Money Lesson Block

ABCD is loving 3rd grade, with Waldorf's emphasis on practical skills and most importantly practical math. With the start of the new year and the start of school again after the winter holidays we're starting the Money Lesson Block.
We have Betsy Maestro's "The Story of Money" and Eyewitness Books "Money" as spines, "Family Math" for some game-skill inspiration. ABCD talked Papa into buying him an adding machine from Value Village some time ago, and of course we have a toy cash register.
I'm planning four weeks-
1) History of money
barter/trade society to modern forms of money
Alphabet Dollars Code
2) Denominations
coins, $ place value
Coin chart, lots of practice adding, subtracting & making change
3) Value/Use of money
budget, interest, inflation
Pretend shopping with budget and catalogs, grocery fliers, etc.
4) Money around the world
forms of $, changing money
Locating countries on map/globe, drawing flags, matching $
"Amazing Race" type challenge game, with money changing and paying for services, trip

I found somewhere an idea for a school classroom of "paying" the students for coming to school, doing their work, etc., where they would lose money for not completing their assignments or getting in trouble. While the idea kind of has been stuck in my head I don't like the idea of buying school work, plus a big reward at the end of the month isn't really workable, what with 5 birthdays coming up (including some little one's actual birthday). But in the interest of preparing the family for the new baby, reinvigorating our chore charts, studying geography without allocating more school time for it, and helping ABCD to get into the habit of following the lesson schedule on his own, I came up with a variation of this idea. So... new chore charts, schoolwork schedules, winning $ and losing $ based on performance, with a chart for him to keep the tallies for everyone. At the end of the month the $ earned is what have when we start the around the world game.
Which means I just have to create a board game, rules, a game board, and gather information and pictures of all the countries we'll visit on our "Amazing Race". Easy peasy. Almost as easy as just taking the poor kid to a movie if he does his chores reasonably well for a month.
Crikey. Some people's homeschool Moms.

Playdough

The other day we were over at our new friends' house and Mymy rediscovered the goodness of play dough. And I was inspired to make some- it had been months, since March maybe, since I'd made any, and that's practically a lifetime for a 2 year old. So he and I made play dough this morning and he played happily cutting and smashing and rolling and squeezing all the rest of the morning while ABCD tried to concentrate on schoolwork and NOT get sucked into making play dough snakes and pizzas. Here's my recipe:

1 c. flour

1/2 c. salt

1 T. cream of tartar

mix together, then add:

1 c. water

1 T. oil

and cook over med-high heat stirring constantly until it forms a big ball, then dump it out to cool a little. When it is cool enough to handle add a couple drops of essential oil and a couple drops of food coloring.

This time we made lemon, peppermint, and rosemary, though ABCD thought rosemary and its "invigorating" properties was perhaps not the best choice for Mymy and that it would have made more sense to choose a "calming" oil. Oh well. It kept Mymy busy and even drew Foal in when she arrived for an early-release school day afternoon play date.

Late Autumn Circle

Late Autumn Circle 2008

Rise up O flame, by thy light shining, Bring to us beauty, vision and joy.

There's the firm earth under me, The blue sky over me,
So I stride, So I stand, And I see You too,
With the blue sky above you And the firm earth under you.

I’m in the mood for singing, hey how about you?
I’m in the mood for singing, singing along with you.
Hey, hey, what do you say? I’m in the mood for that today.
Hey, hey, what do you say? I’m in the mood for that!
Clapping, whistling, stomping, learning, smiling, singing

Right hand, left foot, meet in the middle,
Left hand, right foot, meet in the middle,
Right arm over left arm, play the fiddle.
Left hand, right foot, meet down low,
Right hand, left foot meet down low,
Left arm over right arm, pull the bow.
Reach to the right, reach to the left,
Stretch in front, stretch behind,
Look down below, what do you find?
Right hand reach out to a friend,
Left hand reach out to a friend,
Make a circle without end.
Moving to the right, in a ring,
Moving to the left, we will bring,
Our circle to the center, move inside,
Then back out again, like the tide.

