How Seeds Travel - Percy Johnson Park Field Trip by Atlas

My brother and I eating lunch at Percy Johnson Park

Today we looked at how seeds travel.  Seeds travel by water, air and animal.  There are 2 ways seeds travel by animal. 1. They eat the seeds then poop it out then, it grows into whatever it is meant to grow into. 2. The seeds get stuck to the fur of the animal and then drop off somewhere else.  Sometimes seeds float to other places and some seeds shoot out of the plant pods.

Walking along the beach.

Pumping water and drinking at the same time!

See the 2 fuzzy cat tails sticking out of the cart?

We rode our bikes to Percy Johnson's Park and ate lunch there.  At Percy Johnson's Park there were rocks and it turned out to be a beach.  It was a bit mucky.  We saw most of the seed stuff on the way back so I'll tell you what we saw.   We saw cat tails, so I went into the water and grabbed one for me and one for Zander.  We talked about how the seeds traveled.  I had some cat tail fluff stuck to my pants so that means they travel by animal fur.  Then I saw some cattail fluff floating above my head.  That means they travel by air too.  Then I saw some cattail fluff floating around in the water, that was cool.  That's 3 ways the cat tail seeds travel! Then we also saw another kind of tree that had seeds that looked like fuzzy caterpillars.  They were all over the ground.  It looked like they traveled by animal.  The reason I think they are disguised as caterpillars was to attract birds and animals to eat them and be pooped out somewhere else to grow into whatever kind of tree they were supposed to be.  We also saw 2 wood peckers, 1 big spider, 1 pussy willow tree (a pussy willow is a tree that has soft seeds at the end of its branches) and that's all.  I had a great day.  I loved it because I learned a lot about how seeds travel.  My legs were tired but it was worth it. 4/4/12

My Adventure (by Atlas)

Eating my lunch on a giant moss covered boulder. (photo by Papa)

Me and my Papa were outside yesterday, and we were on my Papa's property on the east side of the Island.  My Papa's property has lots of trees.  In the truck before our adventure we planned a map and it looked like the one in the photo. The plan was to go to the corners and then to the deer stand.  The deer stand is over a steep bluff.  First we ate on a comfy rock that was covered by moss.   I had a ham sandwich with Miracle Whip.  BLAAA!  I don't like Miracle Whip, so I put some chips on it and boy did it taste good after that.  Then we had our dessert which was pudding and girl scout cookies, and of course I dipped the cookies in the pudding.  

My map I made of Papa's property.

So we went on hiking through the woods.  I loved it... Me and my papa were having lots of fun talking about the trees.  I found out some cool stuff.  Some trees get their moisture from fog, they suck it up through their leaves instead of their roots.  Also, trees do evolve.   They adapt to their habitat.  If it's a really rocky place with not much soil, the roots will go over and under rocks and huge boulders to get soil.  A lot of the trees had roots that were showing.  I also found out that the tallest tree is the Redwood.  

The view from the top of the tree stand.  (photo by Atlas)

For the last pictures I took I had to climb a 20 foot high deer stand and I'm leery around heights, and to make it even worse I was over a 50 foot bluff and I had to take a picture of it!! But I did come down safely and then we went back to the truck and drove off.  

I had a great time with my Papa!

We Moved! (by Atlas)

My new home. (photo by Atlas)

Looking out towards the golf course. (photo by Atlas)

Last week we moved into my Grandma and Papa's old house.  It's wonderful but I like my room the best. We have three and half acres to enjoy.  I am going to build a tree house that is 5 by 6 feet long.  I am also going to have a few businesses going so I can make some money.  I have a golf course surrounding us from three sides, so there are golf balls all over the yard.  I plan to collect them, polish them and sell them for $1.00 for 3 balls.  And yes, my dad did say it was a good price.  That's what's going on for me on Washington Island, my new home.  (3/14/12)

More photos from our trip to Twin Cities

Atlas was "flipping out" to get into the pool each day.

The first day at the museum the boys spent nearly an hour in the water engineering area.

My (me, Mom, Evy) favorite thing at the children's Museum - these giant beautifully painted fish "swimming" from the ceiling.  Lovely.

Crane operation - I wish I'd snapped a few more photos of this, we spent a lot of time at this one too.

Both boys sitting still, quietly.  

Atlas' photo idea, between Linus and Lucy.

Never ceases to amaze me how terrific these boys are! They appreciate being together as brothers, and are obviously happy to spend time altogether as a family, no matter where we are, or what we are doing.  We are blessed!

