Help me find my style

[Flower of Bliss]

I'm officially pulling DD1 (5.5yrs) out of her Waldorf kindergarten at spring break.  I've planned to home school all along, but we gave the new start up school a try last winter when she was begging to go to school and I thought the space from each other might do us both some good.  She's only going 3 mornings a week.

Some things about us:

We're all VERY VERY social - DD1 (5.5yrs), DD2 (2.5yrs), and myself

The kids are currently screen free, which I rather like.

I'm very newly pregnant with #3 (and if you know me, it's still a secret ), due in mid-Sept

We spend lots of time out of the house - dance and Kindermusic classes for both kids, weekly library story time, weekly park days, going to the gym for me to run a few times a week, etc.  I'm likely to let at least DD1 add in at least one more extra (horseback riding, gymnastics, swimming and/or piano) once she's out of school, though the pregnancy will likely reign that in a bit.  Both kids will continue at least Kindermusik and one physical activity class.

DD1 is still napping (!!!) though I expect she'll drop that soon once she's not getting up so early to go to school.

We're all night owls - DH works long hours with a long commute.  He's a highly involved dad and full partner when he's here.  We do late dinners and bedtimes to have the family time in the evening.  I'm not looking to change that (in fact, it's one of the big pluses of home schooling for our family), but it means we have next to no evening time as adults after the kids are in bed.

I'm not crafty, I don't bake or really love cooking, I have trouble keeping up with house work, meal prep, and other basics.  Sometimes I wonder what exactly I am good at .  While being a mother has always been a huge part of my life plans, being a housewife has not.

I love the nature and seasonal focuses of Waldorf, the natural materials, the limits on media and screen time, but I'm definitely not committed to the philosophy otherwise.

DD1 can NOT read (in fact I'm not certain if she knows all of her letters, and definitely can't write them all), but she LOVES books and will spend significant independent time just pouring over them.  I trust that she will be an avid reader one day.  She's also been on a huge drawing kick lately, so I trust that she's building her fine motor skills.

I like structure.  A lot.  I like feeling organized, knowing what's next, having a plan at all times.  I feel panicky without a plan.  We have set routines for each day of the week right now, and I REALLY like that.  So do my kids.  Without structure, I get overwhelmed and just shut down.

I'm an academic at heart.  I'm a former high school math teacher.  I love pure math for the sake of math.  I love literature.  I love academics.  I'm detail oriented.

DD1 and I (and DD2 as well) are strong fire personalities.  We like leading.  We like being in charge.  All three of us are Leos.  Power struggles are NOT pretty here, and I want to do my best to dodge them.

I don't want to push lots of desk time on DD1 (or me), but I would like her to be doing most of the basic Kinder and first grade level reading, writing, math stuff in the next year.

I fear that balancing the social and academic needs of DD1 as well as the needs of my two littler ones, myself, and the household will prove too much for me.  As a result, I would like to leave open the possibility of putting DD1 in public school if it's not working out.  She has an August birthday, and we have a Sept 1 cut off, but for many reasons I strongly feel like holding her back (which is very very common here with summer birthdays) is not in her best interest.  As a result, I really want to keep her more or less on level with her public school grade level.

DD1 actually tends to really like workbooks like Kumon and Get Ready for the Code.  I'm generally happy to use both.  However, I fear we'll both get bored with the worksheet focus.  I'm not planning homeschooling for the purpose of doing many hours of worksheets a week.

We were both pretty happy with RightStart Math when we played with it a year ago. We own the first year of that curriculum, and I plan to use again it once we settle into a routine.

I don't want to be building curriculums and units from scratch on a regular basis, especially with a new baby.

We're not Christian (we're Unitarians).  I'm not at all interested in specifically Biblical curriculums or philosophies. 

I don't know how to put this all together and create a real home schooling philosophy or plan.  Any recommendations on where to go from here to create a plan that would suite our family?  I'm very interested in reading articles and other literature if you have recommendations there. 

