Waldorf High School at Home

Scheduling Challenges

One of the joys of homeschooling is long uninterrupted time to read, create art, dig in the garden, daydream..... All good, all very necessary - but all in danger of getting out of control, thus throwing  a student's homeschooling schedule out of kilter.

 

My 11th grader is totally self organized - and seems to have been from day one. When he was younger I consciously wove his interests into his schedule - so at 10 we had a block on the Voyageurs; at 11 we did some paleontology; by 12 American history was a huge interest; and at 13 we used a lot of science fiction for his English lessons. When he was in high school he managed reasonably well with arranging his studies to the demands of the school day - but when in 10th grade he decided to write a novel, this definitely got in the way of other classes. And his father and I supported him - we would have preferred he didn't fail Art History - but we respected his choice to do his best at what he was interested in - what was worthwhile to him - and to not just "play the game" and pass because passing comes easily to him. There was a nobleness about this - and yet he needed to also understand that sometimes in life there are times when one simply has to learn to juggle things -and that some of those things will be less interesting than others.

 

Daniel is now doing a correspondence course from a college in the UK - he is working on several exams as he will be returning to the UK (rather sooner than we had first thought...). He hates these exams - and I don't blame him. Even though he chose subjects that he likes (politics and history) the format is pretty dull and dry. (he also is studying math - maths as they say in Britain). Anyway, what he has learned to do is to strictly schedule time for his exam studies - and then to allow time for his own interests. At the moment he is reading Lao-tse, Thomas Paine and Schopenhauer and exploring permaculture.

 

Gabriel, my 9th grader, is also figuring out how to develop a schedule. Each Sunday night we discuss the things he has to do in the following week and then he uses this as a rough guide to get the balance right. We started a system like this when he was in about 4th grade. By 7th grade I would just write up his weekly schedule - in years previous I would write out each day's work.

 

Gabriel's challenge is that he too really gets into something and can focus on that to the exclusion of all else. Before he went to high school there were weeks when all he did was Latin and German - and maybe a bit of math when I nagged at him. He moved a long wonderfully in his languages - but when the phase was over, he wouldn't return to them for weeks and would then lose much of his thread. It felt important to let him discover this for himself at his age.

 

 He embarked on a history main lesson starting this week - I asked him to choose a subject or period from Ancient history to focus on - he chose Egypt. Then I helped him get books from the library - and now he is scanning books to narrow down the focus of his study. We have a couple of good history text books to help him get a broad sense for the development of Egyptian Ancient history. He has also been asked to choose an art project for the main lesson. He has two English classees (regular and AP); algebra 2, French and then his classes at school in pottey and dance. We will do a science main lesson later in the spring. Social studies consists of regular family debates on the merits and shortcomings of the presidential candidates, the American government system, the continued war in the Middle East.... and so on. We watch the Jim Lehrer report on public TV and read the papers and follow several internet sources for information. We occasionally watch Fox news to see what so much of America uses as its source of information on the world and to thus get some understanding of some of America's problems.....

 

So.... it can be a challenge to find the right way to work with a high school schedule - I am really excited by students (my sons in this case) who love to really go deeply with their interests. But I also feel a responsibility to help them learn to budget their time and to make themselves work on lesser interests when necessary.

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 trying 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!

English Class

Today will be the first session of our new homeschool high school English class. We will meet once a week till the end of the semester - with a break in the middle for Easter - and will have 12 sessions all together.

 

The first day of a class is always the most important - I have learned that over the years. It's when the children or teens decide "hmmmm.... is this person really up to what they say they can do? Am I going to like being here?" I like to start classes by being very lively and moving quite fast. I always make a mental note of any child's weakness or questions (said or unsaid) and go back and pick up on things when the time seems right. Some children just sit there with their unspoken questions which can be quite a weight - a challenge is to either help them find ways to articulate those questions or to answer them in the course of what one does with the child.

 

Anyway.... here's an outline of what we're doing....

 

Our emphasis is on writing. We'll also be reading two novels, Cannery Row by John Steinbeck and  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. And we'll also be working on vocabulary and a bit of grammar here and there - the great thing about having a focus on writing is that one can pick up on problems or confusion a student has right then and there. That is how I like to teach - I have a well worked out plan and then am completely willing to go a different direction if needs be.

 

Today we'll go over what we'll be doing in the class and then work together on some vocabulary and word usage lessons I have created. I especially like doing things like creating tangled sentences (overblown or too sparse) and asking students to improve them. This can generate a lively conversation - in large classes students usually fall over each other in attempts to "please, please can I read mine?!" It also makes for an easy way to address the nuts and bolts of good writing in a living and lively way.

 

The point here is to talk about good writing and experiment with it. I also have excerpts from a few books of wonderful descriptive paragraphs - Gerald Durrell in My Family And Other Animals (great for middle years or high school reading or read aloud) has some wonderful descriptive paragraphs - which we read aloud and look at. Part of the students' homework  is to bring in a book or two next week with a couple of examples of good writing - and we will discuss this. What makes good writing?

 

Another part of the homework will be a number of writing prompts which I have created over the years of teaching English to homeschoolers and at school. When they return next week I will collect what they have written and go over it and write comments on it. The students will rewrite what they've written next - a process which many balk at - and then we will read it aloud in class the following week.

 

More homework - to read Cannery Row. I HATE reading books in snatches and bits!! The good readers get frustrated because they have to slow down and the poor readers get frustrated because they have trouble getting a sense for the whole book. I hated it as a student and I refuse to do it as a teacher (I learned how much better it is to read books in one go and then go back over them at college). So I always arrange my classes so that the students have time to read the whole book - and then we go back over parts. Much better. Authors do not write books in chunks - they weave a whole story which needs to be looked at as a whole!

 

Last part of the homework is vocabulary. I have come up with a list of words for them to work on for the next 4 weeks. Then we will work with Vocabulary from Classical Roots by Norma Fifer and Nancy Flowers. I recommend this series in my  Curriculum Overview for middle years  students - Book C and up is suitable for high school. These are really well done non patronizing non dunbed down self teaching workbooks (not Waldorf) available on line or through Amazon.

 

Here is a list of  this weeks' vocabulary that I think this class can handle (and they are a pretty advanced group - not all 9th and 10th graders are up for vocabulary like this though I think they should be): cryptic, ensconce, ignominious, mutability, spurious, dissipate, timorously, speculative, congenial, piscatory. Next week they will be given a test in which they need to define some words and use some in sentences which clearly indicate the meaning of the word (some students find this extraordinarily difficult - from 6th grade on I suggest one work with this - I give examples in my Roman History unit study). I might also use antonyms.

 

You can see that there appears to be a lot of homework here - I am an anti homework person (by and large) when students are in school. But when one is homeschooling and only meeting in a class once a week, the students need to spend a lot of time outside class doing work.

 

I will give more updates as we move through the semester!