Little Fairy Girl

Logic

During a recent trip to a neighboring town's childrens' museum Nightowl discovered a large scale chess set. That morning's chess massacre piqued her interest and we're now playing a at home. To help with the logic I've also introduced her to kid's sudoku. I found a nifty little website (Free Kid Sudoku Puzzles) with 4x4 sudoku that helps kids get a hang of the logic. We're doing a bit every day. Pretty cool.

Book Learning

We spent the end of February/beginning of March pursuing Natural Science. Among other things we: visited Nightowl's tree, collected and sorted seeds, started a tree seedling nursery, began a log of said nursery, and created a rotting log terrarium. Mild March days have drawn us out of doors and kept us there.

After four weeks of this (along with our other various activities such as music, reading, painting, cooking, learning to ride the two-wheeler and etc.) Nightowl came up to me and said, in all seriousness:

Mommy, we've been forgetting to do school. We haven't done school in weeks and weeks!
Incredulous I replied: We've been doing school - all this natural science plus our other activities - this is school.
It is?
Yes.
Silence.

Interestingly Nightowl has not considered most of our daily work to be school - school being the sit at a desk and raise your hand to speak type of thing she hears of from friends and reads about in books. The only work we do that she acquaints with school is when we sit down with paper and crayons/pencils and write words or work problems.

This whole notion made her a bit uncomfortable so we spent a couple of days book learning - I gave her materials and she designed, wrote, and illustrated a new Nightowl original book. Then we worked to plan out the flowers and herbs for our lasagna garden: we made lists and sketches for planting. All this writing and flipping of pages felt more schooly to her but I can tell that she's thinking things over.

For instance she now asks randomly during painting or the creation of our letter-family town or cooking or song writing: "So this is school?" When I reply: "Yes, honey it is." She chuckles and nods her head and says: "This is school."



1 - Planting, 2 - Seed cups, 3 - The found nest

Back to Nature

We've moved on, put the math books away - although the Gnomes still grace our shelves and our abacus still rattles daily - and have gone back to nature. Or, rather, Natural Science. It's our second natural science block and we're revisiting our old friend Grandforest Tree.

I think we'll spend two weeks here. Nightowl really enjoyed reviewing her work from our Fall Natural Science block (it's wonderful stuff). Now we're doing a few winter/early spring Natural science projects. The plan is to do an even larger SPRING natural science block in April. We've revisited her tree friend, read several stories about the forrest in Winter, gone on a nature walk, and have created a rotting log terrarium. We're also collecting tree seeds and next week we will plant them in small cups. Hopefully, we'll have a good start that we can transfer to our Lasagne Garden this spring. So far Nightowl has collected: apple seeds, buckeyes, acorns, and evergreen seeds (we removed these by warming up the pinecones).

However, our favorite project thus far has been tapping trees and collecting sap for maple syrup. We have a group that meets every other week. And last Thursday we went out to the woods, tapped trees, collected sap and learned how to make maple syrup. It was way cool. Sure we've all read about tapping trees and we all love syrup but these kids actually got to do it. Very nice. We ended our afternoon with a pancake and maple syrup lunch and long romp in the woody outdoors.

Now, we're feeling quite inspired and are planning, this, week to tap the maple tree in our front yard. Turns out there an entire culture of "in-town tree-tappers." All the gear and instruction kits are available at our local hardware store - who knew! We're not sure if we'll actually get any sap or any syrup, but then that's not really the point here is it? Updates on this later. In the meantime here's some images of our sappy adventure. Sweet!


Drilling the hole.


Choosing the tap. Tasting the sap.


Preparing the collection jug.


Boiling the sap.

Last Week

In a nutshell: Big Midwestern snowstorm. Our little enclave received: ICE (lots of it). Chillymamma was off from work for a couple of days. Our power was out for only about 8 hours (we we're luckier than many of our friends ). So we snuggled together and made the most of it:


Cookies!


Valentines!

