Finishing Saints and Heroes for Second Grade

Sita and I will be finishing up her Saints and Heroes block this week by talking about Saint Francis. This has been a beautiful block, and I wanted to end it well. I have been struggling with Saint Francis, as his story is especially significant to me as a nature and animal lover. I wish I could have learned of him when I was a child.

None of the resources I have come across did a very good job of presenting Saint Francis, his life and his acts of kindness and generosity. They all seemed to be very superficial at best.

I finally found a resource that touched me.

This lovely book, written by Robert Francis Kennedy Junior, and illustrated by Dennis Nolan has been perfect. It emphasizes the qualities of generosity, compassion, and love for all God's creations that Saint Francis inspired.

I presented Saint Francis last evening, as we were preparing for bed. We talked about his life as a child, his mischievous but always generous ways. And we talked about how he learned to care for the poor and the sick. Today we talked about his love of God's beauty in the world, and his relationship with all God's creatures.

We enjoyed the beautiful illustrations and created some of our own.

I must admit, this block has been challenging for me. I was raised Catholic, but my parents left the church for a number of years after a scandal was revealed (financial). My mother only returned to the church after a long absence. Sadly, the saints are not familiar to me, and my spiritual beliefs tend more toward eastern philosophies. But I can appreciate the beauty of these inspiring individuals. Their generosity, compassion, love of God and all mankind, and their courage in the face of prosecution are all worthy values. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to learn about these individuals, and to share them with my daughter. I look forward to sharing them with Alina, when she reaches the appropriate age.

And I am grateful for Rudolph Steiner and the Waldorf education movement that has brought these powerful and beautiful lessons to me and my family.
Michelle

Today

Was very busy...

Lessons always start with a candle and a verse:
The sun it shines so warm and bright,
It strengthens all I do.
Now let me take this bit of light,
So I shine brightly too.

More Saints and Heroes. Last evening at bed-time I told Sita a little about Mother Teresa's life as a girl, finding her calling in life, and her burning desire to care for the poor. Sita did some writing today. This is the most writing I have required her to do, and she complained some last week. But today she did really well with her summary, capitalization, and she was proud of her writing.

We did a drawing of the earth, since Mother Teresa has inspired people all over the world to care for others.

While Sita was doing her lessons, Sean kept Alina busy.

In addition to lessons for everyone, there was plenty of outside time, a little bit of cooking and a little bit of cleaning. It was a good day.

Start of Second Grade Saints and Heroes

Sita and I started on her Saints and Heroes block. Well, actually we re-started the block, since I had work interruptions and then illness last week. Sometimes starting over is the best strategy. 

I am not great at memorizing and re-telling stories, but I am getting better. I have a number of resources for this saint block, but I have not been overly excited about any of them, so I decided to choose the saints that I think will be meaningful to Sita, learn their stories, and then create my own telling. I started with Saint Brigid and the cows. It's a lovely story about Brigid's kindness and generosity, adversity, and help from angels. I drew the picture last evening, and presented the story at bed-time.

For the drawing I used pastels, as I am frankly tired of the crayons. Everyone seemed quite impressed with my picture, but I have not been drawing much lately and as usual, I only see what I could improve upon. The important thing is they enjoyed it (all three of them), and hopefully it serves as an inspiration.

I told Sita now that she is officially doing "Second Grade Work", we will be doing more writing. She writes all the time with her own made-up spelling, and interestingly, her spelling is getting more accurate over time, naturally. She did a really good job of summarizing the story for me this morning. Here is the summary of the story we decided on together. 

I had an appointment with the acupuncturist this afternoon, and we were able to get our lessons done, eat lunch, put Alina down for a nap, and clean up the house before grandma arrived. That's always a plus :)

What's happening in your home these days?

Second Grade Math Lessons This Week

While the number gnomes were busy counting their gems, the math squirrels were busy counting their acorns. We met the squirrels last year with Donna Simmons' First Grade Curriculum. Now we are progressing to second grade math and the squirrels are learning how to use the trees for the four processes. This is Sita's first introduction to vertical math and she did great. The squirrels were a big help, even if they were a bit fidgety and tried to eat the blackboard chalk!

Ah, I wish I could have needle-felted the squirrels, but I bought these last year before I was "brave enough" to attempt needle felting. And they are darn cute!

My blackboard drawing for vertical math trees.

Sita's Main Lesson Drawing.

We keep practicing our two times table with movement including beanbags, snapping, and clapping. Snap, snap - two is - CLAP CLAP CLAP - one times two! Snap, snap - four is - CLAP CLAP CLAP - two times two! She is doing so well, enjoying herself and I can see her confidence growing. She proclaimed at dinner "I love math!"

I am so grateful to be a homeschool family.

What are your lessons looking like this week?

The Scavenger Hunt

I introduced two tiny sisters in an earlier lesson this week. They recently continued their adventure assisted by Sita, who kindly helped them with a scavenger hunt. I had written clues and placed them in special hiding places. Each clue led to the next clue, but before she could read the clue, she had to solve some problems. I had created worksheets to review some of the work we have been doing recently. She had worksheets asking her to match the Roman Numerals with the correct numbers; filling in the blank skip counting (twos, fives, tens), reading word families, and sight words.

