No Comparison!

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Comparing yourself to others often causes the disappearance of your own happiness. This can be such a challenging path, this mindful mothering, this homeschooling, this Waldorf view of life, that to start to look around it is easy to either feel smug about it all, or more likely, insecure and questioning of oneself.

I just want to remind you today that you  are on the right path for your family.  It is okay if you don’t have all the answers when your oldest child is four. You don’t have to defend yourself or your choices.  It is okay when people make different choices than you do for their families.  Each and every parent and family are on their own paths and we all  have our own lessons to learn.  Each and every family is different.

I know personally  it is much easier for me to respect someone else’s choices much better if I feel like there was some thought to that choice!  LOL!  However, at the same time, parents cannot always think about every single thing that is new to them or they feel insane!  And we all have priorities of things and issues and causes that are important to us  that may not be as important to someone else.  I try to remember that. 

Please, please, please do not let your causes, your beliefs, (uh, your obsessions?)  be the wedge between you and your partner, you and your family, you and your friends if you can help it.  Maybe you  will be able to show something to the people in your life  just by being who you are and doing what you do; maybe those people actually have something to teach you today!  Please be open to that!  Open your hearts and look for the things where we have common ground instead of being so quick to jump to the differences. 

It is so hard when our oldest one is very little.  We have such a protective (and sometimes tight) gesture around that child.  We have such a need for things to be “right”.  And to be sure, there is essential and non essential, and not everything people do with their children is “ right”  by a longshot.  I think we live in a society where many mothers are striving so hard to be mindful and think things through but then  we also have so many parents who seem to view their tiny children as inconveniences to their busy lives.  However, sometimes the “mindful” parents need to let go a little bit.  Your child, whilst developing under your etheric cloak, doesn’t need your baggage, and doesn’t need you to “control” their behavior or every single thing that happens in their existence.  Your child doesn’t need this unattainably  perfect childhood with unattainably perfect parents.

What your child needs is your warmth and your love even when they are in a rougher stage of development;

What your child needs is your laughter, authentic and real;

What your child needs today is a big hug and a whole lotta love;

What your child needs is a stable rhythm but also enough spontaneity to make life fun; nothing crazy, but go splash in some puddles!  Get dirty!  Play in the mud!

What your child needs is music and stories and being outside and playing;

What your child needs is a COMMUNITY of people who love them besides just their mother;

What your child needs is for you to have a vital, positive, wonderful marriage that they can look up to (even if they think it is disgusting when you kiss each other :))

What your child needs is for you to understand child development and to have realistic expectations and for you to quit trying to fix them, to change them into someone else, and to control every single thing that goes on

What your child needs is for you to get real, give some things up for them so they can develop in the right way, but to also have FUN whilst you are doing it.

What your child needs is for you to see how real and precious and messy and wonderful parenting and family life is today.

Life is too short to not live with joy and love and warmth.

Blessings today to you and your precious children,

Carrie

Favorite Spring Tales For The Waldorf Kindergarten

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Like the Fall Tales List for Waldorf Kindergarten, this is NOT an all-inclusive list, these are just some tales I have enjoyed or I know other mothers have used at these ages…..Happy finding the tales that speak to you and to your family!

 

January (Okay, still Winter!)

Four Year Olds:  Shingebiss (Winter Wynstones)

Five Year Olds:  The Snow Maiden (Plays for Puppets)

Six Year Olds:  The Twelve Months (www.mainlesson.com); 

February

Four Year Olds:  “Pussy Willow Spring” from Suzanne Down’s “Spring Tales” or a story about how the snowdrop got its color

Five Year Olds:  “The Rabbit and the Carrot”  a Chinese Tale found in the Spring Wynstones and also in “An Overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten”

Six Year Olds:  “The Three Brothers” by the Brothers Grimm

There are also a few Saint Valentine’s Day stories on mainlesson.com

 

March

For  ages three and a  half or so  and up for Saint Patrick’s Day:  “Lucky Patrick” from “Spring Tales” by Suzanne Down

There is also a great “leprechuan” circle adventure/movement journey in the book, “Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures” based upon “Tippery Tim” the leprechaun in “Spring Tales” by Suzanne Down

Four Year Olds:  The Billy Goats Gruff

Five Year Olds:  “Little Brown Bulb” from “Spring Tales” from Suzanne Down or “Little Red Cap” from Brothers Grimm

Six Year Olds: “ Bremen Town Musicians” from the Brothers Grimm;  or “An Easter Story” from “All Year Round” or “The Donkey” by The Brothers Grimm

 

April: 

Four Year Olds:  Goldilocks and The Three Bears

Five Year Olds:   “Mama Bird’s Song” from “Spring Tales” by Suzanne Down  or”Rumpelstiltskin” by the Brothers Grimm

Six Year Olds:  “Frog Prince” from the Brothers Grimm

 

May

Four Year Olds:  “Chicken Licken” or “The Pancake”  with Spring details

Five Year Olds:  For Ascensiontide, the story “Forgetful Sammy” from “All Year Round” or “Twiggy” from “Plays for Puppets”

Six Year Olds: “The Magic Lake at the End of the World” (from Ecuador, found in “Your’re Not The Boss of Me!  Understanding the Six/Seven Year Transformation)  or “Queen Bee” from the Brothers Grimm  or “Forgetful Sammy” or “Twiggy”  as listed for the five-year-old.

