Our world in pictures Nov. and Dec. 2011

November

Bug is going to make a snuggle blanket

Working on her snuggle blanket

Let's explore the human body

The brain Muhahahaha!

Testing out the new hundred dollar bills

Bug loved that you can see threw it

King Connaher doing Tai Chi

More Tai Chi

Geology kit. We had alot of fun with this one. There are cards that show practical applications of the rocks it was very enlightening.

Crystal growing kit

Playing the board game Science lab

Every girl loves a wedding dress. A good friend of ours gave Willowtree this wedding dress for her to upcycle. She is not sure if she wants to do anything with it yet tho.

Starting our month long crystal gowing experiment

Crystal growing underway

December

States of matter experiments. 

You can see the Avacado tree still growing in the background.

Gooey fun

Bug started her Time and Money unit

Making a clock

Making the clock

Yule crafting

Finished snowman garland

King Connaher in his spiffy new clothes for his job interview

Intro to physics and simple machines

Let's build a lever

Very intent on what she is doing

Completed Lever

Bug learning how to knot her snuggle blanket

We learned all about the winter holidays of the world

Bug is finished her snuggle blanket

Yule baking curtesy of Willowtree and Bug

New game for Yule, we learned about this one when we studied Egyptian history

Gifts for some special neighbors Isis milk bath made by us :)

Family Yule ritual

King Connaher reciting the Holly King speech

Re-eneactment of the Holly/Oak king battle at Yule

Bookwork

Willowtree learned the medieval art of lacing a corset

Magic School Bus Space experiments

Magic School Bus Space experiments

Human body model play again. This one gets ALOT of use

Human body dice. We play with these and the model together

Crystal experiment finished

They almost reached the line

Going to crack open a geode

King Connaher smashing his geode

King Connaher's geode

Trying new things. Octopus

Trying new things. Octopus

Trying new things. Octopus

Willowtree making potstickers from scratch for New years eve

MMMM homemade potstickers. Happy New Year!

Our world in pictures Sept. and Oct. 2011

These were posted for our homeschooling liaison so she can enjoy some of our learning moments.
Nov. and Dec. will follow in the next post

September

 The Avocado seed that Bug planted is growing strong

Tomato from our garden

MMM the tomato is Bug approved

Zed is home for a visit and is a 1st year apprentice scaffolder now :) The minions got a lesson in scaffolding and structure stability.

 Feather forest created by Bug for her little pet shops

Zed gives us a Bo demonstration

Zed showing off his skills

Willowtree gets a cell phone for her birthday day. This new responsibility ment a budget change for her, she met this challenge by starting to babysit outside the home.

The Bug listening to a new music style TECNO introduced to her by her favorite cousin

Silly kitten and the apples we were gifted for Mabon. They were turned into all sorts of yummies

Mabon feast: Stuffed squash  grown by the minions

The bug playing at Pagan Pride days in the city

The story circle at Pagan pride days Edmonton. It is taken from pretty far away as alot of pagans are camera shy.

We collected Acorns for crafting. The minions were able to identify every tree in the park :)

The minions playing silent ball a game they created

 Learning who lives in our garden

OCTOBER

Tutu Willowtree made for her costume

The Bug making meringues

The cold lady bugs that sparked a conversation about hibernation

Honoring the ancestors

King Connaher is...

Working the soil after the harvest. Preparing for spring

The girls working together to clean up the yard for winter

our potato harvest

Samhain

Willowtree working on her Samhain costume

Measure twice, cut once

Aromatherapy. Blending oils and creating gem oils

A costume choice turns into a journey into the world of gladiators! Thanks cousin Brandon :)

Bugs new journal

 

 

 

 

Willowtrees hard work. Finished costume Darkfae

The back. She wanted to make wings too but ran out of time so had to buy them Yay Dollar store!

Bugs cool idea. Great use for a barbie in my opinion.

Pumpkin carving time

Zoe wants to bob for apples too

The Minions on Money

The Bug trying to rip the new 100 dollar bill

Canada released it's new 100 dollar bill this past week.  We got one for the minions to check out. We talked about some of the new security measures.  The minions thought the durable polymer was a really good idea and tested it thoroughly. Then we talked about counterfeiting and why it is wrong and how it effects everyone this lead to a discussion on monetary systems touching on some of the ancients systems and what different cultures looked at as valuable and that lead to discussing barter. We talked about greed and the state of our world today because of the worship of money. We talked a bit about class systems as well. one thing I found fascinating was that even tho the minions know why we have money they all agree that other systems would be better and were quite baffled as to why it still exists. The innocence and lack of corruption they show in this money driven world gives me such hope.
Great quotes from the minions: 
The Bug - "well I think its pretty silly that how much paper we have says how much power we have!"

