Perfect Book for 8th/9th Grade Waldorf

I'm always on the lookout for interesting books I can use in home education. I'm pretty "picky" so new ones don't come along very often. My requirements are - they need to be interesting enough to capture the attention of a teenager (I have 13 and 15), they need to have enough information that I can justify taking my time away from something else to stop and share this book with my children, they need to fit into the natural progression of our Waldorf curriculum (see Waldorf 101 for a list of specific topics by grade) and it needs to cover more than just one topic. I am a great believer that educational topics span more than one category. You can't just study "American History" without "World History" and you can't study "Math" without art, design, architecture and so many other things. The last great book we shared was "The Physician" - it was an amazing historical fiction spanning the genres of medical history, European history and Middle Eastern and Asian history. And now I have discovered another gem - it is called "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and I can't put it down.

In this book, a science journalist, tells the story of an African-American woman who's cells became one of the most important scientific discoveries of the last century. When I purchased the book I expected to read about how the cells had been discovered and how they managed to get the cells from her and perhaps what made her different from other people. I love reading about medical history so that is what I was expecting. I would have been pleased if it was mildly interesting and a quick read.

I was not expected to be so enraptured by the story that I could not put the book down. And on top of that this book contains a hunk of history that is often hard to teach to children. To make it even more perfect - it covers so many topics that are covered in the 8th grade Waldorf year - we are going to read it together even though my eldest is in 9th grade now.

Some highlights of this book:

* The author describes how cells work in a way that makes all scientific text books on the subject appear overly verbose (what a surprise lol ;) Her descriptions could encourage most anyone to get excited about cells.

* Her descriptions of African American history are refreshing - a new story - and told from a completely different point of view that the usual "required reading". Most required reading from this genre is written from an activist point of view or with the obvious purpose of creating awareness and/or sympathy. This story is written for the simple and honest reason of telling the story of a woman whose cells changed the world. Her history is only part of that story, which makes it all the more real and compelling.

* Other topics touched upon in the book are: agriculture, American History, medical history and more. And in each genre her descriptions are entertaining as well as highly educational. She has a gift for teaching in the most natural, organic way.

* The topic of how pap smears were invented and the history of cancer research was fascinating to me.

If you plan on reading this book with your older children please let us know so we can exchange ideas, thoughts and perhaps even extra reading or lesson extensions.

Note that the book is for older children as it does mention an early marriage, performing medical tests for pap smears, the cervix, diseases like syphilis and other more adult topics. There is nothing graphic, of course, it is all very scientific, but the topics come up naturally and kids will ask questions - so be prepared.

Here is another review of the book - I find it so interesting how every review of this book is so different: Boston Globe Review

Cabin Fever and Mid-Year Blues Cure

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Waldorf & Parenting Conference April in CA!

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Waldorf and Television?

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Woodworking - A Pet Running Pen - Easy/Moderate

Free Woodworking Project - Animal Running Pen
Ages 5-16
For more projects see the e-book "Woodworking with Kids" at:
http://waldorftv.weebly.com/e-books.html
or the video "Woodworking with Kids" at:
http://waldorftv.weebly.com/videos.html


Sunii and I finally finished the bunny running pen! We plan to let the bunnies enjoy the outdoors in the spring (with supervision) and we have been letting them out together once a day since we made it. They really like it! The instructions below are complete. Be sure to read them all before you start because some steps look easier than they are but if you don't use the "tips to make it easier" some steps could take you a half hour instead of 5 minutes. Seriously - we tried it :)

We also plan on using this for our rats to run around in and we plan on expanding it to 6 panels sometime soon.



Small Animal Running Pen

1. Purchase supplies or scavenge for supplies:

16 wood strips - all the same height and width (ours were 3')
Screening for screen doors (amount depends on your project - we needed two rolls of 3' high screening)
Hinges - 6
Screws for hinges (even if they come with screws - you will see why later)
Nails (depending on how thick your wood strips are - we needed smaller nails)

2. Get out/borrow or purchase the following tools:

Staple Gun & Staples
Saw (if you need to trim wood strips - we didn't - we had the guy at Menards do it for us ;)
Drill
Small bit for drill
Large heavy hammer
Scissors (to cut screening)
Measuring Tape

3. Lay out wood in square shape. Nail them together on all four sides. TIP: Be sure to use a large heavy hammer - your work will go faster and will be more accurate. TIP#2 - Be sure to hold the hammer correctly - at the end. The trick to hammering quickly and accurately is a heavy hammer and holding it at the end. You can even talk about hammer physics with your older child: http://en.allexperts.com/e/h/ha/hammer.htm#hd3. Do this to all 16 panels - you will then have four wood squares.