[tankgirl73]

What about Oak Meadow?  It maintains the Waldorf attributes of story-based learning, seasons and nature, etc.  But it's more academically-focused than traditional Waldorf and gives very specific structured lesson plans for you.

My first thought when I started reading through your post was actually Christopherus, since it's so gentle with starting up learning the letters and to read etc, so it would be a good fit for where your daughter is.  But it's very much a "here's several books with all the information you need, now go and design the program as it best suits your family."  Which is great, to have that flexibility.  But if you want detail and structure laid out for you - and you like the gentleness and nature aspect of Waldorf - but you're not rigidly married to the basic philosophy - then maybe Oak Meadow would be a good one for you?

I think OM includes its own math curriculum but you can always keep using RightStart instead.  RS is by FAR my favourite math curriculum out there.  :)

[OTMomma]

Congrats on the 3rd baby, and welcome to the club! 

Anyway, you sound a lot like me, even the Unitarian part, so I can tell you what I have done that has worked and what hasn't.  

I found I like making a weekly schedule that we hang on the wall- it has on it classes we will go to every week, some subjects assigned to each day, and anything else I want to make sure we do, like Friday is park day, or cooking day.

I recommend reading lots of ideas and being open to trying a different philosophy out when the one you are using seems to no longer work. (As a leo homeschooling a leo, we have had to switch things up many times to keep us all happy)  I tried Unschooling for Kindergarten, I had a highly motivated child and it worked out.  I really recommend reading about unschooling, because it opens your eyes to a different way of seeing education.  My dd stayed "on grade level" that year because we played educational games, including some on the computer, we read lots of books and I kept an eye on making sure we explored lots of ideas and tried out lots of things.  If your child loves work books, there is nothing wrong with that, and there is nothing wrong with doing workbooks in September,  February, and April and not any of the rest of the school year, if that is what works for your child.

We no longer unschool.  For a lot of reasons it quit working for us.  But I am still eclectic, I pull together one history program I like (Story of the World), a handwriting (Handwriting without Tears), a book list which is often from a Charlotte Mason website of books we will explore together, something for science- which is my easiest because that is what dd is drawn to, so I can follow her lead, and something for math.  I also try to make sure we explore art and music, and over the years we have done a variety of things for that- Kindermusik should be filling that in for you right now. 

Check out www.rainbowresource.com for things on any topic you want.  Since having my 3rd, I don't have the energy to make a lot up, but I have bought books and kits that do it all for me, I just have to get them out and follow the directions.

Peace,

[xekomaya]

You didn't say much about your feelings on organization, schedule and whether you wanted to follow laid out lesson plans or have more of a general, free form plan. There is a big difference (imo) for curriculum choices between a method like Charlotte Mason where you will have a semester long plan (not be running around trying to figure out what to do every day) but won't have a guide to open each day, point to a line and say "yep I am going to teach X"

I have a degree in math and I credit most of my love for the subject to the Montessori math materials. The more you know about math the more you can see how deeply beautiful they are in their correspondence. For me, it is essential to give this exposure to my kids so we are starting our home school with a Montessori set up. There are free albums online at infomontessori.com and a great book by Elizabeth Hainstock The Essential Montessori that you can probably find your library if you are not familiar but curious.

You  might want to take a look at various schooling philosophies to see if any really strike you. An incomplete list would include:

Charlotte Mason (which I love for the quality education packed into short lessons & the emphasis on nature)

Classical

Unit Studies

Unschooling (doesn't sound like this matching you, however)

School-at-home style with workbooks - either prepackaged or mix & match

You can also check out forums at thewelltrainedmind.com for reviews of reading and math materials if you just wanted to purchase those separately

ETA: I meant the paragraph about math above to come out sounding more like "hey i love math too so this is what I am doing!" than "I am super educated and snobby..."  hard to get tone over the internet so I hope you take it as the former, not the latter!

[Flower of Bliss]

I keep starting a reply to this and getting side tracked.  Thank you all for your input and suggestions so far.

