Escaping the Smoke

The Air Quality Index has been so high in our area that we've been stuck indoors, so when we checked the coast and realized that there was a small pocket of clean air north of San Francisco, we decided to go for a hike.

It was really foggy and cool when we got there--which was a nice reprieve from the crazy heat we've had.

Although this little Peanut was freezing--should have pushed for him to wear pants, but it's hard to convince people that it might be cold when it's already heating up into the 80s back home.

But other than a pretty cranky littlest guy, the rest of us enjoyed the wet hike. It was raining in the trees from all the fog collecting there--just like we get in the redwoods. And not being able to see anything around us was actually really fun. 

The fog cleared some before we finished and the kids were disappointed to be able to see into the valleys instead of just imagining what was actually down there.

It was also crazy windy in a couple spots--notice Peanut hiding just down the hill. This crest right here, which was between two hills was the worst and it was all we could do to get him to walk through it to continue the hike. Luckily, it did get better once we got out of the little dip right there, but it took some convincing to get him to see for himself.

The final decent to get back to the car went better--snacks and a promise of stopping for Taco Bell on the way home got him through the end. I would have stayed a lot longer to enjoy breathing fresh, clean air, but we'd pushed him long enough.

 

First Day of 2020-2021

"Twas the night before Christmas. . . oh, wait. . . it wasn't Christmas, just the first day of school. But from the piles of presents, you couldn't really tell, haha! I don't usually do anything crazy like this for the first day of school, but with school being online this year, and all of us needing a little boost, I decided to set out new school supplies, snacks, and surprises for everyone.

Peanut's pile was the curriculum and some fun add-on's that we'll be using this year.

I stayed up way too late the night before because for some reason, I decided everything for the first day needed to be surprises. I think, in the future, a couple surprises will be enough, and cinnamon rolls can just be a treat that everyone knows I'm making so I won't be up an hour after everyone else, still making food.

But they were all appropriately appreciative the next morning, which made it worth it. We got to start the day in a positive way with everyone happy and excited.

Bean, in her new school room.

And Bug, ready to begin his high school journey.

While Bean and Bug met all their teachers, Peanut got sorted into his Hogwarts house (he's a Hufflepuff which kind of seems perfect for him--and the kids agreed that we need to be nicer about Hufflepuffs because there were some pretty awesome ones, and being inclusive isn't a bad trait at all.)

This boy has been so excited about this curriculum ever since he and I reviewed in last spring. He's been on me weekly, asking when his student workbook was coming, and making sure I'd ordered my robes (which, speaking of, he needs new ones now that he has his official house.)

The Waldock's Wizards and Wands, the Harry Potter curriculum we found, uses the 7 books for language arts, and then classes like Potions and Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle studies for science and social studies. Since Peanut just finished reading the books a couple months ago, and has re-read the 1st book at least 3 times this summer, I decided we'll listen to the audiobooks for this study, so we started with the first chapter and then he did his first "Charms" class, which is copywork--handwriting and spelling practice--using quotes from the book. Using a quill makes copywork a lot more fun.

Then, we got out a Little Passports kit on England to go along with our English accents we'd been talking in all morning (I don't know how long I can keep this up--my accent is pretty terrible, but maybe it will improve if I keep practicing?) He built the Elizabeth Tower (where Big Ben is housed), did a crossword puzzle on British words for things, and found Britain on the map.

I think we're going to have a lot of fun this year if I can just keep up with his enthusiasm. He wasn't wanting to quit "school" and kept asking what was next. 

First day of school pictures didn't happen until lunchtime. It is nice getting to check in and hear about their day as they go. Overall, it was a pretty good day, with some hiccups (Bug got marked absent in Spanish class because the teacher didn't see him waving when she called his name), and some happy surprises (Bean has a lot more people she knows in her classes than she first thought.)

First day of Junior Year.

First day of Freshman Year.

First Day of 4th grade.

