Leadership Education & Our Outdoor Classroom

 
Schoolhouses are made wrong. If they must be, they should be built in a woods pasture beside a stream, where you could wade, swim, and be comfortable in summer, and slide and skate in winter. The windows should be cut to the floor, and stand wide open, so the birds and butterflies could pass through. You ought to learn your geography by climbing a hill, walking through a valley, wading creeks, making islands in them, and promontories, capes and peninsulas along the bank. You should do your arithmetic sitting under trees adding hickory-nuts, subtracting walnuts, multiplying butternuts, and dividing hazelnuts. You could use apples for fractions, and tin cups for liquid measure...

~Laddie, A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter

This is one of the most inspiring books I've read recently.  It speaks of a young girl's love of nature, natural love of learning and exemplifies beautiful ways of mentoring children within a family.  I'll be thinking about this book for a long time and coming back to it often for inspiration.

This book and many others are assigned books in a certification for Leadership Education also called  a Thomas Jefferson Education. I'm working on this certification with a friend and it's been so much fun!  We are reading all the texts, listening to audios and discussing it each step of the way, matching each others progress and what a gift it has been! We are both inspired in many of the same ways in regards to home education. We both love literature, nature and allowing our children's inspiration to guide us.

A big part of Leadership education is mentoring, not teaching.  I found so much inspiration in Laddie, here is one example of the father in Laddie, mentoring his children.

He is always watching, observing, studying: the earth, the stars, growing things: he never comes to a meal but he has seen something that he has or will study out for all of us.  There never has been one day in our home which he did not read a new interesting article from book or paper; work out a big problem, or discuss some phase of politics, religion, or war.  Sometimes there has been a little of all of it in one day, always reading, spelling, and memory exercises at night. 

In this way, learning at home becomes less about Mom or Dad coming up with lessons for their children, (although that happens in Leadership Education too).  But it's more of providing an environment that is in itself educational.  It means that the parents are committed to their own education and work to understand the world around them and having that process be very visible to the children.  This is the part of Leadership Education that is most exciting to me right now.  It gives me the permission to continue my education at home. Those of us that have been through public school and/or college often get the idea that education is for school and when school is done "real life" begins and education is over.  In this method, the parents continuing to learn and grow is paramount.  Finally I can give myself permission, and not feel it's a luxury, to read all the classics I've always wanted to read, sharing my interests and excitement along the way and in this way being an important example to my kids.

So, in our schooling we have been reading many classic books to the boys.  My friend and I started a classic book club for homeschooling parents and children.  We read classics and then discuss them at home and then with the group at the park.  The kids, ages 4-9, discuss the books with us, then run off and play.  Sometimes we notice aspects of the book come out in their play. We don't require them to discuss the book. We try to inspire them by asking what their favorite or least favorite character is, favorite part of the story, etc. Often the parents have in depth discussion while the kids are off playing & that is ok with us.  The valuable part is in reading, enjoying and discussing it at home as a family.  My son Michael exclaimed, "Mom, Alina knows ALL the books we know!"  It's definitely a very special thing for him.

One of the books we recently read was, "Little Britches", in it there is a major tragedy within the family.  Originally I thought, no way will I read that part to my son.  Michael is so sensitive, I knew it would be hard for him to hear it and hard for me to read it to him.  After much thought I did read it to him. I cried through most of it and so did he. That book changed us. We found such empathy for "Little Britches" and his family.  Michael insisted we buy the next book right away.  I could tell he wanted to make sure the boy would be alright. At the beginning of the book the little boy is 8 years old and helps take care of his family.  This had such an effect on Michael.  He began to feel more capable of tasks around the house he previously had not felt capable of doing. So, Classic books have become our teachers.  They teach us morality, compassion and so much more. 

We've also been letting the boys lead learning with their interests.  They both love to learn about insects. We've gotten books from the library on butterflies, dragonflies, leaches, spiders, ants and more.  Owen is very interested in cacti and so we've studied them and bought him one to take care of and watch grow.

I often joke about our outdoor classroom for backyard Science.  We are always finding things to observe and study and research in our yard.  One day we had a box turtle come to our front door to visit us. We learned all about her that day. 



Another day we noticed a hummingbird who was building her nest about 8 feet above in our pine tree.  We have watched her build her nest, lay eggs, hatch them & now are watching her babies grow.  This is Lovely, the Mama, and her babies Lucy & Ruckus. 

