The Homeschool Journey

Wonder Ranch Problems

We received the following notice from our friend and fellow homeschooler Lucie Smoker. Please everyone, remove Wonder Ranch from your links pages so that people don't get misled by this person who has done this. Poor Lucie - she is a person with great integrity and this must be very painful for her.

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Dear Fellow Holistic Educators,

It is with sadness that I have to inform you that the site of my former blog has been taken over by a person who is using both my former screen name, "wonderactivist," and my blogname "Homeschool Diary" and they are listing a link to a fake "Update from Wonder Ranch" in the sidebar. 

I have to warn you that this person has no connection to me, is apparently seeking profit from my former readers, and is encouraging clicks to other fake blogs which could contain malicious codes. 

I apologize that in taking down my web work, I did not even consider that someone would do this - I made no effort to protect the old blog.   I did, however, go to lengths to protect the Wonder Homeschool and Wonder Ranch Homeschool names and my website's domain.  I also turned down offers to buy my content and domain - I have seen other sites sell only to find porn or other ghastly scams take over their site. 

I have kept and retired the Mothering, and Yahoo mail versions of the "wonderactivist" address, but anyone can start a "wonderactivist" user on a different mail server and apparently is more likely to do so than I thought.

Please pass on the blog information to fellow holistic homeschoolers - either personally or on other lists - and ask them to remove the domain wonderactivist(dot)blogspot(dot)com from their blog listings for your mutual safety.  Thanks a million!

Our family is doing well, and just mostly offline for the summer and I hope to catch up with the online community this fall using a more private screen name. 

Warm wishes to everyone,

Lucie

who's WAY behind on fall planning

Christopherus Full Gr 1 - 8 Curriculum

Announcement!

 

Arising from the spirit of flexibility and practicality which characterizes Christopherus Homeschool Resources, our new full curriculum will be designed to suit both the homeschooler who wants a complete curriculum as well as those who wish to purchase pieces separately.

 

Our experience as homeschoolers, Donna's lifelong involvement with Waldorf education, our therapeutic experience and our commitment to anthroposophy enables us to bring you a rich, inspiring and doable curriculum. As Donna has taught at the pre-k, grades and high school level at several Waldorf schools as well as having homeschooled her now 14 and 16 year old sons, she is in the unique position to guide parents through the Waldorf curriculum and Waldorf pedagogy, explaining and translating the school experience to the home experience.

 

As with our other materials, our curriculum will have a lively and warm "voice", helping you feel that Donna is talking directly to you, encouraging and supporting you as you create the right homeschool for your particular family situation.

 

Each year's curriculum will be a full curriculum - not a guide and not simply focused on main lessons. There will be full lessons for all the language arts, math, science, history/mythology main lessons plus a full year's worth of specific lessons and ideas for handwork, crafts, painting, drawing, modeling, form drawing, music, movement and games, cooking and other lessons as appropriate. In the grades where it is appropriate, there will also be "practise lessons" in math and language arts.

 

There will be an emphasis on art, with full color drawings and paintings in all volumes which will include "pictures in steps" - drawings and paintings in stages and with instructions so that people can understand how they were created. We are determined that this curriculum will not be intimidating and many alternatives, compromises and gentle possibilities will also be explored so that no parent feels inadequate when trying to work with our materials!

 

As with our other publications, there will be plenty of discussion of teaching strategies; goals and expectations; how to cater to slower or faster children; alternatives to main lesson books; discussion of the deeper aspects of the curriculum so parents can understand why something is done; and always, always, practical advise designed from a homeschooler to homeschoolers so parents can use these materials around, despite, with and because of whatever family situation arises!

 

For each grade several sections of the curriculum will be available for purchase separately. These will be books like our Unit Studies - Main Lessons at Home Series. For those purchasing the full curriculum, further instructions on how to use these books will appear and a larger plan of how to integrate them into the flow of the year will be explained. And so, for instance, in second grade, two language arts books will be available (one is already available - Saints & Heroes). The full curriculum will contain not only the other two language arts books  but will also give complete instructions for those wishing to build up a sequential LA plan for the year. This will include reference to LA work in non LA main lessons such as science (nature stories in second grade).

