We homeschool through a charter (more here and here), which organizes us in 2-month chunks called learning periods. Here are my posts for Learning Period 1 (August/September), Learning Period 2 (October/November), and Learning Period 3 (December/January). Learning Period 4 (February/March) is below.
This learning period, for us, was guided by three main parts, from which all our subjects arose; Heal the World Book Club, Journey North Mystery Class, and Shakespeare.
Shakespeare is an upper elementary/middle school class offering from our charter school. While our charter school itself is large, we school through one of the satellite offices, so our experience has been intimate and supportive. One of the many perks is an annual Shakespeare class organized and lead by one of our amazing education coordinators (EC). The class began before winter break (several weeks before the other classes begin the winter session) and submerged us in our first exploration into Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era. This year, the EC adapted and directed a group of about 25 students in a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a perfect choice for our Lala Bug. This is the first class she has taken through our charter that has required consistent homework with deadlines and culminated in a larger project and, of course, a performance. I want to share more here about what Lala Bug did for her project. (Hint: You can see her working on it in the photos above!) I want to share photos of her performing as Poppy the sprite. I want to share more about how challenging this class was for her, and as a result, me. I want to share more about the growth that has come after the class was completed. I am bursting with pride! But out of respect for her, and for her privacy, the privacy of our family, and the other performers, I will limit myself to the photos above and below.
Every morning (and what has become a key part of our home learning), we have morning read-aloud. I keep a basket of books that I read aloud to the kids while they do some sort of hands-are-busy-minds-are-listening activity. While spring has definitely sprung now, we read and really enjoyed The Snowy Day in combination with A Poem for Peter in early February, when winter still felt like winter. We read books like these, science books, poetry, picture books that build on or introduce a theme we are exploring, and often we have a single chapter book going that is part of our learning.
So as part of morning read-aloud in February, March, (and April), we have participated in the Simple Homeschool Heal the World Book Club, which had all of us hooked! We have loved the books (all of which are chosen from Give Your Child the World), loved the extra information about the authors, countries the books are set in, and the charity that money is being raised for. The book for February was The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech and the book for March was Extra Credit, by Andrew Clements. (April, since it is April as I type this, is Rickshaw Girl, by Mitali Perkins.) From the book, my kids practiced copy work, we did the grammar puzzles offered, we explored the globe, and had incredible discussions about similarities and differences between our lives and the characters.
Another big part of February and March was Journey North's Mystery Class. It is a free weekly "class" that runs from the end of January through part of April, providing weekly clues and had us tracking sunlight changes in 10 (mystery) places around the globe. The kids use the clues and maps, science, and math to learn about and start to figure out where the mystery spots are. Journey North also provides a number of extension activities, including weekly journal activities. We have all enjoyed being geographic detectives with this class and Lala Bug asked to please do it again next year!
And then, of course, other learning and other lessons sneaked in here or there. Above is math in a huge cardboard castle, gleefully built by an 8th grader in the charter resource center after a couple of the ECs saw it being discarded by a nearby business and couldn't pass it up as the play potential was too good. (Yes, our charter and the ECs are that wonderful!)
Below is the annual sheep shearing at our favorite historic farm. They demonstrate sheering with electric clippers and the older hand shears. "Click go the shears, boys, click click click..." It is amazing to watch and is an annual favorite, but I can see the changes and growth in the kids this year, despite this being Brown Mouse's year for farming. Both kids preferred watching the sheep dogs herding sheep, and all the while, I kept thinking of James Herriot's Dog Stories.
February
and March brought rain to our little neck of the woods. Finally, rain.
We have been in a drought for the past 5 years. That, of course, has
lasting affects. But, in the little, local ecosystem of our family and
garden, it means good fun digging in the mud for those of us who like
that kind of thing!
This winter there were few blues and more engaged learning excitement. It was lovely!