 

 

 

What a fantastic learning experience it has been.  Shortly after the eggs hatched we found a hummingbird book at a going out of business sale, 45% off. We were able to identify her as a Black-chinned hummingbird. She has a beautiful greenish back in the sunlight. The males have a black chin that appears violet in the sunlight.  We are hoping one of the babies is a male, so we can see their bright colors. Then we found a book at the library all about hummingbird stories & legends.

It seems that life can and will take over teaching our kids if we let it.  It just takes an open & willing heart.  Our "Science class" is not from a textbook.  It doesn't follow a logical, by the book order.  It follows the pattern of life in our own backyard, of seasons, our own questions and circumstance.  It's real life unit study and we love it! 

Until next time...

If only, If only...

Between home school and my MamaWestWind business life is full to overflowing at the moment. Plus our Papa is working almost non-stop since he received a promotion.  We are so grateful for the promotion but, wow, has it ever been a transition.  For years we've thought, "if only, if only...".  You know what I mean, "If only we could (insert your own if only here), then everything would be perfect".  We've learned a lesson that there really is no "if only".  "If only" is just a distraction from the present.  Your dream can come true and yet life with all its issues does not suddenly stop and turn perfect.  No, I'm really seeing that life is NOW.  All those times we dreamed about "if only" we weren't really living in the NOW and experiencing the good here in this moment.  We were living in a future that wasn't even real.  Ha!  It's one of those lessons that I've heard and read about before yet I really didn't fully understand until I experienced it.  I'm grateful for the lesson and the reminder to stay present.  (That's not the easiest thing for me.)  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't dream.  Dreaming is good but it can become a distraction, even a destructive thing if we're not appreciating the present.  It's so important to be grateful for the good in life right now.

So a little update on life around here. We had a simple Michaelmas.  We made our candle, designed by Michael and we light it every evening.  Certainly, the light of Saint Michael's sword has been shining and pointing out the dragons I need to slay, as evidenced in the above experience.

 

In an effort to keep my sanity in motherhood and home school, we occasionally take a mud pie day off, or a time to clean the house day.  It's similar to a teachers prep day at school, a break to prepare or cut loose!  On this day the boys made a whole mud city with a bridge, castle, moat and a whole story that went with it.  They were fascinated by the way the water flowed around it.  They played this for hours and who was I to argue with such creative play.  They loved it. I loved it and took the extra time for inner work.  

 

We've been enjoying the last of the garden.  The Morning Glories we planted in honor of my Gramma, are spectacular.  We also made a tepee and planted beans and peas awhile ago.  We wanted to see how far they might climb before it gets too cold.  Not too far at the moment.  We're excited to plant around it next Spring.

I'm enjoying home school so much more now.  For some time Michael had been floundering in reading and started to dislike it.  This year we began a reading program called, All About Reading, and it's been like a magic elixir to the problem.  Michael is improving now by leaps and bounds, gaining confidence and enjoying it.  It's so wonderful to see. 

Owen is excited to do his bit of "school" too.  So much so that he motivates me to get going in the morning.  I love his infectious enthusiasm.  Both the boys are beyond excited about Halloween of course.  Owen has been making little scarecrows all over the house & outside.

In my shop, I've mostly been working on Fall items.  Here are a few.  

Well, if you're still with me friends, thank you!  What have you been up to lately?

Until next time...

Home School Rocks!

Another year of home school has begun for us!  This is our fourth year homeschooling.  Our style this year is an eclectic mix of curricula and materials, classic children's literature with a heavy influence of Waldorf rhythm, focus on nature, arts & crafts and festivals. 

We've begun this year with so much enthusiasm! It's nice to feel this excited about home school after such a challenging year last year (for me). This past spring I wasn't even sure I wanted to continue and we put Michael's name into a lottery for a really good charter school in our area. As soon as I gained a sense of peace about homeschooling, Michael did get into the charter school. It was offered to him just a few days ago. I went to meet with the teacher and realized through the process that he is one lucky boy to be able to work at his own pace at home.  Reading has not come easily for him, so we are using All About Reading this year.  He really enjoys it and it's nice to see marked improvement. So, we happily gave up his spot at the charter school and have realized truly how fortunate we are to be following our own path.

