Monday, 30 August 2010
Genealogy
C and I are doing family genealogy research with help from my dad (over the phone) because Springy likes history and we thought it would be interesting to know her ancestry (as far as we can take it to).
End of August
Since I last posted Springy has had another maths lesson with a private tutor. Sometimes it's hard to be objective when you're are home educating so C and I decided that a series of three lessons over three weeks would be a good idea. We certainly found a great tutor and Springy has progressed in a positive way. It also helped that the tutor had a puppy at home.
Today we went out in our little rowing boat which was great fun. We saw 3 egrets and a very big black-backed gull. We had to be careful not to get in the way of some of the yachts that were about and their wakes.
I've got several books lined up on Native American buildings for reading (as usual here, one has gone missing in the collage of chaos). We also have Farmer Boy and Schoolhouse in the Parlour by Rebecca Caudhill as read alouds.
Springy finished her Magic Book so it's time to move onto a new one. I'm feeling a little more confident and have been reading various educational materials to keep inspired. We never stop for summer holidays so we're not really about to start a new year as such. I feel we're still in the Class Two zone for some things developmentally but that also Springy responded well over the summer to many of the Class Three elements that were introduced.
This morning in her maths lesson she was asked about solving a puzzle. She had to get four people across to an island by a boat. There were 2 men and 2 women. The rules were that the boat could only carry up to two women or one man so she had to work out the sequence.
Today we went out in our little rowing boat which was great fun. We saw 3 egrets and a very big black-backed gull. We had to be careful not to get in the way of some of the yachts that were about and their wakes.
I've got several books lined up on Native American buildings for reading (as usual here, one has gone missing in the collage of chaos). We also have Farmer Boy and Schoolhouse in the Parlour by Rebecca Caudhill as read alouds.
Springy finished her Magic Book so it's time to move onto a new one. I'm feeling a little more confident and have been reading various educational materials to keep inspired. We never stop for summer holidays so we're not really about to start a new year as such. I feel we're still in the Class Two zone for some things developmentally but that also Springy responded well over the summer to many of the Class Three elements that were introduced.
This morning in her maths lesson she was asked about solving a puzzle. She had to get four people across to an island by a boat. There were 2 men and 2 women. The rules were that the boat could only carry up to two women or one man so she had to work out the sequence.
Friday, 20 August 2010
Cheesemaking
http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/6-Recipes.html
We made some cheese about a month back. It was fun to do - we used lemon juice to curdle the milk. It took several days before the "cheese" tasted of cheese. The above has more recipes but we just used the basic method of adding an acid to milk. We get our milk delivered and it's organic, in glass bottles, pasteurised but non-homogenised so it's good stuff for the most part (could be better if it was from pasture-fed cows!).
It tied in to our gentle step into Class Three/Third Grade developmental territory.
We made some cheese about a month back. It was fun to do - we used lemon juice to curdle the milk. It took several days before the "cheese" tasted of cheese. The above has more recipes but we just used the basic method of adding an acid to milk. We get our milk delivered and it's organic, in glass bottles, pasteurised but non-homogenised so it's good stuff for the most part (could be better if it was from pasture-fed cows!).
It tied in to our gentle step into Class Three/Third Grade developmental territory.
Sachertorte - sort of...
We made a sort of Sachertorte with Springy today. It's a bit too bitter for her taste so next time I will use a lower percentage dark chocolate for the ganache. I reckon it would be nice to add grated orange rind and use marmalade instead of raspberry in it too (it would be lovely with Cointreau or such but I'd probably fall over after one slice then).
We spent the morning doing our lessons - Springy did some paper weaving because we've been discussing baskets and tried to do some form drawing type exercises with the up and down of that. We stuck it into her Main Lesson book.
We've had 2 walks with our dog today so far, cleaned out R, our guineapig and played a very intense game of Ludo this afternoon.
We also played a tune on the recorder together. The words involved weaving sweetly, weaving neatly, up and down, down and up...
