Looking for Humble & the Free Range Kids?

We're back and the adventures continue over at our new blog Pip-Pip.

Hope to see y'all there!

Love, HW, Scooby and Marley

Free Range is Dead. Long Live Free Range!

Free Range is closed. Yet another casualty of the Worst Divorce Ever, currently enduring Month Fourteen and counting.

I wish all you wonderful, thoughtful, radical parents who have been part of our six-year unschooling journey much joy and continued freedom to raise your children as your heart tells you. Long live conscious parenting.

Thanks too, for all the kindness, compassion and offers of help we've had over the course of the last year. Love & peace, HW

Nova Scotia

(Warning: Ginormous photo essay!)

This was our happy home, courtesy of my lovely Auntie - a little red cabin called Imbertville. Rescued from an abandoned railway station, it was brought years ago to this breathtaking spot on St. Mary's Bay.




Blackberries grew wild everywhere. We made blackberry pancakes on the campfire, served with real maple syrup, of course. Yum.



We also feasted on fresh eggs, basil and veg from my Aunt's farm, which she homesteads with her wonderful husband Ed. The kids helped milk Hazel the Goat, and hung out with horses Mel and Reggae, rabbits, chickens, Hazel, Basil and Rosemary the sheeps, Crumpet and Molly the hounds, (when Scooby asked what kind of dog they were, Ed said they were Panlickers) and Bilbo the Cat.


Here they be, the happy homesteaders!


My darlin' girl. Oh, how the kids needed a break, and it was so good to see them totally relax and just be kids again.


Breakfast photographed from the doorway of the cabin.


While they had their surreal yet civilized breakie, we invented new ways to make coffee.


Our beach...




Party! Clams and burgers on the BBQ, corn on the cob, potato salad, cherry pie, Guinness, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, roaring fires, tunes from the big red truck, friendly dogs and watching the stars come out. Great stuff.




Playing at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg. The staff were great. This woman was more than happy to let Scooby drag her from tank to tank, and they chattered away about all the marvellous sea creatures. Later a model ship was launched, and the presenters named it after Scooby and involved her in the demonstration. (I'll leave out the bit where the other one had a tantrum about the same time....)




Rainbow beach in Dartmouth during a happy day spent with our equestrian cousin.




Followed by dress up!

Studying Digby's local fishermen...


Studying Digby's Scallop Fleet and their nets...


Studying the ice cream after eating most of Digby's scallops.


Then to the beach to study seaweed!


Scoob contemplating the Atlantic


In a big red truck...with a little red truck. It just doesn't get any better than that.


Or does it?! Rugby, anyone?





'Lomster' break. Lobster bib provided hours of amusement worn as a cape, as Lomster Bib Man dazzled the leather clad masses assembled for the annual Wharf Rat motorcycle rally in Digby. Really can't believe I didn't get a picture of that.


Touring Halifax harbour in a tugboat...


Not just any tugboat, mind you. (sorry 'bout the fuzzy phone pictures)




Visiting Zayla and family in Dartmouth.


Kicking back on a drizzly day in Imbertville.


All my favourite people in one place, relaxed, laughing and feelin' the love. I haven't been happier.



HW

Aww, you guys....

Wylde Woman Award

I am feeling the bloggy love right now.

Before I get these travel pics up, I need to thank La Casa Nella Prateria for this fabulous Wylde Woman Award. To make it even more fun, she fired it over while we were out east living on berries, cooking with fire, bathing in the ocean and pulling twigs out of our hair.

Just in case that didn't make me feel appreciated enough, Raising Explorers at The Wild Child Reserve hurled a Brillante Weblog Award my way. Thank you!

I will share the love shortly (och, the eternal cry of the lazy blogger...)

Back from Nova Scotia

What a beautiful place. We had the most wonderful, wonderful time, and the kids were able to run around free and wild. Will post more pictures shortly - I've just switched from PC to Mac, and am struggling like a newborn eel.

HW

Off to Nova Scotia!

I am so excited.

