Our Waldorf Homeschool Journey

Now both Juliette and StJohn still do form drawing. StJohn has started on his Grade 3 form drawings as he needs that bit of extra challenge. Juliette really doesn’t enjoy the drawing part of our schoolwork any more…which saddens me, but she still has to do it….what she’s going to do next year when her form drawing is replaced by free hand geometry is anyones guess. I’m sure she’ll make me suffer for my sins

Here is StJohns latest one…he was so thrilled with the result. He feels that it looks just like a pinwheel blowing in the wind This was what he was working from on the chalkboard…

And this is his interpretation ….

He works on an A3 page which he fills with gusto! Juliette on the other hand has insisted on smaller and more detailed drawings as she has got older. Her form drawing was done on her first day of studying Ancient Greece…we then used it for the cover of her main lesson book and she had to write Ancient Greece in Greek….

And now we’ve launched ourselves into the Greek Myths…an introduction to Zeus, and then Pandoras box…I’ll do a seperate post on that!

Filed under: Ancient Civilisations, Waldorf Form Drawing, Waldorf Grade 2, Waldorf Grade 5 on October 19th, 2010 | No Comments »

So we completed Ancient Eqypt with Jules by taking a trip to a history museum in the city and writing in hieroglyphs. It was a really quick lesson block for me, as Juliette has an avid interest in all things Egyptian, so she has done most of the reading on her own. Here is the final chalkboard showing the pyramids, Isis,Osiris and little Horus…okay so he wasn’t little for long…you’ll also notice the Nile running through it and a concentration on the sun and the horizon. You know I never realized until this year that the word horizon takes it name from old Horus? Just never crossed my path….thats the one thing I love about teaching, as much as you teach you certainly learn…usually more

Jules wrote many of the stories from Egypt and ended with a final summary and a drawing which for me, was awesome. It assured me that the work I’d done in teaching was successful, as you’ll see the incredibly overpowering sun in the drawing….she took in the Egyptians focus on the sun…it was perfect!

But now we’ve moved on to Ancient Greece and wonderfully StJohn has finished Grade 2…yay oh yay oh yay!!! he’s spending the time until the end of year reading,form drawing and concentrating on festivals

Filed under: Ancient Civilisations, Waldorf Grade 5, Waldorf Homeschooling on October 19th, 2010 | No Comments »

I’ve had a few people (so Rose,Bridgi,Janine and Tim – this is for you guys)  in the past few weeks ask me how we make our own pasta so here it is…a simple, easy yet absolutely delicious recipe. Not only that but it is extremely economical

Okay, to make a lasagne for about 8 – 10 people you’ll need 2 cups of flour (I use white, ideally stoneground or organic), and 3 jumbo eggs. No salt. No oil. Keep it simple…Put the flour in a medium to large ceramic bowl. Make a well in the middle ( a hollow) add the 3 eggs. Now take a fork and start mixing the flour in from the sides, bit by bit…it’ll soon look like this…

Once it is all mixed together it’ll look quite odd.Crinkly and a bit dry, like scone dough.Don’t worry. You’ll need to knead it a bit in the bowl and then pop it onto the counter top when it is in a ball. Now knead for a good few minutes, it shouldn’t take more than 5. You’re wanting the dough to look smooth and it’ll start to get a shine on it. The ball will look like this…

Now you need to leave it on the counter and turn the bowl upside down over it. Leave it for at least 30 minutes. When the time is up you’ll see how the dough has changed consistency. When you cut it it’ll look like this inside….

See those holes? That’s what you’re looking for – a smooth, pliable dough. Now it comes time to either roll it out or put it through your pasta machine. I have a a plain old pasta machine which is manual. I only use it to roll the pasta flat, the way you use it for lasagne. You can do this with a rolling pin as easily, and then cut it into strips for tagliatelle using a pizza cutter (or a sharp knife will do ) The trick is to rub both sides with ample flour to stop it sticking. I use about a 1/3 cup of flour extra just for dusting. Once it’s gone through the machine or been rolled out this is the thickness you’re looking for…

No more than 2-3 mm. If you make it too thick it’ll become all sticky and chewy when it’s cooked. Quite awful . It cooks quickly in lasagne and if you’re wanting to boil it pop it into lightly salted boiling water and boil for about 3-5 minutes. Keep an eye on it as it cooks very quickly. Enjoy, hope you find it as fun as we do. The kids love making it, and it’s so simple they’re able to get a perfect result everytime.

Filed under: Waldorf Homeschooling on October 3rd, 2010 | No Comments »

And in the best of spaces! I’m not going to try and explain the very peculiar year we’ve had….other than to say that I’ve found a huge number of people who had been lost to me since birth. I found my family. This obviously was mind blowing but all is in order and I’ve finally picked myself up and am a far more balanced whole person than before. Thanks Dad for the month here…thanks for the kindest of words and million hugs…I needed that.Thanks Rose for your constant support and friendship…I treasure you.

Now back to business LOL! Where are we now….Jules is finishing Grade 5 goodies and StJohn is on his last lesson block for Grade 2 ))) We lost a good few months with all my personal issues engulfing us so we’re working flat out to finish all that should have been done before. But that said it’s not possible to rush a Waldorf Curriculum….All we’re doing is working longer hours each day. But never doing 2 main lessons…what I mean by that is for example yesterday Jules (whose studying Ancient Egypt) studied the Pomegranate…more on that later…then in the afternoon she did Grammar and music theory. So in other words longer hours but with subjects that can be done together.

Filed under: Homeschool, Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf Grade 2, Waldorf Grade 5, Waldorf Homeschooling on September 17th, 2010 | No Comments »

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: Homeschool, Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf Grade 2, Waldorf Grade 5, Waldorf Homeschooling on January 12th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

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.

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 ))

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 | 1 Comment »

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: HOMESTEADING, Homesteading Recipes, Vegan Stuff, Waldorf Homeschooling on December 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

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, Vegan Stuff, Waldorf Homeschooling on December 18th, 2009 | No Comments »