The Schwartz Family Files

I should begin by explaining that our "week" begins on Wednesday. I attend prenatal and homevisits on Mondays and Tuesdays with another local homebirth midwife. The girls spend those two days with Ms. Erin, an amazing babysitter. She usually takes them to either storytime at one of our branch libraries, one of the local parks or let's them get all painted up with our arts and craft supplies.

So, we began our week on Wednesday morning with a big family snuggle fest at 6:30am. I tried my best to convince the girls to cozy down and get a few more minutes of sleep but they wouldn't have it (Ugh. They never do!) Our morning routine generally includes some independent playtime while I prepare breakfast, we head upstairs to get ready for the day and then begin any "planned activities."

This week we started off with some coloring time. Sophia is really excited about learning her letters. She already knows the alphabet (How that happened I don't know! It is amazing what they learn when you're not looking!). She's especially excited about the flower fairies.


"A" is for Apple Blossom Flower Fairy

Then we baked (and ate) bread for morning snack. I'd like to say that we did the entire process by hand but the truth is that I am now the proud owner of a bread machine (thank you, Craigslist). For a long time I was doing the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day...but it was never just five minutes and it never completely satisfied me. (Geo loves and misses it though). This is my attempt to continue to feed my family food that contains ingredients that I can (mostly) control and to fill our house with the smell of fresh bread.


"Backpack, backpack!"

We spend time at the children's library. I have to say that reading has always been a favorite pasttime in our house. Both Geo and I are always juggling several things that we're reading and that love has very clearly been passed down to both the girls. They prefer books over most things and we're so glad!

It is actually Soph's love of reading that actually making us wonder if Waldorf school would really meet her needs and was the beginning step in this homeschooling adventure.


Bookworms!

Our Farmer's Market day began with some disappointment but ended happily! We arrived at the market at 9 to find out that they open at noon! Yikes! (Snoozing farmers?!?) We packed up and headed to the closest library and the girls played made the best of the hours that we had to pass.

We baked our salt dough veggies (beans, peas, potatoes, cauliflower, pumpkins and a fish....yes, a fish). We used book and produce that we brought home from the market as reference. Madeline wasn't very entertained by this activity so I spend most of the time just chasing her around the kitchen and offering Soph verbal encouragement.

We also decorated the table for the season and spent some time playing "on the farm." I'd like to get a special table for the girls to decorate for each season but I haven't found anything that works just yet. It isn't the space so much as it is finding some place that Madeline won't deconstruct within 5 minutes. So, for now, our kitchen table is our seasonal display.

Our meal blessing, some felted rocks, pipe cleaner flower bouquet and some seasonal veggies.

Everyone has a Ninja farmer, right??

The last two days of Week 1 were spend camping. What better way to learn about the transition from summer to autumn than actually spending days and nights outdoors? While camping doesn't always seem like a break for adults in the family, I really appreciate the change in scenery and am always reinforced when I see just how much the girls learn from getting smokey and dirty!


Soph was reminding Madeline that corn comes from the middle "just like in the book."

Friday, September 10, 2010

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Harvest Time Week One: Tops and Bottoms

This is our first week of Harvest Time Homeschool Preschool curriculum and I'm really excited! A few weeks ago I put a request in to our library system for the books and began to prepare myself mentally, spiritually and environmentally (organizing our resources).

This feels very organic to me. Like many of our parenting choices homeschooling just feels right. Just like home birthing, nursing and our conscious choice to use methods of gentle disciple (even when ghosts of our childhood pop into our heads and we want to wag our fingers and say "If I would have done that in MY house my Mom/Dad would have....."). Sophia is only 3 so we have several years to really work out what works best for our family, but since the beginning of our parenting journey, Geo and I have discussed education and "schooling." We both agree that the style of education in our local public schools doesn't feel that it would truly address the needs of our girls. (Local schools have 15 minutes of recess on three of the school days per week...hardly what I think kids require!) One of the options we discussed was a then-local-to-us Kimberton Waldorf School. But, Sophia's love of reading has nudged us toward homeschooling.

