Michaelmas 2025

Happy Michaelmas, everyone!

This traditional English quarter day is an important holiday in the Waldorf school calendar, and a well-loved tradition in our homeschool co-op. Here are notes and photos from today, as well as notes from previous years:

In the morning we read The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, a fun book of poems by Jack Prelutsky.

In the afternoon we read Saint George and the Dragon, beautifully retold from Spencer's The Faerie Queene by Margaret Hodges. We also built a splendid castle of foam bricks in the yard, donned costumes, and acted out the story!

If you happen to need the full text of CANTO XI, I have it in a blog post.

The cast list includes Una, the Red Cross Knight, the dragon, the king & queen, and the townspeople. For the third and fourth reenactment, one of the children narrated the events (instead of me doing it)... and you'll see that we also sometimes had two dragons. It's the most popular part!

I will forever be grateful to Ms. Anna
for her donation of these foam bricks!!

In Handwork this year, we are making these adorable knitted baby dragons (new skill: kfb) using a sweet pattern from Waldorf Handwork Educators.

In the past we've done the knight peg doll sewing kit from A Child's Dream. Here's one of those knights fighting the Ostheimer Dragon!

New Handwork Idea!

Sew a Dragon Pocket for Courage
from the StitchWorts School of Magical Embroidery

This would be a wonderful project for older children

Celebrations from previous years:

2023

Wrapping Up Our First Month's Topics

2022

The Faerie Queene (1596) by Edmund Spenser

2021

Michaelmas 2021

Dragon Classical Music

2020

Saints / Election / Presidents Week 1

2019

September - Michael and the Dragon

2018

October - Michael and the Dragon

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

Ethel, part 2

I discovered, while doing this whole Ethel Pochocki Marbach project, that she wrote one more book for St. Anthony Press, which is a season-by-season calendar of the saints. As before, when Bethlehem Books republished the book, they took out a significant number of stories (indicated here in red).

Saints of the Seasons for Children
© 1989 St. Anthony Messenger Press

Ruth
David
Isaiah
The Immaculate Conception
Elizabeth and Zechariah
John the Baptist
Luke
Simeon and Anna
The Magi
The Holy Innocents
Nicholas
Lucy
John the Evangelist
Elizabeth Seton
John Neumann
Thomas Aquinas
Frances of Rome
Paul Miki and Charles Lwanga
Patrick
Joseph
Adam and Eve
Noah
Abraham
Moses
The Woman at the Well
The Man Born Blind
Veronica
Simon of Cyrene
Dismas
John Bread-and-Water
Peter
Thomas
Stephen
Paul
Catherine of Siena
Cosmas and Damian
Vincent de Paul
The Heavenly Helpers: Archangels
Therese of Lisieux
Guardian Angels
Francis of Assisi
Hedwig
All Saints Day
Martin de Porres
Frances Xavier Cabrini
Francis Xavier

Here are my notes as to the revised version, published by Bethlehem Books.

Around the Year Once Upon a Time Saints
© 2009 Bethlehem Books
includes three new stories

Francis Xavier (Dec 3)
Nicholas (Dec 6)
Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec 12)
Lucy (Dec 13)
The Holy Innocents (Dec 28)
Elizabeth Seton (Jan 4)
John Neumann (Jan 5)
Thomas Aquinas (Jan 28)
Paul Miki (Feb 5) and Charles Lwanga (Jun 3)
John Bread-and-Water (Lent)
Frances of Rome (Mar 9)
Patrick (Mar 27)
Joseph (Mar 19)
Catherine of Siena (Apr 29)
Our Lady of Czestochowa (May)
Paul the Apostle (Jun 29)
Thomas the Apostle (Jul 3)
Our Lady of Knock (Aug 21)
Cosmas and Damien (Sep 26)
Vincent de Paul (Sep 27)
The Heavenly Helpers: Archangels (Sep 29)
Therese of Lisieux (Oct 1)
Guardian Angels (Oct 2)
Francis of Assisi (Oct 4)
Hedwig (Oct 16)
All Saints Day (Nov 1)
Martin de Porres (Nov 3)
Frances Xavier Cabrini (Nov 13)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For those keeping track at home, yes, I did buy (and read and color-code the table of contents of) SEVEN books in order to fully answer the question of whether Ethel Marbach and Ethel Pochocki were the same person.

But if I'm going to recommend a resource to a homeschool consulting client, I need to know whether or not that book has come back into print, and whether the text has been revised in any way if so. So what else can I do???

Ethel Pochocki Marbach

Dana K. White from A Slob Comes Clean says that finishing a project IS decluttering. So I am going to finish this blog post from last July!!!

I have a homeschool consulting client who is currently working on preparing for the Saints block, a classic Waldorf 2nd grade block. A theme in the curriculum for the 8 year old child is the struggle between opposing forces, so we study fables (Aesop's Fables and Buddhist Jataka Tales) as well as traditional stories of Saints around the world. Modern day Heroes such as Helen Keller, Dr. King, and Gandhi are also often included in this block.

I have many notes in my blog and on my website as to what Saint stories I've used in the past, but I noticed something strange when I went to recommend a particularly beautiful retelling of the story of Martin of Tours.

I couldn't find the book link on Amazon.

A Note About Something Which Further Adds to the Confusion

So... something came up while I was searching all over for this old book.

The book series I have by Ethel Marbach seems to have the same exact titles as a book series by Ethel Pochoki (and Ethel is not a common name) but the saints included don't seem to match. So are they the same books? And is she the same person?

I spent an inordinate amount of time researching this question.

