The Homeschool Journey

A Computer for an 11 Year Old?

Here is a slightly reworked post from the Waldorf at Home discussion forum. The person who wrote in had an almost 11 year old son and her relatives were suggesting they buy him a laptop for his 11th birthday. What did I think about this?.... Read on!

 

You know what I'm going to say..... DON'T DO IT!!! It will completely change the dynamics in your house in terms of learning. He'll want to type things and not handwrite them.... he'll pester for Internet use...and pester and pester if he's anything at all like 99% of children on earth....all computers come with Encarta or similar so he'll want to use it to look up info for projects instead of books....and if it's a so-called educational thing it will come with so-called educational software which he will want to use....

And the Encarta/Wikipedia thing is a real problem, I can tell you - I (and my colleagues) have a lot of trouble in high school with my students limiting themselves solely to Wikipedia when doing reports. I think Wiki is great and I certainly use it all the time - but only as a key and a guide to deeper knowledge. It often helps me get started on my research and gives me ideas of what to do next - but it is a huge problem to get high school students to stretch and take things further. And I would say that it could be far worse if at 11 or 12 (how long will you hold out?!) a child starts to see Wiki etc as a source - THE source - of information.

There is PLENTY of time to learn all the skills he will need in high school. At the high school where I teach most of the kids enter 9th grade with no knowledge of computers either because their folks are back-to-the-land low tech types or Waldorf people (or both). Within days the kids have learned to set up MySpace things,  use Facebook, watch YouTube videos and can type and print out and e-mail....and use the internet. It takes no time at all to learn these things at that age. And in 3 or 4 years technology will have changed tremendously - the argument that "they need to learn when they're young" holds no water AT ALL in terms of computer technology. Never ever worry that you are holding your son back in terms of computer technology - he will learn easily when he needs to. He is of the computer age - and that is a wonderful thing. But not for children.

What he needs to learn is HOW to learn. How to be a thoughtful, creative, flexible person who has a large context of knowledge and experience so that when he hones things down and starts to specialize when he's older this will have a context. The broad knowledge from the Waldorf curriculum is one of THE best ways a child can learn to be a part of the world, with a historical context, with broad scientific and artistic knowledge, with an acquaintance with the myths, stories, history, literature, art and science of the world.... so that when he needs to find information on a computer and in his life when he's much older, he will know what to do with it and where it fits.

 

A lap top also brings special problems as it is transportable - many parents insist that a computer used by children be in a "public" space in the home. With a lap top it is both exhausitng and demoralizing - for both of you - to monitor where it is and how much a child is on it. We got our then 14 year old son a lap top when he started high school and the idea was that when he was at school all day he wouldn't be on it - he'd only have access to it for a couple of hours at home in the evening for homework. Well, he's returned to homeschooling - and there's the *%$$###!! lap top - in his room. Or there he is on the couch - on the lap top..... etc etc. We work hard at establishing limits for the computer - and that's ok, it's part of learning and our parenting of him. But I tell you, it gets exhausting. If the darn thing was a desk top in our home office, for instance, there would be nautral boundaries to its use which would make things easier!

 

And he's 14 - not just turned 11. Big difference! And life changes completely for a child once he gets one of these things. Do you really think he will let you rest if his friend is designing web pages as you say?

And because you know me,  Forum Member X, I have ranted here a bit without restraint - you know that I say this with passion but gently and with the knowledge that this is a tough choice for you to make - not easy at all. And if you do get the computer, well, there you go! That's your choice.

 

Here are a couple of wonderful articles about computers and children to read - and to print off and hand to friends and relatives worried that computerless children will somehow be at a disadvantage:

 

Fool's Gold

Meetings with a Snake

 

Then there's The Future Does Not Compute, a wonderful book by Steve Talbot of NetFuture , a e-mail newsletter dedicated to "addressing especially those deep levels at which we half-consciously shape technology and are shaped by it." According to Peter J. Denning of the New York Times it is a largely "undiscovered national treasure." The book is available to read online.

Help with Physics - Middle Years and High School

I know it's only April, but if you're like me, you're already thinking about next year's homeschooling adventures! And judging by the number of first grade syllabuses and other things we're selling at the moment, there are a lot of you who are in the "plan ahead" camp!