Heal the world book club sounds amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteNichole, It was been wonderful(!!) and you would really like it. It is ending, but it is never too late. Jamie of Simple Homeschool provided study guides for parents for each book and there were links to songs, videos to tie in, free audio stories to correspond, food suggestions, and her daughter created Mad Lib style grammar play for each story. Talk about super easy learning that happened here all in a pleasurable way. If you follow the link at the top of my post, it will take you to where you need to go to start.
DeleteHi Nicola, Thanks for posting about your learning. I too thought the Heal the World bookclub sounded great and I'm also intrigued by the Journey North Mystery Class. Do you think it would be possible to do it outside the USA?
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about how your homeschooling has moved away from Waldorf. I feel so conflicted about using the Waldorf homeschooling model now. I haven't been able to completely let go but I'm so over all the time I spend planning.......You sound happier.... do you have any advice?
Catherine, Hi! It may seem as though we are no longer Waldorf, but instead, I have the view that we are making Waldorf work for us. Waldorf child development and what I do know and understand of the Waldorf approach do enter into my planning, my thinking, and a lot of what we do in our homeschool. My materials may not all be Waldorf approved (I often use library books instead of a chain of Charles Kovaks books, for example), but I am trying to bring concepts in a beautiful way at the appropriate time. Trying to have everything be all Waldorf, though, was causing me stress, causing some tension with my relationships within our family, and it didn’t feel good, the way I thought it should. So, I relaxed a little and let other philosophies and ideas to filter in (I had no idea there were so many overlaps with a couple other educational philosophies), opened the door to opportunities that are happening around us, shelved some parts of Waldorf that weren’t working for us (and were causing me guilt and some shame in the Waldorf online community). As a result, my confidence is higher, my relationships with my kids are better, and we are all a bit more relaxed. I want us all to love learning. I do still see myself as a Waldorf parent homeschooler (with some other ideas mixed in). We are “Us-schoolers.” In trying to “be Waldorf” the way it is broadly prescribed, I wasn’t seeing the children in front of me, which is what one is supposed to do in Waldorf! Now I do that more. I back off of things if the material or timing isn’t right for my kids. I let some taboo things in (comics!) and am so glad I have (they helped jump the hurdle to reading). I have posted about planning before. I should do an updated post about it. Which online Waldorf communities are you in? I cannot remember. Some are more supportive than others and even in those that are supportive, it has taken me awhile to realize where and when I should not take everything that is advised too much too heart or too seriously, without considering what works for me/my family.
DeleteThanks for the reply, Nicola. Yes, I can totally relate to what you say about seeing the child in front of you! I have sometimes felt that I have been trying to make our family into something we are not by following the Waldorf prescription, and to be honest I have been struggling with that from day one. I think that Waldorf has given me a frame to work from and I'm very grateful for that, but I also see it has led to me being rigid and inflexible (or at least not flexible enough), which I don't like. I certainly would do things differently if I had my time over. I've never been a purist to be honest - some things just didn't feel right, other things just didn't work for us and some things were not that important to me - but I did try very hard and took it all very seriously.
ReplyDeleteI have taken a step back from the online groups because I felt I no longer belonged there and I have to admit that in the past I have also felt publicly humiliated and shamed for some of the views I have expressed or even questions I've asked. Often the hard questions are ignored and any struggles someone might have seem to be blamed on the parent or child rather than having an open discussion about the limitations of the method, or the resources, and lack of adequate support available, and I just don't feel that's a healthy perspective. Perhaps it's my imagination but I do wonder how safe people feel to be open and honest because it does not seem to be that kind of a culture to me, and surely I am not the only one who questions the status quo? Perhaps that's true of other groups who discuss other methods too, but as I haven't any experience of anything outside of Waldorf I wouldn't know. I do think that there are a lot of really lovely people in the Waldorf community, I don't want it to come across that I have an issue with everyone, but I struggle with the general top-down, authoritarian viewpoint towards parents, which is then often the relationship between adult and child, which was my experience of attending Waldorf schools and seems to also be reflected in homeschooling. Of course, Waldorf doesn't see itself in that way, it sees itself as age appropriate and authoritative, and if I made that comment in a group I would be shut down quickly and told I was wrong, mistaken.
