bread, birds and campfire cooking

A few scenes from the week. Baking, crafting, playing. The bird craft is actually from awhile ago, when the birds first really started coming to the feeder. It is a spring craft officially, but this time of year is when we really pay attention to the birds, so it seemed appropriate, and Ari loved this craft.

There has been a lot of fort building around here lately, the couch is rarely a spot for sitting, as it often is a den for foxes or a dragon's lair. Mama dragons are really only welcome when the roof of the cave needs fixing.

Speaking of dragons, I just finished sewing one today, and his knight opponent is nearly done too. The princess isn't far behind. Castle, play mat and carrying case still to tackle in the next week. I think I can, I think I can...

I came upon this playsilk campfire (and bucket of water!) in the boy's room. They had asked me to set up the tent and were camping. There was also a lot of jumping and splashing in the living room "lake" and fish and potatoes cooked over this fire later in the game. Lucky me, I just have to sit and sew in the rocking chair and I am treated to fresh cooked campfire meals and plenty of free entertainment. It's a good life.

kindy update

I started writing this post awhile ago, so the pictures are not exactly current- I feel cold looking at pictures of my boy outside in bare feet now!



We have been working with the Enki kindergarten material for almost 3 months now, so I figured I should do a little update, or at least get a few details down for myself to remember. Things have been going really well, we are keeping it simple and mostly just trying to keep a good rhythm going and to make sure that the Enki stories are read at least 3 times each before we move on. I have also been trying to keep a regular project time happening, although that slides quickly when the littlest monkey decides not to nap, or when other bit of life get in the way. But we are trying to have a baking day, a craft day, and a painting day each week. Ari loves the projects and it is fun to have a little time in the afternoon to work on things together.

When I was planning out our first few months, I thought I would take it very slow, and chose the stories that had very little that would be challenging or difficult or scary. These were mostly folk tales, or stories Ari would be familiar with. But the first couple rounds of stories just didn't seem to be meeting him. He sat through them, and never resisted the ritual of story time or the repetition, but he just didn't seem to be sinking into the stories at all. He seemed mostly to be waiting to blow out the story time candle and play with the wax!

So I flipped through my resources and chose one of the younger fairy tales that still had some bite to it- "the Wolf and the Seven Kids" about a wolf who eats up six little goats while their mother is gone, and the seventh one goes with his mother to cut open the wolf and let the kids out and then fills the wolf's belly with stones and sews him back up. This makes the wolf thirsty and he goes for a drink in the well and falls to his death. Nice right? But this story really seemed to meet Ari. He listened in that wonderful slack jaw, totally-in-the-story way you hope for and the thing that struck me tho most was how much more grounded he seemed, more patient and content during the week we were reading this story. It seems that this story was just right on the mark developmentally, and he felt seen somehow.


That was our biggest success story so far. I keep digging through the book, trying to find the stories that will meed him like this, but I realized last night, that because I want to do two years of kindy with him, I had not been even looking at the stories for middle and older kindergartners, thinking I should save them for next year. But I read through a few of the middle ones and I think that he is more at this stage, so I am going to try out a few of these ones. From his play, and the ideas he talks about, he seems to need a bit more challenge, needs his feisty-ness mirrored somehow. But he is still really young, and there are stories that he is clearly not ready for yet. The fairy-tale type story with parents dying and evil stepmothers and such are not where he is at. But some ugly trolls or green-haired witches or hungry tigers or nasty zimwis might do the boy some good!

I have been very careful with adding in a movement circle. I myself am so excited by the Enki movement component and love the songs and circle activities. But I knew starting out that this would be the most likely place for conflict with Ari- if he feels that he is being taught or led directly he resists heartily. So I have slipped a few fun movement activities into our days but have not done anything formal. Ari needs a ton of physical activity in his day to stay grounded and happy, so keeping him active is my main challenge. But he is so good at creating this for himself when he needs it though- and dancing to his favorite music (he's our family DJ!) is providing a good deal of the sensory activity he needs- because dancing is serious business that involves leaping, rolling, spinning, crawling etc. I also sometimes set up an obstacle course in the house with lots of climbing, jumping, slithering, running and swinging and spinning required, which is always a hit.