 

Right now I'm thinking about not just next Fall for my will-be 10th grader, but also about how the next years of his high school education might unfold. There are two other Waldorf homeschooled students of about his age here where we live - and we will probably do a number of things together (we already do). Some subjects are easy (for me at least) to teach and organize - others are a bit more difficult. Science is one of the topics which, though I love it, does not thrill my son. It is also incredibly hard to find resources which lend themselves to being used by people struggling to keep at least a bit of a Waldorf approach to science intact!

 

And the same is true for those of you figuring out how to work with science in the middle years. Eventually we will have a wealth of materials which will spell it all out - but we're not there yet and some of you have 6th, 7th and 8th graders next year and need some help.

 

At the moment I just want to talk about physics - the only area of science which fills me with horror! It just does not go in! I love the color experiments in 6th grade and fiddling about with sending sound through a garden hose, but pulling it all together is well, rather a challenge. And to be honest, as brilliant as Roberto Trostli's Physics is Fun book is (this is a highly recommended book written by a Waldorf teacher) it just doesn't really, really convert 100% to the home situation.

 

So for those of you with middle grades students next year, I do recommend our Nature Stories to Natural Science to help you understand the flow of the Waldorf science curriculum and, specifically, what happens in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. There are many book reviews and practical ideas. I also think that getting Eric Fairman's Path of Discovery books (from www.waldorfbooks.org)  for those grades is a must - he does a great job with science - though again.... it's not quite translatable to one parent teacher and one student at home. But they'll definitely help.

 

So I've been gloomily looking through physics websites trying to figure out what might be helpful in my situation. I'm banking on one of the other students'dads doing a lot of mechanics type physics with them.... but that might not happen. My son is interested in astronomy - and he'd like to understand theoretical physics - I can handle that. So we might spend more time than recommended in Waldorf schools reading than doing... but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

 

Anyway, here's a physics teacher's website which is somewhat helpful. I like it for a variety of reasons - the positive is that there are some really wonderful lesson plans here which, even if you don't use them as they are (because a) they're for groups and b) they are not Waldorf at all) can be useful in helping one think through various physics concepts and/or inspire you for more Waldorf projects and ideas. The negative reason is that by reading through all the silly, inane and ridiculous lesson plans, I can feel better about what I'm doing, reassured that in public schools they spend an awful lot of time doing things that really are not worthy of the time.

 

The lesson plans on this site range from k through 12th grade.

 

Then there's a funky looking free astronomy and Newtonian physics e-book which I found. The author's credentials look impressive - the material looks great at a cursory glance.... But I don't vouch for it until I look it over before my son and I use it!

 

Lastly, I think I will order a programmable robot kit for Gabriel for this Fall. There are some really sophisticated  (and expensive) kits which use both engineering and computer programming skills to create robots which perform a variety of tasks. You can get these kits from www.homesciencetools.com. Once we get the robot and use it, I will report here how it went!

8th Grade World History

A couple of months ago I got a phone call from the 8th grade teacher at our local Waldorf school - she was exhausted (as most th grade Waldorf teachers are) and was there any way I could come and do a short two week mini main lesson with her class? We talked a bit about what they had been doing and what she thought they needed and what would take me the least amount of preparation (main lessons don't just come tumbling off one's sleeve at short notice!). We decided that what would be best was if I taught a main lesson in World Geography.

 

The block went brilliantly - the students were a great group - the quality of their listening and the level of their engagement spoke highly of their class teacher's wonderful work with them as a group over the years. And they were just ripe for what I had to offer - their heads were full of thoughts of high school and though I have recently resigned from the slightly Waldorf inspired high school in town, they saw me as a High School teacher. And that's pretty much what I brought them - high school content. I was very aware of their journey through the Waldorf curriculum - and through a large, sweeping look at world geography and history (with lots of politics and economics thrown in) I aimed to revisit places and events they had covered throughout the grades and help them see the connections on a world scale.

 

As a high school teacher, whether I am teaching history, social studies or literature, I tend to move very fast and to make grand sweeping narratives through my material. For the 8th grade, I took them on a journey which started with looking at the earth as a whole, as an integrated, living, cohesive unity. They had just had a main lesson on meteorology so they were familiar with the Earth's weather patterns. We started with this and then looked at the expression of the Earth in terms of biomes and in terms of the formation of land masses and the relationship between land and water on a global scale.

