It looks like we’ve been busy (and we have), but in many ways we’ve slowed down to enjoy life. These past three or so weeks have been filled with celebrations of life.

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An observant child should be put in the way of things worth observing

– Charlotte Mason

We welcomed fall by making lots of soups, baked goods, and listening to endless Ray LaMontagne on Pandora. We learned all about the Autumnal Equinox, celebrated the Harvest Moon, made friends with some mini-beasts, explored why leaves change colors, became chemists, fashionistas, and even builders!

Projects

Homemade Paints! We learned about “acids” verses “bases” and made different hypothesis’s! We were little chemists while making paints from nature and household spices.

Homemade Outfits! The girls went through all their clothes to donate and saved back a few pieces, because they wanted to create their own outfits for their dolls.

We did another project to learn about Chlorophyll and why leaves change color.

The girls have loved their virtual art classes they’ve been taking—they were over the moon about their animal puppets.

We also tried our hands at homemade paint brushes with natural materials and some twine!

What’s Autumn without some nature collecting and leaf rubbings?

Nature Outings!

We did some hiking out at the farm while visiting the girls Great-Grandmother, had another meet up with a homeschooling family, and enjoyed hiking at Hoover as a family. And we spent countless hours at “the land.”

Each girl found a mini-beast and observed it for while. They ended up doing some research on their critter and writing a story too. McKinley found a moth and Cora found a caterpillar.

Celebrations:

I’ve realized that homeschooling has become a collection of moments to celebrate. Each teaching moment something sacred. For example, we celebrated the Harvest Moon by reviewing the phases of the moon and learning why the moon appears orange over breakfast. We made pumpkin eggos smothered with hazelnut spread. Decorated the table pretty, and afterwards wrote a silly song on the guitar to help us remember our new facts.

The girls also dabbled in writing some Haiku poems about the moon:

We ALSO welcomed a new member into our family! Our cousin/and nephew Koen Joesph Rauch. The more time we spend in nature the more connected we become, and the deeper our awareness evolves of how precious life is.

We also celebrated giving ourselves love. Self-care is important. We hear it all the time, but not everyone practices it. I’m trying to teach the girls these things earlier, so they don’t have to learn them at my age. We celebrated with fun facials!

Want to know my new favorite way to honor Autumn? Have you ever dipped leaves in beeswax to preserve them?! Oh, what bliss!

The Land

We ended up building a huge fort in the woods (future backyard) on the property we’re planning to build on. The girls and I hauled branches for hours. We swept away the leaves, we built a make shift bench, and even a make believe fireplace/kitchen area.

WildMath Curriculum

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Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write, and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child. Earlier does not equal better.

-Magda Gerber