 

June

Four Year Olds:  “The Pancake” with spring/summer details

Five Year Olds:  “Goldener”  (Plays for Puppets)

Six Year Olds:  “Snow White and Rose Red”  or “A Midsummer Tale” from the book “An Overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten”, also in “Plays for Puppets”

What are your favorite stories?  Please add them below!

Many blessings,

Carrie

Math Phobia In The Waldorf Homeschool

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Mathematics is one of those incredible subjects that has so much to offer and yet people discount it in our society.  We wouldn’t joke or find it humorous to not be able to read, so why do we hear people who ruefully laugh and just say, “Wow, I am not good at math.  Here, you divide up this bill.”   Or my favorite, the cashier who cannot make change when the computer on the cash register at the check-out line goes down.  Yuck!  My family ran a business and back then, there was no computer to tell you what cash to give back (okay, do I sound old and cranky here or what? LOL).  But, my point is, I think too often we underestimate the importance of numeral literacy.  It is every bit as important as reading!

Here are some fun links regarding math anxiety and numeral literacy:

http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/anxiety/index.asp#myths

http://math.about.com/cs/mathreform/a/myths.htm

You actually don’t “have” to have an aptitude for math; math skills can totally be developed!   I was not “good” at math, although I enjoyed it in the younger grades, then went through a period where I cried a lot and didn’t “get it” and then lo and behold, when I took college mathematics courses like calculus and such and physics one, the math part made complete sense!  Who knew?  I think the challenge is, though, that some children need many problems to master a concept and some need only a few problems.

Also, children have to be willing to try (and sometimes fail) and work at something!  You may notice this tendency to work at something (or not) in areas other than mathematics with your child.  I think try to give them a taste of success in something outside of math is helpful, as well as giving them problems you know they can do along with harder things in math.  Also, I think it is good to work in small chunks in the early grades – sometimes I think we are expecting far too much of our first and second graders.  Do make sure your expectations are realistic!  Check out the math standards for education by grade for your state and see if you are on track!

Jamie York and his co-authors discuss in “Making Math Meaningful” book for grades 1-5 (and I do think this book is worthy as a supplement to whatever math curriculum you are using!)  (here is the link: http://web.me.com/meaningfulmathbooks1/Site/Welcome.html)     that “math phobia” can begin somewhere between second and fourth grade and that this can be “undone” in the sixth and seventh grades, but it is much harder to undo this in the  high school years.

What can you do if you are math phobic or you notice your child being math phobic?  How can you progress in math in your Waldorf homeschool?  This could be a series of posts really, but let’s look at some simple ideas here.

  • First of all, check your own attitude and what you say about math in front of your child!  Are you math phobic?  Then homeschooling  math is going to be wonderful for your own development as well!
  • Please place the same importance on that as you do reading!  I hear many parents say, “Well, I didn’t want to do First Grade Waldorf because my child already knew his letters and how to read!’”  As if all First Grade is is a bunch of letters!  What about math, the qualities of numbers and the four processes?
  • In first grade, do bring in math daily after you do your qualities of numbers block if you are doing a non-math block.    Every day there should be time to work with math manipulatives  and later on with mental math.  There should be simple oral sentences you give to work out with manipulatives (or just mentally).  Most families do this right after gathering. Perhaps you have some songs and verses for the month, some movement, and then you do your ten minutes of math.
  • From about second grade up, you may consider having a time one day a week during non-math blocks to devote a half hour or so to math, practical math, however you want to bring it.  Many families do this on their last day of school for the week.
  • All this being said, do let math sleep at some points during the year.  Let it rest and germinate inside your child.  You may find when you return to it that your child understands it so much better.
  • Homeschooling math can be so very intense because of that one to one relationship. It is easy to hover and offer too much help.  Some mothers keep laundry to fold nearby or knitting nearby.  I have often transformed into a “substitute math teacher” with a crazy accent (mom has gone out to the store!) who is kind but strict.  She doesn’t help, she wants to see what you can do and she doesn’t hover. 
  • If your child is crying every time math is presented, take a break!  Or, alternately, instead of taking a break, you may really have to go back to the part of math your child understands and works from there to figure out what is tripping them up.  Subtraction usually is part of it and not really having those addition and subtraction facts down cold.  I think Jamie York’s math book is great for diagnosing where the problem is. 
  • Movement, movement, movement.  Bouncing a ball, tossing a ball, standing on the end of a balance beam and tossing bean bags into a bucket, bouncing on a trampoline for addition/subtraction facts and multiplication tables. 
  • Work whole to parts and all four processes together.  Most children don’t seem to understand at first that subtraction will “undo” addition and division will “undo” multiplication. I think that is the advantage of teaching math the Waldorf way with all four processes together.    It is also hard for them to see 4 X 7 is the same as 7X4, so work with that in mind for these Early Grades.
  • Stories are great, but I think at the end of second grade and certainly at the beginning of third grade, there needs to just be math.  However, always save the last ten minutes to tell stories – in first grade, do tell a fairy tale at the end of the lesson, in second tell a folktale or fable and in third tell some Native American tales or more fairy tales.  It is always that holistic working of all subjects together. 
  • Do play games that involve math and find opportunities to use math in gardening, cooking, handwork.  It can be done!  🙂
  • People ask all the time about worksheets. I know most Waldorf consultants will tell you later, after the nine year change, most seem to say Fifth Grade. I  believe on the Jamie York website given above, there are some math worksheets available for Third Grade and up.

