Category Archives: Waldorf

Meet Rose

Sweet Màiri Rose’s third birthday gift.  I hemmed and hawed about making her, but in the end I’m so glad that I did.  Along with a book, her birthday sweater and one little thing I’ll share later, these were her gifts from us this year.  When I set up her birthday table, I purposely kept Rose aside in a different room.  I don’t like the idea of wrapping dolls.  When I was a little girl my dolls were very real to me and it was upsetting to see them under packaging.  Though in our house it’s a bit different since all the gifts were wrapped in play silks.

After she had finished opening everything else; the little gifts from her brothers, a pretty pair of shoes purchased with the money Grandma sent, and so forth, we told her there was still one more special present.  It was then that I went into the other room, as I was walking back, I heard her exclaim in tiptoe bouncing anticipation, “Oh, I hope it’s a baby!”  And the fact that I actually got to place a baby in her arms, all wrapped up in a blanket that was hers as a newborn, made all of the late night sewing worthwhile.

I used the 16″ Starbright Baby pattern from Sarah’s Dolls.  My machine was still in the shop at the time, so little Rosie was sew entirely by hand.  I triple sewed all of the seams and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that she holds up well!

So, Rosebud got her new baby, but no clothes for said baby, as I wasn’t about to undertake that by hand as well.  Until I can get around to it, her brothers were kind enough to loan her some old doll clothes of their own.

This was my first button jointed dolly and the first I’ve made with a belly button and sculpted bottom as well.  The novelty was very well received in this house full of simple, mama-made dolls.

They are very happy together.

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doll making, sewing, toy making, Waldorf, Yarn Crafts
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Monarch

In this season of change, before this week when the deep cold set in, we’ve been seeing monarch butterflies everywhere.  In the yard, when we go walking…

In trying to teach with the seasons of life as well as the seasons of the year, it seemed right to step away from some other things that we were working on to do a little nature study of the beautiful monarch.

Some books from the library that we’ve been enjoying:

An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly

by: Laurence Pringle

with paintings by: Bob Marstall

This one is really lovely, with beautiful paintings.

Monarch Butterflies: Mysterious Travelers

text and photographs by: Bianca Lavies

And this one has amazing photographs of things like forests, completely covered in monarchs.

We also created some mixed-media monarch butterfly art of our own:

The project started with wet-on-wet watercolor paintings, complete with my uber fancy paper bag painting boards.  We each did a wash of golden yellow, covering our entire paper.  From there we used two shades of red, layered over top to start to pull out the suggestion of a butterfly form.  We experimented a bit with using a dry brush to pull color from certain areas and adding several layers of color in other areas for depth and a variety of hues.

We recently lost our favorite source of painting paper.  This was our first time working with this new brand and it was quite frustrating.  Galen was very upset when he painted right through his paper!  Even the older boys came close to making the same mistake.

Later in the week, once the paintings were dry, we used black calligraphy pens to fill in the details.  It took me a very long time the night before to finish mine.  The boys eventually gave up on the pens.  They were the marker sort and not nearly inky enough.  Inferior art supplies are such a bore!  They switched to black crayons and colored pencils, which got the job done, but didn’t give the same sharp clear lines and left a smeared haze on sections of their paintings.

Galen was not to be deterred and lacking a painting, made a drawing to add to our display.  After the black, we used a very fine brush, dipped in undiluted white watercolor paint, to add in the dots and other light details.  I actually think that White Out would have worked well too.

The week of this lesson, we were called upon to rescue not one, but two monarch butterflies, on different days and under different circumstances.  One was stuck in the mud in a roadside ditch, the other desperately trying to escape a bucket full of water.  Incredible to have them so close at hand, instead flitting away in fields, or a mere picture in a book.  Their many adoring observers brought a veritable feast of flowers, and thus were even able to watch them feed up close.  It’s highly convenient when Mother Nature decides to supplement my lesson plan.

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crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, Waldorf
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School in September

We started our school year the first of September and it’s been a good year so far.  A sixth grader, a fourth grader, one in kindergarten and preschooler means that I am one busy mama!  Honestly, we’re all busy.  There is so much to fit in to each and every day.

