Tag Archives: grade 4

Layering It In – Year Two

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This post is a part of Waldorf Wednesday. See all the links here.

The summer between year one and year two was definitely a transition time. I remember doing a lot of planning: tons of reading of many different resources yielding lots of plans in my mind. Unfortunately, all of this energy and supposed preparation did not translate into what we were going to be doing every day. I did have an idea of how I wanted the blocks laid out for grade 4 and some things I wanted to do for kindergarten. I totally over-planned our first block, slightly planned the next block, had a vague idea of what we were going to do through December, but had absolutely nothing planned for the rest of the year. Hence, much of this year was constructed by last-minute planning on Sunday night or the weekend before a new block began.

I was not as hapless or as overwhelmed as the year before, but I still was nowhere where I wanted to be. I started this blog about halfway through this second year of Waldorf homeschooling and it helped me to process our days differently. For me, writing helps to clarify my thoughts and distill events down to their essential nature. Writing also helps me to get quiet. I like to write in the early morning, when no one else is awake. This time of silence in the morning is ripe for reflection and I am able to put things in perspective in a way I am not able to do at any other point in the day. All of this enabled me to be more centered, more present and more open. Here is a glimpse of year two.

  • Rhythm  Our rhythm was hit or miss this year. We were past the point of where I had to write everything out, but there were definitely extended periods of arrhythmia. My problem with rhythm during year two was that unless we were doing school, I didn’t know how to keep it going. Melisa Nielsen talks a lot about this: how you need to hold the space. At this point, I could just not get my head around that concept. Looking at it from a distance, rhythm was still something I was willfully trying to impose on our day. It wasn’t something I had absorbed fully or practiced consistently. Like year one, there were days I was too tight and then there were days I was too loose. I could definitely see progress in this area, but I still had a lot of inner work to do around this issue.
  • Curriculum I agonized only slightly less this year over specific curriculum choices. I purchased the grade 4 syllabus from Christopherus, but resold most of it. I kept the grade 4 math book (which I highly recommend, we have continued to use it during the beginning of grade 5) and the human being and animal guide. I was still clinging to the idea that the right curriculum would solve all my problems, but I was becoming less and less sure of this notion’s validity. One big insight I had during the latter part of the year was to see both blocks and main lessons as much more expansive, flexible and fluid than I had been viewing them before. Until about the middle of this year, I thought main lesson equalled making a main lesson book and that all extra activities (novels, baking, field trips) had to be accomplished during the time set aside for that specific block. This rigidity forced me to both cram things in and also leave things out. When I could relax a little and allow myself some creative thinking, our year began to flow much better. Our US Geography block was one of our most laid back (it was also our last formal block of the year), but it was also the most memorable. We started it in May and continued it informally throughout the summer.
  • Art This year I chose to focus on wet-on-wet watercolor painting. I painted by myself several times over the summer and also during the year. (I was still using hopelessly diluted paints, but at least I was gaining experience in technique.) Vincent did several paintings throughout the year, but in all honestly I was not good about incorporating art into our main lessons. I felt like I was forcing a lot of the more creative elements of our lesson. I also felt that I was absolutely NOT doing them correctly. This pressure did not serve any of us, but it took me awhile to realize it was even there and then to rid myself of some Waldorf standard I had created in my head. We didn’t do modeling, form drawing or drawing with any kind of consistency or regularity.
  • Music While Tom was still trying to find that elusive “MUSIC” drawer in the schoolroom, I went ahead and signed the boys up for group lessons with a penny whistle teacher in town. We started late in the year, and I tried to incorporate practicing during our already much-too-long circle time. For some reason, I felt like I had to learn the songs and play with them. This worked for about a month. At this point, neither one of the boys wanted to practice (during circle or at any other time either.) A power struggle ensued, and then became a moot point because lessons ended for the school year. Honestly, I was writing off any hope of music lessons, penny whistle or any other instrument for that matter. I am not musical by nature and just didn’t see this as a battle worth fighting. (Here is a little foreshadowing: penny whistle would be one of my greatest personal lessons and homeschooling successes of year three! Stay tuned!) One bright spot we did have with music this year was during our US Geography block. I checked out a few cds of American folk songs and patriotic marches from the library. I played them during main lesson time and we would all sing along. We all enjoyed this so much, the boys started requesting the songs in the car and throughout the summer.
  • Handwork We started the year off with finger knitting. Even though I knew how to knit with needles, finger knitting had eluded me. I finally mastered this fun little process by watching Melisa’s finger knitting video included with TFW. We made a bunch of chains that we used to decorate our Christmas tree. We also worked on embroidery this year, completing a fabric map of the United States. Vincent and I both really took to embroidery. We worked on the map during main lesson time and also in the afternoons. This project helped me to see how handwork could be incorporated as a natural part of our daily rhythm. It wasn’t yet, but I got a glimpse. No one did any knitting this year.
  • Extras We incorporated circle time into our day. It was great in the beginning, but then got too long and complicated. Vincent started to balk at doing the songs and verses toward the middle of the year, and I tried to force him to participate. That was not a fun way to start the day. We did poetic recitation and memorization every month. We also started afternoon story time. This was by far my biggest achievement of the year. We did not have much success with making main lesson books. Truth be told, I was completely intimidated by them. I didn’t do any chalk board drawings, and I was still reading rather than telling the stories.

