Friday's homeschool co-op & Craters of the Moon (this is a long one!)

Friday the 12th was the first day of our homeschool co-op, with Michelle Young's and Jessica Young's (they're not related) families. We had 8 kids (ages 3-10) all together at the Ashton Community Center for a group lesson/activity on the earth's structure and motion. I got to teach it, and it turned out fun AND the kids all learned lots.

As we built homemade playdough models of the earth, we talked a lot about each of the layers, including the 5 layers of atmosphere (represented by 5 layers of sandwich bags around the earths) We used toothpicks for the axis and watched a science experiment about the convection currents under the earth's surface that cause the motion of the crust's plates. We made a 'lithospheric plate' puzzle out of baked playdough and reinforced the whole lesson with Michelle's edible earth project. (malted milk ball=core, marshmellow=outer core, peanut butter=mantle, cookie crumbs and chocolate chips=crust) We watched animations online (Usborne internet-linked books are awesome!) showing the structure and movements of the earth & moon around the sun and 'became' the earth spinning left (counterclockwise, or east-west) around our friends, who played the sun. Have you ever tried to quickly spin left around and around while orbiting someone? Not easy. It stirred up my equilibrium problem for the whole weekend! The whole thing ended with the kids playing earth-splat, a game they invented involving throwing their models up as high as possible and letting them splat on the gym floor (still in the bags, luckily).

I feel so lucky to have Michelle and Jessica to partner up with on this co-op project. We are all on the same page with educational philosophy, parenting styles and we each have strengths/weaknesses that complement each other. I think it will be a great year of experiences. The next one I'm teaching will be about fossils/dinosaurs. The challenge is to be able to teach to the oldest while still involving the youngest. But what fun! I love the challenge and the learning that comes with it for ME. I'm adopting Carolyn's motto: How Hard Can It Be? (She has inspired me to try/do lots of things by saying this. THANK YOU! to her).
I'll post a picture later.

Saturday we decided to make a trip to Craters of the Moon for a field trip/vacation combo. If you've never been, it's worth the drive. Seriously a lunar landscape. But don't go in weather warmer than 70's or you'll cook. We took the camper, Maggie, and bikes (except mine--on purpose, more on this later). Also, Raggedy Ann and Andy, dinosaur coloring books, and toy rollerskates. And a stuffed kitty. I brought a new book from Carolyn, "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral" and got well-into it, which is only helping to fuel my dream of a future self-suffiecient family farm.

Our first stop in the park was at the caves area, where we happened to meet up with--guess--Amy and Family. Luckily Grant spotted Maggie and they found us half-buried in Dewdrop Cave. We searched out a few more lava-tube caves with them before they headed home to Poky. that night, we camped but since the park's campground was under construction, we parked in the parking lot near 3-4 other trailers. (All significantly HUGER than our 14-foot mini.) This is something we VOWED never to do. Of course, if I could pick a theme in my life, it would be "Never say Never" because 'it' ALWAYS happens. I should have known this, too, would happen only weeks after making that promise.

We shouldn't have taken Maggie exploring because the lava cut up her feet and she spent the next 2 days limping around. (Poor dog!) Aquaphor with socks (purple, no less) didn't help much.

The kid's favorite topic of conversation related to the scenery was related to how quickly you would die in real hot lava. (you know, if you jumped in, or if the volcano suddenly exploded in front of us, or if we found a secret place still full of the hot red stuff). Also, we noticed how much the landscape looked like a gigantic pan of brownies. It was fun climbing on and around 'real volcanoes' and thinking of the possibilities.

My favorite parts of the trip involved hiking and biking under a full moon. First,to the top of Inferno Cone (an entirely black hill made of cinders) where there was a single, giant Limber Pine somehow making a life up there on the bare crispy lava gravel. Evan and I hunted for shiny, sparkly gold-ish blue pieces with his laser flashlight that now seems to be missing. The next morning we hiked up again, to see it from a different perspective and discovered amazingly beautiful yellow flowers blooming on the same hill, somehow thriving in nothing but the brownie crumbs.

The second moon-lit favorite time was a late night ride on my NEW BIKE. We left Craters of the Moon for a day-trip to Sun Valley where we picked up my birthday present: a light blue 2008 Ralleigh Venture, which I had tried out as a rental during my last trip to SV with Steve. Turns out, if you want a new bike cheap, buy one from a tourist bike rental place at the end of the season! We spent the day in SV biking around with the kids, swimming at the "Y" (oh how I wish there was something like it near Ashton!!!) and just hangin' out. That night we drove back to the parking lot in C of the M and rode our bikes by the light of the moon. WHAT FUN!!

The bad part of the trip came right at the end, in ST. Anthony when there was a clanking noise coming out from under the trailer. The leaf-springs (what?) on the 22 year old thing were broken somehow. Age I guess. Our cheap trip turned into something more than we'd planned. At least it happened where it did, and not on the highway in the middle of the Snake River Plain lava-sage brush desert!

It was a great weekend!!