November Plans for Second Grade

November is going to be a bit of a mixed up month. We'll spend a week with Thornton Burgess animal stories, a week on St. Martin and Martinmas (a really beautiful festival about helping those in need), another week on Thornton Burgess stories, and then a week for Thanksgiving.

Circle Time

Pledge of Allegiance

You’re a Grand Old Flag

Saint Martin  from Autumn Songs by Jodie Mesler

Over the River and through the Woods

November

The loud winds are calling,

The ripe nuts are falling,

The squirrel now gathers his store.

The bears homeward creeping

Will soon all be sleeping

So snugly till winter is o’er.

Spanish

This month we will be focusing on Peru. November 3rd is the celebration of Cuencan Independence Day.

Here is the outline of the story I'll tell. this is just an outline. Embellish, get into it, but this just helps me remember the words and how we'll learn them. I don't know how to add accents and markings like that when I type, so I apologize in advance.

Ernesto wakes up and says Buenos dias to his animals. Perro, gato, pez. Then he opens the window (abre la ventana) and asks Que tiempo hace hoy? Have children tell the weather in Spanish. Today Ernesto is visiting his friend Daniela. She is from Peru and her family is celebrating Independence Day for their home city of Cuenca. When Ernesto gets to Daniela’s casa, her mama was still in la cocina cooking up a storm. Her padre was in el bano, getting ready, and her hermano was in his dormitorio, reading un libro. Daniela and Ernesto decide to ir a caminar (go on a walk). They walk through the bosque (forest) behind Daniela’s casa. There are many arboles (trees) and their hojas (leaves) are falling to the ground. (Review some color words here. Rojo, anaranjado, marron, Amarillo). While they are walking they see many pajaritos (little birds) and even a buho (owl). So they sing, El Cucu. http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=1315

When they get back to Daniela’s casa, her mama has just finished making tortitas de Manteca (shortbread cookies.) So Daniela and Ernesto play a hand clapping game.  Tortitas de Manteca. http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=2082

Before Ernesto leaves he makes sure to say gracias to Daniela and her familia.

Music

Recorder lessons 5 and 6 in Living Music From the Heart volume 2 by Jodie Mesler

Handwork

Jane will be knitting a scarf to give as a gift that uses the pattern k2, p2.

Science

We're learning about Sea Otters this month to go along with our main lesson. I have some books (fiction and nonfiction) and our aquarium has a great otter exhibit that we'll visit.

Spelling

k12reader.com lists for grade 2. Weeks 9-11.

Main Lesson

Week 1 - Two Thornton Burgess stories about Buster Bear and Joe Otter. One day on parts of speech (nouns and verbs).

Week 2 - Story of St. Martin. Retell and summarize with nouns and verbs highlighted, write out a St. Martin verse for practice

Week 3 - More Buster Bear and Joe Otter stories, one day on parts of speech and another verse for writing practice.

Week 4 - Mostly break for Thanksgiving, but hopefully some Math lessons/practice. We'll see.

All Main Lessons are accompanied by an art lesson, either painting, block crayon drawing, or beeswax modeling.

Service

Week 1 - None, because of Halloween on Monday throwing off our groove.

Week 2 - Tie a blanket and give it away.

Week 3 - Donate to the Food Bank

Week 4 - none

On Celebrating Martinmas

During the week of Martinmas, we'll be making these wet felted lanterns. I would also like to have some friends over to make lanterns with tissue paper and mason jars, eat a yummy fall stew, and go on a lantern walk after dark. To do this, you just light your lantern, go outside and walk around your neighborhood and sing songs about fall and the coming winter, darkness and light. This is also probably when we'll tie blankets to give away.

October Plans for Second Grade

In October, we will continue to follow the lesson plans in our Waldorf Essentials curriculum. We also will have lots of fun celebrating Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. We actually prefer Dia de los Meurtos to Halloween these days. Remembering our ancestors and telling stories about them is such a nice change to the usual gore and scariness.

Circle Time

Gathering Verse
Pledge of Allegiance
Yankee Doodle (We're learning a new patriotic/American song each month.)
Five Little Pumpkins
 Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
 The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late."
 The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
 The third one said, "But we don't care."
 The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
 The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."
 Ooooh, went the wind and out went the light
and the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Pumpkin Pie (Found in Jodie Mesler's "Autumn Song")

Hallowe'en (Found in "A Journey Through Time in Verse and Rhyme." Just the first verse.)


Spanish

This month we will be focusing on Dia de los Muertos. It is a Mexican holiday. We've already talked a lot about Mexico, but you can probably never know too much about our neighbor to the south. :)

Ernesto the gnome is having a big fiesta with all his amigos in Mexico. Dia de los Muertos is coming and he is having a fiesta at his casa and must get ready. First, Ernesto wakes up and says hola to his animals. Then he opens the window (abre la ventana) and asks, “que tiempo hace hoy?” Have the children tell you the weather in Spanish.

Now Ernesto is getting ready.  “Que hace Ernesto?”

Me estoy bañando  (I am bathing.)

Me estoy secando  (I am drying myself.)

Me estoy poniendo los pantalones. (I’m putting on my pants.)

Me estoy poniendo la camisa…(los calcetines… los zapatos…) (I’m putting on my shirt, socks, shoes, etc.)

Play Mientras que Viene el Lobo.  http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3370

Then Ernesto makes caleveras de azucar for his fiesta. Soon his amigos arrive. They are wearing skeleton face paint and big, decorated sombreros. Together they all sing, “esqueletos.”

