We're Still Here

Ah--long silence. When I traveled in Europe one summer, my mom fretted to a friend that she hadn't heard from me yet--not since I had left. Her friend answered, "Well, she's either having the time of her life or she's too sick and weak to write!" So, the long hiatus here has been the former.

We FINALLY sold our Columbia house and so were able to buy a home here. We bought a house we've had our eyes on since November, long before we even knew if this move would work out. Adam found it on the Multiple Listing Service and we just kept watching it. He started calling it "our house." I couldn't look because I didn't want to fall in love with something just to have it sell before we were able to buy. But . . . the price dropped again after we got here and we were afraid we would lose it. Columbia was under contract and close enough to closing that we felt like we could chance looking and falling in love. Which is exactly what happened. On Tuesday, we moved into the house, the only one we ever looked at here!

So once again, we wake up in the woods each day, this time in a forest of pinon pines. The house sits on an acre and is surrounded by all natural vegetation--goodbye yard tools! The neighborhood of about 80 houses surrounds Allen's Lake, a small 40-acre lake. There's a neighborhood beach with small dock, boat launch, swimming and picnic area and a play ground. The neighborhood has Lake of the Pines Movie Night monthly in the summer. Last night was a showing of "Star Wars." The neighborhood kids totally disregarded the movie but spent the evening running around with their light sabers and glow sticks, playing at their own version of Star Wars.

Late yesterday afternoon we were sitting in the living room when a movement outside caught my eye. I took a closer look and it was a lynx! We watched it stalk (but never catch) a rabbit. such a beautiful, elegant animal. And, yes, we do have to be aware of the chance of encountering a mountain lion or bear. The neighborhood has lots of open space and natural habitat for animals and we abut a large parcel of open space to the west, right at the base of the foothills. The threats are a bit different than those found in Baltimore!

Other momentous changes: We've enrolled Oliver in The Shining Mountain Waldorf School (www.smwaldorf.org) for kindergarten. I've been feeling hard pressed to give him the level of physical activity and routing I feel like he needs. I think he'll thrive at Shining Mountain. The
kids start each and every day outside on the play ground and then go for a hike. They return to the classroom for a more quiet, inward activity. Then out again for more large movement. So goes the rhythm of the day. They will cook a grain every day for snack time and it will be combined with a fresh fruit or vegetable. And lots of time outside every day.

The Waldorf philosophy understands children to be busy inhabiting their bodies and learning through doing and imitation through age seven, when they move into a new developmental stage. Simply stated, Waldorf explains its hope to educate the hands, heart and head.

Levi is back in vision therapy. We continue to discover new things. He was recently diagnosed with Irlen Syndrome (www.irlen.com), a perceptual disorder in which the brain cannot accurately process certain wave lengths of light resulting in a variety of visual distortions. The treatment is to alter the the wave length to one the brain can process by using colored transparent overlays for print or colored lenses if the distortion extends to distance vision as well.

Diagnosticians for Irlen are still few and far between but we have been lucky enough to have one in Ft. Collins, just an hour north of here. We've had one appointment and will return on Sept. 3 to determine the best lens color for Levi. Once he gets his tinted lenses, he'll continue in vision therapy to address some problems with his eye movements and how smoothly his eyes move over print. We discovered the Irlen Syndrome by a strange route. Adam's stepmother, Barbara, read an article about it in The Cape Cod Times and sent it to us. It came at a point when I was feeling so frustrated and stymied. Levi seemed to have gone backward in his progress and I had a strong feeling we were missing a piece of the puzzle. Irlen has proved to be a major part of the picture.

All of this information has come so recently that we've decided to continue to home school Levi for this year. He'll attend a 1-day a week program called Options, a public school program that provides classes for home schoolers. He's excited. He chose his classes: Medieval History, Science, Math, Strings--violin, PE and Art. Two days a week he'll participate in a program run by a former Waldorf teacher on her one-acre farm in N. Boulder (www.sagehamilton.com). Below is a sampling from the fall schedule:

FALL - IROQUOIS
children 6 - 8 'How the Earth Got on Turtle’s Back'
Iroquois Totem Animals - Eagle, Bear, Turtle
Native American Crafting
Harvesting and Medicine making
WINTER - SPRING ANIMALS AND THE CELTS
Totem Animals continued - one or two blocks -
Horse for sure the rest to unfold
Celtic Legends, Folk, and Fairy Tales
children 6 - 8 strong focus on the fairy realm,
King of Ireland’s Son and more
children 9 and up - more mature legends
Practical Arts to compliment this curriculum for both age groups

Wild West

Our spring newspaper headlines have reminded us that were back in the wild west. In the 2 months we've been here, three mountain lions and one bear have been removed from South Boulder residential neighborhoods. A few Fridays ago, the front-page headline read, "Unruly Mule Deer." The deer are calving, sometimes in close proximity to people. When people inadvertently get near, the mother deer have been charging them. The deer are apparently very aggressive to protect their young. One woman said that a deer charged her each morning as she walked her dog. You've gotta wonder why she didn't just walk her dog somewhere else!

Wacky and Weird

I think "Wacky and Weird" will become a regular part of my blog posts because there seems to be so much of it here. I get my daily dose of entertainment just by reading Boulder's paper, The Daily Camera.

Okay, Boulder's 5th Annual Naked Bike Ride, happened a few Saturdays ago. No, I did not participate or spectate. This year the group was protesting against oil dependency. Exactly who "they" are and who organizes this, I don't know.

