Starting our Journey.

We started out main lessons today. We are on a 3 day main lesson schedule. Monday's are co-op, Tuesday though Thursday are main lessons and Friday is finishing anything we need to get done and park day.

I started by drawing this before she got up. This is a picture depicting a part in our container story. It's about a boy and a girl who are asked by the fairy queen to help her break a spell on a kingdom. They will have to go on 3 quests learning new things as the go along. What we are doing the next two weeks is getting ready  for the quests. 

We stared our day again with a walk counting to 100. Then some yoga with the book "You are a lion" which F already told me she knew the title, then read it to me. She is doing good reading. Then we had circle and main lesson time. We made magical wands that will help us write our forums, letters and numbers in the air. 

   

Then we talked about our first forms which are line and curve. I showed her what the forms where, she made them with the braided yarn and walked them. 

Then she drew it next to mine. It took a few times to get her to draw a curve and not a circle missing a little. :) 

So we read our main lesson story then ended our morning lessons. When playing out side I drew the line and curve line in chalk and F walked, skipped and ran them. 

After that F pointed out all the lines and curves we had out side. 

I love this one she was super excited to find 2 on the tree, the bottom trunk being a straight line and the branches making curves. 

Then for afternoon lessons we painted.

We are learning how to use watercolor paints on wet paper. So our first lesson was yellow circles 

The method we are using has me paint right next to her, which is awesome cause I learn something new too. I actually practice before, a few weeks ago so I know what I am doing when I show her. Here is my painting. 

They are a bit hard to see. These are hers, she wanted to do two cause you could not see circles in the first one. 

Then we got ready for our journey by making a ball with our yarn. During our journey (with the story) we will be knitting things to keep us warm in the winter. It's a great hand eye coordination task and calms our minds. We also listen to our favorite sparkle stories as we do this. Here is her yarn ball. She wants to make a bunny out of it. It's an easy knit square and you sew it into a bunny. I made one for A, for her birthday.

That's the end of our day. Dinner is cooking (red beans and rice cause it's Tuesday) and then getting ready for bed, story (we are reading the Rainbow Fairies we are on the 2nd book Orange) and passing out! 

See you tomorrow.

First Day of First Grade!

So today starts our first day!! 

It started light, because we had co-op at 11. First I got everything ready for our day. 

I did the chalk board to match what we are doing today. Which is co-op herbs. We are using the herb root zines that come with herb fairies. The month is Elderberry. 

Daddy helped with the chalk board to use with the photos this morning. 

This is our circle time basket. Today it has everything so I can show her what we will be doing this month. Right now it has 2 recorders, her yarn and kitting needles, rhythm sticks, block and stick crayons, bean bags, dancing ribbon and our circle time songs and verses. (I for got the silks)

We made a rhythm clock to put in her room, it's marked in different colors for when things are happening. At 8 she can come out of the room and start her day, any time before that she gets up and gets ready, she can also play. At 8 is breakfast and chores. 9 to 11 is morning lessons. 11-1 is out side play and lunch time. 1-3 is afternoon lessons. 3-5 is free time or out of the house activities. 5 is dinner, 6-8 we get ready and go to bed. She picked out all the colors and was next to me the whole time we made it as I explained what every thing meant. 

When she came down she was already dresses and excited, a little early but it's ok. I gave her her rose and showed her around. She had breakfast and a photo op! 

After that we did some Yoga and went for a walk while counting to 100. We came back home and did our first circle time. She thought it was fun. 

While waiting to leave to co-op she played out side and found a friend a pill-bug, or we call them rolly polly. 

We went to the co-op and had fun learning about elderberry. I don't have pictures right now. It was a little crazy, a friend took photos, so I will post when I get them. 

Edited to add photos I received from a friend at the co-op. The kids had fun learning about elderberry. We took these for documenting purposes. These are the kids making elderberry syrup, to take for when you get a cold. First one of the adults told them a story about an elder tree, while two adults (one being me lol) acted it out. Next time they will act it out, while an adult reads it. Then the last time the kids will act it out on there own.

Count down!

We are counting down the days until school! I think A got to the board, lol.

A few of our friends birthdays were on Friday, so I had F and the girls that I watch make some cards for them. I wrote this on the board to help with spellings. 

Here is F with her card. 

We went to the parade in town, celebrating the start of the fair. I thought I would get a little chalk board practice in before we went. 

Here is F watching a friend of ours son in the band. 

A and I just watching everything go by.

After the parade I finished up my planning till December. Except for "nature season weeks" which are really holiday weeks lol. Like I have the Autumn Equinox week free, it's also A's birthday week, then Halloween week is open for prepping for Halloween/Samhain and Dia de Los Mueros. Then we are doing regular lessons thanksgiving week, because we don't really celebrate it. Then in December I have two winter weeks open, for Winter solstice/Yule and Christmas holidays. I am also doing 2 weeks in March for spring, Spring equinox, Easter and F's birthday. So our nature focused season weeks are really holidays that we still have learning, but not main lessons. 

Well we start the 31 and I will post what I can when I can. The first two weeks are form drawing, this site can explain form drawing better than I can.The Waldorf Connection

Beginning our homeschool trek.

Making this a private blog for my family and friends to visit and see what we do on our homeschool days. We are a Waldorf inspired homeschool family, we also toss in "living books" and Montessori practices when we feel it. At the moment I am just planning out everything, trying to hammer out all the details. I am hoping to get all my planning done before the weekend, so we can enjoy the last week of summer!