Nature Class--Cool Visitor Today

Today at the Homeschool Nature Class, there was a surprise visitor at the Nature Center (or actually, in the trees behind it.)







The kids looked at seeds under the microscope, then went and filled pots at the compost heap and planted peppers and tomatoes and a few other things. They had a blast getting completely filthy in the process.

Good News in the Land of Food Allergic, Food Phobic, Texture Avoidant Picky Eating Boy

While I am not a huge fan of reward charts and external motivators, my kid is sufficiently mercenary about toys that I decided to try to encourage him to Try New Foods (which is generally an agonizing proposition for all concerned) by setting up a reward chart and offering him one cool toy for every ten new foods he samples. To earn a sticker, he has to eat at least 3 bites of something new. Of course, we used insect stickers, and the chart is a bunch of leaves to stick them on. In less than 2 weeks, he has 16 stickers. Hallelujiah!!!!!!!!!!



He's also gained 2 pounds, which is great news. He's been getting taller, but not gaining weight. I am thrilled!

New Foods:
spinach & potato dinosaurs, grape lollipop, carrots, granny smith apple, peas, orange slices with honey, blueberry pear puree, blueberry applesauce, indian harvest soup, kale & red bean soup, beets, banana pudding, orange juice, lentil soup (hated it!), blueberries, strawberries.

Way to go, Mikro!

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Lunar New Year Celebration

We spent the day at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Lunar New Year Celebration today. BBG is one of my all time favorite places (dating back to school fieldtrips when I was a kid). Especially the Japanese Garden. Mikro loved watching the Koi and having a picnic overlooking the water. They had craft workshops for kids (and a Chinese Brushpainting class I really wanted to take, but gave up in favor of having dinner with one of my oldest dearest friends, who I consider family, but haven't seen in way too long. Mikro loved Vicky, and made her day by telling her he wanted to stay at her house forever. He had fun with her two boys, and he shamelessly hogged her attention. A great day!

At the BBG, we enjoyed the kid's programs and the live music and dance performances greatly. But Mikro's favorite part was probably wandering the beautiful Japanese garden... and he loves his lucky bamboo plant, which he potted himself.

Plans & Stuff & Mikro's Vegetarian Revisionist Version of Prehistory

We're supposed to be at the Brooklyn Museum of Art for their Free First Saturday Lunar New Year event. But we bagged it, because it's cold and damp, and my arthritis is reminding me I'm not supermom, and besides, most of the stuff seems like it's over Mikro's head. The Lunar New Year thingie at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens tomorrow looks more his speed, so we'll do that instead... Tomorrow's forecast is for a 20 degree differential between high and low temperatures. How do you dress for that? Layers, I guess...

February is completely overscheduled. We have a Mikro activity every weekend, sometimes both days. And Nature class during the week, and a couple field trips I'm hoping we'll do. Mikro is begging to go back to the Bronx Zoo and AMNH, and there's a marionette production of Pippi Longstocking in Central Park that we want to see. I just heard about a cool hands on science exhibit in Staten Island which is perfect for bug obsessed boy. And I really want to go to Liberty Science Center in Jersey. I've never been there, but people rave about it...

Mikro desperately wants to ride one of those double decker NYC tourist buses and the Circle Line, but I'm hoping we can put that off till the weather is warmer.

I need to schedule a trip to AMNH with my sister-in-law and Mikro's cousins to see the H2O exhibit (which has live fish and frogs, something Mikro *loves*) and I somehow have to clear enough clutter out of here between now and mid April to get the boy a puppy for his birthday. He misses Piper and wants a little scottie dog. I'm kind of amazed he remembers her.

He's very into dinosaurs right now, but not digging the harsh realities of predation. My soft hearted little vegetarian asks "why do some creatures eat meat?" constantly. He just told me a little story about how a species of dinosaur eats poisonous plants (like monarch caterpillars with milkweed) to make themselves poisonous to predators. "A T-Rex might attack this dinosaur, but he would get very sick and he would never choose to attack another!" Alas, my son, the T in T-Rex doesn't stand for Tofu!

Off to make what Kevin calls a bowl of tea. A 22 oz. mug just isn't big enough...