 

We began with a Goethean exercise, looking at a map of the Earth (one without political boundaries), just describing what we saw. They described the land and the prevalence of water.... then they noticed that there was more land and less water in the Northern Hemisphere. After a bit they also noticed that there is a pattern across the globe of a massing in the north and a thinning down into peninsulas and/or islands to the south of each land mass. There is also usually an island off to the East of most land masses. Have a look at a world map yourself and have a look! We discussed whether there was indeed aa "right way up" for the map and was East really East or a Western notion (why then do the Japanese call their country the Land of the Rising Sun if the concepts East and West have no substance?!).

 

We then found the equator and looked at how there was a mirroring of ice at either pole and a wide band of tropical rain forest across the middle of the globe. We looked at savannahs and deciduous forests, at deserts and grasslands. I described each in detail - the plants, the animals, the weather. How did/do people live in these various biomes?

 

Over the course of the first week we gradually moved inward toward detail - from looking at the Earth as a whole, we moved into looking at continents and areas. We brought in human beings. How did/does geography effect human beings? We looked at the differences between hunter-gatherers and city dwellers. Why were the first great cities on plains? Why did the Nile as well as the Tigress and Euphrates become the birthing places of great civilizations? Why was the Mediterranean so important - then we came upon trade. How does geography effect trade - and what is trade anyway? We discussed what resources are and what was important to people long ago. We looked at the horse as a living form of technology - we jumped over to North America and discussed the fact that there were no horses here until the Spaniards came. How did the horse change the lives of the people here?

 

Back to Eurasia and back several thousand years - what great technological invention completely changed the way people lived? The wheel. We talked about wells and pulleys and chariots. We talked about how people living on plains could use chariots or ride on horseback whilst people in mountains or thick jungles would use the horse less. Where did various invaders come from? Then we went back and marvelled at the fact that the builders of the pyramids had no wheel. Neither did the Aztecs. The Romans had wheels. And they built straight roads. What is the effect on the land and on people when roads are straight as opposed to curving with the landscape?

 

We returned to the concept of resources. We looked at a modern political map and discussed resources and inventions. What great inventions followed the wheel? We talked about the printing press. What did it mean for people's lives that they could easily communicate ideas through the written word? Is trade just about material resources? We looked at the spread of ideas - of the ideas of the Greeks that traveled with the Muslim world to Spain and was safe guarded and expanded there. And then was taken up again in Renaissance Europe. How did ideas get from one place to another? We looked at the spread of religion - at Christianity and Islam. We looked at Judaism - here was something different - what was different? What was the Diaspora - why did it happen? What was the effect on a people who could not own land (in Europe) or join certain  trades?

 

 What about China? We talked about the Silk Route, about the spread of Buddhism, about the contact between China and Europe. We jumped ahead and looked at Japan. Here is an island. Western contact came in the form of Jesuits and traders - then the Japanese rejected influence from the West and closed their doors for two hundred years! The students were amazed by this - what could that mean? What importance did that have for the Japanese people and their culture? And what wasthe significance of the fact that Japan is an island?

 

Then we whizzed over to another island, to Britain. First we discussed what exactly "Great Britain" is and when that title came about - we got a bit side tracked discussing Ireland (here's another island) and then got back to England/Great Britain. We talked about how a heavily wooded island ("oh, you mean Sherwood Forest!") came to be a much less wooded island in part because of the need for wood to build..... ships! What was the after-effect of the Armada? One piece was that Britain became the dominant naval power of the world. Before launching into a discussion of colonialism and imperialism, we side stepped to consider the fact that the Chinese had at one time had the greatest naval fleet at one point with enormously sophisticated ships which dwarfed the European ships both in size and technological sophistication. But.... the Emperor commanded that the Celestial Empire had no need of exploring the rest of the world - and the ships were destroyed.

 

Back to Britain. We picked up on threads from the Spanish and Portuguese explores - what were they looking for? Gold and souls. We talked about their impact on the "New World"  (and what did this term mean - New to whom?). We considered how ideas were not the only thing that people spread as they traveled across the globe. We spent time discussing disease - went back and looked at the Plague in Europe and how it contributed to the end of feudalism and thus the end of the concept that people were chattel which could be acquired along with land. That of course led into a discussion about slavery and about the differences between slavery in the New World and in the Old. Back to our land theme, I shared with them the story of the cotton gin and how slavery might just have died out if Eli Whitney hadn't made this invention. This bowled them over! And that dovetailed neatly into a discussion of the beginnings of modern globalisation and capitalism - the cotton was grown by the slaves here in the "New World", taken to Britain to be spun into cloth by the workers in the mills (and I gave them a picture of what the mills were like - and again, with this theme of the relationship to land, talked about the enclosures and how agricultural practices changed and how one effect was to drive people off the land - and into the mills and coal mines) and then often shipped back to be sold to Americans! And picking up again on the land and resources - what was now needed? What great invention came about? The steam engine - and that needed coal and it needed iron and steel. And Britain had all these things plus easy access to trade routes via water. Enter the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

