Home on the Range

Guest post by Crazy Fox.

We went to a cattle ranch and we saw a lot of cows and some babies.

There was over 325 cows all together and we got to feed them all.

We got to ride on a hay wagon and it was fun.

The cows were hungry.

I like this cow a lot because he looks cool.

These cows are heifers. That means they have not given birth to a calf.

Just One Extra Hour . . .

So much for resolutions.

We woke up this morning to fresh snow. I had big plans for today. A new week, a new year and a new schedule. We were going to start school as soon as the Zookeeper left for work. The only problem is, I love to have fun with my kids. I love to make memories with them. I think it is one of the joys of home schooling to tell your kids they can go play in the falling snow. We still got all our school work done. We just took one extra hour of Christmas vacation.

Little Lady and Crazy Fox making snow bricks.

Digging Badger making a stockpile of snowballs.
(Thanks Great Grandma and Great Grandpa!)

Crazy Fox sliding down the hill.

Digging Badger on his snowboard.

Little Lady doing what Little Lady does.

Our Knights in Shining Armor

We are in the middle of our Christmas break from school. We have been studying medieval times. The boys have not given up their lessons completely though. They have been taking advantage of the snow and acting out jousting tournaments in our yard. But instead of horses they are using sleds and instead of lances they are using pool noodles.

They have been doing this a lot.

Obo Addy

Last week we went to an incredible African drum and dance performance. We went to see Obo Addy. He is a Ghanaian drummer. The kids with amazed with the dancers. We went during a school performance so the whole auditorium was filled with elementary aged kids. Obo Addy engaged them and they were all clapping to the music and yelling along with the songs.

They have been making drums out of Tupperware containers and plastic wrap since then. It was something they will not soon forget.

He who cannot dance will say: "The drum is bad".

African Proverb

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians

The kids and I made corn husk dolls. It was so much fun! We had our corn stalks out on our porch by our pumpkins, so we pulled some off and soaked them for a while.

Then we rinsed them off and Crazy Fox dried them for us.

I helped Little Lady make hers, but the boys did theirs all by themselves. They wanted theirs to be boy indians, so we added a headband and cornhusk feather at the end. They played with them all day Friday. I could not believe it. Of course, the boy's Indians were from different tribes, so they were at war. The good news is they were both protecting the Indian princess!

One little, two little, three little Indians!

Chief Grey Wolf

We are studying American Indians right now. I read about an Indian tribal meeting in the newspaper. I called the number and spoke with Chief Grey Wolf of the Metis tribe. He sounded so excited to have a new audience. He said the kids could drum and he would explain to us about all the things that their tribe does. So, we went with the Reeve family (they are studying American Indians too) and the kids did get to drum. We were expecting a more authentic tribal meeting but, the kids will never forget that drum.

They were listening to the beat . . . getting ready to join in.

Everybody walks to the beat of a different drum in this group!

Especially this someone!