How I Plan

The question of planning came up at the Homespun Waldorf forum and I decided to do a post here since I really don't know how to post photos there without using a hosting service such as Flickr.

Anyway, I sit down with my materials and a calendar and plan out the year. Not what we are going to do each day, but the block progression and how long each block will be. This is the chart I did for this year:

This gives me a basic plan to go from. You'll notice that we have a different lesson each afternoon; this is new for us this year.  Previously we had an afternoon/secondary lesson that we did four afternoons a week for two to four weeks; lessons such as cooking, knitting, painting, weaving, sewing, modeling, etc. While I love that format I've found that this year we need the afternoon time for other things such as our PE class.  So now we do a themed afternoon lesson on Mondays; I didn't want to lose handwork so we do that some evenings in a relaxed manner. We're trying it out; if it doesn't work we will go back to doing literature during our mornings and we will devote three days a week to the afternoon lesson.

I also outline each block at the beginning of the year. Since we are using Live Education I just refer to the lessons I have chosen from their materials. Here is the lesson block for Ancient Greece I:

These block outlines are really important for me. I mark days that we have special celebrations and days that Papa has off. Since we aren't doing every single lesson in the Live Education materials I can't just go in order without a plan. Also, if a lesson is taking less time than expected I can decide whether or not to move ahead, and if it takes longer I can decide which remaining lesson we can skip.

We do have to have some flexibility. For example, I planned the above block and since I did that our homeschool group planned our annual trip to the pumpkin patch for this coming Monday. Looking at the lessons I saw that I could combine Topic 5: Lessons 1 and 2 on Tuesday so that is how we will manage the field trip. Practice work, grammar, and new math learning can be skipped for one day; I won't be so rigid that we miss out on doing things.  But I can think like an unschooler as well, practicing math facts or grammar skills in the car on the way to the pumpkin patch, or even just singing seasonal songs.

Typically I sit down on the weekend and look over the week's lessons in-depth (using the outline shown above). I'd like to do this for the month but it hasn't worked out that way yet. I make a note of any supplies that I need to gather or purchase and decide which source books we'll use for each lesson, marking the passages I need to read. If I am going to do a chalkboard drawing for the block I try to get it started before the first day of the block. I also determine if I am going to do any crayon drawings ahead of time and whether I need to look for images or other sources on the computer so that I can print them out ahead of time.

For grammar I print out the sheets from the Daily Grammar ebook we are using; we just go in order so I print about one month's worth at a time. I have the Making Math Meaningful speed sheets printed already. We go through Life of Fred in order so that doesn't take much planning, and I don't write it out as I can't know how many times the boys will need to attempt a bridge before they are ready to move on. Sometimes they nail it with one bridge and sometimes they need to do all five.

For literature we choose one book per month; it doesn't follow our block schedule. I think I may have written before that I am working with the boys on developing a literature class to teach, and since most classes run monthly that is how we are doing it. This month the are reading Rick Riordan's The Son of Neptune. The idea is to teach classic literature, but I hadn't chosen a book to start with and this one arrived so we went with it.

Other than doing my chart and outlines on the computer I don't actually plan on the computer. Having it on paper works for me. I have a teacher's plan book and in it I keep track of what we are doing by subject. I enter planned lesson work as well as things that simply come up (the way an unschooler might record learning). If there is a project I would like us to do I put it on a sticky note and then I move it to the week that I will need to get supplies. Then I move it to the day I might need to do prep work, and finally to the day I expect to do the project. I use sticky notes to remind me of field trips we might want to do, etc.

I used to plan a formal circle, but the boys hated formal circle time.  So we switched to a more organic circle.  I asked myself, what is the heart of circle?  To me a large part of it is the coming together after the separation of sleep.  So we eat breakfast together as a family.  We send Papa off to work and do our chores.  Then as the three of us come together for lesson work we do a few more relaxed activities that bring us into the frame of mind for lessons. We might walk if the weather is good, working on verses we are memorizing as well as reviewing oral math facts.  Or we might stay in the house and sing, working on rounds and harmonies.

I do think that a huge benefit if homeschooling is adapting day-to-day.  If a lesson is falling flat I will improvise.  I've been known to jettison an entire block if it just isn't working for us. I also refuse to worry; it isn't the end of the world if we don't get something done.

My planning takes a lot less time than it looks like from this post. I put in a couple days before the homeschool year begins and then I prep for an hour or so each week.

Ancient Greece I Day 10

I almost forgot to get this post up -- oops!

We started this morning with ... singing! You were expecting grammar and math, weren't you? We got to that after the singing. We sang a few seasonal songs and then worked on rounds using Row Row Row Your Boat. Wow, we haven't sung in rounds in awhile, and we're rusty.

Next up were Daily Grammar and a Making Math Meaningful Fast Fact Sheet. J-Baby can't finish the fact sheets in five minutes (nor in six minutes, which is what I gave them) and he was a little discouraged today. All I could do is tell him that it will come in time.

