Our story last week was another one from Autumn Tales titled "The Star House" - just perfect as a follow-up to our apple picking the weekend before. I did the new chalkboard at about 10pm the night before, so not a lot of inspiration was going on a the time:
The boys really loved cutting an apple open to see the star inside, just like the story. For our baking day we used some of our apples to make apple crisp:
Last week we did a lot of learning outside of the home. On one day we had our small homeschool group session. We met at another mama's house and the children played a fun guessing game about animals. Then of course there was time to play and have lunch together. At the end of the week we went to a "Young Adventurers" program at a nearby state park. The leader used a lightbulb and a globe to demonstrate why the seasons change. Then the boys got to try their hand at standing an egg on its end. Oh and the highlight of that trip just might have been afterwards in the nature center when the boys got to see a snake eat a frog! We also met up one afternoon at the park for "recess" with members of a homeschool group that a friend has formed here in town. As we continue to make connections within the homeschool community around here I can't help but be grateful for all of the new friends we are meeting!
Since part of our focus was on Mabon last week, the boys and I worked together to create a special Mabon door blessing for our front porch. Before we began I read them the kid-friendly story of Demeter and Persephone from Celebrating the Great Mother. I highly recommend that book if you are Pagan; it is full of wonderful activities.
We bought a few items from the craft store for our wreath such as artificial leaves, pomegranates, and some wheat. The boys also gathered items from our yard like pinecones, nuts, and coneflower seed heads. They were so excited to create our wreath; Short Pants in particular loved weaving items into the grapevine and telling me where to hot glue others on:
I love that our door blessing has so many natural elements:
We also attended a very special Mabon celebration that I'll be sharing tomorrow!