week eight: "Providing"

Our story illustrated the simple and sometimes challenging reality that for any animal to live, life is taken.  Some animals kill plants and many must kill other animals to survive.   The ducks eat duckweed and grubs and tadpoles.  The raccoon mama feeding her young will kill the duck.  And coyote may kill the baby raccoon.  The squirrels eat seeds that otherwise might grow into trees and the owl eats the squirrel.  Each species makes their best effort to stay healthy and raise their young.   Wild animals only take what they need and in that way gratitude is known.  We imagined the gestures various animals have that is their way of giving thanks.  Just like we give thanks before we eat our snack together everyday at Homestead.

For math we wrote numbers in order in a grid, using a color pattern to identify and distinguish the even numbers from the odd numbers.  

We began designing and building the chick and duckling enclosure.  We acknowledged that we must behave like any mama hen and do what we can to provide a safety and nourishment for our young.  The post pounding was a huge highlight.  I expect we will finish sometime next week,  as I am giving them full ownership of this project and that makes it slow going, but oh so satisfying.

Gratitude for Linda

goat herding

browsing broccoli buds

pounding posts for duckling and chick enclosure

tending big ducklings

tending chicks

lesson block title page

odds and evens

week seven: "Week of the Goats"

For the week of the goats I told a story called The Goat Lady.  It is a story about perspective and understanding and ultimately empathy. Most of the people living in all the newer houses in the neighborhood complain about the Goat Lady’s unmaintained house and lawn, noisy rooster, big grey goose and unruly goats. The Goat Lady , Noellie is in her nineties when June and her brother Walt meet her and begin wonderful friendship that leads to their mother creating a series of paintings of Noellie and her goats which end up being shown at the Town Hall.  The paintings capture Noellie’s courage and kindness helping  help others in the neighborhood to truly  see her and understand and accept her lifestyle.  Their main lesson drawings also explore the idea of perspective and how things look different depending on our perspective, which we have the ability to change.  The story presents the idea that art has the power and potential to change the world.

Activities for the week were all about goats, including foraging ,observing, herding, grooming, trimming hooves, milking and making cheese.

We are also learning another new song called, If I Were to Talk to a…..

Number of the Week:  FOUR….4 seasons, 4 cardinal directions, 4 wheels on a car, 4 goats at Homestead…….4=4,   2+2=4,    1+3=4   3+1=4    1+1+1+1=4    1+2+1=4 

felting wool

milking Sygny

filtering goat milk

sharing main lesson book after homestead

cheese makers

math lesson

week six: Samhain Celebration

Song of the Animal Behavior Lesson Block: I Am an Animal by Dana Lyons. Dana lyons i am an animal free mp3 download - Mp3olimp.com

We have put away our form drawing books for our grid patterned math books for the next 5 weeks.   We are working on addition and exploring the quality of numbers 1-5  (not in order) over the next 5 weeks

I decided to use our first week of Animal Behavior Main Lesson time  to review our Plant Cycles writings and drawings.  We read and listened to their summaries of the stories.   Their work is beautiful and they are proud of it.  Please take the time to review it with them.  The yurt is always open after Homestead even if I have to leave.

All of our afternoon activities focused on Samhain Celebration preparations. We created an ancestors altar with pictures we drew or brought in of loved ones who have passed on. There was path maintenance(which involves tool use and safety as well as plant identification) for safe travels through the enchanted forest and fairy house construction.  The highlight of the week was harvesting our pumpkins and then carving them. There proved to be math lessons and lot of opportunity for cooperative problem solving as we had 7 pumpkins and  there are 8 Homesteaders.  The ease and grace around sharing and working together with this group of children is a beautiful thing to nurture and witness.