 

And thus we came full circle, back to our original picture of the Earth as a whole. We knew that the environment is a whole - if factories in the US Midwest pollute the air then the forests in Canada will suffer. We saw that trade was international - we spent some time talking about China and why everything in Walmart is made there. We dipped into economic theories - mobile workforces and capital, free markets, state intervention, labor theory of value.  Many of the students' parents are organic farmers - why all the fuss about eating local food? And then we had to look at Fair Trade issues, too.... and what are the shortcomings in a global capitalist economy? We looked at industries like fishing in the North sea - how do Canada, Iceland, the UK and Denmark come to agreements about fishing rights? How are the fish effected? What are the economic, social and ecological consequences? What happens when a people's way of life is dependent on something like fishing?

 

Well.... that's only a glimpse at what we covered. And the students loved it - poised on the threshold of a new stage of life, they were so eager to step into the world and try to understand some of these concepts. I took great care to try to emphasize that while there was a lot of destruction and horror in this picture that we had looked at together, that the point now is that people have the capacity to not be agents of destruction on the earth but to be co creators in positive growth and change. One worried student shared that she knew that some people thought the earth would be better off without human beings. We talked about this - most of the students thought that somehow this wasn't right, that human beings were a part of the order of life, though their capacities were obviously different from that of the natural world. I was relieved to hear them affirm this.

 

Because it was such a short block, I required very little homework. They had one 2 -3 page paper to write. I wanted them to examine the positive and negative effects people had had in specific geographical places and what the relevance of the geography was to what took place as well as the political and social implications. They chose from the Panama Canal; the Suez Canal; the Boll Weevil and Cotton in the US South; Lake Baikal in Russia; and the Dust Bowl in the US. Most of them wrote very good papers which showed that they understood that geography, the environment, politics and social life are all connected.

 

I hope you enjoy reading this - I certainly enjoyed sharing it with the students! In class, of course, I  paused often to make sure they were with me as we galloped across the stage of world history and across the globe itself! I tend to see my teaching as weaving - I move strongly forward with a theme - then double back and pick up any loose ends. Then I return again and again in subsequent days to look once again at what we talked about - but with students of this age, not to just recapitulate, but to deepen and to explore from another angle.

 

 

High School Blog

My son Gabriel has returned home to homeschool high school - and I am also teaching several local Waldorf high schoolers as well. So I will be chronicling our adventures together in a new blog. I think that this new blog will be of use not only to those of you with high school students but also those of you with 7th and 8th graders - and those of you thinking ahead! Find it here:

http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/highschool

This Semester

Our first step once Gabriel decided that he wanted to return home and once we all agreed that this was indeed the best thing to do was to have a discussion about what he wanted to do. As in the middle years of homeschooling, we had a conversation about what Gabriel's interests are and then I would note all that down and make suggestions about additional or alternative things to study.

 

Gabriel had already been doing an independent study at school with me in Philosophy - not really a subject for 9th graders, but Gabriel was pretty adamant. He had had a pretty rough first semester so we wanted him to feel good about what he was doing in his second semester at school. Well, he wound up returning home and Philosophy has become his first main lesson. At school he would have only had 3 weeks for a main lesson - at home we have the luxury of drawing that our to 5. In later blogs I will explain in some detail what we are doing for each block (and for other lessons) - for now I'll just give an overview of our plans.

 

After Philosophy we will have 5 weeks of History for main lesson. This is Gabriel's favorite subject (at the moment). He wants to do modern history but I have persuaded him to go back and pick up on Ancient history again for now. I have given him two whopping great books to look through to figure out what he wants to do. One is Ancient History: First Civilizations to the Renaissance a huge 900+ page volume full of photos and illustrations as well as World History: Patterns of Interaction, a conventional high school text book published by McDougal Littell. I have used the latter one extensively when preparing for classes I taught at the Waldorf-ish high school here as it is very well done. One would never want to teach out of a text book (at home or at school) but a text book certainly helps one get an overview of things and helps orientate oneself to do further research.

