A Little Acorn Learning Guides

We are having so much fun w/ these wonderful preschool guides written by Eileen Straiton of Little Acorn Learning. These are monthly waldorf nature based guides filled with stories, crafts,circle time, chalkboard drawing ideas for the week, feasts, saints and festivals, nature walks and a nature notebook to keep the childrens drawings, pictures and special things they collect. This just scratches the surface. There is also a daily caregiver guide and checklist to keep you on track and you can also purchase the seasonal menu plan which has awesome, super easy recipes for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Most can be frozen ahead if you want to make enough for the month. It makes planning by color and grain really easy. the recipes are delicious and even my picky eater has realized he likes to eat some vegetables. :-)

We have been using these guides for a year now and while not perfectly I have been able to get my days in order and still enjoy my little preschooler and have lots of fun. These guides have also helped me get a rhythm to our days, weeks and month. We have had some really lovely days because of these guide books. Thank you Eileen, for all your hard and very creative work!

I just wish I could get the older kids on board, but that is another story...

Beautiful Waldorf dolls for Christmas!

I have made another waldorf doll investment for my 8 yr. old daughter's and 10 yr. old niece's Christmas present. These lovely dolls are handmade by a wonderful lady named Mary at Fairyworks in San Francisco. I ordered the day out fit, nighti, coat, hat, boots, the fairy dress and the mermaid outfit. They came packaged in a silky bag w/ gold and silver ties. Each outfit was packaged in their own silky flowered, pink or red bags and each also recieved a sleeping bag.

The girls are going to be so excited to recieve such gorgeous hand crafted dolls. They are called the unbarbie and a fabulous alternative to the plastic one at the mall. :-)

Much more fun, creative and imaginative for the girls this season in their sweet lives.

A few changes this season

I have dsl now and I cannot believe I have had dial up for 10 yrs...

I have to say, MUCH FASTER now! Yahoo! I can even download pictures . :-)

I had many changes this year. We decided not to homeschool Mattea and sent her to the school and Lily went too. But, Lily decided to come back home this year and take a break from the publicschool. We got her a macbook laptop and enrolled her in OakMeadow 8th grade.It is the online curriculum and so far seems great. She accomplishes a weeks work in a just a couple of days. She is really enjoying the curriculum.

I also did something I said I would never do. I sent my youngest to preschool 2 days a week. Oh my gosh! Eli loves it! No academics and it is strictly play-based and social. Learning to get along and eat together, ect...All the fun preschool actiovities like painting, playdough and brio train, blocks, play kitchen ect... Lots of gym and outdoor play.

So, Eli is the first child of mine to actually go to preschool, and then we homeschool the other 3 days. Seth is homeschooling also. He is doing great and also enjoying his karate classes.

I use a variety of curriculum for Seth. He struggles alot w/ reading and doesn't enjoy school so much. He is more active and creative w/ his time. He is a huge help around the house and is an awesome big brother to Eli.

Already July 22 and I havent been on this blog for almost 2 weeks. I have actually avoided coming here. All I have is dial up and it takes forever for the photos to upload and they are constantly failing to do so. It takes alot more time than I thought and I am not sure if I will be as diligent with this as I had hoped. But I will try and so, here I am.
We have been painting our house this week and we are still not done. The weather has not cooperated and we still have the backside and all the trim work to do. But at least the house looks so much better! I am thrilled with the color blue that my dh Steve chose and the trim will really "pop" when it ever gets finished...
We bought this house over 2 years ago and we have been slowly remodelling it since. It was in high need of tlc. We have re-sheet rocked, painted all the inside rooms, made a craftroom into a bedroom( major ordeal) re-did both bathrooms, and we are in the process of remodelling the kitchen. What a mess! Trying to live in it all is stressful and I cant see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. I will upload photos as soon as I can.
Also this week we got a load of firewood, and canned some more salmon. I have harvested all my rhubarb. Now I am still awaiting the blueberries to arrive. It has been really a wet summer and there will hopefully be alot of berries this year.
Last year when my husband went Moose hunting he actually took the time to pick me 1 gallon of lowbush cranberries to make my famous Cranberry Banana Jam. :-) Which is almost gone and I am going to have to push for a trip up to the Swan Lake area of the Kenai Peninsula to get some more...
I have never used the cranberries from the store, but I think you could try and see. Here is my recipe.

Cranberry Banana Jam

3 Cups cranberries
1 1/2 c. water
2 cups bananas, mashed
7 cups sugar
1 box of pectin or a pouch of liquid pectin

Make sure all your jars ( about 6/7 pints )are sterilized and keep them in a warm oven or a warm dishwasher. Put lids in water and boil for a few minutes and keep warm.
Simmer cranberries and water 10 minutes. Add bananas and sugar. Add 1 heaping teaspoon of butter. Bring to a boil. and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add pectin. Mix well.
Carefully add jam to your jars and put the lids on tight and let set on the towel until the lids start to seal. Some people like to put the jam into a water bath canner, but I have never done that.
Enjoy with fresh bread and butter!

~Peace~
Cara

My big, wonderful family!

