Basic Elements of Daily Living with Children ~ Circle Time

"When we choose one story and carry it in a rich nourishing way through speech, movement, gesture, song and drama over three weeks, we are bringing rich imaginations to the child that the child can drink in deeply and digest over time."

 The topic of Circle  comes up regularly among homeschoolers and is one that is also being taken up by early childhood teachers and care givers who are working with younger and younger children each year. It is a really good and really important question.

I will try to address this topic from my experience as a homeschooling parent, kindergarten teacher, Parent Child group leader and Morning Garden Mistress:

The very young child, 3 and under, does not need circle but can benefit from rhythmic elements of the circle brought one on one in play through the day.

The four year old needs a bit more and is in a transition and so much depends on the environment: if other children are present, and the child, who is this child?

Do we need to do circle at home?  It sure does seem odd to stand up and lead a child, one child around the room in song and gesture. What does it bring to the child? Are there benefits? Is it part of the pedagogy?

First let's look at the difference between circle for the grade school child and circle for the kindergarten and nursery child:

Circle time in the grades is a part of Main Lesson,  an opportunity to come face to face with each other, check in, experience the self within the group and do all sorts of rhythmic movement and games and verse and song. This is the age (6 +,7, 8 and 9 year olds) and time (older kinders,1st , 2nd, 3rd grade) that is really suited to playing the archetypal rhythmic circle games of childhood and ideal for math movements and math learning in a group. We can bring elements of that circle one on one at home. Unfortunately, some of the finer elements we cannot bring without a group at home for the grades.

Circle time for early childhood, for the child under seven for the Nursery and the Kindergarten is a completely different animal altogether. Well, two different animals: one for the Nursery Child (2, 3, 4 year old) and one for the Kinder Child (4, 5, 6 year old)

Children in the stage of early childhood from birth to seven (also referred to as the first stage of child development given to us by Rudolf Steiner) benefit greatly from the activities that take place within a circle. The circle invites children into the social realm. Children under three are not quite ready to enter that realm for they are still very much at one with the world, enveloped in the "mother bubble."

Yes they can take place outside of the "circle" too. The "circle" brings form and focus to the artistic activities that are so nourishing for the young child and rhythm as well for the child of three and older.

If we consider circle in the context of the pillars of Waldorf education, something Carrie Dendtler and I have recently blogged about, over "Virtual Tea, "

https://celebratetherhythmoflife.blogspot.com/2011/12/as-person-who-has-straddled-worlds-of.html

We see many artistic elements of Waldorf education come into "play" with circle time:

• Speech
• Singing and music
• Drama
• Movement

These elements are can be connected to the Four Foundational Senses or four physical senses, the senses that involve being in a physical body: touch, life, self movement and balance through circle movement and play that Connie Helms has been writing on in her series over on The Wonder of Childhood. (They can be satisfied outside of circle as well) Remember that the young child is all about movement, doing and action, being engaged with the body, all physical.

The feeling of wholeness of the one: the circle, no beginning, no end, is mood we want to uphold for the child under seven and to a slighter degree until age nine and the fall. Circle brings that imagination, that picture.

Circle time offers benefits to the child in the areas of:

•  singing 
• drama 
• movement 
• speech

Let's consider the adult and the relationship to circle time. Circle offers the adult a moment to stand tall and clearly be the leader, the basis for being The Loving Authority. It also offers us, the parent, a chance to push ourselves a bit and begin learning verses and songs by heart, we can take up musical instruments for us the adults to use in circle, for this is what we will ask of our children in the grades and guess what? they need us as the model. It is so important for our children to see our striving. The young child is, as Rudolf Steiner wrote, all about learning through "Example and Imitation."

My humble opinion, is that it all depends on the adult's willingness and desire to take up circle for the child, as a flowing story with movement and song as an artistic endeavor.

In a training with Joan Almon many years ago, she taught us, the teachers and care givers, to make a circle that tells a story. She spoke of the smorgasbord too but emphasized the value of the story in the circle. She had particular advice for the smorgasbord too.

Story is one way to bring circle that can work at home. You might make it a movement journey, telling bits of the story in song and verse as you go and building as each day goes over three weeks.

Themes and particularly weekly themes break the world into bits for the young child, they fragment reality. A theme has no life, no breathe, no rhythm. The young child needs to be held and cared for with rhythm that flows through the year. No themes, no bits, the season, flowing one into the next through the years of early childhood. It is not until third grade that we begin to look at the parts to the whole.

