Progress

 

Here's just a couple things the girls did this week:

 

Paige drew this map at school.  I think it's great that she can do this and understand,
but what I love the most is the way she printed her name.  Capital P and the rest lower case. 

Hailey showed me that she can zip her sweater all by herself. 
Huge milestone for a 3 year old. 

New House

 

We have been looking for over two years for a new house.  Our check list included, single story, 3 car garage, pool, split floor plan, cul de sac & walking distance to an elementary school.  Single story was especially important because we are old now and going up and down the stairs is no fun, especially with kiddos.  Here's just two examples:

 

Hailey is doing a workbook on the kitchen floor
because I was working in the kitchen

This photo was taken in the morning.  You can see that a pile as already
started of things to go back upstairs.
 By the end of the day, even with me taking things up as I go, it's packed with crap. 

 Well, we FINALLY found it!  We are in escrow due to close at the beginning of January.  We choose a long escrow so we could get through the holidays without needing to move.  The house has all of our desires on our check list, plus it's on a third of an acre, in our same neighborhood and even closer to my mom!  We are so thrilled.  Hopefully the next week of escrow goes smoothly and I don't have to post a sad note, but things look really good for our move.  We are so happy.  Here's a few pics of the new house:

 



Drawings

These are just a couple pictures that the girls drew in the last week.  They both have such a  fantastic creative side that I really hope they can learn the academic stuff easily and quickly so they have time for what their minds will allow them to create. 

 

Hailey drew people and then applied stickers
that were in the shape of clothes to them. 

Paige created this chalk drawing on a paver we have outside. 
She colored the entire square paver. 

Sky, Grass, Dirt

I've been reading several articles about cursive and writing not being emphasized any more in schools since keyboarding is taking over.  These articles are stating that an aspect of learning and developing the mind to think is not being honed because of this change.  So, I've been making sure the girls are practicing during learning time.  They were both struggling with pushing their pencils up from the bottom to write their letters instead of pulling down from the top.  I found a method that Waldorf uses where they color the lines of the paper blue on the top, green in the middle and brown on the bottom.  This is symbolizing the sky, grass and dirt. 

 

I created a whole lesson for it.  When they were outside in the morning, I talked about the sky being on top, the grass being in the middle and the dirt being on the bottom, way under everything.  Then we came in and drew pictures of the sky, grass and dirt.  Finally they were ready to begin practicing their letter writing.  And you know?!  IT WORKED!  I said we start in the sky and pull down through the grass all the way to the dirt.  They got it!  All of their letters were formed correctly.  I was so excited!  And I know they felt good too about finally understanding how the letters are written. 

 

Practicing letter writing

Paige's picture and name

Hailey's picture and name

Martinmas 2013

We celebrated Martinmas at Waldorf last week.  It's a great festival which celebrates St. Martin, who did much good for the poor while being a brave soldier (he later became a priest) and is also the point in time where we are heading into more dark than light, the autumnal equinox.  The girls made these lanterns which have real flower petals and leaves modge podged on a canning jar.  There is a tea light at the bottom of the jar.  They glowed beautifully.  I think they got the understanding that we have good or "light" in us to get us through the dark times.  My mom went with us to the Lantern Walk at school and also enjoyed the wonderful play the 6th grade did of acting as Roman Soldiers with St. Martin.  Great music and song from the students and 800 lanterns lined our path.  It was a beautiful evening.  This is a great story that I found which the early childhood learns for Martinmas:

There once was a girl called Naiya who had who had been outside in the garden all through the Summer running after the butterflies, jumping like a grasshopper, singing like a bird, and trying to catch the sunlight. One day when she was lying on her back in the meadow gazing up into the sun-filled sky, she said, “Dear Father Sun, soon the Autumn winds will blow and wail, and Jack Frost will come and make us all freeze, and the nights will be long and cold.”

Father Sun pushed the clouds aside and said, “Yes, it will be dark and cold. In the deep midwinter, warmth and light live deep within, hidden from sight. In the time of dark and cold, you will tend the Light Within.”

