Little House On The Mesa

We started our school year almost two weeks ago now. This year Ellery is in 3rd grade so we are studying Old Testament and Jewish traditions as part of our curriculum. This year I decided to purchase the Live Ed curriculum. Those of you doing waldorf know that it is a pure waldorf currriculum but unfortunately the most expensive out there. I did manage to get mine secondhand so I saved some money. So far I'm really happy with it. We started by painting the days of creation with facing summaries. We both really enjoyed starting the school year this way. The curriculum does have the potential to be overwhelming but you just have to realize that there are different ideas and that you don't have to do them all. I'm very appreciative of the paintings and drawings that are in the books. It helps give you something to go by instead of coming up with it out of your head.

Rosh Hashanah was the first week of school as well. Ellery helped to make challah, a sweet and sour salmon, and apple slices dipped in honey. He is extremely interested in food preparation and anything to do with the kitchen lately. This is wonderful for me because I'm not a big fan of kitchen things. He offered to start doing the dishes after dinner since Riki is gone in the evenings now. He is also learning so much about measurements just from reading recipes. This week we are going to start some fermenting and canning/preserving which is new to me as well. Our friends have told us that the cost of produce here skyrockets in the winter time because of how far it has to be shipped. They have negotiated a deal with the local farmer's market for 200lbs of tomatoes so we are going to split that and start canning this weekend. The price per pound ends up being around $1.

The leaves are starting to change in the mountains. We were so excited this morning when we went to town and could confirm that the orange patches we are seeing on the mountains from a distance are indeed leaves changing. According to weather forecasts I think fall will officially be here by the end of the week with lows in the 30's and highs in the 60's. So much excitement in the air!

                                                                  Adam and Eve in paradise

                                                                   autumn nature table

                                                          Our days of creation book