Finding rhythm

I have spent the past 2 weeks  planning and executing our new life rhythm. The idea of the importance of rhythm comes from the Waldorf or Steiner method of schooling. On a basic level, rhythm can be equated to a schedule, but there is much more to it as you delve deeper into Waldorf methods. Like everything we are easing into this slowly with the hope that I can feel successful and not too overwhelmed.

Waldorf methodology is something that has appealed to me for a long time but also something I wasn't sure we could reproduce in a home setting. As I browsed curricula, though, I kept coming back to Waldorf. It's entirely possible that we will never be 100%  one label or another, and I'm pretty comfortable with that! But there are many amazing ideas from Steiner that ring true with me and that is why I have chosen to start using this type of curriculum. 

From the great source of Wikipedia: 

Waldorf education is based on anthroposophy, a spiritual philosophy developed by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Child development is seen as taking place over three seven-year stages, each with its own developmental emphasis on the principles of willing, feeling, and thinking. Throughout, Waldorf education places a strong emphasis on integrating academic, practical and artistic pursuits: the head, the heart, and the hands. The approach emphasizes the role of the imagination in learning. Formative assessment is generally preferred over summative assessment, particularly in the pre-adolescent years. 

What really appeals to me is the focus on each child as an individual, the stress of the connection between the child, his parents, and his world, and the importance of child readiness in education. Everything is so rushed in our society. Steiner really believed that the home and education should reflect the child's developmental stage and that children needed to be protected from potentially damaging societal influence. Obviously we realize that our children cannot be contained within a perfect BPA-free plastic bubble, but it also rings very true to me that they need not be exposed to many things that are in the media and news at this age. Why should my 5, 6, or 11 year-old need to be exposed to rudeness, anger, and hatred to toughen up for the world? Why would I want television and mass marketing dictating what my kids want to wear, eat, and do? To me a much better option is to help them to grow and become secure in themselves, our love for them, and their love for each other. Once armed with a strong sense of self-worth, they are automatically tough enough to handle the world and it's challenges.

This was important to us before Waldorf and is why we don't watch TV, listen to the news around our children, or play violent video games. Another huge benefit of limited media was apparent over the Christmas season. Without commercials and media to tell them they needed a whole bunch of stuff, our children simply don't beg for it. They each made a Christmas list, but they included things like trumpet lessons, a handmade nativity set, and a monkey costume.

The house has been generally happier and calmer with our new rhythm. It takes more work and planning ahead than I am used to, but the payout is much better days. The kids know what to expect for their daily lessons, (each evening we write out the next day's agenda for each child), what we will be eating for each meal and snack, and what activities are planned for the evening. Each day is also assigned a special 'task'. Mondays are cleaning and shopping days, Tuesdays we go to the community center for homeschool classes, Wednesdays are baking days, Thursdays we do some sort of handwork, and Fridays we paint. Everyday we go outside. Everyday we have a circle time to focus ourselves for the day. And of course each week so far has thrown us a small loop, like illness or extra field trips, but we work that into the rhythm and have so far been doing really well with it.

Lessons are taught in blocks; right now Sports Nut is working on maps and culture. Each day he also has a small amount of math practice, reading time (we are working up to 5 minutes per age year a day), and journal writing. Drawing Diva's lessons are short and generally include a story, form and letter drawing, drawing or painting about the story, and retelling the story in her own words for me to write down. Because she can already read, we also throw some reading practice in for her as well. Waldorf begins at first grade and age 7. It also begins very slowly with letter introduction, but by the time the kids are Sports Nut's age, the material is up to a level we would expect in public school. So we are slowing down and trusting the method for now. 

New year, Still Here!

So the irony is not lost on me that my last post was intended to ease the worries about how we were managing and then I dropped off the face of the blogging earth for 3+ months. Never fear, we are still here and still doing great! Life got very hectic with obligations and holidays but we have started a new year and a new routine. As much as we loved and needed our de-schooling and un-schooling months, during that time I was doing a lot of searching for some kind of balance between life learning and structure. Sports Nuts especially thrives when he has some sort of routine to follow and anticipate. We were also running around so much that it was often easy to feel exhausted and short-tempered. This was apparent in both myself and the kids. A positive outcome of our unstructured time was that it really helped me to relax and realize that the kids are learning everyday, no matter what I do. The are hard-wired for it. They crave new knowledge and new experiences. If allowed, they enjoy experiencing new things. A wise friend with grown children reminded me as we were beginning to question the conventional school path that life was not a race, and that my kids were not losing. I have been repeating this to myself over and over again while I search for our next schooling adventure. It is so easy to get caught up in worries over whose children are where in school, what other kids know might know in comparison to mine, and where my kids 'should be' according to their age. I remind myself that the constant testing and comparing was part of what turned us off of conventional school. I remind myself that in Sports Nut I have a product of a system that pushed him too hard, too fast, and without regard to whether or not he was ready to learn. I remind myself that by being unhindered by the stipulations put on today's teachers, I am able to cater to my kids' exact needs and wants. There is no race, we are not losing.