“But,” said Naiya, “How will I tend this Light when it’s dark everywhere around me?” “I will give you a spark of my last Autumn rays once you have made a little house for it, for this spark must be guarded well. It will light the way for you to tend the Light Within throughout the time of dark and cold.”

And then Father Sun once hid again behind a cloud. Naiya went home and wondered how best she could make a little house for the spark of the sun. She took some tissue paper and some beautiful Autumn leaves and with glue pressed them onto the outside of a glass jar. Then she bound the top with a handle and formed it into a lantern. She took a candle and put it into the middle of her lantern. And, as it was growing dark, she went outside with it.

Naiya held the lantern up above her and said, “Father Sun, I have made a little home for one of your golden sparks. Please may I have one? I will guard it well.”

Then Father Sun looked out from behind a cloud and said, “You have made a beautiful home. I shall give you one of my golden sparks.”

And suddenly, Naiya saw how the sides of her lantern were lit up, and as she looked into the lantern, she saw a spark happily dancing on top of the candle. Oh, how happy the light was in her lovely lantern! It shone and shone so brightly.

“Thank you, Father Sun,” Naiya called out, “Thank you.” And she took her lantern and carried it carefully home singing:

The sunlight fast is dwindling,
my little lamp needs kindling.
Its beam shines far in darkest night,
Dear Lantern, guard me with your light.

Quiet Time

We have quiet time everyday.  It usually involves a sippie of warm milk, a snack and laying on the couches to watch a show.  I try my best to make it at least an hour.  I have a feeling that if I took them into our bed instead of the couches, and read a story, Hailey would actually nap.  I need to be better about doing that.  But this is a sweet pic of Hailey asleep on the floor (which is where I lay) snuggled with her Frog Snug and our huge pink bear, we call Dottie. 

Auntie Jam

 

This is not the greatest picture of Hailey, but you get the idea.  They are loving the strawberry jam that my aunt makes.  It's been my "go to" food for about 2 months now.  I know they will eat toast with "auntie jam."  Yum! 

 

Symphony

Hailey playing the xylaphone

Paige conducting Hailey

 The City of Chandler has a symphony and they give 8 free concerts a year.  We finally made it to one and the girls loved it!  They sat really nicely for the music and listened to inquisitively.  They did get a bit antsy during the second half, so after the second part of a 4 part symphony we quietly exited.  It made me feel so good when the older gentleman in front of us stopped me to tell me how well behaved the girls were.  My mom went with us and made a really nice FREE afternoon.  When we got home, the girls pulled out their instruments and began to play, read music and conduct.  Oh how I hope they play an instrument or two!!!

This reminds me of our book called Animal Orchestra.  "In animal town it was musical day, the orchestra has gathered to play."  It's such a great book with fun rhythm. 

Nanny's Birthday

 

For my mom's birthday this year, we went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  We had never been and I thought it would be fun for the girls too.  It worked out great, they had things to look at while we were able to eat.  My mom had a fun time showing them all the fish and animals.  It's a great place to take kids for sure.  

 

The Mill

My crazy enginerd husband (whose expertise is in electrical engineering) has taken up the "hobby" of mechanical engineering.  He is determined to build a train.  He has taught himself Solid Works software and has entered train CAD drawings into it.  He bought himself this mill that can take those CAD drawings and build parts for the train.  He constantly amazes me in his undertakings.  Most would call this work, he calls it a hobby. 

Skip Countng

 

Paige brought this work home from school last week.  Montessori uses number bars to teach not only numbers but the quantity of a number.  She has mastered them and is now skip counting.  Here is her work of skip counting by 4.  Not only is it the introduction to addition, but multiplication too.  The "Four Bar" is always yellow, hence she colored it yellow.  On the back of the slip of paper she wrote her name too.  

 

October

I'm back tracking quite a bit here.  Our October was fun filled with trips to two pumpkin patches, parties, penny faire at Waldorf, trick or treating at Intel and of course Halloween night.  Here's a few pics from those experiences.  The girls did great in them all and I think they might love Halloween as much as I do.  Welcome Autumn! 

 

Hay Ride







decorating at the patch

Penny Faire

Our Fam dressed up

Paige

Hailey