 

Anyway, Gabriel has until Monday to decide what he wants to do: he has to either choose a civilization to study (Mesopotamia, China, Egypt) or choose a time period and study what was happening at various places during that time. Depending on what he decides he wants to do, I'll come up with requirements for papers and possibly a test. He is presently doing a main lesson book in Philosophy and will not be thrilled by two MLBs in a row. So we'll see. I am tryoing top get him to do some art projects but I have found that pretty hard with him since he was about 13. Fortunately he can do some art classes either at his old school  or in the community. So it's not a proper Waldorf "teaching via art" - but it's the best we can do!

 

After that is a 2 week catching and bits and bobs period in April. He'll be able to take a breath during that time - his grandmother and her husband will be visiting here from the UK during that time as well so we'll be pretty busy with them.

 

After that is two weeks of cooking - from planning to putting it on the table, all on his own. He wants to do really fancy cordon bleu type meals. I look forward to that - especially as that will be when we are finishing our second and third grade curriculum and might be fairly crazy!

 

The last main lesson of the year will be on ecology. That will be 4 weeks long and we will hopefully be joined by our neighbor's son who had been in the same class as Gabriel and also decided to return home (he also had homeschooled).

 

In addition to these main lessons, Gabriel is doing French, pottery, dance and then theatre at school; and math, English and business studies at home. This latter is something he's been involved with since we started Christopherus. Gabriel co-wrote our Medieval history unit study and has been a help in the office for quite some time. Starting last summer we took him on as a paid part time employee then lost him to school... now he's back and he will be involved in website management and design; marketing; fulfilling orders and much more!

Homeschool High School

Well, Gabriel, my 14 year old, decided to return home. He spent a semester and a little bit at the vaguely Waldorf high school where I was teaching and has had enough. He has come home.

 

So now both my boys are homeschooling again! Well.... I'm not sure what Daniel is doing really counts - he's doing a correspondence course for his British exams so that he can get a job or perhaps go to university once he's settled back in the UK. Gabriel, like us, has no plans for moving and eventually wants to go to college here. Like his brother, he could probably go to a very selective college - unlike his brother, that is a path which interests him. Daniel has decided that he needs grounding and wants to pursue a trade. He is interested in working for the railroad. Or he might go into the Royal Navy, a path which really challenges his anti-militaristic parents - though the discipline and hard work would undoubtedly do him an enormous amount of good. Daniel has always been a handful - largely because of him I have never felt I have "the answer" when it comes to parenting and largely because of him I am very good at strategizing ways of dealing with difficult youngsters with clients! He has also helped me be humble - I might be an expert when it comes to working with children and teens - but he helps me remember that parenting one is a totally different kettle of fish!!

 

Anyway, he is at home studying - he also goes to the high school to take Spanish. Gabriel will do most of his work here at home but will take a couple of classes at the school as well. He will continue with French and is finishing both a dance class (tango, would you believe!!) and a pottery class. Once they finish he'll join a theatre class. I am pleased he can do those things at his old school as they are certainly not opportunities I can provide at home (sorry - I don't tango with anybody!).

 

There are many reasons why Gabriel came home - some have to do with the school itself. But his main reason is that he likes to study things in depth and that was not possible at school. This was in part due to a school which is not formed very well - there are far too many classes and the main lessons are too short (they are all 3 weeks long). But the nature of school itself does tend to conspire against deep study - even in a real Waldorf school. He tried out school before - he spent a semester and a half in our local Waldorf school in 5th into 6th grade. His main complaint was that he had no time to read books - they had 30 minutes two or three times a week to read - but many of the children were very restless and noisy and Gabriel got very distracted - and when one is used to being able to read uninterrupted for hours at a time, reading in 30 minute bursts just doesn't cut the cake!

 

So... we are Real Bona Fide homeschoolers again! And that means I will be sharing with you all what we do! This is good news for the range of curriculum we are orividing as I not only have the high school lessons I taught at school to draw from for publications, but I will be designing lessons for Gabriel and will be churning them out over the years too!

