Category Archives: Homeschooling

More About The Artistic Pillars Of Waldorf Education: A Virtual Tea

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Lisa over at Celebrate the Rhythm of Life  wrote an incredibly important post about Waldorf School and Waldorf Homeschool, relaxed Waldorf Homeschooling, and the pillars of Waldorf Education whether in the home or school environment.  It is an important read, and I suggest you don’t miss it.  Here is the link: http://www.celebratetherhythmoflife.com/2011/12/as-person-who-has-straddled-worlds-of.html

She talks about including the other major pillars of Waldorf Education:  speech, singing and musical instruments, drama, movement (oh yes!  my major place of push on this blog!) and handwork.

Yes, yes, yes!

And what I realized is that I have addressed all of these components on this blog, with perhaps the exception of drama, but in a rather scattered manner  – perhaps mentioned in with summary posts of what we did in a certain grade, or in conjunction with a book review or something else.  I think parents are attracted to Waldorf homeschooling by all of these pieces, but then become at a bit of a loss as to how to integrate it all into their busy homeschooling lives.  I hope in the future to have more organized posts on each of these pillars, and how to make this accessible for homeschoolers.

I think a major thrust of where I am headed personally is this education being about the future health of our children through using and engaging the twelve senses throughout the curriculum.  I recently heard Douglas Gerwin speak, many of you probably have as well, but his drawing of the twelve senses as a  lemniscate and where these senses fit into the curriculum across the grades set my wheels turning.  How we use these eight pillars, as Lisa and other Waldorf trained teachers have described them, within the context of the twelve senses, is a major place of discovery for the child and the foundation of health, and a  major piece of where I think I am headed in my life’s work.  It is a slow unfolding for me.

The other counterpart to this within the home environment, I feel is PRACTICAL WORK.  Steiner lectured and wrote about practical tasks for the students quite a bit.    We have such an opportunity for this in the home environment, even more than in the school setting  perhaps. Continue reading →

The Three Artistic Pillars of Waldorf Homeschooling

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The three artistic pillars of Waldorf homeschooling are the same as those found in the grades of the Waldorf school:  drawing, painting, and modeling.  Yet I so often hear that “all we can get through is the Main Lesson” and that doesn’t seem to include  drawing, painting, or modeling, unless the child is drawing and summarizing on the second or third day  of a two or three day rhythm.

I know this is the time of year many homeschoolers take stock of what they have been doing during the school year, and make plans or tweak plans for the rest of the school year.  Therefore, my plea is for drawing, modeling and painting to be the vehicle through which you teach, and to always include exercises in the fundamentals of these three areas as part of the Main Lesson as you see fit during the week.  Many of the exercises for drawing, painting and modeling are in fact the metamorphosis of archetypal geometric forms and how one moves between these forms.

In drawing, we have form drawing and freehand geometric drawing, but we also have artistic drawing and how we change the things we see, that are three dimensional, into two dimensional shapes and transform these shapes.  For example, how does one draw a sphere (circle in two dimensions) and change this to an oval and then to an egg shape and so on?  In drawing, we also have the added dimension of color.  How do we move within the color wheel to create color bands, shades of coloring?

In painting, we have a series of color exercises without form that eventually help led us into the creation of paintings of scenes and portraits.  We can take a shade of red, a shade of yellow and a shade of blue and create variations of every color the eye can see.

In modeling, perhaps the most unexplored practical territory in Waldorf Education, we also can work through series of archetypal geometric shapes.  How do we move from the sphere to a three-dimensional oval to other shapes?  In this medium, we have the added challenge of warmth to stimulate that which we are working with, and we have the other dimension of the possibility of three dimensional asymmetry or symmetry within the modeling material.  One book that has changed the way I looked at modeling is Hella Loewe’s “Basic Sculptural Modeling:  Developing the Will by Working With Pure Forms in the First Three Grades.”  You can find it on the AWNSA website.

Many blessings to you!

