Summer math

Sunburst announced a math problem at breakfast this morning. She needed to know what one year divided by 7 was. She started counting it out with her Organic Rice Crispies and she discovered many things, but not the answer to her query.

It turns out what she really wanted to know was when her newest little friend, Bart, would be turning one. In horse years.

Another fine unschooling moment.

Big Summer Plans

While my internet connection was out over the last two weeks, I seemed to have some extra time on my hands. Funny business, this internet stuff. BUT it did give me a chance to work on that internal list of goals I had for the summer. That would be THIS summer. The one that is suddenly halfway behind us. Already.

I took that internal list and externalized it. Nothing like the added pressure of exposure to kick yourself into high-gear. And this is no petty list, mind you. I think I'll need to clone myself several times over to get to everything in any sort of reasonable time frame.





1. Three years ago I proclaimed that I wanted to learn to play the bagpipes. Granted, it was at my father's funeral and I was openly grieving, but really, I meant it. So I grieved for a while, and then I got pregnant, had my third baby, and moved... and I never quite got around to it. It's high time, don't you think?

Einstein actually proclaimed his desire to learn this at the same time as me, and now he has business cards and the whole get-up. Now, I don't really expect to get to that level of playing... I mean, I'm no Einstein. But he bought me a pretty wood chanter a year or so ago, and I aim to make good use of it.




2. The Adamas Shawl. I will conquer you! I know it has been almost a whole year, and to my credit you ARE my first lace knitting piece... One row a day, and I should have you finished off by the end of August. (Note to self: Lace knitting + Busy Toddler = Bad idea.)





3. I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, et. al. Mixed reactions about the book itself, but it has done one thing... it made me realize that I've got to do more than this. This being my piddly little makeshift garden. In my driveway, no less, because that's where the sun is, folks. Now, I do pretty well with the containers I have here... but reading Kingsolver's book has made me pine for gardens gone by. For what I used to have and do and be before our move to the Midwest.

This is the garden space I gave up when we moved here:



Einstein and I put this in ourselves with horse panel, pine needles, and a load of soil we had dumped onto our driveway. Four long and lovely rows of vegetables with a companion herb and flower plot. And a huge fig tree. Oh, how we used to eat!

Pining away for the past is NEVER a good thing. But I can do more than my measly little driveway plot. Surely I can fit a few more containers in there somewhere before I run out of room to back out my car. And I'm going to build a couple of cold frames to plug on top of these large containers when the weather cools down. There's nothing like fresh garden greens when the ground is still covered in snow. Oh, and maybe build a small greenhouse for the backyard. When the leaves fall off we'll get our sunshine back.





4. Quilting. I haven't sewn a quilt in years, but the girls have been asking for a new bedspread and we have all these lovely embroidered squares that have no home. Sunburst and I picked up some thrift curtains and sheets that we will recycle into a slap-together quilt. Even Moonshine has been embroidering some squares for it (see the princess above.) So this is a group project. Go us!

Even Einstein has gotten bit by the quilting bug... I gave him a little lesson on the sewing machine and after buying a load of fabric (enough for three quilts!) at the fabric store he went to town cutting and piecing and ironing like a madman. He's actually doing an outstanding job of it... but we'll talk about that later.




5. We have a "Peeler" in our midst. He has been spotted and redirected and scolded, but his need to peel is unrelenting. The Peeler must be stopped.

I have a lot of sanding and painting to do throughout the house... not the most exciting job, but there you have it.



6. Plan third grade. Visit relatives in California. Have house guests. Host a barbecue. Clean my office. Oh, and blog! Ha.

Got any big plans to finish out your summer? Time's a wastin'.

Grade Three Resources

** Updated September 2012 **

Waldorf Grade Three Resources

Essential Grade 3 (options for Old Testament, gardening/farming, Native American, measurement)
And There Was Light - Streit (Grade 3)*
Journey to the Promised Land - Streit (Grade 3)*
We Will Build a Temple - Streit (Grade 3 or 4)*

Teaching Practical Activities - Wilkinson (Grade 3)
Hütten von Kindern selbst gebaut - Espinassous (Grade 3 +)*
Wir bauen jetzt ein Haus - Wolk-Gerche (Grade 3 +)*
People at Work: The Builder - Ladybird book (English housebuilding/bricks) - (Grade 3)*
My Side of the Mountain - George (Grade 3+)*
On the Far Side of the Mountain - George (Grade 3+)

Soul Development Through Handwriting - Crebbin (Grades 3 or 4)
Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing - Silbert (Grade 3)

