I have been reflecting on our first real year of homeschooling.
Spending a lot of time thinking about what I
want to do differently or better.
Analyzing,
contemplating.
What I have come up with so far...
I need an iron clad rhythm.
Familiarize myself with the whole curriculum.
Be prepared.
Sign up now for all classes for next year.
Pray! :)
Really, it wasn't so bad. To be honest I started out terrified.
Can I do this? Will he listen to me? Is he going to have fun?
Personally, it was so much better than I could have ever imagined.
Watching him learn was absolutely amazing. It still gives me chills to
think back to times when it just clicked for him. I had fun. I thought he
did too. Then, yesterday he said to me sort of exasperated
"I just want to do school again!"
That comment solidified it.
We are homeschoolers and we LOVE it.
I love the curriculum too. It is so alive and beautiful to learn
with Waldorf. People have commented on the curriculum for
first grade being dark with all the Grimm's fairy tales. That was
one of my favorite aspects of the whole year. Learning through these
stories of the ages. I read the greatest response of a mother's concern
over these fairy tales and I would like to share. It was written by
Ms. M the list owner of Waldorf home educators yahoo group.
"My dear we cannot lock up our children in the tower of Rapunzel.
They have come to beset the world's woes and this is their training, in the safe world of these ancient tales.
They are brought to assist in the development of the human being,
similar to other ancient lore that comes as children's stories today but
were once, deep deep esoteric magic.
YOU are resonating and vibrating and shrinking from these elements and
you remind me of the mother of Parsival who took him, son of a knight,
into the deepest forest so he would never encounter his future, and
despite this, a troop of knights rides thru the woods on a quest, and
the next day, Parsival takes up his destiny, with the reins of a broken
down nag his mother is willing to lend him, reluctantly.
It does not hinder him.
We are here on a mission, on a direct intention, to interact with this
time and place, and slowly slowly, we help the children see more
clearly.
Is the tune really the instrument that plays it? Or is a tune, its own entity?
You are the instrument and filter for your son. If you quiver, he feels
it, if you shrink, he hears it, if you cry, he knows, too.
Why not bring a whole range of human emotion, with all the colors of the rainbow?
The blues and purples, the insidious lavenders, are balanced and made
beautiful by the brilliant golds and engaging yellows. We are healing
the world and ourselves and we must trust in the balance of the colors,
in the balance of the emotions, in the balance of the stories.
Healing, teaching stories. Read the parables of Christ, read the
fables, find the golden kernal of wisdom in your heart, and rein in your
head, that thinking editing head, that does not allow your son to hear
the whole story.
He does not need to hear the whole story, you see, he already knows, and
he is thinking you are in need of protection, love, gentle
mama-centered help....the child can hear the stories and knows them
already, of course, this is the state of this world, the dark and the
light, where is the third place?
They come to guide us to that third place, these children.
So, consider the story telling. You are brining one a week for a first
grade child or perhaps two if you are ambitious....and we tell as
written. We tell in a quiet voice, we channel in a sense, we do not
make up or embellish or read the story. We tell this tale in the best
way we can, quietly, carefully, and if a tear slips out along a cheek,
or a smile twitches at a corner or even a giggle escapes, or a frown of
concern creases one's face, well those are the bits and pieces of us,
that enter the tale, too, and sit with the community as the elders
recite these old tales round the camp fires.
Smoky, eye-tearing camp fires. Old old stuff. Ancient time out of mind stories. Whose? Ours. Our stories.
This is the best I can do, perhaps it can help, you are in charge of
what you choose, of course, but I often find those who struggle with the
stories, most often need to hear them. There is a healing magic in
each one.
Mrs. M
You should read, The Wisdom of the Fairy Tale"
This year is new and yes a little harder.
We are learning through fables and trickster tales.
Again, I am scared.
But, this time I know I can do it!
~Blessings
