Yesterday, this subject of simplifying came up on a Waldorf homeschooling Facebook discussion group.  It struck a chord with me as I  have been sitting down intermittently  to make daily schedules for fall since May and I sat down to work on it again this week.   I think I have made about 20 different schedules and none of them are completely satisfying and peaceful.   None of the “rhythms” of the day have enough time and space for me… and I feel like when there is something I would love my little second grader to participate in, or just be, our high schooler has to be somewhere or needs more time for her lessons.  The reality of three main lessons, multiple high school subjects that need to be run in tracks, a little second grader, a seventh grader who needs extra lessons in math and writing, and the need for time to run subjects and activities as a family and take care of my own health can hit hard.  At this point, there just aren’t enough hours in the day!

This has been running through my mind all summer simply because our school year that just ended was a rough and challenging year.  I felt completely burned out after 10 years of teaching, and I really thought the only way to fix it might be just to put everyone in school whether they wanted to go or were able to do well or not.  Eveyone needed so much, and with the giant spread in ages in our household, what everyone needed was so different! What a recipe for exhaustion!  Seriously!

This year, I am roaring back with some different ideas.  I  shared some of my general tips for simplifying Waldorf homeschooling on that Facebook group, and I will share some of  them here plus some other ideas.  I feel fortunate I didn’t really deal with a lot of burnout and feeling weighty about school until this year.

My best tips:

Depending upon your state laws, plan a shorter year.  Plan 32- 34 weeks instead of 36 and that way if you get behind you won’t feel insane.  Also, younger grades don’t need as many weeks of school as high schoolers do!

Depending upon your state laws, plan a three to four day school week with a day to just be at home or take a field trip.  Again, younger grades don’t need a five day week.

So, overall if you have one grade and kindergarten aged children, please, please don’t overschedule and panic.

Part of simplifying is also thinking about the ESSENTIAL parts of what your children will need for the future. Part of simplifying is also thinking about the ESSENTIAL parts of what your children will need for the future.   For example, if you have children in grades 3-5, I think you SHOULD be planning extra math lessons a week if it is not a math block.  Children need not only procedural practice, but math experiences – Waldorf Education is really good at this with all the practical things we do, but I still feel as if many Waldorf homeschoolers could do a better job in math.  Math also tends to be the blocks that get knocked down in number as children move up in the grades.

Schedule everyone to be on a math block together, a language arts block together, etc , so you don’t have to switch gears so much if that kind of thing bothers you.  Could you schedule painting, modeling, seasonal crafts, etc all together?

What could you combine in blocks?  This year I am starting the year with tales from Buddhism for our second grader; and the life of Buddha which will combine my seventh and tenth grader.  Are there absolutely ANY places you can combine main lessons to save time?  This, I think, could be the NUMBER ONE reason to involve a consultant in planning your year.  A consultant who is very, very familiar with the curriculum might help you find those places.

What can you farm out?  Is there a handwork teacher?  A music teacher?  A tutor?  If there is and it is in your budget, that can be so helpful.  I am not a great knitter, and I still can’t crochet.  This is because I haven’t tried because honestly it is not a priority on top of everything else.  It is okay to know your limits, and to look for outside teachers, other homeschooling parents, and community groups to help you.   It is ideal if you can find Waldorf teachers  in your area, but if not, I feel after the nine year change children can handle more of the non-Waldorfy teachers.  Little yarn shops for knitting are probably fine for desperate parents with first and second graders.  I would rather they learn to knit despite lack of Waldorf methodology!  That is just realistic!  We have been fortunate in our area to have a trained Waldorf handwork teacher who does work with homeschoolers.  What a gift!

Foreign language – can you find a tutor?  Can you leave it until high school?   Can you  keep exposing to the culture of the target language you want and then bring in the language?Honestly, this an area where most Waldorf homeschoolers struggle, especially if they live in rural areas.  Foreign languages are so important, and in Waldorf Schools, students would be immersed in two languages, but this may or may not work at home. We used tutors and German School and everything else for years, but when it came down to it, middle school was a large gap with tutors or available language schools in our area and we are started over in  eighth grade with Spanish I (high school level).

