Update on Lucky

If you have been following this blog you will know that recently Claire rescued this three legged,  two year old Pitbull (mix?) from Bridgeport Animal Shelter.  The shelter was full of Pitbull/mixes and large dogs.  Many of these dogs will be euthanized.  Our hearts went out to Lucky as with her disability and breed we thought there was little chance of her being saved.  Claire set out to find a family for her.  In the meantime  she is living with us.


She is such a sweet dog, so cuddly and loving. We are really bonding. She is getting stronger and healthier everyday.  She needs exercise.  We have been taking both of the dogs for walks 3-4 times a day.  Lucky can't walk that far, maybe half a mile.  When she gets tired she just flops onto her belly and doesn't move.  It takes a lot of energy to move with one front leg. She wants to run and when we let go of the leash she can out run Tuggles (our forever dog, Claire rescued last November).  She is fast and she can easily jump into the back of the Highlander.  I can only imagine how fast and strong she must have been with 4 legs!

Claire is taking her to an adoption event on Sunday.  She is partnering up with the SASS, the animal rescue that found Tuggles on the streets of Tennessee.  She has also organized her own adoption event at Choice Pet Supply in Danbury on September 9th.  The store has been very helpful and has offered discounts to families that adopt through Lucky Tails. Claire has her business cards, flyers in letter boxes and all around town and has pictures of Lucky on a bunch of websites.  Her website is up and running and she has a Lucky Tails Facebook page.  Kind friends have been blogging and tweeting Lucky's story. I am sure there is a wonderful family out there for her.

I will miss Lucky though when we find one.  She has fitted in so well and she has so much heart.  So if it takes a little while to find her a forever family,  I won't mind a bit.

A week of Shakespeare

Last night we went and saw Love's Labour's Lost at the Hudson Valley Film Festival.  We went back to the theatre after thoroughly enjoying Romeo and Juliet last week.  I managed to get single front row seats but we were all spread out around the theatre.  This often happens to us as we decide to go last minute and prefer a good view to sitting next to each other. Sitting apart also adds to the excitement.  When we meet up at intermission we compare who we sat next to!

This was the first time I had seen this play.  I googled it and we read through the synopsis.  It's a fun play.  There is a lot of romancing going on and very funny characters.  It was enjoyable to watch.  There is also a little play within the play about the Nine Worthies, a carving from the 13C of 9 great heroes. Heroes like Alexander the Great, Hector of Troy, Charlemagne to name three, who are supposed to personify the epitome of chivalry.  We didn't know all of them and we had some interesting discussions about why these men in particular were considered so worthy.  What makes a person worthy of being carved out of stone?

We were laughing all the way home about the funny bits in the play. We thought however the play lacked the drama of Romeo and Juliet and needed more music.  The female roles were also disappointing, especially the French princess who reminded me of Mrs Walton. (Did you watch that show?) Still it was worth going to see the courting gentlemen pretending to be Russians and Hercules strangling the plush green snake.




...meanwhile back at home we have been choosing auditions for A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Tristan has chosen a monologue of Puck's.  He also has vowed to Nicole (his break dance teacher) that he will practice his head stands (anywhere and everywhere).  So this is the result.

and this!

Claire is still choosing her audition piece.  She isn't crazy about the roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream.  She might choose something from another play.  I have also signed her up to do musical theatre in New Canaan.  There is a class of 6th-9th graders doing vignettes from the musical Wicked with a show in December.  Claire has been talking about that show since she saw it in Australia with her cousin, Imogen almost two years ago.  She also wants to sing and learn all the Wicked songs on the piano (and those from Spiderman, the musical too).  She starts singing lessons next week.

And finally Tristan is performing next week in New York City at the Oxford Shakespeare Company in the Merry Wives of Windsor.  He is playing a goblin that torments Falstaff.  It is a very small part but a great experience to be in a "grown up" production!  We have rehearsals in the city during the week and 4 performances on the weekend.  I am looking forward to spending some time in the city.

Tour of the Ridgehill Animal Hospital

We were very lucky to have a wonderful tour of the Ridgehill Animal Hospital.  Our good friend and dog lover, Marlin gave Claire and Tristan a tour of the facility.  I have never been in an animal hospital and it was fascinating.  We weren't expecting a tour and were delighted to be shown around. We saw where Lucky was operated on. We saw a large Rottweiler getting this shots. 