Sing “Esqueletos.”  My kids love this song!!!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORsWE4ZyiFw

Our recipe this month will be making and decorating Calaveras de Azucar. Be sure to order your molds early! Have fun celebrating Dia de los Muertos. It is NOT Mexican Halloween, though we allow our celebrations to overlap week wise. Dia de los Muertos is remembering loved ones who have passed on. Displaying their pictures and things they loved. Leaving food offerings on their graves. It is not a fear of death but almost a celebration of it, which is why the skeleton faces are decorated, pretty and smiling. It's not about scary. We love it.

Handwork

We will be practicing mixing knitting and purling by knitting a washcloth that is two rows knit, two rows purled.

Music

Recorder lessons 3 and 4 from Jodie Mesler's "Living Music From the Hear, Vol. 2"

Main Lesson

This month we will focus on fables. Each week we will do a kind act to exemplify one of the lessons from a fable that week. Each story will be accompanied by an art lesson, either painting, drawing, or modeling and then Jane will retell and summarize it the next day in her Main Lesson Book. This month we will begin learning parts of speech too. So in her summaries she will have to write each noun in red and each verb in blue.

I'm not going to name each fable here, they're in the curriculum, but I'll list the act of kindness.

Week 1 - Send a note of encouragement to someone going through a hard time.

Week 2 - Send a thank you note

Week 3 - Send a card to a soldier https://www.operationgratitude.com/writeletters/

Week 4 - Clean out toys and clothes and donate to Good Will. Ask each child to give up something they still enjoy.

Math

Because of how the calendar is working out, there will be a week at the end of September/beginning of October without Main Lessons. We will have math lessons that week and continue to practice math through skip counting, verbal math, and board games.

Science
In honor of Halloween, let's learn about a scary ocean animal. Sharks! Books, maybe this kit. https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Dr-Cool-Shark-Science/dp/B00500EKU6

Spelling

k12reader.com spelling lists 6-9 for grade two

September Plans for Grade 2

I'm so excited about our upcoming school year. All my lesson plans are created using the curriculum found at waldorfessentials.com through the Thinking, Feeling, Willing program plus some other books and resources from around the internet that I'll make note of as we go along. If you have any questions or want to share, feel free!


Circle Time

Gathering Poem

Pledge of Allegiance

Thirty Days Hath September

We’ve ploughed our fields

We’ve sown our seed

We’ve made all neat and gay.

                Then take a bit, and leave a bit

                Away, birds, away.

-A Journey through Time in Verse and Rhyme

Michaelmas Song from Jodie Mesler's "Autumn Songs."

Class One Song from A Journey through Time in Verse and Rhyme

       This is a really fun poem with four or five stanzas about different animals getting ready for autumn. I plan on having the kids memorize it and then put it on as a short play. We'll rehearse it and take turns pretending to be the animals and finding costumes and everything during Circle Time.

Spanish

For Spanish this year we are going to focus on a different Spanish speaking country each month. We'll learn about a holiday there, a game, a song, and make a recipe from that country. This month's country is Puerto Rico. My kids take a weekly Spanish class and do some online Spanish work starting in second grade, but I design these lessons to introduce them to culture and try to build vocabulary even though I don't speak much Spanish myself.

The way I do this is by telling a story every day about Ernesto the gnome. Every day, he wakes up and says 'hola' to his perro, gato, and pez. (Have the kids say hola perro. hola gato. hola pez, along with you.) Then Ernesto opens the window (abre la ventana) and looks outside and says, "Que tiempo hace hoy?" (what is the weather?) Have the children tell you in Spanish what the weather is like outside. (We learned weather terms last year.) Ernesto decides to go visit his friend Gabriela. I won't give you a line by line layout of how this will go. But Gabriela is from Puerto Rico and she has dos hermanitos (two little brothers) who need to go to sleep (dormir). So Gabriela teaches Ernesto a game outside.

Game - Cheki Morena  http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3760

Then Gabriela tells Ernesto all about a holiday coming up Grito de Lares. (There's lots of info about this online, do some research and decide how much to tell your kids. But it's basically Puerto Rican independence day.)

Then they sing a fun song.  "Brinca la Tablita." http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3217

Have the children learn the following words in Spanish by giving reasons why Gabiela and Ernesto have to sing this song all these different ways and have the kids sing the song these ways.

Yell = grito

Whisper = susurro

Talk = hablar

Sing = canta

Whistle = silbar

Hum = tararear

Recipe: tortilla de gueneitos.  http://www.elboricua.com/Tortilla_de_guineitos.html

Handwork

Learning to purl. Make a dishcloth with just purl stitch.

Music

Lessons 1 and 2 on recorder from Jodie Mesler's "Living Music From the Heart vol. 2"

Main Lesson

This month our Main Lessons will be focusing on Saints Stories.

St. Francis

St. Jerome

St. Christopher

St. George

St. Michael

We are going to try to do a weekly act of service based on the stories of these saints.

Week 1 - St. Francis - make a hummingbird feeder

Week 2 - St. Christopher - clean up a stretch of the local creek

Week 3 - St. George - donate to the women's shelter

Week 4 - St. Michael - make cookies for firefighters

All lessons are accompanied by painting, drawing, or modeling from the story and summarizing in a Main Lesson Book.

Math

We will keep up on our math facts by practicing addition and subtraction on our walks and playing the several math games I purchased this summer.

Science

This year we will focus on marine biology. This month will be fish. I'd like to go to the aquarium, buy a goldfish and observe it, and read books about fish (both fiction and non fiction.)

Spelling

We will again be using the weekly spelling lists from k12reader.com http://www.k12reader.com/second-grade-spelling-words/

December Chalkboard Drawings

Chalkboard Drawings for August

I'm trying to use the container story for my big chalkboard drawings and just do one a week. I'm also trying to hide each week's letters and form drawing in each picture. Above you will see the letter M,V and this week's form which is similar to letter M. Below you sill find lines, curves, and a sort of wave.