Handwork and Giveaway

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I love the handwork aspect of the Waldorf curriculum, but up until recently, it wasn’t a big part of our daily homeschooling rhythm. When I first came to Waldorf, I learned how to knit, taught Vincent (then a third grader), promptly accumulated a lot of yarn, and that was the end of the story. I would pick up my knitting every once in a while; Vincent would pick his up even less frequently. I do like the idea of knitting. I really love the idea of thinking being “mental knitting”. But really, I don’t actually like to knit.

When we started our US Geography block last May, I pulled out a fabric map I purchased awhile ago. I had grand plans of embroidering the map, making it into a quilt and recording our travels with French knots. I am good with ideas – follow through is a different story. I have wanted to learn how to embroider for years, and thanks to my propensity toward accumulating art and handwork supplies at yard sales and Goodwill, I had lots of embroidery floss, hoops and even a pair of cute little embroidery scissors all ready for the project. This time, however, things were different. I taught myself the running stitch, taught Vincent and away we went – embroidering our way across the USA. The whole thing took us about a month, and it was a great way to end the school year.

I plan to do more embroidery with Vincent this year – we have all those patterns from Sarah Jane Studios to work on. I do need to come to terms with knitting though, as it is a big part of grade 1. I am interested to see how Jude will take to handwork. He does like to finger knit, and I think if I make the time to do it, he will be just fine.

Now for the giveaway: One of the recurring search terms that lead people to my blog is “US fabric map”. If you are local to the Asheville area, I purchased mine at Foam and Fabric. If you are not local, I’ve seen it at JoAnn’s Fabric. Both stores also carry a fabric world map made by the same company (Fabric Traditions). However if you are feeling lucky today, leave a comment and I will send one US fabric map to a US reader and one world map to an international reader. Please tell me if you are a US or an international reader in your comment. If you are so inspired, please also indicate in your comment what you would like to see more of during the upcoming school year here at Sure as the World. This will not influence your chances of winning, however, as a number will be chosen at random. I will close comments at 6am Monday, August 27. Good luck.

Looking Back: My Grade 4 Goals

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In this post, I talked about my goals for Vincent this past year. I also have goals specific to homeschooling that I make for myself as well. We have just completed our second full year of homeschooling with Waldorf-inspired methods, and I can honestly say it does get easier and is finally starting to feel effortless. Now, please don’t misunderstand, I am not saying it is a cakewalk everyday and that my skills in modeling, chalkboard drawing, form drawing, wet-on-wet watercolor painting, block crayon drawing, penny whistle playing, singing and all the other things I have forgotten to mention are anywhere near where I would like them to be. BUT I have stopped feeling as though I am trying to communicate in a foreign language when it comes to the Waldorf way of homeschooling. (Oh, I forgot foreign language in the previous list!). Our daily rhythm feels solid. Teaching and learning via blocks feels right. Handwork in the afternoon feels natural.

And here’s the thing – I never thought I would be here. Never, ever, ever! But here I am – with still so much more striving to do. Below are the areas I worked on this past year.

