Sometime around Thanksgiving, an online friend from a Waldorf homeschooling community I am part of, with whom I had been exchanging emails, encouraged me to check out a collection of scopes (Periscope, a personal video scope, like a webcast) from Julie Bogart of Brave Writer. (Thanks, friend!) I had heard of Brave Writer several times before and had skimmed the website in exploration, but was really trying to focus on the Waldorf materials I had in hand and make them work. Julie's scopes, it turns out, were just the breath of fresh air my homeschool mindset needed. Her approach is not at all constraining and parallels my interpretation of Waldorf beautifully.
One of the first scopes my friend put me onto was titled The Enchanted Education. I loved this, because Waldorf, what is familiar to me, so much of which I love, and what I am striving to bring to my children, is an enchanted education. It has the ability to be utter magic. I love Julie's coinage "enchanted education," and while I already understood what this means (despite not using this expression), I had somehow lost this feeling of enchantment and was struggling to regain it. Waldorf should feel alive and what I was doing had lost its magic.
I needed to be re-enchanted, and bless Julie Bogart's perky, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, wise, informative scopes, because I am getting it back over here! I am now part of an online group of the Brave Writer community, and while many other members are bravely scoping, I am sticking to blogging. Here is what an enchanted day looked like in our house this week. (I posted about a magical day a couple weeks ago, too.)
An enchanted education can be messy. It is curiosity, playfulness, conversational, in nature and at home. It is full of books, conversations, questions, interest, and laughter. It requires time for lessons to unfold and space to explore. I have been changing rhythm around here, letting go of some of the pressure on myself to do things a certain way, letting there be a greater mix of materials for my kids, but still being the teacher and the guide. It's working well.
What does it look like for your family?
So glad you're finding some freedom around homeschooling, Nicola. I am trying to do the same here. Bringing the love back into the learning - for everyone, including me! I think I lost that in trying to make everything how (I thought) it "should" be. I'm trying to take the things about Waldorf that we love and letting go of the rest. I want to do what works for us, and what brings us joy. What a wasted opportunity homeschooling is if we don't give ourselves permission to en-joy it!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday,
Cathy
Yes! The same is true here. Thanks for your lovely comment.
Delete:)
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