Lazy Parenting is an Oxymoron

Is anger just a cover-up for other, unidentified emotions?  How do I see what's really behind the yell, the whine, the book slammed on the table?


Could it be that  "I hate learning Spanish" really means "I'm used to being able to say whatever I need to, and to being able to answer hard questions and meet new people, and I know I'm not going to be able to do that when we move. I'm afraid of sounding silly (or of being lonely or of embarrassment...).  So Instead I'm going to fight you about learning this new language so I don't have to think about all the changes that are coming."


I have so much to learn.


A while back I read a book by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend.  Boundaries with Kids opened my eyes to a lot of things I needed to see about how I guide my children with love and limits.  Recently I picked it up again and now I realize how much I STILL need to learn.  Helping children express themselves in a safe, healthy way that respects those around them is a big job, a job I'm often too lazy to do well.  But it is my job, the one I've been given by God Himself.  And there's no room for laziness in a job that's been assigned by the King of Kings.  


Time to buckle down and align the priorities I set for my time and energy with the priorities He sets for me.  That will involve reading the whole book again, but, more importantly, it will involve lots of prayer and time with my Lord.  He'll guide me.  I know He will.

Dandelion - 100 Species Challenge

7.  Dandelion

     Taraxacum officinale

I wrote about our expedition to discover more about the dandelion in our Outdoor Hour Challenge.  But then I realized that this handy, resilient little plant could serve more than one purpose:  by looking up the official name of this bright fellow, I could bring my 100 Species Challenge list up to the whopping total of 7!

Before doing our study of the dandelion, I already knew about the long, strong taproot which makes the plant virtually ineradicable.  I recognized its leaf shape, knew about the way it chokes neighbouring plants out by shading them, and had watched the flowers go from bud to blossom to seed.

What I didn't know was that the dandelion is actually a composite flower, each head being made up of hundreds of individual florets.  And I knew that the head changed from sunny yellow to white fluff, but didn't realize that the head took several days of opening and closing (morning and night) before it opened fully, and then it would stay closed for a couple of days (I have yet to watch one to see how many) before reopening as the fuzzy white ball that is so much fun to play with.

The plants grow to slightly exceed their neighbouring plants in height.  When on a short grassy lawn they are short themselves, the bloom stalks being only a couple of inches in height.  But when in a grassy field, they grow taller, always outstripping the plants around them.

The leaves on the ones we observed were between 3 and 5 inches in length, slender (only about an inch wide at the widest part), and deeply notched.  They are said to resemble the teeth of a lion (dents de lion), which are quite jagged, apparently.  The flower heads were from 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter when fully open, the buds less than 1/2 of an inch tall and about 1/4 of an inch across.

It was hard for me to follow all the structural information about the dandelion.  Some familiar terms came up (anther-tube, stigma, corolla, etc.), but new terms like involucral bracts, akene, and pappus will take some getting used to.

All the information I gathered about the taraxacus officinale came from Anna Botsford Comstock's fabulous book, Handbook of Nature Study.  I really like the way Comstock talks about the specimens as individuals.  She gives them character and invites us to be friends with them.  What a great way to learn about nature.

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Dandelions

We had to leave our for-sale house for an hour again today so people could go through it, and before we left I let the children choose if they wanted to do an Outdoor Hour Challenge on maple trees or dandelions.  They chose dandelions, so I loaded up my bag with supplies and we headed out.


As we walked to the park, Little Man and Brown-Eyed Boy picked dandelions for me, pulling them from their host plants and proudly carrying them to me.  I gathered them together and laid them beside me on the bench once we arrived at the park.

I let The Ones I Love play while I read the Handbook of Nature Study, pages 531-536, and obtained some background information about dandelions.  (Did you know that their name comes not from their lion's-mane-like blossoms, but from their leaves which look like lion's teeth in profile "dents de lion"? Well, you do now!)

The play was going so well, and I was so intrigued by my study of the dandelions the boys had brought to me, that our hour passed quickly.  

It wasn't until we were home that we continued the dandelion study.  While we ate our snacks, I read a few highlights from the Handbook:

One spring when all the vegetables in my garden were callow weaklings, I found there, in their midst, a dandelion rosette with ten great leaves spreading out and completely shading a circle ten inches in diameter; I said, "Look here, Madam, this is my garden!" and I pulled up the squatter.  But I could not help paying admiring tribute to the taproot, which lacked only an inch of being a foot in length.  It was smooth, whitish, and fleshy, and, when cut, bled a milky juice; it was as strong from the end-pull as a whipcord; it also had a bunch of rather fine rootlets about an inch below the surface of the soil and an occasional rootlet farther down; and then I said, "Madam, I beg your pardon; I think this was your garden and not mine."

HNS p.532

I sent My Girl and Little Man outside to gather some specific specimens. My Girl brought in a dandelion plant, complete with root intact. 

 Little Man was brought five dandelion buds at various stages of development.

We then began our observations.  My Girl and I sketched and described the leaves of a plant, while Little Man dictated his description to me and I wrote it in his nature journal.  Then we investigated the root, noting the things about it that make it such a hardy little plant, so resistant to removal.


I described to the children some of what I'd read earlier about the buds and blossom heads, one particularly interesting point being that a dandelion is a composite flower - each yellow head is actually hundreds of small florets tightly packed together.


Out came the paring knife and cutting board, and the intricate examination of the buds and roots began. 

The children enjoyed looking at the tiny internal parts of the flower heads and buds, and My Girl's nature journal drawings are quite satisfactory. 

I, too, completed my journal entry, and included the exerpt from a poem by Lowell about this "dear common flower" --

'Tis the Spring's largess, which she scatters now
To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand,
Though most hearts never understand
To take it at God's value, but pass by
The offered wealth with unrewarded eye

HNS p. 531

Spring Weather Observation - Outdoor Hour Challenge

We haven't been particularly consistent with our Outdoor Hour Challenges, or even Nature Study in general, over the winter. But now we're starting to feel the blood warming within us and we're getting out more and observing more.

This week we did the Seasonal Weather Observation that Barb set up at the Handbook Of Nature Study blog. We began with looking at the clouds using the cloud finder she linked to, and then completed the seasonal weather observation page.

Little Man's observation page.

My Girl's observation page.

My Nature Journal entry.

What began as a grey, overcast morning has now brightened somewhat, and, while the sky is still grey, the sun is beginning to win the battle. The light drizzle has ended, a gentle breeze has begun, and it looks like it's going to be another lovely day!


Little Man balked (or should I say BALKED) at drawing anything on his observation sheet, but was eventually convinced that I wasn't looking for great art, just a quick and easy representation of what he saw: buds on branches, drizzle, etc. He has a lot of insecurity about drawing in any subject area, so I try to encourage him to just do a little bit, hoping that he'll build some success into his efforts.