Waldorf HS Support Thread January - Page 11

[calynde]

Originally Posted by wonderactivist

Dear Everyone,

I just wanted to ask how y'all might feel about calling this a "Holistic Homeschooling Thread" beginning in February? I just think that most of us blend multiple methods and ideas, and the holistic tag really reflects that better than just "Waldorf."

For me, I don't think I would have initially checked out the thread if the word *waldorf* hadn't been in the title. Maybe "Waldorf-inspired holistic homeschoolers"?

Just an idea!

[calynde]

Anyone want to share their feelings about Susan Whitehead's Golden Beetle books? I know that some love them and some not so much, but I would be interested in hearing specific strengths and weaknesses.

Also, what is the story line, for example, in "Lono and Coco Boato" (one sentence description will do) and about how many pages is it? What does one do about the songs if not a big music reader?

Thanks....and sorry for all the questions. I just find the descriptions fairly vague and it's expensive to have things shipped here to Switzerland so I don't like choosing badly.

Anyone have seasonal stories that they like better?

[futuremamaheather]

Originally Posted by calynde

Anyone have seasonal stories that they like better?

*coming out of lurk-dom*

I'm not positive that this is what you're looking for - but I adore children's books, picture books especially, so when you asked... well, I couldn't resist!

I love love love Lynn Plourde's seasonal books. Wild Child is the one about autumn, Winter Waits is about winter, Spring's Sprung is about spring and Summer's Vacation is summer. Mother Earth and Father Time interact with their seasonal children, each book ends with a teaser about the next season, and Greg Couch's illustrations are great.

It may be because Wild Child was the first one I read - but for whatever reason, it's my favorite

Ok, back to lurking... :

[Attached Mama]

Wow those seasonal books look really great. Thank you!! They are cheaper on half.com tho. Unfortunately DH says we need to wait til next month Well, he is right... sigh...

[counterGOPI]

wow i wouldve never known about this thread!!
hi mamas!! im nicole, my dd is only 16 1/2 months right now but i want to be fully prepared for HSing her so im starting my reasearch now,plusi want to make sure what i am 'teaching' her right now is in the waldorf guidlines so to speak.
at this age should i be explaining things to her or just saying 'i wonder' about everything?
thanks mamas!

[libranbutterfly]

This thread is great, I'm so glad to have found it. I am working on a rhythm for my 2 yr old and 4 month old, and want to incorporate my 6 month niece when she is here, she needs some more natural/creative/involved time, at home she either sits in a walker and watches shrek or sits on her mommy's lap while she talks on the phone I'm trying to figure out our current rhythm so i know where to start Just wanted to say hello. I've been taking notes, so keep the good ideas coming

[mama_kass]

Originally Posted by counterGOPI

plusi want to make sure what i am 'teaching' her right now is in the waldorf guidlines so to speak.
at this age should i be explaining things to her or just saying 'i wonder' about everything?
thanks mamas!

Please be more specific.

libranbutterfly~ Welcome. That is so special that you will be incorporating your niece sometimes. I do that with my niece, but she is too far away. I wish I saw her more often.

[KnittingKara]

Originally Posted by MyLittleWonders

One thing I wuold do before "cementing" any rhythm, so to speak, is really watch your dd's energy levels - at least right now your 3 year old. When does she want to play on her own (or is successful at it), when does she seem to need time with you ... think of your day as breathing ... there are times you are breathing in and times you are breathing out ... there is an ebb and flow.

Yes! I cannot say enough how just relaxing, letting go of the clock, and watching for my own family's natural rhythm (and giving those rhythms room to take place) has helped create a more peaceful environment around here. We aren't on anyone else's time, even a recommended schedule by a Waldorf site or book, but our own. I have discovered my daughter's rhythm (when she's more tired, when she's more wound up, when she is usually ready for a snack, etc.) When things start getting crazy around here it is *usually* when I've tried to force something or when we've been going against that natural flow of our lives. I've also become more aware of my own rhythms ... and that sometimes these things gradually change, too.

As far as schooling and when to start actively teaching, from what I've read Steiner believes in waiting to introduce more set "teaching" until the child starts showing physical signs like losing the baby teeth, the dimples on the back of the hands becoming knuckles, things like that. Even then, from what I'm reading, it is supposed to be teaching that blends into your natural day - gently led into one activity or lesson, not so much "okay, now we'll begin our math studies for the day" kind of thing. Most consider starting anything before 7 to be too early.

