Category Archives: Books

Animal Fables

coverCover of one of Elijah’s Main Lesson Books

One of the classic Waldorf, second grade, main lessons for language arts.

town mouse

From our work with “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”.  He knitted some sweet mice finger puppets for a puppet show that we put on, but I forgot to get pictures!

country mouseJan Brett has a fun version of this one.

rabbitMain Lesson page from the Jataka Tale “Foolish Words”

mural 2 copy

Mural created for the story “Foolish Words”; in full above and some details below.  This story is included in the Donna Simmons book that I mention below, but we also enjoyed “Twenty Jataka Tales” retold by Noor Inayat Khan.

mural 1

I culled from different sources two years ago when I did this block with Iain, mostly just working directly with Aesop’s Fables.    Since then we’ve been gifted a copy of “Animal Legends” by Donna Simmons of Christopherus, which I like a lot because it pulls stories from different cultures and lays them all out with ideas on how to work with them.  Also, as with all of Donna’s books that I’ve used, it makes planning e-a-s-y.  Seriously, easy as pie.  It’s all laid out right there.  And I can choose to diverge from that at any point I please (and there are times when I certainly do), but if I’m having a low energy, low motivation, sleep deprivation fueled kind of day, I can still pull off a pretty good lesson with minimal effort.

lionIllustration from “The Mouse and the Lion”.  I recently found this beautiful, wordless adaptation by Jerry Pinkney.  While I generally try to share stories for our Main Lesson work from my own memory, I will occasionally have a child read the story them self (more so with an older child, less so with a younger).  But later in the year, I do think that it’s fun to revisit a story in the form of a beautiful and/or well written picture book.

Elijah’s one of those kids who when presented with Waldorf style drawings with vague features and just the “gesture” of the subject, will go back in his own picture and add in all the details.  It kind of makes me laugh.

lamb and wolf“The Wolf and the Lamb” I do so love that little lamb!

lamb

diaramaElijah’s beautiful diorama to go with the story “The Old Man and the Bear”. That one is a fun story!  It made him laugh.

hareI think you probably all know what this one is from!

fox

“The Hungry Fox” (a Middle Eastern Tale)

This week we are finishing up a math block, with one “Saints and Heroes” lesson slipped in-between…

st

And next week we’ll be starting on the “Saints and Heroes” block in earnest.

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Books, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Waldorf
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Spring is Coming to New England

It’s that time of year again.  Still snow on the ground in a lot of places, but lots of melting too and the sap is flowing, which means that surely spring must be just around the corner.

this one

We had sugar on snow last week as a treat.

one option fingers

And we’ve been enjoying a selection of maple related books from the library yet again this year.

Amoung the ones that found their way home with us…

“Sugarbush Spring” by Marsha Wilson Chall

“Sugar on Snow” by Nan Parson Rossiter

“Sugaring” by Jessie Haas

The other sign of the season?

one

MUD!

I’m going to be doing a little series of posts here starting (probably!) tomorrow and lasting for around a week, as something of a peek into our lives as homeschoolers.  My apologies in advance for those of you who could care less!  I’ve had many requests over the years to show more of how we “do school” and I’m looking forward to dedicating a bit of time to sharing with those who are interested.

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Books, celebrations and festivals, Food, Our Little Home
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Please direct your attention…

This is a post about books.  Only it’s not a post about books, it’s a post about how to find out more about the books we are, have or will be reading.

If you have an interest in such things and you could just kind of look over there.  Oh, to be able to point!  Ok, to the right side of this post.  See it?  Well that is our reading list at the moment, only it’s no where near the whole thing.  To see the whole thing, what you need to do is scroll to just under the last of the recent books to where it says View Full Library.  And if you click on that (or the link I just posted) you will see the rest of what we are currently reading.  I’m still trying to work out how to make it so that I can list more books in the sidebar, but in the meantime, you can check out that full library link.  There you will find some books that we just finished up, some that we are in the midst of reading and a few that we will be getting to soon.  If you click on a particular book, you find notes about who in our house is actually reading it, what we think of it, how and if it’s being used for homeschooling, etc.  Then if you are still interested in learning more about the book, you can click on it again to be brought to it’s Amazon page.  This list will constantly be changing as we have a house full of book worms, so feel free to check back often!

