magical braiding

  

We have just started a Norse mythology block in our schooling recently. It's one of those topics that I could spend months on.  I love myths, legends, fairy tales and fantasy....... Greek and Roman myths, Arthurian legends, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Celtic mythology, legendary heroes and beasts, folktales and folklore. All of it is fascinating because no matter how unrealistic it sounds, somewhere in the depths of time, there must have been some reason, some grain of truth, that started the legend and was consequently embroidered and enlarged until it became the larger than life and almost unbelievable, heroic deed we hear of today. These myths are raw and often bloody but to me, they convey a feeling of connection with those long ago people that were striving to make some sense of the world around them in an age where everything was still unknown and death was lurking at every corner. 

There is a rawness and simplicity and innocence about them - the good are good and the evil are evil and most of the time, good will triumph..... and if it doesn't at first eventually it will. 

I'm also a woman that likes a happy ending in a book or movie and I won't read anything else! 

Okay, so last week we did a bit of knot work drawing as a lead up to the Norse myths. Now, I'm not sure how Nordic this style of knot is - it looks more Celtic - but for our purposes it is fine. This is actually a continuation of the Form Drawing we have been doing in Grades 2 and 3. Rudolf Steiner introduced form drawing which is considered to strengthen eye hand coordination and is a support for writing, amongst other more aesthetic processes - it's also a lot of fun!!
This little bit of braiding came together without too much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth...... and when we got to the colouring in part .........wow! it was quite magical to see the pattern emerge!

Here goes....... 

We used an A4 sheet of paper and drew a grid of 8 x 3 squares - the darker lines.

Then those squares were divided into four smaller squares using dashed lines. You could just mark them with lighter lines instead. 

Now make a dot on every other line along the two centre dark lines, as shown. 

Make crosses by joining the dots.

Now make little arches on every second 'x'. Do the same along the bottom but remember to make the arches on alternate 'x's, as shown above. 

This next part is just a little bit confusing but if you happen to have a smart 13 year old nearby, ask them to help...... it will be sorted in no time, sigh...... You need to make large arches over the small ones, always taking them from the dot to the left of a small arch, right over the small arch until you end at the right hand dot just past the small arch.
These big arches have to go to the top of the grid.
You might have to follow my pic - I'm not sure how to explain it any better than this! You will start to see the pattern now, so that may make a difference for you. 

In the pic above, you can see the threads weaving over and under - there are three - and you need to follow one and erase the lines to give it the woven effect. Remember, if it goes under one then it must go over the next one. 

Start colouring the threads in different colours now, erasing any pencil marks as you go along.
It's really quite magical - all of a sudden you can see this intricate design that a moment before looked just like a heap of dots and dashes on the paper! I got really excited about it, much to my children's dismay and kept oohing and aahing in delight!!  

Here are a few we did. You might notice the bottom green one has been turned into what looks like a knot on the end...... it's not hard to do once you've put all the arches in and rubbed out some lines. It's also a slightly more rounded shape - the boxes for that one were done freehand and look smaller and perhaps more rectangular than the red one. That one's my favourite! 

Do have a play around - it is so much fun and such a surprise when it suddenly makes sense!!

I've linked up with Natural Suburbia today because it's the first time for a long time that we've done anything very creative! 

learning all the time

You know how sometimes when you're a  mum you think you know it all (well, thats what I tell my kids anyway!) and then sometimes there's an amazing revelation? 

Today I learnt something new!

We have always done leaf or bark or coin rubbings by just using the crayon on the paper, which made a nice rubbing but also left lines and wonky edges. I had certainly never seen them done this way but when a friend showed me today I was so excited! Just look at these - they finish up so tidy and beautiful!

How? By first drawing with your crayon, quite darkly, on a small scrap of paper, and then using that scrap to rub over whatever object you wish to see. It's like magic, really! 

Now, I know many of you will already have tried this, but I was just so tickled that in all these years of home educating and crafting with my children, I had never seen rubbings done this way. 

I'm having visions of Christmas cards with a tiny tree shaped leaf on the front.....

nature journal

When my older children were a lot younger, I purchased (and read!) a book that really struck a chord within. Wild Days by Karen Skidmore Rackliffe is a simply delightful book about how to incorporate Nature Study into your child's days. Sadly, my copy has been packed away for 4 years but I still remember how excited I was that she made it sound so easy and do-able! If you are home educating (and even if you're not) I highly recommend that you try and get hold of a copy - I'm sure you'll be inspired too! 

Of course, we each started a nature journal all those years ago and I love to look back on the early paintings and drawings that the children painstakingly sketched in the pages. I do wish though that I had been a bit more diligent about getting out into the natural world and filling their books more - although my Golden Girl continues to add to hers, which is lovely to see! Some of our children were very keen to sit still and draw, while others were mostly not so amendable but we persevered regardless ;o)   

Today I remembered how much we'd enjoyed it, so we pulled out the journals and paints and headed out to the garden. Only Fairy Girl and I sat amongst the flowers and contemplated - the others were all busy. I settled on a nice tall echinacea bloom and the small girl painted a beautiful, bright pink Cosmos flower, as well as some beans that caught her eye! We always date our page and write a bit about the day - the weather, who we were with, how we felt, botanical name and so on - although I hadn't done it when I took the photo.

