I think I need to clarify my plans for this summer. We will continue our Enki throughout!!! However I will not be introducing new topics or lessons within a "lesson" format. So basically we will be continuing..
- Morning rhythm
- Yoga
- Movement (continuing to add new songs and movements so we are in full gear by this fall)
- REading summer nature stories at bedtime
- Reading our Jataka tales as a family
- Independent reading (GM from his Waldorf Reader, GD from the books of his choice)
- We are doing a Cultural Art series this summer in Santa Fe. So this will be the craft portion for us right now, however it is a great program with tinwork, weaving, retablos etc.
- Math will be via experience, mainly in cooking and construction but also in some family games.
- Adventure Bags: We got each of the boys a nice canvas bag that hangs cross shoulder from Williamsburg a few years ago. GM calls it his Adventure bag, he keeps some paper for spontaneous Origami, some pencils and a nice mini sketch pad I got him. He takes it with us everywhere and will often stop and make notes. Im happy to see this spontaneous writing from him and will be letting that unfold naturally a bit this summer. I see the seed is there and growing, so I want to be certain not to smuther it out with too much formalization. GD writes continuously, so his seed is in full form and will be ready this fall for his first grade lessons on writing etc...
- Watercolor painting. We will be beginning to explore wet on wet watercolor painting. GM loves to do this, and with the warm weather it is the perfect time to be outside on the porch painting.
- Evening Rhythm
So I guess when I say we arent going to be doing lessons, what I mean is we wont be doing any formal "blocks" we will be using this time to explore, and experience. We will be mindful of our time and pulling our rhythm together. Along with all the other stuff I listed in the previous post, health, house, rhythm, garden etc....
Having the rest of the first Grade materials now available will be a terrific help to me with both the first AND the third grade planning. Being able to see the nuts and bolts of the daily process will help me to better form what I am planning for third grade. Im very excited about this coming year. I feel so much more prepared and I feel that taking the summer to re-read the Foundations Guides and reading through the books again and again will help me to really feel good this year, instead of feeling like I am barely a minute ahead of the kids with my planning. This will be a big relief. With the house stuff done too, I will be able to focus all of my being to the kids and what we are doing with our time together. I can hardly wait. I cant stand feeling like my focus is so divided. Getting the house stuff done, and spending the time with planning will hopefully really help to support me and my health. I feel that the areas that we fell behind on this year stemmed from my own exhaustion and burn out. So I am trying to be realistic and mindful of setting myself up in a good position for potential success.
4 comments:
You really sound at peace with your plans for the summer. I have to admit that my daily rhythm has slipped away, and will continue to slip as we start Girl Scout camp next week.
This looks great, Kari. I envy you the Cultural Art series you are doing - it sounds perfect!
We'll also continue with Enki during our break (in the fall). In fact, it seems to me that the only thing that takes a "break" is the focused academic time and the skills practice. Hopefully that frees up enough time to actually plan the next grade.
Yeah, camps can really throw a wrench in the spokes of rhythm cant they!!! We have one for GM in late July early August (one week) where he will get to go and work/learn at one of the wildlife refuge's here. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. :-)
I agree Kimberly, I am trying to figure out how to make the rhythm the second nature around here so that breaks actually do feel like breaks. LOL
Although, we may skip a walk here and there or yoga or something, but Im telling myself that those things are finding their way into our rhythm in different ways. Just not in a block of time that we usually have them. Although, life is better inside of our rhythm, so you would think I would be better at commiting ourselves to it. UGH, it is such a struggle for me.
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