Planning for January

I've been making plans for January. I feel like I've really strayed from what I want to do, Waldorf-wise. I don't mind giving things up because I've made a conscious choice to give them up, or because it's honestly best for the family (Michael will not and cannot knit, and forcing him to is just no use or sense) but I do mind giving things up out of sheer exhaustion or confusion.

So... I've been thinking and planning. One conundrum is how to do a main lesson for both Katie Grace and Michael. Another is how to fit the early childhood stuff in for Nicholas. A third is how to balance this all with a babe.

We do religious ed together. We read a devotion together every morning. We use Day by Day Devotions by Karyn Henley. I feel like this really helps with Biblical literacy. If it's a saint's day or a feast day, we add that to our feasts and festival main lesson book. In January, we celebrate St. Basil, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neuman, Epiphany, the Baptism of our Lord, St. Anthony, St. Agnes, Our Lady of Peace, the Conversion of St. Paul, Sts. Timothy and Titus, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. John Bosco. Throughout January, we'll be focusing on the names of Jesus. My plan it to turn this into handwriting/form drawing by having them copy the name (print for Katie, cursive for Michael) and adding a border.

Michael and Katie Grace will both carry on with their math lessons. This is something I've compromised on because I want to. I'm not enough of a math person to put the time and energy into math main lesson blocks. I just can't think creatively with math. So, we use Oxford-Sadlier's Progress in Mathematics and gnome it up when we can.

Katie is working through The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading and Michael is in the orange book of Learning Language Arts through Literature, although we're pretty selective about what we do.

We're working our way through The Story of the World and are still in Egypt. We'll also be focusing on water cycle stories and activities this month. This should lead in nicely to making paper snowflakes.

Michael will have a one or two week main lesson on telling time. We're going to make a ribbon watchband if I can find "boy" ribbon. We'll also be making a calendar with saints' days, holidays, and family days. I'd like to make or buy a seasonal wheel like this and start making a timeline book or notebook. We might even take a field trip to the Clock Museum.

Katie Grace's main lesson will be Roman Numerals. Since Michael's will be first, I haven't started planning this yet.

With Nicholas, we'll be focusing on gnomes-- gnome circle, felt gnomes, gnome stories and songs and poems. Most of these I've gathered together already in Seasons of Joy.

I love how By Sun and Candlelight writes "themes" for each month. I might try to work on this tonight.

I finished my schoolroom cleaning, reorganizing, and decluttering today. But I can't take pictures because the camera is still lost. I am beginning to fear it is Gone with the Trash. I've looked in all the usual places-- the mantle, the piano, the computer desk. I've looked in some usual places-- the freezer, the basket by the telephone, the car. I've even looked in some absolutely stupid places-- the mudroom, a basket on top of the hutch, the box we keep the wine glasses in. ANd it's just nowhere to be found. Which is a shame, because the baby had an awesome bubble beard tonight. I even thought for a brief moment about scanning him.