Monday, December 21, 2015

Good quality youth litterature

As Isabelle and I laid down on the dry lake bed where we camped in Joshua Tree, looking at the meteor shower in our sleeping bags, we talked about our teenage years and how much we used to write... It got me thinking... I used to write lots of poetry, lots of intimate stories... I had even written a book by age 12!




From as early as I can remember, I had access to great books and high quality litterature, since both my parents were both avid readers. My dad offered me poetry books when I was 10 and I took off from there, inspired by a few great teachers in high school and then in College.


I struggle a lot with that since we live on the road. I had kept most of my books before we sold our house (and I mean, I had lots of books... I studied in litterature!) for my girls to have access to, just like I had at my parent's. But now, getting books from librairies is nearly impossible and when we can, the French book collection is very limited... and honestly, the youth litterature is a genre that still hasn't taken off much in French. As far as e-books go, it's pretty much the same: very limited and mostly poor quality.

A week ago, I googled some of my favorite authors from when I was a teen/young adult, and found myself spending hours in front of the computer, hanging onto their beautiful words, just like I did 20 years ago... Words have that power. And I just wish I can offer that to my girls even with our lifestyle...

Please let me know if you have great recommandations for high-quality stories for kids 10-12 in French. Something different than the mean-girl-from school-story or the-cute-guy-in-the-football-team please.. Something nourrishing for their growing souls, but still enticing enough that they want to keep reading...




And if you read French, here are some great lines from some favorite authors of mine when I was younger. My Christmas gift to you. 

I remember reading all the Romain Gary in 4 months! And most of Christian Bobin's poetry too... And so many more. Oh! I was such a romantic! Tell me, who were your favorite authors when you grew up? Who inspired you to write or to simply read more?

Il souffrait de mélancolie. Tu sais ce que c'est la mélancolie ? Tu as déjà vu une éclipse ? Et bien c'est ça, la lune qui se glisse devant le cœur, et le cœur qui ne donne plus sa lumière. La nuit en plein jour. La mélancolie c'est doux et noir. Il en a guéri à moitié, le noir est parti, le doux est resté.

La Folle allure
[ Christian Bobin ]

C’est un amour qui vient de loin. Il vient du fond d’une solitude sans fond, et de plus loin encore, du savoir d’une jouissance sans déclin. Il n’y a pas d’autre amour que cet amour de loin. Il n’y a qu’un seul amour, comme on dit : une seule loi, la même pour tous, la même absence au cœur de toute présence, la même absence dans souffrance comme dans la joie.

La part manquante
[ Christian Bobin ]

Légère, limpide : l'amour n'assombrit pas ce qu'il aime.
Il ne l'assombrit pas parce qu'il ne cherche pas à le prendre.
Il le touche sans le prendre. Il le laisse aller et venir.
Il le regarde s'éloigner, d'un pas si fin qu'on ne l'entend pas mourir : éloge du peu, louange du faible.
L'amour s'en vient, l'amour s'en va.
Toujours à son heure, jamais à la vôtre.

[ Christian Bobin ]

Je n'ai jamais imaginé qu'on pût être a ce point hanté par une voix, par un cou, par des épaules, par des mains, ce que je veux dire c'est qu'elle avait des yeux où il faisait si bon vivre que je n'ai jamais su où aller depuis.

La Promesse de l'aube de Romain Gary

-Est-ce que je suis envahissante?
-Terriblement, lorsque tu n'es pas là.

Clair de femme de Romain Gary

Je commençais à comprendre qu'il faut savoir laisser, même à sa raison de vivre, le droit de vous quitter de temps en temps, et même celui de vous tromper un peu avec la solitude.

Les cerfs-volants de Romain Gary

Mais dans les bras de Laura, il n'y avait pas d'illusion possible. Jamais je n'avais aimé avec un don si total de moi-même. Je ne me souvenais même plus de mes autres amours, peut-être parce que le bonheur est toujours un crime passionnel : il supprime tous les précédents. Chaque fois que nous étions unis ensemble dans le silence des grandes profondeurs qui laisse les mots à leurs travaux de surface et que, très loin, là haut, les milles hameçons du quotidien flottent en vain avec leurs appâts de menus plaisirs, de devoirs et responsabilités, il se produisait une naissance du monde bien connue de tous ceux qui savent encore cette vérité que le plaisir réussit parfois si bien à nous faire oublier : vivre est une prière que seul l'amour d'une femme peut exaucer.

