Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Resources for Animal Reports

It is Animal Report time again! Everyone is required to do a report on an African animal (including a map using the beautiful Africa Stencil) and then, if they wish, they can do a second report on any animal of their choice.



As children choose their animals, I will keep track of their resources here:

AR - African Bush Viper


EO - Leopard


EF - Ostrich


AAR - Impala


Z - Fennec Fox


FR - Caracal

    International Wildlife Encyclopedia, vol. 3

    Caracals by Victoria Blakemore


CB - Flamingo


Useful blog posts that I've written specifically to help with this project!


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, May 18, 2026

Zoology: The Orca

I first became interested in adding the Orca to the Waldorf Man & Animal block when I was doing a consulting project for a client who lives in Australia. She wanted her Zoology blocks to feature only Australian animals.

In case you're curious, here is what we came up with:

    Block I: Form

    Giant Cuttlefish (Sepia apama)
    tadpoles
    Giant Clam (Tridacna gigas)
    Giant Gippsland Earthworm (Megascolides australis)
    Leopard Seal (Hydrurga leptonyx)
    Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus)
    Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax)


    Block II: Function

    Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
    Orca (Orcinus orca)
    Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)
    Cow (Bos taurus, Bos indicus)



I wrote to her:

    Marsha Johnson said that the three animals we pick to do in the second block of Man and Animal should represent thinking / feeling / willing as well as nervous system / cardiovascular / metabolic.

    I didn't include a social insect -- which Kovacs covers in his Drawing from the Book of Nature -- but it just occurred to me that the Orca is a nice blend of cardiovascular health (apex predator) and social consciousness. So I will focus on the Orca as an intelligent and social creature. It seems to have a lot of Feeling but also Intellect.

    Then the Saltwater Crocodile is a blend of the cardiovascular health (still an apex predator, and with a very interesting heart) and the digestive forces of the Cow. It seems like a very willful beast with strong digestive forces!

    Platypus - all nervous system
    Orca - intelligent, social, lots of caring (thinking + feeling)
    Crocodile - strong heart, independent, determined (feeling + willing)
    Cow - a placid beast that is nothing but digestion :-)


I also found in my notes this interesting tidbit:

    Fun Fact I just learned about the platypus.
    It has no stomach!

    That's very funny because I chose it as a Nerve/Sense animal but it will tie in at the end with the Cow and the Digestive System. So I would wait to talk about the stomach of the platypus (and the orca and the crocodile... our big carnivores) until we get to the cow. Then we can go back and look at everyone's stomachs. Or lack thereof.



Fast forward to the present, where I am doing the Orca myself in Zoology, as an example of a cardiovascular system animal that is also very intelligent and social. I do so appreciate having my own notes to look back on!

Because there are so many interesting animals (like the Platypus), children get to choose an animal and research and write an Animal Report. That is one of our main projects these last two weeks of the school year, as we wrap up Art History, Philosophy, Fractions, Personal Narratives, and odds & ends.


Here is the Orca booklist that I recommended to her (and will use myself) as well as any references to the Orca that I found in previous blog posts:


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Picture Books: Peaceful Protests

We are currently studying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as our Philosopher for Love, so I have been looking through my library for books on nonviolent protests. Here is what I've found. Please let me know if you think of others!

On Thursday we read Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children and I referenced this document. You and your child may want to look it up:



Sit-Ins


Strikes


Boycotts


Marches


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Using L***s in the Classroom

I rarely use this copyright-protected small plastic interlocking toy, but there are two lessons that I love! They both have to do with Biology.


The first one is Cell / Tissue / Organ / Organ System / Organism:

Cells make up Tissues

Tissues make up Organs

Organs make up Organ Systems


this year, I had the children build their own Organisms and preset them to the class (complete with "scientific name")


but you can also combine everyone's Organ System to make one amazing Organism



and, what's smaller than a Cell? an Organelle!


If you have ever wondered if the word < organization > is related to the word < organ >, it is!


The second lesson I love to do this way is Punnet Squares. Inspired by this image, I came up with a lesson on dragon eyes. You will need the following bricks (using two colors helps children understand dominant vs. recessive). 3-D printed dragon is optional!


As you can see, when it comes to dragons, yellow eyes are dominant over blue. Here we have a mother dragon with one gene for yellow and one gene for blue, and a father dragon with one gene for yellow and one gene for blue. Both parents have yellow eyes. No one knows the blue gene is there.

When they have children, a Punnet Square shows all the possible combinations of eye color genes that the baby could have. Three of those combinations would result in a yellow-eyed baby dragon.

But there's a 25% chance that those two recessive blue genes will come together, and you'll have an adorable blue-eyed little one!


We did the Punnet Square lesson as part of the Reproductive System after reading Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas by Cheryl Bardoe.