We started our first day by gathering up, cleaning and organizing all of our supplies.  We cleaned out the homeschooling closet for a fresh start.  I didn’t buy any new school supplies this year.  I first wanted to see what we had left and assess.  We cleaned our crayons and sharpened our pencils, tossing away the ones that are too little to be of any use.  There will be more art supplies coming to all of the children at Christmas time, but for now I want to use up what we have left.  Apart for the practical aspects, I wanted them to start the year off by actively doing something to maintain our little school at home.  This isn’t just my thing, we all work together and it’s everyone’s responsibility to help out.  I feel like reinforcing that idea really helped to start us off on the right foot.  At the start of every day, they tidy our homeschooling table again, emptying the pencil sharpener, filing away old work, clearing away scarps of paper and anything that might have been left behind the day before.

At the end of the first day we celebrated by breaking out the chalk; playing games and drawing designs on the driveway.  We’ve lived here for a year now and it wasn’t until that day that it occurred to any of us that for the first time in over a decade, we actually have a paved driveway where this sort of thing is a possibility.  Sometimes we’re not real quick on the uptake.  But it was all the more fun because of the novelty.

Iain is now doing a bit of yoga to start his school day.  Not much, just a few sun salutations, some deep breathing and gentle stretching to settle him into his lesson.  The little ones think this is fabulous and line up beside him to join in.  Pretty adorable that.

 

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Books, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, snapshots, Waldorf
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right now I’m…

noticing :: how very delightful it is to have a stack of brand new supplies for creating something beautiful.

supplies

feeling ::  excited, inspired and a bit over-whelmed as I start making plans for homeschooling next year.

smiling knowingly :: at this bit of wisdom from Donna Simmons (found in “A Rough Guide to Sixth Grade“), “And the more children you have, the more you have to be, on one hand, rigorously well-organized and, on the other, relaxed.  It’s a question of balance – when to let go and when to make sure it happens, whatever it is!”

wondering :: how it is that a 4th grader and a 6th grader sounds so very much older then a 3rd grader and a 5th grader?  I have no explanation.

moon

thinking :: that people just really shouldn’t talk to me in the morning during the hour after I take my pill (which makes me feel unwell) before I can eat (which makes me feel better).  If only they realized that we would all be a lot happier that way!

finally :: starting to learn to use my camera the way that it’s supposed to be used…but just starting.

as the sun goes down

enjoying :: the couple days a week that the big kids randomly send the two little ones out with tiny market baskets to gather herbs from the three half-barrel gardens I planted, for kneading into the herbed almond flour bread that’s fast becoming their specialty.

thinking :: I may have found a new craft to become obsessed about.

stitchesThe darling stitch holders above are a gift from a dear friend.  And she sent along the little bits of tatting below, just to entice me.  And well, it worked of course!

lace

I really should have pressed them before the photo so that you can see how truly sweet they are in their miniature perfection (instead of in their rumpled, just pulled from the envelope state).  I’m thinking these can’t go to waste.  Maybe some dainty trim on a pocket?  Part of a necklace?

glad, so very glad :: to be able to knit again

flowers

appreciating :: the old vanilla extract bottle full of flowers, that Iain placed at the window beside me when I was too ill to be up and around.

pleased :: to see them still blooming and also to know that I no longer bound by their side night and day.

loving :: berry season being underway!

missing :: the freedom to go outside whenever and however I want (photosensitivity concerns).

at play

thinking :: that if nothing else, our shade gardens will be well weeded.

finding :: twilight rapidly becoming my favorite time of day.

feeling :: tired still.  Still moving slow.  Still needing to take it easy, but taking more of an active part in life as each day passes.  And that is a very good thing.

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crafts, Food, Gardens, Herbs, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, photography, Thinking/Noticing, Waldorf, Yarn Crafts
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The Festivals of Autumn

We’ve been busy this season, oh, so busy!  So busy, in fact, that I’ve not had time to share any of our celebrations, so here is a quick little “catch up” post.

With a third grader in the house again this year, we’ve been working with some of the Jewish holidays.  I always feel like I’d like to be Jewish in the autumn time.  Those festivals are all so beautiful.  We did mark the High Holy Days, and had some really moving conversations about forgiveness, atonement, and personal growth.  I don’t really have any pictures to show for that time and much of our celebration was of a very personal nature, but I can share some of our Sukkot celebration!

lesson book

~drawing of a sukkah from Elijah’s main lesson book~

building

The building of a sukkah was a special project for Steve and Elijah to work on together, but the decorating was a group effort.  They used instructions found in The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays to build the frame, which unfortunately, had some serious design flaws (it actually collapsed.  twice.).  That book does have some nice stories in it though and really nice explanations of the different holidays.

sukkah

The sukkah was very pretty once it was all decorated.

