The Firefly Files

Ancient India Block

Firefly — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:47:53 +0000

Wow, we had a really busy second semester, and I just didn’t have the time to blog about it! Before we get back into it in September, I wanted to record a bit of what we did. Our two main blocks for the semester were Ancient India and Ancient Greece. First up, our Ancient India Block. Lots of stories, myths, and art in this one! The Peeps really enjoyed submerging themselves in the culture of India. The Mahabharata for Children and Bhagavad-Gita. They memorized the Gayatri Mantra, and learned to write their names in Sanskrit. We learned about Hinduism and Hindu gods and goddesses, as well as the religion of Buddhism and the life of Siddhartha. We also studied discoveries in math and science from this time and place in history. It was a rich and satisfying study!

Some chalkboard drawings for copywork…

Chalkboard Mandala

Karma Spiral (apologies for the poor quality!)

And some excerpts from their Main Lesson Books:

Here are a few of links we found useful:

Science, Medicine & Technology in Ancient India

India & Astronomy

India’s Great Civilization- Gr. 6

More Astronomy in Ancient India

Sanskrit Alphabet

The Bhagavad Gita for Kids

The Gayatri Mantra

Ancient India Plan of Study Gr. 6

Next up, Ancient Greece! I hope to get to that this weekend. Stay tuned.

Catching Up

Firefly — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:53:00 +0000

Well, we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus! Though we officially started back with schoolwork this week, I haven’t quite put everything together to do a weekly report. Instead I wanted to check in and post a few pictures from our 2010 Yule celebration. This year we made cranberry, popcorn, and peanut garlands to hang on the bird feeders in addition to preparing a solstice cave and enjoying our delicious Midwinter Bread. Here are some highlights:

Bounty for the Birds

Midwinter Bread

New Additions for Our Winter Nature Table

Solstice Cave

I love the simplicity of litte brown paper parcels, wrapped with pretty yarn

Festive Back Porch

Courtyard Entrance in Back of House, Decked Out for Yule!

Bringing Home the Yule Tree

Hard to believe we had absolutely NO snow on the ground on the solstice! This was our solstice cave last year:

But we’ve more than made up for it since; there is at least a foot on the ground at the moment. Anyway, that’s it for now; I’ve also updated the Needles page with current projects and pictures of some of my Yule gifts. Hope everyone’s Holidays were merry and bright!

Weekly Report 12.10.10

Firefly — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:47:24 +0000

This review is either reeeeeeaaally early or reeeeeeeaaaally late, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, we are finishing up this week and preparing for Winter Break. The Peeps have really enjoyed this Native American block. They wanted to continue right through to break, so that’s what we did. Tomorrow is our last “official” day of the semester, but we’re planning on finishing up some things –not doing anything new. So it’s safe to say were done and show some examples of the last part of the block:

We learned about Native American moons and created our own calendars. Each month we marked the full moons with their names, and drew a picture to illustrate:

March- The Full Sap Moon

January- The Full Wolf Moon

We learned about the Iroqouis tribe as we spent the last couple of weeks reading and illustrating tales from The Boy Who Lived With Bears and Other Iroquois tales.

"The Boy Who Lived With Bears" (and copywork page)

Two Native American Poems (copywork)

"How Birds Got Their Feathers"

Peep #2

Peep #1

A book report from Peep #2 on the novel Birchbark House, and one from Peep #1 on the book Black Elk’s Vision. Also some Eastern Woodland tribal designs that they copied from my chalkboard drawing. We used these symbols to make a Pequot game called “Hub-bub”:

MLB snapshot

My Chalkboard Drawing (sorry for the poor quality!)

Sawing the chips for Hub-bub

Peep #1's Turn

The Finished Game!

This game is actually fun– the Peeps have played it several times since we made it. I think it will get a lot of use!

We read a story about corn– “How Corn Came to Be” (Earthschooling) and had a corresponding form drawing lesson:

We also tried our hands at making simple tools like the ones we’d seen at the museum:

Simple Tools

And finally, we ended our block with making basic dream catchers!

