Accepting Craft Explosions

We made this doll house out of a little bookshelf turned upside down.  Add some cardboard for a roof and dividing walls and the girls each have their own side (I made a platform for the littlest girl and put all her furniture together.  The older two did their own painting and decorating.)

 Okay, so It's a little stressful to live in a tiny place with so much crafting and playing happening.  On one level I totally love the creativity flowing everywhere, but when the baby steps in the paint and tracks purple blots across the dinning room and the husband is faced away toward his computer to be able to "handle" the mess (by avoiding looking at it) -- well, it can just get a little stressful.  The kids were SO enthusiastic and kept adding and painting and playing and fixing up their little "apartments" and even today (4 days later) they are still making little things here and their to go with their doll house.  My oldest has just learned to crochet a chain so she can make scarves for her Woodzees and they got some crafts from Gramma in the mail yesterday with little foam dragonflies and butterflies that they've enjoyed making and sticking to their house.

I read an article the other day called 12 ways to spark creativity in your child and got to thinking how much more important that is than academics at this point.  I naturally WANT to do creative stuff on my own and with my kids so being reminded to do something I already am good at and want to do is actually more helpful than you'd think.  See, our culture pushes academics so young- yet if you really think about it, they can totally catch up to where they need to be even at 12 years old if I don't do much of that now, but their creativity?  Creativity needs to be allowed to flow and move on it's own.  You can only teach this so much.  With their doll house my goal was to (not spend any money) to have a frame work so that they could create as much as possible on their own.  I handled the glue gun, but they chose colors and painted walls, floors and my oldest made doors and things out of pipe cleaners.  We had baskets of craft supplies out to decide what to put on the cardboard roof (feathers and coffee filters.)  I also happened to have peal and stick white board paper that they had fun with too.

Also, some paper umbrellas that were STILL leftover from our wedding  (9 years last Wednesday!) which the girls always love and match their woodzees animals well.

This is the 7 year old's side.  She said that whatever she drew on the white board walls "came to life" for them.

This is the toddlers side that I'm working on since she's too little to make much for it.

The 5 year old's side after the first day.

Roof and the other side of the doll house.

I thought I'd take a picture of what mostly "cleaned up" on average looks like.  Cleaning up before starting something else isn't easy you see because the creative juices are flowing!   When people wonder about homeschooling and worry about how they could keep up with house work with homeschooling --well.. I hate to break it to you, but you really can't.  I suppose you COULD if you could kick the kids outside or if they were older to actually be of more help, but teaching them to clean up after themselves is part of the school and being flexible enough to let them be crafty is more important than a clean house.  My perfectionist husband is stressed out by toys and clutter and crafts of all kinds.  He tries to hide how it bothers him and help as much as he can to clean up, but I can sense the stress when he gets home so I try to have the house somewhat manageable by dinner time if I can.  It's helpful to remind myself how important this is for them.

We made a swing set the next day.  (Note:  the girls and I brain storm out loud and I ask a lot of questions about what they'd like and we try stuff that doesn't always work.)

I've been having fun making tiny blankets and rugs for their house and hopefully inspire them to keep adding to it as well.  We've talked about adding an elevator to the doll house or spiral stairs.

Close up.

Dinning room/kitchen

Living room and flat screen tv?  I didn't get a good picture of it, but you can see it a bit at the bottom of this picture.  My oldest wove strips of paper to make "grass" and other ground features to go under and around the house.

The close up of the upstairs on the 5 year olds side.  She was so delighted that she could paint pictures on the walls

Playing with the toys.

My older girls practiced learning to knit this little scarf with some help from me.  They weren't quite ready for that yet though (though I must say that the 5 year old was a natural!  When she's a bit older she could totally take off with knitting)  They both liked crocheting better.  Especially the 7 year old who was discouraged with the knitting.  She made a few chains to be scarves for her Woodzees.

I've been reading about Temperaments lately and it's been quite helpful to learn about so that I can express more of what I need.  One thing that I've realized is that I need a lot of encouragement to know that what I do is valuable.  I don't need the "you are doing a great job" sort of encouragement because that just means nothing to me and only makes me embarrassed or nervous.  BUT to hear that what I do is valuable?  That it makes a difference?  Yeah, I need to hear a lot more of that.  I might seem confident, but I'm continually just trying to instill confidence in myself.  Is it worth it?  Is it valuable?  Yes.  The house will almost always be messy, but there's creativity flowing and it's all good.  :)

Our Waldorf-esk day today with rainbows and a fairy tale!

 Our day started with playing outside for a bit (after breakfast.)  I'd actually much rather wait till later in the day, but it's too hot here right now to do anything outside between 10 and 4 at least.  I got this idea off of Pinterest -- Right here..  Though I didn't actually READ the original website.. just looked at the picture and made our own game up. 

I made some dice out of wooden blocks so they'd be a little easier to see and hold than regular size dice.

 Basically, just roll the dice and add the numbers and hop on one foot till you get to your number... then turn around and hop back.  We changed it up a little bit from there, but that was basically it.  I wasn't sure if my oldest was enjoying it, but I think she was just too hot outside even in the shade. 

