Another quiet week. We spent a lot of the week reading together -- fairy tales and folk tales, and Sarah's new magazine -- and playing many rounds of MadLibs and Sarah's new board game (Munchkin Booty). We put tgether Sarah's Master Tigress costume. The co-op was originally going to start this week but was postponed to next week, so we spent some more time poring over our books, planning projects and classes to suggest to our friends.

We talked about Samhain and the seasons, told some stories about Sarah's ancestors, spent a lot of time listening to music and dancing together. A good, quiet week.

Today we read Fox in Socks and the chapter in Story of the World about Egypt. We found Egypt in the Atlas, followed the Nile along its whole path, talked about deserts and scrublands and tundras, about nomads and the start of farming, and the concepts of fertile and cultivation and irrigation. We decorated folders for some of our activities and spent some time playing checkers.

This afternoon we pretended to be naturalists and then archeologists -- playing out in the backyard, examining things with magnifying glasses, admiring our new wildflowers, speculating about what ancient people might have used various plants and rocks and mostly-dissolved newspaper for. We collected some acorns, leaves, and flowers in one of our specimen jars to bring inside. We watched Animaniacs over lunch, and later recorded our observations from our outdoor adventure in Sarah's little moleskin notebook.

Tonight Joe and Sarah had more adventures with Stitches the pirate teddy bear, and read more of Harriet the Spy.

Notes to self -- suggestions by K of movies for lunch-and-a-movie

It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
The Great Race
Operation Petticoat
Harvey
Back to the Future
Toy Story I & II
Fiddler on the Roof
The Court Jester
The Apple Dumpling Gang
That DArn Cat
The Shaggy Dog
Bednobs and Broomsticks
The Incredible Mr Limpet
The Cat From Outer Space

More Hafiz (translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

It Happens All the Time In Heaven ~

It happens all the time in heaven
And some day

It will begin to happen
Again on earth---

That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,

And women and women
Who give each other
Light,

Often will get down on their knees

And while so tenderly
Holding their lover's hand,

With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,

"My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;

How can I be more
Kind?"

The place where you are right now
God circled on a map for you.
Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move
against the earth and sky,
the Beloved has bowed there.
Our Beloved has bowed there knowing
you were coming.
I could tell you a priceless secret about
your real worth dear pilgrim.
But any unkindness to yourself,
any confusion about others,
will keep one
from accepting the grace, the love!
-- Hafiz


**********************

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving — it doesn't matter,
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times,
Come, come again, come.

-- Rumi

I mean to post more often, thinking it would only take 10 or 15 minutes a day... But those 15 minutes are so often and so easily taken up with bass playing, reading, crafting, cuddling...

Last week Joe and Sarah started a math adventure Joe created for them -- the adventures of Stitches, the pirate teddy bear -- that involves arithmetic and code-solving and clues... Sarah's having a great time with that. They've also been reading Harriet the Spy together.

Sarah and I worked on our family magazine, on learning to sew dresses together, on baking, on crossword puzzles, on sudoku... Read some Story of the World, some Dr. Seuss, some magazines. We watched Schoolhouse Rock and the second National Treasure movie, and played games (Munchkin, Life, Apples to Apples). We also met with friends who are interested in doing school with us, this year, and made some plans together.

The rules we're bringing forward from last year:
* the Stop rule (treat others with respect and compassion; listen when others ask us to stop something that's affecting them)
* treat others' property with respect
* do not unreasonably restrict anyone's movement or speech
* no feet on tables

We decided to stick with mediation first for conflict resolution, then interrogation (which will, apparently, involve straight-backed chairs and bare lightbulbs!), then JC (judicial committee) if mediation fails, and to use facilitated discussions for our decision-making process, instead of formal meetings.

We've got a huge list of classes and activities we're planning to do together, this year. I'm *really* looking forward to it.

I asked Sarah, if we could do anything with our weeks, what would she want them to look like?

The American Museum of Natural History, Liberty Science Center, going to the park. Playdates with friends, field trips with friends. Making hot cocoa and brownies and cuddling up together on the futon. Dancing, definitely. Make music. Watch movies together. Lots of parties.

What does she want to learn?

Math, Science. Cooking, Sewing. More imaginary road trips.