A Journey Through Time in Rhythm and Rhyme

This is it, the one poetry volume you need from pre-school to high school and beyond. It contains a beautiful selection of classical poetry as well as poems and verses you may never have heard before. There are ballads that last for pages on end for older children to learn, finger-plays, blessings for meals and teachers and everything in-between; a Wordsworth, easy to memorize and digest, poems about trees, about parts of speech and numbers.

Because, did I mention? It is written for use with a Waldorf curriculum through all the grades.

January Lesson Ideas, Fun Experiments and Encouragement

When the weather is dismal and energy levels inspire more to crawling back under the covers than to deep study and hard work, the homeschool blues or dropping it all seem to be the only options. Courage, fellow homeschoolers, the season will soon be turning and you will be glad that you have persevered and finished up the lessons you intended to complete before the weather turns beautiful again and outdoor adventures beckon. You can do it!

Think of:

All the books you ever wanted your kids to read. Make a list, start with your very favorites, and curl up for reading time, out loud or individually. We are into the second book in "The Wrinkle in Time" series for one of our read alouds. Another is a history series that they are all enjoying; "A History of US," by Joy Hakim, Oxford Press. I take advantage of the lack of enthusiasm to venture out in the winter months to spend lots of time reading, and a little extra on writing and doing math. 

Science...move on to an experiment once a week. The Waldorf method is to do the experiment one day, not discussing it, just letting it sink in until the next day when it gets explained, analyzed and recorded. Some fun online resources:

Home Yoga

With a wicked snow storm assailing our eastern coast in the U.S. and the ground in the Midwest converted to a frozen tundra, not to mention the air that turns boogers to icicles, the urge to leave one's home for anything has dwindled away to not very great at all. It is the time of private yoga once again. 

My favorite online, free resource for yoga video workouts of all levels:     Do Yoga With Me

See below for how to use a yoga video.

You don't necessarily need a season for a yoga home practice, but for me, this is when it all begins again each year. 

Happy New Year 2016!!!

I wish you a joyful, peace-filled, healthy, prosperous new year, from my family to you and yours. May the light of a hundred suns shine gently upon you, filling your days and mind with happiness, fresh ideas and love. 

I write to you with a brand new pair of eyes today; or rather, the left one is new, the right one is adjusting to the cataract operation that altered the left. I have been away from the screen, from reading, from exercise, for what seems like a string of eternities, but has really only been since Tuesday last. 

In the interim of the holidays and surgery, there has been so much going on.