Dream Catchers

Peep #2 was learning about square roots in her Math lesson this week, and I came up with this idea to help her remember. It worked!

Square "Roots"

This would have been a great tie-in to the Botany Block!

More math for Peep #2 (Peep #1 continued with his Saxon):

Tanagrams- she created the design with her pieces and copied.

Geometry Lesson

And finally– since we’re spending so much time on verb tenses for grammar and it can be a little dry, I had them create “verb tense suns” to help them practice the infinitive form and various tenses. Here’s an example:

Verb "Suns"

That’s about it! Since we are off until January, I won’t be posting weekly reports, but I do plan to post now and then on the different crafty things we’re working on for the holidays. Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful time of year!

Wordless Wednesday 12.1.10- Bell, Book, & Candle

Firefly — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:22:16 +0000

Ready for School!

Two Week Review, 11.19.10

Firefly — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:28:58 +0000

Busy couple of weeks! Our little cat Luna came home with a broken leg a couple of weeks ago and that has been taking up a lot of our time. We’re also nursing a sick hen… when it rains, it pours! But here’s a little taste of what we’ve been up to in our Native American block:

Still reading lots of stories and making illustrations:

Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back

Should be, "The First StrawberrIES"!

The turtle activity didn’t come out as I’d hoped. The crumpled paper is supposed to give the illusion of water. To me it just looks like, well… crumpled paper!

We also read about Sitting Bull:

Sitting Bull

And explored the world of Navajo blankets in conjunction with their weaving projects. Peep #1 sketched out a design he’d like to try. A bit advanced at the moment, but he’ll get there!

Navajo Blanket Design

We’ve been reading/listening to Native American poetry:

From Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back

More Poems...

And for copywork writing about different culture areas:

Native Americans in the Northwest

Learned more about sage and its healing properties:

Sacred Sage

The Peeps also made wrapped feathers for smudging. Plenty of chicken feathers in the hen house to choose from! The ends were wrapped in leather cord:

Wrapped Feathers

We discovered the meaning of many of our local landmarks (streets, rivers, towns, etc) and learned a few words in the Pequot language.

Peep #2's Sun and Moon

Pumpkins and other squash were vital to Native American culture in our area (along with beans and corn), so Peep #2 used pastels to draw a whimsical pumpkin patch in her art class this week:

Pumpkin Patch

On Thursday we went on a field trip to our local Native American Museum. This is one of the best museums we’ve been to! They have an entire Pequot village exhibit you can walk through and see every aspect of daily life while you listen to the audio guide (hand held) describe and explain each scene. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the museum. But we took a couple outside and from the observation tower.

Pequot Museum

On Friday we rose early to see the morning star, then read an Iroquois tale called “So Son Do Wah and the Morning Star”. We discussed Venus as the morning and evening star,

Peep #1's Morning Star Illustration

We’ve also been listening to Native American music (drumming chants and flute primarily) whenever we’re in the car or doing quiet work and especially when they’re weaving.

Finally fished up our fall banner, too. I really love the way this came out! We’re going to do one for Yule as well.

Autumn Banner

This coming week is a short one for school, so I will probably combine it with next week’s report. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!

Not Entirely Wordless Wednesday 11.10.10

Firefly — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:43:24 +0000

After-school tea time. We try to make time for this every day; it’s a nice way to end our school time. Homemade banana bread, home-grown peppermint tea, and our own raw honey are on today’s menu.

Stylish Blogger Award

Firefly — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:14:02 +0000

Wow! A very big thankyou to Is over at Snowflakes in the Valley for sending me blog props in the form of the Stylish Blog award. I’m extremely flattered! Okay, so in accordance with award rules, here are seven things about me:

*I really dislike the word “crisp”

*Purple is my favorite color

*I once helped the director block a shot by standing in for Gillian Anderson on the X-Files set (we are the same height/size)

*I’m Pagan, but I love Christmas carols! LOL

*I have been known to laugh inappropriately at tender scenes in movies

*I am painfully shy

*I’m currently reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the 5th time

And here are the blogs I’ve decided to pass on the Stylish award to, in no particular order. I’ve found inspiration at each and every one of them, and hope you will too!

