F&G Begins!

Today was my first day of teaching summer camps. Camp runs from 9 am to 3 pm. I have seven campers, a range of boys and girls. We covered seeds (including snacks of poppy seed and sesame seed bagels with almond butter in the AM and popcorn in the PM), soil ( The Mountain that Loved a Bird by Alice McLerran and A Log's Life by Wendy Pfeffer) and compatible and incompatible plants (from Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte) and made our garden plan with index cards. We did shake tests of soil samples from around the campus and I sent each child home with a quart mason jar and instructions to bring in a soil sample from home. We also gathered different types of leaves on our Nature walk and decorated the outside of our journals with leaf prints.

Tomorrow is weather, water and sunshine, shadows and beginning our sundial project and starting seeds in peat pots. We are also talking about root vegetables and I am doing "The Turnip" for storytelling with the figures from Anne Moze and a gigantic turnip which I needle felted.

By the way, Cook's Illustrated magazine has phenomenal cover illustrations of different types of produce. I will be bringing in a sample issue I got (you can see it on Amazon, it is the issue with the blue bowl of persimmons on the front) which has a lovely "poster" of different types of Root Vegetables on the back. The back illustrations are much nicer than the front since the magazine title and so on are not on them, they are full page. Gorgeous. Honestly, I could see getting a subscription just to frame them for the homeschool classroom. To request a sample you can simply go to their website.

Live Ladybugs - Open Immediately

That's what the package said that was in my mailbox. I didn't purchase the Ladybug Land official habitat; I am going to be doing a makeshift habitat for them so thought I would write down my notes in case they were helpful to others. Farming & Gardening begins on Monday.

According to some helpful advice I got from my Yahoo Group, here is how to do it (I had asked if the Butterfly Pavilion would work):

"The ladybug house is hard plastic, not mesh and has a little sponge thing to add water to with a dropper, the larvae attach themselves to the hard plastic walls when they go into the pupae stage, I'm not sure what would happen w/ the mesh walls? So, while I haven't used (or looked closely) at the butterfly pavilion, they seem SOO different, I don't think it would work. You MIGHT be able to use a mason jar though? With a piece of wet tissue in the bottom for water? and ventilation holes in the lid (or fabric over the top instead of the seal? To me that would be more similar to the ladybug house than the butterfly pavilion."

"You'd need to find a way to provide that without the risk of them drowning--the habitat is specially designed for that. Also, the butterfly pavilion is pretty big for a dozen ladybugs, I don't know how well you would be able to watch them. We had 500 ladybugs in it! Personally, since the habitat is only about $7.00 more, I probably would buy it if I wanted to go with the larva."

"I think the pavilion would be fine if you offered plant material in it for the larva to grow on. Also for water I kept a cotton ball saturated with water in my cricket habitat."

"Be aware that they can drown in a dish of water, the habitat has a little felt (or similar) pad that you add a couple drops of water to every day, so in the mason jar you'll want to put something (as I think about it, a piece of felt would probably work best, the one in the habitat is probably about the size of a penny (maybe only a dime, I don't have it in front of me, it's packed somewhere from our recent move LOL) so doesn't have to be big) that you can put drops of water onto, not a dish of water."


Thanks to everyone for their suggestions! I put them all in one place so I can mull them over. Since now I have to OPEN IMMEDIATELY! :-)

I think I will go with a clear glass jar with a cotton ball soaked in water and see how it goes.

Horsie

You know how you're always wishing your children had fewer possessions so they would value them more, enjoy them, and engage in more imaginative play? Well, let me tell you that moving to a three room house is the way to go. :-) Leah has been having a ball using the broom to sweep the deck and I just found her offering horsie rides to Rebecca. Yes, we have a hobby horse but it is packed away along with nearly 80% of what we own. Which I am now thinking is a good thing and will lead to a wonderful summer of play for my girls. The road is hard but I think the rewards will be many.

Have Tooth, Will Travel

We have been summer-vacationing it at a little beach cabin with plenty of sand and sun to go around. Yesterday Natalie pulled out one of her baby teeth and although I was willing to write a note to the TF to let her know we were staying in a different house, the girls and I ended up back at home simply to be in the air conditioning. The humidity and heat were so bad that Leah began to have some trouble breathing. I guess the dust mites were multiplying. We are now back home for several weeks to pack and then we will move to our new house July 1st. F is for Family was really helpful to my girls as we talked about how no matter what changes happen in our lives and how things seem to be really different, we all love each other and always will. (By the way, the only thing the Tooth Fairy had on hand was Granny's House, a cooperative board game. It was a big hit.)

