That beautiful taste of summer

I would put this under the recipes section of the blog, but that would seem a bit self indulgent. It is, after all, just shortcake from the recipe on the Bisquick box (for shame!), heavy whipping cream (whipped with sugar), and those beautiful Michigan strawberries that are not to be matched by any of their imported distant cousins. I don't know what I was doing, but we almost missed strawberry season this year!

Reason #365 to homeschool: learning for yourself, too

We spent some time in our garden this weekend. This is the time of year that we are in the garden the most: it's a great time to put in plants, it's an important time to weed, it's sunny but not too hot. This weekend in the garden we discovered an enemy in the form of the Colorado Potato Beetle. It's the larvae that caught my attention—fat little grub like things dressed to look like a lady bug—all over one of my plants. Upon closer inspection we discovered several leaves with eggs, and probably almost fifty of the fat, greedy little larvae themselves. We don't have any potatoes planted, and they were light bug-years away from our vegetable gardens, but there they were nonetheless. Since as a family we honor and respect all life (it's with a certain amount of horror that I watch other children deliberately and triumphantly squash bugs on the sidewalk) there was a somewhat unwelcome lesson to be learned and taught as we systematically eradicated (squashed) the entire colony and even removed the plant to the fire pit. Our first family case of "it's either us or them."

Before this weekend I'd had no idea of their existence—none at all—and now I live in mortal fear of these insects decimating my eggplant (because next to potatoes I guess that's what they like best). It's a real fear, because last year we lost the last of our tomato crop to a giant tomato hornworm, and the year before that we lost the last of our squash plants to squash bugs. Thanks to our gardens we sure are getting to know a lot of pests. As Jon said to me over the insect carnage in our street this past weekend "Why haven't I ever seen these things before? Where have they been? Where did they come from?" He is talking about not only all these dangerous bugs, but also about new plants, animals, birds, ecological situations, that we've discovered together over the past couple of years between gardening and nature hikes and all manner of exploration.

With or without homeschooling in our lives we were likely to run into the aforementioned terrors, but without our inquisitive five year old we might have handled the problem and been done with it. Instead, we've learned about these creatures and about coexisting with them. And bugs aren't the only thing; homeschooling with Calvin has pushed me out of my standard comfort zone and has given me a reason, a need even, to become a perpetual learner in all fields. The flipside of that coin, of course, is that anyone who is willing and able to learn can homeschool, all it requires is the audacity to believe that it can be done.

No, I'm not a rocket scientist, but I can help my son learn how to find the answers he seeks or get the help that he needs to start down the path to become one if he should so choose. I'm not an agriculturalist, either, but after this weekend I can tell you a lot about the Colorado Potato Beetle, including how to get and keep them out of your garden.

Summer reading, and more

Today Calvin signed himself up for the summer reading program at our library. The idea is to get (keep?) kids reading over the summer, so they get prizes each time they meet their own weekly goals and are entered in an end of the summer drawing as well. Even though there is a "read to me" component we've never participated before. I don't go in for goal or reward oriented reading (says the girl with the goal of reading a book a week over the course of the year); reading is a natural part of our day, and Calvin reads plenty without enticement, outside of the pure enjoyment he gains from doing so. But this year Calvin is reading to himself and after reading the brochure he asked me about the program. I explained to him why we'd never participated before and gave him the choice of doing so now, as long as, if he chose to join in, he met his own goals all summer.

He signed up for the big kids program, the "read to myself" program. He filled the form out by himself and chose to set a goal of four completely new books each week, which, as he explained to me almost word for word, "is not very many, but will leave me time to read my old favorites and maybe a "long long chapter book, like the next Oz." I will make him a book log to keep at home, and each week he will fill out the log the library has for him under his name. And maybe I'm mistaken, or maybe it's just the right time, because I can see this being a decent thing. Having to keep the list might get him thinking more about the books and their authors, and about comparing them, too. And since he is a natural reader now, I doubt the introduction of rewards will ruin our natural flow.

