Planting Truffula Trees

The gift of good food

2011-08-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

I'm in the Green Phone Booth today, sharing the tasty delights we fed a sister before she deployed. Bon appetit!

Learning the alphabet... outside in the garden

2011-06-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Check out my post at the Green Phone Booth to learn more about how T is learning his letters in our Alphabet Garden. What a fun wrap-up to Grade 1!

"F" is for Feverfew, in full bloom right now.

Lamb's Ear grows under the "L",
with its purple spikes about to burst into beauty.

Lions! Löwen!

2010-05-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

These are the books we used for learning about lions:

Lions, by Ann O. Squire
Lions, by Sandra Markle
Face to Face with Lions, by Beverly and Dereck Joubert
And for fun: Akimbo and the Lions, by Alexander McCall Smith

Soaring on eagles' spirals

2010-05-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

With our next homeschool review coming up, I'm working on my documentation. Here are a few notes about our second Man and Animal block before I return the books to the library...

Eagles: Lions of the Sky, by Emery Bernhard
Soaring with the Wind: The Bald Eagle, by Gail Gibbons
Eagle & Birds of Prey, by Jemima Parry-Jones
Keepers of the Animals, by Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac (Eagle Boy story)

Interesting, I thought S would love "Eagle & Birds of Prey". It's a Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Book, and has loads of photos in it. I checked out "Eagles: Lions of the Sky" just for good measure: it has lovely but simple illustrations, and my guess was that S would find it too easy. Surprise! The latter was by far his favorite. When I asked him why, he told me how much he liked the pictures, and the fact that it told a story about eagles. Score another point for the power of stories!

How to evaluate main lesson books

2010-05-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

My first "issue" of the Waldorf-Ideen-Pool e-newsletter arrived today. Among the contents was a link to an easy method for main lesson book evaluation, or Epochenheft-Beurteilungen.

The author uses smiley faces to rate students on these factors:

How well the notebook was taken care of (Heftpflege)
handwriting (Schrift)
page borders (Ränder)
illustrations (Bilder)
completeness (Vollständigkeit)
Descriptions (Beschreibungen)

So far, we haven't provided our children with any formal evaluations. Still, it's nice to know in which areas this classroom teacher evaluated her students' work.

To buy, or not to buy a Buch - maybe we can help you

2010-04-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

We are fortunate to have a branch of our public library system nearby. Between all of our family members, we go there several times each week. Many, many titles have come in and out of our house.

There's just one thing... the books are all in English! When I was a child, the library system included some German books, too, but that's no longer a language it supports. That means our selection of German-language books is limited to those we have at home. That's why I'm all the happier to know of Alphabet Garten, an online bookstore for German books, videos, and DVDs for kids... on this side of the Atlantic! And, it's a mama-owned home-based business!

When the opportunity came to review books for Alphabet Garten, I submitted an application. The result was that... a box of books arrived on the front porch for me!

Sarah, Alphabet Garten's owner, added some thoughtful touches, including this colorful Buchwurm bookmark. The bookmark wishes Viel Spass beim Lesen! Thanks, we did have a lot of Spass, so much so that T asked me to reread one of the books to him right away.

My first review has been posted, and there are a few others in the pipeline. Viel Spass beim Lesen!

Gruesse zur Wintersonnenwende

2009-12-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

The heaps and heaps and heaps of snow which fell this weekend created a fitting backdrop for our family's Winter Solstice. We ate by candlelight, and the intermittent glow of the temperamental string of LEDs we have in the kitchen.

After dinner, the TruffulaBoyz made pomanders with tangerines and cloves. The results smell fantastic!

We then revisited some of the songs we used during our recent Advent Spiral [with better candelight for the lead musician this time ;-) ].

I hadn't realized that the Winter Solstice is also called "Thomastag", recalling said apostle's reluctance to acknowledge the risen Jesus (and the longest night before the return of the Light).

How to have a simple and effective Advent Spiral

2009-12-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

Location: a lovely basement room with a beautiful cork floor. As an alternative, I love Melisa Neilson's idea of holding it in a garage.
The participants: 5 families with 9 children between us, ranging from 16 months to 9.5 years
Things to bring: candles, candleholders, and optionally, a snack to share

Our host prepared her room before we came by laying out her floor in a spiral of greens. She added a pine cone here and there, as well as golden cardboard stars, and placed a candle in the spiral's center.

As our group gathered, the children took the time to play. When we were ready to begin, our host went downstairs, turned off the lights, and lit the center candle, plus a few others around the room.

I had prepared a packet of songs for each family - those extra candles around the periphery of the room were super-handy in providing us enough light to read the sheets! To help set the mood, I led the group in singing "Down with Darkness" - we sang it a few times through.

Then, I continued the music by playing my recorder and singing.

One of the moms began the Spiral by walking into the center, lighting her candle, and then setting it on the path as she came back out. We continued with the oldest child (with the intent of modeling the walk for the other children), and the rest of the kids took turns - in no particular order.

Each of us had brought our own candles and candleholders - no two were the same, which created a delightful variety along the spiral.

At the end, I led us in a few repetitions of "Dona Nobis Pacem".

When we were finished, the children went back to playing. When hunger set in, we enjoyed some potluck snacks.

This is the music we used

My candle burns
Down with darkness
The Holly and the Ivy (pdf)
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Dona Nobis Pacem (pdf)
Advent Table Play (pdf) with 2 songs: "From heaven's arch so high" and "While the stars are shining bright"
"On the golden star path walking" from All Year Round

Things to do differently next time:

Before moving into the Spiral room/area, chat more thoroughly with the children to help them enter a meditative, contemplative mood.
During the chat, describe to the children what they will do in the spiral - I thought our first youthful Spiral-walker knew what he was doing, only to find out afterward that he did not. Oops!
Make sure the recorder player / singer has a good candle and set of music in the place where she'll sit or stand. I did not do this in advance, and ended up improvising my set-up.
We did not read or tell a story. This worked out ok, but a story would have added a nice touch.

Isn't this simple plate of oranges and pomegranate seeds gorgeous?! I just had to take its photo! :-)

Star cookies in honor of the coming Solstice.

No Impact Experiment: Transportation

2009-11-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

The assignment was to make a list of all the places we were going today and how we usually get there, and then to think about which alternatives could be used instead.

The first part was easy. We had two destinations today: our CSA during the day, and a rehearsal in the evening. Then, things got ticklish... Our CSA used to be on a bus route. That portion of the route was discontinued a while ago because of budget cuts.

However, I probably wouldn't have used the bus for today's CSA outing, regardless. The seven miles took two busses and about an hour to traverse. We would either have had to leave the house very early, or not arrived at the farm until mid-morning. Then, on the trip home, the arrival time of the first bus would have been uncertain. The stop closest to the CSA was towards the end of the route, and you never knew whether the bus would be early or late getting there. That meant needing to leave a huge window of time at the stop, just in case. That was all doable for an adult with reading material at the ready. When that adult has two children in tow, whose tolerance for unpredictable bus schedules is fairly low after putting in a few hours of volunteer time, the wait time by the side of the road, and the long travel timerelative to the distance made the bus a lot less attractive.

Similarly, public transportation was not an option for our evening rehearsal. There are simply no stops within reasonable walking distance. So, into the car it is on Tuesday nights. However, we do have a +1 for the trip, because we pick up another participant along the way, and carpool for the last few miles there and back.

My regular commute, on the other hand, is all by foot and public transportation! On days when there's not a long connection time between travel segments, my time needed is comparable to driving by car. Among the benefits: I can read during my trip; I don't need to spend any time searching for a parking space; and the bus driver shoulders the stress of rush-hour driving, not me.

On tap for tomorrow: food!

No Impact Experiment: Consumption

2009-11-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

Today's challenge was to think about doing more with less and about buying less stuff. The less buying part was, thankfully, not that hard -- we actually do quite well in that department. The vast majority of our purchases each week are for food. And, because I've got my mind set on trying my hand at making kimchi, cabbage and ginger are on my must-have grocery item list right now. (If you have a recipe to recommend, please share it in the comments!)

I must confess that I do have my eye out for new-to-me pants (I've worn through the knees of the ones I have, and while I've patched them, the pants are really only in wear-for-gardening condition), and for shoes to replace the ones whose soles have unrepairable holes. On rainy days, I appreciate having dry toes.

We spent a good part of today's (warm and sunny, and did I mention warm?) afternoon gathering leaves, adding them to the compost piles, and moistening them with the water I drained from the rain barrels to prepare them for the winter. The delicious compost we'll have by this time next year will eliminate my need to buy any compost. So, +1 in the no-consumption column!

However, I've got a -1 in fuel consumption for today, and on most Sundays. Even though we have a church within walking distance -- and we do walk to it when we go there -- we drive about 40 miles round-trip to attend a different one. This is one of those trade-off situations: how do we decide between the value we get from participating in the farther-away congregation and the environmental and financial cost of the travel there and back? At least for now, we have chosen in favor of the congregation.

On tap for tomorrow: trash!

I'm carbon-cleansing with the No Impact Project next week

2009-11-12T22:59:00.000-08:00

The next installment of the No Impact Project begins on Sunday, and I'm giving it a whirl. Consumption, trash, transportation, food, energy, water, giving back, and eco-Sabbath are the mileposts along the way.

Will you join me?

A few quick notes on Grade 3

2009-07-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm cleaning up and out, and moving many of those little scraps of paper on which are precious notes - you know, the ones that you really don't want to lose, but which are on their best way to recycling-bin-land because they are on backs of envelopes, on draft paper, etc...

