Americana

Bison photo from National Parks Service

HOME ON THE RANGE: A few days ago CJ asked me what a buffalo is. I was surprised. Even though I can't recall a specific discussion about them to date, I guess I figured he'd just have learned about them by osmosis by age 7.

Given that he didn't know about them, I can only figure buffaloes aren't on cartoons very often. ;) Ironically, a character named 'Buffalo' in a video game was what got him interested in real live buffaloes.

I told the kids that buffalo used to roam in huge herds in what's now the United States, but they were darn near all killed off, as people prized their hides and the sport of hunting them (not to mention that buffalo meat is good eating).

I started poking around the Internet for buffalo resources to share with the kids. Of course I had to play/sing "Home on the Range" for the kids. (What a childhood flashback that song is!) I found a great Pete Seeger version and we all warbled along.

Then I went looking for some video, facts and photos about buffaloes. I checked National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, but all I kept getting was hits on African water buffaloes. Interesting animals to be sure, but they're not what was on the back of the U.S.'s "buffalo nickel"

I thought to look up a buffalo preserve and found Wild Winds in Indiana. Their Web site had several photos. I noticed one photo's caption called the buffalo a bison (because it IS a bison). Well that was a complete DUH ME moment. Then I went back to NatGeo et al and found LOTS of great bison stuff, including gorgeous photos and a cool video of some bison headbutting, and National Geographic Kids' site even had a Creature Feature all about American bison.

We learned that bison are the largest land mammals in North America. They weigh in the neighborhood of 2,000 pounds, and around 6-feet tall. For most of the year, bison live in small bands (a few of them), but once a year, during mating season, bands band together into a herd.

Female bison are pregnant for nine months and almost always give birth to one calf at a time (sounds familiar)! We learned that we never Ever want to invite a bison over to dinner, as they regurgitate their food - a new word to the kids. (CJ found this concept of regurgitation extraordinarily gross and extremely hysterical.)

Through the magic of the Internet, I also found a couple of neat-o buffalo hide art projects/lesson plans online, and we used it as inspiration for the kids making their own decorated 'hides.'

I cut a brown paper grocery bag in half and had the kids rumple and crumple it and then smooth it out (so it looked more rustic and less like a brown paper bag!), and I had them tear the corners off. I shared some Native American petroglyphs and pictographs with the kids and then lined them out with paint and brushes and told 'em to go at it. (Here, Annabelle paints the "legendary rainbow bird.")

After doing a bit more research, I think our best bet of seeing a real live bison is a field trip to Northwest Trek, This 725-acre park has a little bit of everything: lakes, trails, meadows and plenty of animals. Northwest Trek is home to more than 200 North American animals. It's in Thurston County, west of Lacey (near Eatonville)- at least an hour or so drive for us.

An interesting aside: while looking for all things buffalo to show the kids, I came across a Wikipedia entry regarding the grammatically valid sentence Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. It's mind blowing.

AMERICAN PIECONS: Tonight is the Major League Baseball All-Star game. In our house, that means it's cause for celebration. We invited the big guys (Rick and Kennedy) over for hot dogs for dinner (not fancy, but definitely "ballpark" food) and we decided to make an apple pie from scratch as a creative arts/life skills/math/reading lesson here at MPA.

We used a recipe from the Food Network's Paula Deen. (I figured she just exudes 'I know how to make a pie' from her pores.) We chose some enormous, wonderfully flavorful organic Granny Smith apples from Whole Foods, and used organic brown sugar and organic butter for good measure. (That way the pie HAD to be good for you, right? Right!?!!?)

I was going to wimp out and buy a prefab crust, but I couldn't find any at Whole Foods. I think that wound up being a good thing. Really, a pie crust is NOT hard to make from scratch - I already had all the ingredients and the kids enjoyed helping.
While the recipe called for a lattice topped pie, that simply wouldn't do for tonight. Instead, we used star-shaped and circle cookie cutters to come up with this design ... When we took it out of the oven after 45 minutes, it had transformed to this (below) ... It tasted even better than it looked - the Granny Smiths were a perfect kind of tart, which made a nice marriage with the brown sugar and cinnamon.

I think baking projects like this are good for the kids. They have to read, follow directions carefully/in order, they measure, use fine motor skills, and realize that pies don't just come from a store/bakery. Plus, they have a great feeling of accomplishment when it's done.

Within a minute of pulling the pie out of the oven, we were off to yoga.
STACKED DECK: This evening Annabelle begged me to play Candy Land.

I was set up.

She said she got to go first because she is youngest - that that's an official rule. I was OK with that. And then lo-and-behold the very first card she draws from the top of the deck is shortcut card giving her this HUGE advantage. How nice for her.

She won.
I suggested Christian be her next victim, er, opponent. At that, I heard some snippets of conversation about her having a hand in how the deck was stacked. Literally.

I have mixed feelings about this. The ol' baseball saying, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying," comes to mind immediately, and it's savvy to realize that if you can manipulate a situation so that you have the upper hand, you're likely to come out on top (Kobiyashi Maru, anyone?).

However, "Cheaters never win" comes to mind, also. But wait, oh, they DO win (just ask Annabelle). Hmph.

DISCOVERY OF THE DAY: Crayola (the crayon people) has a Web site for educators, featuring lesson plans, art techniques and even some science experiments. Neat-o!