sistermama gets real

Harvest Block for Waldorf Third Grade

About a week ago Jack and I wrapped up a harvest block focusing on different methods of food preservation.  A farming block is pretty typical in Waldorf third grade, but we are surrounded by many different kinds of farm, have our on garden and chickens, buy our milk from the farm, etc., so I decided he already had a pretty good understanding of where our food comes from and how it is grown.  I shared my original plans for this block here.   We

Jack really like this block because it was so hands on. He didn't' read any of the books I had originally planned.  He has already heard both the Little House books, and in my preread of Caddie Woodlawn it seemed like a bit much for him yet.  He did read quite a few books during this block, but now I'm drawing a blank on which ones.  He read Sign of the Beaver and said it was even better than My Side of the Mountain.  High praise indeed!  I have a focus on books featuring youth who must be adventurous and independent for Jack this year.  The theme is surely speaking to him!  We also watched an interesting DVD from the library that showed how different types of food are packaged and preserved in factories. 

We talked about the different ways we knew of to preserve food and that drying is the oldest method. So, first up, drying!  We gathered wild mint down by the creek (how I euphemistically refer to the usually tiny trickle that runs through our property).  Jack bundled it up and hung it to dry in the living room.  We'll use it for tea during the winter.


Jack sliced and used our food dehydrator to make zucchini and apple chips.  Both were yummy and we'll be making loads more of the apple chips. 




On one of our hikes I packed a picnic full of different kinds of dried foods.


Oh, I forgot.  We also dried up lots of tomatoes out of our garden.  Any suggestion on what we should use them in?  We don't really eat much pasta which is how I normally think of using them.  Using the 3/4 booklets described in the link to my plan for this block above was a nice switch from main lesson books.  We will definitely use them again.  Also, notice that Jack's writing is super straight (for Jack at least!) I think have the narrower vertical space to work in really assisted him in finding his way on the page.


We have about 8 really overgrown apple trees and last year easily canned 30+ quarts of applesauce from windfall apples.  My plan was to do at least double that this year and use the surplus to trade with other people.  The unexpected hurricane got in my way and we lost basically all of our apples this year.  So, off to the apple orchard we went to Jack could learn how to can applesauce. 




Jack also helped me preserve raspberries and blueberries earlier in the summer.

Somehow I managed not to take any pictures of the fermenting/pickling week.  Jack made lactofermented sauerkraut. It came out so good and we've been coming up with different meals just to have a reason to eat more of it.  Last week I put a pork roast with apples, potatoes and onions in the crockpot and took it to my grandma's with the sauerkraut.  She loved it and he was very proud! He also made up 3 quarts of refrigerator pickles with cucumbers and onions.  We served them at the Harvest dinner that Jack helped plan.




The empty looking jar is meant to be yogurt.  We didn't get around to making yogurt this week, but he has seen me do it many times.  I'm sitting here wishing I could come up with a super inspired sounding way to wrap up this post, but it just isn't flowing from my tired Sunday brain.  I love watching this kid grow in independence and competence.  I'm thankful he can be such a help to me, maybe not always willing help every time and every day, but always there when it really matters.  And I'm glad he'll be keeping me supplied with apple chips this winter.  Yummy and fast. 

Daily Math Practice

New for Jack this year is daily written math practice.  By the end of last year he was doing written math practice about twice a week.  And he hated it.  A lot.  Last year I randomly made up practice sheets based on what we were currently working on.  This year I'm using the free year of arithmitic facts practice sheets found at the Making Math Meaningful site.  I reviewed that wonderful book previously here.  The sheets are designed as a year long progression and the download has a great introduction to using them.Every couple of days I copy a few more days into Jack's math practice book.  Who doesn't love a composition notebook?



Because they start off so easy, he is feeling very successful in math so far this year, and more willing to tackle difficult problems.  I'm loving exploring all the different ways to understand math that I was never taught.  Who knew math could be so much fun?  Off to update that math notebook now!

Two Weeks In

Some thoughts on this homeschooling year so far:

What a difference a summer can make!  Although we read much in the news about summer loss in regards to academic gain, I haven't found that to be true at all with my little Waldorfites.  Waldorf pedagogy espouses the idea of introducing new material, working with it deeply for a while and then "putting it to sleep" until you come back to it again.  So, for example, we work with math quite deeply for a month, and then set it aside for a bit.  I have found time and again that when we come back to it, Jack is quite ahead of where he was when we last left it.  It is as if his brain has had the freedom to percolate the new knowledge and make bridges to a deeper understanding. 