Here are some of the Grade 3 books we used this year:

Housebuilding
Igloo, by Yasmine A. Cordoba

Native Americans
The Desert is Theirs, by Byrd Baylor
More than Moccasins, by Laurie Carlson

Farming/Gardening
Native American Gardening, by Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac
Beatrice's Goat, by Page McBrier - highly recommend!

Now recycling the scrap... on purpose, not by accident! :-)

Lavender Shortbread for the Summer Solstice

2009-06-20T23:06:00.000-07:00

The lavender in our garden is looking fabulous, and the many visiting bees we welcome every day think so, too! I've been expanding my culinary herb horizons this season, and I thought about what to bake for this Summer Solstice, Lavender Shortbread came to mind, and wouldn't leave. Recipe decision settled! Out into the garden I went, scissors in hand to bring in some of the beautiful and fragrant blooms.

I used the Lavendar Shortbread recipe from Renee's Garden

Review: Because this was my first-ever use of culinary lavender, I wanted to taste it by itself. Therefore, I omitted the mint. And, because I didn't have any lavender powered sugar, I used confectioner's sugar. My little "baking assistants" were excited to note that the dough was egg-free. (This freed them up to lick their spoons once the mixing was finished!) The cookies passed Quality Control with flying colors. The cookies had a delightful floral note, which some of my tasters mis-identified as vanilla. This recipe is a keeper!

Enjoy!

Goodness of greens

2009-06-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Check out todays's goodness of greens from our CSA -- lettuce, beets, turnips, kale, and more are all in the mix!

Earth Day gifts successfully pulled off!

2009-04-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

Earth Day has come and gone! As I had schemed, the boys now have (plastic-free!) tools for keeping down consumption of disposables. With all the hype about green things to buy in honor of the Day, I hated the timing of my purchases. But, if they are items I was planning to buy - ok, eventually, and this was a good excuse to speed it up - does that count as giving in to the hype? I vote "no". :-)

So, here's the after-report on how this all played out...

Utensil wrap

I, um, waited until the last minute to put these together. No matter, though! Mr. T - sewing assistant extraordinaire - was more than happy to provide his sewing machine pedal services. (I guide the machine, and he runs the show under the table.)

I had made a pattern the night before our sewing session to help me map out the amount of material needed, and where to put the seams. However, the way I create these sorts of things, "pattern" is a loose term - it's more of a sew-as-you-go proposition for me.

The wrap for T required four compartments to accomodate: a knife, a fork, a spoon, and... a glass straw! He loves using straws!

He and I went to my fabric stash, consulted, and decided on a flannel cat print.

As soon as the last knot was tied, we filled the wrap as planned. Only he was so excited, that he wandered off for a while, and then came back with a bulging wrap! See, he figured that he needed to add a spreading knife (in case he was at a picnic where he had something to spread), chopsticks (in their hard case, no less!), and extra spoon (because you get two when you eat at restaurants), and not one, but two, pencils (in case there was something to write down).

Then, we went back to the fabric selection, as S needed a wrap also. T picked out some fleece, since it was "camouflagy" - oh, the things which matter to boys!

A short while later, we had Wrap #2 all done. I was thinking ahead: this one has four compartments also. Why? If T has a glass straw, S wants one, too. However, since I was hesitant to order two when I'd never seen one, this means that another order is in my future.

The wraps still need ties - I'm thinking that the kids can fingerknit a length of yarn to serve as ties. In the meanwhile, T has his tied up - tight - using ribbons from his (too many) chocolate Easter bunnies.

Cost: $5.50 - The cat fabric is a repurposed bed sheet, loved so much that the middle wore out. The fleece was already in my stash as well, waiting for the right use to come along. The cutlery is from our kitchen and "event kit" (more on that kit at some future time). My only outright purchase was the straw (for which I paid just shipping, thanks to GlassDharma's promotional offer at the time), and a cleaning brush for said straw.

Result: The recipients are delighted. T adores his straw, and has never been so well hydrated in his life. He even practiced what he would say in a restaurant if a server wanted to offer him a plastic straw.

Stainless steel bottles

In doing some research about stainless steel beverage bottles, I was tickled pink to read about the Ecocanteen, which was touted as a lower-cost alternative to the Kleen Kanteen. The thing was, it wasn't so lower-cost by the time I considered the shipping, which is not combined for the purchase of multiple items. And, the shipping would have created packaging.

The other thing was that I've been reading about the importance of buying local.

In the end, I opted to buy two 12-ounce loop top Kleen Kanteens from a local food co-op. That eliminated the shipping fees, and supported a locally-owned store. (Heck, the co-op even had bulb fennel seeds available, which I'd been wanting to get for the garden, so that was a win-win all around.)

The boys were with me when I made the purchase, and could hardly wait to put those shiny bottles into service. Yes, I made them wait until April 22.

Cost: I don't have the receipt handy, but I think they were $11.99 a piece. So, that came to $23.98. No, that doesn't include the fennel seeds. ;-)

Result: The boys are so thrilled with their Kanteens that they are using them in the house. Daily. And, they are their constant companions when they need to take a beverage along elsewhere.

Cloth Napkins

While I have fabric (obtained through my local Freecycle Network group) designated for napkins, I a) ran out of time; and b) decided that given (a), we could get by with the napkins T and I have sewn previously.

Cost: would have been none, but since I didn't make them in the first place... the cost is still none. :-)

Result: It would probably be good to have a few extra napkins available for use, but for the time being, we're making do with what's there.

And about those glass straws

This is one classy operation. When I had a minor question about my order, David resolved it right away. And, he had the straw and brush sent out before I could blink an eye. He's clearly given the packaging some thought - it involves exactly no bubble wrap, and no breakage:

And, aside from anything else, the notion of a glass straw is a great conversation starter!

Happy Earth Day 2009!

We started our Three Sisters Garden

2009-04-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

With the weather being as changeable as its been, there may still be a frost, but we're being optimistic! This afternoon, S and I started our Three Sisters Garden. Truthfully, it's a Three Sisters Gardenette - we had space for only two corn hills. But, two are better than none! :-)

We chatted while we worked...

Some Three Sisters links for more information:

Creating a Three Sisters Garden (has great ideas beyond the garden itself)
Blessing USDA's Three Sisters Garden (with video of song blessing!)
Native American Three Sisters Gardens - lesson plan ideas
Three Sisters Garden - what is it? how do I grow it? when do I harvest it?

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

For a gentler way to mark Earth Day, consider "Earth Day: 12 Spiritual Practices to Honor the Earth".

Hmm... maybe this could be the underpinnings for an Earth block?...

Easter and Garden Preparation, and... snow!

2009-04-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

Wooosh! (That was the sound of our day whizzing along.)

We started off by singing two songs, one for Palm Sunday, and the other for Holy Thursday, from Das große Jahresbuch für Kinder: Feste feiern und Bräuche neu entdecken. Neither S nor T really wanted to participate, but the tunes were so catchy that I overheard them singing to themselves throughout the day. And, at bedtime, S directed the three of us in his own version of one of the refrains. Outcome = success.

Why is Holy Thursday called "Gruendonnerstag"? This same book had some stories for us, around which we had a discussion of Passover, a retelling of the parting of the Red Sea, and a look ahead at the Last Supper.

Then, we moved towards gardening! I sorted our seeds into categories, and S and I did some additional research into what we should be planting when. Cornell University has these lovely Vegetable Growing Guides. And, are you ready for this?! Via Bethe Balmeras, I learned about this groovy drag-and-drop Kitchen Garden Planner, absolutely perfect for Square Foot Gardening designs.

After lunch, we headed outside. We planted wheat next to the "W" in our Alphabet Garden, dug and compost-enriched four holes, set up a teepee for our peas to use as a trellis, and planted two varieties of said peas. While S and a young neighbor (I was so delighted that he joined us!) were working on the holes, T used his toy dump truck to haul compost to our work site. After the boys headed off to play, I planted two varieties of carrot seeds, and set up a rain barrel to start to collect water for the season.

While I was doing some spring garden cleanup, I noticed white bits whirling about. It *was* windy, and I assumed that these were cherry blossom petals coming down. Nope. Guess again! It was SNOW. Yes, we had several bouts of snow flurries in April. Dear snow, thanks for visiting, but we are ready to move on to spring.

Thinking about how to avoid disposables while you're out and about...

2009-03-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

No, Earth Day typically isn't a gift-giving occasion, at least not in our household. But this year, I think I'll be making an exception...

We're pretty good about packing lunches in reusable containers. What we don't seem to be so good about is being prepared for those eventualities while away from home: having that utensil, napkin, or cup for times when we're not expecting to need one.

Or, there's the case we had this afternoon, while attending a program for the boys: the children had a break during which a snack was served. The food didn't need plates or napkins. But, the juice was doled out in plastic cups. T had a drink, and then gave me his cup to hold, as there was still some juice left in it. (Thanks! Good thing I didn't need the use of both hands at the time!) He came back, finished, and we parents cleaned up the snack fixin's. I put the cup into the trash. A half hour later, T announced that he was thirsty. Had I only saved the cup!