Family Trip

At the Children's Museum

By Atlas

Zander, my mom, my dad, Dude, Waylon and I all went on a trip to the twin cities. The twin cities are St. Paul and Minneapolis.  The 4 of us all got a huge suite.  Then we all settled down for 4 days.  It was great.  On the first day we went to a museum.  We got into the museum it was a children’s museum and it was humongous!  My mom, Zander and I where all there but my dad was at work.  We went inside the biggest room of all, there was a light room, a water area, and pretty big building area too, and of course we went to them all.  It was time to go eat so we ate.  I had a Salami sandwich and some juice that my mom packed for us.  Then we had to go so we went back to the car and drove to the hotel, or as Zander likes to call it hotello.  It was a long drive to the hotel so Zander fell asleep so we had to sit in the parking lot for 1 hour.  That part wasn’t fun.

Finally, my brother woke up. We went inside the hotel and relaxed for a bit.  I built lego cop cars and a criminal then we went swimming when my dad came to back.  I had a phobia of the pool drains.  Then we went to bed.  It was hard to sleep.  The next morning we woke up.  It was Wednesday.  We got up and went to enjoy our free breakfast.  Then, we went to the museum again.  My favorite part was the nature room.  After the we were done at the museum we walked to the park to see the ice sculptures but thee was only a wall of ice.  Then we walked all the way back to the car and drove to the hotel and of course Zander fell asleep again.  Then we went to pick up Dad.  We all went inside the hotel and ate our free dinner and then went swimming and then finally to sleep.

Me, reading with Lucy in the park. 

Me and Zander at the ice wall, Landmark Park, St. Paul.

Thursday we woke up and ate our breakfast in the hotel, it was great.  Next Dad went to work.  Zander, mom and I went to America’s biggest furniture store, IKEA.  We ate lunch there too.  Zander went to Small Land, and he said it was fun.  Then we went to the hotel and did arts and crafts.  Next, Dad came back and we went swimming.  Then I used something unbelievable but true.  I used my powers on Zander!!!  And I taught Zander how to swim in like 3 seconds at least.  I figured that if I wasn’t’ thinking about magic powers I could use them.  And that’s not the first time I’ve used them.  One time I got 1 hundred dollars from them.  On Washington Island I found a wallet that I liked and I found $100 in it.  I was even in the news paper, but it didn’t’ last long. 

Anyway, then we ate dinner and it was really good.  Then we all went to sleep.  I woke up at 6:11.  When I woke up I remembered something, I was going to the Mall of America!!! I couldn’t wait So, I got up right away and got my clothes on.  We were off to breakfast I ate as fast as I could.  I was eating like a starving pig.  Then we got in the car and drove to the Mall of America.  My dad, Zander and I got out of the car.  Mom would pick us up in an hour.  We went straight to the amusement park and rode some rides.  There was this one ride, it was a log ride it had 2 huge slopes like a waterfall.  I nearly was blown off of the ride.  Then our time was up so we packed back up in the car and drove home and as a result I had a great week.

We're going down!

Rock it! (By Atlas)

Me and my brother Zander love rock parties.  we have one every Sunday.  We rock and rock and rock.  Me and Zander listen to Dee Snider, we also listen to Joan Jett.  I take off my shirt and Zander strips all the way down to his underwear and he puts on a cape and crazy wig.  Zander bangs his head and I move my feet to the beat.  Cool right? My dad is in them too. We fight him while we rock.  Sometimes I even do flips off the couch, it's fun.  LETS ROCK!

Video 6/2011

Three days in

“How’s homeschooling going?” Three days in, and already I’ve been asked this question several times.  My answer: not sure.  

If I remain positive and objective, it would appear we’ve already made progress despite lack of official curriculum.  Atlas is a proficient writer, and enjoys doing it.  He’s spent more time than I ever dreamed of doing math problems and multiplication drills.  A half hour here and a half hour there throughout the day add up quickly.  We’ve read three Roald Dahl (The BFG, Esio Trot and George’s Marvelous Medicine) books that the children adored and several other picture books.

On an emotional level I’m all over the place.  There are moments when I swear there is no a chance I can go on one more minute.  For instance after we left our neighbors house for a coffee/playdate and Zander threw a punching-name calling-pushing-screaming tantrum that went on for nearly 45 minutes after we got home.  Simultaneously, asked Atlas to continue on the math work we’d started prior to leaving and he got sassy.  I’ve never been good at multi-tasking when someone is screaming at me and this was no exception.  I swore I was done right then.  But, the moments when we are all three working at the table on different projects or discussing real ideas or listening to Atlas read his page long “biography” on his brother or reading together for an hour straight on the couch; in these moments I am more sure about the importance and fabulousness of what I am doing than just about anything else in the world.

My need to take each day, moment by moment is eminent.  Breathing and remembering that in a year I will probably laugh at whatever makes me furious now is crucial to homeschool survival. The moments when I can laugh are moments when we all win. 

Here is an example of one of those winning moments I just had:

Atlas was at work at the table picking out another science experiment to complete.  Zander went to the bathroom to fill his water cup to get a drink.  After a few minutes passed I went to check on Zander and found a soaked towel, water sprayed all over the mirror and the sink full.  “I’m doing science experiments.  I put the water up my nose and then I can spit it out.”