Week one- Class 6 and 4

It's lovely to be sitting in the quiet after a very busy week this past one. Since Saturday we've been so busy doing all sorts. We headed to Womadelaide again last week, and saw some fabulous bands, had lots of fun dancing and ate some lovely food. Strangely this year, we didn't see that many of our friends, normally we almost spend more time socialising than seeing bands, this year was the opposite- despite lots of our friends being there. Musically we particularly enjoyed the Allan Kelly Quartet, Imelda May, Amadou and Mariam and Hanggai. Willow found Imelda May a bit loud, but decided she(Imelda May that is) was ok, after she autographed the CD we bought and was very chatty and friendly.

School wise we started on geometric drawing and Norse myths. The geometric drawings have been very popular, as has the geometry book we've been reading. It puts the development of geometry into a very entertaining story form.

We started with some simple geometric drawing this week using a compass, pencil and ruler. Initially there was a circle, then the sixth division of the circle by circles, and finally the sixth division of a circle into hexagons.  These are all in pastels.

Circles




Circles into sixths





Circles into Hexagons





For our Norse Myth block this time, we are reading two texts- The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum again, which I love and Norse Mythology by Charles Kovacs.

The book progresses in a more chronological order of the story, and it seems to nicely complement the Padraic book, in that they offer different details. So far this block we've been busy writing in runes and drawing the gods.

Our first craft project is almost complete too! It was just a little taste into making a toy figure - a little mouse. I've finished mine, I did a tiny orange one for Arden. Gabriel's is sewn together, but in need of details and Willow's is part was along. It was a nice taster for Willow before she starts planning her toy making project starting next week, Gabriel will be onto cross stitch instead.

Summer coming to an end

What a busy, busy time we've been having! I love this time of the year in Adelaide- there are so many wonderful things happening. We were out and about most of last week, and it's been nice to find ourselves having a quieter week this one, since we'll be doing school work again next week.

Last week, saw the Fringe parade part 2 happening. We all had lots of fun and the little people particularly attracted people's attention.

We went to three performances this year. As a family we went to see some taiko drummers and a circus act. Then Willow and Gabriel also got to see a ventriloquist. As part of our Fringe wanderings we met a lady called Ally, from Glasgow, who was selling jewellery at the Fringe. Yesterday she kindly came around and taught us to macrame jewellery, so we all have a macrame project happening now.

Gabriel's macrame bracelet


The macrame bracelet I made for Arden

Normally this time of the year, our festival outings end with a visit to Womadelaide, this year whilst we are going to Womadelaide on Saturday, the Come Out festival is happening at the end of March. Willow will be participating in the performace on Stari Most, which she is very excited about. After her performance in the opera last year, she has been looking forward to singing and performing some more.

Finally there were a few things I wanted the kids to complete before we start our school stuff next week. Gabriel has been finishing off some reading, and Willow has done well to finish her second sock. It was especially nice to see it done, as we had to unravel quite a bit of it a couple of weeks ago, after we realised that she had miscounted some stitches. She had made her sock very wide! But now they are finished and look beautiful!

Fringe Time

On Friday we will be participating in the Fringe parade again. Should be good fun in general, though I have been disappointed compared to last year, there was much more scope for the kids to express themselves creatively. Based off this years, experience so far, I wouldn't bother to organise a group. The flags are very uniform, the clothes are very uniform, and there is to be no banners put forth to identify various groups. Laughably, IMO, one of the themes for this year is anti-authoritarianism and Punk. We aren't even permitted, in theory, to choose which clothes we wear fit their colour scheme- red shirt, black/white pants, and red accessories. Possibly we should all turn up in purple, and point out part of the theme is punk.....

We've also bought some tickets for performances in this years Fringe- so we are looking forward to that. One is a taiko drumming performance, and another is a Circus performance. As usual we are also considering attending Womad.

craft, class 4, music and new books

In preparation for our woodwork this term, I decided that now Arden is bigger I could sit down and do some woodworking myself. And so I've made a start on carving a wooden egg using a rasp and pocket knife. So far it's coming along nicely.