  • Depth over breadth – less is more! I made this goal both for Vincent and for myself. I remember laying out our first block, which was to be local geography. The amount of notes I have for studying the state of North Carolina is staggering and I realized it would take us all year to do everything. So I started dialing it back. “Maybe we would just study the western part of the state.” “Maybe just our county.” “Maybe just Asheville.” “Maybe just our tiny town of Alexander.” I finally settled on studying our house, the land we could see from our house and how our town was connected to Asheville. We did two projects during this block. One was a map to scale of our house, the other was a birds-eye-view map of our “neighborhood”. That’s it. That’s all we studied for 5 weeks of local geography. And it was perfect.
  • One great resource rather than 15 good ones. Oh, the endless resources. Do you do this too? Please say yes. I like nothing better than to comb the shelves at the library looking for possible resources for a block. I check out books by the bagful. Subsequently, I overwhelm myself and we don’t get to a fraction of them. Jean Miller, who I met at Taproot Farm this past summer, gave some great advice in this area. Her advice was to literally count the number days you have scheduled for main lesson per block. We do school 4 days a week, and I like to keep my blocks to about a month, so I’m looking at about 16 days per main lesson. How much can I realistically accomplish in 16 days? Seeing our lessons this way really helped me to narrow down my resource cache.
  • Finish!!! Don’t just let things drift off. Have a definite starting and ending point. When I was reviewing our experience in third grade, this was the area I felt to be the weakest. I was really good at starting a block, okay toward the middle, but the endings were just awful. Blocks would just drift off: there was no sense of accomplishment, no review, and no definitive ending point. One way I remedied this in grade 4 was to have the boys and I present the block to my husband when we finished. We would do our circle for him, recite the poems we memorized, show the work/projects we worked on and just share what we had done for the last month. Of course he knew what we were working on, and would hear things throughout the month, but he really never saw what we did everyday. This was great for everyone. I also planned our blocks with a definite beginning, middle and end, with the final day having a scheduled review time built in. Ending our blocks in this way made it easier to begin the next one.

I am just beginning to think about the areas I personally want to work on for next year. Stay tuned.

Plans for June

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It’s June and the hay has been cut, raked, rowed, baled and put up in the barns.

Mentally, I finish school around Memorial Day, and keep June as an overflow, wrap-up, testing month. Our days are looser, but there are things we need to accomplish and I find continuing our school rhythm allows us to do this. Here is what we are up to this month.

Vincent: 10 years old, fourth grader Vincent will be finishing up his embroidered map and quilt of the US. He lacks embroidering 2 states, needs to pick out a backing fabric and learn French knots. This project will take up most of our school time, as I don’t want this to linger into the summer. And although I included a lot of animal study in with our recent US Geography block, we never did a second formal Man and Animal block. I do have some animal-themed novels on our read-aloud shelf that came from a list of recommendations in Donna Simmons’ Christopherus Unit Study: The Human Being and The Animal World. Three I checked out of the library are Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight, The Good Dog by Avi and The Story of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting. Maybe these will be read this month.

We are required by the state of North Carolina to administer an annual test beginning at age 8. I order a California Achievement Test (CAT) from this company. My stringent standards for choosing this test and this company are two: cheap and easy. The scores are not reported to any state or local office, and are more of a bureaucratic hoop to jump through. I do like having some sort of objective assessment of Vincent’s core knowledge and where he places as far as grade level goes, but honestly, the scores confirm what I already know to be his strengths and weaknesses.

Jude: 6 years old, kindergartener Jude will continue to keep his days full of outside time, usually with a ball in hand. I plan to continue this emphasis on play well into grade 1. I am currently planning only 1 day of formal main lesson for him next year. I hope to begin the week by telling a Grimm’s fairy tale during circle, reviewing/retelling it the next day during circle and having a formal artistic activity based on the tale the third day.

Sheila: 42 year old person in charge of all of this: While Vincent’s work is winding down, June and July are busy for me, as these two months are devoted to serious planning for next year. I have purchased almost all my resources and supplies for next year – although I am sure there will be one or two more orders placed at some point before Labor Day. My planning starts by literally clearing the space. I clean out our school room, rearrange the furniture, check supplies, shelve old resources, review the year’s work and try to start with as little clutter as possible. I am still trying to determine our weekly and daily rhythms for next year. Expect lots of planning posts in the coming weeks.

**I had this post all ready to go with our plans for June, and then I listened to Kim John Payne being interviewed by Donna Ashton during the Waldorf Global Expo this past weekend. He is the genius (and I do not use that word lightly) behind the Simplicity Parenting movement. I decided to register for his new online course, The Soul of Discipline. It begins June 19, and looks like it is going to be fantastic.

Oh, and we are going to Boston for work (my husband)/play (me and the boys) this month. Any recommendations? What are you up to this month?