I don't have a chalk board yet, but I have some rather large paper and pastels so decided to start off in a some what Waldorf fashion.  I've been loving the chalk board drawings that I've seen on Youtube and this idea combines our math work with a lovely picture.  My two oldest girls especially LOVE rainbows and anything with rainbows (I have no idea where they get that!) So when I saw a Pin on Pinterest using a rainbow to illustrate adding to 10 I decided to use it.

This is my 7 year olds version of what I drew.  She kept saying how much better mine looked than hers, but I think she draws as well or better than I did at her age and I told her so.  I think that if we draw together more often she will gain some confidence in her abilities. It was so fun for ME to do as well!

Last night in the middle of the night as I was trying to fall asleep and these Pins and other ideas were floating around in my head I had an idea for a fairy tale that would touch on a problem that I've had to deal with (mainly with my 5 year old) and also a math lesson for both older girls.  I've decided to share the whole story with you here for your personal use and enjoyment, and will pause at the moment in the story when I did the little math lesson to illustrate what was going on in the story.  (Note; it's a rough draft and I haven't had my husband -- grammar whiz -- edit it.  I read it to him though so it passes the "read aloud" test.)  ;]
 -------------

"The Foolish Boy finds Cents"

Long ago, in a misty green land, deep in the rolling countryside there lived a very, very foolish boy. This boy was so foolish that it was amazing he even learned how to walk and feed himself. Oh, you might wonder if there was something wrong in his head, but there wasn't really, he was only foolish because he gave up on everything that he tried. His brothers would jump rope or skip stones, but when he tried to do these things after his first trip on the jump rope or first plunk when he tried to skip a stone across the stream he would say, “Eh, why bother trying again? This is too much work.” Could he draw? He hardly knew because he only tried once but when his arm slipped and so ruining his first picture he never tried it again.

His father tried to teach him how important his school work was, but he gave up on that even more quickly than he did everything else. “But my son,” the father would say, “If you do not learn your lessons how will you buy your food after I grow too old to care for you?” The foolish boy would just shrug his shoulders and after the first thought of what he would do he gave up on thinking about any way around that difficulty and decided once again to pick the easiest path. Which was of course, to avoid his lessons, and any other challenge presented to him.

After a few years of this though the father was really quite distraught at his sons lazy and foolish ways. “I cannot teach you,” his father finally said, “You must leave my house and find your own way in the world. Perhaps the life outside will teach you the lessons that I cannot.”

The foolish boy wasn't worried about leaving home, though he should have been, so ill prepared as he was, but his father gave him a bag of coins to start him off, hugged him good bye, and prayed for sense to somehow reach his foolish son.

As it happened, the fathers prayer was soon answered. Barely had the foolish boy walked half a day when he saw a glittering rainbow right in front of him on the path. Now he'd heard of the tales told about the pots of gold at the end of each rainbow that was guarded by strange little creatures, but he never imagined that he'd meet one face to face. Launching himself at the creature, the foolish boy grabbed him by the ankle. The little gnome-like thing squeaked in surprise, but soon gave up his struggle when he realized he couldn't escape.

“What is your name?” Asked the foolish boy, for even HE knew that if the gnome told him his name then he would be bound to stay with him and share his pot of gold.

“My name is Cents, as it happens.” Said the little gnome, “Now let go of me leg!”

The foolish boy let him go and said, “All right, but now you are bound to share your pot of gold with me.”

“That I am,” Cents said with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. “But I can't be doing that without a game to play with it.”

“You can't trick me,” said the foolish boy. “I've heard of your games and I'm not going to dig any holes for you or do any work. You give it to me now as easy as you please or I'll take the whole pot.”

“Now now,” said Cents, “There's no need to get huffy. We'll just do an easy adding game. I'm sure a grown up boy like you won't have any trouble at all with it.”

The foolish boy didn't want to admit that he'd never learned how to add. He'd only learned counting and then had given up on learning more just like he'd done with every other thing he ever tried. But he couldn't give up now could he? He was all alone in the world after all and how hard could it be?

“First count how many coins you have in your money sack,” Cents said. And the foolish boy laboriously counted out 50 coins. “Good, and now for our adding game,” he said as he pulled out his pot of gold from under the misty rainbow. The gold coins in the gnomes pot sparkled and shown far more than the old dull ones that the foolish boy had spread before him and his eyes turned green with envy, but he shook the feeling away when he remembered that the gnome was bound to share his gold, and besides, their shine didn't make them worth more a coin than his.

“Cents,” said the boy, “I am ready to begin.”

“Good, good. Now count out 9 coins plus 1 and put them here.” Cents held out a slotted box with one red side and slot and the other side was blue with it's own slot. He indicated that the coins should go on the red side and explained that his coins (to be given to the foolish boy) would go in the blue side. “Your highest number was 9 so I'll go one more,” Cents said impressively, “And give you 10 of my coins.” The foolish boy watched eagerly as the gnome dropped the coins one by one into the blue slot.

