Tag: homeschooling

Enchanted Halloween

This year marked one of our best halloween celebrations yet, thanks to the amazing group of families in our weekly learning cooperative. The whole crew of us gathered in the forest, the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes, and the parents ready with simple yet engaging activities. After sharing some warm apple cider, the kids made their way through the enchanted forest over to a giant pumpkin for some collaborative story-telling and pumpkin decorating, then ran over to what they dubbed the “pumpkin-snot-cano” station (baking soda, green food colouring, and vinegar). Some very careful estimations took place at the next station, followed by a story as they munched on honey-butter popcorn and chocolate.

As with almost every gathering of this group, there was a whirlwind of free play. Also, a quick experiment to see if they could wrap around the one giant old tree that stood in the centre of our gathering place. At the end of our time together, Milo said to me in a dreamy voice, “Mama, I love our homeschool co-op.”

The magic didn’t stop there – at home, we carved pumpkins, crafted costumes, and baked delicious pumpkin donut holes. To be honest, the pumpkin carving was done a bit reluctantly on my end, as I have reservations about using food for decorating. Thankfully, a local farmer is accepting jack-o-lanterns for her pumpkin-loving pigs to eat! We had a great time visiting with neighbours on halloween night and we’re all looking forward to next year, when we’d love to have a fire outside and share warm apple cider with visitors. We had the cider and donuts to share this year, but didn’t find a good balance between trick-or-treating and being home handing out candy!

November 2, 2015
Advent Week 1 :: The Light of Stones

This post is a part of our Tiny Advent series. All of the posts are housed over on this page for your convenience. We hope you follow along and enjoy the series. Come on over and share your photos on our Facebook page and tweet about it with #tinyadvent @tinypeasant. Thanks!

Welcome! Each week’s post contains the following:

// Family Discussion Points // Poster // Memory Verse // Centerpiece Decorating
// Crafts // Gift, Acvitity & Act of Kindness Ideas

To see our advent calendar tutorial and download our gift/experience/acts of kindness lists, head over here.

THE FIRST LIGHT OF ADVENT

The first light of Advent is the light of stone– Stones that live in crystals, seashells, and bones.

DISCUSSION

As we light the first candle on our Advent centrepiece, we will think of the light of stones. What light does this, the mineral kingdom, offer up? How might the stones and crystals have participated in the journey of a father and mother with child?

Brainstorm with your family. Some things we thought up:

// They would have been the very foundation the couple walked upon.

// Provided shelter to the weary travelers in the form of a cave.

// Provided nourishment in the form of minerals like those found in salt.

POSTER

Print out this free 8.5 x 11 First Light of Advent Poster to rest on your mantle, piano, or hang on your wall, to remind you to think of these things this week. There are three more to add to your display over the coming weeks.

MEMORY VERSE

Those who wish to add on some verses, you can download and print our Memory Verse Cards. Each week has one simple verse related to the week’s light. The verses were picked by the lovely Heather of heatherboersma.com, who is offering her own amazing Advent series for grown-ups called We Will Wait.

Just cut out the cards, and work on the Week 1: Light of Stones card.

CRAFTS, GIFTS & ACTIVITIES

Below are some of the ways that we will be exploring the mineral kingdom in our home this week, in addition to some of the other Advent ideas mentioned in the first post in this series.

ADVENT CENTERPIECE

Settle into your weekly Advent rhythm with a mug of something warm while you work on your Advent centerpiece. You might like to try our recipe for Nourishing Hot Cocoa. We decorate our centerpiece, from our lovely friend Krista of Birch & Brush, with seashells and stones in this first week.

ADVENT CRAFT – STONES/MINERALS

1. Mineral Crystals using simple household items. These make a beautiful seasonal decoration for your wall, window, or tree. Get the full how-to here.

2. Felted Stones using found stones and wool roving. This is a lovely sensory activity with warm water, bubbles, and fibre. The stones can be paper weights, or decorations. Get the how-to here.

3. Painted Shells & Stones – a super simple activity with few materials and little prep!

ADVENT WEEK 1: GIFTS & ACTS of KINDNESS

These are the items that are in our sock advent calendar – so some items such as the first three will actually be in the socks. The others will be little notes that might lead the kids to find the supplies for the craft, or just telling them what we’ll be making for that day.

Gifts

1. Stones – set some aside for crafting and use others to fill about 2-4″ in a glass hurricane vase or glass bowl for an activity in week 2.

