BLOWING DUST OFF THE BLOG

I'm all ready to start the school year. Very excited and waiting for word from the school as to what we'll be using them for this year.
Here is what I sent in to the Ministry with my registration form



Since April Nature Girl has been home schooling part time on a trial basis. Our concern was dealing with her school anxiety and providing one on one remediation in a low stress environment to deal with her dyslexia and dyscalculia. At the end of the year she was reading above grade level, making great strides forward in her willingness to write, and with supports (a lot of manipulatives and talking through the work) she completed the grade 3 math curriculum satisfactorily. Her math anxiety is still very high and as she has sequencing difficulties, multiplication is not something she can understand without manipulatives.
In 4th grade we intend for her to continue attending school on a part time basis. What classes she will be in school for will be determined by her school schedule (won’t be determined till late August - September) so our home based curriculum choices may change. I am including a full program to cover the entire curriculum.
Maeve will be doing a combined 3-4 year at home so we can address the areas where she needs remediation and slowly move into the areas where we know she will have difficulty (like fractions)
Enki Education (used at the Shambhala School in Halifax) provides the philosophical framework for our home school year. As this is a holistic integrated cultural curriculum all subjects will be taught within the context of cultural immersion. The arts - music, dance, theatre, and visual arts are woven tightly into the cultural immersion.
Autumn – Algonquian Culture
Winter – Hebrew Culture
Spring – Central Asian Cultures (in particular Mongolian, Tibetan, and Eastern Iranian)
Our focus this year will be on universal basic needs – food, shelter, and clothing. These themes will be woven into all subjects as well. We will be examining our relationship with plants and animals in the natural world as well as though local agriculture and the history of agriculture.
We will be visiting the library weekly and Maeve will be encouraged to begin using the library for research purposes as well as for reading entertainment. This year we will concentrate some time on library and internet research skills. My resource list only reflects what I have at home; the library will provide more resources, particularly in the social studies section.

A SAMPLE OF RESOURCES WE WILL BE USING
English Language Arts
Enki Education Teaching Guides Grades 3 and 4
A Path of Discovery – Grade 3 and 4 – Eric Fairman (Waldorf Teacher Grade Notes)
Writing Road to Reading - Romalda Spaulding
Games for Reading – Peggy Kaye
Games for Writing – Peggy Kaye
Making Words – Patricia Cunningham
Visual Tools - for differentiating reading and writing instruction – Roger Essley
The Festival of Stones – Autumn and Winter Tales of Tiptoes Lightly by Reg Down
Snip, Snap, Snout A Waldorf Reader for Extra Lesson Work by Arthur Pittis
Word Play Café by Michael Kline
Putting the Heart Back Into Teaching A Manual for Junior Primary Teachers by S Maher & Y Bleach
A Journey Through Time in Verse and Rhyme Collected by Heather Thomas
Phonic Rhyme Time – Mary Nash Wortham
Mathematics

