Nature Play Group

Another homeschool park day with the Nature Play group, this time at Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake in Orlando!  This park was awesome, and it's right near Universal so on the drive home, we could see Hogwarts from the road!  So cool.

Back to the park day - the kids had a great time.  We started off at the children's farm and checked out the horses, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, bunnies, and a few free-roaming cats.  It was a nice turn-out, but again, there weren't any kids Colwyn and Lachlann's ages, so they were a little disappointed.  After checking out the animals, we wandered down some trails until we found a good spot to sit and let the kids play.  It was a fairly cool day (about 70, maybe - warm in the sun, cool in the shade) and the area we picked had a nice slope, lots of trees and places to dig.

Colwyn and Lachlann spent a good portion of their time hanging out at a gazebo nearby, away from the younger kids.  Fiona and Niall got involved in the digging up of many rocks, but Fiona kept having shy moments.  The weird - and annoying - thing was, many of the parents would say to me, when she was acting clingy, "Don't worry, it takes a while for kids to learn how to play in the woods."  I kept responding, "No, they know how to play in the woods, they're used to that - they're just shy in new groups."  But I kept getting that comment.  It was driving me nuts.  Later, when Fiona and Niall were using sticks to dig in the dirt, another mom said, "Look, they figured out how to dig with sticks!"  I couldn't figure out what the deal is with these moms.  Do Florida kids really not know how to engage in free play?  It would never occur to me to see some kids playing with sticks, and get all excited that they figured out what to do with sticks.  "Yes, my children are as smart as chimps!"

As the conversations continued, I kept hearing things that I found a little weird and possibly disturbing.  One of the big things that annoys me about this group is that they don't allow kids to bring toys.  They can bring buckets, shovels, ropes, blankets, etc.. but not toys.  Well, my kids love to bring toys to parks.  Fiona usually picks out a plastic animal and occasionally a doll and incorporates it into what she's playing outside - she builds it a house, she has it interact with (far-off) wildlife, whatever.  So when we get to the parking lot, I have to say, "No, Fiona, you have to leave your dinosaur in the car" and it makes her sad.  But, okay, I can deal with that.  But I heard the leader of the group talking to another new member about why she has that rule, and it made me want to follow it even less!  She said that bringing toys prevents the kids from actually interacting with nature, that instead of playing with sticks and rocks and dirt, and being creative and imaginative, they'll only focus on the toys.  Then the kids will start fighting with each other, because they'll all want each other's toys and it will, in her words, "cause an arms race over toys!"  My head almost exploded when I heard her say this.  I've been taking my kids to playgrounds for a long time - almost 11 years - and not once have I seen them get into a fight over toys.  I've never seen them NOT play with their surroundings because they have a toy with them.  Does she really think this?  Is this what kids are like in Florida?  Is it just because these kids are all younger, and these moms are (I hate to say it) less experienced?  I can't figure it out.

Another rule that annoys me is that we can't play at playgrounds.  The parks we've been to have all had great playgrounds nearby, but we're not allowed to go there.  The goal is to play in an unstructured natural environment, not on a playground.  I find it annoying because we inevitably have to drive past the playground to get to where we're going, and I have to tell the kids no, we can't stop.  I mean, whatever, I'm willing to do that because it's just one more out of a hundred things I have to say no to every day, but what's wrong with playgrounds?  I eventually worked up the nerve to ask about it, in a very deferential way.  I said, "So.. do kids around here not know how to play like this?  Like.. when you go to a playground, do they not eventually go off and climb the trees and play in the surrounding landscaping?"  I was told that no, kids do not do that, that most parents down here are afraid to let their kids step off the sidewalk, that they're all helicopter parents.

Okay, I can believe that.  Fire ants, giant spiders, sure.  But I explained that up in Massachusetts, park days happen at big parks where there's a playground, and while the kids might start out playing on the play structure, they very quickly end up building things with branches and sticks, playing hide and seek in the woods, climbing on rocks, etc.  I don't think they disbelieved me, exactly, but they definitely didn't think that would work down here.  But what I thought was really funny was that while they talked about how being a helicopter parent is so bad, they were also trying to direct their kids' play.  The kids were very happily digging up rocks, quite content, when the moms all decided that had to stop and that we should all build a lean-to out of big branches.  Then they started doing it for the kids.  I mean, the kids were definitely involved, but it was not 'unstructured free play' - it was parent-led play.  At another playgroup, I suggested Fiona go build a fairy house - something she came up with all on her own a year or more ago at park days while I was chatting with the other moms and not directing her play, and has loved doing ever since - and all the moms jumped on it, like, "Oh, I know how to build a great fairy house!  Look, do it this way!"

