The Homeschool Journey

The Waldorf View on Teaching

(this is a response I gave to a question on my yahoo group Waldorf_At_Home)

 

I think a question could be asked "how does the child know to ask what she wants? How does she know what she wants?" This is subtle at times - other times it is obvious.

 

A key core of Waldorf - of anthroposophy - is the idea of development - on all levels, spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual. If one is developing and changing, how can one know at the beginning what one needs to know? Children are not, in my opinion, like Athena, fully formed, springing  from their father's heads, goddesses of wisdom, knowing all there is to know. They are new here and their job is to learn. And our job, as parents and educators, is to teach, guide, suggest, show, withhold, create, inspire, lead and hold back - as appropriate.

 

"As appropriate" - that's the trick. How to read the child so one can interpret what is going on, can meet the needs that are being displayed - or not. Or are behind what a child might be articulating.

I am reminded of the story of Parzival, the mediaeval grail hero. This story is taught to 11th graders in Waldorf schools. The central dilemma of Parzival is that he does not know what question to ask - and he bumbles about making a mess of things until he figures out how to delve inside and know what to ask - not, mind you, what he needs to KNOW - but what he needs to ASK. Part of growing up, part of what one needs as one moves toward adulthood is the ability to start to know what one needs to know. The next long part of the journey is finding that knowledge.

 

John Dewey and John Holt and Waldorf do not fit together (or Montessori, either). This does not, of course, mean that one can't learn an enormous amount from these educators. But at essence, they come from very different views on what a child is and how she or he learns. I don't have much time for either Dewey or Montessori myself - but I do love  John Holt's work - I find much of what he says very inspiring - I also find much of it exasperating!

 

One key difference here is that though all these other educators of course also recognize distinct stages of child development, for them what this means is very different than what it means to a Waldorf person.  One could (somewhat crudely) summarize Dewey, Holt and Montessori as saying
they have an "apprentice" view of childhood. Children are younger, less experienced - but in essence not much different than adults. Therefore, it is simply a question of creating the optimal environment, opportunities for learning. Children should be allowed to lead in their educations as, through the act of learning, they will learn what they need to know.

 

Quite different from this is  an anthroposophical or Waldorf  point of view, the key element being that little children have a totally different consciousness than adults - even than older children. It is not simply a matter of being less experienced. It is about the little child having a totally different perception of life - and in part, this has to do with the strong spiritual connection little children have - their sense of oneness - the natural religious state of the little child that Steiner refers to. So for a Waldorf person, it is not just that children have less experience - it is that their experience of life is different from an adult's - and part of an adult's job is to guide them toward their next stage of life, as their development naturally unfolds. And some of that guidance definitely involves teaching.

 

And last, I should just say that no Waldorf person worth his salt - and certainly not Steiner - ever tried to say "what is right for every child". However,  Waldorf education is not just about acquiring skills, such as reading - it is about the growth and development of all parts of the child, of the human being. And - from an anthroposophical point of view - all human beings carry within themselves a discernible pattern of growth - and it is to this the education speaks. You might be interested in my "Waldorf Curriculum Overview for Homeschoolers" - in it I give an in-depth picture of the curriculum, from 1st through 8th grades and WHY things are taught in the way they are taught and when. Then I give lots of ideas on how homeschoolers might work with that at home - and part of that definitely includes the recognition that skills (like math) are acquired at widely differing ages, as you have experienced in your family.

 

Six Week Report

Well, Gabriel's been home for six weeks now - it's been going very well and he's pleased and feeling on top of things. Our schedule has been a bit hectic - me working part time at the high school plus all the Christopherus stuff.... but he's done quite a lot. Here is a summary of all the things he's done in the past weeks (something I often advise homeschooling parents to do - to make a list of all the things their child has done over a period of ... a day? .... a week?... a month?.... just so they can see, as the unschoolers say, that "children learn all the time".):

 

* he's read Genevieve Foster's Augustus Caesar's World and is taking notes in preparation for writing a biography of Augustus.

 

* listened to me read Famous Men of Rome most mornings - we're almost finished with the book and we've had many good discussions of what we've read.

 

*memorised a couple of passages from Virgil's Aeneid in Latin and English.

 

*has been working on a beautiful Main Lesson book which contains passages from Virgil and Livy, his own composition and things I've written which he's copied or been dictated. He also has made a map of the Roman Empire, a drawing from a bust of Julius Caesar, other illustrations and a mosaic.

 

*He's about to start reading The Bronze Bow.

 

* He's worked faithfully through some Latin exercises every day - and in order to help him understand the Latin grammar, we've done a lot of grammar exercises and review in English. Now that he's motivated to learn this stuff - because he wants to learn Latin as well as German - he is finally taking it in.

 

* When he was at school his class had been having a Geology main lesson - he has continued with some studies of rock formations and continued to fill his main lesson book with beautiful illustrations, diagrams and descriptions of rocks and minerals.

 

* Each week I've given him a list of spelling words which he has worked on - each Friday he's had a spelling quiz.

 

* Most days he's played the piano for about 15 minutes - I am trying to carefully walk that line between requiring him to play - and letting his own interest inspire him to play. It's a bit hit and miss at the moment.

 

* The last week I asked him to switch from free choice math exercises to working on measurement (which somehow got missed earlier on) in the Key To... workbooks  we have. He has finished workbook 1 and has started on the second one on English units of measurement.

 

* He spends about 15 minutes three times a week working on a typing/keyboarding program on the computer.

 

* He spends about 15 minutes 4 times a week on the Rosetta Stone German language program - also on the computer.

 

* He has started to knit again - he finished a scarf and is now working on a hat.

 

* He read Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Lantern Bearers for enjoyment.

 

* And he did laundry, walked the dog, played monopoly and Battleship with a friend, vacuumed, prepared several meals, looked after the rabbit and helped keep the house cleaning moving along!

 

I guess he accomplished quite a lot!

 

 

But Is It Waldorf?

Here's my one week progress report on the journey back home by my younger son, Gabriel. A couple of entries ago (eeecchh - sounds like items on a menu) - er, a couple of blogs ago? - no that's worse - anyway I recently wrote here about the fact that my 12 year old has returned home from a brief stint at school. Last week was our first week of homeschooling since he went to school in March.

