Holiday Preparations: Wooden Ornaments

Alas, it has been months since I've penned this blog last and for that, and for my overbooked schedule, I apologize.  Life is keeping us very busy and I don't have much time for elaborate, well planned posts.  But, what I love about December is that as part of our homeschooling year, I block out much of the month to focus on all of the wonderful festivals, baking, and traditions; and it's a time when we slow down, stray from more formal lessons, and focus more on creating memories by living in the moment.  So, I am hoping to write many posts over the month of December and would love to start by sharing some warm fuzzies that we treasure in our home. 

Like many of you, I prefer anything handmade.  It is hard to find natural, handmade in the local shops, so I often head over to etsy or track down obscure shops online where I can find those heartfelt goodies that make us feel cozy inside.  I was thrilled to find these handmade wooden ornaments from Germany at a local shop near our home last year.  There were so many cute ones that we had to narrow it down over and over again and I hope that we can snag a few more this year - adding to our little collection through the years.

The girls begged me to get out the old Christmas bins from the garage (no basements where I live) so they could begin decorating the tree and these were some of the first ornaments to go up...

Flying Santa

 



The Baker

 



Santa with his Walking Stick

 



Our Russian Soldier

 



Of course, the girls found the mini village my father had surprised us with the year I got married and the twins got sidetracked, but hey - any creative play is great by me!  December is a time to slow down, turn inward, and recharge the soul.  Kids definitely recharge through freeplay while we adults often recharge by ignoring the phone, dishes, and laundry and enjoy watching those little ones around us in all of their innocent, joyful splendor.  Childhood is a wonder to behold!

We are preparing our special holiday table, our Advent spiral, Advent wreath, and of course - we are excited about our first festival in Dec - Bishop Nicholas' Day!  This special tradition was made even more fun thanks to the amazingly beautiful and talented Christine Natale and her St. Nick stories - read one a day, beginning Dec 1st and get your kiddos into the spirit of giving and sharing... I have referenced Christine many times in my blog and there is a big reason why - she truly encompasses the Waldorf heart through her love of children and her foundational training and understanding.  I wanted to post the link to her stories now for anyone who plans to begin them December 1st!

You can read more about St. Nicholas here.  And I will be back with more photos as we prepare for this most wonderful time of year! 

Also, I have several comments that I've not answered yet - I hope to eventually get to them.  And I just saw that I have reached a wonderful milestone of 300 followers :) So in honor of that, yup...you guessed it...I am planning a special giveaway - so stay tuned!  Hugs to all of you!

LA Block: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

"Where the Mountain Meets the Moon"

by Grace Lin

Carrie from The Parenting Passageway tipped me off to this great book this summer. As usual, she was right. It's a wonderful mix of fairy tales wrapped into a lovely cultural story about a young poor girl in China who wants to change her family's fortune. After hearing inspiring stories told by her Ba (father), she follows her heart on a magical journey complete with talking goldfish and a lovable dragon on her way to find The Old Man of the Moon who will hopefully tell her how to help save her family from their difficult reality.

The chapters are short, but don't kid yourself, your children will not want you to put this book down - lol! We are more than half way through it and I ended up changing gears and have been planning our whole Jan block around this book.

I am drawing a picture from the book twice a week that the girls will then copy into their MLB's. They have been helping me write sentences/summaries that they are placing in their book, on the page next to their drawing. Above the drawing, is also a very short sentence in which the nouns are identified in blue (and the verbs will be identified in red starting this week as we are covering a part of speech each week). Here is an example:

.

We are writing down words to keep on a large piece of paper that pertain to the book that they are learning. These words are helping them to form sentences of their summaries and are helping reading, writing, and spelling. They are also learning the beginnings of punctuation.

Along with beeswax modeling, a traditional Chinese meal, and a little lesson on the Chinese New Year (Feb 3rd this year), we are enjoying painting.

Elena is the type of child who is more comfortable following a model. When she feels satisfied, she then takes little steps to branch out to make something her own.

Charley, on the other hand, has always marched to the beat of her own drum. Even though we've discussed why we lay down the background first and then remove paint to add an element, she was very insistent on trying it this way - putting the dragon down and then painting around it. It was a good way for her to see that it does not layer the picture well, though I admit, it does have a pretty neat effect. It is also more challenging if the paint runs a bit, as wet on wet tends to do. Her picture took a lot longer than the others.

Elena's is listed below...

Setting them out to dry...

The girls are happily preparing to make their First Reconciliation at the end of this month, so we've been heavy into religious education, which fits beautifully in with the studies of the Saints this year. Here Charley is with our long term foster pup, Stanley (10 years old). He's helping her prepare :) Stanley had a dental whereby he lost most of his teeth, so his little tongue hangs out to the side permanently. Once in a while he pulls it all the way in his mouth, but we think it just adds to his charm! He doesn't see well, but he is a total sweetheart. I have fallen really hard for this little senior. We've had him a month now, but he's been in the rescue since August and no interest in him yet (good for me, right?!?! :D)

Another part of the 2nd grade curriculum is learning the basic parts of speech. We have started learning about nouns and verbs. The first week, we tackled nouns. I found some fun books to enhance our understanding. Brian P. Cleary has written some simple books which rhyme and add to the fun. The other selection of books are more advanced, so I cover the first few pages, but then when it goes off on specifics that we are not yet ready for (branching off into more detail than we are ready for at this moment "Imperative", "tenses", "helping verbs") then I am just stopping there. These books (by Ruth Heller) will be great as we progress, but I am finding the Cleary books to be more on our current level.

We always allow lots of time for freeplay and the Ostheimers are still favorites!

This week's saint was St. Antony of Egypt. His feast day was on January 17th, the day after the girls daddy (who is also an Anthony) had a very special b-day!

For this St. Antony, I gleaned inspiration from "Stories of the Saints", as well as the Catholic teachings found online. EWTN has more extensive explanations, like St. Antony of Egypt's found here. Not sure how much I like this book yet, but we'll see over time. We are doing St. Agnes tomorrow for her feast day and a lot of liberties have been taken in the "Stories of the Saints" book. My question is - how true do we need to make them to be historically accurate, especially as a Roman Catholic who wants to respect that history of the church - versus making the story speak to the child with fantastical liberties, ya know? I am trying my very best to do both so I'm finding that pulling some elements from the prewritten stories, coupled with the accounts from the church is probably the best way to tailor it to our little ones.

It was Daddy's birthday on Sunday...

Charley is holding little Ralph - our one week foster

as we help out the head of our rescue.

And finally - some delicious homemade granola!

Charley loves her granola so I decided it's about time I make my own organic granola. I asked the awesome mamas at the Green Tara Mama Yahoo Group and got several great recipes to try. This one came in first and so we gave it a whirl - very good (and easy)!

This recipe came from Leslie K. from the Green Tara Mama Yahoo Group:

Slow Cooker granola (A friend sent this recipe to me, she said it came from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker" by Robin Robertson).

5 cups oats
1 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix all of the ingredients in a crockpot. Do NOT cover with the lid. Cook for 1.5 hours on high, then turn to low and cook for 2 more hours. Stir occasionally. Spread on cookie sheets to cool and dry until crispy. Yields about 8 cups.