Life has been so busy these last few years (yes, more so than when I had seven little ones!) that I'd forgotten to stop and record the natural world that surrounds us. Todays little foray back into the pages of our nature journals has inspired me to remember to take note more often!   

About reading

It feels like I have been reading aloud forever but I suppose it's only been about 24 years, although the early years was only picture books not novels! I was giving this some thought the other day after I had been reading to the children and amongst my musings was the following observation. 

  

For those of you homeschooling and using either Charlotte Mason or Steiner, you may find this encouraging, especially if your child 'resists' retelling in a formal manner. I know CM uses narration as part of the curriculum and I also know that sometimes it can be hard to get a narration out of a reluctant child. This year we are using Christopherus and Donna uses the word 'review' to reinforce the child's previous days lesson. 

From the time I started reading chapter books to my children, I have always asked them for a recap of the previous days chapters. This was done in a completely natural way with no pressure on any of the children. We would settle in comfortably for the days read aloud and I'd open the book to the next chapter and ask, "So what happened yesterday?" And without any dilemmas, one of them would pipe up with what ever had made an impression on them. The next child would add some more and someone else would put in the extras. It was often not necessarily in the order of how it had been written, and sometimes when they were little I had to give them prompts to refresh their memory. I'm sure it was all done in such a manner that they often thought, "Poor Mum has forgotten the story - so we'd better tell her how it went!" These days,  if I forget to ask what happened yesterday, someone will always let me know anyway!

Now they are older - and some of them are old enough that I don't read just to them - they still listen in and ask me to read a certain book to the younger ones....... and then hang around as often as they can to listen! At the moment we are reading 'The King of Irelands Son' and although  it's meant for my 9 year old, the older three (11, 13, 16!) are keen to be around too!

This may not be how Charlotte Mason meant her narrations to be but it's worked really well for us and has happened in a completely natural and delight directed way. Of course, you don't have to be home educating to read to your child, because all of them benefit from both reading and retelling.
Disclaimer : I'm not an expert by any stretch of the word but I do love reading aloud to my children and this has worked well for us :o) 

Wheel of the Year

Our focus this week has been on the Seasons. Outside, for most of the week, it's been raining but in our tiny home we've seen a whole year of weather - from sunny seaside days, brightly coloured falling leaves and spring lambs! It's been a fantastic way to spend our mornings! 

I used ideas from the maths main lesson on 'Time' from A Journey through Waldorf Maths by Melisa Nielson and then just incorporated my eclectic approach from there.  The chalkboard drawing idea was borrowed from here (she has some good stuff happening at her place!) but I needed to tweak it to suit our seasons and our life. 

Of course, in usual Steiner style there was a beautiful verse to memorise, but also as usual it was only useful to those in the Northern Hemisphere. So whats a mama in the south to do?     

Well this mama, who likes to utter words of wisdom in poetic form from time to time, (yes they do roll their eyes!) thought she'd have a go at 'fixing' it to suit her little dears. And I would like to share it with any other mamas out there on the Southern end of the globe. 

January brings swimming fun,

Picnics, flies and lots of sun.

Flowers droop and creeks are dry,

When February passes by.

Yellow turn the fields of grain;

With March sun and March rain.

Aprils fruit is good to see, 

On pear and plum and apple tree.

Cool Mays leaves come fluttering down, 

In shades of russet, gold and brown. 

Cold Junes gift is rich and rare, 

There's beauty in the branches bare.

July makes noses bright and red;

Puts scarves and beanies on our head.

August winds bring ice and snow;

But hark, the roots begin to grow.

September brings sweet flowers bright;

Daffodils all yellow and white.

Octobers blossoms - pink and gold;

Posies for small hands to hold. 

Novembers here, and warmth abounds, 

Paddocks greening all around.

December, season of Christmas cheer: 

Gifts, good food and ginger beer. 

The original verse is from The Crowning of the Year by Juliet Compton-Burnett and is very lovely but just didn't work for us down under! I hope this was OK to do..... but it's done now and we are very thankful that she wrote such a nice original!

Pictured below are our Main Lesson books complete with drawings that suited the words. 

Oops, I just noticed that my little man forgot to add the 'beanies'!! 

Even Miss Elli joined in because after all who doesn't enjoy a spot of colouring in on a rainy day - as opposed to doing regular book work! I'll let you in on a little secret - I'm really loving the excuse chance to do all these colourful drawings. With this Steiner curriculum (I'm mostly using the Christopherus curriculum but with my eclectic bent) I get to do loads of drawing and colouring....bliss!! 

This verse is designed to suit us here in Tasmania but if you are in Northern Australia or some other southern hemisphere country, maybe you can tweak it again and add what ever happens in your area in any given month. I had a lovely time working it out and then drawing pics to match. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

What a start to the week!

