Old Rhythm

The children have been pushing for a bit of school rhythm, with the start of daddy's school cycle to inspire us. So today we started the good ol' rhythm we had way back when in Alaska. Breakfast, chores, out for a walk/bike, then inside to record observations in our weather journals. 78 degrees (at 8am) and humid. Grass is wet with dew. What was it like in Fairbanks at this time last year? 36 degrees and frosty. Golden leaves everywhere. Which kind of sounds nice.... Then on to main lesson.

I read Hiawatha to E while he copied my drawing. Notice he changed the format, but didn't complain one bit about writing two sentences AND copied capitals and periods correctly. I love seeing him grow.

e's story moved forward, up a mountain and through a mysterious door. The prince found his second heart-sound, eeeee.

With both children, I taught the vowels as the keys of knowledge given by the wise enchantress after a long journey to locate the consonants in natural form. Which worked fine. Christopherus, however, teaches them as heart-sounds. I didn't 'get it'...why would that make them memorable? The prince hears a good story and says "Ohhhh." He feels quiet. The prince feels scared, says "Eeee!" Yet bravely opens the door anyway. I watched e closely at these points in the story, and NOW I get it. She owns those vowel sounds. She knew them before, but now she FEELS them. Waldorf at work. Never fails to amaze me.

Cookies! Who doesn't love a little homemade snack? I found the recipe here. Best part was seeing E, after a fruitless search for a 1/2 cup, decide to use two 1/4 cups. I never taught him that.

 

Then lunch, quiet time, and now they are watching Wild Kratts before going outside to play. e is excited to show her coaches tonight that she can do three back walkovers in a row.

 

I don't know how long this rhythm will work. Historically a week or two max before the kids again choose total freedom. I am going to enjoy the consistency while it lasts. :) We go back and forth all year as needed... an extended version of breathing in and breathing out.

 

Happy Tuesday!