Au-delà de cette limite votre ticket n'est plus valable de Romain Gary



Et le grand classique, si touchant et drôle de Romain Gary: La vie devant soi:

Monsieur Hamil m'avait souvent dit que le temps vient lentement du désert avec ses caravanes de chameaux et qu'il n'était pas pressé car il transportait l'éternité. Mais c'est toujours plus joli quand on le raconte que lorsqu'on le regarde sur le visage d'une vieille personne qui se fait voler chaque jour un peu plus et si vous voulez mon avis, le temps, c'est du côté des voleurs qu'il faut le chercher.


Les psychiatriques sont des gens à qui on explique tout le temps qu'ils n'ont pas ce qu'ils ont et qu'ils ne voient pas ce qu'ils voient, alors ça finit par les rendre dingues.

Et plein d'autres citations délicieuses de ce livre ici.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Grade 6 - Geometry - Week 4

You can read more on Geometry in the Waldorf education program on my first post of this serie.

I made sure we had finished reading and doing the workbooks this week since I wanted the girls to have plenty of time to work on the more complicated drawings.

Day 1: We reviewed the 12 division of the circle (p. 36 # 2 in Making Math Meaningful) and practice the 24 division of the circle (P. 36 # 3) and we did an equiangular spiral (p. 37 top of page). Then, we reviewed the contruction of an hexagon (p. 35 top of page) and did nested hexagons in our MLB.




Day 2: We worked on turning squares today (inspiration at the bottom of p.128 in Making Math Meaningful) and reproduced some in our MLB.




Day 3: We played with rotation of circles (explanations on top of p. 39 in Making Math Meaningful and exemples on p. 129) and reproduced some in our MLB. The first one is a 24 epicycle with larger circumference and the second one is a 24 epicycle with equal circumference.







Day 4: We played with limaçon and cardioid (explanation on p. 39 of Making Math Meaningful and exemples on p. 130) and reproduced some in our MLB.




Day 5: We did 24 epicycles with 2 focal points in our MLB. This is the exact same drawing, simply colored differently.






Thursday, December 10, 2015

Grade 6 - Geometry - Week 3

You can read more on Geometry in the Waldorf education program on my first post of this serie.

Here's what we did this week.

Day 1: We did about 8 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 2, then we did card 25, 26 and 28 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored card 25 into our MLB.



Day 2: We did about 8 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 2, then we did card 30 and 31 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored card 31 into our MLB



Day 3: We did about 8 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 2, then we did card 32 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored it into our MLB



Day 4: We finished Key to Geometry workbook 2, then we did card 34 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored it into our MLB


Monday, December 7, 2015

Wait, I thought you were unschooling??

A reader asked me an interesting question a few weeks ago. A question I didn’t really want to answer at first because I wasn’t sure I knew the answer. It is much easier to avoid hard questions sometimes (I am pretty good at that!). However, this was such an interesting series of questions that it got me thinking. Here’s the comment and an attempt at answering the questions.

Making a sundial in the desert

Comment/Question: You seem much more relaxed about homeschooling since your exploration of unschooling. Do you have any words of wisdom to share on what you have learnt in the past few years since taking a break from Waldorf and now coming back to it? I find myself always feeling torn between loving the curriculum yet also experiencing it as a source of stress - trying to keep up, pushing my child to go at a certain pace so we can do that, overwhelmed (or resentful) with all the planning - and the inner conflict/guilt I feel about not being fully present as a result. Homeschooling is wonderful, Waldorf is wonderful, but sometimes I feel the price is too high. I just don't seem to crack the life/work(homeschool) balance. Every year I make changes and it feels like we get better at this, yet I still feel it has taken over my life. I know this is probably true of many homeschoolers but Waldorf in particular is so demanding of the parent. I know that what works for one might not work for another, but I'm very eager to learn from other homeschoolers' experiences and insights. I wonder if it is that you trust your girls more now? What have you learnt about yourself? What has changed?