In the Three Sister's Garden - Dennee (Grade 3)
Native American Gardening: Stories, Projects and Recipes for Families - Caduto/Bruchac (Grade 3)*
Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories, Activities for Children - Caduto/Bruchac (Grade 3)
Indian Why Stories (Grade 2 or Grade 3)
Farmer Boy - Ingalls
Waldorf 3rd Grade Farming Block- Heirloom Seasons (Grade 3)**

Poems and Rhymes/Grammar
A Journey Through Time in Verse and Rhyme (Grades 1-8)*
Waldorf Book of Poetry (Grades 1-8)
An English Manual - Harrer (Grades 2-8)*
Mad Libs (Grades 3+)*

Mathematics
Making Math Meaningful - York (Grades 1-5)*
Math Lessons for Elementary Grades (Grades 1-5)*
The Man Who Counted - Tahan (Grades 3 +)
Childcraft: Mathemagic (measurement section) - (Grade 3)*

Music
Waldorf Teacher's Companion to the Pentatonic Flute (Grade 2 +)
Folksongs for the Pentatonic Flute - Miles (Grade 3 +)
One for the Golden Sun: pentatonic songs (Grades 2 +)
Clump-a-Dump- and Snickle-Snack (Grades 2 +)
Music Through the Grades - Barnes (Grades 1-8)
Sing A Song of Seasons - Naturally You Can Sing
Beginning recorder books

Art Resources
Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools - Wildgruber (Grades 1-8)*
Elements of Grade 3 (main lesson book images) - Millenial Child / Eugene Schwartz (Grade 3)***
Form Drawing Grades 1-4 - Embery-Stine and Schuberth (Grades 1-4)*
Form Drawing - Niederhauser and Frohlich (Grades 1-5)
Inspiring Your Child's Education - David Darcy (Grades 1- 5)*
Creative Pathways - Auer (Grades 1-8)*
Will-Developed Intelligence - Mitchell (Grades 1-12)* 

German
Teach Me German
Fun with German - Cooper
Rosetta Stone
Assorted picture books

Spanish
Teach Me Spanish
Fun with Spanish - Cooper
Cante, Cante, Elefante - Naturally You Can Sing
Rosetta Stone
Assorted picture books

Steiner
Rhythms of Learning: Selected Lectures by Rudolf Steiner - Trostli (Grades K-12)*

Curriculum Guides
Millenial Child - Eugene Schwartz*
Path of Discovery - Fairman
Waldorf Without Walls - Barbara Dewey
Christopherus Publications (First Grade Syllabus; Curr. Overview)

*All of these resources have been very useful to me at one time or another, but these are my personal favorites. 

**Sometimes other homeschool blogs are the best resources.  Renee at Heirloom Seasons blog has captured this block in the most beautiful way I've seen yet.

***I cannot recommend this resource highly enough, especially for the housebuilding block.


Our Lessons and Resources
You can sift through my Grade 3 posts HERE.
For the older Gr. 3 posts, it gives you an option of clicking "older posts" at the bottom of the page.
Or if you're looking for something specific, please see the labels on my sidebar or use the search function at the top of the page.



Other places on the web
Chalkboard Drawing (images)
Waldorf Library (free e-books)
Waldorf Teacher's Gallery (images)
Waldorf Ideen Pool (images)
Baldwin Project / Main Lesson (free e-books)
Rudolf Steiner Audio
Rudolf Steiner Archive
Naturally You Can Sing (songbooks)
Waldorf Curriculum Chart (Grades 1-8)


My Favorite Unschooling Books
Learning All the Time - Holt
Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery - Albert
Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School - Greenberg

Sad week

We have recently suffered a great loss at our house... a deep and regretfully painful loss. I hate to be the bearer of ill tidings, but I thought you all should know.

The other day our wireless internet went out. In the middle of an email the connection died, and when I checked the "tower thingy" it was red. I messed with the plug and suddenly there was a great vibration of color, one final and glorious hurrah, and then bam. It was gone. Just like that.

It's a very sad week, and Einstein and I are working on picking up the pieces and moving forward again. We'll be conducting our own autopsy to see if we can discover the cause of death before ordering up a replacement. Until then, you will find me sitting in the driveway with a dilapidated laptop trying to access my email through my extremely kind neighbors' wireless service.

Since I am still paying my own monthly service fee, this is guilt-free mooching at it's best. Now if only I could get the connection to hold for more than a few minutes at a time, we'd be in business.

Think good thoughts.

Blog safety?!!

