Village Parkdays 12:00 pm – 4pm (or sundown)

Upcoming Events
Aug 13 - Venia's Vacation: Belarusse, Vienna, and..

Aug - 6 Topanga Beach Day (boogie boards and sandcastles)

July 30 - Summer Parkday

July 23 - Leather Stamping

July 16 - Ancient Rome

July 9 - Japan Past & Present

July 2 - Independence & H2O

June 25 Beach Day

June 18 Tenzi Frenzi

June 11 - Juggling Craft and Fun

June 4 - Stokes Theater & Plays

May 28 - Christina's Family Yogatime

May 21 - Bring your crafty projects & Potluck

May 14- Career Day

May 7 - Mother's Day Tea

April 30 - Art Show & Painting

Apr 23 - Earthday Show & Tell and Planting

Apr16 - 19 Joshua Tree Annual Family Campout

Apr 9 - HexiFlexigons - rescheduled

Apr 2 - Magic Tricks & Juggling Sticks

Mar 26 - HexiFlexigons - Geometry Gone Wild

Mar 19 - Potluck & Nat Amer Kid Presentations

Mar 12 - Nat Amer 2: Plains & Tipi's

Mar 5 - Native American 1: Inuit & Carving

Feb 28 - The Art of Debate

Feb 19 - Potluck & Chinese New Year & Korean, Vietnamese

Feb 12 - Valentyne's Day exchange

Feb 5 - Favorite Books

Jan 29 - Build an African Kalimba

Jan 22 - Patents and Inventors

Jan 15 Potluck, Patents and Inventors

Jan 8 - Boardgames and Beginnings

Jan 1st New Year's Playday

Dec 25 Merry Christmas No Parkday

Dec 18 Kwanza; Hannukah; Xmas; Solstice Celebration & Lunch Potluck

Dec 15 Caroling at Retirement Homes

Dec 11 Holiday Craft Day

Dec 4 Idioms by Maria Wheee!

Nov 27 Happy Thanksgiving No Parkday

Nov 20 Venezuela by Enrique & Potluck

Nov 13 Science Bloopers

Nov 6 Inside a Courtroom

Nov 4 Take your Kid to Vote

Oct 30 Costume Halloween Party

Oct 23 Bring a Poem

Oct 19 Campfire Potluck &Talent Show

Oct 16 Poetry Play Day & Potluck

Oct 9 Save Big Cats & Habitats

Oct 2 Making & Launching Rockets

Sept 28 Watts Tower Drumming Festival 10-4pm

Sept 25 Basket Weaving with NewsPaper

Sept 18 M&B Family Campout @ Sequoia Nat'l Park (No parkday)

Sept 11 OuterSpace Aeronautics or
Sustainable Farming & Husbandry (if cool enough for goats to visit)

Sep 10 M&B Free @ LA County Fair

Sep 2 Amazing Aeronautics

Aug 28 Beach Day

Aug 21 Pioneer Day

Aug 14 Five Year M&B Anniversary

Aug 7 Solar Ovens Part III

Jul 31 Solar Ovens Part II

Jul 24 Solar Ovens Part I @ Beach

Jul 17 Balloon Fun/Physics

Jul 10 Blind as a Bat (Braille & Sonar)

Jul 3rd (No Parkday Independence)

Jun 26 Tal Family

Jun 19 Kinetic Ball Run & Squirt bottle motion & Potluck

Jun 12 Summer Festival & Games

Jun 11 Full Moon Hike

Jun 5 Let's Get Tiny - Cells (Animal & Plant)

May 29 Lets get tiny - Cells (Animal & Plant)

May 22 Famous People

May 15 Beach Day & Potluck

May 8 Celebrating Mothers

May 1 Secrets of Water

Apr 24 Earthday & Planting

Apr 17 Games & Crafts Bring Your OWN

Apr 10 Nat'l Poetry Month

Apr 3 Cotton Magic

Mar 27 Bacteria Fun

Mar 20 Potluck & Organ Day!

