Christine Natale's "Fairy Tales" is available on PDF now!

People who have read my blog know that I'm a huge fan of Christine Natale.  She wrote, IMHO, the BEST Waldorf stories for celebrating the St. Nicholas festival and was kind enough to share them, along with much of her other work for free.  Not very many people do something like that and it shows that for Christine, it's all about the children and helping moms and dads, grandmas, grandpas, teachers, and caregivers to have access to the tools to nourish these little ones who are so lacking stories to enahance their beings.  So I wanted to put this out there and give a shout out to Christine.   She has some wonderful original stories that she wrote for her Waldorf classes.  We have used them in our homeschool and my twins loved them (as did I). 

To contact Christine to see about other offers or specials she has, her email is: Golden3000997@cs.com

"Fairy Tales" by Christine Natale is Available at Lulu for 25% off!

Just heard from Christine that her childrens book entitled"Fairy Tales" is currently on sale for 25% off the cover price at Lulu.com. There are many wonderful stories tied into the four seasons, to be enjoyed by families for years to come. The summary reads:

"A collection of 15 seasonal fairy tales created for Christine Natale's Waldorf Kindergartens through the years."

The link to the book can be found here and you can take a peek at the chapters. I'm getting out my copy of it after this post :D

Need Your Help! Vote for "The Star Flower" story written by Waldorf educator, Christine Natale!

Well, this is the longest hiatus I've had since I began my blog in 2009. My mama is in town and it's been a year since we had seen each other last, along with the almost one year anniversary of my little Granny's passing :( so I've been taking much needed time for family.

However, I wanted to share something near and dear to my heart - and that is the writing of an amazing author and waldorf educator, Christine Natale. Many of you might be familiar with some of her work or heard her name through The Waldorf Connection.

Christine has entered a writing competition and submitted her lovely bed time story entitled "The Star Flower". You may vote once a day and voting ends November 22nd. There is monetary cash prize that would really help Christine continue to write and publish her amazing stories. Can you please help her win first prize by voting every day for her story?

The link can be found here: Star Flower Story

For those not familiar with Christine, she is the author of several wonderful children's stories and we are anticipating the publication of her book very soon (TBA).

If you'd like to check out some of her work, she is the author of the fabulous St. Nicholas stories which can be found here.

She also allowed me to reprint her St. Patty's Day story called, "The Little Dancer", along with a beautiful story called, "The Return of the Sun King".

She was so kind to share many of her stories for free so I'd love to see her get the thanks and support she so deserves by us rallying behind her...So please head over to vote for her Star Flower Story and support an amazing artist, wonderful person, and waldorf educator!

And I will be back soon with a lot of catch up posts...we've been busy, busy bees...

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!

Making Flower Fairies & Elves

The girls have been busy crafting on and off this summer. While I pour myself over waldorf books and lesson plans, the freedom and imagination nurtured by a waldorf inspired education has allowed me the time to prepare for the challenging year ahead.

I love so much about Waldorf education, but one of the things I love is how it nurtures the imagination and creativity in children. So in-tuned with the natural development of the human being is it, that I find myself tickled to see how many waldorf inspired children work with their hands to create such beautiful and special treasures that are truly age appropriate :D I've seen it on so many other blogs and I see it in my own house.

A few years ago, when we just were coming to waldorf education, I came across a very easy tutorial on how to make simple flower fairies. Through the years, we've made many - for the girls play, for decoration, for gifts for friends and little cousins, and for dressing up gifts (these tie on really well to packages)...so one of the items the girls will be making this Christmas will be Christmas fairies (shhhhh...don't let our family know)...


You will need to run to a crafts store where you will find all of these items. Many of your crafty mommas will already have them at home...

Supplies:
~wooden beads of various sizes if you are making families
~pipe cleaners
~silk flowers
~tacky glue
~embroidery floss
~feathers
~skinny sharpies of various colors (if you want to put faces on them)
~scissors

The tutorial can be found here. Here are some pictures of the fairies the girls made this morning...(winter themed)

These are a couple that Charley made a while ago with faces...

And Elena's with faces...

An acorn boy and a Christmas elf...

And Charley's Winter Fairy Queen...

Elena's Winter Fairy, trying out various silk flowers to hold in stead of a scepter...

A baby she made a while back (without the wings)...we always say they are elves when they don't have wings. Otherwise, we've made fairies and angels with feathered wings.

These are some we made years ago to be attached to presents.

