Some scenes from our Nature Study week.  The theme was, “What’s Happening in Autumn”.  This was the main work of the week for the little ones and a side project for the big ones.

During the week we put areas of the garden that are done for the season to bed.  We planted garlic and bulbs.  Galen gathered a bunch of calendula to dry after we read that a bunch of dried calendula in the house was once believed to give strength and comfort to the heart.  We ate a lot of squash, carved pumpkins and made apple sauce nearly everyday, putting up 20-some quarts over the course of the week.  We ate squash with applesauce.  We made a start to our little indoor window sill garden, with the end of a bunch of celery set in a cup of water.  Already there are new stalks shooting up in the middle.  Steve helped Galen to build a little bird feeder, which is now set outside the window of our homeschooling room, attracting all sorts of visitors.  Two field trips were the bookends of the week.  We started off visiting the birds at the rehabilitation center and ended the week at a corn maize.

The big kids are working on family trees, a completely fascinating subject for me.  We’ve been telling a lot of stories.  Getting out old photo albums.  We’ve even got a small stack of copies of “official” documents to work from; birth certificates, baptism certificates, census reports.  I am particularly intrigued by the blank spaces; the lines that have yet to be filled in.

This morning is very winter like.  I’m steeping tea, eating a clementine, roasting chestnuts and reading about when our first real snowstorm of the season with be drifting in, all while flames dance merrily in the wood stove.