Real Life Waldorf Homeschool: What Real Life First Grade Art Looks Like (Also, learn from my mistakes.)

I think it's important to realize that your child will not be turning out these beautiful Main Lesson Books right off the bat and to get a feel for what real best work looks like for children. So with that in mind I've decided to show you what we are doing for our art. And along with showing you my daughter's work, I'm going to take you through my work and my reflections of what went right and what went wrong. Okay, ready? Let's go!

Here are our paintings for the letter M. M is for mountain and that's what we painted. Jane decided she wanted yellow fields at the base of her mountains so it could be like California right now. I had practiced this painting before and decided to get fancy. "Hey, let's shroud our mountains in just a touch of mist and fog. That would be cool, right?" Yeah, I went a little over board on the mist and fog. Next time, one little ring of mist will be plenty and I'll remember that. The other thing I will do differently next time is have Jane wait a little longer for the rest of her painting to dry before adding the red letter over the top of her painting. We did it too early this time and her M sort of spread out.

This is our very first block crayon drawing. It's a garden. Above, you can see the retelling for the container story from that week. I'm giving Jane lines to write with right now because without them she writes everything really huge and we only get a couple words on the page. I made these lines a bit too far apart and she still couldn't quite fit all her words on one page. This morning I made the lines closer together and she fit her whole narration on the page.

A side by side. My garden picture on the left. Jane's on the right. She though the mixing crayons were really cool and kept saying, "This is fun."

This is our painting from last week. The blue sky wasn't wet enough when I had Jane add her red. It was supposed to be a purple dawn. Next time I'll check the wetness of her page. We put the blue on first and then added all the hills and it was just too long inbetween.

This was my picture of hills at dawn. I'm not sure where all those white splotches on the hill came from. I kind of suspect some young picasso's got a hold of a wet paintbrush when I left the table. We now call them sheep.

A Look Inside Our Homeschool Schedule

I have been planning and planning for first grade since January! Jane will be starting Grade 1 and Max begins his first year of Kindy.

Kinergarten in the Waldorf philosophy is very laid back. So Max's schedule will go something like this.

Monday - Circle time, painting, music, and story
Tuesday - Circle time, music
Wednesday - Circle time, music, bread baking, story
Thursday - Circle time, music, story, and craft/recipe
Friday - Service project, homeschool sports and park day

Pretty chill life, right?

Jane's school just stepped it up a notch. This year we begin a foreign language, knitting, narration/writing, lots more art, spelling, recorder and form drawing. It sounds like a lot (and it feels like a lot some days) but I have been slowly adding each of these things in for the last few weeks to work into the rhythm of it, and it's amazing how much I can get done during our anchor points like circle and quiet time.

So, Jane's schedule.

Monday - Circle time, which includes songs and poetry memorization, Spanish lessons, beanbag math/spelling, and jumproping. Then we go straight into recorder practice (right after her recorder I do a quick "music lesson" with Max. He plucks a pentatonic lyre and we learn a new song to sing.) Then the Fairy Tale, Watercolor Painting, and Form Drawing. After lunch we have 15-20 minutes of knitting time while listening to a sparkle story, and then reading (I read a loud and Jane reads aloud).

Tuesday - Circle time, Recorder, Jane Retells the story and we add her narration to our Main Lesson Book. Handwriting. Knitting, Reading

Wednesday - Circle time, Recorder, New Fairy Tale, Block Crayon Drawing, Reading, knitting and Afternoon Science Co-op!

Thursday - Circle time, Recorder, Retell and add to MLB, Reading, knitting, and homeschool classes

Friday - General Free Day, but we try to do the following. Service project, catch up (if needed), homeschool sports and park day, play practice.

I can usually start circle time around 9:30 or 10 and be done by 11:30 or 12. Some days will be longer. Mondays definitely, with the form drawing. Other days will be shorter. Those are days when we'll add in some cooking or projects to go along with our stories.

You may notice there is no math in this lineup. I promise we're teaching it. But Waldorf teaches subjects in blocks. So some weeks, instead of new fairy tales we will have math lessons. All social studies and science/history will be done through homeschool co-ops/classes and our daily read-aloud time.

Phew! We begin on Monday with EVERYTHING!

Our Kindergarten Reading Alouds

We set a goal to read a novel every month during Kindergarten, and we did it! Here is a list of the books we read.

1. Magic Tree House 1-6
2. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo
3. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo
4. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo
5. Sarah, Plain and Tall
6. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
7. The Chocolate Touch

We started with Magic Tree House. These books are really great for introducing read aloud chapter books to your kids. The chapters are short, they are easy to understand, and very fast paced. But after six of them, I was ready for something with a little more depth to it.

As you an see, we went on a Kate Dicamillo kick. My daughter will tell you that she is her favorite author. While we were reading Jane would say, "How does she always write such good books?" I worried that some of the ideas or plot points would be above Jane's head, but she caught onto most of it really well, and I feel like the challenge was good for her. She has become very good at listening and understanding a story in the last year.

Sarah, Plain and Tall was received well and understood better than I expected. They played and talked about it for several days after we finished. I never finished a chapter though and had the kids beg for more.

Charlotte's web is a huge hit. We're almost finished with it, but the kids always beg for one more chapter. Always a good sign!

Jane's First 100 Books

This is a book list/reading log. We've set a goal for Jane to have read 100 books by herself by the end of August. We started with the Bob Books, which as you will see takes care of the first 50 titles. But the next 50 books I'm hoping to see a growth of confidence and a growing passion for reading.