A friend recently pointed out to me this post over at Islamic Homeschool Diary which links to this post over at Notes from the Trenches... and concerns the issue of Blog Safety. As in, how much information have you really given out on your blog? Enough for "bad people" to find your house? Recognize you or your children on the street?

Apparently this can happen. Easily. And it has given me something to think about.

Bear with me while I take a brief pause and go through my archives to do a little safety check.

Growing a knitter

Moonshine, not to be left out, will officially be kindergarten-age this coming Fall. She learned to knit last summer on a circular needle when she was a mere four-years-old. Again, I think it's part of the monkey-see, monkey-do phenomenon around here.

Her first official project was a doll, knit flat in garter stitch, and sewed up the side.

She gave me her vision (color, stripes, and hair) and I helped her pull it off. While she did a lot of the knitting and told me when she was ready to change colors, I helped her make that color change. I helped her knit. I put her dropped stitches back on the needle and untangled the yarns a dozen times. I did the sewing and the embroidering and the hair. She was four. Even Lance Armstrong doesn't ride alone.

She quickly moved on into a dishcloth, her first solo project. And she knits a little every week, or as the mood strikes her. She declares that she's "Going to finish it today," every time she sits down to knit. She usually manages to get through a row, two at the most, in one sitting. She's learning how to not freak out when she drops a stitch, put them back on, or just sit and wait for help. Important lessons.



She's been working on it for almost a year now. "It's a present for you," I'm constantly reminded, "so just pretend you don't know what it is."

In the past week she finally started finger crocheting (crocheted chain made with fingers.) Sunburst has tried to teach her many times, but it didn't take. Last week she finally grasped the concept and worked steadily (and proudly!) for an hour on her super long chain. If she's interested in the next year we may try to teach her finger knitting (not to be confused with finger crocheting) and how to work a Knitting Nancy to make I-cord.

And here's the knitting song I promised last month. Sorry about the blur. It's from an old public school 3rd grade songbook called Singing and Rhyming by Lila Belle Pitts.



The lyrics read:

Learning to knit is so much fun. You put on two, then take off one.
Missing a stitch and back you go. And then you start another row.

Faster and faster on I go. I love to sit and watch it grow.
Only one thing that puzzles me. When I get through, what will it be?

Knitting Mania

Sunburst has been knitting for a long time-- since she was five. Her first project was a wobbly- looking scarf for her doll. Then she plowed straight into a matching hat, knit flat and sewn up the back. Since then I have let her knit with me, doing a stitch here and a row there, helping me on my projects as her enthusiasm warranted.

Enthusiasm has never been a problem with Sunburst. The girl likes to knit.

Her first grade knitting looked something like this:



She had been rereading the Little House series, and with all sincerity, wondered if Mary could knit blind. So she tied a silk around her head and tried. It amused me to no end to see her patiently sitting like this, feeling out the stitches with her fingers. Since she had just learned to knit with five double-pointed needles the blind-knitting show seemed risky, but she managed to knit a row or two this way.

After two weeks of persistence, she came up with a sock. Size small. Baby small.



She knit the heel flap, turned the heel, and felt really proud of herself. It was completely her idea to knit a sock. I wasn't sure she could pull it off, but when I mentioned that I had signed up for a knitting challenge and talked up my goal of knitting my first ever sweater, Sunburst decided that she should push her knitting to new heights as well. And besides, how hard could one little sock be? She had just watched me knitting my first pair or two.

That seems to be how her knitting projects get fueled. She sees me knitting something, and she wants to do it, too. And of course I can't say no to that. I can't deny knitting. And I don't want to tell her that she "can't"do something unless of course it's something dangerous or totally inappropriate. Knitting is hardly ever inappropriate.

So when I started knitting fruit and veggie hats this past fall, and Sunburst got the itch to make one, too... well, of course I took her to the store and let her pick out some yarn. She was determined to make a strawberry hat for a sweet, little baby friend in our homeschooling group.

It took her awhile, but she did it.



Not bad for a seven year old in second grade.

The great thing about knitting is that it's not instantaneous. It takes some time and dedication and focus. If there's one activity that really works on strengthening the will forces, this would be it. Knitting teaches you to keep moving forward-- one row at a time, one stitch at a time. Whatever it takes to get there. I've been working on a lace shawl since last summer (my first lace piece!) and slowly Sunburst has watched it grow at a painfully slow rate under my hands. And hopefully that rubs off on her. I think it does. Afterall, Sunburst did go back and knit another baby sock to make a matched set. Knitting that second sock can be excruciating... there are lots of knitters that succumb to "second-sock syndrome."

