During the second week of math block we met Gnome Plus, a green little fella that likes to add up more and more jewels!  I continued with our story of the two young women traveling through the Land of Numbers with Ancient One. The first day they meet the gnome and his verse. The second day they discover his “sign” in the scene we have set up on the cabinet. There’s lots of hands on activities in this block and while I make a plan for some of our practice, I’m often coming up with amusing “problems” on the fly. It is after all, all about practicing! I try to insert items of significance into our storytelling and thus our “problems.”  A few more of their wooden animals made their debut this week which made things interesting and to that I added an old favorite watercolor of an autumn tree that they have enjoyed playing with since they were toddlers.  With another story layer, this painting and new animals were a hit!  Several forest animals were trying to put together fruits, nuts and all sorts of food they’d found, thus adding it up to make a communal cache (seen in the tree hollow)!  With some simple touches, they connect more with what we are doing and appreciate the way it is being done. Learning through meaningful experiences!

After lots of adding and some sharing (dividing from last week)  with rocks, gems, food (green food since Gnome Plus is GREEN!), sticks, books, whatever we had around I introduce equations. First I draw out what we are talking about…Gnome Plus had 5 gems (I draw him and the 5 gems), then he found 4 more in his pocket ( draw 2 more). How many gems did he have all together? Beneath that I write the numerals and signs (+ and =). This block is meant to get them hands on experience and exposure to these concepts. We will come back to them a little more in-depth after our next LA block. At bedtime they will ask what our plans are for the following day and when I answer we will be doing a morning lesson, they honestly cheer!

I continued the theme of stories with numbers as a way to end main lesson. I resurrected some oldies but goodies from the past– simple counting books which they LOVED and can now read!  Five Little Monkeys,  Dots, and Freight Train. Oh the memories! I can almost hear the train’s horn as it made its way through downtown Durham some years ago. I’ve always loved the sound of the train (not too close by) and back then we would often pause to listen and pull out Freight Train!

We have also been hunkering down for more significant reading as we continue with Louise Erdrich’s Birchbark House series. We are on book 3 now and there is no stopping these two girls!  Our reading inspired some gorgeous artwork, too. They made beautiful collages of Old Tallow, a wonderful character in the book, whose winter coat is patched and mended, layered year after year. They also wanted to make a map of the island where the story takes place and Omakayas lives.  It is currently taped to our coffee table,  behaving more like a huge jigsaw puzzle than map. They can stop by at it for a few minutes or settle down for more detailed additions. (Images below: Ada’s Old Tallow, followed by Arlene’s, a picture of the book with Ada, and beginning of the map.)

We had a fun Boulder day later in the week and met friends at the library. We happened upon a wonderful singing story time, too. Afterward Stephen met us since the library is just blocks from his school. We walked the downtown creek path which was deserted in the late afternoon — we enjoyed it all to ourselves!

We ended the week with a fabulous trip to Denver– by bus! I’ve been wanting to shoot for a month without a car and this was a little practice at still getting around, not changing our plans, but without the car. We invested in Eco passes (annual bus passes) for everyone and 2 days after getting them took full advantage! We got down to Denver in 50 minutes on a new route and new bus (had the new car scent and all) and I didn’t have to deal with parking nor the long drive back home.  More on our trip to Denver later…

The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of family times at home and lots of time exploring  our great town, Boulder. We hiked familiar trails, sledded, knitted, cooked, baked, and played! We took the bus downtown, visited the library several times, enjoyed the creek path and one day, splurged on an awesome lunch out. We shared beautiful meals at home with friends and enjoyed others’ hospitality.  Vail made the agenda with an overdue visit to P.  I thought of my mother throughout the season, now gone 4 years- recognizing that each year brings with it another layer of grief and absorption.  We celebrated the 12 days of Christmas once again, beginning on Christmas Day and ending on the eve of the Epiphany, the night before the Magi’s visit. A & A ‘s mornings started with such sweet excitement as they found a new present. Never did they rip into them– they always waited for us to come downstairs. These two enjoy taking it all in!  With our special new addition– the piano, we were able to sing and play songs throughout the holiday. The girls love “We Three Kings” which I find so interesting because it is the one song I have such a deep connection with from my own childhood. I remember singing it in church quite young. The song is beautiful, the mood, somber.

