Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Lots of Pictures!
I really need to start updating more frequently. Otherwise I have too many pictures to post at one time and it takes all night. =)
The kids and I dyed some play silks recently. These are so much fun! The kids use them for all kinds of different things and they get played with every single day!
Here are the play silks setting in the dye. We left one white and ordered a black that aren't in the picture.
Here they are drying all over the dining room.
A pretty basket of silks all clean and dry and ready for fun!
Quinny especially loves them. He likes to dump the basket out, put them back, roll around in them, play peekaboo, etc. He smiles everyday when he sees me pull the basket down. So cute!
Ella and Reece use them for scarves, hats, capes, grass, water, blankets for their animals, and on and on.
Here's Lexeigh using a few for a "belly wobble" skirt. =D
We've been busy making a lot of homemade toys for the kids lately. This is definitely one of the most enjoyable hobbies I've ever found. I love to make fun things for them and see them get excited when they wake up to a new Mommy or Daddy-made toy. Marty and I have been having fun working on some of these projects together as well.
This is a set of finger puppets I knitted up for the kids. These were super fun and really quick. I made up the pattern for the elephant, frog, and bird. I'll have to make more of these soon.
Ella and the puppets
We've been wanting to get the kids some of the wooden animals we've seen online. The European toys like Holtziger and Ostheimer are just so pricey. So we tried our hand at making some ourselves first. I'm happy with how they turned out. Marty cut them, we both sanded, and I painted them. We have about 50 more templates to cut, sand, and paint. I'm excited to get some more finished. We're also going to make some trees and people.
They are lightly painted with a non-toxic paint to have more of a "wash" of color as opposed to being full out painted. Ella really loves them especially.
A rainbow stacking cave Marty and I made. They mostly like to take it apart at this point and use the pieces individually but that's okay with me. Haha.
And what can I say about the new curriculum we started Monday? WE ADORE IT! I look forward to school time during the day and so do the kids. I feel like they're learning what they need to know and I also feel involved. I know what they're learning and can see how they progress. This curriculum is so fun and the arts, painting, drawing, handwork, and stories that are inclusive with each academic subject keeps things so interesting. I wish we would have discovered Waldorf homeschooling a long time ago!
Here is where our books live currently
Here is a blackboard we made for the dining room/school area. We made it out of masonite board, primer, and chalkboard paint.
Here are examples of some of the work Lexeigh has completed this week:
A lesson in her Language Arts main lesson book. No textbooks are used at this grade level. As the children fill out their different main lesson books they are essentially creating their own textbooks of the things they've learned and the work they've done.
A math main lesson book entry
Science. To demonstrate the way the Earth revolves around the sun I slowly turned a ball around a larger ball (the sun), explaining that everytime the Earth makes a full turn it equals one day and everytime it revolves completely around the sun it equals one year. I think this really helped her understand the concept better.
In history we're studying Ancient Hebrew. This has been really fun and there's lots of enrichment projects we can do with this. We read about the Tower of Babel. She illustrated the story and wrote about it. She also wrote the Hebrew alphabet and vowels.
Close up. She's still getting used to writing without lines. =)
She's been working on finger knitting as part of her handwork. She's really good at it already!
She made this flower. We're going to work on a bunch of them and make a vine of flowers for her bed. We'll hang some fairies from the railing and maybe some twinkly white lights and make her bed a beautiful fairy garden. She can't wait!
Here's some of Jimmie's recent work:
A map he drew of Africa, Asia, and Europe. I think he did a great job. He'll be adding to this throughout the year.
For grade 6 we're currently studying the Stone Age. This is really really interesting. We talked about the clay figures cavemen made of people and animals and also about cave paintings. This is a human form Jimmie made out of earth clay.
Today we spent some time making a Stone Age tool. We used rock, stick, and leather. Here is Jimmie attatching the stone to the rock with the leather.
Tying it off...
Finished. This was really cool to do and really made him think about the cavemen lived. It brought up lots of questions about the Stone Age. It was nice to see him engaged in his work.
We've also started watercolor painting and we love this. It's so relaxing and a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll have some more time to paint again tonight. The kids really enjoyed it.
Lexeigh working on a painting
Jimmie trying to decide on which of the many ideas he had in his mind to paint.
A painting I made with the kids. Can you see what it is? I like the softness of watercolors and how the paintings can have so many different meanings. Mine is a woman looking over a baby. I had a great time trying this out with them for the first time and look forward to doing it again soon.
