Microscope work

Quayde is so loving his school work this year!

Black plague

We are having some fun here learning about disease!

Michaelmas

The kiddos and I spent a wonderful afternoon creating these interesting Michaelmas window scenes. I had cut out the figures and they assembled them as we talked about the dragons we fight in our own lives. Each year we take this time to reflect how we can overcome those parts of us and bring more light into our family.

 This year we were wanting to celebrate big but sometimes plans do not always work out just how one wants. We ended up driving around , spotting a park and quickly eating. Stories were told, we wrote on our dragons and then we burned them as the remaining slivers of sunlight were trying hard to support our meager celebration.

   It wasn't fancy or even remotely what we had originally planned but it was us together, enjoying each others company, that is really what family celebrations should be about.

Here we go again

It's planning time. Time to set the rhythm, routine and tasks down so we can start up again anew. Time to refresh and get excited. Part of me feels like it is time to panic! This will be our 21st year homeschooling. Twenty-one years is longer than I have done anything else in my life consistently. Our Waldorf lifestyle completes me and yet even after all the years, I am still not totally confident that I will pull it all off this year.

I am thinking it also comes from being over 40 and having that wisdom of mortality. I've experienced so much heavy stuff over the years and that's where my demons come from. I know my littles are not so little anymore. My older girls have college, boyfriends, lives where I am now a sounding board and consultant. It is good. Really good! But still......

There is still so much I want to teach, to show and to model for them. Yet it is like a giant buffet, one can not eat everything that there is. It all looks so yummy; yet we must pick and choose carefully.

This year Thayne will be 1st, Lydia 7th and Quayde is continuing on with High School. I am reviewing and renewing. Waldorf requires more of me than other curriculum. It is a good requirement, that brings in both soul and spirit. I know this method works. My older children model its success everyday. I still worry about failing, that's the human nature part that keeps us striving to be better. So we sing together, play together and create together..... the learning is the delicious dessert.

Here is to a new fabulous, magical school year!

Living science

Just some pics of science fun we have had over the last several months.

 We made an attempt at hatching our own chickens. It was a failure. We had a touch of sadness along the way because our little chicks didn't make it. It was a good lesson and helped us understand that we need to be mindful always of how even little lives are precious.

 Our beach featured horsecrabs. We actually found two mating and it was quite interesting as the water threatened to wash them away.

A momma spider with hundreds of babies on her back. Seriously creepy but very facinating as we watched them hatch out. 

Science is so much fun in real life!

Season exchange- Winter

We created these cute little treasures for our season exchange with a sweet mama and her girl in Mexico. Unfortunately, the mail system has greatly let us down because they still have not received them. We packed a lot of love in the little package too.

 The frame is really cool. I painted a gradient that doesn't show well in the picture. It starts out light blue and then is a dark violet at the end but I think the flash washed it out too much for the picture. Hopefully Heather can use the three window stars for Valentines instead of Christmas. We used salt to 'frost' our pinecone and it worked wonderfully well. I think next year the kiddos and I will make a lot for our tree. I hope they get our package soon!

Christmas accents

Nature called us to celebrate the season and gather! We headed out just a little way from our home and looked for Holiday cheer. We, of course, found bliss along the way.

We found treasures!

Martinmas

We are busy making our plans for Martinmas and will be having a bonfire after our lantern walk later. I also am going to do something different this year. Instead of just going through our toys/clothes to give to Goodwill, I think this year we are going to choose a charity to focus on for the next entire year and plan our service giving for the Christmas season together. The children should participate with this instead of just me choosing something. I think it will be more meaningful that way.
Also I am going to be making a white chicken chili with hearty bread instead of our regular roast chicken that we substitute for goose.
Here is a link to our lantern song. We have been practicing all week. Blessings on the rest of your Autumn festivities!

Physics is fun!

We have been having an amazing time with sixth grade physics! It has been so fun and Lydia (and Quayde) are really enjoying all the cool 'experiments' we have been doing. I have been using two resources: Eric Fairman's Path of Discovery Grade 6 and Live Ed's Heat, Light, and Sound. As a main lesson.... we are approaching this a little different from the norm. Since I have a huge age/grade range this year, Fridays are Lydia's physics lessons. We started with Acoustics and learned so much about sound. Using POD as a guide and a kit we purchased, we created a sound wave in a tube. WAY COOL!

We also made musical instruments and used bottle to produce an octave.

Due to the fact hat Lydia had a tracheotomy, she didn't have the enough breathing power to blow into the bottles. Quayde did an excellent job helping make it special for her.

I did my best making a homemade Chladni plate. My husband, who is going to college full time, had to write a paper recently that had a reference to a woman mathematician who used Chladni plate experiments to win a scientific contest way back when. Very interesting stuff..... anyhow back to our homemade one. It worked a little. I couldn't justify paying over $60 for one little thing. Next time I think I will use a aluminum sheet, instead of a steel lid. We didn't get any fabulous patterns but the concept was very apparent and overall I think she understood what the experiment was supposed to show. That is what it is all about anyway.  I have really been enjoying this main lesson block. Sixth grade sometimes feels like it is all science. There is so much to try and pack into this year. I think we are all going to love doing physics.

Summer

 Swimming in the river

 Growing here and there

 Crafting for the littles

 Sharing simple experiments

 Imagining we are ninjas

Trying to figure out the new chickens