Looking Back: Grade 4 Goals

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Grade 4: Boy and Animal

Although we still have one block to go and (state-mandated) testing to take, I am mentally ready to wrap up grade 4. Every year I start my planning by making goals that I would like to see us work toward in the coming year. Around Memorial Day, I check in and see how we did. These personal and academic milestones allow me to see the subjects we study as a means to an end. How can I tailor the blocks laid out in the Waldorf curriculum to fit my child and what he needs? Putting Vincent at the center of this question aligns my focus with what is truly important.

One basic assumption I hold about homeschooling (and really any schooling) is that you are not going to learn everything. To me, this is impossible and also unadvisable. At 42, I love the fact that I am still learning new things – many of which are presented in the Waldorf curriculum! Learning should be a passion that is instilled, not a checklist to be completed. You may notice that none of the stated goals below are academic in nature and absolutely will not be on the test Vincent will take in a few weeks. For me, this keeps an eye on the whole person with an eye toward the balanced adult to be. I know how easy it is to get caught up in the details of what is lacking in the little picture (He doesn’t know when to use a comma. He doesn’t write in script. Division is shaky.) However, I want to keep the big picture front and center in what I want to achieve during any given year.

Goals for Vincent, Grade 4:

  • No more facts: Well this was a whopping failure, and admittedly tongue-in-cheek to begin with. Vincent has always had a voracious appetite for facts. He has a prodigious memory and loves being able to recite random facts ad infinitum (ad nauseam to the listener). This can be a good thing – memorization, recall – however learning facts for the sake of learning facts doesn’t mean much. My number one goal for him this year – now that he is through the 9 year change – was to begin balance this. I realize I am not going to change this intrinsic part of him – nor do I want to (well, most days anyway). But I currently see my responsibility as a parent and as a teacher to present the year’s blocks in a way that does not add to his plethora of stored facts. Our blocks this year focused heavily on stories and artistic interpretation, with lots of time allowed for play and movement throughout the day.
  • Stories, stories and more stories: Left to his druthers, Vincent would read nothing but non-fiction. Although he has been reading forever, the fact that he never voluntarily reads fiction became apparent to me just last year. To meet this goal, which can be seen as tangential to goal #1, I included a least one novel per block this year and concentrated heavily on the Norse myths all winter and early spring. Our afternoon story time also allowed us to read 2-3 additional novels per month and has honestly been the highlight of our homeschooling year.
  • Projects that take days/weeks/months to complete: My aim here was to infuse an elongated sense of time into our homeschooling rhythm and to balance the immediacy of Vincent’s choleric temperament. Our embroidered map/quilt of the United States took a solid 6 weeks to embroider, and we are still working on turning the piece into a quilt. (I will post more on this project when it is completed.) A couple of 300+ page novels read during story time also helped to fulfill this goal. I also tried to challenge Vincent in his favorite pastime: cooking. Recipes that took all afternoon to make, food that takes a day or two to defrost in the refrigerator, sourdough bread that is made over a two day period: all of this countered his internal (lightening fast!) pace.
  • Connection to other, especially people and place: We started the year with a local geography block that focused on our house and immediate surroundings, literally the land we could see from our property. One of our neighbors is the grandson of the people who built our house back in the 1880s. I really wanted Vincent to experience this intimate level of connection to where we live. Hearing stories about “our” house (which will forever be called “The Bridges’ House” even though a member of the Bridges family hasn’t lived here in 50 years!). Talking to our neighbor about all 10(!) children that were raised in this two-bedroom farmhouse. Finding out our road was named after our neighbor’s father. Knowing what the abandon barns and structures that dot our landscape were once used for. These stories along with working with maps, planning a route, and asking him to direct us to a destination in the car helped to ground him in a very real way in time and space.

US Geography Block

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We just finished a 6 week block on US Geography. Local and national geography is a standard block for 4th or 5th graders (10 or 11 year olds). I did not use a scripted curriculum for this block, but did find much guidance on the Christopherus website and through Donna Simmons’ Waldorf Curriculum Overview for Homeschoolers. In September we began the year by studying our house and our immediate neighborhood. In this second geography block, we expanded outward to study the area of the United States east of the Mississippi. My goal was to keep this block rich in stories, tall tales, regional recipes and folk songs.