 

Last week was also the week of teacher/parent meetings at the local Waldorf high school where I teach part time. So it was pretty hairy. I knew that I'd be in and out everyday, what with meetings and a teacher in-service meeting, I'd be all over the place. So what to do with Gabriel?

 

Having been homeschooled for most of his life (he was only in school for a few months) he's been well trained. Even when I was around all the time, I have always been busy - in recent years, Christopherus has kept me - or us, rather - on our toes and much of my day has been spent writing. There were many times in the past that I'd look up from a Christopherus book I was writing and see both my sons engrossed in their own short stories or reports - things rarely assigned by me, but rather out of their own initiative.

 

So Gabriel knew when he came home that homeschooling means 1 part Mama to 3 parts Gabriel. Especially on weeks like this!

 

So how did we manage? On the Sunday before we started I spent a couple of hours working out what we would acomplish. I looked through resources that we already had. I thought about the 6th grade curriculum and about Gabriel's needs and interests. And I came up with a plan.

 

Every morning Gabriel had a Roman History assignment (thankfully I had that useful Roman History unit study written by the nice lady from Christopherus Homeschool Resources to guide me!). I read to him, he'd work on writing a summary of the Aeneid (after he'd read it), copied things into his Main Lesson book and illustrated his writing. He also spent some time memorising a passage from the original Aeneid by Vigil, in Latin and English.

 

Speaking of Latin, Gabriel decided he wants to learn Latin. So every day he works by himself in his Dad's Cambridge Latin Course workbook. He is also  studying German and as I don't speak it nor am able to teach it, he works on a German computer program by Rosetta Stone. He's also learning to type, so he spends about 15 minutes a day working on that, too.

 

As he is doing quite a bit of composition in the course of his Roman history studies, I am leaving English a bit, though I have written out some assignments for him to do in Gabriel Arquilevitch's Writing for 100 Days (which I recommend for students of about 12/13 and up). ( either that or my correspondence course! See the youngwriter's program on my web site).  Gabriel's spelling is very poor - so every day we spend about 5 or 10 minutes on a spelling list.

 

Gabriel has it in his stubborn head that he's very bad at math - so I have deicided to go easy on math for a while. I have several math workbooks, a combination of drill, word problems and games and he is free to choose from those what he'd like to do - as long as he does about 20 minutes worth of work 4 times a week. My hope is that with a non threatening approach like this, he will regain some of his misplaced confidence.

 

What else? Piano practice... various art projects (this week he made a plaster mask with me as I needed to perfect this as I will be doing mask making in the Comedy & Tragedy main lesson I am teaching at the Waldorf high school) ... long walks with the dog... and his own voracious science reading.

 

So - is it Waldorf?! I don't know! I know I work deeply with anthroposophy. I know I understand the Waldorf curriculum, the hows and whys that weave through it. And I have a pretty good working knowledge of who my son is and what he needs. So I put it together and wrap it around with my family's own circumstances - and is it Waldorf? Sure doesn't look what he'd be doing if he was at school! But I think that it comes from the same source and I think it is what works for us.

 

As I always say to people who consult with me - "homeschooling is about family" AND "not school at home". Strive to understand the ideas behind the Waldorf curriculum and how it has been crafted. Meditate deeply on what your particular children need - as well as the family as a whole. And then do what works. It may not look like Waldorf, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

 

To School and Back Home Again

Last spring my family left our little farm and moved 4 hours south (still in Wisconsin) to a wonderful community which, among other things, boasts both a Waldorf school and a Waldorf flavored high school. There are a variety of reasons why we moved here - but for sure the schools were a big attraction.

 

Both of my sons, now 14 and 12, had been to (Waldorf) school briefly when they were quite young. It hadn't worked for either of them. In kindergarten, my eldest refused to join the Circle and would hit those children with whom he wanted to make friends. In first grade he scribbled angrily in his main lesson books and got into lots of fights in the playground. He was overstimulated - and we took him home. Over the years he grew into a peaceful, centered and calm boy, sought out by others as a friend. At the high sdchool, he has intervened several times in conflicts between students and is well liked by both teachers and his peers.

 

My youngest loved kindergarten - and he quite enjoyed first grade. But the word "remediation" stared to be used when he showed no inclination to write or read. I knew that there was no deep problem - rather, his schedule was different from the others in his class. And so he came home, too. He didn't read until he was well over 10 (same for his brother) and then immediately went into quite advanced books (his brother decided to read Nietzche at 13).

 

But he is quite melancholic and so when the opportunity came to move here and the school was glad to have him, we enrolled him in 5th grade. He was not 100% sure, but then part of his melancholic temperament is reluctance for new experiences. So we persevered.

 

He was not happy. Many of his math skills were behind and though he can read and write (ie composition) very, very well, his spelling is appalling. This has never worried me - I know that in time he will catch up. And until he went to school, it hadn't worried him either. But at school he felt stupid - to be sure, his own interpretation of the situation, but not good nonetheless!

 

Other things came to the fore as well - and in these first few weeks of 6th grade he has become progressively more unhappy. He misses the depth we were able to go into at home - I, too was saddened by the rather cursory treatment of Greek myths, for instance, his class undertook in the spring. We are about to tackle Roman history - he is chomping at the bit, ready to really penetrate the subject. At school he cannot spend 3 hours reading - he misses that, too - and he is by far one of the best readers in his class. Again, he often likes to write little stories or compositions - at school there really isn't the room for this.

 

I am sad he will miss out on many of the group experiences - drama, playing music together, games and so on. There is a possibility that he might be able to join his class for one or two classes a week which I think is wonderful!   Yes, he will miss out on things. But... as parents, my husband and I have really tried - and now it's up to him. It seems it is more important for him to have the depth of experience that we can allow him at home. Perhaps another 3 years at home will get him to a place where he'll be more happy in groups - we intend to send him to the high school here.

