Month 1 Review

ART
Two lessons from our art curriculum completed, some modeling work, three art appreciation lessons (appreciating background), an introduction to the life, personality, and work of Beethoven has been fairly simple and perhaps not a big part of the school day, but impactful all the same. If one is to groan about the classical music station being on yet again, one ought to at least be able to groan out the proper names of the composers. And so, the first three weeks of school are a success!
PE/HEALTH
Completed Presidential Fitness Test, charted own results against "healthy range" averages.
Completed summer quarter rock climbing class, several hikes, runs, and informal team sports events (kick ball, sword fighting). Spent an entire day climbing Smith Rocks in Oregon with a climbing guide, starting at 5.4 climbs and finishing with 5.9 climbing and practice rappelling.
Swam and practiced diving.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Reviewed nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, the articles, and pronouns.
Completed one formal writing lesson as well as several smaller writing assignments.
Work on cursive is progressing.
Reading: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1080L) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, funny and interesting; Flush (830L) Carl Hiassen, hilarious; A Wrinkle in Time (740 L) A Wind in the Door (790L) Madeleine L'Engle, first was great and a fast read, second was boring; The Mysterious Benedict Society (840 L) Trenton Lee Stewart, awesome, really good; The Cay (860L) by Theodore Taylor, easy to read, good to talk about; The Book of Three (770L) by Lloyd Alexander, scary (good scary) and exciting; Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransomme, calm and nice to read; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (880L) JK Rowling, exciting and scary to read by yourself; The Breadwinner (lexile 630), Parvana's Journey (lexile 640), Mud City (lexile 740) all by Deborah Ellis, really good, wish there were more.
MATH
A review of material covered last year in beginning algebra is progressing, with factoring, PI, infinite and finite numbers, ratios, and the integers covered so far.
Review of fractions (multiplying and dividing), and percents is ongoing as an extra math lesson.
Practice with logic and story problems is a daily and enjoyable part of the school schedule. A weekly hands on math lab (one involving 30 feet of butcher paper, crayons, and a series of rectangles to divide with various numbers of straight lines) has been quite fun.
SCIENCE
Science thus far has been limited to simple nature observation and a weekly class learning about scientists, scientific current events, and studies. Articles about insect eggs and the dangers of and ways of dealing with space trash were read and reported on, both verbally and in writing.
Several trees and a couple of types of mushrooms were identified. Ecosystems of the high desert and the coastal wetlands and forests were explored.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Reading, narration, and illustrating of the beginning of civilizations was completed. Experiments with simple tools and possible evolution of tool making were spontaneously devised and carried through.
Geography study included a review of the world- oceans and continents, basic geographic terms, map reading- then narrowed in focus to North America.
A mini study about Uruguay was completed, including making dulce de leche candy-sauce.

