Transitions

I registered the children for public school yesterday.  It wasn't something I thought I'd ever do.  I'm the kind of person to make a decision and see it through until the bitter end.  But this one wasn't that.  Life these days is about making my own choices, seeing I have options, taking up new things because I want to.  That sounds oversimplified, and I guess it is.  When I write things here, there are many layers to my words, things I could never say. 

Really, it was happy moment when I made the decision.  I know I have given my all to my children for nearly ten years now.  What they need from me is different now.  What I need is different.  I need to work, of course, and to stand on ridge tops, and to share what I have with others.  My world is getting bigger and smaller at the same time.  I am learning to be patient, to be okay with open ends, and to tie up others.

I always like to know where I am going, but that's not a part of things any more.  I can't explain it with any accuracy, but I guess it is a universal experience for this kind of thing.  It feels nearly impossible to tell people how I don't want my old life, how glad I am now, how so many old burdens have fallen away, and how the new responsibilities do feel like very heavy things.  I know what I have now, and where I have been.  Oh, that is so freeing and so terrifying. 

Late Winter Scenes

Didn't we have a Spring bouquet just a last week?  Of course!  That is March for you, warm one moment and blustery and cold the next.  This week saw three snow days for the local schools, and we took them to nurse each other through a cold.  Back in the swing of things, we did have a little time to see the snow before it all melted.

There is bright green grass under the snow, daffodils weighed down by wet flakes, and birds singing in all the trees.  It is March and it's nearly half gone. 

I've been working on a hap of some kind for awhile now, since late January.  I ordered the softest tentative Spring colors.  I've completed one a couple times with different borders, none of them knitted, and then I unraveled the whole thing.  I've never done that, as I've always been pleased everything I've ever made.  Haha.  But, really, I've never done that, so now I am working my way through another hap with the same yarn and a knitted border.  Knitting with squiggly yarn produces some lumpy results, but I am hopeful blocking will tackle that problem.

In school news, we've begun new blocks for both of the children.  Roan is making his first book, a fairy tale verse reader of "The Mud Pony."  It's the tale of a boy who makes a clay pony that comes to life.  It helps him to find his people, takes them through a battle, and sees him become chief of his village before returning to the earth.  This is just Roan's kind of story.

Willow is working on math, per the Christopherus syllabus.  We've been carrying over for awhile without much issue, but borrowing is a new skill.  For this, we turned to Enki's grade three materials.  Tricky Mischief returns, learning to borrow jewels from her place value boxes to pay for a ship.  She often cartwheels her way along, so Willow made a moving picture of her making her way through the Kingdom of Jewel.

Well, the sun is up and the birds are singing, so it's time for me to get moving on my next tasks.  Happy Friday!

The People of the Pueblo

We've wrapped up our second block on Native Americans, and the children say that this has been their favorite subject of the year.  While many folks recommend combining blocks for multiple grades, I didn't plan things that way.  I figured we would all learn together, for the most part, and there would be review and new things for everyone.  Willow can't keep herself away from the Four Friends plays we've been doing, and Roan really loves the stories Willow gets to hear.



These have been, thankfully, pretty simple blocks so far.  We've used a series of books from the library, along with some Native American stories from our own collection.  We spend about a week on a particular group, with a couple days on their ways of life and then their stories.  We studied many of the homes earlier in the school year in our house-building block.  As far as crafts and cooking, we've done a few things here and there as time and resources permitted. 

Generally, we've heard creation stories, along with other significant legends.  "The Hero Twins and the Swallower of Clouds" was one that Willow enjoyed.  It was a story of how rain, mist, fog, and snow returned to the earth after the giant was slain.  Those are spider webs over the giant's eyes, if you were wondering! 

Willow has a great knack for seeing shooting stars, so "Why There are Shooting Stars" was a good one for her to hear.  I've also shared my own memories of my trip to the desert Southwest with the children, what it was like to climb down into Mesa Verde and what Monument Valley was like.  It has been a whole family experience, which is one of the many joys of homeschooling.

School Days

Bright and challenging are words I would use to describe things lately.  The days have been full, very full, and I can see that I will need to be even more disciplined in this new season of life.  In between illness and a broken arm, we have done our best to move forward with our studies.   They are my studies, too, after all.  Roan spent a couple weeks working with numbers, reviewing some qualities, and doing some simple things with his increasing collection of stones, marbles, and crystals.

