Day 7: Writing Laws, One Dinosaur At A Time

Homeschool is fun. 

Fun in a fly by the seat of your pants sort of way. 

As the boys were doing their morning warm ups, I was perusing Facebook and saw a post from my twin-cousin Jake about how he was searching for a bill that is being proposed in the State of Washington and how it was funny that he had to search for the word "dinosaur" to find said bill. Intrigued, I clicked on the link for the bill, and it's a bill, a real bill, on how Washington State needs an official State dinosaur and which dinosaur it should be.

Wait. Hold the phone. You mean to tell me that there are official state dinosaurs and I never knew about this?

A quick Google search told me that Alaska does not have a state dinosaur. 

It was a short, simple bill, about two paragraphs, easy to understand structure, and I poured over it twice before setting my coffee down, clapping my hands and announcing to the boys "I know EXACTLY what we are doing for school today."

So we instantly pulled out all 75 dinosaur encylopedias we own and researched dinosaur fossils discovered in Alaska, and the boys wrote, start to finish, their own bill on why the "Alaskan Troodon" should be the official State Dinosaur of Alaska. 

It was tedious, took almost two hours, but they were so engaged, enthusiastic and invested in completing it, that I wasn't going to discourage it, and so we ditched math instead, and the boys completed what I think is a pretty convincing bill.

The best part? Jake is going to review the bill and help get it ready to be actually submitted to the State of Alaska. 

Best. Uncle. Ever. 

Day 6: Night Skiing

Not a lot happened today, except it did finally decide to snow for exactly one hour before turning to complete downpouring rain, so the boys promptly threw on their snow gear and took their new snowboard and mini skiis out to the hill behind our house around 8pm for some night skiing/boarding. 

Bonus points to the grandparents for getting the boys these super sweet knit caps with built in headlamps!

Day 5: The Planet Hoth

We had a big cold snap this past week, not anything fun like feet of snow or anything, but enough to freeze the roads and the standing bodies of water. 

I heard through the grapevine (i.e. social media) that the big lake in the area (Buskin) was frozen solid and it was safe to walk on. In an instant I leapt off the couch and shouted to my unexpected family "We're going on an adventure!" and started thrusting snow jackets and hats out of the coat closet. 

My poor family. They never know when Mom is going to announce an "Adventure" and disrupt everyone's lazy time. 

We headed out to Buskin Lake, which is about 5 minutes away from our house. It was starting to snow and extremely windy. Brad went out onto the lake first, as he's over double the weight of the rest of us. Once he deemed it safe, we all went out to follow him. As it hasn't snowed in a long time, we could see all the way to the bottom of the lake (which wasn't far, as we only went out as far as waist deep (if we were to fall through). 

Trekking around the lake, with the wind blowing puffs of snow across the ice and visibility of the surrounding mountains exactly zero, reminded me distinctly of walking across Planet Hoth. The kids were over the moon excited about the experience, running and sliding, doing ice angels and seeing how far they can slide rocks across the middle of the lake. 

We only spent about 30 minutes there before we decided we were ready to go, but it was a fun mini adventure that you can really only experience this far North. 

 

If A Tree Falls In The Trailer, Does Anyone Hear It?

 This afternoon, Cam, Calen and the Boy Scouts went off on a mission to collect the town's unwanted (live) Christmas trees and haul them to the dump as part of an annual post-Christmas community service project. They borrowed a huge flat bed trailer and had to empty it twice at the city dump, all in all collecting thirty unwanted Christmas trees. 

Work builds character! And muscles! And video game time, because everybody's got a price. 

Calen on the left and Cam hidden behind his arm

Cam (on the right) and Calen in the middle

Day 3: How To Spend $16 on Three Items (in 2023)

 It was Camden’s turn today to go take that inferno of a gift card to Safeway, since it was burning a hole in his pocket.

Camden really didn’t have a whole lot in mind, except he HAD to have a bag of chips. We also didn’t have a ton of time, as both kids had sports practice (swim/hockey) at the same time, because of course they did. Combined with the fact that Camden has the hardest time making decisions when it comes to spending money, he took it upon himself to say he was only going to get a couple of things because he didn't have time to decide.

I thought that was mature of him to say.

How we dress for the grocery store 30 minutes before hockey practice

So what do 11 year old’s buy when they get (almost) free reign? A bag of bbq chips. Sweettart flavored gum (you know Sour Patch Kids, the candy?) A jar of Nutella (that he’s NOT sharing) Necessities, you know.

