The End of our Alphabet Journey

This past week we finished up our alphabet journey. It was such a wonderful journey and once it was over Ryan asked to start all over again. I am so glad he enjoys his lessons! even if there are days when I have a hard time getting him to focus, I know he is absorbing it all in.

The final letters in our journey:


Q - after the prince ate popcorn with the purple prince, he went out for a walk and discovered the Queen and her quail out in the garden. Of course the Queen always carried her umbrella with her wherever she goes.




R - the Queen told the Prince the story of Rapunzel.





S,T ,U - THe Prince knew it was time to the the castle of his new friends and continue on his journey. He thanked them for giving him the symbols he needed for his quest. After traveling quite a distance he sat down under a tree near a stream and took a bite from his magic apple.
Just then he saw a mother swan and her baby swimming in the pond connected to the stream. The baby he noticed was having trouble swimming and went down under the water for a long time, the Prince was worried and let out an "uhhh". The swan reappeared and the Prince was relieved. Just then a golden star fell from the sky with the symbol U on it. The prince took it and kept it close to his heart.





V,W - Once the prince was well rested he continued his journey. Soon he found himself at the top of a very steep valley. He climbed down, but was not sure how he was going to get back up when the side of the valley opened up and a wizard appeared. He introduced himself as the "Wave Wizard" and he had heard of the Prince's journey and came to help. He gave the prince a ride on the wave to the other side of the valley.




X,Y - Once on the other side , the Prince had to find a way to the top since he was still inside the valley with the Wave Wizard. The Wizard pulled something out of his pocket and placed it in front of the prince. A xylophone and the prince noticed the mallets were in the shape of a X. He played the xylophone and suddenly the water rose to the top. There waiting for him was a Yak.


The Yak led him to the Zig Zag path that would end his journey. As the prince walked he saw a castle in the distance, as he got closer he realized it was his own castle - he had made it home and saved the kingdom. The dragon was gone and everybody was safe.



The End : )

Ryan had the idea to have everyone "take a bow" so we drew them all one one page.


Learning our letters in this magical, creative way will be something that will always stay with Ryan. It just opens up our heart , hands and head the way it was intended to.

Our heart - we follow the Prince's journey and hope he succeeds

Our hands - with block crayon drawing we are becoming more creative each time we draw. I have noticed now that in Ryan's drawings outside of lessons, he is using some of the techniques I use that he did not have the confidence to do himself during the lessons.

Our heads - Ryan has known his letters for sometime now, but we added the element of writing the words on his paper and sounding out these letters as we go. He is now starting to pick out words in books as we read them.

Happy Valentines Day

Yesterday we had watercolor painting lessons and Daddy joined in. The story I told is as follows:

One day the sun was shinning so brightly in the sky. (start with painting a yellow circle in the middle of the paper.) It warmed the Earth and a few of the Fairies woke up also knowing that a special day was coming up. One little fairy wearing her finest red dress emerged in the sunlight and started dancing in the warmth of the sun ( paint red all around the yellow). Soon she twirled and danced and gave the sun a big hug ( take the red and slowly circle around in the yellow) The fairy soon saw something magical was happening. A heart appeared around her and the sun and a new friend had joined them wearing an orange dress. ( we dried off our brushes and drew a heart around the sun - lifting off the color).



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Ryan and I also spent sometime last night drawing valentines for everyone. We woke this morning to find treats that daddy had left out for us. I received some beautiful red Gerber Daisies and some chocolate. He also made some of his delicious cinnamon rolls. Yumm.


For the kids he drew these great cards:
for Ryan,For Sage,
We headed out to Sage's bball game where he had an awesome game. We tried to head down to New Haven to see some ice sculptures, but there was nothing there - bummer. So instead we stopped by the Sleeping Giant and did some light hiking . It felt so good to be out and hiking!!! Most of the snow is gone here so I do not have to risk falling in the ice of snow. Although Sage did slip and fall in the mud - and Tony kept reminding me that could of been me - he was not to thrilled with my wanting to hike - but I know I wont fall - I am still sturdy on my feet for being 8 1/2 months preggo!

A Beautiful Painting, Eggs and Ice Cream

This beautiful painting came in the other day of us walking in the Tennessee Smokey Mountains. My mother made it for us as a Christmas present and recently had it framed and sent it to us. We all absolutely love it. Thanks Mom!















Yesterday our good friend Kim watched Ryan for us while my husband and I went to a homebirth meeting. She then invited us over for make your own pizza along with another family.

What a surprise when she gave us 3 doz eggs from her chickens! We are so grateful and I had a yummy egg this morning for breakfast.






Her husband had picked up some ice cream for dessert and bought a special carton for me - the pregnant lady! We could not stay for dessert as it was getting late and he insisted we take it home with us. Don't need to twist my arm to take home some chocolate ice cream! Thanks guys - you are awesome.

I had a big bowl tonight while taking a hot bath - that way I would not get cold after eating it - clever huh : 0

One more Valentine Fairy left

I have one more Valentine Fairy left in my Etsy shop - free shipping.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5114179

Yes, I am using my blog to advertise - : )

More snow

I am so glad we went out for a walk on Monday when it was 44 degrees and sunny, because yeat again it snowed all day yesterday. Thankfully it was not the nasty wintery mix we had last time.

We were also surprised when Sage walked in the door at about 1pm - they had decided to close school early and get the kids home before the snow piled up too much. Good thing because it was slick out there. Not soon after Sage got home, I looked out the window and saw someone stuck in the snowbank across the street. Tony decided to be helpful and he and Sage went out to help him. It ended up several people stopped to help and were able to help this kid get out of the snow.

We just spent the rest of the day snuggled up inside. Ryan and I worked on our alphabet journey and then he spent about an hour playing in the playroom. I loved listening to him as he told his story of what he was doing. Not too me, just playing out loud. Using such descriptive words and a rich vocabulary. It put a smile to me face knowing that all the fairy tales, stories and living books we read are responsible for this. Just having a rich, well rounded upbringing, will give him the education he needs - not textbooks and sitting in a desk all day.

Happy Belated Candlemas,Imbolc and Groundhog day

Candlemas day this year just kind of slipped by this year. Lately as I am now in my 32nd week of pregnancy, I find myself slowing down and forgetting things. I remembered in the morning it was Groundhog day, which reminded me it was Candlemas / Imbolc day - a day to celebrate the return of the light to the earth. I prefer to celebrate the more pagan version of the holiday - although like I said we did not do much this year. Last year I was more prepared :
http://naturalplaygarden.blogspot.com/2008/02/happy-imbolccandlemasgroundhog-day.html


So we lit candles at dinner time and ate by candle light. Ryan put the candles on the table for us - there were many. We also just talked about the day and the history of celebrating it.

Welcome back Sun!

Knitted goodies

I finished working on baby Adeline's knitted sleeper and it came out rather cute. I had a lot of trouble though with the pattern for some reason and made a few mistakes. I am sure the experienced knitter will see those right away! I think the cute buttons and little sheep help to take away from that. I can't wait to see my sweet little girl in this.




These slippers were supposed to be a Christmas present for Ryan, but I just ran out of time. I was able to knit these and sew them up all in a couple of days. Ryan is so happy to have the, although he would not let me take a pic of him in them.
The yarn is verigated and I tried hard to make the slippers match - but it did not work. Ryan does not seem to mind - so that makes it ok.