Tag Archives: rhythm

What’s Cookin’? – Winter 2013 Edition

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Unfortunately, my New Year’s resolution was to eat more vegetables. Tom pointed out the poor timing of my piously healthful intention back in January, and I am now seeing his point. Frozen broccoli, kale and salad – those are pretty much my choices. I wish I was one of those intrepid gardeners who always had something poking up out of the ground – even in February. Alas I am not a gardener during any season, which is why I was so happy to write a check to our CSA farmers this week. They are getting geared up for spring, and I can’t wait until those boxes start coming. Despite the lack of fresh local vegetables, we have been turning out some yummy dishes this winter. Here’s a peek at what’s been cookin’ in our kitchen:

* This was an absolutely perfect winter dinner: chicken pie, roasted broccoli and caesar salad. The chicken pie is somewhere between a chicken pot pie and chicken and dumplings. Skip lunch, you’re going to want to eat a lot of it!

* Does there really need to be a recipe for soft-boiled eggs? I guess this is a method, not a recipe, from Cook’s Illustrated. And it is foolproof for perfect soft-boiled eggs: solid whites, runny yolks. Boil a half-inch of water. Add 4 eggs. Cover and cook for 6 1/2 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water.

* I am cooking all those frozen vegetables without water and finding it makes a big difference. Heat olive oil in a cast iron pan. Add veggies. Cook until tender. So much better than boiled or steamed!

* I adopted this idea from soulemama. I use a different colored cup and a different colored cloth napkin for each member of our family. Cuts down on dishes and laundry.

* My new favorite breakfast? Oatmeal topped with toasted almonds and coconut, drizzled with maple syrup.

* Vincent’s new favorite breakfast is something he calls “Chinese Breakfast.” Top leftover rice with a fried egg and serve with soy sauce. He has also used rice that had mixed vegetables in it.

* I’ve started making my chicken stock in the crock pot. And although I don’t like having it on the counter for 2 days straight, it does a good job with absolutely no attention from me.

* I love my canning funnel. It is the best $1 I’ve ever spent. In addition to making canning that much easier, it eliminates messy spills when storing soups and sauces in jars. Plus the jars take up much less room than containers in the fridge.

* One way I have been eating all that kale is lightly steamed and then tossed with olive or sesame oil, lots of garlic, crushed red pepper, a little bit of feta cheese and a handful of sunflower seeds or toasted almonds. (Almost makes you forget kale is involved at all!)

* This tip is from Ms. Martha: freeze stock in muffin tins. Pop out when frozen and store in freezer bags. Much better than all my little relabeled cream cheese containers.

* Tom is the clean up crew after dinner, and he swears by Bar Keepers Friend to keep our pots nice and shiny. The other morning he had the idea to use it on our unbelievably stained bathtub. (We were seriously considering reglazing or replacing it. We had tried EVERYTHING!) I wish I had a video tape of his reaction. It was a cross between an infomercial and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Needless to say, it was a resounding success. He’s thinking of selling it door-to-door if his graphic design business ever tanks.

* We are well into soup season and usually eat it several times a week. Vincent adds dried mushrooms and/or soy sauce to give some depth to vegetable soups.

* My soup trick is to keep the grains separate from the soup until serving, so the grains don’t soak up all the broth. My other advice is to add the grains to the bowl straight from the fridge. It cools down the soup a little for the boys.

* I gave up sugar for New Year’s and had resisted all sweet treats for about 4 weeks. These brown sugar cookies that Vincent made were my undoing.

* Usually I prefer Manhattan clam chowder, but Vincent has made this New England version twice and it is really good. Comes together quickly and easily and is even better the next day.

* File away these Mardi Gras Jam Buns for next year. (Or go nuts and make them now.)

* We make these hot cross buns on Ash Wednesday and again on Good Friday. There is also a good recipe in Baking Bread with Children by Warren Lee Cohen.

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To see more posts about cooking click the image below.

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Clearing the Slate

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You know when the day gets squirrelly? It seems to happen in a blink of an eye sometimes. All of a sudden everyone is on everyone else’s nerves. The house seems too small, too cluttered, too close. We all have our tricks for dealing with these times. Usually I send the boys outside to play, or send myself outside to walk. But some days this is not feasible or efficacious for whatever reason. During those times, I try really, really hard not to exacerbate the situation with talking (ummm . . . yelling) or finger-pointing. I try hard not to hide in the bathroom. I also try hard not to bust into that bottle of Prosecco that seems to stare at me whenever I open the refrigerator door. Instead, I clear the kitchen table.

Our kitchen table is the mirror of our day. In addition to the many meals eaten there, it also is home to the day’s projects, reading material, correspondence and the various flotsam and jetsam that accompanies all these activities and more. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, if our day is going south, the table is a mess. This is one of those divine mysteries of homemaking that I don’t choose to grapple with. I merely accept it as truth and proceed to take action. I remove everything currently on the table (trying not to just dump it all on the counter), wipe it off, light a couple candles, add flowers if there are any around, and presto! I feel like I have been given a clean slate.

This little domestic ritual can totally change my mood. So while the boys may still be at each other, I am more settled and able to deal with them in a way that is able to smooth sharp edges and calm flared tempers. After cleaning off the kitchen table, my next step is to make a snack plate, go in the living room, clear that table and light some candles in there too. Then I plop down in my chair and start knitting. I have admitted before in this space that I don’t like to knit, but both my boys do. If I sit down with my knitting, they will sit down with theirs. It calms them, centers them and pushes restart. We all have a little snack and move on with the day.

