Happy first day of Autumn! I had been wanting to make the changing of the seasons a special day for the boys for a while, but I never seem prepared when the time actually comes. This time I was! I feel like acknowledging the changing of the seasons helps us to be present and aware with the physical world we live in. How that it changes regulatory and predictably and how those changes effect us so strongly even in this modern landscape. Autumn is a particularly powerful change here in Maine as the world becomes ablaze in color, the temperatures noticeably drop rapidly, and our lives become full of apples, pumpkins, fairs, and flannel.
As you know, we are homeschooling, and our main homeschooling inspiration is a Waldorf basked curriculum (Oak Meadow). Waldorf education places heavy emphasis on nature, storytelling, and music/art. A lot of the stories are nature based and often include imaginative characters like gnomes to help children visualize natural occurrences such as the changing of seasons. I wanted to make a couple gnomes for our autumn nature table so Robbie helped me one day during nap time to make a pumpkin and acorn gnome out of peg dolls and wool felt.
The gnomes found their home among acorns, leaves, bark and pine-cones that the boys collected in the forest, and some gourds that they picked out when we went apple picking at a local orchard.
Robbie and I couldn't help but compare decorating the autumn tree (a stick and some dead leaves) to decorating Christmas Eve. The boys were just as excited when they woke up. There were no presents, but they just felt happy to embrace all the changes and begin to explore the new season.
We made apple butter with the apples we picked and used that to make some autumny oatmeal with raisins and walnuts. Link wouldn't eat but Meo had seconds.
We usually try to start our day after we are fed and dressed by doing an opening circle. During that time we recite poems and sing songs together. It helps us to come together and focus and I noticed that it also helps start the boys off in a good mood by having that focused connection time. Today for our autumn circle we switched things up by trying the "Late Autumn Ring Game" found in our Autumn book. Essentially it is a series of songs, dance, pretending, and poetry following the adventure of little gnomes going through the autumn season. At this point, I had only learned one of the songs, so we fudged our way through the others, but the boys and I had a lot of fun. Meo was really into it; he loves make believe. And Link enjoyed the singing and dancing immensely. I am excited to learn more autumn songs with them.
After our opening circle we halved some apples and the boys used them to paint pictures with their apple stamps. Meo said "thank you mama, this is a really fun idea!" which is something I always like to hear.
I really love how their paintings came out.
By mid-morning our friends came over to go for a bike ride and a forest walk.
The boys wanted to show them our gnome house.
Once we got home, Noelle was kind enough to hang out with all the kids in the sandbox so I could put together a little autumn feast. Robbie and I were up until midnight before preparing these tiny savory leaf pies. They were stuffed with roasted potatoes, carrots, beats, garlic, thyme and kale from our garden.
Meo had a lot of fun hanging out with his friend Sauren and when it was time for them to leave he scooched down beside him and said "you KNOW I had a fun time with you today". It was so cute.
We read a bunch of autumn inspired books and poems throughout the day. After nap time we played "The Sneaky Snacky Squirell Game" which was the perfect way to conclude our fun filled autumny day. I am glad we finally got around to making a nature table to celebrate the season and am excited to keep it up throughout the years.
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