I haven't been able to keep 4 year old Owen happy with drawing or playing while we work, so he is doing "school" too this year and having so much fun with it.  He can't seem to get enough. His excitement is boundless and contagious.  He still does not quite understand when it's his brother's turn, so I'm working on finding quiet things for him to do while we work.  I'm thinking some of that pumpkin pie spiced play dough is in order.  We will be doing a Fall circle time, my boys have insisted!  I'm so excited to pull out the songs we sang last year and the before and the year before that, they are like old friends now that come to visit each year. 

I feel much more at home with our eclectic home school style now.  I feel like I'm finding my groove as a teacher & even that balance between formal school and child-led interest.  It feels so good to be letting go of the things that do not work for us and embracing the things that do! 

Until next time...

Please read this post as simply our experience, our journey in schooling and not a judgment call on any form of schooling.  I truly believe there are infinite ways & methods of learning both at home and in a school building.  There is no one right and perfect way.

Saint Francis & the Saints Block

Our first block this year in second grade is on the Saints.  This is a block that I was unsure about when I first began to learn about 2nd grade in Waldorf.  Why learn about the saints I wondered?  Catholicism is not my spiritual path though I see the beauty and meaning in all religions & faith &amp. So trusting Waldorf & it's approach I set off to learn more.

I decided to look up a book recommended by my curriculum, Waldorf Essentials. My Life with the Saints is such a beautiful & personal book about what the Saints mean to author James Martin.  He talks about how he first "meets" or learns of each one of the Saints. This is not a dry look at history but a personal, inside view of what the Saints mean to him. I also found, The Lessons of Saint Francis, by John Michael Talbot, very helpful.  This book was even more spiritually meaningful to me then My Life with the Saints.  It talks about how to apply to our lives the spiritual qualities that Francis expressed. Through these books and reading the Saint stories in my curriculum I grew comfortable with and excited to teach this block.  The way I see it learning of the Saints is simply learning about lives that are devoted to higher good.  Each one of them has something beautiful to offer at a time when developmentally our children are learning how to place good first and foremost in their lives. These are examples of lives filled with meaning, compassion & love. I'm ecstatic to bring these examples to my son.

Some children's books I've found helpful in learning about Saint Francis are the following...

Franicis, The Poor Man of Assissi by Tomie De Paola,
Brother Sun, Sister Moon by Margaret Mayo,
Saint Francis of Assisi, A Life of Joy by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Saint Francis Sings to Brother Sun, A Celebration of His Kinship wwith Nature, selected and retold by Karen Pandell

Michael and I read together Tomie De Paola's book after our week of hearing lesson stories from our curriculum.  We read selected stories form Saint Francis Sings to Brother Sun.  The illustrations in that book by Bhou Le Tord are lovely, very folk like, simple & beautiful.  We liked looking though the pictures and reading what we felt inspired to read.  The others I read on my own in preparation.

We really enjoyed making our drawings of Saint Francis. They centered around the story of Saint Francis rebuilding a church.  We drew the figure of Saint Francis together and then we each created the backgrounds and other elements in the drawing on our own. Our favorite stories were those of St. Francis joyfully preaching to the birds & animals.  St. Francis exuded qualities of love, compassion, gentleness, & joyfulness.  We see many Saint Francis statues about our community and now they have so much more meaning to us.

This block also gave us opportunities to talk more about our own spiritual beliefs.  On to Fables next week.

Until next time...

Our First week...

This week marks the beginning of Michael's second grade year!  As I said in a previous post I decided to hold off on school until the weather cooled a bit. I find the summer heat exhausting and starting school in the middle of that did not sound fun to me.  So we waited for our Autumn creativity burst and though it's still quite warm outside, Autumn is in the air. 

For our first day Michael found a welcome to second grade card on the nature table.  Michael was also thrilled to spy a few new surprise supplies on our home school shelf.  We made our favorite pumpkin, clove & chocolate chip muffins to start the day.

We began a new circle time, including lots of fun Michaelmas verses for Michael & Owen. Owen is especially enjoying our journey in verse to find the dragon! 

We started with a review of our letters, both capital and lower case.  I was impressed to see Michael flying through our lesson, thrilled to be back to the business of letters and reading.  We played this matching game on our second day.  I made the cards from some thick, textured paper &  crayons.

We learned about Saint George & the dragon.  Michael didn't care for the dragon's head being chopped off.

Here is Michael's dragon drawing.

Mommy's dragon, which came out much more sweetly then I had at first imagined.