Mar14-16 Joshua Tree Annual Spring Family Campout

Mar 13 - No Theme due to weekend Campout

Mar 6- Birdwatching & Nesting Day

Feb 27 - Physics of Bowling due to Rain

Feb 20 - The Winter Olympics

Feb 14-17 Backyard Bird Count

Feb 13 - VOLUNTEER PLEASE. Valentines Day

Feb 6 - Taxonomy & the Darwin Challenge

Jan 30 - Lunar New Year of the Horse

Jan 23 - Simple Machines II - Pulleys & Levers

Jan 16 - Habitats & Keystone Species & Noon Potluck

Jan 9 - Cogs & Cams: Simple Machines

Jan 2 - Reconnecting after holidays & New Year's Celebrations

Dec 26 - No Parkday Happy Holidays

Dec 19 - Celebrate Holidays: Winter Solstice, Kwanza, Christmas & Hanukkah

Dec 12 - Solar Fun & Mask Making with Michelle

Dec 5 - Monarch Magic & Eucalyptus

Nov 28 - Happy Thanksgiving - No Parkday

Nov 23 - Fieldtrip to Monarch Groves in Goleta

Nov 21 - Monarchs & Eucalyptus Trees postponed

Nov 14 - Atoms, Protons, Electrons, Oh My!

Nov 7 - Autumn Leaves & Sewing with Heather

Oct 31 - Halloween Festival

Oct 24 - Spooky SeeSaw Algebra

Oct 17 - 3 City Geography & Int'l Potluck & 6:00pm Talent Show

Oct 10 - 2nd M&B Bug Faire

Oct 3 - Abacus Math Magic

Sept 26 - Bark Painting & Spirit Animals

Sep 19-23 Annual Sequoia Family Campout

Sep 14 Fieldtrip to Point Vicente

Sep 12 - Lighthouses & Prisms II

Sep 5 - Build Splash Toys @ Pool

Aug 29 - Lighthouses & Light I

Aug 22 - DeSalination @ Beach PD

Aug 15 - Weaving yarn or old clothes

Aug 8 - Hula Hoop II

Aug 1 - Hula Hoop I @ Beach A

Jul 25 - M&B's 4th Anniversary
All ages Talent Show

Jul 18 - Hawaii Day & Potluck

Jul 11 - Bubble Science Fun

July 4 No Parkday HOLIDAY

Jun 27 No Parkday HOLIDAY

Jun 20 - Crafts Free for All

Jun 13 - Gold Mining & BoomTowns

Jun 6 - Anyone? Or Lemonade Stands

May 31-Jun 2 Family Campout at Montano De Oro

May 30 - MayDay PlayDay II

May 23 - MayDay PlayDay

May 16 - Bats, Owl Pellets & Potluck

May 9 - Primitive Arts & Indian Trading Blanket

May 2 - Painting & Poems

Apr 25- Help Our Wildlife Thrive

Apr 18 - M&B Earthday & Potluck 5pm

Apr 11 - Missouri Day / Bees Part 2
HoneyLove.org

Apr 4 - Bees ($3/kid for candlemaking)
Ula's Birthday

Mar 28 - Feathers, Microscopes & Origami Cranes

Mar 21 - History of Sugar; Plant own sugarcane

Mar 14 - Robots & Circuitry $3/kid

Mar 7 - Rainy Day @ Skirball Free

Feb 28 - Felting & Fiber Arts

Feb 21 - Morocco II
and Islamic Prayer

Feb 14 Valentines & Asian New Year Traditions

Feb 7 - Huichol Yarn Paintings
& Esme's Bday

Jan 31 - Birth of a Nation

Jan 24 - Cancelled
due to RAIN

Jan 17 - Craft parkday

Jan 15 - USA Tour @ Skirball

Jan 10- Morocco Senses & Allah

Jan 3 - Free for All Playday

Dec 27 - Free For All Playday

Dec 20 - Xmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Divali & Winter Solstice (Carols & Potluck)

