I'll go first.....

We are doing Second Grade. 

I am still finding my way into our rhythm as we just began homeschooling in October. This is so exciting to be learning the second grade curriculm and taking up the pentatonic flute, drawing with crayons and drawing with charcol. It is pushing me to learn and be active in my own work in a way I had let drop. It is also a bit daunting to think I am the one who is bringing  this to my child. And I trust that it is all perfect in its imperfection!

Each day I rise very early and feed the animals, water the plants, start the laundry, and organize what will be dinner. (I plan the weekly menus on the weekend. ) This solitude is essential to my clarity and well being for the day. When I became a mother, I was tired at night that I went to sleep earlier than ever before in my life and discovered the beauty of morning solitude.

Monday morning, we go to the farm down the road and do farm chores: feed the hens, gather their eggs, slop the pigs, admire the piglets, feed the horse, help milk the goats and cows. We do whatever needs doing by checking in with the farmer. Often we spend a good deal of time playing on the hay bales in the barn. We do this with the Morning Garden which is my nursery program. At nap time, back at the house, we do Main Lesson of form drawing with a story, math and writing review. 

Tuesday, we start the day with math or writing and then make soup with the Morning Garden. At nap time which usually lasts for two hours or more,  we do Main Lesson. 

On Monday and Tuesday, we do Circle together for both ages. This gives us a chance to sing seasonal songs, we've been singing Saint Martin Songs and Lantern songs, say verses with movement and do finger and toe play as a group. We do crafts like lantern making together.

On these days, I save the more rhythm clapping and stamping and bean bag work for nap time and often do it outdoors with my son.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we start the day with  math or writing I have set out and them school for two hours with Circle and Main Lesson. Afternoons are for story, beeswax modelling, knitting, french, painting and baking, followed by outdoor play in the afternoon.

We have an outdoor movement course that we do before begining Main Lesson that has been really good that ends with jumping rope, a stomping verse, then a calm verse while holding hands. Then we go in to school. My son needs lots of movement in his day and when he gets it, he can focus and work with eagerness.

My older child is now in high school.

Some days feel really balanced and good, others need tweaking.

I have put together curriculm material from a varity of sources:

General inspiration for all:

Marsha Johnson at the yahoo group, Waldorfhomeducators is a great inspiration. 

Live Ed too. I have used the Live Ed first grade curriculum which inspires me in second grade as well. 

Math:

In addition to Marsha Johnson's amazingly rich files at Yahoo Group Waldorf Homeducators,  I use Donna Simmon's Christoperus Second Grade Mathematics book. Dorothy Harrer's, Math Lessons for Elementary Grades and Henning Andersen's Active Arithemetic! inspire me in putting together math.

Right now I am working on a Native American Math block through Thanksgiving. Lots of clapping and stamping songs. cooking, baking, measuring, dividing, fire building and teepee making.

 I was hoping to find some good examples of second grade circle as they don't seem to be out there where I can find them. So I am making my own.

Enough for this post, I'll return with more on Fables, Saints and Legends as well as other aspects of the curriculum that I am pursuing and response to the rest of the questions I posed in the first post on the blog.

I'd love to hear from you. Come join the blog and be an author too or link to your blog. If you wish to participate in this blog, as an author, let me know in the comment section below and I will add you as an author.

Warmly,

Lisa