Week 1: After

Luckily I'm considering these first two weeks our gear-up weeks, or else I would probably be feeling pretty badly about how our week went, school-wise. We were still in summer-mode, mostly, and still working on fruit, still meeting at the park for homeschool playdate, still lazing around. Plus I had two migraines (two! and I've only had ever had migraines when I'm pregnant, which I'm not, so what is that about? threw us all off sides, anyway!). So, there are the excuses, make of them what you will.
Circle is a resounding success. Smart enough for Avery, silly enough for Miles, wholesome enough for me. I think two hymns in a row almost is a little much, but the boys look forward to "Circle Game" as Miles calls it, and even baby Ansel sits in his Bumbo chair in the middle and smiles and coos and laughs.
Stickeen was a good story for oral reading. Short enough to easily finish in a week, exciting and descriptive. We have a good sense of what glaciers are like, and we're suckers for heartwarming stories about dogs. The reading was easy enough that it was fun for Avery, with still the challenge some new words (mostly Alaskan Native words). I had planned on modeling, and making Stickeen figures, but that didn't happen.
Cursive is fine. Well, the amount of time practicing takes right now is good. Shortish sentences for awhile, building up. We've got a copywork/Character lesson book started, with "Honor thy Father and thy Mother." Character Training is going well so far, too. Simple- a story, tied in with the quote or verse for cursive practice that week, talking about the trait, a project.
Grammar is simple and easy with Simply Grammar, but I'm glad I also bought Word Play, though we skipped that this week. Between the two I think there'll be enough variety to be interesting and educational instead of just review. Maybe. I think next year we'll need a more formal, more challenging approach to grammar.
Spelling was simple. I like the system, but the words I chose for him, expecting them to be not-too-hard were way-too-easy. Still, he's never had spelling as a subject before, so I don't want to go too hard. I think we'll do a bunch orally at the beginning of the week, more than 20, so we work through this part of the book at an accelerated pace, without actually skipping anything, until we get 20 challenging words or definitions for the week. The McGuffey Speller is so old fashioned that a lot of the words aren't in common usage any more, so I anticipate a good amount of easy to spell words will end up in the spelling list just because of their novelty, vocabulary-wise.
Latin was barely started. Rather than try to start where we flailed about and stopped last year, I decided to start again fresh this year. I think I'll actually wait til after our vacation, coming up here. I do like Lively Latin, but you do need to work it every day, and we're still a little too summery and every-which-way yet to settle in.
Math Puzzlers. Mathmania is a dud. They're too silly, too babyish. For some reason I always expect Highlights to come through for me, but they always fall short, one way or another. I need to find some good, cheap books of logic puzzles and diagramming puzzles.
Life of Fred is our favorite Math thing so far. So funny and sweet, and it's a clever lesson in English and Math all at once. Short chapters, few questions, lots of humor. He loves it and so do I! He's working through Fractions right now. Actually, this is more read aloud time, because, as it turns out, even though I already know how to deal with fractions, the story is so engaging and sweet we all (even Miles) want to hear what happens next! He finished the first section, but didn't try crossing the bridge yet.
Avery worked on the "twos" for oral math. Review, speed, review, memorize. Over and over.
Calculus by and for Young People is okay. Not so gentle as I thought it would be, it's more of a mouthful than I thought. But good stuff, great to work with on Math Lab day, if we're going to do it together. We worked on the first lesson but didn't finish it- I wasn't anticipating his nerves and didn't set aside enough time to be there with him, paying attention. An older kid or one more comfortable with reading mathematical notation would maybe not be intimidated and have more fun just jumping in, but all those numbers and notations are a little off-putting to Avery right now. I am glad we lucked out and somehow got the actual worktext instead of the CD-Rom set- I have a feeling we'd never get to them if we had to go on the computer and print stuff off.
Man and Animals Main Lesson Block was simple, not muddied with trying to stuff other subjects into the theme. Just pure and calm. I'm really glad I put all that time getting comfortable with the lesson before we started! It would have been a disaster if I weren't comfortable with it. Not one you can fake, I think.
History's great. I really like Joy Hakim's A History of US. Highly recommend it. I imagine we'll use it again, in a few years, when we study US History again. I'll probably buy the middle school lesson books to go with them, then. For fourth grade the reading is not hard, and is interesting and comprehensive enough that I don't feel the need to add in a ton of other historical text reading, so far anyway. We are just sort of skimming along this year. We didn't get to watercolor painting, which I had planned to tie in to the Inuit lesson, but Avery did write a nice paragraph in the US History lesson book, and paste in a map of the Arctic regions.
Science. Dud week. No Nature story, no nature hike, no nature journals. No science lab. Avery did read a lot about cells, and watch a couple short video things online, and do a little activity, we talked about cells. We ran out of time, with screaming babies, before he had a chance to draw a cell in his Anatomy lesson book.
Art. Double dud. We have the Artistic Pursuits Modern Artists book to use this year, but we were so short of time, and he so didn't want to do it, that we just skipped it. He did the first lesson last year, anyway. Does that count? Even Handwork, embroidery, which Avery was asking for everyday this past week, didn't ever quite happen. Ergh!
Form drawing was a success. It was, really for the first time, FUN and not just tolerable for Avery. I didn't belabor a story, but kept that quite simple and open-ended. He took the form along himself, and made lovely work out of it. Pretty cool for a kid who "hates art" right now.
Guitar. A lesson. A few practices, and lots and lots of struggles about practicing. Seems there's always something more pressing, more interesting, more important than practicing. Anybody have any tips about that?
PE. Lots of running and playing, working and climbing around. No lessons yet, no soccer yet. Still summer. Avery did research bicycle safety, and explain some things to me. A Dad in the homeschool community hear was killed last weekend in a mountain biking accident, and while we didn't know him personally we are still touched by the tragedy of the loss for that family, and a little research about bike safety seemed in order.

Man and Animal Main Lesson Block

It seems that the typical Waldorf schedule would have two "Man and Animal" blocks this year, but there is variation, and in that variation I find my hope. We will do one good block, and 4 more main stream Zoology blocks, though even these will be Waldorf flavored, if not straight from the Steiner shelves.
This lesson finally made sense to me when I stopped thinking about animal science, and started thinking of it as a deeper understanding of the human. The animals are really in the lesson to illustrate our characteristics, with Man alone standing and the animals falling away from this ideal in stages, closer and more bound to the earth as they go. There is an understanding that for the other animals their existence, their body, is the total scope of their being, the reason for their work, but that for humans the body is but a shell, a vehicle, or a tool, and it is our thoughts, our soul, our will, that is our real presence, our important work, and the way in which we best honor God.

