Monthly Archives: March 2009

Inspirations from Tapestries: Ages 21-28

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Here is a peek into some developmental characteristics of this seven-year cycle:

Betty Staley writes, “In our twenties we often live in the intensity of impulse rather than through feelings which have been tempered by thought.  Steiner calls this time the period of the Sentient Soul.  It is a time when young people  are building up  experiences and meeting the world with vigor and enthusiasm, a time of enjoying sensations and pursuing adventures, of dreaming into the future and being full of hope and confidence.”

She mentions in our twenties we usually do one of two things:  what we think we should, or we rebel against what is expected.  Usually we only stand on our own two feet, with our own thoughts and understanding the results of our actions more when we are in our late twenties.

“The mood of this 21-28 period is one of egotism.  We are the center of our thoughts, and we feel satisfied when we fulfill our personal goals and objectives.”

On page 81, Betty Staley mentions marriage in the twenties as often being difficult because we lack life experience.  She talks about the hidden qualities that can occur as a wife, homemaker, and mother in our twenties (although I think many of us experienced this when we became mothers!):

“The young woman who is trying to approach life consciously can find her time at home with a child or children a maturing experience.  If she can take a broad view of the responsibilities she has, she can see that this part of her life poses her with challenges in self-development.  It is easy for her to get “pulled out of herself” into constant activity, but she can work to focus herself.  Taking care of young children and all the household details is a very grounding experience. She has to come to terms with details, with  time-tables, with establishing a routine, with being concerned about others, with establishing an atmosphere in the home.  All of this presents an opportunity for growth.”

She also goes into significant detail about the changes men face during this time period as they face whether or not marriage and children live up to the vision they created in their head, financial worries, the concern and thought that he needs “to make it” in his career by age 35.

She also talks about the crisis of the late twenties in working women who are wondering if career or children is the right path for them; and also the crisis of the late twenties faced by couples who married in their early twenties.  She writes that, “The inner work of maturing is often cut short by early marriage.  This may seem contradictory since the young people are having to deal with issues of responsibility:  compromising with each other, putting the needs of a child before their own, facing serious responsibilities – while unmarried friends are doing what they like, when they like.  Dealing with such situations does bring a sense of responsibility, but it doesn’t necessarily bring inner growth.  We are more likely to slip into expected roles without thinking.  Our own personalities have not yet developed independently, so we bring an immature “self” to the relationship rather than one which has learned to stand on its own, solve problems and know  what it wants by passing through a necessary phase of self-centredness.”

Lest you think the author is against marriage in one’s twenties, she does write that these marriages often work, but many times come under great strain as the people within the marriage mature, and how it takes strong commitment and desire to hold the marriage together.

What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comment box below!

Interesting reading,

Carrie

Waldorf Homeschooling Versus Waldorf School

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In this solemn economic time, our local Waldorf homeschooling group is getting more and more calls from the parents of the local Waldorf school who will not be able to afford Waldorf school in the fall and are interested in investigating Waldorf homeschooling.

I have a few thoughts on this subject.

It actually does come up, even in Waldorf homeschooling circles, this question of, “Well, if you had all the money in the world, wouldn’t you put your child in Waldorf school?”

And our family’s answer is no.  You will learn my bias toward Waldorf homeschooling in a moment, but let’s peak at the issue of school first.

PROS (or at least, hopes for a school!)

  • A community (hopefully!) of like-minded people gathering for festivals, a community of general happiness with the ideas of the Waldorf curriculum as tailored to the soul development of the child.  This can be very hard to find in a land of Well-Trained Mind homeschoolers and unschoolers.
  • A place where there are specialty teachers to bring things like eurythmy, foreign languages, woodworking, games.
  • Fabulous festival celebrations.
  • Some things, like Circle Time in Kindy and pedagogical stories in the grades , grouping children of the same temperament together, work well in a group at school and may not work nearly as well at home.
  • Great teachers who collaborate with parents as partners in education.
  • Hopefully the school will offer some of the other “extras” such as gardens and beekeeping and other totally enriching experiences for your child.
  • Hopefully adult opportunities for learning.

CONS (or at least possible cons)

  • Possibly long drive times to get to and from school.  In my major metropolitan area, you pretty much would have to sell your house and go buy one by the only Waldorf school in our area, or spend a great deal of time in the car.
  • Tuition, fundraising outside of tuition, extra fees.
  • Some parents who have left the Waldorf school environment for homeschooling felt like they learned a lot more by homeschooling than by being at the school.  For example, many parents told me they did not celebrate the festivals at home, only at school, and after transitioning to home they had to decide what the festivals meant to them and how to plan it, whereas at the school the festivals were planned and they had a part assigned to them.
  • Some parents who have left the school environment for homeschooling told me they felt that many parents were not on the same page regarding media in the younger grades and other areas, even with school policies set forth.
  • Some children truly do not function as well in a group environment in the younger grades.  Some parents told me they felt their wild child really calmed down with Waldorf homeschooling as opposed to school, or that their shy child really came out of their shell with homeschooling.
  • Some parents have told me they felt the repetition of the early grades, the focus on group unity in the early elementary grades, or lack of individual attention and progress to a slower or faster learner were hard to deal with.