Now, that said, my daughter is only 5 but has taught herself to read in the past few months and knows a lot of math functions (though she doesn't know that she's adding or subtracting) from day to day life. Kids really are little sponges and even though she isn't showing all the "Waldorf" physical signs of readiness, *I* believe she is ready and so I'm encouraging her own natural pace of reading and learning. I'm not drilling her or anything like that, just answering her questions, letting life flow at it's own pace, and giving her the room she needs to build these skills. I don't believe in waking up that learning instinct too soon ... but I also don't want to stifle it once it has begun, even if it is before she looses her baby teeth, ykwim? :

That said, I also believe that Waldorf can be more than just a teaching method but is also a way of life and parenting. I really like the Waldorf Curriculum site (it has free preschool units and if you follow each unit sort of step by step takes you through building a Waldorf playroom, building a library, adding new toys, learning about coloring, form drawing, watercolor painting - when I first discovered Waldorf I felt like I had to rush out and buy everything and convert our household at once! Slow & steady really is the key ... and I like the WC preschool materials because they reinforce that slow, gradual change and build up toward Waldorf education) and I also like Annette's materials (her books even have suggestions for Babies & toddlers - which my dd and I have loved making & doing together for her baby brother!) and the Christopherus materials another mama suggested earlier. There is also the Waldorf in the Home site which has a lot of articles about Waldorf parenting and setting up a Waldorf home, which I think relate especially to the early/ preschool years.

I also really like the Seven Times the Sun and Beyond the Rainbow Bridge books. I wouldn't say I embraced them both 100%, but I did find much in both that I felt reflected our lives and that I could take and apply to my family. Our library has copies of both, but I did find them worth purchasing, too.

Sorry to have been out of this thread for so long, but wow! What great discussions have been happening here! It has been a real pleasure to go back and read - wonderful!

I've been still doing a lot of cleaning, organizing, and decluttering ... I can honestly say that now I'm at a place where I can tell this is making a difference in our home life. It is a little daunting sometimes how much this rests on me and what an effect I have on the rest of the family when I get out of sorts or let things slip ... but at the same time very rewarding when the little steps that I am taking also ripple out and benefit us all as well. Children learn so much through play and I feel better knowing that I am setting up a richer, more peaceful play environment for mine. (well, one baby step at a time, anyway! Gotta start somewhere, right?)

I bought a blank, high quality paper, spiral notebook to use as a blank main lesson book and Boo and I have been loosely using Oak Meadow's kindergarten materials, blended with AM's Seasons of Joy, and also some of the things I'm picking for us from the All Year Round book. We've finally had some snow, so we've been doing more King Winter stories and have changed our Nature Corner over to reflect the snowy Winter going on outside. We've been reading Harry Potter together at night, too (okay, no so Waldorf LOL) and Boo was so tickled by the "Hogwarts" song that the first school year starts off with that we've been singing it to each other before we do our OakMeadow language or number lessons Sorta Hogwarts/Steiner

Okay, I've rambled, so off I go ... welcome to all the new folks!

Best Wishes!

[counterGOPI]

Originally Posted by mama_kass

Please be more specific.

libranbutterfly~ Welcome. That is so special that you will be incorporating your niece sometimes. I do that with my niece, but she is too far away. I wish I saw her more often.

hmm im not sure if i can be!! i dont know much about waldorf,only htings ive picked up here and there.
my friend who used to be a waldorf teacher told me that they never explained things to kids in the classroom,instead they would say 'i wonder' to the kids to make them try and figure it out on their own. with my DD being 16 months, should i be doing this with her? i mean she doesnt alk so she cant ask questions but she still gives me things and waits for me to say something about them, plus right now i have a tendecy to explain things to her a lot, im not sure why i do it... :

as for what i'm teaching her.. im not really teaching her anything,but should i be? or is she just mimicing me right now?

[counterGOPI]

oh and please xplain to me the whole rythm thing..what is this and how do we do it?

[counterGOPI]

one more question i have x-posted.. how neccesary are play stands? they are so expensive! we have a rainbow house for dd (wooden square frame with playclips holding up play sliks on all side and the top) is that good enough? i guess not once shes gets taller huh ?

also we painted dd's playroom an off white color and then hung the flowers abc's on the wall along with the bird 123's (both from magic cabin made by eeboo). is that ok?
birds: http://www.eeboo.com/product.php?cat=30&prod=34


flower abc's: http://www.eeboo.com/product.php?cat=30&prod=72

[wonderactivist]

Welcome counterGOPI, welcome back knittingkara and hi everyone!

Originally Posted by counterGOPI

oh and please xplain to me the whole rythm thing..what is this and how do we do it?

To us, rhythm is like building the natural cycles, the ebb and flow of life, into your day. You do something engaging (the inbreath), followed by some time to ponder or process (the outbreath). Your day should be a wavelike mix of inbreaths and outbreaths.

It's kinda the opposite of the pop-culture notion of "cramming" activities and making sure you're always teaching.

Allowing outbreath give your time to just "be," to center (without their consciously doing it as an adult would), and to spend time in their beautiful, imaginative world where reality and fantasy blend together. That imagination will serve them in creativity later in life.