Wednesday Watercolors

Nightowl has been watercolor painting every Wednesday since early September. We are using the wet-on-wet technique advocated by Waldorfers everywhere. This technique requires that a heavy weight of water color paper be submerged in water until nearly saturated. The artist then uses diluted watercolors to create art.

It's a tricky business this wet-on-wet painting. It's difficult to paint outlines - the concrete stuff of Nightowl's imagination. The painter needs to connect with the technique, working with the flow of the color from the brush. It requires patience, an open mind and a willingness to be flexible.

Truth be told - our painting hasn't gone so well. I had no idea (until recently) how to mix the colors. Some of our paintings were vibrant but most were washed out and barely visible when dry. Very frustrating. Nightowl was discouraged and I was sick of the whole business.

However, thanks to our recent workshop with Barbara Dewey and a cool "how to mix paint post" from Fairie School we are finally on our way.

I use several printed resources for painting but my favorite by far is How to Do Wet-on-wet Watercolor Painting and Teach It to Children by Rauld Russell. Unlike most other sources Russell recommends using 8 colors: Prussian Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Vermilion, Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Lake, and Purple Lake. This is quite different from the usual three color recommendation but as we're colorful folk - we like it!

Although we had progressed to using more than one of the washed out colors we've opted to start over with single, better mixed colors. Nighowl is really taking to painting again. She's more relaxed and open to the process and pleased with her results.

We did cobalt with Barbara (See the above photo. Nightowls' painting is second to the bottom on the right).

We have done some work with Purple Lake.


Purple Mountains - by Nightowl and Aleisha


And today we tried Prussian Blue - Nightowl's favorite by far.


Ocean and Sky - by Nightowl













When we started painting I created a little story to go with the painting. We dropped as the painting became so unsatifying. We might go back to eventually though. It goes something like this:

At the beginning of time there was a beautiful Goddess. She sat on carved wooden thrown. At her side sat her companion the Imp - a prankster and joker.

One day she explained colors to the Imp. Red is a gift from the Red Fish of the Red Sea. One day the Red Fish gave me a shining red scale. From this comes red. Blue is a gift from the Blue Bird of the Blue Sky. One day the Blue Bird gave me a blue feather. From this comes Blue. Yellow is a gift from the Mainden who works in the Golden Field. One day she gave me the petal from a rare Daffodil. From this comes yellow. The Goddess carved a paint brush handle from the Tall Tree's limbs. The King Boar gave her a gift of bristles from his chin to make the brush. She gave the brush and the colors to the Imp: use them wisely and carefully, she told him. Take care to keep your colors clean and pure, your brush clean and soft.

One day the Goddess was creating the sky and the sun. She created a blue sky with a yelllow sun. Then she created a yellow sky with a blue sun. She thought about which combination she liked the best. All this painting made her very tired so she lay down to rest. Her companion, the Imp, smiled and laughed. He took his paint brush and mixed the sun and sky creating deep green. When the Goddess awoke she was startled but not angry. The Imp was quite pleased with trick.

Craft Log #2

We've been crafting away during the past few months; it feels like time to take stock of what's been completed by Nightowl thus far:

Completion of the fuzzy warm scarf and the fuzzy warm doll-scarf with fringe.










Festive door wreath. Nightowl collected these pine twigs during one of our walks. She wove it into a wreath and decorated it for the holidays. It still hangs on our door.











The puppets (A Prince of a Tale...)








Rosetta! (Back to school...)

A Grumpy Day

That's what it's been. Due to anxiety in other areas of my life I'm not sleeping so I'm exhausted and nervous. Nightowl, having been cooped up in-doors due to cold weather is fidgety and whiney. Bearcub is....well, she's nearly two, enough said.

This morning my kids kept poking me:

"Mommy, get up we want breakfast!" - Nightowl
"Eggs!" - Bearcub
"Mrrumph" - Me, pulling the pillow over my head.

