Our Waldorf Homeschool Journey

We start our lessons again next monday and I’m sitting preparing them now for the first main lesson block. Jules and I have a week of Ancient India left, and then a 4 week block of maths, week 1 being revision of last years work…does she remember how to multiply,divide, fractions etc…I think she will, god I hope she will!! And StJohn starts off with maths from day 1, he’s beside himself with glee. Maths is his thing…he prefers it to language arts, Jules is the opposite….so she already has her extra-melancholic face on.

So I’ll be uploading main lesson workbook pics as we go…and a general lesson plan. As there are read alouds I want to do with StJohn etc. Form drawing obviously is still big, here. Juliette was horrified when she found out she wouldn’t be doing form drawing every week up until Grade 12….she’s in Grade 5 this year…time flies…StJohn is in Grade 2.  I need to research form drawing for the higher grades, or put something together myself.

For now, I’m going to clean the house a bit, finish my murder mystery book, and then get to it. I’m going to be re-reading Steiners Practical Advice range of lectures this week as well, as I sorely need to get focused. My personal life is a mess of immense proportion and honestly I shouldn’t be about to start teaching, but I have no choice…they’re depending on me, so I need to get myself back into that good light space. I need to strengthen my etheric body, as it’s taking a beating at the moment…

Not to mention my astral body seems to be more inclined to stay in the spirit world…what I mean by that is that every opportunity I get to fall over and sleep is grabbed. I’m not really feeling in control of that right now. Honestly I cannot blame it, the physical world is a bit of a disaster right now.  And I obviously need the help of every available angel. Thank god for my earthbound angel, my husband. xx

I’ll post again a bit later in the week…when the lesson plans are in place,sigh…

Filed under: Waldorf Grade 5, Waldorf Grade 2, Waldorf Homeschooling, Rudolf Steiner, Homeschool on January 12th, 2010 | No Comments »

John gave me a huge Christmas present of an easel, oil paints, etc. Which at the time I thought wow, that’s so awesome of him… what I didn’t put together was how awesome…he knows I’ve been going through a bit of a dark space and he knows me well enough (he met me when I was 20 years old), well he’s known me my whole adult life. He knows my fears and my joys and my sadnesses. I’ve been fed lies by my adoptive parents for my entire life, so he knows how much honesty means to me as well, so I’ve never hidden things from him. That’s why he knew I was heading for a dark space…he also knows the therapeutic effect that drawing and painting has on me.

 For years I wouldn’t touch a paint brush or pencil. I’d draw or paint with the kids, but only for their amusement and not engage myself in any way. Finally this year I felt brave enough to start drawing again, and attended a watercolour class. I thoroughly enjoyed the colour theory aspect and the excercises, but watercolours are not for me. I love acrylics, oils, pastels, and plain old pencils!

I needed to do the watercolour class, and I studied Dr Steiners lectures on colour (very interesting) to be able to unblock whatever had stopped me from drawing, painting etc. Well it worked…So thank you John, if you read this. My pencils, and easel and stuff are keeping me sane, they’re helping me heal. Bless you, my love. xx

Here is the first preparatory sketch I’ve done this week for an oil painting, small (4 x 6″)

Now I’m going to finish my tea and get my canvas out and start to sketch the pic on there. We’re having a good holiday, I needed it, to get my life on an even keel. I always do too much, filling every day for the good of everyone else, but I dare not think about me. If I stop to think/feel about me, I want to cry…so… that has had to stop. I have to think about me now and what I need and what I want. So I’m going to use this blog not only for “homeschooling stuff” but also to let you see the other parts of me. I’m not just a waldorf mom who homeschools, and lives a Steiner life. Yes I am that, but I’m also a wife and a daughter.   And at this point in my life I’m having to face the fact that I was adopted and deal with that crap. The fact that I lost my Mom, before I had a chance to know her, through no fault of hers or mine. And the effect that has had on me, my kids, my husband etc. I’ve had to look it in the face and it’s been hard, but the amazing thing is that I have the best husband on the planet, he does everything for me. I have kids who love me and think I’m amazing, even when I’m being daft. And finally after 35 bloody years I have a Mom again. I finally have a Mom… 

Filed under: Anthroposophy, Waldorf Homeschooling on December 29th, 2009 | No Comments »

Today, we had a treat, John is on leave for the remainder of the week, so he took us into the centre of the city. We visited the Castle in Cape Town. The castle was built in 1656 by the Dutch East India Company as  a refreshment station, mainly. Of course being true to type they then started enslaving the locals, but that’s another story.