Next Cents told him to drop 2 plus 8 of the dull coins into the red slot and he would drop a whole 9 of his shiny coins into the blue slot, “Yes,” chortled Cents, “Again, you come out on top.”

Then 3 plus 7 coins did the foolish boy drop into his side, and the gnome produced 8 that jangled into his side.

Then 4 plus 6 and an impressive 7 coins were removed from the pot of gold for the boy to keep.

Then finally, Cents said, “Now drop 5 plus 5 coins into your slot.” They tumbled in jangling quickly together on the red side of the double box, “And lastly,” the gnome smiled toothily, “I will give you more than your five. Here is 6 of my gold coins more for you to keep.” And with that he broke the box in half and gave the foolish boy the side that only contained the shinny golden coins and the gnome kept the foolish boys dull ones.

“Thank you for sharing your gold with me, little gnome.” the foolish boy said, “you may be on your way and I on mine.” And with that the boy turned away staring down at his box of gold as Cents disappeared in the sunlight along with his rainbow.

Now perhaps you have already realized the gnomes mean trick, but the foolish boy had no idea until he counted each of his new golden coins. Long did he count, making sure not to make a mistake, but when he counted out only 40 golden coins he gasped for he knew that 40 was less than the 50 that he started with. 

--Pause  

As I was reading the part about the numbers and what to add I was writing them down for my kids to see.  9 plus 1 and the Gnome puts in his own 10.  2 plus 8 and the Gnome puts in 9 and so forth.  That top one on the left is finished to show what I did at the pause.  I showed them how each of the addition problems added up to 10, but the Gnome was tricky in that he gave the boy less and less than what the boy was giving him.  My husband even had to think for a second as he heard me reading it to him (I didn't write out the numbers for him) and didn't catch the trick till there were only a few problems left.  That was good because I didn't want it too obvious!

And here you see how you can add and then subtract as well to find out how much the Gnome was taking from the boy each time!  I'm pretty pleased with how this story turned out and how useful it is in teaching some math.  My 5 year old was catching on like no-bodies business.  ;]

I asked my girls then what they thought should happen next--

What do you think the foolish boy should do now?

Should he go back to his father and try to learn again?

Should he chase rainbows to find Cents again and get his money back?

They voted that he go home and learn from his father, but lets find out what actually happened.  ;]

---- Un-pause

When the foolish boy finished counting out his new shiny coins and realized he had less than what he started with he suddenly felt determination. This was a feeling he'd never felt in his whole life. Right then and there in the middle of the dirt road out in the countryside he sat down and laid out all his coins and drew each number that the gnome had told him to add. He counted and recounted all afternoon until he understood what he'd never tried to understand before. When he finally realized how the gnome tricked him, he felt, for the very first time, quite foolish, embarrassed, and ashamed. He saw himself for what he was. From that day till the end of his life he never gave up on anything that he tried and was considered to be the wisest man around by anyone who knew him. If he ever failed he would try again and again, because he came to realize that giving up was truly the most foolish thing of all.

The end

After the story we play acted out the "game" that the gnome had the foolish boy do only we used open bowls to see if we could see and it was still pretty subtle and sneaky.  Since we used beads for the "coins" I thought it would be fun to make a beaded rainbow with the ten beads on each strand and then split apart like the picture showed

 This day was just chalk full of math because we also made some origami-like stars and kept cutting the squares smaller and smaller (by one fourth of the size each time) and made rainbow stars to hang above our table.  My 7 year old thought they looked Christmas-ish, but I think it works for a fireworks month!  She's been really into doing origami lately (but prefers to do it with me)  The idea DID come from a Christmas time star activity though that I found on Youtube as I was looking up Waldorf things last night.

I'd made the star hanging in the window last night and when I woke up one of the first things she said was that she saw what I made (she was pretty excited about that and I could tell she wanted to work on more!)  Oh, and the female Beta fish in the middle of the table ate part of a FLY today!  I didn't see if she caught it or how close to the water it few, but I saw her dragging it under water and taking bites from it!  I called the kids over and we were all so impressed with her skills.  That fly had been kind of annoying us after all and she saved the day.  :]

I mounted the pipecleaner adding beads to a star that I adjusted to be 10 points (instead of 8) Just to have some more pretty visuals to look at.  I'm not sure if I should have made my large rainbow to count up to 12 or if I should have stuck with 10..... maybe I should have stuck with 10, but the dice added up to 12 at the most so I thought it would be helpful to have one like that up there.  Tomorrow we might make some more stars and do our "Fat Cat" addition game and use these to help with the adding in the game.

