Pinewood Castle

Searching?

If you happen to be looking for Circle Time plans they are here. They turned out very well until Easter or so and I have yet to type up what I do for spring and summer. All the books have been on my desk all summer waiting for a block of time for me to accomplish this and it has not yet happened. My apologies. I also plan to revise Fall - Lent to fit this calendar year. Maybe one of these Saturdays.

We also did the Alphabet Path a few years ago, or a version of Elizabeth's original and that should all be here if you are looking for that. This was great fun; very memorable. I might not put so much into the compsers and artists if I were to do it again, though, because they seem to remember nothing from those subjects. Everything else was a hit, especially making the alphabet on the floor with their bodies!

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.?

 

Breaking News

My "Oklahoma" rose bush bloomed on "R" week!!! How Serendipitous is that?!

(please don't look at the leaves - I pulled out the rosebush spray this morning!)

Now if only we can spot a Ragged Robin . . .

Highlights from P Week

This week was especially Serendipitous! We began with the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, played at the park on Tuesday and ended with a Patriotic 4th of July!

P is for Pansy - Dancer had the idea of taping a real pressed pansy into her illustration

And St. Patrick - prayed the Prayer of St. Patrick

Reading time focused on Princesses. The featured fairy tale was The Twelve Dancing Princesses. And we just love everything by Sibylle Von Olfers.

Pigs:

Petunia offered a lesson on Pride

And peacocks (more lessons in pride)

Listening time was spent on Prokofiev's "Greatest Hits" CD and Peter and the Wolf. We were thrilled to discover this great picture book of Peter and the Wolf (with CD). 

Also listened to Paganini Caprices.

The art of Picasso actually grew on the children this week.

On the menu - so many P foods (we ate well that week!): pink pig pancakes (added beets to the batter - Deceptively Delicious), pudding (two kinds: pistachio and chocolate with mashed avocado, another D.D. recipe!), twice bakes potatoes, pasta (frozen Bertolli), pot pies (frozen Marie Callendar's), peanut butter banana sandwiches, pecan bars (Krusteaz mix), peas, pesto ravioli, pineapple, pizza, pita chips, popcorn, popovers, pork (loin roast on the grill), pretzels (the big ones in the frozen section), peach pie, papaya (ours went bad before we got to it), peaches, pears and plums. Whew!

Highlights from O Week

O is for the Orchis Fairy and St. Ordilia
 

The Alphabet Path this week was supplemented with some Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The two page spread of the orchestra was colored in the Musical Instrument Coloring Book. Going with the "orchestra" theme, we also listened to Carnival of the Animals.

The children like to play this game with the picture dictionary - Dancer reads the definition and the other two guess the word.

The O pouch:

On the menu: oatmeal, omlets, oranges, onion soup, oriental chicken and rice, olives, Cheerios and Oreos.

We spent some time on owls:

Here are the instructions for the owl paper bag puppet

And read some random "O" books. The "S is for Sooner" is for Oklahoma!

Mostly we kicked back a little and enjoyed the mild summer weather we had that week!

Here is a shot of our growing Wee Felt Saint collection. With this group on the sideboard I am actually feeling their heavenly presence - like we are in heavenly company. Odd but true. It is a good reminder  for us to pray for the intercession of the Saint of the Week.
 

Highlights from N Week

N is for . . .

Nasturtium Fairy - love adding the leaves to salad! The flowers are edible!

St. Nicholas

Fairy Tale - The Shuttle and the Needle

Noses

Nursery Rhymes - lots of them! Want to make sure Dino knows them!

Books:

On the menu: Nutty Noodles with Chicken, nuts, nachos, new potatoes, nectarines and noodles. Lots of noodles.

Highlights from M Week

M is for . . .

The Mallow Fairy - we even added a mallow to the garden this year. Has yet to bloom.

 

St. Michael

 

Mountains

Music and The Bremen Town Musicians

The Moon

Montessori Moon Phase three part cards

Little Bear flies to the moon!

The energetic music of Mendelssohn (we've already spent a considerable amount of time on Mozart)

Singing: Mary Had a Little Lamb, The Muffin Man, The Bear Went Over the Mountain, Mary Mary Quite Contrary.

