A Meaningful Celebration of St. Patrick's Day!

I pretty much like to celebrate everything.
Snow, losing teeth, baby animals, an accomplishment...
and certainly, holidays!

However, St. Patrick's Day has not exactly been an important one for me.  Clearly, Easter & Christmas are the best because of their religious significance.  Others have a cultural base or a historical base that resonates with us.  But St. Patrick's Day?

When I recently stated that I'm not Irish & feel no connection to this holiday, my father corrected me that I actually do have an Irish heritage.  Even so, I am not connected to this holiday!

And yet we've done all the regulars...
~St. Patrick's Day books from the library, (always about pots of gold & leprechauns).
~Reading an online article about who St. Patrick actually was.
~Wearing GREEN. 
~Making & eating real Irish food as well as St. Patrick's Day-themed food.
~Making shamrock crafts.

Oh, and of course allowing my pre-teen daughter to Irish step dance at bars!  You know, the regular stuff...

A couple of years ago, during my last year of homeschooling, when the kids were 11 & 13 years old, I wanted to go a little deeper.  (No shocker there if you know me!)  I was quite surprised to find very, very little in my research.  There are many articles about St. Patrick & they all say variations of the same thing.  There is information about the symbolism of St. Patrick's Day.  And there are pictures of green beer & American St. Patrick's Day parades & frankly just not much else. 

No suggestions on how to have a meaningful celebration of St. Patrick's Day. 

So I came up with a missionary theme for this St. Patrick's Day.  It makes sense.  St. Patrick was a missionary who converted many Irish people.

I purchased the book St. Patrick:  Pioneer Missionary to Ireland by Michael J. McHugh and we read it aloud at Tea Time.  Reading this book was a good resource for who St. Patrick was.

Taking the missionary theme a step further, I bought the kids each a missionary biography.  They often like to read before bed.  Micah read Brother Andrew:  God's Secret Agent  by Janet & Geoff Benge.  Noelle read David Livingstone:  Africa's Trailblazer by Janet & Geoff Benge.  Biographies are powerful!  YWAM Publishing has a long list of biographies in their "Christian Heroes:  Then & Now" series.  We have read a number of them and they are very good.  We also love the missionary stories that CEF puts out.

If you choose to celebrate St. Patrick's Day from a missionary angle, there is no end to how you could do that!  Write letters to missionaries.  Pray for them.  Send care packages.  Learn about the missionaries that your church supports.  Let your children choose a country, or a time period, or a profession, and see how that applies to missions.  (And don't forget to wear green and eat fun food too!)

Transitioning from School to Homeschooling and from Homeschooling to School

Here is our schooling history:
Noelle, currently 15 years old, attended 1/2 day Kindergarten at a Christian school, as well as grades 1-2.  She homeschooled for 6 years and has just completed grade 9 at a public school.
Micah, currently 13 years old, attended 1/2 day Kindergarten at a Christian school, homeschooled for 6 years and has just completed grade 7 at a Christian school. 

When transitioning out of a schooling context, parents need to remember that their children can't imagine school as anything other than what they have experienced at school.  (And we all know that "doing school at home" pretty much misses the whole point of the flexibility & freedom that homeschooling brings!).  The children, and maybe even the parents, have a schooling mindset.  Children who have been schooled cannot fully see the pros and cons of homeschooling because they haven't experienced it.  I would say that is true to a lesser degree of going from homeschooling to school.

When we transitioned from School to Homeschooling, my kiddos were young:  They had just turned 6 & 8 years old.  However, I believe my advice for this transition works regardless of age.  Ask your kids what they think they are going to miss about going to school.  If possible, try to re-create that for the homeschool setting.  

My kids said that they were going to miss the "special days":  100 Day of School, Valentine's Day parties, and Field Day.  This is why we hosted our own Valentine's Day parties for homeschoolers:
http://carmelhillbillies.blogspot.com/2014/02/annual-valentines-day-parties-special.html
And this is why we hosted our own Homeschool Field Days:
http://carmelhillbillies.blogspot.com/2014/05/annual-homeschool-field-day-home.html

Additionally, in your school to homeschooling transition, if your curriculum and the level of your students allows for this freedom, let your children choose some of the subjects they want to learn about.  Perhaps a unit study in Science & a unit study in Social Studies of their choice.  Let them choose books that they want to read.  This will be fun for your children and it will also begin growing in them the philosophy of child-directed learning.  No matter what your homeschooling style, having students engaged & invested in their own education is one of the biggest goals, outcomes, and advantages of homeschooling. 