Enki Education Teaching Guides Grades 3 and 4
A Path of Discovery – Grade 3 and 4 – Eric Fairman (Waldorf Teacher Grade Notes)
JUMP Math Teacher’s Guides Grades 3 and 4 – U of T Press
Active Arithmetic – Henning Anderson
Math Art – Carolyn Ford Brunetta
Games Children Play – Kim Payne Brooks
Teacher Mentor – Dr John Grant McLoughlin at UNB
Physical Education and Health (Preferably with school, but classes within local community if inaccessible)
Enki Education Teaching Guides Grade 3-4
A Path of Discovery – Grade 3 and 4 – Eric Fairman (Waldorf Teacher Grade Notes)
The Extra Lesson – Movement, Drawing and Painting Exercises to help children with difficulties in reading writing and arithmetic – Audrey McAllen
Take Time - Movement exercises for parents, teachers and therapists of children with difficulties in speaking, reading, writing and spelling. – Mary Nash Wortham
The Family Virtues Guide by Linda Kavelin Popov
Yoga
Swimming
Skating
X Country Skiing
Hiking
We are participating in the Wolfville Farmer’s Market’s Buy Local Challenge (Health and Nutrition tie in with Social Studies)
Music (Preferably with school, but in local community if inaccessible)
Continue with Recorder
Continue with Choir
Science
Enki Education Teaching Guides Grade 3 and 4
A Path of Discovery – Grade 3 and 4 – Eric Fairman (Waldorf Teacher Grade Notes)
The Private Eye: A Guide to Developing the Interdisciplinary Mind through hands on thinking skills, creativity, literacy, and scientific literacy - Kerry Ruef
Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World – sierra club books
Keepers of Life: Discovering Plants through Native Stories and Earth Activities for Children – J Caduto
Keepers of the Animals: Native American Stories and Wildlife Activities for Children – J Caduto
Keepers of the Earth – J Caduto
Native American Gardening – M Caduto
Native Dwellings Series by B. Shemie
Housebuilding for Children by Lester Walker
The Jumbo Book of Nature Science by Pamela Hickman
Art
Enki Education Teaching Guides Grade 3 and 4
A Path of Discovery – Grade 3 and 4 – Eric Fairman (Waldorf Teacher Grade Notes)
Learning about the World through Modelling: sculptural ideas for school and home - Arthur Auer
Global Art Mary Ann Kohl and Jean Potter
Discovering Great Artists Mary Ann Kohl and Kim Solga
Storybook Art Mary Ann Kohl and Jean Potter
Artist to Artist – Eric Carle
We will be working a lot this year with practical arts relating to food shelter and clothing – weaving, knitting, sewing, pottery, shelter building on human and model scale.
French (Preferably approached in school as well as at home)
Rather than follow a packaged curriculum we plan on introducing French in songs and games and books on tape with accompanying picture books.
Social Studies:
Keepers of Life: Discovering Plants through Native Stories and Earth Activities for Children by J Caduto
Keepers of the Animals: Native American Stories and Wildlife Activities for Children by J Caduto
Native American Gardening by M Caduto
Native Dwellings Series by B. Shemie
Turtle Island by Jane Louise Curry
Tales of Nanabozho by Dorothy M. Reid
Red Earth: Tales of the Mi’kmaq by Marion Robertson
Glooscap and His Magic by Kay Hill
The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet by Joseph Bruchac and Thomas Locker
Nanabosho Dances by Joe McLellan
Northwoods Cradle Song: From a Menominee Lullaby by Douglas Wood
When the Chenoo Howls – Native American Tales of Terror by Joseph and James Bruchac
Giving Thanks A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp
Thirteen Moons on Turtles Back A Native American Year of Moons by Joseph Bruchac and J. London
http://www.native-languages.org/algonquin_culture.htm
Old Testament Stories: Manual and Storybook Christopherus Homeschool Resources (Waldorf Homeschool)
God’s People: Stories from the Old Testament – retold by Geraldine McCaughrean
Hurlburt’s Story of the Bible – Torah Section
Nattali the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus – by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Celebrating the Jewish Year: The Winter Holidays Hanukkah, Tu B'Shevat, Purim by Paul Steinberg
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/12_home.html
http://www.torahtots.com/educmtrl.htm
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/HOAI/adultmain.cgi
Iran – Rebirth of a Timeless Empire – Rene Maheu and Jean Boissel
Shahnameh – translation by Dick Davis
http://www.art-arena.com/cotw.htm
Mountains of Tibet by Mordicai Gerstein
Explore Tibet by Kimberly Evers
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/jataka_t.pdf
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/jtwebv1p.pdf
The Country of Mongolia & Mongols – Zeev Rosen
Suho’s White Horse: A Mongolian Legend Suekichi Akaba
My Little Round House by Bolormaa Baasansuren
http://mongols.mrdonn.org/dailylife.html
http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/stuart1.htm
The Farmer’s Market Game – Family Pastimes
Geography for Fun Projects: With Hands On Experiments and Activities on Seas, Mountains, Ecosystems, and much, much more by Pam Robson
Hands on History: Homes by Rachel Halstead and Struan Reid
Song of the Earth – The Magic of earth, fire, water, air by Mary Hoffman
The Spirit of Canada: Canada’s Story in Legends, Fiction, Poems, and Songs by Barbara Hehner, editor

You know, this simply can't capture what we're up to here. It falls flat. My big deal right now is how will I capture this oh so busy year (really two years because we're doing a sort of combined grade 3-4 curriculum with the Enki grade three developmental thread as the warp thread (all the social studies goodness) and the grade 4 standards for math and english and math as the weft.

A better feel for things? Well I'm contacting all of our favorite vendors at the Farmer's Market and organizing 100 mile diet field trips to understand what it is they do exactly. We're going to be hand building a whole lot of structures this year - starting with a greenhouse and ending with a post and beam playhouse (or chickencoop if we ever sell this house and move to where we can get our chooks) We're looking at participating in RIVER OF WORDS too.
My goal is to work so holistically this year that it LOOKS like unschooling, and never ever gets Nature Girl's back up about not being able to DO IT. I'm not at all sure that is possible, but keeping the math off paper as long as possible MIGHT accomplish it. We will see.