Currently in the Croc Pot: Bone Broth
"Well, well, well....Witchy Mama, where have you been????" I'm glad you asked ;) Our international adventure was so jam-packed with time away from the computer, I really just could not bring myself to spend any more time away from the tropical beaches, pleasant neighborhood hikes, and day adventures than necessary. I hope to post some pics of some of our adventures, but for now...I guess I'll keep the memories swirling around in my mind. I realize that that is not very satisfying as a reader. Heck, who even reads this blog, anyway?
It's more for me to document ideas, thoughts and experiences for myself than it is for anyone else.
Also, the focus of this blog has changed so much over time that I think it is having a bit of an identity crisis. Oh, wait...that's me, not the blog.
Anyway, we've returned from our most recent world traveling adventure, but rest assured we have more in the planning. We have decided to simply rent homes for now, because our transient lifestyle simply cannot accommodate a land/home purchase at this point. We're taking a breath in, working locally for a while to replenish the financial coffers a bit, and then we'll move on.
Let's get a few questions out of the way: Are we still homeschooling, and are we still using a Waldorf-Inspired curriculum?
Well, my dear readers, the answer to that question is: No, and Yes.
Due to our current work-and-settling-in schedule, as well as the extremely remote and rural area in which we are currently residing, we have decided that the kids really needed to be around other kids, which is proving to be a rather impossible task out here in the "The Boonies" (tm). We therefore have decided that, at least for the moment, we are going to give the local public school a try.
We looked, believe me! There is not another homeschooling family within a 45 minute radius of our home that I could find on any homeschooling boards whatsoever. There are *NO* services for homeschoolers here, and the local school systems are so tiny, that they have no rec departments and very few after school activities that our kids could be a part of. Heck, there isn't even a Scout troop nearby, and it is 45 minutes to any kind of dance class (in a tiny, tiny facility with only a few class offerings).
We decided that this was going to severely disadvantage our kids, who are becoming more social and in need of being around other children.
Now, before one might reject our choice, realize that we *have* been investigating this option thoroughly, and that we will continue to monitor how this choice affects our children (and our family as a whole).
If it proves to go against goals, ideals, and values that we hold as important to us, then we will pull the children out as quickly as they went in.
Some pros to our local little school include:
1. A very tiny school population: there are under 80 students in a grades pre-k through 8 school (yes, really!)
2. That means that there is 1 classroom per grade (and some grades are lumped in together in a mixed-grade room, which looks very beneficial for all the kids involved). Teacher/Student ratios, therefore, tend to be nine to one (or better!). My youngest DD's room, as an example, only has 8 children in it (including her). Our son's classroom is a mixed-grade room with 2 teachers (with a dividing wall that can be pulled across for grade-specific lessons). There are 18 children in this mixed-grade room, 9 on each side.
3. There seems to be a real family feel to the school. When you only have 9 children in your classroom, you become friends with everyone as a matter of necessity. All of the teachers know all of the students, so every child is known and called by name no matter what teacher they pass by.
4. Things are very lax at the school in many ways. The day starts off with all 3 buses (yes, there are only 3!) dropping off the majority of the students, who then put their backpacks/jackets away, put homework folders in their teacher's in-box, and then head down to the cafeteria for breakfast. Most students choose to go down for breakfast, even if they don't eat (or bring their own in from home). They do have the option, however, of sitting quietly in their classrooms, waking up gently for 15 minutes until the start of the day.
I really love the whole breakfast thing. My kids bring their own breakfast with them. I drive them to school (only minutes from our home), and walk them to their rooms (where they take off their jackets/backpacks, deposit homework folders into the in-box, and grab breakfast from their lunchbox), and then we walk back up the hall to the cafeteria together, where I ensure my youngest is seated comfortably (her autism can sometimes cause her to get distracted on the way down the hall by herself) before I say goodbye and head home. I pick them up at the end of the day and then bring them home.
During the day, I'm discovering sooooo many things that need to be done! Besides the usual housework, there's all the cooking. With my husband and 2 children heading out each day and needing 2 meals for each person (as well as preparing for dinner that night), that's a lot of food each day. When we were homeschooling, it was very easy to just grab our food from the cupboards and make it as we needed it. I only needed to prepare my husband's breakfast and lunch (which usually comes from leftovers from dinner).
It's a surprising amount of work to ensure there are 3 healthy meals and 2 snacks ready each day that are in "to go" mode. I pack their lunch because we don't feel that the school lunches tend to be terribly nutritious (or delicious). Also, they are expensive for what the kids get, and the children still only get about 20 minutes to eat, which means after they stand in line to get their food, and sit down to start eating, lunch is half over, and they are forced to inhale what they can, before they are forced to dump the rest of the food into the trash (wasting at least half of the food, in my experience).
Because my kids bring their own lunch in a lunchbox, whatever they don't finish can go back into their lunchbox to be eaten later that day, or saved for the next day. Also, since they don't have to stand in line for food, they can sit right down and start eating, giving them the full 20 minutes to try to eat.
