Life cycles - Not Just for Animals

I've been itching to do some more life cycle work with Little Tree.

The one artwork he has done in the last 6 months that I would say is considered and age appropriate was when we were reading a book called Boobook, about Boobook Owls, and he decided he wanted to map the life cycle as it followed through the book. 

It wasn't just his normal expression of lines.  It had an Owl with a face and claws.  It had the nesting hole with some eggs along with some other features that although totally unrecognisable without explanation were actually a considered attempt to visually represent something solid. 

We have done matching cards on the life cycle of a lady bird and it got at least a few uses, over about a week, before he decided he was done. 

The one time I have seen really solid repetition from him was when I introduced the frog life cycle puzzle.  He must have done, pulled apart and redid that puzzle at least 3 times in a row when it was first introduced.  Then there was varying amounts of the same over about 3 or 4 days until he decided he was done. 

Thus I knew there was an interest so the question was how to cultivate it.  He had already done chickens from eggs at preschool so I didn't see any point repeating it.   I couldn't find any easy source of the normal options (ladybird, silkworm, caterpillar, etc) available here so I started nut out what we did have available. 

We had plants so I decided to run with it.

I had grown one quite unusual heirloom variety of eggplant last year.  It got started late and when we around mid year the plant with about 3 fruits got quite badly damaged.  The eggplant survived but failed to set any further fruit and in the chaos of the move got firmly neglected. 

It was around September when I looked around and decided I needed to do something with that pot.  The eggplant was alive and kicking, despite the neglect. Unfortunately the damage meant it wasn't going to be something that would run for a second year so I harvested the fruit with view to seed saving then replaced it with a small rosemary seedling that needed a more visible position and a much bigger pot if it was going to make it through this coming summer.  

The first step in making this about life cycles was to harvest the seeds from the fruits.  One afternoon we both sat down with an eggplant each and pulled it apart.  He only lasted about 10 to 15 mins and took about 7 or so seeds but it was the concept of harvesting seeds I was aiming at not necessarily the execution.  After carefully sorting the seeds from the flesh and leaving them to dry for a few days I put them in a storage container in view to planting them soon.

Um.. well, two months later the first lot went into soil.  Then failed to germinate.  Now eggplants like things hot and we haven't been cold but we also haven't been hot so I was mildly concerned but not totally ready to give up.  In the end I decided on the "throw the kitchen sink at it approach" and planted about half the seeds we had collected all in one go.  I figured that if the fruit had rotted down that is the type of dispersal that would have existed.  To say it was overkill for the box is being circumspect but I was a bit desperate for at least a couple of seedlings to demonstrate.

Thankfully in the last week two have germinated. 

One is looking pretty so, so.  It wasn't strong enough to unclamp the seed casing off it's seed leaves. This is something I have generally found a bad sign but it was the first, and at the time only, one so I do something I don't normally do and unclamped the casing using my fingers. About a week later the seed leaves are tiny and a yellowy green so I don't hold a lot of hope.  That said I am of the firm belief that plants want to live, so generally try and give them a good feed and see what happens.

The second one that turned up in the last 24 hrs is looking good.  No sign of the seed casing, beautifully stretched toward today's drizzly sky.  I'll be a lot more comfortable once it moves into producing true leaves but I think I have a goer here.

They've both been potted into a nutrient rich soil mix to try and get some size on them then into the garden they will go.

My plan is to go from seed harvest to seed harvest this season.  When I put the seedlings in the garden I want to add a little laminate life cycle card to highlight the stages and bring steps we have already done to mind. 

As this project will have been going around 6 months at the point of completion I think this is going to be crucial to give it a solid foundation in reality. 

6 months really is a long time when you are 3 :-)    

High Rotation Reads - Nov 6th through 12th

For various reasons we haven't really been getting a lot of new books from the library.  Those that had been chosen got read once maybe twice before sitting in our library book collection until it was time to return them so it's been nice to find one that is going to stick with us for a bit. 

I don't know how many books Jill Morris and Lynne Muir have author/illustrated together.  I am aware of two, the other was about Australian Owls, and both have been highly enjoyed around here.

As with the other, Magnificent Macropods is beautifully illustrated and full of facts with a one page write up on each animal.  What I like with this series compared to many non fiction books is that it  doesn't take any adaption for those will shorter attention spans as each animal has rhyming verse that points to an interesting fact about the animal being highlighted.  Little Tree also really enjoys the last pages where the relative animal size is drawn smallest to largest to try and give some real world perspective. 

Cot Sheet to Sun Shirt

We've made it.

In the last few months Little Tree chose to give up the only consistent sleeping place he remembers and move into the double bed in his room.