This has held very true as we come back to formal learning from our summer break.  Several things that were challenging for him are coming much more easily this year.  Most noticeably his ability to sit at  the table and work for much longer periods of time.  Without tears or much prodding, he can fly through his daily math practice and copy work.  In fact, he has decided he is a math wiz after spending last year convinced that he hated math.  He is still having a tough time with writing independent compositions, but I'm feeling better about it after reading this great post at Handmade Homeschool.  He can orally create wonderful compositions and reads at a level much more advanced than his writing, so I know the writing will come. 

Handwork is much less frustrating for him this year as well.  He has completed an embroidery he started at the museum a few weeks ago and will knit for half an hour without complaint.  In a related observation, he also has much trickier jump roping skills than he did last year!  He can add spins in the middle and has learned to jump in and out. 

I see that "nine year change" happening with him, however I feel as if we have some good routines with each other in place to carry us through it with out too much drama.

Lucy comes into this school year having already done or observed much of first and second grade and I'm realizing I'm going to have to make some adjustments to that.  Add into it her already high achieving nature and you have a girl quite disappointed that "school is too easy".  So, back to the plan for the year to add a few tweaks and a little more challenge.  The trap I don't want to fall into is that of essentially having two third graders this year.  She needs first and second grade first!  So I will mainly stick to giving her the typical Waldorf first grade, but find ways to make it more challenging. 

I'm pleasantly surprised because I thought that it would be harder schooling Lucy compared to Jack.  Jack most of the time thinks that I am smart and right about things.  Lucy, not so much.  I was concerned that this would make it harder to teach her.  But I am finding that she is very school inclined and also very glad to finally have it be her turn for "real" school. 

What changes have you seen in your children this year?  What adjustments have you already had to make to your school plan?

 

A Path of Discovery - Waldorf Grade Three

I've gathered inspiration from Eric Fairman's series of books since I started planning for first grade.  Again, I would ignore the ratings of the books on Waldorf Books.   They seem very off to me compared to my conversations about books with other homeschooling parents.

Fairman says in the intro to this volume, ""My lessons were prepared for a specific group of children in a specific school on the other side of the world (Australia).  It should in no manner be considered a "blue-print" for Grade Three.  Hopefully some of what I have brought to the children has been of value, but there is much more that could be accomplished."  This is true of all his books.  They are not, nor are they meant to be, a complete curriculum.  Instead they give descriptions of the main lessons he brought to his students, examples of how to present concepts and verses and songs.  That said, though, I find them very helpful to use in my planning stage for two reasons.  First, they give me a clear picture of the flow of the curriculum over the year and second he includes many examples of what worked well for him AND what didn't.   

So, back to this specific volume intended for third grade.  Specifically it includes:

• The 9th Year - great description of the 9th year based on Steiner's indications.  Says the most profound question for the nine year old is, "Who amd I and where is my place in the world?"  I'll be holding this in the forefront of my mind during this year.
• English - centered in Old Testament stories includes grammar lesson ideas
• Cursive Writing - brief description of how he introduced it
• Mathematics - daily work and blocks on measurement, (linear, mass, liquid, money)
• Farming and Gardening
• Building and Dwellings
• Local Geography - very basic and focused on nature stories
• Jewish Festivals
• Poems and Verses
• An excellent bibliography
• Third grade reading list (note to self, look up "Addie Across the Prairie)

Again, keep in mind that he doesn't go that indepth into the above, the book is only 68 pages long.  But I really like the visual arc to the year I get from it, plus I always find some good nuggets I can put to use.  I love something else he says in the intro, "There was a blossoming in the children's ability to write their own accounts of the stories - which I might add were written directly into their main lesson books so that it became a true record of their progress instead of a record of my prowess as their teacher."  I'm going to use that approach for Jack this year, letting his MLB be a reflection of HIS best work, not my best work!