Dec 13 - Morocco, Art & Mint Tea

Dec 6 - Pompeii Part II & Archeology

Nov 29 - Let's BOWL
due to Rain

Nov 22 - Thanksgiving - No Parkday

Nov 15 - Duct Tape Crafts & creations by C & C
and Lunch Potluck

Nov 8 - Ancient Pompeii & Mt Vesuvius

Nov 1 - Election & Voting Debate:
More trees or Waterslide

Oct 25 - Trunk or Treat; Dress-up
Halloween

Oct 18 - Peace Building &
Anger drop

Oct 11 - Superhero Rain

Oct 4 - Inks from Nature

Sep 27 Ireland Fun & Culture

Sep 20 -Sequoia-sized Boardgames

Sep 13 - 3rd Sequoia Campout

Sep 6- Heroes and Heroines - Kids Presentations

Aug 30 - Simile, Metaphors & Figures of Speech

Aug 23- Letterboxing II

Aug 16 - Letterboxing I

Aug 9 - Beach Day

Aug 2 - Modern Olympics II

July 26 - Ancient Olympics I

July 19 - Paper Arts: Bowls, Books & Beads

July 12 - Beach Day

July 5 - Statue of Liberty - 4th July

June 28 - Storytelling & Aussie Rainsticks

June 21 - Fun Games Field day

June 14 - Mystery Math = Algebra Fun

June 7- Silly Summer Day Fun

May 31 - Build Miniature Golf

May 24 - Sewing & Haiku Part II

May 17 - Haikus & Drums & Evening Potluck

May 10 - Rock Hunter Guest Speakers

May 3 - May Day Celebrations

Apr 26 - Fibonacci & Nature

Apr 19 - Thai New Year -Songkran & Potluck

April 12 - Spring Bling & Night Crawlers Planting season

April 5- Easter /Passover Crafts

Mar 29 - Ethics & Fairytales

Mar 22 - Detective Fingerprints & Crafts

Mar 15 - Prep for Joshua Tree

Mar 8 - Marbles & Physics

Mar 1 - Make Real Dream Catchers

Feb 23 - Pirates, Sea Captains &Tall Ships

Feb 16 - Wilderness Survival - guest Speaker

Feb 9 - Anatomy Guts vs Feeling Guts

Feb 2- Gravity Fun Games

Jan 26 - Cement Bridges Part Two

Jan 19 - Kids first Rock & Gem Show

Jan 12 - Global New Years Celebration

Jan 5 - Rockets-Aquarius M&B helped launch

Dec 29 - Cement Construction hand print tile

Dec 22- Kwanza, Hannukah, Bodhi Day stories & games 12/8

Dec 15 - Amy's Anatomy Obstacle Course

Dec 8 - Painting so it POPS! w/ out wind

Dec 1 - Painting so it POPS!

Nov 24 - Happy Thanksgiving - No M&B Parkday

Nov 17 - Fun with Manners & Empowering Etiquette & And 3rd Thurs Potluck (lunchtime)!

Nov 10 - History of Photography - Make Pinhole Cameras

Nov 3 - Butterfly & Bug Faire & Poems & Riddles

Oct 27 - Pumpkin Festival *Dress UP!!

