Franklin Falls Dam

Friday found us braving the 'prevailing' winds at the Franklin Falls Dam in Franklin.  This flood control and recreation area is maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers.  We met up with our old friend from Profile Falls, Natalie McCormack from the Corp.  Natalie, who the children think is one of the coolest folks around, showed us the inside workings of the dam!  Access is limited to this area of the dam - the area where the flood gates are controlled and the the 70 year old crane is housed!  

This shows the massive gear that is part of the lift system that controls the flood gates.

After a tour of the inside of the dam, Natalie took us out to a vernal pool to search for tadpoles, frogs and water bugs!  While we were not all that sucessfull locating tadpoles and frogs, the children still had a grand time investigating.  The recent rain had greatly expanded the surface area in the pool, giving the creatures many more places to hide out!

Here the children were investigating a newt and newt eggs gathered from a nearby pond.

At the Activity Center, there are many native, stuffed animals that have been donated to the folks at the dam to use in educational talks.  The kids were amazed to find out that a baby moose is as tall as them when it is born.

I think that the dam was one of our best outings.  It is such a great space for young children.  They have a great playground and picnic area and miles of walking and bike trails in addition to the paved section out to the dam.

I dream of spaces like that for our future home!

The kids would love to take you back to the dam and show you all around.

They've Hatched!

These pictures were taken early last week.  The little tadpoles started emerging from their eggs overnight on Sunday and through the day Monday and Tuesday.  At last count we successfully hatched four healthy growing tadpoles and Mrs. Broome sent down two strong young toddlers to add to our brood!

Happy Mother's Day

Even ten little finger

Can't count the ways

You care for me

Each and every day.

This was the verse that we put in the Mother's Day cards we made this week.  All week long we were a hustle and bustle with preparations for this big day!  About two weeks ago, Mrs. Sharp helped us paint the flower pots needed for our herb gardens.  Unfortunately our window does not get a lot of direct sunlight, so our plants were just starting to pop up when they went home Friday afternoon.  

In addition to the herb gardens, we had a special visit from one of our crafty parents on Wednesday. Sarah came in toting her sewing machine and all the fixings to make lavender eye bags for each mom. The children each took turns working with Sarah to sew, and stuff their eye bags.  They were each so proud of themselves and their newly acquired skill of sewing!  Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the sewing in progress, but the eye bags are neatly wrapped in the tissue paper below! 

In honor of all the Moms at HCMA, I would like to thank you for sending your most prized possession into my care each day.  You send them to school each day so well loved and cared for, that learning is effortless for them.  While they may not tell you often, I can tell that you are doing an amazing job in your job as Mother!  A very happy Mother's Day to you!

Math At Its Best!

The mathematician who made this wanted me to post it for his dad to see!  We had played a game with these blocks and then the student started making a pattern with them.  We talked about how it looked a lot like a quilt square and then together we got to looking at the sums in the square.  Look closely.  One plus one is two.  Look at the blocks... one white, plus one white = two blocks.  The sum is 2. Look at the red blocks.  Two plus two is four.  Now how many blocks are to the left of the red ones?  Two white and two red, that is four blocks.  Two plus two is 4.  Okay one more.  Look at the  purple fours.  Four plus four is 8.  How many blocks are two the left of the purple?  Two white, two red, two light green, two purple.  That is 8!  We discovered that this works through the entire pattern!  How proud the mathematician was!

Sugar and Spice & Puppy Dog Tails

As a rule, this group of children tends to play very well together.  Often all 6 are playing one game.  For example, last fall, playing frogs was a favorite.  There would be a mom and dad frog and then there would be baby frogs that would all hatch from eggs.  This game morphed into playing babies, again, there would be a mom and dad and then a family, big sisters, little brother, and new baby. I was surprised a bit, that everyone wanted to play this game, it didn't matter, boy or girl might be heard saying, "Hey, do you want to play babies?" They really have played hours of babies over the course of the year.  However, this week I was struck by the play that emerged.  

The girls decided to bring in their fairy dress costumes and the boys each had a ready supply of building blocks!  I took these picture at the very same moment.  Girls at one end, playing fairies and drawing pictures of butterflies and water fairies.  Boys at the other end, building spaceships out of legos.

Oh how I had flashbacks to my recent reading of "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" by Peggy Orenstein. However, I took solace in the fact that the girls often do engage in lego play, and do charge around the playground in hot pursuit of the Ninja boy ahead of them.  Like wise, the boys play babies and house. However, I think there is something to sugar and spice and puppy dog tails.