End of year

It is the beginning of November and we as a family are exhausted! As I sit on the couch here and ponder this, I am noticing a pattern over the last four years. By the end of October we get TIRED.

So, taking this into account, I will plan my year next year around it, and start our school holiday the beginning of November. We will start school the first of February like we have done the past two years. This will give the children a three month holiday and me enough time to plan the next school year.

So what have we done this year?

Lets start with Caleb. Caleb has worked hard this year. His spelling has improved greatly. His reading aloud has improved - he still needs to work on it but the growth has been great. Writing has improved - he does not enjoy it but the easier it becomes the more he will enjoy doing it. We have done a good couple of main lessons this year. Starting with a joint main lesson with Hannah:

1. Man and Animal. (4 weeks)
2. Grade 5 Geometry (3 weeks)
3. Man and Animal (3 weeks)
4. Rome (6 weeks) - this was too long and I will make it into two blocks next time
5. Footprints on Our Land (3 months)
6. Geometry (3 weeks)
7. Geology (3 weeks)
8. Physics (3 weeks)
9. We have done maths every day
10. Grammar, English most days

From the creative, hands-on side, he has done woodwork, drama, recorder, piano, scouts, Junior Rangers, pottery, painting, modelling, knitting and cooking.

All in all he has had a very busy year.

Now for Hannah. Hannah seems to find academics easy, so she breezes through that with no problems. Her reading ability is way above average, reading aloud and silently. Her spelling is really good as well. But, when it comes to neatness of handwriting and workbooks, well that is another story! Hannah loves cooking and does about 30 percent of all the cooking in the house. She is learning to tidy as she goes, but again, this is the difficult part.

Main lessons that we have done:

1. Man and Animal. (4 weeks)
2. Form Drawing (3 weeks)
3. Man and Animal (3 weeks)
4. Norse Mythology (4 weeks)
5. Footprints on Our Land (3 months)
6. Norse Mythology (3 weeks)
7. We do maths everyday
8. We do grammar everyday

Hannah does woodwork, drama, piano, recorder. She did girl guides but has chosen to move to scouts. She did pottery, knitting, crocheting and felt making.

Sheth has been learning his alphabet, how to do form drawing, then we have been learning to write. We use block crayons in our main lesson book. We have done some wet on wet painting. We are learning our times tables backwards and forwards. We have also started to learn to read at a slow, steady pace. All in all we have enjoyed our school year.

Well what have I done? I have been the maid, the garden boy, the doctor, the wife, parent and friend. I have been a teacher for grade one, four and six. On top of all that I have studied this year. I have done seven courses:

1. Introduction to Thai Massage
2. Level One of Thai Massage
3. Thai Foot Massage
4. Lomi Lomi Massage Level One
5. Lomi Lomi Massage Level Two
6. Lomi Lomi Massage Level Three
7. Thai Massage Level Two

I have enjoyed this so much that I will keep doing courses next year, studying physiology and anatomy as well. Well to top it all off I have been asked to run and teach at the small local Waldorf school. This took much thought and consideration, and Greg and I have decided that it is not a good option for our family at this stage. I love my massage and want to focus on that!

Well to be earnest, just reading this has made me tired! I can now understand the fullness of our year!

I am definitely cutting Caleb's main lesson blocks next year. I think eight, three to four week main lessons will be appropriate. I will also do Footprints on Our Land with Hannah and Caleb at the end of the year, as the program is already written, so no prep work needed from me.

As you start panicking that you haven't done what you wanted to do this year, write down what you have done and I think you will be surprised.

Relax and enjoy the beautiful weather, your children and your partner.

Grade 1 curriculum: Book list

• How the Alphabet was Made, A Just So Story, by Rudyard Kipling
• Roots Shoots Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy
• Fly, Eagle, Fly an African Tale retold by Christopher Gregorowski
• Kalinzu and the Oxpeckers by Jeremy Grimsdell
• Once Upon a Time by Niki Daly
• All the Magic in the World by Wendy Hartmann
• Desert December by Dorian Haarhoff
• Where's Jamela? By Niki Daly
• One Round Moon and a star for me by Ingrid Mennen
• Not so fast Songololo by Niki Daly
• Lena's bottle tree by Wendy Maartens and Anna- Carien Goosen
• Old Bob's Brown Bear by Niki Daly
• The Gift of the Sun by Dianne Stewart and Jude Daly
• Mama, Papa, and Baby Joe by Niki Daly
• Charlie's House By Reviva Schermbrucker
• Nama Kwa's garden by Mary Clanahan
• The Dove by Dianne Stewart
• Grimm's fairy tales.
• Pooh bear stories by A.A. Milner
• Pelle's new suit by Elsa Beskow
• The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Von Olfers

These books are great and my children enjoyed them up to grade three and some of them beyond that.

