Here Comes the Sun

We began our new Philosophy topic, Happiness, yesterday by listening to three versions of this song:

The Beatles

Richie Havens

Nina Simone

Many thanks to Marietta McCarty for this fun way to introduce the topic!

Next, we used Marietta's ideas from Little Big Minds to frame our discussion.

I began by having the children define Happiness by drawing a picture (no words) in their Philosophy journals. Here are some notes from our chat:

What is happiness?

it's an emotion that makes you feel good inside

I drew a birthday party

for me, there's a specific thing I do that makes me feel happy inside: swimming in the lake with my dad in the summer when it's hot

it makes me feel warm inside

What are the ingredients of a happy life?

love

excitement

freedom

being able to have fun, and not have a million things to do and not have time to have fun... fun & freedom

you also need to take care of your body

kindness, joy, peacefulness

What is the difference between pleasure and happiness?

I have another ingredient for having a good life. Sometimes you have to do chores because you don't want your sink to get piled with dirty dishes. You don't have this big weight on your body every time you go into the kitchen.

Pleasure is doing something that you like. Happiness is also doing something that you like. I don't know...

When you eat really delicious chocolate. It doesn't make me happy but it's pleasurable.

Pleasure comes when you do things. But you don't really have to be doing anything to feel happy. It's more passive.

Do you think that everyone in the world can be happy?

They can but they usually aren't. Some people don't accept it.

Some people don't give it, and they don't let the people around them have happiness. But there's enough room for everybody to have happiness.

It's possible, if we have a better government. You could be starving, and then you wouldn't be happy, but if you had a good government then they would give you charity funds which would give you food.

Sometimes I think there's different kinds of happiness. The feeling of having food and knowing you can just have food. And then, even if you don't have food, you can still in a way be happy since there's public parks. You could probably play with other children.

That feeling is called security. Is security a kind of happiness?

Yes, in its own way.

Do you need security in order to feel happiness?

There are people who are secure who are not happy. There are people who are not secure who make the best of their situation. It seems like it has a lot to do with your mindset, whether or not you allow yourself to feel happy or not. Some people have the possibility but things get in the way.

Can you make yourself be happy? What shifts a bad day for you?

If I read a really good book or find a new way to get to the top of the tree.

If I have a really bad day, if it's sunny and windy and warm, I just go outside.

The most recent horrible days I've had are because I'm bored. The thing that turns that around for me is a really long and big project that's really complicated but I can do it without getting frustrated. I can keep having ideas. I have something to do that I love.

Usually it's when I'm really bored and then I get really angry, so I go outside. I read a book. Get a picnic blanket and I just lay down on the picnic blanket and read the book.

Do people think that there's a thing to buy that will make them happy?

When I buy something like a new pair of shoes, I get my heart set on it being amazing and so wonderful. And then when it isn't amazing or so wonderful, then I'm really disappointed. And I hate that. So I've been working on trying to get my heart not set on things. But now I have my heart set on not having my heart set on things.

[ Then I introduced the idea of Stoicism. ]

Some philosophers in the past had the idea, and I want to see what you guys think about it, that the key to happiness just taking everything as it comes very calmly. You wouldn't have to experience deep sadness or disappointment, but you also then wouldn't be able to get really excited and joyful when the good things happened. You are the mountain, and your feelings are the weather. It just comes and goes. It doesn't matter. So don't get caught up in it.

If you just had that steady calm, would that be happiness?

I think that a perfect life would have some lows but that would allow us to have highs too. If you don't clean your house and do chores, then you'll just be always upset. So you have to do some uncomfortable things to have the high things. Once you clean your house, you're proud of yourself and then you can do other things because now you can actually get to your closet. In order to have happiness or excitement, you also have to do the bad things.

I don't believe that. With the highs, come the lows. I personally like to be able to be really excited. I think it's worth it to be disappointed to have those, "yes, I'm so excited!" moments. Just because you might not like the "uh" moments, is it really worth it to give up the fun ones too?

