The Garden of Eden

The last 2 weeks we painted the Days of Creation (and have been noting their anniversaries this week - today is the anniversary of the 2nd day of Creation - 26 Elul)

We started on The Old Testament this week with The Garden of Eden first is Z's drawing and writing and following is mine (that he used as a reference.)

The School Year Starts

And as the world starts with Creation, so does 3rd grade.



"And there was light..."




Here is B's painting. Completely unrelated to Creation, as well it should be for my dear 4yo.




And then a couple of little math puzzles to get the brain firing.

I've not posted here in while mainly because when I do post snippets of our day it is mainly on Facebook (and even then it is only occasional) I'm ambivalent about posting here at all anymore as it seems like a lot of personal information out there about us personally without guarantee as to who is reading it. At least you have to know us for sure on Facebook. I just don't know.

In the meantime, welcome back to school.

Why yes we did go to the beach

And they had an aunt to play with



And holes to dig



And brothers to bury in the sand...

Brothers

Z has been fixing B's bike lately when the chain falls off. It's a little thing, but Z feels so big when he can do it by himself and B gets to admire his awesome big brother in action.

Setting sail

DH and Z hit the water with the little sailboat yesterday because both his timing and the wind decided to work favorably with each other. DH is really getting the hang of it, because in the hour he was out there, he made it all the way to the wave break several times. Unfortunately, as he was docking, he split his rudder and is now hard at work making a new one.

While B and I were watching from shore, we had the pleasure of watching a great blue heron hunting for his evening meal. He was truly beautiful.

Out and About this week

We went to our regular park day this week and not long after we got there, we sat down to eat lunch and were almost immediately met by Elmo walking aroung the park! He was there along with his "handlers" to promote a local children's gym, but what a weird thing to see walking around the park - especially this park which is more hiking trails and trees then playground (although you do partially see the playground in this photo.) I started to crop the photo so it would be more of a close up shot, but I think you really get a feel for how strange it looked from the wider angle.

Today we went out and did a little geocaching at a cool find in a neigbboring town. This park burned 25 or so years ago and there was talk of developing it, but the State wanted to keep it natural, so they've paid the County each year to let it go "native", which it certainly has done. For many years, it was closed, but the State forced the County to open it to the public, as it is public land. Here are some photos of its having gone "native." I did pick up a (non-lyme disease carrying type) tick in here (I wouldn't let the kids come through the brush at all, so they didn't pick one up though I did check them)



This fireplace/BBQ thing is cool and the top sticks out from the side of the road.

Nature Block Day 2

Today we headed out to hike along the ocean at the Douglas Family Preserve. There was so much to see and do. (BTW, you can see our famous coastal "June Gloom" heavily in effect. It makes for comfortable days, but not as vibrant pictures. This isn't the usual California beach view you usually see, but it is among my favorite - the little oak woodland areas on cliffs above rocky beaches with the kelp beds hugging the shore.)

(edited to add: I am having problems with the pictures as they have been fine and become broken links a few times already. Now they are too big, but I am not messing with them because they are still there and that is better then nothing.)

From Woolfairy

Trees that look like a brachiosaurus

From Woolfairy

Ocean Views

From Woolfairy

Exploring rotted tree trunks

From Woolfairy

Last Main Lesson Block of the Year

The late Spring Nature Block

Today we started it out on an auspicious note by heading to the beach for a hike between the dunes and alongside a Snowy Plover Nesting area (no actual snowy plovers were sighted today, however)

Block Party

This evening our neighborhood had a block party and a wonderful time was had by all, especially the boys who got to hang out in (and then get a ride in) a neighbor's Model T Ford. Very very cool. And Z made a new friend...

A Little Drop Spindle

Look what Z has learned to do! Pretty cool if you ask me.

Afternoon hike

Gopher snake

Storytelling

Mom I want to tell you a story...

First I need to lay down. Take a picture of me laying down...

Ok, Once upon a time there was an old man...

Goody O'Grumpity

The book Goody O'Grumpity was a side lesson this week and we read it, Z recited the poem from it aloud, and then we all worked together to make the spice cake from the back page. Z even got some fraction work in because, instead of the several spices it called for, we only had pumpkin pie spice, so we had to add all the component spices together. A nice side lesson. And apparently Z already has a handle on fraction basics.

The cake though? It did not turn out well. And frankly, calling it cake isn't completely accurate. It is more like a sweet, heavy bread. Maybe it was our yeast, maybe not, but it came out heavy and dry and didn't rise much at all. Really unsuccessful. It did smell fantastic while it was baking though. But, not to be deterred, and refusing to waste, today we had Chocolate Bread Pudding for breakfast, made from the leftover failed bread. (oops. Cake.) This was infinitely more successful.

So a little of Goody O'Grumpity and a little of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat (Joseph had a little overly heavy Spice cake?) all in one week.

Corner View: The Great Outdoors

This is a local Seal Rookery here in coastal Southern California where the harbor seals return every year to have their babies. We never miss it. This year while we were out there we spotted, in addition to the seals, pelicans, sanderlings and a pod of dolphins in the water.




