Differences Between Waldorf and The Well-Trained Mind: Grades One Through Four

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I set out to write a post about the differences between Waldorf and The Well-Trained Mind for the Early Grades, since the post about Waldorf and The Well-Trained Mind in the Early Years was fairly popular.

It has been difficult to write this post.  I do know homeschooling mothers who seem adept enough to combine both a classical approach with Waldorf elements, but I found it extremely difficult to find the similarities because the assumed views on childhood development is just so very different. Please feel free to add in comments at the bottom to assist other mothers.

Here is a little chart I made to keep track of things, and you can see for yourself where things coincide or don’t.

 

The First Four Grades:

  The Well-Trained Mind Waldorf
Overall emphasis “A classical education requires a student to collect, memorize, and categorize information.  Although this process continues through  all twelve grades, the first four grades are the most intensive for fact collecting.”  (page 21, TWTM 2004)Works within four year cycles of history, literature and science.   Has three stages – Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric stage.

Academic works starts early, with the Parroting Stage

 An education that focuses on the whole human being based upon Steiner’s philosophies.  The human being is regarded as a spiritual being on a spiritual journey, and as such, the educational curriculum is set up to develop the young child’s skills and abilities in accordance to this standard.  Works within seven-year-cycles and what is appropriate for one age is not appropriate for the other ages.
The Seven Year Stages include Willing, Feeling and Thinking – logical thought is seen coming in at age 14.Truly focused academic work starts at age 7, prior to that the child learns through play.
Approach to Creativity “Your job, during the elementary years, is to supply the knowledge and skills that will allow your child to overflow with creativity as his mind matures.” (page 22)
”Too close a focus on self-expression at an early age can actually cripple a child later on; a student who has always been encouraged to look inside himself may not develop a frame of reference, a sense of how ideas measure up against the thoughts and beliefs of others.”
(page 23)		 “in these years we must always take care that, as teachers, we create what goes from us to the children in an exciting way so that it gives rise to the imagination.  Teachers must inwardly and livingly present the subject material; they must fill it with imagination.” (page 210, The Foundations of Human Experience)Emphasis on the teacher preparing the material and having the teacher present the material as opposed to reading it from a book. No textbooks are used.

In Steiner’s views, the teaching through art and rhythm and music IS the way to teach, , the children do   what the teacher does (although if you look at the Main Lesson books of a Waldorf class none of the paintings, books, etc look the same!) 
Approach to Reading “Let him read, read, read.  Don’t force him to stop and reflect on it yet.” (page 23) Reading is taught by introducing the letter sounds through moving their bodies like the letters, drawing the lines and curves, writing letters from the  fairy tales,  and then the child learns to read through their own writing and then through printed text.  Steiner said in “Soul Economy”, page 142:  “In many ways, children show us how the people of earlier civilizations experienced the world; they need a direct connection with whatever we demand of their will…..we must offer children a human and artistic bridge to whatever we teach. “  On page 144, Steiner said, “We have to point out that our slower approach is really a blessing, because it allows children to integrate the art of writing with their whole being.”
”It would be inappropriate to teach reading before the children have been introduced to writing, for reading represents a transition from a will activity to abstract observation.” (page 148).
Priority in Education in the Early Grades “In the elementary grades, we suggest that you prioritize reading, writing, grammar, and math.” (page 25)
”In a way, grammar of language is a foundation on which all other subjects rest.  Until a student reads without difficulty, he can’t absorb the grammar of history, literature, or science; until a student writes with ease, he can’t express his growing mastery of this material.”		 Teaching academic subjects through movement, rhythm and art; fostering a sense of imagination and liveliness in children; teaching with economy; understanding and teaching in accordance with the view of the child as a three-fold human being; fostering a sense of love throughout these early grades and a natural respect of adult authority.
Grammar in a traditional German Waldorf school was taught rather early (second grade)  as it is nearly impossible to write in German without the grammar piece.  Donna Simmons comments on this in her “Living Language” book
Spelling, English Grammar, Reading and Writing Spelling – recommends spelling workbook and spending 10 minutes a day on spelling
Grammar – learning parts of speech, proper relationship between these parts of speech, and the mechanics of the English language with First Language Lessons for The Well-Trained Mind.  Uses narration as a tool for grammar.
Reading follows history; First Grade – Ancients, Second Grade – Medieval- early Renaissance, Third Grade- Late Renaissance-early Modern, Fourth Grade- Modern.  Memorizing of poems of four to eight poems during the school year.  Free reading time each day. 		 Most Waldorf students will be reading by the second or  third grade well because they start later. And contrary to popular belief, Waldorf teachers do expect their children to read well! Grammar is taught starting in First Grade with simple punctuation.  Steiner talked about the control of speech development through grammar and what comes through speech enters into writing and then reading (page 209, The Foundations of Human Experience).
Memorization also emphasized with students learning many lines (usually hundreds of lines by the end of the school year) of poems, verses, songs, and dialogue for plays that change with the seasons, festivals.
Math Starting with concrete objects and moving into mental math.  Recommends math programs, workbooks Starts with math by examining qualities of numbers and moving into all four math processes in first grade through story;   For complete goals, do see Ron Jarmon’s math book.  Math is a whole body experience of games, stomping, clapping.  No workbooks, but concepts may be drawn into Main Lesson Book .  Emphasis also on mental math.
History “History, in other words, is not a subject.  History is the subject.” (page 104)  “A common assumption found in history curricula seems to be that children can’t comprehend (or be interested in) people and events distant from their own experience.  So the first-grade history class is renamed Social Studies and begins with what the child knows: first, himself and his family, followed by his community, his state, his country, and only then the rest of the world.  This intensive self-focused pattern of study encourages the student of history to relate everything he studies to himself, to measure the cultures and customs of other peoples against his own experience.  And that exactly what classical education fights against – a self absorbed, self-referential approach to knowledge.”  (page 106)  For first grade, recommends Story of the World as written by the Bauers, coloring pages and original drawings by the child of Ancient History events with captioning, use of maps.  Use of hands-on projects as well as books.
Second Grade much the same with memorization of such things as the rulers of England from Egbert through Elizabeth I, along with each ruler’s family allegiance, ruler of Scotland form Malcolm II through James VI, major wars and disc overies (page 116). Third Grade about the same, Fourth Grade use of map to learn 50 states of the United States, history of own state.		 History is traced and intermingled with the way people viewed past events – starting with stories pre-literate people may have told around the fire at night (fairy tales), moving into fables and folktales, tales of Saints and Heroes (not taught within a religious context)  and Buddhist tales in the second grade, using the history and stories of Creation, Native American myths and the Old Testament from the Bible for the third grader going through the nine-year change, Fourth grade Norse myths to speak to the ten-year old and then moving into traditional history as we know it – Greeks, Romans, Medieval and Renaissance and Modern History.History is seen as the backbone of the Waldorf curriculum throughout the grades 1-8.
Science First Grade – Animals, Human Beings and Plants by reading from a science book and having the child narrate two or three facts about what you have read along with experiments that are later  narrated.  Second Grade is Science and Astronomy.  Third Grade Chemistry with writing definitions, experiments that are narrated in notebook.  Fourth Grade physics with experiments Please see full and complete post on Science throughout the Waldorf curriculum on this blog.  A totally different approach that focuses on phenomenon, plants and animals in the natural environment, always bringing science back to its relationship to Man.
Latin in third or fourth grade (or start teaching foreign modern language and save Latin until the fifth or sixth grade), according to The Well-Trained Mind. “Latin trains the mind to think in  an orderly fashion.  Latin (being dead) is the most systematic language around. …Latin improves English skills.” Typically two modern foreign languages taught in Kindergarten onward; Greek and Latin not widely taught in Waldorf schools although some homeschooling parents work Greek in with the 5th grade study of the Greeks and Latin in the with the 6th Grade study of the Romans.  Steiner did work with Latin and Greek in the founding of his schools  per his lecture notes.
Art and Music Alternate reading art books about great artists and art projects.  Picture study per Charlotte Mason.
Music – listening to classical music twice a week for half an hour.  Possibly piano lessons.		 Infused throughout the curriculum with modeling, drawing and painting experiences used to teach academic subjects – art is not separate within the curriculum but infuses all subjects.  Main Lesson Books are often compilations of drawings, verses, best written work for a subject taught in a block.  Music, verses, and singing is also seen throughout the curriculum, with special emphasis on a blowing instrument (recorder, pentatonic flute, pennywhistle leading to diatonic flute in the Third Grade) in the Early Grades leading to study of a stringed instrument in the Third Grade.
The Three-Day Rhythm and Use of Sleep As A Learning Aid Not mentioned Unique to Waldorf as a way of teaching
Teaching in blocks versus daily or weekly practice Subjects are taught anywhere from daily to two to three times a week Teaches in blocks with daily math practice and eventually daily practice in other academic areas with times when the subject completely rests and is not taught at all. 
”The usual practice is to split up the available time into many separate lessons, but this method does not bring enough depth and focus to the various subjects.”
(Steiner, page 117, Soul Economy).
Attitude of the Teacher   “It is inappropriate to feel, “I am intelligent, and this child is ignorant.”  We have seen how cosmic wisdom still works directly through children and that, from this point of view , it is children who are intelligent and the teacher, who is, in reality, ignorant.”  – From Steiner’s lectures
The role of the teacher to student   The teacher is a natural authority (not in a mean, nasty way, but a child should naturally look up to the teacher and accept what the teacher says at this age).  Steiner says after the age of 14, authority has provided a foundation for the child to have  a capacity to love and to have responsibility to themselves and others in society  in a mature way.
What is most important in teaching   That the teachers use their available lesson time in the most economical way, building lessons upon major lines and leaving the child wanting more

