waldorf homeschool and block lessons

[noryda]

Hi!

My name is Sylvia and I am a "waldorfstyle" or "waldorflover" homeschool mom from Spain. My children are 6 1/2 and 5 1/2 and we are homeschooling since birth.

Our approach is very eclectic, we love Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, Montessori for example. My doubt is: This school year I really wanted to try a Waldorf year 1 at home. N. the five years old would join us when she wants. But learning with blocks, the math block with math gnomes, the language block, the form drawing block etc isn't working for us.

The children love the stories, the way we work, the crafts bur are bored with only math during 4 weeks, only language and letters during 4 weeks and so on.

Any sugestion? Now we are working with a personal version of the alfabet path by Elisabeth Foss and it seems that things go better. But how I bring the math gnomes, the form drawing etc into this? I hope that my explanation is not very confused for you and excuse my english.

Thanks

[AngelBee]

Forgive me....I am not an expert. So I will just give you info as I have been researching a LOT! Your English was as clear as mine. And I am a native speaker!

So here it goes.....from a Waldorf perspective, children should begin 1st grade work after they have had 7 springs or Easters.

I think that may be part of the issue. That you 6yr old may just not be quite there for 1st grade work. If they are having trouble concentrating, I would pull back a bit.

If the lit portion or stories are working......by all means continue.

Hard core Waldorfers would say both should be doing Kindy at this point.

I fall more into a CM/Waldorfy with Classical seasoning......so I believe you need to do what is right for your family. If they are both thriving and enjoying it, that is what really counts!

[AngelBee]

TONS of info:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorfhomeeducators/ Learning a lot here. Beware....it tends to be on the purist side. So take what works for you if you are not strictly Waldorf.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschoolingwaldorf/ Really lovely woman who has a heart for helping others.