A diamond or a coal?
A diamond if you please:
Who cares about a clumsy coal
Beneath the summer trees?
A diamond or a coal?
A coal, sir, if you please:
One comes to care about the coal
What time the waters freeze.

The gift of light we thankfully take
But nothing may be just alone for our sake.
The more we give light one to another
It shines and spreads love, still growing further;
Til every spark is set aflame,
And from every heart Joy proclaim.

Come Ye Thankful People, come, raise a song of harvest home:
Fruit and crops are gathered in, safe before the storms begin;
God, our Maker will provide for our needs to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise a song of harvest home.
All the world is but a field, given for a fruitful yield;
Wheat and tares together sown, Here for joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade, and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
God of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

Brave and true I will be, each good deed sets me free.
I will fight for the right, I will conquer the wrong.

Waldorf Works

At least according to the standardized test ABCD recently took.
It is called the MAP test, and is a maze type test. The questions get harder if you answer correctly, and easier if you get answers wrong. It was horrible, and ABCD, who HATES getting anything wrong and has a really hard time trying things he thinks he MIGHT not be able to do perfectly had a terrible time knowing that he was getting answers wrong. He'd sit there at the computer and sigh, "Well, I guess I just have to give up and guess." The test took SIX hours, straight through, and covered reading, language arts, and math.
I've been feeling horrible for a week, making him go through this terrible experience. Well, not that the ends justify the means, or that the test results really mean anything to me as his Mom and teacher (I laughed out loud when the proctor said the test was important so that I would know "where he's at"), but it is easier to hold up a score than stop and explain all of the things you've been learning about. And my son scored in the 99th percentile in every single category, with reading and language arts covering the range of 7th-12th grades, and math solidly at 7th grade level. This is a kid who doesn't have all of his basic math facts (tables) memorized, and my husband was sure he was "behind" in math because he has to stop and figure questions out, and can't just spout off the answer. It has been one of the biggest sources of tension between us as parents. "He should know this" vs "But he understands it, and he'll memorize it when it makes sense to HIM to do so."
Oh well, pressure's off and I can relax and enjoy teaching him without worrying so much about whether I'm including enough of the stuff public school kids are doing. I have a score to hold up "See, he's learning plenty!"
Of course, my first thought when we got the scores back was "What the heck do they DO in school?" My child is bright and articulate, but he's not on track to graduate from high school at 12 or anything. He's just a normal kid whose curiosity and thirst for learning about the world hasn't been drudged out of him by a school system too over-burdened and under-inspired to teach children well. He's being given the time and experience to learn to THINK. And it works. He has the scores to prove it.

The Anti-Schoolers

This is an article about some modern, hip New Yorkers from the New York Times. It is not about me, or even the way we homeschool, but closer maybe than the stereotype of the beaten-down, exhausted, denim jumper wearing homeschooling Mom of silent, obedient stair-steps. Maybe. Except for the exhausted part. And I haven't even in been in a bar since the last millenium, so maybe I'm WAAAAY less hip than I think I am....
Anyway, here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/garden/16unschool.html?_r=2&ref=garden&oref=slogin&oref=slogin. Enjoy someone else's life for a moment. And who the heck gets free rent in New York City, anyway? Please.

This is the "Times Clock" we made, based on the directions from Robinsunne on her blog at http://www.robinsunne.com/robinsunnes_multiplication_clock . ABCD thinks it would be good to do it again, since our lines aren't straight, but I'm not convinced. Mymy already got us to make two, by decorating the first one with his own artwork. So, here it is, at least for now. The cool thing about this multiplication table is that the connection between the numbers is really easy to see, and you can see each table two different ways- around the clock, or radiating from the center. And it was kind of fun to do an art project instead of working in the math workbook.

What Passes For School Around Here

This is called the "Snotty Slime Clock". It comes in a kit from the Horrible Science people who also publish all of these fun science books- this year we have"Disgusting Digestion" which promises to answer all kinds of questions, like~ How much pee can your bladder hold before it pops? ~What disease makes your eyeballs bleed? ~Why can't astronauts eat beans before a space flight? Totally gross and fun, perfect for an 8 year old whose bedtime chatter last night was whether anacondas continue strangling their victims for so long after they are dead because they're really crushing their bones so the animal (or person!) is malleable enough to swallow hole, and exactly how big an animal can an anaconda eat? Of course, we haven't gotten to digestion yet- that'll be much later in the year. But I decided to mix things up a bit this year, instead of trying to follow a strictly Waldorf curriculum, or following in the classical footsteps of so many of our homeschooling peers here.