Since it's vacation we are doing a kind of thing called Kid Wish List where the children get to request things they would like to do and we try to work them into our schedule if at all possible. Leah really wants to try Putt-Putt, of all things! :-) Natalie is firmly sticking to beach walks and visiting the pool. Rebecca I think is going through a growth spurt because she seems to be quite out of sorts and is constantly tripping over her own feet or bawling about something. Today we had to go back and search the beach for her shoes and she got herself so worked up about losing them that even when we had found them she couldn't stop crying. I know that all the changes in our lives are stressful. We also just made it through a series of tornadoes in Southern Maryland and the girls were very worried about that. We kept having to go down into the basement so they were pretty aware of what was going on. All in all I think that Kid Wish List puts some power back in their hands and gives us all a chance to relax and have a little fun!

Summer camps begin next week so I have completed planning for Farming & Gardening and added it to the members-only section of the waldorfcurriculum.com website. Next I have to hash out the fine print on Housebuilding. I need to order ladybug larvae and 20 cubic feet of sharp gravel and our lumber for the Glass House project. I am excited that one benefit of our moving to a new house (in a community that doesn't allow outbuildings) is giving our old wooden playhouse to the Tidewater School to use as their henhouse! See useful -- and funny! -- photos of how successful this can be: Guinea Fowl Housing Ideas. If you want to build one from scratch here are some nice plans.

Some Thoughts on F

F.

F is for Ford, our rescued bird. Also Ford as in the classic cars we saw at the Bluegrass Festival on Saturday, including a Model A and Model T.

F is for Fairy.

F is for Ferdinand the bull. That's the story we did tonight, in fact.

And Flowers of course. So we'll have to stop by the Amish famer's market.

Oh yes, and Farmer. We visit the CSA on Saturday. The Children's Day on the Farm festival at Jefferson Patterson Park is Sunday.

F is for fire and making s'mores. One day this week.

F is for fireman -- the children have been very interested in the rescue squad and police vehicles lately. A field trip?

F is for fishing, something we can try out while we're at the beach.

Seems like it will be an excellent themed week! I love it when things all fall into place.

Skink Singular and Moths Plural

Oh, the animals just keep on coming! (Rebecca told me today that she has decided to ask Santa Claus for a bunny. Good thing he's going to have lots of time to plan that one). Yesterday afternoon Natalie discovered a blue-tailed skink on our screen porch and asked me if we could keep him. I told her that we can't keep him since he's a wild animal but we can put him in a terrarium and observe him for a few days. Our butterfly pavilion is also full of gypsy moths coming out of their cocoons.

Today was a playdate for the children in the AM and then pizza night with their dad. Sometimes it seems like I don't get to see them much! I know this isn't true but it just seems that way. We spent the afternoon doing errands. Tomorrow I don't have to work at all so it will be beach and playground. We have been doing a lot of Mother Goose rhymes since the children are interested in sounds. One favorite that we did tonight is Gold Lock, Gold Key. It goes like this - one person says the type of lock, the other responds with the matching key. At the end you trick the respondent into saying they are a donkey! Natalie thought it was completely hilarious. You can also do it with monkey.

1. I am a gold lock.
2. I am a gold key.

1. I am a silver lock.
2. I am a silver key.

1. I am a brass lock.
2. I am a brass key.

1. I am a lead lock.
2. I am a lead key.

1. I am a monk lock.
2. I am a monk key!


The children also enjoyed Forehead, Eyes, Cheeks, Nose, Mouth, and Chin.

I think that Mother Goose rhymes are suitable for grades K, 1, and 2. And some of them I still enjoy as an adult!

Nice illustrated versions abound; I particularly enjoy Salley Mavor and Clare Beaton's work (I like fabric art illustrators). I also love an old Mother Goose book that was my great-aunt's. She says that there used to be no such thing as children's picture books. MG was all you got. It amazed her that a billion dollar a year business sprung up out of nowhere. Her book is beautiful -- although it is falling apart -- and has many rhymes that you never even see anymore.

