The Corn Maze

Believe it or not, wandering around lost in a cornfield can be quite fun! It was a beautiful day last Saturday when we went to Long and Scott Farms to experience their corn mazes. The theme of this year's mazes is agriculture, so the larger maze resembled a tractor and the smaller maze was made to look like the John Deere symbol. We probably walked for at least three hours total, but I'm pretty sure it could be done in less time. It was a really fun activity for a fall day and a pretty good substitute for the pumpking patches I loved to visit up north each fall. I think we may be making this an annual tradition.

My "corny" kids.

reading the secret maze map

a cheery colored tractor and a hay bale tractor

Goodbye 2007 and Hello 2008!

The photo above was (as you can see by the stupid date stamp that I keep forgetting to turn off) the final sunset of 2007, as viewed from my front yard. What a beautiful good-bye for the year!

I wish everyone a New Year even more beautiful than the last. I hope that we all keep our eyes open to the beauty of life that surrounds us all, and share our joy to keep the beauty growing. I am confident that we can make this world an even better place than it already is.

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" -- George Bernard Shaw, "Back to Methuselah" (1921), part 1, act 1

White Squirrels

As we were driving through North Carolina recently, we happened to see a white squirrel by the side of the road. It was so cool looking! We had never seen one before, so we made a mental note to "look up white squirrels" when we get home. Well, we got back home, unpacked, and got back into the daily flow of life, almost forgetting all about the white squirrel.

Then my daughter approached me and asked me to give her "a project". She said she didn't mean a craft project, or a sewing project, or anything like that. She wanted a subject that she could look up, find information on, and write a report about. The white squirrel was just the idea we needed! So my daughter proceeded to research on the internet and compile a written report, which she presented to my husband and myself orally. It turns out that white squirrels are extremely rare, but have several colonies throughout North America.

How lucky are we?! We've see things like the white squirrel, that we wouldn't have seen if we weren't in NC for the Live & Learn Conference. And we see children who love to research, write reports, and make oral presentations. I guess it's really not luck at all. It's due to the conscious choices we make in our unschooling lifestyle. We do not spend our days caught in a blinding routine. We work to keep our eyes open to the wonders all around us, the most wonderful sight being our own children, and we are amazed and awed by what we see again and again.

Sharing the Birding Joy With Christy

DINOSAUR HUNTING

We had such fun searching for dinosaurs the other day at the McKee Botanical Gardens. Following the map was like following a treasure map. The kids were running along the paths from one dinosaur to the next. Seeing the dinosaurs in such a natural setting added so much to the experience. They were very realistic, as scientifically accurate as possible, and made by a master in his field. Here's a peek at what we saw.