{this moment}

Following Soule Mama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

The First Day of Homeschool

And what a day it was!

My dear littles knew it was coming, and they were literally begging for it to begin for about a week beforehand. The day of, however, was a different story. I'll admit that I wasn't completely prepared for the issues that came up. I knew that Airius would probably immediately pronounce everything to be "booooring" (he did) and that Callie would want to be included in absolutely everything (she did) and that somebody would ask about watching TV or playing DS (they did). But I didn't realize that my children would be anxious in that most negative of senses. I could see for most of the actual "schooling" time that the twins were really reliving the anxieties and fears that had been brought about by their preschool and kindergarten years in the public school system.


Looking for gnomes on our walk

Annie woke up and immediately pronounced every piece of clothing she owned to be itchy or hurty or otherwise unsuitable, including the outfit she'd laid out for herself the night before. She cried for an hour, despite hugs and reassurance and many, many outfit changes, and only came down to breakfast when I said it was time to go for a walk. Airius was on a hair trigger and had mini-meltdowns anytime anything was perceived by him as going the least bit wrong. On our walk we saw some of the children from their former school waiting at a bus stop, and both the twins said they were sad that they would not see their old friends at school today. Airius repeatedly brought up that all teachers are "big meanies" with the unspoken fear that I would suddenly turn on him looming in the background. Oy. I... stayed calm and carried on. Oh yes I did!


The straight line and the curve

Biggest high of the day: Airius realizing he could finger knit! Last year he tried and wound up so frustrated with it that I made him put it away. He refused to pick it up again until today. He spent quite a bit of time knitting today and is really looking forward to making his own needles and knitting just like Mama!


The way he balanced his yarn ball on his feet just killed me!

I had planned to give the whole play by play, but honestly I'm more than a little exhausted and have to wake up early to take the two littlest ones to their well child checkups in the morning. It may not have been what I planned, but I think our first day was what it needed to be. Here's hoping for smoother sailing ahead...

Celebration and a Question

We recently had one special 4th birthday party at our house. Here's how we celebrated:

Homemade decorations


A singular present, long awaited


Flowers picked in the morning by the birthday girl, a photo of the day she came home to us, and a cupcake just dripping with purple frosting


A grandma-made dress with fabric and pattern both specially selected by the birthday girl


Facepainting


A reluctant adventure in NeverNeverLand


Neverland obstacle course in the BLAZING heat

And now for the question. You may notice that, despite our Waldorf inclinations, we do not have a birthday ring tradition in our house. This is partially because I don't understand the birthday ring. I suspect that there is a story to this particular little tradition, perhaps some symbolism that I'm unaware of, but I cannot find this information anywhere. Does anyone know how/when the tradition of the birthday ring was started?

Build and Grow

Oh my. I have been neglectful of my blogging duties, and the blog has barely even started! *sigh*

This past weekend we attended our first "official" Build and Grow workshop at our local Lowe's. I say this is the first official one because we were actually introduced to the program through a carnival at a local business, but there they simply gave us the kits to take home. This time we actually went to Lowe's and built our project there, mainly because it's good to get out of the house and be surrounded by other people once in awhile.

Let me say, in all honesty, that I really try to avoid the big chain stores of the Lowe's type, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity. I've been wanting to add woodworking to our list of activities, but my husband is more than a little trepidatious about the idea. Hammers and screwdrivers equal DANGER to him, and while that certainly can be the case, I think the best thing is to teach our children how to use these tools in the proper, respectful manner to avoid injury. This little workshop, with Lowe's workers presiding, seemed the perfect thing to assuage his fears and let the kids get down with a few tools.

I had originally planned to take the three older children by myself, but at the last minute my husband graciously decided to come, so it became a family event (which thrilled me!). The project was to build a toy UFO, complete with blinking signal light at the top. My son was so very excited. While the girls' enthusiasm didn't quite match that of their brother, they certainly didn't want to be left out of the experience. This was especially the case when they realized that they got goggles and a project apron with nametag to keep (the children are meant to bring their aprons and goggles back for subsequent projects). All of the toy's pieces were pre-cut, and nail holes were pre-drilled but still the project had its challenges. We managed to get all three UFO's built in the matter of half an hour or so though, including each child putting the decorative stickers on their completed toy.