These THREE things ended up being $16, because groceries are stupid in Alaska. Especially Kodiak, Alaska.

But, he justified that the jar of nutella would make him like, ten sandwiches, so honestly, that's fair.

The gum was his favorite, he said it's so "flavorful" and keeps asking if I wanted to taste one. No, thank you very much, that sounds like the worst flavor of gum there ever could be. But that was part of the deal, use the money to buy something that Mom would never say yes to, so how could I say no? Honestly, this has been such a fun social experiment. I can't wait for them to go on their next shopping spree.

Day 2: The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

 It was cold today.

I mean obviously. It’s January in Alaska. But compared to the last week? Compared to the majority of our gross, wet, rainy, miserable, mild winter? It was COLD. It was so cold that when I went to start up my car this evening, it took two hands and a lot of strength to heave the driver’s door open. Then, as I opened Camden’s door (footnote: does every parent have their passenger seats “labeled” as to whichever kid normally sits there? Instead of saying “the right rear passenger seat”, we say “Camden’s seat”, because that’s where he’s basically been assigned since birth. Doesn’t everyone do that? No? Just me? Anyways. As I opened Camden’s door to search for an ice scraper and went to close the door, the door bounced back at me, because the locking mechanism was frozen. Well that’s rude. So we go to hockey practice and thank the good Lord it was a board meeting night because I spent all but 20 minutes of that practice indoors, thanks. And after suffering those 20 minutes of freezing feels-like 11 degrees, trying to scrape frozen fog off the rink glass so I can actually see, and then chirp at Cam to hurry up because I’m freezing, he asks if he can stay for open skate “because it helps my skating skills!” Which is a cop-out because honestly he just wants to hot dog around, but then he argues “but you always say to save your messing around time for open skate!” You got me, kid. You have fifteen minutes. Fifteen freezing, painfully cold minutes. But he didn’t care. He doesn’t feel the cold, like ever. He could be the next featured male protagonist in Frozen 3. The cold never bothered him anyway.

A blurry photo taken of a moving target through a frozen glass pane

So I dragged him off the ice 15 (exact) minutes later and we walk up to the car, the last car in the lot, and I go to put the key in. And the key lock is frozen solid. Like my key won’t actually go in. So there I was, in the dark, alone, shivering, with my hockey player (who was quite warm thanks because he was in full gear and just skated for two straight hours), knelt in front of my drivers door performing CPR on my stupid car (cupping my hands and blowing hot air into the keyhole) and then literally using my key as an ice pick to slowly jam it in the keyhole and jimmy it like some sort of horizontal ice fishing, until the ice either broke free or melted, then another two-handed pull to get the car door open. You know, Kodiak is mild temperature wise to the rest of Alaska. And don’t get me wrong, I love the cold and I love winter. But if we can at least leave out car doors and frozen keyholes, that would be just dandy.

Day 1: New Year, New You (Or Something Like That)

 If I had a dollar for every time I restarted this daily blog, I'd probably be rich. 

Rich like, enough to buy a gallon of gas rich. 

One gallon. Not a tank. Just so we're clear. 

But you know, "New Year, New You", or something of the sort. I was talking with a friend today (on Facebook messenger, which is relevant to my point in a minute) about how I wish I wasn't so dependant on social media (see the connection now?) to keep up with friends, family, etc. Yes, it's a wonderful thing. But it's also addictive, a time waster, stupid, etc. I need to install some sort of 15 minute/daily timer to the app on my phone. 

But the other big thing I love social media (particularly Facebook) for is the daily "Facebook memories", where I can see what I was up to in years past. Since I'm a frequent poster, I usually have something fun to look back on. Which is great and all but that should be able to fall into that 15 minute a day slot. 

So you know what I'm going to try to do (again), is blog instead. Daily. The 365 day challenge has returned! Of course I'm starting on January 4th, and not the 1st, because the 1st would be too easy, and it took me 4 days to figure out my New Year's resolution. 

So there it is. 

First of all, let me geek out (literally) about our new daily calendar. It's a space-themed daily RPG, where each day we continue our story, make decisions about what to do, roll some d20 dice, save the universe (or die), etc. 

I mean seriously, is there anything cooler and nerdier than this?

Today our hero (a droid) successfully broke out of his cage. Now they're in for it. 

