Castles & Pumpkins

After drawing a blueprint, we gathered the cardboard materials that Miles has saved for his recycled art. Then, Miles helped take apart the box and cut out parts for the castle. We finally put those toilet paper and paper towel rolls to use! He then helped glue things together (and I super-glued it after ;).

The next day, we worked on the details together. He's been doing a lot of pattern work (pre-math skill prep) at school and his teacher recommended we do pattern work at home. This was a perfect opportunity.

Miles created this color pattern with the flags.

He also created this color pattern for the drawbridge.

But his most favorite thing to make, of course, was the cannon--which he decorated by coloring in some flames.

He's been resourceful, using toys he has from his train sets (trees, mini houses, a water tank), adding it as extra decor for the roof of the castle. He also has been using his star wars Legos as the folks that live there.

Notice the little bear on the roof? That's Backpack Bear, Miles' new pal. He's been bringing him around with him since he arrived via mail from Brooklyn. Backpack bear is a pen-pal project between Miles and a few kids from Hawaii, Brooklyn, and L.A. He's been taking his new tour guide roll very seriously, asking to bring Backpack Bear on some exploring adventures in the Bay. 

Miles brought Backpack Bear to the pumpkin patch down the street.

Showed him the hay tunnels.

He then had the bear sit on various size pumpkins until he found the perfect one for him.

I can't believe it's mid-October already! After a week of Indian summer in the Bay (90 degree weather), it's cooled down and started raining. Miles is waiting for it to pour so that he can splash in the puddles. Enjoy your week and live it up!

Homeschool Project: Cardboard Castle

We've been trying our best to recycle, gathering so many paper towel & toilet paper rolls, boxes, and paper scrap. We have also saved a huge box that Miles' gramma & papa used to send a Christmas package from two years ago. Finally, after some internet research for inspiration, Miles decided that we should build a castle. Here are some of the images we found to inspire us on our castle blueprint design:

Stay tuned for the progress and process of Cardboard Castle architecture via Miles...

Black Scale Brats

http://www.black-scale.com/blog/?p=1558

You Know His Steez...

This kid has a knack for fashion. I can't say he gets it from me or Jus cause honestly, I think we can both use some help in this department.  Maybe he picks up steezy influence from what he observes of his fashionable uncles. Sometimes I give him whatever clean clothes to put on and he tells me, "that doesn't look cool mommy." He prefers jeans over sweats--even though I try to convince him to wear sweats cause they're comfy. Anyway, it's great that he has his own sense of style & creativity when it comes to clothes. 

On http://minihipster.com/, Miles was featured as one of the steezy kids over the summer.

This week, his Uncle Mega asked him to model the Black Scale Brats line. It's dope what his Uncle Mega & Uncle Alfred have created with their clothing company. When we use to live in the P-Side, his Uncle Mega told me about his dream career, owning his own line, and plans towards building his company, getting his line across the globe, moving to L.A. and ultimately Paris. At the time he was still working for HUF, learning the business. Everything he told me pretty much has manifested and is still unfolding, being testament to the goals he set for himself and the hard work that they both put in. It's dope witnessing your folks succeed in creating their own niche in life--so I just feel real proud of these guys. 

  I missed the photo shoot but heard from Justin that Miles was a pro. Miles' Uncle Ruben was his stylist for the shoot! The next day, I asked him how the shoot went. "It was so much fun mom. They have a real black knight helmet." Here are some behind the scenes photos by Justin...

The photographer asked Miles to "Pretend like you're stitting in time-out." Justin told me Miles looked at him first to see if it was OK and only pretend.

Uncle Roob stylin' him.

Here's the Black Scale Brats Kids line available at Black Scale:

PSA: Sonnymoon

Plug Research puts out good music, period. Like Stonesthrow and Daptone records, it's almost a guarantee you"ll like each and every artist on their catalog. Yesterday, during one of the busiest weekends in SF--Fleet week, the first Summersault Music festival was held at Fort Mason with acts that ranged from Warren G to Zion I. Honestly, I just wanted to see Sonnymoon and thought it would be a fun daytime date with Justin (especially cause we scored free tickets from Miles' Uncle Rob!). 

After about an hour of searching for parking around the Marina and Cow Hollow area, walking down from the steepest SF hills in record time, we were able to catch Sonnymoon, enjoying the soulfulness of Anna Wise's voice over Dane Orr's electronic beats. I really just love the tone of her voice, like I love the tone of Yukimi's voice (Little Dragon) and also Coco's voice (Quadron). Anyway, to make a long story short, we got to meet Anna, who is really very down to earth and humble, learning that she's originally from Novato. She told us that they would be at Red Devil Lounge at night and our tickets stubs to Summersault would get us in for free. So of course, we had to go and live up our baller on a budget status!