SOME LINKS TO HELP:

The math curriculum as laid out in the Christopherus Curriculum Grades One through Eight:  http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/waldorf-homeschool-publishing-and-consulting/curriculum/subjects/mathematics.html?0=  This includes links to the math books that are available separately from buying the full curriculum.

Melisa Nielsen’s Math E-book, Grades One Through Five:   http://shop.beaconmama.com/Waldorf-Math-Geometry-Curriculum-and-Supplies_c12.htm  For $18, this is a steal!  Every lesson is laid out completely for each block. 

Math Books section at Bob and Nancy’s:  http://www.waldorfbooks.com/edu/curriculum/mathematics.htm

Free math blocks and movement for math at Marsha Johnson’s Yahoo!Group at waldorfhomeeducators@yahoogroups.com

Math goals Grade One:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/03/29/ron-jarmans-math-goals-for-waldorf-grade-one/

Many blessings,

Carrie

So How Do I Live Peacefully With My Two-Year-Old?

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Two and a half is an interesting age; there are ages of “disequilibrium” that occur before this, yet in our society we often hear about “the terrible two’s” as if this is the only stage of disequilibrium on the path to the teenaged years.    I have had many parents tell me they felt two- and- a -half was more challenging, but I have also heard many attached parents say they felt like two was not that bad and that three –and- a- half or four was much more challenging!  (That’s not much comfort if you are feeling out of sorts with your precious two-year-old, though, is it?)

So, how does one live peacefully with a two-year-old? 

I think the first thing one must do is to become very clear with one’s view of the small child and of what gentle discipline means to you and to your family. I have many, many posts about that on this blog.  Here is an oldie but goodie to start you off:https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/02/12/where-do-i-start-with-gentle-discipline/ 

As always, it really does begin with you.  You must get as absolutely  centered as possible yourself because if you feel like you are going to lose it every  time your two-year-old does, it is going to be a long year indeed, unfortunately.  A two-year-old has a complete excess of emotion and impulses; they can’t regulate it at all.  Think of yourself as a sponge that sponges up all that excess emotion; yes, it is exhausting and draining but it is part of  parenting.  So some kind of inner work for yourself where you build up your own life forces, for lack of a better term (in Waldorf we would call this building up the etheric) is a priority; artistic work is especially good.  Can you make it a priority to paint, draw, sculpt, craft for several times a week for half an hour?  It really does help!

Also, get your support in a row.  Do you have other like-minded parents around you?  Not ones that will say, “Oh my, that two-year-old is manipulating you!” but ones that understand what a two-year-old is really about; ones that can help you brainstorm ideas from a loving and warm perspective!

As far as guidance, two-year-olds cannot read non-verbal gestures well in terms of “I am frowning at you and crossing my arms  because I am getting angry with your behavior!”  In fact, a two year old is imitative at best and may just frown back at you or do whatever it is that you are doing at the moment because they are imitating you and really have no idea that you are angry.  Some mothers have told me their two-year-old laughs when they are angry.  This is NOT a defiant, I-am-so-glad-to-see-you-angry- laugh, this is because they understand something about your emotions are different, but again, they don’t really know what to do or how to fix it. Think of this as their way of showing insecurity in the situation if that helps you re-frame it!

So, looking at how you view anger is very important.  What will you do in the heat of the moment? What is your plan?  And what tools are you going to use to help guide your small child instead of yelling or scowling or what have you?

Here is another old favorite to help you get going with that: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/12/more-about-time-in-for-tinies/    There are also many posts under anger; check them out under the Gentle Discipline page here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/gentle-discipline/

So, in brief,  here are your allies and your  tools for peaceful living outside of your own work on gentle discipline and anger:

  • CONNECTION – enjoying being together; nursing, co-sleeping,  holding on your lap, still carrying in a sling, playing games, sharing warm meals.  If four is a good age for sitting on laps, it is important to recognize how really tiny two is!  Connect first!
  • Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm – meal times and rest times are most important (and part of being able to go to bed and rest is having a consistent time for waking up every day)
  • Singing and verses more than direct commands; do not ask questions that will be answered NO!  Hum, sing, promote silence, but please stop with the endless barrage of questions.  You can show warmth and love through smiles, pats on the back, hugs, laughter – not just words!
  • Talking pictorially and working through a child’s body in an imaginative way: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/10/14/working-through-the-body-day-number-17-of-20-days-toward-being-a-more-mindful-mother/
  • You taking a few breaths and getting some SPACE before you react!
  • Distraction and re-direction
  • You cannot be afraid to pick up a screaming, tantruming child.  The two-year-old may very well need your gentle hands to come back into himself – see the “Time-in For Tinies” post I mentioned above as to more tips for handling temper tantrums.
  • Lots of outside time – get that energy out; pushing, pulling, squatting,
  • Sensory play – water, sand, mud
  • No choices, or very few.  It is really hard for a two-year-old to make a choice, even a small one and then inevitably the choice is made and then they want the other thing….meltdown.  Please don’t put them in that position!
  • Please try to run errands by yourself if you can.  This in itself alleviates so many problems.
  • Avoid expecting that it will be “a good day” if your two-year-old does not melt down; re-frame your expectations for your day in how well you de-escalated things!  And please do forgive yourself!  We are on a path and a journey and striving!  I spoke a lot about this in my talk regarding the first seven years on The Waldorf Channel.  www.thewaldorfchannel.org
  • Do not expect a two-year-old to share well or to patiently wait or to be quiet whilst a younger sibling sleeps for two hours!
  • Guide your child as to what your family needs as a whole;
  • Do not feel hurt if you are not preferred parent of the week!   It is not personal!
  • Try to enjoy this age!  It really is tiny and precious!

 

Love to hear things that have worked well for you with this age – leave a comment in the box!

Blessings,

Carrie

Which Waldorf Curriculum Should I Use?

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(Updated 2/4/2014)

Woo-hoo boy, crazy question!  This question pops up all the time on message boards, on forums (and I always feel bad when mothers get confused and ask on one yahoo group or message board about curriculum that is outside of the list they are on!  :))

I have hesitated to weigh in on this matter for quite some time.  For one thing, I am not certain there is a good answer because everyone is different and what appeals to one person is completely unappealing to another person.   In the end, you know what you like and you know your children, your family, your lifestyle best and will be able to pick what works for you!

The other reason I have hesitated to weigh in is that I create my own curriculum.  I write it over the summer and I cherry-pick from different sources..  I learn a lot!  This may not work for those of you who want to open and go, and most of you have probably heard by now that “open and go” isn’t really Waldorf (but sometimes you have to start somewhere!) but it works well for me.  So, as always, I urge you to go and read Steiner’s educational works for yourself, even if you buying a more open and go curriculum.  I recommend “Kingdom of Childhood” and “Soul Economy” for those with young children in the first seven year cycle.   For those with Grades children, I recommend “Practical Advice for Teachers”  and “Discussions With Teachers”

However, again, I understand this is hard for some folks to create their own, especially if they have never experienced anything of Waldorf Education in a school setting, and they don’t know where to start or life is just such they need something pre-planned to get them going.  So, I would ask you to read the following paragraphs and see if it resonates with you as criteria to evaluate a pre-written curriculum:

  • Does the author(s) have a strong understanding of  Steiner’s educational ideas?  For me to use someone else’s curriculum or curriculum guide, personally, I would need to know that the author(s) have studied Steiner, that they understand it on some level! and are true to the seven year cycles in their curriculum (even though the study of Steiner and anthroposophy is a long, long journey!)   and that they take into account the developmental arc of the human being from that holistic standpoint.   Does that make sense?   That may or may not be important to you! 
  • What is the authors’ background?  Have they homeschooled their own children at all?  Do they understand the dynamics of homeschooling, that things are more intense, that you and the dog and a four year old don’t make a Circle Time, that home has certain advantages that really should play into the curriculum that is different than Waldorf School?  Have they ever taught other children or been in situations where they have worked with other children?  After all, not every child and family is like your own!   Do they have an understanding of the academic and artistic pieces of each grade?  That is important in order to educate for academic success! 
  • Do they have knowledge of the twelve senses and the importance of the protection/development of the twelve senses throughout these seven year cycles?  How is movement incorporated into their curriculum?
  • The other area that is a bug –a- boo for me is to ask whether the authors  are advocating academics within the first seven year cycle?  Are they talking about Main Lesson Books for the Early Years and blocks and such?  Are they talking about being able to tell a child’s temperament within the first seven year cycle?  To me none of that fits, so even if you are looking at grades materials, go back and look at what they propose for the Early Years.  This will give you a good barometer as to how true to Steiner the curriculum is!
  • If you are an Early Years mother and you are contemplating buying curriculum,  please do go through this blog and look at the resources I recommend.  There are many posts and reviews on here.  Work on yourself, your rhythm for your family, the tone of your home.   Life is the curriculum, home is the place during the first seven years.   Look at what you might want to bring in when – see the posts I wrote about the one and two year old in the Waldorf Home and the other post about the three , four five and six year old in the Waldorf home.  Create some of these things, and then worry about “curriculum”!  🙂
  • Lastly, what are the practicalities of using this curriculum?  Is it truly open and go, or do you need to do work to put it together?  (And both answers are okay, it depends what you are looking for!!)  What additional resources do you need?  Do you know how you will open school – do you have verses or songs, a longer poem each month  for your grades children to memorize and recite?  Does the curriculum show how to incorporate the form drawing,  knitting, crafts, cooking, gardening, movement, music or what other resources do you need to get?  Or does all that overwhelm you, you are new to Waldorf, and you feel you just need the main lesson ideas?  Does the curriculum provide samples of what a third grader might write, examples of math problems, etc?  Does it give you ideas for the Main Lesson from an artistic standpoint beyond drawing and summarizing?  Remember, art is the vehicle through which the lesson is taught!  The art is NOT separate!  Otherwise the curriculum becomes dry!
  • Does this curriculum use a two or three day rhythm?  A three day rhythm is what is typically used in a Waldorf school, it is what I use in my own homeschool, but I do notice most of the homeschool Waldorf Curriculums use a two-day rhythm because home is more intense and goes faster than school!  Marsha Johnson’s files do use a three-day rhythm.  The three day rhythm looks like this:  First Day, tell story (and do lots of other things, poem recitation, memorizing, form drawing perhaps!) Second Day artistic piece or a beautiful hands-on project and things tied to parts of the main story, perhaps extra things like going over vocabulary, spelling, a deepening of a math concept, etc and Third Day the academic piece for the Main Lesson Book.  Not every lesson has to have a spot in the Main Lesson though –for some things we have made diaromas or modeled something or painted something – those things don’t fit in a Main Lesson Book!  And not every homeschooling mother uses a Main Lesson Book for every block.  The “academic” piece can be moved up or down or de-emphasized as well as needed.