Ok, I got up. We did our thing but overall it was a kinda grumpy, blah day. This morning Nightowl announced "Mommy, I need time to play today." She disappeared into her room aka the land of dolls and make believe. Bearcub would not allow herself to be dressed and spent much of the morning in a diaper, one snowboot (the right) and a frilly headband, all the while demanding:

"Mama! Coat! Cold!"
"How about clothing?" I'd suggest picking up the outfit for the 15-millionth time.
"Noooooo!"

And then she ran screaming the other way. Our house has a circular floor pattern so giving chase has all the makings of a cartoon adventure.

Eventually we pulled it together (sort of). Nightowl descended to help make the bread, play the violin, read some books, and do science experiments at the kitchen work table.

"What happens if I mix cornstarch, water AND potato starch...ooooh!"

Bearcub did eventually dress, this of course was only after she had removed her diaper and dumped it's contents which....well, let's just say it was pretty disgusting.

At the end of the day we headed outside for some snow play and driveway shoveling. In some ways, an hour outside cured everything. As we headed in for dinner ("Not leftovers again!" - Nightowl) we discussed the prospect of snow ice cream for dessert. This sweetness was wonderful and cheered us all. Of course, Bearcub did have quite a fit when, while trying to help make the ice-cream, she grabbed the bowl, dumped it's contents and was immediately removed from the area. But what can I say? She's nearly two. Heaven help us all.

Snow Ice Cream Variation #1
1 egg beaten
1 tbs vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
Mix all ingredients, add clean snow, serve.

Snow Ice Cream Variation #2
2 cups full fat coconut milk
1 tbs vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
Mix all ingredients, add clean snow, serve.

All's Fair....

I completely forgot to post about our recent science fair - oops! Our local homeschool cooperative runs three learning fairs every year: biography, science, and international. Participation is optional, non-competitive and open to all ages.

Nightowl particpated in last year's science fair by creating a poster of the solar system. She was game this year as well. The topic she chose: shells. She had found a large cache of shells in a basket in our garage. She's been examining them for the past few months and was eager to share them with others.

In preparation we talked about what a science fair is, what she'd like to learn about the shells and what she'd like to present. Then we were off to the library for books, and the craft store for a display board.

We looked at the shell books together - but apart from that this was her thing. She decided she wanted to know:

1. What lives in a shell?
2. What color are shells?
3. What are shells called?

She discovered answers to these questions in our reading time together and created a display - on her own. I was called in to help with spelling but other than that I was hands off (the observer is never an easy role for me so I learned a little lesson too). As you can see she pulled it off and even felt comfortable taking questions from the audience:




Now she is excited about the International Fair. She's already selected her topic: The Philippines. She's into cooking right now so for her project she will be learning to make three different, traditional Filippino dishes. I suspect that I'll be called in to help decipher the recipes and handle the heat source. Sounds good.

At the End of the Day

Tuesdays are becoming bake and cook days. Stay at home, do the schooling, bake the bread and some other culinary delight requested by Nightowl.

Last Tuesday we began before breakfast - starting the bread sponge, putting the stock on for chicken soup. It was about fifteen degrees outside but we spent the day cozy and warm working in the kitchen. Nightowl helped to measure, stir, pick out ingredients. She is becoming very good at kneading and she's learning to handle a small knife for cutting. She always gets a small piece of dough to make her own creation as well. On this day she made a small cinnamon swirl loaf to share with Bearcub. In between the kneading, rising and adding soup ingredients we went about our business of lessons and learning. Even the Bearcub was remarkably unfussy.



By dinner time the kitchen was clean, the bread was was warm from the oven, the soup simmering and ready to be served. Chillymama came home. We had a lovely meal and discussed our enjoyable, busy day.

Chillymama opted to take care of the dinner clean up. As it was my night to work I went to my office to pack up my computer and files, getting ready to head out of the house. Then I heard the cry of "Oh no!"

Oh yes......


In our relaxed evening enjoyment we'd forgotten our beagle's odd and unnatural ability to leap from the floor to the counter-top. When I arrived downstairs I found Sunny, our 12-year-old hound, enjoying the last of the newly baked loaves.

