B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y W-O-R-D-S

About a month ago I had a birthday. I'm now fully ensconced in my mid-thirties, if you must know. And it's okay, this birthday stuff. After all, there is cake... and who can turn down a good cake? Plus I get presents! We're not really all that different from our kids, are we? I like presents just as much as they do. And it's even better when the present is actually something you like. And will use.

I'm not usually one to brag, but this year I got the best present ever. And no, I don't mean the shiny earrings, though they were quite nice, too. I'm talking about this lovely thing here:

It looks like a banana, you say? Well, yes. But when you peel it open, it's a whole different kind of thing. It's a game called Bananagrams. This banana holds 144 letter tiles so that you can build your own Scrabbley kind of word set-up. It's genius, actually. Rather than playing off another person's words, you play off your own. The object is to use all your letters first... and in order to do that you can change them and move them around as needed, rather than just adding onto them or leaving them stagnant as you do in Scrabble. It doesn't have to be a winners/losers scenario either... you can play nice. And you can play solo. And you can play several rounds a night for days on end.

I think I just let out my inner-Scrabble-geek.

But ah, well. My family knows me well enough to understand how much fun I would have with this game. And the best part is that they are enjoying it, too. Sunburst can also play along at her own spelling level, and although admittedly they have each taken to giving me a large handicap, it's fun for everyone. And whether she realizes it or not, it's homeschooling, too.

And the cake? It was carrot. And pretty good, too, even if it did nearly singe my hair while I was trying to blow all those flaming candles out. Next year? Fewer candles!

A bit of nature

I've had the worst luck with nature tables over the years. If I have them down low they manage to get destroyed by the babies, toddlers, and cats in my life. If I have them up high, well, they get sorely neglected.

With the onset of Autumn, and tying in with our "new beginnings" theme, I'm trying it out again. Old table, new location. So far it has survived 10 days. I think that's a record in this house.

I still can't believe the leaves are starting to change already!

Beginning anew - fall lessons

It seems to have become Fall weather overnight. The leaves are changing and dropping in our yard, and the mornings are chill. It's amazing. And lovely. And alas, undeniably time for school.

We started up Tuesday morning with a lengthy, fun circle out in the yard around a pile of leaves. Of course this involved jumping into the pile of leaves during our rowdier 'falling down' songs, but truly, it was great fun! During our closing song our three voices blended and rose up so beautifully that I almost cried. Afterwards I hugged them tightly, showered them with kisses, and welcomed them into a new year of school-- into 3rd grade and Kindergarten.*

Sunburst was feeling a bit unsure of what 3rd grade held for her. "Are we still going to do stories?" She asked, longingly.

So it was then I knew we had to jump right in. I started simply, as I drew her (and Moonshine) along into the overarching story for the year. Again, we're back to our school story, The Adventures of Clara, the wise man's daughter. She's off to stay with her Cherokee grandmother and make friends with the neighboring Jewish family. While she's gone, a good friend and her family will take up residence in Clara's home...

I told this part of the story over a picnic lunch at the park, and when we arrived back at our own home, we entered the house with 'new' eyes. If a family was coming to stay in our house, what would they see? What should we clean up?

Barbara Dewey suggested at her conference last month that we get our houses in order before we begin our homeschool year. It's a great idea, but I haven't been able to make much headway with all the things going on. So that's what we did, we cleaned up. Together. And it was fun because it was part of the story.

When we felt satisfied, we went to the table and drafted a letter to the friend who was coming to stay in Clara's house. Sunburst offered up her ideas (play with my toys, feed my cat) and I wrote them up into a proper letter on the chalkboard for her to copy down into her new main lesson book. Moonshine wanted to do something too, so she drew a picture for Clara to leave with her letter.

Then Clara traveled along to her grandmother's house, arriving after sunset on Rosh Hashana. Her first day of the new adventure -- the start of the Jewish New Year.

Seeing that time correlation in the story made me take a deep breath in. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to make this year work-- to mesh together all the themes and make it exciting and wondrous. Really, it was stressing me out! So I went to sleep and asked for some guidance. I woke up with no answers, but then this story just fell out of my mouth and seemed to click. New beginnings, a perfect theme for the Waldorf 3rd grade year. Creation stories, Old Testament stories (like Noah), farming (planting the seeds), shelters... it's all about beginning anew.

And thus we began. Welcome to our year!


*The grades placement actually means a lot to them. I never figured it would as homeschoolers, but now that they have a street full of public school children to play with, they are paying much more attention to what grade they are in as sort of a rite of passage. It helps them know they are striving along, climbing that ladder to maturity.

Summer's last hurrah!

