Whew!!!

First, we finished up our really busy month of June. I’m looking forward to a lot less activities in July on a daily basis. Let’s see if it actually happens.

Second, I got all the links to pictures updated for the 2008 blog posts. I’m working my way backwards and I have a few weeks before they completely delete everything. I hope I can get through it all.

Third, 3rd grade is over!!!! And I get a break this week!!!! Here’s to 4th grade in a week!!!

Now in other news, Tyler & Trent both got fishing rods and accessories (which was very important) on Sunday. We visited Lunker’s in Edwardsburg, MI. You can check them out here: http://www.lunkers.com/  It was Trent’s first time there so we ate at the Angler’s Inn and wandered the store for hours. I remember growing up and it was only the size of the current hunting area and the big fish tank was so awesome. Now they are outfitted to do some fishing from the shore. Then we went to the lake where Trent & Grandpa Snyder have been fishing so that we could see how the shore fishing would be. Trent has a fishing license in MI, so that’s where they are going to have to go unless he wants to buy one here in IN as well. Supposedly the fishing is better in MI so that’s why they go up there. Trent’s thinking of taking Tyler some evening this week, since he has TKD on Tues & Thurs and TKD parent’s night out on Fri, I’m guessing it will be Wed evening. Maybe I’ll go and take some pictures.

Pictures, Origami Airplanes, Swim Lessons & Last day of 3rd Grade

First, pictures. Kodak has informed me that because I haven’t bought anything from them that my “free” account is going to be deleted soon. So I’ve been trying out other web-based picture places. I’m thinking of using Picasa since I already use Gmail, the calendar and reader function, but I haven’t decided yet. When I do, then I’ll have to go back and fix all the previous blogs with the correct location of pictures.

Next, origami airplanes was awesome. It started out rough because there were so many kids in a limited amount of space, but it turned out great.  Tyler assembled different 6 planes with some help on the folding.  Making nice sharp creases is very important to origami.  Then they had 3 contests.  The first was distance the plane flew.  Tyler placed 3rd.  The next one was on appearance (good folding, etc.)  Tyler was in the top 3 on that as well.  The final one was on airplanes with unique appearances.  Tyler had chosen the duckbill plane as his plane to fly, so he tied with another kid to win that contest.  They took pictures of the winners, gave them a choice of a prize (Tyler decided on a Pokemon wallet and put his library card in there right away) and the planes are going to be displayed for a month at the library.  Now I didn’t take my camera yesterday because I figured I would be helping with the making of the planes and I was right.  So I have pics of the planes he brought home, but I’m going to have to get back to the library to get a pic of his plane there on display.  He was super excited about this class. Click on the pic below to see all 5 of them.

2008 – Tyler Origami Airplanes

Swim lessons wrapped up today.  It was the last class for the summer.  He had fun, jumped off the diving board (this time no life jacket) and drove off the side of the pool.  He has greatly improved on his swimming this summer, so I am happy about that.  I do have pics of this, so click on the pic below to see all of them.

2008 – Tyler 2nd session swim lessons

And today was the last day of 3rd grade.  So he is now a 4th grader.  The school year starts on Mon, but we are taking the week off from book work next week.  We usually have a vacation week at the start of school and it is a short week anyways with 4th of July.  He still have TKD next week and we’ll come up with something fun to do.

4-H Day Camp, and a few catch up things

First, we had a bee keeping program at the library on Mon afternoon.  The guy was great!!  He brought in a small box that represented a bee box.  He could take it apart and show the kids all the different parts and he had pictures pasted on the inside frames so the kids could see what he was talking about.  He bought in a little viewing box of bees with the queen.  She had a yellow dot on her so the kids could really watch her.  He also brought big pictures to show what he was talking about, bee keeping equipment and a few games.  My favorite part was that he brought honey for tasting.  The first kind was a buckwheat honey.  It was really dark in color and a little more bitter than what you buy at the store.  The second was a wildflower honey, which was closer to what you get at the store.  I didn’t realize that honey lasted so long, but the buckwheat honey was 25 years old and that honey can last forever if kept in the right conditions.  The craft was small bee pictures that could be colored and then taped to Popsicle stick so that the kids could fly their “bees” around and practice pollinating flowers.  Can’t say enough good stuff about him.  After the program I helped him pick up everything so I got to talk to him more.  The queen that he brought in is a failing queen.  They can tell because of the scattered way she is laying her eggs.  Most queens start in the middle and work their way outward in circles.  But he told me that she is 2 years old, which is really old for a queen.  We talked a little about the collapsing colonies situation.  It’s always a great program if it holds my attention as well as the kids.

