Early Autumn Baking.....crackers

Crunchy Crackers

In a bowl mix:
1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour (you can also substitute semolina flour for half the flour)
1/2 tsp sea salt

In a measuring cup mix:
scant 1/4 c olive oil
scant 1/2 c warm water

-Blend wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Knead for about 5 minutes (dough will be just barely workable...a tiny bit tacky) and form into a ball.
-Divide into 6 equal pieces. Rub each with olive oil, form into a small ball, and allow to rest 40 minutes (covered with clean cloth)

-Preheat oven to 450 degrees
-Roll each dough piece thin (about 1/8 inch ) and cut into desired cracker shapes

-Lay crackers on floured baking sheet...you can pull the dough out a bit thinner as you transfer them to the pan.

-Poke the crackers with a fork to keep them from puffing up (you could also add toppings here, like parmesan or sesame seeds or cracked pepper)
-Bake for about 10 minutes or so...until golden. (We were able to fit 2 balls-worth of crackers on a baking sheet, so we had to bake in 3 batches.)

-You can enjoy them while they are warm, but they'll be crisper when they are cool. Allow them to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Early Autumn Watercolor....Autumn Fires

AUTUMN FIRES

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Robert Louis Stevenson

(using yellow and red, paint freely as inspired by the poem)
 

Early Autumn Handwork.....Napkins

My goal is for kindergarten handwork to allow Toucie to achieve three things:
-use her own skills
-make things that are useful
-make things that are beautiful
So here is a project that allowed for all three: no-sew napkins with fringed edges.

This fabric reminded us of our lunchtime meal blessing:

The silver rain, the shining sun, the fields where scarlet poppies run,
And all the ripples of the wheat are in the bread that I do eat.
So, when I sit for every meal and say a blessing, I do feel 
That I am eating rain and sun and fields where scarlet poppies run.

We started with 1/2 yard of fabric. I made snips into the edge of the cloth at the appropriate spots so that Toucie could tear it into squares...we got 4 napkins out of our 1/2 yard piece.

Tearing  leaves nice, soft edges that run right along the grain of the fabric.

Start pulling away the loose threads and soon you'll see the fringe effect. Its important to tease the threads out one at a time...if you try to pull a bunch out at once, they don't come free easily. A kindergartener can cultivate patience by sticking with a job like this.

That's all there is to it...laundering the napkins will further soften the fringy edges.
Toucie is already looking through the Halloween fabric in our stash, planning for future napkins :)

First week of school!

We'll be spending a couple of weeks celebrating Early Autumn in our homeschool. Our "circletime" is really just a time for singing, movement and observing the seasons/festivals of the year as they roll by.
 
Here are the rhymes and songs from our Early Autumn Circle (the bits in italic parenthesis are notes to myself about movement or how to link one song/verse to the next) :

(standing and with wide, expansive hand gestures:)

Good morning, dear Earth! Good morning, dear Sun!

Good morning, dear stones, and flowers, every one!

Good morning to the bees, and the birds in the trees!

Good morning to you, and good morning to me!

 -from our parent/tot group

(counting on fingers :)

1,2,3, nous avons un grand chat.

4,5,6, il a des longues griffes!

7,8,9, il a mange un oeuf !

10,11,12 il est jaune et rouge.

-adapted from "Receuil de poemes..."

(let's take a walk among the trees of the forest...)

(walking quietly around circle on tip-toe: )

Quietly I step step step

In the woods so dark

Carefully I tip tip tip

Making not a mark.

My feet are silent like a cat

They do not make a sound

The birds they do not hear me pass

I hardly touch the ground.

-from Marsha Johnson

(some leaves are beginning to turn colors)

(pass a beanbag around front and back of body/ balance beanbag on head/ let drop into hands: )

Front and back, front and back

Around me the leaves do swirl

Up on top, up on top

From the sky a leaf does drop!

-adapted from Marsha Johnson

(some old apple trees are growing here)

(skipping around circle/ repeat skipping opposite direction: )

Come along my dear one, come along with me

Come into the orchard and shake the apple tree

I will pick the high ones, you will pick the low

When we’ve filled our baskets, home with them we’ll go.

-adapted from "Sing Through the Year"

(repeat several times, catch beanbags/ toss into basket to the rhythm of:)

Reddish-yellow-golden-green,

Prettiest apples ever seen!

Pick them high and pick them low

Wonder how many in will go!

1,2,3…

Pommes rouges sur le pommier,

Moi je viens avec mon panier.

Pommes, sur le gazon tombez!

Moi je veux bien vous manger!

-adapted from  "Receuil de poemes..."

(now we have so many apples…look, a squirrel!)

(sing: )

Squirrel Nutkin with his coat of brown,

Quite the loveliest in Woodland Town.

Two bright eyes look 'round to see

Where the sweetest of the nuts might be.

 -from parent/tot circle

(strew nuts and return them to basket using toes while repeating )

Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, swish your bushy tail

“             “         “        “             “      “       “         “

Wrinkle up your little nose

Pick a nut up with your toes

Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, swish your bushy tail!