the sukkah

For Michaelmas we baked dragon bread.  We used our own acorn flour and they turned out….well….pretty gross.  But they had a lot of fun making them.

e-dragon

The boys took these two pictures.  The one above hasn’t been baked yet and the one below had recently come out of the oven.  I served them with “fire jam” (I took raspberry and peach jam and mixed them in a swirl in a bowl), which redeemed them a little.  But just a little.

dragon 2

One of the wonderful things about our new house is that it came with a piano, which we are greatly enjoying.  We’ve been learning seasonal songs.  At Michaelmas we learned the song “Michaelmas” found in Pentatonic Songs for Nursery, Kindergarten, and Grades 1 and 2by Elisabeth Lebret.  We learned the words, we learned to play it on the recorder and we learned to play it on the piano.  And now we’ve done the same with the song “November”, from the same book, for Martinmas (that song was actually a part of the Martinmas play that they were in last year).

stars 2

We also made felted “shooting stars” with our homeschooling group.  I think this is a lovely little project.  Instructions can be found here.

boo

stars

When they were finished (over the course of two weeks), we took the kids up to a magical spot, at the top of a big hill in a wide open field, to throw them.

veiw

flying

DSCN5363

Martinmas has been a simple family affair.  There has been a lot of singing.  A couple of days ago we carved turnip lanterns.  And tonight we’ll have our lantern walk with paper lanterns made in years past.

DSCN5380

And next week we’ll have our harvest celebration with friends.  Here’s to many more joyous celebrations yet to come!

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crafts, Festivals and Celebrations, Food, Homeschooling, Kids, toy making, Waldorf
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Camp Trueheart

fringe

arrowheads

with

The children and I have been involved in a very special project this summer.  We call it Camp Trueheart.

bear again

In preparation for next year’s third grade Native American studies, I’ve asked some of our native friends to act as a sort of tutor to us all.  We’ve been meeting several times a week for the last month.

shawl

I really didn’t feel like I did this block justice when Iain was in third grade.  This is one of the things that I truly love about homeschooling multiple children.  When you feel like you haven’t covered something thoroughly enough, you have another shot at it when the next child reaches that stage!

herbs

galen 1

hands

And this has been so much better then anything that I could have done.  They’ve gotten to handle sacred objects, witness the Planting of the Corn ceremony and a Naming Ceremony; we’ve made medicine bags and dream-catchers.  They’ve had target practice with both bow and arrow and atlatl.  They’ve run obstacle courses to test their agility.  They have sat and listened while the Chief plays beautiful music on his hand carved flute.

galen 2

These are all memories and lessons that will stay with them for a very long time, I am sure.

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crafts, Festivals and Celebrations, Homeschooling, Kids, sewing, Waldorf
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The Sea Stars

storyboard

I’ve been doing a lot of planning for our upcoming school year.  One of the things that I’m meditating on right now is ideas for working with the little, little ones.  Galen in particular gets impatient with being left out of our formal school day (he’s been known to park himself next to his brothers, jumping up and down, while chanting, “I want to do school work, I want to do school work!”).

One thing that I know I want to commit to is a seasonal story with props or puppets.  The story board above is to go with the story “The Sea Stars” by Suzanne Down.  Both the story and instructions for making it can be found in the Summer 2010 issue of Living Crafts magazine.

sea turtle

Galen helped me to make the felt base (and Màiri Rose thought she helped), and then I needle felted the images on top.  Suzanne’s version has two fish, but Galen liked the idea of a sea turtle.  I’ve had sea turtles on my mind since reading an article about how of all the creatures affected by the oil spill, their story may be the most tragic.  So the turtle seemed fitting to me.

I hung our finished project on our homeschooling room/playroom wall where it’s ready for many days, weeks and possibly months of sharing a beautiful story with my babes.

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crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, toy making, Waldorf
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eight

“Now Elijah is eight and he has teeth like a shark.  He’s full of giggles and likes to play jokes on people.  He sings in a choir and reads everything he comes across.  He likes to go fishing and play baseball.  He carves little gnomes and makes beautiful pictures of robins.  Elijah has grown strong and beautiful, smart and kind and we are happy to be here with him on his 8th birthday. “