Prep for School

There's been a lot of school prep going on the past couple weeks. I have planned and prepped for 13 weeks of science classes and then put together supply kits, with binders full of this semesters handouts, for my 18 students. I'm curious to see if the class planning feels less stressful each week now that I've done so much more than I usually have, but since we are still meeting online, I now have Google slides and Zoom quizzes and other interactive fun to put together, and I'm pretty sure that will just take the place of what I used to do. But it still felt like quite the accomplishment to get this all done.

 And then, there was the preparations for Peanut's Hogwarts schooling. I actually didn't set up this corner until after he went to bed Monday night because I wanted it to be a surprise in the morning, but he did know that we were getting ready to begin our wizarding adventure, so there were other things we had to do. . .

like get his letter from Hogwarts, and then gather his supplies from Diagon Alley.

He got everyone to play along on Saturday and apparated to Diagon Alley, picked up money from Gringotts, found spell books and robes, and paid a visit to Olivander's for his wand.

And so, with the boys' room rearranged a little, everyone's desks cleared off, and new school supplies purchased, we are ready for the new year!

A Last Hurrah

We needed one last adventure before school started, and we REALLY needed to get out of the smoke so we could spend some time outside--our 1000 hour goal was hurting. We'd only had one day outside last week, and this was potentially our only day for this week, so we drove into the city for the day to see what outdoor adventures we could find.

First stop was the steps going up to Coit Tower. Daddy-o and I had stumbled across these gardens a couple years ago and I've been meaning to bring the kids back. 

The climb up is no joke, but pretty.

They were still smiling, mostly.

And we found lots of flowers.

Then, we walked around and looked at the tower. It's not open right now, but we peaked through the windows at the frescos where we could.

Then, we went back down a second set of stairs and found the garden I'd most wanted to show them.

There were so many bird feeders, and so many birds!

It's like a secret garden in the middle of the city, tucked away where hardly anyone seems to go.

It was all magical.

We also checked out the little park at the bottom of the hill that had some great water features.

We're big fans of water, so anytime we can play around near water, we take it.

Peanut had to touch all the different streams and fountains.

Next stop on the tour--The Wave Organ. This is one of the spots I've had marked to visit someday. Well, we still need to come back because the organ wasn't making any sounds at all when we were there. I don't know if it wasn't the right tide time, or if it just doesn't work that well, but we'll try again someday (and maybe do a little research to see if we can figure out a good time to visit.) But we saw crabs and pelicans got to walk in the fresh, windy air which was such a great change from the hot, smoky air we've been dealing with so no one really cared that it didn't work.

Everyone was starving at that point, so we made a quick stop at the same taqueria that we found last year on our summer adventure day. The burritos were just as good as we remembered, and they still only take cash, and there is still an ATM at the cafe down the street to rescue us because I never have enough money in my wallet, haha.

We had just enough time for one more place before we needed to go home, and Bug had still not been to the Sutro Baths, so that was where we went. The tide was way lower than I've ever seen it, so we actually had a beach to play on, and the kids were able to get out to one of the big rocks that has always just been out in the ocean when we've been.

This rock climbing adventure turned into a little bit of drama when it was time to climb down. I hadn't really wanted Peanut to go out there in the first place because it was pretty steep, and such a tall rock, but I really try to respect his sense of adventure and ability when he wants to try something, and he proved me wrong, having no trouble scampering up the rock. But when it was time to come down, it was a different story.

They all made it down about halfway, and then there was a tricky spot that Peanut, who was following Bean, was having trouble with. The kids were both guiding him, and then Bean saw her chance to get past the waves, and she took it and jumped down and ran, leaving the boys up there. They were doing okay, just slowly figuring out where Peanut could put his feet, when two different men asked me if he needed help. I tried to reassure them that he was going to be fine, that they were figuring it out, but I think both of them thought I needed help, so they were over there, trying to tell Peanut that they would help him down. But neither of the men had on masks, so my boys were not comfortable with the situation at all and just kept telling them that they didn't need help. It was kind of funny, but resulted in Peanut jumping from higher than he meant to and landing in a couple inches of water, which splashed his lower half. He wasn't very happy at that point and we had a pretty cantankerous end of our exploring.