Nightowl cried a little for the lost bread and I confess it made me very angry - all that work! But, after a few days I still had the great memory of our busy, cozy day. And as I remembered his swollen bread belly I kind of had to laugh. It's a good reminder that at the end of the day there is usually much to be greatful for - even if the dog does demolish the fruits of your labor.

Math, baby!

During the last couple of weeks we've been working on math: number sequence, the four processes (+,_, *, /), patterns, quality of numbers. Nightowl is really liking this subject. She asks for math every day. We are having a lot of fun with it. I'm trying to organize some dramatic math play with friends - hopefully this will evolve.

I have Nightowl here with me and I've asked her to share some of her thoughts about what we're doing these days.

Ok. I'll type whatever you want to say about what we've been doing lately.
We do Gnomes. Math Gnomes. How about you type their names?

You tell me their names and I'll type them.
Divide. Minus. Plus. Times.

What do they do?
They collect jewels.

Really? Where?
In the cave.

Why do they do that?
For the kind, kind, kind king who gives them nice homes.

So what do you do with these Gnomes?
They go on different math adventures. Like they help the squirrels find out how many nuts they have. Plus gives the squirrels more nuts if they need more. Minus takes away the nuts. And Times tells them how many times times makes...I guess. That one is tricky.

Hmm...what about Divide?
Divide divides nuts for the squirrels to share.

How do you have these adventures?
Sometimes we pretend to be the Gnomes. Sometimes you use a number grid. And you put down the numbers of all the steps they had to take. Like when they visited the Elf Queen. The squirrels in her kingdom needed help with their nuts. She asked the King if any of his gnomes knew how to count. He said yes. He said to his four Gnomes, when I saw this letter I thought of you, my funny little gnomes. So the Gnomes went to the Queen of the Elves. She said that the squirrles needed help because they have a lot of nuts and don't know how many they need.

What do you mean about the hundred steps?
The Gnomes asked the king how to get the Elf Queen. The King said that they needed to go 100 steps in any direction and once they went 100 steps the directions to the Elf Queen would magically appear in their hands. So the Gnomes went 100 steps.

Did you help?
Yes. I put down the numbers so that they would know how many steps they had gone.

Was it hard?
A little bit hard. It took me at least two days to get all 100 numbers.

So what do you do once the Gnomes are with the squirrels?
We pretend to be the Gnomes and the Squirrels. We help them figure out their nuts - they have a lot of nuts.

Which one are you?
I was all the Gnomes. Mommy was the Squirrles. Now I'm getting tired of talking.

Ok. Do you want to say anything else?
We made clay gnomes. That was fun. I made Divide and Plus. Mommy made Times and Minus.

Awesome. Anything else?
That's all I can think of. That's all for now.

Family Arts Weekend

Last Thursday Nightowl and I headed out on a mother-daughter adventure. We had signed up for the Family Arts Weekend at Taproot Farm in rural Ohio. We learned of this event via the Barbara Dewey newsletter (Waldorf Without Walls).

We started our trip with a side visit to our wonderful friends in Columbus. Nightowl got to play with her same age pal, Francie, and I got a late, late, late night chat with kindred spirit Nikki. We took the girls to see a production of the musical Annie and spent the rest of our time chilling and visiting and recollecting how much we all adore one another. It was a true love fest.

We arrived at Taproot Farm on Friday evening, unpacked our bags in the farmhouse (we got to stay in the Cinderella Room) and headed off to meet the six other families and play theater games. Over the next 24-plus hours we created original characters, built relationships between said characters, came up with a plot, created costumes, and staged a play. During our "free" time we learned how to wet-on-wet paint, make origami, participated in KP duty and creating communal meals, played theater games and sat around chatting and enjoying each others' company.