5. Measure the screening to fit the square exactly







6. Lay the wood squares down and staple the screening to the squares.






7. When you are done with all the squares add the hinges to both sides of one panel.

8. Attach squares to either side of the panel by attaching the other end of the hinges to each panel. Be sure all the panels fold in the same direction as you are attaching the hinges. Use a drill to do this. TIP: Pre-drill each hole before you drill or screw the screws in - it will make the project go faster. TIP #2: Use screws for wood that you purchase separately. The screws that "come with" the hinges are never very good and take about 5 times as long to drill into the wood. Make sure you have good screws!

9. You will now have the gates attached on all but two sides. You can attach hooks to these and tie them shut with string, you can attach velcro to them or you can just put them against each other or a wall - it depends on how clever your pets are, how hard they will try to nudge their way out and/or how much supervision they will have. We used some eyelet hooks and some string (see picture).

Easy & Meaningful Last Minute Gift

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Blessings & Health,
Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
www.TheWaldorfChannel.com
www.Earthschooling.com

Circle Time for Older Grades?

By Kristie Burns
www.Earthschooling.com
Don't miss our before-Christmas sale - "Buy One Get One" of EVERYTHING on our websites - Ebay store, www.TheWaldorfChannel.com, www.Earthschooling.com and even www.HerbnHome.com (offer does not apply to knitted unicorns but applies to everything else). Order your first items then E-mail me at: herbnhome@gmail.com and tell me what free items you want and WHO you want them sent to (they can be given as gifts).

I have to admit that as the children grow older I miss the little finger rhymes and verses from our old circle time days, I miss the sweet puppet shows, the dress up box and playing daily with our Ostheimer figures. However, lately I've started to realize that we never did really give those things up - we just modified them and they grew into different things! Here are some examples of what has happened around here now that my kids are 11,13, and 15!

Circle Time
Circle time has now become "family meeting" time. Every Wednesday and Sunday we have a family meeting. This is a time to share a verse, a story, ideas on how to improve things around the house, a request to other members of the family and much more. I try to integrate a story, a verse, and some meditative time into the meeting. We spend some time going around the "circle" talking about what we are thankful for in each person and in each of our lives.

Dress Up Box
The dress up box has now become real-life dress-up. When we go out together my kids and I often plan our trips around an outfit or a theme. If we visit the Renaissance Festival we always dress up, if we go to the Civic Center we wear fancy clothes. If we go to Living History Farms we may dress in clothing from that era. We really enjoy being creative in the way we dress. It is not just "jeans and a T-shirt" every day :)

Puppet Shows
My kids now enjoy going to some more "adult" events with me and are now creating their own "puppet shows" and events! We saw a professional magic show a couple weeks ago, and a Native American Powwow before that. We enjoyed the Nutcracker Ballet together and attended a rock band concert that my eldest was the lead singer in. Along with attending different events, the kids are really starting to get more out of the events. When they were little I might take them to a musical and they would enjoy it and perhaps play-act after-wards. Now, they may get out their guitar and find the music for the musical, ask questions about it, write about it, create something inspired by it or even sound out some of the music on the piano. The kids are also starting to create more elaborate events instead of sitting and listening. They create their own stage shows, plays (complete with script), band concerts, magic shows, comedy skits and even storytelling shows. Both of my daughters help me with the large group cultural shows I perform in the local public school system. One of the favorite workshops I do is called "A Meal in the Middle East". Sofi's favorite part of the show is telling the story to the classrooms. She won't even let me tell the story anymore!

Play Kitchen
The play kitchen is still played with from time to time but now it is the real kitchen that I see the kids in more. They all have their own style of cooking and my son, especially, likes to explore new tastes, new techniques, and new dishes in the kitchen. Sometimes they cook breakfast or lunch for each other and they all have their own dishes they are "famous for" around the house.

Bread Baking
We don't bake bread every day or even every other day anymore however we do enjoy baking a variety of things and we still enjoy baking bread together now and then. It is hard to believe we have been baking bread together for 15 years now!

Nature Walk
I remember the days when we used to take off with a butterfly net and a bag and wander through the woods. Little legs never took us very far but we could find amazing worlds within a few blocks or few yards of forest. Now, we still walk together but now we can go farther and we talk more as we walk. It is a time, not only to connect with nature, but to connect with each other, too. We may explore more advanced concepts in our walks (like identifying specific herbs and talk about the biology of plants and their growth patterns). We enjoy walking through the wooded bike bath TO places - to the grocery store, to the library, to the cafe, and even to the stores. Sometimes the kids go on their own now, or with a friend. My eldest likes to take walks every day - she says it helps her think clearly and she likes all the good energy she gets from the plants. My son likes to ride his bike for long distances with friends. It feels good to him to get all that energy out and he likes the excitement of what he may see on the trails. A few weeks ago he saw a buck and the week before that he saw some fawns.

I would love to hear what transitions other families have made in these areas and how your early childhood experiences have merged into the older years with your children.