Our local library system was a treasure trove of resources, and I really tried to keep the number of resources low. However, in retrospect I could have taught the whole block only using the Stories from Where We Live series edited by Sara St. Antoine. I cannot say enough about these books written specifically for children ages 9 and up! Each one profiles a different eco-region of the country through a compliation of poetry, short stories, letters and memoirs. There is also a section on topography and habitats that is thorough, but not overwhelmingly factual. I purchased mine (mostly used) through thriftbooks.com and amazon.com. This block was very easy to include my 6 year old kindergartener. He loved singing and marching along to all the patriotic music. He also enjoyed the stories, especially the picture books Island Boy and When I was Young in the Mountains. And although we didn’t use them as resources for this block, The Train of States by Peter Sis and The Scrambled States of America (and the corresponding card games) by Laurie Keller are perennial favorites at our house.

Story Resources:

  • Stories from Where We Live series edited by Sara St. Antoine
  • American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
  • Island Boy by Barbara Cooney (New England)
  • When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant (Appalachia)
  • My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Catskill Mountains)
  • Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling (Mississippi River)
  • Earth Maker’s Tales: North American Indian Stories about Earth Happenings by Gretchen Mayo
  • Native American Stories by Joseph Bruchac
  • Rascal by Sterling North (Wisconsin)
  • The Completely Amazing Slightly Outrageous State Quarters Atlas and Album by Klutz

Music Resources:

  • This Land is Your Land: Favorite American Folk Songs by Phil Rosenthal
  • Patriotic Songs and Marches by Dennis Buck
  • Folksongs and Bluegrass for Children by Phil Rosenthal
We listened to selections from these cds everyday and I would hear both boys singing many of the songs while they were playing. I checked all 3 cds out of the library and it was such a fun and easy way to artistically extend the block. I want to remember this idea for future blocks.

Cookbooks:

  • The United States Cookbook by Joan D’Amico and Karen Eich Drummond
  • The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker
  • Heritage of America Cookbook by Better Homes and Gardens
  • Various church and local cookbooks

Other Projects:

  • Embroidered a fabric map of the United States (shown above; detail below).

  • Cooked many, many regional dishes.
  • Painted a landscape of Appalachia and a seascape of New England.

  • Drew freehand topographic map of the United States.

You can also see a mini block on the coastal region of the US here.

Seashore (mini) Block

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Well our plans for May went out the window in a blurr of coughing, congestion and general malaise, however, I was determined to rescue so semblance of normalcy this week and finish our US Geography block with a mini block dedicated to the seashore. It just so happens that we are leaving for a slightly impromptu beach trip this weekend, and that will provide lots of experiential learning . . . otherwise known as fun!

Resources:

  • Stories From Where We Live - The South Atlantic Coast and Piedmont: A Literary Field Guide edited by Sara St. Antoine
  • Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling
  • Heritage of America Cookbook by Better Homes and Gardens
  • A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
We live about 5 hours from the coast, and although we try to get to the beach twice a year, we have never studied this area in any formal way. I love the Stories From Where We Live series of books edited by Sara St. Antoine and you will hear more about them in my recap of our entire US Geography block soon. However, I wanted to pull out this mini block because I think it can be easily modified for any coastal area in the US, as the series edited by St. Antoine also includes The California Coast, The North Atlantic Coast and The Gulf Coast. Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling tells the story of tide pools through the vantage point of a hermit crab. All of his books are highly recommended for 4th graders homeschooling with Waldorf, and I would expand that notion to endorse them as exceptional reading for any child around this age. Although I have chosen to present Pagoo as a read-aloud during this mini-block, I think the language and the numerous scientific illustrations lend themselves more to a “quiet-corner-by-yourself” type of read. A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle, on the other hand, does make a good read-aloud, especially for younger siblings.
Projects:
  • Mapping the route from our house to the beach.
  • Studying South Carolina low country cuisine by reading and gathering recipes to make while we are at the beach.
Field Trips:
  • Going to the beach.
  • Visiting the Charleston Aquarium.

Read This Book

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Rascal by Sterling North

Read this book. Read this book aloud. It is a pleasure from beginning to end, with language that just demands to be savored. I cannot say enough about it, and have recommended it to everyone I know. I picked up Rascal by Sterling North from the 50 cent bin at our library. I have mentioned before our penchant for Newberry winner and honor books, and the silver medal on the front cover is the only reason I bought it. I put it on our read-aloud shelf because I thought it could augment our current US Geography or upcoming Man and Animal block nicely. I always begin a new book by reading the back cover, and after the summary was a review blurb from the Chicago Tribune, “Everyone should knock off work, sit beneath the nearest tree, and enjoy Rascal from cover to cover.” I couldn’t agree more. We were all enchanted by the first page. (OK, well, I was enchanted by the first page. The boys took until the end of the first chapter.)