In the afternoon Michael was gifted his new handwork basket and was very excited to begin his castle knitting.  He picked it up so fast and finished his rainbow snake by the end of the day.  We spoke often about patience and learning to set his work down when he grew frustrated.  It was a fantastic will building experience for him.  Michael just seems ready this year. 

I can't imagine a better first week.  My only complaint is that we're having sibling issues.  My 3 year old Owen is pushing to get equal attention at lesson time. No more does he wander of content to play, he barely did that last year but this year there's a whole new dynamic going on and it's taken me by surprise, oddly enough.  I thought having a circle time & story geared mostly to his age might fill him up and give us time to work on main lesson, however, he's having none of that. I try to include him as much as possible but main lesson is a challenge. Michael is growing resentful of his time being encroached upon and it's hard for him to concentrate with a talkative Owen by our side.  Next week I will try making some play dough for him and see how we fair.  Sage advice is very much appreciated. 

Until next time...

Our small school space...what would laura say?

Someday I hope to have a cozy, light filled room solely devoted to our school lessons.  I imagine a wooden book shelf for school books, a beautiful cabinet for art & handwork supplies, a long farm table & chairs, a cozy reading chair with a silk draped over it, maybe a storytelling space, hard wood floors, cozy rag rugs & painted warm and inviting.  Yes, I can imagine it. 

But at the moment our school space is in fact our kitchen table.  And our kitchen table is in our living room!  We have a small home that we absolutely love (mostly).  There are times when clearing the table for the millionth time that day, ok maybe the 8th time makes me a little nutty.  It's those times when I take a deep breath and remember Laura Ingall's & envision her & Mary or Ma clearing the table for the 8th time that day.  I fancy myself a frontier mama and this lovely little daydream helps me to clear the table with love and appreciation & not frustration. That is, sometimes, other times I just do the job in frustration!

Laura and her stories are helping me to think lately about chores and small spaces.  Recently I read a bit about wash day in Laura's home.  It described boiling water on the stove, soaking, beating the clothes, washing again, rinsing and drying outside (even in winter).  I thought, wow, if they can do all that, surely I can have a wash day where I wash and put away all our clothes, emphasis on PUT AWAY! All with the help of our modern, easy washer and dryer, right?

I envision Laura or Ma coming in to my house with all the laundry piled on the couch and gasping at the site of it, because you know it sits there for a few days often, ugh.

"Wash on Monday,

Iron on Tuesday,

Mend on Wednesday,

Churn on Thursday,

Clean on Friday,

Bake on Saturday,

Rest on Sunday.”

Yes, a cleaning rhythm is really needed here.  My house is usually either perfectly clean or perfectly trashed.  There is little in between. Is this just the fate of small spaces?  Here is our home school space nice and tidied up.

To the right of our kitchen table is our bookshelf.  I have 2 shelves devoted to Waldorf books and art supplies.  Over the chalk board is the alphabet that I really need to darken up with colored pencils I think. 

On top of our shelf is our painting caddy that I wood burned & painted from a thrifted garden caddy. I've still yet to make some painting boards (maybe a project for this year).  The basket has some felt inside and two birds sitting on top. 

On the second shelf is our crayon caddy, colored pencils, math gnomes, alphabet cards & chalk. I've tried to set it up as beautifully as I can to inspire & motivate us.

Behind our table is the living room fireplace and glass shelving.  I would love to replace the glass with wood at some point.  There I have our little nature table and underneath a basket of curriculum & main lesson books.  Underneath that is our library basket and a seasonal book basket.  I've found all our baskets at thrift stores and a discount store I love.

Our end of the summer nature table here.  It's still so hot here that summer sunshine is filling our table.  There's also a cactus bone we found on a hike as well as a pod and blossom in the bowl at the front. 

Our space is small but cozy.  It drives me crazy to clean and a moment later, clean again but we make it work.  What would Laura say?  I think she'd tell us our space is plenty big and that we have too much stuff!  We start school in a couple of weeks, I'm waiting for it to cool down a bit here.  My Autumn energy burst has yet to arrive.  I plan to take these next couple of weeks to clear out all the nooks & crannies, get a few last things planned and stock my shop. 

Do you struggle with a cleaning rhythm?  What works for you?  & what does your home school space look like?  Please link up in the comments, I would love to see. 

By the way, Happy Labor Day!  I have a sale going on at my MamaWestWind shop for today only!  Click here to learn more about it.  Until next time...

Planning Second Grade...

