Football Saturday

The awe of your first game—walking through those gates with all those people, up a small slope, then through a short tunnel to come out nearly at the top of the biggest college football stadium in the world, the ground gaping open before you to drop to a field of green, and maize and blue clad people swarming in to fill all those seats—that awe was Calvin's today.

We have never really pushed football on him, but because I love watching Michigan play he's been exposed to the game over the years. He has seen them play on TV and has been to almost every tailgate with our friends and family since he was born. Then this year he asked to go to a game, and my parents were able to arrange that fun (thanks to my aunt and uncle who sit next to them and were not using their tickets this week, so thanks go to all of the above).

Calvin enjoyed the crowd, asked questions about the game, and seemed to love singing the various team songs. He went home after half time because the game was slightly dull, because three hours of sitting can be a lot for a five year old (and my mom so I could stay with my dad), and because the band had already played, and that was the perfect day for him. I didn't need him to stay for the whole game—I didn't need him to be there at all—but there is great joy in sharing the things that you love with your child, especially when they seem to enjoy them as well.

The pet on our porch

When Jon and I let the dogs out before bedtime last night (that being our bedtime, hours after Calvin's), we found a new inhabitant on our front porch. It was cold last night, and I think most people would have gotten a laugh out of the two of us standing on the front porch in our pajamas, moving this way and that in order to see the mantis move his head to follow us. Hopefully at one o-clock in the morning most of our neighbors were in bed.

This morning the same guy was in the same place. Strange, because mantids are supposed to be masters of disguise, and this one was certainly not hard to spot. He spent most of the day with us, too, disappearing for an hour in the afternoon and returning before dinner (our dinner, that is). I haven't checked on him since but my guess is that he won't stay. There's only so much door opening and staring that one bug can take, after all.

What was cool about him being there morning, noon and night (aside from Calvin getting to see him since we obviously didn't wake him in those chilly wee hours) was getting to see the change in his eyes. Woah! That's a night and day difference! We did a little digging and found very little information, but we did learn that some insects with low light adaptations have a light-absorbing, protective pigment covering for their eyes that they engage in bright light situations. If that's the case, then the pigment takes time to engage, because he didn't respond to the porch light at all in the ten minutes we spent antagonizing him, but during the day he clearly changed something! We also learned that he is mostly a diurnal hunter and was likely just spending the night at our hotel. I wonder if he made reservations for tonight, too.

Leaving Antarctica

It was about a month ago that Calvin finished reading Mr. Popper's Penguins and set out to find more information on the coldest continent. We did our usual and headed to library first, where we loaded our arms with books on Penguins, ice, ice bergs, glaciers, and Antarctica itself. But then I did something I'd never done before and bought an actual unit study curriculum. It wasn't that I thought we couldn't explore the continent on our own, but it's nice to have a map sometimes. We didn't use it as a means of information gathering, but as a source of questions and suggestions so that we had some direction in our book reading and research. That's a unit study use I can get behind, and actually I really enjoyed having at least the table of contents as a sort of road map to generally follow, or to come back to after some side trail meanderings.

The down side to studying Antarctica is that a majority of the animals are almost entirely black and white. Illustrating that continent did not provide the same thrill as illustrating Africa.

What brought the exploration to an end this week was really a waning interest. I am sure there are more ice experiments to be found, and there is always more that can be learned on any subject, but we've touched on all the subjects in the unit study anyhow, and Calvin's head is turned more these days by prehistoric beasts than it is by ice-locked mountains. So I made the final printouts this morning and we dallied over a word search and a crossword, and we played a trivia game a few times. Tomorrow we'll assemble all the various parts of a month's worth of exploration and reminisce before putting them away in a folder, which will likely be decorated with a (mostly black and white) illustration of a penguin.

I am posting a review of the unit study we used, and a comprehensive list of our resources and activities for exploring Antarctica on Live and Learn.

At the park

Today started out in a rather dragging manner. We woke up, dragged ourselves downstairs, ate breakfast, then realized it was barely past eight. Hmm. Calvin had the piano practiced and several theory worksheets filled in before Jon even left for work, then spent the next hour on map worksheets. He's really into maps right now. We read about Antarctica together, we played with the Legos, we filled in some Antarctica worksheets, and still it wasn't quite noon. And the day was turning out to be beautiful in spite of forecasted rain. So we packed our lunch, a few activities, and Calvin's bike, and headed to the county park.

There is a three mile trail at the park that I like to run. It has no real hills to speak of and much of it is in the shade, plus it's always full of other runners so I feel in good company, but this was the first time I tried running it with Calvin. As his biking confidence has grown so has his speed and I thought we might enjoy the trail together. I still run faster than he does, and it's hard to say whether all the running ahead and doubling back made up for the walking alongside (albeit quickly) or hiding behind upcoming trees, waiting to jump out with a "boo!", but the activity was fun for both of us.

During lunch, which we enjoyed after our trek, we watched a class of university students gather creatures from the river and study them with their TA before returning them to the water. We both loved that example of outdoor learning but I didn't want them to think I was any weirder than I already look so I left the camera in its bag. Sitting on the side taking photographs of young men and women in waders while I fed my kid carrot sticks and a turkey sandwich just didn't seem right. We enjoyed a calming view while doing some math practice sheets, more map sheets, and imagining shapes in the cloud filled sky. And we found Mr. Fuzzy on the way back to the car and I didn't have the same compunction about taking his picture.

A day of rest

We had a quiet Sunday. A day as long and busy day as yesterday was calls for a day of rest to follow. No chores, no yard work, no much of anything. Just some quiet reading, an Antarctic craft, and some pretend play in a tent in the sitting room, of course. With Jon home I actually drove over to the Metro Park to run on the paths—it's such a beautiful time of year for it—and on my way I passed our little local cider mill. Open. Must be closer to fall than I thought. So when Calvin asked for afternoon snack, how could we not go down there for fresh, hot donuts and fresh cold cider. Oh heavenly.