The kids have never been overnight camping before, and their first experience will be two weeks in gorgeous, rugged Nova Scotia, where we will stay at this adorable cabin, courtesy of our favourite Aunt, whose generosity has enabled us to have a veeeeeeery cheap, glorious holiday. Thanks East Coast Auntie!




The cabin fronts this beach. Ahh, campfires on the beach, watching the stars come out...


In addition to the gathering driftwood/cooking over campfires/going fishing/peeing against trees/star-gazing/sleeping with flashlights/bathing in the ocean joys, we also plan to visit with our Auntie's 64 assorted farm animals...


...wander around a bit and take in a little whale watching.

See you in September!

HW

Of course it doesn't really matter...

how you wish to raise your children, when you are separated from their other parent.

Because that other parent can do whatever they want. Especially if they know something is a big deal for you and will drive you nuts.

Wandering about in beautiful Yorkshire...

thus the bloggo-silence. Regular service will be resumed in a few days, if my power of speech ever returns.

A gorgeous, dramatic, friendly, wonderful place, groaning under the weight of its own romantic history.




HW

Boys, Guns & Peaceful Parenting - Updated!

He has a water pistol now. After begging for one for months.

After making guns out of Lego.

After making guns out of Waldorf tree blocks hand-selected and smoothed by pacifists.

After slaying us repeatedly with sticks, fingers, tinker toys, rainbow pinwheels, porkchop bones and toy whales.

After being shielded from mass media.

Why does he know "the stance"? Why is it so hilarious to yell "Bang! You're dead!"

How does he even know about this stuff?

It was a source of great relief to discover articles like this.

It had been my righteous intention to ban toy guns, even water pistols - and I sure couldn't bring myself to buy him a realistic looking shooter. It made me feel physically ill to see the hyper-realistic ones available, and I carried one around that was shaped like a rubber duckie for half an hour.

But I knew his little face would crumple. He didn't want a water pistol shaped like a rubber duckie.

He wanted a water pistol to be His Gun. To Shoot Bad Guys.

I finally settled on a cartoon-y, space alien ray gun shaped one, and it's quite enough to give me the heebie bajeebies.

So why did I cave? I'm not sure.

As he kept asking for a gun, as gunplay began to replace the Pirate slaughtering sword fights he's been interested in up until now, as I watched him painstakingly building make-do guns out of other toys, I started to feel that taking too strong a position here could backfire (get it, backfire), and make him obsessively interested in this 'forbidden' thing.

Just like taking too immovable a position on Scoob having Barbie dolls, something else I'd prefer they didn't have, might backfire.

I considered the well-adjusted, non-violent men I know, who grew up slaughtering each other incessantly with exploding cap guns, playing with GI Joes, building defended forts and murdering each other in prolonged games of Cattle Technicians & First Nations People.

I thought about that mad, exhilarated, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, lung-pumping thing he does, when he unleashes his little man war yodel and thunders down upon An Enemy, or Prey. We're hunters. Every little boy I've ever met has this in him somewhere.

So I decided to relax, provide a reasonable facsimile of the requested item, and then be present to observe and gently guide and ask questions when appropriate, rather than make guns mysterious, desirable objects of rebellion.

I have absolutely no idea if that was the right decision.

HW

UPDATE: After all that fretting on my part, a few days later he's completely lost interest in it, and is now a Savage Lion most of the time.

Model Airplanes

I'd really love to just post that top picture and let you imagine they flew!

Let you imagine it was glorious!

All of us laughing and squinting against the sparkling sun as the fresh breezes blew our little airplanes across the sky...

Well, really, this happened... over and over and over.....



Until there were wings and elastic bands and rudders and landing gear scattered far and wide across the lawn.

There was still laughing though.

HW

Today's Inspiring Parenting Moment

comes from the lovely Denise, over at Mom in Madison - specifically, this quote:

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again." -Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)

original post with reeeeally great photos, here.

HW

Crickets

How much is that doggie in the window?

Ah, but we were not here for a pampered pooch or a Hairless Guatemalan River Guinea Pig, oh no.


We were here for two dozen crickets.

Nine cents each, in case you wanted to know the current market value of a cricket.