So, I'm thinking that Earth Day will bring us some sort of out-and-about kit. The ingredients I'm considering are:

Utensil wrap - I've discovered these nice utensil sets from To-Go Ware. The thing is that we already have plenty of forks, knives, and spoons. Granted, they are metal, and not lighter-weight bamboo. But, buying more when we already have enough seems, well, not green. I have plenty of fabric, too. All I need to do is whip up a wrap for said utensils. Right, that takes time, of which I do not have plenty, but that's another blog post - LOL.
Cloth napkin - T and I have sewn up some of these, and I know he'd be happy to oblige in making more. First, I thought that the utensil wrap could do double-duty as a napkin, but that idea falls apart when you consider what to do if the napkin truly gets used to do some wiping. Exactly! You'd have a problem. So, a separate napkin it is!
Cup or bottle - We used to take sippy cups on the road. (Yes, the plastic ones. That was in the days before I was on my use-less-plastic track. It was also before the boys decided that sippy cups are for babies. Which they are no longer.) Maybe something along the lines of Sigg or Kleen Kanteen? For some purposes, a simple cup would do also. Hmm... More research is needed.

National Museum of the American Indian's collection now online

2009-03-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

5,000 items from the National Museum of the American Indian are now online! Try the NMAI's new Collections Search feature to search by Peoples/Cultures, Artists/Individuals, Places, Object Specifics, or Advanced Search. This should be a great resource for Grade 3 students and others.

Treat your table to your good china

2009-03-01T19:43:00.001-08:00

The Washington Post's Home section is encouraging folks to break out the formal china on a more regular basis, and then to share photos of the occasion.

Here's the direct link to the Fancy China page.

And, you know, why not? There's no point in letting the settling dust on the plates enjoy them more than the plates' owners!

Hmm... Tuesday Tea Time presents itself as the perfect ~~excuse~~ opportunity to dress a fancier table...

Now celebrating: a rabbit birthday!

2009-02-14T19:06:00.000-08:00

The other day, T announced that we needed to bake a cake. Why? Well, of course, because it was Rabbie's birthday. And, we didn't need just any old cake. It needed to be a carrot cake. Why? Because carrots are Rabbie's favorite vegetable. (In case you are keeping close notes, T added that cherries are her favorite fruit.)

It just wasn't possible to crank out a cake that day. No problem! T moved the birthday. Today's the day!

Cake production commenced. It had been a while since I pulled the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book out (it used to be my go-to book, but then Google was developed...), but I had a feeling that it would contain a basic Carrot Cake recipe for Rabbie's special occasion. BHG didn't disappoint. I grated, and stirred, and baked.

In honor of the coincidence with Valentine's Day, I pulled the heart-shaped cookie cutter off the drying rack, and pressed it back into service. Because I intended to send some of the "results" to some other recipients, I opted to put the frosting inside, rather than on top of, the hearts.

Voila! (For reference, yes, the cake hearts traveled well in their containers.)

Here's the birthday girl, complete with her birthday crown:

Easy, healthy Valentine's Day snack for kids (and grownups, too)

2009-02-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

Today was our day to supply snacks for S's class. But, what to send along? Muffins came to mind as "single-serve" goodies for a group of elementary-school-aged children. Still, wasn't there anything else? I scoured my resources, found nothing I wanted to make, and then... contemplated the ingredients we had on hand in the first place...

Since it was a week before Valentine's Day, I thought it might be nice to incorporate a heart-shape theme somehow... And then...

Inspiration!

I retrieved my heart-shaped cookie cutter, got my ingredients ready, and then set to work with my cutting board to mass-produce heart-shaped "sandwiches" of sorts.

Ingredients:
flour tortillas (up the health factor with whole-wheat tortillas)
ham
cheese
patience

I put one heart of ham, and one heart of cheese between two tortilla hearts. The results: a whole lotta love on each plate - LOL!

I sent along three plates full of these sandwiches. S reported that there were merely 4 hearts left at the end, and that these were snatched up when their availability was announced.

All in all, a success!

Chinese Dragon Puppets!

2009-02-06T20:13:00.001-08:00

Just discovered a tutorial for fabulous Chinese Dragon Puppets from That Artist Woman, perfect for the Chinese New Year.

The puppets turned out splendidly, don't you think?

I hate to throw away food items, but...

2009-02-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

I thought we were fairly safe from the peanut product recalls, since we ~~don't~~ didn't have any of the problem brands/items in the house.

Surprise!

When rummaging in the cabinet for something else, what did my eyes spy but a box of offending crackers! And, when we then investigated further, we had one recalled granola bar left in its box. The other 5 had already gone down the hatch, pre-recall. Guess those were safe.

I hate to throw away food items, but in this case, it's better to be safe than sorry. Nope, I didn't even compost them. They went out into the can...

If you haven't already done a once-over of your pantry, now's the time!

Preparing for Candlemas

2009-01-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

... or, as it's known in German, Maria Lichtmess

Candlemas - Wikipedia
All About Candlemas (Presentation of the Lord): Candlemas History, Information, Prayers, Resources, Traditions, & More
Maria Lichtmess oder Darstellung des Herrn
Heft zum Fest "Darstellung des Herrn" bzw. "Mariä Lichtmess"! (a very, very, very nice activity guide! Achtung: auf Deutsch!

And, this Sunday is the day for the Blasiussegen:

Name your poison! - our Grade 3 health lesson today

2009-01-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

We generally cover health, wellness, and safety throughout the course of our regular day, seizing the moment as opportunities arise. For example, when we had pancakes (yes, for dinner) the other night, S announced that he wanted to help make them. Fine! I showed him how, and he set to work. Of course, where you find S, T is not far behind. So, I had two chefs at work.

S carefully showed T how to pour in the batter, and how to flip the pancakes. T watched attentively, his sleeve coming ever closer to the danger zone around the stove burner. A-ha! Perfect chance to talk -- and more importantly at the time! -- to act on the importance of keeping clothing away from the burner. Crisis averted. Safely lesson imparted. Yummy pancakes consumed.

But, for documenting our "regular and thorough instruction" in this subject, more formal lessons come in handy. At a recent health fair, I picked up a DVD from our local Poison Control Center. The boys watched it this morning. The DVD holds some printable support materials, too, but these didn't show up on any of our computers. So, I went online in search of these. My finds included:

It's the sort of information you hope you never need to apply, but that it's very good to know just in case.

Die Sternsinger waren da!

2009-01-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, we welcomed visitors from the Orient to our home:

A team of Sternsinger visited us, bring with them a song, some verses, and a blessing for our home. On our front door, they chalked: 20*C+M+B+09. The letters stand for the Latin "Christus Mansionem Benedicat", or "Christ, bless this house." Just as the three wise men brought gifts to the Christ child, the Sternsinger collect donations to benefit children in need. This year's focus was on children in Columbia.

Clearing off the 2008 To-Do list

2008-12-28T19:05:00.000-08:00

My parents' birthday tradition for us children was that we got to have a birthday ring -- with candle! -- at our place at the table. So, when my sister welcomed a family addition this year, I decided that her family, too, should have such a ring! Only... that remained a good intention until today. There were several to-do items on my mental to-do list, and accomplishing the birthday ring purchase was one of them!

After a bunch of web research, and comparing the various rings and sets I found, I settled on the 16-hole birthday ring set from Nova Natural. This one doesn't have any figures with it -- I'm thinking that we can perhaps make these over time, and send them to the Birthday Children on their special days... Yup, another to-do list item... :-) (However, this one is not for 2008, so that's not a problem.)

As usual, one weblink led to the next for me, and... I went on a tangent for Advent Spirals, finding, among other things, this lovely, lovely, lovely idea for a felted Advent Spiral from Harmony Valley Homeschool! Harmony Valley, in turn, linked to this tutorial for the felted Advent Spiral mat. Hmm... do I sense another 2009 To-Do list item? ;-)

Signs of the season

2008-12-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

We saw these outdoor Christmas/holiday/winter decorations on our outings today...

A simple and elegant entry door:

A creative CD reuse idea: a decorative and durable chain for trees!

A closeup of the CD-chain, in case you want to make one yourself (Gentle readers: I took a special how-to look on your behalf :-)... make loops of fishing string from the center of one CD to the next.) :

And then, our first stick-to-the-lawn snow of the season:

Einmarsch der Nikolausmaenner!

2008-12-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

The St. Nikolaus bread man production went into overdrive! Six batches of dough later, "Nikolaus" had produced some larger men for secretly putting on our family plates overnight, and a gazillion smaller ones for giving away. I like to add a dash of lemon or orange extract into the mix. Alas, when I took out my extract bottle, and poured... nothing came out. Hmmm... I guess I had put the empty bottle back into the cabinet when I last used it. So, this year's men were extract-free. And, I put the extract box and bottle into the recycling bin, and made a note on the shopping list.

Our tradition is to take bread men to the children in our neighborhood (where "child" is loosely defined to include the "young-at-heart" as well). I took both S and T along for my deliveries. T was very proud to take the men designated for a given house into his gloved hands (it was cooold!), confidently ring the doorbell, and announce our gift.

Curriculum overviews

2008-11-30T14:46:00.000-08:00

Hawthorne Valley School

Grades, Handwork, Drawing, Modeling and Woodworking, Physical Education, and Projects

Goals for Third Grade

2008-11-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

Back in September, I asked S what he'd like to include among his goals for his Grade 3 year. As we spoke, I jotted down his items on a scrap of paper... which I've managed to hang on to all this time.

Before that paper gets lost, or prematurely recycled, here are his goals!

learn how to cook
learn cursive writing
improve his handwriting
improve his spelling

That sounded like a good plan to me, especially since we have some convenient overlap in things we'd like to achieve. :-)

Advent Preparation 2008

2008-11-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

We're celebrating Advent with our simple wreath of wooden spoons again:

Martinstag 2008

2008-11-11T20:21:00.000-08:00

No lanterns for us this year -- my little sidekicks didn't want to make any, so I let that go.