 

Our Plan:

 

September 2007

Second Grade math book (for all second gr math main lessons plus practise lessons - ie Circle Time for this grade)

Animal Legends (language arts book)

(Saints & Heroes, second grade language arts already available from our Bookstore)

 

Winter 2007

Third Grade Old Testament stories book

 

Spring/Summer 2008

Full Second Grade curriculum

Full third grade curriculum

 

We will proceed from there with some individual books released as we progress through the grades. Our plan is to have full 4th and 5th grade curriculums available by 2009. Then we will progress with the Middle School Years which are rather more involved.

 

At some point we will also create high school materials as Donna teaches at a Waldorf high school and is keen to put these together!

 

 

Sword and Gun Play

(The first part of this entry is a re-worked post from my old yahoo group... I then went on to discuss gun play....)

 

 

I think the key to a lot of the questions around sword play is "can my child rise up to something within himself to play safely with this sword?"I think one should make a big deal of presenting a beautiful sword to a child - other families create little ceremonies. The point is that the child knows and understands that this is a special thing - to be used wisely.

 

But if the child is too young or if he's a forgetful child who loses himself in the heat of passionate play, then I think one should wait. Let him know that "one day, when he's ready" he will get his sword. Give him something to work on in his inner being, something to aspire to. Let him know that once he has that sword, it means he is trusted and that he, out of his own inner resources, is able to act responsibly.  Few children are ready for this until after about 6 or 7 years of age. Before that, I would let them make swords as they want to - but have strong, clear and firm rules about what is ok and what is not. Sticks will be taken away if necessary - no "swords" in the house, none when younger children are present, no running - and if he can heed these rules then you will know that he is moving toward the ability to be responsible for a proper wooden sword.

 

I wouldn't suggest discussing this rationally with such a little one, though. But through story and anecdote, you can let him know that once upon a time it was a very special thing when a knight got his sword. Only the King could give it to him. He had to perform many tasks and work very hard before he was deserving of his sword, before the king could trust him to be a guardian of the kingdom..... Give it life, breath imagination into it - your boy will be rapt! And repeat at frequent intervals.

 

Aa youth worker of over 20 years experience, as a mother of boys and hostess of frequent "boy weekends" at our farm (which included unsupervised use of fire, knives, walking on a frozen lake, being in a barn around horses etc etc) I know that children have the capacity to play safely with swords and to use tools such as knives safely. But not when they are tiny. It is not fair to expect a little person - who is meant to be at one with the world, not an inward looking being conscious of his actions in the world - to take responsibility before his time.

 

A whole other kettle of fish is the use of guns, both in play and for more serious pursuits. When my boys were little, there was no gun play. Then came water guns and who can say no to that? So they were allowed - but with rules. The main rule was "no shooting at people who are not playing." This became the main rule for all gun play - because soon we decided to let them play with guns. I have never been particularly keen on gun play. I much prefer swords because the players have to engage one another much more closely and cooperate and negotiate to make the play work. There is a lot of skill involved and one can really appeal to the "knights' code" and such to help the boys be uplifted in their play. With guns, there is none of this. Indeed, the whole scene around gun play can be really awful - noisy, undignified, thuggish and unpleasant.

 

But... there appears to be something in boys - not all, but most - that not just desires such play but needs it. I have worked for too long with children, children from a wide variety of racial, ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds, Waldorf children and not Waldorf children,  to not recognize this very deep need.

 

So I think it is something that parents need to honor. I think rules need to be established  and adhered to - we had a "no guns in the house" rule (they were kept in the garage or barn and could not be played with indoors). I also think swords should be emphasized over guns because of what I said above - but really, little ones under about 6 or 7 cannot be expected to understand and keep any sword etiquette rules. So that might mean guns for a while if older siblings or neighborhood boys have gotten them into guns. But it is not too late to set clear rules (which you will have to be the guardian of) and to also present them with their swords when they are older.

 

One thing I certainly saw with my sons was that the care that they took with their swords did seem to have a knock-on effect with how they treated their guns. I don't mean they cared for the guns themselves - but I did feel that far more of their gun play was actually elaborate planning and negotiating and making strategies with their friends than I have seen in other boys.

 

As they reached their teens, one son remains interested in guns and likes to shoot targets. The other is into archery and has no interest in guns. One of their similarly-raised friends at 18 is a pacifist with no interest in guns. And the fourth of this little group of previously gun-mad boys does occasionally go hunting with his father (he does live in rural Wisconsin!) but is otherwise the gentlest, most caring young man one would ever want to meet.