I would love to know how you change course in the middle of one of those days. Leave a comment and/or a link and tell us all about it.

Twenty Minutes

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

It seems I always need an extra 20 minutes before we start the school day. It doesn’t matter when I get up, how much I do or don’t do before the boys get up, I always need 20 minutes to finish those little things that seem to set the day straight. Putting away the breakfast things, taking something out of the freezer, filling the crock pot, clearing the table and the counters. What I do in those last 20 minutes before school pays off in spades. They allow my mind to clear and the rest of the day to flow more smoothly.

For some reason, I always begrudged myself this chunk of time. I would look at the clock and think, “We need to start school – NOW!” This thought usually led to one of two responses. Me forgoing the undone tasks and announcing repeatedly, “OK, it’s time to start school. Everyone upstairs. It’s time to start school.” The volume of these announcements was in direct correlation to how many tasks I was leaving behind and how slowly the boys were responding. The second was me taking the time I needed to do the tasks, while the boys took this as a signal that I was busy and they were free to get involved in something else. This meant by the time I was finished it was even later, they were engrossed in some sort of non-school related activity and the volume on the school-starting-announcement got turned up – way up.

I know in Waldorf circles singing is encouraged for signaling transition times. However I needed a 20 minute transition, and I figured even an extended dance-mix version of any Waldorf-sanctioned song was not going to get me 20 minutes. What to do? Inspiration came from this post by Irie over at irienarrowpath. (That post is actually chock full of great ideas, but so far, this is the only one I have implemented.) She plays music in the morning. What a great idea. I put our little cd/radio/ipod dock on the counter in the kitchen, put some choice cds in the drawer underneath, and presto! our mornings flowed so much better. Playing music allows me to get done what I need to get done, holds the space so the boys don’t get involved in something else and encourages us to start the morning by singing together. Yes, this is a very good idea. Thanks Irie!!

Below I have listed some of the musical selections we have been enjoying. They are seasonal and/or related to our main lessons. If you have any others, I would love to hear them.

  • Music through the Grades by Anne Cleveland: This is actually a Waldorf-inspired music curriculum for grades 1-6, however I just use it as a collection of cds. Anne’s voice is amazing and her song selections are perfectly matched to each grade.
  • Various Waldorf songs and cds by Jodie Mesler: If you hung around my kitchen door from October through December, you would have heard Jodie’s voice everyday. Autumn Songs was by far the boys’ favorite. They would both sing the songs and play along on their pennywhistles. (I just noticed that Jodie also has a compilation of Waldorf-inspired songs that is carried by Melisa over at Waldorf Essentials. Might just have to put that one in the budget.)
  • Various classical compilations: A hundred years ago when I was a member of the Book of the Month Club, I purchased a series of cds with titles like Mozart in the Morning, Bach at Breakfast, Beethoven for Bedtime. I dusted them off and put them in our musical rotation. Perfect little samplings.
  • Handel’s Messiah: This may be my favorite piece of music next to Sketches in Spain by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. Vincent fell in love with it also and requested it at least once a day during December. I thinking attending a live performance is in order for next year.
  • Simple Gifts: I talked about this song here. I still play it every so often when I need a little grace and a little gratitude.

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.

Layering It In – Year One

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

This is the first in a series of three posts that will attempt to chronicle – as best as I can remember – how I switched from basically unschooling to homeschooling with Waldorf-inspired methods. (Truth be told: I did have a brief fling with The Well Trained Mind in the middle there.) I hope these recollections offer a realistic view of a transition that was not easy or smooth but was, ultimately, successful. In the beginning, I felt like I was treading water in the deep end of the pool, desperately trying to keep my head above water. I was vulnerable, scared and thought about quitting many times. I can honestly say, homeschooling with Waldorf  has been one of the hardest things I have ever done, yet it continues to expand my understanding, express my deepest desires and exhort my better angels. For me, it has been a path to living more fully engaged in my parenting, my spirituality and my everyday life.

When I first came to Waldorf, I kept coming across the phrase “layer it in.” It was being given as advice to build a solid foundation – don’t do too much at once, and add in something new every year. I didn’t find this easy to follow. At the time, I had the mindset that I had to make up for all that we had missed. This thinking led to absolute overload, with me vacillating between over-functioning (trying to do everything) and under-functioning (doing a whole bunch of nothing). Below, I have outlined several areas specific to homeschooling with Waldorf-inspired methods and what each one looked like in our home that particular year. Brace yourself: year one was not pretty, but it was a start.