And of course, we get outside too, and sledding and skiing and skating will cover a lot of the physical needs. Trying to keep Dorian happy outside for long enough to tire Ari out is the main challenge right now, but it seems to be getting better.

Projects have been going very well (except when Dori doesn't nap, as I mentioned.) Ari loves cooking and baking and crafting and painting. I have found the Enki craft activities to be mostly beyond him- knot tying, braiding, finger knitting etc, is all more than he is ready for. So I have been pulling out simple activities from various sources to cover our crafting needs. Earthways
Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children by Carol Petrash is a good one. And there are always great ideas to be found on the Crafty Crow.

I have also backed off with wet-on-wet painting. I realized that this was another place that could cause some conflict- it is too rule-ish for him right now to have to wash his brush a certain way, and not mix the paints together etc. I do love this style of painting for young kids to really have an experience of colour without getting too caught up in creating forms, and I will add in more wet-on-wet later when he seems ready and when I think he could learn the painting "rules" through the Enki painting stories.

For now it seems more nourishing to him to just have a set of watercolours and play around with them as he chooses. I am going to look for a set with fewer colours and ones that can be popped in and out (I know they exist, but haven't been able to track any down, does anyone know what company makes such a thing?) so he can still sink into the experience of the colours without too many choices. I might try giving him lightly soaked paper too, and see if this can make his painting experience a little less heady, as lately he has been focused on painting forms, rather than just filling the page with colour.
All in all things have been going really well, and I am really glad we are going this route- with Enki (of course you all already know that I am in love with Enki!) and with a slow intro to Kindergarten year. We are having fun and glad to be homeschoolers.

scenes from the weekend

This weekend was the first ski of the year (I still need to get myself some skis, so I was tromping along beside in my boots.) Ari is doing great!

And Dorian's had his first time on skis ever- which lasted exactly 30 seconds before he said "take it off!" He's happy in the sled though!
And happy to help Papa shovel off the pond.

And what is this you ask? Well, it is a trap for Woozles and Weasels of course! When triggered, the books fall, a stick shoots out, a ball tumbles down- no Woozle is safe in these parts. If anyone has a taste for Woozle jerky, I can line you up with a good dealer.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

winter is here!

Well it appears that the white stuff is here to stay now, and it has also been very cold (-24 this morning!) Ari was thrilled with the snow and took to the hills with his sled before we had more than an inch or two, and has wanted to sled every day since. It is so amazing to see how much more independent and capable he is this year, marching up the hill pulling the sled himself, lining himself up for a good run and flying down, not minding the snow and hay seeds whipping past him (as I said, there was only a couple inches of snow when he started sledding, so really he was mostly sledding in the dried grass.) He even managed to convince Perry to go out with him in the dark after work a few times.

Dorian on the other hand was not so sure about this whole winter business, it was windy and the snow was blowing in his face, and there is all this uncomfortable bundling to do first, and mittens fall off and walking in the snow is hard... but by the end of the week he seemed to be getting used to the idea. Yesterday he marched over to the llamas on his own and even walked a little way before asking to ride on my back. I'm hoping he becomes a snow-lover like his brother by the end of the winter!

But of course, we are not outside all day, even bundled with wool long johns and wool socks and many layers under the warm snowsuits, at -20, faces and fingers and toes get cold pretty fast. So there has been lots of indoor play, reading books and building farms and towns and fox dens and other engaging activities. Both boys have been doing lots of spontaneous art making. Ari is loving playing with paper and scissors, "writing" lists and letters and chopping up paper into all sorts of teeny creations. Dorian likes to quickly fill a page with scribbly pencil lines, name it- "a baby bunny!" " a baby dragon!" and then start on a new one. We are moving through a lot of paper around these parts.

::gnome operated crane::

And me, I've been sewing and knitting up a small storm over here. I have a rather large list of holiday gifts I am working my way through- our usual solstice family gifts, plus plans for making gifts for friends and family. I signed up for the Handmade Holiday group, and it is inspiring to see what other folks are working away on.