Recipe needs modifying to larger quantities too (although it was probably enough to make 12 Sachertorte type fairy cakes) as it was a bit thin in the cake pan. The current one is as follows:
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
2 oz almond flour
4 eggs - separated
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g dark chocolate
+ chocolate ganache and raspberry jam
Prepare a round cake tin - brush with butter to prevent sticking
In a bowl:
Cream butter and sugar together with almond flour.
Add 4 egg yolks. Gently fold in the dark chocolate (melted in a bain marie) and add vanilla essence.
Sieve Self Raising flour into mix and gently mix it in.
Beat the egg white until forming stiff peaks and fold it into the rest of the mixture.
Pour into cake tin and even out top with spatula.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes
Turn out onto cake rack and cool for 5 minutes.
Cut cake top off and spread a layer of raspberry jam in the middle.
To make ganache - 50g of dark chocolate, 20ml double cream and a dash of rum or brandy (if you wish)
Melt chocolate in bain marie, add double cream and mix in and then add dash of rum/brandy (you could subsitute with a dash of fruit juice)
Spread ganache over Sachertorte.
Serve your torte with a coffee or whatever drink you feel fits.
We spent the morning doing our lessons - Springy did some paper weaving because we've been discussing baskets and tried to do some form drawing type exercises with the up and down of that. We stuck it into her Main Lesson book.
We've had 2 walks with our dog today so far, cleaned out R, our guineapig and played a very intense game of Ludo this afternoon.
We also played a tune on the recorder together. The words involved weaving sweetly, weaving neatly, up and down, down and up...
Recipe needs modifying to larger quantities too (although it was probably enough to make 12 Sachertorte type fairy cakes) as it was a bit thin in the cake pan. The current one is as follows:
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
2 oz almond flour
4 eggs - separated
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g dark chocolate
+ chocolate ganache and raspberry jam
Prepare a round cake tin - brush with butter to prevent sticking
In a bowl:
Cream butter and sugar together with almond flour.
Add 4 egg yolks. Gently fold in the dark chocolate (melted in a bain marie) and add vanilla essence.
Sieve Self Raising flour into mix and gently mix it in.
Beat the egg white until forming stiff peaks and fold it into the rest of the mixture.
Pour into cake tin and even out top with spatula.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes
Turn out onto cake rack and cool for 5 minutes.
Cut cake top off and spread a layer of raspberry jam in the middle.
To make ganache - 50g of dark chocolate, 20ml double cream and a dash of rum or brandy (if you wish)
Melt chocolate in bain marie, add double cream and mix in and then add dash of rum/brandy (you could subsitute with a dash of fruit juice)
Spread ganache over Sachertorte.
Serve your torte with a coffee or whatever drink you feel fits.
Thursday, 19 August 2010
No Resources
Another factor that has made this past year more daunting is the lack of resources. This year just gone was so dire on a financial level at various points that there was no way I could have spent money on resources. We have had to make do with what we had but it's not been easy. I am learning about Steiner Waldorf as I go along. Kindergarten I understood really well, perhaps because of my previous knowledge and experience of working with this age group. First Grade didn't seem too bad either - fairy tales and a child who could already read and write with ease because of their own intuition. Second Grade seemed incredibly disordered because I had a) a lack of time to read around Waldorf stuff and b) I had no curriculum materials that I could make sense of. Instead we used non-Waldorf educational materials such as workbooks which Springy didn't always resonate with. Also, my husband, though well-meaning, allowed Springy to watch pop videos and other media forms which I disagreed with but because I was not there to supervise it went unchecked as part of her "education".
We're now in a position to get some resources so I'm putting together lessons.
It's all a bit of a mess but we had a good morning this morning. Last night we read a Bonnie Scheckie book on House of Wood which relates to Native American Indians and also shelter building. Springy did a couple of pages in her Main Lesson book with a picture of things made from wood and also we did a page based on a story from a Live Education Class 2 resource about Grandfather Corn which a friend kindly let me look at. I want to save up and get both the Live Education and Christopherus materials because I realise I can't do Waldorf on my own.