 

I will also be regularly blogging in the meantime focusing on what I am doing with Gabriel. There are no other Waldorf high school homeschoolers doing this as far as I know (and if you know differently please tell me about it!) so I anticipate this will be of great service to those few lonely souls trying to do Waldorf high school at home. If you know of any place where this blog can be listed where others will find it, do so! Please tell other Waldorf (or open to Waldorf) high school at home people about my blog. Let's get the word out there so people will be less isolated!

The new blog: Waldorf High School at Home

A Teen Across America

There's a lot of quiet excitement in this household as our eldest prepares to take a train alone across continent to stay for a week with older friends in Washington State. Basically we paid for 1/2 of the price of Daniel's ticket and he paid the rest plus other expenses. We have issued a few standard safety warnings (beware friendly men in toilets, where to stash his ticket and ID, and the old New Yorker in me couldn't resist offering the 'bring $50 for the mugger' advice) and will be delivering him to the train Friday night. He has been told to call when he gets to his friends' apartment - and that's it.

 

Some people might be horrified by this - what, no cell phone? No - no cell phone. A 16 year old boy away from his family for Thanksgiving? Yup. And staying with three 19 year olds 1,500 miles away. Yessiree.

 

I have never demanded my sons have a cell phone - I know what a comfort they can be to parents.... but I have always felt that if the child or teen is mature enough to be allowed to do - whatever it is - then he needs the full  experience of both the joys and the pitfalls of that experience. I am reminded of a friend who let her 17 year old son cycle and ride a train a couple of hundred miles to our house alone - and who demanded he be available to her calls at all times. And then  on the other hand I think of the stories a college friend told me of his father's idea of an appropriate coming-of-age ceremony for him at age 18. The father was Korean, the son very American. Before he would agree to pay for college, the father shipped the son (who did not speak Korean) off to Korea with a one-way airplane ticket.. It took my friend about 6 months to figure out how to earn the money to return to CA and be judged by his father as worthy of being responsible enough to go to college and get what he needed from it. It's a cliché but very true - my friend went to Korea a boy and came home a man.

 

And I know that my son will be very different when he returns home. He will have had to make many judgments about safety, about transportation, about timing. He will meet strangers and have to figure out what is safe and what is not. When he stays with his friends he will also have to make sound judgments about the behavior he might share with them.... And I am certain that whether he makes mistakes or not, that that now is for him to judge and for him to learn from.

 

Just as at 9 we would allow him to go out on our frozen lake armed with knives, fire and a hatchet, we know that he has gotten as much appropriate guidance as we can provide for him at this stage of life. We taught him how to use dangerous tools as a boy. We have taught him life lessons as a boy and as a teen. It is time now for him to go out and use some of that knowledge. And if he falls I know he is strong enough to be able to pick himself up, dust himself off and learn from the experience. And just as the trust we shared with him in an age appropriate manner when he was 9 strengthened him as a person, in the same way he will come home more sure of himself in who he is and feel affirmed in our trust in him as a responsible and sensible young man.

High School World History

Today I finished a three week main lesson at the Waldorf-flavored high school where I teach part time. It was a class with the juniors and we spent three weeks galloping through the centuries from the Fall of Rome to the year 1900. That's a lot of history by any stretch and a ridiculous amount to cram into one little three week main lesson! But  one of the peculiarities of this school is its three week main lessons, so one learns to adjust!

 

And because Waldorf is concerned with the "economy of teaching", of the "symptomatic approach" to history, one does not need to fret that one has not covered every country, every battle, every historical event of note. Instead, one works with a wider sweep, searching for themes that move through historical periods and then broadly outlining the lives of people or events which took place which are symptomatic of that change.

 

And so, after a quick re-cap on the Fall of Rome and the next 800 or so years ( they had had a block last year which went to the early Medieval Age), we slowed down to get a sense for the essence of the Medieval Age in Europe - what was it about? How did people live? How did the people view themselves and the world? We then moved on to the Renaissance and took as a theme, what are the differences between the Medieval Age and the Renaissance? We didn't have to cover every fascinating person - we touched on Joan of Arc, on Henry the Navigator and Marco Polo, Ghenghis Khan, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci and others - as typical of that time period.

 

Then we looked at Muslim Spain - at the great cultures there. We doubled back and remembered what we'd learned about Haroun al-Rashid and Charlemagne and also about the Crusades. Now we turned to Spain and to Ferdinand and Isabella and their religious fervor and the destruction of the Muslims and Jews - and how this paved the way, monetarily, for Columbus' journey to the "New World". And we did not forget to mention Cortes, who gained his experience in killing in Spain before he perfected it in the world of the Aztecs. (an extraordinary novel set during this time is Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali - for adults or mature older teens).

