Homeschooling Again...Joy!

Ancient Humans - Watercoloring Stonehenge

Geometry - Pentagons and pentagrams

We have decided to homeschool at least one more year with our son Wilson.  He is currently considered a 5th grader, so we are joyfully jumping into all things ancient, while continuing to deepen our understanding of botany that we started at the end of last year. We are using Earthschooling, Teaching Textbooks (math), Story of the World, and an eclectic mix of books, field trips, and our own projects. Some highlights from our first couple of weeks.

Botany - Growing seeds indoors and then transplanting into the Fall garden

Botany - Identifying plants during a hike to Boiling Spring Lake in Drakesbad within the Lassen Volcanic National Park

PE - Tap dancing with siblings and Mommy

Art - Watercoloring a scene from our camping trip to Lake Almanor

Botany - Crayon drawing the stages of plants

Candlemas and Groundhog's Day

We celebrated Candlemas and Groundhog's Day today!  We discussed the origins of the holidays and read a verse from Earthschooling's 1st grade curriculum about Candlemas from the Middle Ages.

We sang our own song that we like to sing during circle time, "Little Candle".
Little candle burning bright
You are such a pretty sight

Show us all your shining light

Little candle burning bright

We drew candles with oil pastels.

Then, we played a round of Groundhog's Day "shadow tag" (also from Earthschooling).

And folded a new window star for the front door, embracing the light in Winter.

Handwork Live Chat! Fri. 12/4 11am CST

I will be leading a chat online this Friday through Earthschooling! Here is the info.:

Just in time for your holiday crafting, Jennifer Tan will be online for a live chat on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:00am CST. This live chat will be done in the form of an online audio lecture with a question and answer period afterwards. You will be able to listen via your computer or phone. You are sure to be inspired with a lot of ideas of crafts you can make for the holidays and Jennifer is sure to have the answer to your questions like "What yarn should I use for the socks I am making for my mom?" or "Where can I find a pattern for this toy I want to make for my niece?" or "Help! I made a mistake in this sweater - what do I do now?" Earthschooling members and forum members can attend this chat for free. Look for the sign up box in your inbox! If you are not a member you can sign up at: http://waldorfenrichment.weebly.com/chatguests.html or become a forum member at: http://waldorfenrichment.weebly.com/forum.html

Jennifer Tan enjoys teaching spinning, crochet, Tunisian crochet, knitting, cro-hook, felting, natural dyeing and scrumbling. She homeschools her three children using Waldorf methods. She is an expert in many areas of handiwork and will be available during our December live chat to answer your questions about handiwork. She has been featured on DIY and HGTV's "Uncommon Threads" and runs a popular blog where she chronicles her homeschooling adventures with her husband and children. You can also visit her at: her BLOG, www.syrendell.blogspot.com and at her ETSY shop: www.syrendell.etsy.com

1st Grade - Letters A, E, I, O & Numbers 1, 2

We are thoroughly enjoying experiencing 1st grade homelearning as a family this year! Wilson is our sweet 1st grader.

We get asked frequently, "So, what do you with Wilson when you homeschool?". Here is a breakdown of the basics that we've been doing the first two weeks of school, using the Earthschooling curriculum as a guide. Letters are introduced in a 3-day rhythm. We are reviewing one number per week.

Week 1
Day 1
Circle Time: Sing "Angels Watching Over Me" ("A"), lyre
Letter A: A Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement
Number 1: 5 Senses (taste one apple, see one leaf, feel and guess one item in the box, hear one bird, smell one essential oil)

Day 2
Letter A: Singing, "A"corn Watercolor with Verse, Project (mixing and baking Squash Bread)
Number 1: Math Gnomes (each gnome has 1, practice add/subt/mult/div with gems)
Form Drawing (All form drawing comes from the Write Approach book)

Gymnastics Class

Day 3
Letter A: Writing (air, chalkboard, window crayons, colored pencils in MLB), Search for items that have "A" in them
Letter E: E Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement

Number 1: Scooping pearls with a shell, one at a time while felted mermaid watches

Day 4
Letter E: Singing/lyre "Farmer in the Dell" ("E"), Tr"ee" Watercolor with Verse, Dream Tea Project (lemon balm leaves and strawberries)
Number 1: Writing (chalkboard, MLB), Singing "The Ants Go Marching 1 by 1"
Form Drawing

Day 5
Circle Time: Sing/lyre "Good Morning Dear Earth" ("A, E, I, O")
Letter E: Writing, Search for items that have "E" in them, Draw faces on hard-boiled "E"ggs and do egg hunts.
Number: Nature Counting wood blocks, one at a time
Foreign Language: Numbers in Spanish


Week 2
Fairy Tale of the Week: Briar Rose (Mommy tells story and acts it out. Throughout the week, Wilson retells story. Older children write a "persuasive essay" in their MLB's regarding the tale.)