Don't get me wrong, the group is not all bad.  The moms are quite lovely, as are the children.  They know all sorts of great parks to go to, and hey, social opportunities are social opportunities!  I'm not going to give up on it just because it's different from how I'd like.  But it's just kind of weird, and I'm struggling to get a grip on what the local parenting/homeschooling culture is like.  There's a lot I just don't get.

And hey, the kids did have a great time building that lean-to!

Colwyn and Lachlann even found some animal bones in the woods.  I let them spend a fair bit of time examining them by themselves, showing them how to use sticks to gently move the bones so they could see them properly, how to gently move aside the leaf layer to look for more bones, and how to - well, not articulate them - but arrange them in the right order.  Then we called the munchkins over.

While the littles were all examining the bones, I started searching for the skull nearby (thinking of past Bones episodes the whole time!) and found it a couple of yards away.  Again, I let the boys have time checking it out before calling everyone else over - all the little kids were picking up the bones with their hands, saying that they wanted to take them home.  Thankfully the moms said no, that they needed to leave them here for other people to have fun discovering.

And because I can't let things go, I'll mention this.  I was further annoyed with this article that was sent out to the group:  We're Ruining Our Kids With Minecraft

There were a few good points in the article, but I get annoyed with titles like "We're Ruining Our Kids With Minecraft" - it's pandering and sensationalism.  Out of all the various 'screen time' diversions, Minecraft is the least likely to ruin our children.  He makes the point that kids need:  "kind of play that has … no defined script, and no end goal other than inventing worlds and coming up with ideas."  That's exactly what Minecraft is.  Especially when you add in the ability to make mods to the game, too.  And to say that it becomes just 'labor' is missing the point that even if your kids are out in the woods building a fort or digging in the sand, at some point it's just 'labor' too.  To dogmatically eschew any form of entertainment that can't be found in the woods is to miss out on a lot of things that can be beneficial with some balance.

I do like the author's points about parents not structuring children's play.  Already discussed that above.  It's not really unstructured play if parents are telling the kids what to do, you know?

I also agree with the idea that you can't really expect kids to engage in the kind of free play we value if they have unlimited access to electronics.    I know if I let my kids, they'd play video games all day.  But I also don't see any point in placing rules on how they engage in free play, either.  My kids have created some epic imaginary worlds in our backyard, digging canals (which later became rivers with the help of the hose), using branches and leaves to make houses, and populating it with all manner of plastic figures.  All because I was too busy reading my book or chatting with a friend to push them on the swings.

Ah well.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to stretch and grow, to learn to become more flexible and accepting, to lean into discomfort.. in addition to all the actual fun parts of this group!

O Christmas Tree

Finally got our Christmas tree, a little later than usual this year.  For various reasons we couldn't make it to the one tree farm in the area where you can cut your own tree, so we just went to a roadside stand.  It was one of the few times that I've missed living up north.  Even when we had to go to a tree stand up there (like we did last year in Maine, since we were too sore after moving the day before), there was a really good selection and the trees looked fresh.  These trees down here were just.. meh.  But we got it home and once it was decorated, it looked pretty good.

Unfortunately, even with a fresh cut, the tree is not drinking.  At all.  Doug suggested we get a fake tree next year, but that will never happen.  We'll just plan better and go cut our own.  It'll be interesting having a Florida tree (probably a sand pine) instead of one of the northern species.

We also decorated the front of the house a bit.  Our inflatables did not survive, so that was disappointing, but we had plenty of lights.  Unfortunately, we were all out of 3M Command Hooks to make the lights go nicely across the arch, and we were too lazy to go out to the store to get more, so we just strung them across.  Not our best work, but oh well.

Wishes at the Contemporary

Even though we were at Disney for two weeks during our September vacation, we actually never got to see Wishes (we did get to see Hallowishes, but it poured on our Wishes night).  We can hear the fireworks from our house, and since it's been such a long time, I was dying to get over there to see the show!  We decided to watch from the Contemporary because the kids had never done that before, and it'd been over fifteen years since Doug and I had.  We got there fairly early and looked around, first scoping out the observation deck, then checking out the gift shops and the gingerbread display.  I'm not a big fan of anything contemporary, but the kids liked the Frozen theme.