 

So does early "violent" play beget violent young men? I would emphatically say "NO." Not in my family, not in my experience with friends, not in my experience with youth and children I have worked with. Real play helps children find their orientation to the world and to make sense of it. It does not lead to violence.

Birthday Loveliness

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my 45th birthday (huzzah - Happy Birthday to me!). My 14 year old wanted precise instructions for what I wanted for my birthday. He also took it upon himself to coordinate his brother and father into a crack Birthday Breakfast team.  I lay in bed pretending to be asleep when he snuck in and woke his father (how anyone could think I could sleep through my husband's early morning bumbling about in our bedroom I do not know) and then softly giggled to myself as I heard his efforts to waken his comatose brother. Loud rustlings told me that pre-birthday wrapping of presents were happening only now but I decided to overlook that omission.

 

Half an hour later discordant mumblings rose up the stairs "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Mama..." and I was presented with a tray. In past years I have been given freshly squeezed orange juice but somehow my normally efficient younger son fell down on that detail - never mind - this year he cooked my eggs. "One cooked well, one sunny side up because I didn't know which you liked," he explained.

 

A few other corners were cut this year - instead of opening presents on a well-decorated table complete with flowers freshly picked from our garden (part of the bonus of a summer birthday) I was given a motley assortment of presents whilst still in bed. My eldest shone here - in the past he has been rather dismissive of presents, not wanting to make anything as he used to when he was small but not quite getting it together to buy anything either. This year not only did he give me a lovely present of silver earrings, he got exactly the kind I like. And to go with it was a Putamayo tape of Middle Eastern music - whereas in past years he has been known to record a CD of songs which he likes (and which I find unlistenable) this year he actually took the time to think about me and what I might like. At 16 he is maturing beautifully.

 

My younger son has always been able to know what I like - our connection is very strong and we share many things in common. This year he gave me a beautiful piece of pottery.

 

Of course my husband knows just what to give me - not leastwise because he is handed a list several months before my birthday each year. A non-conformist, he often veers radically away from the list just so as not to appear complacent. Each year I have to weigh up his maverick streak against his equally possible plaintive wail of "I didn't know what to get you" (this is after 20 years of getting a list which inevitably consists of "cook books" "silver jewelry" "bath smellies" "plants" and the like!). This year he gave me things from the list and a surprise - a lovely volume of poetry by Mary Oliver who I hadn't heard of, but who is now a firm favorite.

 

Looking at my presents brought back many lovely memories of birthdays past - of handmade cards, of half-cooked breakfasts, of handmade uh, er, presents of all shapes and sizes.... of my sons growing up and changing year by year. Each of my birthdays is a blessing and each year has been celebrated in the heart of my family. I am truly grateful.

Museum Baby

A few weeks ago my husband Paul and I went to New York for a family visit. I am a native New Yorker but my mother now lives across the bridge in New Jersey. Whilst in NYC Paul and I did the New Yorker thing - Sunday brunch, hanging out in Central Park, walking up and down Broadway eating Haagen Dazs ice cream, checking out the Village.... and we visited the Met, one of my all-time favorite museums.

 

Being child-conscious, I was interested to observe parents and children as we strolled around New York. A few things caught my eye.

 

The first thing was the interesting phenomena of parents having quality time with their tiny children in the Museum. Now for those of you who haven't been to the Met (could there be...?!!) it is HUGE!. Vast - enormous, gargantuan. And it is PACKED. Slowly flowing hordes of tourists speaking a dozen different languages meander aimlessly through the rooms whilst packs of teen agers on field trips from enrichment camps squirm and push and take up more space than human beings are meant to (whilst also speaking a multitude of languages and accompanied by the thrum and buzz of their ipods). It is a vastly overstimulating place where, if one isn't on the ball, one could get knocked over, stepped on or tripped. And that's just adults!