The approach that Waldorf takes looks at the journey of the entire child, academic and spiritual and moral.   Every subject is picked, choosen and presented in a way to coincide, fulfill and enhance where the child’s soul development is at that time.   Christopher Bamford writes in the Introduction to “Human Values in Education”:  “Education today, like so much else, suffers from a split between theory and practice or actuality.  Most educational philosophies are theoretical and divorced from life.  The experiment with children, because they are no longer able to approach them with their hearts and souls.” 

To me, The Well-Trained Mind can be rather contradictory as it assumes many things about training logic in young children when the premise of the book is that the logic stage comes much later in childhood development. Waldorf Education is about soul economy, about introducing things at the right time as the child’s maturation and abilities unfold to be able to meet the academic demands.  The curriculum is matched to the soul development of the child. 

I personally also truly dislike the focus on history during the Early Years – as I explained to a friend, I have a hard time really grasping the time period of Ancient Egypt and such and I am a grown-up!  I do not think that starting with the tangible things around a small child will lead a child to be egocentric in world views as they grow, mature and develop.   The ability the Waldorf curriculum develops in compassion, gratitude, love and responsibility can be translated in looking at any time period and in studying any culture.  These qualities transcend academic areas and are indeed the heart of Waldorf curriculum.

My other quibble with The Well-Trained Mind is the focus on what I call “fact-jamming” in the Early Elementary Grades.  It fits in well with the view of current society, and also the view that the child is a miniature adult with less experience and therefore just needs to be “filled up” with facts, but this is not Waldorf’s view of the child.  Waldorf views the child as full of their own potential, on their own path, and that we essentially help and assist what is “unfolding.”  That is a distinct difference!

Waldorf looks at education as the way to secure the  future health of the child once they become an adult and establishing an almost Renaissance kind of education.  Health is of utmost concern.  In this day of skyrocketing ADD/ADHD, childhood obesity, sensory processing disorders, teenaged drug abuse and other adult problems setting into the early years of childhood, it is well worth your time as a parent to look into!

To a future healthy society,

Carrie

Waldorf Education, ADHD and What the Parent of the “Normal” Child Can Learn

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There  is a FABULOUS article by Eugene Schwartz on his website entitled, “Discover Waldorf Education:  ADHD, The Challenge of Our Times.”

The article is very long, but I encourage all of you out there to get a cup of tea and sit down with it when your kids are asleep.  It will make you think!

Here is the link:

http://knol.google.com/k/eugene-schwartz/-/110mw7eus832b/12#view

Here is the ending part of the article that I think gives food for thought to ALL parents, but the article itself has so many interesting things it addresses, from Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences to communication strategies.

Here are the words of Mr. Schwartz, again from toward the ending of the article:

“A basic tenet in Steiner’s developmental picture is the understanding that whatever in our childhood acts upon us from “outside” will in adulthood be transformed into forces that work from within. A child who lacks the living example of a self-assured and guiding adult will have to struggle, in later life, to attain inner assurance and inner guidance. A youngster who is not exposed to the kind but clear precepts of outer discipline will find it difficult to attain true inner discipline as an adult. If we cannot steel ourselves so that we meet the children with certainty in our will and clarity in our intentions, we are depriving them of one of childhood’s most valuable experiences.

