Home School :: Week ?

Well, whatever... I cannot keep up. We are playing, getting dirty, learning little and loving summer. Kasper is captivated by letters lately and I do my best to point them out to him whenever we are out and about, that counts for something! This week we made letter pretzels. I made these ages ago with AnaSofia and we decided it was high time to do them again with little love #2.

He loved them so much he still has not eaten them. He also loves to avoid the camera... Big sister is different in all respects...

Strawberry Season

 Strawberries are here! I compiled my crew (look at those hooligans!) and hit the farm yesterday to pick our share.

The big kids are a big help, especially miss almost 7 who picked more than me and took care of baby brother. I am so thankful for her hardworking, sweet self!

The little brothers were pretty wonderful too, at least this year Kasper understood that "picking strawberries" doesn't mean going to a farm and eating all the strawberries your belly can hold (but do notice the full pockets in the photo below)!

We managed to pick 27 pounds and made a few batches of jam when we got home. We were on fire!

And we were rewarded in the afternoon by a sweet package on our doorstep from Faster Caroline filled with gifts for each of us. Happiness!

And spent the next morning eating strawberry pancakes and dreaming up some fun projects from my new book. Tusind tak Caroline!

Finally the season of veggies from the garden and into the smoothie is here!

Summer Homeschool :: Week 2ish

 The kids have been interested in the planets for a long while, the solar system is our version of dinosaurs. We talk about The Big Bang, poor Pluto being demoted, planetary rotation... All kinds of questions come up that I gamely try to answer. I have been on the look out for a cool solar system model for the kids and have not found anything that fits my aesthetic or does the solar system justice. So an idea started...
To start, this week for Solstice we talked about the Sun and the Earth and the importance of Solstice as a celebration of light. We played around with the globe a little to reinforce concepts we talk about a lot (continents, poles, directions, equator)...

Then we did one of my favorite  activities - wet felting. I love to wet felt because of the textures, fingerplay and pure simplicity of it. I find it incredibly soothing to do and what kid doesn't want to play in soapy water for an hour?

The next day, they performed a little play...
AnaSofia playing the Sun (super serious business here!), Kasper as the Earth...

 The Earth in motion around the sun (notice bunnies in Sun and Earth costumes waiting... Understudies, of course!).

Dancing together, beauty in motion!

It was a fun week. Who knows if any of it will be absorbed, I really only spend a few minutes each day talking and then we play a little around it, but it is a little structure to our days that gives me pleasure and they seem to look forward to it too.
My plan is to talk about and wet felt the rest of the planets over the coming weeks so we will have two beautiful solar systems created by summer's end.

Start of a Season of Harvesting

 My parents came to visit this week and brought a small bounty from my Dad's garden... I am almost ready to harvest the greens in my garden so I was happy to have a few things we won't see here for some weeks in Maine..

We went crazy for the rhubarb and made rhubarb ice cream with Boppa, a few rhubarb crisps and some rhubarb "sauce" (I boil about 9 cups of rhubarb with 2 cups of sugar and a bit of water and can it). I use the sauce over ice cream OR my very favorite way this time of year - at the bottom of a gin and tonic or prosecco. Yum!

(chasing Boppa who was shaking our L.L. Bean ice cream ball)

 The kids had a little in the bottom of their glass of kombucha on Solstice and loved it. You could also add it to seltzer water instead for a little special bubbly treat. They love it!

 

We celebrated Solstice with a bonfire and the kids each wrote on a piece of paper their intentions for summer (I helped Kasper) and burned them in the fire. S'mores were consumed and we watched the fireflies again. It was a beautiful night to start summer.

 Happy Solstice!

Gardening

 The gardening season started late for me, I drove around with seedlings in my car (a self-declared greenhouse of sorts) for way too long and payed for it when I had the energy to start working in the garden. I do not like to use straw because I feel like it encourages slugs and other pests but am trying it this year around the garlic in hopes I will get a garlic crop come summer's end. I am realizing how nice it is to cut down on the weeding involved in keeping a garden...

 Before we tilled over the weeds Kasper and I spent a day harvesting a lot of the wild herbs (mints, stinging nettles and such) for tinctures, teas and smoothies.

 We also took the time to harvest usnea from the big oak tree in the yard. I wanted to harvest all the violet leaves and flowers, dandelion roots, flowers and leaves but could not find the time and chose to walk away from it knowing that there will be more next year. Acceptance.

 

The most important thing was not the harvest but that Kasper and I had some alone time, in the dirt and learning together. Breathe and let go, Mama!

Summer Homeschool Week 1

 

Anything with six legs? Huge around here. Kasper has a "favorite beetle" and AnaSofia always has a cricket climbing up her shoulder. Magnifying glasses and bug nets are used daily in these parts... Huge I tell you. So when AnaSofia asked what we were doing for homeschool this summer one of the first things on our list was bugs, fireflies to be exact.

 

Bug jars were made, twirly whirlies were finger-knitted for a handle and little embellishments were added. And then? The fun began... 

For the first time ever AnaSofia and Kasper were allowed to stay up late (7 pm is usually bedtime for them) to see the fireflies. They were so terribly excited! AnaSofia kept exclaiming, "I have NEVER been up this late before!" (picture 7 pm summer sunlight flooding through the windows as we read a book in the living room without any need for lights - oh the simple things!). After a little bonfire and some smores we sat outside under a quilt and watched the fields and told stories. Thankfully those sweet little fireflies did not disappoint, the field was on fire!

We finished up the night with some sparklers and then it was time to hit the straw...

And then the best part? They slept in the next morning (of course, 6 am is "sleeping in" around here!).
 Oh, and the worst part? Ironically, the bugs! Mosquitoes and black flies ate me alive! Gah!
**I will try to post our little projects for you each week (unless, you know, I get lazy and decide to just get outside and enjoy summer!)**

Let the summer begin...

 Today it officially starts! Summer is here! Soren works on Sundays so I declare the official start of summer to be right now... I am terribly excited to just be home, on our own schedule and feeling the days stretch before us. Already summer means...
...Going to the lake any day it is hot enough (which means 65 degrees or above for these crazy kids!)...

...Baking and cooking together...

...Lots of bike riding... Bathing suit and bat wings required.

  

...Walks and such...

Phew, and this is just day one... There is still ice cream, summer home school, ocean and a lot more to add in! There might be a few panicked calls to my sister wondering if we can really do this! I am trying to embrace the beauty of the moment knowing these few, short months will pass by all too quickly...