Sculpting clay 

My answer: I have come full circle: to full on Waldorf from day 1 until grade 2 to full on unschooling for 3 years after that and finally back to a relaxed eclectic Waldorf-inspired roadschooling approach.
Our first year of unschooling was the year we spent in Costa Rica (from November 2011 to April 2012).

Aisha and Mara learned to read by themselves and they mostly draw, wrote stories and played all day. It worked really well and everybody was happy. Then, we left for our first year on the road and again, unschooling worked very well for the first 6 months of the trip. By then, the girls started saying they were bored (even if we did lots of fun activities together, provided plenty of things to nourish their passions, played endless hours of board games, etc.). Something was off. Their play was stagnating, as well as their drawing. They started fighting and arguing more… 

We came back home in Quebec some time after that (we still had a house there) and spend a year at home. As soon as we got back, they asked me to “do school” again. To my surprise, I felt myself resisting. I was such a convinced unschooler, that I tried to read into that request without “doing school”. I wrote more about this here and here



Exploring Josua Tree's amazing boulders
Here are a few excerpt from these posts:


Since we came back (and even a couple of months prior), our girls clearly indicated to us that they needed more structure in their days and weeks (it could be because this is what they were used to as younger children or simply a temperament thing). When we moved back home, I resisted creating a schedule. It was summer and who wanted to have a schedule anyways. Not me! But even with the vast amount of projects I brought forwards, the new board games and library cards, something was off (of course, the "re-entry" as it's called in traveler's lingo was hard on all of us... ). Mathilde kept asking to "do school" and I thought that all the artsy projects and games I was offering "should" have been enough.

Playing with seaweed on a beach near Santa Cruz, CA


"Mama, I'd like to do school", Mathilde said the other day. As an unschooling mom,  I was a bit startled... School? But we live as if school does not exist! How can my child want to "do school"? I paused and wondered what she really was after. More structured days? Inspiration? Connexion?


I am trying to go with it. One day at a time. Realizing even more everyday how impossible it is to draw a line and follow it forever. It is easy to feel like we have failed where we truly only adjusted instead of going against what seemed obvious.


I am still an unschooler at heart, as for me it means partnering with my girls to listen to what they feel is best for them at every given moment. When I remember that, the internal conflict dies down and I feel peace and harmony filling my soul and heart. Because in the end, this is all that matters. Peace, harmony, love and joy, not the labels we think describe us best.



Hiking in the Redwoods at Henry Cowell State Park



A bit reluctantly, I picked up the second grade curriculum we never finished two years ago and started using it, doing more formal school periods during the week as per the girls requests. They loved it. They were disappointed when we were not having a lesson in the morning... I was flabbergasted! I kept thinking it was the newness of it, but so far, they are truly loving it (and needing this very strong rythm or so it seems). Maybe it is simply a transition thing, maybe it is just what they need right now.But since we are in this for the long run (unless one of them feels like she wants to go to school, which isn't the case so far), I do not worry about keeping them at grade level. I have never believed in a one size fit all education program.


For me, unschooling is supporting our children in making their own choices. It is helping them follow their interests and passions. It is being present and listening to and even behind what they are saying. It is, I believe, the more involved type of education or parenting there is. I am involved all day, everyday with my girls. Their education and most importantly, their happiness, are at the forefront of my mind everyday.


Oh and if you think I felt like I have to save my girls from boredom, it's not the case!


So this is my very long answer as for why... now what has changed for me after coming full circle... Yes, I do trust my girls much more. I have also relaxed a ton. If you knew me in my Waldorf past life, you know how much of a perfectionist I was. Now, this year, I have worked hard to lay out a 6th grade curriculum that is very Waldorf-based, but I do not worry about them using the computer for a few hours after our main lesson to supplement their learning (and give me some time to work on my contracts). I want them to be more autonomous in their learning, to go at their own speed and to know how to learn. They are ready for online learning this year and with all the amazing online ressources, it's a win-win.