Waldorf Homeschooling PROS (yes, this is my bias)

  • Waldorf homeschooling is first and foremost about family.  It is about spending copious amounts of time with your children, quantity time and really being there for all those little questions that come up during the oddest moments.
  • You can save  your children a great amount of overstimulation by not having to drive in traffic, and save money by not paying tuition.
  • You will learn about Steiner, festivals and make them your own.  You can fit your own faith into your homeschooling experience they way you want if this is important to you.  It is important to me.    You can tailor your blocks to your child – for second grade, for example, you can pick – there are the Saints and the animal trickster tales, of course but you can also pick “Cherokee Animal Trickster Tales” or Anansi the Spider or Robin Hood or American Tall Tales.  You can pick stories where the meaning really speaks to the things your child is struggling with.  You can pick what  festivals you celebrate and how, with the whole family involved in building up to the festival.
  • You will develop your own skills so you can teach your child.
  • You can spend a vast amount of time outside.
  • You can go on vacation when you want, and take a day off when you need to attend to family business.
  • You can foster close bonds between siblings who may otherwise be separated all day in different grades.
  • You can show your child the warmth and work that goes into homemaking, and have time to do this.
  • Dad may be able to be more involved as you can work your homeschooling around his schedule as well, and homeschooling and learning becomes a family adventure. You start planning family things around the blocks you are studying – weekend field trips different places that tie into what you are studying.  Grandparents and aunts and uncles can even get into the act!
  • You can move at your child’s pace within the curriculum.  I still feel with the grades it is important to keep within the three day rhythm and use sleep as your aid, but you can do more math blocks than language arts blocks if your child is a language arts star and needs more work in math, you can work toward longer sentences in language arts if they have mastered shorter sentences earlier, or move ahead in math if they really get it.
  • You can honor your child’s development as it unfolds.  Sometimes children do things that do not fit into the norm and need more time to just be.
  • With homeschooling, there is plenty of time for the child to play, to look at clouds, to make homemade salt dough, to just dream and be.  Sometimes this gets lost in the hustle and bustle of any school if one is not careful.

Waldorf Homeschooling CONS

  • I guess this to me is a pro, but to many parents it is a con: You need to do your own inner work with this method. How do you feel about fairy tales? Saints and legends?  The Old Testament as a story of a people’s relationship to authority?  How do you feel about what comes where within the curriculum?  This can be hard work for some people.

My thought on this:  Aren’t these questions you should be looking at anyway?

  • You have to get to know your own community and your own resources.   Waldorf homeschooling in the US Virgin Islands is going to look a lot different than homeschooling in Idaho, not because the building block in the Third Grade is going to change, but the local resources are different.  A child in the US Virgin Islands might learn about the use of molasses as a building and binding agent, or the particulars of the cannonball tree in botany  in addition to other cultures’ building methods and a child in Idaho may focus more on local things in addition to others’ building methods.  This intimidates many parents, that their child “may not learn it all.”

My thought on this:  Even a Waldorf teacher in a school has to pick and choose amongst possible blocks and available resources; just like you!

  • Being a Waldorf homeschooler can be hard in some respects when everyone else around you is homeschooling with other methods.

My thought on this:  Start your own local Waldorf homeschooling group.  Be a beacon for your area!  Hang out with homeschoolers who use other methods, and be okay with that.  Do what works for your family!

  • Some parents feel Waldorf requires intensive work.

My thought on  this:  All homeschool curriculums require work on your part. That is called teaching, as just opposed to opening a book and handing it to your small child.  There are open and go kinds of Waldorf homeschool curriculums out there.

  • Some parents feel Waldorf homeschooling requires severe lifestyle changes.

My thought on this:  Baby steps, people, baby steps.  Homeschooling in itself is a lifestyle, no matter what method you choose.    And the pink protective bubble of Waldorf Kindergarten does not last forever.

  • Waldorf homeschooling is not the same as Waldorf school at home.

My thought:  Absolutely and that is one of the reasons I choose to homeschool.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments in the comment section,

Carrie

Flu Poems

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My first grader wrote these while she had the flu and a 102 degree fever (before we went island hopping).  I thought they were cute and I would share:

Thank You

Many thanks for our food.

And many thanks for our love.

