At least for a little while. The girls brought in the last basket before the freeze. It isn't an orchard, just one sturdy tree of very small and rather sweet little apples perched at the edge of the yard just before it drops off down the hillside. The moose and deer sampled. The girls gathered what it shared, carefully washing each and piling them into the basket on the counter.
The local nature center was calling the other day. Actually three little voices were calling me over and over, "Pleeeeease can we go to the deer class?" So I wrapped up the odds and ends I was working on and we piled in the van. Really, there is no end to work at home. We should keep plugging away everyday but if you aren't careful whole days can pass without getting out in the fresh air and wild places. So it was a very good call, except for the very cold part. It's officially cold now.
This week's class was on mule deer. It began in the education center learning about their senses, antlers, and migration habits. They discussed carry capacity, which is the number of animals a given habitat can support. Then they played a hands on games demonstrating the ebb and flow of deer population.
In the middle of the class discussion someone noticed two deer passing just outside the window. Awesome.
They finshed their classroom work and bundled up to go look for more deer on the trail.
They spotted some tracks in the mud on the banks of the stream.
Found more tracks on the path.
Up higher looking and….
Can you see them? It was pretty dark in the little clearing and the phone doesn't play nicely at a distance.
The clouds broke up on the walk back and we saw the sun set on the mountains, now sporting a bit of snowcap.
#worldschooling
They are predicting snow for the end the of week. We got a little preview this morning. Just a few minutes' preview. Just long enough to run out and get the first taste.
Her sister was pretty bummed to find it was all over by the time she was out of the shower and ready. I am pretty sure they will all have had their fill come spring. Right now, though, they have high hopes for Friday.
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?
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…
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.
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.
“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.
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.
…or (Little) Girls' Night Out. We like to take a couple kids at a time out for special fun events that might be more relevant to just them – a particular movie or concert or whatever. When their daddy was out of town Alannah and I took the little girls to the fall festival at the nature center. Brendan was on the fence and decided against going in the end.
The nature center is one place that always feels like home to me. In all our freakishly mobile married life we have never lived in the same place a second time.
Ever.
Never, ever.
I can't really stress enough how different it is to be back in a place you once lived very long ago. Many things have changed. The nature center has not. We came every month when the older boys took classes here. It is something of a comfort to me to be here again. A rare concrete link to that other life.
On this night there was cotton candy and game playing and wildlife shows until well after dark. Very exciting when you are 8. Or 48. : )
Starry Sky Journal 