I'm going to read this http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/klocekchores.pdf because I feel like Springy could do with contributing a bit more to the home.
We're now in a position to get some resources so I'm putting together lessons.
It's all a bit of a mess but we had a good morning this morning. Last night we read a Bonnie Scheckie book on House of Wood which relates to Native American Indians and also shelter building. Springy did a couple of pages in her Main Lesson book with a picture of things made from wood and also we did a page based on a story from a Live Education Class 2 resource about Grandfather Corn which a friend kindly let me look at. I want to save up and get both the Live Education and Christopherus materials because I realise I can't do Waldorf on my own.
I'm going to read this http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/klocekchores.pdf because I feel like Springy could do with contributing a bit more to the home.
Home education or school
Also, these past few days have been quite startling. My husband called the Local education authority up to get Springy into school. He hasn't understood that my pleas for more help were not me saying I want to give up on home education. Rather, because of all the studying and working that has entailed plus having my own business I feel stretched out and don't feel as if I am doing a good job. That's not the same as really not doing a good job - Springy is lovely, polite for the most part and enjoys home education for the most part. We've struggled financially which has made getting to home ed meet-ups and so on difficult and we've maybe been hanging about too much with schoolers without a balance of home educators. That can make you feel like you're on your own in the middle of the ocean and it's easy to lose sight of why you home educated in the first place.
Anyway, he has said that if I can prove that home education is working for Springy then he may not proceed but it's still a huge cloud hanging over (love proverbs) our heads.
Springy doesn't want to go to school. That said she doesn't know school so how can she make an informed choice but no one pressures children at school into home educating - the pressure we get to put her into school is so great. Everyone has a view from my mother to the checkout people at the supermarket. Sometimes it gets too much.
Anyway, he has said that if I can prove that home education is working for Springy then he may not proceed but it's still a huge cloud hanging over (love proverbs) our heads.
Springy doesn't want to go to school. That said she doesn't know school so how can she make an informed choice but no one pressures children at school into home educating - the pressure we get to put her into school is so great. Everyone has a view from my mother to the checkout people at the supermarket. Sometimes it gets too much.
August 2010
Wow - it's been a very hard year. I spent a lot of that time in college and it was hard going. However, back to home education.
Springy saw a maths tutor the other day who said she's not a natural mathematician but meant it nicely. I've known for a while that Springy often does things really well one day and then seems to have forgotten it all a day or even an hour later. It can be quite frustrating but I guess that is part of education and learning - it's not a linear path.
I nearly moved forward with class Three stuff - farming and Old Testament stuff. In fact we have done a few bits from these areas because we can easily watch arable farming around us and also we've been growing quite a few things as per usual so we have our own "crops". Springy also made a tipi in the garden using bamboo poles and a sheet and we've done a bit on Native American First Peoples stories. From the Old Testament we have heard the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood and Joseph and His Coat. However, I've been aware that maybe we need to do some revisiting of Second Grade/Class Two Steiner Waldorf stuff because last year, although we home educated, we did little in the way of Main Lesson fun.
Springy saw a maths tutor the other day who said she's not a natural mathematician but meant it nicely. I've known for a while that Springy often does things really well one day and then seems to have forgotten it all a day or even an hour later. It can be quite frustrating but I guess that is part of education and learning - it's not a linear path.
I nearly moved forward with class Three stuff - farming and Old Testament stuff. In fact we have done a few bits from these areas because we can easily watch arable farming around us and also we've been growing quite a few things as per usual so we have our own "crops". Springy also made a tipi in the garden using bamboo poles and a sheet and we've done a bit on Native American First Peoples stories. From the Old Testament we have heard the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood and Joseph and His Coat. However, I've been aware that maybe we need to do some revisiting of Second Grade/Class Two Steiner Waldorf stuff because last year, although we home educated, we did little in the way of Main Lesson fun.
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