Juliette took some awesome pics, which I’d like to share with you. She’s given me permission to upload them to the blog. (Please do not use them without her permission :o))

Part of her curriculum last year and still this year is her local geography and history, so it is educational as well as fun! Then we went in StGeorges Mall to go and have brunch. From there we went to what used to be called the Natural History Museum, but seems to have a new name (for the life of me I can’t remember it). They have all sorts of bits of history from the various settlers in the Cape and of course the local population of the time, being the Khoi-San.

What I didn’t know, and I honestly thought Jules was going to explode with excitement, was that the have a section on Egyptian history, from textiles to jewellery to funereal artifacts. Quite Awesome! We’re going back within the next month with our sketch books, as no photos are allowed. It’s been great studying history with Juliette, as only by having a broader knowledge of various civilizations do we get to see the similarities. Like today we found a figurine from a part of Ancient China, that could have been from the Indus Valley. So close was the similarity, it was astounding. I made a rush for it, as I saw it over another statue in the room, and nearly brained myself on the huge glass case. Over excitement will do that to one, ahem! 

The trip seemed over too soon, and then we were walking back to the car and I realised how exhausted I was, and so was everyone else. We came home, the kids swam, I rested, Jules had a tantrum as, apparently, there were no snacky things in the house…and wonderfully, John made dinner for us all…a delicious ratatouille type dish, with brinjals, tomatoes etc. in homemade wraps (he made them from scratch). Tomorrow I plan a day of rest, the most I’m planning on doing is finding my way down to the mall for coffee! xx

Filed under: Ancient Civilisations, Waldorf Homeschooling on December 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

I’ve been feeling extremely restless this past little while, yet tired, so ended up baking a batch of chocolate muffins for breakfast tomorrow morning - sooo healthy!LOL!

 Usually I bake everything from scratch, using as many organic ingredients as possible, but a few days back I was given the gift of a packet of muffin mix (chocolate). All I had to do was add apple sauce (in lieu of egg), oil and water. I must admit on seeing the packet I sort of snorted and thought that’ll be the day…well actually today was the day. Feeling restless and out of sorts, and not in the mood for doing anything…I decided to bake something for breakfast, usually health muffins with dates, or waffle mixture to be kept overnight. I looked at this muffin mix and thought, why not?

So I added the few ingredients, and including the buttering of the muffin pans and popping into the oven, it took less than 5 minutes! Mmmmhh they’ve got to taste really yuck right? Er, no…they taste great! Most probably as healthy as fly paper, but they taste great.

Here they are….

The kids are looking forward to breakfast, I’m staying in bed later as I don’t have to do anything for breakfast and all thanks to a silly ready-mix paket of muffins. Tomorrow when I drag myself out of bed I’ll be heading down to the shop to buy Turpentine for my painting, and to just take a look (no committment, you see) at the other ready mix cake things on the shelf. God I hope they have blueberry muffins!

Filed under: Waldorf Homeschooling, Vegan Stuff, Homesteading Recipes, HOMESTEADING on December 26th, 2009 | No Comments »

In one way I’m relieved that advent and christmas are now behind us. I find it a trying time. I love it for the kids sake and it is a beautiful season, but there are many hurts that happen over this time. Family that cannot be with us for so many reasons…I’m just glad to move on. That said, here was our last advent week chalkboard drawing. The 4th light of advent is the light of humankind…

New year is coming up which is a non-event for us, and then of course StJohns birthday on the 2nd and my Moms’ shortly after. So I’ll focus on those for now. I need to order a cake for Sin or make one…which is what I should do…what happened to my energy??!

