Chinese Culture Day

We ended up moving Chinese Culture Day to Thursday because we were going to go to the park with our friends on Friday. Instead, Zhara felt lousy with the same thing the rest of us had, so we skipped that. It ended up being fun, though. We had gotten some books on China at the library, so we looked through those. At lunch we made noodles, and ate with chopsticks. My kids love any excuse to eat with chopsticks. We also looked through the books for Chinese words and phrases and tried to a) remember them, and b) use them with each other.


We drove into town in the middle of the day and played at a park. Not traditionally Chinese, I suppose, but it was a lot of fun.

My kids are always the park daredevils.

For dinner we made Kung Pao chicken over rice, which everyone seemed to like a lot. We also made a special dessert. I was going to make almond cookies, but I was afraid that the kids wouldn't actually eat them, so I made almond cake instead. And they surely ate that.

Mmmmm, cake.

After that Zhara and Angus had karate. We talked about the fact that karate is Japanese, and Kung Fu is Chinese, but that both are martial arts and share many things in common. So that was how we rounded off our day of Chinese culture.

Children of the Corn

I call the kids "children of the corn" a lot. I don't remember how it started, but they enjoy it, and are really unaware of the obscure and odd movie reference, so it works. Well, yesterday, they truly were. We went to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. Oh my goodness, we had so much fun. We went to a slightly smaller version from the huge one right down the road from us. Mostly because the one at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi would cost around $60 for us to all go, so we scrapped that one fast.

Here's the map.

Instead, we went to Utah's Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, Utah. It was a truly good time. The corn maze has a map that they give each kid to follow and they have to find checkpoints along the way. It is not easy navigating through all that corn. At each checkpoint, the kids had to punch a hole in the appropriate spot, and then if they returned the completed map at the end, they got a prize. Oh, they were all over that.

Zhara and Angus did almost all the navigating by themselves.
There was an occasional consultation with dad, but mostly, they made it through on their own.

Our fearless leaders.

We made it to the end, and had an absolute blast along the way. Honestly, it was so much fun, even for Adam and I.

Punching the map.

Winnie's favorite part by far was the corn. You'd think the child had never seen corn, or had not spent the bulk of her life in the Midwest. She loved it. She would stop constantly and scream -- "look, corn!" with amazement, as if we weren't completely surrounded by it. She collected kernals in her pocket, and bounded along happily singing odes to the corn.


After we emerged from the corn, the kids claimed their prizes -- coupons for McDonald's french fries or Chik-Fil-A ice cream -- both we enjoy very much.

Then we headed over to pick pumpkins. We each trekked out into the field, and picked one just right for us. That way we will have plenty to carve and decorate for Halloween.


At the end, there was a huge climbing wall. Everybody wanted to climb it, but it ended up that Zhara was the only one brave enough to make it up above dad's head. She made it all the way to the top, though, and hit the buzzer and everything.


No one wanted to leave at the end. We all had such a good time, but we went home, and ate homemade chicken noodle soup and fresh bread and talked about what a good time we had at the corn maze. This will definitely be a yearly ritual for us.

Beautiful Piano Music

Zhara in the music room practicing.
Notice the roller skates, she doesn't even take them off for this.

Zhara has been playing piano now for about 4 months. She is doing an amazing program called Simply Music. It truly is absolutely outstanding. It is music taught as though it was a foreign language, which frankly, it kind of is. So that the kids learn to "speak" it first by immersion -- playing it -- and then they slowly introduce the reading part of it. That way the kids don't get bored playing scales and such. It is amazing. It is basically teaching kids how to play by ear, and THEN also teaching them to read the music on top of it.

It has been such a gift for us. Zhara loves music, but struggled with traditional methods. She can honestly play so many complex songs already. Like close to 17. She practices every day. She enjoys the piano so much, because she CAN play the songs so quickly, that I don't even have to cajole her to practice most of the time. She's playing blues, and classical, and pop songs, and to me it is unreal how good she is at these complex songs after only four months of lessons. The lessons are group lessons, and one parent attends as well, so it isn't easy for us, but it is totally worth it.