Monet

and Matisse

Mice

We made the mice from the Klutz Sewing Kit and enjoyed these books:

"Works" - magnet and marble run

Lots of other books

On the menu: Moroccan chicken, muffins, mousse, maple glazed chicken, mushroom burgers, macaroni and cheese, meat loaf, meat balls, meat ball soup (Italian wedding soup),  McDonald's milkshakes, Mexican, mussels, mango, mint chocolate chip ice cream and marshmallow crispy treats. Yum!

Highlights from L Week

 This week the Serendipity Alphabet Path featured Lily of the Vally, Lilac, Lavender and St. Lucy.

Because the "L" flowers are among our favorites, we were particularly excited this week!  The timing perfectly lined up with the blooming of the lilac hedge we planted from bare root four years ago. Due to a late spring, however, the bells on the lily of the valley are just forming. Likewise, the lavender in the garden is just greening up.

Do you know this song? My mother-in-law loves to sing this tune about the lily-of-the valley:

White coral bells upon a slender stalk

Lily of the Valley deck my garden walk

Oh, don't you wish that you could hear them sing

That will only happen when the fairies (or angels) sing.

The children's faces lit up when they heard the melody of this tune used in the Lily of the Valley song on the Flower Fairies CD!

Also dear to our hearts is the lovely St. Lucy whose feast day we enjoy celebrating in December. We all liked how the Wee Felt Saint turned out!



Many of the titles suggested on Serendipity were checled out and we added some of our own as well.

We focused on "Little"

Five Little Ducks
The Tale of the Little Little Old Woman
The Three Little Pigs
The Little Duck



The Little Fire Engine
The Little Train (there are many more "little" titles by Lois Lenski!)
The Little Engine That Could
Little Toot


Little Fur Family
The Little House
The Little Bear Treasury (Sunshine began reading these)


And others
"L" is for Library
Love You Forever
Miss Rumphius - the Lupine Lady!


Nursery Rhymes (to make sure my 4yo knows them!): Lavender's Blue, Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, Little Jack Horner, Little Miss Muffet and London Bridge.

Draw Write Now Three Little Pigs



Lions - we read a Zoo Book on lions.


Drawing Lions


Lion Pom Poms



Show & Tell


Love those lollipops! We also listening to the Lollipop Tree on the Burl Ives' Little White Duck CD.

L Works


L Pouch
 

Composer of the Week: Liszt. The DVD, Liszt's Rhapsody by Devine Entertainment just arrived and we have yet to watch it. I did not find any picture books, but summarized what I remembered from my music major days and refreshed my memory with The Gift of Music.

Artist/Scientist of the Week: Leonardo. The children watched A Dream of Flight in the van, but we had to return the DVD before I had a chance to see it. We did enjoy several picture books:
Leonardo da Vinci by Lepscky
Leonardo da Vinci by Stanley. (This one is for older children, bit I loved it - I read and summarized)
Leonardo and the Flying Boy
Leonardo A Dream of Flight DVD



Poem of the Week: The Lamplighter. An especially nice track on A Child's Garden of Verses CD!

On the Menu: Leftover Liver. Just kidding! But it was awfully fun to tease the kids! We indulged in lasagne, lamb chops, lentil soup, leek and potato soup, lobster meat & pesto pizza, latkes (potato pancake) lemon rice pudding, lefse (Norwegian flat bread popular up here!), limeade, ligonberry jelly with IKEA meatballs, scones with lime curd and ladyfingers. No, we did not have lutefisk!

Here's a little serendipitous experience we had - we were early to dance class for a change and took the long way on a country road past a llama farm! I drove up the dirt road to take a picture and noticed the farmer driving towards us to investigate his unannounced visitor. After explaining our interest he invited us to see a newborn llama born only three hours before!

