week #15, winter #3 wrap-up

I'm a day late with my weekly summary, but I figure this one doesn't need to be on time, because we're "on holiday" this coming week. Now if I can just remember what it was that we actually DID last week! In my attempt to keep everything calm and flowing well for the kids, I sort of ran myself ragged. Next year I'll know better what to expect and it should take less effort on my part.

We started the week by missing the last of our Intersession Homeschool Classes due to yet another ice storm. I couldn't even open the door to the van to start it and warm it up, so we went nowhere that day. Instead, we made a very nice paper chain to hang on our cute little tree.

Monday night, we took the kids up to see Bright Nights in Forest Park. Needless to say, they LOVED it! I enjoyed the more "laid back" homeschooling feel this week -- we did not do a formal circle (although we incorporated a lot of the seasonal movement activities in our daily lives this week), and that gave me the confidence to try shaking up that circle routine we've gotten into a bit. I'll post about the finished product when I'm done thinking it through, but I'm just about there.

We went to the museum twice this week, on Tuesday J had a class about Holidays Around the World, and on Thursday he learned all about Animals in Winter. Both days Zoo Boy (2nd from the right in a red shirt) enjoyed romping with other kids in the exhibits ("They're all my friends, you know," he confided in me), and visiting with his animal and staff friends in the animal room.

Wednesday evening we took the kids to visit with Santa at his workshop in Wickam Park. Here's a picture of them sitting in the sleigh he obviously arrived in from the North Pole. Zoo Boy enjoyed pretending he was driving the reindeer. (He said they must have been up on the roof, since we didn't see any sign of them.) On Thursday, prior to J's museum class, we met up with other homeschoolers at an Open Gym day, where the kids got to run around and expend some energy, MUCH appreciated since it's been too icy to play outdoors.

But the highlight of our week was our Curriculum Story and Winter Solstice celebration. The story was an Enki original, "Mid-Winter's Journey", told in three chapters, one each night by the fire. On the 4th night (the Long Night of the Winter Solstice), we used hand-made lanterns (that we made that afternoon) and took a walk up the street, singing the song from the story. Then we lit a bonfire and read "A Solstice Story" by Ellen Jackson, and sang a few more songs before heading back indoors. The wrap-up to the week came on Saturday, when we decorated a Yule Log and held our Yule celebration while it burned.

A lovely, lovely week, one of my favorites thus far. We didn't have much opportunity for Family Story Time this week in the way we've been doing it, but we did read these seasonal favorites of ours: Christmas Trolls, by Jan Brett; Night Tree, by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ted Rand (our very favorite holiday story!!!); and the absolutely gorgeous The Animal's Christmas Carol, by Helen Ward.

yuletide greetings!

I'm a couple days late posting photos, but better late than never, right? It's been a busy couple of days....

Here's the kids hard at work decorating the Yule Log on Saturday, our day to wrap up our Yule/Winter Solstice celebration. The Map Man took charge of this project, while I ran around taking care of last minute holiday details.

Our finished log, in the fireplace, waiting to be set ablaze. We'd feared that we might have trouble getting the log itself to catch -- it was a large log (needs to be, it's supposed to burn for 12 hours!) and was only cut from a fallen limb that morning (so it was aged, but out in the elements so we feared a bit wet). But turns out it was no problem, with a bit of very dry oak beneath it.

J admires our Yule blaze! We ate a picnic supper around the fire, which the kids thought was really fun and a great way to celebrate the holiday. Definitely will be part of our tradition from here on out!



The kids open their Yule gifts. I left it to their imaginations as to who may have left the presents in the tree. When they asked, I just said "Hm, I wonder..." and The Map Man's only answer was "There's a lot of magic around this time of year." Zoo Boy said he thinks he knows, but wouldn't divulge his thoughts on that. Each boy got an owl finger puppet, which they played with for most of the evening. Preferably this would have been a hand-made gift. Next year!

Then we popped popcorn over the fire (and in the microwave so that some of it was actually edible!). We had planned to string some of the popcorn for the tree, but we couldn't come up with a needle!! (Shows how much sewing and hand crafts I've been doing in recent years -- I used to be quite the crafty gal, but that was pre-kids. Need to get back to that at some point!) So we ate the popcorn instead (we'll make some to string for the birds when we move the tree out to the deck after Christmas), and read some stories before the boys' bedtime. The Yule Log was still going strong as we snuggled in bed to sleep.

the long night

"White, white the stillness of starlight on the snow...."



