Cate: Mom, can I go on the internet?
Me: What for?
Cate: For more information.
Me: On what?
Cate: Typhus and yarn
Of course, how silly of me.

:D
p.s. she’s designing and knitting something called a “Germ-Phob-Ile”… Stay tuned

A new friend has arrived! Please welcome Father Abbot. He will be helping us with primary and grammar maths.

As you can see, he is a Trappist, just like our friends at St. Joseph’s Abbey. I mentioned way back in this post that we had returned to Oak Meadow for inspiration for the younger children. I made some sweet little gnomes like the ones that Elizabeth and Katherine are also using (Serendipity indeed!). When Sophie laid eyes upon them she said “Mama, MONKS!”. And a light bulb went on over my head. Instead of gnomes, we’ll invite the monks to come and teach us maths.

We’ll be sharing the Monks’ lessons on my homeschooling weblog (yes, I’ve decided to keep it), which is getting ready for a major renovation.

NOTE: These monks were made using the large cone-based wooden Waldorf-style dolls and a few scraps of felt - a very thick cream and black. He beard is wool batting from my friend LaVonne, whose wool smells inexplicably of honey!

Being learned together at our school table. It appears that if Mama’s patience is to remain intact, she’d best order a second copy of Athenaze…

On the other hand, it may be useful to learn to say things like “stop shaking the book!” and “I can’t see when you hold it like that!” in ancient Greek…

… Or not.

Often involves cooking and baking in our home. Or making last minutes gifts, or making ornaments for the tree. There’s lots of fun, lots of good conversation and lots of anticipation. Once again, we made salt dough ornaments. They’re so much fun, and so easy - even for the littles.

Salt Dough
This recipe makes a nice, smooth dough that works up nice in the hand and bakes really well to a secure, dry finish. Paint the finished products with acrylics and seal with varnish.

1 1/2 c. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
2 T. oil
1 c. water

Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Roll out and cut with cutters, or shape by hand on a lightly floured surface. Bake at 225F for 2 hours. Cool before decorating.

I pray that your Christmas preparations are bringing you comfort and joy!

**** Good Heavens! I had the wrong temperature. It has been corrected now to say *225F*. Don’t want to burn those precious ornaments!

Cooking class! We’re making sourdough. The old-fashioned type. That means no commericial yeast and a whole lot more time.

Each of the children will be interested in different aspects of sourdough making. Jack and Cate will be interested in the chemistry of sourdough, Carrie and Will will be interested in the art of forming loaves, Sophie will be interested in mixing the starter, and Louis will be singing over all. I’m sure we’ll be poring over all the possibilities for the use of our sourdough and dreaming of what we’ll try first. Brian will be thinking about sampling the fruits of our labour, perhaps with a nice bowl of soup…

We do eat lots of bread here. It’s great with salad, soup, and toasted with jam. A slice of home-baked bread makes a lovely snack when you’re feeling a bit peckish and is especially satisfying when spread with a soft cheese like brie.

And NOTHING compares to the smell of fresh bread baking in the kitchen. I can remember what Nana’s house smelled like when she’d been baking. I couldn’t wait to get a slice! So, we’re making a starter this morning. It should be ready for using next week. A nice way to start our new year - with a good sourdough starter that could last a generation - and a tradition of baking breads the old fashioned way.

There is a bakery in a neighbouring town that makes wild yeast breads. That doesn’t mean that they go out foraging for yeast, it means that they have let it grow in their bakery and use their sourdough to make all kinds of delicious breads.

If you’re interested in starting a sourdough, visit this site. It’s excellent.

May daughter Cate (a poet) wrote this prayer this morning. I wanted to share it with you.

Oh my Jesus
I wish to say,
help us on
this wonderful day

Help us to do
what we should
and show us to do
the things you would

make us grateful
for all we’ve got
like our salvation
that Your Blood bought

Oh, my Lord
Help us to know
what you did
and what you show

Show to us
all the right paths
And save us from
The devil’s wrath

Please help us
to understand
and guide us with
a loving hand

And most of all
I wish to say
Thank You for all
we receive today.

William and I read Ox-Cart Manthis morning. I always cry when I read it. And at the same spot. You know the one, if you’ve ever read it.

Carrie is reading The Song of Hiawatha this week. Well, really she’s hearing it. *I’m* reading it aloud to her so that she can hear the rhythm of the poetry. There are lots of difficult-to-pronounce names in there and I wanted that she shouldn’t get caught on those and miss the beauty of the story.

Cate has finished the The Iliadand the The Odyssey and has started in on the plays of Aeschylus I: Oresteia (The Complete Greek Tragedies) and seems to be enjoying those.

Jack is still working on the The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. He’s enjoying it… and he thought he wasn’t going to like it!

I’m really hoping to begin reading Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie aloud to them this week, too. So many people know the story, but have never actually read the poem. Longfellow really had a way with telling story in verse. I wish I could do that.

I have a stack of books on my bedside table that is threatening to collapse the works. I’m finishing up The Once and Future King, which was a difficult start for me. The anachronisms were initally very annoying to me. As I went on, however, I warmed up to the writing and now I’m sorry to see the book coming to an end.

Next up in my stack are The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis (recommended to me by Father Augustine), and Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship

What’s on your bookstack?

Amanda and I can’t get enough of this talk by Sir Ken Robinson. Brew yourself a nice cuppa and settle in. Tell me if you don’t find yourself nodding in agreement. Homeschooling has been OUR solution to this problem, but I find sometimes that it is hard to overcome the public school mentality. Sir Ken opened my eyes a bit and I want to soak up everything he’s saying so that I can find my way through, into a new way of thinking about my children’s education. What is our ultimate goal? It is, of course, heaven. But in the meantime, is it not our responsibility to nuture our children’s talents and enable them to think creatively so that they can live the life God created them for?

When the server has been down for days and you’ve finally tossed the television (or at least disconnected it and removed it from the room), and you’re nursing a little one back from pneumonia?

Why, you make gnomes of course!

I think that there is something in the air. Elizabeth and Katherine are craving Waldorf-y math, too. For the first time in 5 years I have another 1st grader. I have always loved Oak Meadow Math for my little ones. I turned the house upside down looking for our old book. Nothing… Then I asked around every swap list I could think of/find. Nothing again… So I broke down and bought a new one. And in order to celebrate, I bought some supplies to make William some little gnomes to act out the stories with.

And the nicest thing has been Cate, Jack, and Carrie’s memories of the stories. They still remember the lessons we did. And for some of them, that’s almost 10 years ago!

They’ve been played with and played with over the last couple of days. One thing I’ve noticed is that no toys get played with as much as the Waldorf ones. I don’t know if it’s the simplicity, the materials, or the fact that they are hand-made. Any way you look at it, they’re magical.

And yesterday was very rainy here in Massachusetts. I spent part of my day crocheting narrow wool strips into this basket, which is on the living room shelves, currently filled with wooden bricks:

And when it’s not filled with the bricks, it’s been on someone’s head!

I had to share this beautiful, inspirational project from Katherine at “Life in the Onion Dome”. I can’t begin to express how blessed our family has been by her sharing a look at the Eastern Church. It has helped us immensely to grow in our understanding of the Universal Church.

These boxes have prompted me to do a similar project for my own children, which I’ll try to photograph and post here. Our liturgical year and family of saints provide so much nourishment for our children - both spiritual and temporal. This project is a wonderful way to introduce small children to that richness. Thank you Katherine!