-from Wynstones Autumn book

(now we have basketfuls of apples and nuts...time to return home for a story)

(walking quietly around circle on tip-toe: ) 

Quietly I step step step

In the woods so dark

Carefully I tip tip tip

Making not a mark.

My feet are silent like a cat

They do not make a sound

The birds they do not hear me pass

I hardly touch the ground.

-from Marsha Johnson

(sit)

(Ah, we’re home…let child settle, light candle and sing song for storytime)

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Baking for this week was a scrumptious banana bread using this recipe (but substituting coconut oil for the canola).

Handwork was making a few more beanbags to use in our circle verses above. We needed 16 in order to play the game of tossing "apples" into a basket to the rhythm of  the "Reddish-yellow-golden-green" poem (we tossed a beanbag on every other beat in the poem...so, 4 tosses for each line : REDdish YELlow GOLden GREEN, etc). I stitched up the bags and Toucie had the challenging job of filling them. We normally use sand or rice in our beanbags, but this time we had dry chickpeas on hand, so....

 

For Painting Day we used a poem to inspire a wet-on-wet watercolor using only the color red. You can see our work in progress at the top of this page :)

Mama, when do I start REAL school?

I was hearing that question alot during August as  Toucie's peers, one by one, toddled off to different schools as proud kindergarteners. Our family had made the decision to homeschool Toucie long ago, and now with her leukemia diagnosis it is pretty much a necessity. So,  we are official, card-carrying, kindergarten homeschoolers this year! What a joy to be able to hold off until after Labor Day to begin our school year.

We've just completed our first week and I wanted to lay out our schedule here. Ours is a Waldorf inspired homeschool, so kindergarten does not include academic studies...but that doesn't mean that we're not learning things everyday! There is alot of art, music, literature, games and nature in our day-to-day life. That covers alot of "school" already. Our "formal" kindergarten is the result of me bringing  stronger rhythm to the week by incorporating a daily "circletime" and assigning a task to each of our 4 schooldays (baking, laundry, handwork, painting). This way, Toucie's desire for "real" school was satisfied, and my desire for a non-academic kindy year was satisfied as well.
 
For me this year is a trial. Each week requires planning and research and I am keeping records as if an audit was expected. My record-keeping method is inspired by this from Renee's blog, FIMBY. Here is what mine looks like:

I try to spend time at the end of each day (whether it is a "school day" or not) jotting down our activities on a page like this. For a young child just learning about the world, just about everything they do is educational and falls under some subject heading! So at the end of the week, there is quite a bit recorded under each heading and the page reflects the rich content of our schooling. Here's a sample...maybe it doesn't look that rich...but hey, we've just gotten started!

Later, at the end of the month, I can go through and consolidate this information, organizing it to reflect our homeschool accomplishments. I do this so that I can have the best of both worlds: Our school days are relaxed and very loosely structured with room to follow Toucie's interests and allow her to play, play, play. And I'm able to take all that we do and show it on paper as something that a more mainstream-minded person (or auditor!!) can relate to.

Earth angels...

I want to take a moment to sing a BIG thank you to all of you dear ones who have been sending warm wishes, loving notes, and even parcels full of treasure to Toucie. She is THRILLED to receive so much goodness from so many different directions. Look at this.

She actually cried when she unwrapped these beautiful felted pieces from Jen.

One of the pieces was a gorgeous guardian angel....perfect, Jen, you are amazing.
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And here is an excited smile for Elke at Where the WIld Strawberries Grow (she has recently stepped away from blogging to focus more on family). Inside this package (that flew all the way from Australia to our tiny town in Tennessee) was a pair of wool frogs, lovingly handstitched, and many other goodies (including a third frog yet unstitched for Toucie and I to put together).

(Which we happily did!)

Toucie is stuffing her frog with wool...see the two that Elke made there on the right? Frogs are so  meaningful to Toucie right now...she is especially drawn to them and they to her. She found these soft woolly froggies so comforting and delightful. Elke you have rare insight and I am so grateful to you for holding my daughter in this way.
 
I can't tell you how much it means to us here to be supported in so many ways by so many of you from so many different corners of the earth...all of you angels. Thank you so very much.

Toucie's update

The word "meds" is a an everyday part of Toucie's vocabulary nowadays. We get really sick and tired of meds, because sometimes there are alot of them to take.

And sometimes they have side effects that we don't love. Like low energy and lethargy.

And grumpiness.

And roly-polyness (isn't that a word?)

 

(Look at those cheeks!)

These things have been things we can handle. Things we can work through. Things we can live with. And things that will pass. I am grateful that there is very little suffering for my girl, so far, in her treatment. 

There is another side effect that we are anticipating and we are gearing up to accept it with as much grace as possible. The loss of all those shiny, maple-brown tresses. We are starting with a haircut.

(A lollipop softens the experience)

Toucie has not yet begun to lose any hair, but if she should, we will be prepared to go back for an even shorter cropping and eventually a full buzz-cut.

Meanwhile, she is going with the flow and the rest of us are just trying to keep up!