Once she solved the problems (completed the worksheet), she could have the clue and find the next set. This ended in the discovery of a key, which unlocked the box. Inside the box was another small, plain wooden box. Inside this, was a set of earrings. Magic earrings, since they give you courage, and it takes courage to get your ears pierced for the first time.


I had been thinking of this for some time, as Sita had been expressing interest in getting her ears pierced. "Does it hurt a lot?" she would frequently ask. "How old were you when you got your ears pierced? Did you cry? What did your earrings look like?"

Originally I had planned to wait until she was older, but changed my mind. She has been having trouble sleeping on her own for several weeks now, and needs a boost of courage. She is a bit of a melancholic (like me!), and can feel sorry for herself. She is also extremely sensitive, compassionate, and considerate. So, the earrings. They are magic courage earrings of course!

I told her, when she decided she was ready, I would take her to have her ears pierced with the new earrings. At first she thought "tomorrow" sounded good. But after thinking about it, she decided today was the day. Now, I was a little apprehensive. What if she got one ear done and then couldn't go through with it for the other? What if she chickened out and then felt even worse?

I decided to radiate confidence, excitement and pride. So off we went. We had to wait a few minutes for the attendant to get to us, and then the paperwork, and aftercare instructions. All adding to poor Sita's apprehension. I held her hand as the attendant carefully marked her ears, cleaned everything, and prepared for the piercing.

I believe she was surprised at how quickly it was done, and how little it hurt. And she was so proud of herself! She couldn't wait to tell her dad and step-dad all about her new earrings! All evening I kept hugging her and telling her how proud I was and what a brave girl she is.

Now, when she talks to me, I just stare at her shiny new earrings and say, "I'm sorry, did you say something? I was distracted by those gorgeous ears." She smiles and says "Oh mom!"

Discovering the Secret of Odd and Even Numbers

This is actually the second year of first grade with Sita, since I started with her last year when she was still six. She was "officially" supposed to be in first grade, and originally that was my plan. But the more I understand  Rudolph Steiner and  Waldorf Education , the more my faith grows, and so I decided to wait and do first grade work with her when she was the appropriate age of seven. There are a lot of resources on when to start first grade, here are two of my favorite: Donna Simmons, Wish Wonder Surprise. I will let you decide for yourself. But I am so glad that I waited. What a difference a year makes! However, it seems at this point that we have been doing first grade forever, and I am finding it challenging to keep it fresh and creative.

I have been trying to find a way to present Sita's lessons creatively, and I have received inspiration from many places. Oak Meadow's First Grade has a lovely introduction to the four processes using some delightful gnome characters. I really wasn't a big fan of gnomes, and it seems everybody uses them, so I was hoping to resist, but I ended up infatuated with them after all.

Elizabeth Foss at Serendipity uses a delightful story to introduce the odd and even numbers, which I adapted for our family...

Today, the gnomes discovered some interesting stones, and while counting them, made the discovery of ODD and EVEN numbers. They asked Sita to help them figure out which numbers are odd, and which are even, and how could they tell? We made a list of odd and even numbers on the blackboard, and pretty soon it was easy to see a pattern. Sita copied this into her Main Lesson Book (MLB). I then had a die that I tossed and asked her to tell me whether the number was odd or even. At first she had to keep looking to her MLB, but after a little practice, she could tell me quickly.

We then moved onto the Roman Numerals. We had already introduced the Roman Numerals last year, so we started with review. Using sticks to represent the numbers, we counted our unusual stones with the gnomes. We placed the sticks -  I, II, III, but wait, this is going to use a lot of sticks, how else can we do this? Well, the V-shape of the hand between the thumb and first finger could stand for five - five fingers. Then what is one before five? That's right! IV = four. And six is five and one more...VI.

For ten, we decided the two hands of five across the chest represents ten - X. And one before ten is nine - IX. And ten and one more is eleven - XI, on up to twelve. Sita copied this into her MLB, and then we practiced using small "flash cards" I had recycled from watercolor paintings. I would give her the Roman Numeral flash card and she would tell me number  it was. First I gave them in order, then we mixed them up.

We kept going, since this part was mostly review, and since we were having so much fun. I had introduced a story last week where the gnomes had discovered three special eggs. These are the wooden craft eggs. As a craft project at co-op last fall we colored them with beeswax crayons. They can then either be heated at a very low temperature in the oven until the beeswax gets soft and the colors blend, or they can be smoothed with a rough rag (or paper towel) until the colors blend.

After discovering the eggs, the gnomes became very worried about them. They didn't want to leave them in the forest for fear that something would happen to them. But they didn't want to take them in case the mommy came back for them. What to do? Their wise king advised them that they were special eggs and that they should take turns watching over them. So they made a soft nest (out of wool roving) and took turns staying with the eggs.

After three days, the eggs hatched! Out came two little tiny girls (not much bigger than the gnomes) and one ugly little toadstool.  The girls were named Marina, and Priya, and the toadstool was supposed to be their brother. But they had a spell cast on them, and they need to find a way to undo the spell so they can return to their original size. And they need to find a way to restore their brother.

In the meantime, I have told Sita that we will have to help the girls find a way to undo the spell on them. I have a large lock box, and inside the box is the answer, and something VERY SPECIAL. But first Sita will have to help Priya and Marina solve some riddles and go on a scavenger hunt. But that is for tomorrow...