Instead, we made bread men -- Weckmaenner -- which was a first for us. (We'd only made those for St. Nicholas Day. That actually threw S for a loop: he wondered what had happened to the plate of goodies St. Nicholas brings with him! I explained that this was next month...) I improvised ours, but here's a Weckmann recipe which looks promising.

T and I ran through a few St. Martin tunes after lunch -- he sang, and I played the melodies on the recorder. Before dinner, S and I did the same.

We'll round out our celebration over the course of the week. I have a bunch of outgrown clothing items in need of new homes; in honor of the day, the boys will take these bags over to a wonderful local clothes closet on Thursday. And, S and T will get one more dose of Martinstag on Sunday during church.

Gearing up for Martinmas/Martinstag

2008-11-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

The Martinmas/Martinstag feast has sort of snuck up on me this year... in years past, we'd already have been retelling Martin's story at bedtime, and singing songs.

Still, the season is upon me. Now that we've set our clocks back, it's dark when I walk home from the bus stop... and pass a few street lights... that lead me to think of lanterns... and have me humming (if not singing outright!) "Laterne, Laterne" as I head down the hill with a lighter step.

Just in time for our preparations, Sarah at the Alphabet Garten has put together a comprehensive Martinstag unit study for German speakers and learners. Vielen Dank, Sarah! Wir freuen uns schon auf die Nikolaustag Ausgabe. :-)

Cooking lessons start with "Devil Sauce"

2008-09-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

When I asked S when he'd like to accomplish in Grade 3, he included cooking as one of his items. Unprompted! Conveniently, that was one of my agenda items for him as well. :-)

Last week, our CSA had an abundance of peppers. Hot peppers. We were encouraged to take them by the fist-full, and the newsletter handily included a recipe for Jalapeno Hot Sauce. This recipe calls for 20 (!) fresh jalapenos.

Papa Gardener is a hot sauce fan, and saw his name written all over that recipe. He and the boys put it on their to-do list, and off they went, using the experience as Cooking Lesson Session #1.

Rubber gloves were pulled out for the slicing and dicing. A while later, I received a phone call with the progress report: they should have turned on the over-the-stove fan... the fumes from the cooking sauce were gassing out the chefs!

By the time I got home, the air was clearer, and sauce jar, specially labeled by S, had claimed prime real estate in the refrigerator:

What's in a hand, and other units of linear measure

2008-09-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

You can lay out your lesson plans as carefully as you want ~ how the student responds is a great unknown...

The Post Office Project continues with its study of time. Papa Gardener and I decided to make linear measure the next math subject. We agreed that S would start off by reading the story of Noah and the Ark. This would be followed by exploration of various measurement units.

He read the story to himself, and also to T., using Tomie dePaola's "Stories of the Old Testament. Then, the idea was to start measuring things with hands, and feet, and cubits, and to see that using individual people's measurements led to inconsistent results. Well, no sooner did Papa Gardener and S begin, S announced that it would really be better to use a standardized unit. They continued their exercise anyway, finding that the kitchen table, for example, was 4 of S's cubits in length. That was remeasured in inches, and then they figured out how long each of those cubits was in inches. And so on...

For a comparison of units, they headed outside to our supersized chalkboard, also known as the asphalt driveway. The centimeter just barely shows up in the photo!

This lesson was supposed to stretch over several days. Both teacher and pupil got so involved in it that they kept at it for several hours, accomplishing the lesson in one day. Oops! On the other hand, that's a perk of homeschooling... no need to shoehorn the lesson into the alloted time space when you find yourself on a roll!

A little cubit research

2008-09-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend was -- finally! -- *the* weekend for making a more detailed draft for guiding us through Grade 3 this year.

S has already started on some measurement. In fact, he's got an interesting data collection project going right now. It's a sort of "applied time" thing. Perhaps more on that another time...

Tomorrow, he'll start off some work using biblical measurements. Here are some links I found regarding cubits:

The Forearm
Cubit - from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
How BIG was Noah's Ark? How many animals did Noah's Ark hold?

(For a bonus, here's a link about Abraham, to get a jump on those Old Testment blocks.)

Jack Petrash has a radio show

2008-09-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

Jack Petrash now hosts a monthly radio show! It's called "On Parenting", and airs on WPFW Radio on the third Monday of the month, from 7 to 8 p.m. EST.

From a newspaper article about the show:

Petrash said his show is designed to help guide parents through the different stages of a child's life, from toddlerhood to the teenage years...To also include children themselves, a story is told at the end of each show by WPFW's in-house narrator Kalonji Olusegun, a man... hailed as a "captivating storyteller."

You can "tune in" by listening live through the WPFW website, or through the station's program archive.

A year of handwork through the grades

2008-09-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Ithaca Waldorf Handworks & more and Teaching Handwork for sharing their lists of the handwork they plan to do with each of the grades they teach this year!

"No time for school"

2008-05-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

This video, called "No time for school" and sent to one of my homeschool email lists today, provides a wonderfully positive perspective on homeschooling. Enjoy!

Multiplication tables are more fun with a clock!

2008-05-10T14:35:00.001-07:00

I'm in catch-up mode today... This photo is actually from early Winter...

Learning the multiplication tables was one of our goals for Grade 2. Once I learned about Robinsunne's Multiplication Clock, I knew S had to make one of these! The problem was that I was more enthusiastic about the concept than he was. Together, we persevered.

One learning we soon made was that there's a reason that your paper should be large: if, just hypothetically speaking, of course, you use an 8.5" x 11" sheet, your circles and numbers get awfully crowded. This is especially true for still-emerging writers, whose handwriting is big.

Also, despite mothers' advice to the contrary, permanent markers are exciting to use, but they bleed into the paper, causing the numbers to run together. When this occurs well into the project, you either start over (not a popular suggestion), or you find an alternate solution. In this case, that solution was to White-Out the problem, to photocopy the page, and then to rewrite what's needed [using something other than a permanent marker ;-) ].

To extend the lesson, S circled all of the square numbers - this is difficult to see in the image below, however. He discovered that the circles form a spiral. Neat!

Sleeping the way they do in Guatemala

2008-05-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Dann legte sie sich zum Schlafen hin. Sie schlief immer mit den Fuessen auf dem Kopfkissen und mit dem Kopf tief unter der Decke. "So schlafen sie in Guatemala," versicherte sie.

Yes, we're reading Pippi Langstrumpf as our bedtime story right now, and as soon as I read these lines, I just knew that this was the next thing I was going to see:

And, I was correct in suspecting that we'd have conversations about where Guatemala is located...

Anansi inspired a whole page of writing and drawing!

2008-05-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

I came home to the most wonderful surprise tonight:

Last night, I wrote a short assignment list for S. He and I discussed his primary task, writing a summary of Anansi Goes Fishing. (More about the book later...) We talked about how he'd write a sentence or two about the story, draw a picture (with background to fill the entire space), and make a border. My note to him included a diagram of the these features. :-) He listened, and then decided that he wanted me to do this work with him. Well, that meant that we wouldn't get to it until Friday evening.

Lo, and behold! My reluctant writer wrote this lovely summary (all by himself), drew a beautiful picture to go with it, and remembered his border! (He even included a list of characters at the bottom.) Yes, there are some, er, creatively spelled words in there, but I'm more than willing to look the other way on those.

The back story to this book is that S had checked it out of the library, and read it. Yesterday, we put it into our pile of books to return. The library was closed when we got there, so we put our books into the Book Return slot. Except for Anansi. When I asked S about that book, he generously offered to read it to me - right then and there, standing next to the Book Return slot! Seizing the moment, I thought it would be an ideal addition to our Grade 2 work on animal stories and fables, which is where this blog post begins...

Happy Spring!

2008-03-24T20:06:00.001-07:00

To welcome Spring, we've been reading Aufgewacht, der Fruehling kommt!, by Sigrid Laube and Silke Leffler. It's published by the Annette Betz Verlag (Austria) -- check 'em out, as their books include quite a few gems for children.

It's a lovely story about how Spring is eager to arrive on March 21, only... the calendar page hasn't yet been turned... The illustrations are delightful as well. (The cover shows the Daffodil, Snow Drop, Violet, and the Erdfrau.)

Among the conversation topics our reading inspired were zwiebeln (bulbs) and whether the ones from which flowers grow are the same ones we eat (Gr. zwiebel = onion). And, on a prowl for signs of Spring, we noted yesterday that yes, our violets are starting to bloom!

Frohe Ostern!

2008-03-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Aren't these little bunnies cute? The pattern is from the Spring 2008 issue of Living Crafts magazine. And, it's super easy. Once I made one, I was set (which was terribly convenient, as I misplaced my magazine for a few days...).

The bunnies are smaller than I thought from reading through the pattern. It turns out that they are perfectly pocket-sized. In fact, T has been carrying his around in his pants pocket!

I'm having S knit a bunny of his own -- it's essentially a rectangle which you tie off and sew together to shape. However, he's decided that he prefers sewing to knitting. [Hey, I'm not going to argue with a kid who wants to sew. :-) ] I'm still going to insist on basic knitting skills. In the meanwhile, here's S sewing up the bottom of a bunny we sent to my nephews:

St. Patrick

2008-03-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

I went to the library in search of, among other things, a book or two about St. Patrick -- this was both in preparation for St. Patrick's Day, and also for S to read for his Grade 2 saints...