Many thanks for my prayers which

My Lord hears so well.

And this one:

Do You Love Me?

Do you love me Mother?

Yes, for all the world.

Do you love me Father?

Yes, with all my heart.

Everyone loves me.

Peace,

Carrie

“Breastfeeding the Right-Brained Way”

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This is a great article circulating some of the breastfeeding forums I am on, and I wanted to share it with you.  Many thanks to my friend Anna for sharing it with me!

 

Breastfeeding the Right-Brained Way
By Kathleen Kendall-Tackett (PhD, IBCLC) & Nancy Mohrbacher (IBCLC),
co-authors of Breastfeeding Made Simple

In modern Western cultures, mothers have more information about
breastfeeding than any time in human history. Unfortunately, most of this is
information for the left side of the brain, which is fine for lots of tasks.
But too much left-brained information can make you anxious about
breastfeeding.

 

 

Breastfeeding is a right-brained activity. What do we mean by that? Think of
left-brained instructions as head knowledge. Right-brained learning yields
heart or body knowledge. To illustrate the difference, think about riding a
bike. Did you learn by reading about it? Talking a class? Talking to other
people about it? Or did you learn by just getting on a bike and doing it?

The Right-Brained Dance of Breastfeeding
Mothers and babies have physiological responses that draw them to each
other, that encourage them to look at each other, touch each other, and
interact. Much of this behavior is guided by the right side of the brain.
This is the side that has to do with affect or emotion.

A problem with the heavily left-brained, instructionally-oriented way that
many mothers learn to breastfeed is that it doesn’t allow mother and baby to
take advantage of their natural responses. So much breastfeeding education
focuses on all the things mother must to do get the baby to breastfeed,
which ignores the baby’s role. That type of instruction can be helpful to
solve a particular problem, but it can be a definite drawback when one
technique or strategy is applied to all mothers. It also discourages mothers
and babies from using their hardwiring.

Worse still, this kind of education can encourage them to tune out their
natural responses or to violate their instincts. It can be upsetting for all
who are involved, sometimes creating a crisis where none existed before.
Another problem with highly instructionalized left-brained approaches is
that they can leave some mothers feeling incompetent because it feels as if
there are 10,000 things they need to remember.

A different way to think about this is to consider how mothers throughout
human history managed to breastfeed without all of the information we have
now. When breastfeeding was the norm, girls learned about breastfeeding as
they were growing up by seeing women actually doing it. Dr. Peter Hartmann,
a well-known breastfeeding researcher, makes this point well. He asked a
young Australian Aboriginal mothers, “When did you learn about
breastfeeding?” She answered, “I have always known how to breastfeed.”

How exactly do you use a right-brained approach to breastfeed your baby?
First, take some deep breaths and let go of those worries about doing things
“wrong.” Instead of thinking of breastfeeding as a skill you need to master,
or a measure of your worth as a mother, think about breastfeeding as
primarily a relationship. As you spend time with your baby, you’ll be more
adept at reading her cues. As you hold her, your baby will be more
comfortable seeking your breast. Breastfeeding will flow naturally out of
your affectionate relationship.

Based on her extensive clinical experience with mothers and babies,
pediatrician and board-certified lactation consultant Dr. Christina Smillie
has developed some strategies that can help you help your baby. Here are
some specific things you can do:
* Start with a calm, alert baby– One mistake that many women make is to wait to try breastfeeding until their babies are either sound asleep or
screaming. Think about yourself. Do you learn best when you are asleep or
upset? Probably not. The other reason to start with a calm baby has to do
with physics. When a baby is screaming, her tongue is on the roof of her
mouth. You will never get your breast in her mouth when her tongue is like
that.
* Watch for early feeding cues– These cues include turning her head when
someone touches her cheek and hand-to-mouth. Take note of when she starts
smacking her lips or putting her hands to her mouth. This is an ideal time
to try breastfeeding.
* Use your body to calm your baby– One way to calm a crying baby is by
placing your baby skin to skin vertically between your breasts. Your chest
is a very calming place for your baby. Try talking and making eye contact.
All of these activities can get her to calm down, allowing your baby to seek
the breast on her own.
* Follow your baby’s lead– When a calm, alert baby is held vertically
between her mother’s breasts, often she will begin showing instinctive
breast-seeking behaviors, bobbing her head and moving it from side to side.
Once your baby starts these behaviors, help her in her efforts. Following
your baby’s lead, support her head and shoulders. Move her rump toward your
opposite breast. Encourage her explorations with your voice.
* Play while you learn to breastfeed– Play is something that is largely
absent from the mothers we see. It all seems so serious and they are
terrified of doing something wrong. If you are feeling frustrated, we’d like
to encourage you to look at this another way. Focus on your relationship
with your baby and consider breastfeeding as a part of the larger whole.
Breastfeeding will flow naturally out of your affectionate relationship.
In summary, if your baby is healthy, she is wired to know how to breastfeed.
It all doesn’t depend on you getting everything right. Relax and just focus
on getting to know your baby. The rest will follow.