Last night I read this article about "Breathing in and breathing out" as a metaphor for the rhythms in a childs life (and dare I say helpful for ALL of us) -- Balancing out the fast with the slow and the activity with the reflection, the alone time with the need to connect.  In and out in and out... like waves rolling throughout the day.  Realizing this has helped me keep my sanity as I work with my kids.  As a homeschooling family I am with my children about 98% of the time.  It's not possible to be "on" all the time, but I can learn to breathe in and connect when they need guidance or a reassuring snuggle and I can breathe out when I let them be independent and sometimes even "bored."  The article talks about how boredom shouldn't be something we should be afraid of.  Too often the natural response in my family has been "I'm bored so I'll watch a show... or play the leapster.. or get on the computer."  I as well as my kids need to not be afraid of some quiet reflection and the few minutes of feeling "bored" at times.

Today we had the least amount of screen time in quite a while, but it wasn't negative at all.  When the Daddy got home tonight my oldest excitedly told him all about our day and what we did (I hadn't realized till then that she'd enjoyed it so much!)  I'd been sensing that she was wanting a little more guidance and modeling in the areas that she was interested in and utilizing some of the Waldorf ideas has been so fun for me!  This is the first time that I've read extensively about a certain teaching method and actually felt like I understood it -- that's me naturally.. that's what I do on my own without really trying. Even way back when my oldest was 4 and I'd started teaching her some letters I naturally made up stories about the letter shapes and related them to the sounds they made in a very right-brain fashion.  It just made sense to me and seemed to be how she needed to be taught.

 Seems like I read somewhere about how making up songs for different activities was part of the Waldorf ideal and I can't tell you how many songs I've come up with about everything I've done with my kids over the years (they each had a different "theme song" as babies) from bath time and shampooing to just the other night emptying the dishwasher with my 2 and 5 year olds.  We were singing to the tune of that old folk song from Scotland "I'll take the high road and you'll take the low road".. which I don't really know at all (at least I don't know all the words) but I know the basic tune and we were singing it with "I'll take the hiiiiigh stuff and you'll take the looooow stuff and we'll eeeeeempty the dishwasher togeeEEEther!"  Random.. silly I know, but it got everyone to smile and actually enjoy the work instead of dragging their feet about it.

Anyway, there was our school day in a nutshell.  Now to sleep!

The slower simpler pace of schooling

After finishing "The Right Side of Normal" a few days ago I feel like my thought process has been altered in a good way.  I not only see my children differently (or more to the point, I see them as who they actually are instead of "what they are supposed to learn at this age.")  I feel like I'm "seeing" them for the first time in a long while.  Though one might be good or doing well with learning something it doesn't mean she actually likes it or "should" be learning that at this moment in time.  I want my girls to experience things and try different aspects of learning and life, but I want to avoid the push or "drive" that is so common in our culture today.

Near the beginning of the book she says, "One of the hardest things I will ask of parents and educators in this book is to wait out the time frame of the creative learner.  I didn't come to this conclusion lightly.  Though there are thousands of research studies indicating academics shouldn't be rushed, our fast-paced society influences decisions to learn sooner..... 'We would be aghast at such a performance in medical science.  We wouldn't tolerate such ignorance even in the manufacture of our cars.'  Yet, the research on when children optimally learn is ignored."  (The underlined part was my own... I  never used to underline or mark in books, but after realizing my own Right-Brain dominance thing I decided to go with it and it is SO much easier to find those nuggets when I flip back through the book!)

So this brings me to Perfectionism.  I found it interesting to note that Left-brain dominant learners have a different type of perfectionism than Right-brain dominant learners. 
Quote-- A left-brained person tends to exhibit external perfectionism.  This is when she wants to exact perfection on everything she does and others do because she thrives on accomplishment (products).  An external perfectionist might think, "I want a perfect product; I'm frustrated because I want it to turn out right."  A right-brained person tends to exhibit internal perfectionism.  This is when he wants to exact perfection on everything he does and others do because his creative expression (process) is an extension of how he feels about himself.  An internal perfectionist might think, "Why am I so stupid?  Why can't I get this right?  I'm no good!"  Because many right-brained learners tend to be highly sensitive, this tendency to internalize the effect of their actions or products makes sense.  Interestingly, both perfectionist acts can look similar to one another; the difference is in the motive and inner effect.

She goes on to talk about her son and how he gave up drawing for a time because he couldn't do something as well as his father could.  I HAD that moment as a child and had given up drawing for years because I "couldn't do it."  I remember when I was older and was in a drawing class with my Dad, I was feeling like an idiot because my drawing looked so terrible compared to everyone elses (I think I was about 12).  The teacher didn't say anything about mine, but had an expression that told me enough, then he turned to my Dad and praised his drawing.  I actually did later go on to learn to draw on my own and got quite good at drawing, but I see that perfectionism in me.  Not to get the product perfect so much but to be satisfied with it.  It is heart breaking to be this sort of perfectionist (I always called it "overachieving") and be satisfied with what you've done only to be told all the "mistakes" that an external perfectionist will point out.  Once you recognize this however you can hopefully keep yourself from crushing the spirit of your child and also help them to realize that trial and error and trying again are great!  The external perfectionist is just trying to point out how you can make the product more perfect, but to an internal perfectionist your criticism is attacking them and their value as a person.

