Our Waldorf Homeschool Journey

Yesterday we did the first of StJohns’ animal fables for the year. We started with the fox and the crow. First thing yesterday we did a form drawing, then I told him the story of the crow. The chalkboard drawing was ready for him, it is sooooo important. I know a lot of Mom’s don’t do the drawings because they feel they have no drawing talent. Well then you’re missing out on so much. It doesn’t have to be a glorious work of art, just a bright representation of the story.Before I start a drawing on the board I find a quiet spot and ask the Spirit to help me. Seriously my drawings improved 10 times after I started doing that…The kids absolutely love it, it feeds there imagination, which is what makes Waldorf work

Sticking to the Waldorf way of doing things I don’t read the story to him, I just tell it, adding as I go. Obviously we took the original story from Aesop but our fox was hungry from a long winter and he hadn’t had a good meal for 3 days etc. He finally, after gobbling the cheese, saunters down the hill giggling to himself, with the cheese making him warm inside. We then leave it at that, allowing the child to draw his own conclusion.NEVER make a judgement for the child. Don’t tell the child the moral of the story. Don’t even ask what he thinks of it! I found with my kids, they genererally come to me the next day to talk about the story, before we do it again, and they refer to the moral of the story as they see it.

The whole point of the animal fable is that the child finds the moral on his own. It becomes part of him, as he has discovered it himself.

StJohn then wrote a summary of the story and drew a picture in his main lesson book.

Finally to end the day, we made cheese…which turned out pretty yummy, even though I had my doubt initially.

Filed under: Waldorf Grade 2, Waldorf Homeschooling on September 2nd, 2009