 

Here we then also get a sense of connections - of world and cultural karma if you will. The students marveled at the fact that Haroun al-Rashid (ruler of a great Muslim empire from 763 - 809) and Charlemagne (Frankish ruler, Holy Roman Emperor at roughly the same time) actually discussed an arranged marriage between Charlemagne and as-Rashid's sister! What consequences might that have had for history and for the relations between the Muslim and Christian worlds had that happened! And again, we marveled at the chivalry of the exchanges between Saladin and Richard the Lionheart during the Crusades - Saladin actually sent his personal physician to treat Richard who had fallen ill. Well, once he was better the battle could commence... And so it did.

 

Moments from history give us all pause to think. And greater sweeps of history, of examining the differences in people's consciousness and how they change from one historic period to the next also give us a lot to think about. What about the fact that as the British Empire began to grow after the defeat of the Armada, that Japan, half a world away, entered its isolationist period, effectively closing itself off from the rest of the world? What ramifications might that have had for us all?

 

And so on. Our block was very exciting and wide ranging.  We touched on many topics, including the rise in rationalism, the Protestant Reformation, the Industrial Revolution and the true beginnings of globalisation with the development of capitalism....And we spent time looking at the ideas of the Enlightenment and how they influenced not only the French and American Revolutions but also the formation of Haiti and men like Toussant L'Overture. I was keen to ensure that the students realized that such ideals spread far beyond European culture.

 

I love history - I love the stories of humanity and all the twists and turns and interconnections of the individual and society. My students were also excited. I will undoubtedly teach this main lesson again next year to next year's juniors - and then perhaps one or more high school history books will eventually be available for you all!

Upper Grades Chemistry

Working with a Waldorf approach to science in the home is extremely difficult. A Goethean approach, one which is empirical, holistic and creative, can be very frustrating to achieve as soon as one leaves the natural sciences behind. And chemistry is especially challenging as it can be very difficult to present it in such a way that it doesn't seem to be disjointed or unrelated to life.

 

A further challenge with chemistry at home is getting the materials - one can go a certain distance with kitchen chemistry, making bread and root beer, for instance and observing the effects of the yeast on the soda or bread. Getting  water testing kit and/or a soil testing kit can also ground chemistry in the world around us - and I certainly recommend that one begin ones explorations into chemistry with ones child with just those kinds of things.

 

But to do "real" chemistry, one has to get the equipment. And that means acquiring chemicals and paraphenalia which is not found around the house!

 

Just this last month (March 2007) I did a three week main lesson in chemistry with my 8th grader and a friend. The friend is a tenth grader at the high school where I teach who opted to skip his scheduled main lesson to join us instead. Using Thames & Kosmos Chem C3000 chemistry kit (google it and you should be able to buy it for somewhere between $150 and $180) I put together an extremely successful main lesson that was educational, enjoyable and, most importantly, enabled us to do real chemistry experiments.

 

The manual that accompanies the kit is extremely thorough and well written. Unlike many sad science kits my sons and I have bought over the years, this one actually had instructions that were both easy to follow, clear and had a relationship to the actual materials!! One small hiccup was the fact that I could not find one of the test tubes of chemicals. I phoned Thames & Kosmos' very helpful customer service department and the woman was able to tell me that I did have the necessary chemical - but that the label only had the German name! With a bit of quick translating, we were able to proceed.

 

And, of course, not all the experiments turned out as they were meant to. But that is a normal part of chemistry and allowed the boys and I to talk about variables and about duplicating experiments. I should emphasize, though, that most of the experiments turned out perfectly and were really very enjoyable and interesting to do.

 

The other really good thing about the manual is that it puts all the experiments into context (for instance work with sulfur came within a discussion of acid rain). There is also a really well presented progression which runs through the course and which ties them together in a way that ensures the student gets a really good grounding in the sense of chemitry and does not merely play with a series of disjointed phenomena. And back to our Waldorf approach, the more one can present before reading  about what one is doing and the more one can help relate the experiments to one another and to life, the closer one gets to something of a Goethean approach. So for the boys, I kept ahold of the manual and often did not tell them what we were about to do. Instead, I gave them the instructions to set up the experiment and then asked them to observe. Then we talked about what we did and saw (and smelt or heard!) and only then did I read the text to them.

