Books

127. Teaching Children Handwriting by Audrey McAllen
OMG. This is a fabulous book. It was recommended by a Waldorf Teacher on one of the Waldorf Homeschooling lists I'm on (you'd be surprised how many teachers hang out with us homeschoolers), so when I went to the conference in April I popped a copy into my bag. I just sat down to read it a couple of days ago. Blew me away. Audrey McAllen is responsible for the Waldorf Extra Lesson Teacher (sorta equivalent to the special ed teacher...more like the O.T. the Speech Therapist, tutor all rolled into one) this book goes about her way of not only teaching children how to write, but essentially that teaching them to write teaches them to read (which is the basic Waldorf Philosophy about teaching reading anyway) Why did I really like this book? Most of the curriculum teaches the teacher what to teach...not how. This  book goes into meticulous detail about how. Awesome, especially since Ike really needed me to read this book. I will be changing refining how and what I will be teaching this year.

128. Living Language: A Language Arts Curriculum by Donna Simmons
Donna Simmons writes homeschooling curriculum through her company Christopherus. I think most of her publications are waaaay overpriced for what they deliver. I have purchased and returned waaay too much of her stuff. I do, however, find that her overviews are excellent. Just do yourself a favor, buy them used. Mostly I just can't stand her "voice". Its a big too dogmatic and "this is the right way to do it, if you don't do it this way you aren't doing it right". I'll admit it, she just rubs me wrong. (Amusing aside: She had the same complaint about the McAllen book above.) That being said. I really like this book. Again, it isn't a what its a how. And it helped me see ways I could teach Ike better.  And it helped me be more comfortable that he really has no interest in reading right now. And that its okay. Again, its helping me refine what and how I'll be teaching this year.

So I'm back to reading heavy duty "school" stuff. I decided to take July off. Now that its August, I'm back to hitting the books. I'm also giving myself until the 15th to start in on my homework. (yes, classes don't start until Sept. 11, but I have a short list of reading to accomplish before that first class)

Getting Ready for School

I took July off from school stuff. Okay, mostly. I read a few picture books for next year, looked at a few poetry books...but mostly I didn't read anything "heavy" for the month. I started that up again on Sunday. I've gotten 2 books on my "read before starting school" stack done. I've started a third and have a few Steiner lectures to read in the next couple of days. (The first two books were for Ike, the next few are for the girls.) Whew! Lots of reading...but duh, its what I do.

Simultaneously, I've been, for lack of a better word...nesting.

Ike, Elli and Gwen have been at camp this week. I've had a solid 1.5-2 hours during the day when my energy is greatest to "do stuff". I have scrubbed my house. My bathroom is spotless, the kids bathroom was spotless until this evening when someone left the bathroom open and let Gray in. I have thrown out, swept, vacuumed, mopped. I've even painted.

On Monday I scrubbed down the dining room wall with a car sponge and water and vinegar.  That wall takes a beating. The scrubbing took off about 90% of the crap, stains, marks, hand prints, and food dribbles all over it. Getting up all the built up chalk on the chalkboard took about 4 scrubbings with fresh water. Then I pulled out the paint for the main wall color on our blackboard wall and touched up some black scuff marks, pencil marks, dings, etc. Today while Gray was sleeping I pulled out the painters tape and taped off the chalkboard. This evening once all the kids were asleep I put another later of chalkboard paint on the chalkboard. Since its a smoother than normal wall surface, its still really irregular...so the tops of the bumps had lost the paint and my board was covered with little cream colored spreckles. It shouldn't happen this year as I learned a trick from a Waldorf Teacher that those micro-fiber cleaning cloths remove about 99% of the colored chalk without having to wash the board. This makes me happy!

I've been ordering supplies, printing off calendars, searching for books, and basically lining up all my ducks.

I think we are going to have a great year.