Our Waldorf Homeschool Journey

Hi Everyone

Today was a really fun day, and I also wanted to share what happened at dinner last night…Our family has a rhythm that we try and stick to, well we have a rhythm within a rhythm within a rhythm. We have a daily rhythm, a weekly rhythm, a seasonal rhythm and of course a yearly rhythm.

I’d like to share our daily rhythm with you all, as I get a lot of emails asking me to do just that. In the morning we get up, me at 6/6:30 when I spend time sitting and contemplating my day and the kids lessons. I also work on my blog or website at this time.

I’m then able to greet the kids at 7am. After this I start making breakfast which at the moment consists of french toast, honey, fruit and yoghurt, or poached or scrambled eggs forJohn. I do make a special meal for him as it truly makes his day. It takes me an extra 10 minutes or so, and it is a gift that I give to him. (Also we try not to do the animal slaughter thing…) The kids want meat every now and again, but we try to at least get them to accept what they are eating. It’s not just a piece of meat from the shop, it was a living breathing creature. My feeling is that if you don’t have the balls to kill the animal yourself, why get someone else to do your dirty work?

After breakfast we have a quick general tidy up time for EVERYONE! I’m not going to get into it in this post but for us we need to keep the house not only clean but tidy. It shows that we are grateful for our home and what it provides for us, being shelter, a safe place to live life the way that we feel is right.

Then it’s circle time, where we say a blessing for our day, and then practice our recorder. I throw all the windows open and damage the neighbour’s eardrums and drive their dogs to distract.LOL! No, seriously we practice our recorder, and we’re getting quite good. It’s not so much the sound we’re trying to get right. It’s the act of breathing. The gentle rhythm of breathing in and out. Rudolf Steiner teaches in his lectures “Practical Advice for Teachers”, the importance of breathing. It definitely calms us and centers us. I looooove my recorder. It chills me out.

Then we do our main lessons, then it’s snack time (about 1/2 an hour) and finally either a maths lesson,craft time or baking time depending on the weekly rhythm.

Then it’s generally a bit of play time and lunch and then we look at our weekly rhythm again. Is it play date day? Or shopping day? Or just chill out day!!

Then at 4:55pm, yes I actively do it at an odd time, to try and focus myself, otherwise if I said 5pm, then 5ish is suddenly okay….It’s a way for me to control the sanguine nature of me. We then feed everyone, cats, dog, chickens and any other creature that may have moved in.

Then it’s usually a quick story. This helps the kids seperate the playing time from the bath and evening time. StJohn baths first while Jules does a quick tidy up in her room, once she is done then she either helps out with dinner or sits outside with the animals or reads. StJohn does his tidy up after his bath.

We then set the table and have dinner together as a family. We have a meal verse and then slowly wind down to bath time for Jules, and quiet time for StJohn, he tends to either draw, look through books or build something, depending on what he’s busy with at the moment. Today is tents, all manner of tents!

Then it’s bedtime, where both children are able to read in bed, StJohn usually draws or pages through a book. Then sleepy time for StJ at 8pm and Jues at 8:30 or 9pm if she has an exciting book that she just can’t put down.

But after all that I want to tell you about dinner last night. We are sitting chatting and discussing man and animals and whether we have the right to eat them and I plonked the cat on the table and asked the children if we should maybe help her cross the rainbow bridge and pop her in the roasting pan? Why not her if we’re happy to eat someone elses chicken? Anyway they were laughing at my antics and John was saying,”Siss Man! Get the cat off the table!”

When we hear the kids 2 houses down screaming at each other and then the Mom screaming at them and their parrot started screaming! I say”Good God!”

Juliette says…..”They’ve got no rhythm that’s their problem!” And carries on eating her dessert. We virtually fell out of our chairs laughing. She’s so cool.

Have a stunning Tuesday…

Many blessings, Sue. xx

PS. In these really dodgy economic times, John has a recruitment blog which specialises in alternative jobs, that can fit in well with homeschool families. One of these is for Dad to work on an oil rig. You see he’d get 2 weeks on and 3 weeks off. Meaning you can school the kids like crazy for those 2 weeks and then take quality time off with Dad when he gets home. Just an idea, and something that is becoming more prevalent the more the economy worsens. You can check out the options by clicking here:  drilling jobs!

Filed under: Anthroposophy, Verses, Waldorf Homeschooling, Homeschool on October 20th, 2008