The Homeschooling to School transition is of course fresher in my mind, as just a year ago we were going through this transition.  Many homeschool parents, myself included, always worry about their weaknesses, the perceived & actual areas that their children are "behind" in.  Homeschooling has SO many options for curriculum, co-ops and classes, that a homeschooling parent always wishes that they had more time & could cover more material.  I certainly felt that way!  I was hard on myself because of the areas where I felt I should/ could be doing better & more.  I did not give myself enough credit for the areas where we were doing really well. 

We looked at homeschooling one year at a time.  My goal was always that should the children need to, they could easily fit back into their academics at grade level, at school.  However, as year after year of homeschooling rolls by, it can make you a little worried, wondering if they will be able to "do school" well at the appropriate level.

I have two very different children, with very different areas & levels of abilities, and let me just say:  They did JUST fine academically going back to school.  So take a deep breath and be encouraged.

Let me start with what I would NOT do.  If I can lay aside the wishes that we had done more of "x" or learned more in the subject of "y", then I can honestly say:  I would not change much at all.  I would not get up earlier and have long days so that they could "know what school is like."  I would not choose methods of teaching & subject matter that they are not engaged in so that they would know what it is like in "real" school.  I would not put time limits on their tests.  I would not refuse to allow more reading time.  Let the benefits of homeschooling be, whether you are transitioning to school or not.  The children did not have a hard time transitioning to a school day, getting up early, needing to be prepared with their books & pencils, having a limited time to take tests, etc.  What a shame it would have been if I had tried to incorporate these "school" ways of life into our homeschooling, in an attempt to prepare them for school. 

One thing that both of my children really missed after transitioning to school was time to read.  During homeschooling my children had the time to read HUNDREDS of books.  Upon beginning school, they simply did not have time to do anywhere near the amount of reading they had been accustomed to during homeschooling.  I guess we can look at that as one of those, "Don't be sad it's over, be glad it happened" type of things.  Homeschooling provided years of reading for us.  Now Noelle and Micah have in them the desire & love of reading, even if they don't get to do it as often or as much as they would like. 

Also, this is a reminder when you transition from homeschooling to schooling to try not to over-schedule the weekends.  This is hard for me personally.  I want to volunteer and go to fairs and plays.  When you are homeschooling, you can take advantage of every opportunity that weekends bring, because you know that you can just take a day off during the week, or adjust your schedule in some other way.  Once your kids are in a school setting, they are truly going to need the break during the weekends.  They will probably need to sleep and the weekends are also their time to see friends and pursue the hobbies they are interested in. 

Even at the end of their first year back in school, both children, in public and Christian schools, remained stunned and disappointed in how mean some people can be.  One said recently that they wished I had prepared them for how unkind and cruel other kids can be. 

Homeschooling today is certainly as social an experience as you want to make it.  My kids have always been involved with church, they took dance classes, participated in bookclubs and other extracurricular activities, volunteered in their community, and played in some sports.  They were used to hanging around people of all types.  However in going to school they noticed & experienced what can happen at school, a place where kids who are the same age spend a lot of time together:  Kids pick on differences.  They apply pressure that only certain clothes, shoes, cars, haircuts and music should be liked. 

I don't think that we can or should avoid the pain that people can bring into our lives, but I point it out because it is something both of my children experienced and mentioned multiple times this past year.  So there are some life lessons to apply here.  "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men."  (Romans 12:18).  I tell my kids that they will experience difficulties with people everywhere they go, for the rest of their lives!  The family they marry into, the family they are born into, the people they work with, the people they live with, the people they go to church with- It's a fact of life and a life skill to learn to work with people, and to learn to know when to walk away and choose not to work with someone.  

Let your children lead, (they've gotten used to that through homeschooling and child-directed interests), in the are of extra-curricular activities.  Both of my children chose to stop taking dance classes once they began school.  This was a little disappointing to me, however they both felt it would be too much to adjust to school and take several dance classes a week.  

Noelle had been doing plays & musicals as a homeschooler and she was excited to continue that in the school setting.  She did a fall school musical and a community play in the fall, quickly followed by a winter one-act play competition and not too long after that, followed by the Young Curators program.  We decided that two productions in the fall is too much!  So we decided together that we will not make that same mistake this next year!  