I looked at Oak Meadow.  It looks lovely, but I don't think it'll work for us right now.  We'll be picking up midyear both this school year and next.  I think a "full curriculum" like that would stress me out.  I'd be worried about finishing it all, and if it's seasonal in focus and designed to start in the fall that may be complicated to edit for our purposes.  And I'd likely be skipping the math.

Thinking it over, I'd like to start doing active Kindergarten by March (we're actually doing Kumon and Get Ready for the Code work a few times a week lately at DD1's request).  I'd like to continue through the summer and wrap up in July or August.  Then I'd like to take off a few months, likely really until after the holidays, for adjusting to the new baby.  I'm sure we'd do reading books together and perhaps workbook stuff, but I don't want to be doing anything that requires any planning or commitment in the early months.  Then I'd like to pick back up on 1st grade in January. 

I don't want to push DD1 on reading and writing.  I do want us to get into a routine of doing school work.  As much as I might argue about the necessity in theory, in practice, I'll be a basket case if come August my newly 6 year old can't read or even identify and write all letters and sounds, we aren't doing any formal schooling, and I'm about to have a new baby.  At which point I may just put her in public Kindergarten a year late just to make sure someone is teaching her something.

I think I'll continue Get Ready for the Code for phonics and Kumon for fine motor skills/letter writing at DD1's pace.  I may add in some copywork or Handwriting without Tears.  We'll pick back up Right Start Math too.  I'd like to be doing something that will be a bit more interesting and help spark some excitement about gaining knowledge (and not just skills).  I don't think DD1 even knows that "doing school work" could mean learning about animals or rocks or astronomy or different cultures or our own country or state.  I like the idea of having a general topic we're working on for a month or two.  I imagine it would spark conversations outside of school time.  We could check out library books with that theme in mind, and perhaps even plan an outing or two.  I don't think I'd do a good job creating a unit study from scratch right now.  I wouldn't know where to start.

I don't want a laid out - do this on Monday and this on Tuesday and finish this in 2 weeks set up.  I'd like a unit study style with a game plan of spending say 4-6 weeks on the unit, with very specific lessons and activities to do.  That way if we have a busy week, or we all get sick, or whatever, it doesn't put us behind schedule at all.  I tried doing Peak with Books when DD1 was 4.  It was fine in theory.  Because I read reviews about it feeling too rushed, I decided to spend 2 weeks on a single book instead of one week.  But we'd invariably "fall behind" and I could never quite decide where to pick up.  Should I go back to the book we'd started 2 weeks ago and do more of the activities?  The activities were good, but we were sort of burned out on the book.  Or should I start a new book?  I think a longer unit with a theme instead of a book would fit our lifestyle better.

I'm looking at trying Moving Beyond the Page (just a concept to start with, and maybe doing 2-3 total by the end of the summer if we were doing just that).  Or maybe some Intellego Units (if I was doing just that I'd aim for 4-6 by the end of the summer).  I like their topic list and how easy and inexpensive it would be to try 1-2.  I'm concerned that it would be too much screen time for me.  I'm absolutely fine with a few short video clips.  I pull up short clips of polar bears on my phone when we're talking about polar bears, and wikipedia articles for quick answers in discussions.  I would even be ok with a short computer game 1-2 times a week on a specific topic.  However, I don't want our lesson time to be spent primarily in front of a screen.  I've tried looking at their sample units to get a feel for how much screen time they'd really have, and I'm pretty undecided.  Still, their topic list looks better to me than Moving Beyond the Page...  I might end up trying one concept of MBtP and trying 1-2 Intellego units, and then moving on from there based on what we liked and how it worked.

Any other suggestions for what I should be looking at?  Or other suggestions in general?

[OTMomma]

IF you are interested in unit studies, you may also like lap books.  There are a lot of free resources for them at www.homeschoolshare.com It may give you what you liked from Peak with books, as many of them are based on a good book, or you can see if they have them on a topic that interests you and your dd. I have done a number of them with my oldest on different types of animals.  

