Drawing and Form Drawing

This is a very useful article on drawing at the Waldorf Library:

http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/drawing.pdf

Today we got up, had porridge for breakfast and Springy went outside straight afterwards and found a pill millipede which she put on her hand, with the hope that it would uncurl and move. It didn't so she went a bit later to watch her wren's nest. She noticed that all the moss in the wren's nest had been pulled out but didn't tell me until this afternoon and it looks like the stoat has been there, taken all the babies and destroyed the nest. There is a stoat poo underneath the nest and we'd seen the stoat yesterday evening going through the flower bed. Springy was upset but we said that that is nature because the stoat has babies to feed too.

We went to the duck pond later and Springy saw some beautiful little ducklings. She was feeding them and they came very close and she was able to reach out and touch them several times which made her really pleased (she got very grubby knees from leaning over). It turns out that our own Mrs Duck is nesting next door to us now - hooray! We hope that she is well hidden and that her babies will hatch soon.

Waldorf Veil Painting and Needle Felting

This seems to be a fascinating site on Waldorf art for the older classes:

http://www.outofthecolor.com/index.html

Also, this link was given out today on needle felting:

http://www.kimchatel.com/Felt_Album.html

I've ordered the book on rainbow sheep because it looks really sweet and I know Springy will love it.

Practical and Conversational Learning

I find myself noticing that so much of our learning is informal, through practical, everyday situations arising which either leads to the acquisition of knowledge through necessity or through conversation. For example, Springy has known about the o'clocks of time for quite a while because she hears both C and I discuss what time we are leaving for somewhere or what time a meal is. She now has an awareness of half past and over the weekend started to ask about quarter past and quarter to. I don't tend to go into long explanations but when there is an indication that she is interested in something then I make the effort to engage with that. So now instead of saying it's nearly 8 o'clock and therefore you can longer eat at this time before bed I have started to say it's quarter to 8 (or nearly or just gone quarter to 8). That way, when she's ready it will just slip into her knowledge base.

We had the same today. We were shopping and I did a price comparison on some food and rather than overload her with the details I pointed out that I was finding out which one was cheaper by using maths and showed her the label. I didn't explain any further than that but the idea has been encountered.

I haven't listed all that we have in our garden in terms of fruit and vegetables. I tend to grow small quantities - to me the experience of knowing where food comes from, how to care for plants etc is a very important part of home education but I'm certainly not an expert gardener. Our raspberry canes look good this year (nettle mulch seems to have helped), we seem to have a lot of strawberries again, two blueberry bushes, a gooseberry bush (which isn't doing well - I need to move it), redcurrant bush (it looks like some little birdies have devoured the unripe currants because there were a lot), some dwarf runner beans, several varieties of potato (courtesy of the British Potato Council), leaf beet, tomato vines and courgette plant and lots of herbs (comfrey, nettles, dandelions, sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, mints) and edible flowers such as calendula, carnations, and roses. We garden without pesticides and I like to companion plant. We often lose our crops to other lifeforms and I try not to mind sharing.

Re: Looking for lost things

Springy has been hilarious this weekend. She's really into telling jokes at the moment - at first they were not funny e.g. Why did the rabbit cross the road? Because it left it's car there! but she's slowly adding in more funny ones, the traditional jokes of childhood that I remember. For instance, she has been telling her Grandpa "Will you remember me in a day? ...a week? ...a month? ...a year?" to which Grandpa responds Yes and then Springy does the "Knock, knock" and Grandpa responds with "Who's there?" ...see you forgot me already... I also taught her a new one today which was to do a gulping noise with your throat and ask what bird is it. It's a swallow!

As I'm typing this Springy is playing before bedtime and the sky is a beautiful lilac, pink and orange colour. I'm hoping that means "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight" and that tomorrow will be a glorious day.

C lost his voice to laryngitis this weekend and Springy wondered whether he had lost his voice under his side of the bed. It was so sweet to hear her say this.

In our garden we have a wren's nest in the ivy. Springy has been watching the parent birds go in and out, bringing food to their chicks. The chicks seem to consist of large beaks, either in closed or open mode. The goldfinches have been fabulous this year - they are like clockwork birds at times with their funny little dances. We also have a baby wood pigeon who is now a fledgling but is still being cared for by her parents. Many of the birds seem to have no fear of Springy.

Springy has been watching the bees on the comfrey and in the foxgloves too. I told her to listen to the bees when they go in the foxglove because the buzzing noise makes more of a ringing sound. It is no wonder that foxgloves are considered fairy flowers in folklore.

This morning's maths lesson was about division. We had iced gem biscuits (a rare event) on a plate and I asked Springy to divide them between her, me and 2 toy dogs.

Eurovision

We watched the Eurovision tonight which is mainly bland Europop but there is nevertheless something compelling about it. We have an Usborne Flags sticker book and Springy, her daddy and I worked together to find the flags for each country of the Eurovision song contest and stuck them on the appropriate page. Springy managed to work through the index with the country name, found the page number and then looked at the flag and then found the sticker which went over it. It was really fun doing this (especially since some of the songs were dreadful).

