Science this week focused on Grenade, the tomato hornworm we found in the garden. He was already three inches long at discovery and is now, a week later, five-and-a-half inches. He’s named after the shape of his poop, which he can really use to fill a jar every day. We’re hoping he cocoons soon as we’re running out of garden-fresh tomato plant leaves for him to eat.
Wildlings on Monday hosted an international potluck, with each kid choosing a country for research + presenting a dish to share. Wilder chose Japan, his favorite for a while now, and sushi seemed an obvious choice. Rosetta floundered, wanting to choose an origin country for our family. She finally chose Norway because of her affinity for potatoes. She bought gjetost, a Norweigian brown cheese, to slice + share, made mashed potatoes + an apple cake, another dessert staple. Everyone tried new foods at lunch, including an Indonesian beef stew, Mexican tamales, Argentinean empanadas, French eclairs, German pretzels, Irish bangers + mash, and more. We played a game of flag matching to the countries represented, talked about why everyone chose what they did, made flag decorations out of Perler beads, and played an Irish yard game for our outdoor time.
Highlight for us was one of my college besties visiting with his family. They stayed with us for two days and our kids got to meet and play and form a bond that we hope will grow. They joined us for Wildlings on Thursday, and we had loads of time wandering outdoors together – my favorite way to get to know people.
Monica + I found a migrating tarantula on our hike / Grenade, day 1 / Standley Lake + a picnic with the grands (2) / Rosetta, prepping her mashed potatoes / Warming up for Irish Kubb / Learning the rules / Playing Irish Kubb / Wilder picked Japan for our international potluck, and brought sushi ingredients. He ended up teaching five people how to make sushi + rice balls (2) / Discussing his country with the moms / Food + potluck (2) / Making Perler bead country flags / Rosetta + Zelda / Rosetta’s cat for this week / Wilder’s axe + spear tip, plus the hole for the handle (2) / We learned so much in this plague book! / Opening our Eat2Explore kit from Kenya + finding a finger protector chopping tool / Lunch at Beau Thai / Cool specimen from Witchcravt, where we gathered next week’s supplies / Grenade, day 4 / Wildlings at Little Park (4) / Grenade, day 7 / Dinner with new friends + cousins / Anderson Farms fun with everyone (6)
Unschool Stories 