The requisite section of the stacks was very picked-over. But, there -- right in the middle of an otherwise bare shelf -- it was: Tomie de Paola's Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, exactly what I had scoped out for S at the beginning of the school year, and about which I had promptly forgotten. Gratefully, I scooped it up, along with Petook: An Easter Story for T.

I offered to read the book to S, but he wanted to read it himself. For our MLB, we printed out a map of Ireland. S dictated his summary to me, and then recopied my sentences. (This was a compromise, since he would otherwise have refused to write anything.)

I thought he'd give me something about one or two of the legends associated with St. Patrick. Nope! What caught the attention of my little dog-lover was this: "Als er ans Boot kam, sind die Jagdhunde still geworden." (When he [St. Patrick] came to the boat, the hunting dogs became still.)

And, check out that border! It's green and orange, and S researched to learn that these two colors mixed together make brown. So, the middle line is brown. As far as he was concerned, he was just making a nice design... how's that for some unintentional form drawing?

And, to celebrate the day, we made this "Dark Irish Soda Bread". Of course, I substituted ingredients. :-) Instead of buttermilk, I used homemade yogurt. And, per the wishes of my bakers, we left out the caraway seeds. I thought the outcome was just so-so, and was disappointed that the loaf was so (relatively) small. For me, the recipe was on its way to the recycling bin. However, the bread got very positive reviews over dinner. So, I guess I'm keeping it...

The Blue Whale Fish Team

2008-03-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

While I was working, S and T were playing in the living room. I noticed them head upstairs, where they stayed for a while. When they came down, both had changed shirts, and I was filled in on... The Blue Whale Fish Team...

One of their recent bedtime stories had included mention of the Redcoats...

So, when you're thinking about Redcoats and fighting them, a good color is blue... and when you head to your drawer, and find that the blue shirt has a whale on it... Blue Whale Fish Team is just the name for your group!

The team's headgear, carefully labeled by S for use by T, is a temporarily repurposed fireman's hat:

When having the wrong key taught me more about playing

2008-02-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was scheduled to chat with children at a local preschool about worm composting. I left the house on time, commuted to my office, picked up the books I needed there, and headed off (still on time!) to the final leg of my trip. I was borrowing a car, and had picked up the key two days ago, so that I'd have it ready to use. Only...

When I got to the car, and inserted the key into the lock, nothing happened. So, I tried another door, and then yet a third one, just to be sure. No dice. Wrong key. I called the school to say that I'd be a little late, and then walked back to my office at top speed. I confirmed that I'd been given the key for another vehicle, swapped keys for the correct one, and dashed back.

Given the luxury of being in the car all by myself, I tuned the radio to NPR. About halfway to my destination, the story on how "Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills" aired. Spending hours playing... making up their own rules... improvising... Didn't *that* sound familiar?! I have two experienced little practioners! The more I heard, the more my ears perked up. What validation to Waldorf-inspired homeschooling, and to the many hours my guys have whiled away in the yard and in the house, spinning endless tales for themselves!

About the presentation... yes, I did make it there, and and we had a delightful time talking about worms, observing them, and putting together a worm bin for the school. But, had that original key been the correct one, I'd have been out of the car and in a classroom when that piece on play came over the radio waves!

On Valentine's Day Eve

2008-02-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

S's afternoon class was canceled today, due to the weather. (I wish I had known that *before* we drove over there...) Anyway, that gave us an unexpectedly free afternoon, perfect for "teatime."

By request, we sipped hot chocolate instead of tea. And, instead of something seasonally appropriate, S and T polished off some (yummy) Christmas cookies we still had stashed away. But, I digress...

We attempted this tongue twister from zzzebra:

Zehn zahme Ziegen zogen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo.

We sampled some Valentine's Day verses, and this one was the overwhelming favorite:

Wenn die Flüsse aufwärts fließen,
und die Hasen Jäger schießen,
und die Mäuse Katzen fressen,
dann erst will ich dich vergessen.

And, we talked a little about the origins of Valentine's Day.

And, did I mentioned we had hot chocolate?

What we are reading this Advent season

2007-12-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

"Und als das Kind ihm freundlich zulächelte, da wusste der kleine Esel, dass der neue König auch dem geringsten seiner Geschöpfe Liebe schenkt."

And when the infant gave him [the donkey] a friendly smile, the donkey knew that the new king loved even the least of his creatures.

This story about traveling to see the newborn Christchild is told from the donkey's perspective.

We read the German version of Ein Esel geht nach Bethlehem, by Gerda Merie Scheidl; the English version, titled The Little Donkey, is surely equally touching.

S gave a contented sigh as we reached the end, saying that this was the nicest story he'd heard.

Lasst uns froh und munter sein - our visit from St. Nicholas

2007-12-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

Lasst uns froh und munter sein,
und uns recht von Herzen freun!
Lustig, lustig, traleralera!
Bald ist Nikolaus Abend da,
bald ist Nikolaus Abend da!

St. Nicholas came to visit us again this year!

We've spent the past few nights singing verses from "Lasst uns froh und munter sein."

Today, S and T decorated paper plates in anticipation of tonight's visit.

St. Nicholas' helper industriously set to work after bedtime, making a sweet yeast dough for the bread-men which are traditional St. Nicholas Day fare in our family. (I add extra sugar to the recipe, and a dash of lemon or orange extract -- depending on what I have on hand -- for festive flavor!).

As has been our custom in previous years, St. Nicholas brought bread-men for some of our neighbors as well. Together with S and T, we will deliver these to the families, along with our good wishes, tomorrow.

How to make a simple advent wreath from wooden spoons

2007-12-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

Seventeen (!) years ago, I was a student in Austria. After church one Sunday, I picked up a little Advent guide for children. One of the craft ideas in it was to make an Advent wreath from wooden spoons.

Wreath-less at the time, I thought this was a great idea. Off to the store I went, in search of suitable spoons!

Here is this year's interpretation of the Spoon Wreath:

Lay the spoons in a square so that the stem of one rests upon the "spoon" end of the next.

Place some greens at the intersection of the spoons, and tie in place with a festive ribbon. (Our greens this season were gathered on a walk in the middle of the city! S and T saved them from their fate on the sidewalk. They gave them to me to carry... I clutched them in my hand for the next several hours, as we completed our errand, stopped in at the zoo, and then took public transportation home.)

Be careful to keep greens and the ribbons away from your candles!

Put a tea light on each spoon. You can also use votive candles. If you choose votives, cover each spoon with a piece of foil to catch any dripping wax.

We put our wreath on a wooden tray, but have also put it on a piece of foil in the past.

After the Advent season is over, simply untie the spoons, compost the greens, and pack the spoons and ribbons away for next year.

And, here's our final product, with the first candle blazing!

Update 15 November 2008: This post has turned out to be a popular search engine find! I invite you to leave a comment sharing your own wreath-making experience.

More on trees, and Tuesday Teatime with Pumpkin Pie

2007-11-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

The interest in tree and leaf identification continues...

The back story to today's activities is this: at least month's nature center class, S was so taken by the nature hunt (ok, so he liked the hunt and he was a little put-out at not having been able to be in charge of his group's clipboard) that he came home that day and created his own nature hunt.

This morning, we pulled out his version of the nature hunt, and went hunting! Our first task was to find ten different trees. We got a good start with the ones in our own yard.

Once again, I learned something, too! That tree in the front yard (being measured by my trusty arborists in the photo), which I'd thought was a white oak, is actually a red oak -- oops! By S's measurement, it's 67 years old (one year per inch of circumference). In this case, that age reference is on the optimistic side; the tree is about 2/3 younger...

After lunch, we turned our attention to Tuesday Teatime! Since I had some pumpkin in the refrigerator, it was a simple decision to try out Kristie's 10-Minute Pumpkin Pie. With two bakers predisposed to kitchen rivalry, it took us a little more than ten minutes to assemble. Still, about an hour after we started (that includes the baking time), the house smelled great, and we had a fine-looking pie, fresh out of the oven. It's a good thing I snapped a photo right away -- as I write this post this evening, there's, um, a good bit less left in the pie dish.

The pie's flavor and texture are wonderful. Our version didn't form much in the way of its own crust - I prefer pies with crusts, as it turns out - but that's certainly not a deal-breaker for this recipe. Thanks again for sharing it, Kristie.

For our Teatime reading, we enjoyed "Der Herbst steht auf der Leiter", by Peter Hacks. Here's a sampling of this poem:

"Der Herbst steht auf der Leiter
und malt die Blätter an,
ein lustiger Waldarbeiter,
ein froher Malersmann."

The poem took us back to Google: the poem says "kommt ein frecher Zeisig". S asked what this was, and I didn't know. A Zeisig, as it turns out, is a bird. :-) In English, it's a siskin, a member of the finch family.

How a walk to Storytime at the library turned into a discussion about decision trees

2007-11-20T19:43:00.001-08:00

So, we attended our library's preschool Story Time this morning. T tags along to so many of S's activities that I wanted to go to something just for him. It had rained, and I wasn't sure if more was on the way, so I packed umbrellas and we walked (as opposed to biking) there. (I considered driving, but really couldn't justify driving that one mile, especially since we had the time.)

The program was... just ok. T didn't want to participate at first, but then warmed up to it a bit by the end. It seems like the more we do outside of the "conventional" sphere, the more critical I'm becoming. Or, maybe I'm just getting crotchety in my advancing age!

