Willa has taken quite a leap in her reading as of late! While in public kindergarten, she was taught to read, but neither she nor Miles and I pursued if after she was accepted into Winterberry Waldorf. Now that she is in second grade she has taken a big interest and has leapt right over the basic "See Jane run" to more advanced stuff. Her comprehension of these more sophisticated stories comes into question, but she just loves to quietly and diligently decipher the code of wordage in her "Guardians Of Ga'hoole" book. We have to coax her into balancing things out by reading and talking about the easier stuff like "Frog and Toad".
This year for the First Night, I created a special book of the Advent blessings I wrote to read on each Sunday. Willa now gets to light the candles and read the blessing aloud to us. While the reading was slow going, I think she appreciates her new role. And the next morning, those generous Advent faeries bestowed upon us a beautiful rose quartz mother and child duo in honor of the Mineral Kingdom!
Later today, we will adorn the Advent table with symbols of the Plant Kingdom. However, mom here has a problem. After the most glorious snowfalls, November was an uncharacteristically white one laden with ton's of ski-able sled-able snow! Just FABULOUS!!!! It is now 40 degrees and POURING rain. Winds up to 100MPH! It has been like this since Friday when all after school events were cancelled-including the already once postponed Lantern Walk!!!! Due to the VERY unsafe roads, I did not get the chance to run to the store to buy the sweet mini Christmas tree that I always get for the "faeries" to put on the Advent table! :( My bet is that I could rig something up with small pine branches and a pot...and I'm sure Willa would enjoy it just as much...but it won't be quite the same. We always enjoy the challenge of trying to actually keep that little tree alive after the holidays to grow to adulthood. Hey, my MOM can do it-she's got a bunch in her yard! In the past, we have not been diligent enough with the watering..... But we had talked about the fact that THIS was the year we were going to grow that tree! .....Maybe the faeries could leave a note with the "temporary" tree stating that due to the weather, they were afraid that transporting the delicate tree in the wind and rain would hurt it.....so they will bring one by this week when the rain stops? We'll give that a go, methinks.