The picture we need to carry for the child in the early years of childhood, up to age nine and the "fall"  is one of wholeness, of oneness. Weekly themes make for busy work rather than living into the rhythms of nature. This is really important to understand. We live in a busy world that is so fragmented with this and that and focus here and there, quick, quick, quick, easy come and easy go,  it is so important, so healthy, even therapeutic to stay with the flow, the rhythm that is inherent with nature through the year and reflect that back to the child over the course of the whole season.

The gesture we want to carry is one of the whole world, of oneness of the child at one with the world, connected to natures rhythms everyday through the season. This is why early childhood educators make a seasonal focus with story, song , circle and activities specific to the season.

The material can be brought over many weeks with a gradual building on the basic elements. Think of it as a flow, a rhythmic flow through the year reflecting Mother Nature's inherent rhythms. When it snows, we go out and play in the snow and then we make hot cocoa or tea to warm ourselves when we come in. The material reflects what is happening in the household and in nature, it reflects the child's world.

Young children do not need crafts in Waldorf early childhood. Crafts are for the adult. The teacher makes the puppet figures and the silks and the blocks. The children play with self initiated free play and movement. The Handcraft work for the young child (seven and under) is the daily living, being involved in the housework, the cooking, the baking, the washing of dishes, sweeping the floor along with the artistic activities of coloring and painting (for the over 3's). When we are doing that, who has time for crafts?

The crafts come in with the Handwork in first grade. The older kindergarten child may begin with some handwork to make useful objects. Let the decorative objects come from nature as much as possible.

When we choose one story and carry it in a rich nourishing way through speech, movement, gesture, song and drama over three weeks, we are bringing rich imaginations to the child that the child can drink in deeply and digest over time. Remember the child is like one whole sensory organ, a sieve, talking it all in, in imitation. (See Anthroposophy in Light of the Child for more)

 Painting can reflect the mood of the season and yes do use just one color. No need for story with the child under seven. Stories with painting, stories that describe the mood of the color, that elicit feeling in the child are for the middle stage of childhood (7-14) See my last post on painting to links where you can see it in action and learn more.

Changing it up each week does not give the child time for digestion nor does it allow us to deeply penetrate the mood of the season or the story.

It can be so simple. One story for three weeks. (and yes read or tell other stories at bedtime or nap time) but give yourself and your child the gift of one story (maybe a fairy tale for the 5,6,7,8, year old)  to carry through three weeks. The circle and the story can build together over the weeks with gestures, song and movement then either start anew with a circle and story or let elements drop off and introduce new ones. This is a great gift for the child.

Rudolf Steiner spoke of working in six week blocks. Today it seems that grade school teachers work in three and four week blocks. Kindergarten teachers work with the rhythm inherent in the season with a circle for early season, mid season, late season.

For me the whole circle experience really asks a bit of the adult to present it as storytelling, singer, poet and it takes quite a bit of understanding and experience to really get. Foundation Studies help grasp a picture of the developing human being.

My suggestion is for those who have never experienced a really well put together circle in a Waldorf environment is to take it up quite seriously as a study in speech, song, music, drama and movement. Consider it part of the adult training and the inner work of being the parent/teacher.

Look into the development of the young child, what serves the child?

 Ask the questions:

• What movement is healthy for young children? Why? How do they serve the child?
• What speech do we bring? Why? 
• What songs?
• How do I bring this dramatically yet without rousing feelings and awakening the feeling realm of the middle years of childhood?
• Did I play circle games as a child?
• What experience do I have of circle?
• Where can I start building a wee little circle time for my child?

How is it with you to do circle? Are you doing it at home? What works? At school? With wee littles? Feel free to link your posts on circle below in the comment section.

::

If you'd like to gain confidence with circle time and movement games, have a deeper understanding of circle time, explore the myriad of developmental benefits for children and the opportunity for artistic expression through circle work for the adult,  join Celebrate the Rhythm of Life through the Year in Caring for Children, my program that supports homemakers and homeschooler on this path, and take up an exploration of this topic with specific examples and interaction.