  • Rhythm Rhythm was something I desperately wanted, but could not get a handle on. Some days I was too rigid; some days I was too lax. There was no seamless flow from one activity to the next. There was no gentle in-breathing/out-breathing. Our days resembled my very short stint with yoga: lots gasping, panting and herky-jerky movements. During both experiences I remember thinking,”This is X@#$%X hard! When do I get to relax??!!xx” I quit yoga after about six weeks, but for some reason I stuck with trying to get a rhythm going. Two things happened in January of that year that helped me to finally craft a little, bitty, baby rhythm. Carrie published this post on The Parenting Passageway, and I had a telephone consultation with Melisa Nielsen. (You can read more about my beginnings with rhythm in this early post.)
  • Curriculum I remember agonizing over specific curriculum choices. I thought that if I just chose the right one, everything would be grand. I finally purchased grade 3 and the math book from A Little Garden Flower/Waldorf Essentials. I also became a member of Earthschooling/The Bearth Institute. I also haunted the Christopherus website. I think we did 3 blocks that year: math (going back to the beginning and teaching it whole to parts with Melisa’s math book), Farmer Boy (which was actually more of a unit study, but I am counting it anyway) and Old Testament stories (I robotically read these stories in May because I had put them off all year long.) We did do a lot of the practical work associated with grade 3: cooking, building and gardening/farming. These were integrated into our daily life and not really stressed as being a part of school per se.
  • Art I dabbled with all the art forms that first year, not doing any of them well or with any kind of consistency. Lucky for us, Vincent was attending a Waldorf enrichment class for homeschoolers one day a week. The focus was on stories, art and games. He was receiving instruction in drawing, painting and modeling from a wonderful man who has since gone on to teach at the Waldorf school in town. At this point in time, Vincent’s skills were better than mine.
  • Music I purchased Jodie Mesler’s Home Music Making program at a Waldorf curriculum fair in Atlanta. I gave the task of teaching it to my husband, who is definitely the musical one in our marriage. After twenty years of wedded bliss, I can tell you that my husband is a bit of a procrastinator (insert eye roll here). About every six weeks, he would ask me “Where is that penny whistle thing you bought?” Every time I would tell him it was in the drawer marked “MUSIC” in the schoolroom. Let’s just say, the silence was deafening.
  • Handwork I learned how to knit, and subsequently taught Vincent. I accumulated a lot of yarn and knitted a rather short scarf (or perhaps a long potholder) that year. Vincent would knit in fits and starts, but we never really settled to the notion of doing handwork.
  • Extras We didn’t celebrate any festivals. We made no main lesson books. There was no circle time. No verses. No songs. No poetic recitation. I did not tell one story that whole first year. We did toss around our beanbags, and Vincent learned both skip counting and his multiplication tables this way. I made some math gnomes. We dyed some yarn with natural dyes. I was on the computer a lot: reading blogs, participating in several online yahoo groups and just doing general research about all things Waldorf. I did have a big breakthrough in the summer between our first and second years. You can read about that experience in this post.

*** Read about our second year with Waldorf by clicking the image below.

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What’s Cookin’? – Fall Edition

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These are the days I don’t need any excuse to turn on the oven. There is a little chill in the air, and anything warm sounds good. My neighbor is somehow still bringing me tomatoes, although with every gallon he swears it is the last. Our CSA is winding down, and I don’t like that one bit. I certainly am not looking forward to food shopping on a regular basis again. In order to make this trip to town as infrequently as possible I have spent the past month stocking our freezers. I bought 18 whole chickens from one neighbor, and 40 pounds of salmon from a local woman who goes to Alaska every summer to fish. I hope to get a bunch of pork from another local farm that Tom has a barter with. (I LOVE that kind of business.) The cow that we bought back in the spring has been feeding us nicely too. You can say the barnyard – and the wide ocean blue – will be well represented on our plates as the months turn colder.

In anticipation of the upcoming holiday cooking season, I have also embarked on a thorough kitchen clean-out. I’ve rearranged some cabinets. Threw out a bunch of stuff I don’t remember buying. Took stock of ingredients: noting what we have a lot of (flour, chocolate chips, baking chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla), and also noting what we need to buy (sugar, wheat berries, olive oil, coconut oil). I like to run an efficient kitchen – especially at this time of year. I’m sure we will start pulling out the recipe books soon to plan Thanksgiving, Vincent’s and Tom’s birthdays, not to mention Christmas. Expect lots of updates and recipes in the coming 2 months. Anyway, here’s what’s been showing up on our table lately.

* Coconut Rice has been a nice warm snack in addition to an easy side dish. I make it by using 2 cups water and 1 cup coconut milk to 1 cup dry white rice. Prepare as usual. It comes nice and creamy. It is good topped with cinnamon and honey or with sea salt.

* My cure-all elixir has made its seasonal debut. It is great for whatever ails you, even if you just have a chill you can’t shake. Fill a mug with chicken stock, crush in half a garlic clove, add a liberal spoonful of coconut milk and a nice pinch of sea salt. When we are sick I also add crushed red pepper (for respiratory ailments), ginger (for stomach stuff) or lemon (for sore throats).

* Butternut squash soup is a fall staple here. I just had a wonderful version at a friend’s house: pureed butternut squash, roasted red peppers and coconut milk. She served it with brown rice, garnished with chopped nori. Oh it was good!

* Baked potatoes have been great to have in the refrigerator. I have been baking them in bulk (usually 10 at a time). We have them for dinner that night and then grab them for lunches and snacks later in the week. If there are any left on the weekend, they go in Sunday’s frittata.

* For nighttime snacks the boys have been having either hot cocoa (made with baking cocoa and agave) or hot milk with cinnamon alongside their toast. It is a little bit of warm goodness before we tuck them in at night.

* This is my mother-in-law’s apple cake recipe. It makes a big cake and just gets better the next day.

* Vincent’s new favorite recipe is the national dish of the Philippines: chicken filipino adobo. (Jude’s review: “It is so good!”) And although we haven’t tried it yet, if you browned the chicken first, I bet it would be yummy and oh-so-easy to do in the crock pot.

