Fairy boats!

We have an unsightly puddle in our drive that we cannot afford to fill at the moment. And so - fairy boats.

We made them this morning. I think it only took about an hour. I cut a few pieces of wood - drilled a few holes for the masts and screwed heavy pieces of wood to the bottom for ballast.

We hot glued the branches in place - and my son insisted there were safety lines so the fairies wouldn't fall out - that is why we had to add the extra screws ^_^ !

For the sails - we cut up paper - covered them with some old bits of wax we had laying about - popped them in the oven and used a hole punch for clough lines.

I put a bunch of foil down to prevent the wax from getting all over the oven. I just set it to a low temp and watched it carefully. Don't burn down your house. 

They used string to tie the sails to the masts - and I added a dab of hot glue where the string was knotted for good measure.

This rigg was too heavy and off balance for the wood on this one. I ended up screwing a much wider heavier piece of wood to the bottom. It all worked out in the end.

Such a happy happy day ^_^! 

Robin Hood and his Merry men ^_^!

The last couple years  - we haven't really done halloween. But - this year - we've entered a time when budget trumps all. I can't afford to take the kids to Comic Con or Ren Faires. So - a local free opportunity to dress up and hang out seems like the best doings and goings on. So - till we are independently wealthy enough to hire a farm sitter and pay for all the expense of doing the Con - Halloween is the Cosplay event for the year ^_^!
So - here is what we did.
I needed to art out. 
It was suppose to not cost anything. But - of course - it totally did :P I had to buy a yard of felt - I went with synthetic - instead of wool - and of course - the hats and Goodwill sweaters. To bling out the stroller - well - that was an investment.
$3 here and $12 there adds up fast. But - it can't compare to the cost of going to the Con - so - I feel okay about it. About 80% of the stuff we used - we already had.
AND - my boy is five. Five is that age when you go way outta your way to give them the experiance and memory. So - next year we can skip or go cheaper. We'll see. (  note to self - 3rd kid will be 5 in 4 years... start saving )

Ears and tail felted from roving I spent way too much on years ago - and never used up til now!!! Finally ! I get to go to the fiber arts store again! I used sooo much roving!!! ^_^ !

Who says Maid Marian has to be a damsel in distress?

Felt princess hats from Dollar Tree. Prop Octoberfest hat from Amazon. Both altered quite a bit. She made her own mask. THAT was awesome!

My attempt to make Lady Kluck Slightly less dowdy. I figure - she is a total rock star fighter in the Cartoon- so - I took off with that.

Prince John. Borrowed the lion costume - 10 year old made the crown - Fairy Godmother had sent the Royal Jewels ages ago. It came together pretty sinking well.

The cost of the curtains and throw at Goodwill kinda threw me off. Aaand - had to buy a snake ( 10 year old made the hat and cape for him outta scraps ) . But - sigh. We just didn't have anything regal enough to make a medieval carriage - so - we're just owning it. 

We bought the hair dye - instead of a Cosplay wig. her hair already had bleach bits and I buy bleach in bulk - so we were able to have the snow white ends of fox hair to complement the red/orange dye. 

In the end - I feel like it was a total win :) 

Deadliest Catch - homeschool addition.

Teach a boy to spell fish - he'll forget it in a day. Teach a boy that once he learns to spell fish - he can sew a fishing set for a life time! 

 So - sew - so - fish. Working on motivating a boy to learn letters and spell stuff and things. And - i had been planning on teaching him some sewing - something he has been wanting to learn for ages. So - I put the two together. It was suppose to take all week - but - the baby slept for ever - so we ended up getting to finish the project! It was like - a miraculous homeschool day! He had already learned F, H and I  - and this week is all about the letter I   ** I am doing a vowel a week - and we are on week three - so A,E and now I** He has gotten so much momentum - he is catching his identification and writing so fast now. So - I said - " If you can remember all the letters in Fish - then I will teach you to sew your own fishing game! " a half hour later - he had it.
We had all the materials on hand. And he quickly picked up the sewing bit. My Mathildepan  - she has been sewing for ages - so in two shakes of a fishy tail - all the little guys were made - and by that time - the magnet hooks were finished drying and ready to be strung to the poles!
Now - I have no idea what to do for the other 2 days we get to do school this week. But - hey - I shouldn't complain.
Here are the pics and a bit of the process.