It was an amazing experience. Aside from what we created (which was pretty cool) the organic nature of the event is what I found most inspiring. All participants from aged 4 to much older, were able to be involved in all activites. The kids, and the adults, were included in the creation of their characters, which led to the creation of relationships, which led to the creation of the story, which led to the creation of the play. It was empowering. Everyone felt heard, and everyone seemed invested in the story.

Nightowl had a great time. In our final play her character was Carlos, the flying fairy. Working communally was very, very good for her. My character was Ref, the bashful newt. Working communally was very, very good for me.

I also came away with lots of wonderful new ideas for incorporating more dramatics into our everyday lessons - drama queens rule! I even learned to do wet-on-wet painting - a true miracle. Overall: a wonderful time had by all. (I've lots of photos from the weekend and plan to publish them somehow, sometime - when it's not nearly midnight.)

Flush right photos:
1 - View of the pond at Taproot Farm.
2 - Barbara demonstrates wet-on-wet painting
3 - My miracle painting.

The Alien Under the Bed

The alien that lives under my bed can change shape.
Today he is an Eyeball.
And he is giving a talk about eyeballs and eyeball stuff.

- Nightowl, age 6

Making Granola

Back to School

It's been busy, this first week "back to school, back to violin, back to piano." Hmmm....let's see:

This was the first week of our Math Block. We did a lot of singing number patterns, rhythm games for number patterns, working on odd and even, counting by 2s, 3s, etc. We've been playing number games: mancala, dominoes and geometric games: tangrams, blockus. One afternoon Nightowl spied Barbara Dewey's Math for Waldorf Homeschoolers book. She was delighted by the illustration of gnomes on the cover and begged to begin learning about the gnomes. Thus we have entered the world of Math Gnomes. We're at the beginning but she is delighted with the tale of the four gnomes: Plus, Minus, Times and Divide and their adventures in the jewel mine digging up treasures. She requests more of this activity faster than I can provide it. I suspect that during the next few weeks we'll be doing even more. I'd better get ready.

One morning Nightowl and Bearcub got busy with measuring tapes. I looked up from my morning tea and noticed that they were both very intently measuring all the furniture in the living room. Ta da: impromptu math lesson. Nightowl measured many pieces of furniture then noted the measurements on paper. She next cut out each item and arranged them in order from smallest to largest. She had some confusion regarding the order of the higher numbers so we got out the Unix Cubes. These little cubes attach in columns and can be used for a variety of things. Nightowl used them to figure out the numerical order of the items she'd measured. As this progressed she figured out that it was much easier to count using columns of ten. This prompted a little lesson on counting by 10s to 100.



Nightowl was also busy building this week. She asked that I include the following images of her dollhouse world - a city of rainbow buildings and multi-cultural communal living. The entire world is presided over by two Grandmas and their children. The Grandmas have been together for many, many years and have many, many children and grandchildren.

After math, our next big project has been getting ready for the homeschool science fair. This year Nightowl has selected Shells as her topic. We discussed her project, came up with several questions that she'd like to find answers for and took a trip to the library for research materials. Nightowl has been diligently sorting through the family shell collection in search of beauties to display for her project.

Finally, our biggest project was working on Rosetta. For Christmas, Nightowl received a doll making kit and this week we began the task of creating the doll. I purchased the kit on-line from Joy's Waldorf Dolls and, as it was our first doll, I took the easier route of getting several pieces created for us (the head, the wig). Our task was to take the head and attach the skin, create the nose, stuff the hands, feet, arms, legs and body; sew it all together; embroider the face and attach the hair. This was a really fun project. Nightowl helped as much as she could. She sewed the nose, did the stuffing, attached the head covering, and placed the eyes, mouth and hair.