When we were done we were given certificates of completion, Boy Scout-like badges to sew onto their aprons (which, of course, I still haven't done) and six free frosty coupons which I felt was an okay, rare treat on an extremely hot day. The kids were thrilled!

The workshops happen every two weeks, and each of my three older children is eager to go back for the next project, a bug house. Right up their alley...

Overall, I think this is a great fit for our family with its tool phobia, even if my husband did hammer his thumb to the point of bleeding. ;) (It just HAD to happen to HIM, didn't it? Sheesh.) If you are interested in attending a clinic near you, please visit the Lowe's Build and Grow website.

Also, I feel the need to say that I was not in any way compensated by Lowe's for this post. Thanks!

{this moment}

Following Soule Mama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Phew!

You know, sometimes life just catches up to you (me), and so I took an unexpected break from blogging. We've had an illness circulating through the family, the kind of illness that plugs up little noses and makes going to sleep quite uncomfortable, so our littlest little was up all night. Every night. For more than a week. You know what that means for Mama, right?

There were times when all I could think about was, "I have to take pictures of that! I have to blog that. Our family will want to see that." But at this point I'm so far behind on those "that"s that, well, I'm just going to move on.

So tomorrow's a new day, a new post. Unless life happens.

Happy Independence Day!

{Airius oohing and ahhing over the fireworks. They never get old.}

We're wishing you all an incredibly joyful and festive 4th of July!

{this moment}

Following Soule Mama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Homemade Popsicles

I picked this popsicle mold up a few years ago off of Freecycle, but I often forget about them. The littles, however, never forget. So when the hot weather rolls in and the faces of my dearest little ones are flushed red before they even walk outside, they are sure to remind me that homemade popsicles are just the thing to cool them down!

While popsicles may sound indulgent, when you make them at home they can be both healthy and refreshing! I tend to use teas for my popsicles, so anything I can make tea out of is game to be frozen and sucked down. The ones in the picture above are made with lemon balm tea, a favorite around here and SO easy to make. Just pour some almost boiling water over some fresh or dried lemon balm leaves (the dried leaves make a stronger tea), let it steep for a few minutes, and pour into the popsicle molds. I love to add a leaf of lemon balm to each popsicle, but even though the kids love eating the lemon balm from our garden, they always balk at something green in their popsicles. I don't get it, but I humor them. ;)

Our new favorite this year is strawberry-basil popsicles. Doesn't that sound scrumptious? They're a little tangy, a little sweet, and oh so very good. Since we live on a very small suburban plot we do our best to make the most of every edible plant we grow. This is a wonderful way to show your children just how many uses your garden has! Here's our recipe:

You'll need (for 6 popsicles):
A handful of fresh or dried strawberry leaves
6 Fresh strawberries
A handful of fresh or dried basil leaves
Water

1. Place your strawberry and basil leaves into a small pitcher or other pourable vessel. Add to these enough water to fill your popsicle molds, heated to just before it boils. Remember: dried leaves will make a more pungent tea, so be aware of your little one's tastes.

2. Let the strawberry-basil tea steep for at least 5 minutes.

3. While your tea is steeping, halve or quarter (or otherwise chop them to suit your desires) your strawberries and drop them into the molds.

4. Carefully fill your popsicle molds with the strawberry-basil tea mixture, adding or removing the leaves as you see fit. If you have the same type of Tupperware molds I have, you don't want to fill them all the way to the top because you need to add the bottoms, and this will cause leaks. Fill them to nearly full.

5. Place your popsicle mold into the freezer for at least four hours, preferably overnight, or until they are completely frozen through. Enjoy!

It's Official!

Yes, the picture is very bad on purpose...

Somehow in the day-to-day of things I forgot to mention that we finally got our homeschool approval notices. Yeah! When I showed the kids Airius said, "oh, I'm so thankful! Now we can be together as a family again!" While that is a sentiment that my husband and I share, it isn't something that we had talked about with the children. Perhaps he overheard us talking at some point, but it seems equally as likely that that is just how he truly feels.