I’m taking this coming week slowly, I want to sort out the house, clean up and then get stuck into my christmas presents from John - oil paints, easel and the works - bless him a zillion times!

Today we popped into the mall where we had to stock up on food, we had coffee and did a bit of shopping, underwear and toys believe it or not. StJohn hit the 2 remaining tennis balls over the horrible neighbours fence yesterday. They’re like the grinch! If anything goes over there they never send it back. Sour miserable couple,yugh! Anyway he was beside himself, as I couldn’t go to the shop and replace the damn balls - the shops were closed! So I bought 6 today - let’s see how long they last, hey? Since I started this blog post an hour ago, 1 of the 6 has already joined the other 2 over the wall.

When we got back from the mall Jules and I sat down and made window stars. They came out beautifully…look…

I made 1 for StJohn as he found it just a bit too difficult, he chose green and blue - unusual for him as he’s a yellow/orange sanguine kinda guy ;o)

I need to start preparing our lesson plans and daily lessons for next year in 10 days time. We’ll be starting with a Maths block…Jules is going to be less than thrilled…she doesn’t enjoy maths.

One thing I forgot to mention is the beautiful gifts that Juliette made for all of us, mine was a bookmark…see…

She did all the cross stitch herself, in fact she did everything herself, she’s just turned 11 and that’s pretty awesome. She made a spectacle case for John, and a pencil case for StJohn and a bookmark and snowflake fridge magnet for me. The stitches were tiny and each one so perfect. She started working on these things on the 01 December. Hats off to you Kitty,(when you read this one day), you’re awesome at 11!

Now I’m supposed to be keeping my eye on a pot of soup I made for dinner tonight…not sitting here blogging!

Have a joy filled day! xxx

Filed under: Waldorf Homeschooling on December 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Well it’s the 3rd week of Advent, the light of beasts.

“The third light of Advent is the light of beasts. Animals of farm, field, forest, air and sea. All await the birth in greatest and in least.”

Rudolf Steiner

It’s one week until Christmas day, which we’ll just spend together, my husband, John, Juliette-Marie and StJohn and me. I’ve organised the menu, which has been the cause of much debate…do we do a vegan christmas or do we sacrifice a beast. The family was split down the middle! The debate was hysterically funny as all put forward the reasons behind their choice…the beast killers simply stating that they like the taste of it! No moral or ethical response could change their minds! After much uhm-ing and ah-ing and tears of laughter, we decided to sacrifice a beast. :o(

Which one? I don’t know…I’m leaning toward a bird at this point. But other than that we’re having an asparagus starter, (beast) main course (there’ll also be a mushroom baked thingy for the 2 of us who don’t want to eat the beast!) with roasted potatoes, a curried bean salad, summer green salad and a beetroot salad. Dessert is a huge trifle (no jelly!I just can’t do the hoof ingesting thing. Then tea, coffee with christmas cake (which I still have to make).

And of course the much needed bowls of crisps and chocolates, nuts and other snacky things before dinner. Oh and the champagne - as we all celebrate the love and light of Christmas. Christmas day and advent in general should be a time of love - for all…

And on that note I’ll tell you what we decided to do this Christmas - most Christmases we spend a little too much money on ourselves. Even though we try not to, we always seem to find something in the shops that someone we love will just love…and we buy it. So this year we set aside a certain amount for each person. The remainder will be spent next week on making ”buckets of love” for the poor in our area.

We’re buying cheap plastic buckets and filling them with staple foods, like porridge, soup etc. Treats of tea, sugar,coffee, sachets of juice etc. Then a packet of biscuits, packet of sweets and a few small toys (mostly second hand). Then we’ll take it around to people who need it. Maybe we’ll make a difference in a few peoples lives.