 

When it comes down to it, my main reason for bringing him back home is my concern that his stubborn melancholia will taint even those things he likes about school (and when pushed he will admit that there are some things that are ok) and he will become sour. And once a child becomes sour about learning, it is enormously difficult to enthuse him again. And I don't want that. As a long time youth worker who has dealt with many, many sour and challenging children, I know what an up hill battle that one can be. So I feel, on balance, we can forgo some of the group experiences (which, if he sets his mind to it, he'd not benefit from anyway) to let him explore his interests.

 

And I do enjoy having him home! He loves to be read to , loves to talk about history and books, loves to read and do art projects. He can be very helpful around the house and he will be helping me get orders together and send books out to people! He is very interested in Christopherus - in fact, when we first told him we had wanted him to go to school, his first exclamation was "but you need me at home so you can write books about what we do together!". Well... I guess that will happen now!

 

Raising Compassionate and Socially Aware Children

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, November 2004

The following are excerpts from the keynote talks I gave in Fair Oaks, CA and Ann Arbor, MI at Waldorf in the Home conferences. The entire talk would be too long to reprint here (plus I strayed from my notes considerably – especially in California where I actually forgot my notes!) so I am simply reprinting chunks from it. I have left out most of the concrete examples so this does read a bit like a series of platitudes. Please indulge me in this – it was just too big a task for me to write this up properly yet I wanted to offer something to you all.

* * * * *

 The talk was entitled Creating World Citizens: Raising Compassionate and Socially Aware Children  and I began with the following quote from Rudolf Steiner:

Still something further is important: namely that we recognise in the human beings who are born today as children the inclination toward what must develop in the coming generations, and that we learn to educate prophetically. ThefFact that we must educate prophetically, that we must foresee what are to be the tasks of the next generation, this is of the greatest earnestness. This stands written in the world about us as a constant challenge.

 
I believe Waldorf education, whether in a school or at home, can help us raise children who have an ecological consciousness, who are concerned about questions of social justice, who have a strong sense for morals, and who can act out of compassion and clear thinking.

Our own actions, our own sense of right and wrong, our own search for purpose, is an important grounding for our children, one which, when they are little, can surround and nurture them. By thus helping them thrive in the certainty that this world is, indeed, a good place, one helps them be assured that it is a place they want to be part of. Later, when they are older, our certainty and our clarity in our own morals and opinions will provide strong forms for our teens to push against as they develop their own sense of right and wrong.

* * * * *

 I should add that homeschooling, in and of itself, is a very positive thing, an impulse toward freedom, an act which says to experts and governments, “I can do this myself”. This, aside from anything else we do, is a great example of freedom and self-initiative for our children to emulate.

* * * * *

 How can Waldorf education and its foundation, anthroposophy, help us achieve our goals? First we need to understand that anthroposophy has as its basis two important aspects:

1) A spiritual basis: each of us carries a spark of the Divine. Each of us comes from the spiritual world, sojourns on this earth and will return again to the spiritual worlds. This process is repeated many times with the soul incarnating in different time periods, in different cultures and with a different consciousness. Anthroposophy works with questions of destiny and karma.

2) The idea of development: as the soul journeys and has experience, it develops. From one life to another the soul changes. And, critical to an understanding of Waldorf education, is the notion that each individual human soul is a mirror of the larger development of the human race as a whole. And, as each individual soul has partaken in this long journey, as humanity as a whole has changed and developed, so each of us as educators must ask ourselves the question, “Who is this child who stands before me and how can I help her to fulfill her destiny?”

* * * * *

 If we understand our journey to be a shared one, if we understand that the development of humanity finds its echoes in the soul of each human being, then we immediately experience history as our story, as a unified theme which can help us understand each child’s individual journey as well as gain insight into humanity’s journey.

Thus, when one tells the Old Testament stories to a nine year old child, to a Third Grader, one can see that this has not so much to do with the stories of Jewish or Christian religions, but rather that these stories, with their powerful themes of relationships to authority and to the Law, are the stories of all children of that age, irregardless of their religion, culture, nationality and so on. At 9 years old, when the child is separating somewhat from his parents, this is one of the main questions that prickles at his soul, “Who am I and who are you?” And these stories nourish the soul of the 9 year old, letting him see how others related to these very questions.

* * * * *

Waldorf is a way of educating children which can transcend national, cultural, religious and gender boundaries and speak to what lives in each human being. And further, because it is a form of soul education, it is uniquely able to speak to those souls who might live in bodies challenged by mental, emotional or physical disabilities or challenges. 

* * * * *

We want our children to be able to understand our immensely complex world; to be able to navigate and use the amazing technology which will have advanced to an extent unimaginable to many of us by the time our children are grown. We want them to think clear thoughts which are warmed by compassion and to thus act rightly in the world. 

Our goal is to produce whole adults, people who have developed their feeling life, their will, their thinking abilities. In order to do this, we can take as our motto ‘the right thing at the right time’ and know that adult ways of feeling, doing and thinking are not appropriate for children. Rather, we can work with an anthroposophical picture of how children grow and learn and how the child metamorphoses into the adult. 

* * * * *

In terms of developing whole thinking capacities, we can appreciate that the young child’s ways of thinking are very different from the adult’s and that only very gradually do the linear logical thought processes, which our society so values, become appropriate, rarely before age 12 or even later. By allowing the imaginative picture-making capacities of the young child to flourish we acknowledge that there are many ways of thinking available to human beings and, further, lay the foundation for these other, later ways of thinking. 

* * * * *

 We can help strengthen and form our children’s feeling life, helping them attain balance and attunement to their inner life. By working artistically, by helping them strive for something higher, by giving them stories full of upright and moral deeds done by good people, we help the child ennoble her emotional life. Without such conscious attention to the inner feeling life, the child can grow up as a victim to his emotions, to his sympathies and antipathies. Compassion is our goal – not sentimentality or emotionalism.

* * * * *

We can help the child develop her will forces by framing her life with healthy rhythms, especially in the first 7 year period. By instilling good habits, the child’s will forces gradually come under her conscious control. We further help her master her will forces as we give her opportunities to persevere, to be mindful, to bring attention to detail. Handwork, practicing a musical instrument, participation in household chores can all help with this.

