Family Time

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Yesterday at 3 pm began my Winter vacation. We had a busy homeschool week, which culminated in a lovely Parent/Grandparent Brunch & Expo, including finishing our read aloud story (David and the Phoenix, a much-loved and must-read children's classic), hearing "The Gift of the Magi," completing and presenting our Calendar Art Projects, finishing main lesson books for The Middle Ages (Waldorf grade 6) and Native American Legends (Waldorf grade 2), and practicing a little bit of fun Christmas-themed math (12 Days of Christmas Math Word Problems and Think Math: Christmas). We also made Melt-in-Your-Mouth Eggnog Cookies, as well as a brunch table full of food, including the Middle Ages "Pottage" recipe which Becca had enjoyed on Monk Day. The children presented their collaboratively-written Friendship poem at the Expo. Last week we also had Farm Day, as always, and an awesome session of Structured Word Inquiry.
Now school is behind us and it is Family Time!

Friday night we had Fun Friday Dinner (costume theme: all stressed out). Leah won with her outfit. After dinner (biscuits and leftover pottage), we watched It's a Wonderful Life and had cookies and eggnog. Thank you to all of the families for my lovely Christmas presents!

Today I had a Creativity Workshop where we worked like gangbusters to finish all the homemade presents and wrap them (yes, we included the pets and they got lots of love... in fact, the gift bag for the chinchilla's present had the largest and most lavish bow) and I read the story Winter, Awake! by Linda Kroll. The illustrations in this story are not to be missed. It's also absolutely wonderful for teaching alliteration. We always make a recipe each session and this one was no exception: Mango Peach Strawberry Smoothies.


Today it was 64 degrees at the warmest point and yet they are calling for freezing drizzle and black ice and a low of 9 degrees overnight. So I think it was the perfect story for today. Autumn is over and Winter is awake!
Venison backstrap is marinating for Sweet-Bacon Wrapped dinner tomorrow night, to be served with potatoes and a veg, and Pork Chops with Zucchini Dressing are in the oven right now. The house smells wonderful. Becca is needle felting a dragon to give to her Gram for Christmas, Leah is listening to Hamilton on her Echo Dot, the ONE piece of technology I've allowed my girls to have thus far, and Natalie is reading Zac From Head to Toe...


Tonight we are playing a game we got for Christmas: Labyrinth by Ravensburger.


I'm looking forward over my vacation to doing lots of cooking, lots of house cleaning, lots of relaxing and playing with the baby, and lots of posting the main lesson book page photographs which I keep promising I will share!!! Stay tuned for pictures of all of our work from last year and this!!