The Great Backyard Chicken Adventure

One of the things I was secretly excited about with the whole homeschool idea last summer... was chickens. I mentioned it to the family. I said, "Research will have to be done... we may decide that it's just too much work... but wouldn't it be cool? The best science project ever, right?" And then I bought a book on chickens and stuck it in with all of Luke's school books, hoping that he might just take the initiative and start reading and learning about them on his own. (That was another one of my secret hopes, that he would just jump into things on his own and explore them until he was done, the way I do... I'll let you know when that finally happens.)

Well the book did nothing but sit there all winter. No surprise, right? But last month we went to visit my friend Julie's chickens, and that lit the spark better than anything else could have. All he could talk about for the rest of the day was getting chickens. He pulled the book out and started telling me strange chicken facts at odd times - in the grocery store, in the car, while I was cooking dinner. A lot of them sounded too odd to be true. So I made him show me. Apparently they like to play with tennis balls? And some chickens are just decorative, not good for laying eggs. And you don't want a cross breed, you want a full breed, for the same egg laying reason. Hmn... he really was reading.

Last week, we started doing our research in earnest. This web page was pretty much the deciding factor for me - that looks pretty easy, right? Build coop, put compost bin next too it, get chickens.

(And we did more research too, but I couldn't decide where I would put them, how to keep the dog from eating them, or how to get Frank on board. At times, I thought I had two out of three obstacles solved, and then I'd either decide that was a bad location, or a bad plan, or Frank would get cold feet. Finally, I said to heck with it, it's all going to fall into place and be great! So that was that. You'll see, it's going to be GREAT! Even Frank will come around in time, right?)

So, yesterday, Luke and I got some chickens. So exciting. Meet Pippi, Lulu, and Bellatrix Lestrange:







Pippi is a Buff Orpington, Lulu is a Cuckoo Maran that will lay chocolate brown eggs, and Bellatrix Lestrange is a Silver-laced Wyandotte. They are living in my livingroom right now in a big tupperware tub with a heat lamp over them. Bellatrix likes to peep at the top of her lungs. She's very, very loud. Pippi likes to push all the other chicks around. And Lulu likes to sleep plonked out flat on the bottom of the tub and we always wonder if she's still alive (she is).

Next up, clearing the spot by my studio that I want to use as their playground. Yes, they will be The Studio Chicks! And either purchasing a coop kit or building one from scratch, which looks better to me but is more work, esprecially if I don't hurry up and get Frank on board with this Great Backyard Chicken Adventure. How can he not though, they are SO cute!

Friday Homeschooling Thoughts

“To parents I say, above all else, don’t let your home become some terrible miniature copy of the school. No lesson plans! No quizzes! No tests! No report cards! Even leaving your kids alone would be better; at least they could figure out some things on their own. Live together, as well as you can; enjoy life together, as much as you can.”
~John Caldwell Holt

I love this! You don't know how much this tempts me. And scares me at the same time. And makes me wonder, how in the heck? Because we do have a schedule and we do have expectations. An hour of reading a day, a half hour of writing, a page or two of math. A few chapters of history. Hands-on art and science. Some educational television. Some misc. workbooks that he actually likes... Snowboard lessons, Racquetball lessons, PE at the YMCA... And that's just the home stuff. Then we have the classes at the resource center. Musical Theater, and Metal Works, and Science and Literature, and Earth Culture, and Guitar, and Geek Tools (computer lab tools), and whatever else. It's a very busy SCHEDULE. And the above IS a lesson plan. And he WANTS to do the state achievement test in the spring....

It's working for him, and I feel good about what he's doing all day...

But I wonder... what would that look like. No plans, no tests. UNSCHOOLING. Would we spend a week following one idea and then a month following some new passion? Could we really just take off and travel and explore new places for weeks at at a time? Wouldn't that be nice. Would he really sit down and journal about it, research things on his own? Become engrossed and exhaust one passion and move on to the next? And if it went that way, could I even keep up with the kid and indulge him in whatever idea caught his attention? Would that give me time to do my own passions (because what we have going on right now, doesn't). It sounds dreamy... I would have LOVED that as a child myself.

Or would we be just cleaning the house and watching TV and taking the dog for a walk, wondering what to make for dinner that night and worrying about 8 years from now when he's going to try to get into college but hasn't formally studied algebra or geometry or know the parts of speech inside out? Because that sounds no fun at all. None of it.

