This is a guest post by Jodie Mesler, music teacher and author of The Magic Flute, a music curriculum from Living Music designed to help homeschooling parents teach their children recorder or penny whistle. Jodie’s passion is sharing her music compositions and teachings of the natural and artistic approach to music education. As a mother…
In the 6 Steps to Planning an Awesome Waldorf Homeschooling Year, the final step is setting up your environment, the “E” in our acronym, BRIDLE. Step Six: Setting Up Your Waldorf Homeschool Environment This can be such a fun step! You have already sketched out a block plan for the year in Step One, looked…
So often, when we are new to Waldorf education, we think something like…”I need to learn to teach math with gnome stories. And I need to learn form drawing. And oh, there is painting and main lesson books and special songs and crayons and….” And the list goes on and on. But really, the place…
There is a phrase in twelve step programs called “the geographic cure.” It refers to one’s attempt to move somewhere new to cure whatever pain one is in. It doesn’t work! Because “wherever you go, there you are!” We take ourselves with us wherever we go. So how do we live with ourselves, right here,…
Step two in the “6 Steps to Planning an Awesome Waldorf Homeschooling Year” is Rhythm & Resources in Waldorf homeschooling, the “R” in BRIDLE. Time to begin considering what resources to use for which blocks and what your weekly rhythm might look like. Did you read the first step yet on Blocks? If not, start…
Here’s where you’ll find the traditional main lesson block topics that are typically taught in each grade. This Waldorf block rotation for homeschoolers is a great starting point when planning your year. Creating a simple homeschool block schedule can help you stay on track and relieve overwhelm throughout the year. When you plan out your…
Summertime – a time when many of us as homeschoolers begin to get serious about planning curriculum for next year! There are two traps I want to help you avoid. One is only thinking about planning (maybe even some days dreading it) but not taking any action. The other is spiraling into overwhelm. Let’s get…
The question posed at the end of yesterday afternoon’s discussion is this: what measures need to be taken when children are struggling with a subject or lesson? You may find Steiner’s recommendations surprising: healthy food for improved behavior and attention, and caricatures for improved memory. Both quite applicable to Waldorf homeschooling! This is Day Eight…
Here’s a description of a homeschool day in the life with just a 15-year old. When your last child is the only one still at home, it can be almost like homeschooling an only. Except not. And homeschooling teenagers is a whole different experience. Every January, over at Simple Homeschool, Jamie runs a series called…
Here we are with Lecture Eight from The Foundations of Human Experience, the morning lecture which Steiner gave to the first Waldorf teachers on the morning of August 29, 1919. Two topics emerge: how to work with remembering and forgetting (hint: sleep), and the twelve senses. First, Steiner’s ideas about remembering and forgetting. I think back…
