Chocolate and play

I'm hoping to visit this place soon: it's called Demel in Vienna and it is a delicious cafe haus.
http://www.demel.at/en/frames/index_demel.htm


I love sachertorte.

This is an interesting article on play:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

Re: Gurus

One of the things I dislike about some of the holistic educational approaches is the "Guru" stuff that goes with them. It makes me feel distinctly uncomfortable that individuals seem to get credit for ideas that anyone who has worked with children and done child development/developmental psychology or trained in a particular approach etc would easily discover themselves or for ideas that they have not credited in full to others or other systems. One of the set of materials I am currently using (albeit in parts) is making me feel more and more uncomfortable in terms of the credit towards the developer. I have read through the materials and find there are lots of references and credits missing and I don't believe for a minute that the developer is aware of the guru status being conferred upon them. I'm going to say it - Enki. I feel so alien in a way on the Enki lists because I just don't feel that Enki is a way of life, and certainly not my way of life or that of my family. We're taking our own approach and the Enki curriculum is a resource material - some of it I agree with, some of it I don't and I recognise many of the ideas in it from elsewhere. That said, if you have the money to afford it then it's worth getting the materials.

I really like Donna Simmons books and her materials because she knows her training and background and is a) aware that parents have their own wisdom and also b) acknowledges her background in Waldorf and Anthroposophy and unschooling and also c) her own experiences as a home educator and most important d) recognises that children are all individuals too so whilst one idea may work for some it may go very awry for others! I don't feel like I'm joining a cult with many other materials (Letts, Oak Meadow, Cuisenaire rods, Myriad) but I do with Enki and I'm sure it's not what the founder intended!? That said there are some really good parents involved in Enki who have a lot of interesting ideas - I just wish they'd acknowledge themselves, rather than crediting everything to Enki (at least that is how it feels to me).

I think there is a huge difference between American homeschoolers and UK home educators. Over here we seem to have much less in the way of curriculum resources (unless it is the state approved National Curriculum) which although it makes it more difficult since you have to go about finding your own way, it is also means that one is less likely to incur a "guru". We're much more cynical here about "professionals" and "experts" I reckon and maybe it's arrogance but I see myself as equal to professionals and experts, if not over and above them (because I'm the parent!). :)

Our medicine basket

In my medicine kit we have:


Easy access to the bathroom sink to wash off germs and wash wounds
Clean flannels
Tweezers
Thermoter
Aloe vera plant (good for burns)
Germolene (cream)
Savlon (antiseptic cream)
Lavender essential oil (Tisserand) - one of the few eos that I use (so many are unethically harvested and potentially too strong for the body system)
Sage plant
Rosemary (good mouth rinse)
Sea salt (mouth rinse, wound wash)
Star anise tincture (for flu-type viruses but still need to work on the research for this which is why I am the only one to take it since I don't wish to poison my family)
Rosewater - makes a nice scent and useful as "fairy magic" medicine
Echinacea (don't like using this flower because of the unethical harvesting situation)
Dried nettle (tisane, vinegar and so on)
Camomile tea - soothing drink, great for eyebaths
Nettle vinegar (full of nutrients - preventative)
Floradix (helps if I get heavy times of the month and tends to prevent it as if you have a heavy flow it suggests that you need to look at nutrients/lifestyle)
Eyebright - good for eyebaths but possibly because of hot water rather than active consituents
Calpol - infant paracetamol which is only used when temperatures are too high and the breaking point is not being reached without major duress to Springy
Calendula balm - great for soothing the skin
Ginger, lemon and honey drink (homemade, made as need arises)

I don't use anything homoeopathic since I do not believe in the way it is believed to work (since there is little in the pills or jars other than sugar or water and certainly no active constituent).

Re: Mini trampoline

We finally got a trampoline - it was my Valentine's Day gift and Springy and I now have a daily bounce on it. It's meant to be an easy to fold away one but it took a trip back to where it was purchased from to force it into the ready position and the thought of trying to take it back down again is very daunting.