Now we can be together as a family again. Indeed.

For the (Humming)Birds

We have a deep fondness for winged creatures here. The children argue over who gets to haul bird food out to our feeders, even in the dead of winter with snow up to their waists. But there has been a gap in our bird feeder collection for awhile now. You see, we had yet to procure a hummingbird feeder. Today, my industrious little ones decided to remedy that situation, and thus was born this humble offering to the birds:



Nothing fancy, I assure you. Artisan blown glass it is not, but it was fun to make! First, we scouted our house for anything brightly colored that might attract our most elusive visitors. We used two red plastic party cups, one plastic drinking straw, a length of red cotton yarn, and our imaginations. Here's how we did it:

Step 1: Using a pair of sharp scissors, stab four small holes toward the bottom of the cup, spacing them evenly around the perimeter. (Adult supervision required with sharp scissors!)

Step 2: Stab two small halls near the top of the cup, spacing them evenly around the perimeter with your scissors. This is where you will hang your string.

Step 3: Using the other plastic cup, cut out four flower shapes. Poke a small hole into the center of each flower, large enough to fit a drinking straw through.

Step 4: Cut your drinking straw into four equal pieces.

Step 5: Insert each drinking straw piece into the center of a flower piece, then push it through one of the holes at the bottom of your cup. Be sure that your straws are pushed downward into the cup, meaning that the end inside the cup is touching the bottom. You may even want to carefully hot glue the straws to the bottom of the cup. If the straws are not facing downwards, you will have a sugar water fountain on your hands!

Step 6: Draw your string through one hole near the top of the cup, pull it through to the other hole, draw it through again, then tie the two ends at the top to make a hanger.

Step 7: Mix 1/4 cup of sugar into a full cup of warm water and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Step 8: Fill your cup with the sugar/water mixture and hang in a place outdoors, away from predators (like cats!).

Finding Imagination

It's been a rough couple weeks here. Phew! The children have been bickering with each other, whining constantly, and sometimes just out right defiant and mean. Needless to say, this mama has been feeling a little lost and overwhelmed. Last night it all culminated in one fine moment wherein my normally sweet 6-year-old daughter called me a name which shall not be repeated on the world wide web. Oh yes, she did.

As angry as I could have been over it, at that moment a light bulb went off for me, and I simply took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I realized that my children have spent approximately the last nine months in a structured, unimaginative environment: the public school. Now they've come home, and while they are incredibly happy to be here and never want to leave, there's a little loss as to what to do with themselves all day. They are... *gasp*... bored.

Don't get me wrong, I do plan activities for the day and involve them in my daily routine. Even still there are times in the day when they either aren't interested in doing what I'm doing or must occupy themselves. I've come to realize that I am not here as 24-hour entertainment (though 24-hour love still applies ;).

So today I've again been faced with the "but what can I do"s and the "I wanna watch tv now"s, but instead of trying to run to the rescue I just say, "it's okay to be bored. Think how relaxing it is to do nothing." And they huff and puff and blow off to find something to do.

It's time to reawaken those precious imaginations.

Another Visit from the Tooth Fairy (Otherwise Known As: It's Difficult to be a Twin)

Airius (6 1/2 years old) lost his second tooth yesterday evening. It had been a long time coming since the permanent tooth had already surfaced behind the milk tooth. He was fascinated to hear that this phenomenon is often referred to as "shark" teeth. Sharks are, after all, his most favorite animal in the world. As you can see in the picture, the Tooth Fairy brough him a whole dollar and a piece of iron pyrite in exchange for his tiny white tooth. He was thrilled!

Not so thrilled, however, is his twin sister. She has yet to lose a single tooth or even find a wiggler. Even though she knew this was coming and I told her the story of how I was the last kid of all the kids in my second grade class to lose a tooth, there were many tears this morning. Sometimes it is difficult to be a twin and live on someone else's timeline.

