Birthday Rings

When I first bought a birthday ring for my girls, I thought that a 12-hole ring would be sufficient. I figured that, by the time they were teenagers, they would have outgrown the tradition.

Well, my oldest daughter, Natalie, is turning 12 tomorrow. And tonight she is setting up her ring. She took the basket of ornaments and candles and wooden pieces and turned to me and said, "Didn't you tell me once that there is a ring that goes up to 16?" And I said yes. The girls all clustered round the laptop as I went to Nova Natural and brought it up on the screen. They agreed, "We like our family's traditions."

So a 16 Hole Cherry Birthday Ring went in my cart.

If you have a little one, and you are thinking of starting this tradition, forewarned is forearmed. Go for the 16 hole one!

Quality of Numbers

Putting together some resources on the Quality of Numbers block (first math block of first grade). I like Eric Fairman's book A Steiner-Waldorf Mathematic Resource: Grades One through Eight and Barbara Dewey's book Waldorf Math Grades 1-3. Of course, there are lots of great resources on the internet as well! Here's a wonderful set of blog posts that I found and wanted to pass along:

• Quality of Numbers I to IIII
• Quality of Numbers V to IX
• Quality of Numbers X

She shares lots of details about the stories she told her girls, pictures of their MLB pages, and the beautiful nature layouts that accompanied the story as it developed.

Update:

I wrote this post back in 2014 to help me remember the best resources for this block. Now that I've taught Quality of Numbers a few times (most recently in 2021), I have written a Ruzuku course sharing ALL of my notes (bullet point, day by day) including the stories we used, photos and videos, riddles, art ideas, field trips, etc. The Ruzuku courses are fabulous because they are limited to families who are planning for -- or teaching -- this exact same block, so you can share your creative ideas, get feedback as you plan, and celebrate your favorite teaching moments with a cohort of people who are doing this topic right alongside you! Join us!

Quality of Numbers Ruzuku Course
$30.00
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