Firming up my planning for Waldorf third grade

I shared some of my original thoughts on Jack's third grade year here. I was considering the heart of it to be those three blocks of grains, fibers and shelters that I was going to link together in a magical and enlivening manner.  Except, nothing was working.  I couldn't really wrap my head around how to actually DO it.  I felt like because I couldn't get these blocks stablized in my planning I couldn't move forward and plan ANYTHING for either child.  I was good and stuck and I took my freaking out over to Homespun Waldorf. Where thankfully, there was someone to talk me back from the ledge.  Enter the calm and thoughtful Cypress:

"Ok...I'm prepared to see your foot come flying through the screen here to knock me off my chair (because I know you've been working for ages on this already), but I'm going to venture an opinion:

I think you are mis-using your mama/teacher superpowers by funneling so much energy into trying create stories to link a region with a grain, shelter, and textile.

It seems to me that this will press you into a focus on culture when what's really wanted in 3rd grade is a focus on doing. Linking the Far East with silk, rice, and thatched earth shelters or the Near East with wheat, linen and flat, mudbrick houses (is that even right?!) will come with the studies of Ancient Civ. And consider... the grains and fibers are not exclusive to any one region. My understanding is that 3rd grade means hands-on work that can always relate right back to Jack (rather than out to our big world family).

My dream 3rd grade would involve separate blocks for grain, fiber, and shelter...a sort of rich immersion into each of those elements. The planning would involve lots of gathering of materials and lots of co-ordinating around the growing season so that we could produce and process a wee bit of barley, wheat, corn, cotton, and flax, do a sheep-to-shawl project, make and use a spindle, dig clay and build bricks (maybe miniature for model building), dye some fabric, raise some silkworms, and do a hundred other things while we eat our home-canned veggies and chat about the shenanigans of Old Testament folk in the shelter of our hand-built tree house (or hobbit hole...or houseboat..whatever)."

So smart and just what I needed to hear to shake my head out of a muddle.  Besides all the reminders to be "doing" (which is what I said I wanted for third grade, right?),  I especially like this: "My understanding is that 3rd grade means hands-on work that can always relate right back to Jack (rather than out to our big world family)."  Of course!  We start with the CHILD and then move out into the world.  I was leaving the child out of the process.  Once I gave up the grand scheme I had concocted and simplified my ideas the planning just started flowing out of me. 

My original plan was to do a Grains block for our first block.  I'm changing this to a block I'm calling "Bringing in the Harvest".  It will be a short three week block and we will cover three ways to preserve food:  drying, canning and pickling/fermenting.  I feel like I need to input here for people unfamiliar with Waldorf that this is not ALL we'll be doing during this block.  Still plenty of time for math, reading and such!  Here's a link to my simple plan for this main lesson.  Lots of doing, I think Jack is really going to enjoy this.  Plus our pantry will hopefully be a little fuller by the end of it.

My Favorite Math Books

Between Marsha Johnson's wonderful and free files, this fabulous Qualities of Numbers lesson from Littlest Birds and Our Little Nature Nest I haven't had to purchase much in the way of math resources.  I will own all three of these though, by the end of summer.  I think I'll be set for the next few years.

My friend Krista recommended Making Math Meaningful to me last summer.  I am so glad that she did.  It completely changed my approach to math for 2nd grade and going forward. Instead of looking at math as simple algorithms one must memorize and learn to compute with, it spends the beginning years of math with a focus on really understanding and grasping how the number system works. For example, it delays learning how to carry and borrow until third grade because if right away you learn to add 52+34 by adding the 4 and 2 and then the 3 and 5 you aren't necessarily having the experience of what 52 and 34 are. Even this was a radical approach for me, the idea that there was more than one way in math to get to an answer. The book opened me up to thinking about math in a whole new way.

From their website the book gives:

• curriculum guidelines for first - fifth grade
• overview of child develoment in each grade
• specific ideas for every math main lesson
• step by step progessions for learning math facts
• ideas for teaching math successfully

I just noticed this page on the website that has sample main lesson work as well as math practice downloads.  Also, don't miss the math curriculum overview link, it is very good for planning.

Do note though, that it is not a math curriculum, rather it is a curriculum guideline. You still have to formulate your own lessons, but I found it very easy to do given the standards in this book. It does give you ideas for blocks.  Also make sure you get the books by Jamie York, there is another curriculum by the same name with a very different content. 

