Tinker toy covered wagon

Jujubee is using Oak Meadow 4, and one of the projects last week was to build a covered wagon with a milk carton (box). Well, we didn't have one. I have to say, her creativity on sourcing materials was pretty good!  It turned out adorable, and her Mini American Girl doll seems to like it.

2015/2016 homeschool planner

I had good intentions for this year.  Could it really be November already?  I am happy to say I did, at least, get a new planner created.  I had so much fun with the woodland design and am so thankful to Harper Finch for allowing me to use her adorable designs in the planner.

This planner was both fun, and challenging for me.  Once I got going, it was a blast and all came together so well!  The challenge was deciding what to improve from the last version, and choosing a format.  My downfall, I think, was too many options!  I am one who want to please everyone, so I made several formats available.  However, it seemed to be overwhelming to my wonderful customers, and I have to agree.  I didn't have a way to really explain the differences in the planners, so everyone just thought "which one do I need?!"  I also noticed that many of you preferred last years version - the spiral watercolor.  I am unsure if it was because of the wonderful watercolor images, or the format.  (Feedback welcome!!)  I did keep aspects of the previous version and designed it with Waldorf and Oak Meadow homeschooling in mind once again.  (Though I didn't label them as specifically - some thought it was a little too restricting)

As for my good intentions, well, I have big plans every year!  I had planned to get a student planner out, as well as an A5 format for those of you who prefer a smaller planner.  I did make this planner less seasonally inspired so I wouldn't exclude anyone in the Southern Hemisphere.  And of course, I somehow let a mistake or two slip past me.  It is such an embarrassing thing to have happen.  I am thankful to those of you who pointed it out with grace and understand that I am human.  As of right now, I am still just a one-woman show and had quite a bit going on this summer during the planner creation.

Don't forget, you can still get them in my Etsy shop in both PDF files as well as a printed and bound version!

So, what are your thoughts?  Did you like the new planner?  Prefer the spiral watercolor?  Which format do you prefer?  Or... what do you wish it would have instead!?

When we follow the plan (mostly)...

It is hard to believe we have been homeschooling for 4 years!  I have learned so much.  Funny thing to say, right?  I'm supposed to be teaching my kids and yet I'm the one learning.  Oh, they are learning too, so much every day!  But wow, the things you learn about yourself during a journey like this.

The main thing I have learned is to relax!  We are definitely relaxed homeschoolers these days, meaning that I don't stress about what we do and do not get done each day.  I know that some days we will plow through and do more than I even have written in my planner - and other days, we may scratch the entire plan and spend the day with the chickens.  We do love these ladies!

Learning happens whether we are sticking to the plan or just hanging out.  In fact, I believe more learning happens when we don't stick to the plan.  ;)

But, on those rare days when I totally have my act together, it goes something like this.

The girls woke up early today (thank you to our lovely cat, Daisy).  After a breakfast of oatmeal, the girls got dressed and Jujubee (9) took Kaybug (2) downstairs.  I took this opportunity to work one-on-one with CocoBear (5) who is currently doing Oak Meadow Kindergarten.  We started late, so we are on lesson  12/13.  Yesterday I read the Tale of Jemima Puddleduck, so today we drew Jemima and the letter J.  We did a tongue twister with the letter J together, and a lot of fun movement games.  Then we played Jack Be Nimble.  Here she is jumping over the candle stick (we aren't staying at our house, and this is the only "candle stick" I could find here!  ha!).  Even the other two girls enjoyed this.

I told her the story of the 6 sided honey jar, we drew some stars made of triangles, and she did a number worksheet (she is a worksheet behind, so is doing 5) that we got from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I'm not big on worksheets, but she loves to "do math" like her older sister, so I grabbed this free printable for her.  

By this time, Jujubee and Kaybug were done playing downstairs, so Cocobear started playing with them and we had a snack.  Then it was Jujubee's turn.  

She starts her day with a weather journal.  Her favorite part is filling in the thermometer and checking to see what type of clouds are in the sky.  I found the thermometer as a free printable, then she cut them out and pasted them into her journal.  

Here is her weekly to-do page.  I found it over at Only Passionate Curiosity and it has been great!  She loves knowing what she is doing each day, and being able to check it off.  We chose to put it in a page protector and use a wet-erase marker instead of printing new ones daily.  

