We went to see the Star of Bethlehem show at the local planetarium. It was well done and there were lots of "oohs" from Springy. The bit I think she liked best was when they projected an image of Orion over his constellation.
We are a family with one 10-year old daughter. We home birthed, we breastfed for 5 years and 7 months (strange with the legs getting longer) and we believe that home education works best for our child and our family. We also like home-made food. We also have 2 guineapigs, 3 bantams, a dog and a very cute hamster. I use a lot of the Steiner Waldorf curriculum, along with Enki Education, a bit of Montessori, some Charlotte Mason and our own home education approach. I'm a complementary therapist. I am currently studying German at the OU...(this blog has been left as an archive!) We're no longer home educating and Springy is 12-years old and goes to a regular high school (not ideal but life has changed).
Schoolhouse in the Parlour by Rebecca Caudhill (7-8)
The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer
The Little Wooden Horse by Ursula Moray Williams (5/6)
Schoolhouse in the Woods by Rebecca Caudhill (7/8)
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Moomins by Tove Jansson (6/7)
Kindergarten stage
Play is the most important aspect of this. Other things we do: wet-on-wet painting, board games*, walks in nature, talking, singing, beeswax and plasticine modelling, puzzles*, baking, gardening, animal care
(* deemed not suitable for Waldorf but we like them)
First Academic Stage + extras
Knowing the alphabet, letters and sounds that make up our language (and a few others), able to write upper case and learning lower case (form drawing - lines, curves, patterns) + the will and patience to do this. The 4 processes, that is Plus/addition, Minus/subtraction (working with numbers up to 12 or 20) and then Divide and Multiply/times (in concept). Learn to count in 1s and 2s to 100, forwards and backwards. Understands evens (have friends) and odds (on their own) - Springy developed this concept by playing with her toys and pairing them up. Playing with puzzles - tangrams Plaiting, weaving, beading Sight words using Dolch charts and Ladybird keywords + personal words that Springy wants to learn. Able to work out most other words from phonemic awareness and memory. (Reading is still an extra because we were prepared to wait until Springy was ready but she loves it and worked out most of it herself and then kept asking questions. Her reading age is about 2 years ahead of her actual age) Basic knitting - needle and finger, basic piano/recorder, swimming, Beavers, Brownies, ballet/dance Basic local geography - knowing name, address, telephone number and asking questions when out about where we are. Finding our location on a map (abstract concept but good introduction) and knowing that other family members and friends live elsewhere. Observation (science) - weather, nature, simple observations e.g. (+ still doing lots of playing, wet-on-wet painting, crafts, stories, singing, nature walks, talking, board games and so on) Basic clock awareness of the o'clock times gradually adding on the half past, quarter past and quarter to tied into our day (so not abstract reasons but practical reasons e.g. we need to be at N's house or for baking
Second Stage of Aesthetics and Academics
She can read lots of words, sentences and is a fluent reader, able to write upper case and lower case (form drawing - lines, curves, patterns) + the will and patience to do this. Has started to make diary entries of her own accord and write poems. The 4 processes, that is Plus/addition, Minus/subtraction (working with numbers up to 12 or 20) and then Divide and Multiply/times (in concept).Learn to count in 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s and 100s to 1000, forwards and backwards.Understands evens (have friends) and odds (on their own). Playing with puzzles - tangramsPlaiting, weaving, beading, Fimo and beeswax modelling. Basic knitting - needle and finger, basic piano/recorder, swimming, Beavers, Brownies Stories for this year: Fables, stories of virtuous men and women, animal stories Experiential geography - knowing name, address, telephone number and asking questions when out about where we are.Finding our location on a map (abstract concept but good introduction) and knowing that other family members and friends live elsewhere.Observation (science) - weather, nature, simple observations e.g. magnets (+ still doing lots of playing, wet-on-wet painting, crafts, stories, singing, nature walks, talking, board games and so on) Basic clock awareness of the o'clock times gradually adding on the half past, quarter past and quarter to tied into our day (now has her own clock and confident at setting the alarm on it)
