Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Introducing- The New Logo


After,  recent changes to my website, my web guy made a new logo for me. I liked the color and style, but as one of my members stated "I miss the old Waldorf watercolor logo. This looks a bit cold."  She summed up exactly what I was feeling! So, Saturday morning, I got all the paint supplies out and decided to paint my new background. The girls and I went in the backyard with our art boards, watercolors, brushes and paper. It was meditation for my soul!  I have been so busy working on my computer, sending emails to get ready for my workshops I didn't realize how much I missed the creative tasks.  It was pure bliss.  I hope you can feel the energy and love in that stunning blue painting!
Here is what it ended up looking like..

Monday, May 17, 2010

Add Some Music to your day

Today was the cello & violin recital. The girls were excited and not nervous which was very nice. It was a relaxing, fun afternoon. They played 2 songs with the group (about 20 other kids) and each did their own solo.  After, were refreshments and socializing with friends.  Their teacher Miss Cathy is so wonderful!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

First Garden Harvest

The Snow Peas are going wild and things are really sprouting in our newly planted garden.  We had a small late winter garden with Swiss chard and spinach.  The Snow peas are early spring vegetable due to the wilt and burn up in the heat.


 New comers popping up their heads are radishes, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloupe, lots of peppers!, tomatoes (heirloom and cherry) and planted this morning yellow wax beans, Lima beans, green bush.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Hanging 'em on the Line to Dry!

After my talk with Hip Mountain Mama's, Suzy the other night about Eco-Friendly Kids, I was inspired to bring some small changes to our family.  For some reason, the idea of a clothesline really resonated with me. So, I picked up some wooden clothes pins and a line from the local store and hung it up!
It took a but of rigging up to be tight enough to hold my sheets!  (Can you see I have had no experience with this at all?)  Anyway..I washed the girls sheets in hot water and added Eucalyptus oil (as recommended by Jennifer Tan from her Aromatherapy talk!) and then I hung them.  It was wonderful!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A Pancake Breakfast- twin style

Yesterday. my girls decided to make pancakes by themselves.

I re-wrote the recipe so they could read it. They did pretty well and only came to ask me once "Is this the baking powder?"  They stirred, and flipped and served them up.

It was a nice treat and they ended up tasting great!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Math Processes

We are continuing the four Math Processes this week with a cute story inspired by Oak Meadow 1st Grade Syllabus. The Gnome King has received a desperate letter from the Elf King. He needs some Gnomes to come and help his elves count out nuts for the animals for the winter. Of course, The Gnome King send his 4 favorite's Plus, Minus, Times & Divide to assist!
The girls are so much enjoying the way the Gnome's interact and they love the "jewels".

Here is a lesson we did with Plus.

Plus took 10 elves with him to gather nuts and acorns. They needed 100 nuts total. There were 10 elves.

Each elf carried 10 nuts in their wagon. I gave each of my girls 100 "nuts" to work with. It is interesting how they separated their piles so differently.

Here is another blogsite that has some Fun with Math Gnomes...

Friday, May 7, 2010

Preparing for Summer

Spring is coming to a quick close around here in Coastal, South Carolina. The warm days start to turn humid and reach the high 80's by May. My girls are already asking "When does the pool open?"
After a summer-like weekend, I started to prepare for our longest season- Beach Time! 
I fold up the throws that are scattered around the sofas and chairs. Beach towels are washed and our beach bag is re-packed with new sunscreen, lip balm, shell bags, a dog water bowl and miscellaneous items. Bathroom rugs are rolled up to reveal cool tile (much easier for vacuuming sand) The Pawleys Island Hammock is re-hung between our trees in the backyard. Beach chairs are taken down from the attic and dusted off.
Though the ocean waters are still a bit chilly, the sun and breeze is warm. A perfect time to enjoy the empty beach.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Aromatherapy for your Home- open your senses!

Tonight...5pm pac/8pm eastern

"Aromatherapy for the Home- Open your senses!          

        ******Special Power Point Slide Presentation***********

I highly recommend you listen over the webcast, so you may view the slides as Jennifer treats us to a sensual aromatherapy session 
http://themindfulconnection.com      Register Here for tonight's workshop


Jennifer Tan is a certified aromatherapist, and was previous editor for The Aromatherapy Journal. She provides holistic consultations & workshops in the areas of Feng Shui, aromatherapy, flower essence, infant massage, birthing meditation and more! Some may know her as the talented fiber artist of Syrendell. She will bring her many talents to us tonight as she unearths the mysteries of aromatherapy.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Homeschool- Catching Up

What do you do when your children are sick for a week? This is what I had to deal with, as my girls were diagnosed with strep throat last week.
Just when I was going to use that week to really dig in to our Math Processes. Just when I really needed to get this done before my workshops began. Sometimes, things just happen.
You can plan till the cows come home, yet life will through those curve balls to you when you least need them! Oh, you can go through your curriculum planner and see how to double-up on lessons or schedule some Saturdays or forget that big project. Or- you can just go with it.
I was worried that no school was getting done the entire week. But, looking back, much got done. When L, wasn't talking for 3 days, I decided to have her write to me. At first it was out of frustration of trying to figure out what she wanted. Then, it became a wonderful educational game! I heard Rudolf Steiner saying in my head, "Children learn to read by writing."  I gave her paper and pencil and she had so much fun trying to write out a funny sentence. The game continued when I wrote back to her and she had to figure out what I wrote. Of course, it wasn't perfect, but I could read what she wrote. She even added a bit of comedy to her sentences in attempts to make me laugh!
Violins and cello's were played. Reader books were read and re-read. Even a game of bakery store was played. My twins used real food and some they colored into cookies and sold them at their shop, which I was told, they each owned "half of". Money (colored stones) was exchanged, change made. We also attended a local yard sale where they had a few coins to spend. Deciding which item they could choose, and spending wisely is a great life lesson.
Maybe the new skills I had planned were not introduced, but this down time was a great opportunity to reinforce what had already been taught.