Earthschooling or OM or???

[LearnLaughLove]

Hi everyone. I am new here but not totally new to homeschooling. My kids are almost 4 and almost 5. I am really drawn to the Waldorf approach...except for the delayed learning aspect. I know, that is a key componant to it. My thought is to use Earthschooling (Bearth Institute) K as a core for both kids and supplement LA with Queens Lang. Lessons (we use it now and love it), Math with Life Of Fred and ???, and science with Elemental Science or Queens Nature Study Seried. Am I absolutely crazy? My only other plan is to go with Oak Meadow and still supplement math and LA, but not the science.

DS, who will be 5, is self taught for the most part in reading. He is reading cvc and cvcc words with ease and is racing through K math and is writing ok. I actually want to slow him down a little. His idea of fun is writing his own math problems on the dry erase board. DD, almost 4 is really just where most of her peers are, although her fine motor skills are a bit behind.

Thoughts or suggestions would be super helpful.

[LearnLaughLove]

No one?

[SweetSilver]

I'll try, but I don't have experience with the curriculums you mentioned.  

It sounds like your little guy already has an idea of what he wants to do.  In some ways, letting him go at a pace he enjoys would be great, though I have met little kids who would sit and do school work with their moms for hours and at some point it does become a question of balance more than anything.  Why do you want to slow him down?

This is the reason why I turned my back on Waldorf for the most part.  The philosophy is to keep kids' brains in an expansive mode in the kindergarten years, and that academics is seen as crystallizing and hardening--something that has a time and place.  In the end I was too much of a proponent of child-led learning to want to keep to the philosophy.   I am, however, a fan of delayed academics.  But guess what?  That hasn't stopped my girls from learning those things anyway, we just haven't learned them in any formal way.

I did have a question for you-- if you want to slow him down, why are you wanting to bring in curriculums?

I think that allowing him to keep on his road without adding any curriculum would be the natural way to "slow him down" without ignoring reading, writing and math that are important to you.  

[LearnLaughLove]

Slow down may have been the wrong choice of words. I think its more that I want to insure retention. He is great with the 3Rs but horrible about read alouds and fun, kidlike activities. He has no use for anything artsy... So I would like to even things out a bit. DD is the opposite. She will lisyen to a story, tell it back, and spend days playacting the story. Show her a workbook and she hided under the bed. Right now, my plans for her are to do Math Lessons For a Living Education and Queen Lang. Lessons in the Fall.

[AAK]

I wouldn't worry about it too much right now.  There isn't any reason the 4 yr old would need a workbook.  So, for now I wouldn't even try.  I might have a couple on hand in case she wanted to do one too, but I would leave it up to her.  As for the 5 yr old, I wouldn't worry about the retelling skills or the art yet either.  I would always keep the art stuff on hand--in case he had an interest.  But, I would also make sure that the art stuff wasn't just drawing stuff.  Glue, glitter, clay, etc. may interest him more.  Also, many boys prefer non-fiction, so it is possible that he would sit an listen to books about an interest.  Since he is doing so well with the 3Rs, I wouldn't worry about retaining facts/stories.  He has the skills (kids with memory issues usually struggle with reading), but perhaps nothing has interested him enough to keep it in the memory bank.  

I don't know anything about the materials you mentioned, so I can't respond to that.  I just wanted to reassure you.  I think they are beginning to demonstrate strengths and interests, but it doesn't mean that their learning will never expand to include other aspects.

Amy

[SweetSilver]

And there are a bazillion story books for 4 yos that cover some of the stuff you might want to teach via workbooks.  Over and over and over again... you'll be tired of it before they do.  Anno's Math Games teaches math concept without any working, and they are told in a form that can be almost like a story.  We love revisiting those.  A bit of a balance both for kids who can't get enough workbooks and ones that hate them.  One volume encourages cutting out tangram-like shapes to lay with.  Origami can be fun in the same vein.  Flat wooden shape clocks we call "picture blocks".  A way to solidify a conceptual foundation without the academic memorization.

Just thoughts for a nice balance.  I hope I am finally addressing the right issues.  I'm still searching for just the right answer.

[onyxravnos]

well.. I don't know if it will help but here is my 

I like OM as a core. it's structured enough that I don't HAVE to come up with something if we get busy or it's been an 'off' day but not so structured that I feel confined and frustrated. There is plenty of wiggle room to add or subtract as one needs. I like to supplement and make it more 'Waldorf' by adding in things from Earthschooling, alittlegardenflower, littleacornlearning, or whatever else I come up with. 

I have the secular sonlight books that I add in for some more science, history, fun reading and I pick up stuff here and there to throw in when we want to. Manipulative's, workbooks, fun activities, whatever.

Note: life of Fred is really awesome. REALLY awesome. but by book C the concepts may be hard for your 5 year old to grasp and by book D although my ds1 was still into listening everything went right over his head. It's not a full curriculum either but OM does provide some math activities and you can always get more into them.

(Personally I really like RightStart Math but that's just me ;) )

Oh I had another point.. I got distracted... 

 Earthschooling has great info but is not very structured... so if you need some help knowing what to do every day it may not be a good choice to use as your core and instead use to supplement.

[LearnLaughLove]

Originally Posted by onyxravnos 

well.. I don't know if it will help but here is my 

I like OM as a core. it's structured enough that I don't HAVE to come up with something if we get busy or it's been an 'off' day but not so structured that I feel confined and frustrated. There is plenty of wiggle room to add or subtract as one needs. I like to supplement and make it more 'Waldorf' by adding in things from Earthschooling, alittlegardenflower, littleacornlearning, or whatever else I come up with. 

I have the secular sonlight books that I add in for some more science, history, fun reading and I pick up stuff here and there to throw in when we want to. Manipulative's, workbooks, fun activities, whatever.

Note: life of Fred is really awesome. REALLY awesome. but by book C the concepts may be hard for your 5 year old to grasp and by book D although my ds1 was still into listening everything went right over his head. It's not a full curriculum either but OM does provide some math activities and you can always get more into them.

(Personally I really like RightStart Math but that's just me )


Oh I had another point.. I got distracted... 
 Earthschooling has great info but is not very structured... so if you need some help knowing what to do every day it may not be a good choice to use as your core and instead use to supplement.

If I omit math and LA for DS, is there a lot of meat left to it?

[onyxravnos]

Originally Posted by LearnLaughLove 


If I omit math and LA for DS, is there a lot of meat left to it?

omitting math will be easy really you can do OM's math and add another program (that's what i do)  LA is more difficult as each week is broken down into a letter study and then most of the activities revolve around the letter. (that sounds simple but it's really done very well) Now you can absolutely add a reading program or a handwriting one which they don't teach in OM kindy and it would work fine with teaching both.

OM kindy is not stressful at all so it's easy to do all their activities and still have room for more.