First Week of Grade 1: Coloring with Block Crayons

On Thursday, we had a challenging day learning to use our primary colored block crayons (red, yellow & blue). I can see how this, which is difficult for adults to master, will be a long process which will result in wonderful drawings for the girls lessons.

I have both the "Coloring with Block Crayons" book and the DVD sold through A Little Garden Flower. I admit the camera work on the DVD I have is very shaky so I felt quite sea-sick afterwards. I had to stop and give myself a break and need to finish watching the dvd (2 discs). But overall, I am very grateful to have these resources since this type of coloring/drawing is very different from what we've ever done before...

I cut up some drawing paper, rounded the corners and we did a blending exercise together using the three primary colors so they could get the feel of the crayons and how to use them. I love the other colors which result after blending. When we were done with blending, the girls were allowed to create whatever picture they wanted in their Main Lesson Books.

I have my own Main Lesson Book in which I am hoping to record a picture of the main fairy tale we tell for that week. I started very nicely...

But can see that my end product is quite amateurish :-D

It will be fun to see how our drawing improves as time goes on and we practice more.

This is my crayon drawing of a scene from the Grimm's "The Water-Nixie"...

Tomorrow, we will be tying the week together with some fun activities. I hope to post each week our Mon-Thurs, which is our main schooling days and Fri is our supplemental (festival/what do we feel like doing today) day!

I also am finishing up the final touches on our year plan and will be posting that, as well to help keep track of our homeschooling experience.

Until next time...

The Tooth Fairy Strikes Again...and Again...

The tooth fairy made two more visits to our house in the span of a week for Charley (and she also left a matching gift for Elena who has no wiggly teeth yet). Charley lost her two top teeth about 3 days apart while we were enjoying visits with some of our Chicago cousins, so the tooth fairy was trying to find time to prepare her treasures - a little panicked :) ...

She made both of the girls pink acorn babies to use in their playscape:

And they both fit snugly in Charley's tooth box :) with a special note and magic fairy dust...

The girls put them on one of the playscapes and got out two Magic Cabin holiday fairies to watch over them...

Three days later, another top tooth decided to come out and so the tooth fairy made two little girls to take care of the acorn babies so the fairies could be relieved of their duties to fly off to Fairy Hollow to prepare for the winter festivities...

Charley has two more loose teeth so the tooth fairy is busy planning her next drop! Gramy called and sang the "All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)" song since Charley is missing both top teeth now and trying to whistle through them!

Mithing Tooth
I'm having trouble thpeaking,
thinthe I lotht my middle tooth.

Jutht yethterday my tooth wath fine
--today it wiggled loothe.
At firtht I thought it thilly,
when my tooth fell out today,

But no one theems to underthtanda
thingle word I thay.

I athked my mom to clothe the door,
she said "I cannot make it.

The door does not like wearing clothes;
it's happier when naked."
I athked if I could have a mouthe,
I promithed I would feed it,

"Another mouth to feed?" she
athked,"I'm certain we don't need it!"

I wonder if you underthtandthe
thircumthtanthe I'm in.

I told her I wath feeling thick.
She thaid "you're looking thin."
At latht she thaw how mad I wath,
Ath if I may thtop breathing.

She laughed and thaid she didn't mean it
--She wath only teething.

- Author Unknown

Getting Ready for First Grade - Making Bean Bags

In preparation for our lesson blocks on math, the girls & I decided to make 12 bean bags out of felt and black turtle beans. We measured them out to be 3.25" x 3.25" and Elena helped me stitch & fill some while Charley helped fill (and overflow) them.

I reinforced some stitching so that the beans wouldn't end up slipping out, but it was easy and enjoyable project.

Elena concentrates on her stitching...

And then fills her purple bean bag with black turtle beans (which happend to be organic, but that's all I had - lol!)

We finally finished them this morning after running out of black beans. Can't wait to use them in math or circle time :)

Getting Ready for First Grade: Math Gnomes

These are some lovely gnomes hand knitted by our own Linda from the Earthschooling group. Her shop is Mamma 4 Earth and she makes the most incredible knitted treasures with all natural materials. I have raved about her before, most notably regarding Norman the Storytelling Gnome and Lily our Easter rabbit (and we have yet to introduce Seamus the Sea Turtle)...

Anyway, I purchased Linda's beautiful knitted gnomes many months ago in preparation for first grade. The girls took to them immediately, as they seem to take to all handmade goodies and the gnomes have been enjoying free play with the twins.

Well, in preparation for our first grade year, the girls wanted to make math gnomes of their own and with a little help from Mom, that's what they did. We originally were going to cut felt and glue it around a wooden peg person, but Charley had so much fun painting our Sprites from Syrendell that she immediately asked to paint the gnomes instead. These peg people can be purchased through most crafting shops, like Beverly's or Michaels.



The girls painted them first...

We measured and cut out pieces of felt to make caps and capes...




Elena had fun putting the cap on backwards...her gnome looked cute so we might make some other characters like this :)



We sewed the caps and then the girls polished the dried gnomes after we painted the four processes on them.

I just love this serene picture of my Charley...she wanted to stay by the window to polish her gnomes because she was so intent on watching our hummingbirds fly around and feed.

And voila! The capes were stitched on, the hats were put on and the girls declared they were "just right" :) We might go back and add wool beards to them, but for now the girls wanted them beardless - I think inspired by Linda's originals :)

And we even had some curious visitors checking out our creations...I think this is Rudy, one of our sweet twin ratties...Rudy particularly LOVED the Eco-Twig House pictured with the gnomes, also handmade by the incredible artists at Syrendell. It will be instrumental in our Three Day Rhythm as a playhouse for retelling our stories. I will be blogging about how we use it soon!

This project took all morning to complete, but it was so satisfying. I can't wait to use them in our maths blocks this year!

In preparation for our First Grade, I am going to be posting about our journey & am excited to read the blogs of others on this path. I know Donna in the Earthschooling group is documenting her first grade experiences, as well. It helps to have a community to tap into since Waldorf education is so different than the traditional educations most of us received. So please leave me a comment with a link to your blog if you're also doing first grade work so I can join your site.

We're also starting Story of the World, as history nuts, in the afternoons so I hope to have lots of fun activities blogged about as we proceed through the Ancients.

My next blog will be about our beanbags for maths! Stay tuned!