Exploring Rhythm

The new "school" year is right around the corner! I am exploring rhythms for fall now that Baby is a little over 2. He is starting to get interested in reading the same picture books over and over again. I would also like to lay the ground work for story time during first grade. My hope is that Baby will not hear Brother's fairy tales. This will require me to tell a silk story for Baby and a fairy tale for Brother, hoping that Baby will play with the silk story props while I tell Brother's fairy tale.

I am also really exploring food options. Today we made humus. The boys helped to smash up the beans! They also helped to grind up the cucumber for the taziki. Tomorrow I would like to make some Beet Soup. Yum! I can grind up the greens and put them in as well.

Tuesday

Phew it rained last night! We have a metal roof and it was so loud it seemed like we were sleeping - or not sleeping- in a tent. Since we didn't get much sleep last night, everyone slept in really late this morning, pushing our entire day back. We still walked in the rain. Brother wore rain boots and splashed in all of the puddles. Since there are 2 long hills on the walk, we spend a lot of time with "running river" flowing down the hill besides us. He splashed down running river looking for worms for me to save. We pulled a lot of worms out of the river today!
Brother joined in circe today. I think this is one of the benefits of being in a co-op. I used the same circle as the co-op circle, which is actually designed for younger kids. But he enjoys it, and since he has seen all of the other kids participating in circle at co-op, it is carrying him at home. For story, I am reading "The Queen Bee" from the Enki Folk an Fairy Tales. He really sat quietly for the entire story, afterwards commenting that "he saw pictures of the story in his brain." Then he holed himself up in his room building with blocks for the next hour. He has a really big plan and has asked me not to clean up his room tonight.
This is the first time Brother has gone in his room and shut the door leaving Baby on the outside since Baby has become old enough to realize what is going on. Baby was sad, but brother needed his alone time. While Brother was holed up his room, Baby and I made granola. I gave him whole almonds, covered them with a dish towel and then gave him a wooden mallet. He had a lot of fun pounding on the nuts. He also helped stir the whole sticky mess together. We both have our hands on the spoon and I sing a rhythmic little verse (that I make up on the spot) so that he can feel the movement he needs for the stirring. It was very sweet, and we hardly ever get time alone together.
Before Baby went to nap, I read him a couple board books. I am trying to start giving him the same as I do for Brother, but on the appropriate level. I figure I might as well start now, I want him to be willing to give Brother and I alone time as Brother's work becomes more intensive in the next few years. I am laying the groundwork for it now.
This afternoon we worked with bee wax for a bit. Brother is creating a bird and would like to save it for him to work on next time. After it is done, he would like me to incorporate it in some stories.
Tuesday afternoons we babysit Brother's friend and her newly adopted brother.
Tonight I read the first chapter in The Burgess Bird Book for children. I used to read Brother a chapter book every night, and I want to get back in that habit. Since Baby is under 3.5, I am not concerned about his absorbing inappropriate stories yet. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

Monday - Baking Day!

We had Co-Op this morning. The kid played really well together and had a lot of fun. Brother participated in circle again, for the most part anyway. And I told a silk story of "The Sheep and the Pig" from The Baldwin Project.

We made pizza for the second time. The gluten free crust is really sticky. It went much better because I gave each of the boys a bowl and little of their own dough to work with. It was a real mess, but they had a lot of fun. Meanwhile, I added brown rice flour onto the top of the crust so that I could spread it out. It worked much better. Next week, I'll show the boys how to do that as well. Every week we learn something new - about pizza crust anyway!

Hummus

We made hummus from scratch. The kids enjoyed making it, but not really eating it. I guess I need to reduce the garlic we used. 

We did a lot of cleaning today as well. My parents are coming to stay the night and the kids are really excited.

Making Pizza

Part of Waldorf education is the experience of baking bread. Since I am gluten free, this has been a really big struggle for me! Today instead of bread we made Gluten Free pizza crust. It was delicious! My husband even said that I could pass it off as a wheat crust and no one would know.

It was our first time making the crust, so it was very challenging. I used yeast, dissolving it in warm water with sugar. It was so fun watching it rise. We had to pour the mixture into another bowl so that it didn't overflow onto the floor. Brother has shown me that he can take baking seriously, so I let him level the top of the measuring spoon off in addition to dumping the dry ingredients into the bowl. I have a really hard time letting go of the control of that part of the process, so that was a huge step for me. On the other side of things, we did use the mixer (as the recipe instructed) instead of a wooden spoon. So, we missed out on the kneading and mixing of the dough. The dough is really, really sticky so I don't know how feasible it is to mix it by hand. Is it that sticky when you use wheat?I am going to ask my friend for advice to see how we can make the process more manual. 

Sunday - Baking Day

The kids and I made a Mushroom & Leek Galette, which was delicious. Here is the recipe. http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/mushroom_leek_galette.html. We are gluten free, so I replaced the flours with brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour and potato starch. I also added just a little bit of xanthan gum. I can't really compare how it turned out with how this crust would usually taste, because I have been gluten free so long, but my husband enjoyed it. 

The boys were really involved with the whole process from start to finish. Both brothers got to put their hands in the crust dough to combine the flours with the liquids, cut the leaks and mushrooms, stir the food while it was cooking and roll out the dough. The baby didn't get too much cutting done. He mainly threw the leaks around and kept adding them into the "already cut up" bowl, and instead of cutting the mushrooms, he tore them into chunks. I gave him a serrated butter knife, so that he couldn't really get hurt - since he is only 21 months old! Brother is getting really good with his knife skills. He uses a real knife and hasn't cut himself yet. The baby did touch the pan while the leaks and mushrooms were cooking, but since it was medium heat, it didn't really injure him, just surprised him. Now he knows and will be more careful in the future with no real cost. They took turns rolling out the dough. After they had rolled out the dough, I smashed it up and rerolled it. I felt a little bad about that because it is supposed to be "process over product" but it wasn't even close to rolled out in a circle. I guess I am chalking it up to modeling. I didn't want to put the crust in the pan and then have areas with no crust.