Milk Bath

We've just added a hummingbird feeder and an oriole feeder to our yard. I know my Grandmommy would be thrilled at all my husband has done to attract wildlife!!!

We often set out nuts (in the shells) for our chipmunk, and Adam is making a squirrel feeder next to hold dried ears of corn. Even the deer walk through the yard each night to visit our bird feeders and lick seed out of them. And I'm pretty sure the raccoon visits our compost, although that one was not deliberate. We also planted more bee and butterfly plants this year: black-eyed susans and bee balm.

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe - Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

The mysterious round green thing growing with our squashes is a pumpkin! It's turning yellow-orange.

But the actual recipe I wanted to share today is our Christmas present craft idea for this year. Each year we make a present en masse and the children choose who they would like to make the gifts for from our list of family and friends. We have been doing this for eight years. Borax crystal snowflakes, sock drawer sachets filled with silk and spices, lemon sugar hand scrub, soaps with dried lavender and crushed apricot seed, rolled and decorated beeswax candles, handmade star-shaped paper pulp ornaments with flower seeds embedded in them so they could be planted in the Spring, knitted kite bookmarks, wet felted "soap in a sweater" (that was last year's gift)...

Now we are going to use up all the dry nonfat milk powder I have in the cupboard. I was looking at our Burt's Bees Buttermilk Bath Soak

and saw that the ingredients are simply nonfat dry milk, whole dry buttermilk, and fragrance. I thought to myself, I bet we could make a bath soak with all that milk powder I have on hand. So I found a great recipe online, and since we have a large collection of essential oils, and lots of nonfat milk powder, we can easily make this gift with very little expense. (She chooses to use spearmint but we can use other options.)

The girls can choose their gift recipients and decide on what scent that person might like best. I think this gift idea will really work well!

Mint Milk Bath Recipe

Bubble Wrap

My project for the next month, while the girls are finishing up their vacation at their father's farm, is to unpack, sort, and organize all the boxes in our garage. Some of these were packed in 2005 and have come with me from move to move. I am saving all the bubble wrap -- several large trash bags full -- and I thought it would be great to have a Bubble theme to Leah's birthday party. Mind you, this birthday isn't until November. And she'll be turning 12. But I still think it would be awesome to cover the living room and dining room floors with bubble wrap and just let them have at it. We could make homemade bubble solution as a party favor. Or do flat wool pictures by wet felting pieces between two layers of bubble wrap. And go to QQ Bubble Tea for treats!!!

Make a Felt Flower (pdf)

Felt Flowers Embellished with Yarn (pdf)

Today this plan solidified when I heard on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! that bubble wrap is no more.

Listen at the 5:56 mark.

Dinner and a Zoology Lesson

Put the baby in the sling and went out to the garden to pick squash blossoms for dinner. Thank heavens for our renegade ENORMOUS squash plant!!! It has now developed a second mystery squash, one that is dark green like a zucchini but perfectly round like a ball. Anyway, squash blossoms we have in abundance. So, it's Squash Blossom Quesadillas for supper.

After I picked a bowlful of male blossoms and those which had filled up with rain during the torrents last night and fallen off the vine, I stood outside by the compost bucket and made sure there were no animals in the bowl I was about to take inside. I had a wonderful time!! I found the most adorable mini cricket and some teeny tiny slugs, a bee, several ants, and a bunch of beetles... including a pair of mating beetles which was fascinating to discover. Every blossom I opened was a window into a tiny world. What an incredible zoology lesson for kids!

Farming & Gardening isn't just a block for third grade. It is a life long journey for all of us.

By the way, the straw bales have been wonderful as raised garden beds. Adam and I plan to get a bunch more bales in the fall, set them in their spots for the winter season, and then flip them over so the fungus is on the top, add a few inches of compost, and plant right in the top of the bale. Our volunteer squash is happy in the compost pile -- our potatoes, watermelon, and tomatoes are happy in the straw bales -- our rhubarb, basil, and the other herbs are happy in the ground. And a lot of things didn't survive but that's 100% ok.

Books for Sale

The sound of rain outside, the smell of Applesauce Muffins in the air, the sight of the baby snuggled in Meemaw's arms... and a moment to post the duplicate books I found while organizing my library. That label maker from my husband may be one of my favorite gifts of all time!!!!!

