January Calendar & Saving Eloise

"January brings the snow,

Makes our feet and fingers glow."

One of the elements in Grade 3 is learning about time, which includes the passage of...hence the calendar. We are making our own calendar and each month, have learned a little rhyme about that month, and create a drawing that represents it. The girls are contributing more to the creative pallet, as they get older and we decided to draw a figure by a warming hearth.

This gives us the opportunity to introduce measuring, as well. So the girls are becoming more familiar with how to use a ruler and how the metric system works! Any sheet of paper will do, but I didn't want a tear away calendar, so I opted to use our larger drawing paper. We kept the top half for our drawing and in the bottom half, we measured out our ample squares.

This also allows for the writing of the 7 days of the week. Each day, a square is crossed off and the girls tell me what day it is. They take great delight in crossing off another day!

We hung ours in our school room so they are within reach. Over the summer, my husband and I attemped to lazure paint the school room, which was a spare bedroom upstairs that we weren't really using. I am honestly torn between using our kitchen table and having our own room. I have done both and like both for different reasons. But I had found that we had so many crafts and projects out that the kitchen table was never clean, so from that aspect, I like having a room designated to school where we can leave projects out while finishing them. I hope to do another post on our room, how we did it, and how it turned out.

We also made our own blackboard, which I will share, as well. I had a lot of great advice from Jenn of Our Little Nature Nest. Her blog was a great inspiration and I was saddened to hear that she had to close it down. In any case, here are our calendars for January.

And now for Eloise...

This is her impound photo...

While this blog is primarily about our Waldorf-inspired homeschooling adventures, a big part of that is learning about compassion and respect for all creatures, great and small. Yesterday, we were blessed with an extra special rescue that I wanted to share.

Almost two years ago, we rescued a dog who had been attacked and had his eye removed. He sat for 6 long weeks at a shelter and no one wanted him. When we went to see him, someone who was walking by even told us that he wasn't a good dog. We should adopt his kennelmate instead! That sealed the deal for me...With his time running out, we knew in our hearts that he was meant for us! Our Jackie has been the most loving and expressive furbaby. He has been a blessing in our lives. I will always credit him to leading us on this journey, for his save brought us to a wonderful small dog rescue organization who welcomed us with open arms. We not only jumped in with both feet, but we also jumped in with our entire hearts! I couldn't have planned a more important learning experience and life experience for my twins if I tried.

Eloise is one of thousands of dogs that goes through the local shelters where we live. She, like our Jack, had been attacked and Animal Control found her and took her off the streets. Her eye was too far gone to save, so it was removed and she was brought back to the shelter and given a standard 5 day hold to see if her owners would come for her.

They never showed.

On day 6, she had to get out or she was slated to walk the Green Mile and would be killed the next morning. Yup - they give most of the dogs at this particular shelter only one day to get out. Not only was her eye an issue, but Eloise was deemed, 'rescue only'. That meant that her only hope of getting out was through an approved rescue organization. Luckily for Eloise, she had several Guardian Angels.

In the usual scramble that is the rescue world, the director of our rescue said she had an open spot for her, after another dog got adopted to a wonderful family. One rescuer drove over an hour to get her out. The clock was ticking and her time was running out. By 2pm Sat, she was safe in Tammy's car and the girls and I were on our way to meet her. Tammy drove two hours to get her to a meeting point and we drove two hours to get her from that point to our Saturday adoption event. From there, she would go home with the Director and begin her rehabilitation process.

The girls named her Eloise...and held her the whole way to adoptions. She gave them kisses of thanks and ate treats from their hands. Once at adoptions, it was Charley's turn to hold her and she refused to put her down. The looks on my girls faces as they hold these forgotten and unwanted babies, I shall never forget. It is the 'juice' that keeps me going, when I am tired and overworked. 'Just one more life,' I tell myself...yet one more always turns into yet another.

But you know, I really wouldn't have it any other way...look at how relaxed Eloise is, compared to her impound photo. The worst is behind her. She will not die in the morning. Her new life is just beginning. She has been given a second chance at life. She may never know how many people it took to save her, how many animal lovers prayed for her when her photo was circulating, the individual people that gave pledges for the vet care required to heal her injury, or that she has helped form my girls into the next generation of rescuers, who will save more lives when they are grown because of dogs like her...

But the one thing she will know, is that she is...

LOVED

If anyone has the interest or passion to help rescue shelter animals, good people are always needed. Even if you can't foster, transporters are always needed and appreciated. Many dogs don't make it out alive because the rescues don't have a way to get them the distance they need to go, so if you want to make a different in the life of a dog, cat, rabbit, horse, goat, chicken, pigeon, rat, hamster, guinea pig, you name it - even turtles and iguana's turn up at the shelters, research a good rescue (sadly, not all are good) - and see if you can help transport :) I promise you, the feeling you get on the way from the shelter is one you will never forget, and the lessons you teach your children through example are priceless...

