Toe Spices

Our children have a fascination with their toes. Hannah started when she was 3 - 4 . She would sit and pick the lint out of her toes that gathered from wearing socks. She established the name..."Toe-Spices". Her fetish ended when summer came and socks were replaced with sandals or bare-toes. I laugh because when she gets in the tub and has worn socks for the day, little toe spices are found floating in the water. Daniel also has dug for toe spices but quickly lost interest.

Then there is Jonathan - The Toe-Spice King. He recently has discovered the fuzzy toe-spices between each of his toes -- he is fascinated with them! Yesterday in the middle of the day he plopped himself on the outdoor couch, took off his shoes and socks and started digging between toe spices. I sat and watched while he pulled apart his toes and ran his index finger down their 'valleys'. He then rolled them into a ball and dropped them into space. Once the fuzz was removed, he moved in for a closer look and rubbed of all the specs of dirt. When he was finished his toes sparkled! He is very enthusiastic about his toe- spices.

I often wonder what made him think about checking his toes in the middle of the day?? Were they hot? Or did he just wonder what sort of little treasures were riding between his toes. The anticipation was unbearable - he had to take a peek and see if they were full. I relate it to putting on a pair of pants or coat that I have not worn in a while and finding a pocket full of treasures; a wad of money, acorn caps, coins, buttons, used tissues, to do lists or a special stone. As Hannah asks " what sort of surprises are in your pocket"...or between your toes.

Trick or Treat

At our house things come to a halt for Halloween. Call me a procrastinator if you want, but usually the day before and the day of Halloween is a scramble to get the costumes together. It adds to the excitement and the children see the costumes come to life right before their eyes. The week prior I planed how to make the characters the children wanted to be and gathered materials.

This year Hannah wanted to be a Crystal Fairy and Daniel a Fire Breathing Dragon. We had a left over zebra store bought costume for Jonathan that has gotten 4 years worth of wear :) Three years ago we pledged that the costumes were to be made and not bought. It is lots of fun but very time consuming and often more expensive that it would be go out and buy one. It is a great experience for the children to see their character come to life and be a part of the creation process.

Hannah's costume was simple yet took the most time to make. The cape took much of Monday to create. Every year at this time I have a familiar phrase I say "I have to get the sewing machine set up and learn how to use it." I could have sewn her cape by machine in probably 15 minutes. She loves the sparkles on the cape and will use it quite often for play.

Daniel's costume was simply cardboard wings which he painted and a ball cap with an attached card board nose and a felt spine and tail. He was tickled to blow the red ribbon hanging from dragons mouth- pretending to breath fire. I am sure he will wear his ball cap decor for the next couple of days.

Jonathan did not want to wear his costume. He finally cooperated when his brother and sister told him people will give him presents for wearing it. We got the costume on, but no wings. This morning he wanted to be a Flying Zebra with painted blue wings.

This year we turned our lights off and we all went
out trick or treating. (I usually stay home and pass out treats.) We stayed in the community and visited people whom the children know well. Daddy and Jonathan came in at bedtime and Hannah, Daniel and I visited a couple more houses that were near by. The highlight for them was looking at all the interesting jack-o-lanterns and Halloween decorations. They were amazed with the spider web decorations hanging on some of the porches. This will be a fun project for next year.

Our children do not eat the candy they gather but truly enjoy receiving it. Their eyes light up when people give little toys or pretzels; things they associat with. We arrived home with Jonathan and Daddy asleep. Hannah and Daniel sorted their treats into piles; One pile to keep and one pile for the sugar sprites - They eagerly give their candy to the sugar sprites... heres why.

The sugar sprites - I don't know what the weather is like in your area of the country but here it is starting to be chilly. The monarchs have flown south as have most of the humming birds. The sugar sprites take the halloween candy and turn it into nectar for the humming birds that may be stuck in the cold weather with no flowers for nectar. The Sugar Sprites feed the last remaining humming birds this halloween nectar and help them to return to warmer weather. The sugar sprites will pick up their bag of candy when the moon is high in the sky, usually after midnight.

Halloween was a joyous ocasion for the children!...I am exhasuted...the children satisfied and already planning their costumes for next year.

Apple Cider and Crayfish

We had a great time visiting Grammy and PopPop over the past weekend. The drive was long as for it seemed everyone from Maryland was coming to visit; at least that is what Hannah and Daniel thought.

Saturday was started with fishing at the falls. We brought our fat worms, PopPop had his wiggly worms and the still no bites. The trout were not hungry. Dad and Jonathan were the last to reel their lines in. Jonathan had to be carried away:)

Saturday we visited Abby & Jarrod and family and pressed fresh cider. The neighbor on the right provided the antique cider press, the neighbor on the left provided the apples and we were sandwiched some where in-between. The sweet cider was a welcome treat to the cool crisp day. The sun came out, coats were shed and the children romped around the property eating apples and popcorn. marty & Jeannie and family came in from Philly and Dad's family all came together for Dinner.

Grammy and Pop live along side a creek and it is a magical place to visit. It is tradition to walk to the covered bridge and drop stones and sticks down a peep hole in the floor and listen to their plop into the water. The children could have done this all day.