My plans for class 4 have also been completed. There's little variation from the first time around with Willow, but there are a few new things, and slight variations where I've found some better sources of information, in time for my planning.

Classes this terms include suzuki flute for Willow, singing in the second concert choir for Young Adelaide voices and suzuki violin lessons for Gabriel. Both of them will also be doing a bow making workshop, which sound very exciting IMO.

I headed to our local anthroposophical store recently and picked up a couple of good books, and am awaiting a third. So far I've found the first one very helpful for craft.

Will Developed Intelligence.

The next one I bought with some of the geometric drawing in mind.

Making Maths Meaningful


Lots of interesting reading.

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2025

The long bows that they made.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/04/onto-block-two-and-recent-activities.html

Class 6 Plan

Happily my class 6 plan is now more or less complete.

So far it looks like we'll be doing geometry, geology, Ancient Rome, the Australian govt, Business Maths, Medieval history, Physics- acoustics, light, optics and heat, english, Asian geography, and Astronomy as our main blocks.

Texts that I'm looking at using include- Beowulf, stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood, the Aeneid, Faerie Queen, Arabian Nights, Boy Apprenticed to An Enchanter and The Story of Rome.

Craft wise will be a project involving making a proportional stuffed animal- a year long project involving drawing and modelling and then creating a stuffed toy. Possibly there will also be an embroidery project, since Gabriel will be doing one for class 4.

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2025

For more on planning.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/01/grade-6.html

Grade 6

Sitting down this evening I am focusing on putting some sense of order to my vague plans for class 6 this year. I have lots of incidental notes, and as seems to be usual with me, feeling a little overwhelmed with all that I would like us to get through.

I am also missing some of the extra advice that Mrs Marsha off the yahoo waldorf board has offered for the years 1-5, and am looking at all the amazing things to do, and just really attempting to start to bring order to some of it.

So far the order is coming through with the handiwork- making a 3d animal this year....but I am sure over the next day or so, there will be more clarification some sense of completion.

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2025

I used to find planning like working out an enormous jigsaw puzzle and wondering how to put everything- quite literally into it.  One day, when Willow and Gabriel, were older, I realised that we didn't have to do *all* the cool things, that we just had to do what the kids needed, and what I felt was important for them.  So I continued on the Steiner home ed theme the whole way through, but it became a bit lighter, because as we moved into the teenage years, the priority shifted more and more to the kids goals rather than my own.

The early years education using the Steiner model, was to give them a good foundation for functioning in the world.  They can cook, the can clean, they can create all manner of artistic things, they can make music, they can repair things (or work out how), they can garden, they understand science, they understand maths, they perceive history as a story of time.  All in a all I feel this being a priority in the early years has given them a holistic education.  

The high school time by contrast is encouraging them to step into their own power, their own interests, whilst still balancing their education with the structure to give them the freedom to choose where they would like to go next in their educational journey.  (A great read at this time is "The Teenage Liberation Handbook" by Grace Llewellyn Jones.)

Now that I have a full sense of this journey I don't take much time with the planning at all.  I quite often write a heading, with about how much time we have for it, and that's it.  When we start, I may find a few resources,  either online, at home, at the library, etc, etc and then I ask my child what it is they'd like to know about the topic, or I suggest somewhere to start.  As an example last year we did Ancient Greece, and I decided we should learn a little Ancient Greek, and Irving enjoyed it so much, that we have gone way beyond what my original idea was, which was to learn the alphabet.

Getting started on our Ancient Greek journey last year.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2024/12/closing-on-another-year.html

Cakes and food- Willow's 11

Birthday time has just been for Willow, and there has been much fun with the making and decorating of cakes. The first cake to be completed was a chocolate goldfish cake, that was a bit of a challenge to get the gold leaf onto.



Cake no 2, the main birthday cake was more successful, a lovely fruity fish. Looked very nice IMO.