Starry Sky Ranch

all this filled my days

 

To have the children near me, to occupy myself with them, to try to raise them in the noblest sense of that term and to impress on those little souls things that will never be effaced; to interest myself a bit in everyone and to make our home into a living center, to give it soul - all this filled my days.

- The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur

Yes, all this. 

 

of figs and feast days

I am eating my words - and a lot of other stuff, looks like - by telling you that we did do a second celebration this month after all.  St. Joseph's feast day follows right on the heels of St. Patrick's.  As we read today the boys were pretty certain we "could" pull off a semi-traditional St. Joseph's celebration.  Traditional in that we had the symbolic foods,  'semi' in that we picked it all up on the way to soccer.   Do we plan ahead or what? 

So real quick 'cause it's late here is what we did.  We read Good St. Joseph together over lunch. (after Kieran swore he could find it if I promised to read it.  He did.  I did. : )) 

We looked up online traditional St Joseph altars in Italian communities.  They said the table typically had three tiers to symbolize the 3 persons in the Trinity and the 3 people in the Holy Family.  We made ours with stackes of books and paper. 

The little girls ran to the toy bins and brought a tool set. 

Kieran and Brendan grabbed some white beans and made the FAVA sign to tell the story of the famine. 

I ran into the store and got Fig Newtons (fig pastries are traditional but time consuming), spaghetti and sauce, and premade cream puffs.  

We ate it all up.

Then they retold the story to Dad. Voila. 

They are sleeping off their cream puffs and I am joining them the minute I hit publish.  

For references and printable projects to be done when you wake up say oh yeah!  It's a feast day!  Like right now.....   you can find a ton on Catholicicing.com  

Fig pastries are one traditional dish.  Catholicicing (pretty sure) suggested carving traditional symbols into the fig newtons which thrilled the little boys for some reason. 


Cream puffs.  Frozen. I sprinkled the sugar on top. I think that makes them semi-homeade.  

Does too.   : ) 

 

 

 

the wearin' of the green

 

A double blessing today: our priest sharing our special saint day and blessing our current home. 

Poor St. Patrick, courageous, faithful, selfless - reduced today to green beer and Lucky Charms.   (don't get me wrong though - we do plenty of silly, happy things to celebrate too)     He was brutally kidnapped from a comfortable family home on the island where my own family now lives. Taken by force, enslaved for YEARS, in cold isolation.  Where many would grow bitter and their hearts as frigid as the windy hills where he was charged with wet, wild sheep, he took refuge in prayer.  Year after year, exposed to the elements he cried out to God, Who heard and rescued.  

He was not content to live the rest of his days in safety.  He knew this world would never be that.  It called for service, not ease. He answered that call by returning to minister to the very people who abused him.  In constant danger, he stayed there in the midst of them, bringing them truth and light. 

In a world that worships liberation and insists happiness rests in saving oneself, he is a paradox, a puzzle. A saint.

 

A fervent Irish prayer to say and share this day:

Bless this house, o Lord, we pray.
Make it safe by night and day.
Bless these walls so firm and stout,
Keeping want and trouble out.
Bless the roof and chimney tall,
Let thy peace lie over all.
Bless the doors that they may prove
Ever open to joy and love.
Bless the windows shining bright,
Letting in God's heavenly light.
Bless the hearth a-blazing there,
With smoke ascending like a prayer.
Bless the people here within...
Keep them pure and free from sin.
Bless us all, that one day, we
May be fit, O lord, to dwell with Thee.

Dinner tonight was:

Shepherd's Pie

Soda Bread

Simple sauteed cabbage

Ideas we are working on for the month of March here under St Patrick.  I try to have one theme per month to linger through.  It is Ireland this month. 

on the window

We are reading:

Irish Legends

Finn McCool

St Patrick

S is for Shamrock

This is Ireland 

Can't say enough about the last two books.  I adore the "This is..." series. 