I have some more pictures to post and I also would like to post a few videos as well. Jimmie is performing a dialogue tonight of one of his assignments on the Stone Age (we thought it'd be better to wait until the little ones were in bed and he wanted Marty to be home for it). We made some wooden figures to go with it and they are really excited to perform it. I'm hoping to get a good video of it to share.
Love you all!
The kids and I dyed some play silks recently. These are so much fun! The kids use them for all kinds of different things and they get played with every single day!
Here are the play silks setting in the dye. We left one white and ordered a black that aren't in the picture.
Here they are drying all over the dining room.
A pretty basket of silks all clean and dry and ready for fun!
Quinny especially loves them. He likes to dump the basket out, put them back, roll around in them, play peekaboo, etc. He smiles everyday when he sees me pull the basket down. So cute!
Ella and Reece use them for scarves, hats, capes, grass, water, blankets for their animals, and on and on.
Here's Lexeigh using a few for a "belly wobble" skirt. =D
We've been busy making a lot of homemade toys for the kids lately. This is definitely one of the most enjoyable hobbies I've ever found. I love to make fun things for them and see them get excited when they wake up to a new Mommy or Daddy-made toy. Marty and I have been having fun working on some of these projects together as well.
This is a set of finger puppets I knitted up for the kids. These were super fun and really quick. I made up the pattern for the elephant, frog, and bird. I'll have to make more of these soon.
Ella and the puppets
We've been wanting to get the kids some of the wooden animals we've seen online. The European toys like Holtziger and Ostheimer are just so pricey. So we tried our hand at making some ourselves first. I'm happy with how they turned out. Marty cut them, we both sanded, and I painted them. We have about 50 more templates to cut, sand, and paint. I'm excited to get some more finished. We're also going to make some trees and people.
They are lightly painted with a non-toxic paint to have more of a "wash" of color as opposed to being full out painted. Ella really loves them especially.
A rainbow stacking cave Marty and I made. They mostly like to take it apart at this point and use the pieces individually but that's okay with me. Haha.
And what can I say about the new curriculum we started Monday? WE ADORE IT! I look forward to school time during the day and so do the kids. I feel like they're learning what they need to know and I also feel involved. I know what they're learning and can see how they progress. This curriculum is so fun and the arts, painting, drawing, handwork, and stories that are inclusive with each academic subject keeps things so interesting. I wish we would have discovered Waldorf homeschooling a long time ago!
Here is where our books live currently
Here is a blackboard we made for the dining room/school area. We made it out of masonite board, primer, and chalkboard paint.
Here are examples of some of the work Lexeigh has completed this week:
A lesson in her Language Arts main lesson book. No textbooks are used at this grade level. As the children fill out their different main lesson books they are essentially creating their own textbooks of the things they've learned and the work they've done.
A math main lesson book entry
Science. To demonstrate the way the Earth revolves around the sun I slowly turned a ball around a larger ball (the sun), explaining that everytime the Earth makes a full turn it equals one day and everytime it revolves completely around the sun it equals one year. I think this really helped her understand the concept better.
In history we're studying Ancient Hebrew. This has been really fun and there's lots of enrichment projects we can do with this. We read about the Tower of Babel. She illustrated the story and wrote about it. She also wrote the Hebrew alphabet and vowels.
Close up. She's still getting used to writing without lines. =)
She's been working on finger knitting as part of her handwork. She's really good at it already!
She made this flower. We're going to work on a bunch of them and make a vine of flowers for her bed. We'll hang some fairies from the railing and maybe some twinkly white lights and make her bed a beautiful fairy garden. She can't wait!
Here's some of Jimmie's recent work:
A map he drew of Africa, Asia, and Europe. I think he did a great job. He'll be adding to this throughout the year.
For grade 6 we're currently studying the Stone Age. This is really really interesting. We talked about the clay figures cavemen made of people and animals and also about cave paintings. This is a human form Jimmie made out of earth clay.
Today we spent some time making a Stone Age tool. We used rock, stick, and leather. Here is Jimmie attatching the stone to the rock with the leather.
Tying it off...
Finished. This was really cool to do and really made him think about the cavemen lived. It brought up lots of questions about the Stone Age. It was nice to see him engaged in his work.
We've also started watercolor painting and we love this. It's so relaxing and a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll have some more time to paint again tonight. The kids really enjoyed it.
Lexeigh working on a painting
Jimmie trying to decide on which of the many ideas he had in his mind to paint.
