Mudpies & Butterflies

Swedish MidSummer Fest & Potluck

Jessica — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:00:37 +0000

What a Fun Day! We celebrated Summer with a Swedish Festival and a Swedish MidSommer Pole called a Majstång (similar to a traditional MayPole). Erected in a large gathering spot such as a village square or the center of our park, everyone dances and sings around it. Traditionally, there are no ribbons to the ones in Sweden, but like a Maypole each family brought ribbons! Midsummer is a Swedish Nat’l holiday celebrated on the Friday closest to June 24th.

Why do they celebrate Summer? Did you know that the sun doesn’t even rise in parts of Sweden in the middle of winter? That means no daylight at all. It is important to celebrate the days when the sun is out the longest in the middle of summer. Of course MudPies & Butterflies kids got a dose of the planetary reasons why Summer days and Winter nights are so long. I had the kids orbiting and tilting as they circumambulated around the pretend sun (me!).

And since it was a potluck, some of the fare was Swedish: Swedish & Russian pancakes (thx Anna), two types of herring, traditional Giagantic Swedish Rye crackers (thank you IKEA), Lingonberry punch, Fresh SummerBerry tarts and a wonderful assortment of other non-Swedish but equally yummy foods.

We experienced many elements of the traditions of Sweden, including making colorful wreaths as many people wear flower wreaths, “Krans”, on their heads on Midsummer. That morning, I cut down plenty of our trumpet vines in my back yard to work as a natural base, but the other families brought lovely flowers and garnish to add to our wreaths. And the dew of Midsummer is believed to have magical properties and possesses the ability to heal illness. Of course it requires getting up quite early to catch the dew, and whether or not it is magical will be irrelevant because if you’re up early collecting it, it will become magical.

And do you know the first animal to be harnessed and ridden?

Nope, not horses – Reindeer!

230,000 Reindeer live in Sweden. The Sami, the indigenous nomadic people of Northern Scandinavia follow the reindeer through Northern Sweden, Finland and Norway. Of course Reindeer don’t presently acknowledge political lines, so neither do the Sami. The Sami live out of tents like Teepees that are portable. This photo was taken in April at the Scandinavian Festival in Thousand Oaks, CA.

And the kids also got to make yarn bracelets of the twisted fashion that has been around Sweden for generations.

And then it was time for our MidSommerFest inspiring dancing and fun songs accompanied by the wonderful strumming of Forest’s violin/fiddle and Sharon’s Guitar. Click on the picture below to see some of the video footage!

And then we attempted the traditional Frog Dance – Små grodorna . Ours wasn’t as good, but it was hilarious and fun! Check it out…

Click on image to see our Fruity Frog Dance

Traditional lyrics are in Swedish, but here is the English translation…

The little frogs, the little frogs are funny to observe.

No ears, no ears no tails do they possess.

Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,

kou ack ack ack ack kaa.

Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,

kou ack ack ack ack kaa.

Here is a link to the Frog Dance at a Midsommer Festival in Sweden.. Check it out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=si2IMV_JQXQ Or the 2009 world record version of the “little frogs” in , Leksand, Sweden where over 2000 people danced! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ft1YyUkYY&translated=1

LadyBugs LifeCycles & Insects

Jessica — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:32:56 +0000

No matter how briefly you contain bugs, ALWAYS include a moistened cottonball. Like humans they will die with out water.

What Is an Insect?

Insects come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Regardless of their differences, all insects have the following four characteristics:

Bees & Wasps are indeed Insects

1. All insects have – Three body parts—Head, Abdomen, and Thorax.

The thorax is behind the head and is the attachment point for the legs and wings. The abdomen is behind the thorax and is used for digestion and reproduction. This is where protective “gear” like stingers are found.

2. All insects have an exoskeleton that acts as a suit of armor to protect them

3. All insects have Six legs with joints

4. And finally, all insects have Two antennae

Many people mistake spiders, worms, and centipedes for insects. But, because they do not have the required four characteristics, they are not insects. Spiders, for example, have eight legs, while worms don’t have any.

Is a ladybug an insect? Yes

Is a ladybug a beetle? YES.

Beetles exhibit bilateral symmetry.

Do you know how many Spots a ladybug can have?

Go here to find the answer and see for yourself.

Ladybug Life Cycle –

Just like all beetles, ladybugs go through different stages of life. Young ladybugs actually don’t look anything like the pretty red and black adult ladybugs we are all used to seeing. If you saw one that wasn’t an adult yet, you might not even recognize it. The stages that ladybugs go through are all steps in a very complex process called metamorphosis. (Butterflies, moths and amphibians like frogs go through metamorphosis too!)

All photos are from our Park. The children found ladybugs in all four stages of their life cycle. What great Nature investigators we have!!!

Eggs layed on bark of tree

Stage 1: Egg

A female ladybug lays a cluster of tiny yellow eggs. After about one week, the eggs will hatch and small odd-looking creatures appear! Eggs are usually layed on edible leaves.