Honestly for a while there I thought I might still be putting him in there until he physically couldn't contortion his way in any more.  He was comfortable and honestly there was no pressing reason for him to move, either from his point of veiw or mine, as I had removed the side and put a bed rail on to stop him rolling out when he was safe to get from mattress height to the floor on his own when he was somewhere between 18 months and 2. At just over 3.5 he decided he didn't fit any more so with no fuss, after producing my secret to the first week, dinosnores he now lulls himself to sleep with room to move.

What this meant is that when I went looking for some fabric to experiment with this full cotton cot sheet was available.  The idea for this project came from a full cotton after swim shirt I picked up at the op shop some time ago.  I found it invaluable for those times when he had been out in the sun all morning but he wanted to be outside after lunch too.  Being light but long sleeved I was happy to let him out again and know he wasn't going to get burnt.

Although I loved it it wasn't until a friend bought me Sewing for Boys last year that I started to plot to make a size up as the current one was getting pretty snug. I actually requested the book based on the online look of the "easy linen shirt" pattern where people had made it up.  The problem was although it made the pattern easy I wasn't really into the whole seam up the front move.  The fabrics I own are strongly patterned and I knew myself well enough to know I wasn't going to the trouble to try and pattern match.  Thus the plot to make it button up was born.

In the end it was a very minor tweak to make it work.  I cut it to allow the seam allowance to go from around 2 cm to 4 cm and tapered it back to 2cm, from the original seam point, to the top where it meets the collar.  Being cotton and roomy it doesn't feel hot to wear, it seems, and he loves space right now so the  stars were absolutely the right choice.

I can see a few more of these being added to his wardrobe for the summer when I have the time

Listen to the Child - Around Here

Today we tried something new.  We entered the Dalmeny Dash which was a fund raiser for the local public school in town.  Little Tree loves to move, preferably fast, and I have always done my best to support him in building both his confidence and his strength by giving him opportunities to build these skillls every day.  That said we were never going to finish the course because we had a 2km ride or so to get to the start line.

The thing is I didn't let that stop us trying.  I know he is still at an age where he really can't judge the fuel in his tank enough to turn around early enough to ensure we get home, normally I make the decisions about distance to circumvent this, in this case I wanted to give him more ownership so I created a contingency plan.

He set a goal.  He wanted to get to the park which was the final turn around point and my first choice was not to talk him out of it.  I knew he couldn't get there and back with the extra to the start line, but he didn't need to; Nanna would pick him up.  He's young, he's strong and he was pretty determined that he wanted to get there so I thought he might manage to make it the 9 km, or so, all up that it would entail.

In the end he didn't ride to the park.  Instead he made it to the second turn, around point which was, around 6kms, or about 3/4 of the way there.  Unfortunately he exhibited a bit of  dodgy risk assessment and had a crash.

That is going to happen when you're still 3.  Anyway the first response marshal was sure he had a bruise on his cheek so was pushing to call first aid for ice.  I let him even though I was sure what he was talking about wasn't a bruise just dirt in his skin coloured nose zink, I was right.  It wasn't until we were waiting for first aid that I noticed what I was dabbing on his forehead wasn't a round puncture but a 1 cm line break in the skin that was going to need a steri-strip to stay closed.  All told it took about half an hr from incident to treated.

I checked the next check point wasn't far ahead of us, I was almost certain it wasn't but didn't want to create a situation where he felt like he had failed because he tried but didn't reach it.  Although First Aid was pushing a bit to pack us in a car back to the rally point, for no other reason than they were probably convinced the last place he would want to be is back on the bike,  I gave him a choice.   I could call Nanna right then or we could go on to the next checkpoint so he could get his stamp.  He had already asked to keep going while we were waiting for First Aid so I was pretty sure of his choice but as I said it was about giving him ownership of the journey.   

 We got there.  The check point had been packed up because we were in the last group off the start, add a half hr to that and they thought everyone was done, but the girls came back and stamped his card and made a bit of fuss of him.  Regardless of from being the proud owner of a split lip and 2 shiny new steri-strips to the forehead he had a great day.

Would he have felt differently if I unnecessarily took control and forced the day to end in a heap on the side of the road?

Honestly who knows.  

What I do know is next year he'll make it to the park if he chooses to.  

In fact I will be sort of surprised if he doesn't make it there and back.

Where I live - In the Sky

Probably Fairy Tern (Sternula nereis Laridae)

Where I Live - On The Water

Wagonga Inlet - Narooma, Nsw

Blowing Out the Cobwebs - Around Here

Handkerchief Beach - Narooma Sth Nsw