So much has happened too, so many interesting adventures and changes and cute little moments.  I’ve been tending to post little blurbs on Facebook, or on any of the yahoogroups I’m a part of, rather than properly write things up for the blog.  I should try to remedy that.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Facebook or Yahoogroups… those are more immediate.  This has a more… permanent feeling about it.

All I’m going to mention today is about how Pomme is doing.  I’ve mentioned before about how I learned from my mistakes with Flipper in regards to early academics.  To quote myself:

I am a staunch and vocal advocate of letting preschoolers PLAY to learn, that there is no rush for academics, that forcing early academics on children not yet ready for them causes much more harm than good.

I have approached Pomme’s preschool years with the same amount of pride and certainty of the correctness of my beliefs that I used to have in regards to turning Flipper into ‘My Little Prodigy’.

But the universe just isn’t that simple, is it?  Pomme has turned out to be the complete opposite of her brother, a child who at only 3.5 years old adores and demands worksheets, math lessons, and just more and more academics.

I’ve been greatly informed by Waldorf philosophies this past year, and I know that the ‘pure’ Waldorf approach to a precocious preschooler is still to not provide them with academics.  The belief is that their precociousness is a sign of an unbalance that must be corrected for; that they still need to be in their dream world until age 7 in order to be healthy.

I don’t agree with this 100%.  But I do let it inform my decisions.  We make sure that Pomme still has LOTS of creative play time.  While we are indeed doing “work,” it takes a very small part of her day.  Most of her day is still off in her own fascinating little world.  She even brings her imaginary friends with her to “school,” and helps to teach them what she herself is learning about.  She still spends her time building barnyards out of blocks, turning her playsilks into dresses, running around barefoot in the backyard, digging in the sandbox and making mud pies.

But when I do ask her “would you like to do school now?” her response is almost always a resounding “YES!”  In fact, the other day, we sat down to do what was really the first time I’d ever really pulled up a structured work day for her.  More than just an informal math lesson, more than just a match-the-numbers worksheet or two.  I had a whole program laid out:  Cuisenaire rods work; reading practice; TBB Seasons unit study activities; and a RightStart math lesson.  I was honestly just curious to see what would happen.

What happened:  She did everything, then demanded more.  I had printed out enough of the TBB activities to last most of the week, but by the end of our school time that one day I only had 2 sheets left.  She had traced letters, tallied survey results, made a bar graph, learned about temperature and coloured in thermometers, sorted seasonal activities, learned about what trees need to grow, and completed most of a “colour by shapes” picture.

It was three hours since we had started before she showed signs of slowing down.

And we weren’t finished yet.  When it was bedtime, she saw her unfinished picture and declared she wanted to finish it.  I let her do a few more shapes, but it was soon apparent that she was being so deliberate and careful with it (she’s extremely careful to colour properly, and within the lines), that we’d be up all night if I really let her finish it.  She wasn’t happy, but I told her she could get right back to it the next morning.

That night, she stayed in her room all night (which is about 50/50 these days).  I peeked in on her in the morning just as she was starting to wake up.  A few minutes later, I checked again… and she had set herself up at her little table, and was dutifully colouring her picture.  She didn’t come out until she was finished.

I believe that she has recently passed over another of those little bumps of development, something has “clicked”.  Three weeks ago, she could not independently write most letters, but loved to trace them.  Suddenly, a few days ago, she started writing letters by herself, correctly, that she had never even been shown how to write… had never traced.

Two days ago, we had started a RightStart math lesson but didn’t have time to finish it.  So yesterday, we reviewed the first part of the lesson then did the rest of it.  She wanted more.  We did the entire next lesson.  She wanted more!  We did the first part of the next lesson before she decided it was enough!

Today, we started Meet the Masters, a great art program.  We’re trying the age 5-7 program for her, I think she’ll be able to manage it.  And since Flipper is doing the same program but at the older level, we’ll be able to do the actual projects together — there are modifications for the different age levels but it’s a similar project.

There are three parts to each lesson.  An interactive slide show online with me narrating the script.  Then a ‘worksheet’ to learn about a certain art concept related to the current artist.  Then the project itself.  These can be done all in one day or spread over a few days.  The whole lesson start to finish could be an hour to three hours.