One thing that has stuck out and been obvious to their teachers is that my children are engaged in their education.  Particularly compared to their schooled peers.  I know that comes from years of homeschooling.  I received a lot of feedback from Noelle's teachers about her.  Here are some snippets:

• "In class Noelle is always focused and attentive... Noelle expresses her understanding with a smile and a nod of her head.  I know she's new to public education but it's clear she's learned to think for herself and to act responsibly and independently.  These habits will be very beneficial as she progresses through public education, although they may seem a little out-of-the-ordinary at this time.  Many of Noelle's classmates have learned through the 'middle school philosophy' which at least from my observations, emphasizes 'self-esteem' over solid, academic accomplishment and learning.... I like the model she sets for her classmates as an active and self-reliant learner."
• "You have been, from the moment I met you, one of the kindest, most present, young adults I have ever met.  You are both intelligent and articulate and your ability to step up and get the conversation going is an invaluable tool in group work and in life."
• "It has been easy to work with Noelle this year.  She understands that her teachers are here to help her change and grow.  I'm sure she has told you that working with some of our students is a real challenge..."
• "Thanks to you for raising such an interesting, hard-working and selfless daughter!" 
• "It has been an absolute pleasure to have Noelle in class; she's truly an exceptional student..."

At the end of the year, even Noelle's friends had some surprising things to say to her:

• "..You're truly an inspiration!  I wish there could be more people as thoughtful and selfless as you!"
• "..You're someone I can rely on and look up to..."
• (And an actual letter from a high school friend):  "I can't express enough how happy I am to have met you this year.  Ever since, you have been nothing but kind, caring, funny, and an all around happy person.  Your inner drive to help others truly inspires me every day to want to become a better person... I remember one time we were walking at school and you noticed a piece of trash on the floor and without hesitation you picked it up and did the right thing.  Anyone else would have just glanced over and kept walking.  By you doing that small act tells a lot about your character and I'm glad to call you my friend!.."

I did receive a few comments about Micah as well:

• "He is a patient friend and sees all of those around him equally and as friends.... His ability to adjust to changes and his willingness to try new things.  Micah is a learner and loves the interesting facts he finds in the material covered in his classes.  He is a strong, quiet leader in the classroom..."
• "He is a hard worker & dedicated learner in the classroom.  Micah is a hands-on learner that has an innate ability to apply what he is learning to real life situations."
• "He is a great student to have; and he has lots of knowledge."
• (And what every former homeschooling parent wants to hear:)  "Your kids are awesome, very normal in the right ways and different in ways that make them more mature than some of their peers." 

I include these comments to illustrate that that the important parts about school aren't always about "school" at all.  They are about character and impacting people.  Knowing how to get information and being driven to do well, from your own inside, not from someone trying to "make you get it" from the outside-in. 

When our previously-homeschooled kids transition to school, they are ambassadors for homeschooling, especially in the public school.  Administrators, teachers, and students may have preconceived notions of what homeschoolers are like.  Our kids have an opportunity to really shine.  And, if the children are Christians, as mine are, they have an opportunity to shine for Christ:  Whether they are in public or Christian school- to their teachers and other students. 

Fictional Chapter Books: Air for our very Breathing

We sorted some books today.
A friend's daughter is collecting books to sell for a fundraiser.  Our homeschool year is getting closer to ending & there are many books to return to a kind aunt who lent them.  Even more books to sell.  Some books to keep.
Happy memories attached to many.  The places the books have taken us are so easily recalled, memories of warmth & goodness washing over our souls.

My mom read aloud to us a lot when we were kids.  The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little & Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  All the 'Little House' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I always liked to read.
Without the distractions of screens & with free time that in today's world seems in danger of becoming extinct, I explored any book we had at home.  At church.  At my grandparent's farm, making my way to the Back Chamber, hot with the summer sun, thumbing through old books & choosing one to settle in with, even if for only the afternoon.
The school library.  3rd grade is the first time I remember being able to check books out of the library. I was so disappointed when I was told that there was a limit to the number of books one could check out!  Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys & probably whatever was suggested as I was never a very independent child & not prone to exploration.
And Scholastic books orders.  All the way through junior high.  I chose some duds & chose many that became favorites.  Louisa May Alcott & Elizabeth George Speare & Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and I have no recollection of the clutter of choices saturated in celebrity & popular movies that I see reflected in some of today's book order forms.  (Yes, even homeschoolers can order from Scholastic!!)  
I loved some of the books we were assigned to read in school:  Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls),1984 (George Orwell), Rumble Fish (S.E. Hinton), The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald), Of Mice & Men (John Steinbeck), To Kill a Mockingbird (by Harper Lee) and 10 Little Indians (Agatha Christie).

