Advent chain

I didn't get around to ordering an Advent Calendar, so we settled on old-fashioned paper chains. They tear off a link each day. Oh, and I couldn't find purple paper anywhere in my house, so we used blue. I'm letting go of my perfectionism, day by day!

And a story from today: I overheard my 3yo talking to a friend and he said, "I can't wait until Christmas because we will have lots and lots and lots of..." [I'm holding my breath, praying he doesn't say presents] "...snow!" [Phew!]

Advent ideas

(sara): Advent begins in 2 days. It's such a great day to make "new year's" resolutions.

I am resolving to do more catechesis, the Good Shepherd way. Very soon I will have 2 kiddos who are 4 & 6, perfect ages for this type of learning. Here and here are the posts from last year describing the first week of Advent activities. Here's the post that contains beautiful clip-art images which can be used with the weekly presentations. And here's the post descibing the figurines Amy & Anne made last year.

The ideas for making Advent meaningful are limitless; you just have to decide what excites you, what you have time & energy for, and what will work for your particular family. For dozens of other ideas and inspirations on Advent, here's a lovely collection by blogger Jennifer Miller, well worth reading.

Here are some conversations about using a Jesse Tree.
Here are some conversations about using O Antiphon meditations.

This blog post shows a beautiful Advent wreath, and also has links to a nice liturgical calendar poster. And finally, the awesome-as-ever collection of Advent & Christmas posts by Elizabeth Foss here.

Saint Nicholas Day

(sara): I have most decidedly been away from this blog & just trying to stay afloat in my home!! This year has been so crazy for me. The past few days I've been trying to take some deeep breaths and motivate myself to get ready for the upcoming new church year.

With children in my life, celebrating the Liturgical year is no longer something to do, just when I feel like it. Some years we will do more, and some less, but celebrate we must!

Thankfully we put in some time last year preparing for Advent, so that box will come out of the storage room, mostly ready to go. This week I am attempting to purchase on-line the gifts we will give our children for St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Day, and Epiphany. (One gift each per day, or one larger gift to share.) Because we didn't celebrate St. Nick's Day (Dec. 6th) as a child, I have researched this tradition the past few years, and am trying to establish our own traditions for my children. This website is a good place to start.

Blessings out to all of you who, like me, are trying to get motivated to start a new year with our families!!

this is one sturdy shepherd fold!

Here.

Montessori on a Shoestring - book

This website tells about a new publication for moms implementing Montessori. Scroll down and you can view a few of the pages free. There are some cute (and cheap!) ideas in there. I heard about this from 4Real.

early reading materials

(sara): I'd love to be posting more CGS presentations, but ds3 is so ready for more reading materials. Ds5 kindof skipped this part... but lately I put together what is known as "pink reading" materials in our classroom. I put the consonant "sound bins" in this shoe organizer on the closet door:


Each one contains a sandpaper letter, a letter book (from Discovery Toys), flashcards with words and images, and images without any words on them, which are used for a variety of activities. These were made from sticker books found at Target, and laminated.



I recently cleaned out my kitchen cupboards and was appalled at how many plastic containers I have accumulated. I decided to use these for the vowel sound bins:

And these for digraph (i.e., ph, sh, th, etc.) sound bins:

We also use the book Phonics Pathways extensively. There is a game at the beginning of this book called the "short vowel shuffle" to teach the short-vowel sounds. We have been playing it this past week - the boys love it!

making bead material

(Sara): I really love Montessori math. Unfortunately (or should I say, of course!) it's the most expensive category of materials to purchase, and time-consuming to make. Because I have had the hobby of making & repairing rosaries in the past, I had most of the tools needed to make bead material. I just haven't had much time.

Here's how I made my "golden bead" material. Yes, the beads are traditionally wooden, not black. But that's what I already had at home. I bought the wire at Walmart. Thread 10 beads on at a time,

and then make a 90 degree bend on the end of the wire, about 1/2 inch in length.

Use a needle-nose plier to bend the wire back the opposite way, forming a loop. Close it so the circle is snugly formed.

