~ first grade ~

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Welcome to First Grade Lela!

We started our adventures in home learning on a rainy Labor Day,

with a simple and special ceremony for Lela.

Daddy set up the screen porch in the back with candles all around,

turned on our rainbow twinkle lights

and set the little table with a pretty cloth (a flat sheet) and more candles.

Meanwhile, I took Lela out onto the front porch,

and read her our first story of the year.  

We're using Enki curriculum as our guide,

and the story we chose is called Little Falcon.

~ golden oak gates rise up from the ground, guiding the child where gifts can be found ~

I gave Lela a beautiful pouch, just as Little Falcon received in the story from his mother,

and asked Lela to walk, alone, around the house, going through our big privacy fence gate,

to the screen porch at the back of the house.

She was greeted by cheering, clapping and hugs from her momma, daddy and her sisters.

I presented her with an arrowhead that I had found as a child,

and her very own ball of yarn, wound into a neat cake.

We feasted on warm bread with dipping oil,

and listened to the rain and smelled the cooler weather.

By the magic of the blog, 

I can make Lela's First Grade Basket,

with her pouch, yarn and beanbag,

appear to have been made ahead of time!

(In reality, I found the baskets and drew her butterfly symbol that evening after our supper.)

After our snack and relaxing, 

I led Lela upstairs to the hallway outside the bedrooms,

where I had setup a cozy space for her to hear the story.

I had wanted to tell the story from memory,

but in the end I read about 70% of the time, told about 30% of the time.

It was a story very appropriate for a first grader,

but it was designed to be told in two parts and so was long.

She listened quietly, staring into the candle.

But when I was finished, she immediately said,

"Loooooooong!" 

Haha!  It was a very humbling and humorous moment for me.

The next day, after having the night to digest the story,

and after enjoying time outside and having a short, fun movement circle (more details later!)

and after having a snack and some warm herbal tea,

we began to work with it artistically in the lesson books I created for us.

We also read the verse from the story,

which I had written out beautifully on a separate sheet of paper.

This story has two potential letters, G and M,

and I decided to bring out both.

I created this chalkboard drawing,

my first attempt at the Waldorf-style of drawing.

Even though it was beautiful,

it was distracting to Lela as we were working together on our drawing.

She kept looking over at it, and finally I asked her if it was bothering her,

and she said yes, and I suggested that we cover it up.  

Here is Lela's first drawing!

I was very impressed with how she took to this new style.

I have always worked with the girls to draw using little short, light strokes,

so they are used to drawing without outlining

(which they definitely do at times, particularly with an image they draw a lot).

But the Waldorf-style requires forethought, 

and gently shading in the backgrounds first,

applying layer over layer as you work towards more detail.

This was not new to me, since I paint watercolors in this way,

but it was my first experience with this as a crayon drawing.

My drawing didn't have as much detail as I'd done when I practiced the day before.

I felt like I needed to keep it more simple,

because I was worried about her somehow feeling inadequate about her drawing.

(We've experienced this before.)

But she really took to the concept, 

and was excited to work in the details and make the drawing her own.

We followed the lesson time with continued digestion of the story!

Some very messy, fun digestion!

That afternoon, I found that Lela had recreated, 

using the same background-to-detail technique,

her drawing on our chalkboard.

The third day we began to work academically with the story and images.

We read our verse, then I told her that a letter was hidden in the picture I had drawn.

(Lela already knows all of her letters, can write the uppercase versions, and knows some of their sounds.

We still are introducing each letter through story and art, because there's so much more here than academics!)

She immediately found the "G" and we traced it with our finger, made its sound and a 'G' word.

Then I provided a soft line for her to work with on her paper,

and after watching me first,

we drew the letter in uppercase and lowercase - 'big brother and little brother'.  

This was her first time making the lowercase letter, and she loved it!

She also really wanted to decorate her page,

and I really didn't have a good reason to stop her. :)

~ "G....guuuuuh.....gates" ~

The second letter in the story was a little more hidden, but she found it quickly.  

M is a letter that she knows well, as it was the first letter she ever learned.

We traced it, made its sound and then said an M-word - mountain.

She was once again excited to make the lowercase letter.

I tend to make things into kinesthetic and/or musical exercises,

so for the little 'm' we said:

"Make a straight line.

Then bump,

Bump-down."

We then wrote the title of the story, and a word for each letter.

Lela chose "Golden" and "magic".

Notice how the title is a little crooked, with a tad bit less 'care' - I forgot her line.

I remembered for her words, and it is evident that she took more time with them.

I particularly love how she wrote 'magic', with curving edges,

adding some yellow for beauty at the end.

By comparison, mine is more stilted and certainly less alive.

I was going slowly, as we were writing in a new way, 

and I was describing the letters as I went along.

After this lesson,

she was ready for some expanded play!

It took quite a while because she really wanted to decorate her pages,

and besides, having two letters took more time.

By the time we finished reading the verse and picking out the "G" and "M" words,

Lela was thoroughly done, though not discouraged and not resisting.

I could tell that she had reached the end of her ability to focus on such a contracted activity.

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We went on to read another story that day,

and did another letter in the 3-day rhythm that Waldorf/Enki employ.

This feels like enough to share for right now, 

though I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the week.

I would still like to share our 2nd story.

Thanks for reading! 

~carrie~