School is in Session

I can't imagine having gone to a school like the farm school my older kids have attended.  Can you imagine shearing the sheep and washing the wool; carding and dyeing; making felted puppets to act out the poems you've created? Picking the apples and making applesauce; honey harvested from the bees, and candles from their wax; outdoorsy time in the trees and swamp, indoorsy time in pine-cosy shelters and homes with tables in the floor and ponds, inside?  Singing and playing and eating and enjoying.  I wish everyone's school was like this school.

You see how the older ones have graduated from decorating windows with stars and watercolors to quadratic equations.  It can't be helped, really.

How is school getting along at your place this year?

Tea is Exciting

You all know I love tea. I love it, I do, it's just the thing. There is never a time, ever, when I don't love tea. My favorite cup of tea: the one the nurses bring you in Swan Districts Hospital right after you have delivered a baby.

Have you seen flower tea? This is my kids' most favorite. A little monster-ball, dropped gently in steaming hot water, and as it brews: suddenly a flower pops out and the ball is transformed into a bouquet resting in the bottom of your glass teapot. Tea is exciting, oh yes.

Days That Don't Make the News

Very recently, the neighborhood from which I graduated high school made the news.  Not the good news, the bad, hyped-up, speculative news.

Yesterday, I had to run some errands near the neighborhood, and I happened to drive right past the crowd of people -- demonstrators and counter-demonstrators and police.  There was shouting, but no huge drama, and the community seemed cohesive and joined in solidarity against racism and the misrepresentation of events in the media.

The strange thing is that, over 20 years ago when my husband and I were attending the very high school that all this commotion was taking place directly near by, there was an event that occurred between two students of differing races, which turned into an all-school brawl, and resulted in a brief school closure and a similar media labeling -- "racism," "riots," "community upheaval."  News teams camped outside for days, but we in the community were bewildered -- it was a fight, a big nasty fight, but it wasn't a racist thing until the media made it one.

Today, on the same street, south by a few miles, there was a church-organized community Back-to-school Block Party.  My older three kids and their friends performed twice and taught and entertained the attending children in between performances -- juggling, balancing, and other fun stuff.

News crews?  Where were you today?

Beautiful baby.

Mr. Cellophane

Rola-bola!

Bigger Rola-bola!

Double-decker Rola-bola!

Super-size Rola-bola!

Volunteer-from-the-audience's mother looked slightly concerned at this

Crowd was small but enthralled

Multiple Rola-bolas!

Volunteerism can be scary.

Wanny vastly prefers watching them on DVD.  Live performances are scary.

A skit, not a real lion

Sharing popcorn

A good day out but so hot!

Ta-Da!

Now for your and my mutual enjoyment, some pictures taken by the group while they were practicing.  

I liked this picture, with Roks as the junior member of the group.

I like seeing him develop his strength and skills.

 

But my mamma-heart did a bit of a double-step when I saw this picture, taken outside, on the driveway.  Had to put the ix-nay on this un-fay. 

Got Mail

The little kids are getting to that really awesome age where they are beginning to take in more of their surroundings, ready to learn all about things outside their immediate vicinity.

I really love the preschool age. Everyday events are just fun, fun, fun with preschoolers.

One day over the summer all the little kids wrote letters to each other, and we went off to the post office to mail them to ourselves.

We addressed the envelopes, and bought stamps to put on them. Then we pushed the letters through the mail slot at the post office.

On the way home, we stopped at the library to check out some books about mail service. The kids were really curious about what was going to happen to their letters.

The very next day, all the letters arrived back at our house, and we found them in our mail box.

There was a very excited flurry of letter-opening, and everyone had a letter from someone. Not all of it was decipherable, but it was all written with love.

Gater had the biggest surprise in her letter.

That was really fun.