Ice

This week has been all about ice.  We read stories of Jack Frost.  

There is a great resource for stories here.  We read Jack frost's tale.  I really am in love with all tiptoes lightly stories.  They are so sweet.

On baking day we made frozen banana treats.

Boys melting chocolate for our bananas.

On painting day we painted pictures with a lot of water color (real wet)  then we let them dry outside to see if Jack Frost could finish our paintings for us. :)

We read another sweet story this week.  This is by Suzanne Down.  She is a talented woman who runs Juniper tree school of story and puppetry arts.  I get her newsletter regularly and they contain the sweetest stories.  I beeswax modeled a little fox to help with the story.

Little Lost Fox



One  winter, deep in the snowy forest, lived a
Mama fox and her little fox.  They lived deep under the roots
of an old oak tree where it was very cozy indeed.  One very cold
and snowy blowy kind of day, Mama fox needed to go out to find food.
She said to little fox, 'don't go out in the snowstorm little fox, I will be
back soon.'  And then off Mama fox went.

Little fox waited and waited, but it was such a long wait.  Little fox
climbed to the top of the den and peeked out.  Everything was white
and beautiful.  "I will play in the snow for just a minute, then come
right back inside', he said to himself.  And he jumped out of the den and
leaped and ran and played in the soft fluffy snow.

The snowflakes were falling, falling, and the wind was blowing, blowing.
The snowflake children called to little fox, ' Catch us if you can little fox'!!
And little fox ran after them, but wind would blow them here, then there.
They were hard to catch!  Little fox ran farther and farther away from his
cozy den.

Suddenly he stopped running and looked around.  Where was he?  He
looked for his den, but could not find it anywhere.  He was in a part
of the forest where he had never ever been before, and it was already
getting dark.  Little fox was lost.

He curled up under a big tree, and the wind blew, the snow was falling faster
and thicker.  Brrrrrr....little fox was very cold .  He decided to trudge onward
through the snow which was almost over his head now.  Through the trees
he saw some dim lights.  It was a village where humans lived.
'Maybe the people would help me', wished little fox.

He walked slow and steady through the deep snow until he came to
a house.  He went to the door and with his paw  went

scratch, scratch scratch,
scratching on your door,
please oh please oh,
may I rest warm on your floor.

The door opened, but when they saw a fox, they shrieked,
'A fox, a fox', and shut the door tight!

All through the village the little fox went,  going from house
to house and with his paw upon each door he went,

scratch, scratch scratch,
scratching on your door,
please oh please oh,
may I rest warm on your floor.

But no one would let him inside.

Only one last house remained in the village, but by now
little fox was so tired, and so cold he could not go any further.
He dug a small hollow in the snow and called out, Yip, Yip, Yip!
Yip, Yip Yip!  then he curled up and tried to get warm.

Inside the last house lived an old grandmother who was
cooking a pot of soup.  She heard a strange faraway sound and opened
the  door to listen.  In the distance  she could hear a sound.  It was
hard to hear, so she listened again.

Yip, Yip Yip!

The old grandmother put on her coat and hat and followed
the sound, carrying her lantern.  She walked until she saw a dark red furry
ball in the deep snow.

'Why it is a little fox, so cold, so cold,' she said, as she picked
him up in her arms and carried him home.  She put an old blanket
down near the fire, and put little fox there to warm up.  She put a bowl of warm
soup broth nearby for him to drink.

Little fox began to warm up and felt so tired.  He lapped up the soup, and
then fell fast asleep, and slept for a long, long time.  When he woke up it
was morning.  He looked around the room and saw the good woman asleep
in her bed.  He went to the door and tried to get out, but the door was shut
tight. He took his paw and began to scratch on the door.

Scratch, scratch, scratch,
Scratching on your door
Thank you for your warm, warm floor,
Now I must go and run by day
To find my home so far away.

Little fox's paw gently pushed at the door.

The old woman woke up, smiled, and got out of bed.
She opened the door and said 'goodbye little fox, you can find
your way home now, it is a sunny day!'

Little fox bolted out the door and ran leaping through the snow.

Yip Yip......Yip!   Mama fox was looking for him!

Little fox ran as fast as he could all the way to his Mama, and his
cozy den, just in time for breakfast.

Little fox never went off playing in a snowstorm again!
Well, not until he was a Big fox!

The End.











I wanted to show the kids what a waterfall looks like in the winter.
We decided to go to Minnehaha falls.  It was beautiful!  perfect day and the falls were amazing.  The kids really got to see huge sheets of ice cascading over the rocks.  When I went to take a perfect picture I had no battery! 


So, you will have to go there yourself and check it out.

Highly recommended!








To continue on with our ice week we made ice sun catchers.


first they put pretty things into a shallow dish... pine sprigs, berries and colorful tissue paper.

We poured water on and froze them outside. 
Then popped them out of the dish.

Finally, we hung them in the sun.


I thought they looked very pretty and easy.






This week too, I read a tale from the best resource of all.  www.mainlesson.com
It is a free source for all different kinds of stories.  Truly amazing! If your kids are as enthralled by stories as mine are then check it out. 