~excerpt from “Elijah’s Rainbow Bridge Story” (for more of Elijah’s Rainbow Bridge story, see here, here and here)

birthday table~birthday table~

us~Me and my Middlest Boy~

~He of the Goofy Grin (he never seems to get that gap toothed grin that other kids get.  His adult teeth always come most of the way in before his baby teeth fall out.  Currently his middle top teeth are being pushed way forward by the adult teeth behind)~

robin~little robin by Galen~

With all of the sewing and photography updates from over the weekend, I never did get around to posting about Mr. Elijah Rain’s birthday (and since then I’ve been busy… *blush* bopping around checking out everyone else’s giveaways).

rocker board

~experimenting with his new rocker board~

rockerboard 2 again

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crafts, Festivals and Celebrations, Kids, Life, Waldorf
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Man and Animal

mountain lion 2

Below are some samples of Iain’s work from his 4th grade ‘Man and Animal’ block.

mule deer

He really enjoyed this one, in fact, so far he’s enjoyed all of his work this year (even fractions!  fancy that…), which is a delightful change of pace for us both.  In the past there have been times when he got stuck in the, “Why do I always have to work harder…”, “Why does Elijah get to do all the fun stuff…” rut.  He hasn’t always felt this way, but there have been times when this was a complaint for sure.  So it was really nice when the other day he confided that he never feels that way anymore.  Elijah’s work suddenly seems boring to him, whereas his is exciting and a pleasantly challenging.  And since Elijah is also enjoying his own work, that means a reprieve from the the-grass-is-always-greener whining for me!  Phew.

bear

For Iain this year, we’ve moved a bit away from the Main Lesson Book format.  He still has a Main Lesson Book for Math and one for handwriting practice and forms, but his social studies, science and language arts are being combined in one big journal as per a suggestion in Melissa Nielson’s book, “A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling Grade Four“.

whale

I like it.  We’ve taken more of a scrapbook-sketchbook approach to it, compiling ideas and pictures as he journeys through this year’s lessons.  In some cases, where it seemed appropriate, we’ve even glued in bits of photos and things.  It’s still a place for “good work” not for rough drafts or notes, but it somehow does have a different feel to it.

bison

With this block he’s been learning to do research on his own.  I’ll present the preliminary topic and then he’ll sit down with a stack of books that are likely to contain further information and see what he can find*.  He takes basic notes as he reads using bullet points and then he’ll write a rough draft for his essay which we’ll review together and embellish or alter as needed.  Though I frequently find that they are quite sufficient and only need a spelling correction or two.

wolf

Another thing that is new this year, is the occasional use of videos.  My children don’t watch television.  And I’ve never in the past felt inspired to use educational videos, but with this block, I felt that there were certain times when a chance at observing the way an animal moves or behaves would be a really positive and beneficial thing.  We took trips to the natural history museum and next month, when we go to Philadelphia, we will be visiting the zoo.  I’m also hoping to visit a  rehabilitation center for birds of prey.  But there are certain animals that he’s just not going to see (blue whales for example) and a big difference between the way an animal acts in captivity and how it acts in the wild.  So, we did avail ourselves of the occasional YouTube video.  Not for all of the animals we studied, but for some.     And I always previewed them first to be sure there was nothing disturbingly violent or inappropriate.

eagle

For mountain lions, this was a wonderful little video, it really conveyed to him so much more about their nature and the way they move, then words could.  On the subject of mountain lions, this on-line field guide is a fabulous resource.  Parent beware!  There are some very graphic images in it.  I printed the specific pages that I wanted to share with him (we found the paw print comparisons especially interesting!), instead of giving him access to the whole thing.

moose

This one features stills of humpbacked whales, accompanied by their song.  More humpbacked whales, breaching and swimming.  Mini-documentary on the blue whale with stunning footage.

iain mountain

For reading we drew from many sources.  We liked “Mammal Tracks and Sign of the Northeast” for information on local creatures, which also tied in nicely with our local geography studies.  For mammals, David Attenbourough’s “The Life of Mammals” was excellent.  “Keepers of the Animals: Native American Stories and Wildlife Activities for Children“  often has an interesting perspective as well as basic statistical information (size, weight, diet, etc).  There were many, many others, including some periodicals (the occasional back issue of “Ranger Rick” or “National Geographic” from the library), but these were the ones that really stood out in my mind as being useful time and again.

*Just coming back to note that we didn’t start off the year with him doing his own research.  In the beginning we did it together and then he progressed to doing it on his own.  Also, I kind of point him in the right direction by providing him with a stack of books that are likely to have what he’s looking for.  I’m just now starting to leave the books on the shelves and ask him which ones he thinks might be useful, while still offering my opinion on where to look.

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Books, Homeschooling, Kids, Waldorf
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