Rascal tells the autobiographical story of a boy and his pet raccoon during the year of 1918. The geographical, naturalistic and zoological details alone would be enough to recommend this book be required reading for all 4th graders – Waldorf homeschooling or not. Sterling North paints a vivid picture of a boy’s small town life in Wisconsin in prose that is deft, tender and true. And although I loved every part of this book, the character of Aunt Lillie was my favorite. After the Spanish Influenza has struck Brailsford Junction, motherless Sterling is taken by his father to recover at the home of his aunt and uncle:

“Aunt Lillie came to greet us, wiping her hands on her apron in that perpetual gesture of humbleness which seemed to afflict whole generations of farm wives, who gave so much to so many in return for so little.”

And it is Aunt Lillie who tells young Sterling he should become a writer instead of a doctor:

“‘And then you could put it all down,’ Aunt Lillie said, ‘the way it is now . . . case weather, the fog, the lantern light . . . the voices of the men – hear them – coming in for breakfast. You could keep it just like this forever.”

Sterling North takes this request to heart and puts it all down with such an aching eloquence that I read the entire last two chapters with quaking voice and brimming eyelids. Treat yourself and your children to this book. It is a gem.

PS If you fall in love with raccoons like we did, here is a cute felt finger puppet to make.

*You can see what else we read this year here. And here is a list of our summer reading so far.

Math Basket,

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Both boys came down with colds this week, and I used the time to clean out our bookshelves and do a little rearranging in the schoolroom. One accomplishment I am particularly excited about is the “Math Basket”. This idea is not original – if there is such a thing. I remember seeing a post about something similar on the now defunct Little Nature Nest blog. My interpretation can be seen above. I took a pretty big basket on wheels and filled it with all fun things related to math: games, cards, dominos, clocks, beanbags, dice, times table wheel, tanagrams, rulers, tape measures, counters and such. All of these things used to be scattered around the house, but I am hoping by grouping them in one place they will get more casual use. I have talked about my approach to math before, and I especially enjoy when we can organically incorporate it into our days. Those basic facts seem to demand constant review, and this seems to be a sneaky way to get it done.

I also will put some math-themed books in the basket from time to time. We have checked out quite a few good titles from the library this year, based on the suggestions of Donna Simmons from Christopherus. Some of our favorites were Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar by Mitsumasa Anno, One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale by Demi, How Much is a Million?, Millions to Measure (and others) by David Schwartz. Her fourth grade curriculum for Mathematics is really excellent: thorough, organized and full of good ideas. I know we will be using some parts of it again next year.

One more change in the schoolroom: a table just for jigsaw puzzles. The plants have all gone back outside, and that provided a perfect spot under this window. I have a few animal-themed puzzles that I want to work on during these last few weeks of school, as after US Geography, we will be doing our second Man and Animal block. This will be more of a straight zoology block, with field trips planned to the Charleston Aquarium and our local nature center.

In case you are wondering, the birds in the window were made with crayon shavings, parchment paper, and a stencil. Directions can be found here. (I have also made the hearts as pictured in the link. I hang them every February in the same window.) I love having something pretty and bright to look at when you first walk into the schoolroom – well, that’s if you don’t look down and notice all the origami paper, magazines, shoes, yarn and library books scattered underneath! Any spring-fever-changes going on at your house?

Plans for May

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May starts tomorrow, and the fields are lush, green and full of wildflowers.

Here is what we’re up to this month:

Circle Time:

Our circle time hit a wall last month, and after trying to hold it together by myself for a couple of weeks, I am trying something different. I’ve doubled our walk and halved our circle. After walking about a mile, we come in and sing “This Pretty Planet“, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing “America the Beautiful”. Short and sweet seems to be working nicely at the moment.

Poetic Memorization/Recitation:

Inspired by our US Geography block, we have been listening to a variety of patriotic songs, marches and folksongs. The boys sing them throughout the day, and this is taking the place of our more formal poetic memorization and recitation.