Stage 2: Larva

Larva Stage of the Ladybug

The odd-looking creatures that hatch out of the eggs are called larva (plural is larvae). They have long bodies with six legs and are mostly black with some color. They look like mini – Monsters. The ladybug will live as a larva for 2-4 weeks of its life. In this time, Ladybug larva can eat up to 400 aphids! When the larva has grown as much as it needs to, it attaches itself to a leaf, tree or wall in our case, to get ready for its next stage of life.

Stage 3: Pupa

The Pupa form which is similar to a butterfly’s chrysalis, will remain attached to one surface for 5 days while it changes into an adult. The pupa does not eat or move because it stored up plenty of food in its body while it was a larva.

Stage 4: Adult

I released 1,500 ladybugs for the kids to catch purchased at a local gardening store as organic pest control.

When ready, the fully formed ladybug as we know it backs out and leaves the pupa shell behind. It now has two sets of wings. One set of wings is the hard brightly-colored part that helps us recognize ladybugs. This hard set of wings is called the elytra (say: EL-LIE-TRA) and it protects the fragile flying wings underneath. When the pupa hatches as a new adult ladybug, it doesn’t have any spots yet and its elytra are wet, soft, and pale colored. They will dry out during the ladybug’s first day as

an adult and it will soon be a pretty bright color with spots! Ladybugs can actually be red, orange, or yellow! Scientists have counted over 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs in the world!

As an adult, the new ladybugs can eat up to 75 aphids a day. Towards the end of the summer, ladybugs like to eat pollen and some types of plants so that they can store up fat for the winter. During the winter, ladybugs hibernate. To stay warm, they usually huddle together in groups and bury themselves under piles of leaves, grasses, or rocks for protection from winter weather. When spring arrives, the ladybugs will begin to wake up and come out looking for a tasty meal of aphids! They will begin to lay eggs that will grow into more ladybugs.

Time to Catch some insects at the Park!

Here's one for $30.

YouTube BugCatcher

Do you know that it is rather easy to injure an insect? You could accidentally break off an antennae, a leg or possibly harm their wings, any of which prevent them from protecting themselves from predators. One the best ways to catch an insect (at least one smaller than the opening of a straw) is with a bug catcher. They can cost anywhere from $9-$80. or you can just build your own. I recommend the glass jar sort with straws and a bit of loosely woven cloth. This is what we made. Or if you want to go with plastic cups and lids, here’s your best bet.

On this day, we made our own Bug Catchers and caught many different types of bugs by safely (to us and them) sucking them into our bug catchers. The only modification we made to our homemade catchers was to add a bright piece of paper or tape to the straw that had the gauze on it. This meant it was the SAFE straw to suck upon and with the gauze we would not accidentally inhale a bug that had previously been captured in our container.

Whenever you capture an insect, always include a cottonball that you have liberally moistened. Most insects can easily go with out food for a day or two, but rarely can they go with out water.

For More Ladybug Fun and Insect Investigations go to this great homeschooling site.

A bug Catcher in Action! Love it D!!!

BodyGuards: Scabs, Snot & Scars

Jessica — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:22:04 +0000

I would like to take a moment to thank all the parents and friends for your participation with MudPies & Butterflies as next month will be one full year. Thank you for bringing supplies, coming up with themes and activities, helping clean up, motivating your kids, helping with my kids, and mostly for having fun with it all! It has made the impact all the greater for our kids to learn, inquire, question and RETAIN so much!

Thank you for making my dream come to life - Jessica Deltac

Anatomy Fun: The Power of your BodyGuards

First we talked about scabs, bruises, scars and how our body made them. W had a round-robin of showing off the ones we all had! We even had broken bones a’ mending!

To get an idea of the building blocks involved with cuts, bruises and scabs, I replicated our bodies’ blood with cheerios for red blood cells, mini marshmallows for white blood cells and cupcake sprinkles for platelets. (Go to Anatomy fun Part 1, an earlier blog on BLOOD and more to get a better idea of how to explain blood to kids or adults!)

We explored who was first on the scene of a cut and what they did to protect and rebuild. Cupcake sprinkles and White Mini Marshmallows! When we get a cut in our biggest organ – OUR SKIN, the barrier is broken that protects us from dirt, germs and any other airborne bad things. So the scab speedily covers up the opening. (Taking it to the next level, – your initial clot is fibrin, which is kinda soft and gooshy, which is why it’s called the soft clot. Then along comes Factor XIIIa, which is present in your blood, and it joins the pieces of fibrin together into the final hard clot.)

Now onto replicating our mucous membranes and SNOT protectors! Have you ever blown your nose and found that your snot was a really gross, green-yellow color? Most of the time snot is just clear, but sometimes it will be green or yellow, particularly if you’ve been sick. (YUCK!) The color usually indicates you’ve got more bodyguards working for you than plain bogies.

With unflavored gelatin, corn syrup and water Üla helped me replicate the sticky, stretchy mucous – aka snot. Here is one recipe for making snot. We used four different recipes to come up with some pretty interesting snot and boogers.