Click here for more information on Celebrate the Rhythm of Life through the Year in Caring for Children

Celebrate the Rhythm of Life 

Harmonious Rhythms ::  Parenting with Soul :: Waldorf Homeschooling

~living curriculum program to support parenting and homeschooling

In Memory of Martin Luther King Jr

Basic Elements of Daily Living with Children ~ the Morning

We all get up in the morning. How to you awaken in the morning? Begin with some reflection about your day, how does it begin?

• Is it peaceful and slow without an alarm clock? This is the moment, between sleep and awakening when the spiritual world brings us the answers to questions we bring at bedtime. To hear the response, we must be quiet and still to listen. Do you have time to really listen?

• Do you jolt out of bed? 

• Do you need an alarm clock to wake up? 

• Is your child your alarm clock? 

• How do you like the way you wake up? 

• How does it color you day?

Let these questions live within you this week, notice how you rise. Don't try to make answers or big changes, just notice, be gentle with yourself. It is an enormous task to care for children and a doubly enormous one to be solely responsible for the homemaking too.

Some of us work and help support our families materially too. (Whew! ~ hug yourself now and send hugs to all  moms striving and working so hard, everywhere on the planet. It is a huge big deal. We know we hold up half the sky.)

The question of daily living with children comes up frequently over on my discussion group.

The question of how to talk to young children comes up too.

This is one I wrestled with for many years when I went from working with children over three to working with children under three in the nursery program. Many conversations and questions on this topic still resonate with me from conversations at Sophia's Hearth wondering... what stories to tell? do we use puppets? when to use marionettes? sing? when to talk? when to sing? when to start painting? what about coloring? What about nursery rhymes and finger puppets? what about work? chores?

So many questions of how to go through the day with children.

So I've decided to do a little series here on some of the basic elements of daily living with children or the Basic Elements of Daily Living with Children. So often I respond in discussion groups and those posts get lost or buried in the archives. This way they can be found or returned to as a reference point if they help you.

My kindergarten curriculum program with monthly guides and eCourses called Celebrate the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children though the Year penetrates these questions much more deeply and focuses on the practical aspects of being with children as well as the deeper pedagogy grounded in development of the child supporting it. I offer guides, videos, stories, recipes and materials for specific support in implementing nourishing rhythms and activities through the day, the week, the week, the month, the season and the year in living with children, in finding joy and wonder in celebrating in the rhythm of life.

In this series on the blog, I will explore some of the basics. My experience comes from spending sixteen years in early childhood with my own children as well as twenty three years of working with families and children of other parents, in the Morning Garden, Kindergarten, After Care and Parent Child groups. I've worked at Waldorf schools with other teachers in a faculty environment and in my own home based  nursery program. I've started a playgroup and taught childbirth education classes, a full spectrum of early childhood work that fuels my passion for this endeavor.

Over the years, in working with the children and carrying these questions, I began to find the answers. The children showed the way along with ongoing exploration of the pedagogy for greater understanding of the development of the human being. That part is ongoing.

The subject of rhythm of bringing rhythm to our lives with young children, is one all parents and early childhood teachers and care givers wrestle with, in finding one that will carry everyone through the day with a gentle flow, and tweaking it as it needs tweaking, ever so slightly to serve all through the year.

Rhythm is life. We breathe rhythmically, our heart beats rhythmically; we are rhythmic creatures. Until very recently in the history of humankind, we lived with nature’s rhythms, to rise with the sun, work in its warmth and light and turn in with its setting each day.

Through the year our ancestors followed the earth’s rhythms with sowing, planting, harvesting and preserving, all done to the beat of the earth’s rhythms.

Today we have light switches, heaters and grocery stores that make light, warmth and food possible anytime of the day or the year. We lost our dependence on that connection with the earth for survival. Now we must consciously become aware of the rhythm inherent in the natural world and implement it into our lives with full awareness of the need for that connection.

So how do we bring rhythm to our daily lives and particularly to the children? We do it artistically with verse and song to signal transition and to accompany our movement, to carry us along with our work such as chopping or kneading or washing or sweeping as well as playing and tidying up.

Remember those Pillars of Waldorf Education?

Our daily rhythm includes playing: inside and out of doors, preparing food, tidying, washing, eating, and listening to stories. Carrying these activities of our day in a rhythmic context helps bring a sense of containment to children, a feeling of security that helps them feel free to participate in the activities of daily living.