Willow had a second block with Old Testament stories.  We spent the first block, through the sons of Cain, with Jakob Streit's book And There Was Light.  This time around, we used the Christopherus Old Testament stories, as we simply have so much ground to cover.  There will be a third block before the year is out.  Please don't feel bad if blocks take longer than the recommendations--they are simply recommendations, after all!

In our work with numbers, we heard stories about one-to-one matching, greater than and less than, and even and odd.  We played games for each, which wasn't something I did a lot of with Willow.  She had some more age and development on her, so it wasn't as necessary.  For Roan, it is just plain fun.  Here, they were playing Contest for the Crown, where two similar princes vie for the crown, one being false and less than the other.  Willow contributed some of her costume jewelry for the contest.

Roan is cast-free now, and learning to use his arm again.  He's working with vowels this week, while Willow and I study The People of the Rice, as Christopherus calls them.  I find myself missing the complete materials of Enki for grade three, but I am gaining proficiency in finding what we need from used books and our local library.  Always one to love Natalia Belting and her wonderful stories, we'll be using two Ojibwa stories from The Earth Is On a Fish's Back this week.  We also had a nice windfall of some Native American books donated to the local library.  These are often sold for a small donation, so they are now a part of our library.

For vowels, we'll have a return to painting with water colors, and spend this week intensively painting the sounds of each.  If it helps anyone, I think it's quite possible to get three cups of paint out of the smaller bottle size, instead of the pint I used mix up.  These are the more vivid Stockmar colors--carmine red, golden yellow, and prussian blue.  I'm not sure the others would do so well.

And with that, there is much to do and I must get to work in these last few minutes.  Thank you all for your kind words and prayers.  They have been a tremendous help to me in this experience.  I never dreamed I would be here, but it is here that I am.  I wish you all a happy Tuesday!

Snow Study

The return to school work involved plans for a week of Winter stories for Roan and weather study for Willow--a perfect match.  I know that many people try to plan concurrent blocks for their children, but I have generally kept the work separate, since everybody hears most every story, anyway.  It's definitely more Wintry this year, so we spent two weeks on our one week blocks.  When a powdery snow began falling Friday night and most of the day yesterday, even better!

It was so easy to see all the flakes and their beautiful details.  It's a treat when the forecast shows no snow and it showers down all day.  It's too bad it didn't amount to six inches, but we're going to look for more snow today.

See?  Tiny crystals!

I remember finding the most snowy part of a hill, after the bulk had melted, and sliding down as much as I could.  I was wearing out the snow, I guess.  For this snow, the pine needles covering the ground at the Roland Estate provided the extra slippery runway we needed.  It's so nice that they encourage us to play in that yard, too.  There are many times I really, really long to live in the country where we could spread out more in a yard of our own.

Willow spent several days, earlier in the week, on her snow crystal pictures.  We read Snowflake Bentley and The Big Snow among other stories, which gave her inspiration.  Her printing is coming along, I think.  She seldom uses capital letters out of place now.

We saw plenty of frozen waterfalls and icicles coming out of rocks on our drive through the Grandfather Mountain area.  I had her make a picture of the Ice Rocks from memory, since our visit is still a ways off.   Well, it's time to sign off and make waffles.  We got a waffle maker for Christmas and everyone is very excited!

December

 This is the month when hills turn white,
When scattered barns hold candle light,
At four in the afternoon!

When fields lie sown with gleaming grain,
When trees stand washed in silver rain,
In the light of the Long Night moon.

This is the month when apple boughs
Crook elbows north and the orchard mouse
Sleeps tail wrapped, small and warm.

When chimneys smoke on back road places,
And children wait with dreamy faces,
The eve when the Child was born.

~Enki Grade Two Poetry :: author unknown

Each month, Willow is putting a poem in a little practice book.  They're seasonal poems, and so far, we have used ones that are titled for the months.  October was a piper, November was a spinner. . . I like that.  It feels tidy to me, but it's also fun to see what joys each of the months bring.  This is her poem for December and it has been wonderful to see snow while she is working on it.  I guess South of here, they got a even more snow.  This was the perfect kind, sticking to every twig and leaf, just right for snowballs.  There is more in the forecast for Tuesday and I am looking forward to it.

School Days

School days are chugging along, doing the next thing, and making adjustments to the schedule.  I've learned a lot in these almost three months of two students, both about my students and my materials.  Roan has completed his quality of numbers block, and I believe he was glad.  He said he wouldn't go past drawing thirteen fairies!  He does have a kind of diligence that is admirable, and he is willing to complete things without shutting down. 