She did all three parts today for the first lesson.  Then she wanted to do the next one right away!  It wasn’t possible, unfortunately, since they were about to head to grandma’s for the afternoon.

I’m just flabbergasted.  And excited.  Could she really be this easy?  But I’m also keeping my feet on the ground, and staying cautious.  I still have to be careful not to overdo it (since I know I have the tendency), and I have to realize that this might be temporary!  She could very likely go through phases where she does not want to “do school” at all, and I need to be prepared to respect that!

In the meantime, though, I’m going to enjoy the ride. 

Saxon Math 5/4, Homeschool Third Edition (2005).  630 pages.  Just the student textbook.  Some exercise numbers are circled in pencil, otherwise no marks.  Very good condition overall, some wear here and there.  $30.

Easy Grammar: Grades 3 and 4, 1996 Teacher’s edition.  480 pages.  A few pencil marks, no writing.  Cover shows wear, first40 or so pages are dog-eared.  Otherwise in good condition.  $15.

Easy Grammar: Grade 4, 2006 Teacher’s edition.  585 pages.  Excellent, like new condition.  $25.

A Reason for Spelling, Level D, Teacher’s edition.  355 pages. Front cover missing, some dog-eared pages, otherwise good condition.  $15

Birthing from Within, England and Horowitz.  Paperback.  Excellent condition.  $10.

Enjoy!

One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is that when we need to, we can just take some time.

About a year or so ago, I bought the Life of Fred: Fractions book, much to Flipper’s chagrin.  More math!??  This was an atrocity!

Until I started to read the first chapter to him… and he giggled… and he took the book and read it cover to cover.

Of course you’re not supposed to read it cover to cover in one sitting.  You’re supposed to work through the math in each chapter before moving on to the next.  But it was a good sign that he would enjoy the book, and he was more than happy to read it again, this time stopping to do the math along the way.

Within a few chapters, I was impressed enough that I went ahead and ordered the rest of the books, from Decimals through to high school Geometry.

However, after awhile, things began to bog down.

Flipper has always had difficulty with retention, especially in math.  He will learn a new concept, clearly demonstrate solid understanding of it, successfully complete several lessons on it… and when the concept comes up again a few weeks later, he insists he’s never ever ever done this before and has a meltdown.  It takes a ridiculous amount of re-learning and repetition before something actually, permanently, ’sticks’.

This is why we’ve gone through so many different math programs through the years, often repeating the same “level” in different programs.  Each one is great, but not enough for him to be able to move on just yet.

And so it started with Life of Fred.  Although he had previously done most of the fraction concepts with Teaching Textbooks (I knew he needed more review, which is why I purchased LoF in the first place), it was like he’d never seen them before.  He was starting to have trouble with the “Bridge” unit tests.

At one point, he ‘flunked’ all 5 Bridge options at the end of one unit, and even after attempting them a second time, he still could not get enough correct answers to show he understood what was happening.  In fact, it was very clear that he did not.

So, we put it away.  And we focused solely on the RightStart level E he was already doing.

Fast-forward to this year.  He is now well into RightStart Geometry and loving it.  When we found a massive printing error that required us to wait for a new copy (which they gladly shipped to us at no charge), we decided to start Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra in the meantime, and also to get back into Life of Fred.

Now that I think about it, this Teaching Textbooks was also a “get back into” event.  After having finished TT Grade 6 two years ago, we tried going straight into TT Pre-Algebra, but it was again quickly obvious that he had not retained well enough and it was too ‘dry’ for him.  That’s when we switched to RightStart E in the first place.

This time it was completely different.  The first 25 or so chapters of TT Pre-Algebra have been a piece of cake for him.  Although many concepts which really are review for him still seem to him like “new” concepts, at least he is not getting stuck, nor is he getting frustrated.

And Life of Fred?

Well, today he finished the last chapter, after having sailed through every single Bridge along the way on the very first try.

The Final Bridge, however, was not successful on the first attempt, due to a single repeating error — using the ’shortcut’ for turning a mixed number into an improper fraction, he put the resulting figure in the denominator instead of the numerator.   Now this did result in a meltdown when he realized he’d blown the entire thing, having made this mistake every single time.