1-50: Bob Books Sets 1-5
51. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
52. What Can You See? by Sharon Callen (Reading Seeds Level 1 Readers)
53. Zoo Hullabaloo by Sophie Valentine (Reading Seeds)
54. It's Good Enough to Eat  (Reading Seeds)
55. Maddy's Mad Hair Day (Reading Seeds)
56. This is my Story  (Reading Seeds)
57.  Edward the Explorer  (Reading Seeds)
58.  When I Grow Up  (Reading Seeds)
59. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
60. Playground Friends (Reading Seeds)
61. Max  (Reading Seeds)
62. The Princess and the Pea (Reading Seeds)
63. Safari Party  (Reading Seeds)
64. I Can Fly!
65. The Life of a Bee (Reading Seeds)
66. Boris the Basset (Reading Seeds)
67. And Then it's Spring by Julie Fogliano
68. Hat by Paul Hoppe
69. In a People House by Theo Le Seig
70. Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
71. The Little Red Ox from "Hay for my Ox: a Waldorf School First Reader"
72. Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
73. Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel
74. Lazy Jack by Kelley Morrow
75. More Spaghetti, I Say
76. Giraffes Can't Dance
77. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
78. Three Little Kittens
79. The Prince and the Dragon by Kelley Morrow
80. Splash!

So right about here, Jane's reading really took off. She would just sit in the reading corner and read book after book and I couldn't keep up with this list anymore. I've tried to remember them all, but I know I've missed some. Especially the ones read on vacation. You'll notice some of the books are baby books (that she read to her brother), some are early readers (that she tells me are too easy now, but likes adding to her 100 books), some are magazines (that she reads cover to cover several times), and some are early chapter books and more advanced picture books.


81. Chicken Little
82. Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant
83. Ranger Rick Jr. July issue
84. Hunpty Dumpty magazine September/October Issue
85. What do you do with an idea?
86. Little Bear's Visit
87. Room on the Broom
88. Rock-A-Bye Farm
89.Get Dressed, Dudley
90. Going to the Beach (Carousel Readers) by Maxine Rose
91. Help! by Susan Green and Sharon Siamon (Reading Corners)
92. Moo, Baa, La La La!
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.

10 Ideas to Promote Daily Learning (And Stop Summer Learning Loss!)

Summer is upon us. School is ending and it's time to have fun and play and not even think about school, right?

Of course!

Then in three months we can all return to school with two months worth of learning loss!

Wait, what?

Yep, summer can be a real brain drain, but it doesn't have to be. And you don't have to turn your house into a summer camp or a temporary homeschool to stem the leak. The secret is in creating routines and a family culture that support everyday learning opportunities. As I've traversed this last year of homeschooling, I've realized that certain parts of my rhythm/routine do half the work of homeschooling for me. They're not hard, and I think they can work for you too. So without further ado.

10 Things You Can Do to Promote Daily Learning

1. Turn off the TV. You don't have to go screen free (though if you do, that's awesome) but try to limit this to no more than 1-2 hours per day. TV especially relieves our minds of actually thinking, increases risks of ADD in children, delays language development, and stunts creativity. Plus, it kind of just makes you feel blah and puts kids into a TV coma. Find something else to do during TV time. Here we've learned how to knit and played with lots of playdough to replace that hour of quiet time TV we used to have every day.

2. Make a weekly schedule of consistent activities. These do not have to be huge and they don't have to take up that much of your day. Actually, you'll really only stick to this if they're small. For us, Monday is painting, Tuesday is games, Wednesday is baking, and Friday is park day. I'm thinkng of making Thursday night music night and Sundays, "puzzle day." Other great ideas could be library day, playdough day, swimming day, golf day, biking day, somewhere new day, family history day, garden day. Really, the possibilities are endless. What you have to do is decide what you want to do and plan on it.

3. Plant a garden. I can't tell you how many learning opportunities have come from our little garden. The kids have learned all about bees and pollinating. They have watched it take place and witnessed the transfer of pollin. They've helped manually pollinate flowers, learned to identify male and female flowers, found ladybugs, seen aphids, understood the relationship, cheered on the arrival of butterflies, measured, harvested, tasted. It's one thing to learn about these things in a classroom, it's another to watch it actually happening.

4. Join or Create a summer reading program. Most libraries have a summer reading program. I remember doing one every summer back in Wyoming, even into high school my mom would take us into the library and make us create a really challenging reading goal. When I was younger it was 100 books in a summer. As I got older and was readingjust by myself, it was 25 novels. 25 novels in a summer is quite a bit of reading! And reading, for most people, is the very root of education and learning. A person who enjoys reading will always be learning something.

5. Have a real family devotional. Our family devotional has really become an important part of our homeschooling. Not just because the kids are learning scripture stories. We also learn a song each week and the sign language to go along with it. This only adds 1-2 minutes onto this nightly ritual, but what a learning experience it creates! If you have older kids you can really discuss and study scriptures together. Plus, devotional is just one more chance for kids to practice reading skills.

6. Play board games. A good board game will keep those math facts oiled and ready to go. There are all sorts of games and all sorts of different kinds of math to be learned from them. Starting with just counting, to using money, to multipliers, and lessons in calculating averages and chance.

7. Sing lots of songs. This is something I've started trying to do recently. We are inheritors of such huge collection of traditional songs. It's a shame that we don't pass more of these beautiful words and melodies along to our children. You can choose what sorts of songs to sing, but maybe before turning on Pandora you can all spend a few minutes in the morning singing a few rousing renditions of some of your favorites. Our favorite morning songs here are "Here Comes the Sun," "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," "Shanendoah," "Danny Boy," "Scarborough Fair," and last week I added, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot."

