School for all Seasons

Seasonal Homeschooling

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:43:00 +0000

Article: Seasonal Homeschooling

This time of year in North America is brilliance

of color and the crisp autumn breezes blow in

a longing for coming together and celebrating family.

Homeschooling in nature can be a teachers dream and

a child's playground. There is so much for the senses to

behold!

The smell of fires burning and apple, pumpkins and hay.

Feeling crunchy leaves, nuts, pinecones to collect for play.

Tasting apple cider, pumpkin pie and other tasty treats inspired

by the outdoors harvest.

Allowing children time to explore and commune with nature can be

the best “teacher” around. For, what could be better than a child

learning animal behaviors, finding birds nests and eggs by actually

experiencing life outdoors.

Here's a few tips for seasonal homeschooling.

*Use what is around you- learning counting or simple math? Use acorns, rocks, shells
or whatever is locally available. Collecting is part of the fun. Besides being economical,
it teaches what bounty is right in your backyard.

*Nature Journals can be a great way to document what is happening for an older child.
They can write and draw what they see while they are outside in their favorite tree.

*Use the festivals. Fall has many great festivals to celebrate and this is a great time to make a bonfire, roast some marshmallows and explore your nature area. Invite some other homeschooling families to make it really special.

*Create a Nature Table. A seasonal or monthly table to display current findings is a wonderful way to bring a hint of nature inside. Make sure to make safe for very young hands.

*Carve out Nature Time. Give your child “free play” time to roam, explore and just “be”. It is amazing what they will learn during this unstructured moments. Sometimes learning happens in the best more organic ways. ;)

Perfect Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:46:00 +0000

I have tried for years to make a good bread by hand and each time have failed in one way or another. The bread doesn't rise has been my main challenge or it is all mushy inside (undercooked).

But, I was determined to find a recipe that would really help me step-by-step with wonderful ingredients to sink my hands into.

I found it! The blog Farm Fare had the perfect one for me.

It worked the first time, but just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I made 3 more loaves and to my delight (and my family's stomachs) we now have homemade bread in the pantry and freezer.

I plan to make the recipe (which makes 3 loaves) each Sunday so we may have our organic bread at a fraction of the price and honestly- I love the fact that I made it with my own hands. :)

Summer Review

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:28:00 +0000

As we are passing the summer days, I spend time listening to the endless chatter of my
2 almost 9-yr olds. I notice a few holes in the learning and where a bit more help
might be needed.

They are both reading daily as they love it! So, this is helping them progress on.
I had planned on continuing the multiplication tables and will start this in the next week
or so.

We did a time review, as one of my girls was not quite getting how to tell the time
on an analog clock. I found a pretend clock with moveable hands I had purchased years ago and after a few minutes and lessons, she gets it!
It is amazing how when they are ready or just need a small review, the learning
happens magically!

I also got them each a spiral notebook where they can write messages to me. This is a great way to keep the writing going. I gave one of my girls 4 words (just picked any!) and she had to create a short story (3-4 sentences) using those words. Really fun! And she came back for more ;)

I have sifted through my stack of books for planning grade 3 and discovered a LARGE pile
of guides and stories I never got to during 2nd grade. I perused through and saw some things
I know would be beneficial. My solution? Use them as a review this summer or during those first weeks of the new school year.

I probably will do some of it this summer in a very casual way. Not "Here is our lesson". I may just start reading a story or draw a few words on a black board.

It is so nice to just know their skills so well, I can tweak or add as needed. More benefits
of homeschooling!

Would love to hear how your summer planning is going...leave a comment if you have a minute

July 4th Activities

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:37:00 +0000

We started sewing this lovely bunting with out friends from Atlanta.
Here are the steps we followed if you are interested in making one. It was very
basic if you have some sewing skills. I have always wanted to make one and now I plan
to do more for other festivals and seasons!

Here is the tutorial I used to sew these

Enjoy! Would love your comments and ideas for other colors or uses

Riding down a southern country road

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:11:00 +0000

We started biking each morning before the heat sets in.

Today, we went a new way to our local grocery. Amazingly,
we discovered an unpaved road. There are still some around
here.

So, here are the girls biking happily down a sandy, gravel street.

