Monday 12/8/08

School Announcements: Please continue to save empty food cans for our luminaries for the Winter Solstice Festival to be held 12/21 from 6-9 PM at the farm.
Gift certificates are available for our next Evening of Indulgence. Sip Texas wine and enjoy our chiminea outside while you wait for a turn for massage, hair touch-ups or scalp massages, and brow waxing. A relaxing night and a great way to start the weekend! Held the first Friday night of each month with the exception of January , when we'll have the EOI on the second Friday of the month, 1/9/09.

Don't forget that families who refer a new client receive a $50 child care discount the month after a friend enrolls their child!

Highlights from the Infant Room: Miss Michelle filled in for Miss Caprice today as she had a doctor's appointment.

Highlights from the Toddler Room: We've discovered that our friend Luke loves rice cakes in the morning! He and Gavin are our early birds and they like to snack first thing in the morning while combined with the "big" kids. All of the boys enjoyed practicing jumping in and out of hoops outside. They also love to roll the big red ball in the classroom.

Highlights from the Twos and PreK: Our classes were combined today, and we were busy! At Community Time we counted from 1-10 in English and Spanish, learned a new wood chopping rhyme (since we helped gather firewood on Friday), and revisited our "Way up high in the Apple Tree rhyme". We sang and danced with partners to "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow". Outside, some of us helped in the greenhouse and with animal care while others worked with compost and chopped up our Fall pumpkins to see what was inside. Lucy the Pig will enjoy this tasty snack! Also outside, we painted with blue. It was so windy that we had to hold our papers down with rocks our friends found. Then, we decided we should paint the rocks, too. (NOTE: In Preschool, some of the best fun, and a teacher's greatest delight, is the unplanned . . .)

Wood Chopping Rhyme: (make chopping motions on one arm with opposite hand)

Chip chop, chip chop,

Cutting wood for winter's cold,

Chip chop, chip chop,

All the wood the basket will hold.

AM Snack: oat and honey granola bars, water
Lunch: ham and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread, cucumbers, peaches, organic milk
PM Snack: organic apple slices, water

If you have a Mr. Jamie . . .

Mr. Jamie is an asset to our program. His kind spirit and way with children is certainly important to our work, but so are his crafty skills. These are some of the wonderful things he has made to enhance our school, all from things leftover from other projects at our farm school. Thank you for all of your creative work, Jamie!

The tops of fence pickets became places to hang the kids' gardening tools.

Found wood became a wall/coyote fence? and a roof between our big trees in the play yard!

Plastic from a floor project, doors taken out of the school house, windows Jamie found near his home, and various other items became a greenhouse one afternoon.

Scrap plywood, paint, and a closet door became a play tunnel for the play yard.

A piece of scrap fence post and a piece of a 2 x 4 became a wiggle board.

Scrap wood became a balance beam (that adjust for a wide or narrow beam) and a "jump".

Friday, 12/5/08

School Announcements: Don't forget our Evening of Indulgence for adults (teens, too) tonight! Come enjoy two spa services, a glass of wine, light appetizers, and a beautiful fire in our chiminea for just $25. Bring a friend and enjoy a third service free of charge! The EOI begins at 6:30 tonight at our school!

Miss Janie had her baby today! Janie and her husband Todd welcomed Emma Grace at 8:03 AM this morning. She was delivered by C-section. Emma weighed 8 lbs 14.6 oz, and is 20 inches long with strawberry blond hair. Brother Isaac will get to meet his new sister this afternooon after his nap at school! Congratulations!

Thanks to "Grandma" (Leslie and Janie's mom) for stepping to help out today in Janie's absence!

Highlights from the Infant Room: The infant room enjoyed a concert by Bach as Miss Caprice directed the show! They loved it! The children enjoyed watching older kids rake leaves and could smell wood burning outside in the chiminea.

Highlights from the Toddler Room: The kids loved a nature walk in the wagon with Tina to see the animals! The boys enjoyed their lunch very much--especially those that had the homemade cream of tomato soup. Several of our friends are teething, so they were a little cranky from time to time (understandably!).

Fridays are for relaxed grazing . . .

Highlights from the Twos Room: The class enjoyed reading Where's My Mommy and sang "Five Little Monkeys Swinging from a Tree" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". The kids enjoyed squishing, tasting, "cooking" and stringing cranberries using their pincers.

Highlights from the PreK: Inside activities included building a castle with silks, clips, and stands. A couple of girls were princesses waiting for their "husbands" to wake them. Must have been a long wait . . .
Fine motor work included snap blocks, using tongs to move macaroni wheels,

and building with dominoes.

Some friends constructed a train track . . .

Outside, the class enjoyed taking care of the animals with Jamie while others walked the labyrinth and then helped Leslie gather fire wood for our new chiminea. The chiminea needed to be "seasoned", so Mr. Jamie tended the fire out of kid reach, but much to their amazement!