Chores – I find as children move up in the grades, they are not doing NEARLY enough work to help keep the house going.  Homeschooling multiple children in grades 3 and up is a full-time job.  You need help!  I have a GIANT (takes up an entire door) chore chart. It is ugly and not Waldorfy looking at all.  Everyone has at LEAST three chores a day on top of their own rooms, plus extra chores to pick from for pick a chore, morning habits to try to work on, and chores I will pay for.  The harder part for middle schoolers and high schoolers, I think,  is having consequences for when the chores are NOT done.  If you are working a full time job by homeschooling multiple children all day, you need help with meals and cleaning.

Nature and play is really important to keep burnout at bay.  However, I have found as my children hit high school, it is not as simple.  Not because they still don’t enjoy getting outside and playing and hiking and all of that, but for us it is hard to get everyone together.  It is so worth it to plan it in.  I usually try to make Fridays a bigger day for outside play, but now my high schooler has some outside classes that causes a shortened day for all of us on other days and we need Fridays…it just becomes trickier.  Worthy but trickier.

INNER WORK. There is nothing more important. The more you think, “Wow.  This year is going to be so hard and so challenging and everyone has such different needs and I can’t possibly meet them all and ….”  Well, then the year will be harder and more challenging. I heard a quote the other day from a really positive athlete and he was saying how he was mentally focusing to make that run or that season the best it could be, his best yet.  I find this, for me, is an effective way to look at things.  I am looking at this year with an attitude of  how can I make this year the best for my family (in its wholeness and entirety) yet?  Everyone will get what they need in the long run. You must have this attitude, I think, especially in homeschooling high school.

Please share with me your best simplifying tricks.  We already take on so much homeschooling in this way, with Waldorf.  All homeschooling is work for the parent, but Waldorf homeschooling is a different beast than just throwing a book and workbook at a child.  I think we must learn to be easy on ourselves and set boundaries in order to have a healthy life.

Blessings,

Carrie

I listed my new-to-me top ten favorite resources I am using for fall planning and today I want to share with you some of my favorite Waldorf Pinterest Boards and You Tube videos/channels.  We all learn in different ways, and Waldorf Education is such an experiential form of education, so if you cannot attend an IN-PERSON, LIVE training or workshop (which I recommend most highly!), then sometimes visuals and demonstrations via videos can be helpful.

Of course, any one can put up anything on the Internet. One wants to be discerning as to the myriad of things out there that are being labeled “Waldorf” or “Waldorf -Inspired” simply because this label can encompass products and viewpoints that are right on, and products and viewpoints that have nothing to do with Waldorf Education.    In one sense, Rudolf Steiner was not nearly as dogmatic as people make him out to be in regards to educational practices and what comes when; but on the other hand there are solid developmental reasons to place things in general categories:  early years till the six/seven year change; up until the nine year change; from the nine to twelve year old change, and lastly up to the fifteen/sixteen year old change.  We must view anything labeled as “Waldorf” through this development lens and  really pay attention to what these seven year cycles and transitional points  mean for educating a whole, beautiful child. I think if we are homeschooling with the goal of it being a “Waldorf” experience, then we must know about these developmental stages of the human being, and know why we do (or don’t!) do what we do and what is created dogma and what is not. If you are searching for more information on this subject, I refer you to this May 2017 post at Waldorfish and to this post by Jean Miller over at Waldorf-Inspired Learning regarding the the three stages of the Waldorf curriculum.  And, of course, there are many back posts on this blog detailing some of the things that Steiner said and wrote about. I will be writing another post shortly where I will tell you WHERE in Steiner’s lectures to find (or not) some of the major themes for each grade (or if it is standard because the Waldorf Schools have made these themes traditional?)