I love that we have many places that we can get to by bike. Though we
do have a busy street, Highway 17, we go the back roads or the bike trail.
We can get to 2 grocery stores, bank, my favorite coffee shop, several
restaurants, post office, the beach, a great consignment shop and the library!

A lovely beach town we live in. Wanna come visit? ;)

Spelling & Reading Review

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

We have started reading again after a few weeks "down time" and I am noticing the holes
and places that need a little work. Having twins does not mean they are in the same place!

I got them new books to read and we have started playing games while walking or riding our bikes. I say a word and they spell, or we work on vowel sounds and how they fit into the words.

Today, I decided to get them each a notebook for writing back and forth with me. They are both in very different places with reading and writing, so this will not hold one back or make the other feel "behind". For my beginner reader we just wrote sentence back and forth, I did not correct the spelling, but if there was a word I didn't understand, she had to fix it. For my upper level reader, I gave her 4 random words and asked her to write a "story" using those words. What fun she had and a very cute story ;)

I plan to do some of this as well as after lunch reading in our hammock, to keep things fresh, but in a very relaxed state this summer.

Summer Solstice

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Summer sun, summer sun we watch as you set Sending your long arms of light to the west Summer sun, summer sun you shine so bright As you begin your return to the night
-from Circle Round

We began the day with a sunrise on the beach. It was so magical and we saw 2 loggerhead turtle nests!

When we came back home we baked sun cupcakes with a sprinkle of darkness (chocolate chips) I got a great idea from the Circle Round book. The girls made time capsules with items like a letter to themselves, the top 10 things they love, pictures etc. to be opened next summer solstice. They loved this! They spent all afternoon working on it and even decorated the shoe boxes with suns. We also planted sunflower seeds saved from our sunflowers from last year.

Our day ended with a bonfire using our winter solstice Christmas tree. We did the turning dance around the fire and let go of any things we wanted to release (for hubby and me).
Magical day.

Fathers Day

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:52:00 +0000

The girls spent hours designing and creating a wonderful beeswax
"dad" in a fishing boat. Modeling our latest fishing boat adventures,
they added every detail down to actual fishing line for the pole!

We prepared a nice breakfast for daddy followed by a relaxing day, a bike ride to his favorite coffee shop for frapps, then my mom and dad came over and I cooked dinner! We even had homemade peach cobbler from local peaches.. it was a wonderful to treat him like a king for the day! (but I am glad he is back to cooking today!)

Spring Celebrations

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 01:14:00 +0000

We had a wonderful 1st Day of Spring. The weather was wonderful and we were able to
enjoy the day. We started with a Spring Poem.

Last year we saved pepper seeds from our garden, so we planted them today in our eco-pots. Still a bit cold here, we can bring them in if the nights get below 40.

Then, we picked our young lettuce from the garden for a spring salad. The girls went searching throughout the yard for other 'edibles' they could add... dandelions, mint, herbs, and viola flowers were selected.
Lily even went a step further and made her own salad dressing from water and herbs!

Lovely Day :)

Planting the early garden

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:20:00 +0000

A few warm days and my hands are back into the earth tilling, weeding, digging and removing debris.

We had some winter veggies that didn't make it through our unseasonable cold winter. The broccoli made it and if we can keep the rabbits from munching the leaves, it should grow quickly.

New plants that went in include cabbage, lettuces, more broccoli, parsley. Seeds we sowed were snow peas, beets, spinach, swiss chard, and lettuces.

What fun to keep an eye on small shoots coming up just in time for spring! more gardening coming soon...

Candlemas

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:54:00 +0000

We had a lovely time making our own candles this year. As we had just finished talking about time, seasons and calendars, it was perfect for discussing Ground Hog day, coming of spring and how people in pasttimes used candles in their lives.

A few notes on candlemaking* get all supplies ahead of time and read instructions carefully. I found a nice library book called "Basic Candle Making" that was very helpful and had a lot of pictures. This is a long process that cannot be rushed and you can't stop in the middle. Give 3 hours or more.

Here we heated the beeswax until it melted in our make-shift double boiler.

I stared the candle by dipping each wick for 1 minute in the hot wax. It made the wick stiff when it cooled. Then it was an "assembly-line" production. The girls each dipped and I would get the kinks out by running my finger down each candle to straighten it.

After about 10 dips they began to look a bit like candles. We made our own drying rack out of 2 chairs, a broom handle and a garden stake! The tiny ones on the garden stake became our birthday candles. So cute!

