Woodpecker Sightings

Nature group met up at Sycamore Grove this week to learn a little about woodpeckers. 

We started off with a scavenger hunt around the native plant garden while we were waiting for everyone to get there.

And then we did a little nature jounrnaling before we headed out. It can be hard to journal on the hike, and often the kids are too excited about everything they are seeing and climbing and running around, so I thought we'd try doing a quick sketch first while I talked to them about some woodpecker basics.

I brought along pictures of the birds, which in the case of live animals, is also so much easier than trying to draw a bird that is moving around. They seemed happy with this arrangement.

Best part of it--we actually found some woodpeckers on our hike! I was a little nervous since with animals, you can't really guarantee they'll be there, but we lucked out.

I did know that we could find the trees of the acorn woodpeckers, which is cool enough on it's own. the kids were pretty fascinated, and I shared how they search for the just right hole, and then come back later when the acorn has shrunk a little and move it to a new hole, always keeping them in tight spots.

The kids got a chance to be woodpeckers. I brought oatmeal raisin cookies, ballpoint pens, and toothpicks. They were challenged to get the raisins out using the pen to break off the cookie like the bird breaks into the tree with their beak, and then the toothpick to pick out the raisin like the birds use their tongues. The kids really liked doing this, and then most of them ate the cookie crumbs.

That inspired a lot of practice being woodpeckers with the actual acorns. They found sticks and actually pried out quite a few. I hope the birds weren't disappointed when they came back. I tried to get the kids interested in finding just right holes for them after, but that didn't sound as fun.

Nature Explorations

This class has been a long time in the making. I love teaching science, and I love getting out in nature to hike and explore. Hands-on learning is the best in my mind. And this past year, I've really come to recognize the importance of time in nature for our mental health and as a part of a balanced education.

 Being able to teach a class on site, in the various natural environments around the East Bay has been my dream, and I decided that this is the year. 

For our first class, we met at the edge of Del Valle and started with a "Getting to Know You" activity. I've got about 2 dozen kids in this class and a lot of them don't know each other yet, so we needed an ice breaker.

We talked about some basics of nature journaling and then headed out on a hike with the challenge to use our senses to explore.

The kids used a sensory bingo board to search for a variety of things along the hike.

And then we stopped along the creek for some more in-depth exploration. The kids focused in on each sense. They spent time drawing something that they saw, listing everything they could smell, exploring the textures they could feel, and listened to birds, the water, leaves crunching.

Judging by the sounds of laughing kids running through the forest and parents happily chatting with new friends, I'm saying this class is going to be a success, and personally, a great addition to our schedule. Both Peanut and I need this.

 

Mushroom Madness, Take Two

There was no official hunt at Sycamore Grove this year, but we met up with our friends again to see what we could find on our own. After trying to go to the same place, and being chased out by a ranger because apparently that parking lot is only open when there are official events taking place, we went to a nearby area to do our searching.

We did find some, although not the quantity that was found last year.

But there were some very cute tiny ones, and some larger ones, too.

I don't know what it is about mushrooms--I never get tired of finding them.

Another beautiful day, another fallen tree to climb on.

Love hanging out with all these kids.

 

Another Day, Another Trail

 We've settled into a rhythm and Friday is hike day. Bean's schedule for school is busy enough that it's hard for her to go more than once a week in the morning, and it's getting too hot for us to go later in the day, so Friday mornings it is. 

We explored a new trail in Sycamore Grove today.

It was mostly hot, but did have some beautiful views and even though I didn't have a good camera for getting close to wildlife, we got to watch a northern harrier hunting up on top of the hill. It caught something at one point--we could see it in the distance, tearing into something and then when it took off, it looked like it had a small bit of it's prey with it. Pretty cool.

Back down in the valley, this great blue heron let us get really close. He also was hunting and we got to watch him catch some small insect or something as well. I didn't catch that on video, but just watching him walk is pretty cool.

Lots of wildflowers, too. Spring has been really good to us.

Peanut has really stepped up his hiking game. Almost no complaints today in 5.5 miles (I think the only time he started saying he wanted to go home was because we saw a bee).

The creek over there is still flowing. I wish the one by us still had water, but at least we can come this way. They are all controlled by reservoirs and just depend on whether they need to release water or not.

So many flowers!

After that hike, we had school things to take care of, an attempt to get the kids passports (long story, but I had put off going in for their passports and then everything shut down and I haven't been sure what to do. We finally decided to just get them so we'll have them when we can someday travel again, but had a little issue with the post office, so we now we have to go back tomorrow--because having people come in repeatedly is totally a good idea right now. So annoying.)

We finished off the day with Family Movie Night--Bug's turn to pick and he chose Revenge of the Sith. Peanut has now seen all 9 Star Wars movies and I think he's planning on having us watch Rogue One next time. I have a feeling we can just go in Star Wars circles for months over here, haha.

Backyard Camping Trip

We figured out a way to feel like we've been on a trip, even though we can't leave our city--camping in the backyard for the win!

We planned a whole nature themed day, with our nature themed games, a video class on redwood ecology in Henry Cowell State Park, and a lot of backyard time.

Trekking the National Parks is one of our favorite games and was perfect for our day of nature.