* My friend Jennifer made this pie for our Michaelmas celebration, and I am still dreaming about it. Normally, I am not a pie maker, but I may just have to amend my ways.

*This post by Rachel over at Clean has revolutionized my stock making. Keep the lid on! What a great simple tip!

*Tom reminded me of a soup we used to make when we were first married. It was called Dutch Farmer’s Soup. Saute a large onion in 3 tablespoons of butter in the bottom of a large soup pot. Cut a cauliflower, 3 medium potatoes and 4 large carrots into chunks. Add vegetables and 8 cups of chicken stock to pot and cook until vegetables are tender. Serve with thick slices of sourdough bread topped with melted, smoked gouda cheese.

What’s been cooking at your house lately? Do tell.

Planning: Rhythm (again)

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

Our new school day rhythm is working out pretty well. Having Tom be in charge of breakfast in the morning has made such a difference. The boys are fed, dressed and we are out the door on our walk by about 9:30. This has allowed us to complete both main lessons by about noon. In-town activities have begun, so I have been working out our weekly rhythm. I try to keep our trips to town to a minimum, as it is about a 20-30 minute drive. Both boys are in cub scouts which means den meetings twice a month and a pack meeting once a month. Both boys also take pennywhistle lessons for 30 minutes once a week. Because we are in town for their music lesson, I usually drop them at Tom’s office and he takes them swimming.

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are pretty much the same. Wednesday is our in-town afternoon and Friday, for the most part, is a much looser day. Below you will find a layout of our week, although I have to admit, writing everything out tends to make a day look clunky and regimented – and in a way, that’s how it is in the beginning. However, once the rhythm of it all takes hold, it flows rather nicely (still waiting for this . . .) I have highlighted the items that change from day to day in pink. (I’m getting fancy here at WordPress!!) Anyway, here is a look at what I am thinking our week will look like. I’ll keep you posted on how it all plays out.

Monday

  • Chores
  • Walk/Movement
  • Songs, Candle, Opening Verse
  • Poetic Recitation/Memorization
  • Main Lesson Grade 1 (Vincent does a math practice sheet and makes snack.)
  • Snack
  • Main Lesson Grade 5 (Jude clears and sets the table for lunch.)
  • Lunch
  • Break/Play (I take my walk.)
  • 15 minute Pick-up
  • Snack and Storytime
  • Free Time (I usually take another walk.)
  • Dinner
  • Play
  • Night Routine

Tuesday

  • Chores
  • Walk/Movement
  • Songs, Candle, Opening Verse
  • Poetic Recitation/Memorization
  • Main Lesson Grade 1 (Vincent practices pennywhistle and makes snack.)
  • Snack
  • Main Lesson Grade 5 (Jude practices pennywhistle and sets the table for lunch.)
  • Lunch
  • Break/Play (I take my walk.)
  • 15 minute Pick-up
  • Snack and Storytime
  • Free Time (I take another walk.)
  • Dinner
  • Play
  • Night Routine

Wednesday

  • Chores
  • Walk/Movement
  • Songs, Candle, Opening Verse
  • Poetic Recitation/Memorization
  • Main Lesson Grade 1 (Vincent does a math practice sheet and makes snack.)
  • Snack
  • Main Lesson Grade 5 (Jude clears and sets the table for lunch.)
  • Lunch
  • Free Time (I take my walk.)
  • Handwork and Music (listening, not playing)
  • Penny Whistle Lesson in town
  • Swimming in town (with dad)
  • Dinner
  • Night Routine

Thursday

  • Chores
  • Walk/Movement
  • Songs, Candle, Opening Verse
  • Poetic Recitation/Memorization
  • Main Lesson Grade 1  (Vincent does a math practice sheet and makes snack.)
  • Snack
  • Main Lesson Grade 5 (Jude sets the table for lunch.)
  • Lunch
  • Break/Play (I take my walk.)
  • 15 minute Pick-up
  • Snack and Storytime
  • Free Time (I take another walk.)
  • Dinner
  • Play
  • Night Routine

Friday

  • Chores
  • Walk/Movement
  • Songs, Candle, Opening Verse
  • Form Drawing
  • Tongue Twisters
  • Math Basket (if doing a language arts block)/Fairy Tale Friday (if doing a math block)
  • Country Diary (this will alternate every other week with Math Basket/Fairy Tale Friday)
  • Break/Play
  • Lunch
  • Handwork and Music (listening, not playing)
  • Free Time/Play (I try to walk until Tom comes home – just kidding!)
  • 15 minute Pick-up
  • Snack and Storytime
  • Dinner
  • Play
  • Night Routine

Between Novelty and Rhythm

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

We started school about a month ago, but just finished our second week of main lessons. The novelty has worn off, but our new rhythm has not yet taken hold. It seems like everyday is a struggle with one of the boys. Last Tuesday it was Vincent’s turn to recite the standard litany: “This is boring.” “I’m too tired.” “Do we have to?” I had a one-day reprieve, and then on Thursday it was Jude’s turn. He absolutely refused to write three words. Three words! We are at the place – that no man’s land between novelty and rhythm – I ruefully refer to as “the slog.”