Carrie

The Hidden Curriculum of Life

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I promised I would write a post about “the hidden curriculum” of life that we talked about at the recent course regarding sensory processing and modulation that I attended.  Those of you who have beautiful children struggling with issues along the autistic spectrum know how very literal these children can be, and that sometimes presents problems in social situations.  Idioms can be problematic, and so can things like reading social cues that are not direct.

There were some interesting books and products mentioned at my course for the mentoring of the older child (mainly upper middle school and up aged), and I wanted to pass them along to you. I got a chance to look at some of these products, and I thought they were really interesting for EVERYONE, not just children along the spectrum. Continue reading →

Great Weekend Links!

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My sweet toddler is under the weather and so am I; I hope all of you are faring healthy out there!  Working on stocking stuffers and gifts?

I found a few links I wanted to share with you this weekend that I thought were well- worth a read and a look:  Continue reading →

Children Who Dislike Everything

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I was going through some papers this weekend and came across an article by Michael Howard that I had printed out called, “Educating the Feeling-will in the Kindergarten” and this quote just popped out at me:

“The defining characteristic of feeling will is the capacity to live deeply into the inner quality of something outside us, knowing and feeling it as if we are within it or it is within us. In the early childhood years a healthy child is naturally inclined to drink in the inner mood and qualities of places and persons.  It is one of the tragedies of our times that the ways of the world, including the life of the family and school, can dull rather than foster this natural soul attachment.  Tragically, many young children come to kindergarten with a sense-nerve disposition already strongly developed.  Their thinking has become prematurely intellectual and abstract, and their feeling life inclines toward strong personal like or dislike.”

I have been seeing so many tiny children yet with so many big opinions.  Have you been seeing this as well?  Continue reading →

Homeschooling Question From The Field

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This question from the field came in today, and I wanted to share it here:

Hi Carrie,
Do you yourself follow a 3-day rhythm for homeschool? I like the 3-day rhythm (we do a 4-day school week) but it seems all of the major waldorf homeschool curricula follow a 2, 2-day rhythm. I feel like a 3-day rhythm would give us more time to work with a story but worry we wouldn’t fit enough in in a year (this is my first year homeschooling). In first grade, would you just introduce one letter or number per week (with a 3-day rhythm) or would you cover more than that? Continue reading →

One Mother’s Experience With “Thinking–Feeling- Willing”

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“Thinking –Feeling-Willing:  Bringing The Rhythm Home” is a fairly new program put forth by A Little Garden Flower.  I know rhythm is of interest to many of the mothers who read my blog, and one of my readers wanted to share her experience with this program.  Thank you to Sheila, homeschooling mother of two, for writing about her experiences.  I know some of you are concerned about smaller children being lost in the shuffle whilst homeschooling grades-aged children, and Sheila writes about this in this review.  I think you will find it interesting.  This is from my reader Sheila:

When I first came to Waldorf, I was overwhelmed by all the information out there: books, blogs, websites, suppliers, curricula. I honestly didn’t know which end was up. I was even confused by the vocabulary: rhythm, circle time, fingerknitting, never mind the 7 year cycles, the 3 fold nature of the human being and the 12 senses. It’s a lot to learn and there are a lot of people to learn it from. One person who has helped me to craft my mothering and my homeschooling is Melisa Nielsen. Her new program “Thinking, Feeling, Willing” is that elusive primer that I searched, googled, posted and prayed for, but at that time did not exist.

 

I think the real genius behind “Thinking, Feeling, Willing” is that the program is split into separate sections: one for the child and one for you, the mom. This is a cornerstone of Waldorf that I am realizing only in retrospect. You can’t focus on the “things” of Waldorf (and here, I am not even talking about the material “things” like wooden toys, play silks and Stockmar crayons; but even things like circle time, baking day and festivals). What I have found is that these things cannot come into your home in any real way until you have prepared yourself first. Melisa knows this and stresses this to everyone in her yahoo group, her consulting practice and those who use her curriculum. “Thinking, Feeling, Willing”  can thoroughly prepare you to homeschool your children with Waldorf-inspired methods.