Tuesday was the day when we had the new heat pump and hot water heater installed.  We took Hershey to the place where we are going to board him when we make our MN trip in July for the day as a trial run since he’s never been boarded before.  Seriously, it was either take him there to stress out or lock him up at home while he stressed about strangers going in and out of his home.  It turns out that he did great and he is set for boarding during our trip.  The new hot water heater is working great.  I’m pretty sure our heat pump/AC is going to work out great, but so far it’s been cool enough inside that it hasn’t kicked on.  Could be because I’m still opening the windows at night and cooling the house off.  I see that we have some hotter days coming up so we’ll find out soon about the heat pump.

Yesterday was the Exploring 4-H Day Camp with an Olympics theme.  I was a volunteer for the day so I know exactly what went on for the day.  The Day Camp is put on by the Junior Leaders and parent volunteers were there to make sure the kids got from one activity to the next without problems (think herders for this concept.)  I was luckily enough to get with some other moms who were great and didn’t expect to spend the day chatting amongst themselves (not that we didn’t talk, but the kids came first.)  We had a group of 17 kids and for the most part it was a good group.  There are always those few that you have to keep an eye on and remind every few minutes what they are supposed to be doing.  The Junior Leaders all tried very hard to be educational and fun and they were open to suggestions from us, which was good.  They are teenagers, most are just not used to dealing with big groups of kids, which is part of what they are supposed to be learning.  So here’s what we did for the day:

We checked in and got our name tags and a small bag for the kids to put their craft projects and stuff in (which is a great idea, but it turns out that the bags weren’t big enough by the end of the day.)  The kids did an intro activity while parent volunteers were told what to do and expect (they had folders with schedules, maps, evaluation forms, blank sheets of paper, etc).  Then we headed toward our first activity.  It took us by the area where we were going to have lunch so we had the kids leave their lunch stuff there.  They had tables labeled by color so we knew where to put our lunches (which it turns out was a suggested idea last year – so they do listen to what the parents put on their evaluations.)  We got to our first activity, which was Nutrition.  They talked to kids about the food pyramid, healthy foods, why eating healthy was important (remember the Olympics theme, so athletes need to eat healthy in order to compete well).  Then they had a few activities like jumping rope but with a hula hoop.  Then the kids washed hands so they could get a healthy snack.  The one Junior Leader commented to me that it was too bad that the snack had only 3 of the 5 food groups included in it.  I told her it would be hard to get a snack that had all 5 food groups and avoid all the food allergies that were out there (luckily for us we only had 1 food allergy and that was shrimp and since there was no refrigeration for lunch, I wasn’t too worried about it.)  She thought about it and agreed.  I also told her that the concept was to eat all the food groups over the course of the day and that would be a good concept to explain to the kids.  She hasn’t thought about that and so she went and talked to the kids about it from the idea that eating chips and junk food while playing video games wasn’t a good idea and that if they ate healthy then they could do better on the video games.  I thought she did a good job applying what I told her in a format the kids could understand.

Our next stop was Sport Safety.  A girl I went to high school with and now she works with Safe Kids started out the session.  She talked to the kids about what safety equipment they might need for different sports (helmets for biking, shin guards for soccer, etc.)  Then they played Bingo by looking at a picture of safety equipment and deciding what sport you used it in.  They got medals for getting a Bingo (every kid got one.)  Then it was time for the relay race.  They had knee pads, elbow pads, wrist protectors, life jacket and bike helmet.  The kids had to put on all the equipment (with help) and the run down to the next person to take it off (again with help) and so on.  The team I helped with won.  Then they had pictures to color while they took turns writing their names on paper while trying to make it look correct in a mirror (so backwards and upside down.)  The concept there was that if you didn’t use the safety equipment and you got hurt, like a brain injury, that simple things like writing your name would be really tough to do.  I liked that.