After the program, we hung out in the library for a little while - S read books, T picked one out to "read" as well, and I poked around in the craft section, finding two kids' knitting books that look promising.

S's assignment for his Nature Center class is to write an origin story. Coincidentally, I found a book along those lines as well. I showed it to him, and he immediately launched into the first chapter. Coincidentally (are you sensing a theme here?!), this book looks like it will tie in well with the legends/fables/animal stories for Grade 2. So, it could be a win all around.

On the way home, I asked the boys to collect leaves they thought were nice. The leaves are dropping in earnest now - the trees and the ground beneath them are lovely. My plan was to use the gathered treasures for leaf rubbings.

We made the rubbings, but then I was curious about what some of the leaves were. (See, I'm learning right along with the boys!) So, I suggested to S that we hit the Internet for some tree identification. With leaves in hand, we started clicking, and soon located the very, very handy and easy-to-use "What Tree is It?" from the Ohio Public Library Information Network.

We used this tree ID tool to identify (thornless) honeylocust leaves, a red maple leaf, and some others. And that's how S and I ended up talking about the decision tree model on our way to karate (him) and yoga (me) tonight.

Thanks-giving is not limited to the 4th Thursday in November

2007-11-16T18:55:00.000-08:00

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, from Spirituality & Practice, offer a 22-day practice in gratitude: 22 Ways to Practice Thanks-giving

It looks simple, but effective - perfect for someone more interested in thinking about thanks and gratefulness than in putting a turkey on the table next Thursday, not that I'd mention any names...

Those saint stories really do hit the spot with second graders!

2007-11-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

With Martinmas coming up, we went into high gear on reading about St. Martin.

We read through this particular set of stories last year. But this time around, S has been particularly taken with the "take home message" that being a Christian means serving others as Christ - and Martin - did.

This morning, we went past our local Starbucks to see whether they had any coffee grounds available for pickup. I had promised S that, if they did, he could have the entire bag for his own compost pile.

Well, there were grounds to be had! T cheerfully took the bag, and insisted that he would carry it to the car. Problem! *S* wanted to carry the bag... Such differences of opinion are not uncommon. Only this time, it wasn't the "normal" situation of both brothers wanting to do the same thing at the same time. S was upset because *he* wanted to be the one doing the serving; he didn't want to *be* served!

Hours later, I'm still amazed.

*The* resource for Martinmas preparations / Martinstag Vorbereitung (in German)

Handmade Holidays

2007-11-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

I have no idea when [if?!] I will have time to sew. But, I'm going to enjoy reading through the Handmade Holidays tutorials regardless!

From the Elephant Child to Encarta

2007-10-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

So, we are a little behind the schedule I set for ourselves. That means we're still doing a block on animal stories.

Today, we read "Wie das Elefantenkind seinen Ruessel bekam", by Rudyard Kipling. (That's "The Elephant's Child.") The elephant child made its way to the Limpopostrom. The boys found that quite amusing, and curiosity finally got the better of us. S and I hit Google, to learn that the Limpopostrom is the Limpopo River in English.

And this is why homeschooling is so freeing: From knowing that Limpopostrom (isn't that fun to say?!) is the Limpopo River, our next question was where this river is located. Back to Google, and off to Encarta we headed! We learned that the Limpopo River flows through southern Africa. When S zoomed out on the map, we were left with only the country outlines. That, of course, was an opportunity for us to give ourselves a pop quiz: did we remember all of the countries touched by the river? We did!

And this is where homeschooling is even more wondrous: I stepped away from the computer, only to return to S's cruising around on the map, only now he was looking at the map of our own region! On his own, he knew to "travel" up to the North American continent. He'd then used strategies to narrow his location down to our state, and then to our city, and then he "visited" some other locations of import to him.

We then set to finishing the story. On this beautiful fall day, we simply had to use our hammock. And, so we did. :-)

On the way to karate (and yoga for me!), S and I brainstormed various possibility for making a "moving picture" of this story. He had some interesting ideas... stay tuned!

Fingerknitting with Wandering Henry

2007-09-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this fun set of instructions for fingerknitting. It spins a yarn (I couldn't resist the pun!) of Wandering Henry.

Some Fabel resources for Grade 2

2007-08-29T18:43:00.003-07:00

http://literaturnetz.org/gedichte
Drachenlied

Candles are part of our bedtime rhythm

2007-08-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

At night, I light a candle, and then read the boys their stories. When we're finished, they blow out the candle, alternating turns: S. gets the odd-numbered days, and T. gets the even-numbered ones.

While S. was working on his Grade 2 candle, I worked on decorating a new Bedtime Candle for us to use.

Let the games begin! - how we started our Grade 2 homeschooling year

2007-08-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

Last year, I had a clear starting date in mind for our school year. As it turned out in retrospect, I didn't communicate this clearly to S., and so he didn't have that "hook" on which to hang his "first day of school" for the year. (Read: opportunity for improvement!)

We discussed what a good starting date would be... One consideration was to start on a new moon... That gave us August 12 or September 11... August seemed a little early, but mid-September seemed a little late, especially since his fall classes would have started during the prior two weeks...

We settled on August 12, conveniently a Sunday. The plan is to begin Grade 2 gently, starting with some form drawing and catch-up on art projects we've been thinking about but not yet executed. Then, we'll move on to a block of fables/nature stories.

To mark the occasion, S. agreed that we needed a special Grade 2 candle. On Saturday, he and I went out to the backyard, armed with our supplies. He crafted; I assisted as needed.

On Sunday evening, we had a special dinner to go with the special candle. Among the ingredients was a wild rice mixture I'd purchased for use at whatever occasion warranted it. We lit the candle for dessert, which was ice cream and the last of our self-picked blueberries. Mmmmm.....

How to make cloth wipes

2007-07-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

I continue to think a lot about how we can reduce the amount of waste our household generates. The boys can be generous with their use of toilet paper, and even when TP use is modest per, um, application, the total does add up over time.

I also continue to think about how we can live more simply, which for me, includes having less stuff. So, I'd been wondering about that stash of soft, flannel baby receiving blankets in the bottom drawer. Certainly, I could donate them. Or, they'd also make a great material with which to test the cloth wipe concept...!

The fabric: My sewing assistant, T, helped me smooth out and measure the receiving blanket on our "cutting mat," the living room carpet:

The size: What size is good for wipes? We decided to try 8" x 6" rectangles. Perfect! We were able to cut 16 pieces:

Hemming: I knew that, on their own, the edges would fray. For the cleanest edge, I could have sewn two fabric layers together, right sides together, and then turned the rectangle inside out. A simple zigzag around the edges would have achieved a similar goal. But, these are "just" wipes! A little fraying wouldn't be a problem...

Never mind that I've had this lovely Husqvarna sewing machince for eight+ years. I'd never tried out all of the fancy stitches. With nothing to lose, my assistant and I tried out stitches with abandon!

Action!: While I "steered" the needle across the fabric, my trusty assistant manned the foot pedal:

The wipes: Here's a sampling of our finished product:

The presentation: A little basket in the bathroom for storing the wipes would be nice. Or, you could use a glass napkin holder to do the job:

Update, August 17, 2007:

As expected, the edges are doing some fraying. This is ok.
The 8"x6" size is very convenient.
I'm planning on sewing up a second batch for our other bathrooms. I think I may try the cleaner hemming method (for 4"x6" wipes, as I'll fold the fabric rectangles in half), just to see how that works out for us.
We've washed the used wipes (we've only used them for #1) right along with our other laundry -- no presoaking or any other special treatment -- and they've come out beautifully.

We'll drink to that! - Our end-of-year celebration

2007-07-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

Deciding on when to end S's first grade year was somewhat arbitrary... Sunday, July 1, seemed like a good date...

The next question, then, was how to celebrate. Here's what we did:

I pulled out the books I'd made with S's work -- his Number Book, his Letter Book, and other written/drawn items. Then, I collected handwork and artwork from the past months. As I was collecting, S drifted by periodically, delighting in looking back over what he had accomplished.

After dinner, I cleared a space on the table, and brought in my collection. The whole family participated in the retrospective. What a lot of ground we covered over the course of "first grade!"

And then, it was time for dessert! Featuring blueberries! From a local pick-your-own farm! We'd gone online to find a suitable recipe, and settled on this simple and delicious Blueberry Smoothie. We added a honey drizzle on top, and then enjoyed -- mmmmm!

When you cook, you need a drying rack for the greens

2007-06-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm rereading Mitten Strings for God right now. Inspired by the segments that were my "light bus commute reading" today, I invited T. to help me prepare dinner. He demanded his toque, and off we went. We made a beet soup, and cooked up some collard greens and chard, all ingredients of goodness from our CSA.

While I was working on the soup, T. was at the kitchen table, working with the greens. He was happily singing to himself. Then, I heard some lyrics about a drying rack. The next thing I knew, he started making trips to the oven door handle, explaining that the greens needed to dry on the "drying rack" before he could cut them into smaller pieces. So, onto the "rack" they went!

Elderflower Syrup Update

2007-06-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

Returning to my elderflower syrup creation...

So, after letting my elderflowers steep for two days, I strained out the flowers, added sugar, and boiled the mixture.

It looks lovely -- a clear, light brown. It's also verrry sweet, but that is helped when the syrup is diluted with water. The flavor is very light, almost too light, really. Maybe I should have used more flowers? Also, it will be interesting to see what adding lemon juice will do.