And so we were at the library today, and before that this morning was the start of Calvin's two week long summer swim class, which means lessons at nine in the morning, every morning, all week, for two weeks. We're always up well before then, but we're not usually out of the house by the then, or presentable (because I often get up and go running, which is out of the house, but I'm not exactly presentable afterwards). The bright side? Just think of all the things we can accomplish this way. And today was a math day, and a checking on the bacteria we're growing petri dishes day, and a bird watching, reading, and piano day. Pretty much a run-of-the-mill day you could say.

Swan family in our neighborhood! I would have liked better pictures of these guys but it was just before bedtime that they came wandering through so it was dark, and we respectfully kept our distance. I'm hoping we'll see them again, though.

Weekend fun—Father's Day edition

The garage sale is over and life can return to its normal fast pace. When the sale ended yesterday we were surprisingly left with only three small boxes of leftovers, one of which went to the basement, for sentimental or practical purposes, while the other two were eventually spread between a handful of Freecycle users. And the guest room at our house now actually has a bed in it—a real bed not a sofa bed—so people should come visit us now (but not too often if you want me to get any sewing done in there).

A weekend should be full of fun and adventrue so yesterday, at Calvin's request, he and his dad started another science experiment, this one about bacteria and fungi. I watched the boys swab Ollie's mouth and Calvin's mouth during a break in garage sale doings. That's an experiment that will take all week and we'll be visiting our growing friends every day.

And this weekend we celebrate dads everywhere. I should have something more profound to say about dads and father's day because I've been fortunate in my lifetime to be surrounded by men who are wonderful fathers, but I just hope they all know how very beautiful that role is in life, and how very important. My own dad is in Chicago and Jon's was busy as well so it ended up being a (delightful) party of just the three of us. A party of three that moved furniture, weeded gardens, played in the sprinkler, blew bubbles, and had a camping style dinner. With the fire pit finished and no need to drag it all out to the driveway every time we use it, I think we'll be enjoying fires more often. Tonight we roasted sausages, apples, and carrots for dinner, then finished it off with s'mores. Then we watched the birds play in the newly weeded garden while we waited for the bats to come out, and enjoyed a bedtime story by the fire as well.

And that brings our weekend to a close. It felt long, and we accomplished much. That's the best kind of weekend. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

A card and a camel

This is about as close to a first day of school portrait as we're likely to get. Funny that it's the first week after school let out around here, then. Since this is the first week of summer vacation for the school bound this was also the summer reading program kick-off at our library. I've said it before and I'll say it again (and likely again and again): we love our library. This year they have so many activities planned that the calendar is too abbreviated to read easily. We started our own kick-off earlier in the week, though, when Calvin got his own card. I'd told him weeks ago that as soon as he could fill out the form by himself he could have his own card. That was like dangling a carrot, I guess, and on Monday he filled out his form and got his card. I'm sure it helps that we are there several times a week and are very active volunteers, but the librarians made a wonderfully big deal out of the occasion, and that was fun. The president of the library even came out and shook Calvin's hand and asked him what he would check out first. Unfortunately, the book he wanted was already out, but he used his card to put it on hold, and today we were notified that it was available for pick-up, so we got it when we went to see the camel. The card has now been broken in.

It's these little milestones that are so much fun. Obviously we did not take part in any preschool graduation like other kids his age did this year, and there were no school photos or class parties. Instead we celebrated a first library card, which to me was more authentic anyhow. It's opening a door of knowlege! It's almost as good as a drivers license! Well, maybe. And I'd promised Calvin that when he got his card I would make him a special library bag, with material of his choosing, in which to keep it. He held me to my promise, he picked his fabric, and he is almost as excited about the bag as about the card. Almost. In fact, his adoration of the library card reminds me of Jon wanting to wear his brand new shoes to bed as a little boy.

But back up a bit. Did I say "when we went to see the camel?" Why yes, yes I did. It was summer program kick-off day today, complete with magic tricks and a camel. I actually had to stay behind at the garage sale but Jon was able to come home long enough to take Calvin to enjoy the party, magic tricks, camel, cake, and all. I think I already mentioned how much I love our library.