Personally, I don't see any reason you would need to put your dd in school in the fall to be sure "she is learning something". I have had 2 summer babies while homeschooling, and though I took a break from worrying about school after each baby, I found that it naturally happened that we got back to reading stories and doing activites with the baby in the sling. I stocked up on boxed science kits and things that would be easy to pull out after the baby arrived, and that helped too.

BTW- I just bought zoo phonics to use to teach letters and phonics, I can't review it yet, but if you are looking for something else to teach reading.....

Peace,

[briansmama]

Well, it sounds like your desire to keep a strong rhythm for your family and your appreciation for delayed formal academics, as well as your dd's background in Waldorf, make Waldorf education a good fit for your family, as homeschoolers.

We're Waldorf homeschoolers and find our family thrives with a strong rhythm to our days. We used Christopherus for K and 1st and now that my oldest is in 2nd, we use Enki, which combines Waldorf with Montessori, which works well for us. Music, literature, and movement form the basis of ur main lesson work, and now that we are approachg more academic work, I find my oldest is really ready after spending the earlier years learning to love and appreciate these elements that are incorporated in Waldorf Ed.

Hope that helps!

[greenacresmama]

My family is with DH..so it gets crazy fast. 

I think for the organization I only have this one tip :) Be organized after bedtime for the next morning as much as you can do it. Or wake up hours before and get yourself together. Make a night you can meal plan and chop veggies, even getting to the store to fill in the gaps - on the very same night, (hopefully the day or day after you hit the farmers market too). I am not sure about homeschooling goals for this family. We are all at once a lot Unschooling, Waldorf, and Montessori (but maybe just in a Math and independence sort of way). I have really tried to stop "waking up" my 4 year old.. I really love to be slow. I wonder how this is all going to play out with hopefully even more children.... We are very much a unit family and have conversations and lessons from both parents. I have a weekly schedule, have "planned" (knowledge of?) events months ahead of time - cultural celebrations at least, and even historical researched events (happenings that happened around certain times last year and the year before). I have "planned" an outing to happen a least once a week, as an academic goal, not just friends, music and or celebrations can trump an outing for anything else though. We are itching to buy a home and I recently had to approach my DH about jobbing him to look at them more often without us. I want to stay on track with schooling, but I want both. I mean, this year we will certainly be gardening in containers on the deck. I have a budget that is for everything, meaning not bills, but does include food; $250. The saved funds are used to buy supplies and "toys." We are both not really working so we must be strict and frugal. (we are investing our own small funds to make income, gambling? lol! no, stocks...)

I can't help you find your style, but I know that pinterst is a great place for organic homemade homeschooling ideas. For me it was doing a ton of research in so many areas and talking with DH to agree about what should be learned now and in the future... we went up to 16, wheeh. I have been working really hard on picking out some key elements to the homeschooling room, reference books, art supplies, etc, but all the while reading as much material as I can about Waldorf homeschooling and key books to read now, for later (training). I feel totally happy that my son is head strong vibrant and full of imaginative stories and creativity, but we also spend so much time teaching him how to get along with his sister, loving Athena, cooking with them, having them help out and be independent, and so much art and music connections. To some degree I have been trying to write a resource book of this area and weigh it carefully for things to come for community classes. We often do things to give back to the community because I think Fred loves to talk to adult people a lot more than other kids, so baking goes a long way :). 

I have a lot of respect for "schooling" ways of learning at home and I have just begun to try to get my feet wet (with my mind before my kids). I don't feel that the Montessori toys are going to screw them up, but I understand they are black and white compared to Waldorf.. I just can't figure it out yet. Some ways it feels calming to me to figure out these brain puzzles and to have a hand held feeling about them. I guess I want to be Montessori in so many "rich learning materials with independent experiment and play" but very much have a Waldorf heart and feel the essence of schooling as me as a type of teacher leader of lesson work from this direction the most. 

I use evernote some too with other moms in a sprouting Waldorf circle. I personally use "Bento for Mac" and for iphone, it is sort of a lot of work though, but crazy great I am getting the flow of it and most importantly, remembering the emotions of the lesson.. I often voice message in there - "Fred really wants too.." and this is really a direct statement of him longing too "x".