2. Seashells

3. Bone – found artifacts or jewelry made from found items such as sheds or teeth

4. Mineral bath salts – set these aside for next week when you can add herbs to make a beautiful gift!

Acts of Kindness

1. Volunteer at or donate to a shelter.

2. Donate nourishing sea salt to a local food bank.

3. Offer to shovel & salt the sidewalk of a neighbour.

Please share your “the light of stone” kindness ideas on Instagram (tag @cityfolkfarm and #tinyadvent) or our Facebook page, or share in the comments below. Thank you!

Bonus:

Watch an Andy Goldsworthy video in which he uses stones to create beautiful works of art. Head outside and create your own stone art, as you think or pray about Advent. Note that Rivers and Tides features not only stone, but also plants and animals, so I recommend showing just the parts that fit with each week of Advent. Definitely watch it as a whole as well, though. Truly a beautiful film that has been a family favourite for years.

This post is shared as a part of Simple Lives Thursday.

Originally published December 2, 2013.

November 25, 2014
Craft Sale Week

This is one of the busier weeks in our year as we all help to prepare for my table at the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard Craft Sale, where I sell Tiny Peasant kits for kids, cards, and Urban Peasant neckwear. The kids know that during Craft Sale Week, they get to be my elves, and after the sale, I am their elf to help with all of their Christmas crafting.

Our homeschooling looks somewhat different during this week, with a lot less structure offered by me. I sort of panicked, thinking that I was abandoning ship and the kids would sink. Well, they are not only surviving but thriving. They have their own craft stations set up, making pony bead creations, finger knitting, crocheting, with breaks to build elaborate block towns, catch up with their lego characters, play house, draw, read a book, work on a project, play a game or head outside to play in the snow.

I’ve had offers from little ones who would like to man the yarn swift, and they all helped to sort out wool for the Tiny Weaver kits, and weigh roving for the Tiny Felter kits. So much elving going on around these parts and it is truly fun to do alongside the kids.

The way they have embraced this independence is amazing – there are no complaints of boredom, to be sure. Today one of them said to me, “The thing I love most about my life is that I can draw whenever I want!” All of this is a great reminder to me that I don’t have to have every moment planned. That they need me to hold space for them to direct their own learning, to fulfill their own needs for creativity, role playing, and decision making. And I can hang out in the wings (busily crafting) and be ready with snacks, with hot cocoa when they come in from play, to support conflict resolution when needed, and reach their halloween candy down from on top of the fridge. Ahem. The candy fairy doesn’t take all of that candy, you know!

November 29, 2013
The Week in Pictures

Some snapshots from the last week of October, with the exception of the daily nature walks, and tree climbing expeditions which weren’t photographed. If you have a post about your week, share the link in the comments. If you don’t have a post, feel welcome to just share about your week.

Milo’s first knit.

Mama’s first knit.

Plant spiced cider.

Castles and towers.

Caring for the home.

Early morning quiet.

Snack time magnet exploration.

Learning how to make coffee (and use the scale, ssshh…).

From the much loved Herb Fairies course.

Lunch prep.

A woodworking project carry over from our last exploration on castles, knights and horses.

Sketching together.

Starting off the day with yoga.

Sensory activity – matching the scents in the jars – vanilla, peppermint, and orange.

Sorting wild cats and domestic cats.

Halloween costumes – superhero, sheriff, and our version of wonder woman.

Hot apple cider came along on halloween night…

November 2, 2013
Games for Kids: Puzzle Bingo & Balancing

Recently I shared a couple of our family’s favourite games. Carrying on with that, here are a couple more that are adored by our children.

TRAVELLING BINGO

This simple, and whimsically-designed game has a permanent home on our learning shelf in the living room and is brought down to the carpet area once or twice a week. The kids love the combination of puzzle and bingo and little ones love flicking the spinner and watching it go round and round with eager anticipation of where it will land.

Djeco’s Travelling Bingo is simple enough that our youngest played it when he was two, but still entertains older children for at least a round or two. The illustrations are endearing, but do be careful how you store the puzzles as they are made of a sturdy cardboard that can peel or bend if handled roughly.

PANDABO

Neighbour to Travelling Bingo on our living room shelf, Pandabo, by Hape, is a beautiful and fun game. Sustainably made with bamboo and water-based paints, Pandabo offers a strategic challenge and can also be played cooperatively. The idea is to be the one who never causes the stack to tumble, but our family plays together, giving advice and cheering one another on. We aim to get the stack as high as we can as a group. Little ones can practice shape recognition and it’s really fun to see the wheels turning in the minds of older children plotting how best to ‘stay balanced’ as the stack grows.

March 8, 2013