* * * * *

 By educating the whole child, by being mindful of her spiritual past and future, by seeing her personal biography as being connected to that of humanity as a whole, we can go far in creating socially conscious children with a strong sense of justice. If the stories of Japan, of the Netherlands, of Ghana, of the Sioux resonate so strongly in her soul that they are, indeed, her stories then we go far in instilling a brotherliness, a sense of comradeliness between our child and other peoples. And, if we have taken care to strengthen our child’s will, to develop his thinking and to bring a sense of balance and peace to his emotional life, then it is likely that our child will have the strength, ability and knowledge to be able to act effectively in the world. 

* * * * *

Waldorf education helps us educate the whole child and helps the child feel connected to the earth and nature as well. By developing the child’s senses, by not dulling them with too much exposure to what is loud, synthetic, overstimulating, we help the child retain the kind of sensitivity which allows her to more fully explore and experience her world. By not rushing the child through her early years, through his all-important sense of oneness with nature and the world, by allowing him his dreamtime instead of hurrying to bring him into the adult world of information, one preserves a deep sense of connectedness and unity between the child and nature. And if one feels a connection to nature, how then could one grow up and exploit, destroy or otherwise treat as a commodity our home, our Earth?

* * * * *

 There are, of course, no guarantees that a child will grow up to have this or that quality, ability or interest. But, as parents, we are in a good position to influence our children positively when we have at our disposal the vast pedagogical and therapeutic riches that Waldorf education has.

* * * * *

 If we can hold a vision for our children out of our own inner certainty that the world is, indeed, a good, beautiful and truthful place to live; if, despite the obscene conflicts and horrors of our world, we know in our hearts and minds that understanding is possible, that compassion is possible and that right action is possible, then we stand the chance of our children growing up to be adults who take on these problems. Can we live with this truth of ‘the right thing at the right time’ so that our children grow to value process as much as goals, and to know that the end does not justify the means but is a reflection of the path taken?

Our hope is that our children will grow up and take up their life tasks with clear, heart-warmed thinking, that they will have the vision and ability to go beyond the tweedledee, tweedledum politics that is stagnating our communities, our country, our world. Our greatest hope for our children must be that, out of hope, out of faith in their fellow human beings, out of reverence for our blessed Earth, that they have the vision to create a more equitable, more free and more compassionate world.

How To Do It!

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, October 2004 (and much has changed in our family since then!)

My original topic for this month’s newsletter was something quite different than what you are about to read – I was going to base this newsletter on a talk I gave in a Virginia workshop on the anthroposophical roots of Waldorf education (and which I will, at some point, write about). However, recent questions and discussions on our Yahoo discussion list as well as questions from people I met with at workshops and consultations in California, have prompted me to write about something quite different.

Namely... HOW TO DO IT! How to actually figure out some of the nuts and bolts everydayness of living with children, educating them and simultaneously running a household. So... just for fun and, hopefully, as a source of inspiration to you all (but not as a set model to follow) I will tell you all how I do it (or, at least, a small part of it).

Now, first of all, I have to let you all know that not only do Paul (my husband) and I run Christopherus and our farm together (which is, incidentally, not very big or overwhelming) but we homeschool together as well. During these past few hectic weeks – and over the next few weeks while I finish my Fall season of traveling around giving workshops – he has been Chief Homeschooler. He put both our sons, a 7^th grader and a 5^th grader, together for an economics block. He’s been reading to them from Robert L. Heilbronner’s The Worldly Philosophers and they discuss this together. Then they’ve worked on business math, such as percentages, mainly within the context of pretending to set up a record store (guess whose idea that was!). They’ve discussed and problem solved issues around budgets, planning, stock, taxes, profits, loss, advertising, ethical questions involved with being an employer, etc... and done much of the math involved in such work.

Economics is usually taught as part of the 6^th Grade math curriculum in Waldorf schools. But, as our older son is a bit ‘behind’ in math and the younger one is a bit ‘ahead’, it made sense to combine them. This somewhat diminishes their experience of the timeliness of the 6^th Grade curriculum for 12 year-olds, but as most of their work does follow Waldorf indications, we feel there is little to be lost in veering from the curriculum when necessary, when a sensible compromise serves our family’s needs.

Herein lies what I believe to be the secret of successfully working with Waldorf at home: remembering at all times that the decision to homeschool is all about family and to trust that if this decision is indeed the right one, then a way forward with one’s children’s education will be found. And, further, that this way forward will necessarily include compromise, flexibility, adaptation and a pragmatic attitude toward sanity! Trotting between several children stationed at intervals around the house, bringing a separate Main Lesson to each of them, is a good way to burn out real fast. I know people who have tried this – and I have seen the results.

Anyway, back to us... So, in addition to his stints as Homeschooling Parent, Paul’s weekly contribution to our homeschool is to teach recorder, piano, to lead jaunts around the lake on bicycle after breakfast every morning and to keep us singing. He also supervises the boys’ German lessons. He is not proficient in German so, this year, he and the boys are all working (separately) on the computer with the Rosetta Stone language software. The boys work on the computer for about 30 minutes 3 times a week. While not comparable to Waldorf school language learning this program does also take a ‘full immersion’ approach.  They have also sung together in German and read Grimms fairy tales.

My role as Homeschooling Mom includes Planning, Negotiating and Implementing – I try to avoid Nagging, Forcing or Forgetting. I also, of course, do most of the teaching.

Here’s how I figure out a yearly plan for my sons – I’ll base it on what I planned for this year. I do most of this work during the summer as I look at the upcoming academic year.

This year I have, as I mentioned, a 5^th grader and a 7^th grader. I write down the usual Waldorf Main Lessons for these grades: botany, ancient mythologies, Greek myths, Greek history, geography of the US (or whatever one’s country is) and math (fractions and intro to geometry) for the 5^th grader; and physics, history (the Age of Exploration, the Age of Discovery and the Industrial Revolution), human physiology, chemistry, astronomy and math (such as geometric proofs). Then I think about other lessons the boys will be doing: German, music, language arts, practice math, handwork and art.