 

The ruins are so cool, though. And there had been moments of fun, for sure.

One final look out at the cliffs with the fog rolling in and it was time for us to go home and get ready for the first day of school!

Escape

When half of CA seems to be burning down after the hundreds of lightening strikes from Sunday morning, and the air is so full of smoke that you can't go outside, escaping to the beach seemed like a great idea. We met up with friends for one last beach day of the summer (although I'm still hoping for more beach time even after school starts.)

It ended up being a lot smokier down in Santa Cruz/Capitola than we'd expected, and you could still smell the smoke until you got right on the beach, but as long as we were near the water, we were good, and we had a great day.

(You can see how different the view looked to the south, away from the fires.) Bean and Bug spent 4 hours straight in the water, boogie boarding. They weren't sure about this spot when we first got there, but it turned out that while they had to wait for the right wave, the ride was worth it. I can't believe they didn't freeze to death. Maybe by next year we'll get them some wetsuits.

Peanut got wet a couple times, but didn't last long in the water, so he spent a lot of time reading and playing in the sand. He's the one we really need to get a wetsuit for.

There were even some mini tidepools to check out.

I always like finding whatever creatures I can.

We made a stop of pizza on the way home, which made the kids' day (I usually don't want to take the time to stop--once we leave the beach, I'm done and ready to just get home.) The sun was so pink, it was kind of apocalyptic. It wasn't very fun driving home, knowing we were going back to terrible air and bad news about all the acres that were burning in fires on all sides of Livermore (luckily far enough away to not be a threat to us in town, but still so sad.)

 

When We Aren't Out Adventuring

There's been a lot of being on the go, which led to a record breaking month of outdoor time in July! Peanut had 147 hours! Bug and Bean had even more thanks to water polo. But we have been busy with a few indoor things, too.

We actually had one cooler day, so after a lot of avoiding the oven for days at a time, I decided it was time for homemade pizzas. We did individual ones, which was fun for everyone to get to pick their own ingredients (and I need this picture to remind me that while Peanut is an incredibly picky breakfast eater, he really has a pretty adventurous palate--his pizza looked just like mine.)

Peanut has been in major writing mode--he's got several different books he's working on, including a new project--a scientific book of dragons. He's got them classified and categorized based on their habitats and has come up with scientific names in Latin. Google translate is one of his favorite tools.

Bug has been hard at work with the finishing touches for a huge project that's he's been thinking about and planning for 2 years. He came up with a sort of mail-order mystery for a couple of his NC friends. He created puzzles and codes hidden in letters, and then is creating a treasure chest for the end, which includes hand-sewn dragons, a dragon book (where Peanut got his inspiration), and a few other treasures. This has been a HUGE undertaking, and he's done it all himself. He won't let me include pictures of all the parts yet (just in case his friends see this), so that will have to wait, but it's pretty incredible.

And while the boys were doing their stuff (and Bean was keeping up her normal schedule of Duolingo, working out, reading, and artwork), I spent a lot of hours on science this past couple weeks. I've been trying to finalize the schedule and activities so I could get everything ready for my students to pick up. It's a lot different having it all planned out like this, and honestly a little stressful to have to have all the supplies ready for 13 weeks of class, but I'm hoping it will feel a little easier during the semester. (But I'm not counting on it because I now have the added job of creating Google slide shows for each class, which was NOT part of my normal teaching routine. Online classes are no joke!)

It is pretty exciting watching their binders come together and I'm getting excited about some of the things I've found for us to do (that I think are going to work nicely over Zoom.) It may not be the class I'd hoped to have, but I think we're still going to have fun.

 

And, finally, I convinced the boys to play a new game with me. I had bought several to go with last year's science topics, but we'd only played a couple. Constellations has been on my list to play since we studied the stars in the spring. It is not only beautiful, but a really fun game, and it has some definite learning, too. I love it when games include real information, too. This one is good balance of it all.

And that is a pretty good summary of what we've been up to. I guess I should have included pictures of the animals, who still occupy a lot of our time, and books. So many books. Maybe I'll do a separate post of all the reading we've been doing.