LA Block: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

"Where the Mountain Meets the Moon"

by Grace Lin

Carrie from The Parenting Passageway tipped me off to this great book this summer. As usual, she was right. It's a wonderful mix of fairy tales wrapped into a lovely cultural story about a young poor girl in China who wants to change her family's fortune. After hearing inspiring stories told by her Ba (father), she follows her heart on a magical journey complete with talking goldfish and a lovable dragon on her way to find The Old Man of the Moon who will hopefully tell her how to help save her family from their difficult reality.

The chapters are short, but don't kid yourself, your children will not want you to put this book down - lol! We are more than half way through it and I ended up changing gears and have been planning our whole Jan block around this book.

I am drawing a picture from the book twice a week that the girls will then copy into their MLB's. They have been helping me write sentences/summaries that they are placing in their book, on the page next to their drawing. Above the drawing, is also a very short sentence in which the nouns are identified in blue (and the verbs will be identified in red starting this week as we are covering a part of speech each week). Here is an example:

.

We are writing down words to keep on a large piece of paper that pertain to the book that they are learning. These words are helping them to form sentences of their summaries and are helping reading, writing, and spelling. They are also learning the beginnings of punctuation.

Along with beeswax modeling, a traditional Chinese meal, and a little lesson on the Chinese New Year (Feb 3rd this year), we are enjoying painting.

Elena is the type of child who is more comfortable following a model. When she feels satisfied, she then takes little steps to branch out to make something her own.

Charley, on the other hand, has always marched to the beat of her own drum. Even though we've discussed why we lay down the background first and then remove paint to add an element, she was very insistent on trying it this way - putting the dragon down and then painting around it. It was a good way for her to see that it does not layer the picture well, though I admit, it does have a pretty neat effect. It is also more challenging if the paint runs a bit, as wet on wet tends to do. Her picture took a lot longer than the others.

Elena's is listed below...

Setting them out to dry...

The girls are happily preparing to make their First Reconciliation at the end of this month, so we've been heavy into religious education, which fits beautifully in with the studies of the Saints this year. Here Charley is with our long term foster pup, Stanley (10 years old). He's helping her prepare :) Stanley had a dental whereby he lost most of his teeth, so his little tongue hangs out to the side permanently. Once in a while he pulls it all the way in his mouth, but we think it just adds to his charm! He doesn't see well, but he is a total sweetheart. I have fallen really hard for this little senior. We've had him a month now, but he's been in the rescue since August and no interest in him yet (good for me, right?!?! :D)

Another part of the 2nd grade curriculum is learning the basic parts of speech. We have started learning about nouns and verbs. The first week, we tackled nouns. I found some fun books to enhance our understanding. Brian P. Cleary has written some simple books which rhyme and add to the fun. The other selection of books are more advanced, so I cover the first few pages, but then when it goes off on specifics that we are not yet ready for (branching off into more detail than we are ready for at this moment "Imperative", "tenses", "helping verbs") then I am just stopping there. These books (by Ruth Heller) will be great as we progress, but I am finding the Cleary books to be more on our current level.

We always allow lots of time for freeplay and the Ostheimers are still favorites!

This week's saint was St. Antony of Egypt. His feast day was on January 17th, the day after the girls daddy (who is also an Anthony) had a very special b-day!

For this St. Antony, I gleaned inspiration from "Stories of the Saints", as well as the Catholic teachings found online. EWTN has more extensive explanations, like St. Antony of Egypt's found here. Not sure how much I like this book yet, but we'll see over time. We are doing St. Agnes tomorrow for her feast day and a lot of liberties have been taken in the "Stories of the Saints" book. My question is - how true do we need to make them to be historically accurate, especially as a Roman Catholic who wants to respect that history of the church - versus making the story speak to the child with fantastical liberties, ya know? I am trying my very best to do both so I'm finding that pulling some elements from the prewritten stories, coupled with the accounts from the church is probably the best way to tailor it to our little ones.

It was Daddy's birthday on Sunday...

Charley is holding little Ralph - our one week foster

as we help out the head of our rescue.

And finally - some delicious homemade granola!

Charley loves her granola so I decided it's about time I make my own organic granola. I asked the awesome mamas at the Green Tara Mama Yahoo Group and got several great recipes to try. This one came in first and so we gave it a whirl - very good (and easy)!

This recipe came from Leslie K. from the Green Tara Mama Yahoo Group:

Slow Cooker granola (A friend sent this recipe to me, she said it came from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker" by Robin Robertson).

5 cups oats
1 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix all of the ingredients in a crockpot. Do NOT cover with the lid. Cook for 1.5 hours on high, then turn to low and cook for 2 more hours. Stir occasionally. Spread on cookie sheets to cool and dry until crispy. Yields about 8 cups.

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!