They have visited this pet shop a few times, and the bustling tubs of crickets sold as reptile food seem to have made more of an impression than their predators.


The very helpful reptile feeder/cricket breeder at the pet shop chatted away about the care and feeding of our new friends, and didn't seem remotely fazed that we were purchasing them as pets, not reptile food.


He told us to get a plastic tub and fill it with fresh grass every day.

Check.



He told us they eat carrots and potatoes.

Check.

We may have chopped enough to feed a thousand crickets, actually. Can reduce that...


In they go... (great excitement here, you understand)


Our helpful cricket breeder also told us how to sex them - the females have an ovipositor, clearly visible in this picture - (the middle prong, sticking out the back.) The males do not have this.

To breed them, he told us to dampen a cotton ball, stuff it into a small plastic lid and then watch as the females run to lay their eggs on it.

We also found breeding information here.

Last night we slept with 24 crickets singing and chirping beside us. I expected to be driven half mad, but instead found it surprisingly soothing. I'm thinking, CD of cricket noises! Have to somehow recoup my 9 cent a head investment, geesh.

HW

Co-operation

Shhh, pretend you don't notice.

At four, Marley has stopped taking orders from Scoob and has begun asserting himself all over the place, leading to daily Battles of the Titans, usually requiring the skills of a professional hostage negotiator to defuse.

But this day . . . ahhhh . . . they "co-oper-a-mated" as Marley says. It was that same feeling you get at night, when those Tasmanian Devil blurs of noise and colour suddenly resolve into those adorable sleeping cherub things.

HW

Stingray Bay Exhibit at the Toronto Zoo

An excellent, fascinating and well-presented exhibit at the Metro Toronto Zoo on now, well worth the extra $3 a head that even members have to pay.


Plus we got to ride on the choo choo. Oh and three buses. Yay! On the last bus though, we met Elizabeth, the Stingray Lady, a volunteer at the exhibit, who chatted away about the wonders of stingrays and quite captivated the Scoob with her extensive knowledge of cartilage. No, I'm not kidding.



Twenty or thirty of the animals swim about in a large, shallow tank. They can escape from the humans in the middle of tank, but seem to enjoy roaring up to people and being stroked. They are oh so soft and smooth.

Elizabeth the Stingray Lady tells us they are accustomed to being hand-fed, thus their sociability. Some of them would zoom up and splash us, apparently just for kicks.


I almost asploded with pride when Scoob suddenly decided she Needed to Know More, and marched on over to Elizabeth the Stingray Lady to continue pumping her for information. I just stayed on the other side of the pool and let her do her thing. Later, Elizabeth told me Scoob wanted to know what the red marks were on some of the stingrays (bruises from fights with other stingrays) and more about their relationship to sharks. Proud mama, am I.




Scoob wanted to share the ickle bunnies too. Because they are sooooooooooo cute, she says. Ok, they are. Acute observers may notice Scoob has changed her dress. Did I mention the stingrays splash? Bring a change of clothes. I brought them in case of ice-cream emergencies, and was grateful I had.

(Yes, she always insists on wearing dresses, people always ask. She didn't get that from me.)


And they both took a camel ride, although only Marley's pictures survived.

Camels are really tall. The kids were really up high, and glowing with self-satisfaction at making it all the way around.

One of those things where you think "Ok, as a rule, I don't like the idea of animals being used to entertain humans like this, but the "amazing" factor ("Mom! I'm riding on a camel!") can only contribute to their appreciation for other creatures."

I was thrilled when they both thanked the camel (Mr. Camel) after their rides, as well as the camel attendants.


HW

Little Joys of Summer

This year's garden. Morning Glory Tee Pee frame survived the winter and is now coaxing both morning glories and nasturtiums up its legs.

We've been a little sidetracked at Free Range this summer, as many of you know, and some big distractions (and major sleeplessness) have eaten up a lot of my patience, concentration and energy. This makes me soo sad, because oh, you always want to do your absolute very best for them.

I look at these photos from the summer so far, and am overcome with determination to schedule my worrying into specific hours (after they are asleep works) and work harder on being with them in the moment, and finding my patience again.


