Baking Brownies

Sunday Steve took the children down to the sidewalk chalk-a-thon (we couldn't do it before because it was raining) where they had a blast; then after naps he and they made brownies from No Pudge Raspberry Fudge Brownie Mix. Just add vanilla yogurt. They're really dense but delicious. My MIL came over and visited with the children and I showed her the Nienhuis Montessori Classroom Materials catalogue so she could get an idea of what Natalie was going to be doing in school this year. She asked me if Natalie would be "behind" since she's never been to school before? If she would know less than the other children or if I had kept her up to date with what she should have been learning? That made me so angry. (And then, when she was watching the children shred cheese for the dinner recipe, she said to me approvingly "They really love this stuff." And I'm like, yeah, no kidding. This is what you do in preschool. Preschool at my house. Preschools all around the world.)

She always said before that she supported the Waldorf & homeschooling thing, even if she didn't understand it, but I think she was lying. Because she is all over this "real" school thing. She is buying things that the teacher needs for the classroom (having read the list on the fridge) even though I already bought them, and she asked if they need other things too that aren't on the list, like hand sanitizer and Kleenex. I suppose that people often go through this, fighting with their family to get them to support homeschooling, just to find that the support was only out of one side of their mouths. My mother and father too have leaped on me to say that "real" school is better and homeschooling is never a good idea. My mother because she says mothers need a break from their children (maybe she did) and my father because he says that homeschooled children are smart but odd and just don't fit in (of course, I was sent to school and I was always the poster child for smart and didn't fit in). Anyway, I am finding a lot of emotions surrounding school for N... I know her inside and out and I know that this year is the best possible thing for her. It meets her needs in a way I simply cannot right now. But the weird thing when people say stuff like that to me about HS is that I'm still homeschooling Leah and Rebecca! My table is covered with the books from the preschool booklist, and I'm learning songs on my xylophone, getting ready for school. So all these people tell me that homeschooling is awful, right to my face (which apparently they feel comfortable doing since I'm not doing it anymore), but don't they realize that I'm still homeschooling the other two? And so they are being extremely rude? I guess very few people believe that 2 and 3 year old children are better served by being in daycare and away from Mom, so maybe that's why they are saying what they're saying. That keeping L and B home is OK because it's not really valid to have them in school anyway, whereas N is eligible for school and they feel I would have been doing her a huge disservice by keeping her home.

Aaargh.

Anyway, what I meant to put in this post is that Steve has been spending a tremendous amount of time with the kids lately and it has been going great. He has stopped coming to me when a kid misbehaves and saying, what do I do? I guess some time on the front lines has given him some confidence. And they are treating him better too. Yesterday and this morning while I was at PT, he played outside with them in the mud and puddles (my children love their rainboots!), showed them how to throw a Frisbee, and watched Natalie do endless loops around the concrete pad in front of our house with her new bicycle, always enthusiastic. Then inside they did a bunch of games (stringing beads, insect dominoes, pandabo, dwarves and dice), got out the balance beam, and cooked in the play kitchen.

Tomorrow we have a Play Date. I'm so excited! It has been a long time since I've met a mom and child at a community activity and we've actually arranged to get together. The last time was before I got pregnant with Rebecca, and I found a friend at Natalie's music class. The she and I both moved and we ended up too far apart to keep getting together. This time Natalie picked a little girl at her summer camp that she really liked and the mother and I talked and agreed to get together. So we are meeting at the park tomorrow morning and they are coming to our house for lunch.

Next Monday I am beginning school for the new year with Leah and Rebecca. I promise to post what we'll be doing. I am feeling guilty because I don't feel up to all the movement games recommended in The Breathing Circle for circle time (she recommends a really long series of verses) -- I really want to do something simple like a morning verse, blessing at breakfast, kids help clear the table and load the dishwasher, they play together for a bit, we do a small circle with some fingerplays and songs, then a story/puppetry, an activity, then wash hands, snack, and outside play time, then lunch. I guess that's an OK basic plan.


Our morning verse will be

Good morning, dear Earth
Good morning, dear Sun
Good morning, dear birds and beasts every one
Good morning, dear flowers
Good morning, dear trees
Good morning to you
And good morning to me!


There's also a song I really like in Seven Times the Sun called Good Morning to You which I've learned to play on the xylophone and thought we'd use it to start our circle time.


My favorite blessing is

Earth who gives to us this food
Sun who makes it ripe and good
Dear Earth, Dear Sun, by you we live
All our thanks to you we give


I also really like the Johnny Appleseed blessing, which Barbara used to sing at our communal meals at the conferences.

Oh, the Lord's been good to me.
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun, the rain and the apple seed;
Oh, the Lord's been good to me.

Oh, and every seed I sow
Will grow into a tree.
And someday there'll be apples there
For everyone in the world to share.
Oh, the Lord is good to me.


When I taught in New Mexico, the Navajo children wrote this blessing, which is always the one I use when I'm asked to do grace at someone else's table, because it is so simple and lovely:

Thank you for my food. Amen.


As far as what to do on Day One, I found the Sunflower Growth Chart which a friend gave us several years ago (and never got opened), so I thought I'd do a growing story, hang up the chart in our downstairs living room where I want to do school (my job this week is to clean that room out and move stuff to storage), mark the heights of the children, and to plant some seeds in a pot next to the chart. We can see how the plant grows as opposed to how we grow. Rebecca's favorite book right now is The Carrot Seed so that's what made me think of it. Actually, my first-ever preschool unit, which I did at Smith College, was on how plants grow and my copy of this book was the one my teacher mentors gave me on my last day. :-) Then maybe we can move into doing some body part stuff. Like using our elbows to make marks in clay, tracing our feet, learning songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and so on. I'd like to keep it flexible and not plan more than 2 days out.

I know know know that the only "theme" Waldorf teachers do in "real" preschools is the seasons. And I love the rhythms of the seasons as much as the next person. But I want to do more than that! I had a woman write to me one time to say I should call my work "Rhodorf". :-)