Then to show how these bodyguards stop dirt, bacteria and other fine particles from entering our lungs I dropped in some vacuum cleaner debris. Voila – we made Boogers! Boogers are just Mucous that has trapped dirt and then can start to dry. Now with three separate kits with different ingredients I had premade, they broke into groups and became snot factories! Some boogers were made with lime-flavored gelatin, others with green and yellow food-coloring. But each was fun and disgusting enough to entertain everyone and understand how mucous is made of protein that makes it both stretchy and sticky so that it can reach where it needs to go to do its job and grab that dirt. In the nose, mucous acts as a barrier against germs, dust and other noxious substances. We breathe between 10,000 and 30,000 litres of air each day – which carries pollen, germs and a great deal of other gunk. These get trapped in the mucous surface and destroyed by white cells and enzymes.

Now to understand how the lungs work w/out that dust… How does air get into our body any how? Our lungs suck it in through our mouths and noses. Our Diaphragm is engaged upward (like the blue balloon on the bottom of my homemade bottle model of the lungs) and the lungs collapse and as the drum head of the diaphragm lowers air that is breathed in fills the lungs. We should all spend more time breathing deeply (yes, Yoga is good!) to increase our lung capacity. Because that is the source of our blood’s most valuable ingredient – OXYGEN!

Now since all the air you exhale is colorless and gets mixed up with the air in the atmosphere it’s not an easy thing to measure. And we wanted to find out how much air each of our pair of lungs could hold. We followed the standard measurement for determining lung capacity – Water Displacement from a simple experiment.

**I would have loved to have the time and the attention span for the kids to figure out a THEIR own way to do it. But that is the difference with an outdoor, free-to-roam-anywhere homeschooling group and one required to sit in their chairs in a classroom all day long.

Each kid patiently stood in line from smallest to tallest to blow one very big exhale through the tube and into the upside down bottle submerged in water. As their breath blew into the bottle, water was pushed out. And after I replaced the cap underwater and stood the bottle upright we compared how large each person’s breath was to the next. Before engaging in the experiment one of the older children (thanxA) took a sharpy pen and demarcated the line at every 2 cups of water added.

Pollination -> Fruit & Vegi Nation

Jessica — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:12:32 +0000

When it got really cold and threatened to rain often in late May, my daughter requested that we PLAY WITH OUR FOOD for our theme. For weeks, she had been flipping through books by Joost Elfers and getting truly inspired during roadtrips. The books are just compilations of quirky animals, vehicles and creatures he modeled with nothing more than fruits and vegetables.

And I am always wishing for more families to suggest themes and activities. So even though it was my daughter, I turned it into a fun theme day! The best book to get an idea of what you can create is FOOD PLAY(this link takes you to Amazon) . When the activity came to life I was blown away at how all M&B kids (and parents) tapped into their imaginations. All worked skillfully (and carefully when it came to knives) to create scenes like this one below whose center piece is a historic squash and carrot Schooner with celery-headed captain sailing the high Iceberg Seas. Also displayed are bok choy and fennel fish, cauliflower sheep and underwater discovery vessels.

But before we built them and took them apart to dip in humus and dressing, we learned how they “came to be” in the first place. Together we unfolded Nature’s sexy story of birds, bees and pollination.

THis poster was on display at the Santa Monica Mtns First annual Science fest. Here Ula and others learned that a Sunflower is comprised of HUNDREDS of individal flowers.

So, WHY ARE FLOWERS SO COLORFUL?

Why do that have sticky sweet nectar and how is pollen involved?

The kids really put their heads and hands into discussing what part that bugs, butterflies, bees and birds play in pollination and how the plants and flowers are designed to attract their necessary neighbors in order to live long and prosper. Armed with a bouquet of Trumpet flowers and pomegranate blossoms from my backyard as well as some farmer’s mkt Sunflowers, we scientifically dissected, explored and identified flowers & “soon-to-be” fruit parts.

Each flower has their own primary parts: Stamen (male parts that stick out and are covered with pollen); Style (tall singular tower that is sticky on the top and reaches up from the ovary where the seeds lay (only to grow fruit if pollinated).

Last month at the Santa Monica Mnts’ first annual science festival, hundreds of kids learned about pollination (see poster) and flower parts. Here Ula investigates a sunflower, only to find out that it is comprised of HUNDREDS of miniflowers. Each of which, IF POLLINATED, will produce ONE sunflower seed.

Pulling "mini flowers" off is Fascinating!

So where are the seeds in each fruit and vegi? All the seeds start in the flowers, hiding in the Ovary. And after the flower falls off and the fruit begins to grow, the flesh of fruit and vegetables develop around them.

Time to Play with our FOOD.

As we graduated from Flower Botany, we moved on to Fruit and Vegetables. As the kids (and adults) cut, rearranged and go completely creative in building a fantasy world from Nature’s bounty – I asked everyone to take notice where the seeds were in their supplies. Banana seeds are in a row and so tiny we don’t mind eating them. Strawberry seeds are on the OUTSIDE of the berry. What do your food’s seeds look like? We also pondered …

WHY IS FRUIT SO COLORFUL & TASTY?

Similar to why flowers are so colorful and nectar sweet and pollen sticky – it draws animals to it. Flowers rely on wind, insects and birds to pollinate them (because plants can’t walk over and borrow a cup of pollen from their neighbor like we can). And if new plants only grew up at the base of each plant, we wouldn’t have the variety of fruits and vegetables in the world. So animals have to be enticed to eat food (and yes, poop out the seeds yards or miles away). I love the look and taste of a ripe red strawberry. Red raspberries almost jump out at me from the sea of green and brown leaves in their natural habitat (not Trader Joes).