He's getting braver, going farther by himself. He went right to the forest path, but then turned around when he heard a Lion. Fair enough.


It's the Bubble Fairy!


A boy and his sandbox.



Have you met the Bubble Fairy?



Sprouted sunflowers! Started with Daddy's help. Marley looks like the poet he is, here.


I dare not hazard a guess. Mad cow?


Marley's pet caterpillars, sadly escaped by the time of this post. Visible is Tenty. Hidden is Robert. We wish them well.

HW

Jog Blogging

The running, it is good!

Lungs didn't collapse, though I could only go for three minute bursts, followed by walking for three or four. Did it for 45 minutes, then walked the 15 back.

I tried to get photographic evidence of the feet actually running, to prove I'd been noble, but decided that was life-threatening.

And ah, the joy of just pounding along, not caring about anything but trying to make it to the next community mailbox before having to stop and walk again. It's very mind-blanking, body loosening and calming.

Going to keep doing this. There, wrote it down again, that means I have to.

HW

Kill Your Television April 21-27

This week is TV Turnoff Week.

The classic starting point for more information, and lots of culture jamming, dissing The Man good times, is Adbusters. I especially like their "You are the Product" theme, as I'm always ranting on and boring everyone rigid about society's slavish pandering to corporate interests.

(Ok, just one - they should be PAYING you, to wear their logos!!! What's wrong with all of you?! Kay, done.)

From a parenting perspective, the greatest resource I've found is the excellent blog Unplug Your Kids. Tons of links and inspiration for those teetering on the brink of tv-freeness.

They are hosting a great blog challenge, so grab this graphic and beetle over and sign up:


We can't really take this challenge because we don't have a TV.

Yes, the kids watch movies and carefully selected shows on the computer, but not everyday, and they don't see any commercials.

There are quality shows, and plenty of things I enjoy, as an adult, so I'm not tarnishing everything available on TV with the same brush. My personal beef with TV is twofold:

1. I don't like the 'habit.'

Just having the damn thing on for 'company' means you're not just allowing excellent nature documentaries, well-crafted dramas and Britcoms into your psyche - all sorts of bottom feeding corporate drivel starts to invade your brain.

2. Commercials.

My kids are not going to be trained to be little consumers. They are citizens. I refuse to allow corporate jingles to be memorized alongside nursery rhymes, in their little minds. I refuse to allow them to be bombarded with the corporate agenda of "More! Bigger! Better! Faster!", and I refuse to allow their ideas about human culture and human beauty to be warped by corporations who live to make a fast buck on the low self esteem and compensatory community-destroying materialistic competition it generates. If anyone is going to warp them, it will be me, dammit!

Having said that, we quite enjoy Charlie and Lola.

Fight the Power!

HW

Mothering Nature Education Fund

Jackie is a home educating Mom with small children. Her husband died very suddenly a few weeks ago.

She needs help, or she may not be able to continue homeschooling her kids.

Please click over to Poppy & Mei Days if you can make a donation to the fund that has been set up to assist her.

You can also support Jackie and her children by shopping at her Etsy store.

Thanks to La Casa Nella Prateria.

The Evolution Revolution Exhibit at the ROM

Beagle on over to The Beagle Project today to read Glendon Mellow's most excellent review of the Darwin exhibit, The Evolution Revolution, now on at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Glendon Mellow is the brilliant science-inspired artist behind The Flying Trilobite.

His gallery is here.

Get Out Yer Tastebuds

An excellent little project! We painted this giant poster of a tongue (what?! It looks like a tongue!) and then filled small bowls with lemon juice (sour), strong coffee (bitter), sugar water and salt water for sampling.

We tried applying the samples directly to the corresponding taste bud, for full flavour, and we tried applying them carefully to the 'wrong' tastebud.

I asked the kids to guess what would happen when we put lemon juice on the 'sweet' tastebud - they thought it would still taste sour, but lo and behold - applied to the 'wrong' tastebud, everything was tasteless!

Swish water around in between samples.

Marley was annoyed I couldn't locate the "hamburger" tastebud.

HW