I apologize for the dramatics, however all doubts, all questioning, all second guessing is heightened here in the slog. Those detailed plans I worked on this summer seem fragile and uncertain. Did I plan too much? Did I not plan enough? Is he bored? Do we need more review? More than complain, I want to simply acknowledge that this wasteland exists. I hope this blog can be a place of balanced expectations. Yes, there is the effervescence of planning. Yes, there is the comfort of an established rhythm. However, allow me to interject a bit of reality and say that getting from one to the other is usually not fun. It is not fun. It is not easy. And some days it is not pretty.

These are the days I rely heavily on my inner work practices, because once those doubts, questions and second-guesses start flooding my head, it is so easy to turn outward to try to find the answers. If I had just chosen a different curriculum . . . If I had just done what she did . . . I knew I should have . . . well, fill in the blank. I know myself well enough to know that during times such as these I need to get quiet, focus my attention and remember the bigger picture. I need to remember that beginnings are always fraught – they are never smooth, seamless nor simple. I also need to remember that we have been here before, and that the slog does eventually pass.

These days, if we go on our walk, go through the motions of circle time, say our poems and muddle through both main lessons, I consider the day a resounding success. Details like morning chores, formal poetic recitation, and engaging dialogue focused around the stories and myths are things that will be picked up along the way. I’m trying to focus on the forest and not the trees. For the most part, our days are good – it is not all-out mutiny here. I’m drawing on that core confidence, that deep place of knowing that despite appearances and any evidence to the contrary, we are moving in the right direction. We are on the correct path. So we will start again on Monday with form drawing. I hope it goes better than last week’s session did, but even if it doesn’t, that’s ok. We will move on and try again the Monday after. Someday soon, maybe in a few weeks, it will seem like second nature. Monday means form drawing. There will be a comfort in that certainty and predictability. Until then, however, we slog on.

Being Intentional

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Artwork by Mimi Strang

The inspiration for this post came from two “cinder block” moments I had this summer. Both involved crying, out-of-control children and both involved me. I will spare you the details of the first, as I am sure you have an example or two of your own child to insert here. I will also spare you the details of my part in the disaster, and just say I did not handle the situation with any sense of tenderness or compassion. We all lose it sometimes and I did that night – in spades. I was shaken and exhausted the next day and felt like I had to repair a rent in a piece of fabric thread by thread.

The second cinder block moment came after a crazy couple of weeks, which included Vincent’s summer camp (think driving to town every day), Jude’s birthday and extended celebration (think lots of dessert and later bedtimes), and an impromptu family trip to HOT-lanta, just in case we hadn’t done enough (think hot, Hot, HOT, then add go-carts and legos). Tuesday of the next week, Vincent had his weekly 2-hour woodworking class and then we all had dentist appointments. After picking up Vincent at noon, my plan was to get lunch and then head to the dentist. I gave the boys 2 choices for lunch. Vincent picked one and Jude balked. Suddenly I found myself in the TJ Maxx parking lot, on a Tuesday in late July, with two hot, tired, hungry, crying children. This time, in my own hot, tired and hungry self, I found a shred of tender compassion, and glimpsed the difference between being in the moment and being given the grace to see beyond the moment.

My boys were maxed out. For the previous two weeks they had lived life at a pace that #1) they are not used to and #2) is not sustainable (at least to our family). And here we were at the breaking point, with both boys hungry and tired, arguing and crying. Grace-filled insight aside, I still had to feed them lunch and get to the dentist. I didn’t really say anything, although in my head I was ranting: “If I make it through this day, I swear I am parking my car in the driveway and not moving it for a week!” (I’m positive my thoughts weren’t that coherent or expletive-free, but you get the idea.)  It wasn’t long, maybe a couple of minutes, and Vincent rallied and compromised. We ate, got to the dentist on time, had cavity-free check ups and came home.

Abundance wears many disguises, as my mother commented recently. And it is true. There are all those voices constantly crying for us to do more: more lessons, more camps, more activities, more adventures. However, on that day, I didn’t have to go far to hear the cry for less. Normally, I don’t want to do it all. I don’t even want to do half of it all. As the school year begins and it seems as though there are so many incredible enrichment activities to do, I’m trying to remember what that looks like in reality. I’m trying to be intentional with my time. I’m saying no to some things: a pottery class for Vincent and a Waldorf enrichment class for Jude. We are saying no to sports for another year. Both boys are doing cub scouts and pennywhistle lessons and that is enough. The rest of the time will be spent at home: doing school, playing outside, reading on the couch, cooking and eating in the kitchen. For me, for them, for now, that is enough.

What Waldorf Looks Like in My Home

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

I accuse my friend Alisha of living in a felted house. I have this idyllic picture in my head of her charming setting: winding paths that connect the (felted) houses, vibrant Waldorf-inspired homeschooling co-ops, seasonal festivals complete with happy families and cherubic children. There are probably even gnomes perched under beeswax lamp posts scattered throughout the neighborhood. I know this is not true – well, the paths, co-op and festivals are – I’m not sure about the gnomes. It is so easy to compare, contrast and find ourselves lacking when we think about what Waldorf homeschooling looks like elsewhere.

My house is not felted. My walls are not even lazured. There is no natural wood anywhere, and my boys have never had a Waldorf doll, play stands or knitted gnome hats. Pretty early on, I learned the outward symbols of Waldorf did not impart any of the intentionality, spirituality and simplicity I wanted in our home. Because, trust me, I tried to just “buy” Waldorf in the beginning. I spent a lot of money – this is not hard! – on art supplies, child-sized German brooms and dust pans, anthroposophical books that were (and still are) beyond my comprehension and a myriad of other wooden, silken and beeswax-covered items. I scattered these things around our home and hoped, like fairy dust, they would work their magic. Surprisingly, this did not happen.