To make hundred squares, I wove wire around 10 of these, just enough to keep them snugly together. I made 1 large and 3 small sets of number cards on cardstock.

I have made the small bead stair in the same manner, using appropriately colored beads.

I have purchased other math materials, including number rods, the stamp game, addition strip board, multiplication and division boards, and squaring chains. I'm always happy to address questions on any of these materials.

survival mode...

(sara): Two of the most-frequent contributors to this blog have recently had babies. That means that our families are undoubtedly in "survival mode" for at least a few weeks (or months.) That's just the nature of life with a newborn: sleep deprivation, the need for physical rest, visitors, adjustments all around.

Before the birth of our latest child, we started having a book or feast of the day, as mentioned in a previous post. This project has turned out to be a big help in keeping the learning going as we navigate these crazy days we're in. It ensures that my 5yo has his "daily dose" of good literature and handwriting practice. The posters I ordered from the CatholicCompany were just what I hoped they'd be (except that they are too big for my handy-dandy planning binder!) There are interesting pictures of the feast day on the front, and biographical info. on the back. It only takes us about 5 minutes to read, but provides fruitful discussion for the whole day.

comprehensive lists

Montessori For Everyone sells these pdf. files that are "Comprehensive Lists" of all the main Monressori activites. They begin with toddler (18 mo. - 3yo) and move on up.

A book or feast for each day...

(sara:) I recently bought a book-stand at Walmart. (The 2 round things on it are magnets.) Every morning we are picking a different book to be our Book of the Day. Although we (or the 5yo) read several books a day already, I'm hoping that this will help us remember to read a variety of books. We have accumulated quite a number of books in recent years, and some of them seem to get "hidden" in the bookshelves. Occasionally library books get returned that I haven't read with the kids yet. I think this will help.


Underneath the book-stand is a journal where the 5yo writes the date and title of each book, each day. He has always been a reluctant writer, like many boys his age I think, but this is a simple, short task to let him practice a little bit each day. As time goes on, I think he'll be proud of the progress he'll inevitably make.



Now alternately, I intend to occasionally substitute a poster to celebrate the various liturgical feast days. So far, I only have posters of the 12 apostles, which were cut from an old (free!) parish calendar and laminated. (11 onto red for martyrdom, John on white.) This Sunday we celebrate Peter & Paul, and instead of displaying the "Book of the Day", I'll display this:




I have long wanted a system to organize liturgical feast days. I'm starting with an accordian binder, large enough to hold posters. I know some moms actually use 365 manilla hanging folders for their work, but that was too much for me. I have ordered 2 packets of Saint posters from the Catholic Company - I've never ordered from them before, and hope I won't be disappointed. I also have countless holy cards that I'll eventually add to this collection.

Creation Presentation

Anne: Jen, Amy and I completed the Creation Presentation this past week. Here's my finished product with all the layers.To make the script better accessible for myself and to help my 3 1/2 year old do it on his own afterward, I made index cards for each layer/feature of creation that you are to add.
The front has a picture of the felt piece he is supposed to add next and the back has the 'script help' I wrote for myself.

organizing materials

I wish that I had started doing this 3 years ago!

I have a whole closet dedicated to storing "school stuff", which I know is a luxury not everyone has. Yet I let that closet became one of those from a comedy, where you open the door to a falling avalanche of unorganized piles.

Not any more!

I buckled down the past week, emptied out the whole closet, sorted materials by SUBJECT, put them in their own labeled containers, and put in shelving that actually works. Now when I want to get out something in particular, I can actually open the door and find it - imagine that!

low tide & handwork

I read a post recently by a homeschooling mom who chooses the phrase "tidal homeschooling" to describe her family lifestyle. Depending on all the different variables that affect a family from day to day and week to week, some seasons school is in high gear, some seasons it's in low gear. Instead of following a schedule ruled by the clock or the calendar, she just lets things happen according to whatever rhythms are set in place and out of her control, without stressing about it.

