"I Dreamed About Hydroponics Last Night"

That's why my husband told me today. Isn't that the funniest thing ever??? He's totally obsessed... watches YouTube videos all the time and plans our set up. Now he's making noises about installing a rail system for lettuce. Actually our starting supplies are all purchased and I'm not letting him purchase anything else until we have gotten up and running fully.

Natalie is doing a small green MLB about hydroponics exclusively (we are doing our Farming & Gardening block indoors in the Winter this way). He built a platform/table in the garage using some discarded pieces from a friend's dismantled swingset/play structure. We have one grow light, which I gave Adam for his birthday, and are buying another. We had tried to start seeds in order to have them ready for transplanting into the straw bale cold frame, before the weather changed, but the seeds were slow slow. We got the grow light and moved the seedlings under it. In just a week, the lettuces had tripled in size. We are a believer in the red and blue lights. It's amazing.

So we are starting our hydroponics pretty simply. Beginning with the tomato plants from the garden that still have flowers, and which we want to keep going. These will be in a deep water culture -- one of the methods -- in 5 gallon buckets. These buckets and lids are only a few dollars from the store. Using bins we already owned, there will be a large Rubbermaid tote which we want to plant asparagus in, and two shallow plastic bins for lettuces and herbs. We are also putting the celery which Leah started into a hydroponics net pot. We have different sizes of net pots and we also have clay leca balls which we salvaged. Ask your local law enforcement about this... if possible... because often they seize and dismantle hydroponics set ups. Yes! This happens all the time because people use it to grow an illegal plant. Our jail had huge totes full of this substrate material and so we got it at no charge.

My husband is totally into this as a project and it has been so much fun.

Even if you are doing F&G in the usual way, you can start your seedlings in the late winter, transfer them to hydroponics to grow healthy and strong and large, and then transplant outside. You could do the same in the fall to get things ready for the straw bales and extend your growing season like that too. This could also make for an excellent Botany block, if you wanted to do it that way, because you have to learn so much about plants; for example, you have to hand-pollinate your tomatoes because they are growing indoors in the winter with no pollinators around. To do that, you need to know the parts of the flower and how plants reproduce. You could also do this topic for Chemistry, what with testing TDS and pH of your water, and changing the nutrient solution when necessary. The pH value of your different substrates even needs to be taken into account when choosing them.

All in all, it's definitely a worthwhile use of a corner of the garage, a spare bedroom, or even an extra closet.

In case this helps anyone, here are our supplies and costs from my notes. And he has promised to share our pictures with me, so I can post those as well.

Our Hydroponics Start-Up Costs
$210.99

hydroponics book (the purchase that started it all...)
$7.96

TaoTronics grow light bulb
$22.99

Rural King - two buckets, four lids (we already had two more 5 gallon buckets), grow light shade (like for a chicken brooder lamp)
$19.91

Josh, the friend who already does hydroponics - three 6 inch net pots
$5.00

Petco - air pump, four way connector, black tubing, airstones (one 4 inch, four 1 inch)
(I wouldn't use Petco again, they were way too expensive)
45.62

Walmart - black spray paint (this goes on our clear shallow bins, to keep algae growth down)
$3.86

TDS meter, pH meter, tomato fertilizer 4-18-38, lettuce & herb nutrients, calcium nitrate fertilizer 15.5-0-0, Yescom ultra thin growlight panel
$105.65

Jail - substrate - clay leca balls
$0.00

Josh - litmus paper, eight 2 inch net pots
$0.00

we already owned:
two shallow bins, one large deep bin, already purchased plants and seeds, baking powder and vinegar (to regulate pH), epsom salts

Some of Natalie's notes:

Dissecting a Cow Heart - $11.08

Today is our first heart dissection and we are getting a pig heart from the butcher tomorrow as well! The turkey neck ($4.04 package from the regular grocery store) dissection went well. We slow cooked it until the meat fell off (Smoked Turkey Lentil Soup), and then removed all of the meat. Natalie and Becca were able to see how the vertebrae interlocked, and they could take them together and put them back in order. They saw how the spaces between the bones allowed the neck to bend and move. And they even found some remaining spinal cord and could see how it fit in the hole in each bone.

We've also had whole fish (head and guts removed but otherwise intact) for dinner this week (Whole Roasted Fish with Herbs) and the girls each got two fish. We had bass and crappie which my husband caught. They spent about two hours having dinner that night because they were carefully lifting the meat off the skeleton. As Leah said, removing the skeleton beautifully is top priority... the meat comes second. It was a very interesting meal, and a lot of fun!