In the United States, which, after all, is a nation founded on the Divine right of freedom of choice, it is a mighty task indeed to overcome this dogged tendency to ask children questions! Our whole culture summons forth the interrogative voice:

“Are you ready to wake up? Do you want to stay in bed awhile? Should we decide what to wear today? Would you like the Chanel sweater or the Polo sweatshirt? The Tommy Hilfinger pullover? Do you want to wear your Guess shorts or your Calvin Klein jeans? How about the DKNY pair? Gap? The relaxed fit with the button fly or the zipper fly? Ready for breakfast? What would you like — Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Wheaties, Granola? Granola with almond chunks? Granola with raisin bits?…How about strawberries? No? Blueberries? Bananas? Do you want to sweeten it with honey? Maple syrup? Sugar? White or brown?…Do you want milk? One percent? Two percent? Skim? Organic? Eden Soy with minerals or Rice Dream with calcium?…”

And these are just the first two minutes of the day! — a day that moves from question to question, with nary a word of declarative guidance on the part of parents or other adults. When a question is asked of a child, she assumes that you expect an answer, and I have heard many children answer questions like the above with witty or even downright rude answers!

Such domestic scenes are part of the dilemma of raising children in a country that rightfully calls itself “The Land of the Free,” but has lost the capacity to distinguish between the potentially independent, “free” adult and the highly dependent and “unfree” child. It may be asked, of course, how can we train our children to be free later in life if we don’t give them choices in childhood? Yet, even for adults, real freedom is a capacity which can unfold only on occasion, for life is filled with necessities that impinge upon our freedom. When we ask a child to make a choice, several things occur. First of all, we ask the child to draw upon capacities for judgment that he does not yet have. On what basis will a seven year-old make a choice? Invariably, on the basis of sympathy and antipathy. And whence does he get this sympathy and antipathy? From his astral body, that is, from a member of his being that should not be “activated” until adolescence. An analogy might prove helpful here:

We can think of the child’s astral body as “soul principal” which is being held in a “cosmic trust fund” until such time as the youngster’s lower members are developed enough to receive it, i.e., ages 13-15. As is the case with a monetary trust fund in an earthly bank, it is the trustee’s responsibility to see that the principal is not disturbed for the apportioned period, knowing that the interest that it generates provides sufficient funds for the beneficiary’s needs. If, however, the trustee proves to be irresponsible, and the youngster for whom the principal is intended gets hold of it long before he is mature enough to make wise financial decisions, the principal will be drawn upon prematurely. In the worst case, the entire trust will be depleted, leaving neither interest nor principal at a time in the young person’s life that they are most needed.

In the course of healthy development, the young child has just enough astrality apportioned to her to sustain those organic processes requiring movement and catabolism, and to support such soul phenomena as the unfolding of interest in the world. And where do ADHD children have their greatest difficulties? In developing and sustaining any interest in anything for very long! The environments that we create for our youngest children, the way we speak to our grade schoolers, and our inability to differentiate between what is appropriate for an adult and not appropriate for a child – all of these phenomena eat away at astral “interest” early in life and devour astral “principal” long before it has ripened. By the time many “normal” young people are twelve or thirteen they seem to have lost interest in learning, or even in life; they have “been there, done that,” and take on a jaded, middle-aged attitude toward their own future. The ADHD child is only an extreme reflection of soul attitudes that will be endemic to many American children at the century’s end.

The entire thrust of the childrearing methods developed by the leading lights of Generations One and Two has led to the soul bankruptcy of today’s children just as inexorably as the financial and banking policies of the first two-thirds of the century have led to the specter of the National Debt and the collapse of scores of savings and loan associations in the past decade. ADHD is not merely a phenomenon that has arisen alongside modern education and child psychology; it is the logical end product of those erroneous pictures of the human being and the methods arising from them. Children do not need choices; they need guidance.

When an adult asks a young child to make a choice, the adult relinquishes the majesty and power that should be hers by dint of experience and acquired wisdom. In that moment, child and adult become equal; over the course of many such moments of choice, this equality becomes habitual, and the sweetest children gradually turn into little tyrants who wield the power to determine the restaurants in which the family will eat, the movies that they will see, the malls in which they will shop. We don’t have to watch situation comedies on TV to experience the ubiquity of such children in modern life! The children so chillingly documented in the diaries of Thomas Gordon’s epigones (see Chapter One) were but harbingers of things to come.

Most importantly, we should realize that a child who is given too many choices will become an adult who has difficulty making decisions. While choice, according to definition, “implies broadly the freedom of choosing from a set of persons or things,” decision is defined as “the act of reaching a conclusion or making up one’s mind,” and also, interestingly, as “firmness of character or action; determination.” This is not merely a semantic matter; there is a real difference between these two acts. The power to decide, I would claim, is built upon the ability to accept the decisions of adults in one’s youth. (This assumes, of course, that one encounters adults who are themselves capable of making decisions.) Childish choosing draws on those very forces of soul and spirit that are meant to mature and become adult decisiveness. In an article on children’s rights, Federal Judge Mary Kohler emphasized “the right to be a child during childhood” and emphasized that one of the impediments to the achievement of this “inalienable” right is the “too early forcing of choices upon children.”

It is instructive to look at the generation that now leads America, the postwar “baby boomers,” who were encouraged to become “a generation of choosers.” How many among them are truly decisive people? And how many of them are notorious for their difficulties in deciding even the smallest matters, not to speak of making such major life decisions as, whom should I marry (or unmarry)? what should my vocation be? what am I going to do with the rest of my life? Or take the case of “Dr. Laura”:

In person, the woman who has tapped into America’s confused superego so successfully is an intense 49-year-old [with] the unmistakable air of someone who is sure she’s always right. When asked if she has ever given anyone the wrong advice, she does not hesitate: No, never. Which may be what makes her such an irresistible figure for these ambivalent times when, given a choice, many of us would prefer to have no choice [italics mine]. Tell me what to do, her callers ask, and I’ll do it. I’d do the right thing if I knew what the right thing was. And if the authority figure is a little mean and a little harsh, if she calls your behavior “stupid” instead of “self-defeating,” isn’t that what we all think anyway?