The next stop was Team Spirit.  The kids each got to color their own flags.  I didn’t get to see too many of the flags because I had to stand guard over 2 kids who thought it was a good idea to sniff the fabric markers and then started licking them (gross!!!)  The kids had to come up with a team name and team chant.  The kids came up with the ideas and voted on it.  The team name was “Trophy Slayers”.  Our name tags were orange trophies, hence something the kids could probably remember for the rest of the day.  Then the other moms in our group (and I didn’t agree with this and, yes, I made it known but was outvoted) stepped in and said that the “slayer” part really wasn’t good because these were basically 7 & 8 year olds and “slayer” was too violent.  They also said “slayers” didn’t have a team spirit type theme.  Whatever!  So it got shortened to “Trophies”.  Out chant was “Trophies, Trophies, We bring home the trophies.”  Remember, it had to be simple so we could remember it.  Then they all contributed to a flag for our team.  They played Simon Says and Mother May I while everyone took turns coloring on the big flag.  We then sent them to the bathrooms because lunch was next.

Ah, lunch.  I was hoping to get to eat my lunch.  First, one kid didn’t have a drink but his mom had sent money for pop.  Guess what…the closest pop machine was down by where we had just left so he ran down there to get a pop.  Then the machine ate his money because they don’t keep pop in them all the time.  Hello, then unplug them.  But he decided to eat before we went to the office to get his money back.  Next was opening stuff for kids.  You know, the little packets of stuff to turn water into lemonade or those gross yogurts in a tube or tops off puddings.  You get the picture.  I did get to eat my sandwich before it was time to pack up everything again, make sure the kids had cleaned up everything, threw away their trash and put their lunch boxes back on our table.  Another mom took the kid to get his money back because she wanted fair schedules from the office.  A little bitch, OK maybe a little more than a little.  I can’t believe what some of these parents packed for their kids for lunch.  One kid had a sandwich that consisted of bread and that nasty marshmallow stuff, chips and pop.  Could we get any more sugars and starches in that meal?  Another kid had a peach pie (about 6 inch diameter) and a candy bar.  That’s it.  Those were just 2 examples from my group of kids.  Hello, I had to spend the afternoon with your sugared up kids and it wasn’t fun.  Maybe these parents are the ones who need to attend the Nutrition class.  I packed us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, trail mix and a cookie for dessert.  Tyler also had one of his Honest Juices.  It wasn’t that hard to pack.  OK, off my rant.

Our next stop was Olympic Games.  They first had the kids make a disc (2 paper plates, tops facing in, and tape), hammer (paper bag, newspaper crumpled up inside, and tied closed), and a javeline (4 straws stick inside each other.)  Then they lined the kids up so they could use their stuff.  It was windy and the kids had the wind to their backs so they got some good throws in.  They also had foam balls to use as shotputs.  Then the kids went back in to color some pictures.  Some of the leaders were picking up all the chairs because this was where everyone started out and needed seats, but the end of the day activities meant they needed to be picked up.  So I helped pick up all the chairs.

Our last big stop was Crafts.  They had the kids coloring a dragon picture that then they made cuts on to turn it into a hanging latern.  It was cute.  They also talked to them while they were coloring about how the Olympics were going to be in China and about some cultural things about China.  Then to entertain the kids who were done, they had them playing Sharks & Minnows.  Then the kids had to fill out an evaluation.  When they turned that in, they got a Chinese yo-yo.  I filled out my evaluation at this time as well.  My suggestions were bigger bags (because not everything fit from a quantity aspect and the discs were too wide to fit) and a little longer at lunch so I could eat as well (seriously, lunch was 25 minutes total.)

Then we all gathered as a big group again.  We had to do our chants and learn a little about teamwork.  The final activities were based around teamwork.  They had to practice encouraging one another, cheering, etc. during these activities.  They had a marshmallow toss, playing with a parachute, tossing frisbies back and forth through a hoola hoop, an egg race and “jumping the river” by using a blanket.  At the end of all these the kids got another medal.  Then it was time to go.  The other moms and I in our group stayed until all our kids had gotten picked up (not so with other groups.)  At the end, the main Leader (the Exploring 4-H Leader) stopped me and thanked me for all I had done today to help out.  She told me she had noticed that I had gone above and beyond what was normally expected.  I thanked her for a fun day for the kids because this was a free event for us and I’m sure that was a lot of work to put together.  When I told Trent he said I shouldn’t be surprised to have them ask me to help out with future things or become a leader because they are always looking for people like me.  Hmmm…I thought this 4-H thing was supposed to be a Daddy/Tyler thing.  I didn’t do 4-H, but I do understand what he’s saying and I’m sure I’ll get roped into something in the future.