So far, this is how my own experience with raising our children has been. There have been months that I've felt great and we tried a lot of new things and learned in a very "Montessori" way. Other months, like the current one, we are completely low-key and in a very "unschooling" way of life. We're spending long hours outside, learning games like chess and checkers, finding new games to play on the computer, and listening to books on tape. Our latest favorites are CD recordings by Jim Weiss. We have 3: King Arthur and His Knights, Greek Myths, and She & He: Adventures in Mythology. I didn't know if they'd be worth the $, but my 5-year-old is completely captivated by these stories. He rested on his "new" bunk bed this morning and listened for an hour. When we get in the van to go somewhere, he asks, "can we listen to the stories about King Arthur?" And I am really enjoying listening, too. It takes my mind off everything else!

Speaking of distracting my mind, I decided out-of-the-blue to learn how to knit. Both Montessori and Waldorf schools encourage a lot of hand-work by the young children. They even teach their boys to knit and crochet, which I'm not sure my dh would think is a good use of our time here... but the point is to keep the hands moving, having interesting work to focus the attention on, having a functional product or gift when finished, and interacting with natural materials, like bamboo knitting needles and yarn of wool. Examples of sewing and weaving activities for children are here. My 5yo wove a hot-pad for me with his Aunt, and to this day when he sees me using it, he always says, "thanks for using the hot-pad I made, mom!" That's another example of a good self-esteem builder!

Ordinary Time

(sara): Easter Season is still upon us for a while... May 11th is Pentecost, the final day. Here's the "official" liturgical calendar for 2008 in the U.S. It's a pdf. file from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

While continuing to share and discuss the Easter presentations, feel free to begin posting about the Ordinary Time presentations also!

Pope's visit

Dave K. passed along this link as a resource for children about the Pope and his current US visit.

life

(sara): I am great at planning. So great, in fact, that sometimes all I do is plan, and never get around to implementing. :)

I like to plan "school work" in 4-5 week stretches. I plan presentations for both the 3 & 5 year olds, Monday through Friday, a couple things each day, plus violin practice. It really isn't a big deal, the presentations are all basic Montessori and easy to do... yet it's the doing that life just doesn't always permit. We're in week 3 of my latest batch of plans, and haven't done hardly a single thing!

Life has lately provided a very sick 1 year old, several sleepless nights and rainy days, immobilizing back pain, a crashed computer, and a very busy husband. Oh, plus these things want to move in for the summer, so I had to vacuum out every window sill in the house.

But you know what? My kids don't know about my plans. They wake up each morning, refreshed and just happy to be alive. I don't think I've ever seen them bored. I see them playing together and just stop and remind myself: perhaps their plans are better than mine. My ideas can wait.

goop!

(sara): I was reminded in a recent 4Real thread how fun it is to play with cornstarch & water. We had nice weather on Sunday so I sent the kiddos outside with a plastic tub, a bowl of cornstarch, a container of water with a large baster, food coloring, spoons, scoops, and so on. They had a blast. We've done a few presentations recently on states of matter, so it was a chance to review solid & liquid. As I was thinking about it, I decided that this was just the kind of activity to use with the word "magic" - because it is amazing, but obviously has an explanation. And my 3yo has been rhyming words lately, so when I picked up some of the goo and said, "I call this GOOP!" of course he replied, "that rhymes with... !" and they were overcome with a fit of laughter... Great fun.

Geography - part 2 - the fun stuff

I began introducing "geography" with a globe, when my son was 3. Montessori always starts with the basics in any subject, and here it is simple: what is land, and what is water? I made "land and water trays" in pie pans with plaster. On our globe, we put a tack where we live, and one where Jesus lived. I made a relief map of Israel and a simple puzzle of the Holy Land. We have a model of the solar system.

Then I found a good but cheap ($9) wooden puzzle map of the 50 States at Target, and I glued a clear bead onto each piece for pegs. (This allows the child to easily remove one piece at a time.) Not expecting much, I was surprised to learn that my son had quickly learned the name, shape, location, and state motto (which was on the map) of nearly all the states. He had done this completely on his own, I had never looked at the puzzle with him before. I realized how effective puzzle maps could be, and put continent maps on my wish list - but because they are expensive, they sat on that list for quite some time! I would overhear him saying things like "look, I made Tennessee!" while eating a cracker, or "I'm going exploring in Montana!" while using his imagination at the park.

