Let The Keiki Play

I read this article today, called  "The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergarteners of Finland" and it really resonated with me. You can read the article here.

Written by an American who has lived and taught in Finland, who heard of changes to the American preschool/kindergarten system and decided to visit a Finnish kindie to see how it worked. Quite honestly, the article underlines a lot of the reasons I want to homeschool or non-traditionally-school my keiki.

“There’s an old Finnish saying,” Holappa said. “Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily.” - from the article

Sharing the joy of learning is exactly what I want to do.

Until next time,

Halloween 2016!

 Happy Halloween!!
We had a lovely laid-back Halloween today.

Molly and I got her costume all together in the morning and after lunch (and after I made the soup we would later have for dinner), we got her makeup done. It turned out SO cute.

I definitely thought that Zion wasn't going to wear his costume at all today. And after I'd spent a good hour hand-sewing it this morning, too! He was adamant that he would NOT be wearing it when we went with Daddy to his STEM class to check out the students' costumes (Daddy repeated his Luke Skywalker costume).

After visiting Daddy's class, the kids and I ran an errand (treat bags! very important) and then hung out at the park. My "costume" is above... it wasn't really a costume. I wore my normal clothes, and just stuck my mohawk up.
I love my hair. :D :D :D

Molly was such a cute kitty-cat at the park! We picked the Daddy-man up from his school and came home to eat dinner - delicious turkey veggie soup with noodles added in for the kiddos - and made some costume adjustments before heading out to trick or treat!

Even the Bug got his costume on! Just as we were getting shoes on to head out, he said "Mama! I gotta wear my ghost shirt!"  And great, great rejoicing was heard in the land... :D

We had a blast wandering around trick or treating, the kids got lots of compliments on their makeup and costumes. I love that the neighborhood we trick or treat in is a quiet one, with lots of friendly people, and that it's just the right size for our little ones to walk around without being carried!
Just as we were turning the corner near where we'd parked the car, Molly told me "Okay Mama, I think I'm done trick or treating now." Perfect timing and perfect neighborhood! So we came home, and the kids went pretty much straight to bed with hardly a complaint.  Happy, happy Halloween! Until next time,

Pumpkin Carving

 Today, we headed out first thing in the morning to drive through the tunnel to the other side of the island and go to a pumpkin carving festival/fundraiser for the kids' preschool program :)
And I'll pop a photo of myself in the car here because... there are no other photos of me in the rest of the post, haha.

The kids were so excited to pick their pumpkin out, and finding our assigned table in the crowded mall was a little adventure. 

 And then we sat down and Daddy got carving!

He had very willing helpers :)

Molly and Zion were very good while he carved, they chatted with other kids around us, trick-or-treated a little as costumed festival volunteers walked through the crowds...

 I think our pumpkin turned out great! We ended up putting a face on each side of it, just for fun :)

 

 Isn't it cute?
It's fun to have a jack o'lantern around.

Gotta share a snap from our beach afternoon with uncle A on Friday :)

Until next time,

Some Days... and the other days (preschool at home)

Some days...

 Molly helps with dishes...

 and we build block towers at program...

 We do chores together...

 We hit the park.

 We play and learn...

 We look adorable...

 So adorable! ;)

 We take the recycling in...

 We play with play-doh...

 We paint...

 Molly loves to help her kumu lead circle at program...

 (Zion's favorite stations at program are the sand table and water table)

 We bake cookies together (math!)...

 We make beautiful art.

And then other days...

We watch a Leapfrog video together cuddled up on the bed.

And they build a pillow nest to read in together. And that's okay. Because it's preschool. And it's fun. And mama has food poisoning so easy is good.

A Homegrown Harvest on October First

It's the first of October!

I decorated a little bit!  Just a little bit, because we're not buying anything new this year decoration-wise (what with the downsizing in preparation for our move - which is a move via plane and we are bringing as little on the plane with us as we can!). But I'm happy with it.

After the little bit of decorating, we headed outside to see what we could harvest.

It's avocado season and my in-laws have three (THREE!) avocado trees right outside their house, so we hit those up first.
We got five big avocados.

And then we picked strawberry guavas! It was so fun to pick pretty red berry-like fruits off the trees along the driveway.

It reminded me of picking berries (huckleberries and blueberries mostly) with my brothers and sisters in Northern BC...

We got about two pounds of fruit and it was a great time. 

After taking recycling to the depot and taking the kids to a park for a while, we came home and while the kids watched a cartoon I did some experimenting in the kitchen...

And I think my experiment turned out pretty delicious! I will be trying proper jam and/or jelly soon but today I didn't have pectin or gelatin so, sauce it was. I also made homemade pancakes (which were DELICIOUS with the sauce) for dinner that the kids devoured.

Five giant avocados, a jar of fruit sauce, and did I mention seven dollars from our recycling trip?  Not a bad harvest for the first of October! Until next time,