February 2007 Archives

Preschool is well underway these days. After the long, slow fall hiring process, we were open for learning on December 4th. Things are going swimmingly. We have a great team here; the wait was worth it.

Recently we have been studying the body in our class, bones and muscles to be specific. Most of my 4 and 5 year olds can tell you where their biceps are, or even come up with the name themselves, as well as demonstrate the movement associated with biceps. We made working models of our arm bones and biceps, put together skeletons...and as capstone to our study:

We skinned rabbits.

My awesome grandma/aide extraordinaire was excited when I asked if it would be appropriate to skin an animal in class, not as enthusiastic about my idea of asking one of the fathers to come assist: "Ask a dad? You don't need to ask no dad. I'll snare you a rabbit. I'll skin it for you. I'm almost sixty; I can do that!"
The following Monday she brought in two white hares. We skinned them with the students that day, which to my surprise is rather simple. At the feet the skin just rips, no knives required, and from there just peels off real clean.

Not only did we skin the rabbits, we cut them up, threw them in a pan with crisco, and ate the bones clean.
I laugh to think how fast I would have been fired in Seattle if one of parents came into a scene of bloody entrails, and their children gnawing on bones.

I asked the families for donations of bones to use on display in my class. Weekend project: boil the brains out of one wolf skull, one lynx skull and one marten skull.

As I've said before the opportunity to learn new skills on this adventure is the highest I've ever experienced. Boil a wolf's head? Check. Skin a rabbit? Check. Wasn't nothing like this in Hyde Park.

I write to report that our digital camera sprouted legs and snowshoed off into the setting sun. What a cute scene it was, our little Canon sd450 toddling off down the trail. To be honest, if I'd have seen the scene, I would have nabbed the camera mid-get-away and put him back in his place...in my pocket. But the end result is I have had no new photos to post for quite sometime.

We spent a long holiday on the East Coast, caught up with family and friends, ate sushi, checked out the Eric Carle Museum of Children's Book Art, caught a couple of movies, ate sushi, walked in the eerily warm and muggy New Hampshire woods, aggravated and were aggravated by many a Delta and Alaska Airlines agent. I even got to visit with some former students and families in Seattle, which was a fantastic hour or so for me.

It was a long time away from our house, and more importantly our dog, who held court in the cabin--judging many a blanket, mitten, hat, shirt, and sheet unworthy or further existance. The mess we returned to after twenty days away was pretty horrendous, but two days of cleaning got us back in shape, and Furball forgave us for leaving her alone. Her chi seems to have regained some sort of balance, and with the warm spell we're enjoying she's back outside and finally making good use of the Fort Yukon Furball Hilton contructed months ago by Minnucci and CO. (CO. only stands for his tools and some trees...no one else really lent a hand...in fact our neighbor offered to shoot the dog and use the house for firewood).

In any case, another camera will arrive shortly in our hands...and no snowshoeing lessons for this guy...

Unfortunately in the interim you've missed a few choice moments....read on(up) to create a mental image.