My thoughts on his first grade year so far are that we are taking our time.  He is younger, chronologically and developmentally, than Willow was during first grade.  I am glad to take things at his speed, stretching him where needed and letting him linger over things and revisit them, too.  I need to do some research on how to handle this in my state, but I think we'll just plug along slowly and pick up with more first grade work next September.  That is the bonus of homeschooling, after all. 

Willow has completed her time and money block.  Telling time has been pretty easy for her, so we focused on units of time outside of a clock.  We learned about the phases of the moon and some units of time people used before clocks came on the scene.  Willow has a pretty good grasp on how to buy things in a store on her own, so we did the same with money.  We learned some of its history (more on Yap Island here) and worked on firming up carrying over.  I'll have to get a photo of our "math house" improvisation.

This block required me to make up the materials myself, so I relied on life experience and encyclopedias.  It feels a little archaic to use them, yes, but I think there is real merit to doing so.  They do tell about things in a sort of a story format, which I think fits well with Waldorf.  We take what works and leave the rest, in terms of outdated or biased information.  I really think it is important for children to see me using books to learn, instead of a computer.

From here, we'll move to Old Testament stories for Willow and fairy tale letters for Roan.  Willow hasn't heard many Bible stories, believe it or not, even though she has attended church.  We've kept that to seasonal festivals and bedtime rituals, which is further explained in A Guide to Child Health.  That could sound terrible to say that (especially living in a very religious area), but I suppose it is up to each parent to make choices about what their children are exposed to.

I think she is ready to hear the stories and I am seeing that Roan is ready for the more challenging fairy tales of grade one.  There is always something to learn, and I must admit I can't think of a better use of my mind.

Main Lessons with Moving Pictures

When we began using the Enki materials, there was the assertion that the school time would work from a three-fold process: open intake, artistic digestion, and mastery.  The intake is the easy part--the child simply listens to the story.  The artistic digestion and mastery leave lots of room for creativity.  One can simply draw pictures or paint, play games, work with manipulatives, model beeswax, work on building projects, perform puppet plays, or work on the plays using the scripts provided in the materials.

While Enki has/had schools, their main focus has been homeschooling.  The materials they set forth are generally for home use, though the games and some videos include a classroom element.  Some footage shows movable pictures, though these, as far as I know, were not given much mention in the homeschool materials.  That's where Making Picture Books with Movable Figures comes in.

This is wonderful fun for the children and another option that can be used for both digestion and mastery.  Roan is working on quality of numbers right now, so he has more picture work for the story above, "East of the Sun and West of the Moon."  I think it is interesting to see how light his drawing is, compared with Willow's.  She did "Owl and Rabbit" from Christopherus.  It reminded me of some of the trickster tales from last year.

The premise of this book is to use poetry to create picture books for children, often referring to Rudolf Steiner and his indications.  They provide numerous poems as suitable examples.  The point is that the text should have some kind of action in it that can be represented with a moving figure.  Since Willow is working on a poem a month and putting them into a poetry book, some of hers will include movable pictures.

 

The book gives clear instructions for creating the backgrounds and layering them to create different fields for the figures. It also tells how to make the figures and assemble the pages.  I'm sorry my photos are a little dark--it was getting dark outside!  I helped the children to decide how to put their pages together and left them to do the coloring and so on.  We used old watercolor pages for the stiff sticks to move the figures, which made it easier to choose the right length.  We used regular liquid glue, but I think a glue stick would work better on the lighter paper.

I'll continue to post our progress on our pictures here, since it cheers us so to make them.  I think it's also good, all-around practice in being thoughtful, instead of rushing through work.  There are so many opportunities for simple, subtle self-improvement through the arts.

Ahead and Behind

I got a little behind on my school updates, didn't I?  Maybe I didn't.  Oh, well.  We've simply been moving forward through our blocks, and I've been sizing up this new and different year away from Enki.  I think all I do is buy books now.

Willow has begun the Native Americans of the Woodlands block this week, and with it, cursive handwriting.  I was just looking over it in the syllabus, only to discover later that day that she was having a lesson from my mother.  She does have very nice handwriting, so it is one less thing for me to worry over. 