Looking at this list, I figure out where to combine the boys and where to keep them separate. I think about what art projects and crafts, what practical activities and projects will bring their lessons to life. I think about goals: Gabriel (5^th grader) is finally beginning to write with confidence (composition that is) so we need to now turn our attention to spelling, punctuation and capitalization a bit more purposefully. Now that he is no longer fearful or reluctant to write a story or report, we will hone some skills. This kind of goal will run through all the various subjects we study.

The main goal with Daniel is for him to become proficient in fast calculation – he knows his way around the basic math operations but he is not fast enough, not (dare I say it) automatic in his responses to math problems, whether written or oral. In order to progress into higher math he must get over this hurdle. So we will work on short, lively and fast drills on pretty much a daily basis – flash cards, timed drills, mental math – and lots of fast-paced games will surely help.

There are obviously many other things I think about too – but this article would become another book if I listed them all! Suffice to say, one wants to also address one’s children’s particular interests (Daniel is writing a political newspaper with some friends so much of his language arts work is focused on this), needs (Gabriel needs help in actually completing some of the projects he starts on and not just forgetting about them when the going gets tough) and goals (as mentioned).

Here is what our normal schedule looks like at the moment:

§ 7:00 Get up – Paul and Daniel do some cleaning and prepare breakfast; Donna and Gabriel do chores in the barn.

§ 7.45 Breakfast followed by Paul and boys riding bikes while Donna checks e-mails

§ 8:30 Two days a week we all sing together: we are presently working on a 4-part piece by the 16^th Century composer Thomas Tallis – so far we’ve managed 2 parts! Three days a week Paul and the boys play recorder while I clean or cook.

§ 9:00 Paul in the office while I read aloud to Daniel and Gabriel. We are just about to start Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan.

§ 9:30 Daniel works on human physiology assignments which I’ve written out for him in a notebook. He reads, draws pictures, studies vocabulary, colors in a Gray’s Anatomy coloring book or copies over corrected written work from the day before. Meanwhile, Gabriel and I work on botany together. I read to him, we explore plants outside, talk, draw and do whatever else we need to do together.

§ 10:15 We switch – Daniel and I work together on physiology while Gabriel works alone on botany.

§ 11:00 Snack

§ 11:30 Depending on the day, activities vary. Possibilities include: both boys working on some pages of math problems; one boy doing German while I work on English or math with the other; one boy practicing piano or guitar while the other reads; both boys doing form drawing or painting with me.

§ 12:00 Similar to the above, but focused on things that need longer time: this is when Daniel and I might look over some of his writing together and discuss how it might improve or progress; and any work left over from the morning, especially if it is something like a complex picture or a report which needs reworking, might receive attention now. I keep an eye on their ‘free reading’ and occasionally require them to read certain books – at the moment Gabriel is reading The Case of the Baker Street Irregular by Robert Peckham and Daniel is reading The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green. Sometimes I give them assignments having to do with these books (rarely book reports as I find book reports are a good way to destroy interest in books). I weigh this against how much other writing they are currently doing: if they have lots of writing on their Main Lessons I require little additional writing from them. Instead, we talk about the books – something we all enjoy.

§ 1:00 Lunch and free time

§ 2:00 Usually German alternating with piano (Gabriel) or guitar (Daniel). Work outside with Paul (harvesting, spreading compost on the garden or other such jobs); handwork (sewing recorder cases at the moment; hopefully knitting socks with 4 needles in upcoming weeks) or crafts (we’re about to start carving wooden candleholders and making things for Christmas presents).

Additional activities include swimming lessons and an art class. And, of course, there are always things to do around the farm. Most afternoons are the time I do “Christopherus work” and Paul keeps things ticking over with the boys and the household.

As for laundry and cleaning and cooking, it’s a matter of either me doing things while they’re busy with their lessons or us doing things together. Saturday morning is usually (but not always!) cleaning time – as our family is home together so much, specific family time is less of an absolute need. When the roads freeze up (not long from now in Northwestern Wisconsin!) bike riding will become a half hour of cleaning and the house will hopefully look a lot better than it does at the moment!

So you can see that in many ways I have it pretty easy – my boys are very independent in much of their school work, they are (pretty much) compliant when it comes to household and other chores and my husband is at home. There are several comments I need to make about this.

1) My sons know how to work independently because, from earliest days, they needed to do so. I have always had work other than my own family work to do. Although thee is no way I could have had a business like Christopherus when they were little (believe it or not Christopherus is not even 18 months old!), we were always in communities where I worked with either developmentally disabled adults or with groups of children. For the most part, I simply combined this work with my children – at other times they needed to play or “find something to do” while I was busy. So now they are quite used to reading, writing or drawing or doing whatever alone. I really think this is an essential ability to inculcate in our children from very early on. One must be able to say “You sit here and look at these books while I work with your brother” to young children, perhaps even as young as 4 or 5. Take it slow, take it one step at a time and be creative. Don’t use the TV or videos (you might regret doing this later on when it becomes a crutch you can’t cope without) but insist that they develop the ability to be alone, even if, at first, it’s for no more than 10 minutes per day.

2) If one keeps the focus on the fact that homeschooling is about family, not merely a collection of individuals, then one can relax into it and find its benefits – not just in academics and learning skills, but in such things as sharing, cooperation, being together and helping one another. So, when everything goes wrong and the schedule goes out the window, one can remember that the simple act of creating a family life together is so important, especially in our society, that one can feel confident that this in itself is one of the most important things for your child to experience and learn. Don’t worry, the schedule will still be there when you are ready to face it again – and maybe by taking a break from it you will gain insight into how to actually make it work.

This newsletter is getting ridiculously long, so I’m going to stop now. There is much more to be said – and, of course, I address more ways of HOW TO DO IT in The Christopherus Waldorf Curriculum Overview for Homeschoolers. Those of you who have other ways of figuring it all out or questions about this are welcome to air your comments on the Waldorf at Home Yahoo discussion group [not to mention this brand-new  blog!] where there is always a lot of interest in topics like this!

Summer Learning

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, July 2004

About a week after I wrote the last newsletter, I realized that what I had written was potentially open for misinterpretation. I had written that although we do not formally “do school” during the summer, that my sons keep themselves busy by pretty much doing the same things which we do during the school year. I just wanted to clarify this because I want to be clear that I favor children taking a long break from school work and am uncomfortable with the idea of year-round school (and I say this carefully because I realize that many people do this!) The point is that my children, out of their own interest, do things like write short stories or read science books, activities which, if they were taking place in November or March, would be called ‘school’!