I got 8 containers for continent kits - one for each continent, and one for all of the continents (which is presented first.) Each kit has a book or two in it. I have coins from around the world, carved animals from Africa, chopsticks for Asia, and so on. (We will continue adding to these indefinitely.) I have 2 of the pdf. files from MontessoriForEveryone - the Continents and North America. These have 3-part-cards of animals, important places, and flags, as well as maps, which I made pin maps out of on cork board.

One challenge to puzzle maps is that they are large, and it took me a while to find reasonably-priced shelving to hold them. I paid $30 for some wire shelves from Target that are just right, 18" deep.

Shelving with 2 of our 6 puzzle maps on it - now they are full!

The puzzle maps come with control maps, which I labeled with country names, neighboring continents, and major bodies of water. The child puts the puzzle pieces on top of the control chart while reading the name of the country; later when he puts the pieces back in the puzzle, he can "guess" the name of the country before he lifts it off of the control chart.

One reason I buy materials like this is that I'm confident they will resell fine some day when we are "finished" with them... And this is the type of material I'd be happy to share with another family for a few weeks or months at a time.

Geography part 1 - a defense

(sara): Okay, before I share our geography/culture materials, I want to provide my idea of a "defense" to the question: why bother spending time, money, and classroom space on geography for young children? I've been asked this question, point blank, so just to clear the air, here are some thoughts off the top of my head:

• what "should" children be doing instead, watching cartoons? :)
• in Montessori experience, children in this precious 3-6 age group simply love learning new vocabulary. It takes no more effort for them to learn scientific plant names than to learn how to count to 10, they simply repeat the words you say and absorb them. We feed this love of words by providing them in a variety of ways, one of which is geography. Simply knowing what things are called, reciting poems or the list of 50 States, as my boys easily have gives the child true self esteem and confidence.
• From the neurological perspective, there is evidence that memorizing at an early age lays a cellular foundation that makes memorizing easier in later life - that is, beyond age 6. (The saying goes, by the time a human is 6 years old, their brain is basically "cooked." All the major neural pathways in the brain are formed.)
• Geography is the platform from which we learn about culture. Once a child has a basic grasp of what the planet is like and the names of basic places (continents, oceans, countries, etc.) then understanding culture is so much easier. When we read stories about different cultures - which happens a lot - now my 5yo will have a mental idea of where it is taking place. It's an important life lesson for each of us to learn that the universe does not revolve around us as individuals.
• In Montessori, and in the way I interact with my children, I am not the source of all knowledge. I readily admit to them what I do not know - like the names and spellings of all the countries in the world - but I express a desire to learn them along with the children. This is very different from the public school situations I found myself in growing up, where the teacher sat at this big desk, all the children sat facing her, and she was the one dispensing knowledge. But children can learn to discover information on their own, and I think we want our children to see learning as a life-long process, not a destination.

Happy Easter!

Blessings to all in this Octave of Eater, and throughout all 50 days of celebration! Last year I posted this picture of our baptism materials:

During Easter we first present the Risen Christ to our children with the image of LIGHT, and secondly we present the symbol of WATER as the beginning of our life with Him. Some parishes recycle their large Easter candles, but I've learned that many don't; they are simply put into storage. What a beautiful way to make use of these blessed candles, by taking them out of storage and putting them into our homes to teach our children about them! I know the priest I received ours from was a bit taken aback by my request, but I fully explained to him what we were going to use it for, and even sent him a copy of Moira's presentation and a copy of the photo above.

I've also been meaning to ask which books we have among us about the Catechesis. We could pass around the ones we aren't currently reading.

The main one to read is The Good Shepherd and the Child.

I also have: Listening to God with Children.

Living Liturgy.

A is for Altar.