Blue Skies and Dragonflies

I’m Nobody! Who Are You?

Now is the Best Time

Bright Sky Six

Schooling From the Heart

Ancient Hearth

Natural Suburbia

Tiny Owl Knits

Weekly Review 11.5.10

Firefly — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 15:57:52 +0000

It was a lighter-than-usual week. On Tuesday we took the day off as Peep #2 spent the day with her best friend who was celebrating her 12th birthday. They went to the movies, out to lunch, for ice cream, and then enjoyed visiting before we had to rush home for karate. Then, on Thursday, another of Peep #2′s friend’s mom needed help with child care so we had her for the day. We did do a little work that morning though, and in the afternoon they had their monthly class on Ecosystems at our local nature center (science!).

Anyway, this week we started a new 3-week block on Native American culture. I’m really excited about this block, though at the same time it’s a little overwhelming- there is SO much out there! I’m taking a deep breath and trying to keep in mind the whole-to-parts philosophy of Waldorf educators. We’ll learn about Native Americans by focusing on their stories, myths and legends, while also touching on the more specific aspects of daily life. To that end, I’ve compiled a bunch of resources that I’ve found from book and internet sources. Here’s a picture of some of the books we’ll be using:

Some of the Resources We're Using

In addition, we will be drawing on activities from these websites: Native Tech, Teacher’s First, and this neat site.

We’ll be learning about Native Americans in a more general sense at first, and then during the second or third (and possibly fourth) weeks will focus on our local Native culture, which is fortunately rich in resources. So, this week we did some map work concentrating on the overall picture of different tribes in the U.S. (I want to cover Mexico and Canada separately).

Map of Basic Classifications

Slightly More Detailed Map They Copied Into Their Books

Peep #2's Work in Progress

We compared different Native American dwellings, and spent a lot of time reading and illustrating stories and myths, for example, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky and Coyote and the Magic Words:

Coyote and the Magic Words

The Woman Who Fell From the Sky

Native American Dwellings

Some of the stories I chose are geared for children a little younger than my Peeps, but I decided to include them anyway for their simple message and especially for the beautiful illustrations. Conversely books like this one may be a tad advanced for Peep #2, but it’s good to have them stretch their minds a bit!

For activities we bought a loom from Magic Cabin and learned how to weave. However, I didn’t anticipate needing two, so while Peep #2 got started on her tapestry, Peep #1 learned how to make a loom from cardboard.

Working the Loom

Warping a Cardboard Loom

The cardboard loom is definitely trickier to work than the “real” one; I may have to see if I can find another at one of the second hand stores.

We learned about Native American ceremonies and used a smudge stick. The smudge stick itself wasn’t new to the Peeps as I make and use my own. And last year, we experienced an authentic Native American burial ceremony when the husband of an acquaintance passed away. It was very moving. Smudging was a part of that ceremony too, and now we did some ourselves.

Using a Smudge Stick

Next week we’ll learn more about the herb sage, and it’s importance to many Native Americans.

We read some Native American poetry and for a copywork exercise they copied out one of the poems:

Tewa Poem & Story Narration (Osage)

(And yeah, we had a minor catastrophe and had to rip out a page here LOL Unfortunately the glue from the maps made the pages really bumpy for writing and applying background color.)

Meanwhile, for Math they continued with Saxon 8 and Oak Meadow 5. Peep #2 also created her own crossword puzzle in an activity from Real World Math, and since her OM lesson this week was about bar graphing, I had her make one of her Halloween candy!

Candy Bar Graph

Making a Crossword Puzzle

That’s all folks. Have a good week!

Samhain 2010

Firefly — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:10:25 +0000

Though we all love the hoopla surrounding Halloween, we also look forward to and enjoy our quiet Samhain (pronounced SOW-en for those who don’t know) rituals. In the morning we took our yearly spin to the cemetery to visit the graves of loved ones who have passed on. We always bring hand picked flowers, pine cones, acorns or special stones to lay on the headstones (we take a walk beforehand and gather what calls to us). Our family also has a mausoleum and ever since the Peeps were little they’ve each claimed a lion to care for. Some of the stones from past years are still laying there around them!