Week 1
This week we are guided by this idea: Man is the Living Word, the one created in God's image, the culmination and central idea. We talk about this in various ways, but the important aspect is this idea that Man's ability to reason is what pulls him upward, above the rest of the animals, who show different aspects of the divine, but in a one-sided way. It is Man alone who stands tall and free, with a balance of these aspects.
And so: We have conversations about the senses- eyes to see, ears to hear, tongues to taste, noses to smell, skin to feel. Without the senses nothing would make sense, we wouldn't know anything about the world. We would be in chaos, as everything was before the creation of the world. With our heads we are able to make sense of the world around us, with our senses. We are able to think, to imagine, and it is as if God were shining a light down for us, illuminating our understanding, lighting the world for us.
So the head is like the sun, lighting up everything it sees. Both are round, and high, and help everyone around. With our heads, our thoughts, we can understand and brighten the world around us. Also like the sun, which is not bright just for itself, but in service to the whole earth, making things beautiful and warm, helping them grow and be strong, our heads take in food, water, air, not so the head can grow bigger, but for the body to grow big and strong. The understanding we gain about the world is passed down, too, to the body and limbs, so we can take action, go about the world, and love the world.
We talk about the trunk- always changing, breathing in and out, notice how the shape changes, like the moon, waxing round and full, waning to the thinnest crescent, like waves coming in and going out. Did you know the tides are pulled by the moon? Sailors and farmers keep a close eye on the moon, to know the tides and the rains, when to sail, when to plant. The moon helps everything grow in its time, as our trunk, our lungs and heart, help us grow as we should.
And then those limbs- Legs that crouch, leap, hold us up, feet that move us, dance, and hold us to the ground, arms that stretch and reach, fingers that grasp and spread. Look! Like a star, overhead. We are earthbound, reaching always for heaven. Our legs and feet move us, help us go from place to place, the carry our bodies, our trunks, everywhere on the earth we want to go, but it is really our arms and hands that are free to do what they want. We need them not to move around, but to do the things we imagine- painting, writing, playing music, growing food, swimming, swinging, even, reaching up to heaven, even praying we move our hands in certain ways. What about holding hands? Reaching out to one another? Our legs and feet are meant to serve us, to carry us around, our arms and hands are meant to serve others.
1.1 The threefold human being- head (draw a full, glowing sun near the top left-ish part of a big watercolor sheet of paper) Write out, nicely "The Sun shines and makes the world brighter; I shine and make the world better."
1.2 The threefold human being–trunk (draw a crescent moon in the center right-ish of the paper) "My breath flows in and out, guided by the Moon."
1.3 The threefold human being-limbs (draw stars all around, four biggish ones, some tiny ones, and draw a correspnding person) "My feet hold me to the firm earth; my hands reach for the stars, and yours."

Week 2
This week we begin talking about animals that represent some aspect of the human being. We will start with the Octopus, because we have access to view a live octopus at the aquarium, and I think it will be more interest-grabbing than the cuttlefish, which is often used for this section in Waldorf curriculum.
And so we start a conversation: In the sea, at the bottom of the sea, in dark little caves with only the tiniest entrance, lives an animal with a rounded body, like a head, round and empty, with a sharp beak at one end, the mouth, which takes in food and also water, to breathe. When we eat the food goes down into our stomach, and when we breathe the air goes to our lungs, blood carries the nutrients and oxygen up, up to our brains. In an octopus this is all much simpler, everything is right there in one place. Stomach, hearts (3!), gills. There is no separate body, no trunk, just this great head with no bones, and these long limbs, reaching out for food and climbing around on all those rocks, suction cups to hold it where it wants to be, and to pry open shells. Yes, it's an octopus! It has eyes to see, and a brain to think, but its brain cannot understand what its own arms are doing, or where they are, or even the whole shape or the thing it is holding. Imagine if your arms and legs moved around of their own accord, going up and down and grabbing things your brain didn't intend to grab! When an octopus is attacked it can shoot out ink, to make a big sort of cloud to sneak away in, and if someone hungry grabs hold of one of his arms, he can detach it, just let that arm go, with no pain, no problem. His limbs are useful only to keep that head- that is important part of the octopus, so important he will gladly lose his arms to keep the head safe!
Down in the ocean, under the sea, the octopus lives a kind of dreamy, floaty life, crawling around, swimming, shooting off here and there when it gets spooked. Holding on tight to things it wants. We are like that octopus, sometimes, taking in everything we need and sending all that information to the head, but sometimes our heads float off on a gentle current when we might be attending to our lessons, or we create diversions when we want to escape some task we don't want to do, just as the octopus creates a diversion with all that ink.
What other head animals can we think of? Cuttlefish, of course, really are nothing but a head, hard outside and soft inside, jellyfish, crab, mussel. What about snail?
2.1 The Octopus as head animal, (make a wet felted octopus figure)
2.2 The Octopus, drawing, writing
2.3 The Octopus final writing, other head animals