Leah went fishing with Adam yesterday morning as a school assignment but they didn't have any luck. She still did a beautiful job on the fish page in her MLB. Today is Turtle; tomorrow Snake.

My plan for her Man and Animal I block goes like this:

Week 1

Man as a Threefold Being

Twelve Phyla

HEAD animals (form):

Jellyfish

Snail

Octopus

Pagoo

Week 2

TRUNK animals (form):

Earthworm

Honeybee
THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE : complete with original Illustration (Illustrated)by Waldemar Bonsels (the link is to the Kindle edition but we have a first edition from 1922)

chapters 10 & 11 from The Burgess Book of Nature Lore

Fish

Turtle

Snake

Minn of the Mississippi

Week 3

Seal

Human Hand

Human Foot

Animal Metaphors / Similes

Back to the Human Physiology lessons. Since the hearts came after we completed the circulatory system but were about to start the respiratory system, and they are connected anyway, today's theme is about Interdependence of the Human Body Systems. Natalie is also interviewing a friend whose husband has diabetes, and has monitored his blood sugar and his meals and given him his shots for many many years, and she will be asking questions about insulin and diabetes. Our plan for the endocrine system illustration is to focus on Insulin, Adrenaline, and Oxytocin (because she wonders how my milk lets down). Yet, everything is related, and Insulin ties in well to our next system, Digestive. Things arrive late, like the hearts or The Book of Think: Or How to Solve a Problem Twice Your Size -- which I meant to go with the Nervous System -- and yet it is OK because everything is related. The Human Body is a lovely topic to teach!

Next up, Natalie will be doing World Geography with a Political Twist, and Leah is doing the Saints and Heroes.

Chalkboard Drawings aka "Am I Waldorf Enough?"

This is my 1,000th post!

Whew. I've been a homeschooling mom for a while but it doesn't seem like THAT long.

BLACKBOARD SKETCHING book By FREDERICK WHITNEY (1908)
available online for free - with step by step directions and illustrations

My current passion is Chalkboard Drawings. I've been researching them like crazy. Chalkboarddrawing.org and Pinterest are the two main sources for inspiration. What could be more beautiful in our home than a "real" Waldorf chalkboard drawing? The Waldorf Today website is also amazing for main lesson book pages, as are personal blogs from around the internet-world.

http://homeschoolingwaldorf.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/star-child-drawing-mom.jpg

International resources also abound...

www.waldorf-ideen-pool.de, for example.

So, I'm collecting all of these images, and finally got myself set up on Pinterest, which turns out to be very useful, but it brings to mind the ever-present question: "Am I Waldorf Enough?" The internet has pros, but one of the cons is that you have a far wider pool of people with which to compare yourself. Inevitably, you will find yourself falling short in some capacity. Over the past few days, I created my first "real" Waldorf chalkboard drawing. It was inspired by this one:

which I pinned to my Man and Animal board.

I changed it slightly. First of all, it is NOT 12 Kingdoms. These are Phyla. And I modified it to create some more accuracy... separating "Worms" into Platyhelminths and Annelids. This is the Montessori coming out in me. Lower Elementary always has precise nomenclature, and the parts of the Porifera isn't something I personally learned about in first grade in the U.S. public school system... but they do in Montessori!

My 12 are Porifera, Echinoderm, Cnidaria, Platyhelminth, Annelid, Mollusk, Arthropod, Fish, Amphibian, Reptile, Bird, Mammal.

Here is my first "real" Waldorf chalkboard drawing, sitting proudly in my living room!

I try HARD but I do sometimes have that little niggling voice... is this "Waldorf enough?" Everyone knows that voice, right?

And I want to share the things that reassure me when that voice comes up. First of all, when I feel judged and start to swirl, my husband stops me from swirl-chatter and asks me, "Are you having fun?" If my immediate response is yes, then that calms me down.

Second, Alan Whitehead wrote a book called "A Waldorf Homeschool?" and in it he says that (in his opinion) homeschooling can actually be closer to what Steiner intended than a Waldorf school can, because it is truly personalized. It is 100% individualized to meet the needs of your child. He also writes that Steiner's opinion was that if it comes from an understanding of anthroposophy, it is Waldorf, plain and simple.

Lastly, Whitehead writes that Steiner had indicated that eurythmy was crucial to Waldorf and not all Waldorf schools are able to have a eurythmist on staff, so technically that eliminates them from being "real." He says this a little bit in fun and just to prove a point. I think we would all consider them to be Waldorf schools but maybe they don't even consider themselves to be "real" Waldorf schools!

