Home Duels

Monday night we had a home duel with LCWM. They are rated 8Th in state and have many returning state participants on their team. So we won't share the score but just know that Tanner & Dalton did very well against the seniors they wrestled. At a home duel we shut all the lights off in a gym except for the wrestling spot light, which is pretty cool. We head to Maple River on Thursday to wrestle. Then its another home duel on Saturday. Hopefully the weather stays away and we can get some of these sporting events in. Tabor is going to be out for some time with the elbow injury but no surgery is needed! He is building up some more lower body strength and to kill some time has been looking at colleges on line trying to figure out what he wants to do. Man do they grow up fast or what?

Mother Goose Finger Plays book for free

A friend shared this on one of the Waldorf groups I am part of and I think that Logan is going to LOVE some of these finger plays. This collection is a treasure for babies and toddlers alike. :)

Enjoy!

Old Mother Goose Finger Plays

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons is a book about a group of siblings that go sailing to an abandoned island to camp for the last bit of the summer. The four children (ages 14 to 7) have amazing imaginations and they enjoy pretending that they are on a island in the middle of the ocean, protecting their ship from 'natives'. The book has an amazing way of showing the children's vivid imaginations by transferring their ideas to the stories that are being read. For example, for an entire chapter in the book the author refers to their mother as "Queen Elizabeth". "Queen Elizabeth said 'Is the ship sound captain?'" and Captain John replied "Yes my Queen." In another chapter, their mother and the man who has rowed her out to the island to drop of supplies for the children are referred to as "natives" for the entire trip.

We are about halfway through this wonderful book and I cannot stop singing it's praises. It is adorable! The only drawback to reading this delightful story is my lack of knowledge of proper nautical terms. It took me quite a while of reading to figure out what 'tacking' was (the way to go against the wind when in a sailing vessel) or what 'duffers' were (untidy and unruly sailors, apparently). But with a short unit study of ships and their equipment, the kids and I fell head over heals in love with this story and can't wait to read the rest of this series.

Day two of Creation

Wet on wet painting is going well. My paper got too wet today and so it looks like the ocean is rising into the mist of the sky, but I kinda like it. Like God hasn't decided exactly where the barrier will be yet.

We read the creation section from The Storyteller's Bible today. I am not completely happy with how short the selections are in that book and am looking forward to having something a bit more in depth but not dry like an adults bible would be. I am waiting to get my copy of Stories from the Bible by Walter De la Mare, but for now, this one will do.

And God said "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament. And it was so.

Alex's

Cyan's

Mine

Firsts...

Today was a day of firsts. It was our first day with our new curriculum (Live Education!), and it was our very first wet on wet painting expeirence. I had done it once before... but this time it was with the kids, and we had a lot of fun painting the first day of creation.

And God said "let there be light" and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God seperated the light from the darkness.

Alex's

Cyan's

Mine

Candlemas

Farewell to the darkness,

to unlit corners.

The light steals in,

the crone retreats.

See the light at the edge of the shadows,

Slowly it comes,

the Spring to greet!

The kids and I are doing an 'event' for every day of Feb before Valentine's. Today was Candlemas, so I decided that it was the day to make beeswax candles. I wanted to do it early enough so that we could burn a couple at the dinner table tonight. And luckily, the weather was so wonderfully cooperative that we sat in the sunshine in light sweatshirts and enjoyed a little bit of the coming back of the season of light as well. Thank you St Brigid!

2/3's back to the mat

Well the boyz got wrestling again this weekend. Both Tanner & Dalton went 1-2 for the day picking up a duel win over Minneapolis Edison. That leads us to Tabor~ he had another MRI today on his right elbow and there is a small tear in a tendon. We meet with the surgeon tomorrow to decide what we are going to do. I am so glad the month of January is over, all three boyz got the deductible used up in a hurry.