Main Lesson Block for 4th Grade:

In addition to revamping circle time, I have also revised our main lesson and reading time. (We were in a funk for a while, and desperate times call for desperate measures.) During main lesson we have been listening to a lot of music and focusing on handwork, which for my 4th grader is embroidering a fabric map of the United States. (Picture the two of us hunched over our embroidery hoops singing “On Top of Old Smoky” or humming “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.) My kindergartner loves to march around and sing along to all the songs as well. This is not how we usually structure our main lesson time, but it has put the spark back into our days. Our reading time has been devoted to regional novels, tall tales and stories. Once a week we write a summary on the area of the country we studied the previous week. Last month, we studied the area of the United States east of the Mississippi, and now we are moving westward. Some resources I plan to use this month include Stories from Where We Live : The Great North American Prairie edited by Sara St. Antoine, Stories from Where We Live : The California Coast edited by Sara St. Antoine and American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne. I plan to do a recap of the entire block when we finish and list all our projects and resources. This will be our last full month of school (!) for 4th grade and kindergarten, and I am looking ahead to 5th and 1st grade. Expect some planning posts soon.

***

Click to see what we did for US Geography.

 

Old School

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Talk to any homeschooling parent long enough and the subject of math will come up: spiral, mastery, manipulatives, memorization, calculators, online, workbooks, the list just goes on and on. I have not tried many of the math programs out there; we used Saxon for first grade and part of second. I liked it. I thought it was well-organized, easy to understand, and I loved those soft, manila paper, tear-out worksheets. My son was not as thrilled, and everyday, we would have a math battle.

A lot of things changed during that second half of second grade. For one, I discovered Waldorf homeshooling. Their approach to math utilizes stories in the early grades to teach all four processes simultaneously. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are all introduced with lots of manipulatives that keep it concrete. This was a game changer for us: cute little math gnomes + fun stories with numbers (- daily math battles) = lots of learning. We used Melisa Nielsen’s A Journey Through Waldorf Math as a guide in the beginning. I think this gave us a great foundation to approach math in the Waldorf manner.

By the end of third grade, I noticed that Vincent needed some extra practice. I looked at a few current math books, and honestly couldn’t understand which end was up. (Disclaimer: I have 2 English degrees and have not taken a math class since the Reagan administration, however I do think I should be able to decipher elementary school mathematics.) Instead of wallowing in frustration, I did what I always do when the modern world seems too confusing: I think about how they would have done it in the old days.

Old School Math was born.

I love old children’s books, especially old school books. I usually use them for art projects, making use of the vintage illustrations and text. I never thought about actually using them for their intended purposes. But guess what? Math made sense to me back then. Everything was presented in a straight-forward manner and lots of practice problems were given with a healthy dose of nostalgia. The book shown above is from 1942. We also use another one from 1916. The boys and I get a kick out of the word problems:

“If Frank’s father buys 4 two-cent postage stamps, how much money must he pay?”

“John’s uncle pays $75 rent each month for his store and $35 rent for his house. How much rent does he pay for both?”

“Patty spent 8 cents for the wrapping paper and 25 cents for the ribbon to wrap Mother’s gift. How much did it cost Patty to wrap the gift for Mother?”

If this approach appeals to you, and you don’t happen to have a bunch of old textbooks on your shelves, start looking for them at book sales and Goodwill. Or there is always ebay – you’ll pay more, but probably not more than $10 with shipping. Old grammar and language arts books are good too, however I would stay away from vintage geography books. Themes run from slightly jingoistic to overtly xenophobic. Plus all the countries are different now. Numbers and nouns seem to have stayed the same.

Norse Mythology Block

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We just finished our second block on Norse Mythology. This is a standard block for 4th graders (10 year olds) in the Waldorf curriculum. I did not use a scripted curriculum for this block, but did find these audios by Donna Simmons and Melisa Nielsen very helpful. Both give an excellent and thorough overview of the entire 4th grade year.

My son loved the stories of the Aesir – especially the characters of Loki and Thor. In addition to reading the entire epic from the creation of the world through the destruction of that world in the battle of Ragnorak, we also studied the Runic alphabet, Scandinavian cooking, read Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (a contemporary novel based on the Norse myths) and acted out many of the stories through play. Below are some of my notes and ideas from the block.