Week 3
Now we talk about the trunk animals.
Let's start with the Mouse, as Steiner suggests. A mouse does not seem to have a head separate from its body- there are not shoulders and neck like we have. It looks like the head is part of the body, just one end of the trunk happens to have a face, and is then the head, narrowing down to that little pointy, sniffy nose, sniffing and smelling and pointing the way. What about those whiskers, long and shivering, trembling, telling the mouse if danger is near. Sharp, pointy little teeth, always wanting to nibble, nibble, eating up food, carrying food back to its cozy little den, nibbling holes into packages, and holes in walls, even tunnels for the whole mouse-trunk to crawl through. Tiny little eyes that don't see very well, and big ears, standing guard, always alert. A mouse's head is like a little toolbox, full of all kind of equipment to help the trunk get around. Even the mouse's tail, long, and made in rings, is a wonderful tool for the trunk, made so that mouse can stand on its own tail and reach up to climb. Its short little legs can scurry fast, but they are there just to move the mouse along. It is really the trunk that is important to a mouse, and everything else serves that main body.
What other animals are trunk animals?
Fish, for sure. Those fins just move the trunk along, and the mouth seems to open right in to the stomach!
What about the pig? It is hard to tell where the body ends and the head begins on a pig. Like mousey his body tapers down to a nose- for him, though, nothing pointy, but a long, hard, blunt snout, always digging, rooting around, sniffling around for something to eat. It snorts and grunts, swallowing and digging, pushing and chomping. A pigs eyes are small, and deep in all the heavy weight it carries. His ears hang down lazy, not much needed. It's that snout and mouth that do the work, finding food for that massive trunk, with short little legs to help move that heavy body around.
Now what about the horse? Might he be a trunk animal too? Those long, strong, graceful legs are nothing like a pig, short and heavy or a mouse's, quick, but so small and limited in their movement. A horse can walk, trot, gallop, leap, even dance! Maybe it is a limb animal? Horses can see and hear and learn their own way home, even. Maybe they are head animals? But no. Horses may be proud, but just like their awkward and humble cousins, the donkey, they are trunk animals, for their legs, no matter how graceful, are just for moving their bodies around, and their minds, no matter how keen at remembering, are easily broken, and mostly concerned with remembering their task. Even in a horse everything serves the trunk.
3.1 The Mouse (felted wool sewing project)
3.2 The Mouse, drawing and writing
3.3 The Mouse, writing, and other trunk animals