Springy also keeps asking about odd and even numbers and checking numbers that she thinks are odd or even with me. She's got the hang of it and has worked out the pattern.

I've started to read this article (about Steiner early childhood education):
http://thesis.library.adelaide.edu.au/uploads/approved/adt-SUA20030411.095119/public/03chapter4-chapter10.pdf

Currently reading...

We're currently having a read aloud of The Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse by Ursula Moray... It seems very sweet so far.

I love sitting down with Springy and doing a chapter or two each day with her.

Another walk

We had another nice walk today. We had our scooter with us (very helpful if springy gets tired because I can stick her on it and wheel her a little - and I can go on it as well if I get tired and she runs alongside). We found lots of different types of grasses in the hedgerows and the elderflowers are almost in bloom (some are already but not enough to make elderflower cordial from).

Mrs Duck seems to be ready to lay again (her suitors have disappeared).

Springy had a lovely time yesterday with a playdate she had. She and her friend are so similar in terms of what they like to play with and both have that very fine motor control aspect with toys (both seem to be very careful and gentle with "things"). They also both like running around together, playing on the swing, cartwheeling and so on. I hope it's a longlasting friendship.

It was much cooler today--cloudy with a dampness to the air. We could do with a little more rain as the garden needs it.

I can't wait for our Mayfair that we will be going to. There is supposed to be a Maypole -it's late in that Mayfairs are usually early in May but nevertheless I can't wait because I know Springy loves dancing.

We didn't have a good morning at first. i've been under loads of pressure from my mum to get Spring to read and write. She doesn't understand that Springy can read and enjoys it - the last thing I want to do is to force her or "teach" her reading because it would just put her off. Springy can write all her upper case letters but not the lower case ones and I ended up having a panic last night and decided that Springy should be able to write them. I tried to get Springy to write all her lower case letters this morning and we both had an awful time. C helped a lot and what he did was all right because it was more of a conversation about if she could write what would she be doing with it and this got her interested to write. Then he left and it was obvious that she didn't want to do any more. Instead I took her knitting fork (lucette) chain that she had made and made a sigmoid on the sitting room floor and I started jumping over it. Springy thought this was great and joined in and then we tried some other shapes - walking around, jumping over and so on. This was much more fun than a pencil and paper for her and by this afternoon I was doing my best to throw off the voice of "In school children can do this" and "She's behind on...."

I really hate those voices of doubt and negativity because I know that what we are doing works really well and is developmentally and cognitively more appropriate than anything Springy would get in school. It's really hard at times to be out on a limb; even amongst other home educators there seems to be a race for academics. I need to remind myself all the time to go with Springy's age, aptitude and ability and not some theoretical child in a school.

We got our gnomes out today and they stood near their felted garden with pond (Springy found a tiny piece of red wool on the carpet and put it in the pond as a goldfish) and had their wooden tree. Penny Plus found 18 stones and she needed help - a golden butterfly came along but said she could only carry equal amounts but over 2 journeys only. Daddy Divide came along and helped Springy share out how many stones needed to be in each pile for there to be equal ones.

We also covered 4 and 5 in terms of number qualities. Springy was hilarious with Eyes, nose, ears and mouth (all being on the head) and got fingers and toes for 5. We also did our Vitruvian Man shape as a star (using one of the Eugene Schwartz poems on Millennial Child). She loved doing that and that old lady has gone back to sleep again (thanks Marsha Johnson for your wonderful files!) with the question of what is 6...

Springy has been reading a Letterland book that we got at a jumble - it was one of those books I got and tucked away and then forgot and it was only when I was tidying our bookshelf that I rediscovered it and she straightaway latched on to it. She really likes it. She also enjoys reading Snow White and Rose Red.

It's very frustrating trying to find resources at the BBC website as they are all computer-based and cartoonlike. I wish there were more resources aimed at assisting parents and teachers in helping their own knowledge so that I can then filter before passing things on.

We've done some lovely paintings this week - wet-on-wet ones. I did one myself which looks like a butterfly (by accident).

I was also feeling a little overscheduled at the beginning of the week - we have 3 activities for Springy plus work commitments and so on. It was the work commitments that got to me and feeling overwhelmed by things and I just wanted to sit down, relax and do nothing at all but had to get Springy to these things. It was a good thing we did because we ended up with one of the social activities we go to going for a lovely 1.5 hour walk with the sun shining and a breeze, amongst hedgerows and with water, fields and so on. We had a picnic along the way and it was so pleasant to eat outside with simple food.

I'm starting to feel a little better from my "cold" (a mix between a cold and intolerance reactions to pollen etc). We need to get the violin going again. Springy can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star all right on the piano now (and on her xylophone).

Kittens and windy washing days

Springy saw a kitten earlier on today which really kept her pleased. It's a gorgeous day today - more of a north-easterly wind is blowing though which means it is quite gusty (great for washing duvet insides).

