Rainy Day AM

We went down to the basement and unpacked the puppets (the Magic Cabin animal puppets and three Waldorf-fashioned storyteller dolls from Mon Ange Dolls). The children also uncovered their basket of musical instruments so we unpacked those and put them away. I rearranged some furniture and bins and created a theatre space. When I came back downstairs after making lunch, they were happily creating a play complete with an usher, musical accompaniment, and a doll audience.

For lunch I made a light vegetable soup, using up the vegetables we had in the house. Today is our CSA pickup so it's time to use up what is left from last week's share! It ended up being carrots, leeks, potatoes, summer squash, and baby spinach. The soup cooled on the stove while we walked in a light rain up to the mailbox to check the mail, mail a letter, and stomp in every puddle we found along the way.




I didn't do this with the soup (because the children were playing so happily downstairs) but it would have been fun to do a homemade version of Stone Soup, where I play the traveler with my smooth stone handy (if you do this, be sure to either wash the stone in the dishwasher or boil it well in advance) and the children play the wary villagers who each end up contributing what they have. Natalie's class put on Stone Soup as their class play at the end of last year, so she probably also would have remembered the songs and could have taught them to her sisters. An idea for another rainy day...




The dessert after lunch (vegetable soup and bread) was nice thick slices of watermelon so I taught the children how to spit their watermelon seeds and compete to see who spit theirs the farthest. Usually this is done outside but I figured we could use the porch and still stay dry. Naptime is now and then, afterwards, I have some great ideas for indoor games. This evening we go to pick up our share from Farmer Jim. We have a lovely new CSA which gives us eggs and meat as well as vegetables. I really enjoy supporting local family farmers and this is a nice homeschooling family. It's fun for me to see the children playing "CSA pickup" during their playtime. They get out all the play kitchen foods and the little wooden fruits from Haba's Orchard Game and send each other out to "get the farm share" and bring it back home.