week #8 wrap-up

Wow, we're already starting the 9th week of our fall semester, the end of which will officially put us 3/4 of the way into our 12 week semester. It's amazing how quickly time passes, yet still gives me the opportunity to savor it. I think I appreciate the change of the seasons more this year because we are paying such detail to it.

So anyway, it's time for my weekly summary again, or rather, a bit past time, given that I usually post these on Sundays. But there was just too many other things going on this past weekend that needed to be blogged about. Like J's birthday party. And his other birthday party. And the Halloween party. And our new pig.

But anyway, the week started out looking a lot like these first two photos -- bright and sunny and colorful. The middle part of the week was gray and windy and rainy. So by the end of the week there wasn't much of any color left at all. All the leaves that had already changed had been stripped from the trees by the weather, all that is left are the green leaves that have not changed yet. Of course, that didn't stop us from getting outside as much as possible when it wasn't pouring rain on us.

J had his usual Homeschool chorus and soccer classes at the children's museum on Monday. And in a new addition to our weekly rhythm, we headed back over to the museum on Tuesday afternoon so that J could attend a museum class about bugs, where he made this really cool lady bug snack out of a saltine cracker, cream cheese, a mini-oreo, licorice, and red hots. Mind you, he didn't try to eat it, but I was excited just thinking that he actually had his hands on all of that "strange" food! So, of course, I signed him up for another half dozen classes or so. He just loves the classes there, and Zoo Boy loves playing in the museum while J goes to class, and I love chatting with the other parents, so it's a win-win situation for all of us.

Later in the week, we were back at the museum again, then had a nice walk at a nearby natural area, where J was checking out these cherries. This is what is referred to as a "mast year", which means we have an over-abundance of fruit -- wild cherries and apples, acorns, maple keys, nuts and seeds of all kind have been very plentiful. This always precedes an upswing in wildlife population -- makes sense, all that extra food allows more critters to survive the winter, and more nutrition for babies growing in their mom's bellies. Traditional farming folklore says that it also indicates a very severe winter. Guess we'll see soon enough!

I thought that you Enki-ites out there might be interested in seeing what our Nature Table is looking like at this point. We add something to it each week that reminds us either of our curriculum story for the week, or one of our outings, as well as picking up various things we find on our nature walks and pasture meanderings. This weekend J added a chicken feather he found in the barnyard, because it reminded him of the curriculum story we used this week (Child of Faerie, Child of Earth by Jane Yolen, adapted by me to better meet the needs of my children). I was very pleased when he did that, as I wasn't entirely sure the kids were "getting" the story. It's a verse rather than prose, and the boys seemed a little tuned out (I notice the same thing the last time we used a verse, which was Duchess Autumn in our 3rd week), even though we read the story book to them last year at this time and they loved it then. I gave them stringing beads to keep their hands busy after the first couple of tellings as I felt that I was "losing" them a bit. But then J happily skipped up to me and said "look, it's the feather the fairy child pulled from the egg!" and gently added it to our menagerie of memorabilia on the table, and I said "Hm. How about that."

Books we read during Family Story Time this week were Pumpkin Pumpkin, by Jeanne Tihterington (extremely basic text about a boy who grows a pumpkin, but the illustrations are gorgeous and I love how the pictures tell the bulk of the story without needing a lot of words); Patty's Pumpkin Patch, by Teri Sloan (a wonderful alphabetic romp through the seasons of a pumpkin patch); and Pumpkins, by Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Barry Root, which I'd heard mixed reviews about, because it's written like a true tale but has some pretty outlandish details -- we love it! Just enough magic to keep this story (of a man who saves a field by growing pumpkins in it) fanciful.