We ended up really needing more wax, because when they got to this point the wax was too low in our dipping can, that it made fat candles on the bottom and thin on top. But, we love them! We finished by rubbing them slightly on some waxed paper and trimming the bottoms.

We are wrapping and giving them as Valentine's Day presents..
*note* we used a large Bushs Baked bean can to melt our wax in and it worked great. The only expense was for the beeswax blocks (much cheaper than the pellets and can be cut with a sharp knife) and the wicks.

Seasons, Calendar & Time Block

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:56:00 +0000

When I planned out my blocks for this 2nd grade year, I purposely set this block for January. The New Year celebration seemed to lend itself to this as perfect timing.
We started talking about the new year (think whole to parts)... then we went into Seasons. Of course, we have been talking seasons for years, but we started with Winter and then went around the year.

The Calendar we decided to make is more of a Wheel of the Year.. see my pic below. This is a beautiful way to illustrate the seasons with pictures and mark birthdays and other holidays and festivals.

They quickly learned the Months verse."Thirty days has September, April, June and November...."

Then we drew in our Main Lesson Books pictures of the months and a verse about each one. This was an extended lesson on writing for them. But, they loved drawing the monthly pictures. In most, they drew the same tree, but with different leaves and scenery depending on the month. Even though they knew the seasons, they seemed to really "feel" this by drawing it out.

We drew out a full calendar page for February in which we will document the weather and phases of the moon each day.

Time was a lot of fun to discuss. We talked about the ancient clocks: shadow sticks, sundials, hourglasses and candle clocks and why people need to know what time it is.

Due to rainy weather, we made our own tree (tall candlestick) and used a flash light to demonstrate the sun rising in the east and setting in the west and how the shadows looked. The girls loved this! I think it turned out better because they could control the sun!

We then made a clock. (This was so easy and fun!) We painted our paper plates, drew on the numbers talking about minutes and hours and where they are on the clock. I brought in a lovely clock we have on the wall and showed them.

Catching a Hummingbird

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:03:00 +0000

Saturday morning was cold with a chance of snow flurries, but that didn't deter us or Hummingbird expert, Doreen Cubie from setting our sights on catching a hummingbird.

We live in a temperate climate and about 4 years ago I noticed a little hummer still coming to our feeder well after Thanksgiving. I checked it online and that led me to Doreen's site. She lives about 30 miles south of me and was interested in coming and trying to tag our bird. It was magical! She caught our young male Ruby throat and my then 4 year olds were mesmerized! She returned the following December and almost caught another, but he outsmarted us!

Right after New Years Day, I noticed a male Ruby-throat at our feeder! We have had one of the coldest winters on record here, yet there he was. I changed out the frozen water and cleaned up the feeder. Then I saw him again last Tuesday and emailed her. It was perfect timing for her as she is traveling all over the south catching birds and she happened to be here this week.

She arrived at 7:30am and it was about 32 degrees. She said they usually come quicker when it is cold, because they need the sugar water to get going. She set up her bird-cage trap around our feeder.

It only took about 10 minutes before we spied the hummer form my office window. He went to the cage and tried to get in, he went around to the door opening and flew in to get his morning "coffee". She has the door on a long piece of fishing line. When he flew in she pulled the line and the door shut. She carefully took him our and put in a mesh bag. Brooke got to hold him. See him at the bottom? His beak was sticking through and it felt like a sharp needle.

Then Doreen takes him to her "lab" (back of her truck) and looked for any tags. We thought he may be our bird from a few years ago, as she had re-tagged many birds that return to the same place each winter. But he has no tag. He is a full male that weighs about 3.2 oz about the weight of a dime!

She tagged his foot and then wrapped him in the toe of a stocking and fed him from my feeder. he drank and you could see his throat moving and his tongue!

Here he is. His throat looked quite orange and she said that was an older male.

Then we were done and ready to set him free. As before, the girls put their hands together and Doreen laid him gently in and removed the stocking. It takes him a minute to realize he isn't bound anymore. This one was really ready to fly away- he stayed only long enough for me to click this one picture, then flew off!

What magical fun!

Three Kings Day

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:07:00 +0000

We had such a wonderful day last week, I wanted to share.