Highlights from K Week

This week the Serendipity Alphabet Path featured the Kingcup Fairy and either St. Katherine of Alexandria or Blessed Kateri. We discussed both, but I couldn't resist making a Wee Felt Saint of Bl. Kateri. We even found a little feather to go in her headband. (BTY, I make these, not the kids. I do it while they are drawing in their main lesson notebook and the baby is napping)

Kingcup Fairy:

Rather than following the Serendipity plan of reading books by Ezra Jack Keats, we chose books on kangaroos, kings and knights. There were two fairy tales we found at the library that worked well and will be added to my "to buy" list: King Midas and the Golden Touch and The King's Equal. Pickle Chiffon Pie is a goofy but fun book we already had with a king as a main character.

Books on knights were plentiful and I was glad for the opportunity to delve into the subject because it will be a few years until we get around to studying Western Civ. Dino needed some "boy" books anyway and (Shhh, don't tell!) he will be receiving a crown, sword and shield for his birthday next month. The one that says. Knight: A Noble Guide for Young Squires is going on my "to buy" list too.

The Kitchen Knight by Margaret Hodges was especially well done and we listened to a similar version on the Knights story CD. Sunshine chose this one to narrate.

More knight books just right for Dino's age:

The kangaroo books brought on discussions about marsupials and the continent of Australia.

The children spent a morning wearing aprons like Katy No-Pocket.

Oh, and we had to read the Three Little Kittens.

The children thought of the idea to make "soiled mitten" cookies!

Craft-of-the-week: finger knitting. The girls caught on to it easily and Dancer even went to town and produced a 15 ft jump rope!

With the spring winds we had we just had to go kite flying. Out of the five kites we had, we could only get one to work.

So we made these and they worked nicely. They did get squished after a day or so. I am thinking about ordering these or these.

Poetry: we have fallen out of the habit of memorizing an age-appropriate poem each week but we couldn't resist The Wind by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Some other fun memories - here's what they brought for Show & Tell:

How Sunshine shaped her modeling beeswax (the kids do the wax during reading time)

What we call the Key Work:

The Menu: kiwi, king crab (on sale over Mother's Day!), chicken a la king and kabobs.

We skipped kale - I much prefer Swiss chard - and I could not for life of me find a kumquat. Trips to Burger King and KFC were planned as well but canceled due to burnout.
 

Speaking of burnout, thanks for all of your support! It really means a lot to me to hear from people who have been there or who are going through it too. Also, just blogging about what we did during that time makes me realize how much the kids did learn even during a very low time. We did take two weeks to do letter K, but can you believe we did all this while I was going through the worst burnout I've ever had? I can't!

I also realized that maybe I shouldn't stress about about finishing the Serendipity Alphabet Path before September. So what if it takes until Christmas? I might just have to relax and take our time with it.

Anyway, I am amazed that last week I was 99% convinced that I should not continue to homeschool and two days ago I ordered most of what we will be using next year! I do owe some public thanks to that miracle hormone progesterone that helped me get out from under the clouds. I will have to do some more research about this and this so I can take better care of myself. Anyone with experience to share? My body obviously needs this hormone!

A little humor goes a long way in the alleviation of burnout too - "Treadmill Kittens" was part of our therapy for "K" week!

Highlights from J Week

Wow, that was almost two weeks ago so I had better log this one in!

This week the Serendipity Alphabet Path took us to visit the Jasmine Fairy and St. John the Divine.

Tea Time included Jasmine tea

And St. John turned out like this - looking like the Holy Spirit is nesting in his hair! Oh well, our Bl. Kateri this last week made up for it, just wait until you see her.

We added the music of Scott Joplin for composer study

and introduced the Jack-in-the box to the baby. She was a little scared at first!

For recess I encouraged rigorous jumping jacks and jumping rope. No photos of that I guess - I must have been inside baking a cake or something.

Fairy tales included Johnny Cake and Giant John (yes, we used Giant John for G week too - it's a favorite around here!)

The featured craft was jewelry-making

This is also the week that a little someone reverted to 30 minute naps and woke up in the middle of a Gnomes & Gnumbers session. Yes, I let her play with the gemstones a bit and yes, she swallowed one - thank the Lord she didn't choke and die! Lest anyone think things go perfectly around at Pinewood Castle, here's what the remainder of our math time looked like that day:

I can laugh about this now, but believe me we were all pretty miserable then.