My thoughts on handwriting are several.  I do think form drawing is very important, yes.  Willow has spent the year going from the end of first grade onward in her forms, reviewing and working with more focus.  She has certainly improved.  Her printing has been hit or miss.  I do remind her to use her best writing in her lesson book, but there are inevitable typos.  I was thinking that cursive would have to wait another year, but I was wrong.

What she wrote in the picture above is after less than 24 hours of effort.  I'm impressed!  I think the difference is that cursive requires real concentration and she is someone who tends to hurry through things.  This is good practice at slowing down.  I'm still pondering over the Vimala alphabet for later on.  It may be the additional challenge she needs after tackling cursive handwriting, in addition to the character development the font touts.

In other news, we're working on spelling this year, along with some serious review of word families. Willow is a great reader, truly, but these things that are part of spelling have evaded her.  It was the one section on her standardized test that needed some improvement.  So, we're working with Spelling by Hand and starting with the easiest words.  We use our hands and we spell parts of words, like in Little Town on the Prairie.  We'll also revisit Enki's word families in the next week or so.  These are fun things, I think, and easy reviews.

My thoughts on Christopherus after six weeks is that it is not a complete curriculum.  I really do, all joking aside, own a lot of books now.  I sold books to buy more!  It's a suggestion for the course of the year, the curriculum, and I've had to reach inside to form many things into lessons.  It's an interesting transition.  Enki was, in a way, my teacher training, and I'm learning now what it takes to make lessons live inside me.  It's a lifelong effort, I think.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all comes out. 

Pictures that Move (and Snow!)

As a mother, it is almost the law that I must love children's drawings.  This is such a happy task, and I am glad to do it.

Roan made this little picture for me, with just the cabin and trees, and "mailed" it to me while we were working at my mother's office.  Back at home, he added the snow and smoking chimney.  He knows just what I like--to be in cabin in the snow.  It is so sweet, and I think I'd really like to frame it.  I have a collection of Willow's drawings from around this time.  Maybe I should pick one of those, too.

We made moving pictures, according the suggestion from Lavender's Blue first grade.  Roan did the story of Semeli Mountain this week.  Here he is working on his picture, just after he'd had the sudden discovery that he could make another kind of tree.  He decorated them with apples and gold stars, of course.  The part of this picture that moves is a c-shaped opening to the cave the mountain.  He wrote across the top, with great patience, "Semsi Mountain, open up!"

And here is Willow's picture of a farmer plowing an acre of land, as part of her measurement block.  I couldn't deny her the fun of making a moving picture, too.  Bless her heart, her clouds and sun are always happy, even when they are asleep.  I put in a verse of the song we have been working on as a way to have her practice writing.

I've ordered a book on movable pictures that I'm looking forward to getting in the mail.  And with that, a busy Saturday awaits!  Happy weekend!

Earthways

A month into our school year, things are becoming more clear to me.  Willow and Roan are in the midst of their second and third blocks, respectively.  Roan spent a week on Autumn nature stories from the Enki materials, instead of sprinkling them through the year, as we have done in the past.  I'd like to write more about the Enki materials and their comparison to other curriculum options, but I'll save that for its own post.

Right now, I'd like to offer my thoughts on the Earthways book by Carol Petrash, and how it has tied into our schooling over the years.  I can see how this book must have inspired the Enki creators in their work, and I think we'll come return to it time and again.  As crafty as I am, I'll admit that I do a lot of the crafting while the children look on.  It's time to shift that!

The author spends considerable time on ideas for greening your home or classroom, on reusable versus disposable, and the like.  I'd call it a Waldorf kindergarten craft book with an environmental slant.  Mainly, it is helpful if you are looking for themed activities to cover a whole month of weekly work.  There are sections on wheat, berries, beeswax, butter, wool, indoor and outdoor play spaces, and so on.  If you've read the festivals books from Hawthorn Press, some of the ideas inside will seem familiar.  I believe I've seen dozens of instructions for lanterns across my home library, though we often make the same kind each year.  I feel ready to branch out a little this time. 

The section on corn is an interesting one, and echoes some of the activities suggested by the Enki crafts guides.  A new one for me was grating corn cobs.  You begin by having the children remove the dried kernels, then they string them (which is quite challenging!), and then you can let them grate the cobs together.  It makes a colorful kind of "meal" that the children love to play with, even if it is a little messy.  It's a mess that I think is one of the better kinds. ;-) We've done this with an old cob and I think we'll do it again soon.  Laurel really enjoyed it.