And then I wonder some more, what could possibly go right with Unschooling? Could he find something he loves and get swallowed up in it and become a child prodigy? Could he be happy beyond measure and make a good living someday because I let him invent his own life without the conventional expectations we mold our kids into? Maybe. Do I want to take that risk and experiment with my only child? Probably not.

I think... if he had any clue at all what his life-long dream could be (besides wanting to be a pro soccer dude), I'd be more tempted to give it a year or two and try it out. But he doesn't. Right now, he is LOVING being exposed to all kinds of things. The busier he is, the happier he is. (Me, not so much! I'm the bus-driver! I just want to spend some uninterpreted time in the studio melting glass already! Hmn... Perhaps I should find a real mini-school bus and install a portable glass studio in it? Now there's an idea!)

But I keep running into these Unschooling ideas, and the Sudbury Valley School (which sounds awesome!) and I wonder... could we? Could it really work? I wonder if I'll ever really know. I wonder if I'll ever be brave enough to give it a chance.

More Good Bye 2010

Something happened today that made me think. That sounds funny, doesn't it? Well, it's true. I've been beating the drum of good riddance to 2010, because the past few months have been so difficult... like it's kicked my butt and got the best of me, but really, I think, now that I'm, um, thinking, it was *me* that did the kicking - I'm the one that kicked 2010's butt.

This is what happened:

Today, one of my 2010 goals was realized: I got my work published in a real magazine. Check it out, The Flow, Winter 2010 issue, page 7, number 17: two tiger beads by me, aka The Blue Between.



Goal number whatever, get published - check! Just in the nick of time, but that's ok. What were my other goals, do I even remember? Why yes, I do. There were two others - one I didn't manage (getting into a gallery/shop/show/whatever), and one I did - that was a health goal, I was going to finally figure it out and get my body back. And I did that too, thanks to persistence, a handful of good books, and my awesome doctor, not to mention a gazillion dollars in supplements and such... but still, I feel 10 years younger by the end of this year than I did when the year started. If that was all that I accomplished, I'd be more than happy.

But that wasn't all.

* I also jumped into this homeschool stuff head first and I think we are doing pretty amazing with it, now that we know what we are doing.

* I fell in love with Kalypso glass and made some really amazing beads. If I do say so myself.

* I designed my very own Rawr! Tribe of Tiger Beads - original to me and like no other beads I've seen anywhere else... very proud of that, it's a great feeling!

* I started a new store on ArtFire, with my jewelry designs.

* I learned how to make Almond Brittle, one of the highlights of my Christmas holiday this year.

* And! I! get this! reached 500 bead sales on Etsy! And to make that accomplishment even sweeter, I never even blogged about this one, but at that 500 bead sale mark, $500 was sent to the University of Washington's Alzheimer's Research Center and was matched by Microsoft.

So as you can see, a GOOD year. More good than bad. We won't talk about the bad... that is just recent history and won't stick around, unless I keep thinking about it, right?

Time to set some new goals... hmn...

Happy New Year, friends, I'm wishing you all a happy, healthy, creative focus for the new year as well.

A No-Beads Update

I know, no beads, does that make you as sad as it does me? Oh well... lots of life getting in the way of that.

Luke turned ten this year. Ten! Where does the time go? I can still see him all hooked up to everything in the NICU. He sure has come a long way. The kid is pure joy, when he's not driving me crazy. This year he requested a lobster dinner for his family party - and he helped me get everything ready - he's actually quite the project planner. I couldn't have pulled it off without him, but still, no more indoor lobster parties, no matter how cute the requester is.



Homeschool is swimming along - now that we are in a groove, it's not so scary and it's surprising how easy it is, most days. We are splitting our time with classes at the local homeschool resource center (which is kind of like college for little kids - we choose what classes to take and make our own schedule) and home work. We both agree, the home work is a bit on the boring side, and Luke informed me yesterday that I need to be better about the field trips. Apparently the zoo, Ikea, the Seattle Underground Tour and the Children's Theatre is not enough for him. It's not really enough for me either, I had planned more, but life has a way of getting in the way.

Like Frank's surgery - I guess Luke doesn't consider the days in the hospital a field trip. Oh well, we both learned a lot from that, I say it counts.

And we may be off on a very big trip soon, as his grandfather, my father-in-law, is failing fast and suddenly, after a long slow journey through Alzheimer's Disease. This, I'd have to agree, is also not a field trip. Though there are lots of life lessons to be had with a family trip like that - something we've been lucky enough not to have to learn yet. Sigh.

So... if my store closes down for a bit - you'll know why. No beads, no time. But maybe in a bit.