As for knitting as school work, I don't really care what Sunburst is knitting, as long as she's happy doing it. Her most recent works--in-progress include mittens, a scarf, and a teddy bear for the Mother Bear Project.

Free Hugs

Sometimes, a hug is all we need!
Check out the Free Hugs Campaign!


This video made me smile! Extra hugs to my sister Junebug in California for sending me the Free Hugs email. I'll be hugging her in person next month, for the first time in FOUR long years! Yay!

Barbara Dewey conference

Exciting news!

I just got word that Barbara Dewey will be doing a conference in the midwest on Aug 25- 26.

It sounds fun! Anyone planning on going?

Date night with Moonshine

Tonight after dinner I had the pleasure of going out on the town with Moonshine, my five-year-old daughter. It's not often I get to have some one-on-one time with any of my three kids, or vice-versa. So this was a real treat!

Actually it was a bribe, if you want the truth of it. The girls had been goading me into becoming a stark raving lunatic at bedtime with all the yapping-pushing-jabbering-pinching needling-banging-shrieking that was going on in the bedroom. All this and they were sleeping in different beds! Inevitably the carnival of noises would begin just as I was lulling Kitty Bill to sleep, and several nights in a row of this nonsense pushed my last button. So rather than beat a dead horse, in my deepest hour of desperation, I offered up a bribe. Go to bed without a hassle, and earn a sparkly smiley-face sticker! Earn ten and go out for a night on the town with the Mom. Alone. My undivided attention! As if that wasn't enough, I threw in the promise of a sugary treat to boot!

My friends, let me tell you how superbly this bribe is working! Twelve nights later, both girls have filled up their little chart with smiley faces and are simmering with anticipation.

So tonight, I took Moonshine out. She gussied herself up in her newest outfit --the glittery silver Dorothy shoes and "beehive dress" that had her squealing in delight at the used children's clothing store. (How can you refuse your child a beehive dress?) And she even brushed her hair!

She was very cute about it. She wanted to bring some picture books along, I guess, in case she got bored. She's so like Einstein! Alas, I talked her out of the books and we headed over to a local alternative coffee shop where they have vegan cookies. We picked out our treats and drinks and she chose a table in the back room near a shelf of books and board games, where upon in a matter of minutes she proceeded to slaughter me in a game of chess. She's five, people. And she had me in checkmate in about 6 or 7 moves!

Moonshine clearly has a few facets that I'm not aware of. This is my dreamy child who chews on anything within reach, wipes food in her hair at every meal, and blindly walks into traffic. The freaky flip side of that is that she memorizes entire plays, has a keen eye for discerning between children's book illustrators, and spends an exorbitant amount of time (and interest!) memorizing film trivia for the numerous old musicals and shows I have let her watch in the past year, such as Mary Martin's "Peter Pan"--"Mom, Maureen really did a good job in that play, didn't she?" Or "The Wizard of Oz," which has developed into some kind of crazy obsession with Judy Garland and Margaret Hamilton. At any given time of the day Moonshine will ask me to Google somebody she has been thinking about, which is how we discovered that the Wicked Witch also did a hilarious stint on the Addam's Family tv show in the 60's.

Obviously, there's more to Moonshine than meets the eye. Tonight I got to see a huge glimpse of that, and it was very refreshing. And yeah, she beat the pants off of me in chess. I had no idea how well she played. I don't think she had any idea... because she laughed with delight when I conceded that she had won, and then she modestly offered to take the move back so we could continue playing. I let her keep the win, and we started a new game which she quickly tired of. So instead we let our pawns dance around and gallop across the board on their valiant steeds. This was more along the lines of what I had originally expected, but just when I started getting comfortable in my knowledge of her, she picked up her queen and began speaking for it, with a perfect British accent that came out of nowhere, ordering the pawns around like disobedient children!

We left the cafe in a flurry of cookie crumbs and on a whim I took her upstairs to a vintage clothing and jewelry store where she was really in her element. Now, I have to confess that I'm not a clotheshorse or anywhere near fashion savvy... I'm pretty clueless about such things, but Moonshine is a bird of a different color. She immediately began fingering all the clothes and exclaiming over the jewelry. We "dream shopped," and she picked out a full-length gold- sequined coat, an embroidered handkerchief, and a vibrant pink dress with a pink sequin and lace bodice, which she decided was the absolute perfect wedding dress for herself. She's all about the fancy, this one. On the way out she clasped onto a silky black dress in the "Addam's Family section," and swooning, exclaimed that she could "never let go of it again." It was just "too warm." Warm? "Soft," she said. Sensorily complex and fulfilling.