3-part-card holders

A Montessori standard that I love using are 3-part cards. (You can see an example of a presentation here.) They are a great way for learning new words - both increasing vocabulary and learning how to read & spell the words. Younger children use them simply for matching, and then matching labels. Older children match a label to a photo, and use the control cards to check their own work.

Anyway, my pregnancy nausea has finally subsided (Praise God!) so I have more energy and motivation to do things now. However, the nausea was replaced by a lot of lower back pain, so I am choosing tasks which involve time on my derriere, like blogging and sewing! Yes, after a nearly 2-year absence, I got out my sewing machine and completed many tasks that have been gathering dust on my to-do list. One of those tasks was to make some holders for 3-part cards. I made several using a stiff plastic sheet to make them see-through; they were easy and I was very pleased with how they turned out. Let me know if anyone wants one, or wants the instructions. Some examples:

Mainly I wanted these holders to go in the continent boxes that I have been putting together. (I have been planning these for a very long time!) The first one is completed - now I'm putting finishing touches on 7 more, one for each continent. When they are ready, I'll do a geography post about them.

Another Cenacle

(sara): As a follow-up to the Seder Meal, we got out the Cenacle presentation from last year, brushed off the dust, and touched up the paint. I haven't made darling figures as some of you other moms have done - our 12 Apostles are wooden spools with wooden spheres glued on top! (I borrowed your idea for writing the name of each Apostle on the bottom. I didn't add the symbols, but might use those for another activity. I did include Judas, for historical purposes, rather than Mathias.) Jesus is a Sacred Heart statue Father Andrew gave me. I do like the cardboard building, however, because it clearly shows the Cenacle having an "upper room", and if you turn it around, there's a convenient place for storage on the first floor! Our "table" turned upside down is a storage container, and the Holy Grail and unleavened bread were cut out of a religious-goods catalog. Finally, I printed out the main Scripture phrase, as I do with each presentation, for the sake of my son who knows how to read.

Seder Meal

Matzoh

(sara): We've already had our Seder Meal. Hubby is having a second eye surgery on Holy Thursday, so we had our meal early this year. We were joined by our 5yo. For the second year in a row, we used this script. The dinner seemed much "easier" to prepare this year, since I sort-of knew what I was doing!

Above is last year's meal, ready to begin. This year I added a beautiful table cloth and 2 tapers in crystal candle holders. The boys oohed and ahhed over the table!

And here is the matzoh (unleavened bread) wrapped in cloth.

Imagine your family sitting down to dinner one night, and being served only crackers and wine. We teach our children about the Eucharist being a "meal", but without an image of the Passover Meal in their heads, I think their comprehension is impoverished. (Speaking from experience! I didn't know anything about the Passover until high school, and not in much depth until I took an OT class from Steubenville.) Yet this weekend, my sleepy son watched with great interest as 3 times during the meal, his father took a piece of unleavened bread, broke it, and distributed a piece to each of us. That's an image that I hope to give him each year during our Seder meal. The first piece was eaten with bitter herb and haroseth. The second piece with the meal of lamb. And the third, with only the Cup of Blessing (the 3rd cup of red wine.) I know that a Seder meal is not a common tradition in many families, but it will be in ours!

"rainbow letters"

(sara): combining ideas from Lynnette & Montessori teacher Karen Tayler, we've been happily doing what we call "rainbow letters" in the classroom. Set-ups are always left-to-right, as in reading. On the left is a basket of 6 Ferby pencils, in the center is a binder with one large bubble letter or number on each page, on the right is a guide for the rainbow colors. The child practices staying inside the lines 6 times in a row - that's the beauty of it. Before beginning a new letter, he traces the sandpaper letter the way I demonstrate, with his first 2 fingers. Thanks for the inspiration, Lynnette!

wheat

(sara): I just searched for "wheat" and "wheat field" on Google images and found this darling picture!



Also a diagram of wheat growth here and a coloring page here. My seedlings are 1-2 inches tall now, and I'm going to present this Gospel passage today.

Stations of the Cross Mobile

My four-year old and I made this mobile for the Stations of the Cross. She has been able to name all 14 stations by looking at the symbol or picture and can narrate what happened during each station. It has just been a really good visual cue. I did most of the prep work of cutting, copying, gluing, etc and she punched all the holes in the symbols and helped me string them on the hanger.
Shannon

Cenacle P.S.