Washing Dishes

We have settled down into a nice little routine here. Walk the dog several times a day (he had a yard before). I moved the dishes into a lower cabinet so the children could set the table, a job they are used to having. So they each set their place for meals and then bus their dishes into the kitchen and place them on the counter when they are done. Natalie washes. Leah rinses and puts things in the dish drainer. Rebecca wipes down the table. I cook, of course, and clear away the food we haven't eaten and put it in the fridge. We brought some games and toys over from the house and put them in the basement to make a sort of makeshift playroom. I haven't gotten up into the loft yet but I'd love to sleep there. Right now I'm in a room with Becca and we each have a single bed. Leah and Natalie are sharing a double bed in the other room. I guess I could have slept with Leah (she has to be in the bedroom with no carpet) but N and L are used to being together and wanted to share a bed so I said okay. Today Leah squirreled her dental floss away into her room and proceeded to tear off lengths of it and drop them in the electric radiators. So that was exciting. We made apple cinnamon muffins for snack and then gave the dog a nice long walk and did an explore of our property. AM was church and the sermon was about that passage where Jesus is talking about not worrying about things... God takes care of the flowers of the field and the little birds so don't you think he's going to take good care of you too? That was the perfect thing for me to hear as we wonder about the upcoming homelessness situation. Right now the girls are pleased as punch to be having a summer vacation and hopefully we'll get to spend lots of time down on the beach and at the playground and they will get to know some of the other little children here. My mind is mostly on the packing and moving. So much stuff to get out of the big house! Luckily Tidewater is giving me a generous amount of space in the elementary classroom to store my summer camp materials... I was upset at the idea that things might be lost in the move and I wouldn't have them when I needed them. We did a walk-through and the teacher and I talked about what things she would leave out for me. It is nice to have ready access to the library and the art supplies and to not have to pack everything in. The elem. kids are also tending our veg. garden seedlings for this last week of school and then I guess they will be here on our screened porch until time comes to plant them.

Another tick today... we'll have to be super-careful about that now that we are even more rural than before. This was a tiny tiny one, the Lyme disease kind, so I am glad that Natalie brought it to my attention that it was running around on her arm. She discovered it in church so I had to get up and leave the sanctuary and go flush it down the toilet in the ladies room. I'm still glad she told me, though; it was the right thing to do. I have been frustrated lately that my girls aren't more independent and then I realized that they can only do what I teach them. So if I want them to be able to do more things on their own, I am the one who has to make that happen. It seems like if I ask Leah to do something, she'll wander off, get discouraged and give up almost immediately and just yell for me to do it. Like if I ask her to go and get herself a fork. Yes, I know this is a new kitchen but she could at least open a drawer! She just can't think through how to solve a problem. So I have to work on that with her and do lots of problem solving activities. Like, you are wise and I know you can figure this out for yourself. Natalie gets a lot of that positive reinforcement at school. All of a sudden you turn around and you don't have two toddlers and an infant, you have three little girls who are perfectly capable of doing lots of things if shown how and given adequate supervision and plenty of encouragement. I need to pull back a bit from always taking over and doing it myself. Faster yes. But not better. And I have to tell you that Leah has not done a dish rinsing job before and I am quite sure my glass of milk tasted like dish detergent but that's okay. I'll survive. Her sense of self esteem and accomplishment is more important.

Tomorrow we are puttering around and hopefully getting on bathing suits and playing in some sand. I have some grown up paperwork to do which always seems to take the entire day so I need some way of making sure that doesn't happen. Naptime is plenty of time to work on my to do list and this is a vacation for my girls and I need to clear my schedule and hang out with them! We have a playground right up the street and the beach is an equally short walk in the other direction so let's put on some flip flops and sun hats and have fun.

Hope everyone else is having a nice Mem. Day holiday as well.

P.S. I got three more tomato seedlings from Clagett Farm and want to put here that they are Roma tomatoes so I don't forget. Paste tomatoes will be good for the pizza garden, for saucemaking. I am also putting some sweet little yellow cherry tomatoes, some big beefy slicing tomatoes, and some Black Prince heirloom tomatoes for variety. I got permission to build an herb spiral (from Spring: Nature Activities with Children) with my F&G class so that will look lovely in the center of the circular garden.