Dr. Laura Schlesinger’s callers and her millions of listeners are people who very likely had doting, progressive parents who wanted them to be happy and gave them as many choices as possible! The effect of such indecisiveness can be amusing, but it has its serious consequences as well. With disturbing frequency, one guru or Master after another passes through our country and charismatically draws a host of followers to his community or ashram. Some of those drawn are simple, easily-influenced souls who can barely manage their own lives. However, the media and other arbiters of conventional wisdom are inevitably surprised at how many disciples are intelligent, highly-educated “professionals,” who willingly relinquish their right to make any decisions about the rest of their lives, believing that their Master is far better able to do so. Members of the crème de la crème of the Generation of Choosers, having arrived at mature adulthood, now search for the decisive teacher that they lacked in their childhood!

&The simplicity of life in earlier days was accompanied by a lack of choices — which we would today find boring — but this in turn led to a consistency of life which we today might find healing. This is no turning back from the “freedom of choice” that we as adults expect, but we must recognize that a pre-determined and expectable course of events strengthens the etheric body of the child, and it is this which provides a healthy foundation for behavioral stability and predictability in childhood, as well as for the capacity to make important decisions in later life.

We can encompass the child with our own certainty by creating a form into which the child enters every day. For parents, this means establishing a regular rhythm of bedtimes and mealtimes, a secure and serene “time-environment” in which the child’s etheric body is free to do its work. A young child who “decides for herself” when she is ready for bedtime, or who refuses to go to sleep until her parents have turned in, as well, begins to weaken her etheric forces in early childhood. Toddlers who are free to “eat when they’re hungry,” to help themselves at the refrigerator or, on their own, “nuke their food” at the microwave oven may be nourishing their physical nature, but are not providing the rhythmical and social nurture that their etheric body requires.

Parents may contend that they give their children free reign in these two matters because “the child’s body knows best.” “I can’t crawl under her skin and know when she’s hungry or tired – she has to tell me! And she knows a lot better than I do which foods she needs,” etc. In spite of the parents’ protestations that they are leaving their children free in their interest of their psychological and physical health, a sensitive observer can usually judge by their “waif-like” appearance which children have been allowed to decide their own bedtimes and left to fend for themselves in the kitchen. Invariably, children who are “free” to make choices about these fundamental matters look unhealthy, have less physical stamina and a shorter attention span than their peers and are not much inclined to cooperate in any activity that they find antipathetic or laborious. That is to say, even at the nursery school level, we find such children manifesting behavior that fits the general description of ADHD. It is no wonder that Ritalin is now being prescribed for children at an ever-younger age.

If sleeping and eating are not guided by the certainty and clarity of their parents, even those children who come from well-to-do households and have been “given everything” nonetheless appear to be as neglected as a child raised by a dysfunctional inner city family. In my own work with New York City public school children, I’ve met youngsters who came from tragic backgrounds (a father killed or unknown, a mother heavily addicted or in jail) who despite all of this sorrow appeared healthy and lively. In every such situation, the child was being raised by the grandmother, who, untouched by the theories of contemporary child psychology, insisted on a consistent bedtime and prepared meals with care and regularity. As the psychoanalyst Peter Neubauer has observed of his young patients, “Children who are pushed into adult experience do not become precociously mature. On the contrary, they cling to childhood longer, perhaps all of their lives.”

We might turn our thoughts for a moment to Helen Keller, whose multiple disabilities make her something of a paradigm of the behavioral problems of our time. Helen’s handicaps led her to evince behavior that ran the full gamut from depression to hysteria, from autism to ADHD. And then Annie Sullivan entered Helen’s life, struggled to find the right approach to this seemingly insoluble problem, and succeeded. In a newspaper interview with Annie Sullivan, her interlocutor said, “You worked miracles with Helen because you got her to love you,” to which Annie Sullivan replied, “No; first Helen had to learn to obey me. Obedience came first, then came love.”

From a more contemporary perspective, here are the words of a mother of two schoolchildren who needed her attention during an outbreak of lice:

I realize that I love my children more for having gone through this with them. I know that nobody else could really have taken care of them with the same spirit that I did…And there is one more thing. I learned that I could do something with my children to which they are totally opposed. No amount of distraction, crying, screaming or complaining could take me off my task; I was going to do what was necessary to take care of them, and they were going to comply. There was no flexibility.

This was a big hurdle for me, but I think that my children now have a better sense of who’s in charge and why they need that, and perhaps they even love me a little more for being in charge. All this, thanks to head lice.

If what the childraising theorists cited in the previous chapter indicate is true, those children who are being born in the 1990s, who will be coming of age in the next Millennium, challenge us — and are themselves challenged — in the sphere of the will. Writers on childraising methods such as John Rosemond and Mary Sheedy Kurcinka may provide accurate descriptions of the behavior of these “spirited” or “strong-willed” children, and may also suggest helpful ways of dealing with their behavior so as to make home life harmonious (or at least bearable!) but their writings do not help us understand why it is particularly the will that is unfolding in children at this point in our century. Nor are they able to articulate just what the will is, nor, most importantly, what the relationship of human will is to what Kurcinka vaguely (and somewhat arbitrarily) characterizes as spirit.

It is here that Waldorf education may have its greatest contribution to make to the challenge of ADHD. By laying the foundation for their educational methods on the principle of the whole human being, Waldorf teachers do not stop with the static concept of “multiple intelligence.” Rather, they help an intelligent multiplicity to thrive in every child in the classroom, recognizing that every child needs to cultivate her linguistic side, her bodily-kinesthetic side, her spatial side, etc. Indeed, we can see that part of the genesis of ADHD lies in the stifling of too many facets of a child’s nature so that a one-sided “intelligence” can shine at the expense of all else. Waldorf education can not “cure” ADHD, but its theories and its practices can serve to mitigate hyperactive tendencies in young children, and can be an important part of the treatment of older children faced with this challenge of our times. Some measure of the importance of understanding the challenge may be gleaned by words spoken by Rudolf Steiner one year after the first Waldorf school had been opened:

External earthly life, insofar as it is a product of earlier times, will pass away — and it is an entirely vain hope to believe that the old habits of thought and will can continue. What must arise is a new kind of knowledge, a new kind of willing in all domains. We must familiarize ourselves with the thought of the vanishing of a civilization; but we must look into the human heart, into the spirit dwelling in man; we must have faith in the heart and spirit of man in order that through all we are able to do within the wreckage of the old civilization, new forms may arise, forms that are truly new…”

(End of article by Eugene Schwartz).

