Monday, Wickiup Shelters...

We had a wonderful day today, Jenna and I began our day with some yoga. I haven't done yoga for quite some time, but it really did leave me feeling energised for the entire day. We have decided to include this as part of our daily rhythm. You just feel so good afterwards!

Caiden started his Native American block today and we began with a study of the People of the Longhouse. It was amazing to learn all this new information. We are using the lovely Christopherus curriculum and it is really wonderful and easy to work with:) Then to finish off todays work, I read him the story of Heron and Hummingbird a Hitchiti Tribe tale.

He built a Wickiup all by himself from pruned branches and loved the process. When Native American Indian's used to be out on a long hunt and weren't returning home that evening, they would build a temporary shelter, similar to this to keep them dry and warm for the night. Tomorrow he will learn how to light a fire without matches, his sister is a Sea Scout so she will show Cady how to do this. (He is very excited)

Later today, just as the sun was setting, we brought some blankets to put down on the floor of his Wickiup shelter and we all crawled in through the little opening and I read the story of the People of the Longhouse to Cady and Erin. Such a beautiful book with lovely illustrations.( Houses of Bark by Bonnie Shemie.) We are learning each day in such a practical way, I just love it!

Our Oak trees are already showing signs of Autumn...

Wise Olive... watching me from the dining room window...

Playful Charlie, always ready to pounce from the bushes to an unsuspecting passerby...

A beautiful sunset to bring a close to our day...

Thank you for visiting, friends:)
Warmly
Linda

Woodwork with Caiden, my Dear Son...

This is my dear son Caiden, the sweetest boy:) He has just started a 3 week practical woodworking block. This is so exciting and I will be learning so much as well. Yesterday we started our first woodwork project, a wooden toolbox! It was such fun. First Cady marked out all the measurements for all the pieces of wood, which is important work for his maths as well!

He cut out quite a lot of the wood with a hand saw and then we used the scroll saw to cut the rest. We followed the instructions in our wonderful carpentry book, Woodworking for Kids a fantastic book with so many amazing projects. I was continuously amazed at how conscientious he was, taking his time to saw and glue the pieces together, really enjoying the process. (Only mom cut with the electrical saw!)

Then came the glueing and hammering part, we lined up all the pieces, glued each one and Caiden hammered in all the nails, he loved this! He was so alive and active in the moment, it was like it awakened a part of his soul, tremendous to watch...

And there we go, his finished woodwork toolbox! I am so very proud of him and he is so very proud of himself for finishing this project:) Now he has a place to pack all his carpentry tools.

I have been busy with Easter knitting for my shop and this is my latest creation, he is called Fred, the Easter Rabbit and he is knitted with pure Angora yarn that I handspun myself. I will only be stocking a small amount of these as I have knitted up all the Angora that I have spun:) He is exceptionally soft! I will be listing him in a few hours.

Shop Talk: Discounts :)
I do accept Paypal, but I am discounting orders that are paid with Monster Pay:) The banking fees are lower for me and I can receive payment faster with Monster Pay as I live in South Africa and therefore I am offering a discount to customers that will pay this way. All I do is email you an invoice and you click on the links to pay. Monster Pay is very similar to Paypal and so easy to use, I promise:) If you would like to pay with Monster Pay and receive a nice discount and pay exact shipping, just send me a conversation on Etsy and I will create a special listing for you at a reduced amount:) Otherwise, please feel free to continue to use Paypal:)

Happy Monday everyone:)
Warmly
Linda

Old Testament Block 3rd Grade

Here are Erin's paintings of the first six days of Creation, she really enjoyed painting these! At the moment she is busy with the story of Ruth. We'll post more on this later in the week.

Botany and Old Testament Blocks

This week Jenna has been learning about the grasses.....



When we were learning about Monocots, we learned that an Agapanthus plant was also a Monocot, ( this means that when the plant emerges from the bulb or seed, there is just one leaf, in Dicots, there are two that emerge),



In Charles Kovaca's book, Botany, (which is absolutely fantastic, by the way!!), he compares the flowers to butterflies and a monocotyledon, like an Agapanthus for example, could represent a butterfly, Jenna built a butterfly from an Agapanthus flower. The petals are the wings, the stamens are the antennae and legs and the ovary is the abdomen.






The rose, which is the perfect higher plant, beautiful with a beautiful scent is a Dicotyledon and is very special. If looking at the geometry of a dicotyledon, the rose, we found that it has five sepals that hold the petals and five main petals that surround the flower and many more petals but always in groups of five, thus if one had to draw these five points from the sepals we would be able to draw a five pointed star! In monocotyledons, like the Daffodil for instance, these have 6 points, because there are 6 petals. We have learned so much this week and have decided that we love Botany, so many discoveries.....





Erin is busy with her 3rd Old Testament Bolck and today she painted the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. We cut out paper and she painted it red and then she copied most of the letters with paint and these will be placed in her book that we are making for her block.

Grade Three Farming Block

Erin is busy with her farming block as I have already mentioned. We were pruning quite a few branches off of our large trees this week. Jenna and Erin quickly gathered all the branches up and started to cut them into logs for firewood with a bow saw. It was a lovely self led practical activity!

A Week of Weaving

Caiden's completed weaving for Dad for Father's Day







Erin is busy with her Farming Block for grade three and part of the practical work is weaving. Caiden and Jenna have been inspired to weave as well. Jenna has woven a little carpet for our gnome home and Caiden is weaving a rainbow for Dad for father's day on cardboard.








How to make a simple loom from cardboard:

Materials:

1 piece of thick cardboard 20cm by 30cm
wool to weave around the cardboard
different colour wool to weave with
1 blunt wool needle with a large eye
pencil to move your wool down after each row
scissors

Take your cardboard and cut little 1cm slits along both edges of the short sides of your board, make sure that they are cut opposite each other so that when you wind your wool around to make the strings, they line up. Tie your wool/string on to the card and wind around and around until you have gone around your whole board. Then you can thread your needle and start weaving in and out the strands. Just remember when you come to the edge of a row to go around your last string and then look at your lines before and go the opposite way. If you went over before now you go under. Just keep alternating your rows and you'll end up with a lovely pattern. When you want to change colours, just weave to the end of the row leaving some wool, cut the old colour and tie on the new one and off you go. Also remember to move your work down at the end of each row or two or you will get gaps. You can use a pencil for this. When you are finished weaving you can cut your strings. Cut them quite far away from the weaving and then take two strings and tie a knot. Keep moving along tying two strings all along until you are finished. Enjoy!