Omaha, Here We Come...

We made a seven hour drive to Omaha to visit some of Cory's family. Cory's great uncle and his wife made a trip from Denmark to the states, and decided to stop in the little town of Omaha, Nebraska to visit the Anderson Family. They definitely made it a Midwest, tailgating experience for them! On Thursday evening, we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant. On Friday, one of the families hosted a rib and brisket dinner. You can't get much more American then that! They also threw a surprise shower for Andy and Heather. On Saturday, everyone got suited up in their Nebraska Husker's gear to tailgate and attend the Nebraska vs Iowa State game. The sun was supposed to make an appearance, but changed it's mind. Everyone enjoyed themselves despite some sprinkles and cold weather.

A Trip to the Zoo

While in Omaha, we took a trip to the zoo. It was a little on the cold side, but the kids wanted to go and we figured it would be a good way to get them out and moving around. We stopped by Whole Foods on the way to pick up lunch, and we were on our way.

The kids really enjoyed the aquarium and the desert dome. The lower level of the desert dome had a Creatures of the Night exhibit. Part of that was modeled after a swamp. It was dark and you had to cross a lot of rickety bridges with alligators, and other creatures, all around below you. The mood was set with "swampy sounds". Grant kept asking, "What was that sound? What is that sound?".

The aquarium had a tunnel you could walk through while the fish and sharks swam around you. Check out the choppers on that shark! Grant and Johanna loved sitting in the window to watch the penguins swim.

We also enjoyed the primate exhibits, but I must admit they always make me sad. I love for my kids to be able to see these animals, but not with them behind glass walls and bars. These animals are so smart and it is such a shame to put them in these little enclosures for our amusement. But anyway.... you can tell these guys are soooo bored! This little orangutan found himself a comfortable bed. One of his buddies was nearby closely watching another zoo-goer remove items from her purse one-by-one and show them to him.

We also enjoyed a break from the cold with a stop in the butterfly and insect house. In the insect house, Grant and Johanna got the chance to pet a very LARGE spider and a scorpion. Grant was all over it, but Johanna was a little more hesitant.

We ended up being at the zoo for about 4 hours! We enjoyed it, and the kids had a lot of fun.

Fall Fun

The sun has returned this week! The return of the sun and 70 degrees weather also marked the return of the ladybugs! They were out by the thousands on Monday! We have a short week of only three days because we leave for Omaha on Thursday for a family get-together. It is also an extra calendar week for October, so we are going to take a break from letters and do some fun Autumn activities. On Monday, I taught Grant a new Halloween tongue twister: "If two witches watch two watches, which witch watches which watch." He gets better at jumping rope everyday and soon he will be doing all kinds of tricks! I told the kids the story of The Hedgehog's Harvest using this pumpkin and hedgehog family I needle felted last year. After the story we drew pumpkins. I used the three primary colors to make my drawing, but I was nice and let Grant use the orange block crayon for his pumpkin. Johanna was more interested in eating crackers than drawing her pumpkin, but she still managed to come up with something.

Aaahh! Ladybugs! Imagine this all over the house!

Needle Felted Hedgehog Family

Mom's Pumpkin

Grant's Pumpkin

Johanna's Pumpkin

On Tuesday, I read a fun Fall book from the library about a busy squirrel. After the story, Grant did some copy work and copied the Autumn verse that was on the chalkboard. While he was doing that, Johanna helped me pick out the Fall cookie cutters (from our 101 piece set) that the kids would use with the pumpkin spice play dough I made earlier that morning. The smell of pumpkin pie was in the air!

Autumn Chalkboard Verse

I am finishing this post after we have returned from our trip to Omaha, (which was a lot of fun and I will post about that soon), and I will admit that I cannot, for the life of me, remember what we did on Wednesday! Once I remember what we did, I will write about it. I know we did something!

Jugs and Bears

Julia's confinement has been great! Don't worry, she enjoys it too because she gets snacks. It is making main lesson time go SO much smoother.

This week has been grey, cloudy and rainy. We were still able to take our morning walks all week and enjoy our Halloween songs and verses. We added jump roping this week to Grant's circle time. He REALLY likes that. The tongue twister I introduced on Monday was, "Jolly juggling jesters jauntily juggled jingling jacks." It took him awhile to get it, and then we let it rest for the day.

In our story, Katie had to go collect water for the family in jugs and her father taught her about the letter J, and told her The Water of Life. I told the Grant the same story and we talked about the letter J, practiced writing it and practiced the new form drawing for the week. Next, we started our drawing from the story.

"J is for Jug" Chalkboard Drawing

Grant's jump rope the he finger-knitted

I made a run to a local "paint your own pottery" place and picked up a "pottery to go kit". I got a jug for Grant to paint and a pumpkin plate for Johanna to paint. Knowing that Grant would also want a pumpkin plate, I got one for him, too. They really had fun painting these on Tuesday. It is hard for them to imagine the change the colors will make after they are fired. When we painted them, the colors were very dull, pastel, and rough. But the magic happens when they bake and glass that is in the paint melts, and voila, bright shiny colors! Grant also told me the story of The Water of Life. We wrote the letter J and the summary in his book, and finished our drawings. By today he had mastered the new tongue twister.