Week 4
Many Waldorf teachings would concentrate this week on "Limb" animals, but we will not. This is something I've spent a lot of time thinking about, reading and trying to take in. I don't believe there to be really Limb animals, where everything goes to the glory of the limbs. The human is the only creature with limbs that are used for anything other than glorifying the body, as our limbs, our hands in particular, enable us to glorify others as well as ourselves and God, and to do all the work our souls demand. Nothing else in the world has hands as useful and wonderful as ours. No one else has hands so perfectly matched to spirits yearning to do good work. And we are balanced- our hands may be much more capable than other animals', but our legs, our feet, are bound to the earth, able to jump and leap, run, and dance, but not so fast or strong as other animals, not so protected or such good weapons as some animals. But we are not disadvantaged, indeed, we have minds and hands to clothe and protect us, better than furry, clawed or hoofed legs would. We will be concentrating this week on the three-fold aspects of the human being again. Head, heart, hands, using animals again to illustrate the lesson.
And so: We speak first of the eagle, the King of the birds, high in his rocky, barren mountain top aerie, carefully surveying the world below. Maybe he his soaring through the sky, graceful and silent, when suddenly he streaks down, like a bullet, a fighter jet, and that beak, sharp and iron strong, opens and immediately clamps hold of some unsuspecting prey. The talons, immense and dagger sharp and strong grab hold and don't let go. Back he flies, fast and furious, to his home, to eat alone, without distraction.
Aren't we like that eagle, casually floating about the lovely day, swooping down and catching hold of some idea that can transform us, help us grow and learn, at least give us something to think about when we are in our nest and quiet? Don't our thoughts flit and fly, soar to the heavens and streak this way and that, chasing ideas, morsels of truth? Doesn't our head sit above the commotion of our working bodies, in the heights like that eagle keenly observing the world's events. Even the eagle's shrill shrieking sounds like it comes from his head. When we make that eagle sound where does it seem to come from? Deep in our abdomen, or way up high?
The eagle's shrill sounds seem to come from the head, but what of the cow in the field, mooing about the grass or her full udders ready to be milked? What about the bull, bellowing his strength and power to the world? That sound, when we make it, we can feel it down low, in our gut. It is a torso sound, not a head sound, don't you think?
How even do the cows and bulls move about getting their food? Do they swoop and leap and chase nuggets down? Not at all. They lay or stand to graze, moving slowly throughout the day about the field, nibbling the green soft grass and chewing their cud. Their heavy bodies are slow and cumbersome, their mouths encased in soft thick lips and no eagle- beaks, sharp and hard, they have soft, wet noses and big brown, mournful eyes. All day they chew grass and make milk, which they don't keep for themselves, but make just to give, to their little babies, and to us. We can learn from the cow, though, of course, to be patient and gentle, to chew our thoughts over and over and over again, to take everything in and change it into something useful for others, to share what we have and to be gentle despite our strength.
Who else might be in that field with all those gentle, timid cows? The bull, of course. He is not gentle, but fierce and angry, storming across the field, charging full force, head first at whatever is bothering him? Where is the power of the bull? Not in his head, he uses that merely as the tip of the weapon. His might is in his torso, all that muscle and strength moving forward on legs meant only propel. Without those legs he is nothing, though. His strength is manifest in those pounding, sod-breaking, dirt-flying, legs, powerful enough to move that great body forward, fearlessly forward. A bull is most wonderful and terrible to watch when he is charging, those legs going a mile a minute. How are we like that bull? When we are working hard, at something physically demanding and hard, like digging a ditch or moving logs, when we say "He is as strong as a bull". When we move forcefully and obstinately, when we dig in our heels and stick with our work until we're done, no matter how hard, no matter how sore our arms and weak our legs, when we keep going forward until we've pounded our way through our task.
But who is the King of the Beasts, strong and sleek? The Lion of course. How is his roar? Not from the head, or the gut. Lion's roar fills our chest, surrounds our heart, makes the blood flow fast and strong. Lion rules the forest with that roar. How does he move? Low and silent, crouching and waiting, then pouncing, deadly fast and sure. He is strong; all muscle, silent on the earth and in his leaps, between the earthbound heaviness of the bull and the windswept heavens of the eagle. Lion is most beautiful and frightening, most himself, in his leap, his pounce, all muscle and spring, grace and strength. When the lion leaps we feel our own hearts leap, it is such a powerful thing. It is so akin to our own hearts, all muscle and strength, unnoticed until death, though the very movement of the heart, clasping in and bursting forth, is so like the crouch and pounce of a lion. That is why we are called lion-hearted when we are fearless and brave, observant and decisive.
We can see all these things- an eagle in our thoughts, the strength and determination of a bull in our limbs, a lion in our hearts, and it is all of these together combined with the grace of God, the spark of the divine, that make us who we are- humans.
4.1 The functions of the human: head- eagle (create an eagle mobile figure)
4.2 The functions of the human: hands/limbs- bull (create a bull mobile figure)
4.3 The functions of the human: heart- lion (create a lion mobile figure, and a self-figure, and hang them appropriately)

The Human Body

Anatomy, Health, and Safety

Week 1- Cells

NOVA movie- Lab Meat

Biology4Kids- Cells Cell Parts and Functions Movie

Science Online Game

Cells Are Us online book

Virtual Cell

The Human Body (THB) Hormones, Growth, and Development p 49-51

The Way We Work (TWWW) p 50-55

Wonders of Science The Human Body (WOSTHB) Unit 1-What Are Bodies Made Of?

Week 2- DNA

NOVA Create DNA Fingerprint & Solve a Crime

DNA to Protein Interactive Zoom in to DNA

Bones & Skeleton Game Book (B&S) p 81

THB p 47-48

TWWW p 32-35

Week 3- Genes

NOVA Epigenetics Movie

Discovery Education Life Cycles Movie

American Museum of Natural History genetics activities Gene Games

Only Human (OH) p29-37
THB Hormones, Growth, and Development p 47-48
B&S p 78-79

Weeks 4 & 5- Skeleton & Bones
Bones Movie http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/SSmovie.html
Bones & Broken Bones Movie http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1033
Label the Bones Print http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=54384&cat_id=20607
Bone Games http://www.childrensmuseum.org/special_exhibits/bones/kids_mazeGame.htm
Dragonfly TV Bone Regrowth http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/bodybrain.html
Muscles & Bones Lessons http://www.bioedonline.org/resources/files/TG_muscles.pdf
WOSTHB p 12-21, 66-69
THB p 31-35
TWWW p 254-259, 267-289
B&S p 10-16
The House We Live In pdf book (THWLI) p 7-17/58, 23-28/58

