I did, I did, I did the Junior Iditarod Trail!

Billie Rose: We studied the Junior Iditarod. The Junior Iditarod is a sled dog race up in Alaska. The Junior Iditarod is raced by kids and their dog teams. They run the Junior Iditarod trail in two days. The normal Iditarod would take 10 days or more! We made a giant mural and put everything about the Junior Iditarod on it. We drew pictures of Alaskan animals, food, stuff the mushers need, a map of the trail, the musher's names and if they are a girl or a boy, their ages, what town they came from and whether they are a veteran or a rookie. We even have their places and a six dog mush team. What I found really interesting about running the Junior Iditarod trail is you can run when you are 14 and when you 18 and everything in the middle of those two numbers. You can't run the Junior Iditarod after you are 18. After you are done with that, in a couple of years you could go into the Iditarod. But you better start training!




Teddy: Well, "Way up in Alaska, the state that stands alone, there's a dog race that's run from Anchorage to Nome! Its a grueling race with a driving pace and the chilly winds still wail, beneath the northern lights and the snow and the ice and its called the Iditarod Trail" (From the Iditarod Trail song by Hobo Jim)

When you start the Junior Iditarod you are not allowed to have less than 7 dogs, no more than 10 on the tow line. Coming back you are not allowed to have less than 5 dogs and you must have at least 5 dogs on your tow line at all times. Some of the mandatory equipment is: cold weather clothes and sleeping bag, a headlamp and an alternate source of light in case your headlamp goes out. There are a lot of animals on the trail such as Bison, maybe a Moose, Bald Eagles, Lynx, Salmon, etc... Your dogs must be very cute! (just kidding) You must have one days food for each dog on your sled at all times, a minimum of 2lbs per dog. You must have one days food ration for yourself on the sled as well, enough for 24 hours, not junk food. No potato chips, Yodels, etc. And you must have emergency rations of 3000 calories in case you get stranded on the trail or something. This year it was so cold that your eye balls could freeze solid. (I think) Rohn Buser won the Junior Iditarod. His dad is also a famous musher who runs the Iditarod. There were kids from 14 different towns in Alaska. There were 13 boys and 11 girls, 26 mushers. A lot of the kids have a parent who ran in the Iditarod this year. I think that these kids are very special. I would like to run the Junior Iditarod someday.


Here's the next part of the Iditarod Trail Song: "So give me a team and a good lead dog and a sled that's built so fine. And let me race those miles to Nome, 1049! And when I get back to my home I can tell my tale, I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail!" (Or the Junior Iditarod Trail!)




Connie: Two years ago we did an intensive unit study surrounding the Iditarod Trail dog sled race. I really recommend doing this at some time in your homeschooling adventure. There are tons of websites and curriculum materials out there. The study lends itself to multiple curriculum areas, but for me, for us, it simply overtakes our imaginations and our spirit! We still follow the Iditarod, we are hooked!This year, we chose to take a closer look at the Junior Iditarod. We were able to review all the geography and science and history and math that we looked at with the Iditarod study. The Junior race, however, though a smaller scale event, was twice as thrilling for the kids. They were amazed that these are kids, close to their own ages, doing this amazing thing, racing across the Alaskan Wilderness, through a snow storm and freezing temperatures, sleeping overnight, outside with their dogs. They Junior mushers are not allowed any assistance. They are solely responsible for themselves and the well being of their dogs. Awesome! There is so much opportunity here for learning and growth, by following the example of these amazing young people!


So pick up a copy of the book "Iditarod Dreams" and a couple of Gary Paulson's books, log on to http://www.jriditarod.com/ turn down your thermostat, look for those northern lights and start to dream...

Mousey Passed Away

Billie Rose:
It all started when me and Teddy were looking in Mousey's cage. Mousey was lying down in a weird way, not moving. Teddy was wondering, and he got me scared that Mousey was dead. In the end he was. When I found out he was dead, I was crying on the stairs.

Mousey was my first pet. You could say I rescued him. He was being sold as snake food. I picked him out for a couple of reasons. First, mom wanted us all to get gerbils and put them in the same cage. I didn't want my pet in the same cage as Teddy's and Jesse's pets. Second, I wanted a pet that Jesse or Teddy wouldn't get. Third, Mousey was the cutest little mouse I had ever seen. The other mice were white. Mousey was black with a pink nose and long black tail. The other mice looked unhealthy, especially the one I was looking towards. He was laying on the cage in the pet store. Mousey was the only one getting his exercise.