But now that he’s done that, I highly doubt he’ll ever make that slip again!

In fact, when he went to bed tonight, he asked if he could work on the Final Bridge second version, so that he could start the Decimals book tomorrow.  And he asked to take the Decimals book to bed with him as well… just in case he did finish the Bridge successfully this time.

All this is simply to demonstrate the value of time.  The value of putting something away and bringing it back later… whether that means after doing practice in other curricula, or just letting some maturing happen.  I really do think that 90% of the difference has been simply the fact that he’s a year more mature, though certainly the RightStart program helped immensely as well.

To do so… to put something away when it is too much right now… is not to admit defeat.  It is not a failure.  In public school, there would be no option.  Each child must march in lock step with the entire class, and if it’s too much too soon, or too fast… too bad.  Any difficulties are indeed perceived as failures.

But at home, we can be more realistic.  It’s not the child that’s at fault.  It’s just not the right time for this program.  You take a break, with no recriminations or disappointments, and you try again later.  We can allow the development that happens with time to unfold at its own pace, and work with our kids where they are rather than where some artificial and arbitrary standard says they ought to be.

I was very happy to find the Learning Tree website.   Their Canadian brick-and-mortar store is in Burlington, Ontario, and I remember driving past it when we lived in Hamilton.  They ship throughout Canada, had all the items I was looking for, and reasonable shipping prices.  It was perfect!

When I placed the order, I noticed that the checkout page stated “if you have requested delivery outside of the continental US, you will incur additional shipping charges than those that appear here.”  This seemed curious, considering that the shop was supposedly Canadian, and the shipping charges and all other costs were indicated in Canadian dollars.  So I included a note in the comments box with the order inquiring about this.

I received an email reply 3 days later:

This website is made in USA and it is common to most of stores in USA. Our store is located in Canada and all merchandise will be shipped out of this location in Canada. You will be charged in Canadian dollars and shipping will be charged according to the actuals of Canada Post, which we first calculate through the interactive website of Canada Post. I can assure you that the shipping charges of $7.44 is not the exact one, it is just an approximate.

So it’s a remnant of a US-made website.  How hard would it be to mention this somewhere in the ordering process?  Or in their shipping FAQ’s?

And it’s also a somewhat unusual usage of “assure”.  Usually, you “assure” someone of something that they thought might be a negative but will actually be a positive.  In other words, it means “don’t worry.”  In this case, however, they’re “assuring” me that the shipping charges I’ve been quoted are just approximate and might change.    This is a common occurrence with online shops, but it’s an odd turn of phrase.  They might have said “I can assure you that the shipping charges are in Canadian funds and there will be no surcharges for being outside the US”.  Or they might have said “I can inform you that the shipping charges are approximate.”

As it is, I’m hardly assured of anything at all.  Because with that reply, my order was set to “status: pending.”  As the weeks went by, I realized I had not yet received my order.  Checking my account online, I see the same thing… “Order status: Pending.” So I sent them an email reply.

Why is my order still “pending”?  It was placed almost 3 weeks ago.

That was three days ago, and I’ve received no reply.

All web retailers are busy, and mistakes happen.  But this is getting ridiculous.  How hard is it to send a quick reply right away saying “thanks, we’ve received your inquiry, someone will respond soon” ?

If I do not hear back from them soon, I will cancel the order and take the extra shipping charges to order straight from RightStart.  It’s a shame too, because the Geoboard I found through Learning Tree is a nice wooden one, and RightStart only has the plastic ones.

Some items, such as the Stockmar crayons and paints, can be a bit harder to track down in Canada.  I found some at ape2zebra.com, but it still didn’t have all the supplies I was looking for.  I could find them at US-based online stores, but shipping costs were prohibitive (when they even shipped to Canada at all).

Well, I finally found them.  Waldorf.ca, which is run by the Waldorf School Association of Ontario, has a Waldorf Bookstore, but that’s a misnomer.  They sell so much more than books.  The store is physically located on the campus of the Toronto Waldorf School, but they sell online as well, and ship all across Canada.  I suspect it’s the main resource for Waldorf schools across the country.  And that’s good news for us homeschoolers as well.