After we designed our creations and showed them about a bit, we devoured the baby buggy fruit salad; humus and dressings became swimming pools for other vegis and a few penguins; and some sheep and a submarine were taken home to be converted yet again – this time into a hearty soup. What a wonderful option on such a surprisingly blustery day.

Let’s see those creations…

Aloha Hawai’i: Mermaids, Volcanoes & Luau

Jessica — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:47:14 +0000

May was the month that it warmed up enough to hold our 3rd Thursday potluck at dinner time. And what a fun way to kick off our first evening potluck dinner of the season with a Hawai’in Luau. But before the Luau, we spent a day crafting hula skirts from paper bags, making Hawai’in mermaid puppets and learned how our 50th state was gained (one based on prospering businessmen against the pull of indigenous royalty) and the tumultuous nature of the volcanoes that originally made this archipelago in the first place.

With a chalk rendition of the 8 islands that comprise the state of Hawai’i, and some help from a few MudPies & Butterflies who had visited the islands in person we gained a better understanding of the only royal palace on American soil and the powers of Goddess Pele – “She Who Shapes the Sacred Land.”

For a visual representation of Volcanoes, I got the kids to assist me with the calcium carbonate recreation of volcanoes – Mentos and 2 liter sodas.

Granted the volcanoes of Hawai’i are not under such pressure, nor do they explode with such impact. On the contrary, the lava flow and physiology of these volcanoes are some of the calmest and least fatal of our entire planet. But the experiment is pretty amazing to create. And in teams of two, many of the kids took turns either aiming the tube of mentos to fall into the mouth of the soda bottle or pulling the card out of the way to start the chemical reaction.

We also had fun making hula skirts with brown paper bags, string for the waistbands and foam flower stickers and markers to make them as individual as their creators.

More fun was had making the Maheli Heli otherwise known as Hula Mermaids. This simple mermaid puppet craft was just one of the great ideas found at a fun site.

Jessica’s condensed and Brief History of the Hawai’ian Islands for those who want to understand how hundreds of years of royalty was extinguished, numerous colonist regimes thwarted only to become our 50th state.

300 – 750 A.D. Polynesians arrive by outrigger canoe from Tahiti

1778 British explorer Capt’n James Cook discovers the Sandwich(Hawaiian) Islands and surfing.

1789 The first Chinese arrive after jumping off a trading ship.

1810 King Kamehameha the Great unites all the Hawaiian islands into one kingdom.

1813 The first pineapple plants are introduced from Spain. 1817 Coffee is first planted.

1819 King Kamehameha I dies. Son Liholiho (KII) ascends the throne. He abandons taboo of eating w/ women.

1820 First American Protestant missionaries arrive aboard the brig Thaddeus from New England.

1840 The first Hawaii constitution of the kingdom was established.

1848 The Great Mahele is signed by King Kamehameha III which allows commoners and haoles to own land outright or in “fee simple,” a concept that continues today.

1874 – 1891 Reign of King David Kalakaua (secured Hula). US only royal residence, Iolani Palace built on Oahu.

1883 Mutual Telephone Company was started in Hawaii.

1885 The first contract laborers from Japan work on sugar cane plantations. 1892 Macadamia trees are 1st planted

1893 Hawaiian kingdom was overthrown as result of intervention of foreign business interests and US military.

1895 Queen Liliuokalani abdicates her throne.

1898 Hawaii is annexed to the United States (after a 4 year republic run by Sanford Dole & Lorrin Thurston)

1900 Hawaii becomes a United States territory. The Honolulu Chinatown fire leaves 7000 people homeless.

1922 Prince Jonah Kalanianaole Kuhio dies. He was the last powerful member of the royal Hawaiian family.

1927 First non-stop air flight from the mainland to Honolulu.

1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th state. Ala Moana Shopping Center is built. The first jet arrives. The age of tourism.

1987 John Waihee, the first governor of Hawaiian descent is elected.

And then it was time for the LUAU. Luau was traditionally a way to mark an occasion but more importantly bring people together.

“Whenever you’re at a luau, you are ‘ohana — family.”

But the most fun had by all were the coconut races that occurred after the potluck.

	Pronounciation	Meaning
Aloa	[ah-LOH-hah]	Greetings!
	[eh-KOH-moh-mai]
Mahalo	[MAH-hah-loh]	Thanks!
A hui hou	[ah-HUI-hou]	Good bye

Japanese Girls’ Day and Boys’ Day

Jessica — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:54:28 +0000

To me, one of the best ways to foster tolerance is through Cross-Cultural Awareness. And at Mudpies and Butterflies anything Cultural is FUN. This Spring, we celebrate two Japanese holidays that honor and celebrate KIDS: Girl’s Day and Boy’s Day (also known nationally as Children’s Day in Japan). And if that wasn’t enough Japanese Culture, as it was our 3rd Thursday, our potluck was Japanese themed as well with Sushi, kelp salads, nori snacks and more.

