Our Wolf Cub

Father's Day weekend was spent at the annual Pack Family Camp Out with Guyan's Cub Scouts. For how stressful Cub Scouts can be during the year, it has always been a lot of fun. This year, Guyan was especially busy earning badges and belt loops in the weeks leading up to the Camp Out.

Here, he's being awarded his Geography Belt Loop, Fishing Belt Loop, Chess Pin, a gold arrow, and a silver arrow.

He also presented a poster to complete the requirements for his Leave No Trace Badge. Owen helped him out by holding the poster very nicely.

And finally, his Wolf Badge! Very proud of our scout.

(Thanks, Michelle, for use of your camera on the Camp Out! I can always count on you for photo documentation!)

And now for something completely different...

Usually, these posts are about family trips, adventures, accomplishments. This one's not like that.

The Ferndale School District, like so many in Washington State and the country, is in financial distress. They need to cut $1.55 million from the budget for next year.

Washington State funds part-time (90 days) kindergarten, and full-time for a handful of schools in the state that are "Title 1" (low income). There is one of those schools in the district, but not the one the boys go to. For all the other schools in the district, Ferndale decided two years ago to foot the ~$280,000 extra annually to provide full-time kindergarten. Now the economy went to hell in a handbasket, and they don't have that money.

So their idea? Originally, it was to cut one or two elementary school counselors to provide full-day in two more schools (in addition to the Title 1 school). Before you think "What the heck are counselors doing in elementary school?," let me tell you that they do a very important job making sure that children that are in bad family/abuse/poverty conditions get the resources they need. I don't favor cutting them.

But then some parents approached them and said "No! We all want full-time kindergarten! Can't we have the option to pay for it?" So they decided to give that option: no cost for free-lunch children, $150/month for reduced price lunch children, and (wait for it) $325/month for children that do not qualify for the subsidies. Who qualifies? A family of four making $40,794 or more per year would not qualify. Apparently if you make that kind of money, you can afford it.

Except they didn't ask those families. Last night at the school board's budget meeting, there were probably about 15 parents, three kindergarten teachers, and one principal. All but one of the parents--friends and peers of our family--said they could not afford that. All said they wanted equal opportunities for the children, not discrimination to the middle class. None of these parents took this decision lightly--we all felt that by checking the box "my child will attend part-time," we were checking a box that also said, "I knowingly am choosing the option that will put my child at a disadvantage." Ironic that we felt that by making a choice to stay home with our children and be a single income family (which was the case with most of the commenting parents last night), we got into a situation where they would receive 50% of the education of most of their peers (the acting superintendent said that similar programs in other districts have about an 80% participation in full-time kindergarten, via subsidized and paying families).

So after the comments, the board really did seem to hear that the pay option was not welcome in Ferndale, and was viewed as inequality. They decided to (yet again) look at the budget and try to find a different way that was equitable to all--hopefully, but possibly not, full-time kindergarten. The next working meeting is Wednesday, June 24th from 4:30 to 6:30. The public can attend, I believe, but not make comments. A public comment session is scheduled for July 8 at 6:30. If that meeting does not happen, you can email the board with comments. There was some discussion on whether it was tentative or not, but I can't remember; it was about 10:00pm by then. And the new meeting for adopting the budget is July 13th (it was going to be June 24th).

So there you have it. While my child that will be in kindergarten next year is totally ready, my soon-to-be third grader is not so ready for school today (he needs to leave in 25 minutes). Gotta get moving!!!

The Oyster Dome and the Bat Caves

Last weekend, our family went with some friends on a hike just south of Bellingham. We went to the Oyster Dome (a really high overlook with a REALLY steep cliff drop-off) and the Bat Caves (a boulder field just below the Oyster Dome).

(I put this picture, on top of Oyster Dome, first, since it will appear in your Google Reader if you have one...and it's such a good picture of the fam. By the way, Guyan has a hair appointment next Wednesday so that we can see his eyes again).

The hike took about 5 1/2 hours, and was about 5-6 miles. Not sure if it was the kids growing up, having friends along, or the perfect weather, but NONE OF THEM COMPLAINED AT ALL...except when Owen got poked in the eye with a stick, but who could blame him? Seriously, though, Sean told the boys later that night that it was the best day of the summer...even though summer doesn't start for almost another month.

Here we are at the outset...all smiles.

Still, no complaints from anyone...

And when we reached the top of Oyster Dome (after about 3 hours or so, and a few wrong turns), we had to take some pictures, of course--us and the other twenty to thirty hikers up there (none under the age of ten 'cept the four troopers in our party!).

The boys all wanted to look over the side of the cliff. Standing back about twenty feet from the edge, I was dealing with my anxiety. My children are not dare devils and would not knowingly do anything even remotely dangerous, and Sean was keep track of them, but OHMIGOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO PLUMMET TO OUR DEATHS kept racing through my mind. Obviously, we didn't.

This was the view over the cliff. The picture does NOT do it justice. In real life, those trees down there are not Christmas tree sized--they were gigantic, and the boulders were mini-mountains (I might be embellishing this just a little bit, but "objects in the picture are larger than they appear" truly applies here). The boulder field below is the Bat Caves.

Here's my friend Michelle and I at the top of Oyster Dome, way back from the edge.

