Going to school

We went to Immokalee this morning. It shares a county and school district with Naples. Farm workers are organizing there (check out the CIW website and join the boycott- or at least say you are if you don't eat at Burger King). Matt's aunt works at one of the elementary schools in town, and she gave us a tour. Before going to Immokalee I taught the kids about farm workers, migration, inequality, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and on and on. As we drove out to Immokalee this morning, we saw the citrus groves and tomato fields with workers in school buses on their way to pick food for all of us.

Then, surprisingly, the school was nice. They are in the process of remodeling. The rooms that had not been remodeled yet had data projectors, computers, were large enough, bright, pleasant, and didn't have too many kids. There is a large library, plus art and music classrooms. 98% free lunch & breakfast kids in a nice facility, working seemingly at grade level. It was heartening. Calvin commented that the kids didn't look as poor as he expected, which we probed to understand. Finally, we realized that with the pictures he'd seen on the CIW website of the farm workers' homes, he expected third world poverty at the school. Wonderfully, there wasn't.

Then we heard as we drove home that the voters yesterday voted to cut property taxes. The tax cut was opposed by school boards and city officials for the toll that it will take on services, including schools. On the other side, "the tax-cutting push was a response to exploding property values that jacked up tax bills mainly for owners of second or vacation homes, businesses." Seriously. This is the choice that is best for society?

The conclusion to the day... We skipped going to a park and having lunch in Immokalee because Calvin seemed to have developed an illness while we were at the school. It turns out that he has one of his low-grade fever illnesses. He was sick enough that he chose to skip the beach when Matt and E went, but not sick enough to skip a quick dip in the pool. Hopefully, he'll be fine in the morning.

and one funny thing...

Before walking to see this in the Everglades...


We saw this in the Everglades...

That's an RV pulling a pickup carrying a golf cart.

On the road again (even Rosie)

We're in Florida now. Sadly for Lisa, Marty, and the girls, Rosie hit the road too, escaping from their house this afternoon. Unfortunately they didn't know that she was safely in a neighbor's house. We are thankful to the enormous number of Clifton friends who helped to look for her. And we're sorry for the worry that her escapade caused her vacation hosts.

We're finishing our second day and having a very good time. Thanks to Roy and Kathy, we took a boat ride yesterday. There were pelicans to feed, and Calvin (yes, Calvin!) fed them by hand. The kids loved the boat ride. Calvin was manic from the boat ride until the day ended. I'm not sure what in him it fed, but he was energized by it. As part of his joy, he took about 50 pictures. We thought about the change in Calvin, who was terrified and carried crying onto the boat at Niagara Falls in September to this boat ride.

Today we went to Everglades National Park. We rented a canoe, took a hike, and pulled the car over when we saw some alligators by a canal near the road. We'd done three science lessons on the Everglades before we left. I was glad to see that the kids remembered things. And as with the road trip, the kids are much more engaged when they have some "expertise" about a place.

(There's an alligator in this picture.)

Cars and Kentucky

We went to Lexington, KY. We saw how they make Toyotas at the assembly plant in Georgetown, KY. It was a cool tour, lasting an hour. An hour would be too long to walk around, but they don’t let you walk around and participate in the making of cars. Instead, we rode an electric tram/train and listened to a guide through headphones.

We later discovered that while we toured the plant, they sabotaged our car. We ended up getting a new thermostat for our car as a souvenir from Lexington. ☺
Our actual reaction was to be glad that we didn't have car trouble in one of 100 different, and worse, scenarios on the road trip.

"best quality cookie"

Calvin has hard time saying goodbye to homemade foods these days, because they are unique and can't be replaced. We encourage him to take a picture and let them go. Sometimes he takes a picture, sometimes a movie. It's hard to say goodbye to places and people too, but we usually have pictures of these things already. Here are some, just some, of the pictures Calvin has taken.

News from Clifton

Here’s some of what has been happening around our house and around Clifton.

They finally started tearing down the Civic Center and Bender Optical. Cool!


Calvin made some Wookie Cookies out of the cookbook that he got from Uncle Marc. They are delicious!


