Ideas for Rainy Days in Autumn

Well, I have found that homeschooling really takes away from my blogging time.  I miss posting our fun projects and my thoughts, and hope to give myself more time to tell you about our days soon. But for now we have a hurricane barreling our way and very likely will be out of power for a bit.  So while I would love to take time to write about more of our lessons (Who knew studying the Roman Empire could be so much fun?!) and ways we are integrating Waldorf techniques into our lessons, for now I will share links to past posts with an autumn theme and activities to pass the rainy weather.

Enjoy...

Colorful Felted Acorns


Corn Husk Dolls


Jack-O Poem


Indoor Autumn Tree


Autumn Leaves Fingerplay


Rhythm of the Season - Leaf Matching Game

Learning about Christopher Columbus - combining techniques & theory into practice

Just a little more on how we incorporate Waldorf techniques into our Mason education: On Monday, Columbus Day, I wanted to teach the boys about Columbus and his 1492 voyage. Looking ahead, I also saw that in our 106 Days of Creation science study we had just finished learning about the atmosphere and were moving into wind and wind pressure, so I decided to combine history and science studies and throw in handicraft in the mix. First, we sat down to read In 1492 by Jean Marzollo and answered Who, What, Where, Why questions. Then it was on to the craft: walnut shell boats! I blogged about making walnut shell boats last summer and decided this was the perfect craft to accompany our history lesson.


*We started by painting watercolor sails*

*As the sails dried, I used an icepick and screwdriver
 to break the shells in half - a rather challanging task-
and cleaned out the inside*

*Next we filled the shells 1/4 way full with beeswax
and stuck in the toothpick mast with the paintd sails*

It only took a few minutes to dry and the ships were ready to sail in
a bowl of water - or the high seas when our imagination took off.



After a brief discussion about how wind pressure push against boat sails,
 the boys experimented with blowing through straws to see who could make
their boat move without blowing too hard, causing their boat to sink.
(If a boat tipped it would no longer sail becuase
the sail got wet and weighed down the boat.)

 

This was a great way for the boys to learn about so many subjects - history, geography, painting, and science!  And I am sure we will come back to our fun game of Sail the Ship many times in the next few months.

See Waldorf Wednesday for more inspiration.

Early Adventures in Homeschooling

We are three weeks into homeschooling and loving it, not that everything goes according to the smooth rhythm I had envisioned, but having fun nonetheless.On a few of the forums I joined, other homeschooling moms have asked for ideas on incorporating Waldorf techniques in a Charlotte Mason education.  While I certainly do not have it perfected, I thought I would share a few ideas that we are using.

To start, I try to set up a rhythm of the day, keeping in mind that a daily rhythm is not a schedule based around time, but more of a way to gently transition from one activity to another.  Young children work well with a song or fingerplay to transition, but my seven year old son wants something more concrete and visual, so I wrote different subjects and activities on small strips of cardstock and attach the ones we plan on doing to a string with a little clothespin.  As we complete each activity, we take it off  the line and move to the next. It sets up the day for him in such a way that he can literally see what we still need to accomplish and gives him the satisfaction of seeing a task finished.  Along with the subjects to be covered and activities to do are fun things, like "Play Outside for 30 minutes" & "Play with Legos" etc.  

In the next few weeks, I plan on refining our weekly rhythm and daily rhythm to include morning circle time, festivals - there are so many coming up - as well as incorporating additional subjects such as Nature Study and form drawing, and keeping a main lesson  book for math.

One of Aidan's favorite subjects is copywork in which he copies a short passage slowly and neetly.  It is a standard in Mason education and helps him learn to focus and appreciate the idea of doing his best instead of writing quickly.

For our first two weeks his copywork came in the for of a poem, writing one stanza per day and discussing the meaning of each stanza and looking at pictures that resemble the scene.

September

by Helen Hunt Jackson

The golden-rod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bearing down.

The gentian's bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,

In every meadow nook;

And asters by the brook-side

Make asters in the brook.

From dewey lanes at morning

The grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty

Which floods the earth and air

Is unto me the secret

Which makes September fair.

'T is a thing which I remember;

To name it thrills me yet:

One day of one September

I never can forget.

Later in the second week, he copied some history facts as we moved from prehistoric times to ancient Egypt in our history lessons.  To make the lessons hands-on, I hid a secret message in our back yard and the boys pretended to be explorers/archaeologists looking for their Rosetta Stone, then deciphered our simplified "hieroglyphics" to reveal that in the next lesson they would build a pyramid out of Legos - oh that Aidan would be so excited about every history lesson! 


This last week, we began using wet-on-wet painting techniques in our studies.  Primarily by painting the cover of the books the boys will use to draw pieces of nature when they do their Nature Studies - but more on that later.

I am happy to see that so many of the traditional Waldorf techniques are fitting in nicely with our Charlotte Mason education.

Preserve the Nature Table

This time of year, many of us begin to consider how to alter our nature table to reflect the change of seasons.  Throughout our many season of having a nature table, we tend to take several days to move our nature table from one season to the next.  This summer, our table was filled with treasures collected from our Pennsylvania back yard, to the squares of Savannah, to Florida's Blue Spring State Park.  (It is amazing how much a 3 year old little boy can fit into his, and my, pockets!)