All the kids on our street have been back in school for three weeks or so, but not us. No sir! We haven't even begun to head in that direction yet. We've been much too busy.

This was our last hurrah of the summer. Camping, canoing, grandparents, miniature golf, knitting, and goose poop? Hmm, I guess you had to be there.

Sunburst spent most of her time manning the canoe solo-- totally her choice. This was a first for her, and she's a fine boatman, er boatperson.





Moonshine, by contrast, was all about the fishing. She spent many, many hours happily catching all manner of seaweed. And bringing them to me, each and every time. It was great... until she caught her sister.





Kitty Bill came down with a cantankerous cold but still managed to go out on the canoe, chase geese, and play a dangerous 18 holes of mini-golf.





And Einstein? Me? We sat around enjoying the view and doing some really important stuff. Like nothing. It was a nice way to end a long, hot, and busy summer.

Nature always wins

Just when you think the bugs can't get any crazier, nature steps it up a notch.

This Hickory Horned Devil had all our kids entranced at our last homeschool park day meet-up. First of all, let me say HUGE caterpillar. Enormous! It's the size of a large hot dog. It comes with all the bells and whistles-- large suctiony feet, horns a'plenty, and that alienesque aqua-blue body hue just can't be beat. Later on it will metamorphose into a Royal or Regal Moth. Big caterpillar. Big moth.

Nature. Whew!

**Big thanks to my friend E. for actually having a camera along and letting me share this picture with you.**

Happily Ever After

It's a big day at our house. Einstein and I are celebrating our TENTH wedding anniversary. Complete with sick kids and their many spewing orifices.

But it's the thought that counts, right?


Go ahead and Simpsonize yourself. You know you want to!

I did it!

I finally finished my first lace knitting.

Finishing this sucker was a big homeschooling moment at my house. A major moment!

I know, I know, some of you are a bit confused as how something the homeschooling mom creates in her own free time has anything to do with homeschooling, especially in a major way. But it's true. It does. And I'll try to sum it up quickly before the next child comes out of bed complaining of thirst, or growing pains, or noises outside. Are you ready?

• I taught myself how to do something completely new. And the children watched.
• I struggled. For months and months, really, while they watched. They saw me start, fail, rip out all my stitches, and start again. They saw me work, really work at something until I mastered it. To completion. Without giving up. WIthout whining, sulking, or throwing things. Honest.
  

It was a complete exercise in developing my own will forces. Perseverance. And who knows how much of that rubs off on them. How much of that do they breathe in, just from being here and watching?

If you listen to David Albert of unschooling infamy, one of the best things you can do for your children is to, "Learn something new yourself." Especially if you have a child with perfectionistic tendencies like my Moonshine.

In Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery, Albert says that by learning something new yourself:

"Your empathy with, and humility around, your children will increase exponentially. You'll teach them through example that mistakes are part of the learning process... Just as importantly, your kids will see that learning something new always begins with some level of discomfort, and that's really okay. They will watch you progress and come to understand that mastery of any subject matter-- be it mathematics, crocheting, baseball, or singing-- and self-mastery only come by developing sound learning habits and putting in the requisite time, energy, and effort. And then by doing so, self-confidence grows. And what is self-confidence, really, but the feeling that one is prepared to tackle a future replete with exciting new adventures!"

So here she is, my exciting adventure-- the Adamas Lace shawl, in all her glorious detail. Sunburst, in typical fashion, has been begging to start her own lace shawl. The thought leaves me breathless... I mean, it's a load of knitting! It's all about precision and attention to detail and slippery needles. Is an 8 1/2 year-old really ready for that?

I've been hemming and hawing about it, kind of wavering on the fence. But at the Waldorf homeschooling conference this weekend I got the go ahead from Barbara Dewey to let Sunburst go for it. It's not like she hasn't already knit socks on 4-needles (albeit baby socks) and a two-color hat. Sunburst plainly admitted to me that it might take her a year, or even two, to knit a lace shawl to completion. And she was completely comfortable with that. Undaunted.



To read more of my thoughts (and some great quotes) on perfectionism and homeschooling, GO HERE.

Everyday Entomology

Did you know there is a mama spider that hangs out and mothers her spiderlings?

We've been spending an awful lot of time this summer out in the yard and garden hanging out with the bugs. It's not something we've been doing on purpose, mind you. It's just that they catch our attention and we get sucked in.

In June we sighted this spider family in the vegetable garden. They moved right into the pepper plant and set up housekeeping, or more precisely, baby spider keeping. Just when I thought I understood the habits of spiders, this was more proof that nature will always keep me guessing.

The kids enjoyed watching this Nursery web spider and blowing on the babies in the nursery. Sunburst figured out that if you blow on them they scatter a bit. But they always returned to center, forming an amazing kind of spidery ball.






