Planning the Waldorf Year in the Home

The Merry Month of May is a time of a great expansion, a great breathing out. On warm days we can throw open the windows and relax. The crab apples are blossoming and the willow trees are beginning to unfurl their leaves.

Celebrations in May include May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day and Memorial Day here in the USA. It's a time for outdoor celebration with cook outs, pot lucks and play.

We now turn to planning, having woken from our long winter's rest, having dreamed and imagined our vision for the future, we turn to planning next year, of home education and home making for our families, ourselves and our children before the expansive energy of summer swoops us off our feet and away.
Celebrate the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children in May will focus on sketching out the year.

What do we want to bring to our children through the year? through the seasons? through the weeks and the days from September 2012 until June 2013.


In May we'll look at::

• What do we have at hand to use and what do we need to procure

• Do you want to do a 3, 4 or 6 week Circle or Main Lesson block? We'll look at the benefits and drawbacks of each

• How often to change circle? How to change circle?

• What is circle or ring time anyway? Do you need to do it at home? Can it be easier and more fun?

• What props to use in circle and storytelling and main lesson? Props?

• We'll look at how to organize your plan and get clear on what it is you want to bring to your child, your family, yourself.

• What are the milestones you want to reach before January?

• What about the holidays, how do they fit in the plan?

With the great popularity and gratitude expressed for the Rhythm focus, we'll continue along with that, looking at our daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and yearly rhythms, bringing more form and finding more freedom within the form.
In the month of June, we'll get into the details of the day, we'll look at how to implement that plan, how to organize the space and make it more play and education (if we are doing the grades) friendly, how to make the materials we need and how to use them through the year. We'll cover wet on wet watercolor painting, beeswax crayon drawing and coloring, bean bag making and use, jump rope, speech exercise, body geography, sensory nourishment and putting your circle into lively action.
In June, we'll look at the Pillars of Waldorf education that I have outlined in our blogs over virtual tea, here with Carrie Dendtler of The Parenting Passageway:

• Drawing with Beeswax Crayons
• Wet on Wet Watercolor Painting
• Modeling with Dough, Beeswax and Clay
• Speech
• Movement
• Drama
• Singing and Musical Instrument
• Handwork :: Ideas for each grade

Join us on this adventure to sketch out the year ahead and remain well anchored in the day before us.
Sign up for the month of May is here.
Sign up for the month of June is here.
If you sign up for only one month, know that you will be doing only half the planning and may not emerge with a sense of completion. The planning is designed over two months to give you the opportunity to sketch out the curriculum in detail and to prepare your space and your self for bringing it in the year ahead. We will be implementing the schedule in June, not designing it. In May we will be designing the schedule and focusing more of the rhythm of the year, season, month week and day rather than looking in depth at the pillars, which we will do in June.
Clear as mud? Send me an e-mail at lisaboisvert (at) yahoo (dot) com with your questions.