Day 1
Circle Time: Sing/Lyre "Good Morning Dear Earth", Bean bag counting, Circle Time Song, Meditation
Letter I: I Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement
Number 2: 5 Senses
Piano

Day 2
Letter I: Singing/lyre "Michael Row Your Boat" ("I"), "I"cicle Watercolor with Verse, Project (mixing and baking Indian corn bread)
Number 2: Math Gnomes (2 jewels each, practice add/subt/mult/div)
Form Drawing
Handwork: Spinning Yarn

Gymnastics Class

Day 3
Letter I: Writing, Search for items that have "I" in them
Letter O: O Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement

Number 2: Play kitchen (cutting wood food into "2" pieces and serving "2" plates of food)
Music: Piano

Day 4
Letter O: Singing, "O"range Watercolor with Verse, Project (cut and sew a Frog bean bag)
Number 2: Writing (chalk, window crayons, colored pencils), Singing "The Ants Go Marching 2 by 2"
Form Drawing
Handwork: Spinning Yarn

Day 5
Circle Time: Sing/lyre "Michael Row Your Boat" ("I, O"), count by 2's throwing bean bags
Letter O: Writing, Search for items that have "O" in them in the garden
Foreign Language: Counting in Spanish

Meal Verse

We prepare and eat at least one lunch that relates to each social studies block (pictures above feature: Jewish charoset from the Diaspora, Medieval peasant/servant meal served in a castle, Moorish feast, Medieval European monk's meal). We love to eat together as a family! During lunch, we start with a meal verse.

Ricky, Joey and Wilson have been entrenched in botany adventures this year, so they made up a poem about a seed becoming a tree, then growing fruit that we will eat. With all of the recent rain, we've been talking a lot about rainbows and colors...also included in the poem!

The poem became a song, and then we added gentle movements to it. At some point, we'll get a video clip of it here on our blog.

Syrendell Meal Verse - From the Earth

From the Earth a seed is born

Sun and rain, in the morn

Grows a tall and happy tree

Lots of shade for you and me

Rainbow-colored sweet fruits grow

Pick them when they're ripe and low

Smell and taste their sugar sweet

Thank you, Earth, for this treat

Circle Time!

Hey, hey let's start the day

Sitting in a circle

Hey, hey what do you say

Let's start the day in a circle...

Circle time is a precious opportunity for the 4 of us (or 5 if Daddy is home!) to be together. We do this on Mondays and Fridays after breakfast. Starting off with our "Circle Time" song that the kids composed, we sing, play guitar or piano, and sometimes throw bean bags to the beat!

Circle time may include yoga stretching, reading stories (fairy tales, folk tales, myths) that go with the current season, holiday or S.S. theme, singing/movement songs, bean bag throwing while counting by different numbers, and singing the calendar song. On Mondays, we also talk about the upcoming week and we create a poem together. We type up the poem, print it out, and then use pastels to decorate it. On Fridays, we do form drawing to a story first on chalkboards, then on paper with crayons. We also play geography ball, throwing the inflatable globe around and asking each other to find continents and countries. About every other week, we do a drum circle at the end of Friday's circle time.

Circle time occurs in the living room. We sit around one of our naturally-dyed cloths or silks. On the cloth we'll have tree blocks, yarn, wood puzzles and bean bags out. This keeps fingers busy (especially for the 5 year-old!), when needed. Sometimes, we meditate or just close our eyes and focus on something positive. Some weeks, we talk about what we enjoy doing, and give each other praise, or say a nice comment to each other. It's a wonderful time to bond, plan, evaluate, experience the arts and bring a sense of opening, and then closing to each home-learning week. Feel free to use our circle time song!

Syrendell

Welcome to Syrendell!

We are the Tan Family: Jennifer (mother), Rick (father), Ricky (son 11), Joey (daughter 9), and Wilson (son 5). As a home-learning (homeschooling) family, we share our experiences with others...always teaching, and forever learning.

Our motto is, "LAPHH". Yes, it sounds like "laugh", which is something we do a lot of as a family!

L = Love
A = Abundance
P = Peace
H = Health
H = Happiness

Whether we are learning at home, traveling, attending lessons, visiting relatives, or walking our labyrinth, we do our best to stay true to our motto.

We are inspired by a variety of teaching and learning techniques and philosophies, including Waldorf education, Montessori, and Earthschooling. Music, art, nature and stories are part of our daily rhythms. Holistic pregnancy, home waterbirthing, attachment parenting, and natural healing are some of the many pathways that we explore. Come join us and follow our blog so that we may learn from each other!