How did the second day of school go, you might wonder?
About as badly as the first.
It was destined to fail, to be honest. We had to get up very early to take Daddy to the airport. Then I got all turned around and lost, despite having the GPS. Coming home, I realized we were close to one of my favorite thrift stores, so we decided to stop. OK, that part was not awful. That part was kind of awesome. We got a Hearthsong set of stacking stars, two hardcover copies of the First Little House books, a Roald Dahl collection, a new Magic Tree House book for Nick, three hardcover Harry Potter books (I’m working on a complete collection for each reading kid), a Melissa and Doug spelling game, a fairy tale castle floor puzzle, a bag of really cute Fisher Price (plastic– gasp!) dinosaurs, and more I’m probably forgetting. Then I remembered I needed some greenies and fruits, so we stopped at Trader Joe’s for produce and a snack. When we finally made it home it was lunchtime, but we were still full from our snack. I knew how to spin it though– we would have a backwards day! Instead of lunch at lunchtime, we had read-aloud. Then my lovely daughter made lunch so I could catch a quick snooze. And I woke up to everything falling apart.
Children were bickering over who was supposed to clean up.
Assignment sheets now had mysterious smudges on them and were impossible to read.
My middle boys had once again disappeared.
The babies were dancing on top of the piano.
And the heavens opened and let loose a thunderstorm– thankfully I found my middle boys upstairs and not outside!
I tried to reign it all back in, but I still don’t really have a plan. So I floundered, children fought, tempers flared. Matthew bit Molly and left a mark. Daniel threw one of the new Hearthsong wooden stars at Michael, causing a bleeding head wound. I wanted to curl up in the fetal position under the table and cry, but instead I found a place where kids eat free on Tuesday nights and bribed the children to finish their school work.
Still, in the midst of the chaos there were moments like this:
As I mentioned yesterday, we’re using Oak Meadow for everyone this year.
Kind of.
I’m sticking pretty closely to the curriculum as written for my sixth and eighth graders, but tweaking it quite a bit for my kindergartener and third grader. I didn’t purchase the folk tales book and instead am trying to coordinate the lessons into a more typical Waldorf main lesson block format. We’re starting with Old Testament stories, and what better place to begin than with the creation of the world?
Spelling words, math practice, and handwriting are all flowing from our Old Testament stories. For Christian Ed, Nicholas is being joined by Daniel in Discovering Jesus in Genesis. We’re wrapping up the last few lessons in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading but really, at this point he pretty much has learned what the book wants to teach him. I just want to make sure we don’t have any dropped stitches.
Third grade is such a fun year– Old Testament stories, weights and measures, time and money, farming and gardening, and– I think this will be Nick’s favorite part– housebuilding! He has great plans to build a treehouse in the woods next to our home.
What are some of your favorite third grade resources?
