we had some strong winds this past week, and many leaves fell to the ground. the trees are more and more bare with each passing day, and the ground is covered by a thick leaf mulch, which will protect the soil over the winter. the geese call from up above, another sign that winter is coming. nature is drawing in for the cold season.

sena and i preserved some herbs for the winter this week. we collected nettles and sage for tea; oregano, thyme and marjoram for seasoning. we put the herbs in paper bags and hung them in the kitchen to dry. we also harvested dill, cilantro and lovage and dried them in the dehydrator. when they were done, we put them in glass jars on the spice rack in the kitchen. they were bright green and looked pretty among the other spices.
the house has been smelling heavenly with all these drying herbs, and twice on thursday i left my work outside and walked in just to enjoy the aroma.

we are homeschooling again, now that fall is here. ed does moslty math and spelling with the girls. he works with them in the afternoon. i work with them in the morning, and we do writing, history and geography, natural sciences, spanish and logic. we don't cover all this every single day, but go through a weekly rotation of subjects according to a schedule we made.
the girls love history and geography the most. aiyana also loves spelling, and she's really good at it. sena loves logic games, and she does them without being asked to. she also really likes fractions.

by teaching sena and aiyana, i am learning a lot myself. like them, i love the history and geography lessons. i remember when i was a child, history was my favorite subject, especially ancient history, but with testing and other kinds of school pressures i slowly lost interest. i always got good grades, but on a personal level, i stopped caring. now, because of sena and aiyana, i've rediscovered my interest and i feel lucky to be able to learn and share with them. it's a great bonding experience.

one thing i love and hope to get them more into is maps. i find it very relaxing, and at the same time exciting to look at maps and find different features, like rivers or mountains, and imagine what a particular place must look like.

all this being said, my number one reason for homeschooling is because i want the kids to be outside. i want them to acquire the deep sensory memories and awareness which only intimacy with nature can give. connection with nature in early childhood is of outstanding importance to me. i found from my own experience that whatever happens life, this is one of the few precious things we can come back to when we need clarity and support.

peace