Well, on a more positive note, here's a cute narration page from Bread and Jam for Francis:

A little game to keep upper middle and lower middle occupied during eldest's Latin - we called it "Alphabet Zoo". Sunshine learned that camel begins with a "C", not a "K"! She's the same child who, when playing I Spy, is known to spy something that begins with "L" -- electric poles!

I almost forgot - we saved the Joseph and Chico book for J week and had a little Bavarian dinner with wine from Neuschwanstein Castle and imported pumpernickel. Yum!

Dancer's 1st Holy Communion day was exquisite and I will post about it asap! Feeling much better even after a busy weekend!

Highlights from I Week

This week was much less intense for us. We did not come up with quite as many ideas as we have other weeks. Also, our attention is diverted to other areas of life. Like baking cakes! We had St. George Day and dancer's birthday. Next week is Baby's 1st birthday and Dancer's 1st Communion is the 11th. With the dance recital, May Day, spring cleaning and yard work thrown in we welcome some "easier" weeks when it comes to school!

BTY, did you notice that every Sunday in May is something on the Church calendar? Ascension, Pentecost (and Mother's Day), Trinity and Corpus Christi!

I digress. Back to I Week.

I is for the Iris Fairy, ICXC = Jesus Christ, St. Ignatius or St. Isadore. We went with St. Ignatius - the ICXC initials for Jesus just confused them. It also helped to know that Ignatius was a knight like St. George!

On the menu: lots of ice cream! Every night! Ok, we will be trying Indian food on Saturday. A week late!

Books: Islands. We read the ones below. We could have done a lot more on islands, I know, but just didn't get to it.

I wanted to at least explore the Waldorf approach of the "I" - the sense of self. I really don't know what that approach is, exactly, so I guessed. We talked about when they were babies and used to hearing themselves called "you". I relayed to them how, when they started talking, that they thought they were supposed to call themselves "you" as well. They giggled when I told them how they used to say "You are hungry" or "You need to go potty" when referring to themselves. Somewhere along the line they figured out that they should refer to themselves as "I". I don't really know how this happens, but somehow all kids eventually do!

We re-read a book that two neighbors of mine authored and illustrated, Hobie the Hope Bear. In this picture book, a bear returns home from the first day of school feeling as if he has little in common with his classmates. After the teacher gives them the assignment of making posters listing things they like, Hobie sees at least one item on every classmates' poster that he hold in common with them. The children made their own "Hobie" posters listing what they like using colored pencil and watercolor paint. They turned out well and I would post a photo except that their real names are on them and then you would know. (Is this something I should change? Don't most of you know their real names anyway? Non-bloggers, what would you do if you had a blog?)

For music we listened to Charles Ives. Not the most kid-friendly stuff but it stretched their ears a little.

For art we reviewed the Impressionists by reading one of their favorites: Katie Meets the Impressionists. They chose one work to copy in their main lesson books. Three guesses what Dancer chose?

And last but not least - "I" is for poison ivy! Or poison something that brushed my little girl's face on our "off the path" nature hike and caused several days of redness and swelling! The poor honey!

 

Highlights from H Week

Another week on Serendipity's Alphabet Path = another week (or two) of fun schooling.

H is for Herb Twopence and St. Helen, Queen and mother of Constantine the Great. Credited with discovering the true cross.

On the menu: ham (Easter ham, of course!), hamburgers (veggie), hot dogs (chicken), Honey-Nut Cheerios, chocolate hazelnut bar, hot chocolate, havarti and herb salad. I would have loved some halibut too, but $$$ you know. One can only splurge so much, even on fish during Lent.

Which reminds me that our first week of "H" week happened to fall on Holy Week!

Fairy Tales - we have been reading mostly from this collection illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova. This week featured Mother Holle, The Twelve Huntsmen and Hans in Luck.

Composer - Handel and his Hallelujah Chorus as well as harpsichord suites! Here are our Handel materials - the one we liked best was Handel, Who Knew What He Liked.

Artist: Winslow Homer. The DVDs by Devine Entertainment are working well for us. This company presents films about artists, composers and inventors. My crew is a bit young for their target audience - my 7-almost-8-year-old stays tuned but the younger ones wander off. These are available from our library, though I think they would be a worthy splurge in a few years. The coloring page of "Crack the Whip" is from the Dover Art Masterpieces coloring book and the postcards were ordered from CHC.

