Kino

  

Last week during Colter's Birthday, we headed to Old Kino to watch the children march in the Mexican Indepence Day parade.  We lined up along the street to watch neverending groups of children donning clothing from throughout history march infront of what seemed like every member of Kino Viejo. 

 

For nearly two and a half hours the entire community shut down businesses and acknowledged the hard work the children had done leading up to this day.  Not one child was left out of the parade.

  

The parade ended in the center of town followed by celebrations and proud children.  Fake braids were torn off, tin foil bullets lay flattened on the ground an paper ribbons swirled across the soccer field.  I loved this small community for closing down all the business of the day to celebrate and honor their children. 

 

 

 

Six Turkeys

Heaps of Mashed Potatoes

8 pies

44 Gluttons

 

 

 

Grateful

 

We sat down last week to talk about the many things we are grateful for. Hailey and Colter listed many.  Here are some.

Hailey

Running

Love

Swimming

The Wind and Waves

The Prescott College Students

 

Colter

Swimming in Deep Water

That it's almost my birthday

going boating

 

Claire

Books from Friends(we all are!!)

Diaper free days

Sand and things you find in it

 

I am thankful for

 

The Vegetable Truck

Friends

A little Newfound Inspiration

Tom taking a chance on this

Low Tide

    

  To all of our loved ones reading this,and especially those honoring Sally tomorrow, thanks for being.

 

4

   

a few days ago we headed to Calle Doce to find a Pinata and food for a party

 

Colter headed out of the store with a shiney star (thank goodness) while Claire protested having

a bit of a fit in the candy aisles.

Luckily we made it home without much incident.  We cut fruit, stuffed the pinata, cleaned the house and baked cakes

  

The next day we cooked 35 hamburgers for some mostly goofy Prescott College students who made the birthday party

 

 

Gifts from afar (Thank you Azra and Lita) were followed by a trip to the shrimp trawlers to deliver students for their overnight shrimping study.

 

Happy Birthday Colter!!!!

viva lucha libre!

 

I am beginning to detect a Donovan clan obsession.  Tonite, the second luchadore event! We will keep you posted!

a week later

 

A week later and I still get goosebumps.   I take pictures of his name like he's a newborn.  In fact, the entire election night in Kino was kind of like a birth.  Glued to our computers for up to the minute election news, the electricity went out right around tallying Pennsylvania.  After scurrying for candles and putting the children to bed, we stepped outside and under the stars. I have had the fortune of attending a few births.  Women of different backgrounds and families of different religions.  There is much ado though it is the woman and her baby that do the doing, most of us just wait.  Tom and I waited in stillness. The students had been busy all day, lots of activity around the station and this was the first moment of calmness, necessitated by something out of our control.  There is a stillness before a woman starts pushing.  A rest filled with knowing whats to come.  We sat outside on our futon, smiling, anxious...a friend called, "he won Pennsylvania"  An excited scream.  He called again to say he won. I cried, Tom had the most enormous smile on his face.  Huge cheers came from the faculty house where the students were gathered, someone had called to give them the news.  Dare I say we had all attended the new birth of our nation.  Some of these students voted for the first time ever. They will always remember that their  vote mattered that it is true that a group of people can change things.   

school

I said to a friend when asked how homeschooling was going, "I guess our homeschooling has taken on an unschooling philosophy but may possibly be headed toward nonschooling territory" Is that really true? I wondered to myself. Have I really just been on an extended vacation all this time.   But yesterday as Hailey emerged from her bedroom dressed, clutching her Whales and Dolphins book heading for the front door "mom, I'm just going to run down the the students so I can identify the skull they brought back from their trip" and in a blaze was out the door, I realized that it is working.  There are a few more clues too. Hailey has taken it upon herself to construct an alphabet and numbers wall for Colter.

 

and it's Hailey who seems to be better at helping Colter identify certain letters and sing ABC's.  of course. And, in addition to Hailey's field journal

   

 

she is also making a book for Colter's Birthday...shhhhhhh

At times, Colter will follow Tom around the field station and work with Julio on the grounds and fix the boats with Cosme.  He grabs his tools and heads off accross the patio.  When he's not working with Tom, he seems to have a great connection with paint.

 

This one is titled "Monkey Witch"

Of course the greatest gift of real learning happens in moments barely detectable to the naked eye.

 

   

Times in tidepools when my camera is far away, or riding back in the ponga with our almost four year old on the road cracking up everytime we hit washboards.  Or the first time Colter and Tom saw Pilot whales and the camera was burried in the dry bag.   The way Hailey's confidence has exploded with every wave she has body surfed and person she has met. I will never know where we would have gone without this experience but I do know that I love learning where we are headed with it.

HE SWIMS

I am sure there are plenty of important topics that I could pick for the first days of November,Dia de los Muertos, the proximity to the most important of elections...etc.  However, with all of the important things happening all over the globe,I must say that at the very beginning of his fourth birthday month, the boy took off his lifejacket, threw on goggles, burried his head in the water and

SWAM!!! Yeah Colter, may this month be full of surprises for you.