Mousey loved me and I loved him. Mousey's favorite thing to do was running on his wheel. His favorite food was seeds. He had a little house. The first time I got him, he had a log but that kinda stinked up the room. The funniest thing about Mousey was that he peed on the top of his cage. He would make his screen all sticky. Mom says that was because he was marking his territory. He would walk up side down on the screen that was across the top of his cage to keep the cats out. I was afraid that he would get out some day. The cats all really liked watching Mousey. It was like a food show for them! The first time that Mousey would let me hold him without getting bitten, I put him on my shirt and he started climbing up!

It maybe was the happiest time of my life having Mousey.

Winter: A Season of Celebrations!

Billie Rose:
I drew a snowflake and some of the big Christmas tree. I also drew the little tree. I drew Santa's clothes. I drew one of the oranges with wrapping paper on them. Its a celebration in the chinese year. You write a wish on the wrapping paper and attach it to an orange. Then you toss it up into the wishing tree! I learned about lots of different holidays, New Years, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Diwali and many more. I really liked working on this this mural.


Teddy:
While we were making this mural we learned a lot about holidays and traditions. Here are a few things we learned:
During Hanukkah you put the candles in the menorah from right to left then light the candles from left to right. I learned that the four symbols on the dreidel mean " A great miracle happened there." During Chinese New Year you are supposed to throw wishes, written onto fancy paper tied to oranges, up into a wishing tree. If it gets stuck in the tree it means your wishes will come true. You also burn incense. I also learned that during Rosh Hashanah music is blown through a hollowed out Ram's horn called a shofar and people eat apples dipped in honey and go to a stream and empty their pockets into the stream which symbolizes getting rid of all the bad things you have done and starting out the new year fresh. My favorite traditions of all these holidays is throwing the wishes into the wishing tree and eating apples dipped in honey. Yum!



Connie:
This is becoming something of a seasonal tradition for our Homeschool and our family. Sometime after Thanksgiving a seasonal madness sets in for us and at some point we long to apply the breaks and we begin to question. What is it about this time of year?

Last year, when December rolled around we were deep into our Native Americans unit study so, we thought we would look into Native American celebrations and traditions that coincide with this season. There are lots of traditional harvest festivals, powwows and circles that happen during the fall. Winter, however, peoples turn their thoughts to the fading warmth and shorter days. Religious and cultural celebrations reflect a certain amount of angst over the increasing darkness and the questions of how, why, and when the sun will return to shower its fullness and gifts upon the earth... Winter Solstice. We looked at Soyaluna and similar celebrations including the Hopi snake ceremony. When the sun has moved so low in the sky that there is the possibility that it may never return, peoples act in varying ways to bring her back. For example, the Hopi snake ceremony focuses on stopping the sun from her descent and chasing her back into the sky to shine upon the people once more. This of course is an oversimplification of a deeply spiritual and complex time for peoples both in their historical and in their contemporary practices. We understand and respect peoples religions and cultures and do not mean to convey or engage in any slight while pursing our explorations and discussions...

This year, once again, come December, we were experiencing our annual social frenzy. Holidays, recitals, concerts, performances, relatives, card-making, gift making, gift giving, decorations, driving around looking at the lights, cooking, etc. Once again, it seemed appropriate to slow down and take some time to reflect and to ask why? Why this time of year? What are we doing? What is everyone else doing? Are the holidays always about religion? How far beyond European cultures does this seasonal whirlwind reach?

What we found was really, really interesting.
In perhaps every culture, every nation, every religion, there is a significant annual holiday celebrated sometime between the end of November and the end of February. Even as we write this, Chinese people throughout the world are celebrating the coming of the New Year. This year being the year of the pig. The celebrations that have been happening during these winter month include numerous New Year and Year's End celebrations, requiring reflection, purging, cleaning, turning away from the past looking to the future, religious holidays of birth abound and are yet another way of turning our collective faces towards the future. Most notably, Solstice seem to be the common thread, the divining factor, the hallmark fixing our gaze and our minds to the end of dark times and forward to times of possibilities. We discovered, perhaps with little surprise, that many, many of these celebrations across cultures, religions and time, are referred to as "Festivals of Light."