Rather than read books about honey, as suggested in the Serendipity plans, we opted for titles on Houses and Horses. So many from which to choose!

And some random "H" titles:

Here's what they brought for Show & Tell!

Hmm, looking at my plans here I forgot to facilitate the planned craft of making doll house food from Sculpey clay. Oops. I did, however, manage to make this horse from Feltcraft. Not perfect by any means, but Dancer was thrilled to find it on her pillow the next morning.

Now, please don't be intimidated. A year ago, walking into a Michael's store gave me a panic attack. I have had to make a serious effort at becoming more crafty, prompted by reading You Are Your Child's  First Teacher. Rahima Baldwin Dancy writes:

Artisitc activity involves the same vital or creative forces that your baby is using, but it replenishes rather than depletes them. Playing a musical instrument, drawing, sculpting, painting, all can help mothers to have more energy.

As a former musician, this passage spoke loudly to me! Putting music aside to be a SAHM not only required a change in my sense of identity, it also created a big hole in my inner life. It has taken me years to take up other creative activities. Crafty projects satisfy quite well - they last longer than anything I would create in the kitchen and unlike music I can work on it after the children are in bed!

That's about it for H week. If you are doing Alphabet Path or planning to I would love to hear from you!

Highlights from G Week

On this week's  Alphabet Path we met the Gorse Fairy, St. George, giraffes, goats, grandfathers, giants, gnomes, geese, gingerbread boys, Gershwin, Goya, Galileo and guitars.  St. Gemma 's feast day also fell this week!

On the menu: granola (we added orange craisins - yum!), green eggs and ham, Greek salad with garbanzo beans, Greek burgers, guacamole, gumbo, grits, grilled cheese, gnocchi, a roast goose, grapes, grape juice, gingerbread (cake), graham crackers, Green Goodness juice drink and green pistachio salad.  G cookies and G jello jigglers too!

Our St. George - toothpick leftover from Candlemas Tea!

Our G pouch:

Fairy Tales - The Goose Girl and the Golden Goose:

Books about giraffes.  The Zootles arrived in the mail that very week!

Giants and Gnomes (actually I didn't care for and did not read that version of Jack and the Beanstalk, just so you know).  We found Giant John by Arnold Lobel at Goodwill of all places.  That one's a gem!

Grandfathers and Gingerbread.  That red one is from my childhood!

And Goats

Gershwin, Goya and Galileo (those late period paintings of Goya's walls presented a challenge - I had to skip some pages, preview and explain the movie a bit).  We have also been using Art Masterpieces to Color and Musical Instruments Coloring Book by Dover Publications.

We also enjoyed this Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue book and CD from the library!

Our Gnomes & Gnumbers lesson focused on even and odd numbers.  We played a little game with the hundreds board.  We each chose a gnome and distributed coordinating colored bingo markers.  Holding a bean bag, I said "1" and placed my marker on the board.  I tossed it and the next person said "3" and placed their marker, etc. all the way to 99 and then went back down to 1.  Another day we did this with even numbers.  A little tedious for the children, but an overall hit!

Prelude to G Week

A short school week allowed us to catch up on crafts and read every Curious George book we own.  Well, this is two out the three stacks we read.  When will the Man with the Yellow Hat learn not to leave that monkey alone?

Can you believe they fought over who got which Curious George?  Of course you can, you're a mom!

There paper dolls were right up Sunshine's alley

All enjoyed a new puzzle I had been saving for months

And the girls are all set up with a sewing kit, needle case and strawberry pincushion

Unless everyone is sick on Monday, the real G week will commence!

Highlights from F Week

Another week Along the Alphabet Path and we are still feeling Serendipitous! 

F is for Fuschia Fairy, St. Francis and the Forerunner - St. John the Baptist.  We also spent time on the topics of fish, frogs, fox, flowers, fairies, feet, firetrucks and farm animals.




