outdoor education

Here is a link to the article I wrote for our local homeschool magazine.

Autumn projects

      Lyra has gotten all speedy with her knitting lately,
                                                       now I can hardly keep a new project ready.

This week our main lesson was for math. Here she is tossing open walnut shells on her main lesson   book, find all the equations for ten. 

We are about to start place value next week and are working to fully embody the multiples of ten, and ten in all its tenness.

                                                          recognizing symmetry in nature

                                                      wonderful spiced pumpkin soup.

splits practice for lyrical class

                                                      January's halloween sensory box

making pouches for our new block crayons

needle felted little sprite, note the bandaged fingers

cupcakes

Big sis is out camping in the woods with girl scouts. Little sis, cries and misses her. Here I thought that I was going to get a little person who would be oh-so-happy to be with just me, and a me that was going to be mad anxious about my bigger one. Nope.  Turns out, I'm not worried about the elated little face I left in the woods. And turns out, also, that I was the one excited to spend time alone with my littlest love.
This morning at 8am, we picked up five beautiful cupcakes from our favorite bakery.  These cupcakes are for my step-daughter's birthday. We go to ballet, we pick up Emilee ( an hour away), we go shopping for hours, we spend quite time lounging in the house. All the time Hazel waiting patiently (she only asked cheerfully every 15minutes, when we would have cupcakes). Finally, we blew out candles so she could have hers. Oh such pure and full enjoyment. I only wish I had a video tape. Hazel has the most expressive expressions and gestures of any human I've ever meet.  I sat and watched her enjoy every single bite, without a word between us.  I never actually tasted the cupcake, but I feel as if I did, just watching her. Apparently, it was quite wonderful.

Now, which one shall I choose? And may I enjoy it as fully as my  three year old.

New lovely Books

Last weekend Lyra read her first book all on her own. I was filled with pride as her mother, relief as her teacher, and satisfaction in my true self that I had followed my beliefs and they had indeed lead us where we wanted to go.
That being said, we are now at a crossroads with our reading material. Ever since starting to read we were comfronted with the problem that the material available was boring and flat. Lyra is used to listening to beautiful stories and her books were not encouraging her desire to read on her own.  I had the waldorf student reading list, but not many of the books.  The library here (a major library system) does not have them. The librarian told me "These are very old books," when I asked. Well yes, yes they are. That is why I want them, why they are wonderful and timeless. The book stores, also, were no help. Finally I ordered a bunch from Amazon. Yesterday our first shipment arrived. I just want to say, I had no idea people had written stories this beautiful for children to read. I didn't read books this lovely until I was in forth or fifth grade and I just randomly chose them off the bookstore shelf. The introduction and first page of Old Mother West Wind, by Thornton W. Burgess made me teary.  I wish I had all of these sooner, but am much comforted that they are now in my possession, and available to me and the little group of families trying and finding our natural little way in this bustling suburban community.  These books are exactly what I mean when I say "the nurtured life."

circle for the week of October 11, 2010

Farm animal yoga with animal sounds will warm us up, then a new scythe game will get us moving and tie our farm animal unit into the harvest.

Scythe the Wheat- Nicola Wicksteed

Scythe the wheat, at its feet;                                     (child jumps while you whisk an imaginary scythe
                                                                                       under her feet)
Bind it, bind it into bundles.                                     (turn child round)

Toss the wheat sheaves in the cart,                          (toss child gently on the pile of pillows)

Rickety rackety off it trundles                                  (clap twice on rick and rack)


And then harvest for us humans, will tie in with the harvest all the little animals are busy with.


Hiding Hazelnuts- Nicola Wicksteed

The squirrels gather hazelnuts
And hide them in the ground.
They hope that when they need a snack,
They'll be easily found.

There are some nuts that they forget.
It's likely some of these
Will turn into seedlings which
grow into hazel trees.