Tonight we celebrated the Long Night, part of our week-long recognition of the Winter Solstice (which occurs around 1am tomorrow morning).



This afternoon the kids made lanterns for our "Mid-Winter's Journey." I stole this idea from my pal, Kyra, over at This Mom, (where you can find actual instructions on how to do this!), who has a knack for choosing the sorts of crafts that even MY non-crafty kids want to participate in. (Look at Zoo Boy going to town on his lantern!!) Look for more Kyra-inspired crafts from my kids this winter!

As a quick aside, I do feel the need to brag that I managed to resist the urge to run out and buy matching canning jars, a bottle of modge podge, a length of leather and a few beads so I could do it JUST like Kyra did. (That would be SO me!) Instead, I scrounged around the house, found just enough glass jars kicking around, actually found 3 sheets of tissue paper, and used white glue mixed with water instead of an actual craft glue. For handles, I found some picture-hanging wire and managed to rig up something that actually held while the kids swung the lanterns around. Hooray for me!

And here they are, complete with tea lights in the bottom. I'm pretty thrilled with how they came out, and the kids were just over the moon about it. After dinner, they happily scrambled into their warm clothes and bolted out the door while The Map Man prepared a little bonfire for lighting in our driveway (typically we'd do that sort of thing in the pasture, but there's still about a foot of crusty snow on the ground, and we weren't looking to lose any of our kids in a drift tonight....).

With lanterns in hand, we walked down the drive, singing the song from "Mid-Winter's Journey" (the Enki Solstice story we read over the past 3 nights). My plan was to only go that far, light the bonfire, read a story, and head back inside. But the kids didn't think just walking down the drive was any sort of journey. So we headed up the street. Finally I turned us back towards home (amid a duly noted protest from Zoo Boy -- he wanted to keep going. You know, the boy that tires out walking more than about 100 yards....). I'm wondering if any of our neighbors happened to look out their windows and catch up walking up and down the road, singing and humming, swinging lanterns. Really, I would have rather we could have done it along a woods road. But again, that pesky white stuff on the ground prevented a more nature setting for our journey.

Finally we got back to our property and lit our bonfire. I read "A Solstice Story", adapted by Ellen Jackson from a Cherokee tale of creation, which explains why the Evergreens are green all year round. It jived SO nicely with the "Mid-Winter's Journey" story, as well as the songs we've been using in our movement circle. I love it when things pull together like that! Makes me feel so, I dunno, competent. Good feeling! Anyway, we sang a round of "Oh, Evergreen", then enjoyed the fire and each other's company for awhile. Eventually the fire started dying down and we all started to feel the chill of the night, so we sang our journeying song on our way back to the house, then extinguished the lanterns before we went in.

Nice evening! Tomorrow we'll celebrate the return of the sun with some traditional Yule festivities.

visit with Santa

Last night we took the kids to visit Santa's Workshop at Wickam Park in Manchester, CT. This place is the real deal -- I mean, just look at those elves working on making those toys! And who has a Christmas tree that big in their shop other than the Clauses? And, look -- who's that serving hot chocolate and cookies in the kitchen? Why, Mrs. Claus, of course. Yup, this be the place! We discovered it last year and it's now part of our yearly holiday tour.

First stop for the kids was the Head Elf's Office. He took down their names and what they wanted Santa to bring and logged it all in on the official List. Then it was just a short wait by a cozy fire in a rustic fieldstone fireplace (complete with a large moose head!) for their turn to see the man in red.

And it was well worth the wait. I'll tell you, Santa has an incredible amount of patience, and there's just no hurrying him along. Zoo Boy excitedly wanted to go first, and happily scrambled up into Santa's lap and snuggled right in with him, chattering away about the gift he wants. When Santa asked him if there was anything else he wanted, he said "nope, that's good". That's my boy!

Then it was J's turn. He surprised me by saying "and I also would like....", and I leaned in a little closer to hear what he was going to say, because, you know, the Head Elf didn't have anything else on his official list, so I thought we might have to do some last minute adjustments! But no, J was just making conversation, because he ended his sentence with "well, I like toys". Phew!

After receiving an apple from Santa, it was off to visit Mrs. Claus in her kitchen, where J graciously accepted a cookie and some cocoa. J let me drink the cocoa, and let Zoo Boy (who gobbled his cookie up in short order!) eat his cookie, but he was appropriately enthusiastic about receiving them from our hostess.

