Along the Merry Way....

We were able to substitute the regular morning phonics class for a "baking class" and made apple crisp together. The children were super excited that they got to mix the topping with their bare hands. Clumps of butter-sugar topping seemed to keep on mysteriously going missing. The little imps: Nick and Louis! Tony, learning how to peel an apple: Tony and Martin (fondly known as To-to and Fartin'): Here is the very simple recipe: Apple Crisp 1 half a bag of apples, preferrably old, soft ones (peeled, cored, and diced) A few sprinkles of cinnamon One tablespoon of lemon juice Topping : 1 cup of butter 1 cup of sugar 3-4 cups of rolled oats 1/2 cup of flour A sprinkle of cinnamon Mix the topping together with your hands until it's crumbly. You can add other things like milk and honey if it is too dry. If you want more topping, then just add more sugar, butter, and oats. The good thing is that you can use just about any kind of fruit that is starting t...

The children are incredibly enthusiastic and excitable. After classes are finished, they work together on their journals, and during this time, they are supposed to be quiet and focused. However, the moment all is silent, a little head inevitably pops up like a gopher out of its hole. Someone will deliver a quote from Shrek that sends the rest of them into hysterics. Then a scuffle breaks out between two of the boys. Jane (the other teacher) and I smooth things out. Silence returns, then another gopher pops out of its hole. Someone asks, "Do you know the muffin man?" and little voices chirp back, "The muffin man?" Then another scuffle breaks out. Jane and I restore order; there might even be a few mild threats. They resume their writing quietly until a third gopher bursts out, "Teacher! Do you remember what happened yesterday? Tony and Louis fell in the pond!" Suddenly every gopher in the field is dying with laughter, and Tony has turned bright red. When t...

Two bedraggled children – Tony and Louis – shuffled into the living room yesterday, leaving little damp foot-prints behind them. They stared shamefacedly down at their feet, shoulders slumped and hands behind them, as water dripped off their noses and trickled through their sodden clothes onto the floor. “Teacher,” Tony confessed to Jonquil, not daring to look up, “Teacher......we........went in the pond.” The pond is a deep and wide pool behind the house. It is the muddy home of crayfish, salamanders, frogs, and turtles and seems to have a magnetic pull on the little boys. They are fascinated by all the exotic creepy-crawlies that they can find there. “Teacher,” Tony continued, “We were trying to catch crayfish, and..........we....... fell in .” They were so afraid of getting in trouble that they could hardly believe it when all the adults started laughing at their sorry plight. Louis gave me his version: “Teacher, we were walking in the water and very fast it was deep." So, I...

The oceanside at Victoria. It is very, very peaceful here although sometimes the little sailing vessels get careless and cross paths with the giant steamers and then a Hell of honking breaks loose! You can explore for many kilometers....There are high grassy knolls and criss-crossing paths through waist-high grass and flowers, and great smoothed out tree-trunks are scattered about as though some giant had tossed a bunch of them around like pins. Some kind of long arm, or sea-wall, stretching way out into the water. The Fisherman's Wharf in Victoria: A cluster of floating homes, a little village bobbing up and down. The little critters in the picture below are called Goose Barnacles. If you touch a clump of them, they cringe. I'm pretty sure that I heard them squeak in alarm too :)

Today someone left the gate open, and all of the llamas escaped from the neighboring farm. We stared out the window in disbelief as a herd of five llamas galloped across the back lawn and then disappeared into the woods. Jonquil ran to alert the neighboring farmer, and while she was gone, the llamas appeared out of the woods and trotted into the backyard again. They munched happily on the grass. Then the old farmer showed up puffing and panting, and together we chased them around in circles and finally off the property. About half an hour later, I set off in my car to pick up some supplies in town, and about half a kilometer down the road, I faced the same herd of llamas! They were galloping round the corner and down the side of the pavement towards me. Not far behind them, the same old farmer was in hot pursuit, this time driving his little red truck! Between bears and llamas and wild peacocks and baby deer, you never quite know what will show up around here :) The escaped llamas ...