After our first day working on the doll Nightowl had named her Rosetta. This inspired us to work even hard to get her finished - we just couldn't leave Rosetta in pieces! It was a really magical experience. Nightowl was so excited watching the creation of this doll. When we weren't working on her she would randomly pick up the pieces and hug them. I'd hear her whispering to Rosetta, telling her what her life would be like. She prepared her other dolls for an introduction to their new sister. And then she announced that, unlike her other dolls who sleep in doll beds, Rosetta would be sleeping with her. "She's not hard like my other dolls," Nightowl explained. "So she'll be more comfortable sleeping with me." Wow. Normally Nightowl doesn't sleep with dolls or stuffed animals. While she has quite a routine for putting her various doll and animal family to bed none of them get the invitation into the big bed. An interesting development.

By the end of the week Rosetta was finished!



And, true to her word, Nightowl has slept curled up with her every night since.

Rhythm...Again

Back when we started this little homeschooling adventure I posted a couple of times about schedules and rhythm. The months have passed and oh, how much I have learned.

I now know that:
1. Rhythm has little, if anything, to do with schedules.
2. Schedules, like all rules, are made to be broken.

So, on we go. We are completing the same activities - sort of - only now they happen a bit more naturally; more in rhythm and not so forced. It's good. A trifle frightening for a control freak like me...but I'm getting used to it. Sort of.

All About Bearcub

The youngest member of our little homeschool is rarely mentioned. However, her presence at home and in our lives demands that her exploits and activities get a little screen time too.

At 20-months, Bearcub can no-longer be considered the baby (though that's what we still call her). She is busy from the moment she wakes. In temperament she is easy going, good natured and friendly. She is strong willed, tenacious and stubborn. The decibles of her joy are matched only by the decibles of her tantrums. In the mornings she is the first to open her eyes and then wakes me with kisses. All friends receive hugs, strangers loud shouts of hello.

Whereas Nightowl's mantra might be "I think." the Bearcub's is surely: "I do." My little one is a master of dexterity, manipulation and physical activity. Few locks, doors, or latches confound her for long. If someone in the family is busy at a task or activity, then surely she should be able to as well - preferrably loudly and with gusto. Initially content to ride along in the wake of our activities, the Bearcub has emerged as a force to be reckonned with.

Case in point: the piano. Whereas Nightowl never noticed the piano until age five, Bearcub has been aching for a chance since she could crawl. She can now successfully open the instrument, select a music book, climb onto the bench, place her music, turn on the metronome, sit down and belt out a tune. No matter that she cannot read music, she turns the pages every few minutes just the same. And she plays, plays, plays as long as she can. The longing I see in her eyes now is for the violins - kept high out of reach. She hums along to every song that Nightowl and I play. Indeed, Bearcub knows the entire rep.

Similarly, Bearcub uses her own chalkboard for writing and drawing and her own materials for painting. Her exploits into the fiber arts are confounding explosions of knots and piles. Her love of books and being read to matches that of the rest of us. She loves puzzles and pieces and biking and swinging. She launches herself into every activity, shows little hesitancy in exploring new places and situations and displays a shocking lack of caution in most areas. If she falls or is somehow thwarted? No problem, she's up and mastering the feat - beit scaling the bookshelves, pushing the tire swing, or puzzling apart the newest toddler lock.

Aside from these many activities, what Bearcub likes most is to help. She enjoys helping to fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher, feed the cats, set the table and pick up the toys. Either from example or intrinsic nature, Bearcub is turning out to be pretty tidy. She sings the "toys away" song with joy.

Her newest and most favorite helping activity is vaccuming. Previously, Bearcub has eyed the vaccum with trepidation and fear: It's loud, it's clunky, it's takes Mom's focus. But over the past few months she's been taking cautious steps: a willingness to be in the same room with the ghastly thing, tip-toeing past it, sneaking over to push the power button. And then today, the unthinkable: a request to do it herself. So, I lowered the handle and passed it over. Oh joy! Oh rapture! Forty minutes later she was still involved: Vaccum. Turn off the power. Turn on the power. Vaccum. Turn off the power....



When lunch was on the table I had to step in and bring the activity to an end. "No, Mama," she cried. "More vaccum!" she signed. But I insisted. Oh, the wailing that ensued - complete with a full body drop to the floor, and the beating of fists and feet. Call CPS because I won't let the child vaccum any longer - it's time for lunch and a nap.