We did some experiments to understand how sad the water situation is for the Everglades. You can’t see it in the picture, but Eleanor has a “Lake Okeechobee” nametag and Calvin and I are “people.” When Matt took our picture, we’d been sucking water out of the lake using straws and saying what we’re using it for (e.g, farms, golf courses, swimming pools). At the end we spit back some water to show the reusing of polluted water. Then we dumped what was left in the “Everglades” (muffin tin). All of this was proceeded by a Florida in which there was enough water to fill the “Everglades.” Later, we saw how the Everglades, as a dehydrated or hydrated sponge, soaks up ocean water (or not), changing the Everglades habitat. I’m proud to say that I came up with that last experiment myself!




















We’re doing well as homeschoolers. As predicted though, Matt and I spend a lot of time wondering what we should have the kids do for school next year. I guess I knew it would be hard to figure it out, but I didn’t realize how hard. Better knowing the kids’ academic strengths and weaknesses makes sending them into real school harder. And seeing the Leaves of Learning kids, without the self-consciousness and gender or age segregation of most school kids, is really appealing. But we’re getting really tired of living on one income. What to do? If you stay tuned, we’ll find out together.

New social situations

I don't often look at Eleanor's education history and think about change. But when I dropped Eleanor off at Leaves of Learning the first time, I wished her well at her fourth school. Today she eagerly attended a zoo class for homeschoolers where she knew no one. It turned out at that the zoo class was attended by stereotypical "homeschooled" kids. (Did you ever see the "Six Feet Under" with bizarre, formerly-homeschooled Arthur (Rainn Wilson)? That's what I'm talking about.) Anyway, she goes with the flow in these situations. She came home saying how immature the kids were at the zoo class, but unfazed. At Calvin's basketball game last week she made friends with a sister of one of Calvin's teammates.

Eleanor is a extrovert much more than any of the rest of our family. I admire her ability to get into new situations and make friends. I'd rather sit in a corner and not deal with the hassle. (In fact, that's actually what I did at the basketaball game. I mean these people live in Wyoming. They supported the jail tax. How can I relate to/tolerate them?!) Eleanor's ability to adapt to new social situations will serve her well in life. And maybe I can learn from her. Maybe she'll introduce me to some of the parents of Calvin's teammate next week?

January "camping"

Thanks once again to global warming and homeschooling/sabbatical we were able to have another great outdoor excursion. The kids and I wanted to go camping because it was 70 degrees! But it has been rainy and was supposed to rain more (which leads to a muddy, messy tent, and much hassle upon the return home), and with safety concerns, I was hesitant to go camping. So, we decided to check out the often-admired "camping cabins." Much to Eleanor's frustration, I'm too cheap and old school to ever consider them during the normal season. But given the rain, the likely desolation of the campground, and my need to get back to work as soon as we got home, we got a cabin.

It was great! Who knew that Hueston Woods had so much to offer? The campground has over 500(!) sites, but we were the only ones there when we went to bed! In the morning we discovered one other camper had come to the campground.

We had a great time. Nature and kids are a great mix. Even though I consider those "nature deficit" books faddish, I do see the how much my kids enjoy nature and how great it is for them. They find things to do, want jobs to do at the site, play and work together, and lose their self-consciousness. Calvin mentioned mesmerizing and relaxing effect of the campfire and the stream. Eleanor seemed to forget briefly that she's grown up. And of course, I love building the fire! It's really nice to be able to get away. Now that we know that it's there, we hope that we can return.

News in the new year

There's some catching up to do because I haven't posted much lately. We went to MN for Christmas and spent lots of time with friends when we got home. All good, but no time for blogging.
(Rosie was snuck into the hotel on the road to MN.)










The kids started Leaves of Learning on Friday. It was really good. Eleanor was happy to go to a school and be grown-up. Calvin was very nervous, but the school is great and they helped him along. He told Matt, "They were very welcoming!"

Here are some pics of some of the other things we've been up to. We had some fun taking pictures of Eleanor standing next to herself in a picture standing next to herself in a picture.


We saw the Frida Kahlo exhibit at theWalker in MN. We had learned about her life and art in our homeschool and the exhibit was really great. The exhibit including 50 paintings, so we saw many of the famous ones. Thanks to Kim, Eleanor even had a Frida doll, which everyone admired while we waited in line.


Calvin started basketball today. He had been asking to play for a while. And he was really into the game. It was fun to watch. In the pictures, he's the one with the white headband on the left.

books and me calvin

hi. me and my mum oops thats harry potter language /british english me and my mom and my dad read harry potter and the prison of Azkaban to me and me to them. it was good. i am reading the spiderwick chronicles. it is good so far. i am reading harry potter and the goblet of fire.
in 7 day s i will be Starting fractions. bye