Fables block

We finished up our Fables block with a re-enactment using models of The Mouse and The Lion. Springy made them using Fimo modelling clay which we baked. It's not the same as using beeswax, as in Steiner style education, because you can stick bits together rather than form from a whole piece but she really enjoyed it and they look really good.  We also recited the poem from Sigi De Francesca's Fables book.

 we also had some harmonica time and our dog joined in (hilarious when she howls along ).

I was reading www.patchofpuddles.co.uk today.  The lady who runs it, Merry, is a home education hero of mine.  She lost her son in the spring and it's sad to read through her experience of his loss.  I remember how long it took for me to be able to go near a baby again.  When you lose a pregnancy or a child, I think it's quite common to develop an aversion to holding babies or toddlers.  I held a 13-month old the other week and it was such a lovely experience but I got very broody and inside, although it's much easier now, I felt that deep longing for little ones lost.

Music in September

We've been doing quite a bit of music.

I've also found this resource which I have ordered:
http://homemusicmaking.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-product-is-here-waldorf-autumn.html


We've been playing and singing the sample song together with Springy doing the singing, learning the words off by heart and me playing the guitar to accompany her.  We left a message on her grandparents' answering machine the other afternoon as a surprise for them to come back to.

Here are the words (which are found in quite a few Waldorf resources - don't know who to credit with authorship):

"Yellow the bracken, golden the sheaves, rosy the apples, crimson the leaves, mist on the hillside, clouds grey and white, Autumn good morning, Summer good night."

Model making and walruses

Today was a really good day. Springy says she really doesn't want to play the recorder so she had a go on our percussion instruments instead. We made 2 cats, a kitten and a dog out of Fimo. Our dog had a walk and a wash under the shower, and then Springy and I did some writing practice on vowels in lower case and we then read an Usborne Animal quiz book and discussed what we were reading about.

We also watched this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iDtvGbIOU

A puppy called Lily

This month has been beautiful so far. Imbolc was snowy which the folklore says means a good year ahead. Springy went out to play in the snow which was a bit wet, rather than the useful type of snow that you can make snowballs out of but still...snow is snow and it was fun.

Springy started a dance class - ballet and modern - which she loves. She's there for 1 and a half hours which I would have thought would have worn her out but it hasn't quite yet. The first time she went, we stayed to check she was all right and she was beaming away with her smiles. I got all tearful. She's now been to her second class and the dance teacher wants to move her to the next class. I'm so glad I waited until she was 7 for starting ballet because I think it's a much better age to start with formalised movement.

We have a lovely CD that we're listening to at the moment. It's called Fairy Moon: Songs of the Ring and is by Maria Sangiolo. Springy's favourite song is Meanie Mary.

http://www.mariasangiolo.com/

We got ourselves a puppy who was born 20th November 2008. She's a Shih Tzu and we have called her Lily. She's adorable - a lot of work but we've been learning how to care for a puppy and so far seem to be doing the right things. Today we introduced her to our chickens and yesterday she met the guineapigs.

She gets fed 4x per day at the moment because she's still ver little. We feed her at about 7.30am (sometimes 8am), midday, 4pm and 7.30pm (or quarter to 8). We're making sure she gets exercise. She cannot go out in full yet because she has only had one of her vaccinations (which I'm still unsure about but Parvo virus is a risk factor and nasty so I guess it's necessary to vaccinate) but we've been running with her on a leash in the garden and she mostly follows. We've found that knowing where we are going to helps.

Feeling better

Springy and I are both over the worst of our colds. Springy had a temperature most of last week and we had to take it very easy. She missed swimming and Beavers and we hardly went outside.

We've been practising The Fork and the Spoon - a song from the Oak Meadow First Book of Recorder. I'd love to do more violin and piano lessons with her but just cannot afford it at the moment.

Today was nice - Springy and I played dominoes (she won...twice) and then The Hedgehog Game with the variation being that we had to add up the dice values in French.

I told her the Shingebiss story again tonight (from the link below):

Shingebiss' Song:
(Am) North Wind, North Wind, (G) fierce of feature,
(Am) You are still my (G) fellow (Am) creature.
(C) Blow your worst, you (G) can't scare me.
(Am) I'm not afraid, and (G) so I'm (Am) free.

Springy has read up to book 21 of the Rainbow Magic series which means that she is on the last book of the entire boxed set (from The Book People).

We've been using our peg loom to make a possible rug (in a synthetic pink wool - lovely and soft but not very natural!). When I say a possible rug I mean that if it turns out big enough then it may end up as a rug but it's about the width of a scarf.

We baked foccacia bread this morning and C made soup (with kidneys - smell terrible but at this time of year we need their nutrients). Today at lunchtime we were out in the garden with the bantams and the guineapigs. I pruned the other butterfly bush and tidied up a few areas in the garden. Part of me dislikes tidying up too much because it is those places where insects tend to settle down and hide for the winter but at the same time I need the garden to look as if it belongs to a home, rather than just a piece of wildlife scrub.

Springy has some nice new front incisors growing and one wobbly tooth (as well as a gap on the bottom 2nd left incisor).

Our first formal recorder lesson

We just had a very successful recorder session playing The Fork and the Spoon (from the Oak Meadow recorder book). It was our first formal recorder lesson and Springy really did very well (I helped her with her finger from A to B).

Years ago I learnt to play recorder too and I wish I could find my old book because I remember it being very user-friendly.

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).

Piano and violin practise

These are notes from our last music lesson that if I don't write down will sieve out of my brain:

Hold violin between jaw and shoulder, violin should point to the side. The handle of the violin should be level with mouth/hose. Left foot comes forward and takes weight - this handles player's energy better.

The bow is held with the thumb on the metal thingie, the middle finger opposite and the fingers slightly curled over. The little finger aligns with the dot.

Need sponge because this goes between chin thing and shoulder so that player is able to hold violin without using hands.


1 2 3 4 STOP 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 STOP 2 3 4

lONG 2 3 4 STOP 2 3 4 LONG 2 3 4 STOP 2 3 4

CAT-ER-PIL-LAR GO HOME

Use the bow from the middle upwards. The movement is down first and then upwards, in other words you pull and push the bow.

The violin strings are G, D, A and E.
We are currently practising on the A and E strings only with caterpillar go home (the first cat being a downward pull).

On the piano we need to learn C D E F G and backwards G F E D C B A.

Music

We're all very excited because Springy is going to be starting a music lesson shortly. We were given a gift via my Opa's funeral. We cannot afford many lessons but at least it is a start and it will be using the Suzuki method, on piano.

This article is very interesting on Suzuki and Steiner:

http://www.farawaymaine.com/musiclessons.html