March Calender

The Rest of Feb. Planning Pages

More Calender Pages : )

As I was looking through the Planning Pages I realized that I had only done one page for February.  So I decided to do up the other pages to for February. : )

The Rest of Jan. Planning Pages

Happy New Year

New Calendar Pages for January

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you will have a very Happy New Year!!!  Hope you enjoy the planning pages for January!  I think that I finally have all the months done, Yea!!!  You should be able to get all the different month now so you can plan ahead bettter : ).  Just go to Labels and look under Calender Pages and also Planning Pages.  Im still working on getting them all under the labels and I probably will change some of the pictures through the year.  I do hope you enjoy them.
Your Friend,
Jane ; )

Great New Online Magazine

I just wanted to share a wonderful online magazine that I discovered!  Over at Syrendell blog they were sharing a give a way that was happening at Rhythm of the Home blog.  Rhythm of the Home online magazine is up and going, it is really beautiful!  I have been enjoying the articles and also they have some wonderful photos very uplifting and inspiring!  Its always so fun to find others who share similar interest.  There are some really neat ideas for the Holidays and how to live them more simply.  : ) You'll have to go and check it out if you haven't already!
Hope you enjoy!        http://rhythmofthehome.com/

Favorite Christmas Poem

 

What can I give him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb,

If I was a wise man

I would do my part,

Yet what can I give Him,

Give my Heart.

I hope that every one is have a wonderful month and enjoying the beautiful Christmas season.  I have so been enjoying reading everyone's blogs what talented and creative people, truly inspiring!

Happy Holidays!!!

December Planning Pages

Im so sorry it has taken me so long to get these up : (  I have had some sick children and time just flew by.
But I hope that you will be able to use them and its not to late.  Have a very wonderful Holiday!

Your Friend,

Jane

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

May you have a day full of gratitude and Joy!

Little bit of Scotland

Dear Challee has been studying Scotland  and for one of her  activities she wanted to make shortbread cookies.  They turned out really lovely and I thought I would share them with you.

Here is the recipe we used:

Scottish Shortbread

1 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups of flour

2 table spoons of milk

strawberry jam

Cream softened butter and sugar together till they are blended completely.  Then add the flour.   Our dough was very dry and crumbly.  Start adding the milk and knead it into the dough keep adding the milk till the dough start to form a ball.  You might need a little more then two table spoons but you don't want to add to much. Just enough to make it so you will be able to roll the dough out.    Roll out  your dough to about a 1/4 of an inch thick.  Between a 1/4 of an inch and 1/2.   Then  Challee used our fall leaf  and acorn cookie cutters to cut out the shortbread.  I have a set that has different sizes in it and so we used the big ones first and then the smaller ones next.  Cutting a whole right in the middle of our first cookie leaf.  Then we gentle spooned in the strawberry jam.  Bake them at 375 for about 10 minutes.  Take out when just turning golden brown around the edges.

November planning pages

  I am making a label list on my blogs sidebar.   Im hoping that it will make it easier for you to find the different planning pages.  I hope that will be helpful!  Happy planning I hope all of you that use these pages have a wonderful month, and even if you dont : ) That your November is truely filled with joy!

The Letter H

These are the letter cards I made for H following the story of
The Hut by the Bro. Grimm.  I make them out of index card using my pastel chalks. Then I cover them with contact paper so little ones can use them over and over again with out getting chalk dust on them and every thing else. : )   On the back of the letter H some of the 3 letter words I put on it were hut, hat, how, hug, hill and hi even though its not a three letter word. : )
Also here is our little verse for the letter H.  My second son helped me come up with this verse for my youngest son.   I got the idea of having a verse from a couple of places, A Path of Discovery by Eric L. Fairman, and School as a Journey  both wonderful books.  So no more ado here is our verse : )
The heroes came upon the hobbits home in the hill.
Finding none,and losing hope.
They venture to find the hobbits before the hideous , horrible
half Troll, humiliates them with his horrifying humor.
On this haunting Halloween Eve.
I wonder how hard this will be for Loch to say?  : )

Happy Halloween

I'm very excited to share with you a project I've been working on. When I was a little girl my mom would crochet these adorable little dolls.  I just loved them!   Well I'm so excited to share that I am now able to crochet the same little dolls.  Its taken me along time to finally learn how to crochet. I'm left handed. : )  But I have finally succeeded.