Oct 20 - Empathy & Empowerment

Oct 13 - Braille & Visually Impaired

Oct 6- Atoms & Cool Molecules

Sept 29- Black Bears & Sequoias

Sept 22 - Sequoia Fires & Cones

Sept 15- Clay Creatures & Open-ended ?s

Sept 8- Beat the Heat Beach Day

Sept 1 - Lemonade Stand Commerce

Aug 25 - Back to Homeschool Play

Aug 18 - Saw Safely & make a Jacob's Ladder

Aug 11 - Biomes, Habitats & Soda Bottle Terrarium

Aug 4 - M&B 2Year Anniversary Party

July 28 - Finger Knitting & Natural Fibers

July 21 - Stone Soup Potluck & Storytime

July 14 - CrazyFun ScienceLab Experiments

July 7 - Independence Day Celebration @ Zuma Beach

June 30 - Nocturnal Creatures & Owl Pellets to dissect

June 23 - Book Exchange Circus

June 16 - Lewis & Clark, Quill pens from feathers & Potluck

June 9 ATC- Making Artists' Trading Cards

June 2 Petraglyphs, Pictoglyphs & Rafting the Grand Canyon

May 26 Historical
Figures that changed the World
all Kids Perform

May 19 Pharoahs, Pyramids & Crafts
And Potluck 5pm-sundown

May 12
Mars & Space Travel

May 5
Mother's Day
High Tea

Apr 28
Physics & Imagination=
Future Travel

Apr 21
Mask Making & Storytelling

Apr 14
Sound Waves

Apr 7
Geodesic Dome

Mar 31
Earthquakes & Tectonics

Mar 24
Show & Tell & Games

Mar 17
Family Campout Joshua Tree

Mar 10
Mardi Gras

Mar 3
Africa & Wangari Maathai

Feb 24
Brains: the Inside Story

Feb 3
Chinese New Year

Jan 27
Pioneer Parkday Part 2

Jan 20
Days of Yore

Jan 13
Fun & Safety
with Germs

Jan 6
Chess by Jahan

Dec 31
New Year's FreePlay

Dec 23
Kwanza, Hannukah
& Christmas

Dec 16
Engines & Cars
& Alternative Power

Dec 9
Microscopic World

Dec 2
Cartoon & Collage

Nov 25th
Thanksgiving Holiday

Nov 18th
Nature Crafts & Yoga

Nov 11th
Wind Turbines

Nov 4th
Indian Diwali Celebration

Oct 28th
Spooky Obstacle Course

Oct 21st
How Songs are Born

Oct 14th
Build a
Weather Station

Oct 7th
Prisms, Vision & Zoetropes

Sept 30th
Spanish CultureFest

Sept 23rd
Russian Culture & Potluck

Sept 17
Family Campout @ Sequoia Nat'l Park

Sept 9th
Chemical (molecular) Reactions

Sept 2nd
History of Flight

August 26th
Light, Refraction & Rainbows

Aug 19
Potluck

August 12
Turtles, Tortoises & YOU

August 5th
Honey, Bees & Wasps

July 29th
M&B 1 year anniversary

July 22
Inuit Culture & Games

July 15th
Bastille Day - French Independence

June 17th
Swedish MidSummerFest

June 10th
Catapults & Parachutes
Gravity & Lift

June 3rd
Our BodyGuards
Snot & Scabs

May 27th
Pollination, Fruit & Seeds

May 20th
Hawaii & Potluck Luau!

May 13
Ladybugs, Silkworms & Praying Mantis

May 6th
Knots, Pirates & Explorers

April 29
Earth Day Part 2

April 22
40th anniversary of Earth Day

April 15th
Japanese Girls' & Boy's Day

April 8th
Bridges, Cantilevers & Treehouses

April 1st
Magnetism part II: Physical Force of Nature

March 25
Magnetism part I: I'm attracted!

March 18th
Desert Life

March 11th
Global Timelines

March 4th
Spring Bling:
Worms, Dirt & Seeds

6th Annual Halloween Fest 10/30

frienes

Get Your Costumes ready,  Halloween Week is Here!  We will be bringing back some of the favorite games and adding a few more.  I still need some parent donations and volunteers for crafts.  appleStart collecting your “Trunk or Treat Goodies” to pass out (remember - no candy, there will be ample on Friday).witch

 

 

1) Craft Station: Spooky Houses & Owls (I will provide some art supplies) Anyone have a craft to bring?
2) Pumpkin Broom Sweep (need 2 more brooms and 3 more little pumpkins)
3) Mummy Wrap - (need Toilet paper rolls)
4) Waterless apple-bobbing [Apple (pun intended) is bringing 2 dozen organic apples with stems intact ]
5) Spooky Freeze Dance  6) Apple Ring Relay (2 or 3 bags of organic dried Apple rings)  7) MOnStEr SaCk Racing 8) Pin the Warts on the WitchIMG_1115

9) Costume Contest (each Costume will receive an award: spookiest outfit, most creative costume, most unique, most elaborate, cutest, sparkliest, purplist, etc). Parents are highly encouraged to dress up too.  If we are lucky, we might get a visit from Totoro.

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10) Trunk or Treat @ 3:00 pm When you park your cars, do it trunk side in towards the  park.  At this time, Parents all sit next to their open trunks while the kids go from trunk or table or blanket to get their goodies.  Some families decorate their open trunks or just lay out a blanket next to a fold out chair. (Costume judging will occur after Trunk or Treat)   Remember – No candy or sweets for our Trunk or Treat. Feel free to UPCYCLE any items from home like toys and books.  My daughters and I usually fill giant Ikea bag with things from our home.apple-relay

 

pumpkin-sweeI can’t wait to see everyone’s costumes and the smiles they all wear for one of the kids’ favorite times of the year!!

