Pinewood Castle

Z end of Z Alphabet

The Fairy: Zinnia

BTY: Did I ever link to these Flower Fairy Montessori style three part cards? Paula sent the link to me a while ago.

The Saint: Zita

I know y'all want to see them all together - here are all the saints in whose company we traveled:

The Sound Pouch:

Show and Tell:

Music: Raffi's "We're Goin' to the Zoo Zoo Zoo, How About You You You"

Animal: Zebra

Field Trip: THE ZOO!!! For some reason I did not take many photographs that day. Cloudy days and low pressure systems make me feel unusually mellow. Too bad too, because it was homeschool day at the zoo (cheap tickets discounted admission) and we had the pleasure of seeing Paula and Laura and meeting Theresa there as well as palling around with our Dancing for Jesus teacher!

Oh, and yes, these are the tie dye T-shirts we meant to do on T week! Guess how late I was up the night before the zoo finishing these?!

Books about the Zoo:

If I Ran the Zoo

'Twas the Day Before Zoo Day

Going to the Zoo

When We Went to the Zoo

Put Me in the Zoo

Who's Who at the Zoo

Dear Zoo

1,2,3 to the Zoo

On the menu: Ziti and lots of Zucchini - perfect for this time of year!

I apologize for being so lazy about sharing recipes. Honestly, I just don't like typing them in. So if I do take the trouble, trust me - it's good!

Here's my favorite Chocolate Zucchini Cake. It's a recipe and old neighbor of mine gave me. I make it every zucchini season.

½ cup butter

½ cup oil

1 ¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup sour milk (add 1 tsp. of vinegar)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

4 T cocoa powder

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

2 cups shredded zucchini

Topping:

½ cup chocolate chips (or more!)

¼ cups brown sugar

Add first four ingredients alternately with milk. Add all others and mix in zucchini. Spread in a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle top with chocolate chips and brown sugar. Bake at 350, 40-50 minutes. Yum!

 
And a few alphabet foods we rounded up to celebrate Z END OF Z ALPHABET:

This was so much fun we think we will do it all again -- backwards! I'm just kidding of course!

Seriously, though, many thanks to Elizabeth at Serendipity for launching the Alphabet Path. Our lesson plans revolved around what she published and I just added some ideas of my own.

And thank you, dearest Lord for guiding us through each week, teaching us how to school "out of the box" and for gracing us with many serendipitous moments that showed us how your hand was guiding our home school. Thank you "Alphabet Saints" for praying for us each week like we asked you to! We made many new friends in heaven and learned more about our old favorites.

For those just starting out - I wish you the best! It may seem to get a little looong in the middle but it's totally worth it in the end!

Also, if you plan to check in here looking for ideas for your own path, you might use the "Alphabet Path" category link on the sidebar for now. When my technical support (my husband) is finished working overtime I will submit a humble request to install a search feature.

Highlights from X & Y Week

The Fairies: The Yellow Deadnettle and little X who is vexed without a flower of his own!

The Saints: Francis Xavier and  Joseph Yuen. These are all from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints, btw.

 

 

The Sound Pouches:

Show and Tell:

The Fairy Tale: The Yellow Dwarf

Music: Xylophone music (or marimba in a pinch) and Yodeling - whatever the library had. The yodeling CD was an awesome departure from our usual listening!

For Fun:
X Marks the spot - we read Pirate Pete and the children hid their own treasure in the backyard and drew a map. A snack of Veggie Booty followed.

X-Rays

Jessica's X-Ray

Animal: Yaks!
Kami and the Yaks
See the Yak Yak - this one was so funny! It's a play on nouns and their identical verbs like "See a fish fish". On the second-to-last page one of my daughters (who shall remain nameless) announced, "Oh, I get it!"

Field Trip: We went to a Yak Farm!!!

This was his "baby" yak named Patches - only four months old! This yak followed his owner around like a puppy. Into the sheds. Into the garage. Almost into his house!

BTY, I do not know why the Yak Man has his shirt unbuttoned. He arrived from his morning at the farmer's market this way.

Here Patches is getting into the hen house where the children gathered eggs.