But you can't really sustain a level of excitement. Those high highs don't last very long.

Is something that comes and goes so quickly really real?

You could have a fly that was born yesterday and dies tomorrow, that comes and goes really quickly but it's still real.

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-t Suffix

I often choose our spelling words based on mistakes I find in the childrens' rough drafts, but sometimes an error inspires an SWI investigation instead!

Today I edited a paper that spelled "asked" as "askt." We went over the word sum together (ask + ed ---> asked) but it also got me thinking.

When is < -t > the correct suffix?

So this morning for SWI we did an investigation to see what words the children could think of, and discover whether we could find any patterns.

sleep / slept

keep / kept

weep / wept

sweep / swept

creep / crept

kneel / knelt

mean / meant

leap / leapt

deal / dealt

dream / dreamt

learn / learnt

smell / smelt

spell / spelt

spoil / spoilt

We did notice that for most of these words, the initial vowel sound is long and then it changes to short when the base is shortened and < -t > is added. Also, for all of these words -- except learn, smell, spell, and spoil -- that initial vowel sound is a long e.

We realized that when this suffix is added to a word with the < ea > digraph, the < ea > spelling is preserved.

We also recognized that < -ed > is becoming a more acceptable suffix for all of these words except sleep and keep (for ee) and mean (for ea).

Now the children want to keep track of the publication dates on books that are using the newer form, so we can see when this cultural shift happened. (Besides old books, I do find some of these spellings are more common in British English.) And why are those few specific words resisting the change?

Examples:

Winter poem by Judith Nicholls
crept

A Considerable Speck poem by Robert Frost
smelt, dealt, crept, swept, slept

found in Poetry of Earth edited by Adrienne Adams, p.23

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Art History - Yoko Ono

In my 2025-2026 school year plan, I decided that our January artist study would be Yoko Ono. (Here's the complete list of all the artists we've learned about so far.) So now let's dive into some resources and my planning notes:

Yoko Ono
1933 -

also

Yoko Ono page at Wikipedia

Yoko Ono page at tate.org.uk

articles at the New York Times

Is the Yokossance Finally Here?
Apr 8, 2025

John Lennon Came to My School When I Was 8. Or Did I Imagine It?
Jan 21, 2025

Following Yoko Ono’s Anarchic Instructions
Feb 15, 2024

Yoko Ono: One Woman Show: 1960–1971
MoMA (includes recordings of her voice)

Painting To Be Stepped On, 1960-61

Touch Poem for Group of People, 1963

Bag Piece, 1964

Cut Piece, 1964

Grapefruit, 1964

Morning Piece, 1964-65

Apple, 1966

Half-a-Room, 1967

A Box of Smile, 1984

To See the Sky, 2015

Instructions for Paintings, 1961-62

"Forget It"

All About Yoko Ono's Husbands: Toshi Ichiyanagi, Anothony Cox and John Lennon

Plastic Ono Band, 1968

Bed-In, 1969

---

week of Jan 5:

Mon

Philosophy discussion, Is It Music?

here are my notes from this lesson in 2016, where I wrote down some of the children's comments... they are wonderful to read!

week of Jan 12:

Mon

look more closely at the instructions on the wall behind Yoko Ono at the start of that video... and consider whether we were completely misunderstanding her performance... it's not Music; it's Art
”Scream. 1. against the wind 2. against the wall 3. against the sky”

read blog post From a Whisper to a Scream: Following Yoko Ono’s Instructions

discuss the idea of "instruction pieces" as art

decide to turn the dogwood tree into a Wish Tree and invite parents, friends, and neighbors to add wishes to it

“Make a wish. Write it down on a piece of paper. Fold it and tie it around a branch of the wish tree. Ask your friend to do the same. Keep wishing.”

Yoko Ono is our January artist because I put them in order of birth... but it turns out very well to do a Wish Tree at the start of a new year!