The other reason why I provide them with more academic grade-level learning is that at least one of them is very clear that she wants to pursue higher studies. And we can say what we want, catching up on maths when you unschooled all your life is no easy peasy task! As translators, we both want them to master their mother tongue (French) very well as they live mostly in English now.

But since we are in this for the long run (unless one of them feels like she wants to go to school, which isn't the case so far), I do not worry about keeping them at grade level. I have never believed in a one size fits all education program.
  
I have learned not to listen to the voice of fear that creeps in when I let societal norms and beliefs get to me. I have learned that I have much less influence on what my girls will become that I like to think (or used to think). I also realized that even if we want to believe as unschoolers that children know what they need, it is not the case for all of them. Mathilde was a great example of that.

So, as for most everything in life, I went from one side to the other and came back somewhere in the middle, where it feels just right for all of us right now. But I know quite well that this will keep changing and we will keep discussing and adjusting according to everybody's needs. And that is the beauty of homeschooling.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions you have in the comments! Also, if you know of a great online curriculum in FRENCH, I would love to know about it!


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Grade 6 - Geometry - Week 2



You can read more on Geometry in the Waldorf education program on my first post of this serie.

Here's what we did this week.

Day 1: I read chap. 8 and 9 in String, Straight-edge and shadows. We finished Key to Geometry workbook 1, we did the 3 exercises on p. 35 in Making Math Meaningful, then did card 20 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored that card into our MLB.






















Day 2: I read chap.10 in String, Straight-edge and shadows. We did about 8 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 2, we did the 1st exercise on p.36 in Making Math Meaningful, then did card 21 and 22 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored card 22 into our MLB.



Day 3: I read chap.11 and 12 in String, Straight-edge and shadows. We did about 8 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 2, then did card 23 and 24 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored card 23 into our MLB.





















Day 4: I read chap.13 in String, Straight-edge and shadows. We did about 8 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 2, we did the 2nd exercise on p.36 in Making Math Meaningful and made it into this drawing by drawing a circle from every 12 points around the circle. 



Monday, November 23, 2015

Grade 6 - Geometry - Week 1

Oh what a fun block this is! I could not squeeze it in 3 weeks, so decided to make it a 4 week block. We are working with great resources and are enjoying the blend of history, art and maths. Waldorf introduces geomety early on with form drawing (freehand geometry). Actually, in all Waldorf schools, the first day of first grade is about lines and curves. We go outside and try to find lines and curves in things we see... leaves, buildings, flowers, etc. It is truly a magical moment when the child realizes that everything is made of lines and curves! I still remember this very special day! And the second one! Through the grade, they's continued with running forms, symmetrical forms and Celtic knots. Sixth grade is really the introduction to formal geometry.

Steiner stressed the importance of teaching children how to use their imagination to see the form, or geometric shapes, not just the numbers and equations that many public schools focus on today.



I start each lesson by reading one or two chapters of the very interesting book on The Story of Geometry, which contains stories about geometers from ancient civilizations, some of whose only used strings, shadows and straightedges to lay the foundation of modern geometry. For instance, we studied Egypt and Mesopotamia last year and they learned how the rich land in the Fertile Crescent allowed people to begin agriculture, domesticating animals, and building cities. These things gave them more time for thinking, henceforth came some of the first geometric thought. The first calendars were believed to have 360 days, which lead to the circle being divided into 360 degrees. Finally, students look at, and work with, the division of circles into 360 degrees. Sixth grade geometry flows logically from this historical foundation as it builds and expands on these concepts.

I highly recommend that every homeschooling parent planning a homeschooling block on geometry watches this great talk by Jamie York, the author of Making Math Meaningful.

Other than these two books, I also used this Compass drawing book and the Key to Geometry workbooks 1 and 2.

So this week, we started with some basic geometrical constructions: line and angle bisection, right angles, parallel lines, the construction of triangles and quadrilaterals using a compass, copying an angle; construction of a parallel line and division of a line into equal parts.

Make sure to plan a lot of time for these main lessons (2 hours at least).

Day 1: I read p. 7 to 20 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, I gave each of the girls a geometric instrument kits and they played with them a bit (I showed them how each worked). We did about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, then did card 3 to 6 in Compass Drawing and finally draw this concentric circles (one inch appart) in their Main Lesson Book (make sure to buy a bigger MLB for this block with onion skins).