On the menu: fish, fish sticks, sardines ("little fishies"), fish crackers, F cookies for Friday Tea Time, fruit cocktail, fruit salad, figs, French fries, French toast, fajitas, falafel, braised fennel, focaccia, frittata, fusilli pasta and feta chicken bake.
 

Fairy Tales: The Frog Prince, The Fir Tree and The Fisherman and His Wife

Animals: fish, frogs and farm animals


Art: Redoute: The Man Who Painted Flowers and the ABC Museum: feet and fountain.

Music: Faure and flute.

Crafts: Rainbow Flower Felting Kit, Paper Plate Fish and a Flower drawstring pouch (for Mamma's MP3 player!)




What the children brought for Show & Tell:
Sunshine brought St. Lucia who Fed the poor!


Thoughtful (who has, bty, requested to change her screen name to "Dancer") brought her Flower Fairy basket:


Dino brought his Nerf football.  Didn't photograph that I guess!

Here's the contents of our F pouch:


Works out for the week:


Some of the books we read (the Redoute book we ordered is still in transit):

We also spent some time with fox stories: Chanticleer and the Fox, Flossie and the Fox, Henny Penny, The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck and the fairy tale of The Fox and the Wolf.  That last one was funny - about what happens when the two "bad guy" animals are hungry and meet up with each other!

Field Trip: to see the fish at Cabella's! 

We paid particular attention to the fins - comparing the shape and size of fins among the different fish.  Like the dorsal fin on this pike so far back.



Wee Felt Saints - wild and wooly St. John the Baptist with a shell and St. Francis (found the bird at Michael's!):


Sewing and Beeswax - Sunshine's F's are getting fancy these days:


Gnomes and Gnumbers lesson - Odd and Even:


Baby Princess' F lesson: Fear of the Cat!  Love that face!

 

Highlights from E Week

E is for Eyebright, Elijah, Eggs, Edison, Einstein, Elgar and Eclipse.

As is our emerging pattern, a few things were added to the delightful Serendipity plans.

On the menu: English muffins, English muffin pizza, egg boats, ham and egg bake, eggs in a nest (egg fried in cut-out of toast), egg salad, soft boiled eggs, eggplant parmesan, enchiladas, empanadas, E jello jigglers and eclairs.

The children enjoyed hearing the stories of Elijah again and were excited to see fire and clouds represented on our Wee Felt Saint.  Some other books we added to the reading list were The Emperor's New Clothes, The Elves and the Shoemaker, An Egg is Quiet and Grandma Elephant in Charge. 

The children had their first introduction to the likes of Edison and Einstein from library videos and actually listened somewhat quietly to Elgar's Enigma Variations while sewing their Es.

The Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday added to our "E" excitement!  Our best view of the moon was from our bathroom window which required the children to pile into our bathtub - blankets, stuffed animal friends and all.  Thoughtful thought the event "majestic".

More scenes from along the Alphabet Path:

Highlights from D Week

D is for Double Daisy, King David, dogs, dinosaurs, Dvorak, Degas, dancers, ducks and dolls.

On the menu: Chicken and Dumplings, chicken tenders with dips, donuts and donut holes, dilled salmon and date scones. 

And dinosaur food.  A resourceful homeschooling friend tipped me off to some wonderful dinosaur ideas which of course made for the happiest day of Dino's life. 

Thoughtful drew some bones which she hid.  Dino and Sunshine pretended to be paleontologists and hunted for the bones.  When all were found the dinosaur skeleton was assembled.  Here it is along with the paper stuffed dinosaur with whom Dino has slept every night since.

The Dinosaur Lunch:

• Dinosaur Meat (chicken nuggets)
• Dinosaur Eggs (peas)
• Dinosaur Droppings (figs)

The Dinosaur Dinner:

• Dinosaur Legs (chicken drumsticks)
• Trees (broccoli)
• Boulders (quartered new potatoes)
• Quicksand (applesauce with crushed graham cracker on top)

The photos:

Craft from the Klutz book: Drawstring Pouch

To top off the week, we skipped the Dinosaur Walk at the Mall of America so that we could meet up with our friends from A Catholic Harvest at Underwater Adventures!

