We've been settling into our new year with new friends and new activities. On Thursday, the weather was so pleasant and the children were so engaged that we stayed out all day long. These first few weeks are focused around getting familiar with how we do things at school and our routine, as well as just getting to know one another. Our crafts are limited to perhaps some drawing or playdough, and of course our bread making. Children are learning our snack and lunch blessing, as well as our seasonal circle which gets added to bit by bit. Our stories even repeat themselves as children soak them in day after day. The story for the past two days was "Over In The Meadow". It's a simple story sung to the traditional "Over In The Meadow" song, and basically being a comforting story of animals with their mothers and a sense of "all is well". By repeating the story day after day, the children then like to make the story their own during playtime, and thus it can become a therapeutic activity for themselves whenever they need it.
Our Late Summer/Autumn Mealtime Blessing
For the golden corn and the apples on the trees
For the golden butter and the honey from the bees
For fruits and nuts and berries we gather on the way
We thank you for the food we eat, we thank you everyday.
Blessings on our food, our families, and our friends
For the golden corn and the apples on the trees
For the golden butter and the honey from the bees
For fruits and nuts and berries we gather on the way
We thank you for the food we eat, we thank you everyday.
Blessings on our food, our families, and our friends
We've been starting some of our late summer work in the garden. We pulled out our exhausted bush beans and the children pulled the beans off of the vines, and shelled the dry ones to reveal the beans inside. In their place we planted some kale and carrots. We were also lucky enough to harvest some nice big carrots. We washed them in the pump, peeled and chopped them, and had them with our snack on Wednesday. The carrot tops were fed to the guinea pigs. People sometimes ask, "Do you teach them about photosynthesis or have a curriculum around your plants?" I don't. We plant, we water, and if we're lucky, we harvest and eat. There is plenty of time in human lives for learning about botany, but now is the time to just wonder in it.
Our circle time is generally done inside after we have come in from our snack and playtime outside. We are doing a circle about a farmer who "rose at the break of the day, he got on his horse and he galloped away, galloped away..." He finds himself in an orchard and so we pick apples, put them into a pony cart and hitch up the ponies, eventually arriving home to polish our apples and make apple sauce. This circle will continue pretty much until our Apple Harvest Celebration in September, and afterwards we will make applesauce from our apple remains after cider making.
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