I think that it is incredibly important for children to have extended time away from academics, from the usual routine, from head learning (even with Waldorf, where there is a balance between intellectual, artistic and active learning). Summertime, at least where I live now and in New York where I grew up, is such a wonderful time to be outside, to play all day, to laze around. I remember each year returning to school after a long summer spent playing under open fire hydrants and exploring Central Park (not to mention the annual family vacation to Atlantic City) and seeing how everybody had changed! New haircuts and sun tans, scrapes and bruises accrued during summer adventures were all interesting enough, but it was also so exciting to see how everyone had changed physically! Both boys and girls were taller and thinner or heavier, more muscular, with longer limbs... It was wonderful to start a new year afresh surrounded by all these changes. Somehow it helped underline for us that we were no longer the 3rd, 6th or 10th graders we had been way back in May.

Such experiences are common in any country, in any school where there is a long summer break (or perhaps winter break in some parts of the world). But having gone to a Waldorf school, I was witness to another element: instead of the dread ‘summer loss’, we children were actually further along than we had been in the spring!

I always shake my head sadly when I hear or read of parents or teachers bemoaning Summer Loss. Bookstores and curriculum catalogs are full of workbooks and ideas on how to combat this feared - and apparently widespread - phenomena. It just seems so odd to me that, having experienced the opposite as a student, teacher and parent, no one in the mainstream educational establishment ever seems to ask the question of why, if children are being taught in the right way, that they forget everything during their summer break?! Surely something is wrong with the teaching if it doesn’t stick!

It seems to me that the obvious answer to the Problem of Summer Loss has to do with methodology that is not based on child development, which does not recognize and understand the whole child, and which does not, therefore, resonate in the very soul of the child being taught. Herein lies the strength of Waldorf education. By teaching the whole child, by uniting the artistic with the scientific and by engaging the hearts, hands and heads of each child, the learning process is so much deeper, more meaningful and longer lasting(!) than by more haphazard ways of teaching children.

As homeschoolers working with Waldorf, we can really fine tune this approach to learning and further strengthen it by adjusting it to the individual needs and interests of each of our children. We can throw in a dash of unschooling and relax a bit, confident that our children will learn and that spending a whole week building a tree fort may be just as important as learning multiplication tables at this point in our child’s life. And, with insight and observation, we may also see that by allowing our children to explore their interests and become completely absorbed in their various projects, that other areas of learning are also enhanced.

This is an important point and can only be understood if one takes a holistic view of learning. If learning is seen as linear, and as a series of merely quantifiable goals then such a statement is nonsensical. If, however, one views learning as a vast interrelated process which may certainly have goals but is also larger than the mere sum of those goals, then one can see how time building a fort can effect how a child can learn her multiplication tables or some other such skill.

So, to return to the question of taking a long summer break, this is one of the reasons I ask each parent to consider such a proposition - to leave school work aside for a good long time. Many homeschoolers have year-round schedules, with a period of weeks ranging from, say, 7 to 10 on and then a week off, throughout the year. I can see the attraction of such a schedule, but I’m not convinced.

By having weeks and months which are largely unscheduled, then children are free to explore their own interests. And this might take time. One might have to grit one’s teeth through several weeks of “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do” before the child allows the muse to speak to him, whispering hints of projects to create in the yard or all over the kitchen table. Or, that child might suddenly learn to read, finding it in herself to dig down deep enough to make sense of what seemed incomprehensible. For another child, long periods of “nothing to do” might become time to daydream, to imagine, to watch the clouds and create his own inner pictures and poetry.

We tend to be afraid of ‘nothing to do’, afraid of ‘the void’. Much of this , of course, has to do with our instant gratification society and our culture of shopping to fill our emptiness. Wouldn’t it be great to teach our children that there is no void, that we are never empty and that there is always something to do? By allowing them to face down their desires to be entertained and kept busy, we help them learn to cultivate their own inner resources and the richness of their inner life. Having long summer breaks certainly isn’t the only way to help children with this, but it is one obvious opportunity which presents itself to most of us.

* * * * *

The above wasn’t written with the idea of urging parents to not do anything at all together with their children during the summer! Rather, it is to urge parents to 1) consider taking a long break from school work; 2) to not fill up all that time with too many field trips, camps, enrichment programs and the rest; and 3) to think about doing some different things together, things you might not normally do during the school year. Here are a few ideas.

1. Try something different, some artistic expression which one hasn’t looked into before. Make papier mâché masks or puppet heads. Create costumes for the children or for the puppets and act out some of your favorite fairy tales or legends. A great (non-Waldorf) book to look into for inspiration is Adventures in Art: Arts and Crafts Experiences for 8-13 Year Olds by Susan Milord. It’s part of the Kids Can! Series, which generally I do not like at all, but this particular book has a lot of really great projects. Most public libraries carry it.
2. Take long non-directed unequipped walks in nature. Leave the binoculars, wild flower guides, nets and microscopes at home and just use your senses. Watch the tidal pool with just your eyes; smell and feel the wet trees; watch the birds or discover the flowers and just forget about their names for now; lie on your backs in silence and watch the clouds float by.
3. Similarly, take blindfolded walks through a wood or in a meadow. Those who are leading blindfolded partners have to be old enough to make this safe, but it can be a wonderful experience. Another variation is to blindfold several children and take each to a different tree. Ask each child to smell and touch her tree - to really get to know it. Then lead each child back again from the tree, spin each one around several times, remove blindfolds - and then each child has to find ‘her tree’.
4. Read aloud some different kinds of books, ones which you might not normally read. Explore mysteries, Westerns, adventure stories, biographies as well as collections of poetry or tales from other lands...
5. Do a family art project. Maybe get a really big stand-up loom and everyone take turns weaving on it. Or paint a mural on the side of your shed, garage or barn.
6. Make that tree house, chicken coop, rabbit hutch or playhouse you never got around to.
7. Find a local organic farm where you can pick berries or basil or tomatoes and learn how to make jam, pesto or tomato sauce.
8. Volunteer at a local beach or river clean-up project or desert restoration project.

