Going to start homeschooling, but so lost. Questions

[TulsiLeaf]

Hello!

We will be homeschooling our daughter for her kindy year (which starts fall 2010) but we have decided to start during the summer.

We really love Waldorf, not so into Montessori and would love to dabble in some unschooling. But I am unsure of good resources for both. Books thatI can check out from the library are good, free online sources, your own personal thoughts, please help!

I am at a loss for things to do with her. Give me a screaming baby and I am fine! But a nearly 5 year old? I don't know what to do with this poor kid. My daughter loves to draw, paint and play with play dough. She loves dress up and cooking to. We are trying to establish a general weekly rhythm in our house and within that something of a daily rhythm. We also are going to join a co -op later in the fall and we are excited about that.

I want to do some crafts with her, but I do have some things I don't like.

I don't like art that isn't something we can display. I know this sounds horridly superficial, but I hate macaroni art, those sponge stickers. Anything like that. It seems super wasteful to me (because we just throw it away afterwards. At least with painting, we keep and display and I am going to keep them for a book for her). So do you have any idea for crafts that are made from things in the garden? Or have inexpensive, easy things to get to make stuff with?

Also, I am confused about unschooling. So I need to check that out.

Thanks@!

[elizawill]

You'll get lots of support and great advice. I'm really not qualified to advise on unschooling or waldorf, but I did want to mention a lovely blog and curriculum (well not really a curriculum, as it aims mainly to to set a rhythm to your day). It's Little Acorn Learning... http://www.littleacornlearning.com/

She has lovely ideas & even without purchasing anything, the blog is inspiring in itself.

HTH.

[*Jessica*]

First, go read, read, read on the Unschooling board here at MDC! You'll find more info and book recommendations there than you will here on the general Learning at Home and Beyond board.

Next, I completely understand what you mean about the art! I detest the type of art projects that are usually done in elementary school. We did start out Nik's kindergarten year with this Art Book project so that I could cover some of the basics of art (because I am notoriously bad at missing opportunities to bring things like this up in a natural way without boring my children to death with too much information!)

After the art book we did a few projects from Discovering Great Artists. And then we just sort of morphed into charcoal, pastels, colored pencils, acrylics, watercolors, or whatever else he wanted to explore.

There are a couple of blogs that we've pulled projects from, too. Art Projects for Kids is one, and Deep Space Sparkle is the other.

Oh, I just saw a neat project in Family Fun magazine's most recent issue that you might enjoy! Flower Fairies

I have no idea if any of this will be of help to you. Have fun!

[CT Mommy]

Jessica--You could also check out your local art museums and galleries. Many offer hsing "classes" basically a program during the day when all the other kids are in school. They usually do substantive art projects for kids. I have a sketchbook (even for my 2.5 year old) that we take to the museums/galleries and they "sketch" different sculptures/paintings each time we go. It is fun to see the progress of sketching their favorite painting overtime.

I also know that there is a Waldorf curriculum w/great ideas, especially for Kindy. I cannot remember the name but they advertise in Mothering. You could also seek out Waldorf art materials online, at a local Waldorf School (ours actually has a store) etc. You could just let her create w/those--I find that when you make art w/beeswax candles, real paint and paper, etc., the finished product is worth keeping.

Hope this helps!