April is National Poetry Month. And today, I want to share with you 3 ways to explore poetry as a homeschooling family. This does not have to be complicated. And in fact, it can be quite fun. My own love of poetry started as a young girl when I would read poetry for hours. On…
Main lesson books are where children record their learning. In the Waldorf approach, children create their own book of what they learn during each 3 to 6 week main lesson block. Here is how to make a main lesson book. This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure policy…
What are the essential elements of a main lesson block? In the first two posts in this series, What Is a Main Lesson Block? and Why Does Main Lesson Block Learning Work?, we talked about the importance of rhythm and why staying with one subject for a number of weeks works. Now, let’s look more…
The Waldorf curriculum for any given year is divided into units of study called main lesson blocks. As we learned yesterday in What is a Main Lesson Block?, these block topics are the focus of learning for anywhere from three to six weeks. And now you may be wondering, why does main lesson block learning…
Main lesson blocks are a central feature of Waldorf education. Are you wondering, “what is a main lesson block?” Let me show you what Waldorf homeschooling has looked like over the years in our house with three children. The Morning Main Lesson The main lesson generally takes place each morning for about two hours. One…
Most Waldorf homeschoolers avoid teaching grammar. Because after all, the Waldorf curriculum is full of good stories. That’s how lessons and new material are presented. Writing and reading are built into the curriculum, so those aspects of language arts seem to be taken care of. Plus, we have no idea how to teach grammar in…
In this series, 5 Days to Homeschooling with Main Lesson Blocks, we’ll explore: What is a main lesson block? Why does main lesson block learning work? What are the essential elements? How do you plan in main lesson blocks? And how do you record the learning in main lesson books? I’m Jean, and I’m here…
Here are 3 books that made me a better parent. I read each of them at different stages of parenting and they gave me a fresh perspective. Parenting is such important work. Through our parenting, we really are changing the world one family at a time. “There is no single effort more radical in its…
Are you wondering what homeschooling high school looks like for a Waldorf family? Today, I want to share what it looked like for me and my three children. My youngest is now a freshman in college. That makes my husband and I officially empty-nesters this year. A good time to reflect back on those high…
Do you ever have one of those days when things don’t go as planned? Where you don’t get started when you intended to. Then you don’t do the lesson you planned. And you don’t feel very good about any of it. And then you yell. Do you ever have one of those days? I was…
