The kids and I went to Walnut Creek for an overnight visit with Jiji. It was a gift in many ways:
• the hour the boys spent in the pool with their grandfather with those shrieks that shift subtly and quickly from joy to terror to joy again.
• the yummy meal at P.F. Chang's. It still warms my cockles to see Kinder down a GF meal with gusto at a restaurant where he's ordered off the menu.
• the kids tackling the 60 piece puzzles I brought with us.
• having some time to do what finally felt like actual (rather than virtual) planning for the month of September.
Here's what I did:
• chose four cooking activities (one per week).
• chose four craft activities (ditto).
• outlined the format I'll try out for fairytales (one per month with associated activities---drawing, puppet shows, etc.)
• decided to sing one selected Japanese song per month.
• chose verses, songs, finger plays, movement games for Circle.
• chose the theme for graph of the month.
• chose the contents for the month's estimation jar.
I also made a list of things to do for the month of August---it's a long list:
• clean apartment with essential oils.
• unpack.
• gather, organize and set up learning materials and area(s).
• Cape Cod holiday: collect sand/seashell pieces; seaweed.
• Raymonds' visit.
• Martells' visit.
• prepare for Lesley.
• housewarming.
• clear ground for living tipi next summer (pending okay from landlord/other tenants).
• discover good hikes, hiking areas.
• establish rhythm: in/out, quiet/active.
• join CSA.
• check out pediatrician, dentist, pediatric GI, cranial sacral, chiropractic, homeopath and/or naturopath.
• new mealtime blessing.
• math/fine motor collections: buttons, beans, glass beads.
I used Betty Jones' A Child's Seasonal Treasury (thanks Toni) and Donna Simmons' Joyful Movement and From Nature Stories to Natural Science to get me started. I will be supplementing with An overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten and A Deeper Understanding of the Waldorf Kindergarten, both published by the Waldorf Kindergarten Association (thanks Sandy), and Let Us Form A Ring, an Acorn Hill Anthology. I may not get to these books until I'm in NYC.
We have two weeks left here in sunny, DRY, Sacramento.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Doldrums...the next day
It's quiet with Cap not here. Well, maybe not quiet as much as empty.
At the end of my night last night, after an hour of putting digital pics in labeled folders, I read a chapter of The Historian and then picked up my planning notebook for the first time in a month or so. (I cannot remember the last time I have taken so long to read a book. Usually, my pace is frantic and if it isn't, whether because I'm not into the book or I get busy, I put the book down. There must be something about this book that lends itself to a leisurely read of a chapter here, a chapter there.)
I made lists of what to pack for NYC. One list for the kids and one list for me. Then I made a list of things to do before leaving Sac. Then I listed the days I have left and began filling in things happening on specific days. Then I began to fill in what I'd like to happen on some of those days.
I need to get to a bit of Lesley work and tackle the home office/my papers---organizing, purging, and getting into boxes. Those are my goals for this week, a week that has six scheduled appointments between the kids and I, and a visit from Barb today and JR and Pam Thursday-Monday.
No news on the NJ housing front yet.
The roasted asparagus sure smells good. We'll have that and homemade sushi rolls for lunch with B.
Flew through Entourage Season 2. It was good.
At the end of my night last night, after an hour of putting digital pics in labeled folders, I read a chapter of The Historian and then picked up my planning notebook for the first time in a month or so. (I cannot remember the last time I have taken so long to read a book. Usually, my pace is frantic and if it isn't, whether because I'm not into the book or I get busy, I put the book down. There must be something about this book that lends itself to a leisurely read of a chapter here, a chapter there.)
I made lists of what to pack for NYC. One list for the kids and one list for me. Then I made a list of things to do before leaving Sac. Then I listed the days I have left and began filling in things happening on specific days. Then I began to fill in what I'd like to happen on some of those days.
I need to get to a bit of Lesley work and tackle the home office/my papers---organizing, purging, and getting into boxes. Those are my goals for this week, a week that has six scheduled appointments between the kids and I, and a visit from Barb today and JR and Pam Thursday-Monday.
No news on the NJ housing front yet.
The roasted asparagus sure smells good. We'll have that and homemade sushi rolls for lunch with B.
Flew through Entourage Season 2. It was good.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Doldrums
There's an episode of The Backyardigans that finds the group of friends on a Viking ship. They encounter a whirlpool and doldrums. I feel as if I've been tossed, finally, and safely, from the spinning waters of the whirlpool and into placid waters. Doldrums. A pocket of time and space where all is relatively still. From whence I may plot my next course of action.
Rhythm sounds good. But, we have a week of doctor and dentist appointments coming up, as well as, a visit from JR and Pam. So, nothing too rigid/formal. Just in and out, in and out.
Cap is in NJ this weekend. I'm holding my breath in as we wait to hear if we got a place. Need to let it out at some point soon since we won't be hearing until Monday. We're up against a single male who earns 150K a year and has two dogs. It sounds small, but is in a great neighborhood where I think we would feel comfortable.
Yosemite has been canceled for this weekend, so I am planning on registering for a one day course at Steiner College on Saturday on Waldorf Fundamentals for parents. My professional development for my non-professional occupation.
In four weeks, at this time, I will be in NYC, in the bosom of my family. I'll have said good-bye to this home we've created here. Wow. I guess at this point I just need to gather up the materials I think I'll find useful for planning and pack them in my travel suitcase. I don't think I'll be doing much planning here. I gotta pack!