 

The first lesson for Mom is all about rhythm. Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm . . . when I first came to Waldorf I kept hearing this word. I knew I wanted to have this gentle order to my day, but how to get there? (I have to mention Carrie here, because she is the one who helped me to solidify my rhythm, back before Melisa’s program existed. Check out this back post: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2011/01/05/rhythm-for-the-irregular/Her advice dovetails nicely with Melisa’s.) And even though I feel our rhythm is pretty solid now, it is not something static or finished. Through TFW, I have looked at our daily rhythm through a bigger lens and I am now working on bringing in a seasonal sense of rhythm to our year.

 

The monthly lessons for the child are seasonal and simple. I have a 6 year old kindergartener who seemed to be just floating along in the wake of our 4thgrade lessons. Our days were fine, but I wasn’t being intentional with my little guy. I knew it was important to stress the seasons, sing songs, recite verses and do things just for him, but that made me think I had to totally shift my homeschooling focus and recreate a Waldorf kindergarten in my home (ironic, because a Waldorf kindergarten is modeled on the home!) Melisa’s book suggestions, her continuing gnome story, her outrageous (!!!) recipes, and easy handcrafts have allowed me to simply augment what I was already doing. I can honestly say my fourth grader enjoys these aspects of our day just as much as his younger brother does.

 

TFW also provides handwork lessons that teach you how make many of those items so indicative of Waldorf: dyed silks, little gnome figures, paper lanterns, not to mention knitting! I learned how to knit pretty easily a couple of summers ago, but for some reason fingerknitting seemed beyond me. I have watched youtube videos and tried to figure it out through books with no success. Melisa’s video tutorial had me fingerknitting within about 2 minutes. In turn, I taught my boys and we now have chains and chains of fingerknitting waiting to decorate our Christmas tree come December.

 

 

Like everything Melisa Nielsen does, “Thinking, Feeling, Willing”  is comprehensive and budget-friendly. With a couple of books (some of which can probably be found at your local library), a few craft supplies, and some yummy additions to your shopping list, you can honestly get started with Waldorf in a real way. You will not waste time searching endless blogs, buying books and supplies you really don’t need or feel like you are out there reinventing the wheel by yourself. The program also includes a year of email and personal phone consultation with Melisa – she is literally there every step of the way with you. I think TFW is a great place to begin for those who are just coming to homeschooling with little ones, those who are coming to Waldorf with older children and even those who want to bring about a more rhythmic, seasonal focus to their time at home – homeschooling or not.

 

Thank you Sheila for this review.

Many blessings to you all,

Carrie

Real Life Resources For Children With Challenges

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I just wanted to thank all of you who have been so supportive of my recent postings on children who have challenges in the realm of sensory modulation, and also regarding my postings on our twelve senses.  This work is really important to me as a physical therapist and in how I see the generation of children coming up now who are really struggling in these areas.

Many parents are looking for resources that could be helpful in real life for their children with sensory challenges, children who have been diagnosed along the autistic spectrum, or children who are facing other challenges that are deemed “medical” but as we know from a holistic perspective involve the whole being.

Here are some resources I have been gathering since the workshop I attended on the twelve senses: Continue reading →

Musings On The Twelve Senses

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I just attended a weekend of lecture regarding the twelve senses.  As a therapist, this was highly interesting and entertaining to me!  Many people assume there are only five major senses; in physical therapy we tend to work with eight senses; in Waldorf Education we work with twelve senses although there is now a catalog of hundreds of senses.  Our lecturer described the senses much like a tree, with senses coming off of trunks into branches, twigs, twiglets, etc.