In any case, not bad for a first run. I'll be enjoying my Holunderblütensaft, especially since I made it myself. :-)

How to make Elderflower Syrup

2007-06-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

The elderberry bush in our yard has grown by leaps and bounds. Right now, it's in full bloom! So, that got me thinking about Holunderblütensaft -- Elderflower Juice (or Syrup)... which, of course, I'd never made from scratch.

So, I hit the web for advice.

One website mentioned that the flowers tend to attract, er, wildlife. Sure enough, while I was zooming around looking for recipes via Google, I was visited by a variety of little critters. So, beware when you bring in your harvested flowers! :-)

One small problem was most of the recipes call for citric acid, not something I had on hand. Therefore, I hunted further until I found one without that ingredient.

This is the recipe I ended up using, modified for quantity -- since I had no idea how I'd like the result, and didn't have enough bottles/jars in which to store it, I didn't want to have 3 pints on hand.

On jewelry, Proust, gardening, and this blog

2007-06-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

So, I spent some time browsing a craft shop today. One of the necklaces on display contained this quote from Marcel Proust:

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

It's stuck in my head for the remainder of the day.

I named this blog months ago, but felt my choice validated after reading this. At the outset, I knew that while I was officially "in charge" of the boys' home education, that they'd teach *me* just as much -- more, really -- than I could hope to teach them.

My vision for our home school is that we learn from each other, help our hearts sing, and yes, make our souls blossom.

Multiples are more fun to learn in the sandbox than with tables

2007-06-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing for our County homeschool review, scheduled for later this week. This has me looking over what we've done this semester (and realizing how much I intended to post here but haven't... watch more for catch-up!...)

In early May, I saw how other families had used math boards to work on learning their multiplication tables. How much more fun than sitting there, memorizing facts from tables on a piece of paper!

We have ample scrap wood in the garage, and nails as well. I wondered, however, whether our sandbox might serve us for a temporary "math board" ...

While the boys were playing in the backyard, I found a long twig, and broke it into smaller pieces. I smoothed out an area of sand, and then arranged 10 pieces in a circle. I cut 10 small pieces of paper. Then, I invited S to come over and write the numbers 0 through 9 on the papers. Carefully, we poked a hole into each paper, and stuck it onto a twig piece. We then tied a length of yard to the "0" twig, and let the fun begin!

Counting by 4's created a 5-pointed star!

Here, we switched yarn colors...
Counting by 3's created something that looks more like a sun!

When we wrapped up, we added the twigs and paper slips to the compost pile.

Looking torward the end of our First Grade year

2007-05-29T20:02:00.000-07:00

Our second County review for the academic year is just one week from Thursday. That's got me doing a lot of thinking about what we've done together since last summer, what's gone well, what hasn't, what I'd do differently, etc.

One lesson learned is that I didn't do enough to mark the beginning of the "school year". I had it all worked out in my head, but poor S., as it turned out, wasn't reading my mind. :-)

Recalling that experience, I want to be more concrete about wrapping up the year. Ask and ye shall receive! Along come David Darcy's suggestions for Year-End Celebrations.

I've noticed how much S. enjoys looking at and reading through his work. He's gone through his number book many times, for example. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get him to put anything down on paper. But, he's so proud of the results afterwards! And, what a great review of concepts he has as he muses over the pages!

So, I'm thinking of inviting over grandparents and perhaps a few other people who'd be pleased to look back over the past months of "school" with us, displaying some writing/art/etc. examples, weaving in a song or two, and enjoying some cake or other goodies together. Maybe we can even do a crafty activity.

We are homeschooling evangelists

2007-04-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

It happened again yesterday...

So, how's your homeschooling going?

Very well, thanks! S is learning by leaps and bounds. We're also enjoying the freedom which homeschooling has given our lifestyle.

What textbook are you using?

None, actually. We're using the Waldorf curriculum as our starting point, and are using supporting resources as we go along. Many of our learning opportunities come about during our daily life. Why, just the other day, we did ...

Say, what about testing?

No tests.

Really?!

Yup, that's correct. Now, we *are* required to have reviews, and the options for this include the following ...

Hey, that sounds pretty good.

Thanks, we think so, too.

Whether I'm speaking to a playmate's parents, neighbors, or colleagues at work, I'm finding time and again that the conversation is not just about homeschooling; it's just as much about Homeschooling. Sure, we talk about how things are going for S this year. More than that, though, it's a "teachable moment," an opportunity to share with these folks what homeschooling is, and what the requirements are in our state. As I share these thoughts on this Easter Sunday, it's perhaps fitting that I come away from these conversations feeling like a homeschooling evangelist.

Manipulating multiples, or finding math in everyday life

2007-03-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

So, somehow I was roped into organizing a large-ish community event. Yes, this is as much of an undertaking as it sounds. Thankfully, it's for an organization our family values highly. I'll leave the back story to the fertile imaginations of you Gentle Readers. Last Thursday's project: publicity.

We had one ream of paper printed up with bookmarks. S and I biked over to pick this up, and then headed over to the organization's building to use their paper cutter. We moved the paper cutter to the floor, talked about how to use it safely (fingers nowhere NEAR the blade!!!), and cut... and cut... and cut... and cut.

While there, we raised a few eyebrows. (Shouldn't you be in school? Um, no, we're homeschooling. Oh.) Little did our questioners know that we had quite a math lesson while seated there on the floor, surrounded by many, many sheets of bright yellow paper.

The copy center gave us our print job in two boxes (2 x 250 sheets = 500).
Each sheet had four bookmarks printed on it (4 x 500 = 2000).
One sheet yielded 4 bookmarks, 2 sheets gave 8, and so on, until we calculated out multiples of up to 4 x 12.
We experimented with how many sheets we could successfully cut at once. We decided that 6 sheets was the limit on that. In the meanwhile, we covered multiples of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and of course, 6.
Having settled on cutting sets of 6, we then worked with individual stacks of bookmarks: one cut gave us 6, 2 cuts --> 12, 3 cuts --> 18, and so on. A nearby cart had some puppets on it in preparation for a storytime. While I was cutting, S sampled the wares, settling on a little pig. To liven things up, I suggested that the bookmarks be snacks. So, the piggie was handed a stack of bookmarks after each cut, eagerly "gobbling" it up. I think S decided that 18 bookmarks was the pig's threshold for developing a tummy ache. :-)

Needless to say, we hardly noticed that we were at our work for a good two hours. The math "lesson" should prove to be fairly memorable! And, amazingly, no blood was shed, not even on an ordinary paper cut.

Observations with dry ice

2007-03-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

We received a shipment containing dry ice to keep the contents cold. The time after dinner was spent with all manner of fun and exciting observations!

For example, when a piece of dry ice is put into a glass of water, the water bubbles and "fog" spills out! Here, S. and T. are catching some of the water vapor ("fog") in their hands.

Sing your way to Health with "Bon Appetit"

2007-03-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer have a CD, titled Bon Appetit, with a theme of nutrition and health. I nonchalently stuck it into the rotation on our CD player, and my boys started bopping away -- the younger one even requests it specifically now! What a sneaky way to get in some lessons about Health. :-)

The lyrics and melodies are catchy; the kids were already singing along on their first listen.

This album also includes one of my favorite tunes, David Mallet's "The Garden Song" (Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow...)

Info about the album, including coloring sheets, links to nutrition and health websites, and more
And, to see if Cathy and Marcy might be bringing this show to your area, check their performance schedule

Bike safely -- an ideal set of health lessons!

2007-01-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

I've been struggling with what to do for Health. It's one of the subject areas our state requires. The local public school curriculum includes things like drugs, alcohol, and smoking. But, these are topics I don't care to cover in our First Grade. And, the lesson on "smoking is yucky" is one which S. already has down pat.

I just stumbled across this Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety curriculum guide (PDF) from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. Perfect! At the beginning of this month, S. graduated from his training wheels. As he shouted to a young neighbor, "I'm a two-wheel guy now!"

Since we try to walk, bike, or bus to as many of our local errands and other destinations as we can, this will be a very appropriate (and necessary) set of lessons to cover.

From kings to birds

2007-01-15T19:08:00.001-08:00

Reason 127 for why we're thoroughly enjoying homeschooling...

S. and I are continuing to work our way through the alphabet. To work on "K", we read Grimm's Koenig Drosselbart (King Thrushbeard).

In the story, the king's chin looked like a thrush's beak, hence his name. In preparation for drawing his "K" picture, S. wondered what a thrush looked like, so that he could render his king properly.

That led us to look up Drossel,... which in turn,... led us to learning about stones called "Drosselschmiede", which the birds use to break open snail shells.

At the outset, I had no idea that one could learn so many things from studying the letter "K"! :-)

Learning about teeth

2007-01-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

S. and T. had their biannual dental checkups on Tuesday. So, we've been talking a lot about teeth and dental health since then...

Planning ahead for the Chinese New Year

2006-12-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

Some resources we found today, in preparation of the Chinese New Year...

Various art activites (lantern, paper cut, scroll)
Printable calendars
Printable books
Lunar New Year in Taiwan
Traditional Celebration of the Chinese New Year
Year of the Pig

Some preparation for the Winter Solstice

2006-12-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

Celebrating the number 100!

2006-12-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

If you include weekends (and really, on what day do you not have a learning experience? :-) ), yesterday was our 100th day of homeschooling. So, we've been celebrating the number 100!

First, I made a 10x10 square grid for S, and he wrote in the numbers from 1 to 100. He wasn't beyond the mid-20's when he started noting number patterns he saw emerging.