 

Now I can sort of see why parents might want to take young children to a museum - it's a safe and somewhat contained space (though losing a child in the Met could be as unnerving as losing one in Central Park) and it's Something To Do. And there were a few parents who really seemed to be doing just that - finding Something To Do and perhaps hoping that they could get something out of the trip despite their child's complete lack of interest in the exhibits. There was one brave mother who seemed to fit in this category - I was astonished when I saw her. Four little children, with the eldest no more than 6, the youngest strapped to her chest, she was field marshaling her tiny troops through the collection of Greek statues when I spotted her. Briskly she walked, most of the time backwards, shepherding her little ones from one case of Greek vases to the next. She took obvious pleasure in their beauty - her children seemed less enthralled. Indeed, her 5 year old was more  impressed by the rasps and crackles coming from the walkie-talkie at a security guard's belt than Mom's exclamations of "look - you can see a story on this vase." Mom was trying hard but a 5 year old is going to be more interested in a real life flesh and blood security guard and her fascinating accoutrements any day of the week than a 2,5oo year old vase with obscure pictures on it!

 

What really got me though were the two women and their 4 or 5 year olds in the Modern art exhibit. Now OK - some Greek art might interest a child - and maybe Mom took the children to see the life size medieval knights on life size horses next (a sight I certainly loved as a much older child!!). But here were two adults not just passing past the art with the children and looking at what was on offer ("what pretty colors, aren't they darling") but actually trying to engage the children in conversation about the Modigliani they were looking at!

 

This is strange to me. This was really strange to observe (whilst trying to look like I was merely captivated by the paintings instead of the scene unfolding in front of them!) and right now as I type this, really strange to think about. What could those women have been thinking? One can only assume that they honestly thought that the way to help their children appreciate art (though what that means for 5 year olds, don't ask me!!) was to expose them to art and to engage them in conversation about art.

 

But of course, what's missing here is an understanding of the difference between the modern adult's 2oth century consciousness which creates and can discuss modern art and the consciousness of a 5 year old child. A 5 year simply does not see the world as we adults do and hasn't developed the powers of empathy, intellect and selfhood to  be able to stand out of herself to appreciate that most abstract of concepts, a piece of modern art. And - she shouldn't be prematurely put into the position of trying to achieve that consciousness. Once again, with the best intention in the world, we have an example of adults unwittingly bringing children out of their stage of development and into the next stage of development before those children are ready. And I don't care how precociously interested a child might be in modern or any other kind of art - I ask the question, where does that interest come from? If a child has miraculously come to earth with an insatiable interest in modern art that seemingly comes out of nowhere, that is one thing. But if she has developed an interest because adults have exposed her to things - whether consciously or not - then that is quite a different kettle of fish.

 

It's like parents who complain that their 8 year old is reading Anna Karenina. Well who gave him the book? Who said "yes, you may read this" and did not say "no, that is not for you right now." And I know what this is like - I had a 11 year old with a precocious interest in advanced science. My husband and I decided to let him go with it - but there was definitely a cost. I still think we made the right decision - but my now (summer 2007) 16 year old has some imbalances in him. Maybe we should have said no. But we were cautious and decided to go with what seemed not just a whim but a deep soul need. And  he is who he is.

 

But....11 is very different than 5. And the longer I am in this field of work and the more I observe what is around me and consult with parents and read reports and the news..... the more strong I am in declaring the absolute sacredness of those first 7 years of childhood and how they MUST be preserved for later health and balance in each human being. Let children be children and let them be at the stage of  life they are at. A 5 year old does not need to go to museums - not even science or folk museums. She does not need to see - she needs to do. And she needs to do what is real and meaningful - so even so-called "hands-on" or "interactive" museums are out. Just because something has been cleverly broken down by an adult so that a child can get their hands on things (such as touch and feel exhibits) does not mean that this satisfies the young child's need for wholes - for things to be natural and real and to have relevance. If a child has never seen a turtle or a chinchilla, feeling a turtle shell and then a chinchilla pelt is abstract and not connected to life. It is not real. The child cannot internalize the abstract concepts of "turtle" and "chinchilla" because she does not know what those animals are. The concepts are not grounded. On the other hand, if in a zoo or pet shop she gets to see and handle those animals, then it starts to make sense.

 

Back to the museum, let me hasten to say that I sympathize with parents in cities desperate for Something To Do with young children. In such cases, go to a museum. But just enjoy being together and wandering around and don't use the time as a Learning Experience. Just enjoy yourselves and don't be surprised if what makes the strongest impression on your child is the man in the electric wheelchair or the ride you had on the escalator.