Giveaway: A Needle-Felted Playscape!

The votes are in! The playscapes win :)

I love playscapes and they have helped me immensely with my Waldorf inspired homeschool. I can't tell you how many times we have used one of the playscapes in the context of a story for teaching or how many times I have heard little voices playing and peek in to find great adventures happening on the playscape with their little wooden toys.

This playscape features a meadow with a raised mound (where a simple little turtle sits), a stream that deposits into a lake, a cave lined with gold and diamonds where a simple red gnome fulfills his life's work, and a magic tale-telling tree that will come with both deep green 'leaves', and 'autumn foilage so that the playscape can be changed for the seasons, as well (simply remove the 'leaves' for a winter scape). Additional treasures abound in the details (like the purple heather and some little 'apples' that can be placed on the tree during the harvest)!

To be entered to win this beautiful playscape, please leave me a comment with the ages of your child(ren) and their favorite book (or books) and I will post those in a subsequent post.

For an additional entry into the contest, become a follower of my blog (if you are already, LMK that and I'll add your name a second time).

For a third entry, please list your favorite blog (and the category it falls under - general, homeschooling, waldorf, crafting, etc) and I'll post those as a group in a subsequent post!

Good luck to everyone!

The winner will be announced next week on Monday, April 2nd!

Catching Up...Fables - "The Dog and His Reflection"

Another fable we did in October as part of our Language Arts block using Aesop's Fables was "The Dog and His Reflection". I embellished the story a bit and brought in the character of a boy who was kind to a feral dog who lived in the woods near a lake. The boy brings the dog a bone (the acorn) and the dog happily takes the bone and heads through the forest to his den. On the way, he must pass by the lake and as he's crossing, he spots his reflection. He believes it to be another dog staring back at him with an even larger bone. In an envious rage, he drops his bone and jumps in after the dog, only to realize that it was just his own reflection. Not only is he soaking wet, but he has lost his precious bone in the water and now must go without.

The girls were sad for the dog (I hadn't anticipated that), but I think they *got* the moral of the story as a result of feeling sorry for him. In the 3 day rhythm, they retold the story using the props set up at the table. Charley changed the dog a bit. I am pleasantly surprised to see how much more willing they are to retell stories in this 2nd year. I am sure part of it is maturity and increased confidence as they get more and more used to story recall. But also, the fables are so much more forgiving than the fairytales, which almost always have longer, extensive plots with a lot more characters, twists and turns.

This year, I have enjoyed having the girls really help me form summaries of the stories to copy into their MLB's. Sometimes they are longer and in this case, I allowed the girls to shape most of the summary.

They also love to copy the blackboard drawings into their MLB's.

I will have to go back and photograph the remaining fables from this block. Next, we moved onto math for the month of Nov, so I will post the photos I took from that block. We have started school again and I am documenting and will have nicer summaries to share starting next week!

Stay warm!

Catching Up...Fables - "The Ant and the Grasshopper"

"The Ant and the Grasshopper"

In an attempt to catch up a bit, I am going to be posting some highlights of some of our work in the fall that I neglected to post. I didn't take pictures of everything as time was short, but I am going to make an effort to do better in this new year! So without further ado, here is some of our continuation of a Language Arts Block with fables...


Told the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper (Aesop) using props we had on hand (the moral should not be told - it is left for the child to come to). A tuft of green wool was the grasshopper and a tuft of black was the ant. The random wool was the food being gathered.

We had fun over three days covering the story, drawing it, painting it, and writing about it, learning words and beginning basic parts of speech.

A flower Elena painted...

And my fox & the grapes painting...

A pumpkin scene Charley painted (this was in Oct that we did this block)...

To Be Continued...

Grade 2: LA Block with Fables - The Fox & the Grapes

October brings us a slight chill and a bit of rain (how welcomed!) and it also brings us back to Language Arts lessons. This month, our vehicle is Aesop's fables and here are some pictures to share...

First of all, I decided to start off with one of my favorites as a child, "The Fox & the Grapes". Attitude is everything in life and learning to be gracious, honest and humble just can't be underestimated, especially in today's world.

I started a new tradition this year (and will photograph it next week) - but I have decided to add the magic of a *storyteller's chair*, along with a *storyteller's shawl*. When the girls see me putting it on, they know a tale is about to begin :)

I hid my chalkboard drawing under a silk, and we followed the three day rhythm. I introduced the story on the first day, we retold it together the second day, and the third day, the girls each got to retell it. I pulled out my trusty playscape and a needle felted fox. We pretended the tree was really a vine and I quickly stuck a blob of purple on there to represent our grapes...

When it was the girls turn to retell the story, they took turns, and put on the storyteller's cape. They also wanted to wear a storyteller's babushka (we are part Polish, after all :)! The girls had so much fun - boy did that fox go flying all over the place trying to get those juicy grapes!

After the story was told, on Day 2, I revealed the chalkboard drawing and we began to copy it into our MLB's. This year, I find that they have more control and more patience over their fingers and drawing, so while last year, I allowed them to use various colors for their drawings, this year, we are focusing on using just the three primary colors and blending. While it may be ideal to start with just the primary's in Grade 1, as homeschoolers, I found I had to do more coaxing than I would have if the girls were under a teacher they didn't really know. They are ready for this challenge and I was very pleased with how their drawings turned out.

We also wrote a summary together to copy down onto another blank page in our MLB's.

Both of the girls need work trying to stay in a line and sometimes the letters still get away from us. Using the stick crayons to write words is harder than using a pencil, so I am taking that into account, as well. And perfectionism isn't pushed - just doing the very best you can do at this moment is what I usually stress. And I often point out errors I make (my fox's head is too small - oh look, I will try to make it a little bigger)!

And, of course, in the style of Earthschooling, who could forget to bring the grapes - for multisensory fun! They look a little mealy here, but they tasted good - lol! I stood on a chair and held the sprig up high while the girls jumped for them like the fox and giggled all the while!

We took the time to think of words that rhyme with *fox* and they saw how "ox" and "ocks" makes the same sound!

And another fun way to encourage writing, spelling, and reading, is to have the kids create their own mail boxes out of old cereal boxes or shoe boxes. They cut up paper bags and we taped them on and then they painted designs, and we even made little flags for them, so they know when they have mail!

My hubby works late, so this has been a fun way for them to connect with him during the day. They receive and leave messages for him and get all excited to see when the flag is raised!

We actually did this exercise when they were very little and they would draw things for him, but now it's so fun that they can write little notes. I even got a few lovely ones, myself - and some fun Michaelmas and Halloween drawings!

We went on a bunch of field trips over the last two weeks, so I'll share a few shots from them in my next post - some really fun local places to see!