If you can ask yourself these questions of the curriculum and be satisfied, then you will have most likely found the right curriculum for you!

There are things mothers have told me they liked or didn’t like about any of the Waldorf curriculums on the market, because we are all different people.  You will find what works for you and your family!   You are the expert on your own family!

In the end, though, realize, it is what you create with these pieces of paper in your own homeschool that matters!  It is about family first, joy first, being together first!

You will find what works for you! You are the architect of your own  homeschool!

Create the joy of this journey for your family!

Many blessings,

Carrie

PS  Please know that I do not want to turn this post into a debate regarding specific curriculum, because we all are individuals with our likes and dislikes, so do know the comments to this post will be carefully moderated.  Thank you!

Peaceful Homeschooling: Needed Resources For Waldorf Grade One

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Here is my list for first grade:

  • If you are not a do-it-yourselfer, you will need a curriculum!  The one I most frequently recommend is Christopherus (Donna Simmons).    If you buy Donna’s curriculum, you will need a form drawing resource, and the other resources she recommends for that grade. 
  • I suggest you familiarize yourself  with the FILES section over at Waldorf Home Educators ( many FREE blocks are there!) created by Marsha Johnson for First Grade in the FILES section at www.waldorfhomeeducators@yahoogroups.com
  • See the website www.movementforchildhood.com  for movement blocks to bring into your homeschool
  • THe Christopherus curriculum includes the  stories  for Main Lessons, but you may want some extra tales to have on hand to tell during knitting, gardening, cooking or what have you.  I like the Pantheon Edition of The Grimm Fairy Tales, the book “Hear the Voice of The Griot!” for African tales, and you could also use Slovak tales, Norwegian tales, and any others that suit you!  Use your local library for collections.
  • “Learning About The World Through Modeling” by Arthur Auer  would be important to have to understand the juxtaposition of wet-on-wet watercolor painting and modeling in the curriculum.
  • A flute/recorder/pennywhistle and music to teach your child.  I know Jodie Mesler is hard at work on a curriculum for this year that one could use with a flute or pennywhisstle or recorder – check it out www.homemusicmaking.blogspot.com
  • Collections of poems and versese for the day, season, holiday –  I recommend Eric Fairman’s Path of Discovery Grade One if you can get it used, and again, use your library.  Some folks really like the seasonal Wynstones books, but I think to use those books fully, you really need to know how to read music.  Also, check out Candey Verney’s “The Singing Day” and “The Singing Year”
  • General craft supplies for festival crafting.  I also still think many of the projects in “Earthways” could still be used.
  • Bean bags/silks
  • Chalkboard and lap slates
  • Watercolor paper/ Watercolor paint / block  and stick crayons/paper/Beeswax  modeling material
  • Yarn and knitting materials, a needle for yarn to sew up projects 
  • Puppets/story telling props
  • Nature table and all of Mother Nature’s Goodies
  • Math manipulatives (sand tray, stones, acorns, jewels,…)  I also would recommend Jamie York’s “Making Math Meanoingful” for Grades One Through Five
  • Main lesson books unless you are planning to make your own!
  • A jump rope and jump rope rhymes; a basketball

I feel as if I am missing something!  Please add your suggestions in the comment box below!

Blessings,

Carrie

The Two-Year-Old: A Traditional Perspective

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Let’s hop into looking at the two-year-old from a traditional perspective.  Again, my favorite resource on this topic is the book, “Your Two-Year-Old” for a traditional look at the two-year-old.

