Week of 19th to 21th January 2009
On Monday:

We played a lot.

We decorated bag for our granola with paint

In the afternoon we settled reading the story of Lao Lao of Dragon Mountain and finished the afternoon sewing Frederick's dream pillow. It was so funny as Marina kept asking me: Are you working? (repeating a sequence from the book). Then some of the children went eagerly drawing. They decided to draw the squirrel in the yard and went back and forth observing the squirrel in the yard and then drawing what they saw. The next morning I showed one of the drawing to Fabienne, who said right away: it is a squirrel!

I really enjoyed our hour outside, even so the weather was above normal temperature and had wrecked partly our ice castle. The children were so inspired to play: fox and mice, and digged holes for the rabbits,...

Fabienne was sick and Thomas was feeling a little bit queer and so it we had a quiet slow day . But the children were fantastic, very cooperative and compassionate. The older ones were very helpfull. Just dressing for outddors took forever...
I could see how well they really have settled in a daily routine and that the flow run so smoothly.And even so the day was quiet, I think the children had a gret learning experience.

Here at the dinner table enjoying some perogies and fresh vegetables

On Tuesday:

Inspired by Mother Holle's snow, we made strands of snowflakes: :

Oh, oh, douce neige tombe a gros flocons

Du ciel, oh douce neige fleurit les buissons

Tombe et protege le toit des maisons

Oh, oh, oh, douce neige , tombe a gros flocons.

Then we pretended being little mice and with some baskets we raided the kitchen counter. We were looking for some fats and some food which would give us some quick energy and some slow energy and some food which may make us grow. So in a playful way I introduced the children to the different food categories.



Here is what we gathered to make:

"Happy Frederic granola":

partly inspired from the Hollyhock cookbook:

Mix together:

3 cups oat

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup coconut

(1/4 cup crushed hazelnuts or almonds: most of the children didn't want me to put it in, so I did two different batches)

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup hemp seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp vanilla

Add a mixture of:
1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup honey combined with the melted butter

Put in the oven at 350F for 20 minutes without forgetting to stir halfway

Then add dried cranberries and dried blueberries or any dried fruit which suits you.

Here the children were building a prison. As we asked them what the prisons are for, they told us it is "to make the people become nice". I think indeed that their prison is very therapeutic with all the beautiful colors!


On Wednesday:

we baked



and decoratrated our bags to receive some granola to take home

Story this week: Lao Lao odf Dragon Mountain:

Another story about how the snowflakes come to be, this time inspired from a story from China. It comes from a beautiful book, probably more suited for the older ones and so the storytelling with the table puppets made it more suitable for the younger ones.

Also since the children were so much inspired to do some folding and cutting from paper this story fitted in just nicely.

Nice to explore different culture in a suttle way.
Also next week , it is Chinese New Year, so we will buid on this story to have a little peak in a different culture.