So, all that to say, is that there is inspiration every where when one teachers with Waldorf,  and if we know and understand development and broad themes, I have found gems to work into our homeschooling experience with the following:

Pinterest Boards:

• Queen’s Lace is one of my favorites, with very extensive boards!
• Waldorf Hannah   is also very extensive with many sub-categories by blocks or skills for each grade.
• I think Waldorfish has found some of the most beautiful pins.
• I would like to tell you about my own board as well.  I cover Early Years through Grade 12.

You Tube Videos:

• If you are new to Waldorf homeschooling, try Jean Miller’s Waldorf 101 for homeschoolers and Thinking, Feeling, Willing from the Nairobi Waldorf School
• Green Meadow Waldorf School  has a good variety of topics dealing with child development and the curriculum
• Pepper and Pine has about 336 videos as of this writing, and is specific to Waldorf homeschooling using Live Education! as a spine.
• Master Waldorf Teacher Sarah Baldwin has a  You Tube Channel with “Sundays With Sarah”
• Melisa Nielsen has an extensive amount of videos regarding all aspects of Waldorf homeschooling.

Hope that is helpful.

Blessings,
Carrie

I am so happy to be gathering resources for fall, and want to share some of the new things I have discovered.  Some of these are Waldorf Education resources, and some are mainstream resources that I am using for upper level subjects or resources .  Enjoy some of these titles that might (or might not) be new to you! ( I have absolutely no affiliation with anything listed here; just simply sharing some of my finds).

1.  “Exploring Nature With Children” ebook – this is a fantastic nature curriculum you can use across ages and grades. Lynn is completely familiar with Waldorf Education and is a reader of this blog, in fact! (Hi Lynn!)  It covers an ENTIRE year (summer months too!) and is only 15 dollars with a viewpoint that is easily used with Waldorf or Charlotte Mason homeschoolers (or anyone interested in nature studies!)  It has suggestions for books, artwork, writing, observation, and more.  Highly recommend.  There is a code for a 20 percent discount until Saturday, June 3rd: NATURE20.
2. “Learning To Breathe: A Mindfulness Curriculum For Adolescents to Cultivate Emotion Regulation, Attention, and Performance” by Patricia C. Broderick, PhD.  This is a book regarding emotional regulation, stress-reduction skills, and mindfulness techniques with a 6 or 18 week program for adolescents. There are separate student workbooks.  I am planning on using this with both my tenth grader as part of our year long health course and our seventh grader, whose physiology block will dovetail with high school health.  I think talking plainly about emotions and tools to deal with stress and emotional regulation are very important for this generation of children.   I am grateful mine are old enough to have plain discussion about this subject, although I will be delving into more depth with my high schooler than my seventh grader.
3. “Embryology Experienced Through Modeling In Clay” by Christian Breme (sold through Waldorf Publications).   This book comes with a DVD, and will be a part of our Embryology block in tenth grade, along with the next product:
4. “Embryo In Motion: Understanding Ourselves As Embryo”  by Jaap van der Wal. This is a complete DVD lecture set to help me understand the anthroposophic viewpoint of embryology.
5. ““The Poetry Handbook”” by Mary Oliver.  A block of epic poetry is a traditional mainstay of tenth grade, and usually one hears about Gilgamesh, The Odyessey and the like, but I want to extend the art of looking at poetry and writing poetry into the twice a week writing I am doing with combining our seventh and tenth grader.
6. ““The Dyscalculia Toolkit” by Ronit Bird, for ages 6-14 with 200 activities and 50 games to help solidify. Some of the games I will be using with our second grader just as fun things to do, and some of the things I will be using with our seventh grader to review basics in a new and different way.
7. “Math In The Garden”  – I love this book. I originally couldn’t find this book for under  50 to 100 dollars and requested it through inter-library loan. I really enjoyed it and thought it had some wonderful ideas, and  now have found where to order it for 30 dollars.  I am very excited to work through the projects in this book!
8. “A Waldorf Journey Podcast” – I have enjoyed many of these episodes and it is always nice for me, as a homeschooler, to hear how things are done in a particular classroom, and to stimulate my own thought of how this relates to our homeschooling journey. (Hello to Meredith!).
9. “Spelling By Hand” by Jeremy Hermann (sold through Waldorf Publications).  I am looking forward to receiving this resource and promise a full review on this when it arrives here!  It is booklet-sized at only 36 pages, but I have heard good reviews on this product.
10. Jamie York’s Middle School Math Conference.  The middle school grades are online, and very accessible. I will be taking the seventh grade math conference and am looking forward to it.