I use "real" in quotes, obviously, to show that this "real" stuff is a matter of some opinion. And that we all just need to calm down and do our best for our children. A parent who dives in and starts to do it all the REAL WAY from the start quickly gets overwhelmed and burned out, and then they leave the method. That serves no one well and certainly doesn't help the pedagogy to spread. In my experience, start where you are and then you will get more and more interested in the WHY and learn more about Steiner, child development, anthroposophy, and so on. You get more Waldorf-y with practice. I think that reading a fairy tale is fine. Later on you will have the confidence and the urge to memorize it and tell it orally. I think that watching a video for your own background is fine. If I give a video link, watch it for yourself. Or watch it with your child. The choice is yours in the end, isn't it? I love Waldorf and I love supporting people in trying Waldorf and I think that a little Waldorf is better than none, so have at it!

The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy by Rudolf Steiner

FREE online at the Rudolf Steiner Archive

List of Resources for the Animals

Which animals?

That's the #1 question, isn't it.

As Roy Wilkinson said, the teacher of the Man and Animal block soon becomes overwhelmed by a flood of information. I'm starting to think of choosing my animals based on the artwork and illustrations I'm most drawn to, as well as which animals seem most appropriate for Leah. Here are the animals I've found resources for, in no particular order:

A collection of famous poems about the animals

tiger, nautilus, wolf, cat, mouse, snake, badger, ant, deer, camel, fish, louse, platypus, grasshopper, donkey, coyote, shark, yak, dromedary, rabbit, eagle, mole, spider, lamb, goldfish, dog, mongoose, cricket

and it includes a microbe poem!

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Developing my Pinterest board
(idea-sharing via the internet is the greatest-ever boon to homeschoolers!)

twelve animal kingdoms chalkboard drawing

beautiful snail MLB page

snail wet on wet watercolor

owl painting

octopus

elephant chalkboard drawing

bison chalkboard drawing

cow chalkboard drawing

bee chalkboard drawing

eagle MLB page

wolf watercolor painting

and so on...

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deer illustration from Sieglinde Francesca's book Coloring with Block Crayons, Emphasizing the Primary Colors, 2nd Edition

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octopus from Live Ed curriculum sample

bird, fish, seal, camel as formed from their environment - from Live Ed curriculum sample; he specifically recommends Children's Animal World Encyclopediaby David Attenborough for 12 basic environments as habitats for life on earth

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animals and illustrations from Catherine van Alphen Human and Animal Study booklet
(free PDF for which I give the strongest possible recommendation)
she specifically recommends the Children's Animal World Encyclopediaas her source for the illustrations

eagle, lion, and bull - trio watercolor painting
eagle, giraffe, bull, elephant, lion, horse - single animal watercolors
jellyfish, snail, oyster, fish, crocodile

Head animals: jellyfish, oyster, clam, mussel, cuttlefish or octopus, snail

Trunk animals: worms, insects, spider, millipede, crab, fish, eel, snake, crocodile, tortoise

Regarding Limb animals, she writes,

"The Mammals

"The warm-blooded mammals and the birds are the only species with limbs that lift the body above the earth. In this way the mammals can be compared with the limb system of the human being although they walk or run on four legs, not two. The birds, however, run on two legs, like the human being.

"Like human beings, these animals also have freedom of movement but it is limited to the instinctual nature of each creature. Thus the monkey swings through the trees with four arms and a tail, while the cheetah hunts the buck at incredible speed and the elephant wallows in the muddy river. Each animal species is finely adapted to their environment with perfect ease and skill, but cannot choose to do anything outside of their particular nature. Only the human being has free will. It is for this reason that "Steiner has said that the human being is the only true ‘limb animal.’

Thus we may see, as illustrated in the diagram, that just as a baby is born head first and slowly develops the trunk and limbs, so in the evolution of creation the ‘head’ creatures in the sea came first, then the ‘trunk’ creatures like the fishes,  insects and reptiles and finally the ‘limb’ animals in the mammals. The different creatures are specifically linked to the form of the human being."

Therefore, the threefold human being in terms of FORM is Head (shellfish, octopus), Trunk (fish, reptiles, insects, seals), and Limbs (mammals).