However, my reading really couldn't hold a candle to my older brother, Marvin's reading.  In this childhood before the internet & before 'summer reading' book lists & without frequent trips to the library, this internal, self-driven, maybe first-born part of him sought out Good Books.  Tolkien & I don't know what else because I was busy reading my Lurlene McDaniel light fare. 

Light fare or not, with some lack of self-awareness, on I read.  I really am so glad that we did not have cable television & that home computers & cells & devices & the internet were something for the future.  Ironically, (because I'm a sun-shunner these days), I spent hours in our Canadian rocker, tilted back with legs propped up in a most unladylike fashion, making dents in the wall behind me, basking in the sun, reading.  And reading and reading. 
For this post I am speaking of fiction & its role in our lives.  However I will add that children's literature as a whole is quite literally one of my favorite things.  Also, I greatly enjoy biographies & parenting books & magazines & online articles too!  But for me, Historical Fiction rose to the surface.  Many of my favorite books are historical fiction.  I just love it!! 
Some of my favorites are: 
Little Women & Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier
any Bodie & Brock Thoene books
"Mark of the Lion" series by Francine Rivers
The Witch of Blackbird Pond & Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare

Naturally, I read to my children plenty when they were preschool age, (and beyond.)  I was a stay-at-home mom, (praise the Lord!), and what we had was TIME.  Story Time at Borders w/ Gibran.  Story Time at the Bangor Public Library.  (Except for my babysitting days!  Micah was a few months old & Noelle was two & Lily was three & Grace was five & it was too much for me!!)  Time to snuggle in bed & read.  No where to go & no where to be & so much time to play & read.  (Hmm.. this sounds a bit like homeschooling!!  Sort of!!)  

The first chapter book I remember reading to Noelle & Micah was Charlotte's Web.  Noelle was 5 & Micah was 3 & it was delightful.  During that time the 'Charlotte's Web' movie with Dakota Fanning came out & we went to see it at 'The Temple' in Houlton w/ my mom & it was delightful too!

When I married my husband our children were entering grades one & two, and Micah was 4 years old.  Noelle attended private school & D attended public.  Both had some reading homework most days.  It had never occurred to my husband that kids would want to read at home, outside of school.  That they should read & that perhaps if they were made to read that they would want to.  We worked out the kinks & reading, sometimes mandatory, became something important in our home.
Are we ever too old to be read aloud to?  I don't think so.  Following my mom's example we read many books aloud as a family.  Being intentional.  Okay, D is here Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday & Wednesday nights.  But Wednesday nights are AWANA, so that leaves three nights to read.  We too read through all the "Little House" books & Eight Cousins & Rose In Bloom & several of the "Chronicles of Narnia" (C.S. Lewis) books & more.

Before & after we started homeschooling when the kids entered 1st & 3rd grades, we enjoyed the typical early reading books, such as "Junie B. Jones", (Barbara Park), and others.
Reading certainly isn't a homeschooling 'thing'.  However, when you homeschool, School melds with Home melds with Life & Learning, (without the restrictions of 'schooling').  A literature-based education.  Time.  Time to read.  Self-awareness to allow interests to naturally come to the surface, and again- time- to pursue them.   Reading, and for these purposes, reading fiction, has been a key part of our School-y, Home-y, Learning Lives.  

Afternoons spent at the Bangor Public Library, sometimes at book clubs & more often digging through on our own & with help from the always-kind adults in the children's department.  Dark rides home during the long, Maine winter months, with van lights on, and quiet- oh, not a sound, as newly chosen books were devoured.
7-year old Micah, laying on Mrs. Janet's bed w/ rocks & crystals & plants all around him, while Sister had piano & violin lessons, reading Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (J.K.Rowling).
9-year old Noelle reading My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George) & dreaming about living in the woods, alone, for awhile.   
Tea Time.  Our on & off again respite, usually for reading aloud & drinking tea & maybe eating snacks.  Our first ever Tea Time book was Little Men by Lousia May Alcott & Micah was 6 years old & Noelle was 8 & the wording was sometimes antiquated but we hung on to every word, wondering what would happen with Dan.  Other tea time favorites are the "All of a Kind" books by Sydney Taylor & Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards.
Reading in boxes.  Reading on the roof.  Reading on the lawn.  Reading by the fire, with a baby goat in your lap & maple sap simmering on the stove. 
My 7-year old girl, sitting on the couch, reading Marley & Me (John Grogan) while the tears ran.  World Opened Up.  Books, the medium for exploration of LIFE!