By the end of the day, Tyler had lots of fun and we were both tired.  He wants to do Day Camp again next year.  I hope they have Day Camp for regular 4-Hers because he won’t be in Exploring 4-H next year.  Another great thing was that he didn’t spend the day next to me being shy.  He talked to other kids and hung out with them.  I was also super proud of him because one of the girls in our group was on the bigger side and some of the boys in our group made fun of her (Sorry! I didn’t have any bully slips available), but Tyler told her to ignore them and then he hung out with her a bunch.  He also avoided the boys who hadn’t been nice the rest of the day.  I’ve been worried about Tyler being a follower, but he’s shown me that he does really listen to me when I tell him things (and, who knows, we may even have TKD to thank because of all the leadership skills he’s learning in there as well.)

Homeschool Mixer

One of my favorite homeschool bloggers, Tammy Takahashi of Just Enough, and Nothing More, is inviting homeschoolers to share their stories in Homeschoolers Tell All.  Tammy was inspired by Alasandra, Alasandra’s Homeschool Blog Awards, who invited homeschoolers to a mixer.  So, I’m playing along and answering these relevant questions:

1. Why do you homeschool?  I’ve talked about this in past posts, but here is some sort of summary (though it is not an inclusive list).  The main reason is freedom.  We have the freedom of making learning fun and exciting, the freedom of designing our own projects, the freedom to make sure that Tyler is actually learning in a way that is easier for him, etc.  The second reason is that there is no one else (except his dad) that is totally invested in seeing him succeed at life and education is a big part of that.  And I’d probably put that I know my child best third on the list.
2. What technique or curriculum do you use?  We are eclectic.  We use books, workbooks, the computer through games, educational cds and the internet, field trips, classes at libraries, museums and other places, and life in general.  We also try to make sure there is plenty of unscheduled time for learning to just happen.
3. Do your kids work above or below grade level (or both!)?  He is above grade level on most things.
4. What is your educational level?  Collage graduate, BS in Accounting
5. Do you feel that your education level has an effect on your teaching (both limits and abilities?)  Sometimes.  I feel confident that I can handle teaching him because I’ve already learned it at some point.
6. What does your daily schedule look like?  Hmmm…is this a trick question?  No two days look alike in our house.  We do try to do some book learning every day, but there are times when we are tired and it just turns into a reading day.
7. Are your kids always polite and ready to learn?  No.  It is especially tough when he is learning a new concept that is hard for him.  Then he’s sure that he hates school.  But then he gets it and everything is great again.
8. Do the kids (or you!) get frustrated?  Yes.  He gets frustrated when something is tough to learn.  I get frustrated when things get to be too much.  And our frustrations play off one another.
9. How has this affected your parenting?  Well, I am always on.  There is no downtime while the kids are away at school.  But I think it makes us closer because we spend so much time together.  Also the consistency of always being the one in charge means that he doesn’t test me as much on where the boundaries are.
10. How much free time do they have?  Tyler has A LOT.  That’s part of the reason we homeschool.  I’d say that book work is maybe a couple hours a day and he might have an activity for an hour a couple times a week.  The rest of the time is his to be creative.
11. What do they do during their free time?  Right now he reads a lot.  The main reading topics are Harry Potter, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, etc.  He is also making his own Pokemon,Yu-Gi-Oh! and Monster War cards, and designs his own gameboards and games to play with them.  He is also making a list of spells used in Harry Potter and creating some of his own.  Then there is the bug collecting, worm composting and model building.
12. What hobbies do they have?  Well, refer to previous question about what he does in his free time.  Then I would also include taekwondo, 4-H, playing games on his computer, watching educational tv and whatever comes up tomorrow.
13. What difficulties and challenges do you have with homeschooling?  Maintaining balance.  It hard not to jump to do every fun sounding activity or pick up every great sounding book.
14. What makes homeschooling enjoyable?  Being able to be together, being able to do it whenever and where ever, and seeing Tyler light up when he is doing something he loves or finally gets that hard concept.
15. How do you get involved in the community?  Taekwondo; 4-H; classes at libraries, museums, parks, etc; art classes; swim lessons
16. When do you have opportunities to interact with public or privately schooled children?  At any of the above listed activities because most of them are not limited to homeschool kids.
17. Would you like more of these opportunities?  I think we are good for now.
18. How can they be created?  Easily by talking with other people.
19. What is your least favorite homeschool stereotype?  That I am damaging my child by keeping him locked away at home with no social interaction and that I am not qualified to teach him because I don’t have a degree in Education.  Both are very far from the truth.