Again, please go read this article in its entirety. It has everything to do with the way we parent our children, no matter what challenges they face.  You will learn a lot about yourself as a parent in reading this article, and a lot about your child.

Thank you, Mr. Schwartz, for making me think today.  There are many wonderful articles on the Millennial Child website available at this link:  http://www.millennialchild.com/ and the experience and perspective of a Master Waldorf Teacher such as Eugene Schwartz is well-worth listening to and thinking about!

His grades CD’s are also truly invaluable in lesson planning, so if you have not checked those out, have a look!

Have a thinking day,

Carrie

“Discipline Without Distress” -Finishing Up Chapter One

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So, we are finishing up Chapter One…This has been an interesting, thought-provoking chapter for me personally. 

On page 38, the author lays out “The Golden Rules About Rules”.  She writes that the rule must work for the individual person and the unique situation.  I kind of like this, because it points out that parental consistency is not always easy, that we are fallible, that sometimes when we are completely off-center the tiniest things drive us insane, and we are feeling well and centered, sometimes we handle even the big things with ease…….

Okay, but then I have a problem with the next section.  She goes on to talk about “The Participatory Rule Theory” (everyone that is affected by the rule should help make the rule)  and uses an example of a rule of food in the playroom that is negotiated in her house every day.  A main area of dispute involves a toddler with a sippy cup of grape juice, a white carpet and who is watching the child (mother versus father versus babysitter).    However, then the author goes on to talk about that fact that “(Parents) may state the children can have some input into the discussion, but the parents need to make the final decision and rules.  This seldom considers the child’s needs.  A power struggle might ensue.  Of course, decisions and rule-making is an age-appropriate idea. A two-year-old will not make too many rules.  A nine-year-old certainly can.”  She talks about how a parent may seek input for rules from a child when the child is rebelling or balking against a rule.

Okay, so here is my problem.  The example she gave regarding food involved a small child who would spill grape juice even with the aid of a sippy cup.  This is obviously a small child, trying her best not to spill with a spill-proof cup.  How does this example relate to the facts the author provided that a nine-year-old is in a better position to “make rules” (which I really don’t like that phrasing much either!) rather than a two-year-old?

I think this is one area where Waldorf parenting is truly advantageous.  Rhythm carries so much of this little kind of thing.  We eat at the table together for all meals and snacks.  There really is no question of eating and carrying things around because it just doesn’t even come up.  At the point when this comes up, the children are likely to be much older and more responsible and then you can have a discussion.  Rhythm really helps out gentle discipline!

I also had an issue with this statement that “the final decision and rules seldom consider a child’s needs.”  I think parents can consider a child’s needs and also set rules that work for the whole family – it is about the needs of the whole family, not just one child!  Or am I just being completely and utterly grouchy today and reading this wrong?  I am thinking especially of my under 7 parents and children here……The needs of everyone in the family counts, not just one child.  That child’s true needs do count!  Absolutely!  Is there more than one way to meet that need though?  Is walking around on a white carpet with a cup full of grape juice a true need?  Again, sorry to be so grouchy!  Maybe it was just the example for me.

The author does talk briefly about routines, traditions, rituals, habits building security in the child, the  fact that every child is different and has unique needs and how we truly are different parents in some ways for each child because of birth order and how we as parents mellow out with time.  True, true.

The next section I did really like in many respects.  It is a section entitled, “The Golden Rules About Parenting With A Partner.”    The author discusses the fallacy of the “United Front” and how parents react differently to different things because they are different people, that children are able to handle different things of doing things, and how it is okay for parents to disagree.

I think we all can acknowledge the truth of these things.  However, I believe that being parents involves coming to as much as a common ground as possible without our small children being present.   I think this is important for a sense of security for the small child.  Judy Arnall points out that sometimes we can support one another without being completely united, as in , “this is important to my partner, my partner’s feelings are important to me, so yes, I think you need to do this.”  I agree with this.  Again, yes, it is important to model for children how to resolve conflict, how to come to agreement, but I am not certain that is work for the under –7 crowd.  I think a 8 or 9 year old naturally can figure this out much better, and much quicker and can learn this process in a tenth of the time it takes a 3-year-old.  For me, understanding the developmental stages of childhood are truly important and worth the investment and a three-year-old should not be treated in the same fashion as a ten-year-old.

At any rate, this chapter ends with many suggestions for peaceful partnering including modeling and not nagging or criticizing your partner in front of the children, which I agree is so important.  The author has some great points regarding when parents are divorced or separated and combining two families. 

All in all, thoughtful reading and I hope you all are following along!  If you have a local La Leche League group or Attachment Parenting group, this book may be available in their lending libraries.

Thanks for reading,

Carrie

A Breastfeeding Fact Every Parent Should Know

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I am reviewing Hale and Hartmann’s “Textbook of Human Lactation” for an upcoming exam and LOOK at this:

“Lactation probably evolved initially to protect the young against infection and subsequently took on a nutritional role.  However, infant formula is focused on nutrition rather than protection.  Therefore, it is not surprising that the mortality rate of formula-fed infants in the USA today is at least 21% higher than breastfed babies.”

Wow, did you all know that?

Carrie

The Twelve Senses

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I am going to try and synthesize a few things for you all that I recently learned from Donna Simmons at the Waldorf At Home conference held in Atlanta,  a presentation by Daena Ross for Waldorf In the Home (available through Rahima Baldwin Dancy’s on-line store in CD and DVD versions) and Barbara Dewey’s section on the twelve senses in her book “Beyond the Rainbow Bridge”. 

I am by no means an expert on the twelve senses, although I will say the twelve senses make a whole lot of sense to me due to my background as a neonatal/pediatric physical therapist.

Steiner postulated in his lectures that there were not only the five most obvious senses that we think of, but actually twelve senses that required development.  This has been proved in the medical community, although sometimes in medical literature and therapy literature you see reference to “systems” rather than “senses” although they are truly talking about the same thing!

The twelve senses are what unites the inner and outer world of the individual and what allows us healthy interaction with other people at the highest developed levels.  It takes a long time for these senses to be developed, but the foundational senses needed to develop some of the upper senses are most developed in the first seven years.  There we are, back to my soapbox about the first seven years!