The Yak Man said he would be around in the Yakmobile to take us on a ride through the ranch. He pulled up in this vintage fire truck- complete with a siren!

So we climbed in for a very bumpy ride to the fields where the yak were grazing. The brave children were offered a short ride -

Here's where the Yak Man said, "Where are we going?"

Up quite a steep hill apparently!

And down. It was such a hoot and we laughed until our sides hurt!

This yak must have enjoyed watching our thrill ride - and listening to our screams!

On the Menu: grilled Yak burgers that night and Yak jerky the next day for lunch! Yogurt and yams that week too.

So many serendipitous events have occurred while we have been traveling this Alphabet Path it seems to be God's own hand blessing our efforts. Here's a little sign we saw in the skies:

Highlights from W Week

The Fairy: Wallflower

The Saint: Wenceslas

The Sound Pouch:

The Fairy Tale: The Wolf and the Seven Young Goslings

Poems: The Wind by Robert Louis Stevenson, Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti, The Wonderful World by William B. Rands

The Composer: Weber (clarinet concertos) or Richard Wagner

The Artist: Benjamin West The Boy Who Loved to Draw

Fun Things: Wedgits

The Wind: The Wind Blew, When the Wind Stops, Can You See the Wind?, Henry and Mudge and the Wild Wind and a favorite The Story of the Wind Children

On the Menu: waffles, watermelon, wontons, wagon wheel pasta, walleye, white chili, wild rice, waldorf salad, white chocolate chip cookies

Qualms About Fairies?

Have you ever seen the pink elephant in our backyard? No? Well, if you ask any of our children they will tell you that it's there - along with zillions of flower fairies living among the garden blossoms.

I'm just thinking about the topic of fairies and all things fanciful lately. There are a few more moms trying out Serendipity's Alphabet Path this year and it got me wondering if the fairies would be included or excluded from the plans. After all, as Catholics, many moms are conscientious about presenting the supernatural world as accurately as we can in light of our faith. To some, fairies might seem to "New Age" or effeminate to present to boys. (About the later - there are many boy fairies like the Bugle Fairy who serves as a "brave sentinel". My boy didn't seem to mind in the least. And he learned so much about flowers that I have hopes of him being a master gardener someday!)

Anyway, I have to say I totally understand.

For instance, you know the song about Lilies of the Valley beginning, "White coral bells upon a slender stalk"? It ends with, "that will only happen when the fairies sing." Well, for years I changed "fairies" to "angels". I really wasn't too sure about fairies.

But somewhere along the line we got hooked on Cecily Mary Barker's fairies and the CD of music that brings her poetry to life. This style of fairy is so charming, Victorian and innocent. She used her sister's nursery school students as models and her illustrations reflect the sweetness of their age and era.

Fairies entered in as well as building fairy houses, etc. The girls knew it wasn't real, but still liked to play along. My husband and I had to re-examine other tall tales that we previously excluded. Like the Tooth Fairy. The Easter Bunny. Santa.

So what did I do? I called a veteran mom whose opinion I trust. This mom of many reminded me of the passage in Honey for a Child's Heart - a story of a little girl who liked to pretend she had a lion in her backyard. She would ask others if they saw it. She knew there was no lion, but she had just as much fun pretending that there was.

This is the approach we have taken with fairies and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and Santa. It's a fun game of pretend. And of course with the religious feast days like Easter and Christmas the emphasis lies so heavily on the religious meaning that the pretend stuff doesn't have a fighting change to outweigh the real meaning.

So that is what you will find going on in our home and we find it works for us. We find it fanciful. We try not to go overboard. We try to subtly hint to the children that it is make believe and keep hinting until they are sure they get the hint.

We had a great time this year getting to know the ABC fairies so well. It was fun for us. We found that Elizabeth's fairy stories made a wonderful "launching pad" for the letter of the week and tied the fairy and saint together in a respectful way. The fairies inspired hours of pretend play and numerous fairy houses were lovingly constructed during outdoor playtime. Including the flower fairies in the Alphabet Path kept alive this childhood magic for at least another year.

The next time you come for a visit to Pinewood Castle, be sure to look for the fairy houses as well as the pink elephant in our backyard!