I assure you, nothing comes closer to authentic -- and without the long, cold trip to the North Pole!

holiday traditions

The boys play yesterday afternoon at the children's museum prior to J's class. This week's class was about Holiday Traditions Around the World, and it was a gem of a class!! They cooked holiday treats from around the world, made holiday decorations from various traditions, and played holiday games from various countries. It was entirely hands-on, and looked like the kids had a blast!

That's J on the right, in the gray shirt, hard at work on one of his projects. I just love these museum classes -- the teachers put so much effort into making them a wonderful experience for the kids, and just look at that teacher-child ratio! There were only 3 kids in the class, yet the teacher had two teen-aged assistants! And enough craft materials for about 3 times that number of kids -- in fact, they let Zoo Boy participate in a few of the activities as well.


Some of the things that J created in the class. The teacher joked that the glitter glue on the bottom picture might dry by Christmas. He also came home with various yummies to eat, and a couple little booklets with holiday word games and the like in them, which he's been enjoying. And, his favorite thing, a dreidel and a small packet of chocolate coins:


So here are the kids playing the Dreidel game. J patiently tried to teach me the words for each of the symbols on the dreidel and what they meant. Zoo Boy thought the game was pretty great, because he kept winning chocolate coins! The first thing he wanted when he woke up this morning was to play Dreidel again.

Our own holiday tradition. Last night began our week-long Yule celebration. We are reading a 3-chapter Enki story called "Mid-Winter's Journey", one chapter each night (the 3 nights before the Winter Solstice) by the fire. On Friday, we will make lanterns, and Friday night (the night of the Solistice) we will take a lantern walk and make a bonfire, and read a story about the Solstice (based on the Cherokee tale of creation). On Saturday, we will decorate a Yule log, then burn it in the fireplace that night, pop popcorn (which we will string on our tree), and exchange small gifts.

Of course, Christmas and all the craziness that holiday brings will still come -- our families "do" Christmas in a big way, so there's just no avoiding that. So Santa will come and bring a couple things, and we'll get and give gifts at The Map Man's and my parents' house. But we're trying to shift the focus of our holidays to our own family tradition. So far I'm really happy with the results. When people ask if my kids are excited about the holidays, I can truthfully say "I'm sure they will be when they come!", but so far we've avoided them being whipped into a frenzy about it. Which, as you can imagine, is making for a nice, calm, peaceful week for us. And that brings out the cheerful holiday spirit in ME!

bright nights

We took the kids up to see Bright Nights at Forest Park in Springfield, MA last night. This is a yearly tradition for us, a drive through the park to look at the elaborate light displays. I don't think we've ever enjoyed it so much -- the kids are at just the right age to really revel in the magic and wonder of all those fanciful scenes created in light. I don't think words can describe what we saw (and photos don't do it much justice either, but it's all I've got), so I'll just let you enjoy the photos and assure you that a great time was had by all!

paper chain

Did you guys make one of these when you were kids? I'll bet you did! I know we did. Once at least, and I think my Mom still has that chain,even though it's at least 30 years old at this point (probably older). I KNOW that my Dad and brother regularly try to sneak "junk" like that from our childhood onto Mom and Dad's tree every year, just to drive Mom nuts. In fact, I'm going to try to take a photo series of some of the more memorable of those artifacts to share here this year.

Anyway, I decided that it would be a fun project for J to make a paper chain for our tree this year. And I wanted a bright and colorful project yesterday to prevent me from whining about this:

Yup, you guessed it, another storm! In this picture (of Annie, comfortably out in the elements sporting her new waterproof blanket -- Happy Holidays, Annie!) it was sleeting. But at various times it's been sleet, snow, and/or freezing rain, sometimes (when we were REALLY lucky) all three at once. It started somewhere around 3am on Sunday morning and finally was tapering off by bedtime that night. (Of course, today it is ridiculously cold and outrageously windy....) But rather than moan and groan yet again (you can read plenty of that sort of thing here and here), I decided that our tree decorating was a more blog-able topic.

J picked up on the technique and we quickly hammered out a nice long chain... (Truth be told, *I* did most of the chain-making, although J hung in there for awhile. Zoo Boy thought nibbling candy bits off the gingerbread house was a more worthwhile pursuit.)




...then we hung it on our cute little tree. Saturday night, before the disgusting weather began, The Map Man took the boys to the local fire department to buy a tree, and got a dandy -- short, narrow, flat on one side -- PERFECT for us! Especially at $10. When you're in a limited space, you go straight to the flag pole, which is where they put all the "defects". Nothin' better than a tree that'll make Charlie Brown proud!

Just look how nicely our chain dresses up our tree!



More decorations will be forthcoming as the week progresses!