(no subject)

[aelfie]

50. Homemaking and Personal Development:Meditative Practice for Homemakers by Veronika Van Duin
Many of the Moms on my Waldorf Homeschooling lists recommend this book (and its companion). I've had it on the to "read" shelf for awhile and I finally got around to reading it. This is a  really good book. It looks at the fact that although extremely rewarding, homemaking and child rearing is HARD. This is a workbook of meditative practices to improve ones time as a homemaker. To bring more Joy, Vitatality, Peace, etc to your life. I can't wait to read the companion, but I've got a stack of Link+ books I've only got 3 weeks to read, so I'm starting to plow through those.

51. The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond and Dorothy Moore
The Moore's are considered the "Grandparents" of the modern Homeschooling Movement. The Moore's focused their work and philosophy on one basic premise. Don't do school until the child is ready...which is generally sometime between the ages of 8-10. Their work is based on studies and surveys that a child's physical body just isn't ready to sustain focused academic work until much later than is generally accepted today. I read this last year. I'm feeling a bit low on the homeschooling front and needed a re-charge of inspiration. I needed to explore again why I wanted to continue to do this. So I'm re-reading some of the books I really enjoyed and lit my fire last spring. This is one of them. I like the simple philosophy. Keep them home, teach them work (around the house), teach them service (to others and the community), and don't do school until they are ready. I may adjust my plans for next fall a bit.

Comments

[mollygm.livejournal.com]

Well, with Waldorf, you're pretty much following that model anyway, aren't you? I mean, you do school, but it's only a half hour to an hour and a half a day of reading stories and drawing. Not super rigid academics. What else could you change?

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

I will stop stressing so much about how much he's learning. or rather how much he's not. I don't stress too much, but once in awhile the "Ahhh! If he were in public school he'd be so far behind! Arhhhh!" thing hits me. I've got to remember that this book talks about the science that proves Steiners theories.

[mollygm.livejournal.com]

Ah. I didn't know you were stressing about that. So it's not really your lesson plans you need to adjust. It's yer 'tude.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

Well, I remembered what I was thinking of when I wrote that. My plan currently calls to start the year with a phonics program and a slow intro to grammar. I may wait a bit to start the phonics until he actually shows interest in learning how to read. And it really doesn't make sense to intro grammar to a non-reader.

But then again, that's 6 months from now. He may be ready by then. He's starting to show frustration at not being able to read. So who knows. Now I'm just open to the possibility of delaying a part of my lesson plans a bit.