The Homeschool Journey

Speaking and Reading to Little Ones

(Here's another reworked post of mine from my yahoo group, Waldorf_At_Home)

In this thread I have not been saying that we shouldn't talk to our children!! What I am saying is that there is balance needed - that parents who are completely focused on their children (child centered) instead of having a child inclusive approach (ie doing what they need to do and welcoming the children into that space and possibly including them) can tip the balance into a head-centered nervous approach with their children which can escalate into an unhealthy situation. Of course one talks to the children - as is clear in my kindergarten book - though I do believe many of us need to make room for more silence in our lives.

 

It's the difference between "Ok honey, what do you want to do today? I think we'll go to the park - but first let's clean up the living room and - oh dear - you don't want to do that? Ok - I'll clean up the living room and you put your dollies back - sweetie, don't scream like that - it hurts Mommy's ears - oh dear -- I 'm not sure we'll be able to go to the park now if you are still screaming...." As opposed to a mother who says (yes, speaks!) "Park day today! Here's the duster - dust, dust, dust! Can you do that? MY, you are a good duster - here's a spot you missed.....and sing sing sing as we work....la de dah de dah singing a work song or some other song" (ok - so that was pretty feeble - I wish you could see me act out the difference!). It's that the former is focused on the words - and the latter is focused on the doing - and of course there are words in the latter situation, but they are just jolly words that sweep the child along instead of putting the focus on the IDEAS of whether something is going to happen or not. So there's an issue here also about getting children to join in - give them something to imitate and nine times out of ten an under 7 will join in - give them a mouthful of words and you might just get a mouthful back!!

 

Of course verbal language is enormously important - that is why I emphasize in ALL my books the need to read, read, read some more to one's children - to sing and recite poetry and verses - and that this should come primarily via another living breathing human being and not a tv or tape.  Facial gesture, the human warmth - this is vital for the young child.

 

Further point - and when the child is very little, under 6 or so, I'd say that there should be far more DOING accompanied by warm speech than READING. The child needs to experience things first and foremost - to get things into his or her body and to use that body and its senses as the primary vehicle for learning. If we read too much to the little child, the information and images go in via the head - and do not get a chance to be soaked up, as it were, by the physical body. This, I would say, is  a huge reason for the vast amount of children we see in our society with various kinds of nervous disorders, whether they are seated primarily in the child's inability to concentrate or sit still, or to use his body in the way it's meant to be used. (obviously, it is not just the fault of reading too much to a child! But if there is a picture of a child who sits more than he is active, who receives via the mind and eye more than via the other senses and his physical body - then I would say balance has been lost and the scale is dangerously tipped toward an unhealthy situation).

 

So again - use language when you are around your young child! Absolutely! But carry it mainly via song and verse, and accompany it as far as possible with doing, with useful work that the child can imitate.

End of Year Wrap Up

It is now mid May. My 6th grader and I are drawing his year's schooling to an end - next week is our last formal "school week". I thought I would share a few thoughts on how we have, in the past, brought each school year to a close and what we are doing this year.

 

Rudolf Steiner is clear that a teacher should endeavor to allow time at the end of each block or year to review what the children have achieved during that block or year. I think this is a wonderful idea, one we have embraced enthusiastically in our family. Though we rarely do this kind of a review at the end of a main lesson, we have always made sure to mark the end of the school year. My sons have always enjoyed making neat piles of their year's main lesson books, folders of other work, workbooks (!!), and art projects and having a special evening showing such work "to the family" - and this despite the fact that the family has all been involved in their on-going work! My husband has always worked from home and has always taught or been involved in some way in our boys' educations - so it's been quite touching when Daniel and Gabriel have wanted to make a big show of showing their work to their Dad. One especially memorable year my mother-in-law was with us from England - showing Granny the year's work was a real treat!

 

So each year we set aside some time to revisit main lessons - to talk about any field trips or special projects we did, to look at art projects, handwork and even fairly tedious pages of math drills from workbooks! ("Remember when I couldn't do these problems?!"). My sons have always had such a sense of accomplishment looking at their work.

 

My youngest, who playa the piano, usually likes to give a mini recital during these review evenings as well. In years past when both my sons were at home (the eldest now goes to a Waldorf-flavored high school) my husband would often lead them in a concert of all the recorder pieces they had learned that year, too.

 

This year my youngest is a big 6th grader so I suspect this year's end-of-year review might be somewhat different - but he still enjoys the process. This next week we are finishing our work: we are looking through a chemistry kit he got a year ago - I can't put him off any further!; we'll be finishing with some spelling and grammar work he's been going; we'll finish his work on Pascal's triangle.

 

My idea is that in a couple of weeks when my eldest finishes school we'll have our review evening - and also talk about what Daniel did in this past year at high school - I think he will enjoy and benefit from that as much as Gabriel. Also, my sons really like being involved in what each other does - so they will enjoy sharing together their thoughts and reflections on the past year. Obviously, when they were little, we just looked at their work - now that they are teens, we will discuss what they have done and what they think and how they feel about the past year. Part of this will also incorporate discussion of next year - what lessons I will want Gabriel to have for 7th grade and what he also wants to do. Daniel doesn't have a whole lot of choice as the curriculum is set at school - but he also works independently on his own fiction writing, so we will see what his plans are for that in the upcoming year.

 

And as he writes for his own pleasure, he will continue his work over the summer as well. Gabriel has been teaching himself Latin this year - I know he will carry over the summer and will probably continue with his German studies as well. Paul and I have asked him to become more involved in the running of Christopherus - he has been periodically learning book-keeping with his father (6th grade math is business math!) and will learn more about that over the summer months.