Homeschool Hike in Bear Gulch

Tuesday 5 moms and all 17 (!) of our homeschooled kids (age 11 mos to 10 years) got together for a hike in Bear Gulch. (Yes, the name is descriptive of the wildlife, but we only saw poop, not the actual animals. Luckily we had all those noisy kids to scare them off.) The hike wasn't especially long but these are some of the things we learned anyway: How to pop the heads off large black ants to use as survival food. (Didn't try it but I guess they taste like lemons). How to tell from fireweed when the first snowfall will be. (When the top blossom opens, legend has it that it will be 6 weeks until snowfall. Local Indians and Island Parkers claim this as fact.) Identification of edible berries (service berry, chokecherry) and poisonous ones (snowberry, false solomon's seal). How to assist nature in decomposing a rotten log. (get 7 or 8 boys, arm them with large spruce clubs and let them pound away). Identification of bear poop. (you have to see it to know it and I DID NOT take pictures of it). Find and identify the bones of a large 4-legged animal. (vertebrae, ribs, femurs, sacrum, tibia and scapula). Our guess was moose or elk because of the size. But maybe it was a bear?! (spine shown below). 3 wasp stings were the only casualties of the day. We shared snacks, got to know each other better (moms--kids all seem to be best friends from the beginning) and had a great afternoon taking in the sights, sounds and smells of fall. The pictures are: The Moms: Lana, Keya, Jessica, Michelle, Me; The whole group minus me, Michelle and her baby; kids exploring a streambed (the one near the bear poop!); the bones and the kids who were fascinated by them and their names. Also--Can you believe how many times I wrote "poop" just now?? We ended the day at Michelle's watching the kids all play some version of soccer (3 balls in play at all times, no apparent rules). I loved seeing them all interacting so great with each other, including everyone, right down to the toddlers without any sort of difficulty. It's always this way when we get together. Who says homeschooled kids aren't "socialized?!" Every single one of them are NICE kids, with good manners, fun personalities and smart brains. And I love their moms, MY FRIENDS.