(Anne:) The only thing still to do for the Cenacle presentation is make the upper room. I plan to use Moira's outline and make it out of a box like she suggests. Hope it turns out well!

Cenacle Presentation

(Anne:) Last night, Amy and I made a LOT of little men......for the Cenacle presentation of course. We made the twelve apostles and then glued their symbols on the bottom. Maybe Amy could post the link for the symbols in the comments.

We made Jesus wearing a white tunic with a red sash to make Him look very different from an apostle so He was easily recognizable.

The candlesticks are upside down golf tees painted black on the bottom, left white in the middle, and yellow at the tips.

The white pitcher and bowl is from the dollhouse section at Hobby Lobby.

The chalice and paten are from the small wood section at Michael's. ("Finial dowel cap with 1/4 in hole" and "3/4 in circle" are what the packages call them.)

Good Shepherd presentation

(Anne:) Ready to present!  Materials I used: large piece of green felt, Willow tree shepherd and sheep (I know, I know, there's only 3, but I will add more later to correctly have a whole flock!), and fence from Michael's (in the small wood section) which are connected by small strips of gray felt glued onto the fence and a small square of velcro on the gate so it can be closed and stay shut. (Amy used the same fence and these are all Justin's ideas! He actually glued the corners together and put dowels in to reinforce, so theirs is fixed, whereas mine, with the felt is flexible....Both good.)  Because I'm using Amy's script (see earlier post), I don't need the dark strip or water, etc.  Can't wait to present!  Probably today or tomorrow...

good shepherd

(Sara): As you probably all know, the Good Shepherd presentation is the main one in this catechesis, hence the title of the program!! The whole aim of catechesis is to teach young children about God, and when the original catechists began exploring how to do this, they tried presenting God from a variety of true approaches: God as Father, Creator, Saviour, friend, and so on. The one image that all the children seemed very much attracted to, however, was the idea of God as our Good Shepherd. Children 3-6 understand well their need for protection and are fascinated by the idea that the Shepherd calls each of the sheep by name...

I highly recommend reading the 4Real thread Amy linked to in the previous post after reading your presentation in Moira's album.

I'll attach an old photo of our sheep fold; last year I added a gate made from sticks also. I have read that CGS materials may vary by culture, and most of the fences where I grew up are made from limbs. The base spins; it was an old, wooden cake server I found in my mom's basement! My mother-in-law made us a shepherd figure out of Sculpey. Although 2D figures are standard for this presentation, I have not asked dh to make them for me. Yet.

Good Shepherd

(Amy:) My materials for this presentation are ALMOST ready...pictures to come. We have a busy weekend with ds's birthday but I'm hoping to present soon.

With all of the previous presentations I've done so far, I've pretty much used Moira's script almost word for word. I noticed that her Good Shepherd presentation varies considerably from what I read in The Good Shepherd and the Child by Cavaletti/Coulter/Gobbi/Montanaro, so I've been working on writing my own as a combination of (mostly) the book, Moira's album, and a post on 4Real by someone who went through training.

(Specifically, Moira combines the Good Shepherd with the Found Sheep. I didn’t include the Found Sheep in this presentation. I also didn’t do the wolf, the dangerous place, the green pasture, or the blue water. Also, I followed the format in the Good Shepherd and the Child, which narrates the parable, then guides reflection, then reads the parable from the Bible, then introduces the materials.)

I know I'm causing a looooong post here - I'd love to just link to a file if I had the capabilities rather than subject you to the whole thing if you aren't interested. But if you do read through it I would definitely appreciate feedback (remember... I haven't presented this yet). Thanks!

****************************

Beforehand, talk about what a shepherd is (watches over sheep and takes care of them each day), what a sheepfold is, and how the sheep are safe and protected in the sheepfold.

