There's battles to build and cities to burn
carpets to muddy and waking to earn
Someone's to something and
something's to learn.
Venturing out from home. Ride with us?
Author Archives: Kim Halloran-Fry
some every day
Learn some and think some
and draw and paint
and sing and dance
and play and work
every day some.
– Robert Fulghum
A Grimm Story
It started out as a small kindly errand. Little Red set off into the forest….
A pleasant task for a pleasant day…
At her cottage waited dear, sweet Grandmother, feeling a little under the weather.
Unbeknownst to both Grandmother and Little Red, a conniving wolf was shadowing their every move, plotting against them.
When Grandmother answered the door, expecting her young visitor, she was in for quite a shock…
Gasp!
A skirmish ensued…
…alerting a woodsman passing through the forest some distance away…
Little Red, however, was none the wiser as she approached the door.
… though Grandmama did appear very poorly.
Until it became clear that it was NOT grandmother at all!
Little Red ran for her life, pursued by the wolf. Fortunately, the woodsman arrived just in the nick of time and saved the day.
He was quite pleased with himself….
The cast and crew:
Happily ever after. As for the wolf?
Rumor has it he made a pass at the producer after the final performance…
great pumpkins
We have been plotting and planning pumpkin designs for weeks but, true to form, we began actually cleaning and carving the pumpkins way last minute. And somehow misplaced the new carving kit. But hey, they totally rocked the whole pumpkin thing thanks to neighbor helpers and big sisters who make last minute runs to get bling stickers and a tiny princess for this year's best in show.
Mama's no carve pumpkin : )
The bibbity bobbity boo bestest pumpkin.
Followed by the bestest Halloween movie night standby made more fabulous by the littles very sincerely asking things like, "So what happens when he goes to kick the football? She pulls it away? Every time?"
yep, every time.
That's the very best part of holidays, the "every time" and "we always" way of them.
make a wish
We are a little behind and the birthday boy is already a week into sixteen. Since this little corner of the internet is a place for me to make notes of those things I don't want to forget I am putting these here anyway.
First it couldn't happen the day of the birthday because he had a game. Then someone else had something the next day. And EVERYone local needs to be there for cake. It's a given.
So we finally get to cake night and it's late and we are punchy. And for whatever reason my camera setting tester volunteer had made a muscle for me. One thing led to another….
"What? You think YOU'VE got something there? Why you're about to get a ticket to the gun show!"
Yeah.
They are unspeakably corny, but they are mine. : )
An atmosphere of gladness
"Children need an atmosphere of gladness. Law should not make its restraints hang like chains upon them. Sternness and coldness should have no place in home life or in family government. Plants do not need sunshine and air any more than children need joy and gladness. Unhappiness stunts them, so that their sweetest graces never come out."
~J.R. Miller in "The Home Beautiful"
No tricks, just treats
button trees
All finished. Our October project with the neighbor girl was button trees. They basted the felt trunk onto the cotton backing and then sewed the buttons on in criss-cross fashion. The backs are not beautiful. They did not knot and restart each button because the stitching was doable and knots and rethreading was…not. But hey, for 6, 7, and 8 year olds I was impressed.
To finish we (the me part of we) trimmed and glued the fabric to the inner hoop. This is the same technique you use for framing patterned fabric or tea towels etc. with embroidery hoops.
a wholesome and instinctive love
“Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.”
Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
October, when childish hearts are especially happy. When you try on ALL the costumes in the trunk.
Decisions, decisions.
Flag Work – DIY
Can we make the flag game?
Can we make the flag game?
Hey Mom? Can we make the flag game today?
Third time's the charm. We made the flag game today, a very not professional DIY Montessori flag work board set. It consists of a blank map poster glued onto foam board, a poster of world flags (to cut), a box of long pearl head straight pins, and packing tape.
It made for a long work period spent pouring over the atlas and trying to match everything up. I expect we will see quite a lot of it in the days to come.
Starry Sky Journal 