Nothing says fall like going to a farm for a true harvest.
The sun. The soil. The corn. The hand-churned ice cream.
And yes... the sweat. The lines. The husk cuts on the hands from shucking.
We love it all...cuz it's real.
No costumes, no candy, no spooky stuff, and nothin' to buy.
We packed up the troops and headed out to Ardenwood Historic Farm again this year. This is actually our MAIN fall event each season. It highlights the changing of the seasons with brilliant foliage and teaches the true pioneer spirit of an active working farm. A perfect Montessori outing for little ones seeing the cycle of farming from soil to table.
I got a POPCORN one, mama!
Two varieties of maize for public harvest: Popcorn & Indian Corn. The popcorn was to be dried for a month, and can actually be popped on the cobb directly in the microwave or on the stove. What? Doesn't popcorn come out of the waxy bag from the microwave? The Indian corn was for decorative purpose only with it's beautiful kernels ranging from indigo blue, deep variations of plum, and glorious oranges & golds. The only rule was that you give back 50% of your harvest to the farm as payment for taking the other half home. A pretty good deal for the pure adventure of it all.
Ok, I guess there was ONE spooky thing on the farm...
Besides the crops, we met lots of nice bugs today...
This guy greeted us on the tractor train.
This little wormie said "Hello" when we peeled his home open.
At the farmhouse, we made our own husk doll, scrap quilt, and sampled hand churned ice cream and yummy homemade cookies & popcorn...
It was a breezy blustery day back in summer...
Lots of kites, hundreds of kits, everywhere in the skies.
Every year, on a particularly windy hill, there is a Kite Festival here at the Berkeley Marina. We've heard about this and wanted to come see it LIVE with Zozie. A fantastic "natural element" lesson on the effects of wind and flight. Free to the public, and again, true to Berkeley form,free bike valet. We mounted our wheels, beanies on our heads, and rode off to that windy hill. Saw this view on arrival:
Look Dalee! Big Octopus in the sky!! (he's screaming as we approach...)
The excitement was building. We continued our ride and came just in time for the "Make your own Kite" workshop. Zo could not wait to get his very own kite up in the sky.
Maybe we can tie some strings to you Zozie and fly YOU in the sky? No, mama...(chuckling) I'm too heeeeavy, I'm not a paper or a tail! You need a tail to fly? Yes, a long, LONG one.
He was ready to fly his creation.
A little added height from Dalee helped to get the maiden voyage going:
After watching a fantastic "Kite Ballet" competition in the sky, naptime approached. We picked out our own Octopus to take home, then saddled up. Pulling into the garage, we find THIS in the bike seat...
ZZZZZZ....with new kite in arms.
Some "Post-Nap" Flying:
Zozie wanted to fly his new kite with our home fan...Note - He's "working" the kite (pumping his arms back and forth) as that's how the kite competitors were demonstrating their choreography at the show.
If you have a big windy fan at home, try this out. It really is a great way for them to see the effects of wind and flight!
We are getting our science groove on.
Our SF Exploritorium pass ends this month so we are packing in our homeschool science! This place always challenges us to see the "Scale" of ourselves, body & soul, relative to the universe around us. Our first visit was around a year ago and this museum continues to amaze us. Looking at our old post photos, Zozie was tiny. A year later, standing in the same steam vortex, his universe continues to expand, along with ours, on our life journey together.
Self Reflection.
Sometimes, life seems too small for you.
Othertimes, life "should be" just right, but it's not.
Looking for that perfect FIRST CINEMA EXPERIENCE?
All the Disney or Non-Disney stuff is, believe it or not, way too much for a 3 year old. Or atleast, OUR 3 year old. We have our 2 min rule: If munchkin bursts out crying within 2 minutes of any movie, it's too much.
Just when we were giving up until his 6th birthday, Pooh comes to town.
Today, we took Zozie to his first "in theatre" movie, opening day.
His eyes grew as we entered the dark theatre. The seats are familiar to him as we've been to many life performances. But when the screen turned on...WHOA. He just stared. His head kept snapping back to the projection box and the constant flicker...then back to the screen.
