In the Garden

Today I enjoyed taking some flower portraits! You may laugh, but I do think that each flower shows me something special about it when I take a photograph. It was a beautiful day and although though my garden peaked last month, it really does look gorgeous right now. The colors are brilliant and fill me with happiness. Vivienne and I also spent some time collecting seeds for next spring. So far, we have many packets of zinnia, calendula, marigold, tulsi, okra, and cosmos.

Day One at the Golden Sun Learning Cooperative

A new school year has begun! We are back to learning in blocks, and having a more structured rhythm to our days. I am really excited about sharing this year with my kids.

 Grade five in the Waldorf curriculum is incredible! We will spend time on the ancient cultures of India, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt, China and Greece. We'll work on decimals and continue work with fractions and geometry. In geography, we will explore North American continent,  physical and cultural, as well as North American Indians (particularly the Cherokee which live in this region). Currently, Mia and I  are working on a main lesson block of Botany. I got so many good ideas from Quimby, Barbara Dewey's husband who is a passionate forester, entomologist and naturalist.

Vivienne begins the year with a nature study, as well. Hers comes from a place of story... tales that bring the true light of nature into awareness. We won't focus our attention on complex vocabulary, but rather the beauty and wonder of the natural world. For the second grade work, we will also visit animal stories and fables, saint and hero tales from around the world, as well as continued work with form drawing, the four processes in math, grammar, foreign language, recorder, all presented with an artistic emphasis.

I am so happy to be learning alongside my children. It is both enlightening, and eye-opening! There is so much that I feel that I missed in my younger days. To get to educate myself and present information in a living, artful way is really a healing gift of the greatest sort. And best of all, we share this journey. I find it interesting how much concern people feel for home schoolers getting enough socialization. Our experience has been that there are more group activities to join than there are hours in the day! We are fortunate to live somewhere that the home school community is large and thriving. I feel more than blessed to be on this path with my children.

Our first day was wonderful. We started off with a celebratory pancake breakfast. The  kids a each got a schultüte to open. This is a tradition that my mother remembers from her early days in Germany (generally given for grade 1) The school cone held some special little items for each child: a small notebook, a storybook, new beeswax crayons, modeling beeswax, some wool roving, and gummy bears for a treat.

Mia and I began with our first Botany lesson, and later Vivienne started her form drawing. She loved the form drawing so much that what meant to be a review of first grade forms became a nearly completed main lesson book! She loved the challenge and wanted to keep practicing more and more complex forms. In the meanwhile, Mia decided to use a wild edibles cookbook  and collected a ton of plantain ( or otherwise known as Psyllium seed) with Jasper  to make plantain seed, carob and raisin cookies. They were very healthy and delicious.  We also picked some bird house gourds from the garden, cut holes and set them to dry. There are so many things to be grateful for.

Kind hearts are gardens,

Kind thoughts are roots,

Kind words are blossoms,

Kind deeds are fruits.

~adapted from poem by Henry Wadswoth Longfellow

Top O' the World

On Labor Day, we took a beautiful hike in the Pisgah National Forest. We gathered with friends for a trek to the scenic view from this North Mills River trail. It was a delightful climb up with a huge pack of dogs (don't tell Sydney, we didn't bring her...) Unfortunately, on the way down our friend Lily met with an angry swarm of yellow jackets, and was stung quite badly. We were all thankful that she did not have a severe reaction to the stings, and bravely trekked back down the mountain. The kids played in the creek before heading home. In the evening, Mia joined her Symphony Children's Choir to lead a singalong in front of thousands of people in the new Pack Square Park, in celebration of the Asheville Symphony's 50th anniversary.! It was quite an exciting day to ring in the new school year.