We saw a cat that had just been euthanized. :(

Marlin showed us the food Lucky had been eating at the hospital.

My children were fascinated by the food.  There were rooms filled with food and supplies. So much food!!

We were shown every room in the hospital from quarantine to the front desk.  It was a great tour!  Thank you, Marlin!  Claire was invited back to watch surgery and have an educational field trip. She can not wait to go and spend the day there.

The Mayan DIG

We are hosting our next archeaological dig next May.  Geof Purcell from dothedig.net will be running it.  I have chosen Maya as the theme because it is 2012 right now and if the world doesn't come to an end, it would be a good time to watch all of those 2012 documentaries and have many interesting discussions about prophesies.

Usually as part of the dig I hold pre-dig classes to give the children some historical background and meaning to the artifacts they will be "discovering".  Last year we made a 18 foot timeline of Greco-Roman history, visited the MET (in NYC) with Geof and made "artifacts" or copies of pieces we saw in the museum.   Today I have been pondering what kind of pre-dig activities I should organize for the Mayan dig.

I have been scouring the internet for unit studies to look at, finding books and checking out various documentaries.

There are two activities I would like to try with the group.  I would like to make a 4ft x 4ft  3D topographical map of the Yucatan peninsula, with pin labels for the different settlements/towns and cities of the Mayan peoples during three different time periods in Mayan history.  I might make a timeline ahead of time to use as a guide.  I would love to make little models of Mayan architecture to place on the map.

Claire or Tristan?

The other activity is to learn how to decode and write Mayan hieroglyphics.  I found a wonderful non-technical free PDF book that explains how the language is put together.  It is written at the perfect level for children (and parents alike) to decipher and write written hieroglyphs.  The hieroglyphs themselves are so interesting and look fun to copy if not a little challenging.  After 30 minutes of reading the little e-book I felt empowered to write my children's names (and my own) in hieroglyphics.  They look pretty cool, for back of an envelope scribbles! I thought these would make wonderful block prints or perhaps as a design on T-shirts.

And did I mention that I want to go to take a field trip to Philadelphia to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to see Maya 2012 and one of the best Mayan artifact collections in the Northeast.

I love this planning phase.  It is so much fun getting wildly lost on the internet, going down tangents.  The hours melt away and I have only just begun!

Technology and the Maker Faire

Last April we went to a mini Maker Faire in Westport, not far from our house.  Maker Faires are places where you go and look at all sorts of things people have made including arts, crafts, engineering, science projects, DIY projects and it is also showcase for the latest technology.  They were first held by the people that publish Make magazine, a magazine that is choc full of DIY projects you can make out of household and inexpensive materials.  Generally they are complex projects and a bit out of our league.  Leafing through the magazine gives me a feeling of "well it would be nice if I had the skills" or "I bet that is much harder than it looks."  Tristan looks at it and says, "Let's make that!" to a picture of a wooden pistol carved out of wood.  The next minute he's interested in making a robot out of an old computer mouse.  Eek!



Another reason we are attracted to the Maker Faire is that Tristan loves Mythbusters, a science show on Discovery Channel.  One of his heroes Adam Savage is often featured in the magazine and of course Adam can make *anything*.  I often see half written emails to Adam suggesting things he could test out on his show.

We loved the mini maker Faire this year and I dreamed of having a booth at next years faire and displaying the things we had made.  Well that dream might become a reality.

I have been in talks with the folks from Robotics and Beyond in New Milford.  Their director is going to be teaching a homeschooling class at my home throughout the whole of the school year with the idea of having a booth at the Mini-maker Faire in April and displaying all the cool things that the children have made.

 

I imagine my son will want to do something like this! The children are going to be learning about computers. Pulling them apart. Learning about all the components and rebuilding them. They will learn about operating languages, computer languages and why are there so many of them. Which ones should they learn? They will learn Arduino circuitry so they can program their devices. They will come up with an idea of something they can make and make it with professional help!

Tristan already has an idea.  He wants to write a Minecraft Mod.  He doesn't know it yet but that will not be this year but maybe in (many) years to come.  I am very excited about this program.  I am hoping this is the start of something bigger!

