Family Folk Music and Merry Making

Join us for a very special mixed-age/family music class with Susan Matsui.  Thursday Mornings 10-11am at Quarry Hill Farm, Pownal, VT (SW most corner of VT, 6 miles north of Williamstown MA, 7 miles south of Bennington, and 4 miles west of Petersburgh NY.)  This class will be open to children 5-12, however younger siblings are welcome to join in if they are supervised by a parent.  I thought of hosting this class because my middle son takes fiddle from Susan, my daughter takes dulcimer and piano, and my youngest son (who does not play an instrument yet) comes to their classes, and is included in a wonderful way.  She has turned my children’s private instrument lessons into a wonderful family music time that has enriched all of us.  I thought that an entire class formed around this concept would be appealing to other families as well and Susan has offered to teach here at the farm.

This class will be an 8 week experience of folk music from many angles.  Participants will learn basic music theory and music history through folk singing, games and exposure to wide variety of both familiar and less recognized musical instruments.  (Have you ever seen an “Ud”, let alone played one?  Because I didn’t until I met Susan!!)  We will also learn some of the history behind the music we will be singing.  We will learn about the place of folk music and the contra dance in early American social life.  The end of our time together will culminate in a family trip to a contra dance (admission fees to attend the contra dance not included in class tuition). 

Time: Thursdays 10-11am beginning February 28th, running 8 weeks until April 18th  time and date of contra dance that we will be attending TBD

Cost:  88 dollars for one student for 8 week session, 132 dollars for 2 or more siblings/family group for 8 week session  Paid directly to Susan Matsui when class begins. 

If you are intersested in joining us, please contact Rebecca at asylumwaldorf@gmail.com

Art Classes with Gabi Moore

Do you like to draw faces? Do you enjoy seeing your own expressions as you ham it up in front of the mirror? Do you notice the ways people use body language? What about clothing? Have fun making people appear on your paper with colors, line, and, and finally, textures, in an art class taught by a life-long painter with over 12 years experience teaching. This class is for artists who are interested in exploring some unusual approaches to drawing, painting, and making collages, of people.* We will learn the different ways to make a portrait (some that will surprise you), and we learn techniques that make it comfortable to draw a turned head or a figure in action or rest. You may depict people you know in an familiar setting or imaginary characters in an extraordinary world. Working from imagination, memory, and life, students will enjoy making the images of life unfold on their pages.
Five Weeks on Tuesdays 12:30-1:45 (January 15th-February 12th) **
• $10 dollar non-refundable materials and reservation fee upon registration.
• $75 per person. Minimum five participants. Maximum 10.
• Ages 8-and up
* We appreciate collage materials that you may happen upon over the holidays, such as onion net bags, wrapping paper, etc. Everything acceptable except items with pre-figured images, e.g. image of a cat’s face, etc. Striped, patterns, corrugated card board, all wonderful for this class.
**A second section, PART II: People, Spaces, and Places, of five meetings may be offered if there is continued interest (February 26th-March 26th).

If there is enough interest with families that also have younger siblings, Gabi would be willing to also teach a class for the younger set, directly after the older class, from 2:00-2:45. This class would cost 12 dollars per child per class, plus a one time materials fee of 10 dollars for the five week session.

Coming in the Spring! Pulling Puddles: Watercolor for Young People

Learn fun techniques in watercolor in an unusual class taught by a painter with over 12 years experience teaching art. This class is great for young artists new to studio art materials and great for anyone wanting to create in a playful way. We will learn how to paint washes, mix colors, and the learn about functions of brushstrokes. We will learn about dry brush, wet brush, and even some art history. Participants are learning about sophisticated concepts and studio methods while having freedom to choose their own subject matter and a joyful environment for creative fun.

Five Weeks Spring 2013 (Tuesdays from 12:30-2)
• $10 dollar non-refundable materials and reservation fee upon registration.
• $75 per person. Minimum five participants. Maximum 12.
• Ages 8-Up (Exceptions made for the serious younger artist)

Please contact Rebecca at asylumwaldorf@gmail.com to register.

Winter Wilderness School

Tamakoce Wilderness Programs

                               Winter Wilderness Class

 

Hi All,

    Due to popular demand, I’m sending out dates for a Winter wilderness class! If the weather cooperates with us this year, we’ll be learning how to overcome the challenges of starting a fire with ice covered wood! We’ll also be learning a lot about animals through tracking them, shelter designs for winter, emergency snow shoe making and of course, penguin sliding down the hills! This will be a bi-weekly class (every other week) and the dates are below.