I think Noelle must be like my brother, Marvin.  I don't know for sure because I am neither.  She had always liked to read but around 4th grade, age 9, the blossom bloomed and she just could not get enough books  and she just could not get enough reading time.  I had exposed her to books I liked, books that were in the curriculum, books that were recommended for her age:  Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) and Indian in the Cupboard (Lynne Reed Banks) and Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) and more.  At age 9, in a book club, she was exposed to Fantasy.  And she took off!  I really should have known, because Marvin likes fantasy.  I don't.  Lesson learned!  This inner, truly 'Noelle' desire to seek out fantasy books, reading what she was drawn to, was remarkable, yes, truly remarkable, to watch unfold.  The Charlie Bone series (Jenny Nimmo) started it all.  Then, the Harry Potter series.  Percy Jackson (Rick Riordan).  Mysterious Benedict Society (Trenton Lee Stewart).  Divergent (Veronica Roth).  Paladin Prophecy (Mark Frost).  The Heroes of Olympus.  And really, just on & on.  I wish we had written down all the titles she has read in these past 6 years of homeschooling because I bet there are at least 300!  A year ago, Noelle did her Literature Fair project on this journey of reading, hoping to expose & encourage the younger students to try fantasy as well.

http://carmelhillbillies.blogspot.com/2014/05/literature-fair-home-education-post.html

A neat reading experience for Noelle, in days gone by, has been to read the 'American Girl' books, series written about each American Girl doll, historical fiction.  Each doll has 6 books.  Noelle read the books for:  Samantha, Kirsten, Addy, Felicity, Josefina, Molly, Kit, and Kaya, among other ones put out by American Girl.  So that's 48+ books.  These are great stories, teach lessons, and include interesting historical information.  Tying fun activities with these books is easy.

Some of Noelle's favorites are all that I have mentioned here, plus The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Micah is also a good reader, although it is harder to find literature that truly grabs his attention.  Noelle lives reading books & Micah enjoys reading.  During Micah's 2nd grade year, when he was 7 years old, he read through the "Magic Tree House" series by Mary Pope Osborne.  Book #1:  Dinosaurs Before Dark all the way through book #48:  A Perfect Time for Pandas.  In addition, Micah read the 20 Magic Tree House non-fiction, companion research guides.  That's 68 books for my 2nd grader, who also went on to read the first 5 Harry Potter books that school year as well as some more!!  We had this really cool Magic Tree House passport.  Each time he finished a book we would log onto the Magic Tree House website.  And wait for our dial-up to load it.  And hope that no one was trying to call!  Then, for each book, if Micah could answer several questions correctly he would receive a badge for his passport!  We would print it out & glue it in his booklet.  This was highly motivating for Micah!  This is also a time when we really started using inter-library loan!  Some of the Research Guides we wanted to read weren't available anywhere so we purchased them, and then donated them to our library, in Micah's name.
Doing the Magic Tree House books & the passport was one of the best things & favorite things we ever did with homeschooling.  If you are unfamiliar with the books, they follow the adventures of Jack & Annie.  When I read the first one, I was not impressed!  It was so simple!  However, the books grow with the reader & the plot lines get better & more involved & the books get longer. 

In addition to our History text this year, Micah explored the themes of WWII through a fictional, literary perspective. This was a great experience as well.  It may have been 3rd grade when Micah read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  And he has taken in a lot of information about WWII, as that is an interest of his.  However, this experience allowed him to explore WWII from many angles- yes, in the ghetto of Warsaw, but also in the Caribbean & in the Japanese-American internment camps. In fact, Micah's "Letters About Literature" entry this year was written to Yoshiko Uchida, author of Journey to Topaz, exploring the themes of what governments do vs. who a people group are & allowed for some deep reflection on racism & how this presents, present day.  The other books he read for this unit were:
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury
The Man from the Other Side by Uri Olev
Stepping On the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn
Journey to America by Sonia Levitin
Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti & Christophe Gallaz
The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren
Is it Night or Day by Fern Schumer Chapman

Some of Micah's favorites are:
Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

Even today, as I write this, my lovies are snuggled together, reading.  Noelle is reading Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson.  She is preparing for an upcoming literature fair and she plan to talk & write about the civil rights movement & racism.  I can hear them reading excerpts of their books to each other.  Pure sweetness. 