I can now create one of these dolls for my own daughters.  I have been experimenting with different yarns and its amazing what just a little different wait of yarn will give you.

these patterns are over thirty years old but  they reminded me so much of the Waldorf dolls that I like so much.

                 Hope you have a very wonderful Halloween and a

                                                    Happy Autumn!

Provident Living

I found this really neat website on living very frugally.  I thought I would share it with you. : )  Its The Prudent Homemaker, her site is so beautiful.   She makes it look like fun.
Im going to put a button to the website on my side bar, I hope you find some great ideas : )  I have tried some of the fall recipes and have enjoyed them!

Tweaking

My wonderful plans for first grade with my Little Son have ended up needing some tweaking.  : )  I was so excited to get started but after the first couple of weeks he just wasn't enjoying it.
So I went back over my plans and decided that I would include more of the Thomas Jefferson Education principles to our day and see if that would help him.
We still start with a circle time where we recite our morning verse and he has it memorized now. It is so fun to hear him share it all on his own.  We do say it together but its fun to know that he can say it by himself.  Then we still recite a couple of other poems together that have to do with the season.
What I have changed is: After devotional I head down with the three younger kids and we have Kidschool.  Which is a time that I share with them something I have been learning about.  For this month it has been drawing with block crayons, Scotland, Forest habitats, English grammar, and Waldorf Math.  Each day I share one of these areas with them.
Then we separate into our individual studies.  I start out helping my Little Son with his reading lesson.  I had to change the story from the little garden flower because dear Little Son didn't like the idea of the children living home and going away from there mother.  So I changed it to a knight who is going on a Quest for the King.  The King has wanted to learn to read but doesn't know how.  There is an evil sorcerer who took all the knowledge away in hopes of  being able to gain control of the kingdom.  So our Knight Sir George the Brave, decides that he will go on this quest to find all the different letters and the knowledge of being able to read.  He is hoping to also be able to learn how to read along the way. : )
So I will read a fairy tale with him about one of the letters that we are working on.  The stories are collected by the knight on his travels and it is usually given to him by one of the characters from the story.  When the dwarf, or whichever character it might be at the time, gets to the end of the story he hands the knight a special card which has the letter on it.  The knight just has to figure out which letter it is.

I made these on index cards. I have one with a picture on it and then another one with the letter on it that I hide somewhere in the room for dear Little Son to find.  

On the back of the swan picture I have written the word swan and on the back of the letter card I write as many three letter words as I can think of that start with the letter S.  We try and go over these words together every day.
Then the next day I will have him tell me about the story we shared the day before and then I will share a little verse that the knight makes up to help him remember the letter and the sound that the letter makes.
A sneaky old snake slithered along the ground.  As he slid through the swamp he heard a small sound. He rounded the bend and, to his surprise,  he received a grand prize.  Six singing slugs and a symphony of snails.
They are a bit silly but he really has been enjoying them.  We made a journal for him and I try to have him write something in it each day -- either about his day or I will have him copy a line down from our little verse.  He really likes working in his math workbook, which blows my mind.  What I would like to do is have him do his workbook some days and then on other days have him work on Waldorf based math with me.
Well, that is what our days have turned into -- more or less. I feel so grateful for the freedom to be able to make the changes I need to fit this to his personality.  I wanted to share this because it seems that real life happens and its okay!!! Many times plan B might end up being even better in the long run.  : )

Our First Grade Adventure

Here is an insight into what our first grade day is looking like so far.  : )  After Breakfast we spend some time getting our beds made and getting dressed for that day.  Then we gather together in the living room to have our Devotional time-circle  time.  Circle time for the younger children we are learning the Morning Verse:

The Sun with loving Light

Makes bright for me each day.

The soul with Spirit Power,

Gives Strength unto my limbs.

In Sunlight Shining clear,

I reverence O God,

The strength of human kind
Which Thou so graciously

Hast planted in my Soul,

That I, with all my might

May love to work and learn.

From Thee comes Light and Strength

To Thee rise Love and Thanks.

              By Rudolf Steiner

I also share with them an autumn poem after we have worked on reciting together or morning verse.  Then my first grader and I head to another room were we read together our story for the day.  This week we read Mt. Simeli together for our study of the letter M.

I drew this  to share with him while we read our story together then he drew his picture after the story.  I also then have him write the letter we are working on.  The next day after our story I have him tell me about the story we read the day before and then have him write a sentence about our story.
I also wanted to share with you,  for this story I made him some special blocks to go with our story of Mt. Simeli.