Materials - felt, hemp twine,wool stuffing *not pictured* glue and magnets. **also - the kids were working on the table - so the only work space left was the highchair left vacant by the long sleeping baby.

I tied the twine around a few magnets -I also added craft glue - to make sure they wouldn't slip and end up in the baby krakan's belly.

Set the boy to work ~

 And stuffed the fishys with wool and a more different magnet.

Tied the magnet "hook" to the fishing pole and bam. Done it. 

Also - here is today's white board of the week.

And - yeah. This weeks plans are dashed. So - the board is not longer accurate.

Master his letter I. This boy has got it!

Shadow Puppet Story of Arch Angel Michael

Well! We did it! We managed the shadow puppet show! We didn't manage the Lantern Walk - we had a brief heat wave - and we cant cope with the mosquitoes - so we will do it when the weather cools -and post it here and pretend we got it in on time ^_^ !
Here are is the stage and props - all hand made but the littles - and we used an old clothes rack and sheets to build the theater.

It went swimmingly! And now I know how easy it is- I am thinking to do one for Saint Nicolas and Pascha! Especially with the light in darkness bit - I think it would just be perfect ! School kind of rocks this year!

The Sword Craft and a total break down.

So - some really awful grown up things happened. I was so distraught yesterday - one of those on the verge of tears kind of days - and trying to homeschool - and be focused ... and nice... guh. It was not happening so much.
Ten year old stepped up!!!
She did all of 5 year olds beginning exercises with him. His practice writing, his line drawing, his counting - all of it!!! All I had to do was supervise and help with the craft!  Then she did her silent reading on her own while he played with his new sword!
I am so touched and grateful .
And today is better.
So - hey - when you feel like giving up - take a day off and let the big kid do the thing!
And lots - and I mean LOTS of prayer.
***************************************************************************
Yesterdays craft.
A flaming sword of the ArchAngel Michael! I have way too much wool roving and felt - it needs using. So - that's what we used. I don't know if the swords look good - I asked my husband and he very carefully said " well - Hugo thinks its a sword - so that's good!"
Aw. What a sweet heart.
 We went with the old pool noodle on a stick sword making technique. I didn't have any wooden dowels the right size - so I used some of the frame pieces from a broken party tent. I had some pipe insulation left over from a plumbing project. These are not amazingly non toxic - however the next step I think covered my bases. I duck taped the insulation in place then wet felted a bunch of wool roving around it. Then I whipstiched a big sheet of white wool around it. Then - it was set for My Mathildepan to needle felt our deep blue roving around it. We have only a little of this - so I cheaped out - and we only did a pattern - instead of felting it solid. And - I had just barely enough patience and calm to help the five year old Hugo to try his hand at needle felting - for realz. He has "felted" but- up until now - we included in felting using a old needle that had the barbs snapped off. He usually only played at it for a few minutes before he ran off to do something more fun for his 3-4 year old boy self.

Also - see the G practice his big sis set up. I hate succumbing to stress and depression - but the up side is seeing how capable my littles are at sharing the load.

 After it was felted * mostly by Mathildepan and myself - the boy did his best - but even working with super sharp dangerous felting needles gets boring ^_^  * we cut out some felt sheet flames - whip stitched them on - and then went lazy and just used a piece of goldish felt for the handle and wrapped it tight with kitchen twine. Again. Not the best looking "sword" but my boy thought it was amazing!!!

Captain of the heavenly hosts!

**** I am waaay better today. Tonight we plan to do our Lantern Walk and hopefully we can get our shadow puppets finished. second week of school. I'm doing all right, getting good grades. The future's so bright I gotta wear shades.****

Ah! Paper craft. I do love the space to let you run free!

