A New Chapter

Recently we've been caught up with the holidays. Thanksgiving was filled with family, and while we had a wonderful time it's a blur since it went so fast! December holidays are going strong, and P seems to have a passion for holiday music. P is also trying to decide if the big man in red is real or an act. 

He wrote out his list and brought it to Santa himself, but he's still not quite sure about the whole thing. He also mentioned that if Santa is real then he gets more presents. I'm not sure how to handle this one, so we'll roll with the punches. We did take advantage of the opportunity to talk about sharing. P and I adopted an angel and did plenty of shopping for a child who had less than us. It was tough, but I think we've laid the ground for a nice tradition. I hope that he'll continue to realize it's not all about presents, and it's not all about him. 

It seems we've confused our poor child a bit too. He says it snows at Christmas time, but the weather here won't cooperate with his plans. He wore his new mittens with shorts to get ice cream. Apparently we need to work on understanding weather better. He doesn't yet grasp that for snow it also has to be cold.

With all of this we've also reached another big milestone. Today was kiddo's last day of school!

 We're all excited for the next chapter. While our schedule is changing there will still be plenty of adventures. Probably more since we ended up with a new vehicle for our adventures. We're looking forward to some family bonding time before celebrating Christmas with extended family.

Soon we'll be planning out 2016. We've got one big trip planned, and other ideas that may end up as spur of the moment trips. I'm always up for suggestions though - so if there's a place you love to explore share with us and it might just end up on our itinerary!

Down on the Farm

Cow's milk, morning glory tunnels, butterfly gardens, goats, ostrich races. Crowe's Nest Farm has it all. This education center provides a hands on experience for the public to see how important farming is. I wasn't sure what to expect, and it was more than I could have hoped for.

Our field trip started in the big red barn, where we observed a variety of snakes and geckos. Several taxidermy animals were on display, as well as bones and horns. We also learned about the resources provided by farms for everyday products. Cotton clothes, honey, boots. There were plenty of things I could teach P about, and several I learned about myself.

Next was a milking demonstration. Farmer Dave showed us traditional milking and used the milking machine. He even walked us through the production cycle from the cow to HEB. We also met some baby pigs, and an 11 year old turkey. P had a great time thanking the animals for all they provide: milk, steak, bacon, sausage, and Thanksgiving dinner. Of course it'll be interesting to see how much he eats now.

The kids were in for a treat because the next stop on our trip was the hay ride. Here we learned about the bison and ostrich living on the farm. The ostrich decided to race us for a stretch, hinting at how fast the large bird could travel despite his inability to fly.

Learning is also about using our bodies, and I loved the freedom we had to explore at our own pace. We started with fence climbing, then checked out the pony, chickens, baby & adult pigs, peacocks, goats, llamas, pheasants, hawks and owls. We also had time to wander the gardens and play in "secret tunnels."

Although it was a bit chilly on our trip, in warmer months I look forward to seeing the butterfly garden. We found morning glories with beautiful purple blooms, and this mystery plant too. At home we learned the Datura blooms, then leaves a spiky seed pod - making plants that much more interesting to small hands!

The farm has a wide open picnic area where you can eat while watching and listening to the longhorns. The kids enjoyed being kids. I hope they have more knowledge now about how important farming is, and I know they have a much better idea of how fun a farm can be. 

"Hey, hey! Come here!"

"Hey, hey! Come here!"

As a parent when we hear this call, or any of it's similar variations, it could mean any of a thousand different ideas. Sometimes kiddo is clearly excited, sometimes angry, sometimes it's a mystery. When I react to this call I've had a variety of seemingly unimportant responses.

"My tag is itchy."

"I want you to watch me eat."

"My toy is stuck."

 It's very easy to brush off "Hey, hey! Come here!" And I have, more times than I can count. Being a stay at home parent means you have to pick and choose what calls to react to, not to mention how to react and when. If I'm cooking on a hot stove that call usually has to wait. Or when I'm finally making that important phone call. Or honestly, simply because I'm tired and we've done this 100 times today.

When we went hiking today the trail pushed kiddo. It was still doable for him, but I'd heard plenty of comments about how tired he was, he's shared several times how I was going the wrong way or too fast, and he made us play red light green light, which resulted in mainly red lights. I'd been coaxing him along to the scenic view toward the end of our trail, and I'd finally reached it. But kiddo had stopped before me, and uttered the expected phrase, "Hey, hey! Come here!"