 

Games for Mathby Peggy Kaye is subtitled "Playful Ways to Help Your Child Learn Math". Even though I found it at the Steiner Library, it is available at most public libraries, and for a mere $1.34 on Amazon. I found it really helpful last year (2nd grade) and I anticipate using it again this year for first grade and third grade. It is designed for children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade, and I found the suggestions to be appropriate for each grade (i.e. Steiner won't roll in his grave if you play them with your kids).

Games for Math includes movement games and table games, plus doesn't require you to have any special equipment besides common things you already have around your house. Most importantly for us homeschoolers, every game in here can be played with one child and one adult (or two children once they learn it). Jack and I found ways to incorporate Lucy as well, even though the games weren't really for her - she could roll the die, move the counter, etc. It was discouraging to read all these great suggestions for math games in Waldorf resources only to realize that I would need a whole class full of kids to make it work. I found this book especially helpful for practicing math facts (boring without games, and we can only throw a bean bag so many times) and exploring place value in a concrete way. For me this book is a "must have" for math.

 

Vol 13 Mathemagic Childcraft The How And Why Library  I haven't used this book yet, but I can tell it is going to be great.  I wonder that there wasn't a Waldorf teacher involved in designing it, because it seems amazingly matched to the Waldorf math pedagogy.  I read it mentioned in this blog post, and ordered it right away.  It even has a quality of numbers section, who else does that?  This year I plan on using it extensively for new quality of numbers ideas for Lucy, telling time (calendar and clock) and measurement.  I especially like how it roots math in the lives of real people (long ago and today).  The only problem with this book is that for some bizarre reason each chapter has a large picture of a real life freaky looking mime/clown. 

These aren't books, but I want to list them because I found them so helpful in our math lessons. 

The Concept and Teaching of Place Value  A bit of a tough read (at least for me!) but I came back to it time and time again last year. His basic premise is that a deep and concrete understanding of place value is needed to truly be successful in mathematics.

Think Fun Math Dice We have had so much fun with this simple little game! It lends itself to being reinvented to whatever level your grades school child is with math. Like the Games for Math, this was an easy way for us to bring some fun to math without having a big group of kids.

Now, don't say I didn't warn you!

Muddled planning and a muddled post

Wow.  My hat is off to you mamas who have planned a homeschool year for more than one child.  What a difference from planning for only one.  Lucy had a more "planned" kindergarten last year than the year before, but still, it was only one story a week, with a few activites plus some stuff geared towards her during circle time.  My brain is overwhelmed with planing for two.  I am trying to keep in mind that part of my brain muddle is related to summer time - even the Calendar of the Soul for this week backs me up:

Surrendering to senses' revelation
 I lost the drive of my own being,
 And dreamlike thinking seemed
 To daze and rob me of myself.
 Yet quickening there draws near
 In sense appearance cosmic thinking.
                                            (Steiner - 14th Week)

This week basically marks the half-way point of my family's summer, so let's hope some clarity in thinking is coming my way soon.  As evidenced in my last planning post, I've got our blocks figured out.  Now the main question is how in the hell I get all this done at the same time, in basically the same amount of time.  

Starting last week, Jack and Lu now go to bed at different times.  Up till now I've had luck putting them both down at about the same time (they share a room).  Lucy has been going to bed a little later than she should and Jack a little earlier than he probably should.  Our new routine is that they both hear a book at about 7:00.  Lucy is asleep by 7:30, and Jack reads on my bed until about 8:00 - 8:30, then moves to his own to sleep.  I'm planning to tell him most of his school stories at night before he goes to bed.  I haven't minded, in the past, Lucy hearing stories meant for Jack's grade level, but I did so knowing that when it was her turn I would use different stories.  For example, I didn't do Aesop's Fables with Jack last year, because I wanted to "save" them as new for Lucy.  This year, though, will include a lot of Old Testament stories, and I want Lucy to hear them all fresh when she is in third grade.  This frees up a little bit of time during main lesson time in the morning.  Of course, she will still see his pics and overhear a bit of retelling, but that can't be helped. 