King Connaher- " jeez why don't people view value by who a person is and what they do, no wonder our worlds so screwed up."
"Paper doesn't even feel like it should have worth at least gold was heavy."

Cooking with the Bug

Cooking is a very important skill one that I believe is essential for happiness. A good meal goes beyond filling the belly it can make one feel truly loved. I LOVE to cook and that love of cooking was passed on from my parents and hubby is a chef so it was a no brainer that the minions would be taught to cook. They all love to cook and are very good at it. They have been cooking with us since they were tiny. Zed is all grown up and living on his own now and does all of the cooking in his home. He regularly wows his friends with his skills. King Conaher is famous for his bizzare and yet tasty creations. He is by far the most adventurous when it comes to food and melding flavors. Willowtree loves to bake so much that she has been tossing the idea around of becoming a pastry chef. The Bug at seven has decided that she can do it all by herself now :) So she made her first recipie with Mommy only observing. She chose one that she has made alot before Meringues.

 

The Shrek cookbook is her favorite

 

only two ingredients makes it perfect for little bakers

Sorry don`t have any pics of the actual mixing but her biggest challange is still seperating the yolks from the whites.

Dropping by the spoonful onto parchment paper

Ready for the oven

 She went on to make a chocolate batch after these mmmm yummy.

Mabon 2011

A few days before Mabon we were surprised by a visit from an old neighbor. She brought a gift of harvest bounty two overflowing bags of apples. Such a beautiful gift and very much in the spirit of Mabon, the harvest of fruits and vegetables. This gift of Apples means so much to us as Apples are a sacred symbol in our family
trad. I incorporated them into our Mabon feast

Roast Turkey~ a gift from my Mom at Lughnasadh

Roast Turkey
Savory apple and grape stuffing~ Grapes are a wonderful mabon symbol and we had these tiny champagne grapes so I used them instead of raisins in the stuffing it turned out awsome!
Cheesy smashed cauliflower
Steamed baby potatos with Turkey gravy
cranberry sauce
Stuffed squash

  grew the squash myself  :)

 and for dessert.....

Baked pears with an amaretto cream sauce...these were absolutely divine

We gathered with friends and family shared in the bounty of the earth and gave thanks.
Bountiful Blessings from our house to yours

and the rest of the apples they are being made into applesauce, apple pie filling and sour cream apple pudding.

Stress.....Really??

Recent events have made me realize something I am seriously stressed out and that confuses the hell out of me because I thought I was a pretty stress free person.
Now here in lies my dilemma. The things that the professionals and Doctors are telling me are stress are things that I have always just rolled with so hmmmm am I really stressed?
Well my body seems to be telling me I am. I have been diagnosed with TMD (Temporomandibular Disorder). At the specialists appointment I was told repetitively the main cause of TMD is stress.
So now I re-examine my life.....is my roll with it attitude really as stress free as I think it is and are there other stressers in my life I am not seeing or am I going to discover in the end it has nothing to do with stress and I am stressing for nothing LOL

What is Natural learning?

Today I was watching The Bug create a world in the game Little Big Planet, she was telling me about creating the flowers then dressing up her sack puppet as a flower to blend in. I casually told her that was called camouflage…she then went on to show me how she could camouflage her character as many different things each time using the word properly and repetitively to master it and add it to her own vocabulary.  Over the course of a half hour game session we talked about camouflage in the natural world and how animals, plants and people camouflage themselves for survival and various other reasons.  We touched on multiple subjects from Biology to Psychology and covered content that would be considered way beyond her grade level and by the time she was done with the subject she had a diverse and thorough grasp of the word and multiple examples to refer back to and use in the future.
This is a perfect example of how we learn…..we call it Natural learning. My definition is…being mindful and present in your child’s world, being able to recognize and seize the opportunities to expand their knowledge using their own world and interests.
I know it seems really simple but it really isn’t, you have to arm yourself as the parent with a wide variety of knowledge and really pay attention to what your children’s interests are. Then research if need be and be creative in presenting what you can to add to their experience without pushing to much on them and either overloading them or boring them out of a genuine interest. You have to be able to see things from many perspectives and find ways to intertwine those interests with other subjects so you can to foster other learning experiences. Now you can’t always do that but nine times out of ten it works and it is best if you can do it all with out being obvious. In our world it has become so much more than a learning style it‘s a lifestyle.