I was inspired by the element stacking blocks you can get at the Waldorf Educational stores.  This is our mountain stacking blocks and it does have a little door in it.  Its hard to tell in the picture though it will pop out.  Loch had fun using it during our story : )  One of my goals for making it was to have Loch help sand it and paint it.  So that is something he can work on after his lessons are over.
After we read together, and Loch has done his writing we go out for a walk around the block.  This has been so wonderful for him.  He is a really active boy and it is really hard for him to stay focused for long periods of time.  So getting out and having some fresh air and exercise has  been very helpful.  Im  trying to teach him out to jump rope, I think next week will try hopscotch.  I also have the book active math that Im going to try out with him.
After we have spent time outside we come in and work on math. We are using a mix of A Journey Through Waldorf Math and Knights of Knowledge Math program.    After he has done his lessons he is free to go and play independently or with his little sister while I work with the other children.  That is pretty much how his day is looking so far.

Weekly Planning Pages

Here are some more planning pages I hope this will help.  I will put up the daily ones toward the end of each month.  But I thought it would help having the weekly pages sooner : )  I also wanted to add that I have put a Label Tab at the top of the side bar so if you are wanting to just get to the Planning Pages it should be easier to find them : )

First Day of School

We are back in the swing of things.  It was an amazingly cool day its like the weather knew it was time for school to start and the temperature dropped down into the low 70.  Which is my kind of weather : )  I love to wear long sleeves shirts and a sweater.  The leaves have started changing also on some of the trees it has seemed to happen all to fast though.
The day went amazing well considering I didn't get very much sleep last night.  All my planning paid off. : )
We started the Morning off with devotional after breakfast. I would like to include some seasonal poems for the little ones more. Challee and the older boys were able to work independently on their different reading projects.  While I went to work with Loch on his school projects, and I had gotten some wooden blocks out for Emma to play with, she did really well she was either playing with the blocks or drawing with the other children so it worked out!
Here is a picture of Challee's Drawing and Summary of her book she is reading for History:

 Loch and I had a good first day together he wasnt to sure he wanted to start back up doing school but we kept it short and he did really well.  I read with him the story from The Little Garden curriculum for First Grade and then we did our form drawing.  After that we went outside and practiced jumping rope and counting the rocks around my flower garden : )  It really seemed to help having that outside break because he didnt have any trouble coming in and doing some writing which he usually hates.  Here is the picture he drew:

 While Challee was finishing up here drawing and summary.  I worked with Taylor on his math.  We are using Making Math Meaningful and we were trying to figure out how to count using number bases.  We worked in the eight base and it was really challenging but when we were all done Taylor shared that he had really enjoyed our math lesson. That it was the first time he had actally enjoyed doing math.  So Im excited to have him continue using that math program. : )  Challenging but rather fun. : )  I could feel my brain trying to expand : )  It was working hard to understand number bases and actually taylor was helping me learn it.  

So over all it went really well.  Im actually looking forward to tomorrow : ) and the adventure will have together : )

Our Fourth Grade Curriculum for September

We are using the curriculum from The Little Garden Flower for fourth grade.  We did tweak it just a little, as I was reading the main story she has that runs through the whole curriculum it inspired me  to study the countries our Ancesters came from with Challee this year.  To read the legends and myths from these different countries. So September looks like this:

Local History for Geography & History : )
We live in Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley so I found the neatest book at the Library called
A Valley and a Song The Story of the Shenandoah River
Im also hoping to squeeze in The Blue Hill Meadows in also and maybe A Little Maid of Virginia : )
We will also go and visit some of the neat Historical Sites around the area for this month. Im really looking forward to it.
Science:
We will be studying animals
We are using Charles Kovacs The Human Being and the Animal World
I also found this wonderful article called On the Animal Teaching in the Fourth and Fifth classes by L. Francis Edmunds it was really helpful and I have shared some of his ideas to day in our study of the human form.
We are going to study the animals around our area first, and then the animals from each country we visit this year in our studies.
Math: 
I am going to be using mostly the Noble Knights of Knowledge math program and also the math curriculum from the Little Flower Garden.
Writing:
Im going to have Challee keep a journal and write summaries for each chapter she reads in her history books.
Handiwork:
We are going to be learning how to knit and crochet this coming semester.  I sent for the book about Mary Frances Learns to Knit and Crochet.  Im really looking forward to reading this with Challee.  Untill the book comes Im teaching her how to use the niffity knitting loom I have.  She decided to make a hat for Emma. : )
I still need to find a grammar program I might go ahead and use one I already have.
Im not sure if this will help any one but it give you an idea of how we will be doing fourth grade this year
Im going try and get the older boys schedule on here to and also my youngest son who is starting first grade this year.