We read a story about counting to ten (from www.waldorfschoolonline.com) and Springy loved the twist (in brief a King wants to marry off his daughter but only to the wisest - a group of suitors arrives, mostly with brawn rather than brains in order to take up his challenge which is to throw the spear so far and hard that they can count to ten... The wimpiest but kindest suitor throws the spear and counts in twos to ten).

The sweet woodruff has started to poke its little white bouquet of flowers out from their green star ruffs - the scent is a delight.

Butter and bicycles

Today Springy and I heard some more from Rumer Godden's The Dolls House. Marchpane is causing a lot of trouble for Tottie and her family. We're nearly at the end.

Springy also heard more from Mummies in the Morning - the third book in The Magic Treehouse series. I like the stories but have to say that the author needs some writing lessons to learn how to write proper sentences.

This afternoon we baked some chocolate chip biscuits and then we made some of our own butter in a small kilner jar. I have some lovely milk that is very rich; it's made from Jersey and Guernsey cow milk. We poured off the top cream and dolloped it into a kilner jar. Springy and I took turns in shaking it and it wasn't long before we had some golden butter and a small quantity of buttermilk to drink. I'm hoping that when we go strawberry picking we can do this again and use the buttermilk in the recipe for scones and then have strawberries, scones, butter and cream - yummy!

This afternoon we went for a bicycle ride (well I went on my scooter since I don't have a bicycle). It was so warm today - the breeze was from the East and I managed to do two loads of washing as well as some orders that needed sending off.

My cold is improving but I still have tonsilitis and pharyngitis. My left ear still feels strange too. Yesterday I had some sage tea as well as a steam inhalation.

I forgot to write an update on the duck situation. We get mugged every day by the three ducks. Mrs Duck escaped from the fox but has abandoned her nest. This resulted in her being courted again and her regular white-breasted suitor and another male have been hanging around with her. We gave up incubating the duck eggs (I'm sure I posted on this but can't find it).

A horrid cold

My last cycle really depleted me and I feel anaemic and rundown with this cold which I have had for a week now. C has taken Springy out to the beach today which means I am having a day off. I really need it. I've been reading every day to her but my voice is on the verge of packing up and at night I seem to be coughing all the time (which has meant a general lack of sleep).

I have a new coughdrop mixture to take - ground up calendula petals. They seem to be quite soothing and I'm about to do another steam inhalation.

At the moment I am falling behind with the plans I had. Saying that we have been doing the quality of numbers for 1 through to 4 so far.

Springy heard a story about a little girl called Springy (based on Marsha Johnson's files) who followed a rabbit in her garden to a hole and then fell through it (Alice in Wonderland). At the bottom (soft landing) was an unknown land and a hill with a door set into it. An old lady was the guardian to the door and she has questions to ask. For example, she asks "What is there one of?" and then falls asleep again. We've been working with it orally so far rather than doing anything written but Springy has been reeling off that there is:

one of herself,
one of the sun,
one of me,
one of the moon,
one of the Earth and so on. One is circular and so a circle is for me the shape of one and the old lady let Springy know this. I also mentioned in brief that the Romans wrote their numbers in a different way and held up one finger and showed her on our mini chalkboard what that would look like written down: I


When the Springy in the story gave the old lady the answer she woke up and asked the next question, "What is there two of?". Again, the lady fell asleep and I left it to Springy. Springy came out with:

Mummy and daddy
Night and day
sun and moon
my arms, my legs, my hands, my eyes
and we added things in (via the old lady in the story) like a line goes from here to there so a line is the "shape" of two and also did the same with the Roman numeral of II.

For three, Springy came out with:

You, me and daddy
The old lady informed Springy of the triangle (and we were in the car at the time and went past some road triangle warning signs and a roof side so Springy was able to spot them) and then the old lady (as me) showed her three fingers and so the Roman numeral III.

Yesterday, I told Springy the next bit of the story and the old lady's question was "What is there four of?".

(I realise there is some deviation from the way this would be covered in a school but even Steiner knew the value of being economical with things that children already knew and Springy does know her numbers already, although the qualities for the numbers coming up until 12 will be more difficult for her).

It's May

I was really ill last night. I have a cold and as the evening went on my ear got worse and worse. As a child I used to have lots of earache and would be dosed up on antibiotics (I'm now allergic to most antibiotics). It took me back. I used to scream and cry. Last night I cried and cried because the pain was so unbearable. My husband gave me some paracetamol and Ibuprofen to counteract it but neither worked (my limbs felt great though). In the end I went downstairs (dizzy as well) and crushed some garlic and stuck that in my ear. I felt it start to work - it burns but garlic has antimicrobial and anti-viral properties. My husband helped with some olive oil in my ear (took the edge off the garlic) and this morning I'm feeling loads better.

Anyway, the last few days we have been reading chapters from The Dolls House by Rumer Godden. We've been feeding the ducks who beg at our door for bread. Springy and C went on a bike ride yesterday afternoon whilst I did some work. We went shopping several times yesterday and this past week I knitted my daughter a guineapig.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25250744@N06/2438489679/