The twelve senses can be broken down into three groups of four:  the lower sense of touch, life, movement and balance are often what we should as parents and educators be working on in the Early Years, because they have such strong correlation to the sense we are working so hard to develop in the high school years (the sense of hearing, the sense of word, the sense of thought, the sense of Thou).  In the middle are the middle senses that help us take in our world and mediate between the lower senses that concern our own body and those higher senses that include how we relate to others.  Those higher senses include how we hear and listen to others, how we perceive speech, how we understand the thoughts of others, how we know “Thou” – the others in our life and where we end and they begin.   If all this is new to you, have a peek at this past post:   https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/06/22/the-twelve-senses/

All the senses work together; most functional tasks in life use more than one.  To me, though, touch is a bedrock of so many of these senses and one that so many children have challenges with.  If touch is defined primarily not by the surrounding circumstances that involve other systems (is it hot?  is it cold? etc), but by the experience of “this is where I end, and this is where something else begins”, we can see this connection to the very highest sense of the twelve:  the sense of Thou.  Where do you end?  Where do I begin?  What are the boundaries between us?

This is one of the first senses just assaulted in American society. Continue reading →

Ten Year Old Girls In The Homeschooling Classroom

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Ha!  Long title, but it reflects exactly what I want to talk about today.  I have been talking to other mothers of nine and ten year old little girls, and it seems we all have a common problem…The nine year old girls seem to either cry and crumple with many of their studies at that age, and the ten year olds do their work but with the pacing of a slug.  Is this happening to anyone else out there?  For those of you with nine and ten year old boys, is the behavior similar or different?

I have found for my ten year old personally, the lessons have to be extremely enlivened.  Art, music, poetry, movement are all exceedingly important to teaching.  Those things are the learning.  Today we practiced fractions through an invention of my dear friend Samantha Fogg who is a dog trainer, by looking at the number of trials our dog got right in different tasks.  What fraction of the trials did she get right?  What fraction did she get wrong?  Can we add fractions across trial tests to garner totals?    At the same time, my first grader painted giant letters with washable tempura paint and a roller, walked the letters, and then walked the letters with our dog, training her to walk on a loose leash and not pull.  This, of course, would not be any kind of a main lesson in a Waldorf school, but in a home environment it was very enlivening and very practical.  I think Rudolf Steiner might have liked it.

However, don’t we always worry?  We think, well surely there also has to be a point, “that something has to get done!”   Not that art, music, poetry, movement, cooking, etc are not “doing something” but that sometimes perhaps just as adults, we like to see something of our own traditional learning background in Main Lesson Book entry and pencils.

It can be easy to get into a very dry two or three day rhythm:  present the material, work with the material artistically, draw in the Main Lesson Book and write a summary and yet this is not all that a Waldorf teacher would do at school and it is not all we should be doing at home. (And I am not suggesting we abandon a two or three day rhythm here – sleep is an integral part of learning in Waldorf Education!  However, I am rallying against only a  Main Lesson Book.  Maybe you do a puppet show as part of your block and it arches over several weeks; maybe cooking over several weeks fits in..etc)

At home, we want to keep things simple.  I think we must face it that by the time we get through a long and complicated opening of verses, songs, poetry, flutes with older and younger children present that someone will need to go to the bathroom, someone will need to eat, someone is crying!  Have you all ever experienced that?  I sure have! Meredith, a sixth grade Waldorf Teacher, has some fine tips here for managing a classroom that I think could work well in the home environment as well: http://www.awaldorfjourney.com/2011/10/managing-the-masses/

But, it is good to keep in mind:  how can this be enlivening?  What needs to go in a Main Lesson Book or is there another way to do this?  And, when do I need to push a bit – does this child really need to complete this artistic presentation, this summary?  Because sometimes it becomes more about life than just the simple lesson.

I also like to go back and review the parts of the Main Lesson on Meredith’s blog:

New Content, the end of a Main Lesson:  http://www.awaldorfjourney.com/2011/01/new-content/

Bookwork/Practice:  http://www.awaldorfjourney.com/2010/12/bookworkpractice/

Recall:  http://www.awaldorfjourney.com/2010/12/recall/

The Warm-Up (the beginning of the Main Lesson):  http://www.awaldorfjourney.com/2010/12/warm-up/

I would love to hear your experiences and thoughts.

Many blessings,
Carrie