Right now we just have a keyboard, as pianos are expensive and hard to come by really cheaply in Utah -- Mormon kids play them some piano, let me tell you. So, we are thinking for Christmas, that we are going to ask the grandparents to contribute to the "buy a decent used piano" fund instead of buying toys and individual presents. We'll see if they're interested, but Zhara would love it. She yearns for a real piano, and I want to hear her play more on a real one. She practices on one in class, but never at home, and you can tell she misses it when she's here.

Illness Breeds Creativity

So, yesterday, by our kid-created calendar, was supposed to be PJ Art Day. Well, we did stay in our pjs all day, mostly because I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I thought I might have strep, so I liberally dosed myself with oscillococcinum and the lemon balm honey that I make for sore throats. The body aches and exhaustion was treated by a combo of laying on the floor with a blanket while the kids played around me, and Adam leaving work early (after lunch) so that I could sleep. Of course, he felt bad, too, so we were quite a pair.

The kids made pumpkins out of construction paper in the morning, and then did a combo of play and TV in the afternoon. By evening, we were all sad not to be able to go to our good friend's party, and Unschooling Art Exhibit due to sickness, so we consoled ourselves with take out pizza.

Zhara then decided that she had an intense need to measure things. The kids have spent several days constructing long PVC tubing runs from the second floor, over the balcony, and onto the first floor. Several months ago, we were at Home Depot getting something, and they decided that they could not live without PVC tubing and connectors. It has been a favorite toy since. Anyway, Zhara spent time building a 15 ft long pipe to reach down from the balcony, then filling it with marbles from the top. Yes, we have a lot of marbles. Kansas City had an awesome marble store that we visited a lot, so we have acquired quite a few. Then she poured the marbles out, with some success, into various measuring cups and determined that she could get more than 3 cups of marbles in the tube. Then there was much measuring of the tube with the tape measure. It was all very scientific, and she had lots of fun.

Then in the evening, the illness-induced creativity took a less than productive turn when one child (not to be named as he/she feels very bad about it) decided to dust the TV, DVD player, and cable box in the basement with vinegar water, and shorted the whole shebang out. We are hoping that it dries and recovers in the morning, otherwise, we will be down to one TV in a 3 story house. The one in our bedroom. Le sigh. Anyway, time will tell the outcome of that one.

I awoke at 2 am, feeling better, and completely unable to sleep, so I have tossed, turned, prowled about, fed dogs, played on the internet, and thought it particularly useful to just go ahead and blog, so that I felt I had been productive... or something. :)

Well, it's not a day at the park...

Zhara masters the monkey bars.

Actually, it is...

Today was Park Fun Day. Winnie picked it. We had so much fun.


Wednesday and Angus and I spent the morning watching They Might Be Giants music videos on YouTube, and playing board games. They have so much fun with those videos. We have the cds, but they adore watching them on the computer.

Now, I knew TMBG back in the day. Like smashed under the stage in Columbia, MO as a screaming freshman in college, circa 1994, back in the day. Wow, that makes me feel really f-ing old. But anyway, now TMBG have aged, as have we all, and reproduced, check here, too, and so now they are a totally awesome kick-ass kid's band. My post-funky punky self finds it wonderful that my little punks now listen to the same band that I rocked out to in college.


Zhara slept in, and when we were all ready to go, we packed a picnic lunch and headed off to the big park in the middle of Lehi for Park Fun Day. We ate, swung, climbed -- it was fun. The kids must have climbed over the top of the tube slide 100 times each. I think we strike fear into the hearts of the reserved Mormon mothers at the park, but my children are just daring free spirits, not to be constrained by piddly park guidelines. I even got to knit some in the shade of a tree.

It really was one of those magical days with kids when you think, "oh, yay, I knew there was a reason that I had procreated, but I couldn't remember why, and there it is." It was lovely. Warm, my kids running and playing together happily, swinging in and out of the dappled sunlight. We probably looked like the picture of the happy, contented homeschooling family with all the other moms thinking, "my kids would never act like that if I homeschooled." And, of course, 98% of the time, neither do mine. In fact, they are downstairs now fighting over who gets to sit where on the sofa, but I'm still in my moment of delight at the park.

Cool, it really looks like poop when they aerate the soil!

