Jack Frost Was In My Garden

Well the cold is really here. Frost covered the garden this morning and our homeschooling took place alternately near the woodstove and the kitchen oven. It was fun to pull out the Jack Frost verses and a new North Wind poem (Wynstones).

The north wind came along one day,
So strong and full of fun;
He called the leaves down from the trees
And said, "Run, children, run!",
They came in red and yellow dress,
In shaded green and brown,
And all the short November day He chased them round the town.
They ran in crowds, they ran alone,
They hid behind the trees,
The north wind laughing found thm there
And called,"No stopping, please."
But when he saw them tired out
And huddled in a heap,
He softly said, "Goodnight my dears,
Now let us go to sleep."

In an effort to keep with the theme of the second week of advent (Plants) and hold onto Rowan's enthusiasm for fairy tales, I chose The Turnip (Grimms) for our story on Monday and then"told the Russian variation today. In the Grimm's story, a soldier turns farmer, grows a huge turnip and gives it to the king. In the Russian story, a farmer grows a very large turnip and needs his whole family (and dog and cat and mouse) to help him pull it up. These "chain" type stories with repeated lines that go all the way out and then back in again seem to help children developmentally. I noticed it all the time when my older son was still homeschooling. With Rowan I sense that it helps him put order into his own world.

To keep with the theme of order, I am bringing in some form drawing this week as well. We did some mirror forms yesterday that also had a plant-like theme. Today I offered some transformations that also included containment. I feel like Rowan still needs to feel secure in himself and I always like to imaging drawing a protective field around him during these times. Today I had him create a lovely blue form containing a golden crossed lemniscate.


Gingerbread house making is an annual tradition in our house, even if I don't really feel like doing it. I always give in to the wonderful smell of baking gingerbread. We are now just in the cutting and baking part of the process. Tomorrow will be house construction and maybe decoration, but that may need to wait one more day. Acacia (15) proclaimed that no decorating can take place without her.

Whenever I have a little moment I am feverishly working on the little farm animal set I plan to give as a gift to one of my darling nieces this year at Christmas.
The shipping deadline looms so I must return to the needle and thread presently.