I. Introduce and narrate the parable.

Remember how we waited during Advent, for Jesus to come to Earth? He came as a tiny baby, and when He grew up He began to teach the people. They were very attracted by what He said. They wondered, “Who is He?” because he was like everybody else, but he spoke in such a special way. When they asked him, “Jesus, who are you?”, he told them, “I am the Good Shepherd.” He was not just any shepherd, but the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd knows all his sheep by their names. Even though he has many, many sheep, he still knows each one by its name.

The sheep begin to recognize his voice and to listen to him. A bond is created between the shepherd who knows them by their name and the sheep who listen to his voice. He guides them to good pastures. He walks ahead of them, to protect and defend them if there is any danger. They follow him because they know his voice. They would not follow a stranger.

The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep. He defends his sheep, even with his life.

The voice of the Good Shepherd reaches very, very far. There are so many sheep. There are also some sheep who do not yet belong to his sheepfold. But the Shepherd knows every one by name. Little by little all these other sheep will turn towards him too, and little by little all the sheep will come to him. Then there will be only one flock and only one shepherd.

II. Invite reflections and prayerful responses

Who can the sheep be…?

They must be so precious to the shepherd…

He gives his own life for them…

He looks for them…

He knows each by its name…

Do you think these are the same type of sheep as we see in the fields…?

(If yes):

Do you think so…?

I am not so sure…

They are so precious to the shepherd…

Maybe they are something or someone more important…?

(IF and only if they understand that we are the sheep):

So you think we are the sheep…?

We are so many, yet he knows each of us by our name…?

Then we are so loved…?

We are cared for in that way…!

III. Light candle and read from Bible

John 10: 3b-5, 10b-11, 14-16

See wording p. 49 of The Good Shepherd and the Child

IV. Introduce material and make simple movements while re-reading text

(Do not speak and move the figures at the same time.)

(take out sheepfold)

This is a sheepfold.

The Shepherd calls the sheep by their name and the sheep come into the sheepfold.

(put out the shepherd figure, then place the sheep one at a time into the sheepfold)

The sheep are safe and happy in the sheepfold with their Shepherd. The Shepherd guides them out and walks ahead of them.

(move the shepherd a few steps forward, then move the sheep out of the fold slowly, putting them one after another behind the shepherd)

The sheep listen to the Shepherd’s voice and follow him.

He shows them the path.

He walks ahead of them and guides them to the good pasture.

At the end of each day, the Shepherd calls His sheep home. He calls each one by their name.

The Shepherd sees each sheep safely home.

(shepherd figure leads around the sheepfold, with sheep following…and back into the sheepfold. The shepherd stands at gate until all sheep are in fold, then he goes in too. Shut the gate.)

what's in your backyard?

(sara): I thought this was a cute and helpful website with ideas for making the most of our back-yard nature...

misc. activity pictures

First, a couple pictures of some practical life work. The other day I said, "we've gotta mop this floor today, boys. Look at all the spots." And my ds5 responded, "oh, good! I love mopping floors!" Yes, he is still my innocent little boy! Did they get many spots off? No, but they did feel helpful, and got the spots soaking for me!

Ds1 loves the Bissel carpet sweeper!

And we finally got our bird feeder put together and stuck to the classroom window. (I meant to do this last fall!) It was free from a boy-scout momma I know. Also in the window sill are the 12 seeds we planted, in preparation for the presentation on the wheat. We are growing herbs for my kitchen. I looked for wheat grass seeds at a couple stores, but couldn't find any - that's what Marcia told me she uses. Last spring I wondered what to do about finding grown wheat, but I ended up finding some growing in our back yard...

Here's ds5 working with our new knobbed cylinders. There are 4 blocks total; ds3 still does them individually, but this child is up to combining 3 so far. This sensorial material is described here. [This is one activity which is supposed to be done on a table, not on the floor, so it's closer to eye level. It's a visual activity more than stereognostic. We don't have a table in our classroom, though, only 2 desks which aren't big enough for this.]

I have other, older photos of a variety of activities if anyone is interested. And btw, spell checker doesn't seem to be working, so excuse my mistakes! I hope teaching my son spelling will give me a good refresher!