I hope some of these resources are inspiring to you as you homeschool plan! Please share with me any resources that you are finding wonderful right now.

Blessings,
Carrie

I think this is the time of year where I get a spate of emails either from excited parents who are ready to embark upon their homeschool journeys or I get just the opposite – emails about burnout, dashed expectations, and exhaustion.  Parents with homeschooling burnout wonder what to do if they don’t want their children to go to a brick and mortar school, but yet they cannot see any resolution to the challenges before them.

I experienced true burnout this year, and I am not afraid to share what worked for me in hopes it will help other homeschooling parents.

Part of the challenge:  Part of  burnout, for me,  had to do with homeschooling for ten years with most summers taken up at least partially or fully with homeschool planning (vacation, anyone?). I notice in some Waldorf Schools the teachers seem to take sabbatical after taking a class through eight years.  We do not have that option at home, as we often have younger children to continue homeschooling or we are homeschooling into high school.

Part of the solution:  Stack some vacations in the worst part of the year to get me through; plan less weeks and less days per week in order to work in planning time during the school year.

Part of the challenge:  Homeschooling for many years children of wildly different ages who have wildly different developmental needs.

Part of the solution:    No child is going to get their day 100 percent tailored to them in a homeschooling situation where the family has children of massively different ages.   As a homeschooler, it is easy to look at what a Waldorf School might offer and think that this would be better for the child.  However, comparing a Waldorf School and Waldorf homeschooling is often like comparing oranges and grapefruit – same family, but perhaps distant cousins.  Home is not school and school is not home.  Reaching a balance not just over the course of a week or a month or a year is important, and to take a really long-term view that the child will get what they need by the time they graduate.  Remembering why we homeschool for each developmental period is important and helpful.

The other part of this solution is to impart more responsibility to the older children where one can, and to know sometimes it isn’t in the academic arena or the artistic arena, but it may be the older student can be helpful with smaller children or responsibility around the house.

The third idea is to look carefully at outside activities.  It is harder to say no to worthy outside activities that  a high schooler wants to do if they only have a few years left full time at home, but it is simple to tell younger children they simply must wait – or to choose activities the whole family can enjoy together!

Part of the challenge:  High school was not only a curveball for our oldest, but it was a curveball for ME.  Most of the parents in my area homeschool high schoolers using traditional textbooks, online classes, or the use of a hybrid school where their child is in classes two to three days a week with homework to do on the other “off” days.  What I kept hearing over and over was how homeschooling high school was so wonderful, how all it was was facilitating work and the student did everything on their own.

This could be the case for many Waldorf homeschoolers, but I don’t think this is always the case.  Many of us are still directly teaching high school subjects and very involved. We also may be trying to figure out that whole balance of blocks versus year long courses , workload,  and how to grade things.

Part of the solution:  Let it go.  Courses can extend throughout the high school years in homeschooling.  Preserve the relationship.  See if you can find in-person support from someone who has homeschooled similarily to how you have homeschooled, but also understand that every teenager has a different rate of neurologic development, and therefore that person’s experience may not be your experience at all!   In the middle teen years, I see  very pronounced differences in the development of the brain and the profound effect this has upon high school.  No one talks about that at all on homeschooling blogs, so I am saying it!

Part of the challenge:  The parent is still developing and going through seven year cycles; older parents can have challenges and we all seem to age a little differently.The decade of the 40s can also  be where many mothers are squished between taking care of elderly parents or parents with health problems, homeschooling, running a household, and getting children to activities.  It can be overwhelming.