Breastfeeding Made Simple is an awesome book, and I encourage you to search out the other books written by these two women.  Kathleen Kendall-Tackett in particular has done a lot of work with postpartum depression, depression and other less than positive feelings dealing with motherhood.  The works of these two wise women are well worth checking out!

Thanks,

Carrie

Ron Jarman’s Math Goals for Waldorf Grade One

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This is from Ron Jarman’s book, “Teaching Mathematics in Rudolf Steiner Schools for Classes I-VIII”: (some of these goals have been shortened, you need to get his book to see more of the details!).  I took them directly from the book, so please note the very English spelling of some of the words! 🙂

a. Experience of straight and curved lines- in bodily posture, by walking along them and through drawing them in colour on the blackboard and on large sheets of paper.

b.  Introduction to whole numbers, proceeding from whole to its parts (e.g. breaking up a dead stick). Finding where they reveal themselves in the world.

c.  Counting – first up to 10, then up to 20, later up to 100.  (He mentions counting rhymes, jumping, skipping, singing, movement, movement, movement)

d.  Estimating the size of collections, especially of shells, stones and nuts.  Arranging them in groups and patterns.

e.  Experience of forms containing straight and curved lines…finally concentrating on the writing of the Roman numerals and later the Arabic numerals.

f.  Experience of the 4 rules and developing imagination for the invisible third number in each sum (using concrete objects)

g.  A lot of mental arithmetic – both orally and through writing down just the answers.  Games with mental arithmetic.

h.  Written arithmetic with the 4 rules, (physical demonstration first, going into imaginative type, then into purely computational kinds of sums)

i.  drawing repeated patterns

j.  symmetrical form drawing

k. free modelling of shapes including flat and curved surfaces

l.  comparison of lengths and widths, but not by using rulers or pairs of scales – instead using their own limbs and body weights together and as a group

m. rhythmic learning by heart of the 2 times, 3 times, and 10 times tables; also of number bonds up to a total of 20.

There you have it!  This really is a book that belongs on your bookshelf; it is easily available through Bob and Nancy’s at www.waldorfbooks.com, the Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore, and many of the used Waldorf curriculum lists.  Maybe my Canadian and British readers can let me know a supplier they use. 

Thanks,

Carrie

Boys Under Age 7 and Hitting

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(I wrote this about boys, because a lot of mothers have been coming to me with their “boy challenges” lately, but of course ALL small children live in their bodies and can be physical when frustrated and angry.  This is not so much about hitting as part of a temper tantrum though, for that post please refer to “Smearing Peas” found at this link: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2008/11/13/smearing-peas

Also, this post is written about neuro-typical children.)

On to the post:

Is hitting acceptable?  Absolutely not.

Is it fun to be the referee of hitting in your family?  No, but it is necessary!

Is hitting a phase that may just go away in boys under 7?  Perhaps, but from what I personally  have seen with the more immature, physical kinds of boys is that hitting starts with frustration and lack of words around 2 or 2 and a half, and just continues through the ages with special exacerbations at age 4 and later at age 6.  The increased physical aggression at age 6 is often difficult for parents to handle calmly, so I urge you to go back in this blog and read the four posts I wrote about the six-year old.  This is an important time!

So, the question becomes, what to do with hitting?

1.  The first place, as always, is to start with yourself. How is the tone in your home?  What is going on with all members of the home?  Who is in a stage of developmental disequilibrium right now?  Are you and your partner happy or upset with each other?  Are you getting any time for you to re-build your own energy reserves for happy parenting?

2.  How much outside time is your little one getting?  Are there other issues going on – food or environmental allergens, lack of sleep, giving up naps, how is the rhythm in your house? Have you been going too many places?  Have you rotated toys within your home lately, spruced up the playroom, changed the sensory table out with something new?

This, of course, does not immediately solves the hitting problem, but it does give one a few things to think about and possibly try to change to see an effect.

When hitting happens:

I have seen families try all kinds of approaches from reasoning, saying “We don’t hit in our family,” time-outs, ignoring some of it……Which of course begs the question, What to do?

Every family is different of course,and every child is different as well, but here are a few thoughts.  See what resonates with you!

First of all, Steiner said it is possible to awaken a child’s sense of what is right or wrong only towards the fifth year. 