Springy got to see my old dice collection from my roleplaying days today. I have a mini set and a pink set. I don't think for a minute that roleplaying is suitable for a kindergarten stage child, at least not without major adaptations to remove the violence etc. I'm also aware that at this age and stage they are finding out how to be themselves and don't need an extra personality to work through. However, it will be nice when Springy is older to play D&D because you can learn so much from roleplaying - there is all the maths and statistics, there is the creative art of storytelling, all the painting or drawing and imagining the characters and so forth. That said, I think we could modify the game to work with some of her little doll figures and send them off on a storytelling adventure (which is little different to the way she plays with them already) of a gentle nature.

I forgot to say, we had a lovely moment on one of our car journeys the other day. "Mummy, Daddy, is Harry Potter married to Beatrix Potter?" :)

Re: Spring has arrived... for now

We have had lovely weather so far. Our daffodils are already out and the crocuses are peaking like baby birds, with their yellow beaks wide open.

Springy was invested in the Beavers this week. She said her promise:

I promise to do my best
To be kind and helpful
and to do my duty to good.

Today (Wednesday, 6th) Springy and I did quite a few beanbag games, performed a puppet play together (using the sea puppets from Ikea) and then went out into the garden. We put the guineapigs in their run and whilst I cleaned out their home, Springy played with them. Then I mowed some of the dry parts of the lawn so it looks a lot neater. Springy watched as I gathered nettles and took them inside to make a nettle vinegar - we also got stung. Later on in the afternoon I waited here for the courier to arrive so Daddy took Springy out to the harbour to feed the ducks, then to get some shopping.

The last few days have been fabulous in terms of the weather. It's been so sunny and the guineapigs have been out again. Springy and I put down some turf today (recycled from where it has grown over flagstones - she watered it and I hope it will patch up some of the bare patches in the garden. We've been planting some more bulbs (gladioli) and have sorted some of the pots out ready for planting later in the season. We have a new lavender and I got some thyme too (it's a very handy medicinal and culinary herb). We made nettle vinegar (gather spring nettle tops, place in jar as full as you can and then add apple cider vinegar - seal for a month or two before using as a salad dressing).

I've been reading through issue 2 of the Living Crafts magazine (http://www.livingcrafts.com/). It's such a lovely read and also many of the crafts in it are simple enough to say "Yes, I'm going to have a go" to (and we have been). I've lost issue 1 and I can't find the Story of the Root Children either (which is not good because it is a perfect seasonal story).

I've been telling Springy the poem Princess Spring from the Enki kindergarten curriculum as well.

A new Steiner Waldorf resource - poems

This is an excellent Steiner Waldorf resource for poems, verses and so forth:

http://www.straightlineandcurve.co.uk/

Morning Songs

I've been searching for some good morning songs. The one that we most often sing (and this is one I used to sing years ago when I was a SALT assistant) is:

"Good morning, good morning
How are you today?
Good morning, good morning,
This is what we say"

We also sing:
"I wake in the morning early, and always the very first thing,
is I sit up in bed and I lift up my head
And I sing, and I sing,
When I wake in the morning early"
(Ref: Sing Through the Day with CD).

I found this one (no reference though): Sun wake up its time to talk about another day I wonder what your life will bring upon a goldem way Sun upon the shining Sun upon the way Sun upon the golden way We also like to sing "Morning has broken..."

Down is the Earth
Up is the sky
Here is/are my family/mummy/friends
And here am I

I was reading the Times yesterday (we had lunch in a cafe and they have newspapers there so it was nice to choose from a selection) and there was a feature on a survey of parents and over 80% of them didn't sing to their children. We never stop singing here - singing in the shower, singing in the car, singing whilst washing up, singing whilst going to sleep and so on. We still do nursery rhymes and finger plays and make up our own funny songs ... lots of las, lots of tra las and so on. I could not imagine our lives without singing (and you don't have to be a good singer to sing - singing is about feeling and joyfulness). I think it is very sad that so many people grow up without anyone singing live to them from their hearts (rather than for a profit-driven concert or public display or CD/radio etc).

Easter and Spring crafts

Craft things to make:

felt a bar of soap (spring cleaning)
take bar of glycerine based soap and felt around with wool

make a fairy garden
take a plant pot drainage tray, add soil, use wheat grains to grow some grass with and decorate (with Springy) with shells, stones etc
or (which we've already done) take a bowl, fill with fine playsand, add some glitter, wool, stones and so on - for winter we made a snow scene with some white modelling clay (snowman), white wool, a pipe cleaner sheep and some brown and red for a robin (use cut down cocktail sticks to prop up figures if necessary) . For Spring you could fill with the sand, use some green wool and a yellow pompom or yellow clay to make a little chick or some flowers.

