SE Portland Creeks and Bridges

(We did this walk with a few other homeschooling families yesterday.) The walk started at Westmoreland Park and went south along there until we hit the Springwater Corridor. We walked on a small part of that and then turned around to continue the walk through the very different neighborhoods in this area. Eva was relieved that we weren't going to walk all the way to Gresham and we remembered that we have actually been for a walk on at least part of the other end of the Springwater Corridor with friends of ours who live in Gresham.









One of the neighborhoods had pink flamingos in all of the yards along one section.








Eva wrote her name on the community board.



The walk ended shortly after we hit these food carts for ice cream. I loved the flowers planted in this grill.

portland walking tour

We went on a walking tour of downtown Portland today with a local homeschool group. I think one of my favorite parts was getting to try out two different echo chambers in the downtown area, one in Pioneer Courthouse Square and one further south, near the Keller Auditorium.



Both kids in the funky chair at the Center for the Performing Arts. Samuel was being timed by one of the moms and you can see by his face that something is up.



Anansi topper outside Center for the Performing Arts and the world's smallest park, measuring just 24 inches across.



Portlandia (second only to the Statue of Liberty as a large copper statue) and 19th century building with iron and grotesques (gargoyles without the water...) Apparently they used to use the different decorations on the buildings to give directions, as in- I'm in the white iron building with the grotesques sticking their tongues out...

The tour guide brought magnets so the kids could find out which of the older buildings had iron in them for decorative purposes. Portland has 20 iron buildings (down from 200), second only to New York City for cities with iron buildings.



Salmon Street Fountain and Eva looking at the Willamette and the Hawthorne Bridge.



There was a fantastic flower display in Pioneer Courthouse Square.




The kids doing crayon rubbings. (There is one block with several bricks with words and quotations etched into them. The tour guide brought crayons and paper for rubbings.)

impromptu

We ran into Indecision this morning after our plans were dashed. I had back-up plans, but for some reason they were not appealing first to one child, then to the next (after the first child finally agreed to them, and so on...), which vexed and confused me, leaving me at a loss. The kids and I went round and round with other ideas, back and forth, until I was sure I would spin right out into the atmosphere from the sheer chaos of it all. (Either quickly, because of that spinning feeling in my head, or slowly, because of that mud-like squish I felt I was walking through.) Not that not-knowing-what-to-do is a bad thing, per se. It's simply that particular type of not-knowing-what-to-do that I was feeling this morning, the kind that breeds lashing out and head spinning and desperate attempts to fill time that most probably won't work anyway. The type that require a quiet mind and {often} commitment to overcome.

So I committed to OMSI. And the kids came round with me and off we went. We haven't been in ages and we went to see- specifically- the Egypt exhibit and the shell exhibit I had heard about. I was pleased with both, I'm happy to say. I was also pleased with how everything began to fall into place once I had made my decision- lunch, the hologram exhibit (which is so rarely open when we go to OMSI I often forget about it entirely) and our trip to the serve-yourself-yogurt place near out house afterward. And tonight- lots of cooking, a chance to blog, photos to upload. Not all flowers and butterflies, to be sure, but still quite a bit less chaos than this morning.



And see- at least one child clearly enjoying herself at OMSI. And Samuel? Even he said he was glad we went, after we bought gummi space ships, of course. (Even before we bought gummi space ships, come to think of it.) Because who can resist those? And we all saw a mummy today. (Don't think it didn't get me thinking about how the Egyptians probably didn't imagine they would end up in our museums one day in the distant future...)

diecutdolls

We got a die cut machine recently and Eva has been having the best time making paper dolls.

Of course today, after thinking about the letter K all day yesterday, was bursting with words that start with K. I can't remember any of them now, but I definitely noticed them when I heard them. Eva has been enjoying playing Scribblenauts lately. (Hey, there's the letter L.) She plays with me and either types or writes in the words or she plays by herself and writes in words from some of the workbooks she likes. She also likes to type in just a few letters to see what comes up. I've been so surprised to see creatures like guinea pigs showing up {seemingly} randomly after she has typed in a few {random} letters. If you don't like synchronicity, perhaps you're partial to luck? Either way you look at it, they are both something good happening to you, at just the right time that can seem too good to be true and highly enriching and note-worthy (or yell-across-the-room-to-tell-someone-else-worthy, depending...)

Slice of Life Tuesday

It happens (that counts for an H word, don't you think? and i wasn't even trying for that one...) that I am going to take a photography-ish sort of online course starting in April that focuses on- is, in fact, called- the Slice of Life project. While the course doesn't start until April, the woman who teaches (Darrah Parker) the course has a Slice of Life Tuesday group on Flicker. This week the theme is Up Close and Personal. Here's the photo I uploaded to that group. {For fun.}



Eva (and I) working on a craft project together.