Rhythm sounds good. But, we have a week of doctor and dentist appointments coming up, as well as, a visit from JR and Pam. So, nothing too rigid/formal. Just in and out, in and out.
Cap is in NJ this weekend. I'm holding my breath in as we wait to hear if we got a place. Need to let it out at some point soon since we won't be hearing until Monday. We're up against a single male who earns 150K a year and has two dogs. It sounds small, but is in a great neighborhood where I think we would feel comfortable.
Yosemite has been canceled for this weekend, so I am planning on registering for a one day course at Steiner College on Saturday on Waldorf Fundamentals for parents. My professional development for my non-professional occupation.
In four weeks, at this time, I will be in NYC, in the bosom of my family. I'll have said good-bye to this home we've created here. Wow. I guess at this point I just need to gather up the materials I think I'll find useful for planning and pack them in my travel suitcase. I don't think I'll be doing much planning here. I gotta pack!
Friday, June 02, 2006
Active planning grinds to a halt
Real life has taken over in a major way (six weeks from tomorrow we leave!, we don't have a place to live!, Kinder turns six a week from tomorrow!, we have so much stuff!, we will accrue more debt by moving!) and I have been watching a lot of movies at night. Esacpe, escape.
Homeschooling ideas floating in my consciousness:
• Take a trip to Smart and Final to check out their selection of wholesale kitchen items: ie. "washing sticks", glass juicer with cup.
• Now that Cap is open to delaying the start of first grade for Kinder, we need to decide what we're going to do so that I can plan accordingly.
• Julia dropped off some resources about temperaments in children and education. I need to flip through them. I just double checked. I already have the one that I think she liked: Roy Wilkenson's The Temperaments in Education. The other one is Children and Their Temperaments by Marieke Anschütz.
• Doing a Kindergarten year with Pre and Kinder (Kinder 1 and Kinder 2) would be a nice way to start homeschooling, for me. Less complex.
• T-shirts! On one of my lists, someone shared that she makes each of her children a "homeschool" t-shirt through Café Press using clip art images. Each child chooses a name for the school year and the shirt represents the school year. I liked that idea. Their school has a name too, but is not on the t-shirt. Every year she makes them a new shirt.
• Pre's last day of preschool is next Thursday, Kinder's last day is the Thursday after that. We'll have about four weeks together before we leave for NYC. I could consider establishing some rhythm...I'd been thinking of just throwing the towel in to chaos. We haven't used our painting boards yet! We should paint.
• Thinking of buying a kinder lyre. A Waldorf thing---for puppet shows, quiet times, to instill peacefulness...
http://www.novanatural.com/product.phtml?pr=4783&sec=433
• Thinking of giving Kinder the sword he's expressed a desire for in the fall instead of for his birthday. There's a Waldorf celebration in the fall, Michaelmas, which is all about bravely and resolutely bringing light into darkness and slaying the dragons that threaten to undermine us. Seems like an opportune time to "knight" him. He has already said he wants a metal one, but alas for him, it will be wooden.
• Saw some Main Lesson Books at Kinder's school today and am reconsidering using them for first grade. I'd decided against it thinking that we could make our own, which many homeschoolers do. But, seeing them, so simple, so clearly unlike any other paper/notebook the kids have ever seen/used, they appealed to a certain aesthetic and methodology in me.
Homeschooling ideas floating in my consciousness:
• Take a trip to Smart and Final to check out their selection of wholesale kitchen items: ie. "washing sticks", glass juicer with cup.
• Now that Cap is open to delaying the start of first grade for Kinder, we need to decide what we're going to do so that I can plan accordingly.
• Julia dropped off some resources about temperaments in children and education. I need to flip through them. I just double checked. I already have the one that I think she liked: Roy Wilkenson's The Temperaments in Education. The other one is Children and Their Temperaments by Marieke Anschütz.
• Doing a Kindergarten year with Pre and Kinder (Kinder 1 and Kinder 2) would be a nice way to start homeschooling, for me. Less complex.
• T-shirts! On one of my lists, someone shared that she makes each of her children a "homeschool" t-shirt through Café Press using clip art images. Each child chooses a name for the school year and the shirt represents the school year. I liked that idea. Their school has a name too, but is not on the t-shirt. Every year she makes them a new shirt.
• Pre's last day of preschool is next Thursday, Kinder's last day is the Thursday after that. We'll have about four weeks together before we leave for NYC. I could consider establishing some rhythm...I'd been thinking of just throwing the towel in to chaos. We haven't used our painting boards yet! We should paint.
• Thinking of buying a kinder lyre. A Waldorf thing---for puppet shows, quiet times, to instill peacefulness...
http://www.novanatural.com/product.phtml?pr=4783&sec=433
• Thinking of giving Kinder the sword he's expressed a desire for in the fall instead of for his birthday. There's a Waldorf celebration in the fall, Michaelmas, which is all about bravely and resolutely bringing light into darkness and slaying the dragons that threaten to undermine us. Seems like an opportune time to "knight" him. He has already said he wants a metal one, but alas for him, it will be wooden.
• Saw some Main Lesson Books at Kinder's school today and am reconsidering using them for first grade. I'd decided against it thinking that we could make our own, which many homeschoolers do. But, seeing them, so simple, so clearly unlike any other paper/notebook the kids have ever seen/used, they appealed to a certain aesthetic and methodology in me.
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