Boys brought their own dolls and Action Figures too!

For our own ceremony, we all threw petals and other greenery at the dolls and action figures and chanted Happy and Prosperous words for our childrens' futures

Hintamasura – Girls Day is held in the early Spring on March 3rd. On this day families pray for their young girl’s growth and happiness. It is also called “Momo no sekku (Peach Festival) because it is the time that the snow white blossoms on the peach trees fall.

Most families with girls display “hina-ningyo” (special dolls for Hinamatsuri) and dedicate peach blossoms to them. These heirloom dolls are arranged on a tiered stand covered with a red carpet. The Emperor and Empress dolls are placed on the top alongside small dishes of food and other things. If you are fortunate to have more dolls, then the display continues with three court ladies (sannin-kanjo), followed by five musicians (gonin-bayashi), two ministers (udaijin and sadaijin), and three servants ending the bottom row.

In late Spring, May 5th is “Kodomo no hi” – Children’s Day, but this is also called Boys Festival. Children’s day is a national holiday, whereas girls day is more of a regional holiday.

Carp are another symbol of Children’s Day and Carp windsocks are usually put outside for each boy. Print out your own carp to color and turn into a kite. Cut around the dotted line and roll the kite into a tube, joining the short edges with a little glue or sticky tape. Attach streamers and tie with a ribbon to a pole. Carp represent strength , and success in life as they are known to swim up waterfalls (like our salmon). Instead of Empress and Emperor dolls boys display dolls of samurai and other heroes.

Making Newspaper Hats!

Picking out his own (red Mochi is for chasing away bad spirits)

Newspapers are our recyclable craft supply this week for hat making. Below center you can see hats that are fashioned out of newspapers with big red dots (as found in the center of the Japanese Nat’l flag). Each child and some parents (like me!) made one.

There are some special dishes for the festivals. I made a triple batch of “Hishimochi, ‘ diamond-shaped rice cakes made with sticky rice, sugar and potato flour. That makes them a VEGAN dish to be devoured by all. The three colors have valuable meanings: red is for chasing evil spirits away, white is for continuous purity, and green is for optimal health.

Green Mochi is for Good Health

Other common holiday treats that were not served at parkday but would be fun to try are “Chirashi-zushi,” “sakura-mochi (bean paste-filled rice cakes with cherry leaves),” “hina-arare (rice cake cubes)” and “shirozake (sweet white sake)”. The later not for all ages.

Here is a Hinamatsuri song called “Ureshii Hinamatsuri (Happy Hinamatsuri)!”

Akari o tsukemashou bonbori ni

Ohana o agemashou momo no hana

Go-nin bayashi no fue taiko

Kyo wa tanoshii Hinamatsuri

Let’s light the lanterns

Let’s set peach flowers

Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums

Today is Joyful Children’s Doll(Action Figure) Day

We saved the Mochi (easy online recipe for Mochi) for after the Reading the Runaway Riceball a famous Japanese folktale written in both Japanese and English. Kerry had us all laughing and chanting story lines in Japanese! “Rolling, rolling Riceball!” = “Rōringu, rōringu Omusubi!” Bravo and Thank you Kerri-san!

Here’s a simple and fun way to go about making your own rice balls to take to the woods like the man in the fun folktale of the Rolling Rice Ball.

Our last craft station was Origami. Such a fun day. Try out your own paper folding techniques.

Pirates & Sea Explorers circa 1785

Jessica — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:57:41 +0000

Our Navy Sea Capt'n

Before Boyscouts, (modern-day experts of the Knot), Explorers, Pirates and Capt’s from the High Seas were Masters of Knots.

We learned that many of the Sea Captains of England, France, Spain and other European Navys were not much different than Pirates. Some Capt’ns and sailors were allowed to seize ships and take goods from them in the name of the country that sponsored them. Some seamen even started out as Pirateers but were commissioned anyway because a nation hadn’t enough ships to protect the coastlines of their colonies or protect the ports where they traded their country’s goods. And if a Navy Captain was really tyrannical, there might be a mutiny, where his crew choose not to listen to his orders (a defiance punishable by death or dismemberment). The mutineers might be sent off in a dinghy or if the mutiny was great in number, the ship was won the Captain and the men loyal to him pushed off in a small boat into the ocean. These men would no longer be allowed to sail for a country, and from then on would be labeled Pirates. And pirate ships would be the only boats that would hire them.

Before 1700’s the sea ports were only in Europe, Africa and Asia. No one had braved the Atlantic Ocean to discover what would be called the Americas yet. Many felt that if you sailed West from Europe far you would fall off the shelf of the earth and get eaten by monsters.

Sea Queens by J. Yolen

Pirate Queens by J. Yolen

And don’t think that all pirates were men. Through the ages, there have been some formidable Pirate Queens. Jane Yolen has written two books on the subject, and one MudPies & Butterflies Mom posed with me as my favorite Pirate Queen Pair – Anne Bonney and Mary Reade who sailed aboard the Vanity!

By the late 1700's Silk, spices, Otter pelts, glass beads, hammerheads were traded around the globe.

M&P kids learned about how Ships 300 years plus ago traded goods for other goods.