I've been doing some thinking about how I can combine lessons for the two of them. For the most part I have them doing similar blocks at the same times (both doing math at the same time).  I've got Jack doing those three blocks on grains, fibers and shelters at the same time Lucy is doing her Capitals and Fairytales blocks.  I could use folk/fairy tales that would work for both of those blocks so that they could here the stories together, and then each do their separate work.  So, I could use "The Porridge Pot" for the letter 'P" for Lucy, as well as using it to open the discussion on oats for Jack.  Now I need to spend some time reading, reading, reading to find new and appropriate stories.

I think third grade is a good age to up the school requirements a bit, meaning Jack is going to have to put in a bit more school time than he has previously.  For first and second grade we had a morning school time 4 days a week, lasting about 2.5 - 3 hours a day.  I'm adding in an afternoon lesson time for Jack 3 days/week.  (He is gone all day Wednesday for wilderness class  and I'd like to save one afternoon for play dates).  I imagine that the afternoon lesson time will  last about an hour.  Each session will start with flute lesson/practice.  Then I've planned out 9 mini-blocks to coincide with his 9 main lesson blocks.

1 - Math - times tables (through games, recitation and the dreaded flash cards)

2 - Spelling - I plan to do one mini-block to intro how we will approach spelling.  After this mini-block it is something he will do weekly and will be drawn from current stories / lessons.

3 - Extra project time - this coincides with his Fibers block, which will be project heavy.

4 - Holiday block - will probably spend this time doing holiday prep.

5 - Cursive Handwriting - I'm planning to use Cursive Handwriting from Handwriting Without Tears.  Jack used one of their print books last year and it worked well for him.  Handwriting is an area I've found that can quickly bring Jack and I into conflict (mainly because I get too intense and critical) and so these workbooks help me step back and him to work on his own.  I haven't found it necessary to purchase the teacher handbook, the workbooks are very straight forward.

6 - Grammar - identifying basic parts of speech - noun, verb, adjective, adverb.  Learning to write more informative and interesting sentences.

7 - Spelling - by this time I should have an idea about the types of words he needs help spelling.  We'll focus on some specific word families.

8 - Cursive handwriting

9 - This is our outside block, so now extra lessons here, just more work!

My next steps in the planning process are to get our blocks written out on my planning calendar (I'll how I do this).  Decide what holiday/seasonal stories I want to do each month.  Finally choose some stories so I can get to the next steps of planning. 

Have you schooled more than one child?  What am I missing that you figured out once you were finally doing it?  (Besides thinking that maybe we should just read and knit all day).

Thoughts on Third Grade

"During the ninth year, the child takes a deep breath and draws itself out of the world in which he or she was united and goes into an inner soul space within the physical body. The world becomes an object, as the sense of Self grows stronger. The age of the dream is passing, and a new age that will one day culminate in the attainment of full waking consciousness begins to dawn. The Third Grade curriculum has a more realistic, practical quality than the first two grades." - Rudolf Steiner

 

I'm really looking forward to third grade - there is a lot of DOING involved.  In most Waldorf schools it is a year of making, building, gardening and farming.  As I've mentioned before, Jack really doesn't like the physical act of writing, so, while he'll still of course have to do some writing, I'm keeping it on the back burner for third grade and instead focusing most of his time on actually doing things. I also plan on spending lots of time on the things I felt we didn't have much time to do while I was schooling and working - mainly handwork and special projects. An earlier post lists my planned main lesson blocks for third grade.

The 9 year old third grader is quite different from the 8 year old second grader.  I see it in Jack already, as he approaches his 9th birthday.  He has a certain Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde element, one moment he is very thoughtful and responsible and the next moment he is screaming at me (direct quote) "You are the f word!"  At least he didn't actually say it!  I think he is starting to feel that tug, that makes up the root of the 9 year change - who am I?  a little child or something else? where do I belong?  how did I get here and why am I here?  Carrie has a great post here about the 9 year old change.   Here is another great article on the 9 year old by Rahima Baldwin Dancy.  The typical Waldorf third grade curriculum addresses this change through focusing on how we make a home for ourselves here on this earth, and through hearing Old Testament stories.  Old Testament stories directly speak to the 9 year old child's changing consciousness. The theme that I'm holding in my head for third grade is "Making the earth our home" and we will look at how humans get food, clothing and shelter. 