A painting I made with the kids. Can you see what it is? I like the softness of watercolors and how the paintings can have so many different meanings. Mine is a woman looking over a baby. I had a great time trying this out with them for the first time and look forward to doing it again soon.
I have some more pictures to post and I also would like to post a few videos as well. Jimmie is performing a dialogue tonight of one of his assignments on the Stone Age (we thought it'd be better to wait until the little ones were in bed and he wanted Marty to be home for it). We made some wooden figures to go with it and they are really excited to perform it. I'm hoping to get a good video of it to share.
Love you all!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tree Blocks!
Our tree blocks arrived yesterday and the kids have been having a blast with them. When they came I was immediately impressed how well Marty had done cutting some of our own. Aside from the difference in wood they were extrememly similar! So we will definitely finish up all the ones we have started and add them to the set.
All the tree blocks mixed in together. We found some branches that look like they came from a birch tree. The bark was really interesting so we used some of those. We also used some other various branches that had already been cut.
These are so fun and make great little treehouses for gnomes and fairies! =)
All the tree blocks mixed in together. We found some branches that look like they came from a birch tree. The bark was really interesting so we used some of those. We also used some other various branches that had already been cut.
These are so fun and make great little treehouses for gnomes and fairies! =)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Nature Walks
We had such a fun day yesterday! I checked the weather around ten thirty and saw that it was already 63 degrees outside. It was so nice out so I decided it'd be a good day for a nature walk.
We left the house a little before lunch and I left a note for Marty. As we were leaving the neighborhood the kids saw his car heading towards us and everyone started shouting for him. He turned around and parked on the side of the road, hopped out of the car, and joined us. Yay!
We found some really interesting things for our nature table. Everyone was really excited to find special rocks, leaves, and twigs. Pretty soon the basket was full.
Here are some pictures of our afternoon:
Reece and Ella holding hands right after we left the house. This wasn't even staged, I promise!
Reece found this leaf. He was undecided about holding it. Haha
Ella running ahead. I didn't mind her running a bit because her short little legs just can't keep up and this way we could all walk at a normal pace. =)
Lexeigh choosing some rocks for the nature table.
Jimmie and I found this awesome flatrock and knew we had to bring it home.
Okay, now this one was staged. =)
Reece said these flowers smell good although I'm not sure they were flowers. I was sure however, they were pretty dead. Haha
We brought along our drawing paper and block crayons to draw some things we saw. The big kids were to pick a tree each so we could identify them at home. They also made some pretty textured drawings on the trail.
Ella found it was much more entertaining to make a tower with the crayons...
Even Quinny found something!
We found this burrow and thought it was pretty neat. We tried to imagine what kind of animal lived in there.
Marty and Reece way down into the trees
Getting a ride from big brother
Everyone else going to join Daddy and Reece. I stayed back with Quinn to clean up since he was in the stroller.
I love this kid
Lulu
Jimmie and Marty on their way back. See that log Marty's carrying? He fell in the creek getting that thing. He wanted to get some wood to make some homemade tree blocks for the kids.
Later on we went back to collect more wood for the tree block project. We found some acorns and acorn caps which was super exciting because acorn caps make adorable little hats for woodland gnomes =).
Marty and I worked last night cutting and sawing and sanding and sanding some more. We have about half of them done and I'm really excited because they look great! He did a good job cutting them. I'll post some pictures of them later.
Our new curriculum is do to arrive today and the kids and I can't wait. Have a great day all!
We left the house a little before lunch and I left a note for Marty. As we were leaving the neighborhood the kids saw his car heading towards us and everyone started shouting for him. He turned around and parked on the side of the road, hopped out of the car, and joined us. Yay!
We found some really interesting things for our nature table. Everyone was really excited to find special rocks, leaves, and twigs. Pretty soon the basket was full.
Here are some pictures of our afternoon:
Reece and Ella holding hands right after we left the house. This wasn't even staged, I promise!
Reece found this leaf. He was undecided about holding it. Haha
Ella running ahead. I didn't mind her running a bit because her short little legs just can't keep up and this way we could all walk at a normal pace. =)
Lexeigh choosing some rocks for the nature table.
Jimmie and I found this awesome flatrock and knew we had to bring it home.
Okay, now this one was staged. =)
Reece said these flowers smell good although I'm not sure they were flowers. I was sure however, they were pretty dead. Haha
We brought along our drawing paper and block crayons to draw some things we saw. The big kids were to pick a tree each so we could identify them at home. They also made some pretty textured drawings on the trail.