Barbara Patterson and Pamela Bradley write on page 118 of “Beyond the Rainbow Bridge: Nurturing Our Children from Birth to Seven,”If we try to explain too much to children, to reason with them about what we want them to do or not do, we prematurely awaken their capacities of reason and intellect and pull them o too early  out of the dreamier world of childhood. Through imitation, they start trying to out-reason us and become extremely good at it.”

This may not mean much when they are 4, but it will mean much more to you once your child is 6! 

My first thought is with a child under the age of 6, is to immediately turn it into a hit, you must be by me kind of rule. A time-in.

My second thought with the child under the age of 5 is to attempt to turn it into a more acceptable physical activity, and perhaps to approach it with pure distraction.  When a small child hears, “We don’t hit in this family,”  over and over it seems to become less and less effective.  (You can agree or disagree here, LOL).  With a very small 2 or 3 year old, I like the idea of giving them something they can hit or a physical activity.  If they hit, you immediately pick them up and bring them to a spot where they can throw bean bags at a line on the floor.  Not a guilt trip, not a bunch of words going to their heads that they really don’t get and doesn’t help them control their arms anyway, but physical motion.

Dads are also great at sometimes defusing this into not only physical activity, but humor as well.  Sometimes we are so convinced that if we do not seriously  pound  into our little 2 and 3 year olds the “wrongness” of this behavior, then it will just snowball into something bigger and bigger as they grow.  I think this is the wrong attitude to take in many ways.  Again, hitting is not acceptable,  but it takes time until children can express their emotions in acceptable ways.  It is a process, and not something you can also quickly fix.  That being said, I do not believe the right thing to do is to ignore the behavior, because it is not a behavior you want to see your child using in a social setting.

Some Waldorf teachers take the child’s hands and bathe them in  a special healing water, dry the hands gently and paint suns or something like that on the back of the hands to remind the child of their gentle hands.  Some Waldorf teachers will wrap the child’s hands in a silk and tell them that hands that are warm and strong will not hit.

Most of all, it is important to listen to the child and hear the child’s frustrations.  You don’t need to reason, just listen.  Give your child your attention if you think this will help your child. (See below for another mother’s different perspective).

If the child is four or five, I think gently just saying, “We can use our hands to (peel these carrots for dinner, grate potatoes, knead bread, whatever)”   can be effective.  Exhausting for the parent?  Absolutely, sometimes!  But, real work is the cure for violence in small children under the age of 7. 

For children age 6 and over, I think you can be a bit more direct.  This is the time for the  notion, “We are gentle in this family.”  It is also the time for you to be the authority.

As far as hitting between siblings, I think many times, way too often, we leave our children alone in the guise of benign neglect and letting them “work it out” when they truly do not have the skills to work it out.  I actually am all for benign neglect, but a child under the age of 7 does not have the skills to work it out with someone much bigger or much smaller than they are.  They need your help.  You can help them use their words. (But again, I feel this is for a child older than the ages of the children where many parents are using these techniques!  Remember, do not put the cart before the horse with your little 2, 3 and 4 year old!)

Some other suggestions I have heard other mothers use:

  • Make sure the “victim” who was hit receives more attention than the negative attention the hitter is getting.  Hitting can be a way to get attention!
  • Make sure you are not hitting when you play with your child, or your children are not play hitting one another.  It then becomes confusing for the child when hitting is okay, and when  it is not okay.
  • Give your child tasks that involve being gentle physically with someone else – giving foot rubs, back rubs, those kinds of tasks.  Give them a chance to have gentle hands!
  • Some sources I have read advises parents to walk away from a child who is hitting you; I would love to hear parents’ experiences with this.  In my family, this would not have worked for us and would have led to more hitting, but I am sure there are families where this worked.  Please do share if this worked for you.
  • Nancy Samalin writes in her book “Loving Each One Best: A Caring and Practical Approach to Raising Siblings” to not intervene unless the fighting is physically or emotionally hurtful.  She writes that many children fight because they are bored, because they want you in the middle.  I am not sure I agree with this for children under the age of 7 who are fighting.  I do not think children under the age of 7 often have the skills to deal with this.  If you look back on the four and six year old posts, you will see that most developmental experts on childhood agree that the social skills of four and six year olds are poor; aggressive even.  Not a time to let them “work it out”, in my opinion.
  • With fighting siblings, never ask “Who started it?”

I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!

Carrie

Inspirations from Tapestries: The Seven-Year Rhythms from Birth Until Age 63 and Onward, Part 3

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The ages of 42- 63 are about building spiritual maturity.

Ages 42-49

  • Much of what happens in this time period depends upon if you hit the crisis described in Part 2 of this series in the cycles of ages 35-42.  If you already experienced crisis, this period after crisis could be a time of productivity, innovation, imagination, new strength. A time where careers are reshaped and where you really know what you want to do in life.
  • It can also be a time of greater patience, new friendships, new-found confidence.