8.  Get outside. A lot! Send your kids outside for at least an hour a day, but preferrably more. During the hottest months of summer we actually do school so we can take a break in September. It's just too hot to spend much time out there. But we still try in the early morning and late evenings or with a constand stream of water running. One thing Jane and I have enjoyed doing outside is nature journaling. This improves art and writing skills, but it also just helps you slow down and admire the beauty all around you. There's so much to see and learn about outside, and just do with your body. Learning the limits of what your body can do is important to education and more and more research links learning and certain physical capabilities.

9. Have a reading time. Like I said before, I think reading is the most essential ingredient to learning, and I think it needs to happen every day. I also think the number one thing to get your kids reading is to not only read to them but to model reading for enjoyment. You want your kids to pick up a book? You better be picking up a book every day too! I find it easiest to do this with a set reading time. I always try to read as the kids play outside. Between eating lunch and naptime we have family read aloud time. Just having a set time makes it so it actually happens every day.

10. Talk with each other. Take the time to connect. You have all day together now! Your child's greatest teacher and influence truly can be you if you take the time to listen and respond.

Our Waldorf Week of May 18

I actually made this felt crown several years ago and didn't think it would last a month. It's still going strong and one of the most used parts of our dress up box! I made it stiff by using cardstock as the liner.

I'm really enjoying the rainbow tulle over our nature table this month. I made the flower baby last week, and the flowers are leftovers from my Mother's Day bouquet.

It's a big week for Toby in our Super Sam stories this week. He finds his family! Of course, I had to illustrate it on the chalkboard. The kids were so excited for Toby to finally get his happy ending. They've been anxiously waiting for it for a while.

Here is Max's painting from Monday. He has become very adept at mixing colors and not just getting a brown sludge. I'm impressed and kind of jealous. I don't think I could do this if I tried. 

Real Life Waldorf: Getting Back on Track

I got off track within the last month. Not too terribly, but at the end of last week I looked around and thought, this is not how I run my house and homeschool. The kids were watching television every day for at least an hour, usually two. We weren't doing circle time or story, or math. We were still practicing reading and plowing through our chapter book. But that was it.

Granted, in the past month I've taught two week-long classes for the educational enrichment center in town. It's fun to do, but it uses up my entire morning and then I'm beat and need a nap in the afternoon, so the TV goes on. And then what about dinner?

Lots and lots of processed or fast food.

And the weather has been so nice that the kids just want to play and play and play, and so I've let chores and school slide. Granted, it's kindergarten and we go year round, so I don't think that is the biggest deal right now. But our rhythm was off, and at the end of last week I could feel it and I knew my kids could too.

I was harried, and my heart wasn't anchored in slow and peaceful, mindful and intentional, like I wanted to be.

It was time to get back on track. We had a busy weekend and by the end of it, I was itching to slide back into our rhythm.

I think that's the nice thing about having a good rhythm. Once it's really extablished, even if life gets crazy and you get off of it for a week, or two, or six, once you decide to go back to it, it's right there just waiting for you. It's comfortable and goes on easy...with a little help.

Yes, getting back to your old rhythm is kind of like riding a bike, but there are a few things you need to do to grease the gears.

1 - Get Your Husband On Board. Rob has a rotating schedule. When he's on early shift, things run smoothly. But when he's on late shift...things seem to deteriorate. We sleep in, take longer to do chores, don't play outside. It just throws things off. So Sunday night I sat down with him and said, "I can't have this happen every two weeks. I need your help to stay on rhythm."

Rob, bless his heart, has seen the difference it makes in our kids and in me, too. So he said, "What can I do?" I then wrote out a list. I wrote our morning rhythm, I wrote each of the kids chores, I wrote the chores I try to do every morning, and then I wrote out additional activities that might not be a daily thing, but would be helpful. That list has been a wonderful visual for Rob to see how he can help. I don't know what your husband is like, but I have a husband who wants to help, but doesn't always have the clearest vision of how to do so. Now he can automatically see what I need. This has helped this week run much more smoothly.

2 - Go Screen-Free. Has your rhythm gotten off? Have you fallen off that free-play, Waldorf wagon? The next best thing you can do to climb back on is to turn off the TV, and really cut back on your own phone time. It may be hard at first, with some whining. But I let my kids know all weekend that there would be no TV this week, and they've done well. Jane actually said, "Oh, good," when I told her, which I found enlightening. I think TV is easy, but not always enjoyable. You know how after watching too much of it, you feel 'blah?' I think it was doing the same thing to my sweet girl. With all that extra time you can read, play outside, attend to lessons, craft, bake bread, etc.

3 - Get outside. Getting outside is definitely the next biggest thing to getting back on track. It helps work off excess energy, makes you feel happier, gets the kids playing, and it keeps your house cleaner because...they're outside! Take a nature journal out and count it as school. Read outside. Do circle time outside. It's May. Everyone wants to be outside right now. Go with that flow. That's part of the natural rhythm of the year. Your expanding out with the seasons. Your kids feel it. You can do this and keep your rhythm, just move your rhythm outside. It's far better than fighting the crankies inside. Today, Jane ran in and said, "Mom I saw a bird and a butterfly and now I know what I want to do. I just want to watch the bugs and birds."

4 - Cut yourself (and your kids) some slack. But not too much. We've been getting back on track but that doesn't mean it has all been smooth sailing. Jane cried for quite a while today when I said she had to play outside for an hour. Tommy broke one of the wheels on the brand new wooden cars I got to replace the old metal ones, making me second guess if I'd made a wise decision. There were plenty of squabbles. Tommy is in a growth spurt and extra tired and all he wants to do is read the same book (sometimes just one page) over and over and over and over. Does this throw off my rhythm? Only if I let it. I can cuddle with Tom and still eventually get done what I need to. Remember, a rhythm is not a regimen. Don't fret over the tears, or the detox, or the roadblocks. Just reach into that peace surrounding your heart and push through. You know what your family needs to thrive, don't let it get pushed aside out of fear or disappointment that not everything is perfect. But also don't rationalize yourself out of doing what you need to do to feel good about your work.