The other unfortunate misconception I had in the beginning was thinking Waldorf was more about the boys than it was about me. Three years into this gig and I can say with confidence: it has so very precious little to do with my boys, and so, so very much to do with me. If I can quiet my mind, open my heart and hold the space, things happen. Big things happen. Unfortunately there is not a formula, a catalog, a website or a blog that can tell you exactly how to do this. It’s setting the intention. It’s knowing your children. It’s connecting with the angels. It’s doing all of this over and over and over. Day after day. Some days, hour after hour.

Having said all of that, there are some over-arching tenets that translate and define what Waldorf looks like at our house. My particular way of manifesting Waldorf comes with a healthy dose of Simplicity Parenting. When Waldorf gets too complicated (which is not hard, especially in the beginning) I fall back on Kim John Payne’s advice: less words, less stuff, less choices. From there, it is easier to return to center and continue down the path. Anyway, here is some idea of what Waldorf looks like in my home.

  • Seeing the whole child and educating the whole child: mentally, physically, spiritually.
  • Taking into account the ages of my children and the corresponding anthroposophical stage of human development.
  • Honoring story and art as much as math and science.
  • Knowing time outside to be paramount – second only to sleep.
  • Limiting screen time to about once a week.
  • Using handwork, form drawing, and full body movement to address a variety of physical, emotional and spiritual challenges.
  • Utilizing the temperaments as a guide in parenting.
  • Encouraging wonder, awe and reverence in myself and in my children.
  • Holding a daily, weekly and seasonal rhythm.

Homeschool SOS

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

If you are panicking about school starting, if your rhythm is non-existent, if you haven’t planned one single thing for next year, if you have just made a last-minute decision to homeschool, take a breath. I promise you, this is a foolproof plan for getting started.

#1 Go for a walk in the morning. This is a great way to start the day. It gets everybody’s ya-yas out, and doing it every day after breakfast will begin to shape your rhythm. Just get outside. Don’t have it be a nature lesson or a historical walking tour. It’s fine if these things casually come up, but just get everyone out of the house and walking. Walk for as long as you can, building up to an hour if you have nothing else planned for the morning. When I first started walking with my boys, they were nice and tired when we came home. I gave them a snack, and found myself with some free time where I could do some planning. Usually I had a lot of ideas generated on the walk – getting them down on paper was a step in the right direction.

OK, after you’re walking consistently for about a week . . .

#2 Have afternoon storytime. I have written a lot about storytime. If you get a basket, put some really good books in it, and read to your children every afternoon, you are doing something great. Depending on the ages of your children, walking and reading could be enough.** Or perhaps, enough for a good long while, and then enough to build upon. If you are uncomfortable reading aloud, start with audio books. My advice is to go for the classics – these books have stood the test of time for a reason. You can take a look at our reading lists here.

There, if you are walking in the morning and having storytime in the afternoon, you have 2 anchor points during your day. Bonus points can be added if you have predictable mealtimes. Again if your children are little, especially if your oldest is under 7 or 8, relax. You’re doing enough** – or at least enough to buy yourself some time to get a solid plan together. However, if your children are older, and you want to do more . . .

#3 Do some math. I’m not talking about researching every math curriculum out there and spending a lot of money. Math can be baking. Math can be playing games. Math can be playing cards. Math can be skip counting, times tables with beanbags, baseball stats, football scores. I have some cheap and easy math ideas in this post and this post. The idea is just to begin introducing math into your homeschooling day. See how your children learn. See what they like. My favorite resource for beginning with Waldorf math is Melisa Nielsen’s math book. It is simple, yet thorough, and not expensive.

OK, you can feel good about getting some math in. And now, last but not least . . .

#4 Recite some poetry. This could be nursery rhymes, tongue twisters, seasonal verses. This could be simple songs. Interacting with language orally promotes literacy on so many levels. Check out a book of poetry from the library, and read it together. Pick a poem to memorize. If you really want to impress your kids, memorize “The Jabberwock” by Lewis Carroll and recite it to them one morning after your walk. Donna Simmons suggests this in her book Living Language, and it is a sure fire way to generate some enthusiasm around poetry.

Do these four things consistently for 3-4 days a week with your children, and you are really doing big things!! Add a baking day. Add a library day. You’re doing it. You’re homeschooling. You’re starting a rhythm. Congratulations!!

**Obviously you need to check the homeschooling regulations for your particular state, as they vary widely. However, my advice – no matter what rules need to be followed – would be to start slow and to start small. Build a solid foundation and move on from there.

Grade 1 Layout

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My thinking about teaching grade 1 has evolved this summer. Before I started planning, I thought we would do a grade 1 main lesson 1 day a week, and just read/tell lots of fairy tales. However, meditating on my sweet (and oh-so-phlegmatic) boy, I think more frequent and less concentrated is the way to go. I am currently planning to do main lesson with him 4 days a week for about 30 minutes a day in the beginning. This may stretch to 45 minutes during the second half of the year. Rhythm tethers this child (as I believe it tethers us all) – in a good way – and I see the consistency of a short daily main lesson as fortifying to his will and soul forces.