So, what can you expect from a two-year-old?

  • Tends to be much easier to live with than the eighteen-month old; motor abilities are stronger and less a source of frustration
  • Emotionally calmer, happy more of the time than previously
  • Affectionate
  • Developing speech also makes life easier
  • Likes to run little errands around the house
  • Typically likes to watch all the household activities and take part in them
  • Often a typical time for potty training (closer to two and a half)
  • Likes repetition and rhythm to his day
  • Typically eats one good meal
  • Not a good deal of interaction in a “Playgroup” situation (and you all  know how I feel about social stuff for little people under four and a half, if you are new here and don’t know, you can search for the post about social experiences for the four-year-old!  :))
  • How they feel toward younger siblings really varies from kind and protective to jealous.  Never, ever leave a baby alone unattended with a two or two and a half year old.  🙂
  • They can run without falling now, walk up and stairs alone two feet to a step, but they tend to use their knee and foot together in walking, both arms out if you ask for one arm, all fingers out if you ask for one finger or one finger on both hands if you ask for one finger,
  • Vision is also dependent upon touch and manipulation of the object the child is looking at; can look at moving objects in space quite well
  • Lots of impulses, short attention span, touches and tastes everything

Two And A Half

  • Often stubborn and aggressive in that the two and a half year old wants what they want when they want it. 
  • Tense, explosive, rigid, bossy, demanding – Carrie’s note:  but this is because they feel UNSURE and INSECURE, not because they feel confident! 
  • Not a good age for making choices, likes to choose the opposite!  The authors write in “Your Two-Year-Old”;  “Thus, the simple choice between chocolate or vanilla cookies may ruin an excursion to the store.  Possibly, it is better that he stay at home so that this kind of problem, so difficult to solve, will not arise.”  
  • Demands “sameness” ; sometimes has rituals around things and then will have a temper tantrum if the ritual for dressing or eating or whatever doesn’t go how they plan
  • Time is seen by the two-and-a-half year old as a sequence of events…The “Your Two-Year-Old”  book mentions that if Daddy comes home from work early one day, your two and a half year old will still expect dinner after Daddy gets home, because that is what normally happens.
  • Lots of tensional outlets – thumb sucking, increased nursing, stuttering, screaming, temper tantrums
  • The age of “I Want!”  “Me do!” and “NO!”
  • The age of parental preferences; only Mommy can do something or only Daddy can do something. My husband and I used to call this PPW – short for Preferred Parent of the Week. 
  • Frequently fatigues, especially as headed toward age three; whining starts to come up
  • Things really do frustrate them, and to them the frustrations they are experiencing are very, very real! 
  • Carrie’s note – there are fun things about this age, everything is new, their vocabulary is exploding, they are interested in helping and being a part of everything. 
  • In a group social setting, possessions are part of himself or herself, so you hear “Mine!” a lot.  Things are more important than people, this is NORMAL.  Also, cannot really take turns yet. 
  • Improved motor skills – can walk on tiptoes, can jump with two feet, will try to stand on one foot, can speed up and slow down and go around things and arms and legs and fingers are more differentiated now.
  • Will start to imitate adult behaviors – caring for a baby, etc.
  • Sensory play – mud. water, sand – are well-liked and needed!
  • Boys overall, have more difficulties adjusting to a group setting, more tensional outlets, more quarrels about possessions, speech may not come in as much as the girls speech until around thirty months

 

Many blessings,

Carrie

History and Literature: Waldorf Homeschooling Grades One Through Twelve

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You can adjust the academic level up or down, but the stories in the curriculum are designed specifically to speak to the age of the child starting with being six and a half or seven in first grade because we are based on seven year cycles…..This is sort of a merging of The Waldorf Curriculum chart, and all the Waldorf curriculum overviews out there merged witht my own thoughts….

Grade One  (Ages 6 and a half and up: I personally feel strongly about starting as close to seven as possible so as not to cheat the child out of the end of the first seven year cycle)

  • Fairy Tales:  Grimm, Asbjornsen and Moe, I would add African fairy tales from “Hear the Voice of The Griot!” (this book covers Kindergarten through Grade 12)  and Asian fairy tales. Some teachers use many of the Slovak tales.  I like those as well!
  • Nature Stories
  • Poems with strong rhythms
  • Vowels from feelings, drawings and paintings give birth to letters, capital letters, simple words, speech exercises, short plays, phonetics
  • I would add the most 100 common sight words here

Grade Two  (Usually close to age eight)

  • Fables: Aesop’s and Celtic
  • Legends of Saints
  • American Indian Stories
  • Jataka Tales (Buddhist)
  • The King of Ireland’s Son by Padraic Colum
  • Nature Stories
  • I would add Russian tales as well and continue with African fairy tales or fables; Asian fairy tales and folk legends. I like the Barefoot Books’ “Trickster Tales” “Animal Tales” and the one about tales from The Silk Road.  Excellent, and would be easy to do blocks from these!
  • Grammar, spelling usually starts here (Donna Simmons says Grade Three, I think it depends if you are learning a foreign language that is grammar heavy!  My German-speaking child needed to go into some English grammar because the grammar of the two languages is different) – structure of a sentence, doing/naming/color/ words punctuation, dictation, simple sentences and paragraphs, writing simple descriptions of what was seen or heard, plays and speech work
  • I would add sight words here – the 500 most common sight words