Birthday fun

I wanted to share a bag I made for my oldest daughters birthday.
I got the idea from the book  The creative family How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections by Amanda Soule
What a great little book it is just chalked full of wonderful ideas, and I really enjoy the way she writes.  She talks about creating an Artist travel bag and so I thought that would be really fun to do for Challee for her Birthday.
Front
All the decorative pieces I crocheted, the flowers on top and the motif on the front and even the trim on the back.  It was fun to have it actually work : )
   Back
Here are the thing that I put into it.
One of the things that I would like to do with this blog is share ideas that I find on ways that are creative but thrifty, really focusing on living more green : )  One of the things I shared with my daughter  is the Dairy of an Edwardian Lady and its a copy that I have had for years but thought it would be fun to pass down now to Challee.  I also had the colored pencils already  I hadn't really used them at all so they were like new.  The smallest set is soft pastels and then the next set is watercolor paints.
That is one thing I really enjoyed about Amanda's book she had such creative ideas for using what you have around you.  A great read I highly recommend it : )
Amanda has another book out  to called:


It looks really good!   I'm really looking forward to getting that one two!!!

Here are the next calender pages!

Here are the rest of the planning pages for September and I will go ahead and post the October and November calender pages also. It might take me a little bit to get all the planning pages up but Ill work on it : )

I have really enjoyed this summer!!! The weather has been beautiful, but it has gone by so fast.
I am looking forward to starting school back up again. September is such a fun month, Michealmas day and then the beginning of Fall, also my youngest sons birthday happens this ins September. Autumn is one of my favorite times of the year! I have been thinking about also adding October planning pages. Would that be helpful? It wouldn't be a problem I have the design that I want to put on the October pages. I have been thinking about doing it for myself and if it would be helpful to others I can post them up this month to. I might could even do November also, at lest the three month calender pages. Let me know what would be best for you. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Summer and are excited to start back into this wonderful school year : )
Jane

Here are the August planning pages. It is amazing to me how fast this summer is going by! I have started working really hard on planning for our next school year. Im really excited about it!! Im hoping the kids will enjoy it : ) I probably wont be posting very much here on my blog. I actually havent posted as much as I wanted to this summer. Time just seem to fly by. Then by the time I sit down to post something it seems like such old news. Have a wonderful rest of the summer!!!!

Musical Fairy

Im excited to share with you a new adventure I will be trying.  I have finally opened an Esty shop.   My first item is this Fairy that my daughter created.  I   took this sweet Fairy and transferred her onto some cotton muslin and embroidered her.   Here are some pictures of how she turned out.

I really love the Klutz book on beginning embroidery for children it is such a great book for anyone,  wanting to learn how to do hand embroidery.  One of the things I love about it is it shows the author’s work.  Through out the book it is illustrated with pictures that have been embroidered.  So cute and when I first saw the book it reminded me of my daughter’s drawings.  So I had originally gotten it for her.  : ) 

I have another Music Fairy in the works that Im hoping to get posted soon.  But it has been interesting to see how each one takes on their own look.  It has been a fun experience to share with my daughter.

If you would like to stop by and have a look at our new little store you will find us at :

http://ForestMelody.etsy.com

Days of Discovery

Weaving:

We are trying something a little different this summer with what we are calling Days of Discovery : ) I have been wanting to try weaving with the children ever since I saw a lovely article in the spring Living Crafts magazine.

Our Days of Discovery will explore all the fun ideas that I've been wanting to share with the children (including weaving). : ) I loved how in the magazine they showed children using cardboard as their loom. So here are our attempts. : )

Challee wanted to decorate her loom.

Here is one of her projects in progress. There are also signs of little sister handy work in the back ground. Emma had been helping me water flowers earlier. : ) Its funny how I didn't even notice the water until I put the pictures on the computer.

This one is Challee’s finished project. : )

I'm looking forward to trying this again. It was a lot of fun. Maybe next time I'll try using some natural materials.