We did Life of Fred math using the white board again; today the boys got to come up and do problems on it. They were so excited. We breezed through the bridge and I feel confident that we have done enough review to start new material next week.

 J-Baby works on long division. Papa has asked me if all homeschoolers wear tie-dye.

We finished up our study of Pythagoras by doing a drawing of pebble squares as our book told us the Pythagoreans had done. Not that they had drawn, that they had made number squares out of pebbles on the sand.

 T-Guy's drawing. Yes, he is twelve. No, he really doesn't love drawing.

J-Baby's drawing. Yes, the 5 is backward. No, he won't use crayons in his drawings.

I One might wonder how after five years of the Waldorf grades (or Enki -- the focus on drawing is the same) my boys drawings haven't evolved into the masterpieces one sees in books and on blogs. I don't really know. The boys put more effort into their drawings in the early grades than they do now. It's okay though; now isn't the time for me to start caring what other think.

We had a great week; we're all settled into the new homeschool year and it's going really well.

Ancient Greece I Day 9

We started the morning with - you guessed it - grammar and math.  However, today we got to use our shiny new white board during our math lesson.  Or rather, math review, as we were working on a Life of Fred bridge.

Hanging the white board was difficult.  There might have been swearing involved, and there most certainly was complaining, along with huffing, puffing, and grunting.  We had to drill though metal, people, with a drill bit that wasn't fully up to the task.  But it is installed, it's level, and I'm certain that it isn't going to fall down.

Here it is in all beauty:

Normally I wouldn't leave a poster up, but I was so excited that the board came with two paper holders so that we can use it as an easel!

I want to cover it when it isn't in use, so I am brainstorming ideas for that.  I thought maybe we could make a flannel cover so that we can also use it as a felt board (I have a lovely piece of hand-dyed flannel that we could use), but that would have to come up and down daily. Stiffening a piece of attractive fabric and attaching it with magnets might work best.  Or we could do a large water-color painting or two and hang those.  There is no real rush to get it covered, but I'd like to have it done before our Halloween gathering. Hmmm ... maybe we can do seasonal coverings.

Today's lesson in our Ancient Greek History block was squaring numbers (something the Pythagoreans did).  There are actually two lessons given in the materials; one is having the children memorize the squares and draw them, and the other is having them make them with manipulatives.  For reasons unknown to me, the directions were to draw them first.  I didn't like that, so today we talked about what a squared number is, drilled the squares up to 12x12 (they know them backward and forward), and used our Cuisinaire rods to visualize the squares and then to build pyramids.

 Clearly this was standing work.  They started with the 1cm cubes and then moved to rods.

 J-Baby had made the Lego pyramid earlier this week and wanted it to be part of the photo shoot.

The shadow was pretty cool once the afternoon sun started shining in.

Cuisinaire rods have been part of our homeschool since grade 1.  A few times I have thought to get rid of them and I even boxed them up once, but we always find a use for them.

During our afternoon makeup time we worked on the golden ratio form again, and struggled, again.  T-Guy huffed and puffed (I wonder who he gets that from) threw down his pencil, whined, and declared it impossible.  I set him to practicing making circles with the compass while J-Baby and I continued our work. The frustrated sounds continued.  Finally I told T-Guy that he could be excused as his frustration had gotten the better of him and I thought he could use a break. He looked at me, grabbed his compass and some 1" graph paper, and tried really hard to do the drawing.  It wasn't perfect, but he did it. I wish I could bottle that magic but I don't really know what I did other than give him permission not to do it.

Ancient Greece I Day 8

We woke up to winter.  Seriously, cold temps, overcast days, and rain are what we usually get in winter, not fall.  Fall is generally warm, dry, and sunny. But we are happy to have the rain while it lasts. We started our homeschool morning with a Java Log in the fireplace and candles lit on the mantel.

We did grammar and math.  I'm starting to feel like a broken record.  In general, every one of our homeschooling days begins with grammar and math.  It's something we took away from those two months at the beginning of our last homeschool year; grammar and math happening every morning works best for us.

Our main lesson was drawing Pythagoras's Golden Ratio in the form of a star and pentagon.  To keep it real, we struggled. It seemed so much easier looking at it in the book and I realize now that I should have practiced on my own before the lesson.  It's okay though; it can be good to model staying calm when things aren't quite going as planned.

The reality is that working with rulers and compasses on plain paper is a little tricky.  Marking off one inch intervals on a line isn't exactly precise when using a #2 pencil.  Compasses move when you use them.  My second attempt was much better, although I plan to redo it.

I ended up printing out 1" graph paper for the boys to work with, to make the measuring easier. The boys didn't want the drawings they did today to go into the blog; they are going to redo them Thursday afternoon during our make-up time.

P.E. was cancelled because of the rain, but none of us minded all that much. It gave us the opportunity to have a quiet afternoon. T-Guy's long awaited copy of Rick Riordan's The Son of Neptune (Book 2 in The Heroes of Olympus series) arrived this morning and J-Baby settled in with a wonderful iPad app based on Richard Dawkin's new book, The Magic of Reality.  It is full of really cool science!

