Costumes - What story do you tell?

This year, as we looked forward to Halloween trick-or-treat time, I told my sons that we would not purchase costumes and that they were responsible for deciding what they would wear from what we already have.  My oldest went with the reliable Jedi, complete with a reversible robe my sister made for him a few years ago. In the past several years, this young Jedi has brought peace and justice to his growing world.

 

 

 

My younger son, who is seven, decided to be the King of Nature. It was so much fun to listen to him as we talked about ideas of how to be the King of Nature. a glitter wood walking stick, a pet (stuffed) fox, and the perfect crown topped off his outfit. I think in the near future we will come up with some wonderful King of Nature stories.

 



Thanks to the Toymaker for the jack o lantern images.

National Park Service 100 Years Strong!

A major effort in reaching the next generation is on for the National Park Service as it begins to celebrate 100 years of public service.  I think this is a great way to start:

Peace

A few days ago I wandered the back streets of historic Philadelphia as I made my way to the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. As I passed Saint Joseph Church, I saw this lovely statue in he historic cemetery.

It is so calming and peaceful.  I just had to share it with those of you who are not following on Instagram. 

Back to Work

I have been back to full-time work for several months and am tired. My commute is long and I miss my kids, but I am trying to keep my focus on the good. The boys enjoy cyber school and are making friends at the learning center. (A huge relief since I wish we were still homeschooling with Oak Meadow. ) My time with the boys is purposeful.  We are able to release our focus on finances. And my job is enjoyable.  My thankful list is in fact much longer, but I will stop there.

It hit me this morning, however, that this blog has taken a backseat as I realized that yesterday was Michaelmas and I didn't get to commemorate it with my family or on the blog. So I've decided turn How the Sun Rose into more of a photo journal of my life, my family, my surroundings, and my thoughts. So sit back and enjoy.

Here is a little taste of my day. I am in New Hall Military Museum, the location of the original War Department in the 1790s. I'm talking with people today about the Revolutionary War as they look at original artifacts including this drum used in the Continental Army

Inspired by Instagram

I've never really addressed it here, but I am fairly involved in social media on a personal level and a professional level. Over the last few weeks I have spoken to several people about social media, the target audience and the objective of different kinds of social media and I have found that Instagram seems lost of some of my friends. It is a great place for inspiration without the trappings & addiction I find in Pinterest - which I could happily spend hours on.

Want to get started yourself? All you have to do is create a free account and explore by typing in your favorite hashtags. Some of mine include: nature, inspired, creative, travel, and museum.

FYI if you want to post photos to your instagram account, it can only be done with the app on a tablet, ipad, iphone, or smartphone.

Here are some of my favorite Instagram feeds (just click on the title):

Beneath the Rowan Tree - Living & homeschooling simply + creatively in Northern Ontario.

The New York Public Library - On a mission to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen communities.

Cat_in_France - Pacific NW transplant living on the Northwest coast of France on a farm called Rabbit Hill

Independence National Historical Park - Experience the site where the United States was born!

Taproot Magazine - Food. Farm. Family. Craft.

Faerie Magazine -  A quarterly print magazine that celebrates the magical and extraordinary

You can follow me on Instagram as well at How the Sun Rose.

So join us and fee free to share your favorite Instagram feeds.

Find Your Park

Today is the National Park Service 99th birthday. All parks are free so get out there, be in pried by history or enjoy nature!  Don't forget to use the hash tag #FindYourPark on social media.

Still pickin'

Something about leaving the big city after a day's work and heading to the fields makes me so happy. (Apparently my husband and sons take this blueberry picking very seriously.)

Raspberry Picking

So many of you know that I work in a big city. It is often fun meeting people from around the world as they visit our museums and historic structures, but sometimes I am simply tired of the noise and the hustle.  Add on a hot day with high humidity and putting on the ranger garb can be daunting. 
Yesterday was one of those days. 

After a long commute home, I just wanted some down time with my kids so we went to a local farm and picked raspberries.  It was so pleasant. There were just a few people out with us, the birds were singing - and eating berries- and my kids were happily helping.  Sometimes it is the little things in life that recharge us the most, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

Lovin' On Dad

In America, Father's Day is this Sunday.  Did it sneak up on you? Me too! So I decided to pull together some easy yet meaningful ways for the whole only to show Dad some love.

 

 

Using twigs you can make a great rustic frame collage.

 

or a Terrarium

Take dad on a night hike and catch fireflies

Go to the city, eat good food, and catch a ball game

Let dad be ten again. Take him to an amusement park. 

If all else fails, simple heart shapes left throughout the house speak volumes of love. You can use acorns, sea shells, nuts & bolts, bits of construction paper, or in my case, sea glass.