I started by reading the story of Babushka from Family, Food & Friends. Then we made our Three Kings cake (gingerbread this year!) I strung up the 12 stars to represent the 12 Days of Christmas, as this is the 12th Day. We sang the song of Babushka (Sing a Song of the Seasons) and I cut the cake into 4 yummy slices. Each of us chose a slice and Lily got the coin!

She is King for the Day.

On Saturday, we celebrated a Family Day by going to a quaint cafe and having a hot chocolate with roasted marshmallows (toasted in front of us!) and then we went bowling!

Winter Crafts

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:03:00 +0000

A very good friend of mine, Illya, gave me a beautiful knitted/felted bowl yesterday. I wanted to share this with you because I really love it AND it is an easy project to make.

It seems this time of year lends itself to snuggling up on the couch and pulling the knitting basket close. I am comforted every time I feel the wooden needles and the wool yarn wrapping around my fingers. Maybe it is that inward breath we feel during the dark, cold days. We don't feel compelled to "do" things, especially outdoors. It is a time for reflection on the year past and planning for a new season of in and out breaths.

Here is the link to pattern she sent to me.

I would love to know if you decide to make one, send me a picture! I am going to start one next week as soon as I get some double pointed needles :)

Holiday Memories

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:08:00 +0000

I have been so busy this holiday season with normal busy stuff and also planning our my business for 2011, so I thought I would just put up 1 post that will "catch up" the past month!
I am dedicated to more frequent posts next year ;)

Hope you all had a wonderful season and are looking to the new year for joy and inspiration for all your dreams!

Thanksgiving at grandmas

Celebrating Advent

The Tree

Making homespun gifts, the girls really did well sewing on my machine.

Lily snapped this one of me knitting a cowl (while working at my desk)

Here was the finished product. My first attempt at circular needle knitting. I am making more!

The Family Holiday card

Night of a Thousand Candles at Brookgreen Gardens

Brooke lighting a candle at our Winter Solstice Festival

Baking Day with Grandma

Winter Solstice Table

Snow!!

Winter Festivals

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:13:00 +0000

Did you know that Advent starts this Sunday? The winter festival season will be in full swing in just days. Are you prepared? Thinking back over the past few years, I have learned so much about the true meaning of this "season". This is what I love about Waldorf, it has turned out 1-day big-bang into 6 weeks of gentle, thoughtful giving, celebrating and creating.

We start by making our Advent wreath. I use the same grapevine wreath each yr and we add greenery from around the yard. I found a 5-candle holder in black iron that we will slip into the center and add candles. Each week we add the corresponding mineral, plant, animal, etc.. and lit the 1st, 2nd, third candle counting down to Christmas Eve.

My favorite part of this breathing in season, is the Winter Solstice. We do our spiral on that night complete with greenery, apples and candles. We have dinner by candlelight and the kids adore it! They talk about it all year..
To hear more about these wonderful festivals and to get stories, ideas, verses and more check out my newly released workshop & guide- "Winter Festivals Made Easy"
It includes history and ideas about: Advent, St. Nicholas, St. Lucia, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice and Christmas. Waldorf teacher Anne Cleveland from the Santa Cruz Waldorf School is gracious enough to share her wonderful experiences with us! If you are unsure of what to do or how to do it, she will ease your mind and give you the best tip- creating an inner experience for you and your family.

Blessings to all!

Geometric Math

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:58:00 +0000

We spent the last 2 weeks following part of Eric Fairman's Path of Discovery 2nd grade guide. I loved the concept of Geometric Math and since this was our first Math block this year, it was a gentle interactive way to re-introduce.

Here are some of the pictures and drawing we did. The girls really enjoyed this and I did too. It was amazing the "feel" they got from walking and drawing these designs.

The last part was to tell the story of the Circle & the Square and then free hand draw a square within a circle. However, there was no story given in the guide. So, I made one up I thought you may enjoy it and feel free to adapt it for your lessons.