Jude is one of those kids who constantly has a ball in his hand. If he is “missing”, I know to look somewhere in the yard and I will find him playing hockey, soccer, baseball or basketball. (No wonder he hovers around 40 pounds – the calories don’t have a chance!) This physical activity is good on so many levels. It is also a very important part of first grade, where the ultimate goal is to help the child fully incarnate into the body. However, first grade is also a transition year from the undifferentiated consciousness of kindergarten to the assertion of the “I” that happens during the early grades. (I think I am quoting Donna Simmons verbatim here. I just listened to her grade 1 audio again, and the information is basically hardwired in my brain at this point. I cannot recommend them enough.) To me, the rhythm (and here I think you could also say discipline) of consistently doing main lesson 4 days a week is almost more important then what we do or how long we do it.

Below you will find my block layout for the year. You may notice I didn’t schedule any breaks or vacation. I can assure you, we take many! However, they are never planned in advance, as I find it easier to move my blocks around than to try to predict, for example, when we will go to the beach in the fall or when we will need a spring break.

August

  • Form Drawing (2 weeks)

September

  • Letters and Fairy Tales (4 weeks)
  • Celebrate Michaelmas

October

  • Form Drawing (2 weeks)
  • Nature Block – Fall (1 week)
  • Knitting as Main Lesson (1 week)

November

  • Math (4 weeks)
  • Celebrate Martinmas
  • Celebrate Thanksgiving

December

  • No Main Lesson
  • Holiday Prep
  • Advent
  • Celebrate Vincent’s Birthday
  • Celebrate Tom’s Birthday
  • Celebrate Christmas

January

  • Form Drawing (2 weeks)
  • Nature Block – Winter (1 week/overlap with 1 week of form drawing)
  • Math (3 weeks)
  • Celebrate Sheila’s Birthday

February

  • Fairy Tales (4 weeks)
  • Celebrate Candlemas

March

  • Form Drawing (2 weeks)
  • Nature Block – Spring  (1 week)
  • Celebrate Easter

April

  • Math (4 weeks)

May

  • Geography (4 weeks) (this is primarily a music, food and story block for Jude that will coordinate with Vincent’s more formal Grade 5 study of North American geography. You can see how we did this last year here with US Geography.)

June

  • Overflow/Wrap Up
  • State-mandated Testing

Plans for August

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August is a mixed bag at our house. It is still full-on summertime, with a lazy summer rhythm for the boys, and a mad-dash to finish and fine tune all that I have planned for the school year that is quickly approaching (umm . . . in 3 weeks!). Although I have the first day of school scheduled for August 20, this is really the beginning of transitioning to school. The keyword I keep repeating to myself is transitioning. I try to have very low expectations for what we will accomplish during the last 2 weeks in August. We are beginning with a 2 week block on form drawing that will anchor our mornings and help us to start getting back into our school day rhythm. We will go on our walk, but not have circle time or poetic recitation. We will do our form drawing lesson and then basically be free until storytime in the afternoon. “Real” school doesn’t start until after Labor Day, for no other reason except that’s how it was where I grew up in the northeast. Old habits die hard.

Vincent: 10 1/2 years old, 5th grader Because we have not done form drawing with any emphasis or regularity, Vincent will be doing the first grade forms right along with Jude. He will also be doing a light math review. Lots of times tables and bean bags, maybe some written problems on the board. I will gauge the amount of work based on how well our rhythm is going. There will be plenty of time for math practice throughout the year; getting our rhythm solid now is much more important.

Jude: 7 years old, 1st grader I would like to have some kind of formal ceremony for Jude as he begins first grade. I know in Waldorf schools the first graders are given roses by the eighth graders. I don’t think that carries the same weight or symbolism in our case, so I am still thinking about it. It may just be making a big deal by presenting him with a main lesson book and some new crayons.

Sheila: 42 years old August is going to be busy! I attend Taproot Farm and my annual retreat/homeschool teacher training August 2-5. I hope to return brimming with inspiration and ideas. The rest of the month before school begins will include making some last minute purchases, making and baking food to store in the freezer for those beginning weeks of school where the days seem to move at double speed and above all, trying to remember that there are plans, and there are goals, but there is also reality. The sky will not fall if everything is not done by the third week in August or even the first week in September.

Links and other things I have loved this past month:

  • These two free lectures by Donna Simmons have been great listening. This one about the story/history curriculum and this one about Waldorf as a therapeutic form of education.
  • The introductory pages of All Year Round by Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton and Marije Rowling - big, interesting thoughts on rhythm and festivals.
  • New Collected Poems by Wendell Berry. Mr. Berry and I have been having coffee on the back porch in the morning. I love that man.
  • This radio show with Terry Tempest Williams. I’m looking forward to reading her new book, When Women Were Birds.
  • Having a little shopping spree at Sarah Jane Studios. I enjoy her style so much and can’t wait to start embroidering some of the patterns I ordered.

Recipe of the month: Cold Cucumber Soup (pictured above)

All the cucumbers from my neighbor coupled with the ungodly heat led a friend of mine to suggest this recipe to me. I peeled and seeded 30 (thirty!) cucumbers and made a gallon of it last week. The original is from The Moosewood Cookbook, below is my adaptation. So, so yummy.

30 (thirty!) Cucumbers

1 quart buttermilk (you could use yogurt)

2 tablespoons dried dill

1 small bunch fresh parsley

2 teaspoons salt

4 cloves fresh garlic

Blend all ingredients in food processor or blender. Taste and adjust herbs and seasonings. Chill.

