homeschooling, unschooling, learning together

I want to begin by saying that wherever you are in your journey with schooling, my hats off to you. There are no easy decisions to make it you have children in covid. Our family made the decision that is best for us at this moment, and I completely anticipate it shifting and changing as the year goes on.

Magnolia and Griffin love their Waldorf school. We are so very fortunate to have this school in our small community. They have returned to school with outdoor classrooms. But that was not the right choice for us. Not just because of the potential of covid, but because Magnolia is 5 about to turn six this month and she has a huge interest in learning her letters, numbers, reading and writing, but her birthday is past the schools cut off date. With the amount of school missed last year at the beginning of covid, they were recommending we keep her in kindergarten for her fourth year.

And so I decided, to keep her and her brother home to start a homeschooling journey, that way she can study and learn at the pace she'd like and we can see how the school year and covid plays out before making a decision. Of course, they miss their friends and playing but we are trying our best to find a rhythm and routine that works best. I’m incorporating learning letters and numbers for her, encouraging but not forcing Griffin to participate because he is only four.

I’ve had to hold compassion for myself. I am not an early childhood educator, i’m a mother, writer, herbalist. I am not Waldorf trained so i’m doing my best to inform myself with the practices and realize this year is remarkable and unprecedented and I don’t need to be too hard on myself. If I can give my children my presence, my knowledge and my love I think we will all do okay.

Our routine so far, about three weeks in looks like a morning circle with a verse. Movement, usually yoga, some deep breaths and Magnolia has even enjoyed mediation while griffin wanders off. We will either go for a morning walk or get to our Main Lesson. Main Lessons include reviewing the month, day, and day of the week. Introducing a letter of the day and reviewing the letter from the day before. I’ll draw it on the board, hand out a tracing and coloring sheet and then discuss how the letter is formed and what letters we can think of that begin with that sounds. We will often digress into drawing pictures of animals, laughing and talking. Then we transition into an art or craft or reading a book. Then they go outside and play in the garden while I prepare lunch. We come back together to eat, they go to rest in their rooms for an hour or more sometimes while I work. When they wake we eat a snack, do clay, or beeswax modeling, go for a walk, do a chore together or bake something while we wait for AJ to be done with work.

There is flexibility in our routine and I have to remember they are four and five and so it is natural and wonderful to incorporate play, exploration, laughter and movement.

This week after our main lesson I took them out to our land. We hiked, collected bits of fall, climbed trees and made fairy houses at the base of trees. I think I will take advantage of this nice fall weather to do this more, incorporating tree and leaf identification and bringing art supplies to paint landscapes and other things we see.

It has been difficult to balance my own desires and work with schooling them but it is also so precious to step into the role of teacher for them, savor this time while they are still small, and watch their brains and curiosity explode.