33/52

"A photo of my little man, once a week, every week, in 2014"

 

Reece, a moment of stillness, and I mean just a moment, during a fun day.
 

Joining Jodi for the 52 Project

Happy Mail Day

There was a happy mail day around here this week, my package from Amanda's summer blog swap arrived. It was filled with a beautiful crocheted tea towel, some lovely gift tags, lip balm, and tooth powder. There was also a little surprise in the package for Reece, an owl mask and a hand painted rock.

I am always amazed at the creative talents of others when I participate in these swaps, always so much goodness shared. Big thanks go out to Amanda for organizing us all again, and thank you to my new blog friend Alexa who sent this wonderful package.

Homeschool Planning

A few weeks ago I shared a photo of my evening of homeschooling planning which sparked a lot of interest, so I thought I would share my process. First, a little background. We are a Waldorf homeschooling family. Last year was our first year of kindergarten, and this coming year will be our second year of kindergarten. In Waldorf, children do not start academics until the age of seven, until then there is a focus on nature connection, outdoor play, indoor play and rhythm. We tell a lot of stories, have fun with verses, finger plays and songs, and enjoy crafting on a regular basis.

I start my planning with the big picture, the year ahead. I fold a piece of watercolour paper into twelve, and then paint it with some watercolour paints. When it is dry I write the month in each rectangle. In each month I list the festivals we will celebrate and the date, I write the theme for the month, and any ideas I have for things we will do. I also right in birthdays, and any other dates that are important to us.

Once I have the big picture I move on to our weekly rhythm. Again, using a piece of watecolour paper, I fold it in half lengthwise, and then in five. This gives me a two week homeschool schedule, over five days. I write in the three days we will homeschool, and the rhythm for those days. We homeschool on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Each morning follows the same rhythm....breakfast, free play, circle time and story, nature walk, snack, theme work, free play, and lunch. After lunch each day there is outdoor play before coming in for a little quiet time. After quiet time we have afternoon tea and a snack and them move into the activity of the day. The activities follow this rhythm...Monday is our handwork day, Tuesday is baking day and Thursday is watercolour day. We then finish the day with more free play.

On Wednesday's we spend the morning with friends in the woods, and the afternoon is dedicated to errands. Friday's change on a two week rotation. On week 1 we skate or swim in the morning and do some sort of community service in the afternoon, and on week 2 we spend time in nature in the morning with our nature journals and then head home for an afternoon of games, reading and playing.

Reece and I are fortunate to have another little one that joins us on Monday, Thursday and Friday. She arrives at 8am, in time for breakfast, and gets picked up at 4pm. This has been wonderful for Reece in so many ways, and has been a joy for me.

With the weekly rhythm determined I move on to monthly planning. I first plan out our circle time songs, verses and finger plays, and create a little seasonal song and verse book so I can work at memorizing them all. I change the circle time monthly. I use Wynstones Press Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Books and A Child's Seasonal Treasury to plan our circle time. Next I work on finding handwork ideas, crafts, and recipes for baking, and creating little stories for our watercolour days. Once all of that is done I check the yearly calendar for festivals and start to think about how we will celebrate.

The last thing I do is write a to do list. The list will include things I might need to pick up for our crafts, things I need to make for our story, nature table, or festival celebrations, recipes and craft ideas I need to find, and any other things I need to do to ensure I am ready for the month ahead.

At this moment I have completely planned September and October. I am working on November, and would like to have both November and December done before we start school in three weeks. Once we are into our school year I will start planning for the winter months.

I am a planner by nature, and actually enjoy this process. Is it totally necessary for the kindergarten years? Maybe not. But by planning this way over the last two years my hope was to cement what works for me so that as we move onto grade 1 next year, I can focus on other things and have my planning method solidified.

For those of you who were intrigued with the photo a few weeks ago, I hope this post has helped. I am more than happy to answer more questions, share more or even help a little if you need it. Just ask.

Around the Garden

So much is happening around the garden right now, it is hard to know where to start. We are harvesting food, one, two, three times a day, we are cleaning up beds...this week the potato bed and the snow pea and bush bean bed, and we are planting seeds for the fall and winter garden.