In our day, we'll have structure, then free time, or structure, then lunch, or lesson, and free art time. Try to keep it separate from the clock: like we'll do our walk (outbreath), opening circle and tell a story (in), then we'll have a snack and break (out), then a craft and a closing song (in my opinion, this is inbreath but some teachers disagree), followed by free play.....whatever, just notice no times are attached. I move on to the next structure when the kids are ready.

Your playroom sounds lovely! A lot of Waldorf teachers would hang just one letter at first, then switch it out each week or so (or add one). Supporting her curiosity withpushing is exactly what I did with mine when they were young. I also added a corner nature table where we displayed a few special thing and then would bring leaves, nuts, flowers, etc. from our walks.

As far as playstands are concerned, IMHO you don't have to have one at home. We do now because my best friend made one for my son, but for years I would use two chairs turned back to back and a playcloth (and sometimes a board) to do puppet theater. The kids liked to use one end of the couch which was situated with one end out fro the wall a bit. That made a nice little private play area behind there for tent and such.

But, if you can afford one, playstands are really fun. Go for the lighter ones that the kids can move around, the pairs that truly become a room seem to get less daily use at my friends' houses - the get old. Waldorf Resources has an online pattern for making a set if you're good with wood.

Warm wishes,

Lucie

[Unreal]

Not to totally derail a train of thread there, but I had to come and celebrate....

We've been homeschooling ds1 for...well...this is our 5 year anniversary of homeschooling this month He's in 6th grade and we've been fluttering about trying to find what works best for him.

And I'm so in love with Waldorf education, I wish I'd known about it earlier in life.
But anyhow--we are using Oak Meadow 6th/7th grade this year

any my son...who would never draw or color or anything remotely related to that...
has been creating the most beautiful works of art these past few months.

And he is LOVING it--finding new ways to get all those thoughts from his head out onto paper or clay or dirt or whatever else he can think of!

I am so happy for him!!!!

[Unreal]

ehhhh now that I think about it I do need some advice....


I have to figure out how to start up with ds2 and ds3 (well, we've got a while for him yet--he's just 9 mo )

Ds2 will be 4 in March (how did that happen???!!) and I'm at a loss.

I work full-time at home (so have ds3 with me) and homeschool ds1 (who is mostly on his own at this point) and ds2 goes to half day of preschool (just to have some time to run and play--although lately they haven't been even doing that much *growl* but it gives me a few hours to get work and schoolwork with ds1 done)

But I see him turning more and more to the computer and tv
and I can't stand it. It's breaking my heart.

But he is so high needs and I'm already stretched so thin.

Dh supports all this, and is in charge of kid wrangling while I work (so he's the sahd) but he isn't *active* iykwim....he's kind of a chauffeur and EMT for the kids--not much for actually doing stuff WITH them.

So...how can I work this and not go insane (more so than I already am, that is)

I can't set my own work hours. If all is quiet, I can be on standby for work, but I have to take calls and emails as they come in.

This doesn't sound very condusive to Waldorf, imo and I don't know if there is a way to compromise

I'd really love to hear any and all thoughts on this.
I feel like I'm missing out on a whole lot with ds2, even though I'm right here

[NoCalMomOfTwo]

New here and really enjoying this thread

It took me a couple of days but I finally read through all the pages. I didn't really know much about Waldorf and there is a lot of info in here. I'm considering homeschooling and have been reading up about Enki. I wanted to read this thread too so I would understand more about Waldorf as well. We try to limit the plastic in our house and tv, but the changes are slow. I just decided to start doing this on my own and have been doing some books and singing with hand motions with the kids more recently in a more organized way. They've really been liking it and come to find out I guess we're doing a version of circle time? I'd like to find more rhythm in our life as I feel that has been sorely lacking for us due to moving around and other life stuff. The kids are at a really nice age now to start making some positive changes in the way we do things so that everyone is happier and more balanced. I feel like some of the Waldorf ideas and Enki might be able to help us with that.

I really enjoyed reading people's media confessionals because it's something that I have alot of guilt over. The only way I could figure to have no TV though was to get the tv out of the house, but DH would never go for that. So, I've been trying to stick to shows that I feel are less cartoony and fast moving sequences of animation. I've been doing Zoboomafoo and Blue's Clues because the kids seem to like them and they seem more thoughtful to me. I prefer the older Blue's Clues with Steve because it seems like it moves a bit slower and there is less animation. Can anyone weigh in on these. I'm curious what shows people think are worthwhile if you let your child watch some tv.

I was also really interested in the Singing and songbook ideas and I'm looking forward to researching that more. I feel like I have this small repertoire of songs that I remember from childhood, but could use so many more. The kids really love the song time. Another thing I wish I'd been doing more with sooner. I always sang to them, but mostly just at bedtime because that's what my mom did.