 

 

hands on geography fun

 

Our homeschool group's history/geography fair was this week which triggered a pinning blitz for me on pinterest. That netted some great ideas which tied in perfectly with the littles' geography studies.  

The first was our take on the Me on the Map project I saw several places. (based on this book)  The children cut their own circles from old cereal boxes so they are a little wonky but really sturdy.  They are going to make awesome manipulatives for some time.  

Konos has a similar project but they used envelopes in graduated sizes which fit inside one another.  A flip book works too.  Any way you choose to do it you begin with a picture of the child and his home then add layers (pages, larger envelopes etc) of the following: his street, city, state/province, country, continent, world.  

Then because I tend to overshoot they were so darn cute we made a set of continent cookies.  Actually this project was spearheaded by Moira and Aidan and was their contribution to the fair.  

The hardest part (I mean of course the hardest part aside from finding the project and deciding to make it the day of the fair. ; )) ended up being finding a set of continent templates that were the right size but still sorta to scale. Our world puzzle was too large.  We ended up using maps from montessorimaterials.org.  Aidan cut them and used them as a guide to cut the cookie dough. (recipe here)

They cookies held their shape well so the outlines stayed fairly true. We iced them in traditional Montessori colors and used this recipe which dried nice and glossy and firm.  They were a big hit and the kids were proud of themselves.  

You can totally teach geography without these.  Totally. But I think some version of the Me on the Map project is really worth the time to do to help give more concrete understanding of what are often really abstract concepts of place and scale. 

sounds like a...

 

Wow.  This last week has knocked us out. So much packed into everyday. I have pictures of some really fabulous school and food projects, but am too tuckered out to link tonight after having made it all. : )  It's coming though, sometime after sleep and my husband's work shirts getting ironed.  If you have emailed me in the past several days, and heard me mention that, you might be thinking to yourself, "Good golly, is that woman STILL ironing?"  Well, no.  I haven't actually gotten started.  

We did get a new car worked out, had a history/geography fair, an Irish dance workshop, and a few sick kids.  Therefore the wrinkles are still waiting for me.

They're good like that. 

Grateful tonight for a set of littles who find life as fascinating as I do and are so easy to amuse, entertain, and educate.  Such an easy trio they are. 

 

 

edited to add: The bird song bird is here and only reasonable used it appears. 

button, button, who's got the button?

 

We had a sort of slow rolling week productivity wise so I did the logical thing and picked a really tediously slow project to work on. : )  Due to my procrastination - and the fact that I have not tracked down the thread since we unpacked - we had accumulated 5 buttons that had fallen off various coats. Seemed like a good opportunity to teach everyone who couldn't how to sew on a button, starting with how to thread a needle.  This part took a loooooong time.  

  I did my best Jessica Hulcy impression and let them figure it out themselves with a minimum of grabbing away of needles, thread, or buttons. This, by the way, is the most important job of the home educator says Mrs. Hulcy.  She used to say that if she could give parents two things it would be a gag and handcuffs.  We jump in too early and too much.  We talk alot - explaining and correcting and offering tips ad nauseum.   She was right.  Standing by, quietly answering questions as needed, and allowing the time to work through tricky things is better than all the lengthy lessons we can offer.  They may forget what we say, but they remember what they figured out. You can't learn for anyone, after all. 

So, our coats are all in tip top shape now.  They know something they didn't. 

win - win

a day of small things

 

 "Who hath despised the day of small things?" 

"...rejoice."  Zechariah 4:10

 

breakfast book - 30's novel picked up at the antique store

calendar stickers

Martinmas!

 

Martimas has been a family tradition for many years thanks to my dear friend Karen whose family hosted the feast day party and bonfire.  In Germany it was a local holiday as well.  I don't know that it is in England but since it is a three day weekend we will make our lanterns and have a little parade after dark. 

If you want to incorporate some simple crafty or kitchen goodness today visit here or here. 

Gorgeous lantern inspiration from this German site. 

 

Happy feast!

living and learning lately

 

Just a collection of lately-ness so I don't forget. 