Once Daddy-o was home, we started foil dinners, the kids' request for camping food.

It doesn't get more camp-like than this!

A few more puzzles and games.

Time around the campfire. . .

It wasn't quite the same, but it really did feel like something different than just staying home, week after week. We all smelled like campfire when we went to bed, and had the experience of hearing racoons in the night (well, Daddy-o did--the rest of us slept through that) and being woken up by the birds in the morning. Pretty much a typical camping trip.

The next morning, we made bacon and pancakes on our gas grill (which I would totally take camping if we had the room to bring it!) and headed out for a hike in Sycamore Grove. I had hoped to go somewhere a little farther away to try a new trail, but things around us are getting even more strict--more parks closing, and many counties threatening anyone who doesn't stay within a few miles of home. It didn't feel worth the risk, so we stayed close by. But we did try a new trail that branched off from the new trail the kids and I had done last week, and at the top, found the amazing climbing tree above.

 

We haven't done any real hiking with all 5 of us for a few weeks, so this was extra nice.

Found more turkey tail mushrooms.

And then a group of wild turkeys who talked to us for awhile (or maybe they were talking to each other and we just kept interrupting.) Pretty fun hike with sections of no crowds. Weekends are hard because there are so many people out trying to find a bit of nature. And, as we've found, a lot of people only take the social distancing so seriously. We actually ran into friends who were hiking, together, without any attempt at distancing. It's hard not to get frustrated because we feel like this attitude slows down the process and will drag out the return of travel and being able to go anywhere. But what can you do?

We finished off the day with a national park documentary, reading in the hammock, and a camp-y movie--Follow Me Boys.  The kids and Daddy-o had watched this movie a couple times before, but I think it was always in the car when I was driving so I'd never seen it. They convinced me it was perfect for our theme, and it was a really great movie, but nobody warned me that it was going to be such an emotional movie. I was expecting a fun, light-hearted, old fashioned movie--instead, they hit on a lot of tough subjects (infertility, kids with alcoholic parents, death, adoption, giving up your dreams for the good of others). Between that and reading a book about slavery, my heart has had more hurt than it can handle at this time of extra stress and worry. Gotta find some light-hearted entertainment next!

When the World Gets Turned Upside Down

That's what it feels like these days. Everything has changed, and continues to change on a daily, sometimes even hourly, basis. Our county went from kids attending school and swim lessons on Friday to a shelter-in-place order affective at 12:01 a.m. today where we are only supposed to leave the house for critical purposes. It's required some massive flexibility, even as a homeschool family, because like most homeschool families, we don't actually stay home all that often. Kids activities have all stopped, my dog walking business has dried up with everyone working from home, and my science class is going to have to move to zoom, which means me learning how to teach in a whole new way.

Without art class, swimming, water polo, park day, church youth groups, seminary, or public high school, we've been finding other ways to use our time. (And if I'm honest, I'm not totally sad that I no longer have to drive to all the places.)

Thank goodness going out for walks and hikes is considered critical and we are still allowed to do so as long as we practice appropriate social distancing.

We spent 2.5 hours hiking around Sycamore Grove yesterday between rainstorms.

The signs of spring, fresh air, and exercise left me feeling a lot better. It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the changes, and by the constant news available. I'm struggling to turn it off. These breaks are so important for me.

Today, we ended up down at the local creek to skip rocks, wade, and just enjoy being out.

After all the rain we've had the past 4 days, this creek was finally flowing (it's been dry all winter.)

We saw a lot of people out and about on our way to this spot, but down by the water, we had the place to ourselves. It will be difficult to find hiking areas that are secluded enough to make social distancing easy. Glad we're on the edge of the 7 million people who are currently trying to adjust to this new normal.

All the poppies! I love California spring.

We're also fully embracing all of the online classes and virtual learning opportunities. We have subscriptions to the You Are An Artist Clubhouse and No Sweat Nature Study, but are also excited to try out the other options that people have made free to help with the now-homeschooling families. Today we listened to James Dean read a Pete the Cat book during breakfast, tomorrow is a SQUILT music online class and Mo Willems doodles at lunch. The internet is going to be what saves 2020.

We're playing all the games. Literally, I have the goal to play every game that we own that we never have, starting with our newest acquisition--Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza--which I highly recommend for families. It had us laughing so hard, even if I did end up with a headache from doing the narwhal action. 😂 

We've got a few of these stacks of games to tackle in the next few weeks. I can't wait!

And then there's all the kids' projects. Bug has already finished a card game he had been working on for months, made a cooking video of his preparation of St. Patrick's Day dinner, and has several other things he's hoping to finish up.

Peanut found the stamps and started making a newspaper, is dictating a Harry Potter inspired story for me to type up, and is now obsessed with making up memes about the coronavirus. I guess I'm going to have to help him figure out how to actually make a meme we can share.

Bean has taken over cooking breakfast this week, been writing again, and is finishing off all the books she's been reading. I'm hoping she'll be satisfied with the books we have around the house now that the library is closed down indefinitely. It's actually pretty nice having her home again.

With family walks, games, movie nights, and trying to keep up some level of schooling, I'm thinking that we're going to be okay. We're just trying to roll with the punches as they come.