Fridays  1/18, 2/1, 2/15, 3/1  9:30-3:00

 

The cost of the class is 30-50 dollars per student/per class sliding scale (pay what you are able).

 

If you are interested in registering, please contact Rebecca at asylumwaldorf@gmail.com or the class instructor, Dan Yacobellis at miye_yelo@yahoo.com  We need to have registrations this week to be able to schedule the class.

 

As a parent of children in this class, I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful it is.  The kids are outside all day exploring the wilderness, and engaging with nature in a way that I honestly can’t say I would personally have the fortitude or skills to help them do.  They come back tired, happy and excited about everything they experienced and learned.

 

 

Visual Arts Workshop with Gabi Moore

Homeschoolers art class at Quarry Hill Farm, starting November 6th.

Learn interesting techniques in watercolor, collage, drawing, and other creative exercises in an unusual class taught by a painter with over 10 years experience as an art professor. This class is great for young artists new to studio art materials and great for anyone wanting to create in a playful way. We will learn how to paint washes, graded washes, and the functions of brushstrokes. We will learn about line, tone, and mark-making with dry media. Children will also learn about use of shape and color in composition by doing collage. Participants are learning about these sophisticated concepts while having freedom to choose their own subject matter.

Mondays 1:00-2:15   Four Weeks November 6th-November 27th

If enough people are interested, we will continue the class for the first two weeks in December.  In that case, the materials fee would be 15 dollars (and children leave with a surprise at the end!).

^{•  $10 dollar non-refundable materials and reservation fee upon registration.}

^{• $12 per person. Minimum five participants. Maximum 12.   Sliding scale 10-15 per class.  If money would prevent you from coming, Gabi is willing to barter.  Please contact me if you need a creative arrangement.}

^{•  Ages 5-9}

Contact Rebecca at asylumwaldorf@gmail.com if you are interested.

Martinmas Festival and Lantern Walk

Saturday, November 3rd, we are hosting an All Souls Day/Martinmas Festival.  Festivities will begin around 4pm.  We plan to have our favourite Bennington College students here to lead the children’s activities.  They will be making lanterns, and perhaps help them put together a play in the hay barn, as they did for Michaelmas.  Families should bring potluck food to share, and adult beverages for themselves.  As with all of our festivals, this is more of a family party than a “program” hosted by a school.  There will be beer and wine, people milling about in the house and on the property…  If the children are not with the Bennington Students, then parents are responsible for them.

We will take a nice lantern walk once it gets dark, and come back and perhaps have a bonfire if people are still in a “party” mood!

If it is very rainy, there is NO RAIN DATE.  We will unfortunately just have to cancel the festival this time if this is the case.

Please plan to bring a financial “tip” for the Bennington Students for helping with the children’s activities. My suggestion is 10 dollars individual child, or 15 for all siblings. Please bring empty glass jars if you have any for making lanterns.  I also will have tin cans for making tin lanterns available.

RSVP to Rebecca at asylumwaldorf@gmail.com  I will send along our address if you think you can make it.  Also let me know ideas of what you think you can bring for the common table.

Children can dress up as their favourite Saint, hero (real life), or person from history.  No scary costumes, please!

Handwork Happy Hour, launching this Friday night

This Friday I am hosting my first Handwork Happy Hour (I was going to call it Drunken Weaving, but thought that was too over the top).  Come any time after 6:30, bring an hors d’oevre and/or adult beverage to share (or a virgin beverage if you want something besides water to drink, and will not be having wine, etc… ).  This week I have TONS of wool that I just washed, all ready for carding and spinning.  So…if you have carders, or a wheel, or other related item, please bring.  Feel free to bring your knitting or other handwork projects, or you can just sit and gab if you don’t have anything.  There should be enough people there that we can help each other out with our various projects.   Also, we can throw out the various things we know how to do, and share our knowledge with others.  Please feel free to pass this along to anyone you think would enjoy such an evening.  I hope to repeat it at least monthly if not bi-monthly.

Hopefully some one with a wheel will come.  If not, we can card with my little animal brushes, and work on other projects.

This is a no children evening…however, I say that as a homeschooling mom…if the only way you can make it is to bring your kids, please do.  Just know that I will be ignoring mine, and sticking them in front of some old wholesome VHS tape.  Your kids and my kids are welcome to go be ignored together! 

