Dear Future Emma….

I came across this when I was boxing up her Main Lesson books. It was too good not to share! xo

 

Grace's Senior Project Presentation

When we heard that Miss Jaia, Grace's teacher from eighth grade, was returning to Seasons of Seven to teach Class Twelve, we knew that Grace needed to be part of the class again! She chose to attend for two of the blocks. The first was about Faust/Goethe and Color Theory an the second was the Senior Project block. These blocks were running back to back starting in February which was perfect timing for her! 

Grace chose to create a pollinator hotel for her senior project. A few years ago when she was considering doing the Gold Award for Girl Scouts she had thought she would build a pollinator hotel for that. However, since she decided not to persue the Gold Award she knew that her senior project was the pefect time to finally make this pollinator hotel happen. With support and guidance from Dave the pollinator hotel finally was created and this past Thursday Grace gave a stellar presentation during the final class for this block! Below are a few of the pictures I took of her presentation. 

And, of course, she had to paint pollinators and flowers on her nails in honor of this day! xo 

Final Preparations

For her senior project Grace chose to design and build a pollinator hotel. Above is the watercolor she painted in order to help her figure out what she wanted the hotel to look like. Dave was a huge support throughout this process, as he helped her figure out which materials she would need and how to construct it. Along with her pollinator hotel, she also put together a PowerPoint slide deck for her presntation and wrote a research paper about the importance of pollinators and what people can do to keep all pollinators from becoming extinct. Such a perfect senior project for our girl who has been smitten with pollinators since she first watched Wings of Life when she was like eight years old! xo 

In Celebration!

 

After a delicious lasagna dinner (made by David) we celebrated Grace, as well as Dave's parents 50th anniversary, with two of the most delicious cakes ever!

Boston Cream Pie Cake in celebration of Dave's parents' fiftieth, 

and Lemon Raspberry in celebration of Grace!

Two of our most favorite cakes from Flour. The perfect way to celebrate these special occasions and a sweet ending to the first time we were all together again after fifteen months apart! xo

On Eighth Grade Graduation Day!

 

Today we gathered together to celebrate the eighth grade class of Seasons of Seven! Not only was this a special day for the eighth graders but it was also a special day for our family as it was the first time that we have seen either set of grandparents since February 2020! And while the weather was unseasonably cold and rainy (a whopping 44 degrees for the high) the day was absolutely spectacular! We all gathered on Zoom where pictures of the class as babies/toddlers/younger grade students, in addition to present day pictures of each, as well as their art work was shared. Where speeches were given, first by Ms Jaia, then by each of the eighth graders (as is the tradition at Waldorf eighth grade graduations) and then by all three of the directors, followed by well wishes from all the parents before certificates were given out. This ceremony was probably the best ever and it was such a wonderful way to come together as a family and as a school community to celebrate this extraordinary year, this incredible class and to send them on their way with love and good wishes for high school (wherever it may take each one of them)! We are looking forward to celebrating Emma this same way next year! Thank you Melisa, Nicole and Melanie for making this dream of yours a reality last summer, and thank you Ms. Jaia for the most incredible eighth grade year for Grace! We watched her grow in ways we never imagined and we are so grateful for your love, support and encouragement for Grace (and Emma too)! We are grateful you took on class seven in addition to class eight and are so very thrilled we get one more year with you! Many wishes for a wonderful summer to all! We look forward to all that Seasons of Seven high school has in store for Grace (and all that Seasons of Seven class eight has in in store for Emma) next year! xo 

Emma's Rube Goldberg Project

 

On Saturday, Emma, with an assist by David, created her Rube Goldberg project. Today, they shared their projects in class! Ms. Jaia said that Emma's project was "so fancy!" That's how we roll in this family! xo 

Catapult!

 

In which Emma builds a catapult as part of her simple machines block! xo

Impressionist Inspiration

 

In which Grace creates her version of one of Degas' ballerina paintings during the eighth grade class' study of the impressionists. xo

A Work In Progress

The artistic abilities of our girls never cease to amaze me. Of course, it really is all thanks to them growing up Waldorf! The arts, especially the fine arts, really are so beautifully integrated into all aspects of their learning and it has made for a very rich experience for our girls (and for us)! Super impressed with Emma as drawing is something that she has often says is hard or that she's not good at. She has worked so very hard and I would say that her hard work and determination are really paying off! xo

 

A Page Out Of Emma's Main Lesson Book

 

In which Emma creates this beautiful page during her main lesson today. Her class is studying the renaissance and Reformation, and with today's lesson focusing on the Tudor family. xo 

Waldorf Kids In Spring

 

I loved capturing this sweet moment of the girls today working on their nature paintings for their art lesson this week. I just love that they love being outside and that they will often choose to do their lessons out there, or attend their class Zoom calls outside. They truly are Waldorf kids through and through! xo

A Peek Inside Grace's Main Lesson Book

 Since it's been awhile since I last shared what the girls are doing for lessons I thought now would be a good time to do just that!

Let's start with Grace's main lesson book from her anatomy block. 

As with most things, Waldorf teaches things so beautifully. From the way the material is brought to the children, to how the children interact with it, to the way art is brought in we just stand in awe. Honestly, I often think if I had learned material this way I would have enjoyed it so much more (and probably would have retained it better). 

On more than one occasion I told Grace "When I was in school we would have been given a worksheet and told to label it."

This drawing especially blew me away. Goodness, it's like textbook quality! 

Along with the gorgeous drawings she did wonderful descriptions of the various parts of the body that she had drawn. I didn't include those only because it would make this post even longer, but mostly because I was just really impressed with how beautifully her drawings came out! xo

Through The Telescope

 

With how beautiful last night was, and with Emma's class doing their astronomy block, we couldn't resist getting out the telescope and taking a peek at the moon! 

It's especially fitting since she is researching Earth's moon for her report and artistic representation which is due in early April. 

I took the above picture of the moon with my iPhone through the telescope eyepiece. You don't realize how much you move until you attempt to take a picture of the moon with your phone through a telescope! Needless to say, I think we may need to buy the phone attachment that goes with our telescope now! I would love to be able to capture a picture of how clearly we can see the moon through the telescope. It truly is incredible to see the craters so clearly and I would love to be able to capture what we see and share it in this space of ours. xo