ADVENT WALK

ADVENT WALK

We divide the year into seven seasons, starting with the story of Light. The cycle of Light has three parts: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.

For some people, the Church calendar is unfamiliar. Others might wonder what’s the advantage in working through a yearly rhythm? Don’t things become too predictable?

But that’s the whole point. As CS Lewis put it, “When you still have to think about all the steps you aren’t dancing, you’re learning to dance.”

This is the Second Sunday of Advent, which has four weeks. Here is Romans 8 in The Message.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God Is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile And barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting Diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, The larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. 22-25

We have been working on the lyrics and notes (for Ariahs flute) for the song "From Heaven"s Arch so High" in Preparation for our Advent Walk this Thurs. We will visit this story twice before the walk on Thurs. We are also writing daily affirmations to get us into the reverent mood. Such as "I am peaceful". "I listen to others". "I feel joy in my heart".

Advent Story

Softly in the earthly darkness
Seeds are stirring towards the light
In the earth the seeds lie dreaming
Nestled under crystal white

When in winter's deepest darkness
There came a shining light…(light candle and add)

Sing: From Heaven's arch so high…
From Heaven's arch so high,
A little Light draws nigh.
Shines so bright,
In the night,
All the children take delight…

A little hare hops nigh
And holds his head up high
Stops to hear, stands quite near,
Wonders what is happening here

The little mouse…he scurries from his frosty house
Stops to hear, stands quite near….

Then came the gnomes, the plants and the stones…
All the creatures drawing near
Stop to hear
And wonder what is happening here

The snow fell softly in the night (add snow)
And all the world was crystal white
The angels from the stars looked down (add angel)
On Mother Earth’s new shining gown.

Sing: Second verse of "From Heaven’s Arch.."
And shining ever clearer
The light shines softly nearer
Shines so bright
In the night
So that all may take delight. (as you sing draw creatures closer to the light)

(Pause and sprinkle stars)

Closing: And so it was that this tiny light that shone on the darkest night grew in the hearts of all people and filled them with peace and joy.

The St. Nicolas Story

Today is our official first day of homeschooling again (now that we are back in San Diego). The children are now attending the Waldorf School of San Diego part time on Wed. and Fri. and part of a public home school Charter.

The whole month of December we will be making our Christmas gifts ( baking, crafting, toy making, felting, beading, chocolate making, and knitting, so there is more handwork than usual, and more of a lose rhythm focusing on the warmth and hearth of home life. Advent season brings with it a time of quiet reflection, a time of worship, and a time of reverence that I feel calls for a slowing of academic pace and a move to revel in the mystery of story and cultural traditions from around the world.

This unusually stormy and rainy day in San Diego, proved the perfect backdrop for our cozy day of schooling. The morning called for math work. Mikey worked on counting number groups and writing the corresponding number. We later used his jewels to match what we had done on paper, making groups of 2,4,6,8,10, and 12. Then counting them by 2's and seeing that 4 is 2 groups of 2. 6 is 3 groups of 2, 8 is 4 groups of 4. Etc. We also worked on greater than and less than and equal to and "read" number equations that he made up by using sticks as plus signs and equal signs.

Meanwhile Ariah worked division word problems and Equations where the value on the right had to equal the value on the left by inputting the appropriate order of operations.

During our break Mikey collected rain in cups outside and he decided to strain it and asked me to boil it so we could drink it. He said "REAL people collect rain or drink from streams"....this made me laugh as I thought to myself somehow he was right in that the gathering of our water from nature instead of the store makes us feel more real and connected as humans. We made some tea from the rainwater and did a bit of knitting.

We made corn bread and soup, and while the bread was baking, it was time for our story. I told the short story of St. Nicolas from the book "Festivals Family and Food". Ariah reveled at how much the story sounded like different pieces of the holidays we celebrate and we had an informal chat about how fun it might be to leave gifts at the doorsteps of friends and family, ring the doorbell, and hide like they do in Holland.

We have just eaten lunch and cleaned up. The children play freely as I have a bit of time to write and check emails. Today we will finish the day with a bit of water color painting and Ariah will work on her book report. She is also working on the song " From Heaven's Arch so High" on her recorder, and Mikey and I , the corresponding lyrics.

Tomorrow we revisit the St. Nicolas story and bake German Honey Cake as well as hopefully take a long nature walk collecting pine cones for our elves we are making for the nature table. I also thought it would be fun to pick up some sticks and twigs for our St. Nicolas and Black Peter circle time game on Thursday, as well as for some star decorations we will be making with twine.

I will be posting our formal rhythm and schedule for the new semester soon as I get organized for the new year. I also hope to be taking a lot more pictures and posting our activities and work. Have a cozy rest of the day!

Organic learning is learning that occurs naturally out of the child's innate sense of wonder of the world and their relationship to it. It is deeply inspired by both Reggio Emilia and Waldorf approaches to learning. Though the curriculum is centered around the projects that flourish out of the child's interest, careful attention is payed to the reverence for rhythm and aesthetic which is designed skillfully by the parent/teacher. Forming environments where learning is spontaneous requires the teacher to be facilitator, designer, architect, artist, and philosopher -- being present not forceful, and allowing each child to digest information at their own pace and to their own capacity.