"Well, there was a "yes" in your answer previously up above." OK, so yes, I am still supplementing the children's education with our Waldorf themes. It is much less intense (I had to cut out quite a few activities and pare down the Viking Unit, for example, to a six week unit instead of twelve, but Viking themes will crop up all year whenever we can sneak them in for a few minutes). My youngest will still be learning Fairy Tales this year. This learning will happen in the afternoons/evenings, as well as on the weekends and during school vacations.
Please don't think this is going to add a burden to the kids. Our focus is still very much on PLAY. It will only comprise of 15-30 minutes 2-3 times a week. We will also continue to do a lot of learning in the car via audiobooks. We have a good 30 minute drive to pick hubby up from work (we're sharing a car right now), so that's plenty of time for an adventure from Story of The World, Grimm's Tales, The Children of Odin, etc.
Also, it's at least a 30 minute drive to anything resembling civilization, so the opportunities for audio books in the car will be plenty.
How are our children doing so far?
Well, it's still a bit too early to say. They've both complained (loudly) that they aren't fans of getting up so early (but they'll get another hour of sleep when we are no longer sharing a car). They also are often rather tired and a bit cranky when I pick them up. I am hoping this is simply a part of them adjusting to the full-day-at-school thing, and that their bodies will adjust to the longer days soon.
We also have some issues with our youngest, because the school is so tiny and is having trouble trying to accommodate her special needs. We have an IEP this week, so I guess that is going to set the tone for how this may proceed forward for her.
So, am I entirely thrilled and pleased??? No. Does it have it's pluses? Absolutely. My son is making friends (he had not had any iterations with children other than his sister or kids at the city playground in literally months). It's also been vindicating to discover that both children are at the top of the pack in terms of reading level and spelling abilities. Both are also in the top tier with their math skills. It's nice to know our homeschool curriculum has been more than adequate compared to their same-age peers.
I strongly suspect they also are more learned in the areas of history and science as well.
Both children, therefore, are finding the actual workload to be very manageable...with the exception of my oldest and her writing. Part of her autism/language issues has included a...let's call it "disinclination" to write. That means that part of the IEP will be our chance to convince the school that she should be assessed in ways other than writing everything out. She can dictate answers, do spelling tests on an ipad, and simply not have the heavy writing workload that her teacher seems to feel is "absolutely necessary" for first graders. I hope you can hear my sarcasm and disagreement as I type these words.
So, if there isn't a satisfactory conclusion to the IEP, I'm not sure how this is going to work for her. By law, the school is *required* to accommodate her special needs. It will therefore be necessary to convince them to write it into her educational plan that writing less is one of her "needs".
I guess we'll see how that goes.
So, nothing is written in blood here. There are no hard-and-fast decisions that have been made. We are trying this out for a while. When we move to our next location (maybe next year), we may be much closer to a homeschooling community that will work for us. It's always been a challenge for us to find playmates for our children, and...I'll be honest with you, it becomes very disheartening to keep trying to fight that fight and to keep losing it.
Piggybacking on the Waldorf discussion, I feel that it's important to state that our home still has a lot of Waldorf influences. There are still many wooden and natural fibers toys. We still do handwork, we still celebrate many of the same celebrations. We still cook together, and still put a huge focus on unstructured play.
Upon arrival into our driveway, the first thing one would notice is our wooden rainbow arches that I made, sitting front-and-center in our bay window...surrounded by a crocheted "acorn pot" and wooden people enjoying some kind of adventure. On the floor is a wooden doll house, a crocheted blanket for dolls, and a bucket of blocks-and-other-sundry.
We still stick to a loose rhythm, and have regular bed times and meal times.
Waldorf inspiration isn't just about the toys and meals, of course, but it is a mindset that suggests that there is a flow to a child's development, which should be nourished by the appropriate lessons and environment that is suited for that phase of development.
Our youngest, as an example, has many fairy tale wooden and stuffed dolls that match her current development and "need" for the fairy tales. Steiner goes into why these tales are helpful and important to the first grader, so I won't go into all of that here, but I will also add that they become the building blocks for future studies of "peoples", which becomes (of course) the basis for learning about history.
As for my son, he will be getting toys relating to the Viking theme for Christmas this year (along with a few items that he might request on his own, of course). We'll be ordering him a (miniature) Viking Longboat kit. We'll get materials for him to make shields, helmets, swords, etc. I'm passing along a set of runes that I had gotten one year along with a book on their meanings.
With any luck, he and I will successfully sew a set of make-shift fleece (in place of animal fur) slippers/loafers....one pair for him, and one pair that he can them gift to his sister for Christmas. I'll work with our youngest to finger-crochet a book mark for her brother, and both will help me make the holiday desserts (some of which we can put Viking runes on), including a fairy tale themed gingerbread house, complete with some fairy tale hero cookies.
There are so many ways you can incorporate your Waldorf themes into your lives, without being home all day every day. It will be an adjustment for us all, and maybe...just maybe this experiment won't work. For now, we feel we need to give it a try.
Thanks for reading this far. Happy Autumn!
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