9-year change

I'm listening to this by Melisa Nielsen:

http://thewaldorfconnection.com/9year-change/

I've bought quite a few of her resources (A Little Garden Flower) and they're pretty useful, affordable and have some great ideas.

I'm noticing quite a few changes in Springy.  She's questioning me a lot and huffs a fair bit too at times.  She's also having some melancholic moments when she's normally been very sanguine in temperament before.  I think 9 is coming soon...

I'm also going to listen to this interview with Steiner Early Childhood educator Janni Nichol:
http://raisingplayfultots.com/podcast/raising-playful-tots-show-36-waldorf-education-with-janni-nicol

Chilly overnight

Springy had a Scout Chilly Camp last night.  It's the first time she's stayed away from home without a family member with her (she's only stayed at her grandparents before).  She was very confident about staying over and I made sure that she felt that she could say no to going.  Anyway she seems to have had a fairly good time although she's very tired today.

She's now back and playing with her guineapig.  I'm trying to sort her bedroom out but it's got so much clutter plus the guineapigs are now living in her room too!

Martha - our new guineapig

Today was our dog Lily's birthday and we also got Springy an early birthday present. She is a little 12-week old guineapig and her name is Martha.  She is gorgeous and reminds us a bit of Sarah. Rose and Martha seem to be getting on well.

I love this recipe from here http://natural-kids.blogspot.com/2008/11/recipe-for-stutenmann-or-weckmann.html  (I've copied it below in case I can't find it again and so I can utilise it but it's not mine - it belongs to the link):

"Ingredients for 6 little Guys:

600 grams of flour

40 grams of fresh yeast ( if not available use about 2.25 teaspoons of dry yeast)

1 cup of lukewarm milk

2 eggs

60 grams of sugar

100 grams of butter ( a little less than one stick)

a pinch of salt,

grated lemon zest from one whole lemon

a touch of vanilla

Raisins and almonds to make mouth,eyes, buttons

Sift flour into a bowl and make a hole in the center. Mix the warmish milk with the yeast and pour it into the hole. Gently mix it in with some of the flour scooped from the sides of the hole. Germans call that the Vorteig=Predough.

Cover the bowl with a towel and let rest in a warm place for 15 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, salt, sugar, lemon zest to the mixture and blend it all together. Knead the dough until nice and smooth. Let it rest again for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough about 1/2 inch thick and cut out or shape into breadman. Decorate as shown in the pictures. Children love to help with this! Rub on some beaten egg yolks to give a nice brown shiny tint! Let them rest another 15 minutes before baking.

In Germany the breadman usually come with a pipe made of clay. I prefer the non-smoking kind =).

Bake at about 380 degrees for 10-15 minutes."

Riding, swimming, Scouts and Brownies

Because Springy is a) an only child and b) someone who happens to love being around other people, we have made a lot of effort into ensuring she gets regular contact with other children as well as the socialising she does with us, her family and friends or out and about shopping, at the library and so on.

Springy goes riding, to Scouts and to Brownies.  We've also got a weekly or sometimes fortnightly swim going on with some other friends who happen to be home-educators too.

I think that the 'socialisation' issue is important but more from whether a child's personality and temperament makes it so.  It's also more about socialising than socialisation.  If you have a gregarious child then it's imperative imho that their socialising needs are met. My advice to home educators with only children is to ensure that you do set up meet-ups or join in with group activities of some sort on a regular basis, unless your child really can't cope.  If they can't cope then it's worth considering why e.g. auditory processing. I've met home ed only children who were on the autistic spectrum and who to the outside world came across as "odd" and therefore were deemed a "reason not to homeschool" but society often doesn't understand that a.s. children often don't thrive in school either.  In these cases it may be that any group socialising you do is very selective and serves a true need for your child e.g. an interest. 

Baba Yaga's chicken legs

I often wish I had a house on chicken legs.  I love where we are most of the time but sometimes I wish I could say to my home "Wake up, please go here..."  As someone with a very strong Venus in Cancer in terms of my chart I love being at home.  I like to have all my home comforts - tents are not for me.  It would be so nice to be able to take everything along including the heating and go to different parts of the world (safe parts).

I'm also pulled in more learning directions again.  I love learning - I'm a perpetual student as well as being a home educator.  At the moment, I want to do a clinical massage diploma (2 years), take my ArtReflex training to completion, study with the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine for their correspondence course (just personal use on family) and also do an astrology course.  I'd also like to learn more about needle felting and knitting and crochet.  However, with a small home there isn't enough room to do any of it.

I love the facts that the plants you need always find their way to grow about you.   I really believe that if someone has a health condition then all you need to do is look closely around where they live and the plants that choose to grow near them will give an indication of what they need to deal with.

12.11.10 - Springy  has created Hamster World in her bedroom with toilet and kitchen roll tubes, several cardboard boxes and lots of sawdust. (We don't have a hamster nor will we but she's trying very hard to hint).

She also has her own restaurant and has made a fat ball with peanuts and sunflower seeds for the garden birds.   We got some lard and softened it a little in our hands and then cracked open some monkey nuts and some sunflower seeds to add into it.  We've hung it up in the front garden in the hopes that we will see some of our winter visitors as they feast.