I have been teaching for nearly a quarter century now. It was high time I got a proper laminator, yes? I have a driving urge to laminate EVERYTHING in sight now.  

(game freebie from CHC)


Soup on the stove.  Applesauce on the stove. Chili on the stove.  

I love this stove. 

I watched them putting away the size matching sticks the other day and as always they got stuck and had leftovers.  I was thinking of Steven Covey's "big rocks first" analogy and realized that this current group of kids had never heard this metaphor. The older boys had read the 7 Habits for Teens.  It's been a while. 

We got on youtube and watched a 'big rocks' presentation and quickly restacked the sticks.  Then we talked about the ipods, the fantasy football, the many things that eat up the day and how we often find tasks undone at day's end. I need this reminder as much as the rest of them. 




My silly kids. : )  What I love most is the laughing. 


Speaking of youtube, Aidan mentioned an experiment in his text that he couldn't do because we didn't have the supplies.  It was about water testing and ph levels.  It occured to me that surely there was such a test in cyber space. And indeed there was. Many of them.  Five minutes later we learned all about acid/alkaline balance and the pro's and con's of many brands of bottled water and sports drinks.  

Youtube - it's a beautiful thing. 


Bowling with the homeschool group. 



and some thoughts about when to discipline.  And when to just hug. 

Autumn is a busy season for us. Sports practices keep children up later than usual in the evenings and out the door early on the weekend. A midweek holiday stirred up lots of excitement.  Timing for a homeschool outing might have been less than ideal but important for children who are meeting new friends in a new place. So we went. 

Tess and the older boys had a blast. Brendan was so very excited to go. He had mentioned early on he didn't need bumpers on his lane anymore so I didn't program his lane that way. However the other children did have them and his scores were quickly dropping behind.  He was soon in tears and fixing the program to provide him bumpers did not help his distress. 

The girls who delighted to play with the children at the center likewise promptly fell to tears on the way home.  Seatbelts too tight, jackets too warm, everything suddenly just...wrong.  There are times like this when you pause, look deeply into a child's eyes and err on the side of mercy. 

How often does this happen to moms after all? Up all night with a baby, running from appointment to appointment, laundry to fold, and finally a broken cup or paper cut and it all spills out. It isn't a character flaw.  It's fatigue.  

Sometimes naps are better than nagging. 

There was plenty of day left after resting. And it went better then.  

It always does. : ) 

pumpkin playdough

 

Early in the month we were talking about making homemade playdough when I ran across a recipe for pumpkin scented dough. (actually this links to the basic recipe with a link to the scented) We had all the ingredients on hand so Alannah made up a batch for the littles one morning while I was working with the olders.  Divide and conquer.  

Yay-ah! <g>  Seriously now, don't be a hater ok? 20 some yrs ago when I was teaching a five yo to read while my three year old was attempting to climb out the windows (not kidding, ask my neighbor) and my nursing one year old was beginning to toddle through the house I would probably have had some choice words for the woman with a built in extra pair or two of adult hands.  But a) I had to be in your shoes to walk to where I am now and b) those extra adult hands don't linger long.  They get jobs and go to school and move away all too soon.  It is a teeny tiny window of wonderful collaboration. A grace God sometimes grants which helps to make year 25 of preschool as much fun as year one was. 

Back to playdough. The post mentioned refrigerating the dough to boost its longevity.  This recipe has lasted all month.  In fact we had it out today and I am amazed at how pliable it still is.  

We have made rolled out pumpkins with cookie cutters and added dry beans to make faces. We also made pumpkins from balls of dough and noodle stems.  I want to point out though to any new teacher-moms that might see this that it is especially nice to organize a blog post around thematic colors and shapes.  In real life though, it is the rare child who feels compelled to restrict his/her play to preselected, holiday appropriate themes.  Hence, we have also had orange apple pie and pumpkin scented snowmen with the dry beans becoming snowman wigs. Which actually went sorta well with the Christmas story book from the library.  In October. 

You should know this happens.  It's ok.  : )