In conclusion:
1.  Always have tissues, a water bottle & a book with you.  Always.
2.  It is very fun & worth the time to watch the movie after you have read the book.  We have spent many, cozy evenings, snuggled under a blanket, watching a movie about a book that Noelle read, hearing about the differences between the book & the movie.
3.  Check out "Letters About Literature", an annual school or library-sponsored reading & writing contest for students in grades 4-12.  Or you can enter individually, like we have.  It is also a 'favorite' experience of mine from our homeschooling years.
4. When I have a hard time finding books that interest Micah, and he doesn't have any leads on what he wants to read, I make him read 60 pages.  If he doesn't like it after 60 pages, he usually doesn't have to read it.
5.  Read aloud to your kids!!  
6.  Allow time for reading.  Turn off the devices!
7.  Read to your kids often, and when they are older, they will read to you!  

Muskrat Trapping in Maine ~An Outdoors, Maine Post!

(Warning:  This blog post contains pictures of dead animals & the processing of those dead animals.)

I have always been attracted to & interested in long-held professions.  
The farming I grew up surrounded by.
Watching lobster boats on the Maine coast.
Gold mine in Lead, South Dakota.
It's intriguing to think of the generations who have worked in very similar ways of previous generations.

Trapping.  The fur trade.

It seems timely, as Kevin & Micah just received their paycheck back from the furs they sold & as this was just in our local paper:

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/03/14/outdoors/a-tradition-worth-savoring-trapping-helps-bring-carmel-family-closer/ 

..to talk about trapping!  We don't claim to be experts.  (Especially me!  I am merely the storyteller!)  We certainly aren't paying the mortgage with it.  We like to dabble in a bit of this & a bit of that and enjoy the journey & see if anything sticks.  But even if nothing 'sticks' the adventure is always well worth it!  Primarily Kevin & Micah have trapped muskrats, but they have also got a couple of beavers.

This is the 3rd season that my son, Micah, has been trapping.  He started when he was 9 years old.  As a taxidermist, my husband has enormous experience with furs, obviously.  He had a bit of experience with trapping, both in Maine as a kid and also in Alaska.  

3 years ago furs were going for a very good price.  Due to the conflict in the Ukraine, the price has gone down, as muskrat furs primarily are sold to China and Ukraine.  Even so, trapping muskrat has been a way for Micah to make a bit of money.  He used his trapping earnings plus birthday money from his parents to buy an ipad mini a couple of years ago!  

Even this change in prices has proven a learning experience in the global economy & how conflicts, even half way around the world, can affect us.  Micah has been able to learn through reading about trapping - the 'how-to's' and history and regulations.  He has learned through doing- the time spent in the outdoors, observing how animals live and observing weather conditions.  He has learned through skinning and stretching the animals.  Anatomy, certainly!  He has learned many more lessons than just the obvious ones.  

One of the biggest benefits of trapping is being in the Great Outdoors.  Glorious.  "For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made..." -Romans 1:20.  The universe is singing all His glory!  "Everywhere I look you are.  Deep & wide, near & far..." -Phil Keaggy.  Glorious but also just so good for us.  We are happier & healthier when we spent time outside.

I have to be honest.  I wasn't sure that Micah would have an interest in trapping.  When he was 8 years old we celebrated Leap Day on February 29, in part, by dissecting frogs.  He had a bit of a hard time with this experience.  