Here's an interview that I thought was hysterical: "I'm just gonna follow the glare of the glowing white asses," said Juanita Gable, 39, of Denver, who participated in the naked ride for the first time. "It seemed like a fun time," Gable said. "And I believe in the cause." . . . . Gable, who wore a bra and underwear, said she opted not to go fully nude because, " It's my first time. I'm nervous. What if I get a flat?" she said. "I might end up in the middle of nowhere looking for someone to help me fix my tire--naked." OOOOkkkkayy. Like it would be that much better to be in your bra and underwear in the middle of nowhere with a flat. But whatever. I get my daily dose of the wacky and weird just by reading my morning paper and it makes me happy! In case you are looking for one to participate in, Denver's version of the Naked Bike Ride is planned for July 12. And, on the same day as Boulder's, a massive Naked Bike Ride was planned to start in Hyde Park in London. So apparently it's a trend. There have been Naked Bike rides in as many as 70 cities and 20 countries. You can "see more photos and video of Saturday's Naked Bike Ride through Boulder at www.dailycamera.com."

Now, going nude in Boulder is not legal but the police tend to turn their heads the other way for this event. Seems kinda unfair if you are the priest who got arrested near here last August for indecent exposure. He apparently saw fit to leave his house at 4 am one morning, completely naked, walk to the local high school track, take a jog around it, and then walk home. When asked why he went jogging without any clothes, he told police something to the effect that jogging clothes made him too hot and sweaty.

Lost

Being new here, I find myself getting lost--a lot. It was only about a year ago that I stopped getting lost frequently in Maryland! So to be getting lost again on a regular basis is at times maddening, frustrating and tiresome. Especially when losing my way makes us late.

But, there's a funny thing about getting lost--I've learned it before and I'm being reminded again. I may not get where I am going quickly or efficiently but every time I get lost, I learn something. Connections get made in my brain--Oh, this is how those streets connect. Wow, I've never been here before. I get small glimpses of how it all fits together. Slowly it becomes a comprehensive mind map of where I live.

I get some general ideas from my printed road map but, really, I'm not all that great at reading a map. At least not until I have some real life experience to apply to what I'm seeing on paper. It all starts to come together for me once I've "been there."

Getting lost would seem to be a "mistake." But I think we need another word for these kinds of experiences that lead us to new connections and learning. The way I've learned it, a mistake is something bad. But it's these twists and turns of life that are our best teachers.

I see this so clearly with the kids. The way they go about things may sometimes look like they are "lost" or mistaken. But we miss the point when we interpret it this way. Kids are so much better at trial and error than most adults because, until a certain point, kids aren't afraid of doing the wrong thing. Their minds are still free from concepts like mistakes and the "wrong way to do things." They do, they try, they experiment and see what happens. Just like my wrong turns in driving ultimately give me a better mental map of where I'm going, so their "wrong" turns help them see how things in their world are connected.

We do our kids better if we, metaphorically, let them drive, get lost, and find their way. We are, of course, always available to give directions. But directions are only helpful when someone actually wants them. Every try to force a lost driver to ask for directions? How well does that work? It doesn't work any better with our kids and their learning!

So, let's go for a drive.

Learning All The Time

The past 6 months have been particulary interesting with Oliver. Levi went to kindergarten but Oliver is my non-schooled child. I have been in wonder and awe as he learns how to read and explores the beginnings of math. He seemed on the brink of "getting" reading a while back and I thought it would be a good time to try some phonics. Not. He HATED every second of it and had no hesitations in letting me know. After a bit of hand-wringing, I came to my senses, reminded myself that he was only 5, and backed off--totally. Since then he's gone thru the progression of pointing out "sight" words, asking what combinations of letters spelled, asking how to spell words, asking to have words written on his back at bedtime to see if he could figure them out. Slowly but surely, he's learning to read--in his own time, in his own way, by his own methods. He's also been going thru the same process with understanding adding. First, he asked nonsense questions--does 1 + 1 = 5? And even if I held up one finger on one hand and one on the other, he still didn't get it. Then some developmental switch flipped and the concept of addition made sense. Now he can add simple numbers and is curious about the addition of larger numbers. Now he says, 2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 4 = 8. That's as far as he can go alone but he then asks about 8 + 8, 16 + 16, . . . .

And so it goes, one thing leading to another to another.

We're Not In Kansas Anymore, Toto!

One of the things I missed about the west was being around people who were clearly living an alternative lifestyle. So . . . I needed a haircut and posted on my local Yahoo home schooling group asking for recommendations for a hairdresser. I got several and picked one--a stylist at a salon in Boulder called Urban Boulder. I made the appointment a few days ago and gleefully went off yesterday for the much needed haircut.

Now, salons aren't the most mainstream of places usually. I find that stylists often do funky things with their hair and clothes. Fine. But . . . I was more than a little surprised at what I found when I walked into this salon. The first thing I noticed was the scarlet settee under the huge plate-glass window--with the largest great dane on it I have ever seen in my life. Otis was stretched out full length with his chin resting on the back of the settee, gazing lazily out of the window. It was clearly Otis' couch, not for clients! If you choose to sit on it, you choose to be covered with Otis.

After meeting Otis, I took my first real look around the salon itself. The owner and woman sitting at the reception desk had, predictably, a spiky peroxided hairdo. It took me a moment to notice her extensive tattoos. Slowly I noticed that having your body at least 1/4 covered with tattoos was a definite prerequisite to working there. Imagine, a room full of 10 women, all cutting hair, all hugely tattooed.

Oh, and did I mention the resident pit bull? Very friendly but she made me a little nervous.

So, I got my evidence of alternative lifestyles.

In The Past Few Days . . .

Oliver has insisted that he really has had a broken leg (not) and that the speed limit in Africa is 200 mph. He also woke me up this morning with the news that his guinea pig was under my bed. This despite his being expressly forbidden from getting his guinea pig out without adult supervision due to rough treatment and the fact that I am sick of retrieving Enrico from under and behind things. Ah, the mind of a 5 year-old.