True to her nature the hysterics passed quickly. Now it's lunch time. Time to scale the chair, wash the hands, insist on an open cup. Time to eat heartily and messily and after, exhausted from the effort, enter sleep quickly and deeply and then wake, refreshed, for more.

A Prince of a Tale and Then Some

It might seem like with travel, work and holidays that "school" has gone by the wayside. Actually, we have been working on the more traditional stuff too - well traditional for us.

Our most recently completed "school" block was language arts. I had originally planned four weeks for a Waldorf type block but we got so involved and took so many exits into the land of unschooling that four weeks morphed into ten.

What have we done? In nutshell: We completed the first two language arts blocks as presented in the Christopherus Grade One Curriculum - with a little tweaking of our own in some places. These two blocks consist of creating a pictoral letter alphabet based on a continuing story infused with Grimm's Fairy Tales (re: a big story with little ones nestled inside). Our story went something like this:

There was Kind King and a Quiet Queen. They were parents to a Proud Prince. Because he was so proud he was not ready to lead the Kingdom. So, their cousin, the Wise Woman, took him on a journey. During this journey he learned many things and returned home much wiser and ready to lead the Kingdom.

Every week I told Nightowl a segment or two of the Prince's story - oftimes this segment included a tale from Grimm's. The story segment would emphasize a particular set of letters (ie: Proud Prince = P). She would illustrate the story segment including the actual letters within her drawings, on other days she would practice the letters she learned. By the end we have a complete alphabet and a completely illustrated tale. At the end of the tale she moved onto writing simple allitrative word phrases. We also brought this story into our craft time, creating hand puppets (pictured above) of the Prince and the Wise Woman. We have re-enacted the entire thing with said puppets.

This activity worked extremely well for Nightowl. We did a similar type of illustrated alphabet last year for Kindergarten - as per Oak Meadow instruction. It was good introduction for her but not nearly as cohesive. My decision to engage in a similar activity for First Grade came about primarily because she seemed ready for the archetypal stories in Grimm's (she loves them). I also sensed that a letter review would be well received. True on both accounts - this activity was a hit. Nearly every day she asked for a new episode of the Prince. I put pictures up on my larger chalkboard. She then copied the pictures and letters first on her own chalkboard then in her main lesson book.

Included here are a few of the drawings from the Prince's Tale that Nightowl wished to showcase on the blog.






Images: 1-Kind King, Quiet Queen, Proud Prince, Wise Woman; 2 - Lovely Lady, Holle House,;
3 - Ooohhh!; 4 - New Needle, Curled Cat;
5 - Rapunzel; 6 - Letter practice

So that was our Waldorf. Our other adventures in reading during this past ten weeks include: working through McGuffy's Eclectic Primer, Nightowl reading aloud chapters of Frog and Toad, delving into classic children's books (see our Grade One Reading List), and creating original books.

That last part is pure Nightowl. For fun during her free time, Nightowl has been book making. She has written and illustrated several small books (I am usually called upon to dictate spelling). But the main project has been the creation of her own Magic Schoolbus adventure. Entitled "The Magic Schoolbus Goes to the IU String Academy" this work has taken a life of its own.

I gave Nightowl a blank main lesson book and she started by laying out the story via pen and ink illustrations, coloring them in later with colored pencil. This is a work in progress and not yet finished (so no photos at this time), but progress is being made. She is writing many of the words herself and she knows the storyline. I suspect that I will be called in once again to dictate spelling and help her locate music and string facts - but then that's my role in this: purely support staff. This is her project, fueled by her own desire, her love of playing the violin, love of the program she is in and her love of the Magic Schoolbus books.

This type of free learning makes me giddy with delight. It's what I hoped for when we began this adventure. On many occassions the entire day has been spent at work on this project. It's incredible to watch and has proven what almost all of the homeschoolers I know have told me: Let them go and they will learn. Fabulous.