RT @Good_Good_Life - Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life. ~Marcus Aurelius... 16 hours ago
RT @adrianbriggs: Humans didn't evolve from chimps or any existing species. We share an ancestry with them. As we do with all life.
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Why I Homeschool – Scholastic.com – A great article that my friend sent to me. I think many of us must feel this way! It’s a secret you only realize once you start homeschooling.
Note: This column was published in the Barrow Journal on March 20, 2013.
Earlier this year on one of those warm winter days, we made the spontaneous decision to take the boys to Amicalola Falls State Park, which is less than a two-hour drive northwest from Winder. When we got there, we weren’t quite sure where to go, and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves starting our hike at the base of the falls, going up.
If you’ve never been there before, you may not know that Amicalola Falls is the highest waterfall in the southeast. True to its name, which means “tumbling waters” in the Cherokee Indian language, it’s a beautiful series of falls tumbling down 729 feet of rock.
There’s a footpath and stairs that take you to the top of the falls, and a bridge crosses right in front of the falls about mid-way. The views are amazing.
A few years ago I wouldn’t have hesitated to climb the 600 steps to the top of the falls, but now I was with my family, which included a six-year-old and three-year-old. I was remembering the last time we were out for an easy hike at Hard Labor Creek and how the three-year-old graced us with a temper tantrum at the beginning of that excursion because I didn’t pack the right snack.
At Amicalola, we were not the only ones who took advantage of the weather that day, so there were quite a few people taking the trek alongside us. I didn’t want a temper tantrum, and I didn’t want either my husband or me to have to carry a 37-pound three-year-old up those steps.
In the back of my mind, I wondered if I could make it up those steps too. During these past few years of child rearing, I have not been the healthiest eater, and I have little time for exercise that doesn’t include my little tag-alongs.
We easily hiked up the 175 steps to the bridge in front of the falls. The boys were on their best behavior, and they enjoyed the views. But my husband and I planned to go back down at that point.
The kids had a different opinion. They were determined to go to the top, and we couldn’t persuade them otherwise. After a few threats such as “if I have to carry you, I’m going to get really, really mad,” etc., we conceded and happily undertook the challenge. Secretly, I didn’t want to stop either.
We all felt like we accomplished something when we finished those last 425 steps without a problem. On the way down, we took another route through the woods, and we must have spent over 2~3 hours hiking that day. I was especially proud of the three-year-old who had no problem keeping up.
Our hike that day could be a metaphor for parenting. Though it’s a non-stop, daily challenge to raise small children, just when you think you can’t go anymore, your children surprise you. They show you just how far you can go, how fun life is and how resilient a family can be when working together to accomplish something.
If you’re interested in seeing Amicalola Falls, but you aren’t interested in climbing 600 steps, you’ll be happy to know that you can drive and take a short walk to where the platform is mid-way up, or you can drive to the top of the falls. The top is where the Amicalola Falls Lodge is located, and it has a nice restaurant and beautiful views.
Also nearby is the access trail to the Appalachian Trail, and you can also hike up to the Len Foote Hike Inn, which is a wonderful overnight experience that I did many years ago, though you need to make reservations well in advance for that. You can learn about all of this and more at http://gastateparks.org/AmicalolaFalls.
I’m excited to share with you the news that I have an article and photographs published in the Spring 2013 issue of Georgia Backroads magazine. If you’re a local Georgia homeschooler, you may be interested in picking up a copy because my article is a good lesson in Georgia and American history. Titled “Rogues Road Landmark: The William Harris Homestead,” I give readers a glimpse into the history of the beautiful William Harris Homestead (pictured above) in Monroe, Georgia. If you haven’t visited the homestead and you want to, don’t hesitate to e-mail me and ask about it!
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My worthy reads are rather skimpy because we’ve had some illnesses in the house, and I’m plum tired of reading about homeschooling in the media. It’s so much of the same stuff. But I have found some great blog posts and a few other worthy reads to share with you.
Mazes, Free Printables, Easy to Hard – krazydad - My boys have been into mazes lately, and my husband found this great resource for finding mazes for all levels.
Parenting
My daughter realized I’m going to die – The Cultivated Mother - Kimberly is a homeschooling mom, but I felt this very moving post fit under parenting.
Note: This column was printed in the Barrow Journal on January 23, 2013.
If you want to take advantage of the warm spells we get during the winter in Georgia, one place I recommend going is Hard Labor Creek State Park. We visited there for the first time this past fall (early November) when the leaves were gold and just falling from the trees, and we wondered why we had never gone to this beautiful park before.