At the beginning of this week my oldest (7) learned about trial and error.  While working on her "Cat Shmat" game that I found on a math games website we had to try and fail and try again to figure out how to move the pieces so that the cookie would roll to the cat.  (This was perfect with the cat school theme!)  And I was able to talk out loud about what they could try.  When it was my 5 year old's turn I would ask, "What would happen if we put it here?"  or "Where do you think the cookie would fall if we turned this piece?"  All trying to get her to think logically and try and try again.  That last level was even hard for me, but it was okay because the girls saw me figuring out how to make it all work and failing, but trying again and again till we finally figured it out!

For father's day we'd gone to an art museum and I HAD to buy this book.It was just so creative and messy and fun!  Definitely NOT something you should try to get perfect or "inside the lines"... I remember that being a big deal when I was a kid and I have no idea why it should be.  Why do we care if our kids color outside the lines of a coloring book?  I remember the feeling of sadness as a little girl when my coloring accidentally arched outside of the line. 

Staying with the "cat school" theme I bought and photo copied some coloring pages of wild and/or big cats.  The coloring book emphasized in detail how each cat was colored in real life.  I wanted to avoid this "perfection" mindset and didn't feel the need to have them color the pictures realistically.  I encouraged them to color the pictures however they wanted.  "You can color them as rainbows or poke-a-dots or scribbles."  But the whole time they worked on their paintings they listened to some cat facts and were interested enough to repeat them back to their Daddy when he got home!  It was a lovely little time and all of my girls enjoy painting.

 Now for another quote about halfway through the book--
--There are two criteria for good reading resources for right-brained children.  They have to be meaningful and interesting, and highly visual.  Many reading programs contain dry and stilted material barely bordering on a storyline.  Because reading is all about the visualization for the right-brained person, such material doesn't capture the imaginations of these highly creative learners to entice their efforts.  As if that wasn't bad enough, many reading programs separate learning words from the context of reading.  Some reading programs even leave out visuals to prevent "cheating."  Because right-brained learners are whole-to-part people, they want to capture the big picture and they use the story and visual context to do so.  Separating words from context cripples their learning process.  (end quote)

Now I understand why I actually enjoy watching a movie before reading the book that it came from (usually) because I can pretty easily change how I see the characters if the book pictures them differently, but watching the movie first helps me get that over-arcing "big picture" and I love to go to the book and get all the details to really enjoy it (I'm rarely disappointed because the book is generally better!  So if I liked the movie then I'll like the book even more).  I probably would never have read "Pride and Prejudice" as a teenager if I hadn't watched the movie first for instance (and the book is full of so much more humor in the style of writing that I just loved, but wouldn't have sat through without that big picture first.)

My goal now as I read out loud to my kids or teach them something is to give them that "big picture"... rather than becoming impatient because they "just weren't listening" or because they need to "keep listening" - that doesn't work.  They need to picture it.  Re-capping a story to help them "see" where we were is so very helpful.  I remember how frustrated I was as a child listening to nursery rhymes or other stories with too many words that I didn't recognize and how I couldn't visualize it. I want to take the time to paint a mental picture for my children so that their vocabulary can grow as they enjoy the stories!

While the girls were having lunch I turned on a free on-line reading of The Chronicles of Narnia and when their attention seemed to be wandering I turned it off only to find they wanted me to turn it back on.  I asked them where we were and they'd lost the visual of what they were listening to so I caught them up by retelling (dramatically) what the story was talking about and what it looked like (it's hard for them to catch some of the words that we don't often use here, like "parcel" for "packages")  After we'd listened to the first 25 min segment and they were wanting to hear more I decided to hold them off and show them part of the movie just so they could understand more and talk about it more (They only watched as far as they'd heard the story.)  My oldest was especially interested in SEEING what she'd been hearing to really catch the visual.  We talked about how some things are different in movies than the books... how they will change hair colors to say the least.  As the 7 year old was watching this she suddenly wanted to grab her camera and take a picture of the movie playing.  So the picture above is her taking a picture of what they were watching.  I see more and more how her mind works and how I can better teach her and talk to her.  She so clearly is visualizing things and she is so picture oriented.  Note:  The words that I had her illustrate that I'd blogged about a month or so ago I finally hung up on the wall and she remembered practically all of them right away!  That visual stuck so well with her that suddenly reading was the easiest thing in the world.  ;)