U & V Weeks

The Fairy: Vetch who shows charity to "poor little U who has nothing to do"!

The Saints: Sts. Ursula and Vincent (like the food basket?)

Sound Pouches:

Fairy Tale: The Ugly Ducking and the Velveteen Rabbit (my copy from childhood!) This a great story for narration!

Also fun: the video of the Velveteen Rabbit narrated by Meryl Streep, music by George Winston.

Composer: Vivaldi the Virtuoso Violinist whose Vibrant concerts drew many Visitors to Venice. He Visited the Vatican and died in Vienna!

(I, Vivaldi just arrived yesterday!)

Lives of the Musicians
Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery(not pictured)

Instruments: Violin and Viola
coloring from the Dover Coloring Book

Also fun:
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
The Living Violin

Serendipitous event: beginning our 3rd year of violin and getting the children set up with the correct sized instrument - full size, quarter, tenth and a sixteenth!

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

The First Starry Night

Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars

Camille and the Sunflowers

Visiting Vincent Van Gogh

In the Garden With Van Gogh

Art project: draw your own self portrait while looking in the mirror - like Van Gogh did.

Fun: Umbrellas

Books about Umbrellas:

The Umbrella

The Yellow Umbrella

Umbrella

More U fun - unicorns:

The Midnight Unicorn

Unicorn Races

Some interesting info from Wikipedia about unicorns:

The two major interpretations of the unicorn symbol hinge on pagan and Catholic symbolism. The pagan interpretation focuses on the medieval lore of beguiled lovers, whereas some Catholic writings interpret the unicorn and its death as the Passion of Christ. The unicorn has long been identified as a symbol of Christ by Catholic writers, allowing the traditionally pagan symbolism of the unicorn to become acceptable within religious doctrine. The original myths refer to a beast with one horn that can only be tamed by a virgin maiden; subsequently, some Catholic scholars translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary. Interestingly enough, the collective term for a grouping of unicorns is "a blessing of unicorns".

Books about "you" (I know, I know, I'm puffing them up with dreaded self-esteem)

Because I Love You
You Are Special
You Are Mine
In the Fiddle is a Song

On the menu: vanilla anything, vichyssoise, lots of farm-fresh vegetables and pineapple upside down cake!

Highlights from T Week

The Saint: Therese

Also watched Therese on DVD.

Flower Fairy: Thrift

Sound Pouch

Show & Tell:(the fairy's name is "Titina")

Teddy Bears!

Tatoos

Fairy Tale: Tom Thumb

Various books about trees:

The Log's Life was a favorite

Turtles - Sunshine's favorite reptile

Beeswax turtles

I did this turtle felting kit for Sunshine. She smiled just like this turtle when she saw the finished product.

Composer: Tchaikovsky. Some info about his life was edited for young ears.

Artist: Toulouse-Lautrec. Some info about his life as well as some of his art was edited for young ears and eyes.

The Feast of the Transfiguration nicely fell during "T" week! Here's a shot from tea time:

On the T week menu: T-bone steak, tacos, lemon tarts, turkey couscous, tuna pasta, tomato tart, tomato salad, tortellini, toffee and tangelos.

Project we did not get to: Tie Dye T-shirts

Project we did get to: Flower Fairy Decoupage

Pitched a tent. In the backyard.

And the Tooth Fairy came to visit!!!

How Serendipitous!

Highlights from S Week

S is for Strawberry Fairy. This fairy song is special to us - we have been calling the baby our "little strawberry" because she is wild and sweet.

Strawberry small, and wild and sweet, for the queen and all of her court to eat.

Our Wee Felt Saint: St. Sharbel. Like the beard?

We have been placing other items on the sideboard that begin with the letter of the week. This week: shell, swan, shepherd, sheep and sailboat.

Fairy tales this week: Sleeping Beauty and The Six Swans. Also enjoyed The Squirrel Wife (not pictured).

Poem: My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson. Again, lovelovelove it set to music on the Children's Garden of Verses CD.

Composer: Strauss the Waltz King-- greatest hits and the Devine Entertainment production. This was a great opportunity to discuss music that "moves in threes" and dance about the house!