It’s located about 30 miles south of Winder in Morgan and Walton counties, and at 5,804 acres, it’s one of the largest state parks in Georgia. It boasts an 18-hole golf course as well as two lakes, camping, cottage rentals, swimming, horse trails, hiking trails and much more.
The park has a rich history. Before the establishment of the park, the land was made up of corn and cotton fields, and due to poor land-use practices, it was not very productive. During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a part of his New Deal program. The purpose of CCC was to create recreational areas while also teaching young men new skills and trades.
Between 1934 -1939, there were two CCC camps at Hard Labor Creek, and they together with the U.S. Forestry service built the park. You can still see many of their original structures and landscapes today, including Lake Rutledge. They also cultivated over 850,000 trees!
My favorite outdoor activity is hiking, and the day we were there, I was determined to walk at least a moderate trail, so I coaxed my family onto the 1-mile Brantley Trail that took us on a tour of some of the beautiful trees that the CCC planted.
Now the trees are mature, and according to a leaflet we found at the beginning of the path, we walked under a canopy of loblolly pines and sweetgum trees, and we also spied white oak, river birch, hickories, red maples, and blackjack oak.
We skedaddled past this tree.
Here you can see how the area is still recovering from the farming. In the late 1800s, “the upland forest in this area of the piedmont was almost completely stripped for timber and agricultural lands.” However, it was too steep to farm along the streams, so there you’ll find taller, larger hardwoods. If you look at “the upslope trees,” you see they are smaller, and there’s more pines and sweetgum.
When we were there this fall, hiking with a six-year-old and three-year-old still required a great deal of patience. My three-year-old graced us with his first temper tantrum in the middle of the forest, and I couldn’t help but wonder if a child screams in a forest and no one is around to hear it… Ah, well, unfortunately, we were there, and yes, it was quite loud. But it passed as all things do, and we had a pleasant walk. We also strolled over to the lake, and it offered some beautiful scenery.
If you’re interested in learning more about the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps and Hard Labor Creek State Park, you might join one of several Historic Wagon Ride Tours offered in February, or perhaps you’d prefer Fireside Stories told by a retired park ranger who, according to the park’s website, has a passion for CCC history. Go to http://www.gastateparks.org/HardLaborCreek for more information on these and other events at the park.
Note: This column was printed in the Barrow Journal on January 16, 2013.
When we walk through the woods this time of year, most of the animals and insects are burrowed under the ground or huddled together in whatever holes they can find. My son’s favorite animal, snake, will find a place to burrow underground and sleep through the cold weather. Rabbits and dear don’t hibernate. They’ll be on the lookout all season for any leaves, barks or twigs they can find to eat.
Frogs don’t hibernate either, but they go into a dormant state where they sleep most of the time. They may wake up on warmer days and go out for a bite to eat. They have a chemical in their bloodstream that’s kind of like antifreeze, which is how they can survive the freezes.
The black bears in Georgia are probably sleeping now, and the females may have their babies in the den this winter. The cubs will stay with mama for a year before she urges them to fend for themselves in early spring or summer of next year.
Did you know that this is the time of year that Right Whales migrate from New England to the coasts of Georgia and Florida, and the females will give birth here anytime between December and March?
The squirrels huddle together in their nests on cold days. We can easily see the squirrel’s nests high up in the trees now that the leaves have fallen. Their nests are big and messy, and they have spent the warmer months collecting acorns and other food for the winter. Sometimes they like to bury their food in my garden beds, but they forget about it, and I have to pull the tiny beginnings of trees from the soil in spring.
Many birds are migrating south this time of year, and fortunately for us, Georgia is a winter home for many of them. I’ve spied more hawks sitting on electrical wires along our roads, and my son made a peanut butter/bagel bird feeder in his winter mini-camp that will feed a variety of them. My favorite feathered friend, the northern cardinal, is a year-round resident of Georgia. It’s especially beautiful in the winter, I think, when its red feathers brighten up the brown landscape.
In my house, I have one little boy who refuses to wear coats in the winter, so he prefers to play indoors. The other one (who doesn’t wear shorts in the summer) is happy to wrap up and take a hike during his camp. But they’re both finding more time to pull out the art supplies and fill one of the walls in our kitchen, a.k.a “the art gallery,” with their masterpieces.
I have a husband who is back at work after a winter break and burrowed in front of his computer screen.
I may not be an animal that hibernates or goes dormant during the cold months, but I sure wish I could. Usually I crave time spent outside, but lately I’ve been happy to wear my sweats around the house and not get any exercise at all. If it weren’t for the demands of my children, I would probably curl up on the sofa with a good book all day.