Homeschool Group Field Trip to Museum of the City of New York

We went with one of our semi-local (NYC based) homeschool groups to the Museum of the City of New York for a class about childhood (and toys!) in old New York. Mikro was really good about riding the subway. He made fast friends with several of the kids, and I liked the moms. A good group of people, and we'll definitely do more events with them. The cutest thing was, Mikro attached himself to a little girl and squired her about the museum. He had his arm around her, and they held hands and walked together. So sweet! (Unfortunately, flash photos were prohibited, so I only got a blurry shot of this, but you get the idea...)





The kids got to play with some reproductions of tin toys, and they made "murals" of their favorite things about being a kid in NYC. Mikro doesn't really draw, so I asked him to tell me his favorites, and did a kiddie style drawing of his list of things... (but the bird/pigeon at the top center he drew himself!)



His favorites: dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History, the NY Aquarium, the Zoos, Coney Island, watching airplanes flying into LaGuardia and JFK, visiting his cousins, riding the subway, tourist buses (an obsession), Central Park, the Bug Carousel at the Bronx Zoo, pigeons, and ladybugs.

After the museum, we took the subway to Brooklyn and met Kevin at his office. He went out to lunch with us at Junior's, a restaurant famous for its cheesecake (which I did not have because the huge lunch portions were way too big for me to even contemplate dessert...)



And then we went to the Cabinet of Curiosities (aka Kevin's office).

Field Trip: Henry & Mudge at the Tarrytown Music Hall

We've walked past Tarrytown Music Hall, but today's performance marks the first time we've ever been inside the impressive old theater. There's a silhouette theme going on along the side aisles and in the balcony, and a beautiful river landscape is painted over the stage. The performance was wonderful. Mikro was moving in his seat to the music, and watched with rapt attention (until the last 10 minutes, when his capacity for sitting still was exceeded, and I had to have him on my lap to keep him quiet...) Predictable result-- he wants a doggie best friend now. I hope we can get our cluttered house into order by April so he can have a puppy for his birthday. But it's not looking good... Well, in the meantime, we will read about Henry and Mudge and their adventures.

Rambling On

I'm thoroughly enjoying homeschooling Mikro. He's a joy (99 percent of the time. We won't talk about the surly alien bodysnatcher who inhabits his body the other 1 percent of the time...) He's still very butterfly and insect obsessed. But now he's also into dinosaurs in a big way. We're reading a lot of little kid science, and some older kid stuff too. Mostly nature and animal related, some seasonal stuff, and some just plain fun books too (Skippyjon Jones is a current favorite.)

We've done far more running around than I ever thought my gimpy carcass could handle. Two trips to the Bronx Zoo in less than a month (once for their Holiday Lights show, once because someone begged us to go ride the Bug Carousel), the NY Botanic Gardens for the Holiday Train Show, AMNH yet again for dinosaurs and the origami tree and dinotopiaries, several plays at the Paramount Center for the Arts, and visits to the relatives for the holidays. All by public transportation. Which translates to pretty horrid pain, but I'm glad we did it, because my little boy was glowing with excitement. He had a great time.

Homeschool Nature Class started up again today. The kids learned about bones, and got to identify the parts of a deer skeleton. Mikro knew the skull, ribs, antlers, vertebrae, and a few more.

A Very Busy Day, Part 2: NYBG Holiday Train Show

The NYBG hosts the most amazing train show, with a host of New York landmark buildings, bridges and attractions modeled out of natural materials like bark, plant fibers, seeds, and such. It is simply amazing. We were lucky that it was indoors in the Conservatory this year, because the foul weather continued on and off. I have too many photos to post, and hopefully I'll eventually put them up on flickr. For now, here are some, with an emphasis on bridges and historic Hudson Valley sites.

A Very Busy Day, Part 1: Bronx Zoo, Again

This was an insane but fun day. We started off in a deluge at the Bronx Zoo, and I was so glad we brought Mikro's froggie raincoat, and that we were able to sit out the worst of the downpour at the Dancing Crane Cafe, on the bug carousel, and in the gift shop... Watching the peacocks dodge the rain was funny. I try not to anthropomorphize, but the poor bedraggled critters looked positively disgusted with the weather. We toured the reptile house (which Mikro really enjoyed, except for the part where they fed the cute fluffy bunny to the python...), and saw the birds of prey, then realized we were late for our tickets to the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanic Garden, and raced there on foot. It's a much longer walk than it looks. And with the damp, my arthritis was truly evil. But we pressed onwards... Which is another post, I suppose, due to the ton and a half of photos...

Happy New Year!

Wishing us all joy, health and peace in 2008!









Signs of progress: first time my noise sensitive SPD kid relished making earsplitting noise.