"Wish Tree" (digital version)

Thu

read Wish: Wishing Traditions Around the World by Roseanne Thong


set up our Wish Tree

print and cut 2 inch x 1 1/2 inch slips of paper

collect wool yarn, scissors, pencils, and a hole punch

set up a sign by the tree explaining the project

put all of the supplies in a cookie tin

write the first wishes!

week of Jan 19:

Mon

week of Jan 26:

Mon

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Illinois Exotic Species Coloring Book

Looking through my resources for the Southern Illinois block (grade 4 Local Geography, History & Industry), I came across this lovely coloring book.

Printed on nice heavy card, these beautiful illustrations come with helpful information on the back. Some of them would work very well in other blocks too, such as "Night Crawler" for Zoology, "Queen Anne's Lace" for Botany, or "Teasel" for Fibers & Clothing (teasers were an early tool used to card wool).

Here is the complete list:

Dame's Rocket

Eurasian Watermilfoil

Rusty Crayfish

Buckthorn

Japanese Beetle

Musk Thistle

Ruffe

Round Goby

German Yellowjacket

European Starling

Rock Dove

House Sparrow

Reed Canary Grass

Gypsy Moth

Chinese Mantis

Goldfish

Common Carp

Daphnia

Zebra Mussel

Asian Tiger Mosquito

Mute Swam

Multiflora Rose

Night Crawler

Kudzu

Asian Longhorned Beetle

Teasel

Garlic Mustard

Purple Loosestrife

Honey Bee

Wild Parsnip

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

Queen Anne's Lace

Monk Parakeet

European Corn Borer

Norway Rat

House Mouse

Ring-necked Pheasant

The book's introduction clarifies the difference between an exotic species and an invasive species.

Written by Michelle Garland, Carolyn P. Nixon, and Philip L. Nixon
Illustrated by Carolyn P. Nixon and Loren Kirkwood

Infinity Street

Just realized that I needed to write one thing down before I returned all my Nonny Hogrogian books and started work on Art History plans for Yoko Ono.

The Cat's Midsummer Jamboree by David Kherdian

And this has to do with teaching place value in math. Waldorf does this in 2nd grade and I -- because I'm also trained in Montessori -- use the Montessori color coded materials for place value in my Waldorf classroom.

Including the Infinity Street lesson!

from the simple family... all the way up to septillion

If this lesson is new to you, start here:

Introducing the Equals Sign ("Is the Same As") and Infinity
Jul 2020

How I Teach Place Value
Sep 2020

A Distraction of Prefixes
Dec 2024

I use Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss for an introduction to the names of the higher families (trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, nonet).

Looking at musical terms is especially helpful for clarifying that the base is actually < sext > and not < sex > when representing six!

The Cat's Midsummer Jamboree could also be used in this way, and may be a little more thought-provoking. The cat begins by playing his music alone. As each animal joins him, the group grows and gets a new name.

cat with a mandolin

+ toad with a harmonica - duet

+ fox with a flute - trio

+ badger with a drum - quartet

+ skunk with a violin - quintet

+ goose with a bassoon - sextet

When they encounter a raccoon playing an accordion, the group grows larger once more. But David Kherdian stops using mathematical terms:

"The cat called up, 'Come with us, and we will have a jamboree.'"

It would be interesting to say to the children, instead of a jamboree, what should they call their group to show that it now has seven members?

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Puddle Question: Class Pets

Today we did a very interesting statistics Puddle Question. (Here is all the information on Science Puddle Questions and Math Puddle Questions.)

This prompt is from the Grade 3 Math book.

I was really interested to see the children's mathematical thinking, ie. how well they were able to collect, represent, and interpret data.

But what struck me the most was their philosophical thinking: how flexible they were with the concept of "pet" and how sensitively they responded to a child who was pet-less due to the recent death of her cat.