I’ve been spending less time on social media, less time reading the news, and generally wanting to get away from my usual habit of doing too much. It’s a good season for that, so I’m just going with it.
Today the weather got a little warmer, though, and I talked my children into going for a walk with me. I pulled the three-year-old in our wagon, and my six-year-old walked beside me, playing make-believe as a he held onto a toy frog. Both of my boys kept pointing to things as we walked. Two geese flying over our heads, decorative yard art, litter, and a patch of dirt on the road were all topics of conversation.
I love living in Georgia because I can depend on warm spells in winter that will stir me into action. But on the colder days, I’ll have to drag myself out of bed and hope that the enthusiasm of these boys will be enough to rouse this sleepy mama.
This weekend my family and I went to check out The North Atlanta Gem, Mineral, Fossil & Jewelry Show. I’m so grateful to “Pamela” who took the time to write about it on a local homeschool list last week. When I saw her message, I thought this was something my boys would love, and luckily, the price was right! It is only $4.00 admission for adults, and children under 16 are free. We are also lucky that the trade center is only about an hour drive away.
If you’re sad that you missed this show, you’ll be happy to know it’s an annual event.
I think we’ll be going back! Here are some (not-so-good) snapshots I got at the event. Needless to say, it’s hard to take photographs when you’re trying to rescue fragile items from the clutches of a three-year-old.
A leg bone of a triceratops. The man who found it allowed our boys to touch it!
Those strange things in the middle are dinosaur eggs!
We love shark teeth since we acquired our own collection while visiting Amelia Island this summer.
That’s just too cool.
The three-year-old HAS to touch, touch, touch. He’s just wired that way.
The six-year-old wants one of these.
So much treasure!
Admiring a woolly mammoth’s tusk.
The highlight of the day: the six-year-old picked out an almost fossilized tibia bone of a bison that’s between 11-15,000 years old to call his own!
Have you been on any field trips lately? Please tell me about it.
Note: This column was printed in the Barrow Journal on Wednesday, November 21, 2012.
Ever since I learned about the Junior Ranger Program, I’ve been looking forward to when my son could participate. Any child age 6-12 can participate, and it’s a great way to get outdoors, explore nature and learn about Georgia’s history. It’s also a good way to teach about setting goals and working toward something.
In order to participate, all you have to do is pick up a copy of the Junior Ranger Activity Book at any Georgia State Park or Historic Site office. You can also download the book online in pdf format at http://www.gastateparks.org/JuniorRanger.
The book has a series of activities for children to complete, and a checklist for an adult to initial when they complete each activity. Adults can help children with the activities. There are three levels, and upon completion of each level, children will receive a junior ranger badge to display proudly wherever they want.
Level 1 is recommended for ages 6-7, and they must complete seven of the activities. Level 2 is for ages 8-10 and requires 10 activities to be completed. Level 3 is for ages 11-12, and they must complete 14 of the activities. Children may use the same booklet for each level, and the activities they did for their first level can count towards the next, if they want them to.
There’s information in the booklet for parents to read to the children so that they’ll become aware of things to stay away from when they hit the trails, such as poison ivy and venomous snakes. It tells you how to prepare and be safe while exploring the wilderness. After this, there are several pages of activities for the children to complete. Each page gives separate instructions for each level of participation. My son is working on his first badge, Level 1, so the activities are fairly easy.
Some of the activities my son has done so far are identifying Georgia pine trees, taking a guided walking tour, observing wildlife, and visiting a historical site. He only needs to complete three more activities to obtain his badge.
There are plenty to choose from. He might identify plant and animal life in a body of water, or go fishing, go on a plant scavenger hunt, visit one more historical site, observe the night sky, or identify at least two nocturnal animals. If my son isn’t into any of that, there are some other choices too.
With 63 sites statewide and a site 50 miles of every Georgia resident, it should not be hard for any child to participate in this program, especially since participants can take as long as they need to complete the activities. You don’t have to do the activities in a state park either, although some of the activities such as visiting a historical site might require that.
When completed, all they need to do is present their checklist at any Georgia State Park or Historic Site office, or there’s an address in the booklet to mail the page to. Participants who mail their page in will receive their badge in 2-4 weeks.
Occasionally there are Junior Ranger day camps or workshops that participants can attend. These usually happen in the summer, and will be listed on the Georgia State Park and Historical Sites calendar of events: http://www.gastateparks.org/events.
