Green Sprite and Snooks the Snail

Blogtale #2

One fine day, the Syrendell Sprites were at a peace rally at a local park. (Apparently, a bit of an argument occurred between squirrels and bluejays.) At only three inches tall, the sprites are quite brave in their endeavors! They were in the middle of a chant when Green Sprite realized she had forgotten to have breakfast with her friend Snooks the Snail.

Green Sprite told the other sprites that she had better return to Syrendell, and to finish the rally without her. When Green Sprite entered her garden, she spotted Snooks waiting with a little frown on her face.

"Snooks," said Green Sprite, "I am so sorry! I promised to have breakfast with you, and instead I rushed out to the rally." Seeing that her snail friend was a bit sad, and quite hungry, Green Sprite found a rather juicy azalea flower from the garden, knowing that it would cheer her up.

"Let's share this yummy flower, Snooks," exclaimed Green Sprite. Snooks loved azaleas and loved that her friend Green Sprite was so caring. Playful as always, Snooks climbed up on top of Green Sprite's head.

Green Sprite looked left and looked right. Where did Snooks go, she wondered?

Snooks surprised Green Sprite and they both shared a good laugh, and a lovely, late breakfast. In the distance, they could hear squirrels and bluejays singing together - the peace rally went well.

The End

Syrendell Blogtale #2 - The images here are photographs with a simple "colored pencil" digital filter applied. The snail is available in our syrendell.etsy shop.

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.

Light, Energy, and Mysterious Fowl

refracting laser light

Our kids may be on spring break but opportunities for learning never cease! We decided to spend an afternoon at the Explorit Science Center in Davis, CA. Our first order of business was to enjoy a lunch buffet in the dorm dining commons at University of California at Davis (UCD). Jennifer and I both graduated from there and have always enjoyed delicious meals when we were residents on campus. So we keep coming back for more to share the culinary joy with our kids, along with lots of hungry college students!

On the way to the dining halls, we spotted this mysterious wild fowl near one of the dorms. We discovered that it was a guinea hen. We have never seen one on campus before and now knowing they are native to Africa, we could only wonder as to how they got there. UCD has a top-notch veterinary school and the campus is surrounded by farmland, wetlands, and other natural habitats, so maybe the guinea hens were in fact residents of the area.

a guinea hen running fast

Just a mile or two from campus is the Explorit Science Center. This small non-profit science center rotates exhibits on the biological sciences and the physical sciences, and we enjoy periodic visits to learn from their fun, child-friendly, interactive displays. Ricky has been studying about the properties of light, so the timing was perfect to see their most current exhibit on light and energy.

a magnifying glass and prism at home

A curtained display allowed for the manipulation of a a beam of laser light as it traveled through prisms and bounced off mirrors. Another display called Newton's Cradle demonstrated the law of the conservation of energy, and the difference between kinetic and potential energy. A series of light bulbs, LEDs, compact fluorescent, incandescent, and halogen, compared the electrical usage of each of these household items. (LEDs - light-emitting diode bulbs, were the most energy efficient, using only 4 watts of energy compared with an incandescent at about 60 watts.) A cool kit on circuits enabled us to create some simple devices that turned on bulbs, played music, and sounded a police siren. Other displays allowed us to figure out which materials were good conductors of heat and electricity, and which materials were good insulators. Along with the rotating exhibits, the center maintains fixed exhibits as well that the kids enjoy returning to.

hmm, which light is most efficient?

setting up a circuit board

a camera that views object up close

static electricity

viewing animation on a zoetrope

We had a pleasant afternoon learning about light and energy. Lunch was yummy and filling. Now I am wondering, what are those guinea hens up to at this very moment?

Easter Eggs - How To Naturally Dye

Dyeing Easter Eggs with natural ingredients is easy and fun! We have been doing this for a couple of years and the results are always suprising and beautiful.