There are so many things we repeat just because our parents did it and I appreciate finding more avenues that I had never considered before. Sometimes I think I am doing things better than my parents did, but then realize I could be doing so much more and finding even more happiness in my life with my children.

Thanks so much for this great thread and for letting me see that there are others out there who are searching for the right kind of schooling for their kids. Holistic is such a good way of putting it. I have to admit that I did not check this thread out right away because it said Waldorf and I wasn't sure if that's what I was interested in, but now I can see how much I agree with what alot of people in this thread have said. I'm wondering how I didn't come across more info about Waldorf sooner!

Well, the little one is awake so I have to run!

Laurie
mom to Emma (almost 4) and Lucie (almost 2)

[annettemarie]

Welcome, Laurie!

We started out winter teatime circle this week. I love this circle. There are so many good old-fashioned homey nursery rhymes that go along with it!

I think that even though Katie Grace is reading, we're going to go back and do the fairy tale/alphabet main lesson book. I want her to have a beautiful relationship with letters beyond just how to write them and what sound they make, you know?

[Attached Mama]

Originally Posted by counterGOPI

hmm im not sure if i can be!! i dont know much about waldorf,only htings ive picked up here and there.
my friend who used to be a waldorf teacher told me that they never explained things to kids in the classroom,instead they would say 'i wonder' to the kids to make them try and figure it out on their own. with my DD being 16 months, should i be doing this with her? i mean she doesnt alk so she cant ask questions but she still gives me things and waits for me to say something about them, plus right now i have a tendecy to explain things to her a lot, im not sure why i do it... :

as for what i'm teaching her.. im not really teaching her anything,but should i be? or is she just mimicing me right now?

IMHO it's not only ok, but good to explain things to a baby. My dd is 18 mos old and communicates exceptionally well and is always talking about things and then I tell her something etc. For example when we were in the car a few weeks ago I told her I saw some deer. She repeated "I saw a deer" Then I told her how deer live in the woods under the trees- that is there home. She understands the concept of home. This led to her saying "Deer go pee pee outside" and then about a 10 minute conversation about where different creatures (human and animals) pee. She told me daddy pee pee and when I asked where she said "inside in potty" etc Finally she told me "I saw a deer pee pee outside" I share all that to say - her imagination is developing wonderfully well!! (and because I just had to share our funny pee conversation! ) I think it 's because we do communicate and explain how things work to her.

Must add tho that I don't completely agree with Steiner's idea of not teaching certain things til kids are older: I think teaching and learning should flow naturally in all that you do tho, not be structured, but I do think that they are normal natural parts of any culture.

Just my opinion

[OakdaleMama]

Anybody doing something special for Candlemas? Simple ideas to share? --Nancy

[mama_kass]

Ni,
Lucie explained rhythm to you very well. Take it a step at a time the slower you incorporate it the better. You know how people go on diets and then go back to there usual eating habits and gain back the weight? Obviously that doesn't make much sense. It is better to make lasting changes. This is accomplished when you go at a comfortable pace.

As far as explaining things to your young dc. I don't believe that young children should be intellectualized. Here are a couple articles to read:

Go down to delayed acedemics and then click on Children's questionshttp://www.openwaldorf.com/academics.html

http://www.christopherushomeschool.o..._education.htm

This is an article the Donna Simmons wrote. She's great.

" Waldorf education is not anti-intellectual. It is, however, anti-early intellectual. At heart, Waldorf education aims to be therapeutic and its goal is to foster the development of healthy well-balanced individuals. It is deeply felt in Waldorf circles that premature intellectualism can drain and deplete a child, and that the recognized overlapping of the label ‘gifted’ with the label ‘ADHD’ is no coincidence. By avoiding early intellectualism and really allowing our children the time and space to develop their imaginations and to experience life at their own pace, we can allow children to develop the physical and emotional strength to really fly with their later academic learning. Waldorf seeks to avoid the scenario of hothouse flowers, plants which bloom early and bright, but often lack the strength and substance to grow and flourish over time."

[KnittingKara]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I think that even though Katie Grace is reading, we're going to go back and do the fairy tale/alphabet main lesson book. I want her to have a beautiful relationship with letters beyond just how to write them and what sound they make, you know?

AM, you read my mind This is why I chose to start doing some of the OM lessons for kindergarten with the fairy tales and doing a main lesson book. I know my daughter is beginning reading and I know she knows what the upper and lower case letter look like and the sounds they make, but I want her to have a deeper foundation and understanding of them. A "beautiful relationship" with them, as you put it.

We've been making beeswax letters and numbers here the past two weeks - and also some activities like marching out the shapes of the letters in the snow, "drawing" them in the air. FUN!

So, we're gonna continue this in February, right gang? I'm having a great time and learning so much from this thread!

Best Wishes!