The King of Irelands Son

 Winter came with a bang this past week and we 

thoroughly enjoyed a foot of snow!  That 

really inspired us to get festive.  With crafts

baking cookies and a gingerbread house.

 For our more formal school work we continued on with 

Math practice.  My boy loves games.  He is catching on pretty 

quick with all the math concepts we are learning in our curriculum.

This prompted me to look outside of waldorf pedegogy and just find some

practice.  I want him to really grasp it in his bones.  He played tons

of games on Kahn Academy.  This is by far his favorite computer

games to play.  The web site has updated with a variety of subjects

so we can get practice with all areas of our schooling.

For more counting and addition practice we taught him how to 

play cribbage!

 He loves it and is pretty good so far he beat his 

grandpa with a 24 hand :)

I also decided to mix in The King of Ireland's Son.

This is a classic novel written for children.

The kids are loving every single second I bring that book out.

It is enchanting and beautiful, I love it too.

Here is some examples of the art we have done so far...

After the first week of starting our new book everyone fell ill.

Good news is I could read to them from this amazing story.

He looks like there is a halo :)

We are almost feeling better.

Merry Christmas everyone!

until next week 

~blessings

Mathmatics

 The closest I have come to un-schooling happened 

this week.  We found an animal in our garage.  I was

afraid and told the kids to stay away.  They, of 

course did not. While I was busy they proceeded to 

figure out what it could be.

They had long sticks and really poked and prodded.

I was really proud when they told me all of their 

scientific inquiry.  So, I went with it...

Wesley's Muskrat

 We studied it very well and then brought it to a proper 

burial.  Upon our return we looked up everything muskrat.

They drew pictures from memory. 

And now we are reading the Adventures of Jerry Muskrat,

by Thornton Burgess

 

We have started back with a math block after substantial time

spent on language arts.  We began with a little recap, then moved 

right into solidifying concepts.  We worked on place value and times

tables.  

 I attempted to explain the 100's, 10's and 1's.

We used different colors for the places.

We worked out problems while the numbers were in 

their colored position.

He wrote out the 2's, 5's, 10's, 3's and 11's.

We hopped and snapped and clapped them out.

We are working on memorizing them.

We will do more sets next week.

We have been playing a lot of counting/math games.

 During this math block for extra he did more 

reading practice.  I would give him a stack of 

labeled cards and he would read them and 

his brother would put them on the things in our home.

 For seasonal extras I helped the kids make 

this Advent calendar.  We have been preparing for 

Christmas everyday by lighting our Advent 

wreath and reading a story from the Advent book

Of course we celebrated Saint Nicholas day as well.  Matthew got to 

meet Saint Nicholas this year at his Faith Formation class.

He was very excited about it. 

  This is an example of how Tillie's art is coming along

Mermaids on rock

 Taggert LOVES his tubs!!



Until next week
~Blessings

Family time

This post is devoted to what we have been up to

that is a little outside of homeschooling.

First my little baby began crawling!!

This is him on the very first day and attempt.

Since then he has began crawling NORMALLY.

Yes, no scooting or one leggers.

Maybe he will become our first normal child. :)

In other HUGE news...

Wesley started Mites 1

He is my next big hockey man.

First day with new jersey!

Now we are pretty busy trying to juggle all our new schedules.

 Until next time...

~blessings

Language arts block 2

After our Saints block we were supposed to start a week of Nature

then take a week off for holiday.  I decided to deviate from our curriculum a bit.

The flexibility of home schooling is something I really love.  

What I decided to do was spend a week on Saint Martin.

Which ended with Martinmas. Then we spent a week on Native American 

heroes. then, we went on to spend a couple of days with the pilgrims. Which 

we ended with Thanksgiving.  I stayed with language arts when introducing 

all of these stories.  

I told Saint Martin stories from various sources we practiced

drawing the story and writing a summery.

chalk drawing of Saint Martin

For our crafting this week we made two different lanterns.

we attempted a unsuccessful lantern walk.

The candles kept blowing out. :)

Matthew also did a lot of penmanship practice this week.

lower case letters

 We took full advantage of our remaining warm days

Spending the afternoon down by our river playing and picnicking.

 

Two cheetahs in the African grasslands :)

 The next week I told stories of Hiawatha, Iktomi lost his eyes, and the White Buffalo Woman.

We crafted this birch bark canoe, stick tee pee, and 

beeswax Hiawatha for our stories

When it was time for pilgrims I found a great resource.

We went to Plimoth Plantation.  They had the real stories of Thanksgiving 

and the native Wampanaog Indians.

We had fun coloring pictures

We played games the pilgrims played and then made a game the 

Native Americans played.

We ended this block with celebration on thanksgiving of our own.

Before that we went to a performance at the Childrens' Theatre company.

The kids had fun.  Matthew worked very hard over the last three weeks and 

I think reading has begun to click with him.

So much so we decided to make our first readers.

He's been doing great.  I still do not want to push him.

Although, I think it may be coming together very well.

until next time...
~blessings

Block 1

I am starting a new format this year.  I am so busy that I am unable to

post every week.  Instead I will be posting to recap our blocks.  We break off 

about four week chunks were we focus on one particular thing.  Then we add 

in little bits of extras throughout the weeks.  Block one is on language arts.  For

four weeks we study our handwriting, work on reading through phonics and

word families.  The extras were form drawing, painting, crafting, and modeling. 