That's Moonshine all over.

We rounded out our evening with a walk over to the library because she wanted to bring home one book for everyone in the family. Ha! Thirty books later we headed home, happy and content. It was such a blast to see her shining in her own light, neither overshadowed by her older sister nor overwhelmed by the screaming needs of her younger brother. I was both surprised and delighted with the person that came bubbling out of that beehive dress.

This is the best bribe yet. I only wish I would have thought of it sooner, and of course I can't wait to do it again!

Me, a flower?

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."


Huh? A canna? Spooky! I saw these for the first time today as I was driving Sunburst to camp. They were beautiful and eye-catching and different. That is so NOT me. So I have to laugh at this one. Also the text that goes with the flower... partly true. I'm honest to a fault, and I don't play well at niceties. You will always know where I stand and what I think. Our old ancestral motto (and I'm not making this up) is, "Frangas Non Flectes," which roughly translates into "You may break me but I will never bend." It's true. I'm not one to waiver... that said, it has recently come to my attention that this does not always endear me to people. Who knew?!

But the latter part... accomplishments and all that hooplah? Not so much. Notice that I create blogs and invite people to post on them because I recognize that this life is so not about me. I'm just another weed in the field, really. But together, my friends, we're a garden.

Summer camp

Sunburst left today for her first day of summer camp.

We signed her up months ago, and she has been anticipating this day with great excitement. Since she has been homeschooled, this kind of "away from home" thing isn't something she's had much experience with. I wasn't sure how she'd do, but she has been widely enthusiastic, especially with the knowledge that her best homeschooling pal would be attending camp with her. So today we packed up what she needed and dropped her off at the specified time. The woman that signed her in had the biggest grin I've seen in years-- just the epitome of cheerfulness. I took it as a sign of the good times to come.

Just as I was leaving, they shuffled Sunburst into a different group than her pal. Apparently they were dividing the kids up by grade, something rather arbitrary when it comes to homeschoolers. Sunburst is now considered a 3rd grader, while her pal is technically in 2nd grade. This would never do! Sunburst shot me a look of complete horror. Her eyes got wide and shiny as the bottom fell out of her world. And I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Welcome to Summer Camp!

In the end, it all worked out. Sunburst and NightOwl got to be together, with a heaping thanks to Aleisha's unwaivering people skills. (Always pick her for your team; she's very good at this sort of thing.) Sunburst was pulled out of the older group and happily joined the younger one.-- But that pit in my stomach didn't go away. It just deepened as I went on with my day. I couldn't stop worrying about Sunburst. Thinking about that look on her face. Missing her.

I missed her terribly. And she was gone for all of three hours.

It's a day camp. We'll get up and do it all again, every day for the next two weeks. And I'll probably miss her again tomorrow. And the next day, and so forth and so on. What's wrong with me? It's not like she hasn't been away from us before, right? Right? oh... well, I guess she hasn't really. Just five times in 8 years. Two medical emergencies, two sitters, and one homeschool activity. Is that really it? Have I taken this Attachment Parenting schtick too far?

We've pretty much been on our own since we became parents. When Sunburst was born we lived twelve hours away from our closest family members. Since then we have moved ever farther away, playing follow the job. I can see how things might have been different had we raised our kids closer to home where grandmas and aunts and uncles abound. But our life circumstances have led us into a world of strangers. It seems that just when we got to know people well enough to entrust our kids to them, it was time to move again.

But really though, there's this part of me that's completely confounded by the idea that we're supposed to be okay with leaving our kids anyway. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm confounded. I just don't get how we're supposed to be okay with it.

I mean, we grow these little people up, out of practically thin air, for nine to ten months inside of us. They are so completely a part of us that when we push them out into the bright world they are still attached. They are helpless and smelly, and we are just as wrapped around them as we ever were. Coddling and nursing and catering to their every whim. Snuggling and gurgling and loving. We're designed, from the moment of conception, to shelter them, protect them, nurture them. And not just for weeks, but for years and years... and then one day we're just supposed to watch them walk out the door and be okay with that?

On what planet does this even make sense? There seems to be a great design flaw here. Sure, this is a multi-species experience. I get that biologically it needs to happen, that's it's all part of the process. But emotionally? It's some kind of sick game along the lines of "if you love it, let it go..."