I found all the art supplies I was still needing, as well as a few I already had but at a better price (good to know for when they need replacing!)…  They have modelling beeswax, which so far I’d been unable to find anywhere else in Canada.  Beeswax candles in various sizes.  Painting boards!  Silk, fairy wool, quality chalkboard chalk, wooden flutes (both pentatonic and diatonic), and main lesson books!  Main lesson books in all shapes and sizes and types.

Up until now we’ve been using regular art sketch books, which I often see suggested for homeschooling main lesson books.  But they aren’t without problems.  The paper is too thin, so we can’t draw on both sides of the page.  Or to get it thick enough, it’s waaaay too expensive.  Or it’s only available with a top-opening, not a side.  Plus, they’re generally 100 pages, which is awfully big for a main lesson book.  We’ve been using one sketch book for all his subjects, all mixed together.  And you know what?  For many subjects, I think that’s fine — everything is learning, everything is related, after all.

But for some subjects, the idea of having a separate book to help him really connect the ideas within a certain area, has a nice ring to it.  But it would have to be shorter.

Well, that’s the main lesson books, the “official” ones.  You can get them with or without onion skin — thin paper between the pages to keep drawings on adjacent pages from smudging, side-open or top-open, small through extra-large sizes, staple binding or spiral bound… there are also lined books, journal books, composition books… Oh, and did I mention the price?

The art sketch book we’ve been using, which has too many pages, and can only draw on one side, was about $20.  A large size main lesson book with spiral binding is $6.  Page for page, it’s still cheaper.

The store also sells health products (mostly Weleda brand), games, videos, and — of course — books!

All the Waldorf books (eg, on form drawing, painting, etc), which I’ve been looking for on Amazon and from US-based shops (such as Christopherus), including some I had not been able to find yet anywhere — there they are, right here.  In Canada.  Affordably priced.

They have tons of Steiner’s own writings — which I myself am less interested in, but most other Waldorf-inclined folks would drool over.  Books for children (with the gentle, nature-based Waldorf spin).  Waldorf craft books.  Books on “Destiny, Karma, and Reincarnation”, if you’re into that side of things.  Books of rhymes and verses and songs.  Curriculum guide books.

In fact, it’s almost too much!  I almost don’t know where to start!  But at least I know where to get my supplies once I know what I want.

So far, I’ve ordered painting supplies and main lesson books, and they arrived today.  Customer service was great (I had a glitch with my credit card payment — my fault, nothing to do with them — and they were wonderful dealing with it).  Shipping was super-quick (they were low stock on one item and gave me the option of shipping right away but incomplete, or waiting a few weeks for the complete order) and shipping costs were reasonable.   Everything I received was precisely as advertised.  We spent a lovely afternoon wet-on-wet watercolour painting with my daughter, the first time we’ve used the Stockmar paints!

I’d be remiss not to mention the downside of the site — many items don’t have pictures, or full item descriptions.  “Details coming soon” is something you see quite a lot.  I get the idea that this is a fairly small operation, without a staff of hundreds maintaining the website.  Perhaps their online selling is still relatively new and they’re adding details and photos as they get the chance.

But this is a very minor inconvenience when compared with the many, many wonderful things about this site.  Their variety is just astonishing, the completeness of their stock is almost overwhelming.  And of course, no cross-border fees.  One-stop Waldorf shopping in Canada!

Okay, I wasn’t going to get into this whole “Tot School” thing, since we’re not really doing all that much in terms of formal schooling.  But, she did a few really cool things this week, and I know that “Tot School” isn’t supposed to necessarily mean “formal schooling” anyway, so I decided to jump on board and share.  Maybe next week I’ll take more pictures too…

First, art.  I’ve been getting Waldorf-y lately art-wise.  I’ve just read Painting with Children — I’ll post a review of that another time.  I’ve also broken down and ordered Stockmar watercolour paints and some accessories (painting board, paint jars and holder)… We’re still awaiting those, so I decided not to do the typical early Waldorf painting experience, where we would start with just one colour to fully experience it.  Pomme loves drawing great details — even though she’s only 3, she draws people with hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, toes, teeth, clothes… she draws a baseline too, which is apparently very unusual for her age.