Weeks 6 & 7- Muscles
Newton's Apple Knuckle Crack Video http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video_only.php?id=3062
Muscles & Bones Lessons http://www.bioedonline.org/resources/files/TG_muscles.pdf
Kids Health Muscles http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html
THB p 35-36
TWWW p 261-265
B&S p 18-22
WOSTHB p 32-39, 74
THWLI p 29-32/58

Weeks 8-9- First Aid

A Sigh of Relief first aid book

Grossology p 12, 42

WOSTHB p 114-124

Weeks 10 &11- Brain & Nervous System

Brain & Nervous Sytem Movie http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/NSmovie.html

Newton's Apple Brain Movie http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1283

Label the brain http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?ic=1&article_set=54391&cat_id=20607 -Ectomy printable brain parts game http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/id90.html
NOVA Sleep video http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3410/01.html
Make NS Models http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chmodel.html
Reflex Experiments http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chreflex.html
THB Nervous System p 3-9, 12-14
TWWW p 150-165, 188-207
B&S p 56-58
WOSTHB p 40-43, 75, 82
THWLI p17-20/58, 51-58/58

Week 12- Sight
The Miracle Worker/ Helen Keller
Louis Braille
Vision Experiments http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html
Vision packet http://www.nei.nih.gov/education/visionschool/schintro/VISIONSchoolProgram.pdf
Vision Experiment http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsplic=1&article_set=44831&cat_id=20574
Depth Perception http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsplic=1&article_set=44827&cat_id=20574
Optical Illusions http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/flash/nill.html
Braille Translator http://pbskids.org/arthur/print/braille/index.html
THB p 10
TWWW p 174-187
B&S p 46-50, 86
WOSTHB p 88-89
THWLI p 20-21/58

Week 13- Hearing
Newton's Apple Hearing http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1414
PBS Movie- Through Deaf Eyes
Hearing Experiments http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chhearing.html
Mr. Holland's Opus
Ear Drum Experiment http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=44861&cat_id=20574
Sound and Fury DVD
Grossology p 32
B&S p 42-44
THB p 10
TWWW p 166-173
WOSTHB p 86-87
THWLI p 21-22/58

Week 14- Touch/Skin
Newton's Apple Wrinkling Skin Video http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video_only.php?id=3099
Touch Lesson Plan http://sln.fi.edu/qa97/me10/me10.html
Touch Experiments http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chtouch.html
Kidshealth http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html
Grossology p 10, 34, 38, 46
THB Nervous System p 11
TWWW 219-224, 246-247
B&S p 36-37, p 40
WOSTHB p 90-91
THWLI p 33-36/58

Week 15- Smell
Newton's Apple Taste & Smell http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1176
UW Smell Lesson Plans http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chsmell.html
Kids Health http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html
THB Nervous System p 9
TWWW p 102-103
B&S p 51-53
WOSTHB p 83

Week 16- Taste Taste Experiments http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chtaste.html
Kids Health http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html
B&S p 54
THB Nervous System p 11
TWWW p 104-105
WOSTHB p 84-85
THWLI p 22-23/58

Week 17-18- Digestive System
Digestive System Movie http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/DSmovie.html
Newton's Apple The Liver http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1419
Urinary System Movie http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/USmovie.html
Grossology p 8, 14, 16, 22, 24, 26, 30, 36, 40
THB Digestive System p 23-30
TWWW p 111-147
B&S p 62-64, 68-69
WOSTHB p 50-59, 76-81
THWLI p 45-50/58

Week 19- Teeth and Oral Health
Magic School Bus Teeth http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/games/colgate/print.htm
Oral Health Lesson Plan http://www.thesolutionsite.com/lpnew/lesson/10303/overview.html
Tooth Care http://www.simplestepsdental.com/SS/ihtSS/r.WSIHW000/st.35080/t.35080/pr.3.html
Kids Health http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html
Grossology p 44, 50
THB Musculoskeletal p 34
TWWW p 106-107
B&S p 65-67

Weeks 20 & 21- Nutrition
Nutrition Tracker http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/pdf/kids/nutritiontracker.pdf
Monster Nutrition Game http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/activities/monster.asp
My Pyramid Blast Off Game http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/kids_game.html
Fueled For Fun Game http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/activities/fueledforfun.asp
Nutrition Café Games http://exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition/nutrition_cafe.html
Food & Fitness Lesson Plans http://www.bioedonline.org/resources/nsbri.cfm
WOSTHB p 98-101