A changing rhythm

I have been off line for some time, simply finding too much on my plate to take the time to write here. Tday I am back. Our academic year is over, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed using Oak Meadow, but it is nice to go with a more natural easy way of learning as we go through summer days. I am now back at work full-time and find that I still have a strong desire to be intentional with my sons so you can expect to find that I will still offer up my parenting thoughts, but as our family rhythm and dynamic changes with me back at work, I will include other perspectives and thoughts.

Today, however, I just want to share a simple gathering of photos that I took while walking from the train station to work.  Today I found the energy of  the urban environment invigorating.

Find Your Park - the National Park Service turns 100

Did you know that next year the National Park Service turns 100 years old?  Start planning your 2016 summer vacation now and head out to the parks where we will celebrate with gusto.  This is a perfect opportunity to take a road trip to multiple parks.

If you want to catch an early jump on the celebration, head out to your local National Park for National Park Week (April 18-26). The parks will be free on April 18th and 19th.  Do you already have a favorite National Park, be it natural or historical? Then join us at Find Your Park and share your meaningful moments at a National Park and see how other visitors connect to the parks.

Often visitors ask how I became a park ranger and my story is filled with gratitude toward two people: my dad and a park ranger I only met once.  Three years after I graduated college, I came from Oregon to visit my parents who had moved to Pennsylvania a couple of years before.  Knowing I enjoy history and historic structures, my parents took me to Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.  I remember it as a cold December day and we visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  Later in the afternoon, we signed up for a tour of the Dolly Todd and Bishop White houses.  As it turned out, my mother, father, sister and myself were the only ones on the tour and we had the liberty to ask the ranger a barrage of questions.  At the end of the tour, my dad, who was the most friendly and personable man, thanked the ranger and said, "My daughter studied history and really loves this stuff." The ranger replied, "You are welcome." and turned to me and explained that the very day was the last day the park was accepting seasonal applications for the next summer. Having memorized my resume from writing it many, many times, I went straight to the park headquarters, filled out an application, and four months later, the park hired me for my first park ranger position with the National Park Service.

By the time I returned to Philadelphia for my new job, the ranger who was so kind to mention the job opening had left for another park so I never got to meet him.  I have been at Independence National Historical Park for almost two decades now and still love my job. Perhaps someday I will move on to another park and people will continue to ask me how I became a park ranger.  My story will stay the same, but hopefully someday it will end with me telling Park Ranger Loren G. in person thank you for his role in helping me discover such a fulfilling career, interesting people, and amazing places. That is how I found my park.

Nature Studies

I have managed to pull myself out of hibernation and return to the blog.  I must say that all of this bitter cold has really put a damper on one of my favorite foundations of our home learning: nature studies. 

I have always been a nature lover.  Some of my earliest memories take me back to hauling my stuffed bear 5 feet up in a tree feeling like my five year-old self had conquered great heights. Or a little later, when I was eight, we lived so far out in the country in eastern Washington, that we had an hour bus ride to school. Our trailer backed up to a creek and a mountain. There was a huge wheat field in front and mountains in the distance.  It was wonderful!  I had my own little island in the creek, and was freely allowed to explore for hours on end.  Oh how I wish my sons had that kind of life, but, as of yet, it is not so.  But that doesn't stop us. We hike, camp and geocache as a family often during which the teacher in me just can't help but pull in some observation and learning.

Charlotte Mason speaks so well to my nature-loving mama self:

“It is infinitely well worth the mother’s while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather, to cherish in them, the love of investigation...Let them once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight and habit through life..." (Volume 6)

"...when children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred, and demands some sacrifice, all the common information they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form an excellent ground work for a scientific education. In the meantime let them consider the lilies of the field and fowls of the air." (PNEU article, Dowton)

Do you also find it challenging to keep up nature studies during harsh winter weather? I found this excellent post at Simply Charlotte Mason that will help us both along: Nature Studies Ideas for Winter.

Now let's get out and brave the weather for sake of our littles.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day and Review

 

 

Mark your calendars for January 27th - Multicultural Children’s Book Day! It is a day to celebrate diversity. I have found that by homeschooling, our children are not often interacting with children with diverse backgrounds, cultures or abilities. Cultural awareness and appreciation is important to our family so we purposefully engage in diversity, from cultivating friendships with families from other cultures, one of Aidan's closest friends is first generation from Ethiopia, to culinary experiences, we wish they loved Indian food as much as we do, to enjoying a wide variety of music and books. So when an open call was put out by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom for bloggers to participate in Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCCBD), I offered to participate in a book review.
 

The mission for the MCCBD is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries, and therefor, we will donate our book to our local library. You see, approximately 10 percent of books published have diverse content, but look around us, there is diversity everywhere. Even the latest U.S. census data shows that 37 percent of our population is made up of people of color, and the diversity grows from there.

  Our book came from Tuttle Publishing, founded by Charles Tuttle who was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry after WWII while serving under General Douglas MacArthur. Tuttle Publishing Co. was instrumental in binging a knowledge of Asia to America and published over 6.000 books on Asian culture,, history and art.  Ours is not only a book, but also a cd titled Korean Folk Songs: Stars in the Sky and Dreams in our Hearts. 

 I am delighted to receive this particular book and cd to review. You see, when I was a child, my father shared with me stories of his time in Korea, Vietnam, and Japan as a U.S. Marine. He made these far-away people and places so real for me, telling me of the friends he made as well as the fights he fought for them. Several years ago, while I was working at the Liberty Bell Museum, I was speaking to a man with a group of children from South Korea. I mentioned that my dad had fought in Korea, and he turned to tell the children and immediately they began cheering.  He explained to me that they teach their children to cherish their freedom and those who fought for it. It was such a blessing and honor to meet this group.  I wonder if they learned the songs found in the book.

 

 

First, I must say, the beautiful watercolors that caught my attention right off. They are so lovely, peaceful and filled with nature's beauty whether it be a majestic mountain, sweet rabbit or starry sea. The thing I like most about the book, is that it includes a brief history of each of the 14 songs. Knowing the song's background certainly helps us make an emotional connection. Each song also includes the music, lyrics in Korean and English.  The cd has a child singing each song in Korean  and then it is just instrumental.  The only thing I wish had been included is a child singing the lyrics in English so younger English-speaking children who cannot read could learn the songs. Overall, this is a wonderful addition to our music lessons as well as a meaningful cultural and history lesson.

 

 

 

Listening to the songs and reading the lyrics and the stories that inspired the songs, renewed my interest in Korean culture and I found a few family-friendly activities to share:

 

There is a fun traditional Korean game called Ddakji in which you make your own game pieces using origami. This video is a clear explanation of how to make the game pieces and play the game:

 

 

If your family likes ethnic food, try Maangchi's blog for a variety of Korean recipes including appetizers, entrees, drinks, and desserts.

 

How else can you participate in encouraging the appreciation for multicultural books? How about setting a new year's goal of reading a book a week that includes characters from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds than your own?  On the MCCBD blog you will find a collection of diversity book lists and resources. You can also follow the MCCBD on  facebook or twitter and join us for Multicultural Children's Book Day Twitter Party on Jan 27th 9:00pm EST. Use hashtag #ReadYourWorld to win 10 book packages. Also, First Book is sponsoring a Virtual Book Drive that will help donate multicultural children’s books through their channels during the week of the event. The Virtual Book Drive is LIVE and can be found here.

 

 

MCCBD’s 2015 Sponsors include: Platinum Sponsors: Wisdom Tales Press, Daybreak Press Global Bookshop, Gold Sponsors:  Satya House,  MulticulturalKids.com,  Author Stephen Hodges and the Magic Poof, Silver Sponsors: Junior Library Guild,  Capstone Publishing, Lee and Low Books, The Omnibus Publishing. Bronze Sponsors:Double Dutch Dolls, Bliss Group Books, Author Richa Jha,  Rainbow Books,  Author FeliciaCapers,  Chronicle Books   Muslim Writers Publishing , Author Icy Smith.

A special thank you to the Children’s Book Council for their contribution and support.

Visit our cohosts for more education inspiration:
Africa to America
All Done Monkey
The Educators’ Spin on It
Growing Book by Book
InCultural Parent
Kid World Citizen
Mama Smiles
Multicultural Kid Blogs
Sprout’s Bookshelf

  

Living Books

I trust you are all looking forward to a new year.  The past is behind and the future holds great promise. Well, it is easy to write that, now, but with major changes expected this year on the job front and in our education choices, I know I will have to work at staying positive. But more on that later.

For now, I want to share another aspect in my series on our foundations for home learning. Living Books.  While we do not often use the term "living books" - unless you are utilizing the Charlotte Mason Method - we know what they are instinctively.  They are the books that pull you in and involve more than just learning, they help you make an intellectual and emotional attachment to the subject, whether it be science, geography,history, or literature. As for children's books, they are often the ones we can read and enjoy as adults as well.

With two boys who often just want to get lessons over with so they can run outside or get their allotted video game time - *cringe* - living books often save the day. And I have found that a well-written, engaging book has the power to peak the interests of my child where I would have thought he would be bored. Case in point, for our Oak Meadow studies, my 9 year is reading Heidi, and much to my surprise, he enjoys it, although, he typically wants to read stories about boys.

For a great living books list, visit Simply Charlotte Mason, where books are listed according to grade and subject.