Great Book On Discipline Circa 1833!

So check out this great find from 1833!~What great wisdom is given in this book about discipline and being a loving mom.


The Mother At Home By John Stevens Cabot Abbott

Winter Indoor Fun

Ya we've all been there...what do you do with the littles when it's too cold to go outside? Here's a good one...

Indoor Snow!

Just grab your biggest container and put fresh snow in the sink. I happen to have those tubs you use for washing dishes (I have no idea what they are called..they remind me of camping LOL) and I filled it with snow. Just add clean sand toys and TADA! Hours of fun.....okay...maybe the snow melts after hours but that's a lesson in science right there. Plus you know you had to clean the floor anyways and now you have little helpers to tidy up.

Go! Run outside and grab some snow and then make a cup of tea and enjoy the peace...well..maybe it's noisy but you don't have to be hovering to deal with this one!

Kindergarten Curriculum

Here's my current curriculum for kindy.



Bible

Mother Stories from the New Testament
Mother Stories from the Old Testament


Language Arts (maybe 10 min):

Queen Homeschool Language Lessons For Little Ones #2
Wood Blocks
LeapFrog Talking Words Factory DVD
ABC Books Like:
Lucy & Tom's abc

Math (maybe 10 min):

Math Lessons For A Living Education
Games for Math
Family Math for Young Children
Dominoes
Leapfrog Math Circus DVD
Number books like:
One is 1

History/Geography/Science (maybe 10 Min):

Five In A Row/Before Five In A Row
Wee Folk Art Kindy Curriculum per season

Read Alouds (maybe 10 min):

I alternate History, Science and Literature (a lot of these are ebooks on my Ipod)

Kindergarten Gems
Burgess Bird Book
Among the Farmyard People
The Story Mother Nature Told Her Children
Stories of Great Americans For Little Americans
Stories of American Life and Adventure
Storytime and the Millers
Tiptoes Lightly

Picture Books (our evening reading):

Anything by Shirley Hughes!
Rod and Staff Little Jewel Books
Wee Folk Art Curriculum covers this
FIAR/B4FIAR covers this


Nature Study:

Handbook of Nature Study website and ebooks
Pets In A Jar
Nature In A Nutshell
The Kids' Nature Book - 365 Indoor/Outdoor Activities & Experiences
Watching our backyard!

Picture/Artist Study:

Come Look With Me series

On Audio Tape:

Winnie the Pooh
House at Pooh Corner
James Herriot Treasury
French for Babies
German for Babies

Play:

pretty much our whole day!

Home Made Dryer Sheets - Reusable

Adding to my previous post... here's another that's fantastic and really works. We use organic fabric softner for ours but I suppose you can use the old fashion kind ;0)

Reusable Homemade Dryer Sheets

Flannel pieces
4 TBS liquid softener
10 TBS water

• Cut fabric sheets from old flannel pajamas or leftover flannel fabric from sewing and cut into 3″ x 5″ strips (approximately).
• Stack flannel strips in a cleaned margarine tub (large size) or plastic container (cleaned baby wipes container works well too). Mix the liquid softener and water together, then pour evenly over top of stacked flannel strips.
• Seal container and shake well.

You can use several dozen strips with this mixture. Leave sealed for 2 or 3 days, then use one flannel strip per load–squeeze out excess if necessary (it should be just damp). Keep container sealed at all times. Wash strips after use, then use again to make another batch when needed.

Home Made Fabric Softner

I don't know about you but I love soft clothes but I don't like the weird chemical smells that most fabric softners have. Seriously, when I go down the laundry aisle at the store, both the kids and I start sneezing or complaining and we run for the hills..okay maybe it's the dairy section but it might as well be the hills. Maybe I should run to the chocolate sections..mmmm.. Anywho I've tried using vinegar but if you've tried it straight you probably found out like me that it will ruin any and all things elastic...ya that's great if you have underwear. So here's a recipe that will work great and if you want some smellies I suggest adding an essential oil like orange or lavender. Beware though...not all essential oils should be on skin!

Homemade Fabric Softener Recipe

1 part Vinegar
1 part Baking Soda
2 parts Hot Water

2T Glycerin

• Place a pail large enough to hold double the amount of ingredients in the kitchen sink or bathtub. Mix the baking soda and water in the pail, stir till the powder is dissolved. Then add the vinegar.
  
• Remember that baking soda and vinegar reacts with fizzing, so use a big pail to account for this. Once it’s stopped fizzing add gycerinand mix, pour into clean bottles, cap, then use 1/4 cup per rinse cycle.
• Updated Info: The baking soda won’t be completely dissolved, just shake the bottle to mix the batch up before adding to the rinse cycle.

Winter Curriculum!

Just found this on Wee Folk Art ( a GREAT blog by the way) and thought I'd share ;0)

Winter Wonderland 12 Week Curriculum

Curriculum

Well I haven't posted in a while and I spent some time doing a Waldorf approach and pedagogy. And now I'm back with Five In A Row with reading selections pulled from Waldorf and the classics. The reason? Every weekend I would think of all the beautiful painting and such that I hadn't done with my kids, which is very much a part of how the material is presented in a Waldorf approach, and I would feel bad. Really Bad. Like I was failing my kids. I just didn't like doing the circle time, puppet shows, painting, making books, knitting, making dolls, storytelling etc. I love the thought of those things and I can see that the kids love it but...You see I've discovered I'm a book geek. The polite way of saying it would be a closet intellectual but since I'm not one for flashing my education I'll just say I'm a book geek. I do love baking and sewing but if you knew me you know how funny that is because I'm like the rockin rainbow colored hair martha stewart. Most people don't know how domesticated I am because of how I look. Seriously I'm almost amish..well I could never be amish because of the outfits but that's another story. But if I had a choice between making an artsy fartsy apron or reading a book, the book wins hands down. I came to this conclusion sitting next to my bookshelf that was JAMMED with books I have from the library that I want to read. So I needed to pick a teaching style that fits me and fits my kids.

What I have come away from Waldorf all these years is this...children need to be protected from an overstimulating environment. A good book about this is Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids The Waldorf pedagogy is great at speaking to a child where he/she is at in growing and learning so I'll probably keep that as well. And of course we'll keep the beautiful wood toys, beeswax crayons (I sooo recommend these!) and peaceful surrounding I've made for the kids. So in the end I got some amazing things out of this time.

So what Am I doing now? Well I'm using FIAR and then adding elements of the Moore Homeschooling, Classical and Charlotte Mason ideas. So what that looks like is: FIAR, Character study using Rod & Staff books and Stories of missionaries for read alouds, Classics for read alouds (Winnie the Pooh etc), Nature Study & Books for read alouds,Waldorf picture books and stories, Art Study and Music with crafts from Waldorf thrown in here and there. So I guess I'm eclectic...that's nothing new for me LOL.