Daily Archives: March 9, 2009

More About Melisa Nielsen’s Workshop

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Some more interesting points from Melisa’s workshop that  I attended over the weekend that I am still digesting:

She talked at length about getting comfortable with the idea of Spirit/Source/God as a foundation of your Waldorf homeschooling experience and what that might look like in your home and family life (Please see the post entitled “Refreshed and Renewed” for more details about that!)

She talked at length about reading Steiner for yourself and/or listening to the audio archives of Steiner’s available on the Web as the second part of your foundation for Waldorf homeschooling.

She talked at length about taking care of yourself, your family, self-care for the homeschooling mother, the role of the father, finding alone time, how to handle chores for children of different ages, allowances, feeding the whole family.  How to get all this done so you have time to homeschool, LOL!

Melisa talked about the question of is it possible to combine Waldorf homeschooling with Unschooling or with Classical approaches.

She talked about the differences between providing a Waldorf education at home based upon Steiner’s indications versus attendance at a Waldorf school.

There was so much more that was so interesting, but it might be thought-provoking for you, dear Reader, to look at some of those topics above and think about how you feel about those things, how those things look in your family.

If you have comments, please do leave them in the comment section.  I would love to hear what you  have to say!

In Peace,

Carrie

A Mother’s Job in the Waldorf Homeschool Kindergarten

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It is not your job to be teaching academics quite yet; but it is your job to be laying the healthy foundations for later science, math and reading and writing through multi-sensorial experiences, festival experiences, outside time, nature walks, and gross motor skills.  It is also your job to be developing your own skills so you can show your child how to do things throughout the grade school years.

Lovey over at Loveyland (http://lovey-land.blogspot.com/)  and I brainstormed this list quite a while ago, but I still think it provides some direction and perhaps a plan for mothers who are trying to learn about the different practical elements of Waldorf education:

Child Age 2

Mothers should be working on:

Inner work

Strong rhythms

Storytelling

Puppetry (sewing skills)

Singing

Verses for transitions

Preparation for festivals

Discovering how to get your child into their body – this is VERY important; see post on this blog about this subject:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/01/10/getting-children-into-their-bodies-part-one-birth-to-age-2-and-a-half/

Child Age 3

Mothers should be working on all of the above, plus:

Baking and cooking

Wet felting

Learning a foreign language, preferably songs and verses in a foreign language

Child Age 4

Mothers should be working on all of the above, plus:

Wet –on -wet watercolor painting

Modeling

Woodworking

Child Age 5

Mother should be working on all of the above, plus:

Gardening and preserving food

Simple plant, animal and tree identification  (this will not come in until grades three and above, but it is hard to make up a story about a Willow Tree Fairy if you don’t know what a willow tree looks like or if one grows in your area).

Dollmaking  – some children make a simple doll as a more complex project for the 6 year old year

Child Age 6

Mother should be working on all of the above, plus:

Pennywhistle

Drawing and coloring with block crayons (you will need this for First Grade)

Knitting (will need in Grades One, Two)

Crocheting

Work on memorizing longer, more complex fairy tales for this year and subsequent years.

Hopefully that gives you a place to start,

Carrie