Weekly rhythm brings predictability to the child’s life; the child anticipates “ soup day”, “coloring day,” “bread day” and painting day.” Each week these activities remain on the same day of the week. With the seasons, we implement elements to reflect the rhythm inherent in the natural world, such as colors in painting and drawing and ingredients in the food we prepare, slight changes within the natural rhythms.

We have carried these activities into our grade school homeschooling with the new lesson on Monday, a writing exercise from it on Tuesday, a drawing on Wednesday, deepening on Thursday and painting on Friday. We also begin that three day within five day rhythm with a second part to the lesson on Wednesday, writing (and deepening from Monday) on Thursday) and painting on Friday.

Our mornings tend to go from 9:00 until noon with lunch around 12:30 and a rest to follow with handwork, French, movement games in the afternoon.

My teacher, Joan Almon, recommended a four hour morning for the under sevens to allow plenty of time for the children to engage deeply in free play and to allow plenty of breathing time, a flow through the activities of the morning, transitions and all.

With the under sevens, here is a sample of the morning in the Winter:

 It's hard to sketch out one fixed time rhythm to our toddler days, this is the sequence and the times are approximate not exact on the dot. This is our weekday rhythm. On weekends, we tend to go out of whack - rhythm wise.

5:00 ~ 6:00 Rise (me) quiet mom time, read/study, visualize day, toss one load of laundry into machine

7:00 ~ 8:00 Children wake up, morning routine, breakfast

Home "blessing" (inspired by FlyLady) cleaning, housework

Take laundry outside to hang on line

Outside play ~ I'll fill the bird feeders, shovel rake, work in the garden while the children play, they are free to join me and help if they wish

10:10 ~ 10: 15 Wash hands (leave time to play in water)

10:15 ~ 10:30 Morning Tea

Transition into playroom with nursery rhymes, fingerplay, songs

Tell a story ~ it's the same simple story everyday for 3-4 weeks for 3 year olds

10:30 ~ 12:30 Daily activity and indoor playtime, laundry to fold is waiting in baskets, I may iron, knit, mend things, clean the fridge, bay bills

12:30 ~ 1:00 Lunch and lavender foot bath

1:00 ~ 3: 00 Story and quiet, rest time

3:00 ~ 3:15 Use toilet, change diaper, wash face and hands, brush hair, experience a slow gentle wake up

3: 15 ~ 3:30 Afternoon tea

3:30 ~ 4:30 Free play out of doors

4:30 Prepare dinner and set the table ~ children are helping me or next to me at the table coloring or using homemade playdough

5:30 ~ 6:00 Eat dinner and clean up, pick up stray toys and put them away

Say goodnight to house

Layout clothes for next day

Bath

Bedtime routine ~ story, prayer, lullaby, lights out by seven o'clock for under sevens, transitioning to by eight for eight year olds

Our Daily Activity is whatever we do each week on that day, our weekly rhythm: soup broth making, soup making, coloring, painting, bread making, decorating the house, nature crafts.

Next time, I'll share how that became the foundation for our grade school homeschooling days.

My friend Carrie, over on The Parenting Passageway, is blogging about Rhythm in her series on Eight Facets of Healthy Family Culture.

Celebrate the Rhythm of Life 

Harmonious Rhythms ::  Parenting with Soul :: Waldorf Homeschooling

~living curriculum program to support parenting and homeschooling

Nine Years Old

Happy Birthday!

(this moment)

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

Happy Weekending!

The Stillness is Here

The stillness is here. This morning seemed to be darker than all the others. It's snowing gentle flakes. The earth has finally frozen. Maybe now that all the excitement and focus of Christmas is passing, I am more still within. The earth seems still without. I am wrapped in a warm woolen blanket with the dog at my feet. He loves this cold weather with his thick wooly coat. He rolls on the ground with joy every time he goes outside, always a new impression for him, he sneezes as the cold air tickles his nose.

Somehow getting in motion on Thursday mornings is the greatest challenge of the whole week. The children seem tired or maybe I lack the energy to get things moving in the same way. Thursday feels like the day after the hump, we've been over the top, now we are down in the lowlands at the bottom of the hill and the hill looks steeper than usual. Friday somehow is easier with more levity, maybe it's in knowing the weekend is before us and we can let go of the weekday structure to our days.

