Hi, was wondering if anyone here has a half hour commute one way to their Waldorf school? I'm considering applying for my 12 year old to go to our local Waldorf and the drive is about 25-30 minutes on way. I have a two year old also and am trying to decide how to make this work, if I want to make this work. If I went home and picked up that would be two hours in the car everyday. That doesn't appeal to me much, but I really would love for my son to go there too.
I think that's a pretty typical commute for people. I would do it (and have). What I would ask is are you sure the commute won't get worse, and/or that you would not consider relocating? We had a 25 min commute, then moved and thought our commute would be 25-30 but the economy rebounded and in one year it became 55 minutes! Luckily we were just renting so we moved again.
It would definitely be hard on the little one, though. Could he go to nursery school soon a couple of days a week, or do they have a parent-toddler group? How about someone else (dad?) taking Ds to school a couple of days or a sitter for little one now and then? A once-a-week class/group for him in the area of the school? If you can shave a few "trips" off his car time during the week by getting creative it can make a huge difference.
yes I think that is common among Waldorf parents. Certainly most parents I know at the local Waldorf school do at least that.
I'm going to be honest and say it was one of several key factors in our decision to pull out youngest out of the Waldorf kindy last year. They moved, from round the corner to a half hour drive away. I could not square the idea of spending 2 hours a day in the car to give her this beautiful natural experience. It seemed really hypocritical and a bad example to my kids. To be clear though-we are homeschoolers with older homeschooled (ex Waldorf) kids, the choice for us was between Waldorf and homeschooling. If you are anyway planning on his being at school, I guess it might be different.
What I'd say too is that IME Waldorf parents tend to be very good at lift sharing and so on. Have you approached the school and asked if there is anyone to lift share with.
Thank you both for your replies. Filly, I am actually leaning toward homeschooling instead of Waldorf. My older kids homeschooled for about four years in the past, and my 12 year old has been back in public school for two years now. It's not where he belongs. Even if I were to find a carpool parent, my son and I like to be at home. We're homebodies! I did do the parent - child class last fall with my toddler and might again next month. If I homeschool again I would still like to be involved in the Waldorf community, I think my 12 year old ds would enjoy the festivals and all. Filly, do you use a Waldorf curriculum at home? Could you pm me some details about it if you do? Thank you for any help you can offer. I was looking at Christopherous recently.
I'm meeting with a mom today who I may be able to ride share with! I also thought that I could hire my neighbors twins who are 14 to alternate days to babysit in the afternoon so my dd could stay home while I pick ds up. The school seems pretty amazing so I'm moving forward with the application process - ds will do a two day visit at the school. If he loves it, that will certainly factor into the decision.
hiya, no I don't really use a curriculum. We tend toward unschooling. We do a lot of Waldorf style activities and I vaguely follow then regarding developmental readiness in a better late than early sense, but...not really. Sorry, wish I could help more!
Aware this is a board for those sending their kids to school so I don't want to crash it with "why my kids are not in a Waldorf school", but if you want to start a thread in homeschooling you should feel free.
Our 15, 20 sometimes 30 minute drive one way was a big, big factor in deciding whether we switch to waldorf from neighborhood school. But I decided for it, because I needed to know he is getting an education I'm tuned with, when he will be away from me for 7 hours a day. Homeschooling was not an option for us, I'm not even cut out for homework help!
For my son who goes to the school and has 3 recesses and lots of physical activities, the "brain dead"- break in the car seems more than welcome in the afternoons. my little one sleeps his nap. Morning traffic is worse, but we listen to audio tapes, stories, in my language, and we are so deep in them, that the ride flies by. I get to leave my younger one home with my husband because he leaves home later.
Now that we are all so waldorf, we don't even take him to after school activities. In public school I felt he needed to get the extra, and we drove a lot in late afternoon traffic due to classes. But in waldorf school he is already doing art, music and plenty of excercise.
So he is fine with the drive, little brother gets a break from it, I'm the one who suffers, sometimes if I dont do yoga, I get really antsy about sitting in that car seat too much. But my kid is so much ridiculously much happier in this new school, I'm willing to do it. We carpool with one family in the am and another in the pm, once a week each and that's a big help too.
We live in the country and have been doing a 45 min. commute for the past 2 1/2 years. Our waldorf is a charter so it's free, that plays into our decision. We do have a tiny little school down the road with 10 kids and the convenience is often tempting. My husband drives to town 4 days a week so he takes them in the morning and then I go pick them up. The hard issues for me are 1: The gas money (we live in California and our gas is often $4/gal.) 2: The time spent in the car. I wonder sometimes if their time would be better spent outside here (we have lots of space, forests, rivers,etc.) And I wonder which would make a bigger difference in their lives. 3: It would simplify our lives SO much! 4: The environmental impact of all our driving and how it is in direct conflict of our values. I want to homeschool. I homeschooled my oldest for kindy and it was fun but hard too. I just have so many fears about it. We're moving soon an will be 35 min. from town and even closer to another tiny school. So we're trying to make the choice again. We are constantly re thinking our choice and so far have always picked this one. Everytime I'm at the school I feel so strongly "how could I ever take them away from this" but everytime I'm home I'm like" Geez our life would be simpler if they just went to the traditional school..." So my advice is try it out! You can always change your mind!
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