We either tasted or smelled the assortment that came from my spice drawer at home: Cinammon from Ceylon (shaken atop Karen’s Apple slices- Yummy!), Tarragon from France, Ginger from China, and other spices from Thailand which were appropriately placed on the map below.

In order to get Tea, Spices and Silks from China, American ships leaving the Chesapeake Bay (washington D.C. area) loaded up with glass beads and Metal axe heads to trade with Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest for Otter Pelts. The otter pelts are the only thing worth enough in China (Sadly, China had already eradicated their native otter population). After choosing a woodchip from the park as the boat, the Kids navigated the ship from port to port. Our crafty kids tried to slip between North and South America, but 300 years ago there was only need not a canal. it would save a total of 18,000 miles on a trip from New York to San Francisco. They learned about the Panama canal and how it took . Active Learning is so awe-inspiring to witness.

btw- The Panama Canal took over 70,000 men to to build 51 miles of locks. It was managed by the French from 1881 to 1888 and then completed by the US from 1904 to 1914. 27,500 workers (more than one third) died due to overworking and Malaria.

We also learned a bit about how the Sailors kept on course by using magnetic compasses, the sun, stars and a quadrant. Everyone made their very own simple quadrant from these simple directions. A quadrant would measure the angle your ship was to either the sun or the north star. With that angle, you could determine your Latitude or at a bare minimum ensure you didn’t steer your vessel outside of a preferred latitudinal margin.

Figuring out the landmarks upon the Treasure map

One of the craft stations were set up to make a treasure map. I made one that showed where a Pirate’s Ghost had hidden golden nuggets 300 years ago.

Nico found the right tree and the treasure, but collectively they helped him get down…

I also had three colors of rope for knot tying and making crafts and fun. Grog’s is a wonderful site for learning how to tie knots online. With two Knot printouts, the kids took on making knots with three colors of ropes.

The kids also invented their own games to play. CLick onto the long image to see it happening live.

For more on the true seas adventure check out our blog to go aboard The Hawai’ian Cheiftan, an Historical 1700’s sailing ship or go to the Historical Seaport website.

“In the love of narrow souls I make many short voyages but in vain – I find no sea room – but in great souls I sail before the wind without a watch, and never reach the shore.”

Henry David Thoreau

Click on the image to see it happening live!

Hawaiian Cheiftan - Historical Ship

That's some Mudpies & Butterflies onboard

Heroes of the Globe (& your family): Freedoms, Rights & Responsibilities

Jessica — Sat, 22 May 2010 19:15:40 +0000

There are many books, online resources and dvds that will indoctrinate your family on the symptoms of prejudice and racism, but none will make a greater impression than those you share directly or indirectly with your children and partners. My husband and I have chosen not to teach strongly about how blacks in particular were persecuted in this country or other nations involved in the trans-atlantic slave trade. I do not want to connect the differences with color and attitudes towards friends, family and neighbors. Not at a time when they are still learning what friendship and citizenship means to them. When I discuss slavery or other forms of persecution, I speak in terms of people in power and those who were unjustly treated. When my children start asking the more specific questions, I will give them more specific answers.

Again, this is what I have chosen for my family. Your decisions will be different. Allowing every family personal freedom on this hot-topic made this Martin Luther King, Jr inspired parkday my most difficult to plan. I wanted to bring up issues of Injustice and Honor, but not in a way that would undermine the choices each family is making on their own. But my intent was to be a starting point for some.

So I chose to focus on the Heroes themselves vs the issues. I asked families to discuss what makes someone a hero and to be prepared to share when together at the park. We would all share one personal hero for each, from parents and children alike.

On the way to the park, one mother and daughter came up with three traits that they felt all REAL heroes possessed. (Thanks C & D!)

Bravery Peacefulness Caring

To that end, we added that Heroes try to change the way things are in order to help themselves, their family, their community or maybe even their country. We discussed how they did so at risk. Oftentimes at a great risk. Some never got to see their family again, some were imprisoned, some were willing to die. Some heroes chose to go against the norm or what their families wanted to do what they felt was right. At a minimum we become a hero when we risk doing something different.

Everyone was given a lot of time to share at their own pace who they thought was a hero. We heard about relatives, neighbors, teachers and even pets as heros. Other issues were brought to light when heros were involved in wars like one grandfather who fought in fighter planes. These discussions were amazing, enlightening and very positive as everyone’s input was honored.

I chose the people above to include in my email as a guessing game and briefly shared how they were deemed heroic (by wikipedia standards and my own).

From left to right:Martin Luther King Jr American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. He had a dream that I am proud to say MudPies & Butterfly families expound upon in our varied communities.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull - First Female to run for President in the USA – Her 1872 campaign came at a time when women did not even have the right to vote.

Raining Diamonds by J. Deltac

Frederick Douglass - American abolitionist, women’s suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman & reformer. (appointed to be Victoria’s Vice Presidential Running Mate – though he never acknowledged it)

Susan B. Anthony– Women’s Suffragist and immortalized on the $1 coin.