The Lower Senses are seen in our will forces, they are unconscious, and they manifest in the metabolic-limbic system.  These include:

The Sense of Touch – through the organ of the skin.  This includes what is inside of me and what is outside of me.  Important ways to boost this foundational sense include vaginal birth, swaddling, holding, positive tactile experiences (NOT PASSIVE experiences, like through media or Baby Einstein! Active experiences!)  The lack of completion of this  sense is strongly related to ADHD according to Daena Ross. 

The Sense of Life or sometimes called The Sense of Well-Being – this encompasses such things as if you can tell if you are tired, thirsty, hungry.  The best way to boost this sense is to provide your children with a rhythm to help support this while it is developing.  Some children have great difficulty recognizing their own hunger or thirst cues, their own need for rest or sleep. A rhythm can be a great therapeutic help in this regard.

The Sense of Self-Movement – this is probably more familiar to therapists in some ways as the “proprioceptive system” in some ways.  This sense encompasses the ability to move and hold back movement, and can also encompass such sensory experiences as containment (which can be a form of massage for premature babies) and also swaddling.  Childhood games that involve starting, stopping can also affect this sense.

The Sense of Balance – This is balance in two separate realms, from what I gather from the Daena Ross presentation.  It is not only the ability to balance by use of the semicircular canals of the ears  for midline balance so one can cross midline but also refers to the  balance of life and being able to be centered, which again goes back to rhythm and the idea of in-breath and out-breath.  Donna Simmons calls this one a gateway to The Middle Senses.

The Middle Senses are seen in our feeling lives, involve us reaching out into the world a bit, they are seen as “dreamy” senses and manifesting in the rhythmic system.  THE CHILD HAS NO FILTER TO FILTER THESE SENSORY EXPERIENCES OUT IN THE EARLY YEARS.   In the later years, the arts build these senses, which is why the Waldorf curriculum includes teaching through art in the grades.   These senses  include:

The Sense of Smell –  strongly correlated with memory.  This can be an ally in education of the grades age child, but beware of scented everything when your children are in the foundational first seven years. 

The Sense of Taste – Not only on a physical plane, but an emotional plane in naming experiences (a “putrid” experience, a “sweet” experience)

The Sense of Sight  – with two different ways to visualize something:  one is the ability to distinguish color, and the other is the ability to distinguish form (which Daena Ross says is more related to The Sense of Self-Movement).  The best way to help this sense is to protect the eye from media while developing.  A way to bolster this sense in the grades, but not the Early under 7 Years, is through form drawing.

The Sense of Warmth –   Donna Simmons calls this one a gateway to The Higher Senses.  This sense does not fully develop until age 9 and can literally cause a hardening of creativity and new thought as the child matures, but also can refer to a literal inability of the child to be able to tell if they are hot or cold.  Warmth implies not only physical warmth, but warmth on a soul level.  Joy, humor, love, connection are all important developers of this sense along with PROTECTION from extreme and garish sensory experiences that would cause hardening.  This is a very important sense, and children need help with protecting this sense until the age of 9 or 10, so much longer than many parents think!

The Upper or Higher Senses develop during adolescence and require a strong foundation of The Lower Senses and The Middle Senses to come to maturity.  These senses are associated with awakening of the individual, with being concerned with other people and are seen as being centered in The Head.  These senses include:

The Sense of Hearing (which Daena Ross calls “a bridge between The Middle and Higher Senses” in her presentation)  This requires completion of The Sense of Balance – both of these senses involve the organ of the ear.

The Sense of Speech or The Sense of the Word (this is the speech of another person, not yourself) – Requires completion of The Sense of Self-Movement as you must be able to quiet your own speech in order to really hear another person.

The Sense of Thought or The Sense of Concept (again, of the other person, not your own thoughts!) – Requires completion of  The Sense of Well-Being.  Rhythm builds this ability to quiet oneself in order to hear someone else’s thoughts.

The Sense of  the Individuality of the Other (Donna Simmons also calls this the “I-Thou” relationship of boundaries) – This requires integration and completion of all senses, but particularly involves The Sense of Touch according to Daena Ross. 

The most important take-away point for my parents of children under the age of 7 is that children need rhythm, a balance of in-breath and out-breath and protection of the senses from too much stimulation, from media and boundaries set by the parents to wear clothes (VERY difficult with some little nudists!).  The development of these senses is also profoundly related to sleeping and what occurs during sleep to build all of this up.

Waldorf Education is first and foremost about health and the twelve senses provide a glimpse into some of why things are done in Waldorf the way they are!  I encourage you to investigate the twelve senses on your own.  In this age and day of skyrocketing ADHD/ADD, autism spectrum disorders, sensory processing disorders, this should be mandatory learning for all parents. 

With love,

Carrie

Some Thoughts for Christian Education at Home

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(Note:  There are also mention of several Waldorf resources for spiritual education at home in this post, so if you are searching for those read towards the bottom).

My faith is very important to me, and I believe that God put His hand on my heart to teach my children about having a very personal  faith and beliefs of our denomination.  Someone asked me how I fit our religious studies in with Waldorf homeschooling, so I thought I would outline it here:

1.  One of the number one things we do is to model – I read the Bible, we pray for people in need, we pray in thanksgiving for God’s blessings, we pray before meals.  We try very hard to be thankful in all circumstances, to see the positive, to love everyone and to help people when we can.   Our faith is just part of everyday life.

2. As a family, we show gratitude, wonder and respect for God’s creation – all the different people and cultures in the world, the Earth and all the wonderful things in nature.

3.  It is  a priority to take children to church and to be involved in church.  Making our Sundays a day of true Sabbath is an important priority in our family right now.  I found this great little booklet called, “A Day of Delight:  Making Sunday the Best Day of the Week” and its 26 pages has really helped me plan and organize  to make Sunday a true day of rest, worship and family time.  It is published by Doorposts Publishing in Oregon, and I have not done any Google searches to see if it is available over the Internet, but for the small cost it is a worthy read!

4.  We have family devotions in the morning at breakfast.  Last year we used “Leading Little Ones to God”, which had some parts that I had to modify for my own denominational beliefs, but it was a great introduction for a young crowd.  Right now we are using “Our 24 Family Ways:  Family Devotional Guide”, which is a bit over my almost five-year-old’s head, (and every devotional starts with questions to think about, which is not my favorite for the under 7 crowd) but about right for my almost eight-year-old and you can certainly modify it any way you see fit.   That is the beautiful thing about homeschooling and living together! 

