More Eagle Sightings, Animal Habitats Class, Etc.

At Nature Class on Thursday:







Saw another fly by yesterday while we were at the Nature Center for a program on animal habitats. Unfortunately, my camera was in my pocket at the time, as we were out feeding the birds and had our hands full.





We headed into the woods, where each family built a habitat for an animal, taking into account needs for water, food, shelter and space.





And we hiked around the park, following animal tracks and observing the odd behavior of our fellow human critters in the snow...

Snow Day With Dinosaurs

A stegosaurus and a microraptor, sculpted by Kev, with a little Mikro assistance, and painted by me.









And there was sledding, and snowball throwing, and a good time was had by all. Except for the couple times when Mikro literally got plowed over by other sledders and went head over heels. He didn't much enjoy that bit. But by the end of the day, he understood jumping up the second his sled stopped and bailing out of the sled run area quickly...

The snow dinos are colored with kiddie liquid watercolor paint, diluted and applied via spray bottle...

Animal Tracks; Long Eared Owls; Red Tails

We went to a program on animal tracks at the nature center. Learned what different critter tracks look like, made plaster casts of tracks, and then took a hike around the park to see what trails we could find: birds, dog, coyote, deer, raccoon. We also found deer and coyote scat (complete with fur from whatever was on the menu), and owl pellets. And we got a good view of the long eared owls and a red tailed hawk.

Hudson River Eagle Fest

This weekend, we went to the Eagle Fest events at our local park. Unfortunately, the promotional literature we received about the event made a big deal about buying bus tour tickets (which we didn't care about, because they didn't want little kids along for the ride for some reason) in advance, but said nothing about the other events... Well, they were sold out of all of the educational programming tickets, which was a huge disappointment. There were live bird demos and storytelling and eagle ID information sessions, all of which we were not able to take part in. Sigh. Next year we'll know better... At least they had some very good kid's books available for purchase. We've been reading Bald Eagles at bedtime. (In addition to the now obligatory menu of dinosaur books.)

We still had a fun day, because they had many craft stations for the kiddos, both at the park itself and at and at historic Van Cortlandt Manor. Mikro got to make a clay eagle, play with feather (not eagle!) quills and ink, punch an eagle design in a piece of tin, and build a mini bird's nest (all with help from mama and daddy). He also added a few twigs to a huge eagles' nest built outdoors by the park's Nature Center staff. We wandered the VCM grounds trying to find eagles, but it was a snowy and rainy day, and alas, we had no luck. Which makes me doubly glad I spotted the eagle at the Nature Center last Thursday...















Tomorrow is Nature Class again (weather permitting) and we'll be checking the trees in hopes of another raptor sighting. So far the trees right near the Nature Center have given us up close views of a red tailed hawk and a bald eagle. And of course, there are the small birds at the feeders- grackles, cardinals, red wing blackbirds, sparrows, chickadees, etc.

Mikro at Four and Three Quarters

Mikro is learning and growing. New things: no longer insists on wearing only NASCAR clothing. He now is happily sporting shirts with insects and dinosaurs on them. He will actually wear gloves and keep his hood up to stay warm. He likes taking a bath (usually). He's not asking to be picked up and carried by daddy unless he's nearly asleep on his feet. He's getting a little better at transitions, but *not* when it comes to having to leave the playground after Nature Class. He howls and carries on something awful. He's starting to learn not to talk over other people, but is far from perfect and very enthusiastic about sharing what he knows, or thinks, or has questions about. He loves playing tag with his homeschooled friends. He's much more patient and willing to try crafty things which before he would simply insist we do for him. He is building bugs out of playdough and plastic parts, helped Kev "excavate" a plastic dinosaur skeleton from a kit, is starting to get the hang of Dino Xcavator (a game like "Operation", where you remove dinosaur bones instead of body parts), is learning to use kiddie chop sticks, has started singing along to kiddie music, has developed almost enough attention span to sit through plays and puppet shows (for 45 minutes he's angelic, anything longer there's squirming and I have to work to keep him quiet). He's much quicker to go up to new kids and join a conversation or a game. He's outgoing with kids and women, but a little timid around tall men. He's no longer running in terror from small dogs-- he'll actually pet them and talk to them sweetly. He's watching a lot of educational programs on Animal Planet and the Science Channel. He sight reads a huge number of words. He has the attention span for longer books, read over a couple of nights. He really retains information about nature and science. He now knows the colors in spanish, and the numbers up to ten. He asks me how to say things (mostly different bugs and animals) in spanish. He's a fun little guy. And very very sweet.

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...