That's crap. I don't want to let my kids go. I don't want to entrust them to the care of complete strangers. Even if they push my buttons some of the time. Even if sometimes it's hard to get through the day without pulling my hair out. I love them. I enjoy them. And it hardly ever occurs to me that being without them is an option. It's not a conscious thought, my brain just doesn't go there. By becoming a mom, this is the deal I signed up for. It's as hard for me to separate myself from them physically as it would be to try to separate my heart from theirs. It's too late for all that. We're intertwined, the kids and I.

But you already knew that. We're homeschoolers, afterall. As for those people who aren't, and watch their kids head off every day for school, how on earth do they do it? They must have nerves of steel!

Sunburst left today for summer camp. She had a grand time, learned a few dances, and played a bunch of games. She's revved up to go again tomorrow and every day hereafter for the next two weeks. She's leaving. She's excited. I'm excited for her. Really. But gnawing there at the back of my mind is the thought that someday it won't be summer camp, and she'll be leaving for good.

Humanoid Toddler

Robo-toddler reacts to human touch.

Fascinating and freaky.

8 Things

Ooh, I've just been tagged by Shukr. And for something I'm an expert on: me! Now you will all find out just what a weirdo I really am.

The rules are simple…Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I've been vegan for 8 years. I'm not real pushy about it; to me food is a totally personal choice. However, be warned that if you're having a party that features roast piglet on a spit, I'll probably not come. The smell is too much.

2. My childhood hero was Olivia Newton-John. You know, Grease, Xanadu--- the whole nine yards. I used to own every album she ever released, most of them on 8-track. Yeah, I'm old enough to remember 8-track players.

3. When I was 7 and 8 my favorite toy was an Andy Gibb Shadow Dancing doll. I loved it like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't decide if I wanted to marry Andy Gibb or if I wanted him to marry Olivia Newton-John and have them as my parents. With parents like that I thought I'd be a shoe-in as a Solid Gold dancer. ;-)

4. I used to have a thing for memorizing song lyrics. Throughout the 1980's I kept a binder stuffed full of song lyrics of all genres that I had copied down, either from record albums or by playing a song ad nauseum and translating what I heard. Sometimes my translations made absolutely no sense, and once, when I was singing one of my translations in the car, my mother nearly had a conniption fit. Apparently "Hopelessly Devoted to You" does not contain curse words... who knew?

5. When I was 8 years old, and my translating skills had so obviously failed me, I decided that I wanted to be the first woman president of the U.S. Sadly, this goal is still obtainable. Not by me, surely! But by someone....

6. When I was 13 I still had 8 of my baby teeth! --And people say I have a hard time letting go of things... Anyway, the dentist decided to pull all 8 of them out just before my 8th grade prom. Oh, the misery!

7. My first seven boyfriends didn't take, but I married number 8. He once whittled me a number 8 out of wood to represent our infintesimal love. I still have it. And him, too, of course!

8. I was born in the 8th month of the year-- a planned, unassisted homebirth. I was the only one of my 8 brothers and sisters to be born at home. Oh, and I weighed over 8 lbs. Spooky, huh?

Ok, so maybe I took that "8" part a little too literally. Apparently you don't HAVE to get all weird and make everything relate to the number 8... but I'm kind of a theme-oriented gal. I'm quirky that way. Anyway, this is the first tag I've actually responded to. How'd I do?

I'm tagging.... MoxyJane, Aleisha, BigKrautMama, HerbalTonya, BirthStudent, Mrs. Darling, Blissful Bee, and... da-da-da-dah.... Mama to the Masses.

School's Out!

There is no music anywhere
Like children's voices in the air.

Like crystal bells they peal and ring
They never really speak... they SING.

But, oh, their cries when school is out--
A song... a cheer... a bell... a SHOUT!

~Mae Winkler Goodman

Last week we decided to be done for summer. I don't feel like I can give my full focus to the task at hand, and Sunburst certainly doesn't want to focus either. We're tapped out. Plus, the pool down the street is open. It's a big one with water slides and kiddie sprinklers. From our house we can hear the happy din of swimmers all day long. Water slides or math problems? It's not really a fair contest.

So we went through our stuff and together figured out what projects we absolutely must finish up in order to have some closure on the school year. There was a lot that I had planned to cover but didn't get around to. And I'm learning to take my own advice and feel okay with that.

Plus Marsha Johnson, of the Waldorf Home Educators yahoo group, said something the other day that really moved me. She said, "You do not have to teach your child every single thing, little tastes, little exposures, little hops on stones in the stream, little meanderings around the meadow, remember........ They already KNOW it. You are simply part of the process where they are waking up and REMEMBERING it.........."