I have had a bit of a time juggling around second grade with kindy and a little 

preschool thrown in.  I think it has been working out o.k. though.  Just a little more complicated:)

Here is how our first language arts block played out...

We started out recapping a lot from last year.

I had him write out numbers 1-100 on the driveway

he practiced saying them forward and backward.

We read a book that clearly illustrated what 100 looks like.

In really  big kindergarten news...
my second born LOST A TOOTH!
He was really proud and I am a little nervous
These kids are growing up faster than I can keep up!

Congratulations Big Boy

 In other BIG news My eldest had a birthday!
He turned 8.  
He wanted a small family get together with 
blueberry muffins in lu of cake.  This was really amazing,
it was the very first time he allowed us to sing happy birthday to him.
That smile... you know he loved it.

My little girl is getting bigger too.
and it never ceases to amaze me

Back to our school happenings...

We celebrated Michaelmas by creating a dragon
candle.  Saint Michael is the flame defeating the
dragon with his fire.  We light this candle every
meal to make sure the dragon is banished!

After recapping a little math and reading a lot about Buffalo from our 

American history I started in with our language arts block.  This first main lesson

is introduced through Saints and heroes.  The first story was John Henry.  How

he beat the machine.  I told Julius Lester's version which was perfect!

The kids loved this story of strength.

My other hero I talked about was Johnny Appleseed.

This was nice because then I could bring in little things for the
others to do.  Thanks to the Driggers for generously giving us boxes and bags of apples
we did everything with them!  We also celebrated the autumn season collecting, talking
 and jumping in leaves.

We didn't stop with apples and leaves in our celebration of
the season.  We also planted 100 bulbs for spring flowers!

 

 We made many things with clay, let them harden

then painted our new treasures.

We took a trip to a local petting zoo to check out the
huge Tom Turkey and buy our pumpkins



Matthew worked on his form drawing.
He is beginning to really grasp it.

 

Then, I began introducing the Saints.

I am a Catholic so I have no problem bringing them to the 

children.  Some people take issue with this.  I see nothing but 

beauty!  So much so that now he is enrolled in catechism.  Yes,

I was inspired and felt he needed to learn the faith.  So here we 

are learning prayers and our faith.  To my surprise he LOVES it.

 

"In different contexts Rudolf Steiner repeatedly mentioned the inherent healing forces in the Madonna images, especially those from Raphael, and their healing use in the treatment of both disturbed adults and children."  ~Wynestones Press

 I hung up this picture of the Madonna in our school area.  

Trying to stave off any psychological problems. :)

The saints we covered were 

Saint Francis, Saint Emma, Saint Pasquale, and Saint Genevieve

I love how Waldorf really does meet them right where they are.  He 

has fully embraced the subject matter and I see real benefits from it.

In case anyone would like to add a little Waldorf to there current situation

The wonderful Mrs. M posted a nice ten step list to help get started.

I am posting it here for myself to remember because I still forget sometimes.

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1. Remove the TV. Store it if you must in a relative's garage or something but take it out of your home.

2. Keep the computer locked and out of sight when not using. Try to avoid using the computer at all when the children are awake and about. Save computer time for when they are asleep.

3. Avoid talking on cell phones with with your family. Turn off the sound and check once a couple times a day. Designate no cell phone time zones in your life and stick to this. Same for iPad.

4. Go outside every day, year round, for part of a day. On the week ends, go further out and hike, kayak, ski, camp, boat, bike, simply pack a simple lunch and take off, on foot, on wheels, in a car or bus to a trail head, and go! Find local spots of unstructured woods or wild places along the edges of civilization and hunker down, there.

Avoid parks with structures and so on most of the time. Find the wild places with woods and water, and play there.

5. Maintain a daily rhythm including rising, eating, cleaning, cooking, and preparing for sleep. Stick to it. Involve candles of beeswax, songs, stories, and blessings.

6. Form some friendships with like minded people and celebrate the seasons with them. Fall harvest suppers, winter crafting workshops, spring May Day pole dances, and summer camping with the asteroid belt falling stars....Show your children how to create simple meaningful rituals and celebrations, and then keep these up for years and years.

7. Keep the big folk talk, to the big folks! Do not discuss family security, finances, fights, bad world news, and so on with children under 12. Period. Mom and dad are in charge, the world is a beautiful good place, you are a child, we are the grown ups. If I see one more child with huge anxious eyes and dark circles underneath those gorgeous frightened orbs....over exposed to adult life in EVERY WAY you can imagine...this is simply too much for the children, let them be children and keep your urgent icky adult issues for the adults.

8. Adopt a meal habit that supports healthy life. Cook don't re-heat or warm or assemble, study cooking and learn how to make a dozen very healthy satisfying entrees and focus on soup-making. You will never be sorry you know how to make a good soup.

9. Practice art. Be an artistic person, make this a normal part of your lives. Tell artful stories, paint, draw, make music, sing, move, dance, arrange leaves in the park into a mandala, make a design with stones by the creek, arrange a star with driftwood on the beach....speak a poem once in a while. Find a time to be in awe of Mother Nature...be speechless with wonder.

10. Meditate on your child/spouse/family members at night before you fall asleep, think of the highest self of each one, find their shining moments and glory in those...enhance your children's capacities, build them up and expand them. Reflect on the unique wonder and beauty of each one. Feel lucky to have them in your life.

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Until next block

~Blessings