This moment

One image, no words... a moment I wish to capture and hold in my heart

Cherry blossoms

Building a fairy house

This time of year, we all look forward to cherry blossom time. We have two favorite spots to visit. One, the tidal basin in DC is alsways crowded, but oh so lovely. The other, a quieter spot near our house, where all of the streets of a lovely neighborhood are lined by cherry trees. If you time it right, fairy land is yours, and quiet. Especially lovely just after peak bloom, when the airy pink petal "snow" is falling.
    As the blooms were peaking, I was inspired to dye some cherry blossom merino roving for a couple of special projects. We used cochineal dye extract, and by varying time in the dyepot, we came up with a lovely, perfect cherry blossom palette.  Anya made about 2 dozen cherry blossom fairies, all on her own. Directions came from this book. I wanted to do another tree weaving. We did one in the fall, with my class of first and second graders, from our Waldorf homeschool co-op. (tutorial here)
    I love the tree (mostly done by Anya.. I helped with the trunk. I also strung the warp)  overlooking our tadpoles on the nature table. Cherry blossoms make me so happy, and truly usher in the Spring for us. What says SPRING to you?

This and that.. homeschooling, this week

wrapping up a short vowel block. A wool board story

 tangrams and pattern block games, for afternoon pratice work, during our Language arts block

 The first bit of work on a fairy tale verse reader. The Golden Feather. She has the long verse down to memory and movement, and is really enjoying illustrating a book to help sight reading along.

 Jump rope work, in the morning. We start our day's work off with movement. A walk/skip/gallup around the block culminates in circle work before settling into the day's main lesson. Jumping rope is invaluable proprioceptive work. we weave in counting by #'s (2, 3, 4, 5 , 10) and rhyming verses. I tie off to my rearview mirror, for lack of  a rope turner!

 Academic verse work. Here: subtraction facts to 10. We do similar work for addition.

 Pattern work in the afternoon...  mandala building. Work/play with symmetry

 Symmetry mirror games. we each start with a side, then switch and build

 hand work. She wanted a break from knitting/weaving. Decided on god's eye ornament weaving.

 Indoor rainy day vestibular work ;)

 Our first word family block/week went fabulously

 crafting a pond peeker for our nature study work

 a bit of springy crafting.. pysanky.. a family tradition

 word building. Very exciting. I love watching the light bulb go on. She's so close!

 Vestibular play with friends on a rainy day

A  LONG wintry week.. but looking back, through photos.. so much deep connection and good work done. Breathing out gratitude!