I try to be careful about  pushing things on Micah.  I believe that he needs to have a say in what he does.  If it were up to me he would still be taking piano lessons!  I really wanted him to continue ballet this year.  However, this year would have required ballet classes during the week and also on Saturday and he really just didn't want to take classes on Saturday.  So we didn't push it.  No ballet then.  We have never, ever pushed hunting on any of the kids.  I personally did not grow up in a hunting family.  We got our meat through farming.  My step-daughter did grow up with both of her parents hunting.  However, she showed little interest and was scared of guns when she was younger.  She did get a moose permit and she did shoot the moose- by her choice- and I think that was a wonderful experience for her.  Noelle has zero interest in hunting & frankly I don't blame her!  Micah likes learning about different types of guns but he really doesn't want to shoot them.  It truly makes no difference to us.  He did go bear hunting this past fall with a cross-bow and shot a bear this way, since he wanted to hunt but didn't want to use a gun.  

So we did not push trapping on him.  We informed him and let him decide if he wanted to try it.  

It is a lot of work!

I liken some of the trapping experiences, (from my observation point), Kevin & Micah have had to my experiences with tapping trees last year!  I learned a ton.  It got me outdoors, exercising, learning.  It got me a bit of syrup!  However, there were a lot of frustrations!  I learned by doing the wrong things sometimes!  It was a lot of work for a little profit!  

Kevin & Micah have by no means been trapping a lot!  It's been a 'dabble.'  Kevin needs to work and Micah needs to go to school and the conditions need to be right and the desire there!  The trapped the least in the 2013-2014 season.  They began that season very excited about trapping.  Then they had some traps stolen and/or relocated.  That was pretty discouraging after the hard work they had put in.  Plus, life was just kinda more challenging that year, and there wasn't a lot of extra energy for trapping!  

Here is a bit of the process:

~Buy traps.  Prepare tags for your traps. 

~Prepare your traps!

 They dyed the traps so that they wouldn't rust but also so that they would 'smell like the woods.'  They used tree bark & leaves to dye the traps.

 They waxed the traps so that they wouldn't rust and so they would work smoothly.  This may be an unnecessary step for underwater traps.  But as I mentioned earlier, we learn!

 
~Get food for your traps!

 

 

 The first year they didn't start trapping until there was already ice.  The second and third years they tried some open water trapping.  They scouted out properties & asked for landowner permission.  They looked for evidence that muskrats lived there.  It is a good idea before there the ice is covered with snow to map out the muskrat runs so that you know where to set your traps. 

 They set their traps by first drilling a hole.  Set the trap, put the carrot on it and put it down the hole.  They use foothold traps & conibear traps

 They learned that it was a lot more work chipping out the traps when we have really cold weather.

 ~Success!  These pictures were taken in early 2013 & capture the first time Micah got a muskrat!

 

 Micah had prepared a lot & in the excitement he was the first to remember that he needed to rub the wet muskrat in the snow in order to dry it out!

 

 I guess I will admit right here that I don't think I was even aware that there was such a thing as a muskrat before they started trapping!  (Sad, I know!)  I am sure I must have seen the muskrat houses, which now I notice right away, but I guess I just never payed attention before!  I have learned that they are prolific animals.  Mink and coyote prey on them as well as birds of prey.  Muskrats are herbivores. 

 Sometimes The Boy gets tired.  And eats snow.  And rests!

 Basically, the muskrats must be skinned.  Quick work for a taxidermist, a bit for a boy to learn!

 We throw the meat out in the woods so that coyotes, bobcats & fishers can eat it.  After skinning the muskrats, they need to be fleshed.  This is what Kevin does for a career, so again, it's pretty easy for him.  It takes some practice for Micah to flesh the muskrat without putting holes in it.

 We found that a spoon works well too!

 After skinning the muskrats, they must be stretched & dried.  Then they are ready for sale.

 As mentioned in the newspaper article, I did insist that we try eating muskrat!  Now, I have to say that the Lord has provided plenty of food for our family through berry picking & our garden & yummy, raw goat milk & our chicken eggs & mostly through moose hunting & bear & deer hunting!  Now, should we need to, we know that we could handle eating muskrat.  However, since we do not need to, I would rather not!  There were a surprisingly few number of muskrat recipes I was able to find (!).  The meat is very dark and has an odor that is quite off-putting.  (Not because we punctured the scent glands!)

 While on his moose hunt this year, Micah also did some trapping and got a few muskrats in northern Maine.

3 years ago muskrats were selling for about $11 each.  This year they are about $6 each.  They sell primarily to China where they line hats & vests with them.

This year we are donating most of our earnings to help refugees in Syria. 

Maybe someday Micah will trap on his own.  

Maybe he will make some money for college.

Maybe he won't.

But without a doubt it has been & will continue to be an adventure!