Nature Class

We just got Jake signed up for a weekly outdoor homeschool class where he will get to learn about nature, animals, building shelters and fires, etc. He would probably choose to be outside every hour of every day if he could, so he's very excited about the class. I'm excited too because I really want him to learn about nature, but I certainly can't teach him. I can't tell one tree from another, one bird from another, one track from another...you get the idea.

We showed up for the first day of class and the first person we saw was this guy...

The hilarious thing about that is that we see him ALL THE TIME walking down our street (barefoot) and into the canyon. Then, we'll see him, hours later, walking back. We always laugh about what in the world he could possibly be doing down there all the time. Well, it turns out that he is one of the assistant instructors for this class...and he knows his stuff! He's also super nice. I had always assumed that he spent all his time down in the canyon smoking something from nature, but it turns out that he really is learning about nature. He could answer anything I asked him. (The other instructor has her doctorate from MIT, so she's pretty smart herself!)

The other funny thing was that Addi loved him. She didn't actually talk to him much, but she wanted to sit by him, walk next to him, and be near him the whole time. She isn't usually like that with people that she doesn't know, so Jay is concerned that this is foreshadowing her teenage years and the sort of boys that she'll be bringing home.

Jake has been to two classes now and is loving it so far. He learned how to create fire from simple things they gathered and rubbed together, has explored the only natural hot springs in Orange County, and has fallen into a creek. Heaven.

I, on the other hand, do not fit in with the group quite so well as he does. I sometimes think of myself as being a little "earthy," what with our increasingly alternative lifestyle, whole foods, and natural medicine instead of conventional medicine. I realized, however, once I was actually with a group of "earthy" moms, that I am not so much. These women had walking, talking toddlers coming up to them nursing on demand, without so much as trying to cover any of it up. I considered taking a picture to post on the blog (I don't think they would have had a problem with it!), but I thought that might not be appropriate. We've got a whole semester of these classes ahead of us though...so stay tuned! :)