Artistic curriculum

[kchara]

Hi!  I have 6 children, and, so far, we've been using the classical model.  *I* love it.  It's perfect for me and for one of my boys.  However, my daughter, not so much.  She's obviously more artistic and more of a free spirit than the classical model gives her room for.  She's smothering, and she's doing pretty badly.  She's learning, just... not loving it.  Or liking it.  Barely tolerating it. She's actually getting rather "intellectually lazy," refusing to do anything that stretches her in the least.  It's pretty frustrating.

So, we're on the look out for a new method for her.  I was leaning strongly towards Waldorf (Christopherus in particular), but I'm not liking everything I see and hear about the underlying philosophy.  I looked at Enki, but she's in 6th grade (more or less), and it only goes up to 3rd. 

I'd like something multi-cultural, creative, artistic, with the look and feel of Waldorf  (beautiful, soft, natural, fantasy feel) if that makes sense.  She loves reading, and I'm not sure how either of those would do with keeping up with her there.  If it was Christian based, that would be a plus, but it's not 100% necessary.

Does anyone have any recommendations?  I'm not even sure I'm articulating what we're looking for well. 

ETA:  She's my oldest, at 11.  My son is 9 and in 4th grade, although he's just fine with what we have, so we'll probably keep him with that.  I also have a Kindy (5), 3 year old twins, and a 1 year old.  I've been looking at Little Acorn for them, but if I could find something that flows well, that would be awesome, too. 

[Mittsy]

Oak Meadow sounds like a good fit for her.

[kchara]

Thanks, we're checking that out and adding it to our list to look through!
 

[briansmama]

We are using Live Ed this year for 3rd grade after using Enki for k-2 (and we will continue to use Enki for my youngest until 3rd grade).

Live Ed is beautiful, artistic and creative. I will continue using it through the grades.

[dovey]

I have a daughter like yours, but she's 6.  We've been doing a Waldorf-type style, but not using all of the ideas.  Like you, I find some of Steiner's philosophies odd.  But much of the method that comes out of it, is beautiful and very appropriate for artistic children.  We don't use a curriculum, but some things that we've encorporated for my daughter include:

-storytelling (My daughter has a notebook in which she draws pictures that tell a story.  She dictates to me what I write on each page.  After a year, she's written a 200 page book!  It's kind of like a journal for her.  I look back at the events of our lives played out by her characters throughout the year.  I imagine that your 11 year old could do something similar, but she could write the story part herself.)

-form drawing and knitting (It helps with handwriting and integrating movement of both sides of the body.)

-emphasis on festivals and the seasons

-lots of handcrafts (some of which turn out better than others, since I'm not entirely inclined in the direction, but she always loves it)

Another thing we did (not particularly Waldorf), was to always link art to the lesson plan, especially for history, science and reading.  For example, we'd read in our history book (Usborne Internet Linked Medieval and Ancient World Books), and then we'd try to replicate an ancient artifact - we carved soap sculptures, made Babylonian counting markers from clay, painted pots in ancient Greek style, made tiny replicas of Egyptian temples, etc. 

-