Much of the property along the creek is undeveloped. Sunday morning ended with a walk along the banks. We found lots of treasures under the stones on this crisp morning including crayfish and lizards beginning to burrow into the warm mud. The banks of the creek are loaded with fragments of shale rock which makes great skipping stones. Daddy and PopPop are masters at skipping stones and the children are following in their footsteps.

Daniel found several stones that looked like sharks teeth which went in his pocket and now lie in his collection of sharks teeth on his table. We usually bring home a couple pieces of Quarts stones from the creek to place around the house or in our garden. Well, the one that Hannah picked out was probably 100 pounds and stayed in the creek until a warmer visit. No quartz this trip.

The children love gourds and searched among the vines of Grammy and PopPops garden to find plenty. When we move to our farm Hannah has made it clear that she wants a gourd garden! Hannah and Grammy walked to the neighbors farm stand and came back with a Martin gourd. Hannah named the gourd Martin and it is now one of her special babies which she takes everywhere. He is quite heavy and bumpy to sleep with :) We were told they are called Martin gourds because when they dry you may make a whole in it, clean out the seeds and use it as a Martin house.

The day was ended with lunch and an easy drive back to Maryland. Thanks everyone for a great visit!

The Energy of Numbers

We have started the numbers and what fun is in store. Technically HA is in 1st grade and we use the Enki Curriculum with some Waldorf Influence. There is also some Unschooled Influence in our day ( I am often lead in the in the direction of the children and their needs, but have a steady rhythm to the day). It has been difficult keeping our daily rhythm with having our home on the the market. This shall pass. I constantly remind myself that daily home life, whether it be mud making, bug hunting, weed pulling or clothes folding, is what our children should mostly experience right now in their stages of life. I feel it is counter productive to drag HE to do her morning lesson when the three of them have their hammers, nails, saw, wood and glue strewn all over the basement floor trying to form a boat. The lesson can wait until the afternoon when the boys are napping. I make the choice to "Respond" or "React" to these spontaneous activities thus dictating the quality of our children's home education.

I found myself avoiding and procrastinating entering the math block...why I wondered? I dreaded starting math - boring, boring, boring and I was terrible at it in school. Well after starting the introduction to numbers what new light it shined into my life. I am excited to share this enthusiasm with HA.

Math is all around us; not just in written form but in nature, color, rhythm, story and the list goes on. Mathematical equations hold the order of the universe. Are mathematical equations nothing but energy waiting to be expressed. Albert Einstein concluded that energy is matter. Is it not the nature of the human mind to place the unknown/unseen into form - into physical expression so the human mind may comprehend. This math block has my wheels turning. Just a note, HA and I have not had this discussion...yet :)

This week we have covered the numbers 0,1,2,3, 4 and 5. What fun it has been finding the aspects of the number in nature and life. On our walk today, much time was spent collecting leaves, counting the lobes of leaves and needles of pines and spruces.

I introduced the numbers through story and art. The first day I read a fairy tale with qualities of the number present. The story is in text form(without pictures) allowing HA to imagine her own characters and to sink deep into the symbols. HA then slept on it over night. The next day we discussed where we see the number and draw a picture of something that symbolizes the number usually referencing an object in the fairy tale. On a separate page, we wrote the number in crayon, identified its quantity with dots and wrote the numerical word on the page. Note that I draw and HE follows along/copies what I do. We also worked with the geometric shapes for the first 5 numbers.

To follow are the objects we came up with to characterize the numbers.

o - infinity. We did not do a picture for zero. But drew the number zero (a circle). HA did not understand the concept of zero or nothing at first; that is she did not understand my concept of zero. We took out a pouch of stones and HA made a circle on the table. A specific quantity of stones were placed inside the circle. When asked the quantity of stones in the circle she counted zero as one, so instead of 5 stones she counted 6 stones. She took stones stones away until there were zero stones in the circle. This is when the light bulb went off with a generous grin on her face.

1 - nose, HA, horse tail, one sun, one moon in the night time sky, we have one dog, turtle and golf cart, one mother, one father, one God or Divine Spirit . We drew a sun.

2 - eyes, ears, legs, hands, parents, Grammy and Pop, Grandpa and Grandma, two brothers, two boobies, nostrils, two lines- two lines crossed makes a cross, two cats and two crabs, two lines make a trunk of a tree, twins. We traced our two hands and two feet on the picture and colored around them.

3 - this was a bit more difficult. Poison Ivy leaf. Maple and Sassafras sometimes have 3 lobes to their leaf. Father, Mother and Child. Momma Mary, Daddy Joseph and Baby Jesus. The trinity. In landscape design often plant in 3's or odd numbers which is more natural in nature. We drew a poison ivy leaf.

4 - 4 sides of a house, cross, animals four legs, square and diamond. We drew a kite with 4 sides.

5 - 5 pointed star, five fingers per hand and foot. 5 petaled flower. 5 paws. The Sweet Gum Tree has 5 lobes - it is shaped like a star and today on our walk it blessed us with its brilliant colors of goldenrod and scarlet. We drew a 5 petaled Lily pad an object in the native American story, The Star Maiden.

I hope to imprint upon HA the colorful and fun side of mathematics.

A whirl Wind

A beautiful day it is!