it to her? Do I want to?

During this time, for the first time in her life, she asked me if we were at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I didn't lie, yet I tried not to get too detailed about it because I don't want her to feel scared.

All of this really makes me think about how distant the war experience is for most of us. I only distantly know of people who have served or are serving overseas and nothing is requested of most of us in our day-to-day lives to support the war effort--there is no draft, no rationing, no war bonds.

We have a new book from the library called The Homefront which will provide more detailed information. Now that we have over 100 items checked out from the library, I can only hope that we end up reading something else.