So, it is 2 months after Mother's Day, but I wanted to share the picture my big family were going to give to our mother on that special day. We never know if we will all be together on the next Mother's Day, so it was certainly worth a try. :-)

It happened to be windy and COLD here in Seldovia, but we decided to go to Outside Beach anyway. A friend took the photos for us.

First off there is my mom Ginny, and my dad Paul, my brother Sonny and his wife Jenny, and their kids, KC 18, Devin 12 and Marina 10. Then our family, Stephen, Cara, Sevea(red scarf)22, Dawson 20, Oren 17, Seth 15, Lily 13, Mattea 8, Eli 3. We are all mixed up together.

Do you think we could get anyone to smile at the same time? Or, even look at the camera?:-)

~Blessings~

~Cara~

Smoked and canned salmon for winter

We spent the whole weekend smoking the salmon in our outdoors smokehouse and then put them up in pints. My husband did all the hard work of chopping alder and cottonwood and keeping the fire going. We had 32 fillets and were able to get 36 pint glass jars filled w/ my mom's secret jalepenio salmon strips. I always insist on a few jars of plain ole' smoked salmon as I don't like anything too spicey. :-)

The 4th of July has come and gone and it reminds us that we are heading into fall and harvest soon here in Alaska. The blueberries should be ready soon and I am hopeful to get raspberries for jelly this year. I also have 2 gallons of rhubarb ready for strawberry rhubarb jam. I will be working on that this week, and of course enjoying rhubarb pie! This was my daughter Lily's first attempt at making a rhubarb pie and it was delicious!
Peace,
Cara

The Creative Family

This is a wonderful new book by Amanda Blake Soule of www.soulemama.com
It is full of wonderful ideas to do by season and written in 4 parts, entitled, Gathering, Playing, Living, and Connecting.
I loved her idea of a large art cabinet in the dining room. The doors are covered with a lovely fabric! How convenient to have it all close to my table and kitchen sink! This book brought back many memories of my dear grandmothers' and old friends. We used to do all these creative and fun things before tv, playstation and dvds. Be sure and check out her blog and buy this little book of fun ideas and living a creative family lifestyle.
~Blessing of Peace~
~Cara~

Next school year and other thoughts

I have received my 3rd grade A Journey through Waldorf Homeschooling this past week and I am really looking forward to planning our new school year. This is such a wonderful curriculum guide! I have read all of Melisa Nislsen's books from Before the Journey and Kindergarten thru 5th grade and each book is packed full of wonderful lesson plans, stories, activities and articles from other mama's who are on this homeschool journey just like me. I have found so much comfort in Melisa's books and cd's and feel like she is a close friend who is supporting me thru this adventure.
I am still finishing up our 2nd grade year with my dd Mattea Jewel and we have really enjoyed learning the Saints and Fables and figuring out our daily rhythm. I am still working on this part of our Waldorf homeschool. I really appreciate Melisa's suggestion to try and tackle just one thing at a time, such as form drawing or recorder and get that down , then move onto the next thing we need to learn.
I think that what I love best about the Waldorf method is that it touches the creative power within me and I just need to relax and do the beautiful watercolor paintings ( or drawing or coloring) alongside my children. Being creative is not so easy for me, but I want to be! I want to color, draw, paint, model and make music! I want to learn about all the different religions, cultures and countries. I want to learn how to bring all this to my children and make our homeschool fun and beautiful, not just, "ok kid, get that workbook done and then we have 4 more workbooks to do" and " no, we cant go out today, we have to catch up on all this school work".

Littlest Son

My littlest son, Eli Matthias is almost 4 years old and is the youngest of seven. He is my sweet boy who is always trying to keep up with his big brothers. Being the youngest he gets all kinds of attention and treats, but his favorite thing to get them to do is go to the store. In our little town that is a major event for him. His big brother or sister will either drive or walk with him to get a popsicle or some m&ms. Having a little guy after all the others children were older was the best thing we could have ever done. The big kids have a real taste of what it is like to have a baby around and a younger sibling who adores them. :-) This picture was on his 2nd birthday.

Seldovia Alaska

We are very blessed to be living in this wonderful state and it is my hope to share about the beauty of our small town in Alaska and our adventures in homeschooling here.

Seldovia is home to about 300 people and there is an adventure around every corner.

It is home to many black bears, eagles, sea otters, seals, orcas and way out in the Cook Inlet, there are whales. What I get excited about is the beautiful wild roses and the variety of wild berries that grow here. Wild Rose jelly, Fireweed honey and a variety of wild berry jams, jellies and syrups are such a pleasure to make and fill the pantry shelf with. It is almost time to start picking and I am planning a bunch of berry picking trips this summer.

While I pick and make jams, my husband and the boys head out fishing for halibut and salmon. We are hoping to go for a moose hunt in September.

A subsistance lifestyle is what we have always lived here in Alaska and it is becoming more and more necessary because of the high cost of heating fuel, electricity and groceries.

The next few months will be filled with cutting firewood, putting up vegies in the freezer and making jams and syrups for the winter.