Now as we begin to transition to a fall nature table, the pebbles, twigs, shells, etc. need to move.  Usually we put them in a basket to look over and toss out the items we will not need for the next season, but this time we decided to preserve some of the special bits and pieces in a plaster of paris keepsake.

It's easy.  All you need is a small amount of powdered plaster of paris, water, paper bowl, and nature's treasures.

In the paper bowl, mix 1 cup of plaster of paris with 1/2 cup of water.
(An adult needs to begin the process as the powder is bad to breathe in.)  

Let the mixture set for about 1 minute then set in your treasures,
 pressing them just hard enough for them to be part way in the plaster.

After an hour your keepsake should slide out of the plate and
ready for your family to enjoy remembering the fun of the past season.

Looking to Days Ahead

Our home is still abuzz with summer fun, but I am looking toward autumn with excitement as we begin our homeschool adventure.  As my friends find out we have decided to homeschool our second grade son, they usually have  two questions: "Why?" and "How are you going to do it?" 

To the first, I explain that our good-natured, fun-loving son is waaayy too stimulated in the public school classroom and we want to take time to teach him skills that will help him learn to focus.  (My husband is a behavior therapist and will be a big help in achieving this goal.)  To the second question, I start off by saying that we are going to use the Charlotte Mason philosophy and incorporate Waldorf techniques.  At that point, most people just stare at me and blink, not having a clue what I am talking about.

To sum it up:

Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was a British educator who created an education method based on the ideas that education has three aspects:  A child's home is a powerful learning environment that can be used to teach the whole child, the importance of instilling proper character and behavioral habits, and that we should encourage the child to love learning as a lifestyle, not just during study time, by presenting education as living thought not simply rote facts.  Some of the unique aspects to Mason education that drew me in include the variety of subjects taught, short lessons, narration, using living books, copywork, nature walks, keeping a nature notebook, hand crafts, and habit forming.  

While there are many things I like about the Mason method, I simply cannot let go of some wonderful aspects of Waldorf education such as chalkboard drawings, fairytales, festivals, wet-on-wet painting, math gnomes, and main lesson books.  I look forward to  incorporating them into our Mason education.

So in September, we will shift from carefree summer fun to creating a daily rhythm that includes homeschooling our 7 year old, and a encouraging a nurturing environment for our 4 year old.  I look forward to writing about the how-to aspects, my rambling thoughts, and our many adventures. Stay tuned, more is to come.

In the meantime, I have a big summer party to plan and am drawing deep from Naturally Fun Parties for Kids and will include a few ideas of my own.

My Sons, My Students.
Little bodies with big characters!

Fairy Garden

For the past two years we have joined Donni at The Magic Onion creating little fairy habitats. 

We recreated last year's World Within a World in our front flower garden.  The fairies, and my young son, are delighted!

See what the fairies left us!

The fairies have left tokens of affection - baskets of flowers, acorn caps and tiny sea shells

Bright stones lead to the fairy ring where they dance at dusk.

Fairies rest on a bed of moss in the shade of London Plane tree bark.

Simplicity - Bringing it Home

The notion of simplicity has been on my mind lately.  It started a little over 2 weeks ago when we had our carpeted first floor and stairs in our home replaced with hardwood.  For the job, we  cleared our living room, kitchen, dining area, and bathroom of all furniture and major appliances.  Now that it is done, we are delighted and my dear husband spends weekends painting walls, ceilings, and trim.  In the meantime our rooms are sparse and I like it.  The children like it too.  There is room to play, or lounge without constant visual distraction.  It seems the family is more calm as a whole.

One of my favorite parenting books is Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting.  How wonderful it is to have a reminder that our children, and ourselves, thrive in a simple, calm, rhythmic environment. 

I intend to center our home toward simplicity over the next few weeks.  This new focus will play out in both obvious and hidden ways.  To begin, I need to think about our homeschool space - we have decided to homeschool our sons next term using the Charlotte Mason method with some Waldorf techniques - more on that later.  There are so many charts, pictures workbooks, etc that tempt me to make it a busy space, but one of the reasons I am homeschooling my 7 year old son is the fact that he is over stimulated in the brick and mortar school.  He simply cannot settle his little mind on one thing when there is soooo much to look at. So our learning space in the dining room will remain simple with 2 desks, a bookshelf and a line to clip on special drawings and paintings.

One of the biggest challenges in simplifying our home will be in the land of toys.  Soon the boys will share a bedroom - a place to be enjoyed with a dreamy aspect with bunk beds, a few bookshelves, favorite stuffed animals and the much loved indoor swing.  The second room will turn into a playroom that will hopefully inspire hours of imaginative fun with a train table, lego stand and a special place to hang dress up clothes, and play swords, bow and arrows and sling shots.  Arranging that room will require a toy purge.  Our oldest is all for it as long as we keep the legos and dress up stuff - an unexpected compliance from a child who use to pile toys all over himself and smile content to be surrounded by all his stuff. The youngest wants no part of it! If something is missing, he knows and makes it clear that he wants it back. Now!

With the challenge of establishing a more simple environment before us, we will look for day-to-day opportunities to...

Slow Down

Enjoy Simple Pleasures

See Simple Beauty

and Simply Be.