Recently they have also started a Get Outdoors Georgia Gopher Badge too. This is for kids 7-14 years old, and there’s a separate list of fun requirements for this badge too. You can download the requirements for this badge here: http://www.getoutdoorsgeorgia.org/downloads/JrRangerGopherBadge.pdf.
If you are interested in this program, you’ll also want to subscribe to the Junior Ranger E-newsletter. My son receives it at his own e-mail address, and he has fun reading about wildlife, viewing photos and doing some of the suggested activities.
For families able to travel, there’s also a Junior Ranger Program for the National Park Service:http://www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.cfm. I don’t know when we’ll get a chance to visit a national park, but my son has had fun using their on-line Junior Ranger program. Children can play more than 50 games and learn about our national parks, monuments and historic sites. The website also tracks the children’s progress.
Whether you have some Junior Rangers in your house or not, I hope you get a chance to get outside and experience the healing qualities of nature this holiday season.
Note: This column was printed in the Barrow Journal on November 15, 2012.
Autumn is the perfect time for getting out into nature, and we residents of Barrow County can’t forget the treasure that is in our own backyard: Fort Yargo State Park. At least 400,000 people visit Ft. Yargo every year, and aren’t we lucky to have it so close that we need travel only a few minutes to get there? It’s located one mile south of Winder on Highway 81.
We love exploring Georgia’s various state parks and outdoor recreation areas, but as the boys grow up, I intend to make sure they feel at home in Ft. Yargo.
I went on one of my first dates with my husband to Ft. Yargo, and even before we had children, we would sometimes go there and hike to the fort, which was tucked away in the back of the park. Now it has been moved to a more accessible location, and the Ft. Yargo Living History Society has begun fixing up the blockhouse, and according to their website, they will be building a blacksmith’s shop, hunter’s cabin and enlarging the cookhouse.
The last time we went by the fort was on a Saturday, and we were lucky to meet the living history demonstrators. (They are onsite the 3rd Saturday of every month.) The demonstrators, who were in period dress, were heating up the mud oven to bake bread, and there was a pot of venison stew simmering on the stove. My picky boys weren’t eager to try it.
Back in the day, Fort Yargo was located in the border area between the Creek and Cherokee nation. According to the Georgia State Parks website, “The state of Georgia contracted with the Humphrey brothers to build a string of four forts across north Georgia to protect white settlers from Indians.” Fort Yargo was one of them.
According to roadsidegeorgia.com, “The western push of settlers from the Georgia coast had slowed during the Revolutionary War, but not long after the war ended, settlers once again began to encroach on Creek land. Near the Creek town of Snodon settlers created tiny Jug Handle, essentially a tavern and inn at the intersection of a heavily traveled north-south Indian Trading Path and an east-west trading route. To protect the settlers from the Creek Indians, Fort Yargo was built in 1792 by a Virginia settler…Captain Joseph Humphries.”
Today the park encompasses 1,816 acres, and has a beautiful 260-acre man-made lake with fishing, boat ramps, swimming and a beach open during the warmer seasons. There are 18 miles of trails for hikers and mountain bikers, and events take place there throughout the year. Campsites, cottages, and yurts are for rent, and there are at least three playgrounds, picnic shelters, tennis courts, disc golf, basketball and so much more.
Fort Yargo is an oasis in Barrow County, and I’m so thankful to have it nearby. My boys don’t need most of the amenities that it offers, though. We go there to walk on the paths and sit by the water while they throw rocks and twigs into the lake. I’m not sure there will be any more pebbles left on the shore by the time they grow up.
Another perk to having a state park so close is that my son can easily participate in the Georgia Junior Ranger Program, which is recommended for children ages 6-12. I’ll write about that in my next column.
Go to http://www.gastateparks.org/FortYargo to learn more about the park and plan your visit, but take note that it will be closed to the public on Dec. 4-5 for managed deer hunts.
It wasn’t long after I taught my (then four ~ five-year-old) about the solar system that I learned about the discovery boxes at the Sandy Creek Nature Center.
You can check out a discovery box for two weeks for the cost of $5.00. Though they are created for classroom use and may have more in them than one family can use, they are still worth looking at if you are working on a particular subject. They are for approximately pre-K through 5th grade.
They have discovery boxes for a wide array of subjects such as astronomy, weather, rocks and gems, mammals, animal tracks, creatures of the night, birds, trees, marine life and more… If you stop by the nature center, ask the receptionist to see the list of discovery boxes. There’s an inventory list for each box.
I tried the astronomy box when we were learning about the solar system. There were two children’s books that were perfect for my son, and a bag of planet magnets that he had fun arranging on our refrigerator. We also had fun trying to get the little planetarium star theater to work, but we don’t have the right kind of room for it, and it didn’t look right in our bathroom! (The darkest room in our house.)