Swimming, Pumpkinvine Bike Ride, Fishing

Last week during swim lessons, Tyler swam 50 yards backstroke, then 25 yards of freestyle and 25 yards of backstroke.  He has determined that he now likes backstroke better because he doesn’t have to worry about breathing.  For a kid who hated floating on his back, this is a huge improvement.  His next goal for himself is to swim 50 yards freestyle.  They also have been practicing jumping off the side of the pool, diving off the side of the pool and treading water.

Saturday was the Pumpkinvine Bike Ride.  Sorry, no pics from me because I was biking.  We did the 15 mile Country Loop.  We were out on county roads in Amish country.  It was great!!!  The SAG stops were amazing with the variety of food available.  They had water, Gatorade, grapes, bananas, oranges, chips, cookies, peanut butter and jelly on bread, and bagels.  We’ve been to other races where the only thing is donuts – yuck!  We were passed by a few horse drawn carriages.  I told Tyler it was unfair since they had horse power, but he didn’t think it was as funny as I did.  Tyler did pedal almost the entire time and Trent even had him changing gears on his trailer bike so that he could actually help with the pedaling.  We did do one other stop and that was because Krista (the naturalist who also does the Science Sleuth classes) was by the lake talking about the wetlands area and she had a painted turtle.  She (the turtle) was bigger than Raffy, but Krista still let Tyler hold her.  We finished up our ride in 1 hour and 38 minutes – not bad at all.  Then we had our choice of apple, cherry or pumpkin pie with ice cream.  Tyler & I had apple, Trent had cherry.  We found out that pie and ice cream is not really what you want after a big ride like that, but it was something different.  Everyone there was super nice and towards the end of the ride we were joined by people who were going farther distances (they also had a 22, 42, 65, and 102 mile rides), they all talked to us and encouraged Tyler to keep pedaling.  I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing that ride again next year.  A good time was had by all.

Then we headed to Kendallville for a family reunion.  We had good food and it was great to see everyone, but we had a really strong storm roll in so it was cut short.  Next year the family is going back to camping, but they are camping 11 miles from our home.  We’re not going to camp.  My bed is just too close and it is way more comfortable than sleeping on the ground.

Tyler is now a fisherman.  On Fri evening, while over at Grandma & Grandpa Snyder’s, we headed over to the pond and the adults cast while Tyler fished.  There was no fish landed, but you could see the fish grouping around and biting.  So Sat evening, he tried again.  This time he caught 6 fish, his one cousin caught 6 fish and his other cousin caught 4 fish.  None were keepers.  But Tyler is now casting for himself.  There was concern that because it was an open reel that he wouldn’t be able to do it, but he was shown and he doesn’t have any problems.  He even decided that when the fish weren’t biting in one area to move around some.  We didn’t let the kids take the fish off the hooks, but they did throw them back into the water.  Tyler still doesn’t want to go out in the boat because that’s just too long, but we should be able to keep him interested by letting him fish there again or maybe take him over to the river.

Pollination, swimming, library

The pollination class was interesting.  It was held outside and it was windy yesterday so somethings got cut (like the craft project) because stuff would have just blown away.  They learned about different ways of pollination (wind, by animals, etc), went on a hike with magnifying glasses to see pollen on flowers and ate a snack of fruit because the flowers needed to be pollinated to make the fruit.  I met a really nice homeschooling mom and dad so I got to talk homeschooling stuff.  Their son is younger and they are just starting out on the journey.

Today at swimming was great.  Tyler swam a lot!  He was even more tired than he was last week when he was 1 of 4 kids in class.  Now being 1 of 2 has him swimming twice as much.  I think it is great, but he did mention that his arms were hurting more today.  Yeah!  Muscles building.

