Our First Day of School

Up at 6:30 this morning to get Case off to his first day of high school. I actually got up in time to make Pancakes and bacon and make sure he had his vitamins! I picked him up at the end of school and his comment for my question of "how was it?", typical teenage answer,"fine". He did elaborate after more pointed questions. What did they do? Go over rules all day. Does that mean I can do that in our homeschool and count it as a school day?

We don't have all of Amelia's books yet. I have to wait for them to come through the mail. However, we have started on what she does have -spelling, grammar, recitation, and spirituality. She has already memorized Robert Frosts "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" for recitation - she had two weeks to get it down. Since she has done this so quickly, I think I will have her do some block crayon drawing with it.







Ainslee won't formally start until next week. This week we are working on refining our rhythm. As I take Case to school, Amelia gets up and does her morning things and then assists Ainslee in getting up and getting dressed. This is Ainslee's first year of having designated things to do in the morning. Although it is no more that getting dressed, eating breakfast and making her bed, it is something that will help establish the start of the day and our rhythm. While Amelia was doing her schoolwork, Ainslee was very content to play outside for a while followed by some water play in the kitchen.

Trials and tribulations

It has been a few weeks since I have posted and I have to say those few weeks have not been the best. Although the kids have continued with their schooling, it has not been enjoyable. I feel I have struggled to get them to do the minimum and have gotten nowhere near the enriching parts of why we really wanted to do Waldorf in the first place.

Amelia and I really weren't enjoying Persia too much and did a few stories and a bit of history, but pretty much abandoned it after that and have moved on to Botany. I was really excited about that, but it doesn't seem to be going much better. I thought it was going to be so creative and we just haven't gotten there. I even threatened to send Amelia back to school next year if she couldn't do the few simple things I request to help the day go smoothly, such as getting up. Like I am one to speak with the schedule I have been keeping this last month. I even went so far as to look at private schools and housing nearer to them. UGH! I am sure, as I am writing this, it is all due to Mom not having her act together these last several weeks. Amelia usually falls in line if Mom has it together. Or, at least, it doesn't bother Mom so much and she is better equipped to handle Amelia's personality.

Case is prodding along with the same stuff. I can't get him to do any handwork. Even tried to have him pick out the project an he just won't do it unless I nag, nag, nag. He also gets behind in the basic stuff he is suppposed to be doing and then has to catch up over the weekend or the next week.

The newest not great thing is that Brian has been admitted to the hospital with a splenic infarct. What the $@#&!?! The outcome of that one is yet to be determined. I am here next to his hospital bed as I am writing this.

I do have to say we have had some enjoyable days interspersed in these trying times. We went out with my friend and co-worker, Ama, and her family on her boat for Memorial Day. We had a day on our own boat one day and a great evening by the pool with kayaking on the lake. Ainslee was evenable to paddle all by herself! Case is in a golf league and has had his first tournament and really enjoyed it despite being absolutely beat by the end of the 18 holes and has definately been bitten by the golf bug. He is eager to get back out on the golf course.

School last week

Both Case and Amelia are continuing math with the Aleks program.Case is continuing the Story Of Mankind and so far has studied:
prehistoric man
the invention of writing
the beginning of civilization
the rise and fall of Egypt
Mesopotamia, the Sumerians
moses and the Jewish people
The Phoenicians and the alphabet
The Persians
The Indo-europeans
The Greeks and their contributions to the world
Alexander the Great
The Roman Empire
Jesus
Mohammed

This week both Case and Amelia did a book report. Case reported on The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Amelia finished and reported on Jahanara: Princess of Princesses, India,1627. Amelia became acquainted with Buddhism through a story of Siddhartha and The Four Noble Truths and is discovering how similar all the different religions of the world are. It is amazing how things present themselves for learning experiences. Amelia went to church with one of her friends this past week and as luck would have it they had a visit from a lady that had spent 5 months in India. Although the main idea of her presentation was "How silly all those gods are" in Hinduism which upset Amelia, it opened the door for much discussion and I was amazed at some of the profound thoughts Amelia has. I am so glad she is developing such an open and accepting view of our world and all the people that live in it. She is truly a compassionate person.

We took a wonderful trip with our homeschool friends to Long Shoals Wayside Park in Pickens county and found pool after pool of tadpoles. The girls had a blast observing and catching some to set up a habitat at home and watch the transformation. The boys studied water patterns and learned to read them, then tested that knowledge by sliding and tubing down the waters.