Grade Three  (usually close to age 9)

  • American Indian tales and fables
  • Biblical stories as part of Ancient History  (please make sure your child is close to 9 so these stories speak to your child they way they should)
  • I would add some of the  Grimm’s tales/fairy tales for older children
  • Poetry and reading from main lesson,
  • Grammar and spelling usually start here, some start in Second Grade

Grade Four  (usually close to age 10)

  • Local history through geography
  • Why the early settlers chose your area in which to live, how the natural resources were developed there
  • Norse myths/sagas – Could also do the Finnish National Epic “The Kalevala”
  • Some people do more of the Old Testament Stories at this point
  • Poetry
  • Alliteration
  • Some people also put local Native American tales here to go with local history
  • Verb tenses, prepositions,  personal pronouns, memorize grammatical rules, writing compositions with emphasis on story, letter writing, form and content, oral book reports, spelling rules and words, plurals, abbreviations, adverbs

Grade Five  (usually close to age 11)

  • First historical concepts:  Ancient India, Ancient Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece up to Alexander the Great
  • The lives of Manu, Rama, Buddha, Zarathustra, Gilgamesh, Khufu, and Orpheus
  • Greek Mythology
  • Scenes from Ancient History
  • Biographies of Great Men and Women
  • Usually active and passive verbs, use of capitals, antonyms, parts of speech, punctuation, writing compositions with emphasis on descriptions, book reports – oral and written, letter writing,  subject and predicate, synonyms, homonyms, syntax
  • Spelling rules and words
  • Dictionary use

Grade Six

  • The fall of Troy to the founding of Rome thought the monarchy, republic, empire
  • The life of Christ and the Crusades
  • The life of Muhammad and the Islamic people
  • Medieval society:  the cloister, the castle, the city
  • Tales of chivalry:  Men of Iron by Pyle
  • Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • Poetry, ballads, scenes from medieval history
  • Grammar: subjunctive mood, conditional sentences, transitive and intransitive verbs, possessive and objective nouns, adjectives, usage, phrases and clauses,  comparative adverbs, sentence diagramming, review of parts of speech, writing with emphasis on exposition, paragraphs, narration, outlining in science blocks, business letters, spelling

Grade Seven

  • 1400-1700
  • The Age of Exploration,
  • The Age of Discovery
  • The Reformation
  • The Renaissance
  • Many biographies
  • Arthurian legends, historical novels, biography, humorous tales and stories, tales of adventure and discovery, ballads, poems, scenes from The Renaissance, stories about tribal life
  • Review all grammar, plasticity of language based upon Wish, Wonder, Surprise block, writing, research papers, write and produce a puppet show, poetry – learn forms of poetry, spelling

Grade Eight

  • 1700 to the present
  • The Industrial Revolution to the Modern Day; Shakespeare, Napoleon, Edison, Ford, Jefferson, Lincoln
  • American History
  • Literature:  Shakespeare, Poetry: epic and dramatic,  Stories about different people of the world with their folklore and poetry
  • Review all grammar, writing all block books have original writing, newspaper reporting, businesslike and practical writing, write a skit or a short play, spelling up to 25 words a week

 

Grade Nine

  • Modern history with emphasis on Europe and dealing with the inner historic motives of the political, social and industrial revolutions from the late eighteenth century to the present
  • The great inventions 
  • Literature:  Comedy and Tragedy in the drama and the short story, Shakespeare through the Romantics, Longer essays on themes from eighth grade history can be given, shorthand, biography, poetic ballads, mythology, short story writing, stimulation of reading, writing summaries

Grade Ten

  • Ancient History, the earliest Indian, Persian and Egyptian history up to the time of decline of the freedoms  under Alexander the Great
  • Literature:  Dramatic literature:  Edda, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Nibelungenlied, and Gudrun sagas
  • Creative writing
  • Research paper on a pre-Christian theme
  • History of Language
  • Poetry:  epic poetry
  • Speech exercises
  • Study of meter and poetic diction

Grade Eleven

  • Roman, medieval and Renaissance History
  • Contrast of the year:  Compare and contrast
  • Dante, Chaucer, Medieval Romance, Story Writing, Essay writing from reading, poetry:dramatic poetry
  • Parsifal and other Grail legends
  • Shakespeare
  • Research paper on medieval topic

Grade Twelve

  • Modern and world history
  • Look at history from present perspective
  • Look at communism, fascism, the threefold social order
  • Literature:  Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whitman
  • Goethe’s Faust, Ibsen, Nietzche or Hesse
  • Great Figures in Literature
  • Creative Writing
  • Synthesizing thoughts, ideas , information in literature and writing