Enki suggests this kind of candle holder for children to give as holiday gifts.  We've never made one, but I've recently gotten a big hand drill, so I'm feel more optimistic.  Our town also has a steady supply of smaller candles now, much to my delight (an herb store!).  I think of this as a thing to make each year, but still worth the special effort.  We shall see.

I guess what I am getting at is that there are SO many ideas out there for children and nature crafts.  If you're looking for a simplified list or book, this one is it.  I think the skill range can be fairly wide for a home setting or a mixed age class.  Nothing is really too difficult or requiring special equipment, unless you are intending to grind grain (they suggest a coffee mill).  I've bought numerous books along this vein and I'll weigh in on a few others later on.

Well, it's nature school day and nutting is in the plans.  Maybe a little wood splitting, too?  We shall see.  Happy Thursday!

Crafting On :: Finally!

Right away, here's the Blasted Bunny Hat--done! I'm so glad to be finished with it, as small as it seems. I think this yarn has a force field around it that makes it creep along. Everything I have made from it (like the Cyclone Hat) has taken forever. That's why I like worsted weight yarn. ;-)

Here's a giant granny square for Laurel made with Mandala. It's a lap size, I guess, and she uses it to wrap up dolls.  I wish the colorway had more green, of course.

Willow and Virginia got peasant shirts. Well, Virginia always gets a peasant shirt, but now Willow has her own. I am really enjoying this simple style for a child. There's lots of flexibility with embellishment and fabrics.

 

We dyed yarn with pokeberries for the children's knitting, spending just a few minutes collecting in the yards on our street. This came out really well, and we got the elusive red (it's hard to get a true color photo). Roan was very pleased about that. It think it's wonderful for this time of year, to be sure. I used these instructions, as well.   

My notes on this would include the following: we didn't remove the berries from the stems; we simmered the yarn in half vinegar/half water for an hour beforehand; the berries simmered the same amount of time with just water to cover; I simmered the yarn in the strained dye bath for about half an hour; and I allowed it to dry completely before I rinsed it.  Very little dye came out in the rinse, so I think it's a success!

Lastly, I've started another In Caps Tee for Willow's birthday. A friend gave me this cheery sport weight yarn a couple years ago. I know Willow will love the colors and I'm hoping it will hold out so I can finish it. I'm living on the edge! 

And that's it for me. We're expecting guests and some lovely Autumn weather later this week, so I am trying to tie up loose ends and keep on with school things. We've begun Roan's letter and Willow's measurement block. More on all that later! For more crafting, visit Frontier Dreams.

Third Grade :: Week Two

This new school year has a different feel to it. I'm not sure I could say exactly what it is, but part of it is the feeling that the days move along more quickly now. Our pace hasn't increased, but we've been steadily busy and things feel happier.  Last Friday came and it felt like the week had hardly began.  It is so nice to feel like the easiest part of our days is school time, though I know this won't always be the case.  For now, I will enjoy it.

We finished up some house-building by making a very simple wattle structure beside the playhouse.  Many books from Floris books operate on the idea that one has hazel and willow available all the time.  That's simply not the case, the way we do things in the US, so it was a pleasant thing to find a big pile of green branches right by our driveway.  Our neighbors had cut down a privet (evil things that they are) and gave permission for us to take some.  It's always good to ask, even with unwanted things.  We used metal fence stakes and wove the branches to make a sort of fence.  It's simple, but Willow certainly enjoyed it.

This week, according to the Christopherus syllabus, we are doing math review.  I've recently purchased the Making Math Meaningful source book, and found in it the 105 math facts that everyone should know.  Third grade is a good time to practice these, so we have begun with that.  We used these lovely number cards, and we'll probably bring out the base ten blocks today.

Mike attended a music festival over the weekend as a birthday gift from his family, and he had a dozen water bottles left over.  Willow used these to do various sharing and giving away math questions.  She was so happy to do it!  We even had the chance to see what a remainder looks like when things don't divide evenly.  It was really encouraging to me.

And lastly, for now, our multiplication wheel arrived.  I had bought one with twelve points, but it seems nearly all exercises and instruction operate on a ten-point wheel.  So, I traded it in and I am so glad.  It makes lovely patterns, as you can see with the four times table.  I struggled, honestly, with how to bring times tables to Willow beyond Enki's clapping games.  I don't know that we are really "behind" on that skill, but there is always room for improvement.

And with that, another school day will soon begin, so it's time to scurry around before everyone gets up!