To Eat and Play

Play for me:: I'm excited to try and make these for myself when I get a spare minute. I'd actually played with trying to make a similar pattern a few years ago and gave up frustrated. Thanks M.S. for making it easier for me...

Play for the girls:: This was Leviah's b-day present. We ALL have enjoyed it as much as she does, it never gets old to try different ways of stacking/balancing them. There are a lot of toys from this shop that we want...

Food for us all:: (which turned into play as they arranged it themselves) Lunch for today.

sliced apples with dad's home-made yogurt (from raw local milk) & local honey from our own hives! Pretty decent ensemble on the fly. As we try to cut wheat/carbohydrates out as a mainstay in our lives, it's little victories like this lunch that help me know pb&j's and mac&cheese aren't the only things my kids will eat...

Some more options that are carb-free & kid friendly:
Peanut Butter and Celery
Dried Fruit
Cashews
Almonds
Cheese (like baybel, slices, cuts of whatever we have)
Cottage Cheese
Plain yogurt with honey
Carrots

what are some of your lunch time staples? 

Cedar Ring Circle and Homeschooling Cheap.

 

 In thinking about our upcoming school year we had a lot to consider. We enjoyed Oak Meadow and while I think what they offer is great, I wasn't thrilled about paying for all their curriculum and still needing to buy all the supplies and crafting materials. I guess I'm a cheapskate, but I think I also just wanted to explore our options. So, even though I was surprised to find my daughter and husband in their recent ad in Living Crafts, (though we HADN'T won their photo contest for free curriculum?! anyone spot them?) we are moving forward.

Enter: Cedar Ring Circle. If you've not been to their site or joined the co-op you may not know that they offer homeschooling packages through their online store for the general public, and discounts on supplies, books, and Little Acorn Learning guides for co-op members. They were one of our other options, and we were privileged to win a month's free in March and we loved it. The major hitch for most Waldorf influenced curricula is the heavy focus on holidays that we don't really celebrate--it's no one's fault, but the major thing in OM's favor was the lack of that. We fill in the holidays on our own, and we are happy that way.

So, CRC offered a package that accompanies the Earthschooling curricula; the price is great and the package is HUGE! The price of Earthschooling's online resources is reasonable as is, but we were given a discount on that as a result of purchasing CRC's bundle and all in all we came in around $300 for all the materials we should need for next year. This is big. While we may not be the best at strictly following any lesson plan day to day, it is a great relief to have a guide and reference point through the year AND the materials to boot! No more skipping projects because we're missing one or more of the bits and pieces.

Cedar Ring Circle has generously offered to giveaway one free membership to the co-op ($25 value) to one of you lucky readers! Take a look around their site and tell us what you'd be excited to get the member discount on and comment below for an entry. Winner will be announced, Tuesday August 9th.

(make sure we can get in touch with you!)

Happy Mother's Day...

not a 'normal' leviah.

I hope all you madres out there have a terrific day. Although we have one pitiful Leviah on our hands & had a rough night in the sleep department, my family made me waffles, chicken sausage & coffee for breakfast.

she looks a little more like her rambunctious self in these pics, but it faded quickly...

Also, they wrapped & couldn't wait, so I got this box of goodies yesterday. I didn't know how much fun it would be--after a straight hour of pure frustration.

roving, drop spindle, how-to book

Now, I can't wait to spin, spin, spin! Anyone want to give me some tips? My 'form' got much better at the end, now I have to figure out the next step...help?

Playing with Paint

Yesterday we were back inside, as mentioned before.

Leviah has been a little on edge--not sure if it's a lack of sleep, this oh-so-mean & teasy weather, or if she's fighting some bug, but in an effort to distract her we made finger 'paint' yesterday. Simple enough.

Naomi & I were doing some flower studies with this set of water color pencils Drew recently brought home & little Lev seemed like she wanted to be included.

Just a few tablespoons of flour, a little water, a few drops of food coloring & wa-lah.

She didn't participate for long & mainly thought I was mean for not allowing her to eat it by the spoonful, but we'll definitely try again on a better day.

Naomi did add it to her mixed-media piece however!

& I'm no Van Gogh, but I was pleasantly surprised with my own little 'study'. I'll for sure be playing with these pencils more in the future. Being creative for the heck of it sure is relaxing...

if you have a quick second--go here & vote for Casual 12. Thanks!

Ewe Should Go Next Time!

We visited a local farm yesterday for their sheep shearing. It was so great--i'm glad we braved the weather! The sunshine made the cold bearable...

Anyway, here's a picture or 2.

While we didn't get any roving, we plan on stopping back by. I read that Dorset is a great wool for needle felting & they'll shear the majority of them in a few weeks, so we'll return. If you're local & not visited Rising Meadow & Goat Lady Dairy make a plan for May 2nd! (after you visit us downtown for this).

& though I'm not much of a knitter, Drew & I are both set on the idea of getting freshly shorn wool then cleaning & carding it ourselves. How can one NOT want to do this, at least once?!

Here are some of Naomi's Shots from the front row.

Finger Weaving

The addictive art of Finger Weaving

This simple way of using yarn seems like a great means of introducing Naomi to the great world of Fiber Arts. It was in our curriculum and I'm so glad. I've been wanting to buy her this, but the local yarn store hasn't had them in--hopefully next week. But, there's something very satisfying about creating something with no tool but your own 2 hands...(go ahead, sing it.)

1. Tie a loop around your thumb & weave through fingers.

2. Weave back to the thumb & where there are 2 layers on a finger, pull the bottom over the top & over the finger.

3. 4. 5. 6. (and on) Repeat again and again (here we transferred it to Naomi's hand.

she worked and worked.

Until she wanted a break. To save it for later we pulled a ruler through to hold the loops.

We'll do more with it next week. and maybe get better yarn once we've perfected it...

and boy is it ever a blustery day. cuidado!