On the Move, Again

After drying out from our drowned rat days in NOVA, we headed out to Mammoth Cave National Park. Our first night in the park was a bit more crowded than we were anticipating for a Sunday evening in October. Columbus Day holiday. Oh, and Kentucky schools get a fall break. But a lot of folks cleared out Monday afternoon, and by Tuesday, we were running pretty free and clear, with just a few other campers. By this weekend, though, we're back to a full campground. Thank goodness most of our fellow campers are headed back to their non-camping lives tomorrow.

Domes and Dripstones Tour

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out which tour to take. There's a wide range of tours offered, so we read up on all of them and then checked with a ranger. NPS' website says to get a ticket the day before, and most of the tours sell out. Even with that warning, we ran into people who came in the visitor's center in the afternoon looking for a tour for that day. Upsetting for them, to say the least, especially since it was their only day in the park. At any rate, we decided upon the Domes and Dripstones Tour. Turns out, I can't go with a crowd. This is a HUGE tour, with about 118 people allowed to go along with the rangers, bringing the total to 120. I had to bust through the crowd and exit the cave and chill out with Ranger John for a few minutes. After gathering myself, we went back in, and as long as I hung back and didn't rush into the cramped spaces, I was cool. But, my oh my, those cramped spots are CRAMPED. Such a good tour, and I'm glad I forced myself back into the cave. It did take us about 10 minutes to get down the windy and cramped stairs entrance. Ranger John told me the guys who discovered the cave came down on ropes and it took them 10 days to get to the big room. I don't think my destiny is to be a caver.

Mammoth Passages

We were fortunate enough to work in a second tour, Mammoth Passages. The entrance to this one is much larger, never having a cramped and winding entrance. Thank goodness. After two days of climbing and walking a couple miles, I was feeling my heretofore lack of exercise. It was good for me. I need to get my butt in gear and exercise more. After the tour, we continued down the trail to the River Styx stream. NB and I then went to Echo River stream and then to the campsite. He and I ended up hiking about three miles that afternoon. We were HOT when we returned to camp.

Cool Roots

NB and I got to see some truly cool roots. We also got to see a small entrance into the cave. Did NOT go through the creek into the cave. But we did talk to a gentleman who moved to the area 24 years ago to explore the cave, and he sounded like he has used the creek to enter the cave.

Stressing Out

We had a fantastic visit with my college buddy, Cindy, yesterday.  We got to see four of her six kids after they got out of high school.  We haven't seen these guys in a very long time.  As her two oldest start their senior year, they're looking at colleges.  Cindy was going through what colleges run these days.  Holy stink.  Oh, and her kids are taking some college classes right now, plus they're doing some truly amazing stuff in their final year of high school.

I have to get my stuff together for high school homeschooling.  I have some worksheets to help me plan, but I really need to get some experiences and curriculum.  I feel like I'm going to have to come out of my comfort zone, which may mean I don't play to my strengths.  Then I read this article, which did nothing to soothe the freak out factor.

My kids are smart, but that's only part of the equation.  College is part of the equation, but the cost is skyrocketing, so I wonder about the future of traditional colleges.  There is no justification for a $200k college degree.  I hate the stress of living up to expectations.  Fitting the mold.  How do we proceed from here?

Math Revisited, Again

My parents lent us the Great Courses Algebra video and workbook.  I have no answer book for the workbook, and so it was becoming a challenge to grade.  I really don't have the time to go through the videos and do the work myself in order to have an answer for all of his work.  I feel horrible about this.  With that in mind, however, we did go ahead and make the switch to Teaching Textbooks.  G said that the problems in there were easy peasy compared to what he had been doing, so I'm tempted to have him do the Great Courses while we're staying at houses, just to give him that extra exposure to more complex ideas, by without me grading them.  I need to have a way to keep track of his progress in math, I need to know he's getting the concepts the book is trying to get across to him, and I simply can't do that if I have to do all the work alongside him just to make sure he's got the correct answer.  I've got so much going on, that's just not working for me.  I feel a bit of a failure on this one...

Dinosaur National Monument

We've spent two nights here, and the desert is getting me down.  It's been close to 100 everyday, which is no good for me.  Yesterday we spent much of our time in the shade, but today we explored the monument and it's desert eco system.  Holy cucumbers is it hot out here.  Bill took the kids to splash around the Green River over at Split Mountain, but I just wanted some time alone.  So I'm under our shelter (thank you Bill for insisting we get this!!!), trying to convince the chipmunks to just leave me alone! I like seeing the wildlife, but these darn chipmunks are fearless.  

The shuttle to the quarry at Dinosaur National Monument.  It actually did get more full before it headed out, but we were amused that we had it all to ourselves for a couple minutes.  The ride to the top only lasts a couple minutes, but it sure was sweet to feel the breeze!        

The Camarasaurus.  The most intact sauropod found.          