So I decided to do a Waldorf-inspired “child copies the parent” painting.  I started with a light wash on part of the paper, for the grass, which she then imitated.  Then another wash for the sky.  Then we added a tree, apples on the tree (using a different brush technique), a sun in the sky, and a few people around the tree, all of which she duly (and most excitedly) imitated!

Here is my finished model:

According to Waldorf art principles, the people are deliberately simple, mere suggestions of people.  Here is her finished work — she had a bit too much water in the tree paint, so it ended up spreading and fading as it dried, obscuring just how amazing her tree looked originally.  But it still looks pretty cool!

Notice that her people are more detailed than mine — she tried to add faces, hair, etc, which didn’t work as well with the thicker paintbrushes, but she refused to just to basic shapes like I had.  The taller person is daddy, apparently, and the shorter one is her.  Then there’s a mere suggestion of a person on the other side of the tree — that’s one of her imaginary friends!

This was such a fun and simple activity.  We’ll definitely do this sort of thing again.

The only other thing we did ‘formally’ this week was math.  We’re working through Right Start level A — nice and slow, she’s only 3!  But she gets it and she loves it, so why not, eh?

So far, she’s learned to recognize quantities up to ten at sight (when grouped as “five and something”), using fingers, objects, tally sticks, or the abacus; instantly count aural taps up to ten; parallel and perpendicular; squares, rectangles and triangles (which she mostly already knew, but didn’t know a square was also a rectangle!); and repeating patterns with up to 4 elements (ie, Red Red Blue Green).

Rather than using the “bead cards” (reproducible in the appendix of the book) as a manipulative, I decided to make Montessori-style bead bars — like the golden bead bars, but using the 5-and-something patterns of Right Start, and using natural wood beads à la Waldorf.  Here’s one finished set:

I’m actually really proud of how these turned out.  I plan to make another post describing how they’re made, with more photos, and a video of Pomme helping!  She instantly recognizes each one, it’s so cool.

This week she did her first official math worksheet, as part of lesson 10.  This was writing tally marks to match the number of objects shown.  She’s only 3, so her writing is not great, but I think it’s darn good for a 3yo… (today she wrote “mom” on her own…)

Ain’t she something?!?

I meant to post this earlier, because the first workshop was tonight.  But better late than never — Next week, Judy King from the South Shore Waldorf School in Nova Scotia (the closest Waldorf School to us) will be presenting a talk on “Rhythm, The Root of Discipline: Insight on Healthy Daily Rhythms.”  Details and registration at fredkid.com.

Tonight’s talk was by Marieka Chaplin, a local Frederictonian who has taught at the South Shore Waldorf School.  She’s also part of a local group looking into the possibility of starting a Waldorf School here in Fredericton.  I imagine a huge part of that is just finding out if there’s enough interested parents who could afford it.  And so, spreading the word about Waldorf, in order to get parents interested, is a primary undertaking of theirs right now.

Anyway, the talk was advertised as being about Movement in Early Childhood.  And she did talk about it.  But I’ll be honest — the talk was more an advertisement for Waldorf in general.  Which is fine, I guess, but I was hoping to get more specific and practical stuff about how to incorporate Waldorf-style movement into my childrens’ lives.

On the plus side, though, I had the great thrill of being in a room filled with like-minded people, including several homeschoolers.  Despite being back here in Fredericton for nearly two years now, we still don’t know very many other homeschoolers, so it’s reassuring to know that they are out there.

I even got up the nerve to introduce myself to one young lady who wants to homeschool her young daughter, but is understandably nervous.  It’s such a great leap to take when you don’t have strong resources around you for support and encouragement… and heck, just plain old information.  We ended up talking for a long time and will keep in touch.

Would I send my kids to a Waldorf school if one opened up here?  Probably not, I’ll be honest.   Especially for preschool/kindergarten.  The speaker tonight was making it very clear how the kindergarten environments are designed to emulate, as much as possible, a warm and loving home environment.  Why would I choose a mere emulation when I can provide a real warm and loving home environment?

But, would I take advantage if they offered day programs as an option, rather than only full-time enrollment?  Hmm.  That, I would most certainly consider!!!

Oh yes, she said.  She was very keen.  Normally 3 years old is kind of early to do this (kind of???) but she is keen and is very advanced with her fine-motor coordination and drawing skills.  For one thing, her pencil grip is “correct”, unlike her older brother’s!

