Our Waldorf Homeschool Journey

Hi Everyone!

Today we started our major geography lessons. I find it easier to do a chunk at a time rather than bit by bit through the year. I had to teach Jules about the continents. I hated geography at school it was so boring. I had various teachers that just taught us the position of various countries etc. There was no excitement. It was just a map on paper, blank and boring! I made a decision that this would not be the case with Juliette, so I really pulled out all the stops iro geography (I had little natural enthusiasm you see). Well once I started researching the continents I got awfully excited. Why wasn’t any of this discussed with us at school? There is a whole world out there it is like look at a rich tapestry, the more you look the more you see.

I first showed Jules on the map where the continents are, how many and there names. Then we explored the continental drift theory (National Geographic has a great simulation). She was amazed and riveted. Brilliant!

Then we went back to our continents as they are today and I gave her an overview of each one, and which countries we’d be looking at as examples. I picked about 2 from each continent.

The excitement and joy was evident, when we spoke about the culture of the various people and people of note in each country, she loved the idea of Ghandi and Mother Theresa and looks forward to India and the cuisine! She loved the sound of Japan. And is willing to give Sushi a go!

When it came to Australia the Kangaroos were a great draw, not to mention the coral reefs and how they homeschool over there.

Europe was stunning, as we chatted about Knights, the crusades, the French Revolution (She loves Marie-Antoinette I guess because they share a name). She’s looking forward to croissants and quiche on those days and when I ask her to feed the cats, she’s still telling me….”Let them eat cake!” (They don’t get the joke…)

The Americas, were exciting, she’s always loved native american music and their long history and culture. More captivating though was the rain forest in South America, she’s pretty clued up when it comes to global warming, so this interests her immensely.

Then a continent that we love, as we’re a part of it. Africa. We discussed our history, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi’s imprisonment, the various tribes, how they communicate and a day in the life of a typical African child in a rural area. Very different to an American or European child!

And that’s where we left it as we had to still do other phonics etc. But tomorrow we visit South Africa, our home. But there are so many parts of it that Jules hasn’t been introduced to. It should be great fun. (I’ve bought her a Ndbele Beadwork Bookmark as a gift for her first day of African Geography). We had a small discussion about diversity and how amazing it is to live in a country with so many different people and languages yet we live together, generally peacefully. So she learnt the meaning of diversity.

I love teaching like this. We’ve included Geography,history,science(continental drift and the earths plates etc), social science and then finished with English.

I put together a wordsearch puzzle called “Our World : The Continents”, it includes all the names of the continents, our planet and the number of continents. This just ensures that the spelling of the continents is taken care of in a fun way and the fact that there are seven of them is cemented in!

I’ve uploaded it to the site. It is bigger than the usual ones and Jules took longer and found it a bit more challenging then the others. But she can pronounce the names of the continents and she had a great time doing it!

Hope you enjoy it!

Blessings,

Susan.

Filed under: Homeschool on September 25th, 2007