We had time to kill, so we decided to do a circuit on the resort monorail.  Unfortunately, when we got to the Grand Floridian, the monorail broke down.  We had to get off the monorail and get in line behind everyone who was already waiting to board.  We briefly debated just taking the boat over to the MK and walking to the Contemporary, but that would have taken forever and they assured us that another monorail was on its way.  We only had to wait a few minutes before another one arrived, but boy, we were crammed in there.  We made it to the Contemporary with plenty of time to spare, so no biggie!  The good spots on the observation deck were already taken, though, so we climbed up the exterior stairs (just one flight was enough) and got a great spot.

It was a great view, but the music wasn't piped in, so I think next time we'll go to the Grand Floridian dock.  Either way, you're a little off center, but we don't mind.  On our way out, we stopped by the big tree out front to take some (blurry) pictures.  Niall loves this tree.

I don't know what Lachlann was doing here.  Maybe measuring his head compared to the giant ornaments?  Looks like he's voguing.

Nature Play Homeschool Group

We finally made it to a meetup of the Nature Play group!  I read the book Last Child in the Woods when it came out (loved it!) and have always believed in letting the kids have unstructured play time in the woods, so I've been looking forward to going to one of these Nature Play Meetups since before we moved down here.  I'll admit to having been a bit worried that the parks down here would be more concrete jungle than I'd like.

We met up at Moss Park, which is a bit of a drive for us.  I was also slightly unprepared for the tolls, and I didn't know that there was a fee to get in to the park, so we had to turn around and find an ATM.  Side-rant:  there are a LOT of toll roads down here, and a significant portion of them are ONLY exact coins.  So even if you have a $20, if you don't have three quarters, you're out of luck.  It's really annoying, but now I have a transponder, so going new places shouldn't be as stressful.

Anyway.  When we got to the park, there was only one other family there with a couple of youngish boys (7 and 5 maybe?).  The mom was super nice and showed us around, warning us to watch out for spider webs (Google 'banana spiders' - ugh!).  There were huge dirt piles at the parking area - dump trucks kept coming and unloading while we were there, too - and the kids had a lot of fun climbing the smaller ones.  We were a little nervous about this one expansive 'complex' of dirt mounds that were really high and had been obviously built upon over and over - we thought there was a risk of it collapsing, so we stuck to a single mound that seemed more stable.

Fiona and Niall had fun playing on the dirt mound and exploring the brush, but Colwyn and Lachlann got a little bored - probably because I think this group skews young.  But they did have fun catching lizards!

We had a good time, but I'm not sure how long we'll last with this group.  I think there may be some issues that might get annoying over time (stories for another post!), but we'll see.

Awesome New Playground

In our quest to find the best parks in the area, we went off looking for Palatlakaha Park which, according to the City of Clermont's website, has a huge wooden play structure in addition to a fishing pier/nature walk, all sorts of ball fields, and bathrooms.  I put Palatlakaha Park in the GPS and we set off.  It took us to this tiny little park that did indeed have a boardwalk type thing, but the playground was minuscule.  Of course, we were out in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have a signal.  After driving around for a bit, I was able to get the City of Clermont's website to load on my phone and saw that they describe the location as the unspecific "Twelfth Street just south of Highway 50."  So we drove over that way, and finally, a full hour after leaving the house, we found the right park.

I'm still not sure what it's really called (it doesn't show up on Google Maps at all), but it was in fact a very cool park.  Lots of ball fields, sure, but the play structure was the big attraction for us.  It was similar to Eagle's Nest playground in Ipswich or Planet Playground in Exeter.

The playground is shaded by huge trees with lots of 'moss' hanging down.  It's very cool.  The fishing pier/nature walk is pretty cool, too.  There are tons of signs warning you to not feed the alligators, but we didn't see any.  We'll definitely be going back to whatever this park is called.

Photo Shoot at Wilderness Lodge/Ft Wilderness

We headed over to Disney to take our Christmas picture this year.  We saw the parks decorated for Christmas when we did our January 2013 vacation, but didn't get a chance to see any of the resorts decked out for the season.. so we've been very excited to explore all the resorts we never bothered with because we were too busy riding rides.

Our first stop was the Wilderness Lodge, and I was super excited.  I've heard wonderful things about the resort, and it's definitely right up my alley - I love the style/theming and if I could live there, I totally would.

We got photos in a bunch of different spots so we'd have lots of options.  The lighting wasn't the best, and I was only using our point and shoot (with four kids to wrangle, it's not worth it to me to mess around with different settings).