It was bittersweet getting back to morning lessons after such a wonderful holiday together.  I managed to get some substantial planning for the rest of the year done when Stephen and the girls had their own fun together. I was really excited to start the first block after the new year, an introduction to the four processes: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I pieced together my own plans from ideas online and the general framework I’m familiar with of Waldorf education. We explore the four processes through a container story of adventure and discovery, four little gnome’s (that correspond to the four processes) guiding them along…

A gift each received during the 12 Days was a beautiful hand carved wooden Inuit woman with a baby on her back. I didn’t plan to use them in the math story, but it worked out perfectly. For the two women were lost and their chance meeting with the ancient one (wolf) led them to their meeting of Gnome Share (division). I decided to start with division since I could insert the process into the story with out their “knowing” right away. They’re familiar with the concept of sharing, but not “dividing” unlike addition and subtraction. Gnome Share lives deep in the mountains where he mines for gems and as his name would suggest, he loves to share all that he finds! When he met the two women and ancient one, he quickly hauled out a bag of gems for them to share amongst themselves.  Throughout the week the story evolved with new characters and more items to divide- gems, nuts, beans, eggs, cookies, napkins…anything we could get our hands on, we shared. By the fourth day we had worked some in our lesson book, copying illustrations of what we were doing at the table or on the floor with sharing, or division and eventually turning them into the basis of their first “equations.” They LOVED these lessons. The flow was natural, the activities fun. There was “work” for them to think through, challenges and achievements. Ada does very well with the lesson book work- she enjoys the organization and the writing. Arlene enjoys the more active parts of our lessons- getting out all the nuts and dividing them between the baskets or tossing the ball while we count.

We do a lot of active math in our circle time and throughout our lesson; we practice skip counting (by 2s, 3s and 5s) with fun verses. We toss bean bags and balls, shape numbers in the air.   At the start of the year I felt a little overwhelmed with trying to learn all the stories I’d be telling them, the verses, the poems. Now several months into this rhythm, I’m comfortable tweaking — learning the verses with the girls and keeping the focus on the fun practice of what we are doing– introduce these foundational skills in an age-appropriate and enjoyable way!! This is an approach that excites and inspires, but also works their edge.

On the last day of the week,  Gnome Share gifted them beautiful napkins with the suggestion of baking cookies and… sharing them. They appreciated these sweet paper napkins like treasures! Arlene said we should put some aside to give to our friend Becky–that “she would just love them.” I smile so big thinking back on that moment. We fleshed out the division problem first with napkins, then with ingredients and got set to bake!

Morning lesson ends with a  couple picture books (math inspired this month), closing verse, tidying up and typically some outdoor play- jump rope, hop scotch, or a walk with Happy.  We return and pile up on the couch for some chapter book reading. Our current novel is incredible. I can’t recommend enough, Louise Erdrich’s series The Birchbark House. For starters, she’s one of my top authors and I only recently discovered she authored these novels– probably geared toward 3rd-6th grade. We’re on the second in the series, The Game of Silence which continues to follow the story of Omakayas, an Ojibwe girl who lives on an island in lake Superior during the middle of the 19th century. It has brought up meaningful conversations about Native Americans and Europeans.  As with any historical fiction, I appreciate the nuances of the story, of this period in time- these events aren’t a series of marches, onward, onward…

I hope the girls and I  can make a map from the book once we finish- we can draw the island in Lake Superior and then add pieces from the story: where the family winters, the Birchbark House, willow by the pond, where Omakayas met the bears, Old Tallow’s cabin, Neewo’s grave…

The first week back to lessons was also the holiday of Three Kings’ Day. We prepared with star crafts, read lots of stories about the kings and of course completed our nativity scene. The kings arrived! We baked a cake with 3 beans hidden in the dough– the lucky recipient of one of those beans, the king or queen for the day.  In years past the beans have cooked in so much that we never discovered them. This year Ada found the first and then Arlene the second. Chickpeas did the trick! They raced for their glitzy crowns and adorned their heads…

I’m so pleased with the week! The days were comfortable, but SO full and I’m excited for the one upon us!