The upshot of the story is that Ethel wrote two books (Once-Upon-a-Time Saints and More Once-Upon-a-Time Saints) back in the 1970s using the last name Marbach and they were published by St. Anthony Messenger Press. These books are wonderful!

Decades later, these books were significantly reorganized and republished by Bethlehem Books, this time using the last name Pochocki.

All of that to say that, yes, there's just one Ethel.

Below I've put the table of contents of each of the original books, and marked in red any legends that didn't make the cut when they were republished later on. Sadly, the story of Martin of Tours -- which got me started on this entire project -- seems to be out of print completely!

Once-Upon-a-Time Saints: Faith-Tales for Children
© 1977 St. Anthony Messenger Press

Germaine
Felix
Kentigern
Hubert
Joseph of Arimathea
Dorothy
Swithin
Hyacinth
Clement
Comgall
Benedict of San Fradello
Martha
Edward the Confessor
Zita
Longinus
Brigid
Barnaby of Compiegne
Joseph of Cupertino
Margaret of Scotland

More Once-Upon-a-Time Saints: Faith-Tales for Children
© 1978 St. Anthony Messenger Press

Joan Delanoue
Philip Neri
David of Wales
Catherine (Kateri) Tekakwitha
Martin of Tours
Elizabeth of Portugal
Christopher
Rose of Lima
Francis de Sales
Teresa of Avila
Anne
Adauctus

And here's the table of contents of each new book. I've put the original copyright dates of the St. Anthony Messenger Press stories beside each chapter from Bethlehem Books. Note that things look all mixed up, but that's because Bethlehem Books decided to put the saints in alphabetical order!

It is important to me that we be able to find her old stories, because they are written so beautifully! Let's see where we can find these stories today.

Once Upon a Time Saints
© 1996 Bethlehem Books
includes four new stories

Alice
Ambrose
Anne (1978)
Barbara
Barnaby of Compiegne (1977)
Benedict of San Fradello (1977)
Christopher (1978)
Clement (1977)
Comgall (1977)
David of Wales (1978)
Dorothy (1977)
Edward the Confessor (1977)
Elizabeth of Portugal (1978)
Felix (1977)
Genevieve
Hubert (1977)

More Once Upon a Time Saints
© 1998 Bethlehem Books
includes eight new stories

Hyacinth (1977)
Joan Delanoue (1978)
Joseph of Arimathea (1977)
Kentigern (1977)
Longinus (1977)
Martha (1977)
Melangell
Moses the Black
Nicolas Postgate
Pharaildis
Rigobert
Servulus
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
Simeon the Stylite
Swithin (1977)
Zita (1977)
Adauctus (1978)

One last book that I purchased... and greatly regret.

Saints & Heroes
© 2011 Bethlehem Books

I do NOT recommend this book as it contains significant edits of her original chapters, covered up by the innocuous words "Further revisions in 2020."

So it does include several of the stories that are marked in red above, but I continue to have them marked in red because they are NOT THE SAME.

One More Note About Ethel

It is my belief that Pochocki is her maiden name. (In her obituary in the Bangor Daily News, Ethel's last name is listed only as Pochocki [with no née] but all of her sons have the last name Marbach. Neither her marriage nor her husband is mentioned in the obituary. So my guess is that Pochocki is her maiden name and that she had an acrimonious divorce and chose to resume the use of her maiden name. Of course, I don't know that for sure.)

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

What Do You Do with Old Birthday Candles?

This week we are making Lanterns for Martinmas. The Feast Day for Martin of Tours is actually November 11th but our Lantern Walk will be this coming Friday. It is common for Martinmas to do a coat drive or canned food drive; we are doing a canned food drive.

We've also made Tissue Paper Transparencies in the past (these are absolutely beautiful but best for 6th grade and up because of the time commitment, planning and organization, and fine motor skills required).

There are lots of ways to make Lanterns but this year we are doing small glass jars. I really want to find a loving use for old short birthday candles and I think this is it! We are using the adorable tiny jars from Petit Pot puddings (available right now at Misfits Market).

First:
Thoroughly wash your jar and dry it. Cut or tear small pieces of tissue paper and use liquid white glue or Mod Podge and a paintbrush to adhere the tissue paper scraps to the outside of your jar. We used Elmer's glue with a bit of Sparkle Mod Podge mixed into it. It looks great (and this is the ONLY use I've ever found for Sparkle Mod Podge)!

We had lots of colors of tissue paper left over from a Valentine's Day Suncatcher.

I also had some gift wrap tissue paper with glitter in it and that worked well too.

Pro Tip - put your fingers of your non-dominant hand inside the jar and "wear" it like a mitten so that you can work with your dominant hand and decorate the jar without getting all sticky.

Second:
Let your jar dry for several days. We turned ours upside down and left them on a painting board.

Third:
Make a handle for your lantern. We are using anodized aluminum craft wire since the children had so much fun with it doing wire sculptures for our study of Alexander Calder. 12 gauge works best.

I also went through my bin of costume jewelry, donated to the school over the past few years, and pulled out charms that I thought would make good dangly embellishments.

Fourth:
Find the short candles (our jars are particularly tiny). For us, the beeswax candles that fit in a Waldorf birthday ring are the perfect size. These are beautiful and handmade... and somewhat expensive... so you really want to burn them all the way to the end. But having a super-short candle in a birthday ring doesn't feel very festive. So this craft is absolutely perfect!

Light the candle and drip some wax into the jar, then set the candle end firmly in the melted wax.

Fifth:
Go on a Lantern Walk with your child one evening after sunset. Enjoy! ❤️

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