For a nephew who loved the dark spiderman and his sister, who loved fairies...(I wrapped black wool roving around the design to make the spiderman - which he ripped right off as a 3 yr old rough and tumble boy! So I wouldn't recommend these for the under 5 crowd, unless they are gentle players or will mainly be decorative)...

And some Star Wars themed gifts for two of my nephews who can't get enough of Star Wars :D I used the same flower fairy formula and made clothing out of felt and O.B. Wan's beard is wool glued to the bead.

So many possibilities! Have fun with this one! You could make these as party favors for birthdays, stocking stuffers for the holidays, wrapping embelishments, make them into Saints for those in Grade 2 or those studying the Saints, seasonal/nature table spreads, storytelling, toothfairy gifts, or just plain freeplay fun!

You can see a gift inspired by these that the toothfairy left for the girls when Charley had lost a tooth here. I wrapped the edges with embroidery floss to avoid the pinchy wire, which I recommend doing :D These can poke when the ends are not folded properly.

Language Arts Block III: Lower Case Letters & Nature Stories (con't)...

Please Send Help And Soldiers!

Marsha Johnson has a very short document on teaching lower case letters in her files section (located in Curriculum/Grade 1 and Grade 2).

She has a wonderful story about a king who is engaging in a battle that they are quickly losing. He needs more soldiers, so he orders his scribe to chisel a message into a tablet. Not using vowels or lower case letters, what the scribe chisels is "PLSSNDHLPNDSLDRS". Of course, the people in the village can not figure out what the message means and misinterpret, until they finally figure it out. They send help in the nick of time and the battle is won!

Afterwards, the King decides they need to figure out a better way to communicate and henceforth, writing on scrolls and lower case letters (and vowels) are invented!

So after telling the story to the girls, I got a large roll of easel paper out and wrote giant letters with them watching - first the capital and then the lower case right next to it. When we were done, we took the scroll outside and unrolled it on the grass.

The girls would start at one end, read each letter and then once she got to the end, she'd run back to the start again!

They then rolled it up and tied the scroll with a finger knit chain.


I then wrote out more of the letters on more easel paper and gave them paints and a brush so they could practice the letters. We broke the alphabet up to three days worth, as suggested by Mrs. M, and practiced each day writing with different mediums.

Done at last with this scroll!


We did some handwork, making some fleece shirts
for our stuffed animals...

Day 2 of the alphabet project consisted of writing the letters with our sandscapes - using stones, sticks, noses, toes, acorns, etc...both in capitals and lower case...


After the lesson, I read them a lovely, lovely story by Mrs. Alfred Gatty called, "The Butterfly's Children". I got my version from "Wholesome Childhood", but found another lovely version here. It is about a butterfly who, realizing she is about to expire, asks a lowly caterpillar to care for her butterfly babies. Both assume they will be born as butterflies and when the butterfly dies, the caterpillar panics, seeking out the wisdom of a lark who tells her that the eggs will hatch caterpillars! And furthermore, she will one day be a butterfly herself! She doesn't believe him - sure enough, they are born as such and she learns a wonderful lesson about faith! The ending is really touching (I won't give it away here)...

The story was actually perfect timing as we are participating in the "Little Flowers Girls' Club" which is for Catholic girls who learn about the Saints and their virtues. I'm really thrilled that this also plays in beautifully with our Grade 2 focus next year, which is on Saints and Heroes (and Fables)! Anyway, last month we learned about St. Catherine of Siena and her virtue was faith! (will blog pictures of the club in the future) - but the story was wonderful! Don't ya love it when things naturally fall into place as such :D

We then drew pictures in our MLB's and wrote a short summary...


Day three, we worked the alphabet with our lap chalkboards. We would start at the beginning, to repractice, and then continue on to Z!

Our nature story on Day 3 was from Margaret Peckham's "Nature Stories" book, called "The Butterfly". It's a sweet story about a butterfly who hatches one spring day. The Sun Fairies help dry his wings and he searches for someone else to play with. He mistakes a toadstool for a butterfly and meets a grumpy gnome and then flies to some flowers, thinking they might be butterflies and he drinks their nectar. Finally, giving up hope, he hears another exclaim, "Here I am, I will play with you."

And doubting that, he sees the Sun Fairies drying the wings of a beautiful butterfly and they fly happily away together.

We are now off on a nature hunt this weekend, in search of butterfly eggs, chrysalises, caterpillars, and butterflies!

We will begin our last formal June lessons next week by incorporating form drawing and nature studies to wrap up our year!