Also today, I took Calen shopping after swim team practice. For Christmas, my mom got each of the boys their own $50 gift card to Safeway, to "buy all the things that Mom says no to."

I mean seriously, this is a brilliant Christmas gift. 

Calen, donned in his slick 90s style Pizza Planet jacket, swaggered through the store, gasping and chirping with excitement. "This is so fun, it's like being an adult, it must be SO FUN to have your own money and buy your own groceries and not have to share." He started in the deli, and moved to the bakery, where he checked the price of an entire chocolate cake, then laughed and said no and moved on. "Where is the cereal?!" He demanded happily, for if there is one thing I say "No" to on a regular basis, it's cereal, because it costs. so. much. So we march down the cereal aisle and Calen looks at a couple boxes and snaps "HOW DOES CEREAL COST THIS MUCH??" and promptly returns the cereal to the shelf and moves on, while I'm behind him stifling my laughter. 

See? Your mother isn't crazy. Buying a box of cereal for $7 that will last LITERALLY three days is crazy. 

A wild Calen on the hunt in the cereal aisle

The only "rule", per say, that my mom gave the boys was that it couldn't be all candy, and that Mom (me) gets final say. For the most part today I gave Calen free reign, within reason. Out of $50, he spent $18, and was delighted with himself at self-checkout and had to announce to the entire checkout section of Safeway that he had managed to "save four dollars!! I can't believe it!" 

I wish I still had that kind of fresh faced enthusiasm when I save $4 at the grocery store. 

So what do 13 year olds with gift cards and free reign buy for $18? After much deliberation, Calen picked:

The spoils of war

A bag of Salt and Vinegar chips
Four meat sticks
Salt and vinegar almonds (hey it's almost healthy)
A bag of lemon drops

So basically, his snacks are covered for the week, he was raving about the almonds in the car, and was over the moon with being able to go grocery shopping on his "own".

Best. Gift. Ever. 

A Week Of Art

 It's hard to keep up on blogs sometimes. 

But, we've gotten our fill of art during school the last two weeks. 

The boys finally finished their first day of school backpack, with all their interests, favorite things, places, things about them, etc. I'm a huge fan of how they turned out. 

Calen: baseball. Cars. Comics. Legos. Science. Kung Pao Sliders. Disney. 

Camden: Hockey. Disney. Dinosaurs. Video Games. Being a Garbage man. 

Also, we are steadily filling our wall with fall art! Some birch trees made of newspaper on a water colored fall evening, and pumpkins, because obviously. 

Today in school we also began a 4 week experiment on mummifying an apple - head. An apple with a face carved into it. So stand by for that weirdness. I should have taken a before photo. Maybe I'll carve a face into another, unmummified apple and pretend it's the "before" photo. 

Also, we went for a drive yesterday, saw a huge bear, and took fall photos in the amazing autumn colors. 

I don't even bother bringing my camera anywhere anymore. iPhone 13 pro for the win. 

When Left Unattended

 I had a doctor's appointment today, and left the kids to do their math while I was gone. 

This is what I came home to. I mean, he was doing his math, so what difference does it make right?

The First Day of Eighth and Sixth Grade

 It's the first day of 8th and 6th grade and I am not okay. 

I'm also in complete denial so I'll just sit here and drink coffee and pretend that they're still four and two and still toddlers. 

This is our third year of homeschool and it's still my absolute favorite. And although the boys would of course choose summer vacation over any type of school, I'm pretty sure they love it too. 

Since Camden is officially 11, I decided to make today Happy First Day at Hogwarts day, so I got up early, pulled out the chocolate frogs and lemon drops I had been hiding, and made Pumpkin Pasties (pumpkin pie mix, butterscotch chips in pie crust, bake at 400 for 15 mins, eat). 

Also, obligatory first day pictures, which went shockingly easy since the boys were in a giggly mood. 

We started the day with an "About me" art project, which isn't completed yet and I'll show you later. We are starting the school year with Ancient Civilization unit study, so we began reading the Bronze Bow (my read aloud), the Golden Goblet (Cam's read aloud), and since we are simultaneously doing an Africa geography study, a David Livingstone biography ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume?!" - Calen's read aloud). Today we did a basic timeline project of Ancient Egypt to keep on the wall. 

For science, we are continuing our Oceanography unit study that we began over the summer, and today learned about whales. 

The best thing about homeschool is picking what we want to learn!