Oh dear, I hadn't meant to be gone this long but we have been sick. Not just a little cold and sniffle type of sick but we all, all seven of us, had a tummy bug. And you know what that means...... well we have not had fun! Especially the Best Man and I who sleep in the loft and trudged up and down stairs to the calls of "Mum, I need you!" And yes, in our house that means Mum or Dad - because whichever one happens to feign sleep the longest, gets to stay put!! Thats the rules!  And since I took care of most of the night time 'needs' for the first 18 or so years I think it's quite fair that I am better at pretending to be asleep in the past five! Ahem, enough of that!

 When I awoke this morning and peeked out of my tiny loft window this lovely sight greeted me. Not surprising really - the wind howled last night, and blew all sorts of loose bits and pieces around the yard and paddock. It was so cold in the night that we were expecting some snow nearby and weren't disappointed. And no, the horses are not ours - they live next door and add a nice touch to the scene!

I ran outside today to gather some herbs and greens for a pot of vegetable and barley soup - tiny self sprouted kale seedlings, perpetual spinach, borage, sage, rosemary and thyme (couldn't find any parsley!). We really needed something nourishing and warm.  A fresh green smoothie would have been healthier but on this cold winters day soup sounded much better - and was very yummy! Ummm, you didn't notice the unwashed knife covered in potato and carrot, did you? 

And here's a little something that warms my heart on such a chilly day. I set up a little scene for Fairy Girl late on Sunday night, ready for our lesson on Monday ....... which still hasn't happened.  No matter, it's been a delight to look at these last few days. The little boy and girl were made following this tutorial from Myrtle and Eunice and while I didn't do as much detail on their clothes, I think they turned out rather sweet. 

These three mysterious gnomes living among the crystals look like they are stirring a walnut cauldron with a large wooden ladle. In fact they do have a hand carved wooden spoon carved by our Miss Elli who is 13. She received some carving tools for christmas and has made a couple of rather nice spoons including this teeny one - just what a gnome needs!

The scene was/is going to be following loosely along the lines of Ancient Hearths' Land of Numeria journey although I will ad lib quite a lot due to Fairy Girl being in 2nd grade and just needing to catch up on the four processes. Also I don't have the fantastic array of wooden figures that she has - although I hope to remedy that ......... I am sure that if I gift one of my older children with a bandsaw and such they could come up with some great little toys! Tricky Mama!! 

So the beginning of my week has been hectic, chilly and mildly creative. How about yours?     

Itty Bitty Gnomes

A family of gnomes have come to stay in our home! They showed up earlier this week just in time for a lesson on the four processes and were loved immediately. Fairy Girl was entranced and even the older children thought they were pretty groovy!  

Firstly the Four Process Gnomes showed us how they work hard bringing jewels for King Equals to run the kingdom efficiently.

Then the King and his helpers hung around while they had their portrait 'painted'.......

And finally they all went for a stroll outside under Grandfather Pine and posed quite happily for a photo shoot and a rummage through the pine needles!

I made these by loosely following this tutorial although I didn't paint them but gave them a felt coat glued on with a hot glue gun. I also made Times and Divide girl gnomes like Melisa from A Little Flower Garden. I wasn't sure how the girl gnomes would go but Fairy Girl was most impressed that there were some girls too! 

That was my crafty endeavour for this week, as well as some knitting on my very first sock! It has taken a very long time to get to the heel and I am having a darn hard time getting around it to the rest of the foot. Maybe I will show you all one day.........! 

Have a great weekend! 

Chalkboard fun

We have been diligently having our lesson time each day. I have started the children on a Rudolf Steiner curriculum and after an initial protest they have settled down quite well.  Our oldest girl went to a Steiner school for a year and a half many years ago and I have liked the teaching method ever since.  I didn't have the motivation to put all the children through the Steiner education until recently when I realised that it was now or never. Our Fairy Girl is 8 and she is the last one of the brood so I decided this year we would learn with colour, story and form.  They love it now and I get to do lovely chalkboard and crayon drawings every few days as well as telling loads of stories! Not too sure about the North Wind though.... he needs a bit of a facial reconstruction, although my students thought he was pretty cool! 

The chalkboard pic above was a digression from the Properties of Numbers block that we have been doing. The number was four and we looked at the four quarters of the moon cycle. I found this lovely diagram and verse on Our Little Nature Nest, a fantastic blog for Steiner lessons. She does a really great job of putting her lesson blocks together and has so much information and many ideas for each one.  

Fairy Girl drew this herself on the mini chalkboard as well as in her Main Lesson book and we found out all sorts of interesting facts about the moon as well. I didn't know how to tell if the moon was waxing or waning and now find myself repeating the verse when I look at the moon! 

Then I just had to write a nice verse for the Equinox. Well, I only 'wrote' it on the board ....and changed a few words to suit what we are experiencing in our area! Oh and the number that lesson was five! 

It is taking me some time to feel a bit more comfortable with working out the lessons and I still haven't got the hang of putting together the Main Lesson and the smaller lessons that come after but slowly and surely I'm feeling a little more confidant every day.