Ella found it was much more entertaining to make a tower with the crayons...
Even Quinny found something!
We found this burrow and thought it was pretty neat. We tried to imagine what kind of animal lived in there.
Marty and Reece way down into the trees
Getting a ride from big brother
Everyone else going to join Daddy and Reece. I stayed back with Quinn to clean up since he was in the stroller.
I love this kid
Lulu
Jimmie and Marty on their way back. See that log Marty's carrying? He fell in the creek getting that thing. He wanted to get some wood to make some homemade tree blocks for the kids.
Later on we went back to collect more wood for the tree block project. We found some acorns and acorn caps which was super exciting because acorn caps make adorable little hats for woodland gnomes =).
Marty and I worked last night cutting and sawing and sanding and sanding some more. We have about half of them done and I'm really excited because they look great! He did a good job cutting them. I'll post some pictures of them later.
Our new curriculum is do to arrive today and the kids and I can't wait. Have a great day all!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Waldorf
I thought I'd create a post on Waldorf philosophy and education since I reference it so often. I could write for weeks and probably still not cover everything so I'll be brief and try to touch on the main points.
The principles of Waldorf were founded by Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. He also founded anthroposophy. We'll get to that in a minute.
Basically, Steiner believed in educating the child as a whole. "Head, heart, and hands". Children learn through the arts, music, literature, handwork, imagination and creativity as opposed to rote memorization and dry textbooks. In fact, children educated through Waldorf curriculum or Waldorf schools don't even use textbooks until 5th grade. For example, with our new curriculum, I will do the days lesson with Lexeigh and she will then do her work into a main lesson book. A main lesson book is a blank book where children can put their paintings, stories, math practice, poems, etc. By the end of the year they will have many books filled with all of the things they learned over the year. I think this method works because it interests the child. Everyday each subject is incorporated with painting, drawing, stories, handwork, clay modeling, etc.
Waldorf aims to teach children responsibility, respect for others and society, individual thinking, truth, beauty, love of learning, and compassion among other things. Waldorf education teaches children in 7 year stages according to their various stages of development.
I'm very drawn to the fact that Waldorf education not only educates the child intellectually, but also educates their heart, spirit, and nature.
Now this is where I find some things I don't necessarily agree with. In a nutshell Anthroposophy tends to be at the root of all things Waldorf and Waldorf education. Steiner professed and taught such things as clairvoyance, reincarnation, and karma. He believed in a spiritual world although this is not the same Biblical spiritual world we believe in.
One of the stranger beliefs of Waldorfism for example is that elementary children not being allowed to use black crayons. Children in Waldorf schools also celebrate many of the festivals that tend to be pagan. They also do circle times and say certain verses I'm not completely comfortable with.
There is so much more to Waldorf than this but I only have so much time, haha. Needless to say, there are some parts of the Waldorf lifestyle and education that are intriguing, beautiful and wonderful for children. Other parts do not encompass our beliefs. The good thing is we can pick and choose what we like and only implement the things that fit for our family.
I love the Waldorf principles for early childhood as well. The use of calming, relaxing colors and spaces. Providing them with only natural, open-ended toys. Engaging them in activities that inspire creativity and learning. These are some of the things that are important to us.
The new curriculum we have ordered is the Waldorf curriculum from Oak Meadows. Lessons are assigned in blocks and are developed to be executed through painting, drawing, writing, handwork, etc. I think if children are captivated first, then learning comes easily. My children tend to be kinesthetic learners. Lexeigh really seems to be capable of learning in many different ways but Jimmie is definitely a "do-er". And some of the most memorable lessons I have from school are the ones where did projects or I was really interested in the way the lesson was delivered.
The curriculum we have coming is pretty strictly academic. I wanted to be sure it didn't include anthroposophical beliefs of any kind. So we will learn in a Waldorf-inspired manner and continue to use our current Bible curriculum daily. We are so excited to start this new program!
Here are a few examples of typical wet on wet watercolor paintings done by young Waldorf students. We can't wait to start learning about this.
It's a time wheel of the seasons and I added the verse from Ecclesiastes since I found it appropriate since there are so many changes coming up for us. =)
We've also been moving towards eliminating plastic and electronic toys. I've ordered some playsilks that we're going to dye in pretty colors. Playsilks are a great open ended toy. They can be capes, parachutes, water, baby buntings, anything at all. We used to have a bunch of them when Reece was little but after so many different moves they've gotten lost.