Poetry Play Day 10/16 & 10/23

Six months ago, it was Nat’l Poetry day in America (I was on a roadtrip and missed it).  Let’s Celebrate it’sIMG_7637 half birthday.  Do you have a Pocket Poem? You don’t?  Well come to the park to get one.   We will play some games : hide-and-seek haiku and the forever hilarious, Untitled-6“Your Mother ate my Cat”.  And bring one homemade poem to share -  on paper or floating in your head. We will all try our hand at a Haiga (a poem and artwork that partners up).Untitled-3

Everyone should carry a poem around or have at least one  memorized (if not 4 dozen) to share at just the right moment.

So when is the right moment?  tiger

Standing at the Tiger cage at the zoo one could share The Tyger by William Blake. How about when your family dog has gone missing, the first stanza of Byron’s Thing’s Sweet.  Gareth Lancaster’s poem is perfect when you kids “accidentally” fall in the mud.  Or while exploring a pond’s edge, sing out Emily Dickenson’s Nobody.   Or Walt Whitman’sUntitled-1 Astonomer, for when you put the books down and take your child outside to see the stars.  Excerpts of Percy Shelly’s Mont Blanc for when you take your family to Yosemite’s Half dome for the first time.  Sharing with daughters how to be proud, Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman.  While distracting your kids from playing enemies, Shel Silverstein’s Hug O’War.

IMG_9618I,so wish I had been able to recite Crater Lake, to my daughters, when we stood in snowshoes atop 3 feet of snow in the quiet that only that groundfall can offer staring at the crispest blue that had taken thousands of years to fill up from snow and rain.

We will all sit in a circle and discuss what makes a poem and read poems.  Bring poems that you have written.  Rhyming Poems and Haikus.IMG_7645

Parents, consider reading a poem to your kids that moved you in the past.

IMG_9981hope

 

Protecting Big Cats & Habitats 10/9

Big Cats are amazing!  They are among the most powerful animals on the planet. For this week’s co-op, we will share and learn about the top 7 Biggest Cats and their habitats : Tigers, Lions,Leopards  Jaguars, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, & Cheetah.  Visit online, Discover Kids on Big Cats to be amazed and inspired for our crafts.  With the craft supplies I provide, you can make a Tiger, Snow Leopard, Cougar or Jaguar out of paper that can run.  IMG_6927And if you bring an all white or solid-colored T-shirt, you can stencil a Big Cat of your choice and IMG_7428add the words, “Save the Big Cats!”  Feel free to check out the Lesson Plan by National Geographic for ages 8-11 that I will be utilizing for our blanket learning time.IMG_7279Tshirts

 

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IMG_7186Untitled-18Untitled-16Last week at the Broad Stage, some of us had the opportunity to learn from Steve Winter, a 20 year veteran of National Geographic, about Big Cats, their habitats and how to help protect them. With his videos and photos, he enthralled us with stories of how he photographed and wrote the first Jaguar story to make it in National Geographic;  his coldest adventures capturing the image of Snow leopards in the Himalayas; evading charging Rhinoceroses while shooting tigers, and his most recent photo stake-out to collect  images of LA’s Puma, P-22 whilst roaming near the Hollywood sign in Griffith park.

IMG_1023 Steve Winters also lit a fire about the possible LAND BRIDGE that Los Angeles is considering, that would allow wild animals, like our resident Mountain Lion P-22 to go back and forth from Griffith Park to Santa Monica Mountain Range.  One location proposed is less than a mile from where our homeschool co-op meets up weekly.

IMG_1002To see some of these African and Asiatic cats in person, about a dozen MudPies and Butterflies Families have visited CatHaven just outside Sequoia national Park during on our annual Family Campouts.  Here we met Clouded Leopards, Jaguars, Jaguarundis, Cervils, Caracals, Tigers, Lions, Leopard cubs, a Cheetah and a Snow Leopard that licked the founder’s bald spot (through a fence, but still!)  These creatures are ambassadors for all North American humans to better understand the need to protect not only Big Cats of Asia and Africa, but why protecting their habitats and the surrounding villagers is also crucial.  Take the time with us, or with your families, to experience the majesty of these animals and your role in ensuring your descendants will also have them in their world.

Inspired by Steve Winter’s stake-out in Griffith Park, my daughters picked Mountain Lions to investigate and study at a deeper level.  Ula drew their favorite prey, the Mule Deer.  Esme drew the camouflaged cub, and to highlight what we learned about the “crepuscular” hunter’s eyes, I drew the face of a Mother Mountain lion.MUle  (More cones than rods, pupils dilate 3 times wider than humans, etc).cougars