I am linking to Amazon so you can read more and I'm listing prices below each book. Please visit waldorfcurriculum.com and click on Contact to let me know what you are interested in. I will add a flat $5.00 for shipping. Doing this as a blog post is an experiment, but I think it will work better than a post to the Yahoo Group, where people have to keep asking if things are still available. I will update this list when things sell to indicate that they are no longer available.

UPDATE: A friend of a friend of my husband's (so, I guess I should call her a stranger but there was still a connection there) lost her entire house and all her possessions in a fire. My husband called to tell me and to say that they have four little girls, and did we have any extra clothes? So I immediately starting packing things up. We gave them six totes of clothes, books, handmade Waldorf dolls, wooden toys, art supplies, and so on. Nearly all of the books below were put in their care package. The ones with prices listed below are the only ones still available.

Newbery winner
paperback

hardcover, missing dust jacket

hardcover

Games
paperback

Early Childhood
hardcover

Nature Study
paperback

Fables block
paperback

Fables block
paperback

Handwork
hardcover, missing dust jacket $2.00

Handwork
hardcover $3.00

Toymaking - Festivals
paperback

Saints block
Caldecott winner
paperback

Housebuilding block
paperback

Housebuilding block
hardcover, ex-library

Local History & Geography block
paperback $3.00

Art - Creative Writing
paperback $3.00

Poetry
paperback $3.00

paperback with CD
never used $3.00

I also have Playing and Teaching the Pentatonic Flute and the Pentatonic Recorder by David Darcy. spiral bound with CD. never used. $15.00

Next project: untangling the Dancing Fairies Silk Mobile.

Talking About Death

Dinner (Easy Sausage and Potato Dinner) is on the stove, tomorrow's lunch (Slow Cooker Beef Stew) is in the crockpot, and the radio is playing in the next room. NPR's story, "Knowing How Doctors Die Can Change End-of-Life Discussions" made me wonder whether my oldest daughter (8th grade) is old enough to have Murray's article included in our discussion of Death.

How Doctors Die: It’s Not Like the Rest of Us, But It Should Be
by Ken Murray

Death is a topic in our Philosophy curriculum by Marietta McCarty: Little Big Minds: Sharing Philosophy with Kids.

I had already been wondering how to delve into this conversation. She gives an excellent and thought-provoking, but not scary, treatment of the topic. And I have lots of picture books about death which make it gentle for kids.

Mr. Red Ears by Phoebe Anderson


Blow Me a Kiss, Miss Lilly by Nancy White Carlstrom


Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper


Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs by Tomie dePaola


The Mountains of Tibet by Mordecai Gerstein


I'll See You in My Dreams by Mavis Jukes


The Rough Patch by Brian Lies


Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved


The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant


Badger's Parting Gifts by Susan Varley


If You Listen by Charlotte Zolotow

In fact, DEATH is a section in our family's library. But I also have books which take a more adult view and I was wondering whether to have a more practical approach to the conversation. Like, what would you do with your time if you knew you were about to die (the subject of Murray's article). That section of our library also has a book I bought when going through my church's therapy for recovering from divorce, One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life.

Deciding whether to add this book to our curriculum is an interesting question. And, if not, at what age would this be of value to an adolescent? The search for meaning to our lives is a key question at that age. Anyone have thoughts about this?

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

Ancient Phoenicia

I have been building up my Amazon wish list for next school year and was racking my brain to remember the title of the book my neighboring teacher read her class for Ancient Civilizations. She had wanted Ancient Phoenicia... and it's harder to find a story that takes place in Phoenicia than it would be to search for Ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome. But she found one and it was excellent! Finally found a reference to it in this blog post from a homeschooler -- it is called Milad, the Voyage to Ophir.

Denise found it at the local library. I was searching on Amazon but, sadly, the U.S. version of Amazon comes up short on this one. It is available at Amazon.co.uk however.

In this book, Milad's voyage, and his adventures, give the student a good idea of the geography of the area and the time period. It would be perfect for your homeschool unit, if you can find a copy.

I love the color map of Ancient Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula and Mediterranean region which I found in the front of Gods and Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology

I think it would be lovely to do this map of the area as a watercolor resist, using beeswax crayon yellows and reds for the desert regions and then filling in the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile River, and the Red Sea with blue watercolor paint.

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Update September 25, 2016:
*NOTE* as of 09/25/16 two brand-new copies of this excellent book are available on eBay, shipping from Australia
I've also found a link to a teacher's guide (PDF)