Ages 49-56

  • Increased flexibility and humor than in the past.
  • A time to remember the past as we gain perspective.
  • Wisdom prevails.

Ages 56-63

  • Another new burst of energy, with many earlier conflicts now resolved.
  • Enjoyment of respect and confidence.
  • Living from within our own maturity, out of the depth of our own experience.
  • In this phase, we go inward for insight.

Ages 63 and Beyond

  • Betty Staley writes that this is “a continuation of previous phases.  The processes of development which began at 35 continue and mature.”

We will be taking a closer look at each one of the seven-year cycles from age 21-63 in the coming weeks.

Looking forward to delving further into the notion of human biography with you all,

Carrie

Some More Straight Talk About Waldorf Homeschooling of First Grade

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(You can read the comments below, but I thought I would re-print one of my replies to the comments here for clarity with some questions that came up:

Foreign languages typically are introduced in Waldorf Kindy solely through puppetry, songs, verses. In my area at the local school they introduce German and Spanish, and I could find resources for that in my area. First Grade is kind of a continuation of that, I will try to find the post on this blog about foreign languages for you…..As far as math, we moved pretty aggressively which you don’t really need to do unless your child is moving along, but yes, all four math processes are introduced. Keep in mind this is with counters, objects, bodily movements such as oneTWO(stomp)threeFOUR(stomp)fiveSIX(stomp) for example to start learning the two’s table through skip counting and then moving into whole to parts 2=1 X2, 4=2 X 2. At some point I will do a review of the math books out there, but Ron Jarman’s, while it moves too fast for some folks, at least does have a list of goals for each grade in it, which I found to be helpful.
Also, we did do sight words because my daughter had already taught herself to read, but I think Donna Simmons says that normally comes in in second grade.
The joy of homeschooling though, is that you can go at your child’s pace and also to see how satisfied they are with the curriculum even if they are ahead or behind here or there.
Waldorf homeschooling is a wonderful adventure!)

 

On to the post:

I make up our own curriculum, so this is based off of what we did this year, but it may give you some idea of our particular scope and sequence and you could modify it for your own children and use:

Language Arts

First Block – Letters A-J with phonetic sounds, alliterative oral phrases, thinking of all words that begin with one letter and writing those down, rhyming words,  and writing of phrases through fairy tales.  Start reading what your child writes, help them follow left to right with their finger for visual tracking if they need it, read the sentence and cover a word up and have them fill in the blank.  Practice!  Use sentences and look at not only the phonetic sounds, but sight words (usually this comes more into consciousness in the second grade than first, but my child was already reading).  You can write the sight words on the board in a separate list if you need to!  Waldorf is a whole language approach to reading so look at both phonetic sounds and sight words and the whole sentence!

Second Block – Letters K-S as above through fairy tales

Third Block – Letters S-Z, vowels, starting with writing of familiar phrases, songs, verses moving into writing longer sentences for different fairy tales involving capitalization, punctuation, contractions.

What I would do differently: I probably would introduce just the letters Steiner indicated in his writings and go into more writing quicker.  Steiner did not say to introduce each letter with a separate story!  My child was a  fluent reader before we started first grade and not surprisingly hated writing (well, copying but she did a lot of writing of poems and stories on her own time), so we went easy on the “required”  writing for much of the year.  I recently went back through a bunch of our schoolroom papers though and found a large number of poems and stories my child had created “outside of” school, so if you have a child like that you may not have to be so worried about the writing.  If your child is reluctant to write, it is important to look at the age of your child (hopefully they are seven for this grade), their gross and fine motor skills and then look at how much you should require.

Essential Resources: A copy of the Grimm Fairy Tales or other fairy tales from around the world that you would like to use.  I also found Donna Simmons’ First Grade Syllabus and her Living Language book to be of help for gauging where we were.  The other thing to  remember is that the letters are being taught through art, so you will need to know how to use block crayons, how to model, all those things.   Sigi’s block drawing book is a must, and Melisa Nielsen now has a DVD of Sigi drawing through her book available for sale.   Drama is another fun way to bring the fairy tales to life.

Math

First Block (6 weeks) – Quality of Numbers 1-12 (I think most Waldorf teachers do numbers 1-10 only) through fairy tales, Roman Numerals 1-12, introduction of all four math processes through our friends the math gnomes.

Second Block – Used work with concrete objects and whole body movement to explore addition and subtraction facts up to 20, division, multiplication tables of 2s, 5s, 10s, skip counting, counting to 100 forward and backward.

Third Block – Worked on same as second block, moving into  working with addition and subtraction up to 100, introducing columnar math problems by end of year.