We already learned the new material for the week for math (we use Math U See for her math), so she completed her worksheet, and was done for the morning.  Time for a break until nap time when we can focus on spelling and handwork. My mom had an idea for the three of us to make a granny square blanket, so we are each crocheting granny squares and then Mom will join them into a blanket.  Jujubee is enjoying creating new color patterns.  

And that's it.  If I'm feeling ambitious during nap time, I may look in the Oak Meadow 3 syllabus and see what is next in Science or Social Studies.  We started late with this, too, but aren't doing everything in it because we already completed Christopherus 3, so OM3 is just for fun and to continue learning until we start our next school year.  We enjoyed both of them, but I'll do a better review later! 

Looking back on our 2013/2014 school year - leaving the guilt behind

I've done a lot of thinking about what we have completed this year.  As I said in a previous post, we used Waldorf Essentials grade 2 as our main curriculum (meaning we did nearly all of it) and supplemented with Oak Meadow grade 2 (adding in anything we saw that looked fun or interesting.)

I struggled with myself this year.  A friend of mine, Nicola over at Creative.Light.Less, was gracious enough to listen to my struggles and was in a situation similar to my own (combining WE and OM).  It was nice to have someone to go on the journey with.  

In the beginning of the year, I used both WE and OM.  We enjoyed ourselves, but I kept thinking I should be trying to be all Waldorf.  So I decide "Okay, I am going to JUST do Waldorf Essentials and focus on it and make it all it can be".  I leave Oak Meadow behind for a few months and do the lessons in WE. We read the stories, we recall, we draw and summarize, we model, we paint, we knit, we bake, we work with our rhythm, we go outside.  It's a good curriculum, and it has lots of stories and is laid out completely for you.  I even had a great conversation with the author, Melisa.  One thing I can say is that she is always willing to talk through it with you, and to help when you get stuck.  But I don't think anyone can really help me through this, because it is me.  I am having a problem with me.  As hard as I try, I am not Waldorf.  

Let me explain.  I love the Waldorf method.  I enjoy the artistic qualities, the nature, rhythm, the main lesson books, the knitting and handwork, educating the whole child - head, heart and hands.  Being hands on, having stories that speak to the child, it is an amazing method.  And you hear people say, if you do it right, they will never be bored.  

We were bored.  

I've struggled with the "we must not be doing it right" doubts before.  But you know what?  I *am* doing it right!  I am doing what works for *us*.  Oak Meadow isn't strictly Waldorf.  You will hear people say that over and over.  I fail to see the bad in what OM brings.  I'd love to see OM have a block schedule instead of all subjects at once, because doing all subjects every week can be a lot.  But a lot less than a classical or traditional schedule for sure! Yes, OM does bring in the alphabet a grade earlier, and have actual science lessons, and they bring in some social studies.  But after you get over the alphabet reading thing, they focus on a lot of the same things.  Fairy tales in first grade, saint style stories in second grade, building, gardening, creation stories in third grade.  It's not all that different, and - dare I say - it was fun?

So, what did I discover about myself during this struggle?  Well, that no matter how hard I try to be a Waldorf purist... I like science, and so do my kids.  I'm not going to make them memorize scientific names and things like that at this young age, but we like experiments and crafts.  And I'm a mom of 3 so I need to be practical.  I would love to have a basic curric and then add all these fun cool ideas I think of myself.  But my brain is fried and I'm lucky to think of 7 dinners a week.  I need help.  I need someone to think of these activities and crafts for me and let me decide what we will and won't do.

Oak Meadow does that for me.  Once I looked back over our year (after I got over my "I want to be a waldorf gal" phase), I noticed that we had done almost all of the OM curriculum, besides the social studies because we had done so many WE stories.  We were far too burnt out on stories by December to do anymore.  (Note: if you do grade 2, you may want to break up the stories.  We did stories from September to December as laid out in the curriculum before getting a break in January with math.  By that time, we couldn't force ourselves to return to stories after the math break)

So, for age 9 we have a copy of Christopherus and a copy of OM, and I will look over them this summer and decide - do I try the Waldorf route again (Christopherus does look a little more my style - with more information, ideas and flexibility), or should I stick to OM because it is laid out easier for me and we like the ideas it has?  