 Which brings me to another great thing that I found.  A reading program specifically for right-brain dominant picture oriented thinkers.  I looked through as much as I could on their site and felt this sense of relief as a teacher.  I WISH I'd known about this when Lily was almost 5 and wanting to do school.  We did "Sing Spell Read Write" and while the first book was fine, the second book was more difficult for ME to teach even then for her to learn from.  I found myself changing or slowing SO much of it down that it was getting ridiculous.  They said not to move on from one place until the child can do the thing perfectly, but at one point I had a choice to either keep trying to go ahead or discourage my child by staying there when it clearly wasn't teaching her what they wanted her to learn.  Plus I felt very scattered when trying to figure out how I was supposed to teach her with it.  My husband tried to help me, but his "lesson plan" didn't help in the long run.  I think I was just sensing the resistance of my daughter and was growing more and more frustrated that I couldn't teach her with that method (the thing is expensive too!)  Anyway, resistance in learning is a red flag.  If your child is resisting learning something or more specifically HOW you are trying to teach them then you've got to back up and try a different road.  I'm learning how to do some "trial and error" of my own.  I thought it would be so great if I could pick one curriculum and learn how to teach it and use it for each kid.  It would save money in the long run, but while I might be able to use similar things for each kid I've got to look at them as individuals first.  My second two girls could probably be able to do a more traditional learning to read style (since they were are more verbal than my first), but my oldest being so picture oriented really needs a more specific program for her.  But here's the thing.  It's SO much more interesting and it's actually easier for a left-brain learner to translate pictures into symbols, so even if my younger ones "could" learn from a traditional method they might have more fun with the picture oriented program.  And.... lets be honest, this right-brained teacher thinks it will be much more fun to teach.  :]

These flash cards were so fun to find too as I'd already started having my daughter illustrate her own!  I'd like to get these and still have her make some of her own too.  I showed her some of these and she looked so interested in them and wanted to see each detail of how the word was portrayed in the picture.

So, all my reading and linking and looking brought me to some more schooling style discovery.  Now about what Waldorf schooling looks like.  It values oral story telling before age 8 and doesn't teach reading till 8 years old.  Using amazing visuals and gentle teaching style it is so exactly what I'd imagine a combination of simplicity parenting and right-brain dominant learner moshed together would become.  Here's an article about teaching reading Waldorf style.  And here is another article about some of the ways you can incorporate Waldorf type schooling into your home.  Whenever I read about Waldorf and their toys and so on before I always sort of stopped short with that because it can get so basic that it become unrealistic.  I don't have the finances to buy beesewax clay (is something I thought back then), but I guess I'm beginning to catch the flavor of simplicity schooling rather than getting caught up in how THEY do it.  Eating by candle light is a beautiful idea and my children love doing that!  It's not practical for this to happen ALL the time though.  My goal is always to simplify and create a nurturing rhythm to our days, but as the last blog entry demonstrated.. it's just not always possible.  We can easily turn an "ideal" into an "Idol" and anything short of meeting our ideal is too tragic for words... that's not a healthy way to live.  If good things become too important to us then they are suddenly in a place of worship without us even realizing it.

Another quote from "The Right Side of Normal"  -- "Right-brained children wilt under these pressures to perform on demand, especially in the early years.  Their process focus is about creatively figuring things out, unlike the product focus of getting it done."

I not only saw that in my first born (even as a toddler!) but I see that in myself and now recognize it in my own quest to teach my own children.  The left-brain teaching sequence was pressing down on me even as a teacher.  Perhaps if I had a left-brain dominant child I wouldn't have felt so discouraged since then it would have "worked" but as it was, I felt myself wilting more and more.  But in many ways that's okay because it drove me to find something better.  Here pretty soon, maybe I won't be on my computer so much searching for help and resources and be more present with my kids.

Speaking of not being on my computer to read as much.  Yesterday I just went with the Waldorf encouragement that values hands on activities and knitting and felting and weaving and (frankly) all the stuff I got super into when I was in my mid teens and totally loved!  I dug through my dwindling supplies that I haven't looked at in too long and pulled out some project ideas.  I already had the strips of paper cut from back in the day when I was making my art to sell (Still have some available to sell even though I haven't been making any recently.)  At Paper Artist on Facebook

And the weaving project was created.  I used double sided tape to put the first strip on so that they could keep following the pattern.  Bend back every other paper and slide your next paper in!  They were delighted with the pattern of squares that they made. 

Here is what it looks like with every other one bent back.  My oldest loved this project so much that she made 2 more!  She called it a "Paper quilt"  .. Our next project might involve fabric.  :]

My five year old was fascinated with this little hand knitting tool and did amazingly well at it!  And we had a relaxing quite afternoon listening to music in their room for several hours while doing projects.

My girls love making and playing with snakes.  The purple one that my oldest is holding was mostly made by me from yarn that I spun way back in the day.  They had fun picking out the buttons for the eyes and my 5 year old is still excited about making more snakes and even made another one today!  She wanted a little brother for the red girl snake.

We pulled out my ball winder at this time as well and they both took turns winding up yarn balls that were a little messy.  I also loved doing this at a young age.  I'm not sure why it's so fascinating, but it was.

When the 2 year old woke up she helped me pull the buttons all off the papers which made another sensory bin type thing for her to play in for later besides the usual bean boxes and rice bags.

The little one also had a blast helping with dinner this day.  She cut the cucumbers in half.