Cesar Chavez – Mexican American farm worker, labor leader , and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers

Anne Frank – Author of a diary that gave honest depictions of a teen’s thoughts, feelings and pacifist ideals while living in cramped quarters for 2 years from Nazi occupation. Sadly, she was captured and died of Typhoid in a concentration camp at age 15.

Nelson Mandela – Young lawyer and Civil rights activist of his native South Africa. He was imprisoned for 27 years and later elected as first president of Democratic South Africa.

Miriam Makeba (personal heroine of mine) – Singer from South Africa. First black South African to address the United Nations in person about Apartheid. Was not allowed to return to her country for decades to see family as a result. In the 90’s I painted her portrait (image on right) from her first album cover that came out in 1960 (Harry Belafonte discovered her while on tour in Africa) and affixed broken glass to represent many things, including human atrocities commenced in the name of diamond mining.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – National hero of India and the world for non-violent protest. His first acts of non-violent civil disobedience occurred in South Africa where he was a lawyer. Whereas in India, one of his most striking actions was the salt march known as the Dandi March, that started on March 12, 1930 and ended on April 5, when he led thousands of people to the sea to collect their own salt rather than pay the salt tax. On May 8, 1933 Gandhi began a fast that would last 21 days to protest British ‘oppression’ in India. In Bombay, on March 3, 1939 Gandhi fasted again in protest of the autocratic rule in India.

Through out history to ensure freedom and liberty ideals became laws. In 1776, founding fathers (like Benjamin Franklin) of America drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence. Here is a great video that includes the recitation of the Declaration of Independence by a star-studded cast. Morgan Freeman discusses how this document influenced Martin Luther King, Jr and others to change their world.

You will not be disappointed to click on this next link – Playing For Change: Peace Through Music – a documentary that traveled the world to show how we are all connected by Music. Many parents raved on the experience of watching this clip with their children.

I chose to read from Dr. Seuss’s Sneetches and other Stories. Theodor Seuss Geisel made Social criticism and commentary palatable. One will find metaphors and themes about Social Justice in most of his children’s books ! This timeless story gently speaks of the negative outcome when people discriminate based on differences instead of celebrating them. In the story, if you didn’t have a Star upon your belly, you weren’t invited to parties and were overlooked as a lesser than worthy presence. The story changes when a Money Maker comes to town and puts stars on those wanting them and collected even more money to take the stars off. In the end the Sneetches are penniless, but found a higher value in each other.

After reading Star-bellied Sneetches, I played a sticker game with the kids. I put a sticker on each child and I separated them into two groups based on differences of their stickers. One group was to laugh and point at the others. I then rearranged the groups by another trait found on some of the stickers and absent on others. This time one group was directed to walk by the other and express disgust at the smell of the others. We did this enough times so that each child had the experience of being on both sides.

Afterward, we discussed our feelings, our reactions and the futility of not being able to do anything about the situation. We applied this to what other people at other times in the world went through this for a life time.

This was loosely based on Jane Elliots blue-eyed and brown –eyed experiment with her all white 3^rd grade class in the 1960’s (thanks Kris)

“On that day, a Tuesday, she decided to make the blue-eyed children the superior first, giving them extra privileges like second helpings at lunch, access to the new jungle gym and five minutes extra at recess.She would not allow blue-eyed and brown-eyed children to drink from the same water fountain. She would offer them praise for being hard-working and intelligent. The “brownies” on the other hand, would be disparaged. She even made the brown-eyed children wear ribbons around their neck.^”

It is awe-inspiring to think this woman was not involved in anything other than human speculation. Her pragmatic journey did alot for the world. Anyone who would like to discuss this experiment, its implications or racism, should know I invite that heady chat anytime.

I will end this blog as I did with the kids that day- with a poem by Shane DeRolf. It has been turned into book versions and can be found on many websites. The kids loved it so much they asked me to read it three times. With simple language it honors the feelings of rejection at being discriminated against as well as the feelings of having our differences embraced as well as found to be a joy to behold.

The Crayon Box That Talked

While walking into a toy store the day before today
I overheard a crayon box with many things to say

“I don’t like Red!” said Yellow and Green said “Nor do I”
“And no one here likes Orange but no one knows just why”

“We are a box of crayons that doesn’t get along
Said Blue to all the others “Something here is wrong”

Well, I bought that box of crayons and took it home with me
And laid out all the colors so the crayons all could see

They watched me as I colored with Red and Blue and Green
And Black and White and Orange and every color in between

They watched as Green became the grass and Blue became the sky
The Yellow sun was shining bright on White clouds drifting by

Colors changing as they touched becoming something new
They watched me as I colored – they watched me till I was through

And when I finally finished I began to walk away
And as I did the crayon box had something more to say

“I do like Red!” said Yellow and Green said, “so do I”
And Blue you were terrific! So high up in the sky

“We are a box of crayons each one of us unique
But when we get together the picture is more complete”

Earth Day – 40th Year Anniversary

Jessica — Sat, 22 May 2010 17:25:08 +0000

Once a week I send out email invitations to our weekly parkdays. In them I give websites to family-oriented events in the LA area, photos of the fun we all had at the past parkday, and links and info about our next day at the park. I include interesting tidbits to peak the interest of the parents and entertain their children. Some families sit with their kids on their laps before the computer and go to the interactive links, others print out the activities and games from websites I suggest (which i do mostly for families who can’t get to the park). And other parents only get so far as to read the big red letters that describe the SupplyRequests for my crafts chosen for the fun factor but also to concretize their new awareness of the physical world they live in. My term for combining learning with empowering crafts or activities ~ “Active Learning.”

