Birding! Also, map clues, melons, metastasis, and motivation.

This week P, T, and I went on a nature hike led by volunteer naturalists at a local park rich in birds and other small wildlife. I was a little disappointed that, in carrying out the "I Spy" theme of the walk, the volunteers had planted a number of artificial surprises along the walk -- things like stuffed and mounted wild animals, pelts, bones, and (for our first clue) a fresh pile of live night crawlers. All right, I liked the night crawlers. But I've been in that area before, and it's so rich in real things to see. The walk was aimed at preschoolers, who might have had a hard time finding or appreciating some of them, and T did seem to enjoy it. When the group moved on to an arts and crafts activity that was below P's level and above T's, we decided to go do some birdwatching on our own. There was a flock of American White Pelicans, which could have been migrating or summering here. I saw my first one while the hike was still going on -- a huge (9-foot wingspan), soaring white bird with black wingtips. We saw perhaps 50 of them at the pond. Then they moved on, leaving us to describe them to disappointed birders who showed up later.

We all took turns with the binoculars, staying nearly two hours more. I was most engaged of the three of us in identifying birds, but P was interested as well. Mostly she just wanted to look and to play quietly with T at the water's edge, but at one point she was giving me a detailed bird description as she looked through the binoculars and I looked at the field guide, and a birder standing nearby said, "She's good!" Other species we saw:

• Western painted turtles (which became Colorado's state reptile a few years ago)
• Great blue herons
• Coots
• Mallard ducks
• Cinnamon teals
• Canada geese, some of which may have been nesting on islands in the pond
• Red-winged blackbirds
• An odd, short-billed, dark, diving, ducklike bird that may have been a pied-billed grebe
• A white-billed duck that may have been a ring-necked duck or a lesser scaup
• Common raven
• Unidentified sparrows
• And on the way home, a magnificent soaring raptor. I only got a brief glimpse, but searching the bird book later, I think it may have been a Swainson's Hawk, one of the dominant summer hawks in Colorado. It was definitely not a turkey vulture (by its coloring), but it had a similar, slightly wobbly flight pattern.

Yesterday a message on an unschooling email list piqued our interest in geocaching, and we started talking about giving it a try. Today a followup mentioned letterboxing, and I looked that up. It's an older tradition, lower-tech, and it seems kid-friendly and appealing to P. Letterboxes contain a logbook and a unique, usually handmade, rubber stamp.  If you find one, you stamp your personal log book with the box's stamp, and you stamp the box's log book with your own personal stamp. We bought some artgum erasers today to try carving our own stamps. There are dozens of letterboxes hidden within day-trip range for us; we hope to start looking for them soon. P is working on her stamp design in the meantime.

On a trip to the grocery store, P noticed a bizarre-looking fruit that turned out to be horned melon, also known as kiwano. We bought one to try. Imagine our surprise when we sliced it open and saw this:

Not a fruit I would have described as a melon. And it was okay, but a lot of work to eat! (You eat the green parts, but I found the seeds not chewable, and each sac of green sweetness has a seed in it.) Not every experiment leads to a new love.

On the way to a gymnastics open gym today, P and I started talking about cancer, because a long-term survivor of Hodgkin's disease who is a friend of mine came up in conversation. P was interested in how cancer treatment works (we discussed various forms of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation), in why the cures are not that great yet for many cancers, and in details of treatment logistics, such as isolation during radioactive iodine treatment. Talking about that treatment led to discussing metastasis and the case of a beloved neighbor who died of metastatic melanoma, and also linked up with the nuclear spill in Japan, which we've talked about before.

Open gym was fun. P was working hard on some tricks that call for more upper body strength than she can currently draw upon easily. I've noticed her struggling for strength reasons in her gymnastics class, and I'm sure that doing some pushup/pullup-type exercises at home would increase her ability and enjoyment in gymnastics. She's a hard sell on the idea, so I'm debating offering her a chance to earn something she wants (like another gymnastics outfit) by achieving a reasonable number of pushups and pullups. The thing is, though, that part of the point of unschooling for me is following and feeding my kids' natural motivations, rather than using external incentives or threats to drive learning or performance. It's a tough call, since P doesn't see the benefit of the conditioning, but I think she would once her strength started improving. Maybe she and I could talk with her gymnastics instructors about what they think would make things go better and be more fun for her.

P started a project all on her own recently: she wants to build a swingset for her dollhouse dolls and Polly pockets. She drew her design; I suggested an addition for greater stability, and she lit up, remembering that the swingsets at the school playground have the part I suggested. We started making parts from craft sticks and white glue, and today we bought some quick-set epoxy for the joints that are not flush enough for wood glue. Perhaps we'll have a photo to post soon!