Many, many blessings,

Carrie

Out Of The Frying Pan

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….and into the fire I leap.  You can see my controversial opinion of the RIE movement that is making inroads into Waldorf Early Care here :  http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/blog/2010/03/review-a-warm-and-gentle-welcome-a-wecan-publication.html

For those of you who have not heard of this movement, here is the beginning part of the review I wrote that explains what is happening:

A Review: “A Warm and Gentle Welcome: Nurturing Children from Birth to Age Three”

“This is the Gateways Series Five book which consists of a series of articles compiled from the work of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America RIE/Pikler Working Group. I bought this book because I am a Waldorf homeschooling mother with an extreme interest in the Early Years. Also, as a neonatal/pediatric physical therapist, I really wanted to understand more about the RIE/Pikler approach that is seems to be becoming part of the world of Waldorf for children from birth to age three.

Unfortunately, I found I had more questions than answers after reading this book than when I started.

The underlying assumption of this book is laid out in an article of Introduction by Trice Atchinson and Margaret Ris: that there is a growing conviction within the Waldorf movement to “respond to the needs of the times” (ie, child care for younger and younger children) and because Rudolf Steiner’s indications for working with children and adolescents in Waldorf schools had been put to practical use for many decades, little existed on how best to meet the needs of children at the very beginning of life – particularly in light of societal trends such as daycare, single parenting, dual working families and the isolation of at-home mothers.” Therefore, a working group associated with WECAN began to investigate Resources for Infant Educarers, or RIE, founded by Magda Gerber, as a resource for the child at the beginning of life.”

To read the whole review I wrote, please see the link above.  I have grave and serious concerns about this approach, which my review details.

For those of you looking at Waldorf early, early care (for birth to age three), please do a bit of research regarding this issue and see how you feel about it; really talk to the provider and see what approach they use within their care.  This way you can make the best decision for your family.

Blessings,

Carrie

Holy Week and Easter In The Waldorf Home

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I have some ideas about this to share as I have been reading “Festivals With Children” by Brigitte Barz.  Some people really hate this book!  The tone of it is rather authoritarian, but it was first published in German and I think part of it may be the way it was translated.  It is very true in keeping to what one would think of for the under-9 child versus the over-9 child.  I  found this book for $1.46 on Amazon used, so I think it was well worth that price!

The author’s suggestions for Lent (yes, a bit more about Lent) include a nature table with an empty bowl on it, perhaps some branch that just has buds on it (but I gather to keep switching it out before it blooms :)) and the use of a Celtic cross or such if you would like that as a symbol (but none of Jesus hanging on the cross for the under-9 children).  The author feels it is not appropriate to include a representation of Christ the man on the cross  and writes,

“Great restraint is required when introducing children to Passiontide and Holy Week.  Younger children under the age of nine are not ready yet to take any conscious part in them.  …..The self-knowledge which belongs to Passiontide and which adults go through at this time of year as an inner experience of suffering is simply not appropriate for children.  Conscious immersion into the depths of Christ’s suffering unto death should not be initiated before the time of preparation for Confirmation (age 14).”

Instead, we can approach this time through fairy tales with their stories of transformation, redemption after suffering or death.  The author mentions The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids (I would say depends on your child and their temperament as well as the age of your child for this one, possibly age 6 or 7) , Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Donkey, King Thrushbeard (I would say ages 7 and 8).  My  five-year-old and I are currently doing “Budulinek”.  There is a version of this tale available on www.mainlesson.com

For Holy Week, perhaps the best-known Waldorf tradition is to fill the empty dish on the Nature Table (or some families keep dirt or ashes in the dish) with dirt and sow seeds of grass or summer wheat on Palm Sunday.  We can also bake a shaped and braided Easter bread for Easter morning.

Here are some more traditions:

Palm Sunday – make a paper cockerel to hang above the table for Palm Sunday.  In some parts of Europe, there are processions where the children carry crosses or wooden circles, decorated with bread figures, especially the cockerel.

The cockerel is a natural symbol to herald this coming of Christ, the beginning of the new covenant.

Some families start lighting that unlit candle that has sat on their Nature Table today.  This is also the day to sow your grass seed as mentioned above!

Maundy Thursday – Traditions include the washing of each other’s feet and the eating of green foods.  Chervil soup is traditional fare, along with bread and water for a very simple meal on a white cloth.

Good Friday – this is the day to make Hot Cross Buns.  It is also a day to plant seeds such as marigolds, sunflowers, nasturiums into beds – the seeds are buried but rise to new life.  This really speaks to an under-9 aged child!

Holy Saturday – a day of quiet, a day of waiting.  One can line and decorate Easter baskets, mix the dough for Easter bread (one of those braided breads with pockets is nice!)  or make a nest for the Easter Hare (not the Easter Bunny!  Rabbits and hares have very different characteristics!)  In secret, make a few butterflies to hang over the dining room table for Easter morning!

For Easter traditions and the forty days of Easter, please see tomorrow’s post!

Blessings,

Carrie