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, May 11, 2026

Human Body: The Reproductive System

Well, we are nearly at the end of the school year and that means wrapping up our Science Club topic! We have done Human Anatomy & Physiology all year, with lots of special guests (including a pediatrician, a forensic anthropologist, a childhood polio survivor, and two morticians) and a culminating field trip to see the Synthetic Cadaver at the community college.


We covered the following systems together: nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, skeletal, muscular, digestive, excretory, respiratory, immune, integumentary, and endocrine. The reproductive system was an optional extra for students who wanted to add that on. More about those lessons in a moment.


This morning I saw in the New York Times that scientists have found a new human body system, and it's a third circulatory system (the first two being blood and lymph).

The Astounding Discovery That Could Link Eastern and Western Medicine
(article summary)

It's All Connected: Inside the Interstitium, the Human Body's Hidden Pathways
(full interactive version of the article)


Of course, one week away from my wrapping up the Human Body, they come out with a new system!!!

I'm sure we could study the Human Body forever; it is vast and profoundly interesting. Regardless, here are my notes from our final set of lessons. I am including them here for those families who would prefer to teach this themselves, but are curious about what resources I found most valuable!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Session 1 - Reproductive System


Session 2 - special guest, menstruation

    Specifically for people who menstruate. She explained disposable tampons and pads but focused mainly on sustainable options: menstrual cup, menstrual disk, reusable pads, and period underwear. Samples of each, and a safe space for children to ask their questions.


Session 3 - special guest, non-binary and transgender

    Explanation of the difference between a person's biological sex and gender identity, and a safe space for children to ask their questions.

      "Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that."

      ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
      our current philosopher for the topic of Love


Session 4 - special guests, childbirth

    An obstetric (OB) nurse and an OB nurse educator will explain childbirth, and give a safe space for children to ask their questions.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


To lay the foundation, both conceptually and terminology-wise, for our series of special guests, here is what we did in Session 1:

    explain the difference between sexual and asexual reproduction (jellyfish life cycle)


    read two page excerpt from The Snail with the Right Heart by Maria Popov (pages beginning with "One of the wonders of snails is..." and "This is how it happens...")


    read Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas by Cheryl Bardoe


    make a Punnet Square with Legos


    watch Fertilization video


    look at "Conception" in Infographics: Human Body by Peter Grundy (pp.22-23)

    How long do sperm live once inside the female?

    How does a sperm compare to an egg in size?

    The successful sperm is one of how many?

    How fast does a sperm travel?

    How does a sperm's ejaculation speed compare with other fast movers?


    watch clips from 18 Ways to Make a Baby

    introduction (from start to 1:50)

    IVF / ICSI (10:00 - 13:20)

    an embryo is transferred to the womb after 3 divisions (8 cell stage)


    look at actual size of a human baby before birth in Nine Months: Before a Baby Is Born by Miranda Paul


    watch additional clips from 18 Ways to Make a Baby

    cytoplasmic transfer (26:30 - 31:00)

    conclusion (40:00 - 41:15)


    pass out handouts from Human Anatomy Coloring Book by Margaret Matt (pp.38-39)

    "Male Reproductive System"

    "Female Reproductive System"


I found this article to be so interesting: The 18 Ways (And Then Some) by Sarah Holt. Sarah produced the NOVA program "18 Ways to Make a Baby."


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, May 9, 2026

Handwork Series - grade 8

I have been wanting for a while to do a series of posts on my suggestions for Handwork in each grade. And I am finishing that now! These are my own ideas of what to do when, partly informed by my Handwork Teacher Training (Fiber Craft Studio, Threefold Educational Center, Spring Valley NY) and partly by what I think works well from personal experience in the classroom.

Ms. Renee learning to use a sewing machine, the focus of grade 8!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Here are all of the blog posts in my Handwork Series:

Handwork Series - K

Handwork Series - grade 1

Handwork Series - grade 2

Handwork Series - grade 3

Handwork Series - grade 4

Handwork Series - grade 5

Handwork Series - grade 6

Handwork Series - grade 7

Handwork Series - grade 8


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Now on to my grade 8 notes. I'll update them if I come up with new ideas:


introduction to sewing machine


There was a very interesting post from Waldorf Handwork Educators about the 8th grade handwork curriculum (where children learn machine sewing and traditionally make pajama pants).


more machine sewing ideas:

    Colouring with Your Scraps
    from "Making Zen" May 2025 with Andrea Tsang Jackson

    The Stitcher’s Pocket Companion
    from "Making Zen" May 2026 with Giovanna Zara

    Wear It Again: Creative Repair with Decorative Stitches
    from "Making Zen" Oct 2025 with Isabel Wilder

    Turning Everyday Patterns into Your Own Designs
    from "Making Zen" May 2026 with Ali Baecker

    textile design - make a stamp and ink it, stamp fabric, and then use that in a machine sewing project?

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)