Felt egg (and add little chick from yellow wool or pompom for Easter Sunday)
i)Tightly wind wool around a small rock (for the egg shape), wind layers thinly and have lots.
ii) when it is thick enough (about 1/2") put the 'egg' into hot soapy water. Keep it in your hand and squeeze the water in and out from it.
iii) After a few minutes place it into a cold water bath squeeze - do the hot and cold several times more.
iv) Squeeze the water out
v) Leave to dry (I put my wet felting things on a flannel in the airing cupboard)

Flu tincture and crocheted scarves

I've given up on knitting but got into crochet. I bought a children's crochet set and within a few hours had figured a lot out (unlike knitting which even though I've attended workshops and gone through it numerous times still gets me muddled). Anyway Springy is now the owner of one cream and lilac scarf made from a bamboo/wool mix. It's great because it is very soft, a natural fibre, doesn't itch and doesn't give her static problems and she keeps telling everyone that her mummy made it.

I've also made a flu tincture using vodka and star anise (the logic behind it is star anise is one of the components in tamiflu, although whether it does anything is another matter). Anyway a teaspoon taken at several points in the day seems to have thwarted off, so far, a cold that was beginning to take hold. It tastes very strong (since I'm not used to alcohol) and very like anise.

My next project is to make some nettle tincture, to ensure our herbal medicine cabinet is well stocked. I will dry some nettles and also use some in cooking because at this time of year they make a great spring tonic herb.

The Museum and paper

We've had a busy past few weeks - played lots of games, been on playdates, to swimming, Beavers and so on.

Springy has written a delightful book (she goes off, cuts up paper, sometimes asks for a little help) and when she has written and illustrated her books she asks to read them to us.

The latest is The Museum (spelt THE MUOZEM) which is about a dinosaur who is hungry. No, she hasn't seen the film Night at the Museum although we did go to the Natural History museum a couple of years back and saw the Tyrannosaurus Rex animatronic there, and this seems to have stuck. The book is backwards but that doesn't matter. It is lovely that she has book making as a creative outlet.

Today, I have been poring over the Hope Education and NES Arnold catalogues. I'm one of those home educators who is able to laugh at some of the contents rather than wanting everything. It's such an irony to see play money, shopping games and so on because we do these things for real so we have no need, unlike schools, to simulate these experiences in a classroom. That said there are a few items I would like. There is a wooden cube set - 1 cm cubes which form 100 by 100 by 100 cubes for length and volume. The plastic stuff leaves me cold though - I'd much rather dip into the Myriad catalogue.

This afternoon we went on an adventure around the home. I used the vignette on paper from the Live Education website as a basis to spring from. We explored toilet tissue by pulling it when dry and then wet it to notice what happened. We held pieces of different paper up against the window to see how much light was let through and then poured a little cooking oil on to show how early people had used oil to waterproof their paper windows and also allow more light in. We discussed wasps and I drew a set of hexagons on our chalkboard and Springy knew that bees used wax instead of paper for the same construction shape. We discussed papyrus and it is fortunate that we have a piece of Egyptian papyrus (it came from the World Scout Jamboree in the summer) so Springy was able to feel it. We then pretended to be wasps and chewed up toilet tissue (not really) with our fingers and added water and then squashed it into a different shape to dry (we'll look at that tomorrow). We have a bamboo plant growing in our lounge so when we discussed paper making in China she could see a bamboo as well. We went around the house on a hunt for paper items - kitchen roll, books, magazines, newspapers and Springy was very excited about each new discovery. We also looked at our house construction with the plasterboard - some of it is falling off in Springy's room which meant it was easy to see the layers. All in all brilliant and I just wish there were more resources written in the same way for me to bounce off with the hands on/discovery approach.

We came back to wasps at the end and Springy had grabbed some plasticine (our lovely new non-smudge Oko certificated stuff from Myriad) and made a wasp. Beautiful :)