Doting on Deirdre: homeschool

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Art and our Waldorf Co-op

PS: We have 3 chrysalises

Now on to the blog:

Tonight is a lazy night. We did not get home from our day trip until 7:30pm. Today the kiddos and I visited my mother and brother in Virginia Beach, my hometown. I also was lucky enough to see my high school/college best friend Jess during nap time- a rare and sweet time for us both now that we both have kids! I missed her daughter's baptism last weekend due to Jonas being sick, but I was there today and was able to give her a little homemade reversible quilted bib. Abbie's gift was the first sewn gift I have given anyone besides my kids. So I am nervous about it. I am very critical of my sewing. But babies are forgiving :) I just love that little Abbie!

But on to the focus of the blog! Part of my homeschooling vision is incorporating Waldorf education into our daily lives and schooling. This all began back in October when a dear friend Sarah gave me a Nova Natural toy catalog. Yes, this all began with toys! Their catalog was pure art and so vastly different to anything I have seem commercial on the market. Something deeply resonated with me while flipping through their pages. That resonation drove me to dig deeper and see the aesthetic and vision behind the toy company. All of that then lead to Waldorf education. At the time, I had never heard of Waldorf before, which was shocking and disappointing since I was studying 'Education' and recently received my Masters in Teaching.

So after falling in love with Waldorf and finding my mothering compass, I began making small subtle changes in our home and schooling. One of the aspects of Waldorf that I love the most is their attention to arts and crafts as well as the respect it is given when created by a child. My daughter was particularly drawn to wet-on-wet watercolor painting and beeswax modeling. I however had never seen any of the supplies that I needed to do these activities in our local Michael's. So I turned to the Internet!

While Nova does supply the things I needed, I could not afford to keep getting them as often as required from them. Even though their prices are very very reasonable! I generally use Nova for our Waldorf toys and household items. No one beats them in that department. But Bella Luna Toys is also high up on my list. I love Sarah Baldwin.

So for our quality Waldorf home-schooling supplies we turned to Cedar Ring Circle Co-op. Becca over there is a fellow Momma and works so hard for the families in the Co-op. She helps supply us homeschooling Moms with quality and affordable Waldorf supplies. We do a monthly order, and members get an awesome discount. I highly suggest them to you. We are so pleased and grateful. Traditional large schools can afford to buy in bulk, but homeschoolers don't have that luxury, yet we all want the necessary supplies for our kids, right? Also since Waldorf is specialized and not well known, the supplies and toys used are hard to find and can be expensive.

So my fellow Waldorf home school moms, please check Cedar Ring Circle out if you need to access to quality Waldorf supplies! I am so glad that I did!

-http://stores.cedarringcircle.com/StoreFront.bok

DD's 1st wet-on-wet watercolor

nature table

DD's 2nd wet on wet watercolor painting

She uses it now as a carpet for her gnome house.

Nature/Painting Corner

A Tiger!- Beeswax crayons have such great color to them and glide on so smooth.

Lion

Flowers

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Return of the Birds!

Since making our decision to not send Deirdre to preschool this Fall, we have begun a new home preschool program with her- in conjunction with weekly play dates and biweekly church 'preschool' for social interaction. The program we are using is wonderful and is also free. I discovered via the Bella Luna blog. The curriculum was created by an awesome crafter Mom and homeschooler whom runs a website called "Wee Folk Art". It is seasonally based and fits Deirdre's personality perfectly (with an added touch of detail and depth where needed from Mama).

About three weeks ago Deirdre got her subscription renewal to "My Big Backyard" magazine and with it came a pair of binoculars. She was immediately in love with them. So we took to the yard to observe the birds. At this point however the birds were hiding, since it was still very cold out. Then, not a week or so later, she noticed that the birds had returned!!! She began spying them all on her own and hearing them.

Needless to say the return of the birds has been fun and coincides with the first lesson in our new curriculum on birds! How neat? Deirdre now knows so much about them and the schooling is really enriching her time outdoors. We have been keeping a bird and garden journal as well as a nature collection too. I will post pictures tomorrow of them since I am on the laptop.

Deirdre also can now draw bodies, limbs, and faces. This may not seem like a significant development, but it is. I am so proud of her since it really, as is the case with all of her milestones, of her of own making. I watched her practice the drawings, not without frustration and a few "but you draw them best Mommy", before she got it! She was sooo proud of herself and rightfully so. Her effort was commendable.

Another reason why I enjoy this version of home preschool is that I can go at her pace, challenge her where needed, as well as spend more time on topics that interest her...and all for free. I realize that "having a break" is nice but I do not mind having her around in the least. I actually prefer to have her around, haha.

I spend lots of time one on one with both my kids and I get my housework and homework done. We also are cloth diapering and those are working out great plus they're getting washed (another thing I am proud of myself for). Also I have been cooking about 5-6 nights a week (Craig cooks one and the other is leftovers) from scratch for a month plus. That is something I am proud of because I am not a "cook". Well let me rephrase that, it is not something I like nor does cooking come easily to me. But I can cook and do it tastefully. I am however an great baker. So the I need a break "to get more things done" argument is moot. But I digress...

Basically, with preschool, I do not see the value in paying to have a break from my child when I do not need it nor want it. I like being with her, teaching her, and it does not seem like a necessary service for her or us. My husband also works afternoons/evenings. He only gets to really see the kids during the day. If she was gone 2 to 3 times a week, that would severely cut into his time with her. So he was a fan so keeping her home immediately. The quality of education never came into the decision process for us either because well in addition to having taught at a preschool for 4 years, I will have a degree in less than a month in history, education, and language :) So I feel more than qualified to teach her and I know I have so far and will continue to do it well.

Last but certainly not least, we felt convicted to do this as a family and Craig did as our spiritual leader. We believe that this is what the Lord wants us to do and we prayerfully considered it.

So I will leave you with this verse and pictures to follow. Please do understand this is what we feel is best for our child and family. I do not think other people who send their kiddos to preschool do not like to be around them- that is just simply an argument I had been told and I wanted to specifically address it here. To each their own and I think preschools can be great! Who knows what we will decide next year when we revisit the topic?