I've found that I am very much missing singing from Mary Thienes-Schunemann's Naturally You Can Sing Sing a Song of Seasons, so I placed an order for another copy and it should be here tomorrow.  I remember some of the songs and have been singing those, but others have slipped away from my memory.  I also think J-Baby might enjoy playing some of the tunes on the piano.

Ancient Greece I Day 7

Another smooth, easy-peasy day.  Of course, it helps that the boys already know a lot about Pythagoras. I forgot that they covered him last year when they did The Story of Science.  Well, I filled them in a bit on the Pythagoreans and some of Pythagoras's views on the transmigration of souls and why he and his followers were vegetarian.  It was interesting to learn that Pythagoras allowed women to study and was considered one of the first to advocate equality for the sexes (within reason, I'm sure).  And while he wasn't explicitly against slavery he didn't condone hitting slaves.  He and his followers held themselves to a very high standard (believing this was how they could reach enlightenment and no longer reincarnate).

We did grammar (Conjunction-Junction, What's Your Function?), a MMM speed sheet, and the main lesson.  Spelling was out as there was something odd going on with the computer.  (Note: We learned about conjunctions using Daily Grammar. My reference to Schoolhouse Rock while writing the blog post reminded me of the video and we watched it then.  No, I don't use TV to teach grammar.)

No photo today, but you might enjoy this.  We certainly did!

Ancient Greece I Day 6

A new week, a new attitude.

Hoemschooling today was fantastic.  Yes, T-Guy still got frustrated with adding fractions (review work), but I stayed calm and patient and remembered that my job is to teach.  If he needs more review, he needs more review.  If he forgets the steps we go over them again.  If he gets upset we slow down.  It isn't his fault that he doesn't understand fractions they way I did as a child or the way J-Baby does.  Plenty of people struggle with fractions.  It's okay.

We had a grammar quiz and T-Guy was happy to say goodbye to prepositions for now (J-Baby really likes grammar).

The boys did the Making Math Meaningful speed sheet and we did another bridge test in Life of Fred (where the above frustration occurred).

All this week we'll be learning about Pythagoras as part of our Ancient Greek History block. Today we drew circles:

 J-Baby has success with his circles on the first attempt.

 T-Guy and I had to sit side-by-side and redo his circles.  Here he is coloring them in.

Here is his second attempt - much better!

The boys did their spelling and we were done!  The morning really sped by and we all enjoyed it. I hope there rest of this week is as successful.

Our Learning Space

I am so incredibly happy with how well our learning space is working out for us, and how nice it looks. I guess I always worried that this room wouldn't look "right" if it didn't have formal furniture in it; I am rather pleased to have been proven wrong.

Anyway, it is a work in progress.  But here is what we have so far:

 The piano, which used to be in the living room.  This was given to us by Papa's step-brother. We're planning to put up a large world map in place of the watercolor painting.

 One of our black boards, mounted vertically.  With nothing on it, because I haven't gotten around to doing a drawing yet.  Sometimes I write an inspirational phrase instead.  The board is mounted with Velcro tape so I can take it down to draw.  It works beautifully.

The armoire, which now houses our computer.  It was a hand-me-down from a friend. The black board has been mounted to it for some time now, and it has been placed in three different rooms.

 A close-up of the painting my great-aunt did for my grandmother.  I put here mostly to remind me that I can't be perfect, but it also reminds me that the boys can't be either.

 The table, viewed from the living room side.  It's just perfect.  Because we bought it used it already has some paint splatters and indentations on the surface, so I don't have to obsess over ruining it. 

 The typewriter corner with the library basket and the boys' portfolios.  The typewriter and stand were thrift store finds.

 The table, looking toward the hall and living room.  I made the centerpiece with a piece of vintage thrifted Pyrex, some river rock, and tea light candles.

 Our Trofast units, which move all over the house as needed.  Three were hand-me-downs and the others in the house we purchased. The plastic bins hold art supplies; they aren't pretty but it is far easier to grab a bin of paints or modeling beeswax than to pull them off a shelf.  This wall is where we will be installing the white board.

 The corner is where we store our art clipboards, painting boards, black boards, etc.

 I love this little table top easel!  Before I had black boards I would post my crayon drawings on it for the boys, and also their copy work, so that they could practice looking up, holding information in their minds, and copying it.

One last shot with the table, armoire, and typewriter.  The room isn't very big, but the coziness is nice.

This room just works!  We have home schooled all over the house and no room has worked as well as this one.  The breakfast nook is too small and we had to clear our things at lunch time even if we weren't finished.  The back bedroom felt cave-like, and the master-bedroom-turned-family-room (and now returned to master bedroom) was an uninspiring, ugly mess.  Here we have the beauty of the wood trim, the redwood trees through the windows (yes, my property has coast redwoods and palm trees), the gleaming wood floors, the coved ceiling, the gorgeous light, and is centrally located in the house.  As a bonus it is still a great room to share a meal in even if we can't seat more than six people at the table.