But again, most of all, let the children dream, doodle and explore their own projects. Hint - it’ll go easier if you are absorbed in your own work and not apparently availably to play with, entertain or read to!

The Joy of Learning

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, June 2004

Well, summer has come to Northwestern Wisconsin, USA - after nearly 6 months of frozen ground, it is such a pleasure to work in the garden again. Lettuce, potatoes, cucumbers by the bushel, the unpopular zucchini (“there is no way I’m eating that, Mom!”), radishes... and glorious peas. Peas don’t even make it into our house - during pea-time, my sons can often be found happily grazing amongst the pea vines. Each year my husband asks that I plant more so that we can freeze some - and each year I oblige, but the children just eat more!

For our family, summer means No School. Because of our unschoolishness, the reality is that there is no formal school (and no math!). During the school year we blend formal lesson time with life: reading spills over into anytime of the day (and sometimes all of the day!), and my boys will spend hours writing short stories out of their own interest (these are children, neither of whom really could read before age 10 and who could neither spell or consent to write until about a year ago - now I can’t even wade through what they produce!). We also read aloud and have long conversations about...politics, religion, space travel, how long different animals live and why that might be...whatever comes up. As we live on a farm, much of our science/nature studies is simply the day to day reality of raising goats and chickens, observing the changes of the seasons and tending our garden. We have Main Lesson, times during which we study things in a coherent and conscious manner - but we also blend in our sons’ interests and often stray from the usual Main Lesson form.

No School Time is a time of jubilation for my sons. They’re thrilled to be finished with school - but, in reality, what they do during the summer is not all that different from the rest of the year! Reading books by the car-load, being read to by their father or me, doing a bit of German on the computer, writing adventure stories or nature observations....aside from the dread math, there’s really not a whole lot of difference. But we all pretend that No School Time is vastly different and enjoy our summer break!

Something we like to do during No School Time (and also during the rest of the year) is explore the various libraries in our area. Our part of Wisconsin (I don’t know about the rest of the state) is blessed with an especially fine string of small public libraries and a wonderful inter-library loan system. Within 20 miles of home, there are at least a dozen lovely little libraries. We are, like most homeschoolers, well known at all of them and enjoy pouring over their offerings.

At this time of year, though, we are often a little embarrassed to go to the library because at each we are urged by the smiling librarians to sign up for their Summer Reading Program. Poor librarians! Their smiles quickly fade into disbelief when we gently decline. (Well - I’m gentle - I often have to whip a quick hand over the mouth of one of my sons who might express his rather strong opinion about hokey Reading Programs!) They’re so proud of their checklists, fill-in-the-blank forms, star charts and prizes.

As for me - and Daniel and Gabriel who did experience a Summer Reading Program one summer as an experiment and were appalled by its banality - I can never quite understand the thinking behind these programs which are apparently designed to encourage children to read. Isn’t reading in and of itself a worthwhile and enjoyable activity? Why does one need to lure children into reading by offering bribes? In my mind, such programs are counter-productive - surely learning should be viewed as an ongoing process which brings its own rewards and satisfaction.

This all reminds me of a conversation I had a few years ago with a 9th grader who was babysitting my boys. As I got ready to go out, I noticed her unpacking her bag of books to study that evening. She was a student at the local public high school and this year she was taking biology. I asked her how she liked it. It was interesting, she replied, she liked it. Her homework was to study the eye. She showed me her biology textbook and her assignment. Then she paused and said, “Well, I could make a model of an eye, too, but I’m not going to -I don’t need the extra credits.” But wouldn’t it be interesting to just make the model? Wouldn’t she learn something from that? Oh yes, for sure. But she didn’t need the credits so she wasn’t going to bother.

What happens to learning - and, by extension, to one’s experience of growing up and of life - if it’s all down to rewards systems? Isn’t it better if children set the table, for instance, because they’re members of the family and the job needs doing, not simply to accrue stars on a chart? Isn’t it better to undertake a project - writing a report or reading a novel - because the thing itself is worth doing, not just because of a grade or a percentage on a card? Isn’t it better to do the work we do in life because it gives us satisfaction and is worthwhile - not because of some external validation?

I don’t mind tests (for older children, that is) nor do I believe that it is wrong to have standards and expectations that a student needs to live up to (quite the opposite, actually). The former is simply a skill that is useful to have in our society and the latter helps eventually form the child’s own standards and expectations. Used judiciously, learning to take tests can be exciting and enjoyable. Learning from a teacher or parent-teacher helps the child have a sense of growth, of achievement. But a carrot-and-stick approach to learning is neither particularly useful nor conducive to the development of self-evaluation skills. By helping our children to view learning as simply a joyful part of life, something that happens every day and all the time, we give them a gift which will last them all their lives.

The Value of Silence

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, January 2004

In my mind, I visualize Advent time to be like a huge balloon, building, building, building, getting bigger and then POP! Christmas Day, which in my family is also filled with activity, tradition, busyness and fun.

To regain some balance, my husband and I try to find some time for peaceful contemplation during the Twelve Days of Christmas. As mentioned in the last newsletter, we try to find the time to walk on our patch of God’s earth and to hear what it needs. Hear what it needs? The trees and mud and snow are going to say what they need? No. Not in the usual terms, not in spoken-out-loud language. Rather, through silence one can attempt to ‘hear into’ what is expressed by the land.

Cultivating silence - stilling the chatter of the mind - takes practice. As someone with an almost pathological need to make lists and plan ahead, I for one, find this very hard to do. But certainly, whether we are ‘hearing into’ the needs of the land or into the needs of our children and family, this ability to patiently  clear the mind’s clutter - chatter, lists, plans, doubts, worries -  is necessary. Answers come in silence, and the quiet words which help us find direction need the peace of a quiet mind to be heard.

I believe that one big step toward the ability to make peace with the silence within, and to not fear it as a void, is to create times of silence without, in our everyday lives. I am not advocating that we make our homes to be like monasteries! Certainly not! The healthy laughing and shouting of children and adults is part of a happy home. Rather, it is balance that is needed: balance between noisy times and quiet times, out-breath and in-breath.

