Summer Solstice

We celebrated Summer Solstice with a family bike ride, singing, drinking "vruit", eating a Solstice salad and listening to summer poems.  The next day, we made summer crowns, solstice tea and needlefelted butterflies with friends.

Solstice Salad
Mixed greens from a biodynamic farm and veggies from our own garden (green tomatoes, parsley, mint, green onions, zucchini, chives)

Vruit
Carrots and apples, plus biodynamic kale, and beet greens, spinach and parsley from the garden, all through the juicer.  Added a bit of orange juice to each glass.

Solstice (Sun) Tea
Joey and her friends went on a hunt through the yard for the ingredients, then placed them in a clear carafe with water and left it out in the sun for a few hours.  Yummy!

Summer Crowns
Ivy, rosemary, Japanese maple, roses and wire made beautiful crowns!

Butterflies
Needlefelting leftover bits of wool from other projects created pretty wings that were slid into painted wood clothespins.

Solstice Eve (Melody and piano by Rick Tan, lyrics and flute by Jennifer Tan, 2001)
Look out to the sea
On a solstice eve
Through the ancient trees
An isle with rocky lees

Bless all the spirits
Kiss their hearts divine
Sing to the angels
Play the flutist's line

We will eat with thee
Boil the herbal tea
Thank the blessed leaf
Honor the willow reed

Bless all the spirits
Kiss their hearts divine
Sing to the devas
Play the harpist's line

Dance in circles round
Feel the energy's sound
Share your dreams and love
Dance to the moon above

Bless all the spirits
Kiss their hearts divine
Sing to the dryads
Play the drummer's line

Summer Poem

For our official last week of homelearning this year, we filled our circle time with thoughts of summer! We read poems, sang songs, and talked about what summer means to us. We each shared some of our favorite projects, trips and topics that we learned about this past year. Above is a poem that we created together about summer!

Telling and Remembering Stories

The Turnip (Russia)

The Persimmon Monster (Korea)

Three Billy Goats Gruff (Western Europe)

Fairytales and folktales are wonderful stories to share. Every 1-2 weeks, we dive into a new tale as a family. The story will come from a part of the world that relates to our social studies and sometimes, our science blocks.

We tell the story, read the story, re-tell the story (in our own words), and then do a project that will help us remember and enjoy the tale. Our Enki K and 1st grade fairy tales and folk tales books are terrific resources. Here are some of the projects that we do:

1. Felt Boards

We draw patterns on paper, cut out felt pieces, and place them on our homemade felt board. Our felt board is a long piece of cardboard from a box, covered with a piece of light blue flannel on one side (day time) and black flannel on the other side (night). We move the characters on the board as we tell the story.

Tiddlelick the Frog (Australia)

The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin (India)

2. Puppet Plays

Sometimes we use our puppet theater that hangs in the doorway, and sometimes we sit behind the couch! We have all sorts of puppets by Folkmanis.

3. Finger Puppets

Using material from old clothes, we cut and sew material to fit our index fingers for each character. Finger puppet plays are done on the side of the table or in the twig house. Daddy said that he wants to build us a finger puppet play stage, soon!

The Elves and the Shoemaker (Western Europe)

4. Wood, Crocheted, Felted Characters and Props

Daddy's wood creatures, Mommy's crocheted animals, and the kids' wood/felted characters act out stories on the twig house stage.

The Turnip (Russia)


Cluck Cluck and Little Tuppen (Western Europe)

5. Plays

Sometimes, we act out the stories ourselves! We make props and costumes from our dyed silks, wood blocks, rocks, and other items that we can find around the house.

Stone Soup (Eastern Europe)

6. Songs

If a story has poems or songs in it, we sing them together (sometimes we make up the tune). We especially like Shake it Up Tales which has stories from around the world, many of them with songs included.

7. Main Lesson Book (Writing and Drawing)

Wilson draws the story at the end of the 1-2 weeks in his MLB.

Poetry Night!

Welcome to our first Syrendell Cafe Poetry Night!

We ate homemade beignets, drank hot chocolate, chai tea, coffee and cucumber water, read our own poems on the microphone, and listened to music. It was a fun way to incorporate poetry writing, speaking and event planning. We are planning on hosting another poetry night and inviting our cousins, aunts and uncles to join us!

Menu

Poems

Joey: "Butterfly" acrostic verse poem

Ricky: "Opposite Sides of the World" diamante poem

Wilson: "Little Bulbs" song to Frere Jacques

Mommy: "Blissful Path" free verse poem (see original poem above)

Daddy: "Monsters Have Mommies, Too" abaab

Lolo and Lola (grandparents): A poem in Tagalog

Jobs

Announcer: Joey

Cook: Ricky

Server: Wilson

Set Decoration and Menu: Joey

Video Clips from Poetry Night