Here is a pic of our advent wreath that the kids and I made on the 1 December out of vines, ribbons and a bit of pretty material…You can see the angel I made which watches over us all and then the first 3 lights of advent, mineral,plant and animal - I’ve had to replace the lemon twice…It went all blue and poofy…next year I need to come up with something less “fresh” LOL!

Many blessings this day, have a stunning advent and summer solstice. xxx

Filed under: Festivals, Waldorf Homeschooling, Vegan Stuff on December 18th, 2009 | No Comments »

We’re in the 3rd week of Advent here and I just wanted to share last weeks advent chalkboard drawing with you. Down below you’ll see a drawing I did of a Mother with her child, for me we are all children of 1 mother, great spirit…whatever you wish to call it.We use the verse of Rudolf Steiners about advent, which speaks about which kingdom we’re focusing on each week.

Our family celebrates advent over a period of 4 weeks, each week is dedicated to the celebration of a kingdom, mineral,plant,beasts and then human…where all 3 kingdoms are present. It is a time for reverance, a time to recognise that we are all connected and one. A time for quiet, yet celebration, introspection…

A time when love is almost visible.

Each week I write the verse for the week next the above picture and draw either sea shells, crystals,stones etc around it, or plants, fruit etc, or beasts and then finally the birth of humankind, as we understand it now.

May you all have a wonderful Christmas, where ever you are and whatever you believe, it is a time of magic…anything seems possible. I may not be able to blog again until after Christmas as I have many wishes that I’m hoping will come true before 25.12…if I only blog next year, please understand. xxx

Filed under: Festivals, Waldorf Homeschooling on December 16th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

We have been so busy it’s been impossible to add to our blog. My apologies to all of you who follow us…Jules is finishing Ancient India next Thursday, and we’ll then stop school until next year! StJohn has finished all his animal fables already so he’s practising reading. We’re in the throws of advent -I’ll upload a pic and more info later…

 But the reason for this post today…I ordered an organic vege box for the first time this year from “Organic Garden”,a lady called Lesley, who lives on the other side of our Noordhoek valley in Kommetjie area. Now we’ve got vege boxes from various people over the years but this is by far the best!

I want to share the details with you so if you live anywhere close by then you can also order and be blessed with the most awesome organic veges! Something like this you’ve got to share! I do not recommend products or services unless I use them and am blown away by what I experience.They also have to be ethical and sustainable so if you follow this blog you’ll see me recommend about 1 service a year, sadly.

There are 2 sizes and I ordered the big box as there are 4 vegans in the house…I honestly cannot list all that we received, but here is a pic of a few beautiful parts of the box…

There was lettuce, rocket and carrots, spinach, beans,gems,marrows and fruit, leeks and “Oh my hat!” ASPARAGUS, to name but a few. I kind of worked out that we’ll run out of veges next Wednesday - which means for the first time EVER I can buy 1 organic vege box and it will actually last a week!

 The trick is to use the veges that will go off earliest first. So we’ll be having everything from salad tonight to stirfry, ending the week (Wednesday) with leek and potato soup. I know for a fact that John will come home tonight and the asparagus will be steamed and gone!He absolutely loves it, and it is apparently extremely healthy for you!

I personally can vouch for the organic farm that quite a bit of the produce in the box comes from.It is 100% organic, grown here in our valley - so no fossil fuel is used to bring it here from God knows where!  

If you think an organic vege box might be something you’d like to explore then here is Lesleys’ email address:

lesley@greenbookshop.co.za

If you want to call her then email me susan@ourhomeschooljourney.co.za and I’ll email her details to you. I don’t want to put her numbers on the internet without her permission.

Lastly…Lesley you’re amazing! This is what organics should be about. Produce grown locally for the local market! My pet hate is people who prattle on about “saving the planet” by eating organically grown food…and it’s flown in from another country or even worse another continent. That’s just stupid - there is no polite way to put it! Lesley may your business go from strength to strength, the earth sorely needs more humans like you!