Shakespeare on the River

Generally I am not much of a theatre goer.  I do love it when I am at the theatre but just never seem to get around to getting tickets.  However, now as a homeschooling mother I feel I need to expose my children to great language.  Because I never studied literature, I feel ill equipped to teach it. However I can definitely expose my children to the best theatre I can find. And they love it.

Last night we went to see Romeo and Juliet in the Hudson Valley.  They had front row seats.  They were drawn into the intense emotion and drama of the play and of course there is something for everyone... sword fighting, romantic love scenes, angry parents, wonderful music, stunning costumes.  Generally the plays are long but they don't seem to mind.  We went a couple of hours early and had a picnic with our homeschooling friends on that beautiful green lawn overlooking the Hudson.  It was a truly glorious occasion.

When we were done, Claire wanted to go again to the same play.  Me, not so much.  I liked it but I want to see different things. I booked tickets to Love's Labours Lost, another production by the same company next week.

Now that Claire has started her literature program, I am looking to go to as many plays as I can where she will be exposed to the literature she is reading.  We went to Pigmalion a of month ago and tonight we are going to Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat, a local production.  She does love a good musical too!  It was fun, perhaps a little cheesy with the Elvis impersonator, but definitely a crowd pleaser.

Now with auditions coming up for A Midsummer Nights Dream in September we are going to delve into that play. I will read a couple of primers with Tristan prior to reading the original and we will probably watch a BBC version of the play before we select an audition piece. I am curious to see which parts my kids will want to play.

They are realizing through all of this theatre going how important it is to use your whole face and body when portraying a character and we are going to be practicing that.  Being believable.  It is not easy.  The depth of emotions experienced by the characters in a Shakespeare play is intense. It is hard to portray emotions you have never experienced. It is especially difficult surrounded by peers who might laugh at you. These are all good challenges.

Lucky: The First Rescue

On Monday we all went down to the Bridgeport Animal Shelter and picked up Lucky.  Lucky is a three legged, two year old Pitbull.  She instantly stole Claire's heart when we went to the shelter last week.  She was in an enclosure surrounded by large barking dogs.  She was small and skinny,  and with only one leg she seemed in need of a lot of love.  We instantly felt that she had little chance of being rescued amongst all the other four legged dogs.  We took her outside to assess her personality and found that she is full of energy and love.  She has the longest tongue I have ever seen on a dog and a constantly wagging tail.  We loved watching her smile.  Her whole face smiles. We thought about it over the weekend and after getting a lot of feedback and information from our special friends, Claire decided to go ahead and see if Lucky and our own dog, Tuggles would get along.

After about 10 minutes and a lot of smelling each other they became firm friends.  We decided to take her and filled out the paper work.  We got as many details as possible about her.  She was owner surrendered because the family was moving.  Her front leg was amputated at 4 months old. We don't know the reason. She is also very thin.  She has been in the shelter for two months.  While we were there we met some ladies from Bully Breed Rescue in New Canaan.  This is a good place to find a Pitbull mix.

Our first stop was to the Ridgehill Animal Hospital in North Haven.  Our good friends own the hospital and have partnered with Claire and Lucky Tails  to provide subsidized vet care for the dogs she rescues.  We are profusely grateful for their generosity and support.

Lucky has already had one litter and we needed to spay her as soon as possible.  We were given no vet history on her so she needed to be given her shots and be checked for parasites and other nasties.  Her surgery went well and we are bringing her home today.

Meanwhile Claire has been busy trying to get approval to post her dogs on different websites such as Petfinder and Paws, a local adoption agency.  She has been talking to an attorney to find out whether she can have executive control of the company (being 13) and how she should set up the corporation.  It has not been straight forward. Luckily we have a month of inexpensive attorney support!  I have never done this before either.  People have been calling us wanting to know if Claire can find them a particular breed of dog.  And she has a bunch of thank you letters to write as people have been donating to her website.

I am glad she is starting this endeavor during the summer when her work load is diminished.  I am starting to worry that she won't have time to do her regular work on top of this project.  "I will" she told me.  I asked her if she thought all of this work was worth it.  She said that it is not work to her, that saving dogs is exactly what she wants to do and that she is fulfilling a higher spiritual purpose.  It feels good to the core.  It is hard to argue with that.

Lucky