We also model trying to grow in our own faith, and I usually have some sort of a Beth Moore Bible Study going on – it is harder for me to get out at night, so I just go to Lifeways Christian Bookstore and buy a participant copy of whatever study interests me and the audio CD’s and do it myself!  Right now I am studying the Book of Daniel. 

5.  Every Friday in lieu of school, we held a Peace Circle and had a time to spend in learning about God.  This past year I picked a Fruit of the Spirit for every month of school (worked out well because we spent nine months in school and there are nine fruits, so we had one fruit for each month) and each Friday we had an example from the Bible and an activity focused on that Fruit.   I also did an adult study of Beth Moore’s on this subject at the same time. 

This coming year we will be using “Young Children and Worship” Bible stories with some of the accompanying wooden figures to wind our way through the Bible for both children.   I also have materials specific to the missions of our church and denomination. 

On Fridays this year, I will also be telling stories out of Rudolf Copple’s “To Grow and Become” which are stories told in the Waldorf tradition.    You can find this book through the Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore –which, by the way, you will be able to order off of on-line starting in July!- or Bob and Nancy’s Bookshop.  The Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore’s catalog has this to say about this little book:  “These stories were told-not read- in a Waldorf school by the class teacher, in place of religious instruction, on Fridays during the last period of the day.  No retelling or other work with them was done.  The intention was to bring a spiritual content to the children for the weekend.”

(You may know that during Rudolf Steiner’s time there were religious lessons taught by a local priest to the Catholic students at the school and also a Protestant leader for the Protestant students, and then there was also a period of spiritual studies for those with no religious background.    At least that is my understanding from reading the lectures in “Soul Economy”, but I have never asked anyone about this directly!)

6.  We routinely review, pray for and save our money for the missions our  church and denomination are working with and sponsoring.    You could do this with any charity you choose.  One of my favorite other charities is  this one:  http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/    Heifer International.

7.  We celebrate the festivals and holidays of our denomination and faith throughout the year in celebration of liturgical year.  This year, besides the materials of our denomination and the Bible, we will be using the book, “Celebrating the Festivals of the Year” by Irene Johansen, which is a book that has stories for many of the festivals and holidays we celebrate and can be found at www.waldorfbooks.org or Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore.

I celebrate all of you who are walking in faith with your children.  I believe faith  and a personal relationship with the Creator is an extremely important part of a child’s life.   I hope all of you work to bring your children up in the belief that there is something bigger than themselves at work in this wondrous world, because it really does affect children in a positive way.  If you have no particular faith or religious path, I encourage you to explore this.   It is not only the essence of Waldorf education, but the foundation of life.

Be the positive light you wish to see,

Carrie

The Simplicity of Parenting

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Sometimes I wonder why we make parenting so hard on ourselves.  Seriously!    Do the indigenous tribes of the world  sit around and read a million books on breastfeeding, and then co-sleeping and then how to parent and how to be gentle and educational methods and how to raise productive citizens?  No, of course not. They have each other, they have traditional ways of doing things, they have elders who help, they have huge close communities.

Our problem is that we have lost our way in our society and we are  re-creating the parenting wheel ourselves, bit by bit, in our own homes.   The wonderful book “The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker” by Manfred Schmidt-Brabant is precisely about this subject.   We have lost so much of the intrinsic, the from the heart parenting, that sometimes we wonder if we will ever see it again.  And in the meantime, our children look to us to lead and to guide and to love and to cherish them.

Here are some rules of simplicity in parenting that really struck me tonight:

Love your child. Hold your child, tell them you love them, breastfeed them, sleep with them, be close to them.  Look at the world from their eyes, but do not assume they feel about things as you do or understand the things you understand – they are not a miniature extension of you, they have not had your experience, they have a different consciousness!  Respect them, and also respect them enough to know when they need you and your gentle help to guide them.

Enjoy life and be confident in your life!  Enjoy your children. Don’t you think they know when in your heart you feel irritable, trapped, resentful, wondering where your life is?  If you cannot enjoy this life that you were given, please, please, help yourself out.  Discuss your feelings with your spouse and with your extended family, find a friend to talk to, find a mother’s helper for  a few hours each day, talk to a counselor, go see a doctor to rule out any physical causes of depression, create a community for yourself.   Your children deserve a whole human being, a whole beautiful and wonderful and wise woman to take care of them!

Re-frame your own attitude. Parenting should not be the end of your life; parenting is just the beginning!  Find things for you that you need to do to be that whole person, work with your spouse or a friend to make it happen, but also realize this is BIGGER than just you; this is not all about you; it is about these wonderful spiritual beings that decided to come and be with you and be a part of your family!  Family is a bigger and more beautiful thing than you alone!

Know that you set the tone in your home.  Men do things differently than women, they parent differently; so why nag?  Where and what does nagging get you?  Model and set the tone.  Healthy eating, healthy sleeping, healthy communication, rest, peacefulness, fun together, joy, being outside:  the keys to a healthy life no matter what your age!

Find the positive.  Find the positive intent.  Instead of assuming the worst of your children, your spouse, the friends you thought you had, assume something positive.  Assume the people who love you want to help you, that they do support you and understand you. Cut those people some slack; we are not perfect beings in this perfect world!    Maintain some of a feeling of joy and innocence regarding your world, it is possible!  Look at the possible  needs behind your child’s behavior and don’t discuss it with them, for heaven’s sake, but use it to help  guide your child!  Uplift your child, move and dance with them and love them  to where they are supposed to be in life and who they are unfolding to be!

Love your children, love yourself and love each other.  Simplicity in parenting!

Blessings to you all,

Carrie

The Power of Being A Positive Mother!

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Today we had some friends with their children  over to swim and I looked around in amazement at how much the children  had grown – how many of them have already “thinned out”, how many were all legs and such.  It was truly a time to enjoy the marvels of their healthy bodies running and playing and swimming under the sun.

And what I realized in that shining sunlight was that these were what a friend of mine would call “tender and precious” children.  It is not that these children don’t have their own bumps in the path, or their times of disequilibrium as they grow and mature, but that they are truly tender and precious – just like their beautiful, wise and wonderful mothers!