Then we headed to the library for more books.  I was off getting my books and I could hear the librarian talking to Tyler, but I didn’t know what about.  So when I went to check out my books she told me.  See, this one book he returned today had a poster in it.  He really wanted to keep it, but I told him that it was the library’s book so he had to return it with the book.  Turns out that the librarian asked him if he wanted it, knowing what I already told he, he said no.   Then the librarian told him that she was just going to have to throw it away, that changed his mind.  But the big thing that she wanted to tell me is that she was very impressed that he thanked her and that he really looked her in the eye when he was talking to her and thanking her.  So we talked a little about how TKD is really helping his self-confidence.  Mr. Birky, if you are reading this, thank you!!!!  I wanted to put this on his attitude report for today, but he didn’t want me to.

Off to an interesting start

Tyler lost another tooth yesterday.  And the answer to the big question is “No, he didn’t swallow this one.”  Everyone he told yesterday asked him that.  But he does have a history of it, so I understand.  Unfortunately for him, the Tooth Fairy didn’t come last night.  He was still awake at midnight.  He was laying in bed, being quiet but just not sleeping.  And when I woke up at 5:30 this morning he was already mostly awake.  Doesn’t leave a lot of time for the Tooth Fairy to visit him.  We told him that the Tooth Fairy didn’t come if you didn’t go to sleep when it was bedtime.  We’ll see what happens tonight.

This morning at swim lessons he did great.  At the end of lessons we found out that he will be with a different instructor than last session and that there will only be 2 kids with this instructor (Tyler and another little boy.)  Score!!  That’s practically private lessons.  There aren’t as many kids as last session and I am happy about that.  So I’m hoping for some good improvement again.

He has Science Sleuths this afternoon.  The topic is pollination.  So I’ll have an update on that tomorrow.

In household news, we spent yesterday shopping for, buying, and bringing home a new fridge.  Yes, our old one (the one original to the house, so 20+ years old) was winding down and we figured it would be dying on us soon based on the continuous running, heavy condensation outside the seals, and the noise factor.  So we have a nice shiny new black one.  It has the freezer on the bottom and double doors on top.  We got last year’s model on closeout, which meant % off but that we had to do our own delivery and haul away.  $-wise it was worth it, but it made for a long day.  So that’s how Trent spent his Father’s Day.  Oh, and I got him a shop vac because he’s been asking for one.

Now this week I have appointments to see how much it will be to replace our non-working heat pump.  I’ve got 1 appt this evening and another on Thurs evening.  We’ll see how different the prices are before we decide on whether we want another quote or not.  Thankfully the weather is cooperating this week by being cooler since we have no AC.

They just called and cancelled the class that Tyler was going to have tomorrow on Bugs in my Backyard at a museum.  They didn’t have have enough kids.  Sad!  So we have some additional free time tomorrow.  Tyler will probably spend it reading.  He is almost always reading lately.  Not complaining about that.

Washer, Hummingbird, EnviroFest

I did get my washer fixed.  A month worth of waiting, 3 parts delivered, cancelled appointments, repair people not showing up at the right times, and do you know what was wrong… a loose bolt.  It took him 5 minutes to find it and fix it.  So 2 of the parts weren’t used.  The 3rd part was just a plastic piece to keep my hose from crimping where it goes in the drain so that was installed (I could have done that.)  But my washer works great again – I know because I did lots of laundry yesterday.  Now my next big adventures will be with the heat pump that stopped working (yes, that means no AC for us right now) and the fridge that is going out.

Grandma & Grandpa Snyder gave us a hummingbird feeder that just wasn’t working out at their house a few weeks ago.  So far it is working out great at our home.  We have a male and female hummingbird in our yard.  Trent & Tyler have seen the male, but I haven’t.  I’ve seen the female lots because she comes to the feeder in the evening while we are sitting on the deck.  From what I’ve seen she is a Ruby-throated, which is common here and breeds here.  We’re hoping she has a nest close by and that maybe we will get to see the fledglings before she chases them away.

And now for the EnviroFest.  When we first got there we checked out the Small Animal Rescue area.  They had bunnies, kittens, cats, a guinea pig and mice.  That was the first time I have ever heard of mice being rescued from uncaring owners.  We also looked at the dogs that the Humane Society had there for adoption. 

