Our Waldorf Homeschool Journey

Well it’s been 8 months since I lasted posted on this blog. I don’t want to speak to soon, but our life is looking settled. John had an accident in January and then just as he appeared to be mending well, he had a minor heart attack…so blogging has been far from my mind. It has been all that I could do to keep our journey going. We nearly lost him twice in 7 months!!Talk about a lesson in treasuring someone! But I’m tentatively trying to blog again, as I have so much to share with you all.

Juliette is in Grade 5 now, StJohn in Grade 2…Time sure flies! We’re still using Melissa Nielsens’ Curriculum - a little garden flower. I love it, all the basics are there and you just go with it. It is my humble opinion that Rudolf Steiner would have enjoyed Melissas’ guides.

In his lectures Discussions with Teachers he states the following; “The teacher must be a person of initiative in everything done, great and small.” Now there are a number of Waldorf Study Guides etc. out there which are wonderful, but…for me they’re just a bit to “easy”. I’m trying to find the right words here. To know a subject, to allow the spirit to flow through you to the child, you need to have embraced it yourself. To plop a book down or read from it, is fine but not ideal.

An example to share with you would be teaching Norse mythology. When I taught it to Jules I saw her feeling Freya’s pain as she searched for her husband and realised she had lost him. The spirit flows, it’s awesome to experience. It doesn’t matter what the subject is you can feel it when it’s right!

You see with Melissas’ Curriculum everything is provided (including a daily lesson plan!). You need to read about the subject, understand it and only then present it to your child. Only in this way, can you truly give your child an Anthroposophic education.

I want to share a quote of Rudolf Steiners’ that I keep stuck on our fridge… As a homeschooler it is a bit difficult if you wake up feeling fed up, irritated or miserable. You can’t just bundle the kids in the car and drop them at school! You are the school, so I have this on the fridge next to the espresso machine (my first port of call each day)….

The teacher must never get stale or grow sour. Cherish a mood of soul that is fresh and healthy! 

Rudolf Steiner

 There are a few days when I swear under my breath at the quote, but they’re few, most days it seems to calm me and I start to smile.

Blessings to you all, there are so many of you I need to email, and I will return all the mails I’ve received, I just couldn’t up to now, my apologies…..

Filed under: Waldorf Homeschooling on August 11th, 2009