(pictures to come)

More Thursday Hikes

Last week we went to Devils Fork State Park and although we missed the hike to look for the Oconee Bell with HHUSC, we enjoyed the play time after at the beach. Eliza was gracious and allowed me to invite our new homeschool groups to tag along too and we met a few new friends. The Turner family came along and Amelia and Ainslee both found fabulous friends. The kids found a clay pit that they called quicksand and had a ball playing in it.











Today we went to Brasstown falls with HIPPO homeschoolers, our new group here in Oconee county. Amelia found another new friend and Case met several also. We look forward to many more outings with our new friends.

Amelia

In my constant attempts to head in a Waldorf direction, Amelia is shining. She is continuing to read Jahanara and has discovered how to wrap a sari and we have attempted henna tattoos to go with our India studies. She is also journaling about what we read of the Bhagavad-Ghita in her main lesson book. We found a cool site online for Hindu kids that is really helping us to understand it. Next week we study Buddhism to continue our India studies. That will be our last week on India before moving on to Persia.

(pictures to come)

Issaqueena Falls

We are taking advantage of all the wonderful upstate South Carolina outdoor destinations being right out our back door and are hiking to a new one each Thursday. Our first was Issaqueena Falls.
There is a wonderful legend that the kids thoroughly enjoyed while exploring. Read it here. You can see how she could hide behind the falls. We all took the plunge and explored behind the falls.








Just a short stroll from the falls is Stumphouse Tunnel. It was so cool! Both literally and figuratively. We decided we had to go back sometime and explore further. We didn't go all the way to that back of the tunnel. We wanted brighter lights for the utter blackness of the tunnel.

Amelia is so cool

Today while I was being my typical Monday self (meaning lazy). Amelia started sewing these cute felt play things. She used felt for the covering, grocery bags for the stuffing, and hand sewed them all. The designs are all hers. I especiacially love the jellyfish. The tentacles and top decoration are made of yarn.

(pictures to come)

Entering Waldorf

We are making a concerted effort to enter the Waldorf world. I am using the books from A Little Garden Flower to guide our way along the path as well as some consulting with Melisa. The Waldorf focus is mainly for Amelia and Ainslee. Case is interested in returning to school and is covering things a little more eclectically.
Ainslee is very into storytelling right now. I am trying hard to become a good storyteller and am currently reading Storytelling for Children by Nancy Mellon. My first attempt was rather spontaneous. I retold The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle one day on a hike to help her along. Since then she is really interested and has asked for more. She is also making up her own. Of course, she has been doing this for a while. I am hoping to add some paiting to her days. Maybe she will get a painting tray and jars for the water color paints for her birthday (hint, hint. They are cheaper here). I think she will REALLY like the watercolor painting.
Amelia has studied Africa,Atlantis, Australia and US Geography ocver the last four weeks. With each we read stories, map,discuss, and journal or draw pictures in her main lesson book. We have watched a few videos. I know... definately not the Waldorf way, but it fills in what I can't yet. She does about 20 minutes of math each day from ALEKS. We are beginning our foray into handwork. We have wet felted a bit and are beginning knitting. Hopefully we will integrate wet on wet painting soon too. We are starting our block on India this week and she has already delved into Jahanara: Princess of Princesses, India, 1627 (The Royal Diaries) and says she loves it!
Case is doing a hour a day of ALEKS for his math and has started to read The Story of Mankind for history. He writes a summary of each of the two chapters he reads a day. He is also working on his writing in general. He has written an opinion paper and is working on his second. There are plans for a book report soon too. Spelling, grammar and parts of speech are reviewed with his writing. I found High Mowing School today on the web. He is interested in going to boarding school. Maybe he would like to go there. It looks fantastic and I think he would really like it; however,it is awfully far away.
The Waldorf world is slowly encroaching and integrating itself into our lives and we (the three girls anyway) are welcoming it with open arms.

Nana's Visit

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Ainslee and I went to get Nana and Case to bring them here to SC Feb. 5. Case was coming home and Nana was coming for a two week visit. Two weeks didn't seem like enough when it was all said and done, but we did enjoy her while she was here. The purpose was for Nana to get a break. She takes care of my aging grandmother and hasn't been away from there for several years. I hope it helps her. I sure know it helps me to have her here. She is a great help with the house. She takes it upon herself to help me keep up with the daily upkeep. She also is great with the kids. I have been trying to get Amelia to go outside and make fairy houses as in her book, but she never would. I knew that if I went out there and helped she would take off with it, but I never did that. Nana did. She is good about things like that. She does the things I know I should, but don't. Thank you, Nana. She also helped the kids make a this lovely Valentines Mobile.

