This week with Sariah's "preschool" (if you can call it that), I've been focusing on squirrels, nuts, and harvesting. Yesterday was our cooking day, so I thought it would be fun to make nut butter. Knowing my children as I do, I knew the only nut butter they had a chance of liking would be peanut butter, so even though I'm quite certain that squirrels do not collect peanuts (are peanuts even actually nuts?), peanuts it would have to be. I actually bought some walnuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts to let them see and taste too. I wanted nuts in the shell, but apparently they don't make those anymore, at least not in our American society where everything comes in a convenient package.
However, I did find peanuts in the shell, and all the kids had a blast shelling them.
However, I did find peanuts in the shell, and all the kids had a blast shelling them.
I was genuinely surprised by the appeal of what to me would seem a rather mundane activity. Dallin, Sariah, and the two neighbor boys all had so much fun doing this.
Sariah even sat by my side for a good hour while I shelled, then soaked and took the skin off the peanuts. (Believe me, next time I will be using peanuts that are ready to go right into the blender!)
Nut butter is so easy! It's just a bit of vegetable oil mixed with chopped nuts and combined in the blender. Of course, with all the work of shelling and skinning them, we only made enough peanut butter for about four pieces of bread.
This week was my first week of attempting to tell a story orally, the Waldorf way. I found a story about squirrels preparing for winter and how they are different than rabbits, who eat leaves. The first day I read it, I wasn't brave enough to tell it myself. The next day, I told it, though I'm sure I missed most of it. Today, I made up another story with the same theme but a different plot. I was quite proud of myself! Sariah actually really loved this story, which suprised me since I thought it was a bit bland. She immediately pretended to be the squirrel and told me several times over the next couple of days about squirrels and rabbits.
My biggest frustration??? That I can't find a single oak tree in our entire city! I drove around for quite awhile yesterday in the older neighborhoods trying to find an oak tree of some sort. I want acorns! What is up with all these maples and aspens and willows and who-knows-what-else? Is there some secret reason that people around here do not grow oaks? Maybe it's too dry....
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