The Circle and The Square:

Once there was a circle laying flat on the ground. He didn't mind looking up at the clouds going by during the day and the twinkling stars at night. But, one day he heard a lot of noise and fun coming from down the street. The more he listened, the more he wished he could go see what was happening that seemed like so much fun! If only he could life himself up, maybe he could see. He struggled, and struggled and then- he was up! Wow, he looked around by turning himself this way and that. He could see all around and he heard the commotion coming from the next block. The circle started rolling down the hill! When he got to top of the next hill, he spied a square, laying around as he used to be. He told the square his tale of lifting himself up and heading toward the fun sounds. the square wanted to join him. He lifted himself up and looked around. But when he tried to "roll" he just kept falling down. The circle got an idea and asked the square to jump up into him and hang on. Then away they went!
They found a carnival at the end of street and what fun they had rolling around checking out all the sites.
(I used a lid from a jelly jar as the circle and a square post-it note to demonstrate while I told the story)

Enjoy!

The Spiritual Side of my Life

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:02:00 +0000

With my interview with Neale Donald Walsch, author of "Conversations with God" today, I have been looking at the spiritual side of my life. I have also taken a look over the past year of my business and seen the way source has weaved its energy into my success. This amazing little book has introduced me to a new concept which I have just implemented called, tithing. It is something I heard about years ago but didn't understand until I read the chapter in this book. It is: giving back to a place or person of inspiration. This is much different from my visions of donating weekly at a place of worship.

If I hear a piece of music that inspires me, read a book that uplifts me or just get some advice from a friend that offers me hope. That all counts! She calls it "spiritual food" and it is what makes you remember who you are, feel joy, get inspiration or know everything is going to be alright.

I am in my second week of tithing 10% of what I earn through The Waldorf Connection. At first, I felt hesitant, but after sending someone that first check, I felt great! And now I am on the "look out" for more inspirations. This is how it works. You will start to see the good out there. And the universe always gives back to you what you are giving to others. Check out the book, it could change your whole perceptions around money & abundance and giving.

Toothless!

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:27:00 +0000

My "baby" finally lost that big front tooth this weekend. I say "baby", but as you know I have twins, so that is impossible. But, she is my smaller less-tooth-loosing sweetie. In fact, her sister lost her front tooth almost 1 1/2 yrs ago!
But, here we are and it was nice to have that time in between, so this seemed like a big deal again.

We had a very busy weekend with visits from the ToothFairy and the Sugar Sprites (did you leave out your candy??) As well as Halloween activities and it is also mu husbands Birthday! Yikes!

A Fortune Teller and a Fairy set out on the candy hunt.

"Mrs. Applebee" made an appearance and went trick-or-treating last night at the girls requests. She brought her pencil and ruler and used her "school marm" charm to keep the kids in line. LOL

Happy Birthday sweetie!

First Weeks of Fables

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:20:00 +0000

Our fables are going well. I chose to do wolf & dog fables first, as my twin girls are really into wolves at the moment. We did The Shepherd Boy & the Wolf (the boy who cried wolf). This was important as one of them is going through this phase right now.
During writing our sentences, I highlighted the nouns in "orange" but without explanation, as recommended by Eric Fairman in his Grade 3 Path of Discovery.
Then we did The Wolf and The House Dog. I decided to mix things up a bit and create a moving picture in our main lesson books. See the picture, it was so easy and the girls loved it! They re-created the story several times while "acting it out"

I also introduced punctuation, as Lily is reading so well, she needed to have this so her reading out loud would be easier. I created a fun punctuation game! First, I wrote a sentence on the blackboard 4 times.

I am hungry.
I am hungry!
I am hungry?
I am hungry, thirsty, and tired.

I explained each ending punctuation and comma. Then they had to walk across the room and when I siad the punctuation, they had to act it out. Example- they walked while I said "I am hungry" period. (stop) then they had to stop.

When I used the exclamation mark they jumped! Question mark was a shoulder shrug and holding arms up like "I don't know" and a comma meant a -pause- and then continue walking.. What fun! And it really was exciting to bring movement into the lesson. They got it!

We also made these orange bird feeders from Rhythm of the Home summer edition. The girls hng them in their nature house (a thicket of bushes they play in)

Tall Tales Block

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 12:11:00 +0000

We began our 2nd grade school year with an alphabet & number review. The girls wrote all the letters in their main lesson books and this let me know what still needed more work.

Tall Tales was a fun way to begin this quirky 2nd grade curriculum. I wasn't sure how the stories would be received, but they really seemed to enjoy them!