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Books, Homeschooling, Kids
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Clean, Naturally…

This was one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year (and yes, the combination of birthday and holiday posts is going to take me right on through to February I suspect).  A friend of mine made gift packs of her home made cleaning products, along with a recipe book of sorts for various cleaners and a guide to getting out different sorts of stains.  Her husband works at a book bindery, so it was all done up very nicely.

DSCN3100

I’ve been making my own cleaning products for many years now, though I will admit that the making of my own laundry detergent suddenly became a very low priority after moving into the Little House.  This was enough of a spark to get me back on track.  I think I like her laundry detergent recipe better then the one that I used way back when and now that I have it right at hand, I’m all set.  The ingredients are so much safer then those of any commercially available alternatives, it works just as well and costs a whole lot less.

DSCN3108

I tend to make my cleaners in a haphazard manner.  I keep certain key elements on hand; baking soda, borax, white vinegar, a “natural” dish detergent and castile soap.  I use table salt from time to time and occasionally herbs or essential oils to scent or fortify my blends.  From there I mostly make things on an as needed basis.  If I’m cleaning the stove top I’m likely to dump on some baking soda, maybe add a squirt of soap, sprinkle a bit of water on top and get to scrubbing.  I’m finding that having her soft scrub on hand is a nice change of pace, it’s somehow more official and makes the job just a wee bit more pleasant.  I think I might go back to preparing things in advance as I have in the past.

Do you have a favorite natural cleaning product recipe??  Feel free to share it in the comments!  For me, I always keep on hand a spray bottle of 3 parts water, 1 part vinegar, with a squirt of dish soap and a few drops of tea tree oil.  It’s the perfect disinfecting all-purpose cleaner.  Happy (and healthy) cleaning!

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Books, Housewifery, MCS, Our Little Home, recipes, Uncategorized
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(Nor) Easter…


as my husband jokingly referred to our blustery, chill holiday.

Easter is getting out of hand in this house I tell ya! We have our own little traditions of course. In recent years my parents have been visiting in the days leading up to Easter and as they have been quite over-taken by “Grandparent’s Disease” (which manifests in the inability to visit small children without bearing gifts), there is always much to be added to the collective booty. And to top it off, Steve’s parents have taken to sending a large Easter box every year full of strange and assorted objects, mostly culled from a year’s worth of garage sales.

And so, this year for Easter, my children got: organic jelly beans AND chocolate eggs AND cookies. There were books, stickers, activity pads, art supplies, baseball gloves, a bat, a ball, a watering can, seeds, a hand trowel, a set of magnets, a set of beads, mini puzzles, and goodness knows what else I’m forgetting! And I thought I was finally starting to get things back under control after the Christmas deluge. Ha! Silly, silly me…

Little Rosebud had her first Easter basket though. And I did the filling on this one. A basket full of hand-me-down wooden toys, that have long been packed away for this particular occasion, as I suspected that she would just be starting to show an interest in that sort of thing. And one very carefully chosen book; “Spring” by Gerda Muller. She’s a book baby already, cooing and squealing in my lap as I read picture books to the other children, and this one is a beauty that I am happy to share.


As is my own personal tradition, there was of course (!), a book tucked into every basket. In addition to “Spring”, this years selections included “The Story of the Root Children” by Sibylle Von Olfers, as well as “The Wind Boy” and “The House Above the Trees”, both by Ethel Cook Eliot.

We had a fairly quiet day. It is usually so and we prefer it that way. After the busyness and excitement of a visit from my parents (and more often then not, my sisters too) we are usually more then ready for some downtime. This year with the blessing being the day before, that need rang truer then ever.

And so we had a day of eating leftovers and way too much candy.


A day of playing cards and stringing jelly bean necklaces. A mostly pajama wearing kind of day with lots of cuddles. A reminiscing sort of day, looking back at pictures of Easter seasons past. That part of the day was what triggered the memory of these little booties; made from a pattern that the big boys spotted when Galen was a wee babe and insisted that our baby simply must have…


the memory of which sent Iain scurrying to rumage through boxes and pull them out once again for a new babe to wear.