Please email if you are interested in coming…and I will send you my address.

asylumwaldorf@gmail.com

More Details on Wilderness School

Wilderness School with Dan Yacobellis of Tamokace Wilderness School begins this Friday at Quarry Hill Farm.  This 10 week program will be every Friday from 9:30-2:30pm.  (except Thanksgiving week)  The class is for children ages 6-12 (other ages will be considered on a case by case basis).  Following are more details about the program from Dan:

Wandering and exploring the land makes up a lot of our days. Along the way, we always find treasures and mysteries that inspire us to ask questions and learn more. Animal signs, edible and poisonous plants, and what different trees can be used for are some of the things we constantly are learning about. Crafts and skills like bow making, natural cordage, bark and burned containers, fire by friction, story telling, unaided navigation and shelter building are also a large part of each class. Not to mention the many nature based games that we play to improve our awareness, build muscle and have lots of fun! The Days fly by and there never seems to be enough time to do everything we want. There’s just so much out there!!

Come join us and see for yourself.

Dan Yacobellis tamakocewildernessprograms.com 518-658-0328

Dan and our family went exploring the woods around the farm last week, and he is very excited about the acres and acres of untouched land we have.  We took him to the old quarry, and walked along the alfafa and clover fields that surround the woody borders.  We also have a large hay barn perfect for morning gathering before the day’s journey and adventures.   Your child will be nourished by our idyllic Vermont farm and woods, and Dan’s program.

Email Rebecca at asylumwaldorf@gmail.com for registration forms.

Wilderness School at Quarry Hill Farm

Tamakoce Wilderness Programs with Dan Yacobellis is starting a Fall Wilderness Awareness Class here at Quarry Hill Farm.  We have a beautiful space for hours of exploring, no matter the weather, including woods, pastures, creeks, and a quarry.

Timeless wandering, primitive skills, fun nature based games. Experienced mentoring, growth through natural challenges, deep nature connections. Tamakoce Wilderness Programs have been providing these types of experiences for children and young adults for 7 years. Many kids go on to participate in a teen Rite Of Passage , delving deeper into self exploration, community service and mentoring younger children.  Ages for this program are 6-12 (children 5 years old, or older than 12 will be considered on an individual basis)

A new class is forming in Pownal, VT at Quarry Hill Farm for the fall. Please look over the info below and contact Dan for more info or send in a completed registration form with a $50 deposit by September 23rd.  Please email Rebecca at asylumwaldorf@gmail.com to get registration form.

Also, you may request a copy of our new “badge system”.   Like the Boy Scouts, we have developed a system of honoring ones achievements while giving kids goals to set their sights on.

Where: Quarry Hill Farm, Pownal, VT

When:  Weekly starting Friday September 28th  through Friday December 7th (skipping Nov. 23rd)

Time: 9:30 to 2:30

Cost: Sliding Scale- $300- $500 (whatever works for you)

Mail registrations and Checks to:

Tamakoce Wilderness Programs

95 Crandall rd.

Petersburgh, NY, 12138

Dan Yacobellis tamakocewildernessprograms.com 518-658-0328

Quarry Hill Farm

320 Quarry Hill Rd.

Pownal, VT 05261

Quarry Hill Farm is a private residence and property, and all participants are considered personal guests in our home and on our property.  Tamokoce Wilderness School is the sole responsible party for the Wilderness School and the students during the program.

More Details for Waldorf Main Lesson and Kindy Groups

I thought that I would share some more thoughts and details about what the Main Lesson Groups would be doing over the next fall.

3-4 grade:  Form Drawing-free-hand geometry (celtic knots), Farmer Boy/Little House on the Prairie math block (measurement, distance, time, map making), Old Testament Stories (told in a cultural/folkloric way, not specifically religious…the Old Testament is the standard resource for third grade in Waldorf Schools) (parts of speech, spelling games, building a sukkah, days of creation wet on wet paintings, ancient peoples and their worship and way of life, making a suspension loom), smaller blocks on house building and shelter building, also games that help with times tables, skip counting, etc..