Then we entered the EnviroFest and I took lots of pictures, which will be shared at the end.  First stop was the recycled art contest.  There were some great pieces.  I think Tyler’s favorite was the dino looking one made of recycled metal.  There will be pics of dice scattered throughout the pics.  Those were made of recycled boxes and were just so cute I had to take pics.

Then he played the Kerplop game and we found out we needed an Enviro-opoly game card.  The card got punched, checked or marked for every activity that Tyler did and when it was completed, he would get a prize.  So we had our mission. 

Next stop was the Groundwater slushies.  You started out with a glass of ice, in which the ice represented the rocks in the ground.  Then you added lemonade, which is the groundwater.  Next you put soil on the top in the form of sprinkles.  Now a contaminent is added onto the soil in the form of red dye.  It mostly stays on top until you put in a well in the form of the straw to drink.  Now the contaminent is in the ground water.  Then it rained again (putting a little more lemonade in the glass) which helped dilute the contaminent, but the contaminent still remains.  I thought it was a great way to teach kids about groundwater.

Next stop was the Incredible Journey.  You start out as a drop of water.  You get your card with a string to string your beads.  Each bead represents different things like animal, glacier, clouds, river, lake, plant.  You pick a place to start.  Tyler decided on animal.  You take a bead and put it on your string, then roll the dice and see where you go next for your next bead and so on.  The person manning the booth asked the kids questions about how did they get from the lake to the clouds (evaporation) or how they got from the glacier to the river (melting) or how did they get from the lake to the animal (the animal drinks.)  Tyler’s played this before at Science Sleuths so he knew what to do.

Next stop was cleaning out the waterway.  They had some bad things in a baby pool that needed to be cleaned out with garbage picker-upers.  And you had to tell the person running the booth why it was a bad thing to be in the water.  Aluminum cans are bad because they are trash and sharp edges could cut things.  Zebra mussels because they are an invasive species.  You get the idea.

Next stop was the making of twig frames.  Twigs are stacked around the edges, tied together and the hot glue gunned to a piece of cardboard.  Easy, but cute.

Next stop was the making of buttons.  The idea was to make a button that reminded you to conserve energy.  Tyler’s was a light bulb with a smiley face.  Look for it in the later pics.

Then it was off to the Eco-Obstacle Course.  You had to go under a saw horse holding your breath because the air was polluted.  Then you had to walk across a board on a tarp.  You couldn’t fall off because the water was polluted.  Then you had to make your way through the landfill graveyard.  It had signs that showed how long things took to break down (plastic 50-80 years, glass 500 years, etc.)  Then they missed the bus and their moms had to take them to school so to offset the energy they had to do 10 jumping jacks.  Then they had to crawl through the tubes to get to the recycling area, where they had to dig in some recycled paper to find the prize (which was something not recyclable.)  They didn’t keep this prize.  They just had to find it to get their cards punched.

Next stop was learning about the different colors that are associated with the daily air quality index.  They handed out map routes and schedules for the Interurban trolley and we found out that it is free if the air quality is red or higher on the index.  They also had regional bike route maps so we got one of those as well.

We stopped at a booth that had information about a local nature center.  They just had things out, but the coolest thing was pelts that we could feel in old VHS cases.  On the outside was a pic of the animal with a range map and the inside had a piece of felt.  They are always fun to touch.  On a table nearby we picked up a little box of organic pasta shells.

Then we were off to make paper flower pots.  You just take a piece of newspaper, fold it in half the long way, wrap it around a pop can, fold one end in and tape it, take out the pop can, put in dirt and seeds.  She said to keep it watered well and when the seeds start sprouting to put the whole thing in the ground because the paper would turn into dirt.

Then he made paper.  This is a very wet process, but he enjoyed it.  Then Trent had to make a trip back to the truck with all the stuff.  We were running out of hands to carry things.

Tyler & I head to the Recycling Relay station.  It was a timed event where the kids had to as accurately as possible sort things into the correct recycling or trash bins.  And you could only do 1 item at a time.  Tyler got 11 items and got them all correct.  The person doing the station didn’t really know what to say to Tyler since at the end she normally was telling the kids what they got wrong and why.  Umm… good training at home on what is recyclable works every time.

