A Lovely Day in the Atrium

Father presenting Isaiah 40:3-5

working on calligraphy strokes with markers

calligraphy strokes - and mounting on sturdier paper

she almost always sits in this spot...
left-hander

left-hander - working on calligraphy strokes
yeah, we'll have that book next time she comes

mounting prophecy tracings onto colored paper

reviewing geography work - pop quiz in January
to ensure they remember levels 1 and 2 work ;)

The Vine Stretching Out

During a True Vine meditation - only on part 1 !!

Using the example of temptation with a cookie jar of one's favorite cookies inside - you're hungry - but mom says "no cookies until after dinner" (which isn't anywhere near ready yet).

We talked about the vine dresser caring for the vine, running his fingers along the tendrils. But remember - this is part 1 - we've not talked about blockages!

An astute young lady explains that when her arm is reaching - stretched out - reaching - reaeaeaching for that cookie jar, her vine is curling all up on itself and she's not reaching out to other people and live her life in full joy as the Good Shepherd wants.

But when she fights temptation and pulls her hand back (she shows how her hand curls up to herself), her branch of the vine is actually streeeeeeeetching out - because the sap is flowing through it and making it grow - grow - GROW - and stretch.

And then she can reach out to other people.


Wow.

Love this kid.

Love atrium.

Calligraphy Area

Quick description of what we have right now - this could change anytime based on observation and response:

Overview of our art area, to kind of show placement of items. Calligraphy is upper left corner of this picture. The paper sorter and all other items shown are for all the children. 

Focus on the Calligraphy area. 

From left to right: 

1) The wooden cutlery sorters (from IKEA) contain the following: 

• a set of "sparkly" writing pencils (normal writing pencils but they have a sparkly covering - just to keep the "regular" pencils for regular use and separate out the privilege of learning calligraphy through Step 1: Shaded Handwriting. 
• behind the sparkly pencils is a set of colored rulers and soft-lead pencils - for creating straight lines that are easily erased, when they are working on blank paper (this is a much later stage)
• 3 sections with 3 sizes of colored calligraphy markers (Speedball is our current brand - so far, so good!) - we have 3.0, 2.5 and 2.0. Honestly? For beginners? Start with 3.0 at the smallest - go for 3.5 if you can find them (I happened to have 2 in that size from a kit and they are currently mixed in with the gold/silver prismacolors in one of the cutlery sections)
• gold/silver prismacolors - our budgets are running tight and I just asked for money to put into calligraphy, SO we're not getting full sets of prismacolors this year (or any of the last 6 years actually) - we use crayola which is so-so but functional. We have the round (premium) gold and silver prismacolors which lay on the color very nicely for coloring in areas --- and we have hexagonal (meaning they are "verithin") silver (need the gold yet). The verithins are a harder core and are great for writing or for making thinner lines. ONLY the children who have received a presentation on them can use them.

2) The Folders: 

• Introduction to Calligraphy - Great Lesson style, complete with miniature chart images
• Folders 1-8 - each folder is labeled Calligraphy 1, Calligraphy 2, etc. and contains an instruction card with corresponding number, along with any needed particular supplies (such as master copies, tracing cards, samples, etc.) The children move through these folders in sequence, following the instructions on the cards and checking their work with an adult before moving on to the next folder. Right now I am the only adult checking work because I don't have all the folders done yet and the material is so new, I think the other adults are scared of it. Hopefully I'll have fixed that by the time this post goes live ;) 
• When children are ready, Folders 9, 10 and 11 will be added (creating a pen-wipe; using pens with cartridges; using actual dipping inks)

3) Books of samples: see photo below

• Calligraphy for Kids (for any children who want to delve deeper on their own - I removed the binding and my son placed the pages into a sheet protectors within a binder. 
• The Illuminated Alphabet - beautiful samples and 5 sets of upper/lower case alphabets with numbers. Gets into both calligraphy AND illumination. 
• Book of the Hours from times past - preparation for Liturgy of the Hours in the history of our Church - for the children, beautiful samples of intricate calligraphy and illumination. 
• Script and Cursive Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts - for the children to peruse. These pages have no lines, just show the beautiful alphabets. These need to be placed in sheet protectors as well. The children can peruse these for their own inspiration or use them to trace, copy or for inspiration. 

Our gluing station:
glue cups, use a wash-style paintbrush to brush on the glue
Cup of water to rinse.
(the eyedropper is to dilute the glue if needed
or to use with the watercolors to the right of the glue station)

The children use the glue station to mount their work onto other paper (especially if they use tracing paper, but also if they do advanced artwork with their calligraphy creations.

Currently resides on the top of the paper sorter until I have children ready to use pens with cartridges, thus I've not entirely organized it. I would like the pen-handles in one cup, with the selection of nibs in a basket; ink cartridges in another basket. Perhaps include some colored rubber bands, so that if a red cartridge is in a particular pen, a red rubber band is placed around it to let other children know.


I have TONS of nibs for dipping inks - but do not have the right handles. I have ONE handle that won't work for the nibs I have. Grr. Until I get that matter squared away AND we have children ready for dipping inks, I am not even taking that work off the supply shelf.

The UNprepared Environment

Perhaps almost half of one of atrium groups consist of lefties - at least 1/3 of a class of more than 20.

In my smallest class, 1/4 of them are lefties.

The smeared hand. 