During her visit we discovered an island (really a peninsula) to explore at the end of the neighborhood leisure trail. It was a great adventure. While exploring, we found "bones" buried below a tree. We truly believe it to be a part of a tree root, but it really did look like long bones secretly buried.
Nana left with Brian on Feb 20Th to go back home, but we hope to see her again soon... perhaps in June or July.

So not Waldorf

Okay, so everything we are doing may not end up Waldorf, but we are trying to find what works. Case is doing an online math program that seems to be working well so far. Amelia will do it in the next day or so just for the month I think. Then we will be off to more Waldorfy things. We are seriously thinking of having Case go back to school and are looking at boarding schools. He has been saying he wants to go. Not so sure about the boarding part, but he seems to want to experience it for a bit. We are looking at a school where he could continue as a day student if we build where we think we will. We will see how that works out.
Amelia is looking at the Sir Circumference books and we are discussing the concepts in each book for the next several days. Today was geometry dealing with rectangles, squares, and circles. We cut out the shapes to act out the problems in the book. She seemed to enjoy it and really comprehend the concepts. Woo-hoo!

Finding the key

Today was an overall good day. The rhythm of life seems to be coming together more. The meals are a big part of it. If I can get the meals down the rest of the day seems to flow better. I have heard this plenty through Waldorf groups, but didn't really get it until now. Brian 's diet helps too. I don't have the option of going out to eat, which is actually much better for us all. If I do well providing the meals this means I have gotten out of bed early enough to get breakfast. Getting up early enough to do this helps the day flow much smoother. We are not rushing through most things. Today there came a point of time when I wasn't quite sure what to do with my time. There was plenty to do, but I didn't want to get overwhelmed and some of it just really didn't matter at that point. I made the decision that everything didn't have to be done today. Some of it could wait for tomorrow or the next day. Some of it would have had to anyway.

I started the day off with starting coffee ad fixing Alika's food and letting her out; then came shower and dressing. I was then able to fix breakfast prior to waking the kids. They ate and did their morning household work and then Case moved on to his Math on the computer. Clothes were being washed and the house was being picked up. I am considering using FLYlady and used some of the ideas I read about on her website last night. It seemed to work fairly well. It, of course, wasn't as perfect as I would truly like for it to be, but what ever is? By this time it was lunch time and I fixed up some leftover stir fry. A few more household work items and the I wasn't quite sure what to do, but somehow I kept busy. Although, at this point, I' m not really sure at what. The memory seems to have escaped me. Off to town for dinner fixing's and to the bank. Got sidetracked at Tuesday morning looking for a tablecloth to protect the table. Got home and realized dinner would not be ready for Case and Brian before they had to leave for the game. Started cooking anyway. Brian came home and was in a foul mood due to the wrecked car not being mended to his satisfaction. The dinner situation didn't help. After a while off they went to the game. Ainslee decided to fix some "soup" while I was finishing up dinner. Amelia was looking through catalogs deciding what she wanted to be for next Halloween. They sit down to eat while I clean up the "Soup" and dinner mess. Now her I am reporting about our day at the computer. Hopefully, the night will go well. I need to clean out the van for tomorrow and get the kids ready for bed Much of the house is still a bit of a mess and the clothes aren't completely done, but "after all, tomorrow is another day" and there always the next and the next and the next.

Settling down and settling in.

Wow! A lot has happened in the last several months. We have moved, sold a home, had visits from family, and celebrated the holidays.
We moved to a wonderful spot in South Carolina. It is so lovely and there is so much nature to enjoy. When ever we leave the community, we get to experience a spectacular view of Keowee lake. We are surrounded by lake everywhere with lovely mountain views too. Our new (but still temporary) house is very comfortable and cozy. If we could just use the fireplace, which we can't according to the lease, it would be even more cozy.
Life is settling down from the chaos we have experienced for the last year and a half. Thank the stars. With this settling down, I hope to have more time to take the kids out and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. I hope to go on a hike once a week to experience all the waterfalls in the area.
Today we inducted ourselves by offering our string popcorn to the birds. We all bundled up and strung a small tree with what we had strung for our Christmas tree. Amelia also gathered some pine cones so we can offer more to the birds next week.