While I love the ideals of the Waldorf school, the spontaneity of unschooling, and "living books" and the outdoors like Charlot Mason emphasizes... it's important to realize that those ideals are just that.  Our days will look different.  I probably won't ever be introducing the school day with a song and provide only faceless dolls for my children (who insist on adding faces to anything that doesn't have one.)  I will strive for less TV time for them and slow our days down so that they can play more and be entertained less, but I probably won't cut out cartoons in the morning when they first wake up (only because I'd much rather sleep in than make them turn the TV off!)  Computers are here to stay and so are video games and technology.  What I feel like we need is not to get rid of it all, but to use it wisely and to find the balance of using it well so that we control our own pace in life.  That balance will look different for each family and if we were living in different circumstances it would probably look different for us.  It's been difficult in the heart of such a big city by a busy highway on a busy residential road completely full of apartments IN a little apartment to find nature and a slower pace, but it can be done.... a little bit at a time.  It's always a re-balancing act though as other people press their ideals onto what life should look like, but what we each need to get to is what our own family's pace of life should be.

The hundreds in reality

I always appreciate blog posts or writers (like this one for instance) that not only give advice but are "real" and honest about what it's truly like to be a parent or home educator.  Very very often the plans that we make go in an entirely different direction in school time.  It's easy to think we can't do something or might be close to giving up.  I think this is especially hard for people that are already surrounded by the homeschooling critics.  Hopefully this post will be an encouragement. 



Okay, so every now and then I throw in a post about "what it's really like."  I mean, if you just read the last post all on its own, you'd probably think what a great easy relaxing wonderful nurturing week we had.  The balloon hundreds chart and the themes and games sounded like such a great idea. And maybe they would have been .. on a different week.

Add this to the list of stuff we did for the "Hundreds party" (only we didn't read it ON the day of the party as you will find out when I describe the other stuff that went on.)

Last week our "hundreds chart party" was on Wednesday because that's what I promised my girls.  I'd been putting it off too long and finally pinned the day down.  But the week was full of way too much busyness.  From a dinner with new friends to a last minute realization that VBS was happening all that week from 6 to 8:15 at night, to gymnastics, and getting pulled over by a cop for an expired inspection sticker (that I'd never had to deal with before and had no idea was overdue), then the middle one getting car sick and throwing up her raspberry smoothy several times on the way to a funeral (plus having to deal with not having the extra clothes in the car that usually were there.)  I'd promised to make a bunch of cotton candy for the VBS goers all individually bagged and I also made balloon animals for them all to take home.  In the midst of this we had a few unexpected visits from my mother-in-law (which I really wish I'd had more time to enjoy.)  A trip to the Zoo to get a gift for my nephew and mailing a birthday package and the usual grocery shopping and craft mess and messy house stress all happened that week. At the beginning of the week we'd found out about the death of a friends baby (just a few weeks from her due date) and the whole week felt like a blur of not quite knowing what to do except try to keep up.  Some parts felt tragic and some parts felt like a comedy of errors and most parts were punctuated by overly tired children that seemed to whine and fight and pick on each other infinitely more than usual.  Also my littlest who is shy and introverted naturally and hasn't been ready for being left in a nursery at church was with me when I volunteered to watch the babies (from 4 months to just under three.)  The almost constant crying (a few of the babies weren't ready to be left in a nursery like this and cried on and off so much that they kept setting the other ones off too) put so much stress on my sensitive toddler that it took her the full week to recover from it.  She was a trooper though and made it half way through the volunteering time before losing it.  Such a bummer too because I'd helped her get to a point where she was getting more comfortable with strangers and I feel like we are almost back to square one.  She's also suddenly afraid of the dark and has been having a harder time going to sleep.  Anyone with a toddler can relate to how hard it is for the Mom when the littlest one is exceedingly clingy and fussy and sleeping poorly.  Every sound is too loud and every nerve in your body is too sensitive.  The only way to survive at this point is to ask for the grace of God and thank your husband for the hard cider he brought home for you.

I'm sure I left something out from last week, but suffice it to say that emotionally it was tougher than it probably was in reality.  Isn't that how it always is?

The girls DID enjoy the VBS and that brought some good conversations about salvation and dinosaurs and so on, but sometimes homeschooling is over-run by life and it's a miracle that anyone learns anything at all.

But even if there isn't overcommitments happening or unexpected grief or forgetfulness or fussy babies, sometimes the great plan that you thought your kids would love for sure - doesn't pan out.  Even the little projects that you'd think they would like they just don't want to do.. are you going to FORCE them to make a puppet craft that fits the fairy tale you read them that went along with the moral and a rhyme?  How do you keep them active and busy and get the rest you need yourself.  How do you keep that simple living and balance when they are with you constantly?

-- You feel overwhelmed by all those little things that amount to too much and you just made a hanging curtain with 100 balloons while the kids enjoyed roasting marshmallows over a candle (while you watched them like a hawk lest they set them on fire and burn your table) and now just a few hours later they are complaining that they never get to do anything "fun" and say "aren't we going to start the party soon?" and your nerves are fried from the build up of that proverbial straw that breaks the camels back.  And you try to redeem the moment by driving to the bank for 100 pennies to teach them about money and different ways to get to a hundred, and you get pulled over by a cop giving you a ticket for something that wasn't your responsibility to take care of and you over extend yourself and you feel judged and you feel like you need to do more.