And thank you to all ( including Homestead OWL clan alumni and families ) who helped to create a magical and meaningful Samhain Celebration. I believe such co-creation of a culture of connection centered around this group of children is one very important way in which we honor their souls.  

observations of a web

sunflower cycle/main lesson review

plant cycles/main lesson review

cedar cycle/main lesson review

form drawing

samhain celebration

cooperative pumpkin carving

ancestors' alter

week five: "Soul Food"

Week five's focus was creating an ancestors garden. I told a story about an old man who lived in a forest named Josiah.  He was well connected with fairies and gnomes, plants and animals.  Many years ago Josiah had a companion named Chauncey, who died when they were quite young.  To honor Chauncey's life and the joy they shared together, one fall not long after Chauncey's death, Josiah planted a garden of bulbs, under an old apple tree, knowing that each spring colorful, delicate blooms would emerge from the soil and he would be reminded of Chauncey with something that brought him happiness and beauty (not just by the absence of his friend). 

Once again the cycles of life and death and renewal through our connection to the seasonal cycles really sparked the children's passion for creating our own  ancestor's garden under our old apple tree, near the yurt.  Building on the foundation of the story I told, the children continued the story with their own visions of Josiah and Chauncey while they planted.

Quote of the week:  at the end of the day after planing bulbs
Dana: "Okay time for closing circle.  Let's put the gloves and tools away."
 "I don't want to leave."
 "I want to keep working."
 "Yeah we could stay all night and you would come out in the morning and we'd still be working in Josiah's garden."
Dana: "But your families would miss you."
 "They can sleep here."

Also this week: we completed our first block of form drawing.  Check out their amazing work books next time you have a few minutes at pick-up.   

We learned a new Spanish spider song la arana pequenita.  If you haven't heard it yet...

In gratitude for how delightful your children are I offer you a sweet window into things your children were grateful for on 10.22.13:  "rain, leaves, trees, the sky, the bat I made (from a Big Leaf Maple leaf), hugs, dreams, the fog."
 
The lesson of this week laid a great foundation for our Samhain celebration (Wednesday, October 30) in which we dress in costume, journey through an enchanted forest and make our own offerings at the Homestead ancestors garden in acknowledgement of pets, friends and family who are no longer in our lives.  

planting bulbs under the apple tree

saving seeds

that's some gratitude

dedicated form drawing

week four: "Singing Into Autumn"

We harvested the squash, pulled the dying plants from our three sisters garden, chopped the green matter into the compost pile , hand tilled the soil  and planted  covercrop. . Everyone made wishes as we cast handfuls of seed that would give nutrients back to the soil. The story for the week was another story about Millicent and her Aunt Lucie, (From Beauty and the Bean, Week Two) in which they too, take a turn in the cycle of giving with their three sisters garden. As they sing into autumn, and prepare the soil for covercrop Millicent reflects on the barren landscape that was teaming with life and food all summer.  She also notices how slowly her Aunt Lucie is moving and when she sees her standing alongside a bent and dying sunflower stalk, dropping its seeds to the ground, she understands that like the plants and animals of late Autumn her Aunt Lucie will one day slip into the deep and silent sleep of her own Winter. She is filled with sadness imagining a world without her Aunt Lucie.  But then, in a spirited voice, Aunt Lucie instructs her to “keep hoein’ girl” in order to get the coverseed in.  Millicent plunges her sadness into the soil and together they sing a song of thanksgiving as they work.  Millicent begins to understand the cycle of giving and receiving in a deeper way and she is grateful for her connection to it.

 As I told the story a few kids teared-up when Millicent began to cry.  And then, Aunt Lucie’s voice of encouragement to carry on the work made us all smile.  All the children made beautiful drawings, and challenged themselves with the written review of the story.   It was fun for the children to reference Aunt Lucie’s instructions throughout our week as we put the three sisters garden to bed.  Why do we cut the squash stems instead of breaking them? How much stem do we leave? Why are we so careful with the squash as we harvest it? All the children agreed that this was their favorite story so far.

Perhaps the biggest news of the week was the arrival of our chicks and ducklings.  Besides the good soul food of being able to witness and hold anything living that is less then a week old, there are lots of cooperative learning opportunities as we relate to and care for these young precious lives.

