week twenty-one: A Drop of Water
Britt Freda
The jungle caught on fire and soon all the animals were running away from their beloved home towards the great lake. Hummingbird began making journeys back and forth carrying a few drops of water at a time and dropping it ahead of the fire’s edge. The baboons laughed at her and yelled, “You can’t put a fire out a drop of water at a time silly Hummingbird.” She replied, “I am doing the best I can.” It wasn’t long before many other animals were carrying water to stop the destruction of their home, inspired by Hummingbird. The story reinforces a concept the Homesteaders consistently embody: the power and satisfaction of working in community and putting forth our best effort in our work.
The children completed their paintings of representations of their nature names. Our newest song is : “Rockin’ Robin” and we are having so much fun singing it. Sing it at home with your kid!
We are still working on number sequences and place values in math.
In response to some children’s actions, that broke a community agreement with respect to how we interact with the farm animals, we held a council. I introduced the topic for council with a parallel story about some other children and their behavior regarding other farm animals. I then asked them to brainstorm some ideas for me to implement when a community agreement, regarding the animals, is not honored. Each child had five stones. A stone for each time they spoke. The structure insisted that everyone contribute to the conversation in a balanced way .