Math Cards

I've been wanting to make these, and the alphabet version, for a while now. Grimm's sells lovely sets of both, and I've gone back and forth about ordering them. The prices are reasonable, but we're on a tight budget right now, and I literally had everything I needed to make these. I haven't worked much with watercolors, so I wasn't sure how the letters and numbers would turn out, but I decided it would be silly not to at least try.

Fortunately, I'm mostly pleased with the results. I made three sets of numbers, plus the basic math symbols.

I took sheets of our 8x11" watercolor paper (already painted) and used my rotary cutter to cut each one into 12 3x4 inch rectangles.

I found that it was best to use cards without too many different colors (don't worry, I am saving the rest of these lovelies for another project!) and to use a darker color in a similar shade for the number.

They were actually very easy to make. If pressed, I might even admit it that it was kind of fun. Ariana stayed up late and helped me with them. Actually, she made one number, a slightly wonky "6".

And just when I started feeling superior in my watercolor number painting skills, she showed me these:

And these:

And then I totally felt like an artist, because some of the backgrounds she used were mine! But seriously, aren't they great? I can't wait to frame them. They're tiny, so I'm not quite sure how yet, but I'll post pictures once they are done.

I also have these, that we'll be using with the math cards. Here's where I deviate a bit from traditional Waldorf:

These are Montessori inspired bead materials that I have been making for what seems like years now. I changed the colors from the traditional Montessori colors, so they match the colors of our Cuisenaire rods, which we'll use later on.

We have "gems" to use too, of course, but after a certain point, I find that children (and by "children," I mean my one other child, who I homeschooled years ago) still like to use the beads, but are beyond needing to count out every number for every math problem, which can get a little tedious after a while. This is a nice in-between for them.

In Perpetuity

I don't know why I've been doing so many little wooden crafts lately. I think I love that they are quick to get out, set up, and put away. They also don't require a lot of space while you are working on them, and can often be finished within a few hours. I guess I actually do know why! They're perfect for me right now.

I saw a darling little perpetual calendar on Pinterest recently, which linked back to the Mamaroots blog. If you're not familiar with that blog, I suggest you get over there and start reading! Her calendar was a little different than mine, with unfinished wood blocks and a sweet gnome to go with the month: Mamaroots: Weekending and September Beginning.

I decided to paint my month blocks, because I just learned how to use watercolor paint on wood (not that it's difficult--you just paint it on!), so why not make everything rainbow colored?

I got a bunch of these unfinished wooden rectangles from a thrift store, in with some math supplies. I wasn't sure how they'd be useful for math, so I've been using them for crafts instead. These are wider on two sides, so I couldn't fit four months on each block, like I'd originally planned. I think it worked out well with two months per block though. The little card stand the calendar sits on is another thrift store find.

The small number blocks came from a craft store (Hobby Lobby, I think), and they also sell sets of stamps with all of the months and numbers 0-9. Which was perfect. Much better than my original plan of buying two alphabet sets of stamps (uppercase and lowercase), and stamping on each letter individually. I had enough trouble keeping the month stamps straight. I think that the other method would have been a perfectionist's nightmare!

I didn't plan on the cards. I bought these seasonal post cards by Ruth Elsaesser forever ago, when I was homeschooling Ariana (she graduated last year!), and sort of tucked them away and forgot them. I rediscovered them recently, and think they're perfect for this.

Lissie is in charge of changing the numbers each day, the months each month, and the little postcard pictures whenever she is ready for a (seasonally appropriate) change.

Blessings Book

One of my favorite things about Waldorf education is the use of little poems and verses. It's also one I haven't done especially well with. I'm great at finding them, organizing them, categorizing them, basically everything except actually using them (I know! Story of my life). I think the problem I have, is that I just forget. When I'm in the kitchen baking, I don't have my binder with verses neatly labelled and categorized, I don't have my books with pages thoughtfully marked and folded. I don't have anything to remind me.

I got the idea from a couple of different places. My mother-in-law went through training to become a Love and Logic instructor a few years ago and when she was done, she went through all of the materials with Brad and me. When we were done, she gave us a little ring with laminated papers of different colors and sizes on it, each with a little tip printed on it. And then I saw this post from the Chocolate Eyes blog, and how she used watercolor paintings as covers for her index cards for circle time. I thought that a combination of the two would be a perfect way to put together a little collection of verses to use throughout our day. It's small, it's light, it's convenient to carry around, it's beautiful, and it put a nice dent in our accumulation of watercolor papers!

I included a few centering verses for myself:

Some morning verses:

Mealtime verses:

Verses for work:

For peace:

And for bedtime:

I was going to write the verses directly on the watercolor paper, but it's not the easiest thing to write on, and I wasn't happy with how they were turning out. Instead, I printed the verses and cut them out. I debated whether to make all the papers the same size, but in the end, I decided I liked the idea of each verse being its own size and shape. I think that will help me remember what's what.

Lissie had a lot of fun matching each verse to paper. I just taped the printed paper onto the watercolor paper where I wanted it, then cut around leaving about 1/2 an inch around the edges. Then, we punched holes in the corners and put them all on a ring. The ring makes it easy to add and remove verses if we ever want to change things.

This was so much fun to put together, and I'm so happy with the results that I'm thinking about making another one for seasonal verses. I imagine it won't take me too long to memorize a lot of these and get into the habit of using them, but in the meantime, I'll be happy to have this lovely little reminder with me throughout the day.

Getting Ready

Tomorrow we start school. I think I am ready! Lissie just turned seven and we will be doing a Waldorf based first grade, using Christopherus as our guide. Maxine will be turning three soon, and I will be continuing to do some of the things we did last year from the Christopherus Kindergarten book.

I'm still using the same old binder system that worked so well for us last year. This year, instead of a sheet of lined paper for each month, I upgraded to a printable calendar. I think this will make it easier to jot things down and keep track of dates. It certainly looks prettier too! This allows me to have a section for each month, and in each section, I can put printed stories, poems, and crafts that fit with that month, season, or whatever main lesson block we'll be working on then. It really helps keep me organized, especially when I won't be using something for a few months. I'm definitely an "out of sight, out of mind" person, so knowing I can just flip ahead to any month and find the things I need is huge. I plan on keeping these binders intact, so in a few years when it's Maxine's turn, I'll still have everything together.

I also upgraded the binders with labels, so I don't have to pull down seven identical white binders to find the one I need. I used watercolor paper to make the labels, and I love how they turned out.

I've been looking forward to starting first grade for a while, because it's the first academic year in Waldorf schooling. This year, we'll be making main lesson books (all yellow, because Mercurius only sells them in packs of ten now). I've seen some beautiful examples of main lesson books, and I think Lissie is going to love that part of school.

Another new thing is that Lissie (and I!) will be learning to play the pentatonic flute. I'd hoped to get one last spring to learn on, but with Brad still out of work, I kept putting it off. They're not cheap, and I was debating whether to wait, to skip it, or to start with something less expensive like penny whistles or plastic recorders. My dad felt it was important for her to learn on a real instrument though, and generously offered to buy the two flutes and a curriculum for Lissie's birthday.

The flutes are by Choroi, and I chose to use David Darcy's book Playing and Teaching the Pentatonic Flute and the Pentatonic Recorder. Honestly, there aren't a ton of options out there, and they all seem good, but I've read nothing but rave reviews about this one, and it's what Donna Simmons recommends. I've been going through it, and I think I'll be able to pick it up fairly quickly (maybe my elementary school recorder playing and junior high school flute playing will finally come in handy for something!). Teaching it? We'll see. That could be a whole other story!