Stone Soup

Today for Father's Day we made Steve some Stone Soup (having first read the Marcia Brown version of this classic story). We filled our pot with water, set it to boil, added a clean stone, and then cut up and added vegetables we had around the house. We used onions, carrots, potatoes, summer squash, garlic scapes, sugar snap peas, and barley, as well as three cubes of vegetable bouillon. The children had a wonderful time. The soup is pretty self-explanatory but if you'd like a recipe, you can find one in The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book. Having all the children bring in vegetables on Tuesday and making a class vegetable soup is pretty standard in Waldorf kindergartens. It works better the greater variety of vegetables you have. Another note: I like to put the stone in the dishwasher first so that I'm sure it's really disinfected. After naps I took the older two to the beach and that was also a ton of fun.

Our Insects unit did not end with seeing a movie -- we changed our minds at the last minute. This is probably better, since movies are not very Waldorf-y, but I had really thought Microcosmos would be a good one. Maybe I was swayed by my own personal feeling that I wanted to see it. Anyway, Fortune intervened and we had to be happy with our decision to skip the film. And then She smiled on us again and gave us the perfect ending to our Insects unit... and it didn't cost a dime! When I was washing the kale for dinner tonight I found a cluster of insect eggs glued to the bottom of a leaf. Several dead caterpillars were also in the bag (things don't always come prewashed from the farm) so I am guessing that there is a caterpillar/butterfly which lives among the kale. We took the eggs, still stuck to the leaf, and placed them in our Butterfly Pavilion. Now we just have to wait and see what happens. The eggs may not hatch, from having been under refrigeration for several days, but it is fun to try.

Yesterday was my Day Out (Steve watches the kids one day a week so that I can have a break) and I went up to D.C. I walked around Chinatown, which was interesting, and then discovered a museum I never knew existed: the National Building Museum. They had a super-cool exhibit on Green Houses (sustainable architecture, not the agriculture kind) which I really enjoyed. There were several other exhibits but none were as good. I picked up a flyer about the new exhibit opening next week called "David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture." His books are terrific; when I was a girl I loved poring over Castle for hours on end. He'll actually be AT the museum for the exhibit opening (how cool!), and there will be tons of neat stuff going on there Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm, including community art projects that kids can participate in. The whole thing is called "The Big Draw." If you live in the D.C. area be sure to check it out!

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!