So now that I'm totally off the hook (whew!) in order to feel personally satisfied this is our little list of stuff to finish up:

• The King Of Ireland's Son --we took a break and are now back, fully entranced, with the story. Sunburst wants to draw a few more pictures and write about them before she shows it off to her dad.
• Saints and Heroes embroidery --just three more squares to go! And this is no big hurry, except that she's anxious to sew them up into something for display purposes.

Like I said, it's just a wee list unless I've forgotten something, which is entirely possible. I also have a few books that I would like to continue to read to her out of since we haven't finished them. Maybe we will remember to get to these:

• Jataka Tales
• Aesops Fables
• A Pebble For Your Pocket, Thich Nhat Hanh

And all those lovely math stories I didn't get to I will hold over for next year. I'm planning on REALLY preparing ahead this summer for next year. I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants this year (well, since the car accident anyway.) It's not that I don't function well that way most of the time, but I really want to take the effort to sit with the material for longer this time and really contemplate what it is I want to bring to Sunburst.

And Moonshine, oh! She's excited that she's finally old enough for kindergarten this Fall. She DOES realize that she's not going anywhere for this. She knows she's on the homeschool plan. What she doesn't realize, I think, is that she's been doing kindergarten all along. So I will go out of my way to find something novel to bring to her-- the stories and songs she doesn't remember hearing, that sort of thing. Her excitement is awfully cute. She's counting down the days, figuratively, until she'll be old enough to do "that fun picture work" like Sunburst.

I'm starting to understand all that talk about building anticipation.

How many?

How many babies does it take

...to fall out of a grocery cart?
...to run off in the store?
...to disappear at the library?
...to break into a glass cabinet?
...to empty every cupboard in the kitchen?
...to run in the street?
...to thoroughly flood a bathroom and part of a hallway?
...to break a thick, wooden safety gate?
...to climb on a bar stool?
...to pull everything off the counter?
...to sneak into the paints?
...to build forts on the couch?
...to climb partway into the fish tank?
...to fall out of the bed?
...to topple out of the swing?
...to scale the bunkbed?
...to throw ear-shattering tantrums all week long?


Yeah, just one.

Einstein has been gone this week at a conference, and it's been all-mama-all-the-time. Unfortunately, Kitty Bill chose this week to catch a cold and simultaneously make some huge developmental leaps. I'm all for leaps, just not from anything higher than his knees. A little back-up here would be nice. Sleep, too, for that matter.

He's running me ragged.

Einstein, come home soon!

Bugs in the yard

Sunburst, bustling with excitement, pulled me outside yesterday to have a gander at this:



This is her bird's eye view from the wooden plank swing out back. Maybe I'm getting old-- I didn't see anything. She had to point it out to me.

It's RIGHT THERE!



Ew. Lovely.

What we have here is some kind of winged ant-like creature perched atop a white spider. Apparently Sunburst watched the entire battle scene with rapt fascination as the white spider fell. She thought maybe the victor would now proceed to dispatch a quarry of eggs in the spider's head... but it doesn't appear to be the case. We crouched there together and watched for a little bit as the victor worked at moving his victim ever so slowly along, and I was reminded of how much I take for granted. And how NOT at one with the universe I am these days.

But Sunburst? She noticed all this from the swing!

When she came in for lunch she began regaling me with tales of nature. How the mouse she found in the yard that morning was covered in maggots, and did I know that pirates used to eat maggots?

"We're eating lunch," I said.

"So were the pirates," she said.

And about that maggoty mouse in the yard? Without my knowledge Sunburst grabbed a plastic sack from the house, and used it to pick up and dispose of the mouse. AND she washed her hands.

Just when I thought I knew my kids... I think we've crossed some kind of threshold.

A Taste of Waldorf

You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.
~John Lennon

Remember that dream I was talking about? I heard from so many of you in the comments and through private emails echoing this dream. It seems that I'm not the only one. The people have spoken. They want a community-created platform that's inclusive of all Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers-- from those who homeschool using Waldorf exclusively to those who like to combine their Waldorf-inspiration with other things.

I love that this isn't just my dream anymore.


Over the last few days I combined all your brilliant ideas and created two things:

1. A Taste of Waldorf --a community Waldorf-inspired blog!
2. Waldorf-Inspired Homeschoolers Web Ring!
   

Go there. Join if you like. Let's see where our dreams can take us...