Story Resources:

  • Norse Mythology by Charles Kovacs
  • Norse Gods and Giants by D’Aulaires
  • Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

I read the stories straight from the Kovacs book. I love his voice and how he presents the tales. I used the first entire section of his book for our first block. I skipped the middle section “The Sagas” because I found them to be too much of a detour. I started our second block by reviewing the overall arc of the stories we studied in the first block, stressing Odin, Loki, Thor and Balder. We then read the Gaiman novel, which is an adaption but really sets up Ragnorak well. I went back to read from Kovacs for The Twilight of the Gods, but opted to read the ending (which is really the beginning of the new world) from D’Aulaires. Kovacs’ interpretation of the new world was too overtly Christian/Anthroposophical for me. D’Aulaires has a “Christian” ending also, but didn’t seem as heavy handed.

Norse Meal:

We made a Norse meal early on in our first block. Both recipes came from The Multicultural Cookbook for Students by Carole Lisa Albyn and Lois Sinaiko Webb. We have used this library book so much that I finally ordered a copy for our very own. I would highly recommend it. Here was our menu:

  • Salmon
  • Greens
  • Cheddar Bread Pudding (this is a Finnish dish)

2 cups stale bread
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 T melted butter
2 t prepared mustard
1 t Worcestershire sauce
Place bread and cheese in a greased oven-proof dish. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over top. Refrigerate 1 hour. Bake for about 45 minutes at 350, or until puffed and golden brown. YUM!!!

  • For dessert:

Toskakake (Nut Caramel Topped Cake from Norway)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 cup melted butter (1/3 cup reserved for topping)
3 T milk
1 t vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cups chopped nuts (you can use pecans, almonds or walnuts)
Mix eggs and 1 cup sugar until mixture is pale yellow and a ribbon forms when beaters are lifted (about 5 minutes). Fold in flour and baking powder. Add 2/3 cup butter, milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Pour into springform pan and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Prepare topping while cake is baking. Heat remaining 1/3 cup butter over low heat add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and cream. Mix well. Increase heat until mixture boils and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. When cake is done pour hot caramel over top and sprinkle with nuts. Return to oven and bake until top is bubbly and golden brown (about 10 minutes). Cool on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Writing/Drawing:

Throughout the block we made character pages of Thor, Odin, Loki and Balder. These included drawings of the gods, their weapons or other special powers, writing their names in Runes and then summarizing their character as a whole. This was my son’s summary of Loki: “Sneaky and tricky, Loki is always making mischief in Asgard. In the end he is caught and punished. Loki can take on many forms. He is both good and bad.” We added to these as the stories progressed.

Other Projects:

  • Braided yarn to extend the story of “Sif’s Hair”.
  • Modeled discs out of sculpy and carved Runes in them.
  • Made paper cards with runes written on them.
  • Folded paper Viking longships to illustrate the story of Balder’s death.
  • Painted the rainbow bridge (see above) and the fire that ends the war between the gods and the giants (see below).
  • A friend of mine sent me this link after we completed our block, but I would love to build this long boat over the summer.
  • This sounds like a good podcast for moms to listen to about the stories of the Vikings.

Plans for April

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It’s April and the wild violets are blooming in the hay fields.

Here is what we’re up to this month:

Circle Time:

We are continuing to work on our penny whistle skills, trying to master Hot Crossed Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, London Bridge, Baa Baa Black Sheep and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Poetic Memorization/Recitation:

Vincent (4th grade) - The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Jude (Kindy) –  Cock a Doodle Doo by Mother Goose

Me – Daffoldils by William Wordsworth

Main Lesson Block for 4th Grade:

We are finishing up our second block of Norse Myths, with the Twilight of the Gods and Ragnarok on the schedule this coming week. Vincent has really been anticipating the war between the gods and the giants. I’m using Norse Mythology by Charles Kovacs and supplementing with Norse Gods and Giants by D’Aulaires. We are continuing to work on our drawing and summary skills during this block.

Normally, I like to keep our blocks contained within the month, however, our extended spring break has interferred with this. The second week in April will see us beginning our final block of the year. I am combining US Geography (an extension of the local geography we began the year with) with our final Man and Animal block. I plan to take about 6-8 weeks, studying one region of the country per week. Both my boys have always liked geography, so I anticipate this being a fun way to end the year. It seems like I have a bunch of resources for this block. Mapmaking with Children by David Sobel, The United States of America by Millie Miller and Cyndi Nelson, Yankee Doodle’s Cousins by Anne Malcolmson, Native American Stories told by Joseph Bruchac and Minn of the Mississippi by Holling Clancy Holling. My goal is to keep facts to a minimum, and try to conjure a regional sense of place through biography and story. I have ordered a few other books by Holling Clancy Holling and may use them also. I’ll keep you updated as the block progresses.