In reality you need to step back and unplug.  When the kids see the VBS starting at another church (the very next week) and are asking you if they can go to that one TOO you need to say "no."

When you can't think of what to teach them or just feel like you need a breather in order to organize the next phase of their school time, pull out a free online game for them to work through like "Cat Shmat" and other math or alphabet games.  (My 7 year old had fun with this site word bingo game as well.)

In Cat Shmat you get to add pieces to the picture so that the cookie will roll to the cat.

Find a way to have a breather and realize that the life that keeps "getting in the way" is the very thing they will learn from the most.  It's more important for you to take that breather and let them watch an educational show (or one just for fun) while you figure out what in the world you should do next.  Bribe them with money to do work.  Note: when you are a grown up this is called "being paid for working your job."  In our house who ever folds the most towels gets the most money and it's at least a penny a towel.  Several months ago I got $30 of nickles and dimes for this very purpose.

Most of all, just slow down and unplug.  Sit on the floor and dig through legos with your kids for an hour (or whatever it is that you'd enjoy doing with them.. like reading stories or taking a walk and looking at flowers.)  Yes, this means you have to actually have the TIME to do this so rushing to this or that or the other commitment is probably a bit too much.  If everyone is snapping at each other then perhaps they all need to go to sleep earlier which means you need to make dinner sooner, which means that you've got to be home soon enough for wind down time, which means you need to be at your house for the toddlers nap time.  For more simplifying ideas check out this book -- Simplicity Parenting.

A week later with some simplifying measures in place I am amazed at the difference in my children and myself.  I feel like I'm enjoying them again and seeing them for the first time.

It seems ironic that it takes effort to slow down and do LESS, but it does.  It's also really really worth it.  While times like I had last week are pretty inevitable there's much we can do to prevent them from happening and it's all about doing less.

And if no one has told you yet -- as you hit that bad week/day/hour please realize that you haven't "failed."  I recently was explaining to my oldest about what it's like to be a Christian, "Being a Christian isn't about doing everything right or getting your life perfect, it's about learning that you need Jesus more and more and can't do anything good without him."  I have many moments (especially since becoming a parent and homeschooling) where I know that I'm just not enough.  I can't do any of this in my own strength.  I need God's grace and strength in every hour and only "fail" when I'm able to (somehow) do it all on my own and appear "perfect."  That's why I've got to write posts like this for you all.  It's too easy to hide the bad and only reveal the good, but that doesn't help anyone.  It can be a scary thing to be honest and I've been burned for revealing my faults and/or struggles and being "real" with people, but I've got to keep being honest to be any good to anyone.

Hundreds chart days!

 Last fall we started a 100's chart and counted each day starting at one and adding one (or two) numbers. The little jar is for the "ones column" and the blue tub is for the bundles of tens.  I didn't do it every day with the girls, but we did it enough over all and consistently enough that it worked well.

I sort of stalled for a while in having them finish the chart because I knew I was going to throw a party for us and finally this week I planned for us to do the party and got balloons and so on for it. 

And here is where we are today!  We completed the hundreds chart (sometimes with the girls taking turns counting so that one did odds and the other counted the even numbers.)  Ten bundles of ten sticks.

The girls got to roast marshmallows over the 100 candles while I was blowing up balloons.

Counting marshmallows to help the kids associate the amount with the symbolic representation of the number.  (We did this before lighting the candles actually.)

They were super excited about the marshmallows.

And this is what I was doing while they were roasting marshmallows.  It is a balloon hundred chart!  My 7 year old helped me write the numbers in order on the balloons.  In retrospect I think it would have been better to have each row the same color instead of using all white.  I think the girls were most excited about the balloon animals that I made (not pictured) which don't really match the theme of one hundred, but they DID match our learning about animals.

And I made up a fun hundreds chart game that is sort of a combination of bingo and tic tac toe.  Print out a hundreds chart like THIS one twice.  Use one chart for the "board" and the other one you can cut apart so that you have all the numbers in a box or bowl or something place to draw from.  The kids take turns (unlike bingo) and play onto the same board.  The goal is to get three in a row (or more if you want to make it harder.)  I used my "announcer voice" as I drew a number for each child (put used numbers in the discard pile) and make sure they have differently shaped stickers to use or different colors to cover the number that is called out on their turn.  If they couldn't find the number without looking at what I drew I would just show them.  This is going to be a game we will play again to practice recognizing numbers!

This was the final "game board" after the winning number was drawn for my 5 year old (her squares were on the 13, 14, 15) and like I said, you could easily change it to be 4 or 5 in a row (diagonal, vertical, or horizontal of course.)

So, as we were playing I noticed that it was hard to recognize the 9s from the 6s when I was drawing the numbers AND this board is much prettier, but I don't have color ink in my printer right now.  However, I think this would be a really great way to do it.  There's always the other option of using magnets instead of stickers though so you wouldn't have to print this chart out every time.  I might do something more permanent later like that.  For now, there you go.  :)