This afternoon, the high even lasted long enough for Zhara to teach Angus how to use the computer some. She worked with him on using the mouse, and set him up a StarDoll account like hers, so that he can play dress up on line with a guy he designs, and then can interact with her online. Of course, somehow my cursor is now a sparkling bunch of purple grapes, but you have to be thankful for small blessings.


Sometimes, somedays, it works. You understand why you do it. It all comes together and there you are, in the park, answering your kids questions about aerating the soil, pine needles, and dappled sunlight. And for one brief moment in time, you really, truly appreciate what you have, in the moment that you have it. You are completely present and grateful. It doesn't happen often, especially not as parents. So often someone has spilled something, or eaten something, or scraped something, or peed on something, and you're too busy cleaning it up, or patching the boo boo to be present. But every now and again, I get it. And then, I am very thankfully that we found this way of life.

She's a cheese head -- get it?

Science, Legos, and the Moon Landing

Well, the past few days we have been trying to at least touch on our special day status each day.

Monday was Lego Day. We built Legos in the basement. The kids want to build a replica of Bridal Veil Falls here in Utah out of Legos. Turns out that despite the massive amount of Legos that we do have, we don't have near enough browns and grays to construct the Falls.


Then around lunchtime, the kids got to talking about the moon and whether we, as a people, had ever been to the moon. So I got out the book that Gretchen gave me called The American Story, and we read the chapter on the moon landing. Then we pulled up the images of the landing on the internet and the kids watched Neil Armstrong on the moon for a few minutes. Angus thought that the saying, "One small step for man, one small leap for mankind," was hilarious. We talked about what it meant, but it apparently it was still really fun. We read about how many people worldwide watched the landing on TV, and then looked up the population of the US at that time. Zhara was amazed that 300 million more people watched the moon landing than even lived in the US at that time. We also talked about the space race, and John F. Kennedy's role in it, and after that they had had enough history for the day.


Tuesday was our activities day, so we spent a lot of time running between tumbling, piano, and karate, and tidying the house.



Today is Science Day. This morning Angus and Wednesday and I did a rainforest animal puzzle, and Winnie helped me bake a carrot cake from scratch. My kids are wild for carrot cake, and there is nothing to me as scientific as baking, so there you go. Then we all went on a nature walk to the pond. We found tons of wooly worm caterpillars, and brought one back with us for our bug habitat. We will set him free in a day or two, but for now, he is happily munching on leaves. There is much controversy about whether he should be named Spike, Bob, or Fuzzy. I'm staying out of it, frankly.

A Day at the Zoo & Potatoes

Yesterday we were busy, and productive, so today, we went to the zoo. Sunday is a wonderful day to do kid-friendly activities in Utah when one is not religious. Everything clears out remarkably.

Snuggling with dad.

The kids and I have been to the zoo a couple of times since we've been here. We bought a pass a few weeks after moving. Adam, however, due to the fact that he is always at work during the week, had never been. So the kids got to introduce him to the zoo. I will say, that Utah's Hogle Zoo is not particularly impressive, but the kids have fun, so it doesn't really matter how awesome of a zoo it really is, actually.

Prairie dogs

My family acting like prairie dogs.

Cougar, being a cougar on a warm day

Their favorite part, is generally the beginning, where there is a giant marble ball water fountain that they can lay up against and touch, and the end, when we go to the very expansive playground. The animals are pleasant distractions in the middle. My kids tend to end up acting like monkeys the most of the time anyway, so it works.



We're home now, and the kids are helping Adam put together the Ikea toy chest we bought last night to store our potatoes in for the winter. We got an entire hour-long date last night, as the kids finally decided that the Ikea playplace would be fun, and agreed to stay without us for an hour. It was delightful.

It is time to dig up the potatoes, and get them in from the garden before it gets too cold. Zhara drew a lovely pattern on the side of the toy chest, and Winnie is helping Adam drill holes over the pattern to ventilate the spuds. I'm excited to get them up. We planted red and blue potatoes this year, so it should be a fun winter of red, blue, and purple mash and roasted potatoes.

Fun with power tools.

It was hot, dirty work, but we got it done -- our potato crop. We did lose quite a few to snails, but I think that we'll still be well fed this winter, regardless.