In other bug news, Einstein came back from a conference a few weeks ago and discovered that in his absence a chrysalis had attached to his bicycle tire. We stuck it in a jar and brought it inside.



And then we watched. And waited. And watched. And waited. And then completely forgot about it.

Until...



Suddenly there was a Monarch butterfly. Right there. In the middle of the breakfast table. We missed the emergence entirely, but spent a while with it-- cooing and oohing and ahhing, and watching it pump blood into its wings.



And then it was off...

Made at home

I was going to title this post "Not made in China" but then I read this. And I felt bad. Nonetheless, we're all paying a bit more attention these days. And we should, shouldn't we?

Last month Sunburst helped me sew up this little lovely book as airplane fodder for Kitty Bill. He seemed to enjoy it almost as much as we enjoyed making it. The making is always the best part.

Going to California

We went. We saw. And whew! We're back!

Sometime in July ( I swear the days of this entire month seem to have completely run together) we took a family excursion to California to visit my mom and younger siblings. It was the first time we've seen most of them in four years. You can talk to people every week or so over a four year span and still it's like a smack in the head when you see them in person. Four years is a LONG time!

My younger siblings were born when I was a teenager myself, and I can still remember their babyhoods. Since my last visit they went from homeschooled teens and tweens to college kids, reeking of hormones and hipness. Swords, eyeliner and tattoos. Man, do I feel old!

But going to Grandma's was something akin to Disneyland for my kids. Grandma lives out in the country somewhere between San Francisco and Sacramento. She's surrounded by fields of cattle, horses, and alfalfa. The trees are teeming with crows, and the ground is teeming with ground squirrels, but that's another story. Grandma herself has dogs, cats, parrots, rabbits, and a rooster. Just down the road are more horses, baby cows, sheep and llamas. Oh, and the nicest cowboy we have ever met that has the biggest soft spot for little girls who love horses, especially Sunburst.

Cowboy J had Sunburst atop her first and only pony when she was three or four, for a ride around the house. It wasn't much, but she has clung to that memory ever since. Now that she's eight, and mad about horses, she thought it was high time that she do it again. And then some!

Sunburst spent her entire vacation down the road with Cowboy J. He stopped by every day to collect Sunburst in his pick-up truck, and off she went with him having the grandest adventures of her young life: playing with a five-day-old baby horse, washing, brushing, saddling, feeding, and yes riding a horse. Cowboy J. dubbed her the "child of a million questions," and he patiently tried to answer every one. She rode just about every day, and on the last day she convinced the horse to trot and canter, which was a bit scarier for mom and dad than we had anticipated. It wasn't enough for Sunburst to just ride, she had to stick around afterwards and do all the horse care and make sure everyone was put away and fed for the night before she would come in for dinner. Whenever we showed up to bring her home, she shooed us away. "It's okay, Cowboy J. can bring me over for dinner."

Here's Sunburst out in the field doing her "The Girl Who Loved Horses" thing:

And every night she came in reeking of horses and cows and grinning madly. And it tickled her even more that Cowboy J. stayed for dinner each night. Sunburst repaid his kindness by making him a peach cobbler, with peaches picked from a tree in his yard. He reciprocated by giving her a horseshoe off the horse she had been riding. She nailed it to the wall next to her bed as soon as we got home.

Moonshine got to ride a horse, too, but it wasn't the same kind of experience. It wasn't about living and breathing the horse energy, it was simply a ride or two. Though Moonshine fought for a seat next to Cowboy J. at the dinner table, she also loved running through the newly cut fields and messing around with dress-up clothes held over from my sisters' childhoods. Moonshine played dress-up, talked art with the 93-year-old artist that lives at Grandma's house, got to watch movie commentary (crazy how she REALLY LOVES this sort of thing) and got into Grandma's massive collection of matryoshka dolls and sated herself for hours of quiet play.

Kitty Bill did NOT ride a live horse, but he did pet one. His joy of joys was the farm equipment over at Cowboy J's. I didn't know that Kitty Bill can tell a tractor from a backhoe from a car, but apparently he has some inner connection to John Deere that I don't know about.

Einstein had a great time, too. He brought his bagpipes along and played his heart out in the wide open spaces. He even got to joust a bit with my sister Junebug. Nothing like sword play in the driveway, I always say, to kick a vacation into high gear. Since none of us had ever seen Einstein or Junebug fence, this was a real treat for everyone.

And me... do you remember me saying that my younger sibs were homeschooled? My mom thought this visit was a perfect time to clean off her bookshelves and pass on some really great homeschooling and literature resources. I left with 200 pounds of books... need I say more?

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!
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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!