It's baking day in our kitchen. For years we have baked on Thursday, ever since Angus was three and we lived in that 80 foot long house on Capitol Hill with the bright yellow door with a spectacular view of the Philippine Sea. The reason I know it is 80 feet is because I counted the tiles. The house was floored entirely in linoleum tiles, each one a neat square foot. The familiar smell of dough and then bread in the oven has filled the kitchen for fourteen years.  This winter Thursday buns have become Thursday Chicken pot pie crust to top our meal, from this recipe.

It was too beautiful not to take the camera on our walk. I found that the earth is not so still. Nor her creatures.

Once we got in motion, we stayed in motion.



How are your days going?

Twelve in Twenty Eleven :: Readers Favorites

Your favorite posts in Twenty Twelve include my Pages on What Makes a Waldorf Family, A Calendar of Days of Festivals and Celebration my piece on Celebrating Festivals and everything on the new Program I am offering. Seems fitting for a blog called Celebrate the Rhythm of LIfe, no? 

Twenty eleven completes my first full calendar year of blogging. In Twenty ten, it took  some time for me to figure out how to take and upload pictures from a digital camera and how to make changes on the blog. 

In twenty eleven I began the year with website building for the initiative The Wonder of Childhood. Over the year I built more sites on WordPress, Blogger and TypePad. What a journey. Who would have thought that website building could be so engaging and satisfying? 

Twenty eleven also brought the initiative Celebrate the Rhythm of LIfe in Caring for Children Program. I am greatly enjoying our lovely group of moms, some talkative, some quiet, all kind and generous with their reflections and contributions. I am striving to make it as close as possible to a gathering of us in person. One member described it as having me in her living room.     

These are the twelve posts you came to in greatest numbers and returned to most often in twenty eleven:


Santa Lucia Day ~ December 13

Waldorf Family

Beeswax Candle Dipping Preparation

Calendar

Storytelling with Children~Nursery Rhymes

Festivals

Hey Ho for Halloween!

The Lemniscate and the Senses

Rhythm of the Year

Valentine's Day Gifts

Monthly Guides are Back!

Wet on Wet Watercolor Painting Tutorial

This year on this blog, I'll continue having with Virtual Tea with Carrie over on The Parenting Passageway, I'll wrote more posts on my own journey, more posts on our family life, maybe even some examples of the school work we are doing.

I am so grateful for this little community that has taken form this past year, for all of you who have come into my life, for the friendships that have formed and are forming, thank you!

::::::::

Back to the Mountain

Like a pilgrimage each year, we go to the mountain in winter. We go by there at other times of the year but there is something different, some magical quality in going when the snow has fallen and the mountain is covered with snow and icicles, our little paradise. It is tucked between other mountains.

That's where we headed on the first day of the New Year. We rose early, packed our lunch and set out.

 To get there we have to pass through a gap in the Appalachian Mountains, known as the Ap Gap.

 The view is spectacular, it brings me to a state of rapture and never fails to take my breath away. Huge icicles hang down from the rocky walls of the gap.

It is our mountain, our own little piece of paradise, shared with others, it is co-operatively owned and we are members of the co-op. My children learned to ski there and I learned to ski there too.

 The single chair lift is the only one in the country, a single seat to ride up the hill through snow covered trees in a magical forest. On balmy days like this one you can hear the brooks sing as they trickle their way down the mountainside.



The misty mountain.

One misty, moisty mountain when cloudy was the weather...

My little one has mastered the chair lift. In past years. he's had a few near dips in the little brook that runs beneath it. Now he is confident and asks for help if he thinks he might need it. He knows fear. This is new.

The sky was the clearest shade of blue on the way home.

That was our first day of Twenty Twelve.

Happy Twenty Twelve! 

May we all receive with grace whatever comes towards us this year.

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

inspired by SouleMama

The Lemniscate and the Senses

Virtual Tea with Carrie: Expanding the Pillars of Waldorf Education

Carrie began this conversation with a beautiful outline of three artistic pillars of Waldorf home education: Drawing, Painting and Modeling over on her blog, The Parenting Passageway, much of which she has discussed over the years, relative to many aspects of the curriculum in earlier posts on her blog. It got me thinking.

Over virtual tea, I suggested we bring in Speech, Movement, Singing and a musical instrument, Drama and Handwork.

Carrie responded with a post about the importance of bringing in the twelve senses to the discussion of Waldorf education through the curriculum and the importance of practical work.

Yes! Let's explore the senses and the curriculum.