Paper craft is messy. No matter how old you are it can be worse than glitter. But Ode To Joy!!! We have been doing paper crafts all week! AND - Oh yeah! - I baked bread WITH A FIVE YEAR OLD!!!
We still have no running water - the house is a complete mess. Our free time grown up effort has be focused on securing and battening down the out door storage for winter. - and instead of popping my kids in front of a movie so I could frantically clean the house * a much bigger job with no water* WE OWN THIS PLACE!!! And we have no neighbors for miles or landlord to randomly show up and criticize my skillz of a homemaker! So I am allowed to let the house be messy and just play with my kids! * I mean "educate' my kids... we are very serious about education.... tee hee*
So - yes - we did lessons like the board says to do - but then we just dedicated so many hours for making tissue paper backed snowflakes to hang on the window! It was a blast. So here are the pics of yesterdays school. Bask in the simpleness- and my messy messy house.

So messy and yet - so joyful! The children do not see any mess - and when my mister comes home -the children direct his eyes to the art and projects they did and he smells fresh baked bread! How can this not be good!?!?

We used tinfoil pans to mix the dough and other more smaller pans to bake them in. The recipe is for the Harvest Bread activity for ArchAngel Micael from Childrens garden of Theotokoshttp://anaphorapress.com/music/education/orthodox-curriculum

wet on wet white board ;) and Michaelmas Lanterns !

Okay okay - so we don't actually do Michaelmas. But trying to teach the kids to say The Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae - well - its harder... so - Michaelmass covers it for now.
For TEN years I have been trying to get Michaelmas down. And this was the first year I actually did it! Every year I realize its already past - or I show up at a waldorf school and totally forget that we should have made lanterns or something! But yesterday at Church a fellow came up to me to show me an icon of Michael with his flaming sword - that he had stumble across as next sunday - it will be all about the Colossae thing. And he knows I am always looking for icons for my boy that appeal to his heroic side!  I was so stoked to realize - I have a chance to do the lanterns this year!!!!
So - yo - we did it!!! Yup!
Also - I think i am closer to making white board an artistic endeavor. I came up with the idea to take washable markers - and color the white board - and spritz rubbing alcohol across it. And after a few tries - the effect is pretty cool. It sort of carries and spreads across the board and then slowly settles into these lovely patterns - then you can use your dry erase markers on top of it. I think instead of doing one everyday - I will have it for the week - and just change the date at the top.
 So firstly - my white board progress.

Here it is with just the "wet on wet" effect.

This is with the story of the week (for five year old)  and daily seasonal project (for Michaelmas) as well as daily work. 

Daily work was the story of E and each day we will work on the short e sound and say the verse about E. Tilde is working on the 1st chapter of her silent reading and cursive is everyday.














So - secondly - the lanterns ( we will do our lantern walk after dark on friday - I will post about that on Monday)

Sooo - this project took me too long to figure out. Thank goodness my husband was home to care for the baby. But we basically made panels of tin foil for the inside and construction paper for the outside. We made a card stock base covered in tin foil with a make shift candle holder secured in the middle. between the panels we used wax paper and tissue. We fastened the panels together with glue and then covered the joints with packing tape. We used wire to hang them from our branches.

You can see inside where the window frame is tinfoil - and to our surprise - it (of course ) reflected the light of the small candle so brightly!

                                                          and the kid is happy! 

and taking it oh so seriously. 

 So huzzah! I did the thing!!! And we will know all our songs of Archangel Michael by friday for our lantern walk.
Smooth operation!

So um - not sure. I am trying to add a bit more artistry to white board drawing... using some made up "techniques" ... um. does it look ... better ~ish? Or just like total crap. I don't know. I do know I need way more colors and sizes of pens. I may youtube search in case someone has perfected this - or just go back to a clean white board with boring normal assignments on. Ugh. the Waldorf in me wants this to look so much better!!! Sigh. I wonder what would happen if i water colored it the night before... hmmm. like - wet on wet - but instead of paint and water - I could use cut up dry erase markers and alcohol...