Grade 1 curriculum: Letters

Introducing the lettersA fun way to introduce the alphabetical letters is through stories. The grade 1 child is still in the fantasy stage of life, wanting to play with dinosaurs, fairies, princes, princesses, etc. So, why not bring this into their school work. The ideal way to bring this in is in a three day rhythm.

Day 1. Tell them the story. Have a picture about the story drawn on the black board so they can look at it while you are telling the story. Then after you have told the story, draw a picture about the story. Your child may copy you or draw their own picture. Bring the letter you are introducing into your picture.

Day 2. Remember the story from yesterday together. Prompt the child to help her remember. Write a sentence about the story on the board and have the child practice writing it. Model something from the story with modelling beeswax or plasticine.

Day 3. You could do a wet-on-wet painting. This is a very basic water colour painting done on wet paper. Then write the sentence you practiced yesterday into your main lesson book.

Things to do when introducing a new letter or number for that matter.

1. Form them with beeswax or plasticine.
2. Paint them, heaven to earth.
3. Draw them in a same tray.
4. Make them with rope, string and blocks.
5. Make reading rings.
6. Learn poems about the letters and numbers.

Stories for each letter
A
Hay for my Ox
Magic Spindle
B
The Three Bears
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Queen Bee
Snow White and Rose Red
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Mother Mary's Child
C
Dick Whittington and His Cat
White Cat
Hungry Cat
Canoeing Story
Poor Miller's Boy and His Cat
Puss and Boots
Companionship for he Cat and The Mouse
D
Hansel and Gretel
The Donkey
Snowflake and the Dragon
Singing Soaring Lark
Mother Holle
E
Golden Key
F
Fisherman and His Wife
Lambkin and the Little Fish
Frog Prince
G
Golden Goose
The Goose Girl
Grey Brown Horse
H
Mother Holle
Fisherman and His Wife
The House in the Forest
Hansel and Gretel
The three Feathers
Hut in the Forest
Seven kids and a Wolf
I
King's Son Who Feared Nothing
The Secret Name of the King
J
Jack and the Bean
Water for Life
Jack Frost
Jorinda and Jorinda
The Jew Among Thorns
Clow of God
K
Any King Story
Three Languages
Our Lady's Child
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
King of the Golden Mountain
King Thurshbeard
L
Cinderella
The Prince Who Feared Nothing
The Singing Soaring Lark
The Elves and the Shoemaker
M
Simeli Mountain
The Castle of Flames
N
Nix of the Mill Pond
Mother Inkle
The Nail
O
Gnome
The treasure Chest
The Proud Prince
The Goose Girl
P
Peter and the Wolf
Prince Hyncinth
Dear Little Princess
King Thrushbeard
Snow White and Rose Red
Briar Rose
any Prince or Princess Story
Q
(introduce with U)
Mother Mary's Child
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfes
The Goose Girl
Queen Summer
Queen with am Umbrella
R
Rumpelstiltskin
Runner
Little Prince am school
The Lordly Cock
Small white Snake
S
The White Snake
Six Swans
Discontented Stream
Three Snake Leaves
T
Three Little Men in the Forest
The Tree and the Boy
Mr. Who
The Singing Soaring Lark
The Prince Who Feared Nothing
U
Queen's umbrella
V
Nix of the Mill Pond
Mother Mary's Child
Snow white and the Seven Dwarfes
Valley of Weavers
W
The Crystal Ball
The Fisherman and his Wife
Water of Life
Little Prince at School
X
Brother Ox and Brother Ass
Four Skillful Brothers
Mix of Milk Pond
The Three Feathers
Y
The Y in the Road
Z
The Golden Key
The Crooked Man (Nursery Rhyme)

As you can see you can use a story for two or more letters. I would introduce about three letters a week. This does not have to be in alphabetical order.

Teaching vowels, grade 1.

Today Sheth and I learnt about how special vowels are. We started off by making a vowel caterpillar. This is hanging on the wall so that we can see it all the time. We have a tiny tail piece that has Y in it, for those special occasions.

I then told Sheth that every word has to have a vowel in it. I asked him to give me words to write down and then he underlined the vowels. This was fun and he loved doing it.

We then sang our vowel sounds and we tried to hold the sound as long as possible.

He proceeded to read 4 early readers to me. When he was finished I gave him a treat and sent him outside to play.