"It's a BIG movie, mama."
I kept watching him, watching the movie.
My own first was Snow White at the local YMCA in Taipei, sitting on the gym bleachers for the screening at age 4. I remember being much more frightened than Zozie looks...burying my face into my dad's side.
That warty witch...now that's a scary one.
Soft, gentle, classic Pooh.
Eeyore lost his tail, BIG drama.
Barely 54mins with extended SLOW MOVING credits to pull it into the "Feature Film" category, there's even a surprise treat if you can sit through the end. *Wink*
And at dinner time that night... "I have a tumbully in my tummy rumbully, mama." "You mean a Rumbly in your Tumbly?" "Yeah! Like Winnie bear!"
Later on, after being tired from doing a chore..."Oh bother."
Today is Father's Day!
Our in-house daddy loves nature so we decided on a sandy picnic at Lake Anza @ Tilden Park.
The water was crisp and refreshing...err, freezing is actually more like it.
But we had a blast nonetheless, it's always so beautiful to look at the clouds while gliding through the water on your back...ahhhhh. The highlight for Zozie was watching a "big girl", around age 10, being buried in sand by her brother and sister. "Why they do that mama?" Just because Zo. Just because.
We are grateful for all the daddies out there and up there.
And of course, to our own "Da-Lee"...
It's always a blast to visit the annual comic convention with all it's various costumed patrons strutting their stuff. We bumped into one of Zozie's hero's on the subway into the city.
"Look mama! It's BIG Buzz Lightyear!!!"
Sure enough.
There was Mr. BL, winking and giving Zozie a big thumbs up from across the train car. It's always nice to have Z experience something new, especially something that holds alot of family history as his grandfather Ric, his own dad, and many of his uncles are in the film/visual effects industry.
Z's first Wondercon "Pro Pass" with daddy!
Even with all this excitement....Nap time RULES!
Z was completely mesmerized by the whole convention and especially by all the awesome costumes of robots and superheros. We wondered along until he spotted this guy, his first Star Wars Encounter...
"Why he not say HI to me, Daddy?"
"Because he has no mouth & no words, Zozie. He just makes beeps to talk."
Z takes the plunge....
right into "Messy Art Day" at the Local Co-Op Preschool!
This was one fieldtrip we were NOT going to miss!
The annual Mess-Fest was packed with eager squealing kids and parents who were even happier that the party was not at their house. Montessori and Messes are not usually friends, especially messes on THIS scale. So we enjoyed all that this Play-based spectacular had to offer! Kudos to ECPC and all their dedicated volunteer parents for bringing this craziness into our humdrum Sunday morning.
With that said....BRING ON THE MESS...errr...ART!
We started with the Spray Table, rescuing frozen animals from their icy beds with colored "Juice." Zo is well practiced with his CLEAN BUCKET at home, but he's use to things getting progressively cleaner, not dirtier! Huh? He kept turning to me with his tiny dirty hands held up, looking quite confused. The more he sprayed, the more his pensive-thoughtful-concerned-eyebrows crinkled. CRINKLED. "It's ok Zozie, it's messy-messy time," I told him repeatedly.
On to the Sand Table. It had some colored sand mixtures with various baking containers and utensils to manipulate the grainy confection. Only 30 seconds. "All-done Da-lee." Z couldn't figure out why he is suppose to throw sand around in random pans. "It's fun right Zozie?", trying to convince him.
Apparently, not so much.
Things didn't get much better with the Soda Dragon. The mouth was stuffed with a tube full of baking soda awaiting a child to "feed" it some colored water. Once filled, it foams out colored foam! "Cool, right Zozie?" He just looked down at the foamy mess, plopping onto the sandy floor.
More crinkled brows. Man, what does it take?
Things picked up at the Canvas Wall. 3 large buckets filled with red, yellow and blue paints. Various household objects acting as "paint brushes." Mops, plungers, brooms, back scrubbers, fly swatters...this was one AWESOME setup!
Zo started to loosen up although left hand still clutched and pointing out paint splatters on his boots to me. I pulled out a wet wipe to help him while noticing some minor glances from other more free-play-leaning parents... Look, it's not ME, it's the kid.