Highlights from C Week

Third letter, third week and all is well.  The children have never been so enthused about anything since we did since Five in a Row and lapbooking.  Again, the "C" theme made my menu planning easy.  Here's a sampling of what we ate this week: chili, cornbread, corn chowder, baked custard, cinnamon coffee cake, chicken sandwiches, lemon chicken, cream puffs, corn dogs (meat-free), cinnamon oatmeal, chicken nuggets, coconut soup, chocolate pudding, clam chowder, croutons on salad, cinnamon french toast, cottage cheese with peaches, cobb salad and carrot cake.  Yes, about the only thing we ate this week that did not begin with C were the awful fish sandwiches from Arby's on the way to Ash Wednesday Mass!  (Have they always been that penitential?)

This week, C was for Columbine Fairy, cherubim, cats, and children.  Oh, and Cinderella, can't forget her, and we just love the ending in the version from A Child's Book of Stories in which she forgives her stepsisters and sets them up in the palace with other eligible bachelors.

Some of the handiwork here - C is for cross stitch:

We figured out that read-a-loud time is great for warming the modeling beeswax 

My eldest read every Clifford book we own to the younger ones and the puzzle I had stashed away made an appearance

The contents of the C pouch - the many sounds of "C"

Thoughtful added this on her own  - from a sheet of tongue twisters I had printed out for her

C was also for caves, continents and clouds:

Cats  made from the Klutz's Simple Sewing  book and ones we drew from Draw, Write Now
 

Copland and Chopin were in the CD player this week and the children colored instruments that begin with C in their Musical Instruments Coloring Book.  The artist in the spotlight was Mary Cassatt who painted children:

One of the funniest things that happened this week was when, after reading about Mary Cassatt, I found them posing and sketching one another in the classroom! 

I about bust a gut when I walked in on that session!  The only thing more cute was the circus they put on for me in the basement.  Thoughtful was a clown doing funny tricks, Sunshine rode the hobby horse forward and backward on the balance beam and Dino rode his tricycle with no hands.  Quite the entertainment for indoor recess!

We topped off the week with tea time:

Tomorrow's "C" destination: Church.  I doubt we will go anywhere else due to the forecasted high temperature of 0 degrees!  Perhaps we will stay in and get to that cardinal from the bird kit. 

I will leave you with a glimpse of what my husband enjoyed witnessing after dinner tonight - the children playing with the three Wee Felt Saints we have so far.  Have a good week everyone and a blessed first full week of Lent!

Highlights from B Week

The food.  We are having the most fun with the food!   This is actually simplifying my grocery list and menu planning.  For now, anyway - X week might be a challenge!

B is for bagels, homemade bread, black bean soup, brownies (No Pudge) with Breyers ice cream (the new fat-free version is really good!), blueberry muffins, bologna sandwiches, bunny grahams, borscht, blueberry bagels, berry yogurt, roast beef sandwiches, burritos, butterscotch morsel cookies, banana yogurt, BLTs, BBQ chicken, broccoli, biscuits, blueberry jam and toast, letter B cookies, blueberry scones, burgers and banana cream pie!

B is for Bugle Fairy - Dino was thrilled to see a boy fairy:

B is for St. Brendan the Navigator, who may have discovered the New World (Newfoundland) in the 6th century!  We also had the feasts of some "B" saints this week such as St. Bathildis, St, John Bosco and St. Brigid.  Here is our Wee Felt Saint of St. Brendan:

B is for boat - we found a coloring page of the same boat pictured in the ABC Museum book and we hunted for postcards with boats from American Impressionist Paintings, Winslow Homer Paintings  and Hudson River School Paintings.  Robert Louis Stevenson's My Bed is a Boat was also had a reading this week.

In addition to the titles listed on Serendipity for B week, we also read Mashenka and the Bear (very cute!), The Biggest Bear, Barbara McClintock's Goldilicks and the Three Bears, Snow White and Rose Red (in which the bear who comes visiting is really a prince)  and The Rainbabies.  My husband also took it upon himself to introduce Bilbo Baggins to the children by reading The Hobbit.
 

