Jen's Mental Scribblings

Math Block! We'll be learning the properties of numbers in this block and Roman Numerals

Weekly:
Verse: Rosy Apple, A Child's Seasonal Treasury Pg 36
Spanish: Autumn Leaves are Falling down (week 2) Bilingual, Pg 106
Yoga: Freedom, Angel Bear Yoga, Page 77
Music (Ike's requested a music change) Mary had a little lamb
Handwork: Applebutter (if I can get apples at the Farmers Market),

(NB Music is going slow...I think we will be working on Mary had a little lamb for the foreseeable future. Ike is still trying to figure out that the left hand goes on top and how to blow hard enough, but not too hard to get a good sound. Once he tackles that, we'll move onto fingering. Big frustration here is that Elli and Gwen want to play too, only they just want to blow their flutes, not actually learn how to play their own (which is fine). The problem comes in the fact that they are bothering Ike with their playing. And he keeps getting distracted and frustrated.)

Monday:

• Holiday! Daddy's Home! Memorial Service in Late Afternoon
• Baking Day: GF Bread for me, GF Brownies for Dessert on Tuesday

Tuesday: 

• First Day of School at Morning Glory, we'll attend and participate in the Rose Ceremony (graduation to First Grade)
• Painting Day: Yellow Sun in Blue Sky
• Form Drawing: More Curves

Wednesday:

• Ike: Number I, Riddle (AJTWM Pg 13) Drawing the Sun in Main Lesson Book with Phrase "Our Sun is I"
• E&G Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Modeling Day: Suns

Thursday:

• Ike: Number II Riddle (AJTWM  Pg 14) Draw Sun and Moon in MLB with "Our Sun and Moon are II"
• E&G Noisy Gnomes
• Form Drawing: More Curves
• Copywork: Weekly Verse

Friday:

• Ike: Forest Friday at Morning Glory
• E&G: KidsPark

Block for the Week: Form Drawing!

Verse: Winter Spring Summer Autumn, A Child's Seasonal Treasury, Pg 3
Spanish: Las Hojas se caeran (Autumn Leaves are falling down, sung to London Bridges) Bilingual Book , Pg 106
Yoga Position: Adventure, Angel Bear Yoga Pg 49
Music: Summer Goodbye, Sing a Song of Seasons Pg 28
Handwork: Yarn Angel, EarthSchooling September Pg 64
(I've made plans for all of these for every week. I recognize the fact that the Spanish and the Music might take more than one week to be learned and might be repeated.)

Monday:
    Ike: Week 1, Part 1 of Wise Sophia (Journey through Waldorf, Pg 78), curved form (draw on chalkboard, in rice, on our backs, in the air, walk in the driveway, dominant and off hands) (curve left, curve right, curve up, curve down, nesting curves, ascending and descending curves) Talk about the curve of the old woman's back, who lives in the curved house, with the curvy path, and the curvy backed cat.
    E & G: Sheep and Pig, EarthSchooling September Pg 34
Gym Day for everyone
Baking Day! We will bake wheat bread (more forms!) and brownies for dessert night, and possibly some GF bread for me

Tuesday:
    Ike: Week 1, Part 2 of Wise Sophia (Journey through Waldorf, Pg 78), straight form (draw on chalkboard, in rice, on our backs, in the air, walk in the driveway, dominant and off hands) (shorts, longs, ascending, descending, verticals, horizontals, interspersed, diagonals) 
    E & G: I'll pick a picture book
Painting Day: Back to one color painting. Yellow
TKD day for Ike (If he wants to go)

Wednesday:
    Ike: Week 1,Part 3 of Wise Sophia (Journey through Waldorf, Pg 78) wavy running form (draw on chalkboard, in rice, on our backs, in the air, walk in the driveway, dominant and off hands) (horizontals and verticals
   E & G: Sheep and Pig, EarthSchooling September Pg 34
Modeling Day: the forms
Gym Day for everyone
TKD day for E & G

Thursday:
    Ike: Draw a picture of the family in Wise Sophia, narrate and summarize the story so far. Form draw review of curves and straights combined.
    E & G: Same Picture book as on tuesday
Copywork Day: Verse of the Week

Friday:
Mom's day off. KidsPark in the Morning, park for the afternoon with a trip to the library in between. (Eventually Ike will be going to school at Njeri's Morning Glory on Fridays. On Forest Friday's they spend the entire day, rain or shine, at Sanborn park. Needless to say I've spent a chunk of change on rain gear for Ike. This satisfies my desire for him to be in a structured, class-like setting that is still outside and satisifies his counselor to fulfill his need for socialization and practice his social skills. This class starts the friday after Labor Day.)

Whew! Sounds busy!
   

I actually wrote this! I can't promise its grammatically correct, I wasn't especially aiming for that. But its the first story I've written and I'm quite proud because I had a COMPLETELY captivated audience this morning when I told it. NOW I get why stories are recited in Waldorf Education and not just read out of a book.

I'll be writing more.

There once were three friends. Red, Yellow and Blue.

They loved to play and run and skip and jump. They played tag together. They played Hide and seek together. They played House, Dogs and Squirrels and skipped rope, all together. They were great friends and they spent all their free time together.

After awhile, the weather turned cold. The wind bit at their noses and ears when they went out side. And sent cold fingers down the backs of their shirts which made them shiver. The skies darkened, it rained…a lot.  They had to spend most of their time inside where it was nice and warm and cozy, drinking hot chocolate. 

Then late one night something special happened. It snowed.

They awoke to drifts of fine, beautiful snow lying in heaps on the ground. And it was very, very cold. It was so cold that the neighborhood swimming hole froze over. The ice was so thick, they and the other neighborhood children could go skating on it. (I put a piece of paper on the drawing pad at this point)

So, the three great friends, Red Yellow and Blue dressed in their warmest clothes, strapped on their ice skates, and stepped onto the ice.

Red was by far the boldest. He bravely skated out to the center of the ice urging his friends to come join him. He skated back and forth as fast as he could go. He fell down every once in awhile, but he always popped right back up and began to skate again. His enthusiasm encouraged the others to join him. (I took the red crayon and used the shortest side to draw zig zags across the paper)

Yellow began to laugh and giggle as she stepped out onto the ice. She was so happy to be out of the house and skating that her infectious joy made everyone happy.  She didn’t just skate over the ice. She danced, a twirl here, a little jump there. She bounced around the ice enjoying herself. (I took the yellow crayon and made it dance across the page, leaving little bits of color everywhere.)

And finally Blue stepped out onto the ice. Very calmly, and carefully Blue skated around the edges of the ice. He was enjoying the good weather and the company of good friends. He never fell down, but was the first to arrive to help a friend up when they did. Soothing their frustrations and encouraging them to keep trying.  (I took the blue crayon and drew a circle around the edges.)

At the end of the day, the three friends took off their skates, and looked longingly at the ice. As they looked, they noticed the streaks of color that each of them had left. Sometimes their trails crossed and combined to make new colors. All marveled at the beauty they made together.