A visitor asked whether our family is moving away from the gentle Waldorf-y method of learning because of our plans to use Mother of Divine Grace content this school year. We have never considered ourselves Waldorf homeschoolers in the pure sense of the term because we do not use the exact learning schedule that Waldorf schools use nor, as Catholics, do we embrace Steiner's views on many things. That does not mean that Steiner had nothing good to say, quite the contrary. However, I am not well versed in Steiner's writings and could not have an intelligent conversation about him without doing much research.
What we have embraced that seems to be fairly Waldorf-y in its origins are the
gentleness of learning, the emphasis on handcrafts, the archetypal
stories of good and evil, the main lesson format, the quality art
supplies, the daily rhythm, the circle time and more. Last year was, by far, my children's favorite school year due to the gentle rhythm and the peaceful nature of the learning that took place. Nothing was rushed, crammed or spoon fed.
I feel confident that the
children will still be able to learn in that way this upcoming year using MODG plans as they delve deeply into subjects, making them very easy to turn into main lesson blocks. Laura Berquist's plans are broken down into weekly and daily
lessons. Rather than using the short daily lessons, I am
going to look at her syllabus as a weekly venture and break the work
into main lesson blocks that way. Per her recommendations, Ben will have
several main lesson blocks that include Ancient Egypt, Magnetism and
Electricity. I am also adding Barbara Dewey's Geometry for a math block.
Christopher will have Old Testament stories, Early American History, and Form Drawing (I'm adding from Christopherus). He will continue to learn to read and learn his math facts this year.
Mary will be learning letters and numbers. Her days will have a gentle rhythm and will be full of painting, clay, beeswax, handcrafts and singing. Very rhythmic and lovely, definitely not "information overload" or many short, lessons driving her to distraction. Annie will be right there, doing handcrafts and art, playing with blocks and wooden trains, puzzles and clay. She loves to paint as well.
My main reason for choosing the MODG was because I know it is academically sound and interesting content and because, as I've mentioned before, our family is in a state of crisis and I needed something of which I did not have to plan the content. I just didn't want to take the time to do so this year given the stress the family is under. We needed a Simple Plan.
In addition to many nice, supportive comments, I did receive a small amount of negative feedback regarding my Simple Plan post, which some people took personally to mean that I was criticizing all people who plan or planning in general, that my post "cast aspersions" on people who plan. I didn't know what "aspersions" meant so I looked it up in the dictionary. The definition is as follows, "a false or misleading charge meant to harm someone's reputation". I want to apologize to anyone else who might have read my intentions to be sinful in writing that post. I am not against planning at all. I was simply sharing some of my past struggles and regrets with planning as well as some of the contradictions in my own life when I would plan to excess. I had hoped that post would encourage those who felt they couldn't do it all. A plan is a good thing but this year, for me, the plan needed to be simple, doable and from someone else's hand.
Another visitor asked why I chose MODG rather than Oak Meadow, which we used last year. Oak Meadow is a nice combination of gentle learning and academics. It is a lovely program. The problem I had with it, however, was that I had used, older copies grade 2 and 5 syllabi that were not quite as thorough as the newer ones. I had a bit of trouble fleshing out the lessons and knowing what to do each day. That is not a strength of mine. Last night, I was on their site again and saw the written samples by grade. They look organized and have specific directions that look very easy to use. However, I have already acquired all of the MODG materials, main lesson books, art supplies, etc., so we will forge ahead as planned. I think if you have little ones in grades K-3, Oak Meadow is a very sweet and gentle option for learning.
I expect that much of my blogging this upcoming year will be pictoral. I will keep sidebar albums of our work as I have for the past couple of years and will post what we are doing as regularly as I am able. This school year will be busy academically and personally but much good will come of it, which I hope to share with you. :)
Blessings on your evening,
Rebecca
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