AM Snack: organic apple-cinnamon granola, organic milk

Lunch: homemade cream of tomato soup, peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread, bananas, organic milk or water

PM Snack: homemade chicken salad, whole grain crackers, water

Thursday, 12/4/08

Stringing cranberries . . .

School Announcements: Please save your tin cans for our luminaries at the Solstice Festival! Don't forget the Evening of Indulgence for "big" people this Friday night from 6:30-9:30.

Highlights from the Infant Room:

Miss Caprice helped the children visit "Hawaii" today! The kids listened to luau music and smelled white jasmine oil in a sensory bottle!

Highlights from the Toddler Room:

The children enjoyed playing with the parachute and bean bags. The kids collected eggs in baskets--a favorite from yesterday. The boys always love books as well as driving wooden cars and airplanes across the floot. Miss Janie read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and sang "Patty Cake" and "Tiny Tim" with hand motions. They counted from 1-5 in Spanish and English, too! Other fun including bouncing the big red rubber ball and scribbling with crayons. The class continues to work on giving one another "soft touches".

Highlights from the Twos Room:

The kids enjoyed listening to farm songs on a CD--even singing some of the songs that were familiar. Books at Community Time included: Baby's First Library: Farm and First Words. The kids got to take a look at some fresh cranberries and practiced some descriptive words including: "round", "red", and "small". Several of the older boys enjoy pedaling bikes on the concrete patio!

Highlights from the PreK:

This morning, several friends helped assemble the enchilada casseroles for lunch. MMmmm! Fine motor work in the classroom including stringing cranberries with real sewing needles (!) and supervision! At Community Time, the story of Grandmother Wind and Father Winter was retold to the kids delight as many of them heard lots of wind last night and know that the solstice, which signals Winter, is just 17 days away! Our friend Jordan saw Silvia squirrel from the story as he was lying on his nap mat--we wonder where she is hiding her nuts to prepare for winter? During story time on our nap mats before lunch, the story of "Snow White and Red Rose" was read for the third consecutive day, by request. This quiet time at the end of a busy morning is a time to imagine a story as it is read/told rather than seeing pictures in a book. The kids really have great imaginations! We also enjoyed Claudia's book called Give Me Grace.

AM Snack: whole wheat bagels or whole wheat English muffins with raspberry cream cheese, water

Lunch: organic gala apple slices, enchilada casserole, organic milk

PM Snack: Goldfish crackers, raisins, water

Babies: Before and After

Reaching out to one another to hold hands . . .

Then, completely wiped out, and Miss Caprice calling for back-up!

Enchilada Casserole

The kids really enjoyed making and eating this at school today! It freezes well, and is quite easy on the budget in these times! Add a salad or fruit, and the meal is complete. Great topped with a little sour cream or plain yogurt.

Enchilada Casserole

1 large green pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 T olive oil or canola oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder, or two or three cloves of garlic, minced
2 T chili powder
1 T cumin
2 10-12 oz cans diced tomatoes or tomoto puree
2 cans black bean or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
12 corn tortillas
approximately 4 cups shredded cheese--cheddar or a Mexican blend is good


Preheat oven to 350.

Saute the pepper and onions in the oil in a large saucepan or dutch oven. Sprinkle with salt, and add garlic powder or fresh garlic. Cook until the vegetables are soft. Add the chili powder and cumin, then the two cans of tomatoes plus 1/2 can of water. Simmer for 10 minutes. On a plate mash about 1 cup of beans with a fork, then add to the sauce (this thickens the sauce a little). Add the remaining whole beans and remove from the heat.

Cover the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with a thin layer of sauce--approximately 1/2 cup. Lay 6 corn tortillas over the sauce, then cover with a 1/2 of the sauce and cheese. Repeat with another layer of tortillas, the remaining sauce, and the remaining cheese. Cover lightly with foil. Bake for 15 minutes covered, then uncover for the remaining 5-10 minutes.

Apple Date Bars

We made these today and they are very good! Next time we will make a few substitutions to make them even healthier!

Apple Date Bars

5 oz butter, softened
1 1/2 c brown sugar--this could be cut back
6 T milk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 2/3 flour--next time we'll try this with whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon--a little more would be nice, perhaps 1 1/2 tsp
1 cup chopped nuts--we used almonds, but walnuts would be great, too!
1 cup dried dates, chopped--dried cranberries, apricots, or raisins would be nice!
1 cup apples, peeled and chopped fine--a tart apple would be nice, or blueberries.
2 eggs
grated orange rind or lemon rind would be a great addition!


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large sheet pan. Cream the butter and brown sugar. Mix in the egg and milk. Stir in the apples. Add the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly. Stir in the nuts and dates. Spread dough into the pan and bake 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting into squares.