We have already done several lessons from Christopherus 3 this spring and summer - building a chicken coop, gardening and a 3 sisters garden, raising chicks from day olds, weather journals, beaufort scale, etc. and have enjoyed them.  I'd ideally like to do our own thing, using pieces of each. Isn't that what I do every year anyway?  ;)

In short, I'm wanting to inspire others to be yourselves.  If being totally Waldorf doesn't suit you, why stress out about it?  Most people are not going to judge you by what curriculum you use, and if they do... what does that say about them?  And no one is going to come into your home and tell you that you aren't Waldorf enough, or you aren't doing it right.  No one but you.

If you like most aspects of Waldorf, but also enjoy more activities and a little mores academics, check out Oak Meadow.  If all the subjects in Oak Meadow overwhelm you, do something like Waldorf Essentials.  If you want to be more true to Waldorf, but still want more ideas and activities, look into Christopherus.  All are reasonable when you find them used on the Facebook and yahoo groups (and they really are fairly affordable new).  Just do what works for you, and leave the guilt behind!  

Our final curriculum decision for 2013/2014

I thought I had it all figured out.  Oak Meadow 3 for our main curriculum and Waldorf Essentials 2 for our supplementing.  Then I got Oak Meadow 3 in and decided I'd rather go ahead and use grade 2 stories, so I sent it back and was able to snag a used grade 2 copy.

I tried and tried to make OM2 work as our main, but it was just too much going on at once for us.  We really enjoy the Waldorf approach to learning, and with OM, though it is gentle and art focused, there are so many stories going on at once. A social studies story, science story, a reader, a language arts story.  I attempted to make it into a block schedule like traditional Waldorf - still a no go.

Finally, I decided if it isn't broke, don't fix it.  We are using Waldorf Essentials 2 as our main curriculum, and adding in a few aspects of OM2.  So far, it is working nicely.  Jujubee really enjoys the OM reader - Ben and Meg, and we are using "Beginning Recorder" from OM as well.  When we come across a fun activity from the OM2 science, language, or social studies we throw that in if we have time, but basically we are using WE2.

Here is our school rhythm:

Monday:
Form drawing
Read a story
Model from story
Recorder
Read aloud from reader
Write in journal (I provide writing idea)

Tuesday:
Recall story
Draw and summarize in MLB
Math review during circle time
knit

Wednesday:
Story
Watercolor from story
recorder
Read aloud from reader
cursive writing practice

Thursday:
Recall story
Draw and summarize in MLB
Math review during circle time
knit

Friday:
Nature journal
Read aloud from reader

We are still ironing out our weekly rhythm as far as our daily chores go.  Things should calm down here soon after camping season is over and we will be able to stick with it more.

How is your year going?  Feel free to share your rhythm or link to your blog post about your curriculum choices and rhythm!

Our plan for third grade

This year for second grade we used A Journey Through Waldorf grade 1 (Waldorf starts their grades a little later than mainstream education), and www.weefolkart.com for prek3.  For third grade, we plan on using A Journey Through Waldorf grade 2 partially, but are looking at using Oak Meadow grade 3 as our main curriculum, and I'm unsure if we will use WFA again for prek4, or the early years guide by Melisa over at Waldorf Essentials.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first year of Waldorf and are looking forward to continuing with the method. I realize Oak Meadow is not considered true Waldorf, but I am okay with that. I'm not the kind of person who can be hard core anything. I pick and choose what I like, what works for us, and leave what doesn't. The Waldorf method seems to be perfect for us in the natural aspects, the rhythm, handwork, stories, artistic aspects and wanting to protect childhood. But, with Jujubee being so far ahead naturally in reading, writing, and math I just couldn't keep "holding her back", so to speak. We will still learn gently, and through a living education vs textbooks/rote memorization. Oak Meadow is slightly more academic, and seems to be a better fit for where she is. For Coco Bear, we may chose the true Waldorf route, as she seems to need more time before she is ready to think about academics. They have always been very different, so I'd expect nothing less than for them to have different learning styles.

I ordered Oak Meadow 3 yesterday and am excited to get it and take a peek. I really wish you could customize it a bit. Ideally we would pick and choose from their grade 2 and 3 to make a perfect fit. Many of the literature choices in grade 3 we have already read, and we have gone over several of the history and science,topics already but I'm interested to see how it is taught in OM. This is also why we will supplement with JTW grade 2. Because I still feel Jujubee needs those stories, and honestly, I do too :)