Circle for the week of October 4th, 2010

Geese. We will be learning about the geese we have been watching at the lake and in the air. Our yoga poses this week are postures of a gander protecting his nest.  We will also play a few migration games, learning how to fly in formation and find our way home to nest.

This will be our walking song this week, watch out!
( from Seven times the Sun, Shea Darian)

Three gray geese on the green grass graz-ing.                         : group 1
                        (honk!, honk!)                           (honk!, honk!)    : group 2

Gray were the geese and green was the graz-ing.                    : group 1
                         (honk!, honk!)                           (honk!, honk!)   :  group 2

also learning:
Twinkle Twinkle little star!
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the glorious sun has set,
When the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle all the night.

In the dark-blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,
Guides the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, Twinkle little  star!

And for jump roping:

Halloweena Huckatee
Couldn't brew a cup of tea,
The only portion she could brew
was wishy, washy, mousetail stew!

Michealmas

As we have not celebrated Michealmas before, I thought this year celebrate by hearing a bit about the stories and learning this poem. I appreciate the idea of celebrating this festival as a time to reflect on the bounty of the season and our preparations for winter. A time for finishing our preserving and preparing our clothing and home for the cold dark months ahead.

St. Michael's Harvest Song

In autumn Saint Michael with sword and with shield 

Passes over meadow and orchard and field.

He's on the path to battle 'gainst darkness and strife -

He is the heavenly warrior protector of life.

The harvest let us gather with Michael's aid;

The light he sheddeth fails not nor does it fade,

and when the corn is cut and the meadows are bare

We'll don Saint Michael's armour and onward we'll fare.

We are Saint Michael's warriors with strong heart and mind,

We forge our way through darkness Saint Michael to find.

And there he stand in glory; Saint Michael we pray,

Lead us into battle and show us thy way.

- Anonymous

Michaelmas Circle

Songs and verses compiled from the Wynstones Autumn book, the oral tradition, and other sources

The autumn wind blows open the gate,

O Michael, you, you we await.

We follow you, show us the way.

With joy we greet the autumn day,

Good morning, good morning

And I wonder who is this Michael? And I hear the wind sing:

Michael, God’s great knight,

Strong and pure and shining bright.

I’ll be a knight of Michael, too,

And polish my crown to a golden hue.

Ask the gnomes the iron to mine,

Iron from the stars, from the earth, so fine,

To bring to the blacksmith, who with his might

Will make me a sword, so strong, so bright.

And we follow the falling stars to the mountain cave where the gnomes are working.

And the gnomes say:

With fire and stone, we work with a will

With our strength and our skill.

The iron we soften and then we bend

Into hammers, swords, and nails to mend.

Dear gnomes, may I have some iron?

Are you noble? Oh, yes.

Are you good? Oh, yes.

And do you hear the singing of the stars? Oh yes.

Then you may have some iron.

(Song) Thank you little gnomes, in your crystal homes.

Oh bring me a galloping horse for to ride,

A crown on my head, the iron by my side.

Off to the blacksmith we must go.

Galloping, galloping, off we go.

Dear blacksmith, will you make me a sword?

Of course! for:

I am a blacksmith, strong and true, Best of work I always do.

All day long my hammers go, slinging, clanging, clanging, so,

A rickety, tickity, tickity, tick,

A rickety, tickity, tickity, tick.

Thank you, kind blacksmith, for your might.

I’ll polish my sword, so fine, so bright.

I will use it for the right,

Not for some silly quarrel or fight,

But to drive away evil, I will try

And protect those who are weaker than I.

(After a week or two of the preceding, the following is added.)

Oh bring me a galloping horse for to ride,

A crown on my head, my sword by my side,

For it’s off the to castle we will go.

Galloping, galloping, here we go.

The knights came together and proclaimed

No fear here! Michael, be my guide and stand by my side.

And they knew that Michael was always ready to help.

Michael, God’s great knight,

Strong and pure and shining bright.

Barbara Klocek has been a kindergarten teacher at the Sacramento Waldorf School for many years.