For Jack's third grade year, I'm planning on creating my own curriculum drawing directly on indicaitons from Steiner and following some typical Waldorf main lesson blocks.   I've read so much lately, that I'm not going to be great about citing where I found certain ideas, but I'll try to remember.  Spread through three main lesson blocks over the course of the year, we will learn about grains (as in oats, rice, corn, etc.), fibers/clothing (cotton, wool, silk, leather/fur) and shelters (homes appropriate for different geographical areas). 

My main underlying goal for these blocks is to convey the idea that geography (climate and available resources) determined what foods original people grew, what they wore and how they lived.  Just as we saw the relationship in first grade between letters and images, (ie letters didn't just spring up fully formed from a person's mind), external forces influenced the use and development of food, clothing and homes.  This will not be true geography yet, in that we won't be looking at exact countries and discussing their history, etc., rather it will be focused on geographical areas like hot/wet, dry/wet, temperate, arctic, etc.  I will, though, have certain areas chosen in my mind, and I plan on finding folk stories from these areas to introduce and carry the different topics.   My plan is to have four regions that will carry over the three blocks. 

Obviously, the grains involve farming and learning about different farming techniques.  We will touch some on this aspect, but since we live surrounded by farms plus have a garden and chickens ourselves, I don't think we will spend too much time on this outside of what we normally already do.  The fiber/clothing block is so obviously hands on, I'm really looking forward to planning projects for that one! Our family is so blessed to have found the Tamakoce Wilderness Program.  This will be Jack's second year participating and he has grown so much under the leader's excellent guidance.  Each session ends with an overnight spent in a shelter that the children have constructed themselves, so I feel as if Jack already has had a pretty good building experience.  That said, this book looked great to me, and I'm going to see where we can get with it. 

I haven't thought much about the Old Testament stories yet, most of my inner excitement has been spent thinking about the above.  I'm waiting till I go to the Steiner Library for some source story books.  The main two I'm planning on looking at are the Jakob Streit books and Pearl S. Buck's Story Bible.

 

Planning for two

Since Lucy will be starting first grade, this is my first time actually planning for two kids.  I did a little bit of planning for 6 year old Kindergarten, but mainly it was just a story per week with a few related activities and a little circle time.  I thought in my planning this year that I would plan first grade first (since I've done it before) and then plan third grade.  I very quickly found that planning for more than one kid is not a linear process!  I needed to have an idea of what Jack would be doing at a certain time in order to decide what Lucy will do, and vice versa.  I think it is a little bit like knitting two socks at a time - you work a few rows on one, and then a few rows on the other.  I spent a few days thinking about my goals for the year for each kid, including what is usually brought in the Waldorf curriculum for the year.  I'll address my thinking for grade one and three in later posts, but thought I would share the rough break down of blocks I've decided on:

                Lucy (First Grade)                                                 Jack (Second Grade)

1.            Form Drawing (two weeks)                                Heritage Grains w/ Folktales                                 

                Fairy Tales and Capitals (two weeks) 

2.           Math - Quality of Numbers                                 Math  (carry/borrow/columnar multiplication

3.            Fairy Tales and Capitals                                      Fibers/Clothing w/ Folktales

4.            Two week holiday block for both - handwork and stories

5.            Math - Four Processes                                         Math - Calendar / Time

6.            Fairy Tales and Capitals                                      Old Testament Stories

7.           Form drawing (two weeks)                                 Math - measurement using OT stories

               Mother Goose reader (two weeks)

8.            Mother Goose reader (two weeks)                 Shelters/Housebuilding w/ folk tales

                Math - 4 process practice (two weeks)

9.            Outside block for both getting garden prepped / nature stories

10.          Two week review for end of school year, maybe prep short play

Please note that this is my plan for main lesson blocks, and doesn't include shorter middle or afternoon lessons.  Also, don't feel behind if you haven't started planning yet.  This is by far the earliest I've planned.  I just happened to have that week home by myself and thought getting a jump start on this would be a good use of my time.  Plus I'm excited to not be working and feel like I have quite a bit of extra time on my hands all of a sudden! 

ETA - Ughh, sorry that the lines are carrying over weird in the block chart about.  Typepad doesn't seem to have an easy way to make a two column list, and I don't feel like messing with it.  Everything that carried over actually belongs on Jack's side.