Mom's The Water of Life Drawing

Grant's The Water of Life Drawing

On Wednesday, we learned about the letter B and I told Grant the story of The Willow-Wren and the Bear. Grant practiced drawing the letter B on his chalkboard. For this, I draw three line on the board. A blue line for air, a green line for grass, and an orange line for dirt. Then I draw the different letters and explain to him how some stand tall way up into the air, some stay and play in the grass, and some dip down into the dirt. For some reason, he is always excited when one of them dips down into the dirt! After he practiced it, he wrote it in his lesson book. I also introduced a new tongue twister today, "A big black bug bit a big black bear, but where is the big black bear that the big black bug bit?"

In the afternoon I made some bread dough, and Johanna helped me make bread for dinner. We had some men at the house doing some work, and Grant was much more interested in "helping them" then making bread with the girls!

"B is for Bear" chalkboard drawing

On Thursday, we wrote the summary of The Willow-Wren and the Bear in his book and he drew the form drawing in his book. Earlier in the week he struggled a little with this one, but after a little practice, walking it on the driveway, drawing it in the air with his hand and arm, etc, he was drawing it with ease.

For handwork this week, Grant finger-knitted a strap for a felt treasure bag I made for a Birthday gift. Next week we will start on a Halloween sewing project. Grant picked out this project and is very excited to get started!

The Apple Orchard

We had a great time at the apple orchard last Sunday. The weather was perfect for apple picking! We took a hay ride over to the apple trees and then enjoyed picking the four different kinds of apples that were ripe. Grant's favorite part was climbing up into the tree and picking the apples.

Once we were done, the kids had fun going wandering through the orchard's hay bale maze and going down their big slide. We also enjoyed some apple cider slushies and caramel apples.

A Good Week for Huts

We are changing our routine up a little this week to make things a little less stressful on little ol' me. For whatever reason, Grant has not wanted to be involved in circle time, and Johanna's interest in it come and goes. This left me doing it all by myself trying to get them involved. It was like pulling teeth sometimes! So, now we will be doing seasonal songs and verses while we are going on our morning walk. This week we started doing Halloween songs and verses. Once we get inside, Grant and I have been doing some fun bean bag games and movements to more verses. After that we do a hide and seek game with various objects and have fun with tongue twisters. Grant enjoys these activities much more! Johanna is happy right now re-arranging our Halloween window clings while Grant and I are doing that. I am also confining Julia, just for a short time, to a booster chair for a snack while I work with Grant. That way she is not trying to climb all over us, or the benches at our table. I sit her chair on the floor next to me and keep her happy with crackers. Mom is much happier, too! I will continue to tweak things as we go along. I want to find more ways to keep Johanna occupied while I am telling Grant his story for the lesson. She wants to be right there listening, but is never able to sit there quietly. I feel bad for Grant because of all the commotion, but a wise Waldorf homeschooling Mom told me not to apologize for a situation that will never be. She pointed out that Grant is used to all of this going on, and to him it is normal. If I let him see it bothers me, then he will think it should bother him, too. I must remember that nothing will ever be perfect!

This week we started with the letter F. Katie and her family took their canoe out for a fishing trip and a flying fish jumped right into their boat! I had to explain to Grant, that, no, they don't have wings. I told Grant the story of The Lambkin and the Little Fish, introduced the form for the week, and then Grant practiced drawing both the the form and the letter F in the air, on my back, and on his chalkboard. After that, we started working on our drawing for the story.

The Letter F Chalkboard Drawing

On Tuesday, Dad took Grant out to the lake to go fishing. He caught three fish while they were out there. They looked at the fish a little more closely this time and talked about what they saw. Dad joined us on our walk and once we were inside he led us in our prayer to start the school day. While Grant worked on making the form, and some letters, out of dragon tears, I read Johanna a book which was her "lesson". She enjoyed that, and I know she likes it because then I can give her a little one-on-one time.


Grant re-told me the story of The Lambkin and The Little Fish and we wrote the summary in his lesson book. We finished our drawings from the day before and he wrote the letter F in his book. He is becoming very proud of his lesson book, and loves to look back through the pages he's done.

Mom's The Lambkin and the Little Fish Block Crayon Drawing

Grant's The Lambkin and the Little Fish Block Crayon Drawing

Wednesday we learned about the the letter H as Joseph and the kids began building a hut for the coming winter months in our story, and I told Grant the story of The Little Hut in the Forest. He practiced drawing the letter H. It just so happens we have co-op this Friday and Grant has an assignment for his rain forest class to build a house (or a hut) out of items he can find in his yard. Talk about good timing!

The Letter H Chalkboard Drawing

On Thursday, we wrote our summary of The Little Hut in the Woods, the form for the week, and the letter H in Grant's book. We also reviewed F and H and talked about words that start with each letter. After lunch, Cory and Grant began working on his hut. They worked on it all afternoon. I thought it turned out pretty neat. We took it to co-op on Friday and Grant told me that his and another one won "first prize", but then he said more specifically that his came in second place because the other girl made people to go with hers, but that second place was really the same as first place, so they both won. For his Community Helpers class, he took a field trip to the local bakery. He really enjoyed that, and the donut samples they had out for them (eek!) He had a good co-op day!

Week 5 Form Drawing

Grant's "2nd Place" Hut