All told, I must say, it was a very good sort of day.

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Books, celebrations and festivals, crafts, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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Three Cups of Tea

No, this is not a post about my new tea pot. If it were it would have to be something more like 300 cups of tea.

I’m still laying low today while also getting the last little Halloween details ironed out. I’m just popping in to give a quick book recommendation.

The book is “Three cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I received this book in an exchange with some friends and it has long since been passed on to the next person. But it has left a distinct impression on me. I’m going to let Wikipedia provide the details for me.

What I will say is this…it was a very inspirational book. Greg Mortenson is a former mountain climber who finds a calling in helping to build schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is the founder of the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit organization established to further this goal. I went into this book rather biased, against it. The whole idea of an American savior (and the westernization that usually ensues) leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But that was not at all the impression that I got from this book. On the contrary, I came away with a feeling of hope. We hear so many people talking about how they don’t think that war is the answer, but that they don’t know what the answer is. I don’t either. This thought process seems to lead to a tacit or grudging acceptance of war and all of it’s atrocities. One over-whelming feeling that I came away with was that this, this is an answer! It may not be the (one and only) answer, but it’s a start. And if there is one answer, then surely, surely there must be more.

Whether you agree or disagree, the book is likely to provide you with a glimpse at a different perspective and will certainly provide a lot of food for thought.

Please see the Central Asia Institute’s website for more information on their projects.

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Books
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Gathering

When we gathered acorns for acorn muffins last year, I don’t know that I intended it to be an every year thing. Yes, it was fun. Yes, they were yummy. Yes, I felt like it would be worth doing sometime in the indefinite future… But in this year of extreme business, it surely wasn’t in the forefront of my mind. And yet, as soon as the first earth bound acorn was spotted, certain creatures started scurrying to gather them, the little two-legged creatures of my house being some of the most productive among them. And many a handful came in, and was presented to me as if a great honor, being deemed “for acorn muffins”. After the 11th or 12th occurrence of this sort, I resigned myself to the fact that evidently I was making acorn muffins this year.

And the children have taken to gathering with great determination.

These are from two days worth of gathering. Now they’ve made it into a contest with a score for each. From here on out, the goal is to see who can make it to 1000 first. They are neck and neck and alarmingly close. Every time they come in, glowing with the thrill of the hunt and baskets full of bountiful treasure, I have to remind myself to quiet the part of my brain telling me that we are going to have pry off the caps and break open the shell of each and every one of them…and then comes the days and days of soaking, with frequent water changes and then drying before grinding and finally baking, with the meager amount that remains. No, this won’t be a substantial contribution to our own stores of winter food (and I’m starting to feel a bit of concern for our furry friends outside, who must surely be starting to wonder about the severely depleted harvest). But there is other value here. My children are amazed and excited about the bounty nature has provided them. They are living in to the cycle of the year. And as a family we are (apparently!) creating new traditions. And those things are important too.

So, while it will be more work for me, which is not a thought I relish, perhaps the returns are quite, quite enough after-all…so much more then a few cups of flour. And in the meantime, I’m leaving the lion’s share of the gathering to my little forest children three. Two days ago, I took a book on our walk and let them scurry about me while I sat on a rock and rested and read. And while I didn’t get further then a page or two (with all of the exclamations of “Oh Mama, look at how perfect this one is!”) it was nice to sit and rest.

Current reading, for those interested, is “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I have it as part of a book exchange with some friends and am finding it to be quite an interesting read.

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Books, Food, Homeschooling, Kids, Life
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Ribbons and Lace For Aziel

This is my 300th (!) post! I think it’s possible that I talk too much. And take too many pictures…hmm. Oh well….moving on…

The third and final gift…


This bitty sweater was for my dear friend Heather’s sweet baby girl. As with Claire’s gift, I knew in advance that I wanted to make something for her during her pregnancy, but I decided to wait until after the baby arrived in order to make something a little more gender specific. Mama was bit hard by the knitting bug during this pregnancy, but while she felt quite strongly that she was carrying a girl, she was still making an effort to keep things mostly gender neutral.