5 - Wake up Early - This is probably actually the number one thing, but oh well. The most important thing to getting back on track with your rhythm, your home, your homeschool, is taking control of where your heart is. It's the anchor of your home and family. Wake up early and get yourself into a place that is good with God and the world. Do what you need to feel connected, at peace, and alive. You can not be a good Mom if you don't feel like a good/real person. For me, I've been reading my scriptures AND Anne of Green Gables (gosh I love Anne.)

You CAN  do it. Forgive yourself and get back on that wagon, Mama!

Watercolor Painting: Letter W - The Fisherman and his Wife

Letter S - the Six Swans Watercolor Painting

I Hired a Mother's Helper

I don't know why we have this idea that stay-at-home moms should have it all together. I guess because their mothering is their "career" we have impossible expectations of them? I don't know, but working mothers feel the pull too. Keep a perfect house, spend lots of time with your kids, serve in your community, have a hobby, cook only whole/clean/delicious/from-scratch food. Exercise every day and look fantastic.

Is this sounding unattainable to anyone else?

Well, I'm here to bust that image of perfection. You can't do it. Not all of it. But gosh we try, but something always slips. For me it was housework. And I was okay with that because it was clean enough, but I'd always get to a point, usually at the end of the week where I just couldn't stand it anymore and then cue the irritability, stress, and few hours of cleaning while grumbling about the kids messing everything up immediately.

Well, no more. I can't do everything, but I didn't want to give up something. Not my writing, not my work in the community, not homeschooling, not reading my books, or crafting, or playing games, or going on walks, or just sitting down on the couch sometimes and relaxing! I also didn't want to live in a dirty house.

A few months ago my mom came to visit and (lovingly) suggested that I should think about bringing in some help. She saw everything I did during the day and to her everlasting credit never suggested that I quit the stupid writing, or think about putting the kids in public school, or anything like that, even though there have been plenty of times I've worried that's what everyone thinks. But I'm blessed with very supportive family members, which is a wonderful thing to have.

It was a little hard to do at first. It kind of felt like admitting defeat. I'm a stay-at-home mom, I gave up working to be able to do all this. Did it make me a failure? Yeah, no. Forget you, society and your impossible expectations and darn you my passionate heart that loves to dabble and learn and read and play.

So a month ago I spoke with one of the girls at church choir practice about coming in a few times a week to help me and she said...YES!

It's been four weeks now. One of those weeks she was sick and couldn't come. But here's what we set up and why I love it.

She calls me on Sunday to let me know her work schedule and we agree on times she can come. It's usually about three hours a week, spread out over two or three days. I pay $10/hour. It's more than minimum wage and what she makes at her other job. I also throw in an extra five dollars a week to compensate her gas money, she doesn't live too far from us, but still.

Now the part you're probably wondering, what do I have her do?

All the things I just never seem to get to. These have included sanding and painting my kitchen table and chairs (I started it but never got around to finishing), scrubbing out car seats, helping clean out the car, scraping the gunk from off the table and chairs where Tom sits, and sweeping and mopping.

She also is just an extra pair of hands on days when I need them. When Tommy is extra clingy and hanging on my legs, I can sit down and just hold him while she takes care of whatever I'd been trying to do. She watches the kids in the front yard when I'm working on dinner. She's another person to read to.

And then sometimes she babysits for me.

Why I love it and have talked to her about doing it long term:

1. My floors are clean. CLEAN!
2. I don't have to mop!
3. It's allowed me to relax a bit more. I know I can take that extra thirty minutes to enjoy a book because she's coming in the afternoon.
4. It also gets me to work more. When she's here I can't just sit around and do nothing. That's awkward. So usually, it forces me to clean for a whole hour in the afternoons. That makes a big difference.
5. More dates! After months of not going out at all, Rob and I have gone on two dates this month because she came over and we were able to just take off. It was great!
6. I can leave on a date and ask her to clean something while I'm gone and SHE DOES!
7. It's someone to talk to and I think we both have things to offer. She gets paid and experience doing things that while not glamorous are important for living life. I get a cleaner home with less stress, projects finished, and extra time with Rob.

I have other ideas of things I'd like to use her for if I can ever stop needing her to clean my floors. One thing I've considered is leaving her with two of the kids while I take one of them out for some one-on-one time. Teaching her how to make breadsticks so I can count on having that help for dinner and not have to push it back an hour on nights I want bread sticks. Deep cleaning. Those hand prints on the walls? Dirty base boards? Window tracks? All those spring cleaning things;

All in all, the extra $140/month is well worth it. If you can carve out the space in your budget for help even just once a week, I highly recommend it. It's okay to ask for help. You don't have to be perfect. I'd say it's far more important to get in that extra hour of reading or painting or writing or playing.

Letter M Painting

My first try for a painting for the Mount Simeli story and the letter M. I wanted to show that cave full of gold at the bottom bursting with light, but I think I made it a bit too big. I'll keep it in mind when I take Jane through the painting.

April Chalkboard Drawings

This is an illustration from this week's Super Sam story. I had a picture to go along with the poem we're learning about an acorn earlier this month, but forgot to take a picture! 

A Story for Yosemite Falls

A trip is always made more magical for young children with some good stories. Tell a story about a place you are about to visit and watch your children notice all those special things you mentioned or ask where that special fairy might be hiding.