I was amused because behind G is a cast of bones.  They're fragile, not for touching.  The dino bones on the wall opposite this display are for touching.  But I think it's wicked cool (that's my '80s Maine talk coming out) that they let everyone touch the dinosaur bones!             Josie Bassett Morris

This is Josie Bassett Morris' house.  She built it.  She lived in it for almost 50 years.  She kicked butt.  Seriously, she was an amazing woman.  She raised livestock, grew her food, hosted outlaws, took care of a bunch of land and all that goes with that.  So awesome.  But looking back, historically speaking, why learn about her?  What makes her special?  Cuz I sure as shootin' never learned about her when I was in school.  The thing is, stories like hers are important to let us know we can do it.  To remind us that life is tough, but we're built for it, we can take it on and win.  So do I need to remember her name?  No.  But I will.    

Box Canyon.  Which is, indeed, a box canyon.  This is one of two box canyons where Josie would keep her livestock.  The other box canyon is called Hog Canyon.  It was a longer hike, though, and the heat is really getting to me.

Working Through Webelos

It's been a few days since we moved into my parents' house, so it's time to work on Webelos again, right?  Anyway, there are requirements that are just easier to accomplish in a house.  Like listing all the geologic materials you find in your house.  So we did some work on Earth Rocks!  Yesterday we visited Garden of the Gods to take a look at a great geologic site, and today we did an experiment taking us through the rock cycle.  

Balanced Rock.  We've been to a lot of really great geological sites, and inevitably there is a feature named balanced/balancing rock.  But I do so love to see the balancing rocks and how nature is just so amazing.          

K did a good job looking at the rocks and seeing their textures.  We watched some great videos on YouTube about geology.      

This is our simulated sedimentary rock.  We got this experiment from this video.  Who doesn't like working with Starburst?      

The melting process in its beginning stages.  Fortunately my mom has a hot plate, which is actually quite large, so all four of us got to melt ours at the same time.      

 

 

Three hours in, and I quit.  It was close enough, I felt, and I just didn't want to hover over it any longer.   Overall, we've enjoyed working on this elective adventure.  We've got more to do, but so far, so good!

Lone Scout

One of the difficulties of this travel year is continuing the scouting program.  We're progressing as Lone Scouts.  We headed down to the Denver Area Council today.  Bill spoke with staff, I hit the store.  My boys have grown, so several shirts were needed, along with all NB's Webelos stuff and J's Wolf stuff.  G and NS have both earned their one rank since the new program was instated, so they both needed new books, and then NB and J just need their new year's books.  Oh, and all the belt loops and Webelos pins.  It was not a cheap visit! While I was off collecting all the stuff, Bill was off collecting paperwork and trying to get all angles taken care of with the staff.  Bill's been Cubmaster of our pack for 5.5 of the past 7 years, so part of his work today was making sure pack stuff got settled.  The other part was getting our Lone Scout applications and talking about what it's going to take for us to actually do this.  We came home with Lone Scout applications, Merit Badge Counselor applications, and a ton of info. I've also got Leader's books for Wolves and Webelos that I borrowed from last year's leaders.  I'll have to return them to the pack, but I get to get a feel for the adventures before handing them back.  We've actually started working on things, going over information and practicing skills.  I told my den that I would send them videos of our progress for this year, so they can see what we're doing and try some of that stuff themselves.  I actually picked up six elective pins for NB, so we'll get to show the den some cool things we're working on this year that they may not actually have thought about working on.  

Along with getting the new is finishing up the old.  Since NB earned his Bear, I went ahead and attached it to his uniform, but at the same time stripped it of everything that can go on his Webelos uniform.  I'll clean this bad boy and then promptly pack it away, another memory to store.

Educational Waste

Our kids go to a once a week charter school.  They finished up this past week, so I get the joy of going through their backpacks to fish out broken plastic spoons (ugh--when did he even use that????), unopened fruit snacks, multiple office supplies that may possibly not belong to us....  My touchpoint, every year, are those darn composition notebooks.  They're never used.  Not to such a degree that they're necessary.  Out of six composition notebooks this year, only one got used more than halfway.  The other five?  Two weren't used at all, one had two lines used, and the other two had no more than four pages used.  Combine that waste with the pencils, and we've got a serious tree destruction habit.

I want so bad to quit this habit.  I'm a paper and pencil kinda gal.  I'll look up directions from Google maps and then take out an index card to write the directions down.  I'm fine with that.  I use a paper grocery list.  But the amount of compostion notebook waste is mind boggling.  Teachers request these things.  I put my children's names on these things.  And these things don't get used in the classroom.  Isn't it about time we asked more of ourselves?  Why do class supply lists come out before class even begins?  Teachers have some notion in the summer of what they want, and then change their minds when they're actually in the nitty gritty of it all.  Totally understandable, I don't have a year's worth of stuff figured out at a time.

And I can hear the arguments from teachers already.  If we don't ask before school, we don't get it.  It's such a battle to get those supplies from kids, we overask so we can share.  I don't buy either of these.  I understand them, I know them to be true, but I don't see them as blockades to doing things better.  We are so used to being a gluttonous society, just go out and get new.  Replace that broken thing.  Throw out that old thing.  Get more, do less.  Oh how it all hurts.....