The kids loved looking down into the lobby from the upper floors.  Seriously.. this has got to be one of the most beautiful resorts, Christmas or not.

We headed outside to check out the grounds and decided to take the boat over to Fort Wilderness since it was such a lovely day.  The light outside was amazing for pictures, but kind of hard on the eyes during the boat ride.

We got this great picture at Ft Wilderness, which we ended up sending with our Christmas cards.   I think it's funny how they're all wearing (relatively) nice clothes, but flip flops and Crocs.

We let the kids play on the playground for a few minutes, then went over to the Tri-Circle-D Ranch, which is where they house all the horses they use at Disney World (that pull the trolley and whatnot).  The kids thought that was pretty awesome (and so did Doug and I).  Fiona was especially excited about the horse that kept nickering in response to her blowing raspberries.

We headed back to Wilderness Lodge after a bit and got these photos near the waterfall.  There was a lot of construction going on, but we found some good spots for pics.

This one is my favorite, hands down.  I was trying to get them to just stand next to each other, but Fiona and Niall were being silly, and I got this shot just before Colwyn and Lachlann pushed them away.  Adorable!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our first holiday in Florida!  We were invited to spend the holiday with family down near West Palm Beach, but we were (are) so exhausted from unpacking that we weren't up for the 6 hours in the car that would require.  A nice quiet Thanksgiving in our new home was just what we needed.

I made the acorn squash and butternut squash the day before, which let me have a nice lazy morning watching the parade with the kids while Doug got the turkey going.  I got my gouda mashed potatoes done just as the turkey finished, and Doug took care of the stuffing.  It was a gorgeous day outside, not quite 70 degrees and sunny, so we decided to eat out on the lanai.  It was actually our first meal out there, and it was a good one!

I asked the kids to put on some decent clothes instead of just t-shirts, and this is what they came up with.  The hat is from Colwyn's Indiana Jones costume, but it reminds me a lot of Carl from Walking Dead.  It's a bit unnerving.

I don't know if Niall was pretending to punch the camera or what.  Fiona and Niall ate as little as they could get away with so they could go play with some toys in the Jacuzzi.  Doug and I cleaned up super quick because we promised we'd take the kids to see Big Hero Six.

The closest theater to us is actually the AMC at Downtown Disney.  We were excited to try out the new parking garage which is right next to the AMC.  We'd heard many a rant about the parking situation at Downtown Disney and this parking garage that they took forever to build, so we were really surprised to pull up to see that it's maybe halfway done, and only partially operational.  It was painfully (and hilariously) clear that they were getting way too many complaints about the lack of parking and opened it up as soon as they had a few spaces that people could park in.  It was quite convenient to the West Side, though, but I'd have been pissed if that was the only parking and I only wanted to go to the Marketplace (which is a good long walk at the other end of Downtown Disney).

We all absolutely loved Big Hero Six.  Baymax totally stole the show.  Doug and I were giggling at his antics right along with the kids.  Aside from that, the movie had a lot of heart and I really loved the emphasis on STEM.  I have a lot of favorite Disney movies, and this one is definitely close to the top.

We had decided to skip the pies and other desserts because we knew the kids would want to get candy at the movie theater.  But we got there so soon after gorging ourselves at lunch that we weren't hungry, so we made the long walk to the Marketplace and Goofy's Candy Company.

We missed it on our last vacation, so the kids were really excited to get to pick out a treat from here (and even more excited to not have to stick to items on the Dining Plan!).  Lachlann got a giant chocolate-dipped chocolate chip cookie shaped like a Mickey head, Fiona got a pink Mickey cake pop, Niall got a M&M and chocolate covered Mickey Rice Krispie treat, and Colwyn did a make-your-own Rice Krispie Treat which ended up being just like Niall's.

 They had an amazing time, and it was lovely to be out at Downtown Disney.  The Christmas decorations looked great, and it was cool and breezy - such a difference from the last time we were there!

On the way home, we decided to swing by Walmart because they had a good deal on Disney Infinity figures, among other things, but when we pulled up, we were shocked at how packed it was.  Their oversized lot was full, as was the (closed) Lowes' lot next door, and the couple of fast food restaurant lots closer to the road.  It was bonkers!  So instead we went home, had a little bit of leftovers and cuddled, then put the kids to bed.  Then I ran out to Michael's and Target, both of which were packed as well.  I wasn't expecting so many stores to be open Thanksgiving evening and for it to be so busy.  We're not in Massachusetts anymore!