So... so far we've completed one Waldorf style block on farming-harvest, we learned about local agriculture, followed the pear cycle, and the life cycle of the honeybee, an important agricultural partner around here, for sure! For the bee bit we worked out the components of a sort of lap-book kit, which looked fun, with all kinds of little booklets to make and paper-cutting and folding and staples and brads and everything. ABCD was not impressed. "Its just a lot of filling in the blanks kind of writing, just on little pieces of paper instead of big ones. Boring!" And really, to have all of those preprinted funny things in the middle of his hand-made looking Waldorf style lesson book is a little jarring, just from an aesthetic side. So, no more lap books, at least not for main lessons, and not for awhile.
This week we started a block on time- clocks and calendars- telling time and history of- but we've been sick and not really gotten much done. Except he made the green plastic slime clock. I have to say, I bought two of the horrible science kits hoping they'd be worth the money, and they are, definitely. Some kid science kits are so flimsy and have such awful directions and boring experiments. After all, how many times can you find vinegar and baking soda interesting? (Well, unfortunately, quite a few times, it seems, but still, I don't need to pay $30 for a kit about THAT!) These kits seem quite sturdy and nice, with funny experiments that teach science between the giggles. Also for this unit we are enjoying the book "The Story of Clocks and Calendars" by Betsy Maestro, which is quite informative and very readable and pretty much covers everything we're going to talk about in this block, so there you go! We will be practising telling time and making a calendar for 2009, and doing the experiments in the slime clock kit and some others as well.

So far our school days look a little like this: light a candle, circle, harmonica (1/2 the time or so we get to it), oral reading (Old Testament stories mostly), puzzler/story problem/maze/paper folding exercise. Main lesson- Monday is Math, with a story from "Number Stories of Long Ago" or some other Waldorfy type math lesson story, then working out the story with manipulatives or figures or drawings. Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday is block lesson time (3 farm, 2 building, 1 clothing, time, money, 2-3 measurement). Friday is sort of our fill-in time right now. Snack, then 15 minutes or so for latin (Lively Latin, we LOVE it), oral math/math drill (grammar on Friday), cursive practice (copywork from OT stories on Wednesday). Tuesday is msnucleus science lab day, Wednesday is an extra math practice (Miquon workbook), and a local history story, Thursday is Leonardo da Vinci, and Friday is form drawing and another Math practice period. Lunch. And so far we're pretty much done at that point, but not for long....

We haven't started with regular nature walks and keeping a nature journal yet- that's this week, with a Waldorf style nature story first. We haven't started handwork up yet- its too easy to push aside for other things. I'd like to get ABCD to make another wood project for a Christmas present for his brother or the Grandmas, and I plan to have him sew himself a wool felt vest or something for the new baby. I haven't broken out the beeswax yet- not sure why. We haven't even done play dough in ages. Like, since spring! Guitar hasn't started yet either- we're still trying to work it all out, schedule wise and $ wise. Gym and swim at the Y is two days a week, two hours each, and Thursdays we go to the library after. Gymnastics starts Tuesday, so we'll probably do that instead on those days- it's only an hour and more fun,less hassle. But ABCD was moved up to the highest level swimming class at the Y, so we're a little torn. They're so disorganized and have such a variety of teachers its a little off-putting, added to the general atmosphere of world's most family un-friendly YMCA ever. And he has soccer team- U-9 is a bit more intense than last year, and ABCD is not competitive, so its a bit much at times. His coach is great at trying to keep it fun, but most of the boys on the team are feeling competitive and paying more attention to how the other's play, and demanding to know the score all the time (though officially its no-score still, for some reason all the Dads keep and tell the points). We're waiting for Rosetta Stone Spanish, Artistic Pursuits modern art, some more science kits, art supplies, and the nature journal still.