What you need:

1. Large pot to boil eggs

2. Water

3. 2 dozen eggs

4. 6 bowls

5. vinegar

6. onion skins

7. red cabbage

8. tumeric powder

9. beets

10. copper granules (www.griffindyeworks.com)

11. blueberries or blackberries

Boil the eggs in water for at least 20 minutes. If cracking starts to occur, stop boiling. Boil # 6-11, each separately in a small pot of water for 5-10 min. each. Pour into bowls. Add 1 tblsp. vinegar and gently mix with a spoon. You can keep pieces of berries, beets and onion skins in the bowls along with the water for added color.

Place 4 eggs in each of the bowls and let sit for 15 min. Check and see how much color is absorbed. Leave eggs in longer (you can even leave them overnight) and observe if the color changes. Rinse in cool water. Gently rub a tiny bit of olive oil or other oil on each egg for shine (optional).

If the copper doesn't turn green right away, add a spinkle of tumeric. Berries will turn eggs anywhere from pink to blue to purple. Beets will turn eggs pink, purple, red or brown. Cabbage is a vibrant blue! Onion skins are orange/tan. Tumeric is a vibrant yellow. You can also try blending colors, draw on eggs with white crayon before dyeing to add designs, or dye eggs 1/2 and 1/2 in the colors using a spoon or egg dipper.

Dye & Fiber Retreat!

Natural Dyeing - Spinning - Weaving - Knitting - Crochet - Inkle Weaving - Lucet - Kumihimo - Felting - Wood Block Design - Lapidary - Tunisian Crochet - Embroidery - Tie-dyeing - Viking Whipcord Braiding - and so much more!

This will be our fourth year attending the Griffin Dyeworks Dye & Fiber Retreat. We are so excited to go again this year! It is being held at the end of May and there are still some spaces available. You can see more info. and register at: www.griffindyeworks.com


We camp at Camp Verdugo Hills near Castaic, in the hills just north of Los Angeles. Ranger Terry lives there all year and he loves us! We have fabulous camp cooks (no one every goes hungry).

Each year we learn something new, teach something to others, and sell some of our products from www.goshyarnit.com. The nicest people in the world attend the retreat. Dye pots are on almost non-stop! Some classes are scheduled, and sometimes we just show each other what we know how to do. I'm always amazed at how much I learn each year, and yet the whole weekend is very relaxed.

Mycology - Mushrooms!

The magic of mushrooms has touched us at Syrendell this year. Mycology is utterly fascinating...are they plants, animals, neither? So many varieties, colors, shapes....fabulous fungi.

Our own backyard is filled with different mushrooms throughout the year. This week, we noticed that with the warmer, drier weather, the mushrooms are beginning to curl up and disappear.

We dissected a mushroom, observed a curled-up-dried mushroom, made a mushroom spore print, did a mushroom form drawing, read books on mycology, and did block crayon drawings. Two of our cousins came over and joined us in creating beautiful, crayoned fungi! We also read an adorable book that features a sprite who lives under a mushroom is Naming Renick by Mamaroots (which you can purchase in her Etsy shop).

Now We Twitter...

We are finally Twittering like the rest of the world! Come and follow us at: http://twitter.com/Syrendell

Our goal is to do an update once per day. Let's see how it goes.... :)

Botany - Bulbs

We love watching plants grow! We attended a wonderful bulb-planting workshop for homeschoolers at the Loomis Flower Farm back in October. Each child planted daffodils, tulips and hyacinths in a pot. On top of the layers of bulbs, pansies were added for color. We learned about bulbs and how to plant them successfully.




Our bulbs starting peeking out their little leaves in January!


We watercolored two sheets of paper, made twizzlers out of yarn, and created our own botany books. We selected one of the bulbs to watch and sketch over the weeks to come.

Now, the daffodils are done blooming, the tulips are beginning to fade, and the hyacinths are showing the last of their vibrant lavender color.

Our bulb learning culminated with a trip to Daffodil Hill in Volcano, CA. Over 300,000 daffodils and 300 varieties! We met our uncle and cousins there who live near the hill. We had fun trying to count the varieties of daffodils.

Here is a song that we are singing during circle time right now:

Little Bulbs (sing to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Are you sleeping

Are you sleeping

Little bulbs

Little bulbs

Springtime is a-coming

Springtime is a-coming

Time to wake

Time to wake