Our First Month of Preschool

Meet our preschool co-op. We sing, we craft, we read stories, eat healthy snacks, and one of our moms (my sister in law Kerri) lives on a farm, and hosted our first month of preschool. Here are our adventures from that month.

In September our theme was farming and fall. On this particular day we made apple crowns, read "Ten Apples Up On Top," and ate apple compote. Here's MaryAnn, one of the wonderful women in our co-op.

Kerri is our farmer mama, and so, so, creative with children. We made these cute little toadstool pillows for story time. Each child's is so unique!

When the older siblings are out of school, we all go to the park and play in the dirt. I loved seeing the little city they built from old bottle caps and things they found lying around the park!

I think the giant cockroach is a nice touch, don't you?

Hannah loves her cousin, Baby Rivers. She's going to be a great older sister. :)

 For our last day of preschool on the farm (at least until the rotation hits Kerri again), we had a special treat  - a field trip (literally) on Farmer Glen's tractor trailer!

He even let the kids climb around and explore the tractor. How cool is that?

Golden was a wonderful tour guide, and even let the kids sit on HIS red tractor. :)

I'm so thankful for this group of friends who have taken such an interest in the teaching and enrichment of all our kids. I hemmed and hawed about enrolling Hannah in a regular preschool in town, but what is a classroom filled with plastic toys, two teachers and 20 kids, compared with this:

No contest.

Michaelmas in September

September was a month of exuberant festivals! We attended Buffalo Bill Days, complete with line dancing, face painting, donkey riding, and outhouse racing. We also took part in a wonderful barn dedication at Lambourn Farm. I think my favorite of the September festivities, however, was Michaelmas. This was our first time observing the feast of St. Michael, me being the fledgling wannabe Waldorf mama that I am, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I wish I had taken more than a week preparing for this festival, and will remember to do so next year. For those interested, you can read a little more about Michaelmas over at Parenting Passageway. I drew ideas from many of the links on this page, and also from the book All Year Round.

 We invited my sister and her boys to take part in the festival, and we told the story of St. George and the dragon with little peg people I clothed as the characters in the story. My nephew Ethan especially liked the knight with his tiny little sword. Hans was a rather flamboyant puppeteer, and my narrating just couldn't compete with his theatrics. :)

Hannah and I also sculpted a dragon out of beeswax to go on our Michaelmas candle, which is meant to be lit every night until Halloween. It is a symbol of keeping darkness (the dragon) at bay as the days grow shorter, and we begin to turn inward to find the light and strength that will carry us through winter. 
                                        
 After telling the story and lighting our candle we ventured outside and reenacted the St. George story, with nephews as knights, Hannah as the princess (of course) and Hans as the dragon. I think this was the boys' favorite part. What little boy doesn't like being given permission to beat on his uncle with a sword?

                          
Doesn't this chivalry make you swoon? :) After role playing, we came inside for a warm supper of chicken noodle soup and dragon bread, of course. I got the recipe for this yummy bread from the book All Year Round, and have since used it at least three more times! My bread sculpting skills could use improvement . . .

We then took the children outside for a Grandpa-built bonfire that ended up being a little more than we'd bargained for. Hannah spent the entire time nursing the "dragon" back to health. She was quite distraught that our knights had to hurt him. I'm thinking next year the story needs to go " . . . and then St. George told the dragon to 'be good!' and the dragon obeyed, and took up baking bread with his fiery breath for the village baker. The end." 

 

Almost caught up! Thank you for bearing with me and reading through these memories with me. This has been a wonderful exercise in record keeping. I'm excited to finish up though, and talk about all the fun things that are happening now!

First Fall Morsels

 You're here, Fall, and everyone's talking about you. Your brisk morning air, your pumpkin spice lattes, your back to school sales. By the sounds of it, no one would know you've only been here for two days. I think you've been in our sights and in our hearts for much, much longer.

feeding the chickens at Red Barn Farm

 pumpkins of a different color

 thank you Hannah for sitting down longer than 4 seconds

 following the drinking gourd with Amy

three generations of apples who don't fall far from the tree

When I draw from my bank of Fall vocabulary, a few of the words I find are Crisp. Fresh. Cool. Fragrant. Crunch. Sweet. Orange. Harvest. Pick. Leaves. Squirrel. Nuts. Squash. Figs. Apples. Pumpkins. Wheat. Gather. Wind. Tea. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Simmer. Golden. Brown . . . a bevy of words that taste good because, Fall, you are a time of harvest and plenty. A time of food. What better way to celebrate your return than a bag of apples and a fistful of recipes?

 Apples from Vaughn's Apple Orchard in Weston, Missouri. Some of the only ones left after the windstorm two weeks ago.

 Apple turnovers, recipe here.

Apple strudel, recipe here.

  and my favorite so far, Apple Risotto, recipe here.