After conquering the Oyster Dome, it was off to the Bat Caves. Cool little bridge here...

At the Bat Caves, Henry and Guyan were convinced (Henry especially) that they saw bats. I am convinced we saw a squirrel or other similar rodent. Fauna or not, the boulder field was pretty impressive.

...especially when you looked back up at Oyster Dome.

Two for the Canoe

Sean was a late addition to a Ski to Sea team this year. He had tried to get a team together with his coworkers, but the team started dwindling about February (everyone is super-enthusiastic at the Christmas party, of course, heehee). Luckily, a past coworker, Dan, was on a team that started losing members in April, and Dan needed a canoe partner.

The Nooksack River was very high this year. Not as high as last year, when they canceled the canoe portion of the race, but high enough that there was no sand at the river's edge to watch the racers come in. There was a short strip coming up the slope to the mountain bikers that was fenced off with a green mesh. I would say only about 20 spectators could fit comfortably behind it and actually see racers come in...but about 40+ spectators crammed themselves in. When we heard Sean's team number called (meaning they had passed under the Main Street bridge), my friend Michelle stayed with her kids and Guyan playing in the woods at Hovander Park, and Owen and I ran down to see Sean come in.

And here they are! The guy with the helmet is the mountain bike racer, the next leg in the race. The guy on the right at the front of the canoe is Dan, and you can see Sean at the back of the canoe (at least his legs and his hat). Sean was disappointed that I didn't get a good picture of him. "Get in the front of the boat next time," I told him.

But you know, not even that would guarantee a good picture. In 2006, he also did the canoe leg, and was in the front of the boat. Here are the two pictures I have of them coming in (look at all that sand--but I think I'd trade it for the fabulous weather we had this year), and he's not facing the camera in either of them.

Back to current day...Dan and Sean did pretty well in their leg. They had only about a half an hour of training, but at least an hour of strategizing. Their team, overall, came in 186th out of 414 (always nice to be in the top half), and 18th out of 69 in the Recreational Mixed Division. Within the canoe leg only, they were 125th overall, and 10th in their division (whoo-hooo!!!). Both Sean and Dan finished better than they had when they raced in the canoe leg in previous years, with different partners. Just imagine if they had practiced more. What studs.

"That's the first time I graduated!"

Last Thursday (YES!!! JUST DAYS AGO!!!), Owen graduated from Christ Lutheran Christian Preschool. It's official--he's ready for kindergarten.

Over the past couple years, Owen has shown that he does not like performing in front of an audience. He tapped (banged?) his foot during his first Christmas program, and refused to get up and sing at last year's Mothers' Tea. This year, he has done much better, but still gets the butterflies. This picture shows it clearly. While all the other graduates are giddy with excitement waiting to answer CLCP's traditional BIG question at graduation, "What do you want to be when you grow up?," Owen is nervously rehearsing his answer...

The loooooong walk across the stage...

And his answer: "An artist." Those lessons are going to pay off, Grandma and Grandpa!

Guyan took this picture of the new graduate with his proud parents. Just after Owen had received his diploma, he turned to me and said, "That's the first time I graduated!" Here's to many more!

Mothers' Tea

Every year for Mother's Day, Christ Lutheran Christian Preschool holds a Mothers' Tea (Mothers/Mother's/I dunno). It's great--it's Owen's and my favorite activity of the year. The kids bake muffins and make cards for the moms, and make a special gift.

This year, the gift was a quilted wall hanging of the child's drawing. In March and April, I became very familiar with those wall hangings, as I volunteered and did them all (there are six preschool classes with I think 76 kids total--yes, that was a self-congratulatory pat on the back right there). They were so cute! The only one I didn't do was Owen's--his teacher, Mrs. Johnson, did that one for me. Owen's picture has a rainbow heart in the middle with the word "LOVE," plus pictures of all our family members (including Freckle, of course).

As a very special treat, Grandma Black also got to come to Mother's Tea. She donated all the fabrics and batting for the quilts, and wanted to see the mothers' reactions too.

Ahhh...the last Mother's Tea. Owen says he'll have tea parties with me, if I want...I'll probably take him up on that.

Before we move on...

I lied. I thought this was going to be about the big May highlight--preschool graduation--but in looking through photos, I found three more big May highlights--the boys' Art Show, Mother's Tea, and Ski to Sea. I can't skip them! Forgive me... First, the Art Show.

Guyan's artwork that he chose to display in the BellinghamArt Show was his harbor scene. In this piece, the students studied shadows and reflections. Typical of Guyan's drawings, it has a lot of detail, which may not be too evident in this picture.


The art show is at the same time as the Bellingham Children's Art Walk, where artwork from students in Bellingham is displayed all through downtown. BellinghamArt (where the boys take classes) had a small display in a fancy furniture store with about ten pieces or so. Guyan's most recent piece, the Taj Mahal, was displayed there. Very cool!

Owen's Teddy Bear was his display piece. The art studio also chose his piece to be featured (along with six or so other students' pieces) on their postcard to advertise the art show. What an honor!


Grandma and Grandpa came to the Art Show also. As the financiers of art school tuition this year, we'd like to REALLY thank them. The boys have loved their classes, and have learned a lot. For both of them, art class was a highlight of their week, every week.