Planning: Food

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My previous planning post about rhythm got me thinking about food. At one point in time this past year, we had a menu plan. It worked like a charm and I can’t tell you why we stopped using it. I first created the menu because I realized we basically ate the same things all the time, but every day we would have to go through all the choices. Jude is famous for wanting choices, getting overwhelmed and then choosing nothing. Having a menu eliminated these shenanigans. Below you will find our “old” menu. You can find our new menu here.

Monday:

  • Breakfast: Eggs (any way they want them)
  • Snack: Veggies (usually augmented with nuts, yogurt, or some other protein)
  • Lunch: Homemade Mac and Cheese (I use leftover pasta from the night before)
  • Snack: Chips and dip (usually salsa or guacamole)
  • Dinner: Salmon

Tuesday:

  • Breakfast: Crepes (fancy, but really no more complicated than pancakes)
  • Snack: Fruit (usually augmented with nuts, yogurt, or some other protein)
  • Lunch: Sandwiches
  • Snack: Miso Soup (I always have the paste in my fridge.)
  • Dinner: Soup (I make stock on Monday with leftover chicken from Friday)

Wednesday:

  • Breakfast: Egg in the hole
  • Snack: Muffins (I usually make a big batch once a month and freeze them for snack)
  • Lunch: Leftovers/Potluck (whatever is in the fridge that needs to be eaten. usually soup.)
  • Snack: Cracker surprise (can be anything on a cracker: hummus, goat cheese, cheese, PB)
  • Dinner: Pasta

Thursday:

  • Breakfast: French Toast (uses up stale bread. I make it with coconut milk to pack on the calories for the squirts.)
  • Snack: Cheese
  • Lunch: Rice Surprise (I usually have leftover rice in the fridge or freezer and just put a protein with it.)
  • Snack: Popcorn (so easy and they love it)
  • Dinner: Beef

Friday:

  • Breakfast: Sausage Biscuits
  • Snack: Toast with spread (butter, cream cheese, PB, nutella)
  • Lunch: Soup
  • Snack: Pizza (I usually have crusts in the freezer, but also make them on pitas, english muffins or even bread)
  • Dinner: Roast Chicken

Saturday:

  • Potluck all the ding-dong-day
  • Dinner: Homemade pizza and salad (I always make extra pizza for snacks and such)

Sunday:

  • Breakfast: frittata (to clean out any veggies and such in the fridge)
  • Potluck the rest of the day
  • Dinner: Spaghetti and red sauce (or Tom is just not happy)

Planning: Rhythm

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Tom, my husband, is the “Party Dad”. There are many reasons why we have been married for almost 20 years. First and foremost is his sense of humor, a close second, however, is the fact that he loves to take the boys to birthday parties. On Sunday he took them to a party for most of the day, while I stayed home and did some planning. As July got hotter and hotter, my zest for planning waned and waned. But with a whole day stretched before me, I knew I needed to get something accomplished.

Can you say “avoidance”? I wasted a bunch of time convincing myself that I needed a new planner. (Insert eye roll here.) Last year I used this planner from Homeschool Creations and it changed my homeschooling for the better. I loved that my plans were so crisp, neat and easy to follow. On this Sunday afternoon, however, I was doing everything not to start the painstaking process of filling in all those little boxes: chores, main lesson, movement, art, handwork, reading, etc, etc, etc. I thought to myself, “If I just have a newer, better, bigger, prettier planner, my planning would be so much easier.” (Insert another eye roll here.) Luckily, I am a member of Melisa Nielsen’s Thinking, Feeling, Willing program. Whenever I need a good kick in the butt, Melisa is my go-to girl. I downloaded her planning intensive audio onto my iPhone, closed the computer, took the dog for a nice long walk, and got back on track. Melisa is able to break down planning into manageable steps and also provide the inspiration I needed to keep going. I have talked before about what a great value I think this program is and I recommend it wholeheartedly. Anyway, my planner is fine, and I would recommend it too.

Melisa advocates beginning with your rhythm, and I would agree. I thought about our rhythm last year – but that is not going to work this year with both boys in the grades. Adding another main lesson into the mix is  . . . well . . . adding another main lesson into the mix. The boys and I are used to a rather lengthy and relaxed morning that usually includes cooking an elaborate second breakfast before school. This year, I want (Party) Dad to be in charge of getting something substantial into their stomachs before he leaves for work. This is not what we are used to, so I am trying to begin to phase it in now. I have been working with the nuts and bolts our day and have an initial take on our rhythm below.

Tentative Rhythm

  • 9:00 Boys dressed
  • 9:30 Walk
  • 10:00 Circle Time (Verses, Finger Plays, Tongue Twisters, Foot Work); Light Candle/Opening Verse/Poetic Recitation
  • 10:30 Jude (Grade 1) Main Lesson (Vincent prepares snack, does math practice and/or chores)
  • 11:00 Snack
  • 11:15 Vincent (Grade 5) Main Lesson (Jude does chores, sets table for lunch and free time)
  • 12:30 Lunch/Play
  • 1:30 Handwork/Art/Extra Lesson
  • 3:00 Read Aloud
  • 4:00 Free time until dinner

How’s your planning coming along during these dog days of summer? Leave a link and tell us all about it.