I also ordered some of these tree blocks:
How cool are these?! I love how they still have the bark on them and look as close to their natural state as possible. I think Reece especially will have a blast with these.
This has been a really great experience for us and I've enjoyed every bit of it so far. It makes me feel good to do this for the kids because I really feel it will enrich things for them in so many ways.
So, anyone care to discuss? =D
The principles of Waldorf were founded by Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. He also founded anthroposophy. We'll get to that in a minute.
Basically, Steiner believed in educating the child as a whole. "Head, heart, and hands". Children learn through the arts, music, literature, handwork, imagination and creativity as opposed to rote memorization and dry textbooks. In fact, children educated through Waldorf curriculum or Waldorf schools don't even use textbooks until 5th grade. For example, with our new curriculum, I will do the days lesson with Lexeigh and she will then do her work into a main lesson book. A main lesson book is a blank book where children can put their paintings, stories, math practice, poems, etc. By the end of the year they will have many books filled with all of the things they learned over the year. I think this method works because it interests the child. Everyday each subject is incorporated with painting, drawing, stories, handwork, clay modeling, etc.
Waldorf aims to teach children responsibility, respect for others and society, individual thinking, truth, beauty, love of learning, and compassion among other things. Waldorf education teaches children in 7 year stages according to their various stages of development.
I'm very drawn to the fact that Waldorf education not only educates the child intellectually, but also educates their heart, spirit, and nature.
Now this is where I find some things I don't necessarily agree with. In a nutshell Anthroposophy tends to be at the root of all things Waldorf and Waldorf education. Steiner professed and taught such things as clairvoyance, reincarnation, and karma. He believed in a spiritual world although this is not the same Biblical spiritual world we believe in.
One of the stranger beliefs of Waldorfism for example is that elementary children not being allowed to use black crayons. Children in Waldorf schools also celebrate many of the festivals that tend to be pagan. They also do circle times and say certain verses I'm not completely comfortable with.
There is so much more to Waldorf than this but I only have so much time, haha. Needless to say, there are some parts of the Waldorf lifestyle and education that are intriguing, beautiful and wonderful for children. Other parts do not encompass our beliefs. The good thing is we can pick and choose what we like and only implement the things that fit for our family.
I love the Waldorf principles for early childhood as well. The use of calming, relaxing colors and spaces. Providing them with only natural, open-ended toys. Engaging them in activities that inspire creativity and learning. These are some of the things that are important to us.
The new curriculum we have ordered is the Waldorf curriculum from Oak Meadows. Lessons are assigned in blocks and are developed to be executed through painting, drawing, writing, handwork, etc. I think if children are captivated first, then learning comes easily. My children tend to be kinesthetic learners. Lexeigh really seems to be capable of learning in many different ways but Jimmie is definitely a "do-er". And some of the most memorable lessons I have from school are the ones where did projects or I was really interested in the way the lesson was delivered.
The curriculum we have coming is pretty strictly academic. I wanted to be sure it didn't include anthroposophical beliefs of any kind. So we will learn in a Waldorf-inspired manner and continue to use our current Bible curriculum daily. We are so excited to start this new program!
Here are a few examples of typical wet on wet watercolor paintings done by young Waldorf students. We can't wait to start learning about this.
Here are some examples of regualr daily work done by Waldorf students: (I don't have a pic of 4th grade for some reason).
First grade
Second
Third
Fifth
Sixth
Seventh
Eighth
The things they do are just amazing and I think this program will really enrich life and learning for all of us.
A lot of homeschool families and Waldorf teachers do chalkboard drawings that have to do with daily/weekly lessons. These are really neat as well and so beautiful. I looked at some online and I made one for the first time for the kids based off of one I found:
It's a time wheel of the seasons and I added the verse from Ecclesiastes since I found it appropriate since there are so many changes coming up for us. =)We've also been moving towards eliminating plastic and electronic toys. I've ordered some playsilks that we're going to dye in pretty colors. Playsilks are a great open ended toy. They can be capes, parachutes, water, baby buntings, anything at all. We used to have a bunch of them when Reece was little but after so many different moves they've gotten lost.
I also ordered some of these tree blocks:
How cool are these?! I love how they still have the bark on them and look as close to their natural state as possible. I think Reece especially will have a blast with these.
This has been a really great experience for us and I've enjoyed every bit of it so far. It makes me feel good to do this for the kids because I really feel it will enrich things for them in so many ways.
So, anyone care to discuss? =D
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