Grade 5 Mesopotamia

Jenna has just finished learning about Mesopotamia. She built a replica of a Ziggurat out of clay. This is her impression. These Ziggurat's were almost as large as pyramids, but one could not go inside them, you would climb up the steps on the outside and enter the chamber at the top, which would be filled with guilded furniture and treasures for the gods.

This is Jenna's painting of Gilgamesh setting out upon the Sun Road. We read the story of Gilgamesh the King, this is one of the oldest stories from the time of Mesopotamia.

This is one of the clay tablets that Jenna made today. She made a stylus from a piece of beading and sanded it into shape. She is practicing the Sumerian alphabet here on this clay tablet. The different directions of the triangles all have a unique meaning.

Mesopotamia really has been an enjoyable block!

Banana Bread

Today we had so many bananas and because it's Richard's favourite, I decided to bake banana bread. It turned out divine and I am going to share my recipe with you. It has been in our family for quite a few generations:

 

Ingredients:
125 g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 free range eggs
2 cups flour / 8 ounces
2 tsp baking powder
4-6 really ripe babanas
1 tsp vanilla essence
half tsp salt

1. Beat sugar and butter until creamy then add vanilla.
2. Add eggs one at a time and beat.
3. Sift dry ingredients together and add to butter and sugar mix.
4. Mash babanas and add to the mixture.
5. Mix well and put into a small greased loaf pan.

Bake @ 180 degrees celsius for an hour.
Enjoy

Veggies and Compost

This is a photo of our herb garden seen here in the front and our veggie garden seen further at the back under the shade cloth.

We have quite a variety of herbs because I like to use them for cooking, teas and remedies.

I thought I should write something about our veggie and herb garden since growing veggies and herbs are one of my passions. This is a photo from our Broccoli bed.

We make all our own compost using kitchen scraps, grass cuttings, fallen leaves and Comfrey as an activator. We also add horse manure. We layer our compost, first we dig the soil in an area of about 5ft by 5ft and wet it, then we place a layer of thin sticks, then dry material, manure and then green material. Each layer is hosed down to wet the heap. We usually make the heap about 1m high and when we are finished we cover it with straw to keep the moisture in. Within a few hours the heap should be heating up. By the next day it is usually boiling. After a few weeks we turn the heap and then let it do all the work. After a few months we have lovely compost.

This is one of our compost heaps. It is ready to be used all the organic matter has broken down completely and smells divine!

One of our heavily laiden lemon trees in our garden. We use our lemons for so many things, Lemonade, Lemon Merangue, lemon tea etc.. I also use lemon to make my home made cleaning products that I use to clean around our home. I love my lemon trees, there is something so satisfying to be able to go outside and just pick a lemon when I need one.

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!

Jenna's Birth Orchid

This week was Jenna's 11th birthday. We had such a special day! This Orchid was given to Jenna on the day she was born and it flowers every year at the same time, on her birthday!

For Jenna's birthday we decorated a table with a lovely cloth, placed flowers on the table and a crown I made for her. We made a path of rose petals from her bedroom to her birthday table and a string of ballons. We also lit a candle at her table. We all gave her 11 kisses when she woke up and the night before we read a poem together about turning 11 years old. It was all very special and she loved it. All her presents were on the table as well.

Dad took the morning off and we went out for a lovely breakfast. What a fantastic day, Jen said it was the best birthday she has ever had. Since transitioning to Waldorf, it has added so much more meaning to our lives, it has made it rich and wholesome!