Artist: George Seurat. What fun. I can't quit calling him "Sir Dot". Seurat and La Grande Jatte gets two thumbs up.

Also a great opportunity to get out the dot paints.

Other books for fun: Miss Suzy, The Secret Remedy Book, The Silly Book, Sammy the Seal, Storm in the Night and Sheep in Jeep.

Animals: Slugs and Snails. The Snail's Spell, Are You a Snail and Slugs and Snails.

Encounter with The Real Thing in the garden

Crafts: sand painting, wax snails, drawing swans from Draw Write Now, soap carving with instructions from Ivory

Wax snails and poem idea from Living Crafts.

Also spend some time on spiders! The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Do All Spiders Spin Webs, Be Nice to Spiders and spider stories from Nature Stories for Young Readers.

Songs to sing: too many to list and endless tongue twisters!

She sells sea shells by the sea shore . . .

Show and Tell: sword, statue and snow globe

Sewing project: a scented sachet from Simple Sewing by Klutz.

Activities: scooter, sandbox, see-saw, swinging, skipping rope

Reading Time: in the sunflower house!

Outing: the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the Splash Park with Paula (where we ate her homegrown Sugar Snap Peas!)

We also attended the Symphony to hear a performance of a work on which we focused during "P" week: Peter and the Wolf

On the Menu: steak, salad, sweet potato, sloppy joes, spaghetti and pesto, soup, salsa, sauteed spinach and basil, shrimp alfredo, scallops with spaghetti, scones.

The Feast of St. Christpopher fell on Friday of "S" week. Legend has it, that the morning after his miraculous encounter carrying the Christ Child across the river, Christopher was instructed to stick his staff in the ground. By morning, the staff had turned into a date tree. We found this the perfect excuse to make the date infused Sticky Toffee Pudding!

** bty, for those who are doing Alphabet Path or plan to, we took two weeks for "S" week while waiting for T week to be published. Good thing - the possibilities are endless. We may be taking two weeks with T as well!

Highlights from R Week

On the Alphabet Path, R is for Ragged Robin

Our Wee Felt Saint: St. Rose of Lima

Fairy tales this week: Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin

What the kids brought for show & tell: a Reader, a Rose and a Rhinoceros

Instruments in coloring book: recorder

Poem: From a Railway Carriage

Composer: Rossini -  we listened to his overtures and watched the DVD of Rossini's Ghost

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Smart About Art Series), A Weekend With Renoir, Renoir for Kids

Coloring a Renoir from Art Masterpieces to Color

The R pouch

Other books: Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present, the ABC Bunny, The Runaway Bunny and the Tale of Peter Rabbit

Songs to sing: John the Rabbit, I've Been Workin' on the Railroad, Ring Around the Rosy, Rock-a-Bye Baby, Row Row Row Your Boat

Activities: raspberry picking, races, riddles, Red Rover, painting rocks

Animals: we focused on the rhinoceros

On the Menu: raspberry everything (lemon raspberry muffins, raspberry lemon tart, raspberries on yogurt and ice cream and pancakes), rhubarb pie, raisin bread, ribs, roasted beets, risotto, rigatoni, ravioli and pesto, red beans and rice, rosemary roasted chicken, red potatoes, red wine (for mom & dad) and root beer!

 

 

Totally Serendipitous

My Oklahoma Rose that bloomed

And the double rainbow we saw at the lake!

Highlights from Q Week

On the Alphabet Path, Q is for Queen of the Meadow Flower Fairy

Our Wee Felt Saint: Mary Queen of Heaven (also the name of our homeschool!)

The Sound Pouch

What the children brought for Show & Tell (the book is open to the chapter "The Fighter-Quarrelers Cure" from Mrs. Piggle Wiggle) also a Q-Tip and a Queen

Fairy tales this week: The Snow Queen

Poem: Queen of Hearts

Other books: The Quilt Story and other quilt books recommended on Serendipity

In the main lesson book the children drew their own quilts:

Songs to sing: Hail Holy Queen

Activities: Quarter rubbings,Quiet game

On the Menu: Quesadillas,Quiche,Quince (but I couldn't find one!)

Does This Count for P.E.?