Sewing and Cooking with Ryan

I was hemming my pants this morning and Ryan decided to sew the cuffs I cut off. Yes, he is wearing one as a headband.

Here is Ryan choping onions for our Butternut Squash/Apple soup. No fingers were harmed in the making of this video!

I Found where King Winter has been living

Today Ryan and I met our homeschool co-op friends at Salmon Brook park. I was not prepared for all the snow there! So now we know King Winter has been living about an hour north-east of us in Granby!! It was beautiful to see the smow around the brook. It was a good reminder that it is still January. Now when we say our morning verse we can think of Salmon Brook Park until we have snow again in Cheshire :

White on every tree limb
Snow falls from the sky
Cold clear nights of January
Sparkling stars on high.




As we were walking back to our cars Tonya noticed this tree that had been cut down by beavers!!!! It was so cool to see.

A much needed trip to the playground!!!

Play is the heart of childhood

This morning Ryan was in a very snuggly mood, so as soon as Daddy and Sage left for the day he and I laid on the couch and I read a chapter from our new book "Puck the Gnome" .

After that I did a little yoga while he played and as you can see from the picture of the boats on the yoga mat, anything can become a river!

On to snack. We made blueberry-oatmeal bars and played a game ( our snack time ritual)

Ryan decided that it was time to hang out the silks so we spent some time washing and hanging out our silks to dry. I felt that was a good time to bring in our story for the week. I have been telling the story of Why the Evergreens stay Green. In the story a little bird has a broken wing and cannot fly south for the winter. He decided to ask the trees if they will keep their leaves all winter for him to stay warm. The Birch,Oak and Willow all told the little bird that they must rest in the winter and cannot keep their leaves. Soon the bird comes to a Spruce tree who says that he will keep his leaves for him to stay warm and the Pine and Juniper all did the same.

Once the story was over we fixed up our "farm" and played a bit with the table puppets.

We do so much in one day that I can never remember all the details at the end of the day. We had a great day learning about evergreens, baking,cooking, coloring with block crayons and just being together.

A warm January day! Where did King Winter go?

Today was unseasonably warm and it made Ryan and I wonder what happened to King Winter?? We took advantage of the warm day and spent most of it outdoors. He received this wooden barn bird house from his grandparents for Christmas - so we decided today was a good day to put it together. As he was painting it yellow he told me that he was going to give it to Lynn his Clay class teacher since she likes birds and the color yellow. Normally Ryan likes to keep what he makes so it was a very nice gesture to hear him think of giving something to someone else without mommy's nudging. I dont know when we will see Lynn, but I sure hope we remember to bring her the bird house!!!

Sage Snowboarding

Sage tried out his new snowboard !!

A very cold day without a car

When we got home from our vacation we discovered that T car would not start. He tried to jump it using my Jeep and some how the jumper cables caught on fire!! Luckily he put it out and he and the cars are fine excpet that his still does not start. Needless to say we need new jumper cables.

He took my car to work today and Ryan and I were homebound all day. With the temp. in the low digits we did not even venture outside. I have to say we had a great day. Everything I have read and tried to encourage about being a child-led learning home was so apparent today. We just took it easy and let the day present itself. My very dear friend, Kim, writes about the same thing in her blog frogcreek.blogspot.com. Even though we may be inspired by different learning styles we both have the same desire to let our children think for themselves and to develop as a whole person!!! This is why we are such great friends and our kids get along so well.


This was our day:
8:30 am worked on a science experiment that Ryan got for Christmas from his grandparents.
R played with blocks and his cars, moved on to the playroom and set up a farm scene. Finally got dressed and we both worked out on our new treadmill briefly. Snack time while we played a game. Played our recorders and made up new songs. Read books and talked on the couch. R built more towers and played with his cars. Used his new ping pong catapult to try to knock over the towers. Had lunch and watched the food network briefly. R was inspired as usual to make his own recipe. He called is "Saffron" which is eggs,milk and cheese mixed in the food processor poured into the frying pan and then add tomatoes,cucumber and salt. All of which he prepared and made himself for me. Being the adoring mother I am - I ate it and it wasn't half bad! It tasted like an omelet. Yesterday he made his own scrambled eggs and toast (do not worry his not left unattended when cooking on the stove!!)

I worked on cleaning and rearranging to make room for our new Christmas gifts.

R and I made drawstring bags for our recorders. He sewed his on his own using the sewing machine. I just helped him with the top part.

That is all I can remember. ..

Happy New Year !

What a year! This year Sage started 6th grade and is doing great. His confidence in himself has grown and he is becoming a great young man - He will be 13 this year! He started skate boarding again this year and of course lots of sports!

I started Ryan's first year of Kindergarten lessons in the morning and it has been a wonderful adventure. It is amazing to watch him absorb his lessons and then take them even further on his own. He is always thinking and doing, I never know what he will do next. Needless to say it is a challenge to keep my house clean - but I wouldn't have it any other way.

We just got back form our holiday vacation in FLorida and as always had a great time. We were lucky this time to meet 2 new members of our family. Cousin Emily and Cousin Arden - both adorable. The boys loved hanging out with their Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncles and cousins. I feel very fortunate to have a loving family and also one who accepts me for who I am ( a nutty mom who doesn't let her children watch alot of tv or play video games and follows a Waldorf Natural living lifestyle!)

Here are a few pictures from the trip. Unfortunatly I did not take many pictures.