Just a few short weeks ago, Pomme was eager to learn to write.  She was frequently “writing”, by which I mean she was making little circular-ish shapes and squiggles in neat left-to-right lines.  And she had learned a few specific letters — she stunned me one day a few months ago, in fact, by writing a perfectly legible “mom” on a Valentine’s envelope she had prepared for me.

But anything beyond a few of the simpler letters was beyond her.  She loved to trace letters, and we would write out entire sentences for her to trace.  But no matter how many times she traced a particular letter over and over, as soon as she tried to do it on her own it fell apart.  Her muscles just weren’t yet able to remember the sequence of motions.

This is not worrisome, of course — she’s only 3!  But it was a little frustrating for her, since she so wants to learn.  And frustrating for me, since most handwriting instructional books, being intended for older children, don’t feature a lot of tracing.  They go pretty quickly to forming letters on their own without that crutch.  So my hopes of finding a program to save me the time of writing out things for her to trace all the time were quickly dashed.

I did find one possibility — A Beka’s K4 handwriting program is designed for this younger age group and does have lots of tracing.  It’s also not “ball and stick”, which I despise with a white-hot burning passion (there is a choice between ball-and-stick manuscript or cursive).  I still waffle between d’Nealian printing and just plain old cursive first… and if cursive first, traditional style or Italics?  But for now, I would be happy with anything single-stroke and not ball-and-stick.

Any program we used would also have to focus on lower case letters first.  Which, fortunately, most these days do… but not all.  Any of the tracings that I’ve done for Pomme myself, all the letters that we’ve worked on learning so far, have all been lower-case.

Then a couple of weeks ago, everything changed all at once.  We were registering her for her dance classes, and I had signed a credit card slip.  As she often does, she announced that she wanted to sign too.  I’ll usually take the regular receipt and let her “sign” that, which is usually her little pattern of circles and squiggles in a neat left-to-right line.

But that time, she wrote her name.

Now I should mention that she’s been typing her name recently, and working on learning the spelling by heart.  She logs in to various computer games with her name and had just really mastered the complete spelling by herself.

But to write it by hand all by herself, that was another matter entirely.  And what’s more — she wrote some of the letters in capitals.  Which I have never taught her.

My guess is that she learned the capital forms from her computer games.  But it’s still a difficult task to transfer making a shape by clicking points with a mouse, to forming it with a pen by hand.  And she did it flawlessly, without asking for help, with no advance “practice”.

Not long after that, we were doing the first unit of Meet the Masters.  The project for this unit is to make a portfolio to store your artwork, and to decorate it with a palette featuring the names of the artists which will be studied in the programme, and your own name.  I let her write it all by herself.  She doesn’t yet know how to spell her last name, so I told her each letter, but she wrote them independently:

Now I realize that by posting this picture I’ve exposed her real name to the world, but I was just so proud I can’t help it!  She also cut out the palette by herself except for the worst of the inside turn (top left of this picture) which I finished for her.

So now my plans for a handwriting program are up in the air.  She is able now to write without tracing!  So maybe we’ll give Penny Gardner’s Italics program another go.  Or maybe I’ll splurge and buy Cursive First.  Or get Barchowsky’s Fluent Handwriting, I love their emphasis on rhythm… either the regular or the beginner’s workbook… Or maybe we’ll still get A Beka but go with K5 instead of K4.  Or maybe K4 is still a good choice.  Or maybe… or… or… ARGH!!

Jumping on the chance to practice some addition in a ‘natural’ fashion (since she herself brought it up), I then asked:

“What if you have 3 cookies, and then you eat 2 more?”

“That will make 5!”

“What if you have 5 cookies, and then you eat 4 more?”

“That will make 9!”

“This is a harder one… what if you have 2 cookies, and then you eat 6 more?”

“That will make us sick!”

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.

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?!?

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.

At the same time, the cushion I had started was also left aside, never to be picked up again.  My foray into learning to knit came to a halt.  But I’ve always wanted to get back into it, and also to get Flipper interested again as well.

With all my Waldorf research lately, of course knitting came up again, in a big way.  According to Donna Simmons of Christopherus, if you do no other handwork at all, at least do knitting.  With Flipper’s issues of focus, hand strength and coordination, patience, perfectionism, electronic/plastic toy addictions, knitting seemed like just the ticket!

So I picked up a Waldorf-based book of knitting for children, which includes rhymes for remembering the different stitch techniques as well as some simple projects — little toy lambs, elephants, horses, dolls, etc.

My plan has been to start including knitting in his ’schoolwork’ starting tomorrow, Monday.  So this weekend while he was at his dad’s, I pulled out the box of knitting supplies and got to work re-learning the techniques myself.  There was a skein of fun fluffy pink yarn, so I decided to work on a scarf for Pomme as practice.

I also had my “hook” for Flipper all set.  On Friday, we volunteered at a fundraiser bake/craft sale.  There were some fluffy handknit scarves, and Flipper wanted a blue one.  I told him he could knit his own, and he thought I was joking at the time.

Tonight, he saw me working on Pomme’s scarf.  “Is that a scarf???”  “Yes.”  “Cool!”  Now here I’m expecting him to say “can you make one for me, too?” and I would answer, “I could, but instead I’ll teach you to make one by yourself.”