However, she makes another set of determinations regarding the threefold human being in terms of FUNCTION, which is Head / Nerve Sense (birds, rodents), Trunk / Breathing & Blood (carnivores: cat, dog, lion), Limb / Metabolic (ungulates, herbivores: cow, horse, camel)

More specific suggestions

Nerve-Sense animals: rodents (field mouse, grey squirrel, hare, beaver), birds (peacock, swan, marabou stork, starling, parrot, eagle)

Breathing and Blood Circulation System animals: cat family and dog family (carnivores)

Metabolic and Limb System animals: cow, bison, camel, elephant, giraffe, gazelle

She continues to give more examples of animals that may be suitable in various parts of the world, addresses animal research projects, the three day cycle, child development and so on. This extensive PDF file is written for a teacher who is new to Waldorf.

I quite like the idea of, since Man and Animal is usually done in two blocks (both in fourth grade, or one in fourth and one in fifth), doing the Threefold Human Being - Man and Animal - in terms of FORM for one block and in terms of FUNCTION for the other block.

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Animal list from Charles Kovac's book The Human Being and the Animal World

The Cuttlefish
The Seal
The Snail
The Harvest Mouse
The Red Deer
The Hedgehog
The Eagle
The Elephant
The Horse
The Bear
The Lion
Buddy, the Guide Dog

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Animal list from Roy Wilkinson's book The Human Being and the Animal World

introduction: cuttlefish (head), mouse (trunk)

specific examples of animals as representing specialized parts: cow (stomach), horse (long middle finger & toe), elephant (trunk), lion (heart & lungs), camel (hump), fishes (trunk), birds (flying lung and flying head)

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Painting in Waldorf Education
octopus - pp.86 to 87
cow - pp.87 to 89
eagle - pp.89 to 90

They state that animals with special characteristics (horns, beard, tail, neck, mane and hoofs) are subjects for drawing lessons "after proper observation." Also, that squirrel, fox, mouse, lion, elephant, and camel are best painted in later years.

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Learning About the World Through Modeling: Sculptural Ideas for School and Homehas a series of clay exercises for shaping human forms, considering the geometry of the human form, the comparison between human and animal in basic form and gesture, and then animal studies.

bear in a cave, p.82
bird in a nest, p.83
mouse by its hold, p.84

and suggests turtle on a rock, beaver on a dam, squirrel on a log, duck in the waves, rabbit by a hole, and deer lying down in a hollow

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I do not really care for Thomas Wildgruber's series of these paintings (the goat is the only one I think is any good, by which I mean good at capturing the personality of the animal) but I will still list what he has to offer. I do appreciate that he gives concise instructions and clearly states what paint colors are required.

octopus p.206 - cow p.207 - lion p.208 - eagle p.209 - horse p.210 - donkey p.211 - goat p.212 - swan p.213 - beaver p.214 - mouse and wolf p.215

He ends with a lesson on cave paintings. A good tie-in to this would be one of my favorite stories from the Montessori Third Great Lesson I used to tell: When Cave Men Painted

There's no picture of it on Amazon but I can tell you that it is worth tracking down if you are teaching about this period in Early Man.

Follow with the virtual tour of the cave at Lascaux

Dancing the Relationship Between Photosynthesis and Respiration

Today in our house, Leah is hearing the Octopus story from the fabulous Human and Animal Study Manual (95 page PDF) WRITTEN FOR THE EAST AFRICAN WALDORF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM BY CATHERINE VAN ALPHEN, which I just found online and adore. You can also find the Octopus story from Live Ed's book for this block online as their free Sample Lesson from the book: The World of Animals.

Pagooby Holling Clancy Holling features Pagoo's struggle with the predatory octopus in its final chapters, chapters 18 - 20.

In terms of artwork for this animal, we are using the Octopus painting lesson from Painting in Waldorf Educationby Dick Bruin and Attie Lichthart.

I really like their lesson (pages 86-87) because it focuses first on the environment in which the octopus lives, something that Arthur Auer also stresses in his modeling book Learning About the World Through Modeling: Sculptural Ideas for School and Home

Thomas Wildgruber also gives an Octopus painting lesson on page 206, if you have that book on hand.

Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools: Classes 1-8

Natalie is beginning the Circulatory System and, in working with her, I remembered an old lesson that I had written up for a job interview, about creating an interpretive dance with my class showing the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration. I've found it and put it on my website's 8th grade Human Physiology page. It requires only one prop; although I included a description of the costumes which we sewed, they are definitely optional. The prop is a single chime, which signifies that a molecule of glucose has been made and oxygen has been released into the air as a by-product.

The file also includes a description of the dance of photosynthesis lesson which I did with my students. It is a great idea, although I can't take credit for it. I found it in In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms

This was a textbook for my master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction; the photosynthesis lesson was the most valuable piece of that book for me.