Have you ever wondered what 100 Cheerios look like on a 100 cm piece of yarn? (It's even more when you factor in the broken pieces which have to be eaten!)

In the afternoon, he estimated how far 100 steps would take him. Pretty far, as it turned out! He started at our mailbox, and ended up "across the big street!"

Collecting milk lids = a math lesson

2006-11-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

With help from the other soy milk drinkers in the family, we'd been collecting the Red Dress foil lids from 8th Continent Soymilk. The baggie was getting full, and in our Advent cleanup mode, it was time to get these lids on their way.

But, before sending them in, we wanted to know how much money 8th Continent would donate to women's heart disease awareness as a result of our efforts.

Well, said S, each one is worth 50 cents, so two are one dollar. He then made piles of two... for a total of 24 piles. Wow! We had $24!

Then, we wanted to know how many lids we had:

2 lids/pile x 20 piles = 40 lids.
2 lids/pile x 4 piles = 8 lids.
40 lids + 8 lids = 48 lids!

There was one more challenge: figuring out the combination of stamps needed to send the envelope on its way. That, too, accomplished, the intrepid lid counter set off to the post office...

Here's a sampling of how our Number Book turned out

2006-11-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

Three people:

The four elements (fire, air, water, earth):

Seven colors of the rainbow:

A spider (8 legs) in her web:

This became an elaborate story! It involved three witches, three princes (each wearing crowns with 3 points) who had money bags each holding 3 coins... So, getting to nine (and we did during the creation of this drawing!) involves using various combinations of multiples of 3...

Here, S. did coin rubbings of 10 pennies, plus a dime,
and then drew the border containing 10 blocks...

How we made our own knitting needles

2006-11-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

The "before" shot of the dowel:
S measured out and marked two 10" lengths:
He carefully used the saw to cut the dowel into the smaller lengths he needed:

Then, we headed outside to our front walk, and used the concrete to rub points onto one end of each needle:

Back inside to smooth out the rough bits with sandpaper:

Each sanded needle was "finished" with a light application of olive oil:

Still to come: we need to put ends onto each needle...

When the natives get restless, assign a meaningful task

2006-11-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

It was late afternoon, and the boys' play was tending towards the wild side.

We had soup on the menu for dinner, and I had just started with the requisite slicing and dicing... As I listened to the ruckus in the living room, I was reminded of a workshop, given by Barbara Dewey, I'd attended several years ago. One of my "take home messages" was to let kids try out some of those "dangerous activities" -- like using knives, or lighting candles with matches -- under your watchful eye.

So, I whipped out some more knives and cutting boards, and called in my young chefs. We discussed the task at hand, and, then... They happily turned their energy from fighting to chopping... and I put my faith in them. In relatively short order, we had a bowl full of cut-up ingredients -- and no injuries!

Hopping from heading to heading

2006-10-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

I suspect that last year S was classified into the percent of Kindergarteners in his class who could read.

The truth is that he does recognize a number of short words, but he's really not out of the nest yet in terms of reading. He is, on the other hand, very, very quick to memorize things. So, the other week, he learned the "Our Father" in no time at all.

Oma and Opa gifted S with a book that explains the prayer one line at a time. We've been working our way through it at bedtime. Tonight, as S looked over my shoulder, his eye caught the page heading, "Geheligt werde Dein Name." Recognizing the line, he quickly flipped ahead... to find that the next heading held the prayer's next line, and the next heading contained the following line... jumping from heading to heading until he reached the end of the book... and the prayer. What a find to make!

As a result of his familiarity with the text, and knowing what the words should be, he was able to make out the headings, some of which included some pretty complicated words. So much for being a not-so-proficient "reader". :-)

What's 5? A dandelion, of course!

2006-10-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

We're continuing to work our way through our Qualities of Numbers block. Today we were on the question of "What is 5?"

Of course, I prepared! I came to our session thinking about 5 fingers, 5 toes, 5 senses, 5 points on a star...

S and I talked about these things. As he was considering what he'd draw for "5", he went to the window and looked outside for inspiration. He came back, and said that dandelions had 5, and that's what he'd draw. Dandelions?! Five?!

Why, yes. As he explained it, dandelions have five leaves. (At least the one he carefully drew does!). So do the clovers that he added to the picture, also with five leaves.

And here's what's so fascinating about being able to do this learning at home: Whether or not dandelions, as a rule, have five leaves is almost secondary. As S created his drawing, the very first thing he drew was the long taproot. (To emphasize the little root hairs, he went over them a second time with a darker color.) Where the heck did a taproot enter into this? Very easily. This morning, we volunteered (for a *very* cold hour in the icy wind, I might add) at our CSA. Our work included harvesting celariac. One celariac I pulled out of the ground came with a dandelion. Because the soil was so loose, the dandelion's taproot came out intact, and I pointed this out to S. We then talked a little about taproots. When S and I had our math lesson a few hours later (in the warmth of the sun coming in through the window), he reached back to what he'd seen at the farm, and brought that forward into his study of the number 5.

After his finished his drawing, I observed to S that he'd covered the whole page with his drawing and with color. He gave me a very matter-of-fact look, stopping just short of rolling his eyes. He said that yes, he had, just like I'd encouraged him to do before. It's true -- I had, but not today. :-)

Straight lines

2006-10-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today we tried some straight lines. Or, as was the case this afternoon, we talked about drawing light sabers (!).

This form was actually surprisingly hard! It was a challenge to not only make the lines the proper length, but to maintain the spacing.

Initially, S threw in the towel after just a few iterations, saying he couldn't do it. But, you should have seen him glow once he figured out the mental geometry to make this form happen successfully.

Here are two of his samples, following some practice:

Tea for dessert today

2006-10-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Afternoon teatime didn't work out for us today, so we postponed it to our after-dinner dessert!

Our repast was founded upon wanting to put the last beets from our CSA share to good use. A few minutes on the web led me to this recipe for Carrot-Beet Cake. (That was just fine, since our final farm pickup included carrots.)

S and T grated the beets and carrots for me, trading turns. After they were done, S announced that he didn't like beets, so he didn't like the cake. [More for me, then? :-) ]. The ingredient compilation and mixing was a group process, and we poured the results into our Bundt pan for baking. It's amazing that the cake ever got done, as the oven door was opened many times by little hands anxious to taste the finished product.

The post-taste verdict: the recipe is a "keeper". Added bonus: the grated carrot and beet pieces look like little jewels in each piece.

Number qualities: the power of One

2006-10-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

As with form drawing, I was feeling guilty about falling "behind" in math, too. Even though S knows his numbers, I wanted to start him off with a block on the qualities of numbers. I reread Marsha Johnson's helpful article about this, and... off we went!

I wasn't too confident in my storytelling ability, but over dinner, did my best to retell Marsha's tale of embarking on a journey and ending up at the feet of an old woman who asked "What is one?" To my surprise, I had S's full attention -- the story speaks for itself, I guess, even when delivered by a rank novice.

S, never one to want to wait for a surprise, impatiently asked me how the story continued. "You'll find out tomorrow" didn't satisfy him. What finally did the trick was that I told him I needed to find out the answer myself, and that it would be given to my overnight as I slept!

Form drawing: a spoonful of "sugar" helps the medicine go down...

2006-10-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

S and I made our first attempt at form drawing about a week ago. We walked the form, traced it in the air, traced it on our board, etc. Our session was nothing remarkable.

Feeling guilty about "falling behind" with the schedule I'd sketched out for our "school year," we capitalized on T's naptime this afternoon to give form drawing another go. I set up our easel, selected a variation of the form we'd done already (two letter "C's" facing each other), and drew this on the board. To make our drawing more special, we took out our blue beeswax crayon!

We began with a (to be very honest) humdrum story to go with the form. And, we traced and drew. Then, another story came to mind, a short one about a bear who'd eaten a lot of ice cream, and therefore had a round tummy. His bear friend was in the same situation.

So, now we were working with two ice-cream-sated bear tummies. What a difference! Suddenly, S had much more interest in drawing the form. The amazing thing was that the form visibly improved over our various iterations of it.

And, once his interest waned with the form I'd presented, he veered off onto his own path, happily creating his own "form" to draw and repeat. Once his board was full of this new form, he then -- on his own accord -- drew a border for it with the side of his chalk.

A cup of tea

2006-10-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the concept of Tuesday Teatime @ BraveWriter.com, we had a spot of tea ourselves this afternoon. We got our our fancy cups, and laid out embroidered handkerchiefs as our "napkins". We didn't get around to baking anything, so we pulled out some cookies we had on hand, and served these on a nice glass plate.

The first cup was spilled by an errant elbow within minutes, but S and T were unfazed. One of the highlights for them was using the metal tea holders for steeping our tea! In fact, they were so enthused by the whole tea concept that they'd like to take tea daily!

Even after all my reading about the importance of establishing a daily and weekly rhythm, this is an area that remains, well, ripe with opportunity for improvement. This afternoon's tea was, truthfully, very simple. Nevertheless, it made a big impression on S and T. So, we'll forge ahead... with more tea!

More about Tea Time

Art/Craft supplies

2006-09-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

Play silks

I tried buying my own square yard of silk and then hemming it... that quickly disabused me of that idea. First, the fabric was not all that cheap. Second, rolling and sewing that hem was an exercise in patience, to put it mildly. Buying pre-hemmed scarves is the way to go! Plus, dying them is easy and fun.