I lovingly prepare both my emails and parkday events to foster moments where discussions might come up around the dinner table or in our cars traveling to all the crazy and fun places homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers go. These are situations that can be filled with hand held video games or tv or books or storytelling between families. But history and science fun facts and games can be intermingled into our everyday world too. And my hope is to make that process of learning easy, fun and self-motivating. I would like to think my emails or parkday is a little bell that stays with each family, and says, “hey, this week, consider talking about how we got Earthday in the first place and how one man, a Senator (with lots of friends making suggestions to him) held Earthday as a way to get more support to get the EPA started that same year.”

One person makes a difference. You need help and support to make a good idea become a great one. Why do we need Earthday in the first place? Did it make a difference? How does the EPA affect my life? What kind of annual day would you want to start? How do you think it would change the world in 40 years of celebrating?

Over the course of TWO weeks, in honor of Senator Gaylor Nelson who founded Earthday and all the other people who helped bring our awareness back to nature, we made our very own nature snow globes with recycled glass jars. Similar to snow globes, ours had glitter to fall like snow and things of nature glued inside. (Thanks Mom R for idea and supplies!)

Families were requested to bring things from their Recyclable Building bin like cereal boxes, paper towel tubes, containers and socks. What do you do with your lonely socks who have lost their partner? We made sock puppets!

Most parkdays, families are invited to bring books from home or the library that speak to the theme of the day and of course are age appropriate. For this week’s blanket book time, where Dad N read to the kids, we had books on Peace, Books on Cultures from around the world, and books that focus on the things people all over the world have in common! The kids are also experiencing something special when a different parent takes time to read books and share ideas with the kids.

Our village is filled with wonderful role models. Sometimes the passions our children have inside are not easily mirrored by their own parents. Village lifestyle is wonderful in that it offers children other loving adults with unique passions and perspectives that might in one way or another match up with your own child. This unique musings and aspirations can all be fostered with enough diversity in a group and enough time to let them unfold at their own pace.

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”-Plato

Magnetism: A Physical Force of Nature

Jessica — Sat, 22 May 2010 16:23:53 +0000

We spent two weeks on magnets (March 25 & April Fools), as the kids had so much fun exploring its Power and Magic. Magnets and magnetic technology is utilized in so many things in our world – a refrigerator door, vacuum cleaner, compass, and so much more. Even our Earth is a giant magnet.

What is a magnet?

4,000 years ago in ancient Greece, as legend holds, a fellow by the name of Magnes noticed that a lodestone was attracted to the nails in the bottom of his shoe and the metal tip of his staff. Mangenite was in that stone. Mangenite is magnetic. That physical force of science is Cool.

Here the kids attempted to raise a paperclip on a string with a magnet as high as they could with out touching the paperclip with that magnet. To do this at home, just tape the end of the thread that is not tied to the paperclip on a table. Tricky but fruitful!

But how does it work? Let’s look at a magnetic field around a magnet.

A magnet has an energy field, like a forcefield around it. The forcefield starts on opposite sides of the magnet. We can’t see the field, but since small pieces of metal like iron and lead are affected by this field, if we drop them near a magnet, they will show us.

In this photo they laid little compasses down to show you how the force effects the magnets inside them. The magnet is tricking them because at such close range to the magnet, it becomes the stronger magnetic force than the magnetic field of earth.

What? You didn’t know? Earth is one Giant magnet. That is why a compass works. It is telling us where Earth’s North is.

Most objects are either Ferromagnetic or Diamagnetic. When the atoms of Iron, cobalt, nickel, manganite or alloys containing these elements are like soldiers facing the same direction they are ferromagnetic. Substances whose atoms will not shift so intensely will be mildly repelled by magnets (at a rate of 2%) and are called Diamagnetic. People and frogs are diamagnetic – we repel against a magnetic field. In this video you will see a frog floating in the middle of a GIANT electro-magnet as all of its cells are in a state of repelling. (Not rappelling, that’s for when we go rock climbing!)

For more games or info on magnets go to Cool Magnet Man.

There are lots of great kits and game sets on the market to intrigue your children into the world of Science with magnets. Below is one called Magnetix. There are magnets on either side of the cylindrical pieces. The balls are iron. The building options are endless.

One note of caution when buying plain magnets. Make sure your magnets are coated. The dusty, dark gray magnets that are not coated can break off easily. And it doesn’t stop there. Remember how I said magnets hold atoms in lines like Marching Soldiers. Well, most magnets created in a lab aren’t happy in that state. They are wishing and willing themselves to be a bit more relaxed. They are wishing for this so intently that if a small piece of magnet were to chip off, it would fly as fast as it could away from the order of the magnet. Most magnets sold in games and kits are indeed coated. You can also just tape up your magnets if they are not coated.