It is for this reason much attention is placed in the home-school room and outdoor environments, setting stages of intricately designed "sets" where the children are awe inspired by the beauty of the objects and concepts that are being presented. Finding beauty in relationship to all things means developing the perspective of positive awareness even when things may not go according to plan or are not in keeping with aesthetic ideals. Seeing "art" potential in the pile of junk, seeing the stained old shirt as "fabric" for a new project, seeing beauty in the way the wind carries a leaf, or the spider weave its web. Seeing the world through the eyes of beauty and potentiality allows the child to develop a deep reverence and respect for all things, finding ways to create beauty out of chaos, and finding the perspective of objectivity vs. judgment.

The child that emerges is a child that works with their respective environments, people, relationships and emotions, not against them. Orchestrating cohesive solutions which honor vs. control, and allow things to merge into the beauty of their organic state.
The child that emerges has the emotional intelligence to recognize feelings of "pain" such as sadness, or anger in objective awareness, knowing they are passing as the wind. Likewise, feelings of intense joy or excitement may pass too, but what remains is beauty of self. The awe of our creation in it's natural organic state. Pure potentiality. Pure essence of being. Pure awareness.
The child that emerges is an artist, inventor, peacemaker, teacher, leader, and visionary.
The child that emerges is a child that has the confidence to become the change they wish to see in the world and inspire beauty all around them.

Real learning is a process of discovery, and if we want it to happen, we must create the kinds of conditions in which discoveries are made. We know what these are. They include time, leisure, freedom, and lack of pressure. - John Holt

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GREEK MYTHS.
THROUGHOUT THE NEXT FEW WEEKS WE WILL BE LEARNING ABOUT GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND ANCIENT HISTORY. OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO BOTH MY CHILDREN ARE THE FANTASTICAL MONSTERS, BEASTS AND GODS IN THESE STORIES. THESE CREATURES HAVE CAPTURED THEIR INTEREST AND IMAGINATION, AS WELL AS HELPED THEM MAKE CONNECTIONS TO THE ROOTS OF OTHER FABLES, FAIRYTALE AND FOLKLORE, MORE RELEVANT TO THEIR TIME. IT HAS ALSO HELPED THEM TO SEE THAT THE STORIES OF ALL PEOPLES, CULTURES AND TIMES SEEM TO REPEAT THEMSELVES AS ARCHETYPES THROUGHOUT HISTORY.

WE START BY WATCHING "CLASH OF THE TITANS", AND COVER THE TALES OF
" MIDAS", "EROS & PSYCHE", "AESOP'S FABLES","HELEN OF TROY & THE TROJAN HORSE", "PANDORA'S BOX". AS WELL AS READING EXCERPTS FROM HOMER'S ILIAD AND ODYSSEY.
WE WILL LEARN THE GREEK ALPHABET BY WRITING A LETTER TO A GREEK GOD IN GREEK "CODE", AS WELL AS LEARN THE GREEK ROOT WORDS TO HELP US DECIPHER, WORDS IN OUR OWN LANGUAGE.
IN OUR LAST WEEK WE WILL TAKE A LOOK AT TRUE HISTORY AND SEE THE IMPACT OF MYTHOLOGY IN DAILY LIFE. WE WILL CREATE A MAP OF THE ANCIENT LAND AND LOOK AT THEORIES OF ATLANTIS BASED ON THE IMPRINTS OF SANTORINI, INVESTIGATE THE CULTURE, CELEBRATIONS, AND RITUALS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS.

ECOLOGY

For the next 3 weeks we will venture into a subject studies that is very close to my heart, Ecology. We will cover habitats, biomes, ecosystems, the Greenhouse effect, and pollution. Along with watching a few documentaries, constructing a food chain diagram, and conducting an experiment with the water cycle, we will also be finding ways in which to be of service to conservationist groups, and Missions. It has been tugging on my heart strings lately to find ways to serve in the conservation and preservation of people, animals and nature..what better way to explore and share this enthusiasm with my daughter. Taking this pressing issue into our hands, we will find ways in which small acts of reverence can actually change the World and create a better tomorrow. Be the change you wish to see in the world!!

Pythagoras: Father of Numbers

We are taking the next two weeks to study a bit about the life of Pythagoras and his contribution to Mathematics and proving the geometrical theory that was used by the Sumerians thousands of years earlier. We will take a look at his biography, and try to understand his philosophies of creating order out of chaos by way of music and math. Taking a look at the way he gave numbers a personality ( complete with male and female attributes, beautiful or ugly, complete or incomplete), we can start to bring back the poetry of numbers and math and begin to find ways to relate and retain the formulas we learn. By studying the Pythagorean Theorem, we will have a nice visual representation of square numbers, and how to construct algebraic equations to create order and accuracy. Next will be diving into linear equations introducing Integers, Exponents, Square, Cubes, Square Roots, and Perfect Squares.

We will be getting our feet wet for our Subject Series in Pre- Algebra later in the year as well as setting up for our Ancient Greece studies which we will begin after the Holiday break.