1-2 grade:  Form Drawing-free-hand geometry (the curved and straight line, repetitive patterns)  Grimm’s fairy tales block (intro to the letters, working with their sounds, alliteration, poetry and verses), Math block (intro to the qualities of the numbers 1-12, working from the whole to the parts, odd/even, intro to the four processes, counting by 2′s, 3′s 5′s and ten’s), smaller blocks on housebuilding and shelter building and harvest

Kindergarten/Nursery:  Seasonal stories, songs and verses, bread baking, helping to make soup, free play with open ended and natural materials, barn chores, outdoor exploration and play

Again, the goal is not to be a school where we are teaching new academic skills, but to supplement homeschool; giving children an opportunity to work and live with academic concepts in a holisitic, developmentally appropriate, community setting.

If you are interested in joining us, please contact me at: asylumwaldorf@gmail.com

Looking to lead a Grade 3-4 Main Lesson Group, 1st grade group, and K group

Our family and one other are planning to gather 2 times per week for a group “co-op” situation starting early September. We have a grades 3-4 group, and a 1st grade group (if any 2nd graders are interested we can combine with them). Also children under 6, or just turned 6 in the summer can join the Kindergarten/nursery group. I am hosting it here at the farm, based on Waldorf curriculum and methodology, and I am leading/organizing the basic structure of the academics and structure of the year according to these principles. I will lead the academic main lessons to the 1st and 2nd graders and the 3-4 graders. I am looking for a few families who might be interested in joining, and taking active supporting roles such as leading the K and nursery group according to seasonal Waldorf materials, helping to prepare our communal lunch, leading nature walks, facilitating crafts, helping to set up and clean up, assist with barn chores with the children, and supervising indoor and outdoor play. No need to be experienced in Waldorf principles and ways, but need to be willing to learn and adopt these principles for our gatherings. We could even have an occasional parents group/reading group to discuss waldorf pedagogy to supplement what we are doing.  If there is someone familiar with Waldorf education, or at least willing to learn and follow a curriculum, it would be great to have someone take either the 3-4 grade group or the 1-2nd grade group for their main lesson.  I have all the materials necessary to do this, and can teach someone how to present a Waldorf main lesson.  This would give more time to each group with a teacher.

The way the year is structured is in Block rotations, so for several weeks at a time we would focus alternately on language arts and math, with shorter blocks in things like nature, herbal medicine, putting on a play or preparation for a festival. Academic concepts are taught in a holistic way, through storytelling, art, song, verses, and games. Academics are taught conceptually, not functionally (ie, no phonics or math worksheets). It is more about immersion and living with concepts and ideas as opposed to gaining of specific skills and facts.  It is not my goal to “be school” for families, but to offer a central gathering that families can either use to inspire what they do at home on their own, or use as a supplement.  I am using what I would be doing with my children anyway for the year, and inviting anyone who wants to come along, and join us here on the farm as guests!

A typical day would look like this:

-8:30 arrival

-8:45-9:15 barn chores

-9:15-10:00 1st (and 2nd?) grade group main lesson, nursery and K free play, 3-4 graders begin to prepare soup for lunch or work on independent project

10:00-11:00 3-4 grade main lesson, nursery and K make bread rolls, nursery and K story/drawing

11:00-11:30 grades gather for outdoor games like skip counting, etc…  Nursery and K have a circle

11:30-12:00 communal lunch gathering and clean up (done in waldorf style with a non-religious blessing and candle, proper plates and silverware, and good manners and conversation

12:00-whenever….outside play, parents socializing

I would want to structure these blocks with breaks in between to allow for lots of freedom and personal family time.  Also important would be having long breaks for holidays.  We should be flexible with each other, knowing that we are homeschooling families first, and need to be accomodating when “things come up” due to illness, family obligations, change in personal needs, etc… arise.

Supplemental to this co-op would also be a German circle/class and a pennywhistle and handwork class that could be joined whether or not you are in co-op (or not taken if you only want to do the co-op).

As part of this co-op, we can also create community gatherings for the typically celebrated “waldorf festivals” such as Michaelmas (slaying of the dragon), Martinmas (bringing light into the beginning of winter…a lantern walk), St. Lucia and St. Nicholas days (making handmade presents and ornaments), Channukah (lights and latkes), Candlemas (making candles), maple sugaring time, beginning of Spring, May Day, birthday celebrations a la waldorf, etc…  Other families can host related outings and special classes in their own homes as well.

If anyone is interested, or wants to know more about the Waldorf way of education, homeschooling and life, please contact me! I look forward to speaking with you!
Rebecca Dragon
asylumwaldorf@gmail.com