At home we lay flowers on the graves of our beloved family pets that are no longer with us. For us that means a cat, a dog, a turtle, and two chickens reside in our “pet cemetery”.

After that, a little pumpkin carving with friends…

My favorite part of Samhain is setting up the Ancestor Table. Pictures of family pets are also allowed, though strictly speaking they’re not our ancestors, we do miss them an awful lot. The candle is lit and stays burning until bedtime. (We do extinguish it before trick or treating, then relight when we get back home.)

And speaking of trick or treat…at a friend’s house, ready to hit the trail:

A bunch of shady characters!

We usually go to a friends’ house for trick or treating (they have a “real” neighbor to go in) and then enjoy lots of good food afterward– including some cider and apple donuts from a local cider press. Parents are hopeful some real food will be consumed before the process of candy trading begins! We don’t usually do candy, so this is a special treat for my two. (Sorry for the blurry photo; sugared up kids+low light=blur)

And finally, back at Casa de los Peeps…

I look forward to the trick or treat festivities as much as the Peeps, but I also enjoy that quiet time when we get back home, p.j.’s are donned, and I can sit and knit in peace while the really intense candy trading negotiations begin!

Weekly Review 10.29.10

Firefly — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 17:18:45 +0000

This week we did a mini-block on the Salem Witch Trails. The Peeps have been curious about it but we haven’t really delved into it much. I figured we would explore it in high school, but since they were interested I decided to give them an age-appropriate introduction to the topic. That was challenging! I did find a couple of good books aimed toward younger kids: Witchcraft in Salem Village and Witch Hunt: It Happened in Salem Village. (In addition they read The Witch of Blackbird Pond–we are still working on that). We focused more on the concepts of conformity, prejudice, problems with the trials from a legal standpoint (logic), and colonial life. They each wrote a report on what they’d learned and for a project we kept it light– they each started their own herbal tomes that they will continue to work on through out the year, and we cooked some traditional colonial fare. Here are a few excerpts of the week:

Peep #1's Map

Colonial Life and a Vintage Map of Salem

Peep #2's Main Lesson Book and Herbal "Grimoire"

Peep #2's Report

And here is a sample from their herbals:

Calendula

Elder

We also made the traditional colonial dish, “Pompion” (stewed pumpkin). It was really good!

Scraping Out the Pumpkin Seeds

Chopping Up the Pumpkin After Roasting

I should have taken a photo of the finished dish, but alas…

For Language Arts/Writing, in addition to a couple more Unjournaling exercises, we continued learning about verb tenses. This week it was the Present Perfect:

I don’t normally post pictures of their Saxon/Oak Meadow math work… they really don’t make the most exciting photos! But I thought I’d throw one in this week. Also, Peep #1 had a Saxon investigation on Compass Drawing, so it seemed like a good time to give him this and have him do one of the pjojects:

A Saxon Math Lesson

Compass Drawing Exercise

Meanwhile, more Land of Pome for Peep #2:

Land of Pome Mazes

She also made a few multiplication flash cards to help reinforce her tables, using blank index cards and watercolor paint. We focused on the ones she has the most problem with:

Multiplication Flash Cards in Watercolor

For handwork, we did a little more sewing (Peep #1 sewed up a hole in his pillowcase, Peep #2 sewed a face on the monkey she knit). The unicorns are still in progress!

Peep #2's "Lily"

We also started making our own autumn banner as described here:

Autumn Banner, Step One!

We’ll continue with the next step (painting) next week. It was a busy week in general… on Monday we went to a corn maze, and on Friday to a Spooky Pumpkin Walk. Both were a lot of fun and really got us into the Halloween spirit!

Lost in the Maze...

Enjoying Some Post-Maze Ice Cream!

Spooky Pumpkin Walk

Alien Invasion!

Pumpkins...

...pumpkins...

...and more pumpkins!

Recycled Milk-Jug Skeletons-- I love this idea!

And that’s it for now. Hope everyone has a safe Halloween!