So I printed out the first lesson page from Penny Gardner’s “Italics: Beautiful Handwriting For Children,” which teaches letters i, j, and l.  She already knows ‘i’, the trick here would be doing it with control, starting and stopping on the lines.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure if she would be ready for this, but she wanted to try it.

So I went over the instructions with her… “start at the waist line, go straight down to the base line and stop, then go back up and put the dot.  Always make sure you start at the waist line and go down.”  I demonstrated tracing the models, and then she traced them with my guidance.  Then she had to do some on her own.

The first one was perfect, all by herself!  The next one, she started at the bottom and went up.  Oh, but she noticed right away what she had done!  She smiled and said “Whoops!!!  That one was upside-down!”

Then she did the thing that made it super-cute.  Since she had drawn the line bottom-to-top instead of top-to-bottom, she put the dot below the line instead of above it, making the whole letter upside-down.  Then she laughed uproariously.

Anyway, she then proceeded to fill the whole row with beautiful i’s.  Some went well below the base line, some had slashes instead of dots, but on the whole it was very well done!  They weren’t just random, she was trying to be careful and correct.  Not at all bad for a 3-year-old!

Then she took my credit card, which happened to be on the desk, and proceeded to ’swipe’ it along the path made by the waist and base lines.  She’s a born little shopper, I think.

Today being not-quite Valentine’s Day, here is a list some of the Greatest Not-Quite-Love Songs… those that just didn’t qualify for tomorrow’s list.

Not that these aren’t great songs.  They are.  In order to make this list, a song has to be both musically powerful and effective, and lyrically evocative and meaningful.  It’s just that these songs aren’t quite about pure, true, romantic love.

Perhaps they are about love lost, or maybe it’s obsessive love.  Whatever their flaws that kept them off tomorrow’s list, I still felt they are amazing songs that deserve recognition.   Don’t see your favourites on here?  Too bad.  These are, unabashedly and proudly, my favourites.   Feel free to post yours in the comments, though.  Click the titles to hear the songs.

One More Try – George Michael

Why the music rocks: Haunting sound, slow and simple, jazzy bass, juicy harmonies at just the right moment, vocals that float over it all yet give the punch when warranted.  An emotionally-charged performance by George Michael at his finest.

Greatest line: And teacher, there are things that I still have to learn, but the one thing I have is my pride.  So I don’t want to hold you, touch you, think that you’re mine, because there ain’t no joy for an uptown boy who just isn’t willing to try…  I’m so cold inside… maybe just one more try…

Why it’s not-quite-love: I’ll admit I almost put this one on tomorrow’s list.  But it’s just not quite “pure”.  The singer has given up on love, doesn’t believe the object of his affections will be true to him, he is dejected and defeated.  Only at the very last moment does the hope and promise of love stir his cold heart back to warmth.  It’s a very unusual turn for a pop song, which are usually consistent in expressing one thought or theme from start to finish.   Yet the darkness and sadness of the song before this moment — glorious as it may be — keeps it off tomorrow’s list.

Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinead O’Connor

Why the music rocks: Haunting sound, slow and simple, jazzy bass, juicy harmonies at just the right moment, vocals that float over it all yet give the punch when warranted.  An emotionally-charged performance by Sinead O’Connor at her finest.  Um, yeah.  Listening to One More Try immediately followed by this one, you really notice the similarities.  From the opening synth chords, to the final line of “but I’m willing to give it another try”…  Maybe that’s why I love them both so much.

Greatest line: All the flowers that you planted, mama, in the back yard, all died when you went away…

Why it’s not-quite-love: This is a song of love lost, of begging for your lover to return.  The heartbreak in this song is so intensely expressed that it’s almost physically palpable.

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel

Why the music rocks: Thick piano chords.  A slow build to a huge climax.  Cannons.  And when Garfunkel turns the melody (and the intensity) up instead of down with the last utterance of the word “bridge,” you know you’ve got a serious torch song here.   And did I mention — cannons?

Greatest line: Sail on Silver Girl, Sail on by.  Your time has come to shine, all your dreams are on their way.  See how they shine.  If you need a friend, I’m sailing right behind.

