birds,teeth,books- what more?

The kids and I just got back from the Ridgefield Bird Festival in Ridgefield, WA. I thought it was going to be sort of all in one place, with music and activities and bird activities kind of all together. It turned out to be spread out all through Ridgefield, WA, which is a smallish town about 14 miles from Portland. There is a Wildlife Refuge there and this is the area that we ended up in and it turned out to be a lot of fun and totally unexpected. We drove through a four mile loop over the course of about 45 minutes and saw some amazing birds. People are not allowed out of their cars during this time of year except at a few designated blinds where the Audubon had scopes out for viewing. They also handed out bird bingo sheets to the kids which made it a lot of fun for them and really got them excited about finding the birds. We saw Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Harriers, Red Tailed Hawks, several kinds of ducks, coots and maybe a Crane, although I feel a little unsure about the crane sighting. My favorite was a giant Red Tailed Hawk sitting out in the middle of a field. I see Red Tailed Hawks up high in trees around here quite frequently (and am excited every time!) but have never seen one sitting so contentedly in the middle of a field, surrounded by grasses. I was glad to have my binoculars!

Samuel lost another tooth today! That is two in the last couple of weeks, with a couple more loose ones to go. His mouth is really changing and there are large spaces around the teeth that haven't fallen out yet, to make way for the bigger teeth that will eventually come in. Eva is desperate for her teeth to fall out and seems discontent when I tell her they will when they are ready. It looks like such fun and we do seem to talk about it a lot. That front tooth of Samuel's was commanding quite a bit of attention because it was hanging in there kind of lopsided for several days.



I am reading In Defense of Childhood by Chris Mercogliano. It is wonderfully supportive of really honoring self-direction in children and assuming that children will internalize what they learn, that they don't need to be bribed or punished or coerced or tricked or graded or even praised into learning and growing and thriving. That these tactics actually get in the way of natural learning and that much of the stress surrounding learning found in schools today is counterproductive to real learning. Great fun to read and thoroughly eye opening, with much literature and science behind the words.



Eva



Samuel and Eva, bunny and care bears



Samuel and Eva, check out Samuel's teeth with all the spaces