The Waldorf curriculum incorporates nourishing elements of all twelve senses with a different focus at different stages of development. This applies in homeschool or school school, the senses are very important for human development, for in developing a sense, the energy around it is freed to later develop another sense, a "higher" sense that needs a strong foundational sense to rest upon.

The Twelve Senses correspond with the development of the human being and can be grouped in three categories: Thinking, Feeling and Willing.

We often speak of the soul capacities of Thinking, Feeling and Willing. With Waldorf Education we refer to the education the head, heart and hands. Each of these capacities corresponds with sensory and human development and each seven year phase of development corresponds with one of these capacities.

For it is through our senses that we perceive the world. If we have distortions or impeded development in our senses it will color how we take in and relate to the world around us.

Anyone with a child who has sensory challenges may have had an experience in which the child's response to the situation does not always make "sense" (there it is again ~ sense) unless we know something about the child.

For example, a six year old boy in a kindergarten classroom of seventeen children is busy playing as the noise level in the room rises. This child is very sensitive to sound. Suddenly for no apparent reason he heaves a block across the room, not at anybody and not in response to children around him. It is the noise level that has risen, he is overwhelmed, he does not yet have words to express this so he heaves the block.

The teacher, bless her heart and her deep wisdom, knows this child is overwhelmed by the noise and responds by opening the door and gives him permission to check on the hens in the garden and bring them a treat. She knows. But to someone who does not have this understanding the behavior might seem troubling and get in the way of connection and harmony in the classroom.

Let's begin with development:

In the first seven years of childhood the focus is on developing the Foundational Senses or the Sense of Willing, the metabolic limb focus: Touch, Life, Self Movement and Balance.

In the middle years, years of Feeling, the rhythmical development focus: Smell, Taste, Sight, Warmth

In the next seven years, years of Thinking, the nerve sense development focus: Hearing, Word, Thought, Ego

Within each of these seven year stages of development are phase of development of metabolic-limb growth, rhythmic development and nerve sense development.

If we begin with touch and follow the lemniscate around in a figure eight you will find yourself going through the development of the senses from the very first foundational sense of touch, being touched in utero, to the uppermost sense, the Ego, ability to sense the presence of the other person ~ another kind of touch:

Touch
Life
Movement
Balance

Smell
Taste
Sight
Warmth

Hearing
Word
Thought
Ego (the ability to sense the ego or presence of another)

(This lemniscate is based on the zodiac and the corresponding physical organs.)

Each of the Foundational senses has a companion in the upper senses:

Touch with Ego
Life with Thought
Movement and Word
Balance and Hearing

Upper, middle, foundational senses.

To this list of eight pillars and twelve senses, Carries adds practical work and the inner work of the parent teacher, ti which I say yes!

One advantage we have with homeschooling is that we can take this pillar of practical work which in the school manifests Handwork and Craft Curriculum and expand it to include chores through the day and through the week, active participation in the practical work of life through all the grades.
Carrie has written about this.

Liza Fox has written and shared a beautiful post .

I have written about it .

To this bedrock of practical work and the inner work of the adult that Carrie is suggesting, I feel like we need to bring in Rhythm and Nature. And Play. And all this on a foundation of strong connection with the child. Oh gosh, so much more to say.

But I need to get on with my day, with my homeschooling and Christmas preparation so for now goodbye.

I love to find your comments. If you have examples of your work out of the Artistic pillars or Senses you'd like to share please link to your site in the comments here and over at The Parenting Passageway. And please chime in, how do these endeavors manifest in your homeschooling? or school schooling?

Happy Christmastide!

Lisa

Expanding the Pillars and the Conversation

As a person who has straddled the worlds of the Waldorf homeschooler and the Waldorf school, as parent and as a teacher, I notice in some Waldorf homeschool circles, that there can be some feelings of resentment towards those who have worked in schools, or embrace a Waldorf homeschooling that is consistent with what Waldorf schools bring.

I know and can attest to a way of being with my children as parent-teacher in the home that is distinct from school life. The children can sleep late, eat warm meals, eat more, take time on a project, take it deeper and explore it without the constraints of moving on. A child may take all the time in the world to work on something while the parent teacher can see where the need is for focused attention.

When the weather is glorious we can be outside and "school" out of doors. We can do real meaningful work that contributes to the family and the homestead as part of our daily life. When it is really cold we can build a fire and "school" in its warmth.