Here's a short list of some of what we explored:
Solstice Celebrations: Pagans
Kwanzaa: African American
Hanukkah: Jewish
Ramadan: Muslim
Yalda: Persia & Iran
Bodhi Day: Buddhist
Yule: Iceland
Chinese Winter Solstice
Chinese: New Year
US: New Year
Diwali: India
Gantan: New Year in Japan
Sol: Korean lunar New Year
Chaul Chnam Thmey: New Year in Cambodia
Xyoo Tshiab: New Year for many Hmong tribes in Cambodia
Songkran: New Year in Thailand
Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year
Christmas: Christian

This does not exhaust the list, but these are all celebrations that we looked at this year. What we did, this time around, was more of a survey. We amassed information made a mural and a book. We also collected lots of information about foods and traditions and practices engaged in during this season. Next year, I am sure, we will revisit this topic and try out some of the recipes and traditions. We always approach these topics with the greatest respect for the peoples, the religions, the cultures and the beliefs that we explore.


Peace.

Jesse Sings

A word about Jesse.

Homeschooling is a way of life. If someone in your family is homeschooling, everyone is homeschooling. At least that is the way it is around here.

Jesse, by his own choice, is in public high school. There he gets what he needs in a way that we probably could not match if he was not there. So there he is.

But Jesse is every bit a part of our homeschool as he is every bit a part of our lives as we are all every bit a part of each other's lives.

This blog will be full of what Billie Rose and Teddy are doing. However, we never mean to exclude or diminish Jesse and his doings from our family homeschooling life. Oh, and yes, Jesse does a lot. It makes my head spin. Marching band, Jazz band, Symphonic band, Madrigal choir, Select Choral Ensemble, acting, singing, dancing, academic excellence, gifted in math, all state chorus, all district band, photography, filmmaking and on and on and on...

However, the thing that Jesse loves above all else, is to sing.
And if you have ever heard him sing you too would know his love.

He will be singing in Italy this summer.
Be still my heart.

We'll meet you in Mesopotamia

Connie:
We started off the school year in style by dancing to the song "Mesopotamia" by the B52s!

The kids were gleefully pointing out all the inaccuracies in the song as they worked on their mural
about art in ancient Egypt. (A photo of the mural is posted below. All our murals are about 4' x 8')

This year we will be focusing a great deal on world history. Well, ancient history to begin with. We are using the "Story of the World" series by Susan Wise Bauer as a base. We work on multi-age levels and this series seems to lend itself well to our approach. We begin with the text and workbooks from the "Story of the World" and then expand from there for deeper content, accessing our local library and the internet, for additional source material.

As always, the kids are working on creating their own "text books." (This a Waldorph school concept.) The kids will continue working on creating their history text book for years, adding to them as we touch on new topics. Additionally, they are developing "Time Machines." The time machines are large three ring bound books that they have divided into millenniums, centuries and years, where appropriate. They insert one page information sheets in the appropriate place in time. This book format allows them a visual and tactile reference for when things happened in relationship to each other in time.





Teddy:
Hello, I'm Teddy!
We learned that Mesopotamia means land between the rivers and that this is a perfect name because Mesopotamia lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia is North East of Egypt. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers run through modern day Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

We also learned that later Mesopotamia was divided up into many city states that were constantly battling each other. The same thing had been happening before in Egypt where upper and lower egypt were at war with each other. Eventually, upper Egypt conquered lower egypt and become one empire.

The people in Mesopotamia had many different kings that ruled regions and sometimes the city-state each just had
one king for themselves but no one person ever controlled all of Mesopotamia.

To the South East of Mesopotamia there was a land called Sumer. Sumer had a king. One day one of the king's servants, while getting water, found a baby in the reeds. He took the baby back to the palace and the king said the servant could keep the baby. The servant took the baby and named him Sargon. When Sargon was older he became the king's cup bearer. The cup bearer brings the king his cup and the cup bearer must be very trusted because it would be easy to poison the drink. The king trusted Sargon but he shouldn't have. Sargon became friends with the king's army and persuaded them to follow Sargon instead of the king. He even persuaded them to kill the king and make Sargon the ruler. The army did! Sargon didn't stop there. No. He wanted to be king of all of Mesopotamia. Keep in mind that no one ever became king of All of Mesopotamia. Sargon used the army to take over lots and lots of city-states. He made soldiers move into the city-states to make the people obey his laws. If they didn't obey he would have his soldiers torture them. Sargon lived in the capital city-state called Akkad. He named his empire Akkadia. Sargon was a military dictator. Military means having to do with the army. Dictator is someone who is the one ruler and makes all the decisions. A country that has a military dictator is called a military dictatorship. I will tell you some more about Mesopotamia rulers later.





Billie Rose:
Thank you Teddy! Well, at the beginning of the school year we studied about rocks and minerals. We scratch tested.
We color tested and identified. It was fun! We also studied about Holidays. Well, thats all for now. Bye!