There was a lot of stuff that just wasn’t age appropriate for him and materials for a large classroom that I didn’t need. Unfortunately, some of the materials were old, and things like computer programs were not compatible with my computer. The books were outdated and stated that Pluto is a planet, but that didn’t bother me.
I don’t want to discourage you from checking into these boxes, however. If you’re working on a particular unit, or your child has an interest in a certain subject, you should look into it. Every box is going to offer different stuff.
Note: This column was printed in the Barrow Journal on September 26, 2012.
This past weekend our very own backyard provided us with an up close wildlife encounter. My boys were playing in the backyard, and the way my son tells it, he was standing near our woodpile when he heard a squirrel screaming and a lot of commotion up in a nearby tree. Right after that, the squirrel and a black rat snake fell onto the woodpile and rolled off onto the ground.
The snake and squirrel rolled a few feet from the woodpile and my son says our dog ran and picked the bundle up in this mouth but then dropped it again. I guess that snake let him know he wasn’t welcome to have this lunch. The black rat snake, which is a constrictor, was coiled tightly around a dead squirrel by the time my husband and I came upon the scene.
And you have to understand something. A few years ago, I have no idea how I would have reacted to something like this. I have been indifferent about snakes most of my life. Neither have I feared them, nor have I given them much thought. But now I have a six-year-old who loves them so much he wants to study them when he grows up. He already knows so much about them that he could easily identify this snake as it was falling out of the tree.
Now I have an appreciation for these under-appreciated animals that are important elements of our ecosystem. Watching the rat snake eat a squirrel was a rare opportunity and a dream come true for my six-year-old. The only time he stepped away from the scene was when he ran to the house to tell us what happened.
My husband and I stayed for most of the show too, and, of course, we videotaped and photographed it. If you had told me six years ago that I’d lie down five inches away from a snake eating a squirrel, I NEVER would have believed you.
It took two and a half hours for the snake to eat his meal, but that was much faster than we thought it might take. We tried to respect him by staying quiet and keeping a distance except when I took some photos, and once, despite my protest, my husband and son touched him lightly. A snake is in a very vulnerable position when he’s got such a big meal in his mouth.
Black rat snakes are probably the most common snake you might see around here. It’s the second time we’ve seen one in our subdivision. According to the Savannah River Ecology Lab’s website (SREL), they typically grow between 3-5 feet, but they can get as long as six feet. The one in our yard was about four feet long.
They are black on top with a faint hint of white between the scales. Its belly is whitish near the head and becomes kind of checkered near the tail. They can be found in the mountains and Piedmont areas of central Georgia and South Carolina, and they like a variety of habitats such as “rocky timbered hills, hardwood forests, river floodplains and swamp margins.” They also like abandoned buildings and barns.
They eat mice, rats, squirrels (yep!), birds and bird eggs. According to the SREL, they love wood duck eggs. Juveniles feed on small frogs, lizards, and small rodents. Though I love some of the critters this snake eats, I know that they help keep the rodent population in check, and for this reason, I don’t mind having them around at all. In fact, I welcome any snake into my garden as long as it’s not venomous, and the black rat snake surely isn’t.
It was interesting to watch the snake maneuver its mouth the squirrel and accomplish the difficult task of getting its front limbs into his mouth. Snakes are amazing in that their entire skeleton pulls apart in order for them to consume such big meals. Once he had reached the torso, he finished it much faster. I couldn’t believe how quickly the squirrel moved into the middle section of the snake.
I can only wonder what that snake thought of us gawking at it. The SREL says that when frightened, a rat snake will assume a “kinked” position and remain motionless. They will vibrate their tail and expel a malodorous odor. We didn’t see that behavior. After watching us long enough, I guess that snake figured we didn’t want his meal, and his hunger was more powerful than any fear it may have felt. My son sat by his side until he quietly took his bulging stomach and slid through our fence, hesitating slightly while he looked at us. It was probably the most bothersome meal he had ever eaten.
Note: If you happen to read my column in the paper and you’ve been waiting with bated breath for these photos (lol), I apologize for taking so long. It took a long time for me to put together this slideshow because my computer died and also I don’t like looking at them. It was exciting in the moment… I don’t get that same feeling reminiscing. Also, though I have enough film to make a 77-minute video, I’m sparing you of that. Here is an under five-minute version. I hope there are some other kids out there who will enjoy it as much as my six-year-old did. It is fascinating. (In an icky way.)
