Our Eco Bus Project and Travels: September 2012

The days have been long, but very brief at the same time as we begin to balance the preliminary steps of a large Sustainable Urban Arts Center with the City of Miami by launching a test site called Midtown 34^th Street. The test site will feature gardens, WVO, an artist residence, other sustainable system experiments and tests for our larger project. See the blog www.midtown34thstreet.blogspot.com

Day after day we struggle with permitting technicalities in our heads, wish for a magic fence to manifest, among other things. However a great plant manifestation happened on the weekend, Galloway Farms of Miami donated a number of trees and plants and also the City’s adopt a tree program had promised us some more plants. On top of this Shell Lumber donated wood for our fence and our friend Stephan has helped Nando gather a number of pallets that now compose our compost bins and elements of the future fence.

On top of this project I have begun Christopherus' homeschooling kindergarten curriculum with Luciano.

The first week worked out really well, I felt that Luciano had a calmer energy and all his needs were met. Except socialization with other children, which has posed a small temporary problem, as we are awaiting the arrival of our friends Sam and Tom with their children Harper and Mateo. This may solve some aspects, but play dates are a good solution too.

Waldorf is so rhythmic and is also careful of not becoming to formulaic as well. It is such a beautiful structure that really allows you to form who your family is by examining our interests, activities and identifying what should needs to be nurtured. I suppose this is just the foundation of the early childhood and early parenting.

My daily schedule goes something like this (although not always):

-Wake up bedtime cuddle, maybe a song or rhythm while I make the bed, depending on the mood of the children

-Dressing, sometimes I layout clothes the night before so there is no arguing, or I just let him pick out of two or three options

- Breakfast, Luciano helps make tea, he pulls the tea pot out to heat water on the stove, get the teas bag, his cup and the agave. While the water is getting hot, he puts agave in the bottom of the cup, opens the tea bag, readies a spoon and puts everything else away. I even pour a little almond milk into a cup so he can add milk for himself. This has become a great morning ritual, he even pours some of his tea into a cup for Imogen and gives her a spoon. Sometimes tea prepping is not on his list, he may want to crack eggs, add pancake ingredients to a bowl of whatever, I just go with the flow.

-After breakfast we clean up, Luciano puts all the dishes in the sink and sometimes I give him the spray bottle full of white vinegar to clean the table and floor, Imogen comes behind him with a rag or paper towel and wipes up the vinegar. This works beautifully and they lose interest just in time for me to be done with dishes.

Then we do a little prepping for a morning walk or outside play. I hum or sing a song that some into my head (at first I felt silly singing, but I realize that the spirit of it is to simply put everyone in a good mood, so even if it’s not specifically a kids song, I think that just the general positive energy that comes from music is what helps move the kids. So while this happens we brush our teeth, put shoes on, fill water bottles and get ready to go out into the world.

-Morning movement in Donna Simmons curriculum she stresses something very easy to miss, that I think is so beautiful. She says don’t ask your child what does the day feel like, but take them out to move their bodies and let them discover on their own, And so too often I see children who need to be narrated to constantly to understand the things around them. The benefit of “talking less” is that you really cultivate an independent thinker, someone who observes, someone who becomes mindful and flowing. Not so dissimilar to the foundations of Permaculture. This technique is very difficult, for instance you see a butterfly floating pass, do you say look at that butterfly? No, I think the recommendation might be something dear Anna Blash (a friend and unschooler schooler) did in front of me once, she began to sing a little song with the words being, what is fluttering in the air, its orange and white, etc…all the children began to look around to discover something, she never pointed at it, she never even revealed it with her eyes, and when the children looked to see, they all felt a special discovery.

This said, in the mornings I strive to get Luciano out to look around, although I do have to set an agenda for longer walks, otherwise he gets disappointed when we return home without accomplishing something and begs to keep walking. This conflicts with Imogen’s nap time and food preparations.

This has become a small problem that I’m hoping to work out with some inventive agendas such as millipede collecting, lizard spotting or leaf collecting. I initially wanted to ask him questions about the sun, the temperature, etc. but I think in time these things settle into the subconscious and build.

When the morning walk/movement has been successful, Luciano willingly returns home and ready for a snack. The first week we would wash our hands, pull out an apple or two and I would set up a cutting board with a knife and let him slice apples, he really, really enjoyed using the knife and eating the fruit of his labor. By this time in the day Imogen is usually ready for her first nap of the day. The first week of this schedule, she napped like clockwork and everything ran smooth, but not so much in the second week, she was so stimulated by Luciano that I couldn’t get her down, but she was so tired, she wouldn’t let me put her down, so I tried to either engage her in an activity too, or settle Luciano down for the daily story and she might doze off.

The stories are such a significant and important element of this philosophy or education. I have always told Luciano stories, but I always changed them and told different ones two or three times a day. However, this curriculum recommends telling the same story at story time for a week, to really let it sink in, after the first telling of the story, the subsequent days of telling the same story should involve some engaging activity. So my first week I started with the Three Little Pigs, this version does involve the pigs being eaten, by the way. So the second day of the story I pulled out some natural, air drying modeling clay and I began to sculpt a pig and a house. I didn’t instruct him to do anything, I did put a piece of the clay in front of him, which he naturally started playing with it and listening to the story at the same time.

Post the story he went off developing ideas of things he wanted to make with the clay and asked me to do it for him, since the clay was really hard and not really manageable for little fingers.

The third day of the story we acted it out with finger puppets and props laying around, the second day I told it outside and built houses with bamboo straw, sticks and rocks, the fourth day I painted a scene as I told it, the fifth day I used the sculptures from the second day and on Saturday he asked me to tell him the story early in the morning while I was making the bed, which surprised me.

After the story time, he would just keep playing by himself while Imogen slept and I got to work on my projects until he was done. Then I try to have a daily project. I’m currently collecting a seasonal inventory of these. It has to be flexible for me since Imogen might be awake at this point and she will need to take part too. I always have my eyes out for materials or ideas.

Depending on how much time all the above took, lunch happens before or after the daily project. I usually have something simple and fast planned that doesn’t involve too much, unless it is cooking day (Mondays). Then we clean up, including doing some chores that I’ve given to the children, Imogen particularly enjoys feeding the animals. Then I engage the kids in more physical play, in the garden or with other children, something to get them moving again.

I might give them another snack depending on when lunch happened, then basically I prep dinner, get them in for showers, story time and bed. Well, that is the ideal day. Of course there are weekly things that happen that get slotted in for projects or outings. The curriculum recommended setting themes for the day so that your child may start to recognize the differenced in the days of the week. My themes for Luciano being 3.5 and Imogen being 1.25 are the following:

S- Son & Dad, plus organize day (this day allows me to get organized, clean and also for Nando and Luciano to share some one on one time.

M- Cooking/Soup Day

T- Outing, Shopping, Play date day

W- Crafts and Special Project (this day I usually introduce something new, last week was simple sewing)

TH- Love Day- This day is for nurturing our family, we tend our animals by brushing them, giving treats, water plants, groom ourselves with a family bath, maybe scrub the floor.

F- Tea Party Day

S- Family Movie Night

These are things that work for me and seemed to cater to our lifestyle at the moment, but I’m sure these things will change as our work and projects change. I consider this first year a training course for myself. There are so many homeschooling blogs that I find so inspiring, it seems like the real key to it is nurturing your interests so that you may nurture your child’s.