Weeks 22-25- Immune System
NOVA Pandemic Flu Video http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3302/04.html
NOVA 1918 Flu Video http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3318/02.html
Immune System Movie http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/ISmovie.html
Newton's Apple Antibiotics http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1279
Types of immune Cells http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=59042&cat_id=20607
Grossology p 20
THB Immune System p 37-44
TWWW p 224-2553
B&S p 82-83
WOSTHB p 102-105

Week 26- Respiratory System

Kids Health http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/RSmovie.html Asthma movie http://kidshealth.org/kid/closet/movies/asthma_movie.html
Newton's Apple Asthma http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1655
Grossology p 48
THB Respiratory system 21-22
TWWW p57-69, 92-94
WOSTHB p 44-49, 72-73, 92-97
THWLI p 4/58, 41-45/58

Week 27- Circulatory System
Newton's Apple Heart Attack Video http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1164
Heart & Circulatory System Video http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/CSmovie.html
THB Circulatory System p 15-19
TWWW p 76-91
WOSTHB p 22-31, 70-71
THWLI p 4-6/58, 36-41/58

Week 28- Blood
Newton's Apple Blood Typing Video http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1032
Bloody Bits http://www.blood.co.uk/pages/bbits.htm
Blood Drop Games http://www.blood.co.uk/pages/games.html
Kids Health http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html
Grossology p 18
THB p 19-20
TWWW p 69-75

Week 29- Hormones, Growth, Development Endocrine System Movie http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/ESmovie.html Newton's Apple Diabetes Video http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1036
Hair Hygrometer Experiment http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/hair/hair_activity.html
B&S p 38-39, 84-85
THB Hormones, Growth, and Development p 45-46
TWWW p 207-217

Week 30- Reproduction
THB Hormones, Growth, and Reproduction p 52-54
TWWW p 290-318
WOSTHB p 60-65

Week 31- Safety- Drugs
Newton's Nicotine http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=59042&cat_id=20607
Just Think Twice http://www.justthinktwice.com/ (for older kids, parents)
Grade Level pdf books (g5) http://www.aadac.com/552_595.asp
Discovery Ed video http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/deadlyhighs/
WOSTHB p 106-113

Week 32- Safety- Fire
Fire Prevention http://students.resa.net/stoutcomputerclass/3fire.htm
USFA games http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/kids/flash.shtm
Plan trip to fire station

Week 33- Safety- Touch/Strangers
McGruff Safety Info http://www.mcgruff.org/
Plan visit/trip to police station

Week 34- Safety-Internet
Internet Safety http://www.safesurfingkids.com/lesson_plans_grades_3_12.htm
Internet Safety g4 http://www.kenton.k12.ky.us/internet_safety/Gr4_Personal%20Safety.pdf

Week 35- Survival
Survival Preparedness Natural Disasters http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d229a5f06620c6052b1ecfbf43181aa0/?vgnextoid=354c2aebdaadb110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&cpsextcurrchannel=1

Week 36- Wilderness Survival
Newton's Apple Arctic Survival http://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1282
Wilderness Survival Lesson Plan http://csam.montclair.edu/njsoc/sessions/survival.pdf
15 survival videos http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_4538_hiking-survival-techniques.html

Special thanks for the wonderful resources at Guest Hollow. They have a great 4-day a week Elementary Anatomy lesson plan, with book pages, games, worksheets, movies, everything all laid out. I pretty much copied their curriculum plan, then substituted the books we already had, added in some different online resources, and tweaked the schedule and subjects just a bit. I will be working on curriculum as we go, of course- adding in library books and resources as they fit, and deciding on exactly which games, etc. we'll use.

But this is our plan- not Waldorfy, not taught in blocks, Health/Anatomy will be a one day a week extra lesson this coming year.

Nature Study 1B Wasps

Following up on our first Handbook of Nature Study lesson, we learned a little bit about wasps this week. Wasps are related to bees, but are not hairy like bees are. Wasps are solitary or social- those are the ones that build those paper pulp nests, like the one we saw on the slide the other day. Only the females have stingers. Some live on nectar, but others are omnivores, and eat carrion along with their sweets. Some wasps are parasitic, and they lay their eggs inside caterpillars, then when the eggs hatch, they eat the caterpillar from the inside out. Totally awesome, apparently. We did all agree that using parasitic wasps for pest control was way cooler than using toxic pesticides. Though I guess we don't want close encounters with either form of insect control!

Nature Study 1A Cottonwood

Cottonwood Seeds. Photo from Land Arts in an Electronic Age.