Part of the solution:  Rest, exercise,  and healthy eating is a key.  Making time for your own health does nothing but stabilize the school situation.  If you have shorter days due to your own health needs and you decide to homeschool with shorter breaks throughout the year in order to accommodate this, well, we  have that flexibility!  The other piece of this is to go back to your spiritual practices – what strengthens your inner resolve and strength?

These are just a few of the things I did this year to help myself.  I would love to hear from you if you have suggestions to help mothers suffering from burnout! What would you say to be encouraging and helpful?

Blessings,
Carrie

It is a very exciting time to be a Waldorf homeschooler!  There are many resources available for planning this summer.

First of all, Jamie York has middle school math workshops on-line this summer, along with in-person workshops in Boulder, Colorardo for Grades 1-3, Grades 4 and 5, and Grade 9, and Grade 10.

There is a conference in Orlando, FL on May 13, 2017 with Kristie Burns of Earthschooling, Jean Miller of Waldorf -Inspired Learning, Donna Ashton of The Waldorf Connection, Jodie Mesler of Home Music Making and myself.  Details are here.

Taproot Teacher Training is coming up in August with Barbara Dewey, Jean Miller, and many other experienced presenters.  You can find details here

Live Education! has a summer conference coming up in July  in Santa Cruz, CA.  Details are available on the Live Education! page

I believe there are other conferences and workshops coming up as well- please do chime in!

Blessings,
Carrie

After my post about extending Africa throughout the curriculum, a long-time reader 🙂 wrote in and said she would appreciate suggestions for including Latin America throughout the curriculum.  I agree that this is needed, and in a way this comment was wonderful timing as we just returned from visiting Mexico, the Mayan ruins at Lamanai in Belize, and from snorkeling in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.  Latin America is on my mind!

I think as Americans working within the Waldorf tradition of education, (whether North, Central, or South Americans), we should and must consider what contributed to the consciousness of the American soul in our own homeschooling. Although it is not as well spoken about, the basis of Waldorf Education does actually consider this.  While the Egyptian Epoch is seen as the platform for Western Civilization,  David Mitchell, in an essay in the free ebook,  “Riddle of America,” wrote about how the legends of Mesoamerica, particularly the Legend of  Huitzilopochtli,  and those found in the temples of Mexico in particular were congruent to those found in the Egyptian Mystery Centers.

And, of course, the point of Waldorf Education, is to work with where you are in the world, and with the cultural heritage of your family or your classroom.  This is important and being done in Waldorf Schools around the world.  So, without further ado, this is how I see the Latin American influence unfolding in the American Waldorf homeschooling curriculum:

In kindergarten and first grade, I use Latin American fairy tales.  I like the Bear Prince from Mexico (“El Principe Oso”). Juan Bobo, the trickster from Puetro Rico, I think could be used in first grade as lighter and funnier stories or in the second grade stories as he is quite a trickster.  Other stories that come to mind for the trickster part of second grade include Ananzi the Spider, originally from West Africa, but extremely popular in the Caribbean Islands.  There are stories about the fox and the guinea pig from South America, and  the tiger and the rabbit tales from Puerto Rico.  There are also many nature stories that could be used throughout first and second grade. This, in many ways, is an easy part of the curriculum to infuse. Festivals, cooking, and music can round out these grades in a lovely way.

In third grade, I really have enjoyed the approach of how man lived on the land through the stories of the First Peoples, and I think the Olmecs and Mayans should be included here.  One could also include the mound-building practices of the indigenous people of the Amazon River. What I normally do is refer to the First Peoples by geographic area, the way the Christopherus Third Grade curriculum does.  This makes sense to me in the consciousness of the child, but you may feel differently.  At any rate, what I think should be included here is shelters, food sources, clothing, and save the societal structures for fifth grade.    If one talks about time in second or third grade, I often see such books as “Thirteen Moons on A Turtle’s Back,” referenced by homeschoolers for block studies on time, but one could also include the Mayan calendar as part of this. In third grade, some Waldorf homeschoolers include more creation stories as part of their curriculum, so I was thinking that the Popul Vuh could be included here.