A child in a classroom of thirty may not be seen, and may be left behind. A child sitting next to other children may get whacked with a bamboo lunch mat by the girl sitting next to him, and smacked with the lunchbox of the girl sitting on the other side of him. When he whacks them back with his hands, he may get blamed and made out to be the villain, because he has not yet learned not-to-get-caught and to-be-sneaky, like the girls who flank him in the front row.

The girls go home and complain about him, yet neglect to tell their parents that they had been smacking him. The parents don't know to ask, "and what were you doing?" The teacher misses the whole thing because she has twenty seven other children to teach or maybe she believes it is a karmic relationship that the children need to resolve on their own.

Yet the children get to experience Eurythmy, French and German, celebrate festival life together, and do class plays. They have the challenge of the social situation to negotiate. Sometimes this can be healthy and help build resilience. Other times, like in the scenario I described above, it can be very harmful to a child, and for all who inhabit this social dynamic.

Back to the Waldorf homeschooling versus Waldorf School schooling via the curriculum.

Some folks seem to think it is enough to bring certain stories at certain ages and create a main lesson book.

Today, my friend Carrie, over on The Parenting Passageway brings up the importance of including three arts with homeschooling in her lovely post today, on The Three Artistic Pillars of Waldorf Homeschooling, in which she addresses the arts of Drawing, Painting and Modeling for the homeschooler and gives a description of each.

I wish we could get together for tea and have conversations about how we homeschool and why and what's important. So often I read a blog post and want to say more, keep the conversation going. So this is my humble attempt to build a conversation via blogs.

In addition to these important artistic activities of Drawing, Painting and Modeling, I'm going to humbly suggest we include Speech, Singing and playing music, Movement, Drama and Handwork and make a picture of a sturdy eight pillared education. Story is the vehicle for much of the curriculum and these pillars bring story to the children.

Waldorf education is a lively artistic education that is process, not product, oriented. The Main Lesson page is a glimpse into something larger that has taken place. The rest of the story that cannot be seen or captured on paper but lives within the human being. At home we are capable of incorporating all these elements. While we may not bring Eurythmy or foreign languages we can bring these other artistic pillars in the course of a day's homeschooling experience.

These other pillars are:

Speech

Singing and Musical instrument playing

Movement

Drama

Handwork

SPEECH

Speech through story, song, verse, rhyme, blessings, prayer, moving into tongue twisters and memorized verse in the grades. Clear, articulated speech. Conscious speech. Playful speech. Speech in movement, Speech in harmony. What is being lost in speech in our time?

SINGING AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENT 

We sing through the day with the young child, then sing festival songs, folk songs, rounds in the grades, the musical instrument used by the adult in early childhood: the kinder harp, the pentatonic xylophone, the flute all used by the adult with the child free to play with the instruments from time to time but no lessons until first grade, then the pentatonic flute. Music connects us with the spiritual world.

MOVEMENT

Movement is fundamental to learning. Movement is the basis for all learning. The kindergarten and nursery years are steeped in self initiated movement of the child. Children learn better when they move. (see Carla Hannaford's book, Smart Moves ~ not Waldorf per se yet very good and practical information on movement and the brain and learning) Homeschoolers have so much more freedom with movement yet our challenge is to bring rhythmic and harmonious movement to our children (think math and movement games) Our challenge is to create situations for movement within a group, especially important in kindergarten and the first three grades. Waldorf education is a social education and movement is a lovely opportunity to develop that with others.

DRAMA

Drama gives the child an opportunity to bring speech, movement, singing and music together in an artistic and social experience. It is very important in the grades. We can bring drama with storytelling and puppetry and perhaps with a community of others, neighbors, homeschoolers, cousins, friends.

HANDWORK

Handwork is work that is done by hand. It can involve crafting useful objects and it can be work to sustain daily life, gardening, milking a cow, churning butter, washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, brushing the dog, chopping, stirring, kneading, this is the handwork of the child under seven. An excellent article on the Waldorf handwork and Craft curriculum is here.

For more support with wet on wet watercolor painting or any other pillars of the curriculum, join my Monthly Subscription Program, this is a lively, interactive way to bring daily, weekly and seasonal rhythm to your home and to delve more deeply into activities that nurture wonder and imagination in a magical way.  

Thanks for coming over for tea, let's meet again soon.


Happy Christmastide all!