Right now I'm just trying to listen to my own voice, to trust my own authority. But there is that part of me that finds that really hard and I just want someone to tell me what to do, or give me some kind of reassurance that I'm on the right track! I think that one of the hardest things about being a homeschooler - no matter what method or school of thought you follow - is managing your own anxiety around feeling responsible for your children and how things turn out. That's probably true of all parents to a degree but for homeschoolers there's another level. I guess that we wouldn't homeschool at all if we couldn't manage that anxiety, but it does rumble away in the background and, from time to time, rear up and roar.
I realise I've ended up being quite critical of Waldorf, so I understand you might not want that published on your blog! (and that's fine) I just see myself as being honest, speaking from my own personal experience which may or may not be similar to other homeschoolers who have walked a way along the Waldorf path. I just wish there was more openness and discussion about the limitations of Waldorf homeschooling because, until there is, these things will never be addressed.
I am fine with your comment on my blog! I am sorry you have had that experience and I understand it completely and know you aren't alone. Yes! Listen to your own voice and trust your own authority. I wish I had really understood, when my kids were little, to follow my own parenting instincts more than I did at the time, and I think the same is true for homeschooling. They are woven together, aren't they? Honestly one of the things that helped me step back and relax and listen to myself was actually listening to someone else...I think I mentioned Julie Bogart (of Brave Writer) previously? You might listen to this talk (and many/any of her other talks!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLIym3eJ4GA
DeleteNicola, thank you for the link to Julie's video. It was perfect. I wholeheartedly agree with her message.
ReplyDeleteI wish there was a group for people who are "kind of" Waldorf but relaxed and inclusive/eclectic. So they know what I mean when I say, "physics block" but at the same time will tell me freely the struggles they had using the Waldorf resources available because they were aimed at the classroom, or because the instructions weren't very clear, for example, and what non-Waldorf resource was a better fit. I wish there was a group not dominated by experts or purists. A place I could go and talk Waldorf and say "I'm struggling with x" without the reply coming back, "how is your rhythm?"!!! I also wish there was a group that didn't spend 95% of the time talking about grade one, which curriculum is the best, and what age for each grade. Most of all I wish there was a group discussing the teen years because that's my focus now and I feel completely alone and unsupported. Do you know of any groups like that?
I don't know of a Waldorf group like that, but you could start one! I would join and I know others who would, too, but I have somewhat filled that need with occasional participation in the Brave Writer online groups. One is called Brave Schoolers (but is Facebook listed as BraveScopes) and the other is Brave Writer Lifestyle Group. There is a lot of Brave Writer/Waldorf overlap even though Julie never mentions Waldorf. She does mention Charlotte Mason a lot and there is overlap there, as well. (It was another Waldorf friend that introduced me to Brave Writer and I found, once I began exploring more, a number of Waldorf friends in that group. We are not alone, I tell you!)
DeleteThanks Nicola. I think if I was in the head-space (and heart-space) I was in 3-4 years ago with homeschooling I would jump at that idea and start a group, but now I'm not sure I've got either the energy or the enthusiasm for it. That's kind of where I am with homeschooling itself, lost my drive, my passion. I'm just treading water right now, trying to figure it out. But if I change my mind I'll be sure to let you know!
ReplyDeleteI feel similarly...I would love to participate but don't want to start and moderate such a group. I am certain one exists, but the groups I am part of are all just part of that ideal. If you have lost your drive and passion, step back for awhile and just enjoy being with your kids. That is what I did (and binge listened to Julie Bogart at the time when she was first broadcasting many of those recordings that are on her YouTube page) and it made all the difference. After a couple months, I was able to start adding things back in that we missed or felt right. Good luck!
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