One way of achieving this is to avoid background noise, to not just mindlessly let the TV, radio, CD player or whatever, be a backdrop for other activity. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that, for instance, listening to music should only ever be an activity unto itself - sometimes background music is desirable - I think it should be done mindfully, with purpose: as I cook this Italian meal, I’m going to listen to an Italian opera; as we clean the house, we are going to listen to Mama’s old Bruce Springsteen tape; as I drive alone in the car, I ‘m going to listen to the radio and sing loudly... I can’t see any problem with this sort of thing. But I think that the automatic turning on of the radio or TV as soon as one enters the house is not healthy. Doing things automatically is symptomatic of a lack of freedom, something none of us would wish for if we were conscious of it.

We can help our children learn to be at ease with silence by requiring silence when they are working in their Main Lesson books, workbooks or on artistic projects. It is a beautiful thing to watch children working in silence, to see their absolute and utter absorption in what they are doing. Anyone who has ever seen a class of 20 or 25 children in a Waldorf school painting in silence, knows that such an atmosphere comes not from oppressive restrictions but arises out of the joy of children finding fulfillment in their work. Again, I am reminded of the words of a very wise and old kindergarten teacher that I met in England who claimed that the best kindergarten teachers hardly speak to their children at all. What a challenging assertion in our day of  “Do you want to do this? What shall we do now?” or even, “Now we’re going to do this” - talk, talk, talk. Instead, with the strength and courage reminiscent of Ma Ingalls in the Little House books, the ideal kindergarten teacher simply is. She does her work and moves through the day, forming, changing and creating as necessary. And the children follow along, soaking up her strength, imitating her actions, basking in her good example. Again, this is not done in oppressive silence - and of course humming and singing would be quite in order - but rather in the comfortable silence demanded by concentration, peacefulness and contentedness.

At home we can be inspired by the role of the kindergarten teacher (even if we have older children) by appreciating how much the parent-teacher’s way of being influences the children. Is Mom quiet and peaceful as she directs the children’s work, focused on the task at hand? Or is she frazzled, thinking about things she needs to do and bringing tension to the morning’s work? It’s not a question of standing over the children, willing them to be silent! It’s the quiet presence, doing the dishes, fixing the lunch, while the children work at the dining room table, that’s so important.

We can reinforce this peacefulness in our children by insisting that they do one thing at a time: when they are looking at a book, they are not also listening to a tape. Clearly a benefit from this approach is enhanced concentration as well as purposefulness. As always, Waldorf education is concerned with what is healthy for the growing child: could it be that the epidemic of attention disorders is at least in part the outcome of  environments that are over-stimulating and ‘multi-tasking’?  By providing a peaceful counterpoint to our busy and productive lives, by allowing our children to benefit from silence, we can make our family lives truly healthy.

Cultivating Perseverance

This article was first published in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, November 2003

As I struggle to write this newsletter, I am half listening to my husband and sons having their recorder lesson. My sons would rather not play recorder and Paul’s stores of patience often seem as though they’re about to empty out! But we had made a decision: the boys are going to learn to play recorder and Dad will give them lessons twice a week.

We feel that playing a musical instrument is an important part of a rich and well-rounded education. How lovely it is to play music together as a family and won’t it be a gift to the boys for them, as adults, to have a gift they can share with other people?

There are other important aspects to this. Playing an instrument such as a recorder helps the boys with coordination of sight, touch, breathing and rhythm. It strengthens their breathing and internal rhythms. And it requires that they listen to each other, playing together either as one voice or in harmonious parts.

Playing recorder also requires them to develop their capacities of perseverance, patience and dedication. At ages 10 and 12, heading rapidly toward adolescence, they need to learn to overcome their inertia and sluggishness, to stand straight without leaning on furniture, and to keep trying, trying and trying again to get the right note, the right phrase, the right beat. And not to give up.

“Don’t feel like it...Too much work...Too much hassle.” Don’t we all hear that little voice which whispers in our ear, beguiling us to give up, to forget about it, not to bother? Children have this too and a challenge to us as parents is to find that delicate balance between, on the one hand, helping them discover the strength of soul which enables them to persevere and, on the other hand, not being oppressive or making life one long dreary round of tasks.

So we choose our battles. We make careful decisions about commitments and responsibilities - a pet, joining the local soccer team, playing piano - and then we make parameters around that decision which must be adhered to. The dog must be fed and walked; the child must attend every soccer practice; the piano must be played every day for 15 minutes. Whatever seems reasonable, seems do-able and, most importantly, which stretches the child that little extra bit, so that he has to work a little, dig a little, to find the determination to live up to his responsibilities.

Guilt and shame have no part to play in this. It’s not about “but I spent $300 on that violin” or “your coach will be sad if you don’t go”. Rather it’s “you wanted to do this, we talked about what it would mean, now you must fulfill your responsibility.” If someone - or something - is depending upon the child (team-mates, an animal...) then we can impress upon him the fact that others are depending upon him (and this can be done without undue emotional pressure), that it’s not just a question of his own inclinations or whims.

Obviously, one has to be sensitive here and to both allow the child to have a sense of fulfilled duty and to not make it a life sentence! (Of course, our expectations need to be age appropriate: what we would expect of a 7 year-old is not the same as we would expect from a 10 or 15 year-old.) Maybe one season of soccer or two years of piano is enough. Maybe twice a week Mom or a sibling care for the dog. The point is not to kill love of music or to instill a fear that once a sport or activity is chosen that’s it! This would be counterproductive and could even produce a child fearful of new experiences.

Like so many aspects of parenting and educating, helping a child develop his inner capacities of determination and perseverance is subtle. It’s an ongoing process, one that needs little active encouragement when, for instance, one watches a baby learning to walk, but which does need cultivating as the child comes down more to earth, incarnates more fully, and has to exert more effort, more will to push against the matter which weighs him or her down, both physically and spiritually.

Our job as parents is to listen and observe carefully, to see what opportunities present themselves which will help our children learn to persevere and to help mold those opportunities, so that they can become positive learning experiences, not hindrances.