Our first tale was not a popular one, but it is a "girl legend" called Dona Flor. Set in New Mexico, this giant woman helps the village with their "big mountain lion" by discovering he is only a baby roaring into a hollow log from atop a mountain.

Next, we did John Henry and Paul Bunyon.

We were also reviewing vowel sounds by bouncing a ball, bean bag tossing and just reading some basic readers. Brooke was needing a bit more practice and someone recommended "Reading--literature: the primer" by Harriet Treadwell. It has been amazing!

Here was a fun blackboard drawing of Johnny Appleseed sleeping under the stars with his fire smoking. I really like using the chalk!

A Painting day gave us a chance to paint covers to our main lesson books. This helps us know our own (yes, I include myself as I have one that I work in). I ended up buying thick drawing pads from the craft store with a odd picture on the cover, so these wet-on-wet's are lovely to hide that.

The girls write the sentences and decorate around the page with form drawings.

We spent time learning "camp fire" songs like "I've been working on the railroad", "Dinah won't you blow your horn" and the girls favorite, "Clementine".
I think at this point they have a good foundation of reading. Lily is reading almost any book she finds around the house and Brooke has grasped the basics enough to move forward.
Next up, Fables.

Michaelmas

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:10:00 +0000

Our festival this year was extended due to 5 days of rain. We spent a rainy day telling a lovely story by Christine Natale from her "Fairy Tales" book called "The Strong Boy".

While I told the story, we warmed our beeswax. Then we each made part of the dragon and fastened him to the candle (by using a hair dryer on low). He came out amazing and honestly,they did most of it.

See the fire coming out of his mouth? We did add his 4th leg before he went on the candle.

The next day, I told the story of St.George and the Dragon and we made the dragon bread.

Here he is before we baked...

The girls enjoyed decorating his body using raisins for scales and sunflower seeds for teeth and spines. Last night we had a bonfire, lit our candle and slayed our dragon. He was tasty!

I found a Form Drawing that looked like an eye and we drew our "Dragon Eye" in our main lesson books. What fun!

The winner is...

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:36:00 +0000

The winner of the Little Acorn AfterSchool Guides is: mommystinch
Please email me at donnaashton@thewaldorfconnection for info on claiming your prize!

Thank you to all who entered! And Thanks to Eileen at Little Acorn Learning

More blogging coming soon...

Donna

Little Acorn Learning contest!

noreply@blogger.com (Donna) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:22:00 +0000

Win a FREE Autumn After-School Guide and After-School Menu from Little Acorn Learning

For those of you with younger children or who are supplementing Waldorf into after-school time, Eileen has created the After-School Guide & Menu. The ideas can also be used with older children as weekend activities.

After-School Guides include Book ideas, Weekend crafts, Handwork, Verses & Songs, Stories, Recipes and more!
The After-School Menu (Autumn) has recipes, ideas, & schedules for Snacks, Dinner, Dessert, Weekend breakfasts, morning & afternoon snacks, lunch, dinner, & desserts. whew!

These afterschool guides were created to help parents and caregivers of all
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children. These guides may be used with children attending traditional
schools, Waldorf schools, private schools, childcare centers or with
homeschooled children as an after-school and weekend tool to extend their
Little Acorn ‘Learning’. The afterschool guides were born as a result of Eileen’s blog post entitled Waldorf Afterschooling which you can read here:
http://eileensplace.blogspot.com/2010/01/waldorf-afterschooling.html

You can read more about Eileen Straiton and her Little Acorn Learning offerings at Little Acorn Learning

A special thank you goes to Marianne Frost who has contributed greatly to this project. Marianne has brought extensive experience and life to this project. She is a mother to five children, grandmother to four and seasoned Waldorf and public charter school kindergarten teacher of 20 years. Marianne later opened her own Waldorf inspired, nature-based Playgarden in Sonoma, California. She now lives in Chicago, IL, working as a professional nanny, bringing Waldorf inspiration into private homes while expanding her experience through writing. Among her consulting advice and seasonal ideas, Marianne’s beautiful color stories, monthly handwork project and insightful extended learning tips are included in these guides for you to enjoy.

It is our hope that our journey and experiences as two women on different points of very similar paths will help guide you in your most very sacred work as mothers, fathers, teachers and caregivers by humbly offering you the following guide.

**To be entered in our drawing, sign-up for Little Acorn's mailing list and come back and comment here!