Filed under: Organic Vege Boxes, Bio-Dynamic Gardening, Waldorf Homeschooling, Vegan Stuff, HOMESTEADING on December 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

Well it’s been 10 days since I updated the blog which is frustrating! So I’m going to try and summarise what we’ve done over those 10 days. StJohn is finally free of mumps, they went down 2 days ago! And yes, you guessed right, Jules now has mumps, started yesterday…2 days last week were lost to dentist appointments for Juliette on 1 day, and the previous day she flipped out due to the stress of the impending dental visit… So school has not been going according to schedule. But what have we been doing?

Well for Grade 5 we finished off the last of the Indus Valley Civilization by looking at their belief systems and their view of the afterlife. All this knowledge was gleaned through the archeological evidence of the Harrapa dig.

I spoke to Jules about the people of this land paying homage to Mother Earth and their various fertility goddesses…

and we looked at the various items found in the burial sites. The various items buried with the person tells us that the living believed in an afterlife of some sort. Slightly similar to the Egyptians, very slightly.

But I wanted to end that main lesson block with a fun activity! I try and do this with every block we finish, I’m a firm believer of sending them off on a high note ;o) !

So we looked back at the form drawing we’d done of the various seals of the Indus Valley people and we made our own seals, not out of clay, but potatos!

It had to be done in a day, be soooo much fun (read messy) and inspirational!We let StJohn do his own as well, as by this stage he was out of bed for a few hours a day and getting bored! The thing with potato stamps is that the potato is soft and easy to carve, yet it holds it’s form and stamps well. We just used normal poster paint - there was no way I was using my precious Stockmar paints to have potato rubbed in them! First we made a few of the seals  identical to the Indus Valley seals,

 and then I asked Juliette to make a personal seal for herself. I asked her to take her self back in time…If she had lived in the Indus Valley what would she be known for? Now my daughter is beyond crazy about cats, so it was inevitable….Her seal is a cats head, and she would have been known, 7 500years ago, as the Keeper of the Cats.(She totally came up with the name and design on her own no help at all from me). It’s the pale blue seal below…

 And that brought us to the end of that lesson block. We were then ready to start with India! Finally it is such a huge mythology, it’s so vast and great fun.

Filed under: Waldorf Grade 5, Ancient Civilisations, Waldorf Homeschooling on October 19th, 2009 | No Comments »

When we look at any of our lessons, being Animal Fables in Grade 2 or Mythology in Grade 4, 5, 6 etc I try and include an animal study and a plant study. If I am able to juggle everything then I’m able to do a single chalkboard drawing for both the Gr2 and Gr5 main lesson… I needed to find an animal for Jules to study in Pakistan, an animal or bird that was there 7 000 years ago. So we discovered the Indian Red Jungle Fowl…great! I then found an Indian animal fable for StJohn and changed the bird and his wife into Indian Red Jungle Fowl! It was a stunning fable about a bird and his wife named Mr and Mrs Tee-Tee-Bah…

 I told StJ. the story of Mr & Mrs Tee-Tee-Bah and how proud this little bird was, so proud in fact that he would take on the entire ocean! After his main lesson, he started to draw the picture and leave space for the summary, while he did this, Juliette and I did her main lesson, which was the Animal Study of the Indian Red Jungle Fowl as it must have been in the Indus Valley 7 000 years ago. Here are their main lesson books…First StJohns Animal Fable for Gr 2….

And then Gr5, Juliette’s, animal study…

 So that was it, the Animal Fable for StJohn for Grade 2 and the Animal Study for the Indus Valley for Juliette for Grade 5. Don’t get me wrong at no point do I teach them the same thing, it’s just a way when possible to cut down on my chalkboard work, and it’s easier for me to continue talking about the same thing whether a fable or factual. It just eases the day a bit…

Filed under: Waldorf Grade 5, Waldorf Grade 2, Ancient Civilisations, Waldorf Animal Studies, Waldorf Homeschooling on October 18th, 2009 | No Comments »