 

Our main lesson lasted for only three weeks because of the 10th grader's schedule constraints - really, we would need a good 6 to 9 weeks to have worked properly with this kit (and my son and I will return to the kit before school finishes in the summer).  We spent a solid hour and a half each morning focused on the experiments. If one adds in time to study the periodic table and atomic theory (both are mentioned in the manual but need additional resources to work with properly) and perhaps a few cooking experiments, then one has about 12 weeks of chemistry here. In other words, one could do at least three good, solid main lessons spanning 8th through 11th grade based on this kit.

 

A few highlights for us so far were:

 

making oxygen

making a mini fire extinguisher

seeing close-up lab effects of acid rain

making crystals

understanding catalytic converters

making hydrogen

chromatography

burning metals

doing experiments which illustrated electron transfer

making silver cleaner from calcium hydroxide and ammonium chloride

desalinating water

and much more....!

 

Almost everything is included in the kit and though the amounts of chemicals one uses and the equipemt supplied is all on a small scale, it never feels like dolls'chemistry. Indeed, with all the health warnings throughout the manual (including clear instructions for disposing of dangerous materials) one has a very real experience of chemistry! There are a few things not included in the kit, mainly because of safety issues. You can get the ethyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) for the burner and the hydrogen peroxide easily enough from a drug store. But to get hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide (crucial for many of the experiments with bases and acids) you need to contact Caroline Biological Supplies (www.carolina.com) and tell them that you are a school.... they will ask for your school's name so be ready....

 

The other tricky thing is that in Germany they must use different potencies of chemicals. So the manual calls for hydrochloric acid in 2 mole strength but Carolina sells only 1 mole or 3 mole. So I bought both and cannot see that there is any difference in any of the experiments. In other words, you can probably get away with just the 1 mole strength.

Handwork and Crafts with Older Children

It seems that everywhere one looks there are wonderful on-line stores and home businesses selling all manner of lovely craft items for children - young children. I can't think why, but there is a distinct lack of craft kits and ideas for older children. Maybe people think that older ones (somewhere over 10) can just do adult crafts - but that really isn't the case. And, of course, the Waldorf curriculum has definite indications for what craft and handwork activities are done when - and there are many!

 

I don't want to reproduce the handwork/craft curriculum here - it is available other places. Instead, I'd like to list ideas for homeschoolers with older children who are running out of inspiration for things to make with their older (10 and up) children.

 

First of all, I need to mention HearthSong - they seem to make a real effort to cater to the needs of somewhat older children - many of their kits are very suitable for children up to about 12 or 13 or even older. We have used many of their kits over the years and have found them well organized with easy to follow instructions and with beautiful and ample materials. As it is February when I am writing this, some of you might like to think ahead to challenging Easter projects for your children. HearthSong has a wonderful Ukrainian Easter Egg kit which is certainly challenging enough for teens (and adults!). They also have a Decoupage Goose Egg kit which I haven't tried but which I am sure lives up to the high quality of their other kits. Visit them at www.hearthsong.com  Here is a partial list of some of the kits which we have bought from them over the years and which my sons enjoyed doing:

 

lino kit

pine needle baskets

beaded snowflake Christmas ornaments

Various elaborate candle making and decorating kits

tie-dye kit

embroidery kit

 

Other possibilities which look interesting include a bead loom; a Mexican sugar skull kit; mosaic stepping stones; and various macrame, beading and jewelry making kits.

 

When no kits have been available or once we were confident to "go it alone" my family has often shopped either at our local Michael's ( a craft store chain) or bought mail-order from Dick Blick:  www.dickblick.com You can find supplies for all the above activities as well as ways of further extending them. Using their materials, my sons

 

made various shaped candles and dyed and decorated them

carved balsa wood as a precursor to proper carving

got more things such as plain napkins to tie-dye

tried our hand at glass painting - watch out - it's very toxic!

made some wonderful handmade books and paper

enjoyed scratch art (quite a nice way to work with black and white contrasting in the 6th grade curriculum)

worked on calligraphy

made a few simple things from leather

decorated boxes as presents

learned to emboss metal foil sheets

 

I hope you find many activities for your older children as well! And if any Waldorf-inspired crafts people are reading this, do consider making up some kits to sell - I know they'd be popular!