Well, our favorite place is Yosemite and over the next few weeks I'll be writing some stories here for my kids (and for yours too, if you want.)

The first story is for all those beautiful waterfalls in Yosemite. But especially the big Yosemite Falls.

Once upon a time there was a great mountain mother named Lyell. She took good care of all her children, the fairies and gnomes, the butterflies and bears, and even the ducks that visited her mountain lakes. All her children loved her too. But the one who loved her best of all was a little fairy named Lana.

Lana was born in the early spring, right in the center of a Mariposa Lily. She had a bright orange dress but never really fit in with the other fairies because one of her wings had a small rip and so she couldn't fly. But Lana wasn't lonely because she was always asking Mother Lyell how she could help. "May I make you a crown of wildflowers Mother Lyell?" she would ask. "Do you need me to ask the clouds to rain on your dry spots? " "Should I turn the leaves of the trees orange and yellow now?"

And every time Mother Lyell would reply, "Yes child. Thank you for always helping me."

And then Lana would wake up the seed babies to make a beautiful crown of wildflowers, yell up to the sky and call down the rain, and shimmy up every tree to change the colors of the leaves.

Then the winter snows came and Mother Lyell seemed to grow old and age all at once. Her head was crowned with bright, white snow for hair and her rocks creaked. The trees and the wildflowers and the grass and the seeds all lay fast asleep beneath the great drifts of Mother Lyell's snow, white hair. All her children went into their dens for a long winter nap and then Mother Lyell herself began to lightly snore.

All the other fairies flew down the mountain and away to the warmer places where they could still fly among the orange trees and sandy beaches. But not Lana. She was left all alone.

"Mother Lyell?" She called. "Mother Lyell, do you need anything?"
But Mother Lyell never said anything, she just continued to sleep. An evergreen tree hear Lana's cries and shook her branches. "Come here, child. Come here. Winter is a time for rest. But do not worry. You will be warm beneath my boughs and soon spring will come again and all the world will wake. Even Mother Lyell."

Lana nodded and crawled underneath the kind fir and nestled in the pine needles. She slept restlessly all winter. Waking up and checking to see if Mother Lyell was awake yet.

"Not yet," the tree would say. "But soon. Soon dear."

Then one day, Lana felt the ground beneath her and it was warmer. Not warm like in the spring and summer or even fall, but not quite so cold. She put her ear to the ground and listened. "Are you awake Mother Lyell?"

"Yes," she whispered.

Lana was so excited, she dashed out from beneath the pine tree. "Tell me what you need Mother Lyell. How can I help you?"

Mother Lyell wheezed out a quiet laugh. "I feel the spring coming," she said. "And in the spring I put on a lovely green dress lined with wild flowers. But look at my hair. It has gotten so unruly!"

Lana looked toward the top of Mother Lyell and she was right. The snow lay in great huge clumps all around.

Do you think you could brush my hair out, Lana? Brush it out into the rivers and streams and lakes that is used to be."

Lana's heart felt suddenly warm. "I would love to!"

"Here," said the pine tree shaking a bough. "Take one of my branches. I have kept it warm and alive all winter. It will be perfect."

Lana snapped off the branch and went to work. She climbed up to the very top of Mother Lyell and started running that warm pine branch all over the snow. She called up to the sun. "Mr. Sun! I need your help to comb Mother Lyell's hair." And even though the sun still was not as warm as in summer, he shone a little brighter.

Slowly, slowly, and little by little, Lana combed out Mother Lyell's hair into great, beautiful, blue trickles running down her sides. And then she combed out more and then become streams, and then creaks. And then after several weeks Lana had combed so much of Mother Lyell's snowy hair that they joined together into a beautiful river.

But Mother Lyell's hair was so long. It jsut kept stretching on and on. And one day as Lana was combing it out farther and farther away, she came to a steep cliff. "Oh no," she thought. "What will I do? I have no wings to take Mother Lyell's hair over this cliff." Lana looked over the cliff again and it was so far down. She sat on the ground and began to cry. What would Mother Lyell say? Already she was beginning to put on her beautiful green dress.

Suddenly, Lana heard a voice. "I can help you."

Lana looked and saw a small rainbow. "I can give you a ride down the cliff," said the rainbow.

"Really?" Lana wiped away her tears and hopped onto the smooth, dewy surface of the rainbow. And then Lana and the rainbow led Mother Lyell's lovely, blue river of hair over the edge of the cliff. It fell, fell, fell with a great CRASH against the rocks below.

"Thank you!" said Lana with a clap of her hands.

"We aren't done yet," said the rainbow. "Look."

Lana looked down and saw ANOTHER cliff. "I'll help you down that one, too," said the rainbow.

And it did. Mother Lyell's brlue river now cascaded beautifully over the upper and lower cliffs and into a valley. Lana looked around and saw that as the water from Mother Lyell poured into the valley, everything became green and woke up. And it was beautiful.

"Where are we?" asked Lana.

"Yosemite Valley," said the Rainbow.

"It's beautiful."

"Yes, it is."

From then on, Lana stayed with the rainbow by Yosemite falls every spring and early summer. In the late summer she'd return up the mountain and in the fall help Mother Lyell get ready for her long winter's snooze. Then in early spring she combs out her hair all over again. You might see Lana when you go to visit Yosemite. Just look for a rainbow in the rushing, misty water. That's Lana, brushing a snarl out of Mother Lyell's hair.

