November in the park

Sixty degrees in November called us to the park today. Actually, with the loss of the hour it called us first to get up too early, drink too much coffee to make up for it, and spend the first too many hours of sunshine sitting in the house playing with Legos, practicing the piano, and play-acting the felt, but then it called us to the park. Or, actually, next it called us to the library book sale in Ann Arbor where we picked up some treasures we're very excited about, but then—then—it finally called us outside. So that's where we went.

Confidence

Legos, piano, kitchen counter science, and romping outside in the brilliant fall sunshine are the things that have dominated the last few days here. Today was library book sale day and we came home with two bags of treasure to enjoy. Jon played in his first piano recital in years this afternoon and we all delighted in his talent, and in the family time that inevitably follows such an event. The leaves have just about all fallen by now, and hot tea and evening fire weather is just around the corner.

Our journey through history is now well into the Cenozoic Era, and this week we'll be touring some painted caves in France, and making our way to the land bridge and into the Americas, where our ancestors will meet up with some of the fantastic mammals we've been reading about.

In September I purchased an American history curriculum by Intellego. I was drawn to it for the same reason that I'm drawn to clothing ads in the Sunday paper—I have no confidence in my ability to plan appropriately, be it my clothes for a day, or a journey through the history of our continent.

So I bought the curriculum for the security it could provide. And you know what? It worked, in a Dumbo's feather kind of way. It took until now to get to it because we were delayed in the Paleo and Mesozoic Eras, which was fun, but now we've arrived in the Cenozoic and are at the moment of the Beringia land bridge, which is where Intellego picks up. This weekend I broke out the curriculum only to find that it is mostly a collection of links to other people's free curricula online, with suggestions for activities on the side. So you see, the more I read it, the more confident I am that I could have figured this all out for myself. I was looking for confidence, after all.

Trick-or-treating take one

We spent the morning waddling through downtown Dexter collecting candy from the participating businesses along the main drag (read: the one street in town), and the afternoon waddling around the rec room at our homeschoolers group Halloween party.

Waddling is what penguins do.

A doughnut for lunch?

Cookie decorating (and eating) for snack...

spooky searches...

making salt dough ghosts and pumpkins and gluey and sparkly crafts plus a plethora of homemade munchies warm fall drinks...Halloween party homeschooler style.

And when we got home Calvin dove right into his candy, but not to eat it. We pay him ten cents per piece that he turns in to us, so the candy sparked an hour of learning about money and counting up his earnings. He opted to keep only one piece to snack on (tomorrow, since we'd had enough sweets today), and earned $3.50 for the rest. After all that excitement we were too tired to carve pumpkins after dinner tonight, so that has been postponed, but still, the Halloween weekend has begun.

A birthday for the zoo, and Oma, too

Oh my goodness, the weather over the weekend was glorious to say the least. I love a pretty summer days, but they're nothing compared to a pretty day in fall. Saturday was all outside and we did the same yesterday, too, starting with the zoo first thing in the morning because they were celebrating their 100th birthday with treats for the animals and crafts for the kids. The animals are so much happier in the cooler weather.

We were outside in the afternoon, too, shuffling through leaves, and I fit in a long outdoor run, perhaps the last for he season, before Jon's parents came over to celebrate their birthdays with a walk at our favorite metro park and pizza. We went to sleep to the sounds of a thunderstorm.

Today we weren't quite so lucky, "stuck" inside sorting books and working on that Halloween costume while the winds raged around us, but inside days are fun, too, with books, and chores, and cuddling, and we did a lot of all of that. Calvin's dino diorama is coming along nicely, and Halloween is starting to pop up all over the house, as with the five pumpkins on the porch, and the spooky books he's suddenly reading. Whatever plans I'd had to study American and U.S. history before Thanksgiving have definitely come and gone, but I don't think any of us could be happier with the new plans, or lack thereof, that have taken their place.

Autumn splendor hike

After days upon days of chilly rain we woke this morning to a thin layer of white frost sparkling in bright sunlight. One couldn't ask for better fall hiking weather, there just isn't any better to have. We had breakfast, we layered on the clothing and donned hats and mittens, then we joined in another county park naturalist guided hike. The find of the day was a multitude of fungi—here there and everywhere—but my favorite moment was spending time with a little spring peeper. He may sing his best in the spring, but he is one beautiful frog in the fall when his color is in style. The rest of the day was less exciting, filled with winterizing the yard and gardens and getting started on a Halloween costume (which may seem late, but it's still earlier than last year).

Bracket or shelf fungus

Puffball fungus

Bracket or shelf fungus

Northern Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer)