Home school during the summer???

That's right. With home schooling we don't take a break for the summer months but instead view everyday as filled with learning possibilities.  Sometimes the kids buy into that and sometimes they don't.  As soon as we arrived at the campsite both Henry Wyatt and Chandler found natural or should I say, "nature-filled" places to read and learn around the campsite.

Although not home schooling in this moment, Chandler (shown with a friend) and Henry found this tree's root system a perfect place to read or write.

Henry enjoyed the trickle of the stream while reading a favorite book.

Camp Hosts

Doug and I have long thought it would be fun for our family to be camp hosts and this summer it worked out to do just that.  We applied online and less than 24 hours later we were signed up.  Sabrina Camp Site in the Inyo National Forest became our home as of May 16, 2012 when Doug set up camp.  Two weeks later Chandler, Henry Wyatt and I joined him and we haven't looked back.  Our dear friends, Gail and Mark, whose home we house-sat all winter/spring, let us use their RV and voila...we've made it home.

The children enjoy the freedom of being able to fish and play along the stream that runs through the camp site as well as meeting campers who come and go each week.  Join us if you can!

Where we hang our hats these days

Uniforms and everything!
Cleanest bathrooms this side of the Rockies.  Weekly comment cards confirm it.  :)

S'mores, fishing, and sleeping in tents...what's not to like?

Chandler helps out at a nearby horse outfitter most days...

...while Henry Wyatt enjoys fishing, hiking, and literally hanging out in trees.

Yosemite

Gail & Mark, our forever friends, drove us to Yosemite and Lake Sabrina to check out the camp site we would be hosts all summer.  The two-day trip was a fantastic journey into the wilderness and gave us a glimpse of the stunning beauty we would live within for five months.  Yosemite pics below...

Granite, granite, and more granite

Gail & Mark, bookends to mi familia

Tree lover

Half Dome

Double falls

Dining Room at the Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite

Chandler and me relaxing in the Ahwahnee Lodge

Pram Progress - April - May

Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I'll let these tell the story of Doug and Henry Wyatt's progress on the sailboat.

Still working on the bottom.

The bottom gets glued in place.

Upright and now it has sides!

Lookin' like a real boat

 

 

The paint job is complete!

It actually fit in the back of the van which helped get it to the lake!

Feb - March Progress on the Pram

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Henry:  I saw five deer.  I saw a deer itch.  I played baseball; Dad won.  We made a pattern.  I am done with my science project.  To make a good pattern, trace then poke your holes then bend lines and you are done.  I am writing and this is my 7^th sentence.  

Dad:  The pattern is made of cereal box cardboard and folds around the bow and transom sections’ corners which are then cut out for the inwale and chine braces to fit into.  The angle is tricky.

30 – 40 minutes and H is ready for outdoor activity.  One-on-one baseball with ghost runners is a good way to wrap it up. 

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Henry:   Today Dad and I got the bottom parts and sides of the boat filed.  Dad and I made a snow fort.  We put the keelson on the boat.   I can not wait to get in the boat. 

Thursday, March 7^th

Henry:  Dad and I filed for 25 minutes.  I said, “What do you want to do or be?”  Dad said he would go sailing in Thailand.  I said two days before I would be in the Olympics of snowboarding. 

I said to Dad, “What if fish could say alive if they were frozen?”  Dad said, “Fish thaw out.” 

Dad:  Stuff tumbles around in a 10 year old’s head.  In a garage away from the homework table and kitchen where chores get assigned as if an alarm trips when you enter and automatic voice calls out, “Unload the dish washer, set the table, cut some salad…” we are in a garage with files in our hands, and thoughts spawn without assignment or grades.  It all stays there when we have to return. 

Friday, March 8^th

Henry:  Today I worked on the boat.  I worked on some stringers.  Stringers are a piece on the bottom of the about to support it.  When Dad and I stepped out side to get back to the house, I saw the moon come up.   Dad told me about the stars and the solar system how the moon goes around us and we go around the sun.

Dad:  Even though the sky details were already well known to Henry, there is a tangible-ness to the shapes and orbits when you see a full moon rise over the top of a forest on a clear night, so close, so quiet, so real.

Saturday, March 9^th

Henry:  Today Dad and I saw that we had to take a board out of the boat.  But we the the right board in.  After that Dad and I played football.  Dad won of course.

Dad:  Tackle football in the front lawn; just pushing each other around for a TD or two.  Good times from garage to lawn.

Sunday, March 10^th

Henry:  Today I worked on the boat.  Dad and I did screwing and gluing.  We had to take three screws to put in one board.  Dad and I played football.  I kicked really good.  Dad won.   We put some wire up.  I found worms and fed them to the chickens.  Today I found all different sorts of bugs.   I also played with Kyle.

Dad:  The inwale beams took extra screws to connect to the bow section.   Amazing how much the wood bends.   We unrolled some chicken wire to keep the hens from strolling into the woods.  Lost one to a coyote last week.

Tuesday, March 12^th

Henry:  Today, Dad and I are kind of done.   We have cut and filed.  We cut and filed the chines, the stringers and the keelson.  While I was working I thought of playing baseball if it had not rained.  I showed Dad and told Dad about snowboarding, and how I went on the rail.  It was fun working on the boat with the best Dad ever.

Dad:  A piece of 2x4 and a triangular wedge of wood became H’s skate park.  He re-enacted his snowboarding runs and rigged up a slide rail.   We just shared the space of the room and had a boat project to anchor the time together.

Monday, March 26^th

Henry:  Today I got one more side on the boat.  The sides are done.  We glued and nailed the last side on to the boat.  My hands are all sticky from the glue.  It took a long time to get a little glue off.  While Dad was getting the last bit of glue on to the side of the boat, I was making a skateboard ramp.

Dad:  Big progress.  The bottom next. 

1.5 hrs       

The bunny rabbit lottery

The charter school Chandler and Henry Wyatt go to, Camino Science & Natural Resources, focuses on...well, nature!  As a result, gardens are part of the learning experience, bunnies are kept in the classroom, and science classes take shape in the form of camping trips to Yosemite.  Pretty cool huh?

When one of the bunnies was about to give birth to "kits" - a bunch of bunnies - Chandler put her name in the hat to be the proud mommy of one.  The day came and her teacher called saying Chandler had "won" the bunny lottery!  First "mom" moments below.

Building Our Boat by Henry and Dad

Building an Optimist Dinghy

Designed by: Clark Mills

January 27, 2012

Henry:  I learned the parts of the boat.   Read instructions.   Set up parts and supplies, tools.  Made a list of things we need.   1 ½ hours

Supply list – On Hand:

Anti- fouling paint

White bilge paint

Dark blue polyurethane

Green polyurethane

Cream yacht enamel

Thinner

Clear wood sealer

Underwater seam compound

3M #101

To Get List

Polyurethane Premium Construction

 by HCA company in OH

Size 8 Stainless Flatheads

Drill, countersink, bits, belt sander, 60 80 grit

Sand paper and sanding bloc

3/16 drill

Bondo or Z Spar glazing putty

A Spar S-120 Sealer

Dad:  We are in Mark Strong’s huge garage working along side a Honda and 1955(?) MG Classic root beer brown convertible sports car.   Both are under wraps while Mark and his wife Gail sail their boat from Mazatlan to Costa Rica for the next 5 months. 

This couldn’t be a more ideal spot:  we are in a house surrounded by pines on ten acres of apple trees and woods.  Marks was a mechanical engineer and designed ski slopes and evidently an avid tinkerer -- he’s got every took and machine from saws, welders, drill press, lathe, table saws… half I’ve never laid eyes on before.  Drawers of screws and stacks of spare lumber, paints, caulking, tape.  It’s like setting up a work shop in Home Depot and having access to all the inventory.  Day 1 – just getting set up.

Monday, January 30^th.

Henry:   I needed to make a jig.  So I wrote a note to my neighbor and asked him for some wood.  He is a builder.  I got some wood from him.  I saved a lot of money.  I stacked the wood up and came back.  Before stacking up (the wood) I took nails out.  My sister helped me.   Time 2 hours. 

Dad:   Next door, about a block away, our neighbor had a pile of lumber from a construction site – perfect for making the jig.  The jig is a frame like a stand that you build.  Then you build the boat up side down on top of the jig.  H & Chandler disappear in a mound of lumber and measure out the right lengths and sort through the 2x4s and 2x6’s and yank the nails out. 

Friday,  February 3, 2012    

Henry:  Today I measured wood.  And I cut wood.   I also organized wood.  I used a tape measurer, a skill saw, an angle, and (safety) glasses.   I followed the instructions.  We finished measuring, and now we are in for hammering.  This finishes the measuring and cutting of the wood.  Work time 2 hours.

Dad:  Henry found some door knobs in the lumber pile and lined them up like trophies; they’ll be his “snow boarding awards”.

Monday, February 6^th

H:    Today I worked on the boat.  I got my pieces (of wood) in place.  I measured some weed.  I also drilled today.  I started the jig.  Dad and I got the jig almost done.  Just a few more parts.  We had to use a drill.  We checked the instructions all the time.  (H’s artwork of jig).

Dad:    It was warm enough to work outside.  Outside, there are a lot of distractions for a 10 year old.  Between instruction checks and measuring and marking, Henry climbed the clothes line – a jib sheet strung between two trees, and had me time him to climb an apple tree, scale out on a limb and drop 4 feet.   43 seconds.  What’s the hurry?

Wednesday   February 8, 2012.

H:   I did CL = Center Line.  I did division by two.   3.5/2 = 1.75.   I also learned that ½= .5.       Time 1.5 hours.

Dad: we are putting the bow, mid-section and transom (stern) pieces together.  They came already cut and glued, but we are figuring out how to line them up on the jig. 

Friday, February 10, 2012

H:  Today I measured.   I cut wood.  I looked at instructions.  We finished the jig.  The fun part was making the jig.  We drilled today.  We cut with an electric saw.  

Dad:  More laps for Henry up the tree and most tools have become make believe guns now.   This can get carried away.  “Henry, can you lend a hand to mark this center line?”

 

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Henry:  I did not look at the instructions.  We got screws from the store.  I got bolts and washers and put them on.  I put a washer on a long screw and it looked like a hoola hoop going down the screw.   Then, we played baseball and I won.    

Time 1.5 hours (plus baseball)

Dad:  Assembled the three arms on the jig.   These swing on long bolts and will support the bottom side of the boat at the bow, mid and transom sections.  

Still enough twilight, so we got out the ball and “bat”.   Chandler and Henry have taken up catch and baseball lately more than badminton.  We found a cedar branch the right length and not too meaty that a good connection would send a ball through a window.   A snow marker serves as first.  Trees are second and third bases.  Home is a mit, a cap, a spare ball.   Henry drove in the winning run on the bottom of the third with two outs and dark and temps dropping fast.   Patsy watched the last hit from her cabin window and came out to congratulate Henry.  Ann had hot enchiladas in the oven waiting for us. 

Monday, February 13, 2012

Henry:  I looked at instructions.  I got the bow and stern.  I followed steps in the snow and found Chandler.  I threw snow at the car.  I made a snow man.  I looked in the dictionary for two words:  Chine= the supporting boards for the bottom of the boat.  Gunwales = the rail on the sides.  Time 1 hour.

Dad:    Snow today.   Big morning entertainment:  tobogganed down hills and into trees.  Snow is also a big distraction to building a boat; no prob.  Dad had his hands full in figuring out the next steps to run the chines and gunwales from the transom to the bow.  We are aligning the chines and gunwales along the bow, mid and transom sections.    

While I bend over the plans, Henry saw Chandler disappear behind the chicken coup and snuck up on her tracks.  She’d transported her snow-girl and was dressing it in a scarf and “talking French to her”  according to Henry. 

Wednesday, February 15^th, 2012

Henry:   I looked at instructions.  I measured today.  Measured and drilled.  I did cutting.  I filed.  I used some tools that look like lights (pistols with laser lights;  aka C clamps with long shafts).  And I scraped.   Time 1/1/2 hours.

Dad:  This is where the visual picture just doesn’t convey the whole story -- no step by step instructions.  So we filed smooth the bow, mid and transom sections, pilot drill the screw holes, caulk them, and sink the screws.   Per the plans, added a bottom brace to the section legs that should help us line these parts up on the jig so that finally we can add the chines and gunwales.

Cleaning is for the Birds!

Chandler and Mom enjoy a picnic on the back porch in the unseasonably warm weather.  But it ain't all R&R.   Chandler bucks up and scoops the poop in the chicken coup, hauls the old straw to the garden, and spreads out a flake of new straw over the floor.   Sawdust in the hen nests is fluffed up and the outside pen is raked.   The coup is cleaned twice a month; Chandler and Henry take turns.   The water dispenser is filled each week.   Just a little farm fun for the family (the kids).

Panning with Friends

Friends visited from SoCal and Henry quickly shared one of his favorite activities...panning for gold.

After that it was time for tractor rides!