Why it’s not-quite-love: This song never actually mentions romantic love.  It is devoted friendship, unwavering support, help and comfort in your time of pain, utter devotion.  But it could be a song for a relative, a friend… not necessarily a lover.  It is certainly love, and indeed love in its very purest form… just not necessarily in a Valentine’s Day sense.

Lean on Me – Club Nouveau/Bill Withers

While Bill Withers’ original is certainly the more ‘beautiful’ version, the Club Nouveau cover from the late 80s was my first introduction to this song.  It was “our song” with my first love.  Cheesy?  Maybe.  But it’s still a great song.

Why the music rocks: Four notes going up, four notes going down.  You know the riff.  Full piano chords in the original, awesome.  And the cover version has cool synth interjections, not to mention “we be jammin, mon” and “pump it up, homeboy, just like that.”  Yeah, baby.

Greatest line: Lean on me when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on.

Why it’s not-quite-love: This is another great song that’s about the love of devoted friendship, rather than romance.  You certainly can sing it to your loved one, as my first love and I did, but it is still not, strictly speaking, a “love song.”

The Rose – Bette Midler

Oh, how I rue the day that I would ever put Bette Midler on a “best of” list, but so help me, I love this song.

Why the music rocks: The simple repetitive piano chords opening, with the subtle shifting harmonies.

Greatest line: When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows, lies the seed, that with the sun’s love, in the spring, becomes the rose.

Why it’s not-quite-love: This is another beautiful song about love, but it’s not, strictly speaking, a love song.  The context is of one person telling another (or perhaps herself) not to be afraid of loving, and that love is a beautiful thing that can grow despite pain and trouble.  But it’s not an expression of devotion from one lover to another.

A Letter to Elise – The Cure

Of course there has to be something from The Cure on any music list I make.  I waffled between this song, Disintegration, and From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea — all absolutely brilliant songs.  But I think this one fit the bill of not-quite-love song the best.

Why the music rocks: Robert’s voice, so open and honest.  The multi-layered sonic landscape.  The “toy piano” riff.  And that swelling, uprising solo break that bursts into the modulation back into the main theme, carrying you with it, the inevitability of the resolution, oh how glorious…

Greatest line: Oh Elise it doesn’t matter what you do, I know I’ll never really get inside of you, to make your eyes catch fire the way they should, the way the blue could pull me in, if they only would if they only would…  At least I’d lose this sense of sensing something else that hides away from me and you there’re worlds to part with aching looks and breaking hearts, and all the prayers your hands can make, oh I just take as much as you can throw, and then throw it all away…

Why it’s not-quite-love: This one is love that just couldn’t make it.  They keep desperately trying, they keep pretending, but the spark is gone, if it was ever even there.  Heartbreak, helplessness, longing, and regret.

All Apologies – Nirvana

Why the music rocks: A great simple riff over a pedal tone bass line, with acoustic bowed bass adding energy and impetus.  Quiet and sincere, it’s elegant grunge.

Greatest line: What else should I be?  All apologies.

Why it’s not-quite-love: Frankly, I’m not 100% sure what the song is about. Kurt’s lyrics are wonderfully strange.  I mean… aqua seafoam shame?  It’s evocative, but still mysterious.  My interpretation is that it’s a lover who has screwed up, trying to apologize for what he has done.  Maybe the screwup is that he’s not the lover he intended to be, he feels trapped in a marriage and feels shame for not living up to what he promised.  Maybe it’s something else.  Whatever the specifics, though, it’s certainly a song about shame, regret… and not pure romantic love.

You Don’t Love Me Anymore – Weird Al Yankovic

Yeah… after Simon and Garfunkel and The Cure, I’m going to close the list with Weird Al.  I told you, these are my favourites, no apologies.

Why the music rocks: Your classic acoustic folk guitar pop ballad.   It’s really quite beautiful, Al uses his pretty voice for this one.  If you didn’t pay attention to the lyrics, you could be fooled…

Greatest line: I even think it’s kind of cute the way you poison my coffee, just a little each day…

Why it’s not-quite-love: Seriously, you have to ask?  This is a parody of cheesy love/heartbreak songs.  It’s actually somewhat ironic that Al managed to turn this into one of his most beautiful and popular songs.  The juxtaposition of the insanely violent lyrics with the mellow, thoughtful music just adds to the hilarity.

