Nursery School for Bearcub

"Parents would do well, during this age, to make use of preschools, childcare, and babysitting."
– from Your Three-Year-Old, Friend or Enemy

Truth, we've enrolled Bearcub in nursery school. Three mornings a week. She attends with her best friend. And? It's marvelous. She hit's the ground running in the morning eager to go. It's loving, play-based, gentle, amazing. And for us? Three days a week our muscles unclench and we focus on Nightowl and each other. No bizarre crashes, screaming fits, broken glass and other such nonsense. As a homeschooler it feels like kind of a copout, but a necessary one. We're all much, much happier.

Little Fiddler

Bearcub's finally found a way to play the violin too. Here she is tuning up for her next performance.

Little Fairy Girl

All About Bearcub

The youngest member of our little homeschool is rarely mentioned. However, her presence at home and in our lives demands that her exploits and activities get a little screen time too.

At 20-months, Bearcub can no-longer be considered the baby (though that's what we still call her). She is busy from the moment she wakes. In temperament she is easy going, good natured and friendly. She is strong willed, tenacious and stubborn. The decibles of her joy are matched only by the decibles of her tantrums. In the mornings she is the first to open her eyes and then wakes me with kisses. All friends receive hugs, strangers loud shouts of hello.

Whereas Nightowl's mantra might be "I think." the Bearcub's is surely: "I do." My little one is a master of dexterity, manipulation and physical activity. Few locks, doors, or latches confound her for long. If someone in the family is busy at a task or activity, then surely she should be able to as well - preferrably loudly and with gusto. Initially content to ride along in the wake of our activities, the Bearcub has emerged as a force to be reckonned with.

Case in point: the piano. Whereas Nightowl never noticed the piano until age five, Bearcub has been aching for a chance since she could crawl. She can now successfully open the instrument, select a music book, climb onto the bench, place her music, turn on the metronome, sit down and belt out a tune. No matter that she cannot read music, she turns the pages every few minutes just the same. And she plays, plays, plays as long as she can. The longing I see in her eyes now is for the violins - kept high out of reach. She hums along to every song that Nightowl and I play. Indeed, Bearcub knows the entire rep.

Similarly, Bearcub uses her own chalkboard for writing and drawing and her own materials for painting. Her exploits into the fiber arts are confounding explosions of knots and piles. Her love of books and being read to matches that of the rest of us. She loves puzzles and pieces and biking and swinging. She launches herself into every activity, shows little hesitancy in exploring new places and situations and displays a shocking lack of caution in most areas. If she falls or is somehow thwarted? No problem, she's up and mastering the feat - beit scaling the bookshelves, pushing the tire swing, or puzzling apart the newest toddler lock.

Aside from these many activities, what Bearcub likes most is to help. She enjoys helping to fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher, feed the cats, set the table and pick up the toys. Either from example or intrinsic nature, Bearcub is turning out to be pretty tidy. She sings the "toys away" song with joy.

Her newest and most favorite helping activity is vaccuming. Previously, Bearcub has eyed the vaccum with trepidation and fear: It's loud, it's clunky, it's takes Mom's focus. But over the past few months she's been taking cautious steps: a willingness to be in the same room with the ghastly thing, tip-toeing past it, sneaking over to push the power button. And then today, the unthinkable: a request to do it herself. So, I lowered the handle and passed it over. Oh joy! Oh rapture! Forty minutes later she was still involved: Vaccum. Turn off the power. Turn on the power. Vaccum. Turn off the power....



When lunch was on the table I had to step in and bring the activity to an end. "No, Mama," she cried. "More vaccum!" she signed. But I insisted. Oh, the wailing that ensued - complete with a full body drop to the floor, and the beating of fists and feet. Call CPS because I won't let the child vaccum any longer - it's time for lunch and a nap.

True to her nature the hysterics passed quickly. Now it's lunch time. Time to scale the chair, wash the hands, insist on an open cup. Time to eat heartily and messily and after, exhausted from the effort, enter sleep quickly and deeply and then wake, refreshed, for more.

LA Story #4: The Seaside

Our main goal during vacation was to be out in nature - the weather was great and it was a good counter to the seemingly endless hours spent driving.

So, our next adventure took us to Santa Monica for a day at the beach and the Santa Monica pier. This was the Bearcub's first experience with an ocean. She was not daunted and ran merrily into the waves, headfirst. The water was chilly so we remained clothed, barefoot and near the edge. Quite fun and quite the challenge with the cub as she continued to head in (literally) again and again and again.

Once we were completely chilled and sandy we headed to the outdoor showers near the pier. On the way we found ourselves walking, quite unexpectedly, through a graveyard. Or rather, the image of a graveyard.