For those of you who may be visiting this site and do not know much about Waldorf education, there is significant talk in Waldorf circles about the change of teeth as a signal for first grade readiness. Keep in mind that this is only one indicator of first grade readiness, but I mention it here because there is an interesting case with my twins. Airius, who has now lost two teeth, picked up reading very quickly in his public school kindergarten class. He is very eager to read and will put in the effort to sound out words rather than ask an adult every time he comes across something new. On the other hand, Annie, who has lost no teeth, still shows little interest in learning to read. She was the first to write and distinguish letters, but she makes little effort towards reading and will come to an adult immediately upon encountering ANY words. I don't know that there is necessarily any correlation, since Annie seemed far more ready for school in just about every other way, but it's food for thought.

Here's hoping that the next visit from the tooth fairy requires a new pouch for an eager little girl...

{this moment}

Following Soule Mama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Annual Rain Romp: A Family Tradition

The kids have really been feeling the transition from school to home, and not necessarily in a good way. They are beginning to miss being with their friends six hours a day, and while they enjoy the freedom, it's been an adjustment from the structure of public school to the carefree breeziness of a summer at home. We're working on our rhythm here at home, preparing for the days of homeschooling in the fall, but it's still a work in progress. (I think, perhaps, another post is due on that subject.) There have been several meltdowns in less than a week's time, and let's just say that I've had plenty of opportunities to work on my peaceful parenting techniques. Phew!

Luckily, today brought along the opportunity to gather us as a family and enjoy one of our annual traditions, the Rain Romp! There is much talk in homeschooling, and especially Waldorf, circles about the importance of time outdoors in all weather for the children, and this is one of the ways that we enact that around our house. When the summer rains come, we put on our swimsuits and run outside to dance, splash, stomp, and play in the droplets. We don't have a swimming pool at our house, and there isn't a lake or coastline for hours. This is a quick, easy, and very frugal way of getting in a little water play. It is certainly not the same as swimming, but it's extremely FUN! (Oh, and just because we call it an annual tradition does not mean that it happens only once a year.)


Airius playing the "mud bongos"

When my brother and I were children we lived in a tiny house on a dirt road that was surrounded by deep ditches. To us these ditches were chasms deep enough to swallow us up, magical lakes, or the sea itself. When it would rain enough to fill the ditches our mother would (sometimes) let us swim in them. The water was murky and laden with mud, but we didn't care in the least. It was amazingly magical for us! Oh, um, and we lived right on the shore of Lake Erie! The lake held a magic of its own, but swimming in those ditches was... out of the ordinary I suppose. It was special.



This is the magic that I'm trying to capture for my children with our rain romps. It's not that we can't go to the YMCA and hop in the pool, but dancing in the rain is a little outside of the norm in our culture. When the rain comes, even warm summer downpours, every child in our neighborhood is called indoors. Except mine. I can see their eyes sparkling as they watch the clouds forming, nearly quivering with anticipation. And when I give the go ahead... Oh! They will be out of their clothes and into swimsuits in five minutes or less for certain!



Just a word of caution: lightning is a real concern, especially if you are in a place with trees nearby. Also, sidewalks and grass both become very slippery in the rain, so exercise caution and be sure that your little ones are aware of the dangers!

You can see pictures of last year's rain romp at my old homesteading blog here.

Our Weekend in Pictures

Grilling with family


Squirt gun battles


Pure happiness!


Teaming up with Daddy


Unfettered running


Spinning, spinning, spinning until...


We fall down dizzy!


Exploring new territory


Climbing to new heights


And oh so much more!

{this moment}

Following Soule Mama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

And So It Begins...

Hello to the big, wide universe out there. This blog is meant to chronicle our adventures in homeschooling, for our own joy and to share with friends and family.

Tomorrow is the last day of public schooling for Annie and Airius. It was a whirlwind of a year, filled with ups and downs, and yet the ending is bittersweet.

Yesterday I sent out our first homeschool notification. I was quite calm and resolved yesterday, and now today I am a wreck of emotions. Am I doing the right thing? (You are.) Can I make this work? (You can.) Have I chosen the right curriculum? (Maybe not, but you can adjust as you go.) Will we all be happy? (Let's not be foolish.)

Either way, our new journey is beginning.