And guess who didn't think about the ramifications for calligraphy. ;) Yep.

New resource to obtain:
Left-Handed Calligraphy (Lettering, Calligraphy, Typography)

Anxious to Leave

No photographs for this one....
(and clearly a far pre-written post ;) )


I had a herd of children anxious to leave the atrium this morning (as of the day I typed this). They had a great morning, starting with walking on our new permanent line, followed by meeting with the priest who went over the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3-5:
A voice cries out, "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord!"...

The children then selected prophecies for tracing or copying, illuminating (beginning stages) and placing in their prayer journals; or practicing calligraphy strokes. It was a hard-working, quieter morning.

But with 3 weeks of being out (parish end of year Mass, Thanksgiving weekend, bad weather) and the coming of Christmas, the children were anxious.

I truly thought they would fly out the door and that would be it. I typically shake their hands as they leave, saying their name, thanking them for coming, and wishing them a good week or month until the next atrium. Many of them try to sneak past me, hiding behind a friend; or give me a dead limp fish for a hand; or try to do it so quick they don't even look me in the eye and they are walking past me with my hand still in theirs.... Ah well, I thought - it's been 3 weeks of no atrium, I'll let it go this time - I dismissed them from the prayer table and didn't even look at the door.

As I stood up and turned around to speak with another adult, I realized that the children had herded themselves in the doorway, waiting to shake my hand and say, "Goodbye".

Yep, they still had attempted sneak-outs, and some joking attempts at not looking me in the eye - but every last child said 'Merry Christmas,' gave me a firm handshake and said, "Thank you for being here too" or something to that affect.

Reminder to self: Just because a child fights it, doesn't mean he doesn't want it. 

Said without the repeated words:
A child may fight what he wants the most: consistency. Love.

Merry Christmas from the Atrium!

After studying the prophecies for several weeks, and while listening in on a level 2 meditation on the infancy narratives (with the 5-7 year olds), a pair of young ladies (a level 2 (2nd grade) and a level 3 (5th grade) created this prophetic-fulfillment art to share with all of you:

There is so much benefit in having the level 2 and level 3 children together; perhaps a similar benefit in keeping 1st through 6th graders together in an academic Montessori setting (rather than splitting into lower/upper elementary). Hm. Something to ponder.

Advent Prophecy Themes 2013

Each year, it seems that particular themes are honed in on by the children - even across two geographical locations and educational lifestyles. I wonder how much is affected by our readings in the Liturgy perhaps - and in the world at-large.


This year our focus has been on emphasizing the First Coming of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ.

Some points the children hone in on:

Historical Context:

• Periods of light and darkness in the history of Israel
• Moments of light in the deepest darkness - bring us HOPE
• Ancient Church's historical practice of fasting and penance during ALL of Advent and Lent. 

Interesting tidbits learned: 

• Which season has Gaudete Sunday - which has Laudete Sunday (or Laetare - we're doing some research on that one --- either way the 4th Sunday of Lent starts with an L to match Lent - and that's how we remember which one goes with which season ;) )
• Why THAT Sunday of each season? 1 Sunday past the half-way mark - to give us hope that the penitential time is coming to an end soon. Don't give up now! 
• Who knew Ms Jessica could connect prophecy studies to the sacraments. Wait - does that mean our faith is INTER-connected? Just like the VINE? Oh. Oops. Guess we need to keep paying attention (yeah, some stories there - the children are so intuitive this way)

First Coming

• We can't really prepare for a Baby to be born in the PAST - but we do prepare our individual hearts and lives to receive the gifts He gave us with His first coming: His Life (Eucharist) and His Light (received at Baptism, spreading throughout the world)
• The prophecies prepared the Hebrews for the First Coming - but also prepared the world for His Second Coming. Not all prophecy has been fulfilled. 
• Some of the Jews at the time of Christ thought that all Messianic prophecies would be fulfilled at one time. But now we look and see that with TWO comings, He will come once as a Child - and once a Glorious King. 

Second Coming

• As we prepare ourselves to receive more and more fully the Gifts of the first coming - we are also preparing ourselves to spread the light of Christ - and therefore be ready for the Parousia, at whatever moment it begins. 
• As we prepare, we know there are still going to be times of darkness and difficulty - but God always wants us to come back to Him. 

Thus not only are we seeing songs of preparation and of Advent (Light One Candle, Light the Advent Candle (I can't recall the name of that tune precisely at the moment), Come Lord Jesus, O Come Emanuel, etc.) --- we are also seeing songs of Reconciliation, tying in perfectly with the children in one of my sacramental preparation groups who are receiving this sacrament for the first time in the month of December.

Our favorite?

Create in me a clean heart - 

Help me start over again. 

Please Lord don't leave me, 

I need your Spirit, 

I cannot make it alone. 

Restore to me the Joy of Salvation - 

Oh my God. 

~Based on Psalm 51 (also our source for the Lavabo prayer!)~

It is OH so time for a YouTube video of that song. I'll see if a group of parents will let me record their children singing if I just videotape the words with the children's voices in the background....


Additional observations: 

I have one young man, 3rd grade, who insists on always mentioning "judgment" before mentioning "Parousia". Perhaps it is time to pull out the level 3 work on "Holy Bible and Parousia" for him. Seriously. This child canNOT get off the judgment portion of Parousia - and there is SO MUCH MORE to it.