And I mean really, what could I do?? I was basically forced to make this really sweet lacy cardigan, that I’ve been in love with from the first moment I saw the pattern. Because really, what choice did I have?? Obviously.

This is the Matinee Jacket from Debbie Bliss’s “Simply Baby” (yes, I got it out from the library, yet again.) The pattern is written for a single color, but I currently have this slight obsession with the combination of pink and green, so I opted to switch it around a bit. I have to say, I think it’s pretty cute this way.

This little sweater took me a lot longer then I expected. I’m not really sure why that is. It has one GLARING flaw in the front that drives me absolutely crazy. But I didn’t spot it until I was just about done, and fixing it would have required frogging a large section of it and at that point, I was starting to worry that if I tried to correct the problem, it wouldn’t make it to her while it still had a chance of fitting. So the flaw remains and it will continue to haunt me whenever I look at these pictures.

Did you spot it yet?

On the bright side, would you look at what that sweet mama did for me?!?

Knowing full well that I will never actually get to see her in it (living a continent apart has that effect on people), she sent me some pictures of this darling little babe, wearing *MY* sweater! Oh, be still my beating heart! I still think she looks like a little spring tulip.

Such an honor.

Oh, and Heather? You were right, she’s absolutely fabulous…

See?
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Books, Yarn Crafts
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Molliness

One of the long fabled gifts. They are real, honestly! See??

Photo credits for the top two photos go to Iain.

These were for My Molli .

Now everyone who just clicked on that link is thinking “Gosh, that’s quite a different sort of blog, huh? And these two people are friends?!?” (yeah, that’s me putting what you are thinking into polite words, if this were on Molli’s blog, they would probably end up being a very different sort of words…). Well, the answer is that yes, we are, and very good friends at that!
Molli is one of my oldest friends, and while our lives have gone in entirely different directions, we can still talk until three in the morning, without ever running out of things to say. And for the record, Molli’s blog is one of my absolute favorites. That girl cracks me up. Seriously, no where else on the web will you get a post with labels that read like this…Labels: Balkie Bartakamus, ham n cheese, Level 2 Cofusion Spell, quitting smoking, top secret lady business, Vampires, What’s wrong with America today
And that’s just one post people.


So, when her FIRST BOOK was published (!!!) back in September, I wanted to send a little something along with my love and congratulations. She had just moved back to the east coast, from California, as the weather was turning cool. Most of her warm clothes were still in storage, and so, of course, my mind turned to thoughts of knitting….

It was a rather thoughtful gift back in September.

Of course, I didn’t send it out in September. I shoved it in a bag with all of my other unfinished projects. So much for my blessings on the book, hey? Well, Christmas it is then.

Only…I didn’t send it out at Christmas either. It finally sent it out for her birthday, in…March. And I suspect it got there late. And now for the truly mortifying part, wanna know what was left to do in all of that time?? I needed to work in the ends. Yup. That’s it. Thing is, it really had nothing to do with working in the ends, or not, as the case may be. I had always planned to just do it real quick, right before I send it out. The hold-up was that I wanted to send her other things as well, and I hadn’t gotten around to those. Finally, I just decided that I better send out what I have, or I might never get it out of here! Yeah, it was a far more thoughtful gift in September.

Even so, a lot of thought did go into it. There were several aspects of Molliness that were taken into consideration (and yes, if she can write a poem to me employing the word “swellody”, then I, by all rights, can get away with defining the characteristics of “Molliness”).


For one, I picked the color (Peace Fleece’s Glastnost Gold) because I thought it would be absolutely gorgeous with her complexion.

Secondly, after seeing Molli, face to face, for the first time in 5+ years, it brought a huge smile to my face to see that she still puts a little hole for her thumbs in the cuffs of her shirt sleeves. And that was the inspiration for the fingerless gloves, which are of my own, very simple, design.

And third, the panta (pattern by DROPS) is warm, but open in the back, to allow for the option of pigtails or twin buns. A very important feature in a Molli friendly gift.

So there you have it, mucho Molliness.

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Books, Yarn Crafts
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