Our Waldorf Homeschool Journey

Hi Everyone,

Today was the first day of our second week of Grade4 for Jules. At the beginning of last week, I felt all nervous again about homeschooling, so much work to do for this year, can we manage it? Can I manage it to be more honest. Well it took a few days to get back into it, and now it feels right again. It feels like I’ve been homeschooling for years, which we have come to think about it.

But I just thought I needed to mention it, especially to new homeschool moms. It doesn’t matter how long you homeschool for it’s normal to feel a bit nervous and a bit doubtful at times. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t doubt ourselves. Don’t let these feelings put you off and DON’T feel that you’re the only one who doubts their abilities! We all do at times!

Today homeschooling just felt comfortable, normal and what should happen at the beginning of my day, so I guess I’m back in the “swing” of things.

We started our day with maths, learning to use the calculator. Mr Calc as our textbook tells us. Basic things, like the screen is called a display, how many digits will fit on the screen, how to clear the display. Jules enjoyed it.

Then we did our English spelling. Last week we did the ee sound and the ea sound. (Revision of last year for us) This week we’re doing ch,th, and sh. Jules writes the words into her spelling book, and then studies them quietly this afternoon, and then gets orally tested tomorrow. She’s never overly excited about spelling, so I need to put together some more wordsearch puzzles for her. This usually adds a bit of fun to an otherwise boring subject.

After spelling, we did a comprehension exercise which Jules loves. She’s so good at it and views it as a kind of, reading puzzle to be put together.

By the time we were finished, her writing hand was getting sore (Clonard warns that Grade 4’s need to be given a bit of a rest from writing, as they get tired. I didn’t think of this…thank heavens for these added tips that are part of our curriculum) .

We did Afrikaans orally today, just revising vocabulary mainly and a few sentences. I was a bit worried that maybe we weren’t progressing, but soon found we’re doing fine.

I asked Jules to translate from my Afrikaans into English as we were finishing. We were tackling pronouns…I said to her,”Ek sien a rot” “I see at rat” which she translated well. I then thought, mmmhh let’s see, a tiny test, so I said to her…”And if I say, Sy is a rot.”(I pointed at her). She immediately sat up straight and said, “I am not!” And then we both collapsed laughing, she translated perfectly and quickly without agonised thinking. (I had called her a rat!)

That was it for the day. I’m off to wash windows, and iron :(( 2 of my least favourite tasks, but I choose to do it with love and this makes it a lot easier and hopefully I will feel a bit of joy and peace as the windows become clear of sea mist and sandy stuff, so that we can see our blessed view and our clothes become smooth and ready for snuggling up in.

Enjoy your Monday, hope it’s more pink than blue.

Blessings always,

Sue

Filed under: Homeschool on January 21st, 2008