Because all of us are spiritual beings on a spiritual path.  My path is to draw closer to God throughout my lifetime.  How much are we called to be positive beacons for our children,  to lift our children up to the next level, the next place, to support and love unconditionally?  How much are we called to just love one another and these beautiful beings who chose to share their souls with ourselves and within our family?

There are so many myths surrounding motherhood in our society – that motherhood somehow forces a woman not to use all of her skills, that motherhood somehow stunts a woman’s growth in her life, that motherhood is somehow “just being a mother”.

We have the unique opportunity to model for our children the very best qualities of ourselves and our society.  We have an incredible opportunity for self-examination and self-discovery.  Why does this behavior bother me so?  How can I surrender myself and decrease myself and increase my neutral, calm, centered peacefulness more?  How can I be a better listener?  How can I use less words but still gently guide my child as needed?  Motherhood  provides us the opportunity to ask the difficult questions of our own values and priorities and really solidify that.

Being a positive mother is one of the most wonderful gifts you can give your children.  Use your words so wisely, so carefully with your tender and precious children.  We are all adept at finding one another’s faults, those weaknesses.  Back off and also see the good, see the wonderful moments as they are.  See the things that people say to you with the best underlying intention that you can imagine. See the things your children do with the best underlying intention possible.  As a Waldorf parent, I believe that small children are truly neither good nor bad, but again, on this spiritual path and learning.  I have tremendous influence here.  I am a woman of worth for my children and my family. 

Encourage your children, encourage other mothers, encourage your spouse and encourage yourself. 

Be wonderful in living this moment together,

Carrie

A Review: “In A Nutshell: Dialogues with Parents at Acorn Hill”

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I had a reader from Down Under ask my thoughts on this book as it would be expensive to buy it and have it shipped. 

Let’s take a quick peek at this little book:

It is about 91 pages long, and is formulated in a series of questions that parents ask and the author answers.

The Table of Contents:

(after the Foreword, the Preface, the Introduction):

Our Classroom Environment

Color in the Classroom

Why Curtains?

Teachers’ Dress

The Significance of Candles

Naming the Teacher

No Cars and Trucks?

What About Puzzles?

Musical Instruments in the Classroom

Work and Play at School

The Rhythm of the Morning

Saying, “You May”…

Ironing in the Classroom:  Danger?

Boys and Waldorf Education

Playing Cats and Dogs

Music in the Mood of the Fifth

Can Energetic Boys Enjoy Handwork?

Gun Play at School?

Field Trips?

Fairy Tales for Young Children

The Challenge of Circle Time

Puppetry and “Told” Stories

Children at Home

Colors for a Child’s Bedroom

Older and Younger Siblings

Boredom

Telephone

Bedtime Ritual

Feeding a Child

Swords vs. Guns

TV Away from Home

Barbie

Forbidden Words?

Appropriate Gifts

“What Did You Do in School Today?”

Toys in the Neighborhood

Helping Children in a Time of Trouble – A Few Thoughts

Is the World a Good Place?

In Conclusion

About the Author

 

I have enjoyed this book and there is much food for thought here; however I do think many of these questions can be answered either by reading Steiner’s works or some of the classic Kindergarten Years texts that are out there such as “You Are Your Child’s First Teacher”, “Heaven on Earth”, or “Beyond the Rainbow Bridge.”   There is also a wonderful service available to us with free on-line articles of “Gateways” (a Waldorf Early Years publication) available through www.waldorflibrary.org that frequently addressed these types of questions.  Also, I would encourage you all to join some of the “National” waldorf group lists – Melisa Nielsen’s list homeschoolingwaldorf@yahoogroups.com; Marsha Johnson’s list at waldorfhomeeducators@yahoogroups.com or Donna Simmon’s paid subscription forum at  http://www.waldorf-at-home.com/forums/

On the other hand, if you are planning on enrolling your child within a Waldorf school setting, this work may answer some of the typical questions parents have from a classroom perspective.

Hope that helps,

Carrie

Mindful Parenting Practices That Every Parent Should Know

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1. Love and warmth for your child – warmth and love not only in your actions, but in your word, in your head and in your heart.  Do you love and adore your child?  Or do you secretly ( or not-so secretly??)  feel negatively toward your child?  Waldorf parenting and education views that there are no difficult children, although children can certainly have difficult behaviors!  You don’t don’t have to love every behavior, but love your child!  Give your child that warmth and energy and unconditional acceptance from your soul! How many positive things do you think and say about your child every day, especially compared to the negative things you think?!   Connect with your child, love your child, enjoy your child.

A child under the age of 7 is often seen within Waldorf parenting and educaiton as more of “neither inherently good nor bad” – rather a child that is learning and  that needs gentle guidance.

2.  Protection of the child’s senses – there are 12 senses to be protected, and the small child has no filter to “screen” things out.  This is why repetition, being home, sameness is so important to the young child.  I am going to write a post on the 12 senses soon based on some things we recently talked about in Donna Simmons’ Waldorf At Home Conference.

3.  Humor, Happiness, Joy!  Your house should have a soul-quality of warmth, humor, joy.  How many times a day do you laugh with your children?  How many times a day do you smile at them?  How often do you hug them or kiss them?  How many times a day does your children feel the joy that comes from being a family together?  You don’t need a lot of words, but to be able to exude that feeling of joy, that the world is a good place!

4.  Cultivation of gratitude is of paramount importance in the first seven years as the basis of love in the next seven year cycle and of the feeling of dedication and loyalty in the cycle after that…How do express gratitude to your children?  To your spouse?  Do you wonder at things together and find thankfulness in the everyday of your lives?  Are you doing any of kind of inner work, spiritual work?

5.  Rhythm is essential.  I am not going to go into everything about rhythm here, as there are many, many posts on this blog about rhythm, but understand this is the place that can carry so much for you without much effort if your rhythm is established.

6.  Don’t create the battlefield in your mind!  Get clear in your heart about how you feel about something, with love set it  forth and go have fun!

7.  Show your child some meaningful work, something than more than pushing a button to turn something on…..Cook together, garden together, be together in mass quantities of time.

8.  Look at play and fostering connection to nature as the essential work of the child during the years when they are small.

There are more things considered “essential” in the early years, but I feel these are the things that truly are of great importance, and also cause parents the most difficulty.

Mindful parenting, gentle parenting, loving parenting, can be a challenging path but so worth it!

Keep striving,

Carrie