In fourth grade, one could choose animals from Latin America as representatives for the different categories of animals, and choose a favored animal found in Latin America as a subject for a report.  I think the fractions block could be done around something such as preparing for a festival, in practical form and Main Lesson book form.  Fourth grade is the year for the Norse Myths, and I think stories from the Popul Vuh might fit in nicely here.

For fifth grade, I would include a block on the Olmecs, Toltecs, Maya, and Nazca civilizations. The Olmecs certainly need to be covered, as they are a river valley civilization just like the civilizations that sprung up around the Indus, Nile,  and Yellow Rivers. ( If there is not time to include the Toltecs, Maya and Nazca, I would put at least several days of the Nazca in with the Roman Empire in sixth grade as the Nazca also used aqueducts, and focus on the Olmecs and Maya).  There are many beautiful artistic ventures that could be explored just from these two civilizations, the Olmecs and the Maya in fifth grade.   Fifth grade botany typically focuses on the vegetation in the student’s world and beyond into the different types of plants, but one could also talk about the ethnobotanical practices of the Maya that are still used today as related to the palm trees and other types of trees.  The British military even learns about some of these plants when they go to Belize to do jungle training; the give and take tree comes to mind.    I would consider purchasing Master Waldorf teacher Marsha Johnson’s block unit guide on “Chocolate Math” as this talks a lot about the use of cacoa and how chocolate is made and would fit in nicely with Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica.  It would also be nice to include a tie-in to Mayan mathematics much the way some homeschoolers focus on or at least touch upon Vedic math in fifth grade.

In sixth grade, some schools do Latin American geography as a block at this time.  I tend to do that in seventh grade.  In sixth grade, there could be a focus on naked eye astronomy, with a return to astronomy with lenses in seventh grade, so I would bring the Maya back in sixth grade to talk about Mayan Astronomy.  I would try to include the Incan Empire at the end of sixth grade if possible, as this fits in chronologically and in consciousness with the Medieval time period often covered in sixth grade, or begin seventh grade with this if you run out of time.

In Seventh Grade, I normally do a Latin American geography block and spend time on the Aztecs (and review the Inca and Maya).  Then,of course, during the block on Exploration, the sad effects of the Europeans on these civilizations must be discussed.  However, I think it is also important to say that Mayan people are alive today.  For example, in Belize where I just visited, the Mayan population is about 11 percent of the total population.  Incan people are still in South America today.   This is important for children to understand.

In Eighth grade, I like to do a World Geography course that counts for high school credit, so that would be another place to look at Latin America and perhaps pick up more modern streams of thought about this region in current events, more modern history from World War II onward. It usually takes us all of  eighth and ninth grade to get through American history because we literally start at the Paleo-Indian Era and work up, but there are many points to include Latin America in both of these subjects. A Revolutions block in eighth or ninth grade should include Simon Bolivar and all the Latin American revolutions.   Tenth grade typically includes a block of Ancient Civilizations, and I intend to focus again on the river civilization of the Olmecs and the Maya as well.

Lastly, if one is studying Spanish as a language, there will also be many more cultural opportunities for exploration through the grades as the language is learned.  As homeschoolers, many of us are on a tight budget, but if you can save up money and travel to Central or South America, I would highly recommend it. There is nothing like standing in front of a Mayan temple that was built 1500 years BCE to bring all of this to life.  Homeschooling is about using the ordinary minutes of every day, and there are some homeschoolers who embrace roadschooling and worldschooling as their medium, but wouldn’t it be nice if more of us had the opportunity to see culture and history come to life?

I hope this helps provide ideas for how to extend Latin America  throughout the curriculum. I  think in Waldorf homeschooling, we must always consider our cultural heritage and what streams make up the Americas as a vital part of the educational process.

Many blessings,
Carrie