Just wanted to share some music with you that is Mileskiii approved, he has this slow-motion dance to their version of HoustonlantaVegas which is pretty cool. They  put their album, Golden Age, up for a FREE download. How can you resist soul music for Free.99 right?

http://www.mediafire.com/?nnjdmfnjxlw

Here's a clip of Sonnymoon:

Oakland

Oakland is such a beautiful city, full of beautiful people. It gets stigmatized for being seedy and violent but there's so much more to this city then what it's portrayed as in the media. I never lived in Oakland but something about the town makes me feel at home. The people and energy of Oakland is familiar, reminding me of Vallejo in a way. So many great minds, movements, artists, and musicians come from this city. When Miles grows up, he'll have many childhood memories of playing in Oakland and exploring. This weekend, we went to the annual Estria Graffiti Battle, held at Deframery park, better known as Bobby Hutton park, where during the civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party use to congregate, rally, and provide social programs. Estria organizes this battle, full of heavy hitters, coming from different parts of the world. Last year was dope because Miles' ninong Paulskeee threw Mighty 4 Bay Area outdoors, alongside the battle, skate competition, and Life is Living festival.

It didn't feel complete without all the Bboys and BGirls present but it was still worth going to, especially to watch the writers paint!
Miles loves graffiti. He has his own graff style, which looks more like scribbles but understands how characters look like they are moving in graffiti. He was intrigued by the different writers and the different pictures they made, using the word: HEAL.

It was good for Miles to see dope women writers too!

He pays a lot of attention to detail, noticing things in some of the pictures that I didn't pick up. He got excited when he spotted these cat tails, something he always sees by papo's and nanay's house cause they live surrounded by wetlands.

After awhile, he wanted to find things to do besides watch all the writers paint. He played some games at the Conscious Carnival, while learning earth-friendly alternatives instead of using fossil fuel...

He also hung around this new ground hog friend for a bit, watching him pop up out of his tunnel every now and then...

And before we left, he got a balloon sword made...

We then left and hung out a couple blocks away at Aunty Xtina's, Uncle Arjuna, and Mousey's pad!
I could totally see us living in Oakland one day.

Oldskool, Newskool, Trueskool, Homeschool, Preschool!

I'm sure I told many of you guys about the new Montessori school opening up in our neighborhood. "How perfect is that?!"--I thought to myself when I found out it was opening, being walking distance away from our home. I wanted Miles to attend preschool there and possibly kindergarten until I found out about the cost (practically half of a person's mortgage). Unfortunately, it costs way more than we could afford--which is $Free.99-- so Miles will not be attending. I was disappointed, thinking about how important a good education is, being a product of poor public schooling in Vallejo myself. Why can't a good education and learning environment be accessible to all? 
One of the reasons why we chose to live in Napa county is because of the good reputation of the public schools. Justin has had experience with the students, families, and staff that work at the schools here because of his old job. So when there was a preschool opening at one of the schools where Justin use to work, we decided to give it a try.
Last week, Miles started going to this school. He was curious about the classroom, teachers, and the students who would become his new friends. But he was also concerned about homeschool, asking, "Since I'm going to a new preschool, does that mean no more homeschool?" I reassured him that we would still have our art sessions, science experiments, and projects at home. He was relieved, "Oh good mommy cause I really love homeschool." I do too!
Miles went from going to bed at 11 pm to going to bed at 7:30 pm. He woke up for his first day, excited, happy, and full of energy.

We got into a rhythm of his new schedule. Miles even helped choose the route we take to school, looking for his favorite things along the way such as...

The weeds growing from the sidewalk.

The prickly pear cactus.

The giant Aloe.

One cool thing about the school, is that it's by small farms so he gets to see animals on the short walk from the car to the school. He also has a routine of checking out a few more of his favorite things as we walk to his classroom...

More prickly pears!

He really loves looking at weeds especially if they have thorns.

And we both love this row of birdhouses and of course, more prickly pears.

After his first day, we celebrated this new chapter in Miles' education--at The Joy of Eating, a hole-in-the-wall spot in Vallejo that serves delicious bread.

Darrien celebrated preschool life with us too!

"What are you drawing in your picture Darrien?" I asked.

"You, Aunty Maricel, with a baby in your belly...and that's me!" (I hope Darrien is not predicting the future anytime soon)

Miles is into his second week and loving it! We are happy with it too. His teachers are really great. One of them told me that he has been doing really well and has added to the class with his knowledge of the ocean. Before bed, he told me, "Mommy, today I made some new friends. And I love singing the Skitta-marinky-dinky-dink song!"

At home, we continue the things we've done before he went back to preschool. With the fall season here,  Miles has found new favorite things to add to his nature table.

Mini Indian corn

Fall nature table

He was inspired by the bumpy gords we saw at the grocery store and wanted to recreate them...

He's been practicing his scissor cutting at home. He wanted to make cowboy cactus puppets and did a show with talking gords and cacti!