One thing I’ve loved about the Waldorf ideas, is the concept of drawing to learn.  This isn’t solely exclusive to Waldorf, of course, I’ve seen it pop up in many curricula and philosophies.  It’s just especially prevalent in Waldorf, and so it’s led me to re-examine the idea with more freedom and more deliberate cogitation… how can we work main-lesson-style drawings into Flipper’s other subjects?  It’s one thing when you’re working with a resource that already includes drawing, but it’s another thing altogether when you want to keep using the materials you have, but add/substitute drawings where appropriate.

Well, I had a flash of brilliance today (if I say so myself).  I confess it wasn’t entirely original.  I was inspired while reading about The Sentence Family.  This particular grammar resource reminds me a bit of Sentence Island, which I’ve been thinking of using with Pomme when she’s old enough.  They are similar in that they both teach the facts through interesting stories with anthropomorphised grammatical concepts, rather than dry academic text.

Where Sentence Family takes a step beyond Sentence Island is in the active, creative element from the student.  Given cues and suggestions, they are to draw their own pictures of the grammatical characters.  For instance, Verb is an energetic young boy who wears red, and he should be drawn doing something active.

This approach is similar in concept to lapbooking, narration, and Waldorf main lessons, in that the child does not merely parrot back fill-in-the-blank answers, but becomes part of the process, engaging in an act of creativity which helps to secure the information in their consciousness – not just their short-term memory.

I was so impressed with this, that it struck me, that this is the way to incorporate drawings for Flipper’s other subjects.

First up, was French.  He is currently on unit one of book two of L’art de lire, and in general is doing very well.  He’s remembering the vocabulary and the pronounciations, his translations are generally accurate, he’s even getting the hang of gender and number agreement (which we don’t have to worry about in English).

But for some strange reason, the basic verbs avoir and être cause him constant confusion.  Not for lack of practice – he’s actually been taught these as early as age 4 or 5.  He sings the songs I learned as a child (conjugating to the tune of Mexican Hat Dance) with joy and enthusiasm.  He translates them accurately from french to english.  But english to french?  He’ll mix up “vous” with “il”, “est” with “êtes”, spell them wrong everywhere (he even used “ill” and “ills” recently), confuse the avoir conjugations with the être conjugations… many of the mix-ups are understandable… but not really after this length of time.

He needed a way to make each one more concrete, more individual.  Enter the main lesson drawing book.

I had him divide four pages into 2 sections each.  Then in each of the 8 sections, he labelled and illustrated one conjugation of être.  I gave him some hints of ideas where needed, but for the most part I just let him be creative and draw whatever was meaningful to him.

So, for “je suis”, he drew a simple stick figure of himself, with an arrow pointing to it saying “me”.  At my suggestion, he added a background of grass and a beautiful tree.  Then he thought of adding another person to the picture, smaller and in the background, to differentiate between the “me” and the “other.”

Then, for “tu es”, he drew the same two figures, but this time the other was the one in center focus.  For “il est”, the same two figures were located one on either side of a new figure, both pointing to him. “Elle est” repeated a similar picture, but with a girl in the center.

For “nous sommes”, he created a soccer team.  Complete with matching jerseys, a soccer ball, and an intricate net.  “Vous êtes” became, of course, the opposing team, with a couple of the first team off to the side pointing to them.  For “ils sont” and “elles sont”, the solitary figure of himself again took the center, pointing off to the side to a gaggle of boys (or girls) in the background.

He loved every moment of this activity.  It remains to be seen how much different it actually makes to his retention of the verb conjugations, but I love this approach.  We will continue tomorrow with the “avoir” conjugation — I can’t wait to see what objects his little characters will “have”!

I have to say that I’ve tried to demonstrate the conjugations in a similar manner previously… by explaining to him, by speaking and pointing to imaginary people whiler reciting the conjugation.  The difference is that then, I was the one doing the activity, and he was a mere passive observer.  That’s fine for your pure visual learners, not so much for your kinesthetic ones.  With this project, he was doing the activity, he was internalizing the meaning of the verbs in a more concrete way than rote worksheet exercises.

And most importantly – he liked it.