Of course then I realized that, because they opened the concept of "pet" up so far, they had much more complex data to represent in their reports... which actually did strengthen their mathematical thinking in the long run!

To begin the activity, you are supposed to give each child an index card.

The teacher guide then says to have the students write their current pet(s) "or the words no pets" on their card.

Each of the children then reads aloud what they put on their cards while the other students take notes, and then all of the index cards are displayed for people to refer back to while they put their report together.

The first question that came up was pet sitting. One child is pet sitting two fish and a snail for her neighbor. Does this count as a pet? We decided yes, but I noted that the children may need to find a way to represent in their data that those pets do not actually belong to that family.

The second question that came up was pets that had passed away. The teacher guide specifically says "current pets" so I said no.

Then the little girl who was (to an adult) pet-less raised her hand and asked about "non-living" pets such as a special stuffed animal. I remembered having a pet stick as a child. And then someone else asked about imaginary pets. Ultimately, I decided, "if it's a pet to you, write it down on your card."

Zac, age 1, finding a really great stick!

My son Zac, now age 10, wrote down that he had three pets. One rabbit (living), one rock (non-living), and one bird (imaginary). I had no idea he had an imaginary pet bird.

Allowing that little girl to have a pet crayon instead of a dead cat was so warm and kind on the part of the class! And then the children had all sorts of different sections and color coding and keys on their charts and graphs, in order to represent the more complex categories of information.

I have noticed that because we encourage open-ended thinking here, they find a lot of traditional assignments to be too confining. Here someone very calmly decided to give herself a 3 1/2 on the rubric!

We also used this activity as a chance to talk about drawing conclusions, and I read Poofy Loves Company by Nancy Winslow Parker at snack time.

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Charcoal Burners

Zac and I are continuing to read Swallows and Amazons on our vacation, and I just discovered a lovely chapter about Charcoal Burners. It's chapter XIII, and is very helpfully called "The Charcoal-Burners"!

There's also a little bit about them in the previous chapter, "Leading Lights":

Suddenly high in the darkness they saw a flicker of bright flame. There was another and then another, and then a pale blaze lighting a cloud of smoke. They all looked up towards it as if they were looking at a little window, high up in a black wall. As they watched, the figure of a man jumped into the middle of the smoke, a black, active figure, beating at the flames. The flames died down, and it was as if a dark blind were drawn over the little window. Then a new flame leapt up and again the man was there, and then that flame died like the others and there was nothing but the dark.

I mention this excerpt (and the following chapter, of course) because charcoal is a subject that we study in middle school in Waldorf. Chemistry, in grade 7, would be the most likely time. In fact, I recently talked with a 7th grade Waldorf teacher in Ireland that made char cloth with his class.

If you study the American Revolution in grade 8 (The Age of Revolution), charcoal would fit in perfectly here as well. Who can forget the 1776 song between Abigail and John Adams about saltpeter and pins?

The three ingredients for black powder are sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter.

Of these, you have to mine sulfur, but you can make charcoal and saltpeter yourself with a little know-how!

Besides having a story you can use to tell children about charcoal burning, visuals are also nice. So I thought about the living history programs done by the BBC. Zac watched the first three of these when he was nine.

TV Shows - age 9
Secrets of the Castle (medieval France under King Louis IX, 1230s & 40s)
Tudor Monastery Farm (England, Tudor period, King Henry VII, 1500)
Tales from the Green Valley (Wales, Stuart period, King James VI/I, 1620)

We have not yet done the other three, but I watched them on my own:
Victorian Farm
Edwardian Farm
Wartime Farm

Because charcoal burning was such a key profession, they often mention it in these programs. For Tales from the Green Valley, it is in the May episode (3:54:05 - 4:01:37).

It is also covered in Edwardian Farm, in a longer segment which I can't seem to find right now! If someone knows of a link to it, please let me know.

Fun fact: Swallows and Amazons also has a lot of sections in it about reading a barometer, so I've addded them to my Barometer blog post!

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