So the past couple of weeks I have been planning our Waldorf Inspired Second Grade!  I was too excited to get my new planner.  I bought it on sale at Target and I love the animals on the cover and how it jives with 2nd grade animal tales & Fables!  I also had to buy a coordinating notebook for all my notes. Yes, I'm a nerd like that.  It's always so much fun to plan.  It's when I get to implementing my plans that I struggle.  So this is my inner work for this year-  Stick-to-itiveness.

There were some things that I didn't get to last year.  So this year we will try knitting & music.  It should be fun and lots of learning for us both.  I'm enjoying reading about Festivals with "Celebrating Festivals with Children" by Freya Jaffke.  I'm also thinking about how I can introduce some fun things for my little Owen.  I'm looking for stories, verses & finger plays for him.  I want to find ways to keep him happy while Michael & I work. 

I've started Melisa Nielsen's program called Thinking, Feeling, Willing which is Waldorf Home school teacher training.  It's really helping me to think deeply about our rhythm right now.  I'll be restructuring and working to get to the bottom of some of my aversions to rhythm and routine.  Why oh why do I fight it?!  There's so much right now that I'm thinking about and mulling over.  It feels like good work, needed work to progress with our homeschooling.   I struggle with a sense of weighty "RESPONSIBILITY" when it comes to my son's learning.  I'm trying to let that feeling go and just trust. 

How are you doing homeschoolers?  Are you already planned?  What are you working on right now for your school year?

Until next time...

Yarn Along... & confession

I must confess the last time I posted with Yarn Along... I didn't finish my project. (Shh, don 't tell!)  Not that anyone cares, lol!  I'm a beginning knitter and I tackled a project that was too hard for me.  (From a kid's knitting book!)  Ah, well.  This time I'm sticking to what I know.  I'm making a cell phone case.  I'll finish knitting this then felt it and sew it together.  I made one a few years ago for my Mom and a friend and always meant to make one for myself and never have.

I'm reading my second grade curriculum, A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling Grade 2.  I'm starting to get revved up to plan.  I'll soon be joining Melisa's Thinking, Feeling, Willing program and can't wait!  I'm sure it will get me inspired and I know I'll learn so much.

Also, we're reading the Little House series over again.  My son Michael, loves it more then ever and little Owen loves to look at the pictures.  This week we rented the Little House on the Prairie Disney dvd series.  I love watching it and knitting while the kiddos sleep at night.  It's been my little get away.  I have to say there is much about this series that I really dislike. Like Laura & Mary do not wear bonnets!?  Caroline very rarely has her hair up.  Don't even get me started on how they dramatized the wolf & cat scenes.  However it does a lovely job of catching the spirit of Pa & Laura's wanderlust as well as Charles & Caroline's love for one another.  Not to mention the hardships & beauty of Pioneer life as well as the plight and clash between the Pioneer & native peoples.  Anyway, I've found it a fun watch based on it's own merits. 

So reading about & watching Pioneer times while I knit a cell phone case?  Ironic?  What are you knitting & reading?

Caterpillars...

I mentioned in one of my last posts that our Hollyhocks were covered with caterpillars.  They were black at first and then got bigger and fatter and lighter colored.  I did some reading on Hollyhocks and found out that an infestation of caterpillars could kill them.

I was trying to identify them online to see if they were butterflies or moths.  Ha ha, have you ever tried to do this?  There are a million pics of caterpillars and a bunch of sites to identify them.  It was information overload and it went no where.  My sweet little boy suggested we read his butterfly book to find out what they were.  Right away we read that moths often make this webbing around them, the same webbing we'd been seeing all over our hollyhock.  Hurray for good old fashioned books!  There is no replacing them.

So, we starting plucking the caterpillars off the Hollyhock and putting them in a big pickle jar.  We must have pulled 30 of them off.  We added our half eaten leaves from the Hollyhock to their new home. 

 Our friends came over and Michael & Morgan had a blast divvying them up and watching them pig out on leaves.  

Morgan has since made a business of it.  He made a box with tin foil on top and a peep hole and has been sitting outside of his house charging $1.00 for a look.  Not to buy, just a look. (lol)  Last I heard, he's made $2.00.  Not bad for his first business! 

We've lost a few caterpillars but many have turned to chrysalis.  We can't wait to see what they look like when they finally break free.  This has been such a fun learning experience for the boys. They've been studying them all week.  There's no better learning then good old fashioned books and hands on experience. 

Until next time...