Dino enjoyed the B sound pouch:

Made a B page:

Sunshine still enjoys punching:

B is for backstitch and blanket stitch, some embroidery that Thoughtful learned:

Dino was reluctant to sew, but ended up loving it! Couldn't sit still to sew, had to be on the move:

B is for bird.  We only got around to making one bird from the bird kit (and 0 balls) but Thoughtful was thrilled with how the bluebird turned out.  We figured we could do the cardinal for C week!

For some additional birds study we also spent some time with Audubon's Birds.

B is also for Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and bluegrass music.  B is also for banjo, bass clarinet, baritone horn, baritone saxophone, bass, bass drum, bagpipes and bells that were colored in the Musical Instrument Coloring Book.

B is also for blue eyes.  Baby blue eyes!

Our First Week on a New Path

I cannot tell you how excited my children are about taking a new direction with our homeschooling this month.  Although we sort of followed a letter-a-week approach last year, it was a rather ho-hum effort on my part.  After discovering the plans published on  Serendipity we have all gotten excited about the fanciful approach that Elizabeth and Katherine have authored.  Using Cicily Mary Barker's  Alphabet Fairies as a springboard for this ABC program, this pair of veteran homeschoolers have incorporated many ideas from Waldorf education and have woven in Catholic themes from the book Letters From Heaven as well. 

While the Flower Fairies provide the inspiration for the Alphabet Path and the artwork and botany study, the authors have also incorporated letter formation, illustration, narration, handwriting/copywork, art appreciation, music (learning songs on Flower Fairy CD), saints and Biblical figures, crafts, cooking skills, children's literature (picture books and fairy tales) and language arts study.  The companion math program, Gnomes & Gnumbers also draws on the mathematical  Waldorf approach with stories that illustrate concepts, the use of rhythmic movement to internalize math processes and creating main lesson books.  We plan to add Lively Language Lessons to our schedule as soon as our previously purchased 2nd grade CHC workbooks are completed.

Fortunately for us, most of the books and craft supplies recommended for these programs are ones we already own and the Waldorf approach to education and child development are subjects in which I have always been interested. 

The ABC path will serve as my 4.5 year old son's formal introduction to the letter sounds and letter formation and will be a great review for my just-turned-six year old girl.  My 7.5 year old girl still has "one foot on the rainbow bridge" (maybe both feet!) and is just as excited about this program as her younger siblings.  Fairies and gnomes still tickle her fancy and stir up her lively imagination. 

Here is our new schedule or "daily rhythm" we have proposed for ourselves:  Download serendipity_schedule.pdf

For each letter I am also planning make use of sound pouches, fairy tales, sewing the letter, punching out the letter (Montessori style), animals, composers, musical instruments, nursery rhymes and additional saints.

While the children have enjoyed all of the activities thus far, the menu planning has made the most lively dinner conversation.  For letter A week we consumed angel hair pasta, asparagus, angel food cake, Asian noodle salad, Mandarin almond shrimp, ants on a log, almonds, apricots, apples, apple pie and A-shaped Jello jigglers.  We are eagerly planning meals for the weeks ahead and are having great fun by suggesting leftover liver for letter L week!

Here is a sample of the beauty and activity we have added to our home during our first week:

Modeling beeswax (the one in the middle was made by Sunshine who explained that her A is standing on a hill, wearing a hat and carrying a purse!)

Main lesson book - angel

 

Main lesson book - Apple Blossom Fairy

Sewing

Rainbow angels  kit

Washing the cookie cutters Making "alphabet soup" after cutting out salt dough letters:

Tomorrow we plan to wrap up A week by finishing our reading of reading Aladdin's Lamp from A Child's Book of Stories  and by visiting the Minneapolis Institue of Art.

Here is a sneak peek of the crafts we have for B week - a felted bird kit  and making felt balls:

Elizabeth should have a Serendipity-do-dah! post up soon to showcase how other families are using Serendipity. Come and join in the fun and add a bit of beauty, creativity and wonder to your school days!  A big thank you to Elizabeth and Katherine for taking the time to share their gifts with us.

Stay tuned for more!

*****  I just have to add these words of recommendation from my 4yo son, "Mommy, now that we are doing the Alphabet Path I like you as much as I like daddy!"