First week of schoool

Once upon a time an eager and anxious mother

approached Albert Einstein for advice.  Her young son was a budding

scientist, and she needed help in laying out an appropriate course for his studies.

"What should I read to him?"  the mother queried.

Einstein nodded his cloud of white hair and replied,

"Fairy tales."

Startled, the mother came back with, "Fine, but then what?"

Einstein peered at the woman over his spectacles and said,

"More fairy tales."

Exasperated, the mother persisted, "And after that?"

Einstein leaned closer to the woman,

"Still more fairy tales."

~From The Braid of Literature: Children's Wolds of Reading

by Shelby Ann Wolf and Shirley Brice Heath, 1992

This absolutely sums up the whole first grade year!!!!!

This year it is all different from what we have done before.

Starting with our first two week block.

Form drawing

beginning recorder

beginning knitting

all of which are brought to the child through

...Fair Tales.

Mostly classic Grimm's.

Daily rhythm:

Everyday starts with a morning walk.

We released our baby turtles on one of our morning walks.

Then, collected flowers.


Next, we come in and we sing to get the wiggles out.
We do a couple finger plays to get ready for the day.

We always start our day with this verse from Steiner~

The Sun with loving light
makes bright for me each day.
The soul with Spirit Power,
Gives strength unto my limbs.

In sunlight shining clear,
I reverence O God,
The strength of human kind
Which thou so graciously
Hast planted in my soul,
That I, with all my might
May love to work and learn.
From thee comes light and strength.
To the rise love and thanks.

R.Steiner


After, verse I will begin with a story relating to our current group of forms.
This first week I told the story of the Water Nixie.

We entered into LINES and CURVES.

We walked lines and went in nature to find lines and curves.

We modeled them with beeswax.

then, we took a field trip to the
Sculpture garden to see human manipulated lines and curves.

CURVE

LINE

LINE AND CURVE

After, more practice moving through space and recognizing them... we drew!

With our feet :)

Here is his work.
(he finally got to use his hands)

That was our first week of forms.

Then, we started knitting!


I told the story of Rapunzel
we followed the prompts from this lovely blog
to introduce it.
Thank so much!!

They learned so well and loved it!

That sums up most of our first week.
I am sort of exhausted but, am loving it so much all
because of Matthew's incredible enthusiasm. 
Someone gave me the advice once that the closer you get to the age of seven
before beginning formal education the smoother it is.  I think it may be true. 
I never have to fight him on anything.
He wants to do school all the time.
:)


Until next week
~blessings