I really wanted to say no. I wanted him to catch up to us, to enjoy the view I;d had in mind our entire trip. I caught a break though, and since we were planning to stop for a few minutes I went back to kiddo. And the view was breathtaking.

"It's the whole city," he said in awe. And even if it wasn't, it sure was a fantastic view, superior to the one where I'd stopped, even if only a few yards away. I almost missed it. We enjoyed the view for a moment, then continued the last few steps to our stopping point.

I hope he learned that mom is willing to have adventures on his terms at least part of the time. I hope he learned how to observe the world around him using not only his sight, but with his sense of smell and hearing. But if he didn't we still have plenty of time. More importantly than his learning was mine.

I was reminded to stop and smell the roses. Or rather, stop and see the view. He wanted to enjoy the hike just as much as I did, we simply had different methods. I had an agenda, he took it all in one step at a time. I was reminded that even though he has little feet, little legs and a little voice, he still has big ideas. And they're worth listening to.

Life is rushing by all around us. I hope we can both learn to take it in stride. For now though there's someone calling, "Hey, hey! Come here!" I'll take that as my cue.

The last days of school?

We have always planned to educate our child at home, even before he was in our lives. But like any parent, we've questioned our decisions and we want to make sure we're making the best choices for him, not simply the choices best for us. I was delighted this past week when kiddo finally said the magic words, "I want to do homeschool."

A little bit of background. We enrolled kiddo in a language immersion preschool shortly before his 3rd birthday. We see a second language as a valuable tool in life, and we wanted to give him a solid foundation. In our area there were a few programs to choose from, and we found a fabulous school. He's thrived there with the small classes and mixed ages. This summer though we hit a rough patch, and we took another look at area school, and reevaluated our situation. Instead of pulling him from school we actually added a third day to his schedule.

Five months later though we've hit another rough patch. We see three options: keep chugging along, go back to two days a week, or withdraw him from school at Christmas. For a variety of reasons we see this last option as the most viable.

We recognize the world is a large place to our four year old, so when he says "I want to do homeschool," does he even know what he's asking for? We've slowly become more involved with local homeschooling families, and he's had his share of exposure to the school environment. We know that any choice we make isn't forever. But we still struggle with the ever present parental self doubt.

Looking at the next several weeks as his last days of preschool is bittersweet. He's made friends, I've made friends, he's been given a different view of life and been well prepared for more knowledge. It's been fun, but we're excited for the adventure ahead!

Pedernales State Park

We caught a lucky break this week - kiddo was sick. Thankfully he didn't really understand he was supposed to be sick, so even though he missed his class, he was ready for an adventure. We packed our drinks, snacks and sunblock and hit the road!

We navigated through morning rush hour and quickly made our way into the picturesque hill country and on to Pedernales State Park. It had been several years since I'd visited, and the munchkin hadn't been at all. As we entered the park we were welcomed with our first wild life sighting when munchkin spotted a deer. He'd also spotted curvy roads, hills, and construction, but I took the deer as a positive sign.

The clear day gave us spectacular views overlooking the hill country, and our short hike took us right down to the Pedernales River. Munchkin has always been a little particular about sand and I was worried he might put a stop to our fun when we had to cross a sandy area to get to the rock, but he surprised me and didn't even pause. We both loved exploring the slabs of limestone in the river, and since it had rained a few days earlier we had numerous puddles to discover.

Munchkin and I were excited to climb through the rocks, pointing out moss, minnows, and even a tiny cave. We found a spring and had a great conversation about the water cycle. We let our imagination run wild as we thought of what unseen animals lived in the park. Perhaps a bear lives in the cave, and was a friend of this tiny creature!

After exploring the river for a while we enjoyed the views with our snacks and water. Then we decided it was time to explore the woods a bit. Staying on trail we heard several birds and bugs, and dreamed of elephants and giraffes hiding just out of sight. He hasn't quite mastered reading a map, but munchkin was insistent that he knew where we were headed. He led us by cacti and evergreen trees. We had the opportunity to rest on "mysterious benches" and trail map inspired us to learn about snakes, dragonflies and even penguins. 

It could have been an ordinary sick day, with snuggles, books and a little television time. Instead we chose to make memories, visit a new place and learn even more about our world. I'll take this kind of sick day any time.