Earthboys | Adventures and creations of two young boys home-schooled on an organic farm in Dominican Republic

Some News…

Posted on March 6, 2012 by earthboys

Our new house - Vitri

We have moved from our big Sanctuary Finca Seraphina to the newly built modern house. This lot had one palm tree on it when we began construction – we’ve planted over 1000 trees and about 2 thousand surrounding the property on the pastures below where we have our horses and cows.

Vitri - Pool

We moved much of the landscaping from Finca Seraphina, mostly planted as seedling. You can see how fast things grow in the tropics especially after the rainy season. This house is still a bit warm but once the landscaping has grown it will be cool and lush. A small sanctuary.

Eitech Construction Vehicles

Indoor time during the rainy season enticed the boys to engage in constructing these amazing Eitech vehicles. Learning how to build cars and machines and how they work mechanically. We bought one for Sasha for his birthday and they have now begun a collection of them. Each vehicle can be dismantled and constructed into 3 other vehicles.

Helicopter -Eitech Vehicles

The helicopter has a small solar panel which turns the propellor. They dismantled it and it became a small car that drove slowly by itself.

Wood Truck

This is a delivery truck Fabien helped the boys make from the left over wood used to make our new chicken house. They are delivering small stones to make a path near their fort.

Minka - Pony Foal

Precious little Minka was born a few days ago. The joys of spring bringing forth new birth.

Lucy and her little Foal, Minka

How she stands with stability just a few hours after birth. As you can see by my belly that I to have been blessed. Doubly…another son and a little princess. Little Earthchildren!

Knitting a Cotton Blanket and Booties

Have been busy knitting away for my little peanuts. More projects in the making.

More Booties

Doubly of course!! These turned out a bit large so will wait for those footsies to grow. I will have to buy some finer baby yarn when we head to Miami at the end of the month as I am 6 months pregnant next week and twins could come earlier although I plan to keep them in as long as I can…little me.

Miami is where I shall birth my little babes. It won’t be a home birth like I had with my sons. Having twins, and at 40 classifies me as high risk so I will have my very first ever hospital experience.

Trail Riding

The boys out trail riding with dad and friends, soon to be neighbors. I am teaching them about natural horsemanship and they will share the horses and the trails. We are happy to find people that appreciate the land and love the animals as we do.

We plan to spend the Winter in the South of France looking for a farm, possibly Provence and keep a smaller place here as a second home.

Posted in Crafts, Farm Animals, Horses, Knitting | Tagged Crafts, Farm, Horses, knitting, PNH | 24 Comments

Creative Little Hands

Posted on October 27, 2011 by earthboys

Weather vane we made

The boys decorated two paper plates for their weather vane. We placed a blob of clay in the center between the two plates so as to hold up the pencil. The plates are glued together around the edges. The arrow tail (3″) and point (3″) which we cut from a watercolor painting was inserted at each equal end of the straw and then we placed a pin through the center of it into the eraser of the pencil to allow it to move freely with the breeze.

: Boys watching their weather vane for wind direction

Mark it with compass markings N, S, E, W and using the compass we point the plate according to the compass markings and wait for the wind to blow and give you your wind direction. We have an east wind blowing daily. We are also logging the information into a Beaufort Scale.

Their little three wheeler

This is a little three wheeler car that the boys made for their little moose.

Petit Chenille/Worm

They love to play with clay and have been moulding these little worms inspired by the plentiful Frangipani worms we have in our Frangipani Tree.

Frangipani Worms

They spend hours, months.. playing with these little worms, building homes and mazes for them. They are carried around like pets.

Clay snail

Sasha’s snail creation.

Sania's clay house construction

Sania moulded this little clay house which almost looks like a home of a troll, it was for his little moose.

Cosmos Flowers

These photos were taken a month ago when our cosmos were in full bloom bordering our entire garden.

Butterfly

They are teeming with bees and butterflies and my honey boxes are overflowing with honey!

More cosmos

So pretty – the nice thing about living in the tropics is that when these die, they seed and the seedlings are already up and growing.

Yellow cosmos

We have yellow cosmos as well.

Green Papayas

So many papayas, they are all ripening. We, along with the staff and chickens are indulging in all those healthy papayas.

Cooling off

Sometimes the cows spend hours in our duck pond cooling off.

Sasha driving

My children are driving. Sasha alone and Sania on my lap but they both work the accelerator. They help papa drive the tractor too.

Posted in Crafts, Livestock, Plants and Trees | 17 Comments

Third Grade House Building Project

Posted on October 10, 2011 by earthboys

Measuring

When my boys were little we moved to our farm in Dominican Republic. There were many fences being installed or repaired, we renovated our home and built three cottages. There was and always is someone walking around with a hammer. Sania was one year and able to work a hammer very well. Hammering nails in the ground, into large trees, into anything soft enough for a nail to penetrate. As the boys got older they began making little projects of their own, building forts in the garden and throughout our home. Not a week has gone by where my sofas or tables were not turned upside down to make themselves a house. Sometimes our living room remained their fort for a week.

Papa helping Sania measure

I love the Christopherus Waldorf Curriculums and this year in third grade there is more practical, hands on work: farming, gardening, weather, building and measurement – something my children know how to do very well – they live it.

Sawing the Wood

Measuring and sawing their wood pieces.

The base and the walls are up

The boys are putting the pieces together.

Sasha hammering the nails into the wood

The boys were motivated to build a house of their own after observing and assisting the construction of our own new house. I shall post photos soon.

Building projects can by found in any of these books: Housebuilding for Children by Lester Walker. and Carpentry for Children. The boys plan to make a go-cart for their next project.

: Sania hammering

Sania could hammer for hours. It’s not uncommon to find nails in his short’s pocket.

The boys peeping through their window

Their little window.

Installing the walls

Only the roof left…

Home in the house

We are still moving our furniture and belongings from our previous home to this one. Our parlor was still empty so the boys decided to set up their house in the space. What I really think is that they wanted to be close to the refrigerator! As we all know active, growing little boys can eat us out of house and home. I am grateful for those nutritious coconuts and farm fruit the boys indulge in.

: Their little kitchen and garden surrounded by rocks.

As you can see they have their own little dining room set up. With real plates and cutlery. You can always tell a bachelors home. Sasha spends most of their play finding and preparing meals for little Sania who is either the pony or the squirrel. Sania never has an appetite for real mealtimes. I wanted to take some photos of their home outside but it’s still in my parlor and not sure when they will be moving out.