On a different day, we headed inland just a touch to play in the creek in a local National Forest. The kids built dams, attempted to climb the cliff faces, dismantled dams, discovered they could use rocks to write on other rocks and had a wonderful picnic lunch - all with friends.


This is a post as part of the Corner View project begun by Jane at Spain Daily. Dro by and follow the links to some other wonderful treats from around the world.

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

We are huge fans of this book around here (and the others illustrated and written by Simms Taback) and as luck would have it, he lives in the same town as we do! The local Museum has a children's book exhibit that we saw yesterday that is simply magical. I didn't get many good pictures out of it thanks to my lack of flash, but one of the docents at the museum made clothing pieces from the book that kids can try on and follow through the story. Totally cool, although I think I was more impressed then my kids were. We even got to see the Caldecott Medal he won and the program from the ceremony. Oh and the Happy Meal box he designed. And we found a book by him that we have added to the must buy list (Kibitzers anf Fools: Tales my Zayda Told Me)

There was also a reading corner where the same docent had made costumes to match several other of the books. King Arthur from Excaliber, Robin Hood, Loud Emily, the Rebozo from Nana's Big Surprise (which was gorgeous!).

Corner View: Shopping

We regularly visit the Farmer's Markets around here. It is my single most favorite thing about living in California. The beautiful fruits and vegetables all year round are a wonder. Today we went to a new-to-us market because I was unable to get to my regular one due to a plumber appointment at the last minute. (Aren't they always at the last minute?)

Anyway, the foods were amazing and, as usual, I spent too much. But how can it be helped when there are tables that look like this:

Note the hand sanitizer in the middle. Hello flu fears!

Meant to add: I posted this although I am not an official participant in the Corner View thing started by Jane in Spain, but it is interesting to follow. 

Corners of my kitchen - Passover edition

A few snapshots from the kitchen here on the 2nd day of Passover:

From Handwork

What we found this morning taped to all the jam I made for Passover. MBPJ = Mom's Best Passover Jam. It is awfully nice to be appreciated. :)

From Handwork

This is an actual unstaged shot from my kitchen right now. I had half bananas left over from lunch, so I decided to make banana farfel muffins, so I moved the matza out of the way, opened my binder, moved over the photocopy of DH's mom's Passover notebook and got the recipe out. And I realized that this is a picture that could be taken most every single day during Passover. Handwritten recipes and lists throughout the generations. Makes me smile.

And I am enjoying the smell of Banana Farfel Muffins baking as I type this. They will be complained about because the apple ones are so much more popular. The recipe for these is also my MIL's (OBM) and it wouldn't be Passover without them. My 4yo probably would starve without them! 

From Handwork

And of course the ever-present matza crumbs mingled with jam smears. These are everywhere, they are just easier to photograph on a plate!

Splashing in the creek

From Homeschooling

The other day we headed off with some friends to play in the creek about 30-40 minutes away from us where there is a national forest.  It really was a wonderful day. We splashed (even me. by accident. Twice.) and we had a picnic lunch with friends. I think the "with friends" part is the key element to the whole thing. Everything is more fun when you aren't doing it alone, huh?

And yet doing things with other people is really hard for me. I love it, but it really is hard to ask without seeming like you are bothering them or that they don't like you enough to go and do stuff with you. Those lessons of early schooling get in there deeply, don't they? The unofficial ones I mean.

I heard a podcast of a story from NPR today about a movement titled "Wanna Start a Commune?"  or alternatively titled Cul-de-sac Communes, which I like better, and I smiled to myself. This is cohousing of the retrofit variety, a passion of mine for years. We tried a forming cohousing group on when we moved to this new area of California but the whole thing was too mired in meetings and consensus and ended up slowly dying away after a group camping trip when we realized that it really was never going to happen. And honestly, the whole concept of building a neighborhood seemed opposed to what we really wanted out of a home and neighborhood. Condos are for short term living. Not to mention the unnecessary waste of building yet another development. 

Now here in our neighborhood we have, not a commune or even cohousing, but neighbors. Friends with whom we go trick-or-treating, share a much too large batch of cookies, send kids back and forth for playing, gather for impromptu bicycle riding a few times a week, etc. It would be wonderful to add a layer of commune on top of that, kind of like those pages in the encyclopedia which had the human body with clear plastic pages with bones and muscle group overlays. Just a light blanket of togetherness and community, without all that love-in, bath-free, hatin' on the man stuff.

One of my blog friends (used to be in-person till that move) has a neighborhood that I picture as perfect for this (Sheree, I'm looking at you! I would put a direct link to some of your neighborhood stuff, but I can't seem to find anything right now. Of course.) Suffice it to say, neighborhood movie nights, block parties, potlucks and progressive dinners sound pretty great. And now my cookie bars are done and we are, believe it or not, off to a neighborhood bike ride.

A little more Springtime

Today we set off to see the baby seals at the Carpinteria Bluffs. We also saw Dolphins, Brown Pelicans, Snowy Plovers, many lizards and, of course, seagulls. We also saw the springtime displays of wildflowers spread across the bluffs in amongst the sage. Lots of Golden California Poppies and mustard and a few others we didn't recognize, including this lovely one being visited by a bee. (It looks like a pale morning glory to me. Pretty sure it isn't though)

We even did a little geocaching today, but nothing serious.