Curriculum

Well I haven't posted in a while and I spent some time doing a Waldorf approach and pedagogy. And now I'm back with Five In A Row with reading selections pulled from Waldorf and the classics. The reason? Every weekend I would think of all the beautiful painting and such that I hadn't done with my kids, which is very much a part of how the material is presented in a Waldorf approach, and I would feel bad. Really Bad. Like I was failing my kids. I just didn't like doing the circle time, puppet shows, painting, making books, knitting, making dolls, storytelling etc. I love the thought of those things and I can see that the kids love it but...You see I've discovered I'm a book geek. The polite way of saying it would be a closet intellectual but since I'm not one for flashing my education I'll just say I'm a book geek. I do love baking and sewing but if you knew me you know how funny that is because I'm like the rockin rainbow colored hair martha stewart. Most people don't know how domesticated I am because of how I look. Seriously I'm almost amish..well I could never be amish because of the outfits but that's another story. But if I had a choice between making an artsy fartsy apron or reading a book, the book wins hands down. I came to this conclusion sitting next to my bookshelf that was JAMMED with books I have from the library that I want to read. So I needed to pick a teaching style that fits me and fits my kids.

What I have come away from Waldorf all these years is this...children need to be protected from an overstimulating environment. A good book about this is Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids The Waldorf pedagogy is great at speaking to a child where he/she is at in growing and learning so I'll probably keep that as well. And of course we'll keep the beautiful wood toys, beeswax crayons (I sooo recommend these!) and peaceful surrounding I've made for the kids. So in the end I got some amazing things out of this time.

So what Am I doing now? Well I'm using FIAR and then adding elements of the Moore Homeschooling, Classical and Charlotte Mason ideas. So what that looks like is: FIAR, Character study using Rod & Staff books and Stories of missionaries for read alouds, Classics for read alouds (Winnie the Pooh etc), Nature Study & Books for read alouds,Waldorf picture books and stories, Art Study and Music with crafts from Waldorf thrown in here and there. So I guess I'm eclectic...that's nothing new for me LOL.