What I would do differently:  I introduced the numbers pretty fast but from what I read in Steiner’s work it seems as if the numbers would be introduced from things that are part of the children (fingers, toes) or around the children even faster than what I did.

Ron Jarmon’s math book moves fast but has clearly outlined objectives for each grade.  You may have to tone it down, but it should be on your bookshelf as a reference for math.  The other book you may want to check out is Melisa Nielsen’s new math book; I have heard spectacular things about it.  You can see a review of Melisa’s book over at Lovey’s blog here:  http://lovey-land.blogspot.com/2008/12/journey-through-waldorf-math.html

The other thing to keep in mind is much of math is bodily movement, rhythm, music, so to have ideas for that floating around your head.  Math, to me, is also one of the areas where kids kind of seem to get it (or not), so I wouldn’t  feel badly if your child doesn’t move as fast as above and needs a summer to sleep on it before it all clicks in second grade!

Science – my own personal theme was “Looking at Things Around Us” (through all 12 senses of course!!)

First Block – we did River Life in with form drawing and explored stories (with characteristics of those animals)  about Ms. Turtle, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, the Otter Family, Old Mister Frog. You could pick whatever kind of habitat is predominant in the area in which you live and make up stories about the animals.

Second Block – introduction of calendar, making a calendar, spending time with stories about each season and how one season gives way to the other.  From that point on we also made calendars in German and Spanish each month.    A really fun block!!

Third Block – Backyard Nature – bees, ants, dragonflies, butterflies, ladybugs.

Essential Reference:  The Handbook of Nature Study.  I also like Donna Simmons’ From Nature Stories to Natural Science as a reference.

Form Drawing

First Block – line and curve and variations

Second Block – moving from line and curve into spirals, lemniscates

Third Block –  moving into closed forms, how lines and curves can change a form from one shape and feeling to a completely different shape and feeling

Fourth Block – closed forms with and without shading, running forms

Essential Reference:  Embery-Stine and Schuberth’s Form Drawing Grades One through Four.

Knitting

We had a tough time with knitting; my child hated it and was extremely frustrated.   She did careful, cautious work but you could tell it just required so much concentration for her.   She knit a rectangular scarf for her bear and started a square to make a chick for Easter.  I don’t know if we will get to a third project or not!  There are lots of wonderful knitting resources out there though to help you get started.

Wet-on-Wet Painting

We started with our three color friends of red, yellow, blue and those qualities, moved into painting with two colors where the colors exchanged places on paper, then into all three colors where they changed color on the paper, some color blending to make orange, purple, green, and then at the very end of the school year plan to move into painting some simple shapes with gesture.  I wrote a post a while back about the wet-on-wet painting books on the market here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/02/02/resources-for-wet-on-wet-watercolor-painting/

Modeling

Arthur Auer’s book is a must!

 

Pennywhistle

We learned many songs this year, played with rhythm and learned five songs together on the pennywhistle.  Looking forward to even more next year!

Foreign Language

We did Spanish and German; celebrated many German holidays and made a lot of typical German crafts for the holidays.

(Lucky enough to have tutors  and Saturday German school for these areas!)

Religious Studies

We learned about the 9 Fruit of the Holy Spirit through stories and did one fruit for each month of school, which worked out well.  Next year I plan to focus on what I call “The Be-Happy Attitudes” (the Beatitudes).

 

First Grade is the BRIDGE between Kindergarten and Second Grade; so although this sounds like a lot I would say our school hours were short, we did a lot of gardening, baking, cooking, crafts and being outside.  We also continued work on a lot of gross motor skills involving balance, hand-eye coordination, working with jumping rope and jump rope rhymes.

Definitely do not drive yourself insane with first grade, but do look at where your child is and where they need to get to by the end of the year!

The sequence I used may be too fast or too slow for your child, but hopefully it will give you some idea of ways to progress forward in first  grade!

 Hope this post will give you some ideas,

Carrie

Inspirations from Tapestries: The Seven-Year Rhythms from Birth Until Age 63 and Onward, Part Two

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The ages from 21-42 are for the development of soul maturity, psychological maturity.

Ages 21-28

  • The “I’” incarnates more fully.
  • Strong emotional life, excitement, impulsivity, sociability, adventure, sensuality.
  • Memory reaches its peak.
  • A time to prepare for a career and to gather experiences.
  • Betty Staley also writes about marriage when both partners are in their early 20s and how this often works but can be a difficult road as both partners do not have a bank of life experiences to draw on.
  • Men during this time period are often focused on work, marriage and family and trying to set and achieve goals “he thinks he deserves by the time he is 35.”