So - if i was looking at this blog - i would kinda like be like - "um - wow - you are really doing the bare minimum here lady..."
And - that is just the point. See - I thought that homeschool needed to be validated by going so so SO far above and beyond - I spent my whole early years of motherhood attending classes and workshops - even going so far as getting certified as a Montessori teachers aide -  just so I could be confident that no one could question my choice to homeschool. And  - years and thousands of dollars and a complete Waldorf renovation of my home  later - it was so stressful and inconsistent and never felt like enough.
Then I realized i was motivated by the very most wrongest thing of all. The approval of random other peoples. Parents, friends, family, co workers, elected officials - even the cashier at the grocery store.
I wasn't even thinking about the people who matter most in this equation. Me and my kids.
I just typed "me" first.
On purpose.
Cuz - I am the one who has to plan and execute this whole thing.
I have to be able to make this work. And to do that - i have to love it and it has to be manageable.
NEXT - is the kids. They have to love it. And when they don't love it - it needs to be tolerable and simple enough to complete.
So - after doing it the way I loved to LOOK at most of all ~ Anthoposophical super strict purist of Stieners vision of Waldorf at home~ aaaaaaaaaaand failing. On every level ( have you ever spent six hours on a chalk board drawing - only to have to erase it after a week .... and the CRAZY AMOUNT OF CHALK DUST YOU HAVE TO CLEAN UP?????) Waldorf failed us - or we failed at Waldorf. And as pretty as that chalk board is - by the third month - I do NOT love it anymore.
I resent it.
I dread it.
I will do anything and come up with any excuse to avoid it -"Oh dear - i guess we have to go to the post office and the DMV and maybe do some taxes - no school today - oh darn"
But when I saw simplistic - more mainstream homeschool stuff - it just didn't appeal to me - I am just not a Popsicle stick and glue gun kinda gal :/ . I wasn't driven.
Just as I was on the verge of enrolling my kids in any kind of school - I met this amazing mama of Ten. She introduced to me One Room School House. She linked me to Queens - a Curriculum that is all I ever wanted Waldorf to be - plus Charlotte Mason and 100% all in one - if your kid can read - then there is NO work for you!!!
And it is simple.
It is gentle.
It is joyful.
But - we were still living in town. In a house we hated. With neighbors screaming at all hours - sirens, dogs barking - and here I am - a mama on the spectrum - with a dyslexic girl and a normal hyper and easily distracted boy. Oh yeah - and had this baby along the way too. So - we moved to the country. And our school room is now 19 acres. Our house is so tiny - but so much more mellow. Its easy to clean up breakfast and pull the lessons off the shelf. Oh... aaand i switched to white board. Maybe not the most extravagant and ambient of home decor. But - its about doable.

Then - starting school this year.
The boy needs to get his reading on. Just turned 5. Waldorf confused our reading efforts with our oldest - so I am going to be so careful to make sure this boy has the best chance to get this down before the state starts mandatory standardize testing ALL THE CHILDRENS! So - that's the focus. You might notice - we aren't doing math. We will - but I feel like reading needs strict focus now. We are throwing some nature science in there. Making sure to do a walk through the forest to see the changing world around us. We're making some cake with vinegar and baking soda. Touching on the science. Keeping it cool. Because - i have always been so stressed from the get go - school just was not fun.
We are only three days in - but this is FUN!!!
And Stiener or Montessori or Ghandi or Cher once said - "our job is not to teach. Our job is to foster a childs love of learning". Bam. There you have it.
So - i am gonna keep posting all these poorly taken unedited  pictures of these ridiculously simple homeschool days. because - in three years - maybe someone will be just starting out or starting over - and they will stumble on this blog and see just how far we got by starting over again - so simple.

And then we have Hugo's work - just turned five - Kindi.

Line drawing.

The story of C ~  I made up a story about a Cat who needed a birthday Cake. ~

And on the left we have a spider ~ who he declared is also having a birthday - and it's Penny Pot Pies birthday today - so birthdays are a thing  ~


And then the ever talented miss Tildepan. This is just the board work - she had more cursive and reading she completed today.

So - just sit back relax and foster that love of learning.