The Little School: September 2016

Kindergarten- Autumn Season

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Autumn Week One: Grasshopper and the Ants

The Grasshopper and the Ants

This first week we are starting with the story of the Grasshopper and the Ants. For those who don't know the story, it is a tale that really revolves around temporal perception contrasting the grasshopper who lives in the present and fails to prepare for the coming winter with the ants who 'make hay while the sun shines' and are mindful of their future needs. I used my own retelling of the story with an end that emphasizes the virtue of charity and also the grasshopper having learned his lesson and keeping an eye on the future going forward. In some tellings (including the original) the Grasshopper dies of starvation and freezing weather due to his own folly, while the ant coldly look on his suffering and allow him to perish. We thought this doesn't communicate our values so I altered it while still strongly emphasizing the need to be future oriented rather than present oriented. From this tale we also discussed the changes of the seasons, we spent time observing the way in which the garden has changed and discussed the ways in which animals plan for the coming winter. We discussed three approaches that animals take, Preparation (using the example of squirrels hoarding nuts), migration (using the example of whales) and hibernation (using the example of bears). We also have been reciting poetry, and spending time outdoors gathering the lat of our summer herbs and looking for signs of the season changing. One additional element is a 1935 Disney short of the Grasshopper and the Ants. It is similar in its telling to my version and a nice visual representation of the tale (8 mins long). In addition the girls have been acting out the story and we are spending time drawing and coloring images from the story like the one above, and doing various fall crafts to bring a sense of the seasonal shift into our home. Lastly, the girls make a soup nearly every day from the Waldorf book of Soups which I highly recommend, and in the morning I make a various breads to accompany their soup, which we have for lunch each day. So far this week, we had the Rosemary Red Soup with Fresh Irish Soda Bread, the Fresh Tomato Soup with fish crackers, and today we are having Cream of Broccoli Soup with cheddar biscuits. Making soup is really wonderful for the children as it helps them to feel useful, and be in touch with their food. We start the soup in the morning and it bubbles slowly on the stove until lunch time, filling the house with lovely yummy aromas and building anticipation for the healthy meal ahead. The girls take pride in carefully cutting up the veggies, sauteing and measuring the broth and making a tasty meal. Its great for all of us.

Our Philosophy

Thanks for stopping by the Little School. I'm so glad to introduce you to our little family and tell you about our new journey into our own blend of "education" styles. I am a mom of three little ones, my daughter Honeydo who is five, daughter Bumbie who is three and son Little Guy who is 6 months. I have always known I wanted to homeschool my kids for many reasons, but primarily I wanted them to have the freedom to learn through natural acquisition driven by their innate thirst for knowledge. My husband and I are firm believers in child-led and attachment parenting as well as giving our children a significant say in their own lives with gentle direction and facilitation. We view our role as being primarily nurturers allowing our children to grow into what they are meant to be guiding them partly by example, serving as protectors and being guides opening their eyes to all the world has to offer. Homeschooling suits this vision perfectly. I had intended to pursue my own take on unschooling, with the addition of fostering a respect and appreciation of history, culture and the arts and one's own ability to create things that are both functional and beautiful. To this end we will encourage the children to learn skills and crafts, learn to play instruments and make music, and gain a deep understanding of our history and humanity. Furthermore, I have found that the surest way to foster self-esteem is to pursue skills and be rewarded by the results. We want our children to have that satisfaction be a cornerstone of their lives.

We have settled on our own hybrid education philosophy. We are drawn to the beauty of Waldorf education and some of the unpinning philosophy as well, but differ from Waldorf in some ways. Unschooling (as it is often described) offers much of the freedom and self direction we believe in, but is a little short on specifically fostering opportunities in some areas we value, so we are taking the role of sharing our passions with our children, then leaving further pursuit in their hands. Traditional schooling doesn't have much that appeals to us, but our eldest is rather fixated on the imagery of "going to kindergarten" so we have decided to recreate a "schoolroom" of sorts to give her that sort of a flavor to her education, including her own desk and a bulletin board for a posting place for our work. We are making use of Waldorf materials and incorporating the concept of using a 'main lesson book' into our week as a way to beautifully record the adventures we have had and the knowledge we have learned. Additionally we are all studying Gaelic as a family, making use of many mediums, including Rosetta Stone, which Honeydo has taken to quickly. In short our "curriculum" such as it is, is a blend of elements all centered around our belief in following nature and the seasonal progression throughout the year and emphasizing free-form experiential learning, gathering skills, the arts as well as the magic of storytelling and a knowledge of history. We officially started on Sept. 4th and we couldn't be more excited to embark on this journey as a family.