Buried treasure

In our first grade Language Arts block last year, I introduced the letter "X" through the story of Pirate Jack looking for buried treasure. We accompanied him on his journey-- pacing out the steps with him and pretending to dig alongside him for the bounty. It wasn't long before our mutual work uncovered a large treasure chest. Upon opening it, the pirate discovered more gold and precious jewels than any of us will ever see in our lifetime. He would be a rich man, indeed, if he were interested in all this "wealth." But he wasn't. He kept digging through that chest until he uncovered the real wealth. And old, dilapidated book of stories that belonged to his great, great grandpappy. The pages were loose, the spine ripped, the cover well-worn and askew... but Pirate Jack was beside himself with joy. He walked away from the gold and jewels clutching the old book to his chest and grinning madly.

I'm wont to agree with Pirate Jack.

Recently we have come into possession of a large lot of lovely, old books. We are a family passionate about reading. Addicted, one might say, to the pleasure of well-written, simple, pure-hearted books. Surely, we read a bit of candy here and there. But lovely old books are a staple of our literary diet. And nothing tickles me more.

I was fortunate enough to find a few of these gems sifting through stacks at the used bookstore and in library discard. Others were given to my children as gifts from an elderly neighbor who is cleaning out her attic. And the last one, The Wee Scotch Piper, I found in a Scottish shop while Einstein was trying to buy a new drone reed for his bagpipes. I thought it was a decorative display, but to my utter delight, it was for sale!

The one book of the lot that was the most surprising find of all is Our Singing World: Singing and Rhyming, a U.S. school song book copyright 1950 by Ginn and Company, republished in 1957. I picked it up at the used bookstore for a mere $2. It's chock full of songs that we have already come to know and love through various Waldorf resources and contains countless others that we WILL come to know and love. It's a real treasure.

As an added bonus, every song has musical notation. I plopped open the book and picked out a morning song aptly titled, "Morning Song." I started singing it, and before long the girls started singing along with me. Sunburst came over to where I was sitting and asked if she could have a turn looking at the words. I handed the book over to her, and next thing I knew she had hauled over the toy piano and began trying to plink out the notes. YES!

So what's a mom to do, but grab out a pentatonic flute and play along with her. She had to fudge it a bit since the toy piano doesn't give you a whole lot of scale to work with. I had to fudge it a little bit too, since the song has more notes than the pentatonic scale. We ended up having a little talk about "fudging" it, musically. I'm planning on sticking with this same song for a week or so to see where it takes us.

Morning Song (Swiss Folk Song translated by Margaretta Wassali)

The sun is shining brightly. Get up, Katerlin.
The birds are singing sweetly. Get up, Katerlin.

chorus
Hurry up, out of bed. Time for breakfast, sleepy head.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling. Get up, sleepy head.

The rabbits jump and scamper. Get up, Katerlin.
The cows are in the pasture. Get up, Katerlin.

chorus

As if that wasn't joy enough, there's also a knitting song. A knitting song! And yes, I'll post it soon. Sunburst just cast-on for a new project, so I think we'll be singing this one next. But right now, I've got to go clear a shelf to hold all this glorious treasure.

So I have this idea...

For the last several months I've been dreaming about a way to connect all these lovely, inspirational homeschooling blogs. I originally posted this idea to Lucie on her (now defunct) Homeschool Diary blog. She had asked about visions for the direction of the (soon to be defunct) Wonder Homeschool site.-- Lucie is a genius. Her Science Smorgasboard page comes pretty close to what I envisioned, but it's only up for the next two weeks. After that, my like-minded and lovely homeschoolers, our blogs are pretty much free-floating entities.

Basically, my idea is very, very simple. I want to see what other similar-minded homeschoolers are doing. How the lessons are being applied and interpretted. How people are using ideas in their own home speaks volumes to me. I want to list them. Be able to sort through them. Archive them, if you will, even if only by links. I realize that links aren't the safest way to archive anything, but it's the easiest. And they take you directly into someone else's homeschooling world. I love that.

I think there has to be a better way to share what we're all doing. So many of you have the coolest ideas-- complete with pictures! I can bookmark them to death for my own use, but it gets unwieldy. I want to be able to say, ok, Grade 3... what's out there? How are other people handling Old Testament stories or housebuilding? --and be able to click on these things and really see how it works outside of a school classroom. So many of us are posting our ideas anyway. I just want to see them organized.

Is that too much to ask?

We're all one family here, scattered across the globe, trying to achieve the same thing-- a workable, inspired home education for our children. To the best of our abilities. Classroom teachers freely share their ideas. Why can't we?

I'd love to hear what you all think!