So, this journey led me (the craft-addicted-blog-reading-midwife-mama) to Wee Folk Art along my internet travels. Their site is packed full of beautiful projects, most of which include free tutorials, guidance or instructions (true altruism!) and is build on an amazing foundation of love and compassion. Just overflowing with heart. I immediately connected with their nature based values. It was natural that I'd find the homeschooling curriculum that they developed a nice fit for our family. So, this is our experiment....Come along for the ride!

Sophia and The Dadder checking on our Marigolds

Week 1: Tops and Bottoms

Primary Book:

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Enrichment Books:

The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons

When Autumn Comes by Robert Maass

Four Seasons Make a Year by Anne Rockwell

Field Trip:

Scranton's Cooperative Farmer's Market

Poem:

Little Boy Blue

Flower Fairy

Apple Blossom Fairy

Art Activity:

Salt Dough Vegetables

Misc:
A child's seasonal treasury compiled and written by Betty Jones
I'm using Circle Time seasonal songs and fingerplay activities.
(I took it out of our library and am so sad that I can't find a (reasonably priced) copy for our family library.)
Discover the seasons by Diane Iverson

Monday, September 6, 2010

First...Begin with a Firm Commitment!

Commitment means to show loyalty, duty or pledge to something or someone. These are my two:

I'd like to take part in the {this moment} Friday posts started by Amanda Soule (I'd actually really appreciate if she'd move in with us and teach me everything she knows....but I'll settle for baby steps: imitation).
Regular posts about our Harvest Time homeschooling adventures. Soph is 3 and has the brain of a adult. Seriously, I think she just might be smarter than me. She reads every single day. She dives head first into anything that she's interested in and it has become clear that we need a little more rhythm in our life. So, I'm using the Harvest Time curriculum from Wee Folk Art as a foundation for our homeschooling preschool adventure. I've added several additional enrichment books to the list because I don't think that she'll be satisfied with one primary (fiction) and one enrichment (non-fiction) book. This is our experiment and I'm inviting you to join us!

Monday, August 30, 2010

A New Beginning

Dearest Daughters,

I feel like our family blog is like a vacation home. It was a place that I regularly visited when I first set up camp a few years ago. Like anything new, I visited and played and fully enjoyed the space. As the time has past, our family has expanded and our days have grown even fuller I spend less and less time documenting the richness of our experiences. I'm torn because I want you both to look back on the years before you have crisp, clear memories of childhood and peek at this time in our (crazy) family life. I love to create but scrapbooks and journals just aren't my thing. (I have several hundred photos of Soph's first year in a box somewhere...the idea of organizing them is daunting!)

I've recently been meditating on the concept of impermanence and exploring the ways in which I try to capture moments in time. Jotting notes, painting pictures in my head and snapping endless pictures. The days sometimes pass so quickly that I selfishly fear I won't be able to hold onto the smell of your baby heads or the sound of your deep laughter and joyousness.

Life is full of ebbs and flows and I hold onto the belief that these trinkets of our hearts will somehow make the challenges less frightening and the joys all that more beautiful.

There is a part of me that feels like I should address the content of my absence but let's just say that the last year has been full. Full of changes and new editions. When I look back on the last few years our life resembles nothing of where we all began a few short years ago. New careers, new family members and several new addresses. Lots of ebbs and lots of flow! Your ability to bend with the wind and flow with the rivers of our crazy life is inspiring.

I'm recommitting to regular visits here. I am working to detach from the idea that I can freeze time or create a way to reconnect with an experience, but an focused on opening our hearts and sharing.

So, a new beginning. A fresh start here on The Schwartz Family Files :)

More love than ever,
The Mommer

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Headed to Camp

I wonder if there is enough room out in the Great Wide Open for these two personalities :)