Homeschool Stereotypes and Reality Checks

Homeschooling is a growing movement. More and more people are pulling their kids out of public and private schools and doing it themselves. There are a lot of reasons for this. The internet for one is so full of resources for learning and blogs showing you how that it is not nearly so intimidating anymore. Technology has also changed the face of the employment market and I think there is a growing consensus that public school is not keeping pace with the changes necessary for what the future will hold. But despite all these changes and the growing community of homeschoolers, there is one thing that has stayed the same.

STEREOTYPES ABOUT HOMESCHOOLERS.

So, I just wanted to bust a few of those using just the Mom's that I know from our local group and a few that I regularly interact with online.

STEREOTYPE #1 - Homeschooling is only for crazy evangelicals who don't want their kids to learn about evolution.

REALITY - In just our small group here we have devoutly religious mothers from several Christian faiths. Christian homeschoolers do make up a large percentage of the community, but we also have a Muslim family, agnostic families, and even an atheist family. Online I know several Pagan and Jewish families. All homeschooling.


STEREOTYPE #2 - Homeschooling is mostly done by Conservatives who don't want their kids learning about the gay agenda at school.

REALITY CHECK - I would say the fastest growing segment of the homeschooling community right now is actually more liberal in their political leanings. They gravitate towards unschooling methods and other alternative models like Waldorf, or Reggio Emilia. These methods are also popular with very environmentally conscious families. Take a look at this article if you don't believe me.  http://www.wired.com/2015/02/silicon-valley-home-schooling/

STEREOTYPE #3 - Homeschooling is something really only available to those with a lot of money.

REALITY CHECK -  I know homeschoolers living on the brink of poverty, some trying to navigate a sudden/long term job loss, many stable middle class, and yes, some very well off.

STEREOTYPE #4 - Public school teachers hate homeschooling.

REALITY CHECK - Some do. Many mothers in our community are former school teachers. Two of the fathers in our community are actually principals. Some teachers are against homeschooling because of what they've seen come into their classroom after it failed. There are many teachers who choose to homeschool their kids because of what they saw in the classroom. We are not enemies.  Realistic homeschool parents understand this. I think most teachers do too.

STEREOTYPE #5 - Homeschooled kids are brilliant and accomplished.

REALITY CHECK - Some are very impressive. Some are pretty normal and just right on track. In fact, I'd say academics wise, most are just pretty right on as far as grade level goes. And some are behind. Pretty much, just like public schooled kids.

STEREOTYPE #6 - Homeschooling looks like school at home.

REALITY CHECK - Not even close. For some it does. For others it's a reading free-for-all interspersed with regular classes, museum outings and camping trips. There are so, so many methods out there. Roadschooling, unschooling, Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio, Classical, Thomas Jefferson, literature based, and on and on. It takes a while to let go of our preconceived ideas of what school should look like. But when we all embrace our own vision and why we felt called to this, school looks just the way it needs to.

Getting Real on Easter

Last week I posted our plans for Holy Week here. There was a lot I wanted to do on top of what we already do each week for homeschool. It wasn't overly ambitious, but in my commitment to be honest with you about what goes on at my house, I'm going to review the week with you.

Out of all the plans I made, we probably hit about half of them. We watched the bible videos and sand the songs from the Mercy River blog post about Holy Week. But we never acted anything out, or did any of the activities, or craft projects.

We never got a palm leaf to put on our nature table.

We didn't start any seedlings (I didn't have that on the list but I had it in my head.)

We didn't sew little bags for our Easter egg hunt.

But here's what we did do.

Every night we read scriptures, sang a song, and watched a Bible Video for that day of the last week of Christ's life. And then we did Easter in Eggs. By last night, the kids were telling me the story. These nightly discussions were my favorite part. I got to clear up questions, assure Max that he would never be nailed to a cross, and listen to my kids try their best to quote scripture.

We had a "Passover-ish" Dinner. We asked the four questions and tried bitter herbs, haroset, unleavened bread, parsley in salt water,
and lamb. It was actually really neat, and the lamb was delicious, and our friend Miriam was here and it was just really special. There was no feet washing or service afterward, like I had hoped. But we made it through the dinner. I will be honest, though. This was probably only possible because Miriam helped bring much of it. She provided the haroset and bitter herbs and "fruit of the vine." I suggest doing this, but not by yourself.

We dyed eggs and hunted eggs and did all that fun Easter stuff.

We remembered our Grandpa Steve.

We tended to our Resurrection garden. This was our first year doing this and on Friday night we rolled a cardboard "rock" in front of the tomb and Max asked me if there would be an Angel in our garden on Sunday. It was such a sweet question that I couldn't help but make a little felt/wood/pipecleaner angel. And after that I knew I had to make Jesus and Mary. 

So on Sunday morning, the rock was rolled away and our angel sat on top of it. Then a bit later in the day I placed Mary in the garden with the angel. And finally in late afternoon, I called the kids in to tell the rest of the story when Jesus shows himself to Mary and put him in the garden. It was very special and I'm glad I took the time, last minute to add these pieces to our nature table.

We did Easter baskets for the first time in a couple years. I'm not a huge fan of them, but I'm glad we did. It would have been hard to see our cousins today and have the kids have nothing to talk about. Jane relished telling them about how in her basket there was a picture of the temple and book of Jesus stories and a rabbit.

Oooh, that was a definite last minute project that was totally fun. Listening to conference yesterday I whipped up these cute little knit bunnies. They're made out of a single square and turned out really cute. I tried to show Tommy the sounds bunnies make and now he thinks they're for blowing your nose on.

It was one of the best Easters ever for us. I loved celebrating and remembering every day of Holy Week. It's not something I did much of growing up as there just isn't a lot of tradition in the LDS faith around Holy Week and it's all focused just on Easter Sunday, which is fine. But preparing all week was a great experience.

I hope your Easter was equally wonderful!