We were in the middle of Arlingon West a temporary memorial erected in the sand by the local chapter of Veterans for Peace. This graveyard gave us a chilling picture of war and it's consequences. Nightowl had some questions and we all discussed war, our nation and the world. Quite the unexpected Social Studies lesson. Despite the gravity of the memorial I was happy that Nightowl got to experience it. She has heard of the war from radio, our parental talks and from sermons at church. This particular memorial fell right in line with our pacifist, UU tendencies.

After lunch we visited Pacific Park - a small amusement park on the Santa Monica pier. It's just a few rides but enough to have a little carnival like amusement. Nightowl really enjoyed the bungee jump, entertaining us with back flips at forty feet. Wee!!


We ended our coastal adventures with a side trip to Venice Beach in search of a little yarn shop recommended by a California friend and fellow knitter. There we purchased our only bag of LA goodies: yarn and lots of it. The owner was very friendly and helped Nightowl find several types of yarn that she could use to make things for her dolls. She also got her first pair of circular needles. If you're ever in Venice check out A Mano Yarn Center - very wonderful.

LA Story #3: The Huntington Botanical Gardens

Saturday in Los Angeles was cool, sunny and wonderful. We chose to spend the day at the Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botantical Gardens.

For Nightowl (and the rest of us) the botanical garden was the only option. And it really was amazing. Bearcub and I spent the morning at the Garden. Then we headed back to the hotel for afternoon nap. We picked up Chillymama and Nightowl when the gardens closed. They'd spent six hours in the gardens and we're still not really ready to go.

First we explored the Children's Garden - a very hands-on, experiential type of garden with lots of topiary, water, sand and fog. The actual Fog Garden was a favorite (first photo). Every five minutes chimes would toll and clouds of fog would billow. Bearcub enjoyed the topiary animals (second photo). There were rabbits, deer, dinosaurs. We also splashed in a number of fountains, enjoyed a "plant house," the prisim rainbow bridge and a number of topiary tunnels (third photo).











After the Children's Garden we went to explore the science lab and other nature exhibits - all very hands on and exceptional. One favorite was the tropical seeds exhibit. Nightowl saw a variety of spices and learned to connect them to the actual plant (vanilla pods - vanilla plants, cocoa - cocoa plant, etc.). Nightowl spent a long time here. In the first image she's checking out the view through a bee's eye. The second is a coconut exhibit. The third is an identify the plant game:





















There was still more to see: Chinese Gardnes, Desert Gardens, Wildflower Gardens, Rose Gardens, Japanese Water Gardens and on and on. We could have spent days there. Days.

LA Story #1: The Incredible Glass Eating Baby

During the first week of November the entire family packed up and headed to the West Coast. Our main reason for traveling was to attend the wedding of a close college friend. But, as it had been so long since we'd travelled, we extended the trip into a week long vacation in Southern California. Fun!

The first item on our itinerary was the wedding. It was a lovely evening event. We dressed up - something we never do - but of course forgot to get a photo. Their ceremony was short and sincere. My dear friend was beautiful and so happy - her husband seems so perfect for her. There was a lovely meal, a kid's room with crafts, dancing, fabulous cake, visits with old friends and lovely chocolate. All in all a good time.

One noteworthy item from the evening: During dinner I held Bearcub on my lap. I gave her a drink of water from my glass while I chatted with an old friend. Then, from across the table I hear: "Oh my god! Your baby!" I look down and Bearcub has taken a large bite out of the piece of stemwear from which she was drinking. Gads!

It was a clean break. No shards in the mouth. No cuts. Just a big bite out of the glass and a good story for the baby book. And perhaps a career in the circus sideshow for Bearcub - possibly.

A rose by any other name.....

It's been driving me kinda nutty. The names. I absolutely hate typing "my six-year-old" or "my 16-month-old" within each post. It's impersonal. It's empty. It's long and tedious to type. So, I've been trying to come up with code names for my kids. In the tradition of friend Sara (see Schooling from the Heart under Inspirations) I want clever, descriptive names that seem to fit. We know her kids and husband and, believe me, her code names work.

But I couldn't seem to find anything that I really like. Everything sounded so contrived. After dismissing all of my own ideas I went straight to the source. Here are the suggestions from my six-year-old regarding herself: Princess Unicorn, SunFairy, Beautiful-Dancing-Child, Nightowl.

Here are the suggestions from my six-year-old regarding her baby sister: Destructo Baby, Butterbean, Butterbutt, Cutie-Pie, Bearcub.

Hmmmm....let's just say that I find these less than inspiring. However, as I've got nothing better, I hearby christen my eldest as Nightowl - it does fit, she's focused, strong, powerful, and usually up all night with an inclination to sleep during the day. Excellent.

And for the little-un: Bearcub. Her personality is still forming and this is my home nickname for her with her ambling, waddling walk and tendency to climb on unstable things. Excellent.

Henceforth, these two children shall be noted within posts as Nightowl and Bearcub.

Excellent.