Ages 28-35

  • The “I” begins to enter the soul-life more deeply and penetrates thinking.  We begin to experience life through our thoughts and our thinking.
  • We feel the need to organize our lives.
  • We regard things more objectively than before, but at times our objective thinking can also separate us from life – if we judge everything around us, we can become cold, distant, critical, self-righteous.
  • In this phase we tend to think that thinking can solve all of our problems.

Ages 35-42 – Going into consciousness

  • A time of strength, ambition; but also of emptiness and loneliness.
  • Life taken in through our senses, through our bodies, does not excite us the same way it used to.
  • Our natural spirituality fades and we can feel overwhelmed by life
  • Life takes on a routine quality, and yet we can experience more and more problems than before.
  • Much of what used to bring contentment no longer does.
  • We become critical of causes, philosophies, religion that used to appeal to us.

 

Whew!  I think when we are in the 35-42 year phase, we have to be particularly careful to NOT pass on our adult baggage and criticism to our small children.  I have seen over and over parents of this age frame to have difficulty working within the Waldorf framework with the spiritual elements because they themselves are going through a period of disillusionment with spirituality.  Please make sure to not shove your 8-year old into the 35-42 year old phase  by putting your “adult stuff” on them!

We will talk in detail about each of these seven-year cycles, but next we will look at the last part of this overview of the seven-year cycles that covers ages 42- 63 (and beyond), a time of developing spiritual maturity.

Till next time,

Carrie

What If I Am Not Creative?

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This is a big fear of mothers when first looking at Waldorf education for their homeschooling experience. Sometimes the singing, verses, storytelling  can seem daunting, let alone moving into wet-on-wet watercolor painting, modeling, drawing with block crayons!  Ack!!  What is a Not-Creative Mother to do in a Creative Waldorf World?

First of all, go back to the skill list I posted for the work of the mother in the Kindergarten here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/03/09/a-mothers-job-in-the-waldorf-homeschool-kindergarten/

Pick a skill and get started LEARNING it, DOING it, not just reading about it!

If circle time and stories are daunting to you, pick some pre-made ones with tunes you may know.  Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures has a number of circles written, including a Mother Goose Journey, and the book Let Us Form A Ring has many fairy tales and stories appropriate for the kindergarten crowd.  Familiar things from your own childhood may be a place to start. 

If the ability to read music is holding you back, look and see if  no one you know amidst all of your friends took high school band or orchestra and could help you.  (Sometimes if you go to a place of worship the musical people there may be able to lend a helping hand as well!).  If not, please consider a few lessons with a music teacher just to be able to read the notes.  This is helpful even if you have to write the name of the note above the note on the piece of paper.  My friend Jodie Mesler is working hard on a Waldorf Homeschool Music Curriculum for mothers who have no musical background.  See this post on her blog for her progress on this important work:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/03/03/waldorf-homeschool-music-curriculum/

The important thing is to start, start and start! Some circles and stories will be a flop.  Circle Time may not work in your house at all, and you may choose to work your daily verses around your practical work and start your morning with a walk outside and some fingerplays before a story.

If you cannot memorize the story, then write the story down in a beautiful book.  This lovely idea comes from Donna Simmons of Christopherus.  I personally think it is more important to start with the story, even with the story written down, then to wait until the perfect time to have the perfect story memorized in the perfect year!  Then it will never happen!!

Once you have started there, you can slowly but surely start working on other areas – a blowing instrument, wet-on-wet painting, modeling, drawing.  Get out a calendar and PLAN some time to do this.  Make arrangements to do it at night after your children go to bed, before your children get up, or have a family member take your kids out to the park for a few hours while you paint twice a month.

If you have no plan and you are just sitting around reading and wondering how Waldorf will look in your home, it will never happen.  Get your calendar out, and make plans.  Try it and adjust.  Sometimes we plan and the way we planned it didn’t fly in our house, and that is okay, but you will not know that until you start!

You would have to plan with ANY kind of curriculum you choose. If you were unschooling, you may have to have time to strew things about your house according to your child’s interest.  If you were doing Well-Trained Mind, you would still have to take the time to search for library books and supplies for hands-on projects to bring the Ancient times or Roman times  to life.  Being a good homeschooling teacher does require some degree of, well, teaching!

If you are doing Waldorf, you will need to open up your creative side to give your child what they desperately need in this phase of life.  If you feel the educational system you were part of stifled your own creativity to the point you  have none, do not perpetuate this with your own child!   If your child is very head-oriented and analytical, the Waldorf curriculum will make them better problem-solvers in the long run.  We need analytical people who can solve problems!  The goal of Waldorf is not to make every child  want to grow up to be an artist, but to be the best human and the best at their job they can be!

If you open up and start giving your own creativity some berth, you will be surprised how fast your creativity returns and flowers!

Get out there and DO,

Carrie