We learned a little bit about Cottonwood Trees this week, after seeing a little farm COVERED in the fluffy cottony spiderwebby seeds, and seeing them at the Ahtanum Mission. Avery was interested to find out that Cottonwoods have light, flexible wood, often used to make those round cheese boxes, matches, paper, cheap plywood, snowboard cores, and perhaps most excitingly, the "bones" of Buster, the crash test dummy on the TV show Mythbusters! Apparently cottonwood breaks under the same pressure as human bones. Good to know, good to know. Another interesting thing about cottonwoods is that they can sprout roots from buried limbs and trunk (and vice versa) making them good at holding sand dunes, and one of the few trees able to survive a sand dune existence.

Also, cottonwoods are Poplar type trees, and like to grow in wet areas. Around here they are found down in the little valleys and canyons along stream banks.

Nature Study 1

We started our new Nature Study program today. We're using Anna Botsford Comstock's The Handbook of Nature Study, and the guidance and some of the ideas from The One Hour Challenges at this website, plus our regular nature science stories, like these, and these, as well as made up ones and Native American stories.
Avery's drawing of a Clover flower. It doesn't show up well in the picture, but in his book it is sweet. Diminutive, but isn't clover, really?

We had a picnic under this tree. What a great way to start a nature study outing!

One of the original old apple trees still growing and producing on the Mission grounds.

I think this is the seedpod of an American Sycamore tree. There are several at the Mission, providing beauty and shade to the park grounds.

Wasp nest under the slide ramp. The boys watched closely for some time.

Miles' nature book drawing. He finished pretty quickly then spent some time moving piles of dirt around and poking them with his apple wood stick.

My page. We were sitting directly under one of those ancient apple trees, so it seemed natural to draw that. Ummm... not that I'm a fabulous artist or anything, but it's fun to all sit and draw together. And we were using these cool Lyra Aquacolor crayons, which draw nicely like rich, soft crayons, then magically turn into a watercolor painting when you brush with water!

Our two topics for further study are wasps and cottonwoods. We'll spend a bit of time this week finding out about those things.

Waldorf 4th Grade: Man and Animals

I am in the midst of preparing for the upcoming school year- we'll have a Fourth Grader and a Preschooler, plus the baby, so I want to be as organized and prepared as possible. This summer I'm reading the Norse Myths, researching curriculum choices for the workbook type things we'll use, and trying to get my head around the 4th grade lesson blocks usually called "Man and Animals" or something similar. Sometimes it's called zoology, which is what I've been calling it.

Teaching science has always been my biggest worry point- Avery LOVES doing experiments and lab work, I don't, so much. I love going outside and watching bugs and flowers, but don't really care what they're called or why, he can barely watch for a moment without the desire to KNOW burning him up and into a book. And here we are. Fourth grade. The start of real science, not just nature stories, for Waldorf kids. The unfolding of the child's sense of inner and outer selves, of objectivity, and the BIGNESS of the world. I don't want to mess that up! And I am completely at a loss. What to do?
The Waldorf curriculum tells us that animals are specialized, one-sided. Really perfectly adapted to their task, but only made for that one thing. Animals fall into one of three categories, or embody one of the threefold human traits- they are either thinking, feeling, or willing. Humans, in contrast, are imperfect, but embody all of these traits, plus one other: we are created upright, with hands and arms that are not needed to move us, like animals, but free to turn to service for God and humanity. It doesn't sound too bad (or maybe it does, depending on your perspective) but I am having a problem taking it all in. I just don't really GET it, I guess, and I'm worried that in my attempt to teach something I don't deeply understand and believe that I will not do justice to the task, or my child. I can see a glimmer of how it might be beautiful and true taught by a real Waldorf teacher, someone trained in and understanding of this material. Unfortunately I keep getting stuck with it all feeling forced, like poor science, mixing of holy and earthly things I have no business messing with.
I feel comfortable teaching the animals in tidy groups: you know, mammals, reptiles, mollusks, birds.... I feel comfortable with the idea that humans are upright and special, able to think and feel and do, and that we have a responsibility to care for the world we've been given (or given to, maybe?). I feel comfortable saying animals embody the willing aspect of humans, but the feeling and thinking? I guess dolphins are thinkers, but aren't they still more will-full? Does the octopus, with that huge head, really think more that follow instinct? Surely the jellyfish is more instinctual, yet it is sometimes taught with the "thinkers".... I don't know, and I'm having a hard time getting comfortable with this lesson, I guess because of exactly what I don't know.


The Octopus: a classic Waldorf embodiment of the "thinking" characteristic of the human.

The Eagle: who soars like our thoughts, who attacks prey as we "attack" an idea.

The Lion: embodies "feeling" with strong use of all the senses and that powerful heart.

The Snake: no limbs, all digestive and torso- another "feeling" animal.

The Sea Star: looks like our hand, a clear manifestation of "will".

A Steer: like oxen or a bull, strong and made for work, exercising one's will.