Our two cats certainly have their daily rhythm down pat!
When researching the Waldorf education model, I keep coming across the importance of rhythm in a child's day, week and year. I guess I had never thought much about how specific rhythms can create a sense of comfort and predictability that soothes and nourishes children. We have always been a bit hodge podge about our days, so when I started leaning towards more Waldorf principals into our homeschooling, I wanted to give it a try and see if it made any significant difference to our lives.
After some trial and error (and I admit I am still sorta feeling out how this whole thing can work for us), I came up with a preliminary rhythm for us that seems to slowly be evolving into something useable for us *some* of the time. It goes like this:
Three Days a Week: Breakfast, Greetings and Circle time (songs and movements and 'checking in"), stories (both from books as well as acting out stories using props), then free play time while I get the lessonwork bucket out. Lessonwork starts ideally by 10am and runs for about an hour and a half, depending on how many breaks are needed between subjects. Then comes lunch and then outside play. We then have play time (which can include screen time at this point) until the kids arrive (I watch some before/after school children as part of my income as well as part of our children's social fun). All of the kids settle in for a few minutes to check for homework and then race outside for 45 minutes to an hour, grabbing a snack to eat outside. After all of the kids leave for the day, we usually have soft music time where the kids engage in quiet play until dinner. After dinner they tend to get a 'second wind' and are off playing once more (they try to squeeze in a little more outside time at this point), and then we come together again for nightly rituals, which sometimes includes watching Jeopardy as a family, and then bath time, story time, and bed.
One Day a Week: Breakfast, Greetings and Circle time, stories, and then off to a local school district for specials. The afternoon we try to get some lessonwork done, but I purposely make this day a light load for lessonwork.
One Day a Week: Lazy wake-up and breakfast, then off to homeschool co-op for classes. I purposely make this day a light load for lessons as well, but tend to make it an afternoon of reading stories (both with me reading some and my son reading to me).
The weekends are often too busy to try to stick to any specific rhythm. We wake when needed, eat when it makes sense, and go with the flow of any activities planned. Bedtime can be a little haphazard, but it tends to work for us and we are usually back on track come Monday morning (so far!).
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So, as promised in the title of this post, I am about to launch into more thoughts about what I am discovering through my research into Waldorf education. Firstly, I am still finding that even though there is a great wealth of information if you are willing to put in long hours to find it. Secondly, I am still finding folks being somewhat stingy with information in favor of selling it for a ridiculously high price. One website, for example, is charging close to $2,000 for a six-month membership, where they basically spoonfeed the basics of setting up a Waldorf homeschool in your home...the topics promised to be covered are all things you can find online with a little effort.
I nearly choked on my granola bar when I saw that. Now, I realize that someone took the time to compile the information, however I am not sure that it is good value for the money when you consider that from what I can tell, it is all the same basic info that could be found
with a simple search on Pinterest.
I do not begrudge someone trying to make a living, but I feel that
this kind of price is not reasonable for most families.
I want to applaud all of those people who have put information for free online. Those are the kinds of people that I am happy to purchase a wooden toy from (for example). I am happy to support people who do not make spending tons of money a pre-requisite for learning about such an important way of schooling children. In fact, I purchased some paints and other materials from just such a vendor, and will happily do so again in the future, because these types of people simply want the information to get out there. They want more and more people to consider this as a sort of lifestyle - one that nourishes a child...and a family.
Any information I provide here on my blog is free for the taking and using. I hope to provide some more specific information for you all as I go along. For now, I'll give you a couple of links that I found very helpful that are from folks who truly seem to have the best intentions at heart:
http://pinterest.com/ (simply type what you want in the search box, such as "Waldorf Grade 1" or "Waldorf Chalkboard Drawing")
I will try to add more as I go along. These are nice to get the journey started. I also found many nice videos on youtube about Waldorf education and Waldorf homeschooling.
It is my hope that by providing information to others, there will be more people who realize that you don't need to pay $2,000 for information and support. A little research can go a long way in terms of information. Try Facebook for support, and if you don't see a group on there that you like, start your own!
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