What he actually said was:  “Can you teach me to knit a blue scarf myself?”

Hallelujah. That part was easy, anyway.

In fact, he wanted to start right away.  So I gathered up the book, some needles, and some practice yarn — with the promise that when he’s got the hang of it, we’ll go to the craft store and he can pick out his favourite yarn for his scarf.  And we started casting on.

Right away we had problems.  He kept wanting to lie down on his right elbow, which obviously can’t work.  He kept trying to use his left hand to do the work.  And whenever there was a problem, he would throw it down and cry!  I had warned him ahead of time that casting on was the hardest part, and that it would get easier after this.  But he kept crying, and wouldn’t let me help him, just kept trying it his way and having the same problems repeatedly.

We ended up having a talk about how you need to keep trying, not everything is easy on the first (or second or tenth) try, but that doesn’t mean you give up.   And that you need to let the people who know how to do something, help you.  I came this close to losing my cool and blowing up at him, but thankfully I kept my self-control this time.

Eventually, of course, he started to get it, and it’s just mind-boggling how his mood changed.  “Oh, I’m getting the hang of this now.  Heh, this is pretty easy.  Look mom!  I can do it!”  Oy vey.

We took a break when it was time for his bedtime routine, and took it up again for his quiet time.  He had cast on 25 stitches so we decided to start a row of knit.  This, of course, was much easier than casting on, so things went along swimmingly.  When it was time to go to bed, he asked if he could continue knitting while I read to him.  I figured, why not?  It’s better than him fidgeting, squirming, biting his covers and cracking his knuckles constantly.

When I told him that knitting was going to be part of his schoolday tomorrow, he was excited.

He knit in bed until he started to get drowsy.   Before he put it down, though, I had noticed every so often him mumbling to himself “get the sheep… off we leap… under the gate…” — from the verses used to learn the stitches.  It works!

This week, my order from Christopherus arrived.  I’m not planning to implement full-on Waldorf homeschooling, anthroposophy just isn’t my thing.  But there are several elements I want to incorporate, and I need to learn more about them.

I ordered several books: “Joyful Movement” and “Form Drawing for Beginners”, as well as the massive “Waldorf Curriculum Overview for Homeschoolers.”  If you’re not using their full curriculum but putting together your own, this is the book they recommend using.

I also bought their Botany Unit Study, which we will use next spring.

So far, I have to say I am both impressed and disappointed.  I am very impressed with how the Form Drawing book answered most of my lingering questions quickly and clearly, and with a good number of interesting form examples.  I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t go further into certain areas — it’s quite limited in examples of metamorphosing forms, for instance — but to be fair, it is only intended as an introduction, for beginners (as the title says!).  For many users, it’s all you’ll need.  And if you do want more, then she suggests various additional resources with helpful reviews of the pros and cons of each.

Joyful Movement was also disappointing.  Not because it isn’t great — it seems a fantastic resource.  But it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping it would be.  What it is, is mostly a collection of songs and verses to be used in your “circle time” or throughout the day.   They are well-organized and presented, and I’m sure I’ll refer to it often for ideas.

What I was looking for, was more about the movement aspect.  There are many suggestions along the lines of making up your own actions for a song.  But I was looking for the more therapeutic form of movement, not just ‘actions’.  Something like what Enki provides, with exercises devoted to crossing the midline, for instance.  The Christopherus book does talk about the value of this kind of movement, but doesn’t actually provide much direction.

The Botany Unit Study is similarly sparse on direction.  It is not a complete unit study by itself.  You do need separate resources — and I wish they had been mentioned on the website (if only so that I could have been looking them up ahead of time).   It is not a fully constructed unit study — it is a set of suggestions on how to create one yourself.  Many instructions are in the form of questions, which you then have to research and answer, then figure out how to present it to your child.

I would assume that more details about how to present the material would be included in a grade 5 curriculum book, as well as in the Overview which I purchased.  Also, a homeschooler who has been doing Waldorf for years would know precisely how to do it.  However, as a newbie, just looking for a single unit study, it wasn’t what I was expecting.

Still, there are many good ideas included in it.  I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.  As a beginner, I would simply have appreciated more “hand-holding”!

My main study for the next little while will be poring through the Curriculum Overview.  This is proving to be fantastic, and I’m only 40 pages in.  There are bits that I am glossing over, I’ll confess… the bits that go into the elements of Waldorf that I don’t agree with or don’t apply to us.  And I still have many questions.  But there are many, many pages of answers still to read!  And even things that I haven’t agreed with have been thought-provoking.

Tomorrow we’re going to begin some form drawing.  Over the course of this week, we’ll be finishing up some units or chapters in certain subjects, so that we may take a break from them, bringing them back up in block unit studies later in the school year.  Then next week, we’ll dig into two weeks of intensive focus on form drawing — this will be the “main lesson” — while continuing math, handwriting (copywork), spelling, french, and music, for about 2 hours of work outside the main lesson.  (And once he’s completed this section of his handwriting book, we will simply do related copywork as part of the main lesson).   The main lesson will also include art and handwork.

Phew!  It’s a busy time and changing a routine is always fraught with peril as well as excitement…