Giving Back: Grade 1 Overview

Spring Decor Begins

Happy Weekend!

As our family journeys along, we are trying to create a Waldorf-inspired homeschool as well as a Waldorf-inspired home. My personal study of Rudolf Steiner's works, along with studying how Waldorf schools and homeschools "do Waldorf", has created so much peace within me as it has resonated 

so deeply within my soul.

I truly appreciate those who are following along, whether that is "now" in the present, or later in the future. I hope you find our journey to be inspiring for your own journey....even if only to decide for yourself which ideas *NOT* to include in your home!!  I don't claim to have all the answers...not at all! I am merely documenting our personal journey along this path. 

Having said that, I'd like to post on this blog site, as often as possible, info that has been both compiled from other online sites as well as from my own studies using books and personal experiences. I hope someone will find it useful to have some of this information in one spot to possibly use as a jumping-off point for their own curriculum planning.

My goal, by the way, is not to steer anyone away from purchasing curriculum from suppliers. In fact, I am presenting the sites and information below because I have heard lots of positive feedback about the purchased curriculum provided by these companies. If you are financially able and so moved to purchase curriculum from the below companies, I strongly encourage you to follow your heart and do so!

I am, however, also pointing to the *FREE* information provided on those sites. 

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Not every family can afford to purchase a lot of curriculum. It is my firm belief that Waldorf Education should not be only for those that can afford it, which is why I am providing as much free information as possible, whenever possible.

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If money is an issue in your home, or if you'd prefer to compile your own information from several different sources to create your own eclectic or mixed curriculum, the following info may help in that endeavor.

Disclaimer: No copywrite infringement is intended in showcasing these wonderful sites and their

 freely-provided information below.

Now, without further ado...

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Grade 1 Goals

The first set of goals below is provided for *FREE* on the Oak Meadow website.

Also included on the website are the projects, crafts and activities that will be covered along with suggested materials to go along with the curriculum that they are selling. 

The main site has lots of other great tidbits of information to help inspire and support a Waldorf journey.

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 Live Education is a Waldorf Education site that has a home study program available, along with materials for full grade level curriculum.

If you click on the link for Grade 1 materials, you will see the books they are including in their full curriculum. Going by what they include in their curriculum can give you a very good idea what their goals for grade 1 are. If you want to spend more time searching the site, it can give you even more of a view of their thoughts on the early grades.

 If you click on each individual book, you will be able to see a sample lesson along with the table of contents (which can give you some great ideas about not only what is within the book, but also suggestions for topics you could very likely look up yourself (ie. by doing a Pinterest search, for example), to find some ideas within those individual topics.)

For example, if you click on their book on The Art Of The Fairy Tale, there is a sample fairy tale lesson. At the top of that lesson page, you can choose to see the table of contents, which list all of the fairy tales they will cover in grade 1.

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It is my understanding that most (if not all) of Grimm's fairy tales can be read for free online at: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/

I'm sure The Art Of The Fairy Tale is a lovely book. If you cannot afford it, however, it's nice to know that there are online sources for fairy tales as well as suggestions for how to use them in your home and homeschool.

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 Enki Education is "community supported education" using a Waldorf approach. The Grade 1 curriculum packages can be viewed and purchased here.  

The goals for Grade 1 can be gleaned from this website if you are of a mind to click each portion of the curriculum packages.  The main site itself (www.enkieducation.org) also explains in great detail its philosophy about education (in general) and the general path of grade 1 (in particular) is listed as well  in the table of contents for the grade 1 guide and it seems to very closely echo the goals of the other curriculum choices I mentioned above.

If you're looking for some assistance in creating a schedule or rhythm, they included a pdf for a sample schedule here. They also have some sample pages which can be viewed here.

Grade 1 math topics are listed here, which should give you a great idea what math skills will be covered in the curriculum.  You can also see the more spelled-out version here. A sample math story called Grandfather's Family is provided here.

You can continue right down the line with the other resources, gleaning much from the table of contents and samples provided.

One admission I will make about this curriculum is that the hefty price tag does include access to the community as well as the creator of the program. That invaluable community support and ideas may be found to be extremely helpful to many families. On the other hand, there are free communities, such as on Facebook, where you can also freely discuss curriculum ideas 

(albiet, without the input of the creator of the curriculum).

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 Christopherus Homeschool Resources - Grade 1 

Some people consider Christopherus to be a great match for those purist Waldorf/Steiner folks.  It is less expensive than the Enki curriculum, but also you get less. I really appreciate that you can buy the three "textbooks" included separately (ie. individually) at pretty reasonable prices (but the syllabus, not so much).

There are quite a few sample pages at the above link, as well as links to three of the books that are included in the price. There's a book on Movement and Songs (includes sample pages on the site), Form Drawing (includes sample pages on the site), and Learning About The World Through Modeling (no samples available on the site, but there are two quoted paragraphs to act as an example).

The main page for grade 1 also includes lots of info about the grade 1 child at this stage of development, as well as a nice box at the bottom of the page outlying the general goals for the year (which could act as a sort of simple syllabus for you to jump off from).

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I hope this information has helped inspire you with some components of grade 1.  Of course, many people would also suggest that you have a solid understanding of Anthroposophy as well as Rudolf Steiner's other writings about education. Many of his writings have been translated and are read in audio format for free at www.rudolfsteineraudio.com. 

This is where I have been doing much of my own personal research into Steiner's writings and theories, as I personally believe that understanding his beliefs can give me a wonderful foundation to truly understand the whole of the human being. With that in mind, I can approach education from a very holistic viewpoint. I find that having a table of contents about math topics (for example) is very helpful (as I can easily look up how to teach even and odd numbers in a Waldorf way online on my own), however when I understand the how's and why's of Waldorf Education (and the specific stage my child is currently in), then I feel I will be better able to present the material as it was meant to be presented..

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As an educator (ie. I went to college to be an educator and worked in the public schools for several years), I really appreciate having every possible bit of information at my fingertips for lesson planning.

I know that some people like to "wing it" when it comes to lessons. I really do appreciate this (as I have been known to "wing it" in the past from time to time, especially when my previous plans were not quite working out as I had hoped or if I found myself under-planned or in need of a change in direction for whatever reason).  I tend to feel, however, that to do the best "justice" to providing a Waldorf-inspired approach to homeschooling, it really should be done with great thought and great care.

There are some individual elements that I may change at the last minute, but as a general rule, I find that when I take the time to create at least a rough plan, our lessons have a really beautiful flow to them. There is a really tangible difference in the "magic" created when I have taken great care to plan the lessons ahead with at least a minimum of detail.

I hope the above will help you begin to prepare for grade 1 with your child, or even to check in with how you are currently doing with your grade 1 child and see if there are elements you might decide to add in or subtract from your current plans.