I started writing this post feeling like we were not getting much done school-wise, but I feel pretty good, actually, about how well I planned out the schedule, and what we're learning. Its pretty good, and fitting in the things we're waiting for shouldn't be too big a struggle. Good.

Oregon Trail Resources

OREGON TRAIL RESOURCES
1843 Train Members
BLM Oregon Trail
End Of The Oregon Trail Museum
Heritage Gateways
Lesson Plan
Natural Dyes
Oregon Trail School Project
OT Propaganda Lesson
OT Unit Study
PBS The Oregon Trail
Pioneers of Oregon
Recipes and Resources from a HS family
Scholastic Lesson Plans
The Food Timeline
The Fur Trapper
Timeline
Trails West
Utah Perspective Lesson Plans
Vocabulary
Wagons Ho! webquest
Whitman Mission lots of info

Year 3 Schedule

DAILY
8:15-9:00 circle, oral reading, math puzzler
10:00-10:15 snack
10:15-10:30 latin
12:00-1:00 lunch
1/2 hour guitar practicebedtime story chapter
1/2 hr or so neighborhood walk or hike nearby
MONDAY
9:00-10:00 Math Story & Lab
10:30-10:45 Oral Math
10:45-11:00 cursive
11:00-12:00 spanish (la clase divertida 2)
1:00-1:30 nature story
1:30-3:30 nature walk w/nature journal & snack
3:30-4:30 nature/seasonal craft
TUESDAY
9:00-10:00 main lesson
10:30-11:00 oral math, cursive
11:00-12:00 science lab
1:00-2:00 gymnastics
3:00-3:30 handwork
WEDNESDAY
9:00-10:00 Main lesson
10:30-11:00 copywork
11:00-11:30 math practice
11:30-12:00 spanish
1:00-2:00 local history (stories)
2:00-3:00 art technique
3:30-4:00 guitar lesson
THURSDAY
9:00-10:00 main lesson
10:30-11:00 oral math, cursive
11:00-12:00 leonardo da vinci
1:00-3:00 homeschool gym and swim
3:00-4:00 library
FRIDAY
9:00-10:00 Old Testament (story, lesson book drawing, etc.)
10:30-11:00 Grammar
11:00-11:30 Math Practice
11:30-12:00 Spanish
1:00-1:30 Form Drawing
1:30-2:00 handwork

Wagon Train

We made covered wagons today. They came out pretty cute, but it was a lot of work, at least for Strongmom and I, while the kids grew restless and floppy. I made one up ahead of time, I really did, to make sure the glue and all would be easy enough for the kids to do. The sample came out easy and cute, and I was proud for being such a good Mom, all organized and efficient! Unfortunately I think I got the only kit with all of the pieces cut the right size and holes drilled in the right places.
In the end it came out okay, though I do have a renewed frustration with this town and the lack of decent crafting and fabric stores. I hate to say it, because the people at Craft Wharehouse are always really nice (except the quilting corner lady who is rude and awful). But really, you can't even buy silk here by the yard in this town, or dye-na-flow fabric paint, apparently. And because I am always gathering supplies at the last minute I didn't find that out until last night. Darn it!
Anyway, we had fun setting up the wagons in the grass after Strongmom and her two left. Foal chose circus animals to pull her wagon, which is appropriate (and she painted her wagon cover in polka dots). She is giddy knees and elbows and shining to applause. Mymy chose dinosaurs. I guess when you're two 1843 might as well be the time of the dinosaurs. ABCD and Sunny both refused to paint their wagon covers, despite my assurances that real wagons were often painted in bright colors and designs, and both claimed litle play horses to pull their little play wagons (both were disappointed we didn't have a stock of play oxen). They are strict.
Before we made wagons I read Chapter 2 of Little House on the Prairie, where they cross the dangerous stream and nearly drown and Jack is lost. The kids were shocked at my choking back tears while I read. But honestly! What parent can read that chapter and not feel how fragile and scary it all can be? Still, though. Crying?! As if I haven't read that book about 150 times in my life. Really!