The other big project on the go is for an fundraiser auction we are putting on for our friends. They have had to go back to the city again for more treatments for little W, and it was so hard to watch them go, they had been so glad to be home and leaving again for unexpected medical treatments was very difficult. But W is amazingly strong and vibrant, and we will be celebrating this incredible little girl and her strong loving family by having a made-with-love auction and night of music and treats. For my contribution to the auction I'm sewing a felt castle play set. Lots and lots of hand sewing fun. Unicorn and tree down- knight, princess, dragon, castle and play mat/carry case still to go.... wish me luck!

final garden days

A few pictures of our last frosty garden adventure. We are inheriting a new garden space with the recent property changes, and we thought we'd try to get the cover crops turned in before the ground froze solid. We had more snow today, and it just might stay, so this might have been the last bit of green we will lay eyes upon for many moons. We're ready for the white stuff though. Ari can hardly wait to strap on his skis. Maybe this week! And I am ever so happy to report that the nap strike appears to be over! I am ever so relieved. And Dorian is so much happier when he has those naps, that I think he's glad it is over too. Hurrah for naps, and happy Monday to you all!

catching up

My goodness, has it really been two weeks since I've been back here? What a blur the weeks have been! We have been busy with all the usual life stuff, but really the main reason I haven't been making it here is that Dorian has been on a bit of a nap strike and our days have been in a bit of upheaval. Nothing too serious, but an out of sorts two-year-old can throw a daily rhythm off the rails pretty quickly!

I realize how dependant I'd become on that 2 hour chunk every day (I know, I've been spoiled!) to get in some homeschooling time with Ari, and, while Ari was having his quiet time, to have a little rest myself. And, I had gotten into something of a pattern to start my blog post during quiet time, and that has gone out the window! But even though Dorian has been grumpy as anything come 3:00 every day, it is hard to hold it against him. I mean really. Look at that face. My sister sent him his costume for his birthday, and he was mighty pleased to wear it out for Halloween. I forgot my camera when we went out with the boys, but couldn't help taking a ton of pictures the next day. Because if there is anything cuter than a toddler in a panda suit, I've yet to see it myself.

This is his "funny panda walk"- a sort of side to side waddle that he perfected while we were walking (ever so slowly,) from house to house on Halloween night.

Ari has yet to be convinced to put on his costume again, though he had a lot of fun wearing it out. He was a "Fire Monster" and had a costume he pulled together from bits from the dress-up bin in the big house basement. He roared fiercely at all passing trick-or-treaters. And the Switch Witch was a hit this year. She brought a book, a small toy and toothbrush in exchange for most of the candy. They were able to keep out a few pieces and Ari ate his all in one go. Dori forgot about his pretty fast. I asked Perry to take all that junk to school so I didn't eat it all- Bleck!
Ari had a half birthday this week and we celebrated with a "blueberry butter cake" (his request). I had told him that I would make him half a cake for his half birthday, but he was horrified by the thought, so I just made a quick single layer whole one. The only picture I got was of the dirty dishes the next morning.
And the bird feeder is filled and we are loving this time of year when we get to see so many birds right outside our window. I gathered all the bird books off the shelf for the boys to look through.

And though our homeschooling projects sort of fell off the radar these past few weeks, we did manage to make a batch of new play dough. Ari set to work making a cookie stand, with detailed gingerbread men and all sort of fancy treats. They cost just twelve-ninety-six-seven each. A bargain really.Happy Monday everyone!

first snow

We woke up to snow this morning. Though it was all gone by the afternoon (including this sweet little snowman, much to Ari's dismay,) but we had lots of fun playing in it while it was there.

We also took a lovely walk up into the woods. It was perhaps a bit ambitious as just yesterday Ari was on the couch with a fever, but he seems to jump back with such energy that it is easy to forget that he is still fighting something. He did great and we enjoyed a little forest picnic under the trees, a lovely way to celebrate the first snow. But then Ari ended up back on the couch this evening, so I'll keep him moving slowly tomorrow, even if he seems perky and energetic. But I do think that fresh mountain air is good for a body, he'll be better in no time I'm sure.

And it always seems that when my kids are down with something, they seem to come out of it older somehow, like they spent that time with a fever or a bug growing and changing. This morning Ari seemed a little bit older, his vocabulary a little bit larger, his play a little bit deeper. I love this Mama- job. Watching these kids grow is such a blessing.