We will be wrapping up our Plant cycles unit with a story and activities involving bulbs this coming week.

harvesting

main lesson books after the story

cooperative disassembling the bean pole structure

putting "three sisters" to bed

inside of circular cycles

building compost

seeding dreams

week three: "Cedar Cycles"

The story of the week: cedar cycle was about two grand cedars in an ancient forest.  The story illustrates the difference between perennial and annual plant cycles, as well as, draws connections between the cycle of a tree’s life and the 8 shields.  *Asking your child to tell you about the week’s story is a great way to foster the “tell me more about what you are learning in school” conversation.

We continue our form drawing exercises.  The children are showing great focus with the rhythm of these Waldorf/ Steiner inspired exercises. 

Also this week each student chose her/his tree for the year. They will track the seasons by following the cycles of their tree. We began this study with field guide research and drawings of the leaves/needles and seeds of their respective trees.  *This is a great thing to ask your children to teach you. 

During chore time, we are grinding Abanake corn into cornmeal to make lots of tortillas for the last day of our seed saving (Monday) workshop next week, October 21st.

A highlight from the week was our, Thursday afternoon, field trip to Skeeter Creek where we ate lunch, explored the creek bed, discovered fairy temples and created our own ceremony (entirely initiated by the kids) in honor of the 8 shields (each of their directions).

 I am thrilled to be learning and working with all of your children!

warm lunch in the hoop-house

Skeeter Creek

week two: "Beauty and The Bean"

     Our second week studying Plant Cycles focused on beans. We harvested beans from our three sisters garden (seeded and planted by many of the children last Spring.)   We shelled and sorted beans. And we let their beauty inspire our watercolor painting.                                                                                                                                                                                 

      The story this week, Beauty and the Bean, was about a little girl named Millicent who learns that when she shares what she loves and knows to be beautiful that hearts sing and happiness is cultivated in the world. It is a story about tending life in all its forms and beauty.  Ask your child how whistling birds became songbirds.

     In the tradition of creating beauty we began Form Drawing this week.  (Form Drawing for Beginners, by Donna Simmons) We also began research on their nature names and understanding the 8 directions around the stump circle.  We had our first truly successful round of the Canoe Song ! Have them teach it to you,  and sing it with them.   We ended the week with picking and baking apples for a Thursday afternoon celebration of plants and all they give.

week one: review

Wow! What an amazing group of children that have come together here this year.  I am so excited to teach and learn with them.  This first week it is evident that they are reaching out to each other and bonding as a tribe.  In a magical way there is so much enthusiasm and identification with Homestead as their place.  

We jumped into plant cycles, visiting the mature plants that many of them helped seed last spring.  We harvested potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, kale, onions and squash which, together, we cooked for our families for the equinox celebration.  Many of them participated in seeding, planting, tending, harvesting, cooking and feeding at the opposite end of the seasonal cycle. What a great beginning. 

We've begun work in their main lesson books with the sunflower story that highlighted "when something is gone a part of it always lives on." And the idea that seeds are both a connection to the past and the future.  I encourage parents to ask their children to share their stories from the week and to review their main lesson books in the yurt when ever you have a few extra moments at the end of a day.  

This week we started with math doing collaborative problem solving. Wednesday are our spanish immersion during snack and throughout the day.  As you know, they received their nature names and directions for the year.  Any additional research at home with respect to their songbird is great.

Thanks to all for an amazing equinox gathering!

Dana

colors harvested

painting autumn

we planted these last spring!

harvesting and preparing soup for equinox celebration

fall equinox: Plant Cycle Theme

Week one:

As summer sunshine gives way to dew drenched autumn mornings, we too transition into a rhythm of learning, working and playing together at Homestead.  Welcome families to the first week in which we begin our study of plant cycles with a story about children and sunflowers.   

On Thursday, September 26 at 5:30 PM we gather to celebrate autumn equinox.  We will hopefully be pressing apples so bring a bag (or 2 or 3 or more) of apples and a mason jar.  Hope to see the whole family (grandparents and special friends are welcome too).  We will begin with a circle of gratitude followed by soup and toasted sun seeds.    

Read Along:
In this lesson block will be referencing Thomas Elper's, Botany in a Day and Caduto/Bruchac's Keeper's of Life, Discovering Plants Through Native American Stories.