The garden is dealing with the hail damage pretty well. As you can see, many of the plants got hit hard, but amazingly they are still producing very well. The Swiss chard has bounced back, the cucumbers are growing like crazy and the tomatoes are ripening by the day. I dug up the potatoes, the plants had been hit hard, and completely died back. It was a pretty good harvest, but not as much as we had expected. We had a great harvest last year growing them in straw, this year we have had mixed results. I have turned the potato bed over, and let the chickens in to scratch around. Next spring this area will become our very own little berry orchard with more raspberries and blueberries.

I collected the rest of the snow peas and bush beans, and cleaned out that bed. The pole beans are slowly ripening, and I suspect over the next few days will we be collecting them by the bowlful. Pumpkins, squash and zucchini are doing very well despite the damage to their leaves. I harvest two or three zucchinis every few days. What doesn't get eaten gets shredded and frozen in one cup portions to be added to stews, soups and sauces over the winter. The cucumbers have surprised me the most. Even though they got hit very hard, they just won't stop growing. I have been pickling up a storm this week, and will continue to do so it seems, there are a lot of cucumbers out there. We tried a new cucumber in the garden this year, the salt and pepper cucumber. I highly recommend it. It is the yellow one up there in the photos. So good.

Reece is having a blast digging up carrots. As I work in the garden each day he sits at the carrot bed with his trowel, carefully loosening the earth, pulling gently and then squealing with delight as he pulls each carrot out of the ground. It is pure joy for him, and melts my heart every time I hear him squeal. Once he has harvested enough for dinner, he happily cuts off the green tops and carefully washes them with the hose. I love watching him take on this chore each day.

Soil and compost will be delivered this week. The cold frame, and the two new raised beds need to be filled, and the other beds will all get a good top up as they finish up the growing season. I planted the first seeds for the fall and winter garden this week. Kale, Swiss chard, beets and carrots all went in one of the raised beds that will be tunneled this winter. As I planted the carrot seeds, I called Reece over from his harvesting job to show him the carrot seeds. He was amazed that the tiny seeds in my hand grew into the carrots he was now harvesting. From seed to plate, I love that he is learning this lesson so early in life.

It has definitely been a full week in the garden, and thoroughly enjoyed by all of us.

How are things around your garden?

Morning, Noon and Night

Morning, noon and night...three little peeks into my day yesterday.

 Morning, 9:15am

{If you look closely you can see the first robin who left the nest in the upper left corner, 

and the other two in the nest, in the bottom right hand corner, looking at her. 

We feel so very blessed to have been able to witness this.}

 Noon, 2pm

Night, 6:45pm

***If you would like to play along leave your link in the comments section so I can stop by and visit.*** 

Our Weekend

Our weekend started Friday, as it usually does, with a visit from my parents and Reece's god parents. We enjoyed morning tea on the back deck, before they headed off for lunch. The afternoon was spent running a few errands, and once the little man was tucked in for the night I enjoyed cups of tea and a little reading while Justin worked away in his workshop.

I ran our quiet country roads early Saturday morning, and had plans for a trip to the market and some time in the garden, but upon arriving home a phone call from my client that her water had broken changed all of that. I spent the day at the hospital, and had the honour and privilege of welcoming a precious baby girl into the world. I don't do doula work very often, but when I do, it is so very special. I arrived home just in time to make dinner, and then crashed on the couch to watch a movie and knit.

Sunday was full. Time in the garden, a little jam making, a short walk in the woods, and a visit with my parents. We saw not one, but two, great blue herons as we drove on Sunday afternoon, at two different ponds. We stopped to watch the one above for quite some time. They are such amazing creatures.

Many times over the weekend you would have found one, two or all three of us on the front porch, binoculars in hand, watching a nest of robins. We have been watching this nest since mama robin built it a few weeks ago in one of our birch trees. We watched as she sat there for days on end keeping her eggs warm, we watched her fly back and forth feeding them, and now, all of sudden, they have started stretching their wings, moving around a bit more and letting out the sweetest little sounds. It has been a joy to watch them, and this week we hope to witness their first flight. Fingers crossed.

How was your weekend?

Joining Karen

32/52

"A photo of my little man, once a week, every week, in 2014"

 

Reece, a little walk in the woods, just you and me. Our mission...to check in on the wild blackberries. Still a week or two to go, but soon we will be filling our buckets and bellies with blackberries. I can't wait!

Joining Jodi for the 52 Project