I read a story about the months called The Twelve Months.  It is appropriate more for older kids like 6 and up.  It was good and my little ones enjoyed it very much.


I have included all my go to places when I don't quite make it to the library for the week. 
I hope you like all my story hot spots:)








Next week it is
Candlemas




Until then...
~Blessings

Snowflakes

This week was all about snowflakes.  We had fun investigating them.  We learned a lot mostly from a book called Snowflake Bentley.  Willie Bentley was a man who really knew his snowflakes!


On baking/cooking day we made snow ice cream.

Yes, we used real snow.

I didn't want them to eat too much... so we also made
snowflake cookies.

Painting day was devoted to snow pictures.

We used white paint, glitter and chalk to make the wintry scenes.



For snack, snowflake soft pretzles.

We spent our days looking for snowflakes, but we only found...


mountains to sled down

and snow caves to hide in.

Here are some of our favorite snow stories.  Snowmen at night is very sweet with hidden pictures.  We've been searching it all week.




  We spent a  big day skating with our Uncle this week too.  It has been a fun week, though short.  I am going on a vacation weekend!  I have not left my kiddos for 5 years!  Very exciting.

Have a good week everyone!

Next week it is about
Ice.
Until then...
~Blessings.

Animals in winter

We spent this week talking about animals in winter and what they do when the temps dip down.  We talked about wild animals.   We learned about winter activity and hibernation.  First, we learned who hibernates.. chipmunks, some insects, mostly we talked about bears.

We decided to craft our own bear dens they could hibernate in for the winter on our nature table.

Bear in den

Then we learned about the bear mama lily and baby hope that live in Ely MN.  

You can check them out here.  It is a very informative website.  Everything bear. 

We made a rice bin this week so Tillie could play too.

Turns out everyone loves the rice bin!! 

They played in it all day making the bears hide under the mountains.

We also talked about the animals that are still active in the winter... rabbits, squirrels, and mice.  We learned about tracks in the snow.  

on painting day we made our own tracks with potato stamps.

These are Matthew's dog prints

We went on a nature walk to find tracks down by the creek.

Here is our best find.
We think squirrel.

They pretended they were the wild animals making the tracks.

Bear hibernating.





We read great books that helped us all week

On modeling day we used our new clay to sculpt prints.

To break up our blustery winter more this week we went to underwater world.  They had a huge jellyfish collection that was fun.


We also, went to a home schoolers gym time.  It was at the community center.  We got to play with a lot of other kids and meet other home schooling parents!  It was great they had a good time and I think we will be going back.


This week I too started school.  I want to bring the family more music.  I do not want the music to come from a recording.  The problem is I am not musically inclined what so ever.  I decided to learn to read music and play an instrument.  The classes are held at a Waldorf school so, I can get a feel for how they teach.  It is great except I am really out of my element to say the least.




Next week it is about

snowflakes and tolerance

until then...
~Blessings

New year ~ New beginnings

This week we really tried to start fresh!  This is a whole new year!  We wanted to really delve in and un-clutter.  We spent the week cleaning and tossing.  Taking down the tree and finding homes for all our new gifts.  Tom also helped by seriously tackling our basement.  We had the children by us helping the whole time creating a family out with the old in with the new sort of start.



It has also been very cold this week.  Sometimes winter can get a little long.  When I was single and childless this is when I would vacation.  Somewhere sunny and steamy, just to remember what it can be like!  For posterity we boarded our airplane (car) and flew to the tropics (Como Zoo).

We got to see tropical fish

tropical plants every where

blooming gardens

Beautiful mini-vacation!!




Of course we saw animals too.

We made play dough this week too.
The recipe is easy and it turned out great.

PLAY DOUGH

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 cup water

mix it all together in a sauce pan
  cook until it forms a ball then need it.
voila! play dough


We made snow men

just do not let your daughter eat it, it tastes terrible!!!

We also, celebrated the Epiphany.

Epiphany is January 6th it marks the twelfth day of Christmas, or last day of seasonal celebration.  This is the day the three kings arrived in Bethlehem to bring gifts to the Christ child.  I acted out a figurine play of the three kings arrival and told other stories of the kings.  I like teaching the kids about what they do in other countries and we talked about Russia.  In Russia on the Epiphany the children tell stories of Mama Baboushka.  She is a woman who was invited to travel with the three kings to see Christ, but she declined and ever since she is trying to find him to bring him his gift.   The Russian children expect little gifts on this day from Mama Babouska mistaking them for the child.

The best part of celebrating Epiphany is making a cake!  One makes a cake with a bean baked inside.  Who ever has the piece with the bean is crowned king for the day!

Congratulations King Wesley!



We had a fun week slowly trying to get back into the swing of things:)

Next week it is about
what animals do in the winter and warmth.

until then...
~blessings

Happy New Year!!

We have had a busy couple of weeks.

Lots of family and celebrating.  I hope everyone had a wonderful season.  I am looking forward to getting back to school, back to rhythm!  I will be posting again at the end of next week with all our new winter adventures.

~Blessings