Day 2: I read chap. 3 and 4 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, We did  about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, we did the 3 exercises on p. 32 in Making Math Meaningful, then did cards 8-9-11 and 15 in Compass Drawing and finally reproduced and colored card 15 into our MLB .





Day 3:  I read chap. 5 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, We did  about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, we did the 3 exercises on p. 33 in Making Math Meaningful, then did cards 16-17 and 18 in Compass Drawing and finally reproduced and colored card 18 into our MLB .




Day 4:  I read chap. 6 and 7 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, We did about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, we did the 3 exercises on p. 34 in Making Math Meaningful, then did card 19 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored that card into our MLB .




And this is just the first week!!

Friday, November 20, 2015

Towards more automony

As the girls get older - and I choose to take more translation contracts - our goal is for them to be more autonomous in their learning. We designed a schedule together, so I don’t have to remind them to take clean their beds, brush their teeth, walk the dog, etc. every morning and so they can go at their own rhythm. I am not usually ready to start our main lesson before nine, and Aïsha, for instance, doesn’t like to wait for me. This way, she can do a few things on her own in the meantime. We have created a schedule that they can check (it is in a plastic cover and they use a dry-erase marker).


We have been trying different online resources for the past year and I think we finally found something that we all like to complement our Waldorf-based homeschooling. We are currently using Time4learning, Reflex Math, Brain Pop in French (for Mathilde) and some other online French resources. They are also doing a typing program in French. It feels good to see them more in charge of their schedule. We were all ready for that. Ready to move to a “non-mamacentric” way of learning. 




Monday, November 16, 2015

Grade 6 - Physics - Week 2 (light)

For this block, I took a lot from this mama's planning.We had another 4 day week.

Day 1 - we played with primary colors and ghost colors. When you look at the red circle for 30 sec or so and then look at a white piece of paper, you see a light blue circle appear (for the yellow, you see a light purple one and for the blue, a light orange/yellow one). Quite fascinating!


Day 2 - We talked more about complementary colors more in depth.


 Day 3 - We did an awesome experiment to explain what happens at sunrise and sunset. We filled a fishbowl (well, it was a wine decanter in our case!) and put a white sheet of paper beside it (folded so it stood by itself), then we shone a light through the wine decanter and we could see the silvery light on the white sheet of paper. While the light was still shining, I slowly poured some milk in the water and the light turned yellow, then orange! It is a great visual explanation of how why the sun becomes orange at sunset when it passes through a thicker blanket of atmosphere. It was fascinating!


 Day 4 - We experimented with the classical dispersion of light by a prism. Always beautiful to watch!


We changed our daily schedule quite a bit. I will post about this soon.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Grade 6 - Roman History - Week 4 and 5

All the ressources I am using for this block are listed here, under Roman History. It will be a five week block lesson. Week one is here.

I can't say that I am super happy of the last few weeks of this block. I didn't plan it as well as the first few weeksn since I didn't have all the books on hands when I did the planning. Also, we had a lot going on: eye doctor visits in Vancouver, fun hikes, two birtdays and great rock climbing in Washington. I am OK with that, but if you are thinking of following my planning, you might want to rethink those last few weeks. We were also short of about 4-5 pages in the Main Lesson Book, so you might want to condense the drawing + text on some pages earlier in the block.

During Week 4, we finished reading City and read parts of Augustus Caesar's World.






Day 1 - We read about the interesting love story between Marc Antony and Cleopatra in Augustus Caesar's World book (p.84 to 90) and the last few paragraphs of chapter 37 in Kovacs' book. 


Day 2 - I read about Augustus Caesar in Augustus Caesar's World bookp. 133 à 136, and added more to his story with this article from mainlesson.com



Day 3 - I read about Nero from mainlesson.com




















Day 4 - I read about Marcus Aurelius from mainlesson.com



Day 5 - I read about the Roman Gods in Augustus Caesar's World (p.159 à 165) and we draw a map of the Roman Empire.



On week 5, since our MLB was full, we simply snuggled and read the story of Daniel in the great book: