First Day of School pictures
Kindergarten is the best! It's all fun and games and baking and stories and walks in the woods. What's not to love about kindergarten?
Because in the past I've had a tendency to let kindergarten go by the wayside when things get busy with my grades children, I decided this time around to go with a pre-planned kindy curriculum. I decided to go with Waldorf Essentials because I just knew that Preston would connect with the Super Sam stories. My hunch proved correct. I have loved having all the baking ideas, songs and verses, nature table ideas, and other activities already there for me if I choose to use them. I have supplemented with some of our favorite songs and verses, many from the Seasons of Joy curriculum that I've had for years, and extra nature table ideas and activities from Earthways by Carol Petrash.
All ready for story time on the first day of school Candles provide both children a focal point to help them pay attention.
Table puppets and other props help the ongoing story of Super Sam the Gnome come alive for Preston. I tell one installment of the story each week, and by Friday, Preston can easily retell the entire thing. In fact, recently he has become so enamored of the whole experience that he wants to jump in and help tell the story--to his own liking--from Monday onward. I am thrilled with how successful our storytelling experience already is! Preston tends to be more of a "practical" little guy. In his play he spends most of his time building and arranging things, so having him participate so readily in my attempts to develop his imaginative side is very rewarding.
We try to make a morning walk part of every school day. Luckily our neighborhood is a beautiful place for this activity.
We cook or bake at least once a week specifically for kindergarten. Here Preston is chopping peaches to make cookies as part of our story theme. (Pardon the messy kitchen--this is real life homeschooling!)
Now that I have a kindergartener again, I am recommitting to the nature table. We dyed the bottom silk ourselves with turmeric. I love how Waldorf Essentials generally has an idea for each week of something to put on the table. This first week was "mineral week", so only rocks are on display. There aren't many varieties of rock in our neighborhood, but we found a few. I splurged and ordered a sample of citrine online so we'd have an orange-colored rock to go along with the "peach" theme in our story.
On the second week, "plant week", we had no trouble finding material to display.
On the third week, we added animals.
Another September highlight was a visit to an apple orchard.
Being in nature is so important for young children. We accompanied Sariah to a homeschool day at a nearby state park.
Preston was happy to be included.
We picked our own marigolds to use in dyeing silk for the Michaelmas festival.
Notice there are no academics in our kindergarten. Preston, however, is picking up a lot of things on his own. He can identify numbers up to about 12, knows letters P and O, and wants to write his name. I love that these things can unfold at his own pace, according to his own desire, with no pressure whatsoever.
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