Jen's Mental Scribblings

151. Start Now!: A book of soul and spiritual exercises by Rudolf Steiner, edited by Christopher Bamford
I started this book a year ago and put it down after about 100 pages, 'cause I wasn't absorbing anything. It was just too thick. Melisa said that I needed to continue as I quit just before it got really good. She was right. The title is "Start Now!" okay, fine. What its lacking is a "Start Here!" Its so thick with resources that I don't know where to begin! Thank goodness I have some people to ask, but seriously! A big red arrow showing where to start is something to think about!

152. Journeys with Elijah: Eight Tales of the Prophet by Barbara Diamond Goldin
When doing research about American Folklore this book came up. So I requested it. Good stories about the Prophet Elijah showing up in different places and times. It will be good reading for Ike next year when we cover the Old Testament.

153. Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, legend, and Tall Tale by Robert D. San Souci and Brian Pinkney
Again, found while researching American Folklore. Most of these are characters I've never heard of. Some from Native American Sources, some Hawaiian, and some Southern sources. Good stories about the women of Tall Tales. This will come in handy when I teach Second Grade to the girls.

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.

I lost my piece of paper with my outline of my lesson plans for second grade.

Good thing for me that I wrote them down somewhere else. I was about to panic, but then I remember that I blogged about it.

Man I'm smart.

I've gotten involved in yet another research project.

Lesson Plans for Grade 2!

Using Melisa's plan I need 18 fables and folk tales. I also need a total of 12 saints/Heroes.  With them I need to cover Grammar, Social Studies, Language Arts, and Science. Woo Hoo!

I checked out 9 books from the library today with subjects ranging from: Celtic Fairy Tales, Jataka tales, Hindu Saint Stories, Nature Fables, American Indian tales, African Tales, and a couple of catholic saints. At home in my own collection I have Aesops Fables, American Tall Tales,  and Just So Stories.

I've got a lot of reading to do over the next few months.

Wheee!