Done

I while back, I posted about Eva and I getting ready to read all of the Magic Tree House books in order. I wanted to post an update and say that we are {officially} done. Done, as in, she doesn't want to read them anymore. I have no idea whether this desire to read-them-all-in-order will resurface at some point {again} and am left feeling alternately relieved, confused and even a little wistful, asking myself bittersweet questions like, "If I had agreed to read-them-all-in-order before, would we have hit them at just the right time and gotten through them?" Or even- "Was it my willingness to read-them-all-in-order that finally allowed us to not read-them-all-in-order?" Such questions, though, are better left for 4:00 a.m. wakings, when they can really dig in and drive me crazy. Eva seemed absolutely fine when she said she didn't want to read them anymore. She simply said, "Yeah, I don't really want to read them anymore," and went off unceremoniously to do something else. And that was that. I'm trying to follow suit. Maybe posting about it will help. Or returning the others to the library. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that.



And- our dog Jack. Listening to what the kids are up to in the next room.

books

After finishing The Wind in the Willows recently (which, by the way, we really enjoyed. the language and story telling- not to mention the characters- were lovely.), we decided to read something completely different and chose Matilda. We read quite a bit of Roald Dahl a few years ago, but stopped when we got to some of his more gruesome stories, including Matilda, The BFG and The Witches. The timing was right for Matilda this time around, although I have to say I had forgotten just how thick Roald Dahl lays it on with some of his nastier characters. Toward the end of the book, Samuel mentioned that since he has now read so many different kinds of stories, he was trying to find something redeeming in Miss Trumchbull's character. He lamented that he could find nothing and said he remembered {now} how with this writer (Roald Dahl), the mean characters were usually just that- mean. Without a single redeeming quality to be found. Yep.

Then we had a discussion about Miss Trunchbull vs Professor Umbridge {in Harry Potter}. (who, by the way, i nearly stopped reading order of the phoenix because of- because i found her so loathsome.) Samuel thought that Professor Umbridge was the worst of the two, hands down- although they are both, obviously, cut from the same villainous cloth. I think the thing about Miss Trunchbull that redeems her a little bit is that she *is* just plain mean. One of the scariest parts about Professor Umbridge's character is that she thinks she is doing the right thing. Miss Trunchbull punishes the children because she dislikes them. She also thinks that children will always be bad. While she may hope that they will stop doing whatever it is she is punishing them for, she has few illusions that they will ever really change (at least not until they have grown up). Professor Umbridge, on the other hand, actually hopes to change Harry {and everyone else} for the greater good, which, by the way, she believes she stands for. Both characters definitely gave me enough pause (and obviously we've all given them quite a bit of thought) for the time being.

I was hoping to read Treasure Island next, but Eva is adamant about not reading it right now. I'm not sure why. I'm holding onto it, but still need to find something {else} to read next. Maybe another Roald Dahl? I'm not sure. I'd also like to mix it up a bit and choose something quite different altogether {again}.

game day

I'm really excited about trying out the game Go after seeing it played at a game day for tweens the kids and I went to yesterday. The game day itself was a mixed bag. Samuel had been looking forward to playing several different games with some of the other kids- some that we took and maybe trying out a few other games. We took Battleship, Stratego and Carcassone. I had my doubts about Carcassonne being played but I thought Battle ship and Stratego were a shoe in. (And, it turned out I got to explain Carcassonne to one of the other moms there, which was fun.) He did end up playing a few games of Stratego (and some Connect Four) and one girl even asked to buy it when she got home. So that was fun, too. But there were no takers for Battleship, which surprised me. The real bummer was that *most* of the kids stayed in one large group and played a single game together that way. And, I don't think there were quite a many kids there as had planned, which may have contributed to the game play as well.

Eva really enjoyed her Valentine making class today at The Warehouse with Portland Art Adventures. Both kids have taken several classes with Becky and they have enjoyed the classes and really like her as a teacher/ facilitator. Eva has just signed up for a few more of the upcoming classes. One of the reasons I think both kids are enjoying the classes so much- and why Eva has signed up for more- is the format of most of the classes. Becky brings in a ton of different materials for the specific project and the kids can use them how they like. For the Valentine class, she had boxes, card stock, ribbons, fabric, feathers. So much to choose from in the name of pink and red and purple.

More pictures from our trip to Seattle

The kids had a lot of fun with the giant chess set at the Pacific Science Center-











Samuel at the top of the Space Needle.



All four kids (Samuel, Vivian, Eva and Sabine) in front of a Totem Pole at Seattle Center after the Harry Potter exhibit.



Butterflies in the butterfly exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.