cantaloupe dude

Cantaloupe dude is what happens when one fails to listen.

I should have heard the five year old’s urgent requests to try our first home-grown melon.

But I was not listening.

In the background to my own thoughts, I heard some question about cantaloupe.

I think I recall saying we’d carve it later.

Distracted as I was, preparing to turn cucumbers into pickles… while brainstorming a batch of blackberry-rhubarb jam…while considering ways to use crooked neck summer squash… while thinking that I should I be making something for dinner just as soon as the cukes begin soaking…

And then I turned around to find cantaloupe dude staring me down with his silly etched grin.

It’s hard not to laugh when the five-year-old does the things you used to do…the things you still consider doing…if only you paid more attention to the really important things in life.

PS: A bowl of melon can constitute dinner at least once a week…right?

this is why

This is what we saw in Northport

And this is why we spent a week in the one-room-schoolhouse my Grandpa once attended.

Still sorting through the pictures.
It’s going to be another photo-heavy month…

Always Learning, Always Exploring

So with this website update, I have added some new tabs…most of which are under construction. In the upcoming months, I hope to show you some of the changes (improvements one might say) that we have been added to our lives. I also plan to share some of our ventures (and adventures too)…add to my little shop…update the books I’m enjoying, etc. This brings us to the tab called “always learning.”

I have come to realize just how much the girls learn that has absolutely nothing to do with school.
While Riana does attend a Montessori school two-morning each week, the bulk of our time is spent together. Learning.

There are no workbooks, no pop-quizzes, no drills, and probably most importantly, there isn’t much of an agenda.
I cannot say that we are unschooling or free schooling or schooling at all. In my mind, the concept is that we are always learning. We are learning when we put on our shoes and when we trace letters from a sign. We are learning when we pour juice in the morning and when we add compost to its pile. We are learning when we investigate plants and watch birds at the feeder. We are learning when we ride our bikes and when we measure lumber.

This is how young children seem to learn; through exploring; diving into projects head-first; using new skills in practical ways; playing with their world.

Through daily exploration, there is just so much learning happening all around us. I am inspired by the focus with which the shortest family members are learning. They encourage the taller people in these parts (ha, I’m not usually in the tall group) to learn new skills and put new ideas to practice. It is indeed an exciting time. Sometimes, amidst the dishes and meal plans and daily duties, I forget how exciting things actually are…but it is there.

Whether it’s helping to identify the rodent living under our deck (I think it’s a groundhog?)

Or learning the mechanics of a water pump

Or daydreaming in a bed of flowers. (Oh how I prefer grass like this!)

The girls are constant explorers.

So join with us as we explore. For certainly in this exploration we will not only learn new things but also find new versions of our world.

As to the tab that says “always learning,” I’m not entirely sure what belongs there just yet. But it will come to me, an idea, a spark in the night.

in which she learned to spell her first word

What does it mean when the first word that your daughter can independently spell, is not her name…but…

That she hears to much French electronica?
At least she doesn’t spell it D.A.N.C.E.

a whole world of possibilities

“But Mom, I don’t have a chalk wall. What am I supposed to draw?” was Riana’s almost rational response to the large drawing I found on her bedroom wall. It was a lovely drawing that will be on her wall for awhile, and part of me wanted to admonish its presence, but part of me agreed, sometimes we like to draw on more than paper.

With this in mind, we pulled a large, heavy, slate board out of my Grandparents’ attic. (Thanks Grandma!) It is an antique piece that was rescued many years ago from an old school house before its destruction. But this board made us miss our deep red chalk wall from Philly. (Sigh, I miss the little girl in fron of that wall too!)

Sometimes we need a place to post mantras, a place to stare at our ideas, post lists, and be reminded of the places we need to use as our touchstones.

Enter wall-covered-by-bookcases in the front room. Our mid-winter rearrange finds this wall now painted with our own grout-paint mix, this time it is a tan chalk wall…still blank…but full of possibilities.

We also rehung the lamp made of used sandpaper drums and found a spot for one of those mantras that I like to have around.

UPDATE: After a few weeks with our tan chalk wall, I need to add this amendment- it’s too light! I most certainly like having a colored chalk wall rather than a black or green chalk board colored wall. The deep red wall in our first house worked wonderfully. This color is just too light to really get the chalk to pop out. We have friends who made a bright turquoise chalk wall that is beautiful. But this wall is going to need to become a deeper brown (or some other color) for us to really appreciate it as a chalk wall. I still recommend the method we used, it’s effective, easy, and inexpensive. Just pick a darker color! :)