Ok, fine.
I taught the kid to want to be clean.
But still...I was trying to get Zo INTO IT, only wiping because of his own pleading eyes. I did notice a few other Asian parents hovering over their child with towelettes. I think Being Asian was the culprit in those cases. Pretty sure those parents don't also do Montessori Homeschooling?
We then came upon The Confetti Room. This is where kids can throw shredded paper into fans blowing upwards in anyway they want. Less than 10 seconds. Zo stepped into the tent, then stepped right out.
A Noodle Art wall had kids flinging colored spagetti at plexiglass! But now being 3, food throwing seemed counter-intuitive. "Throw it Zozie, just throw it!!" He shoots me a look that was similar to us asking him to HIT his first pinata at a party. "Don't hit anything", we always say. But DO thrash a cute turtle paper-mache, demolish it, and rip some candies out of it's stomach. The world is a confusing place, my young grassHAPA.
I was starting to question if our homeschool routines of order and cleanliness was hampering Zozie's ability to let loose and experiment with GOOP. Doubting myself and wondering if I've made Zozie disorderly-challenged...we came upon the Spatter Slide, aka Slide Painting.
(Yes. I keep forgetting...It's ART!)
Mid-fling!
Zozie really lit up with this one!
Buckets of squishy balls, 2 tubs of paints (blue & yellow), and a sheet of craft paper lining the slide. No explanation needed. He grabbed, dunked, and hurled! HOORAY! Paint splattering everywhere and dunking his arms deeper and deeper, Zo is now squealing himself, finally! He loved watching the balls roll and bounce off the paper, making patterns and streaks with each movement. "Look mama, I made GREEN!" Z high-five'd the helper-dad before leaving. Note the bare hands of the dad, and also note in the photo, the latex-gloved hand of a helper mom, Asian. Of course.
This wonderland of artistic experiments continued to the Paintable House.Zozie swept, rolled, brushed... The cleaning gloves were OFF!
Welcome!
Got the column...
don't forget the ceiling!
The Hanger Sculpture was also a highlight. Zozie's first 3D art installation, although he spent the first few minutes picking up the hangers off the floor and hanging them back onto the dispensing rods. "It's a sculpture Zozie." "Oh! Ok." The hangers were placed carefully, mostly where there weren't any already. He would step back once in a while before placing the next hanger, taking in the overall effect of what he was creating. "A tower mama!"
The Messy Art Day ended with a BANG!
The last stop was the Musical House, where every surface of the house was covered in sound making pots, pans, cans, bottles, drums, you name it! Zozie went about doing his usual "set" on the buckets he found inside the house...
LAB Results:
It was extremely interesting to observe Zozie in this environment!
Winners? Tools that really drew his attention and imagination had an immediate Cause & Effect, along with an inherent lesson reflecting how the real world worked. The Splatter Slide, The Canvas Wall, The Painting House, The Music House. He did something, then there was an instant feedback or result from his actions that was relevant. It was NOT about his like or dislike of being messy. Paint splatters were welcomed, disorder of the hangers created, when the exercise had a particular agenda of creating something, the mess level did not bother him.
Losers? Those that did not appear to have any particular "purpose" or "sense" to the actions being asked to be performed in real life. Confetti room, Soda Dragon, Sand Table, Noodle Art.
Messy for messy-sake.
Like eating cotton candy, so fun, so sweet, the satisfaction so short-lived.
Fantasy & Imagination are two different things.
Zozie's response to this art day reminded me of the talk Po Bronson (Author of Nurtureshock) gave recently. One, fantasy, is random ideas not grounded in reality in which an idea is produced for idea-sake with no connection to the real world or each other. The other, imagination, is mastering a grounded and clear understanding of reality and coming up with creative ways to manipulate that truth. They are not one in the same and are often confused when applied to Children & Play.
Chuckling to myself, the same principle applied to our splattering day.
True Art, serves a purpose. It engages and captures our attention thus spawning creative imagination.
Fluff Art, is crazy for crazy-sake. Fantastically fun, but the high is temporary and inconsequential.