Now it was time for a break.  We got nachos with beans, cheese, salsa and sour cream and a frappacinno to drink.  They were made with all organic ingredients.  And blue corn chips are one of my favorites.  Then we still had a few more stations to hit.

Next was the making of a rainstick.  This took all 3 of us and 2 volunteers to make.  It’s not hard, just requires lots of hands for holding the glued things together while the glue dries.  It is a toilet paper roll with paper glued on the ends.  Twisted aluminum foil and rice go inside to make the rain sound.  And, obviously, it got decorated on the outside with stamps and stickers.  I didn’t get any more pics at this point because I was in charge of holding the rainstick while it dried.

Next on the list was a stop at the recycled house.  The studs were metal, the floor was bamboo, siding was cedar.  It was great. And it gave us some ideas for where to get the bamboo flooring that I want.

We stopped at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore booth.  Tyler got to look at sand through a microscope.  Learned about the area and impressed the naturalist with his knowledge of what would eat a six-lined racerunner (fox, hawk) and what would happen if it lost its tail (it would grow a new one.)

We went back and looked at the Toyota Prius that was there.  I would really like to have one of those.  Found that a couple of the booths still weren’t manned (they were having issues with volunteers yesterday.)  And went to go get his prize.  It turned out to be a pencil with a pencil grip.  We were finally done with our EnviroFest adventure.

Here is the link to the pics I took:

2008 – EnviroFest (June)

Cuteness Factor

*** This is the second post of today so make sure you scroll down and read the other one as well.

Tyler & I were talking about the candy suckers he received from his swim lesson instructor today.  He was telling me the flavors and why he picked them, etc.  Then he tells me, “Mommy, don’t worry about asking me if I thanked him because I did.  I always remember to do that.”  Ah, he’s just so cute sometimes.

He did it!!! x2

First, yesterday after we got home and Tyler recovered from swim lessons, he asked that we not bike to swim lessons.  Not because he doesn’t want to, but because he is so tired after them.  He normally doesn’t ask these types of things, so I think swimming is taking more out of him than he expected.  But the flip side is that he is building up some muscles.

In the afternoon he learned about petrified wood at a library program.  This was at a different branch and this librarian is wonderful.  She keeps control of the kids, they have to sit quietly, etc.  Tyler loved it and he says he learned lots.  I even heard him answer a question, which is big progress.  He usually just sits there quietly and never says anything.  Just so you all know, petrified wood is really rocks now.  And it became petrified by laying at the bottom of a really old lake.  He told me this like I didn’t know.

Last night was TKD testing and he got his yellow belt.  He was excited.  Then he learned that he also got the attitude award for his belt level.  Remember him getting it during his testing for his orange belt?  So now he’s gotten it 2 times in a row.  He told us last night that he wants to get it every time he tests.  We told him that it would be wonderful if he does, but that it will require him to keep working hard.  Mr. Birky told us afterwards that most of the reason was his dramatic increase in confidence.  The last testing he was really unsure of himself, but this time he was confident.  I’m so proud of him!!!  And I did take lots of pictures, so here they are:

2008 – Tyler TKD Testing for Yellow Belt

Then this morning he had his last day of swim lessons for this session.  He passed onto the next level there as well.  So he’s done with Level 3 and is in Level 4 for the next session (which begins on Monday.)  Again I’m proud of him!!!  And I took pictures:

2008 – Tyler 1st session swim lesson

On the way home from swimming in the car, Tyler told me that “You know, swimming is really hard work.”  Hmmm… Kinda already knew that since I used to swim competitively.  He says, “No, Mommy, it’s gotten harder since you did it.”  Really?  Is water different now?  He says, “No, the strokes are different now.”  Boy, we are going to have to compromise that when Mommy says freestyle, it is the same as front crawl, and when Mommy says backstroke, it’s the same as back crawl.  He says he’ll think about it.  They are having lap swim on Mons & Weds during the day at the pool.  I’m thinking about going and Tyler would have to hang out reading or whatever while I swam.  Maybe if he actually saw me swim, then he would realize that I actually do know what I’m talking about.

Now I’m waiting for the repair man to show up and fix my washer.  Today is supposed to be the day!!!