Frontier Dreams: Our First Week of Homeschool 2018

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Our First Week of Homeschool 2018

Dye baths Left to Right: goldenrod, pokeberry, grass, carrot and beets

carrot dye bath

beet dye bath

C'sfingerless gloves before

pokeberry dye bath

we made mountians with our leftover wood corners

I feel rather silly posting this now as we are about to start our third week of school tomorrow morning but things are going so well (so far) that I just had to share. My children have all been very diligent and perseverant for the most part with everything we have done. Somehow I have been on the ball and waking up in the wee hours of the mornings to make sure we are all on schedule. I pray the year continues in this manner.

Our first week included nature walks to our creek, (including one day that was so hot we decided to take a swim) dyeing silks with natural dyes (some worked but most of them didn't, however I attribute that to not properly mordanting them. Honestly, I never had any hope for the carrot or grass dyes, though), memorized a verse and made use of our leftover corners from making the chalkboard by turning them into mountains (to cement the verse in our brains), oh and we had special guests in the schoolroom - two of our chickens. This. This is how I envisioned homeschooling. Not the way I had been doing it in the past - stressed out and done in. This is the way it was meant to be.

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Joy · 342 weeks ago

I bet being settled in your space and making community makes it easier to be doing the schooling as you want. It can be amazing how much energy that life situations can take up. Good luck with it continuing as you plan.

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1 reply · active 342 weeks ago

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FrontierDreams 111p · 342 weeks ago

Thank you! I couldn't agree more.

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Carol · 342 weeks ago

It looks as though the children are quite enjoying the school year. My grand doll would love it if I would let her bring in a chicken.

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1 reply · active 342 weeks ago

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FrontierDreams 111p · 342 weeks ago

It is great isn't it? Their defense was that the chickens needed to learn, too.

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Sondra · 342 weeks ago

What a wonderful idea- which mountain verse did they memorize? I would like to do this with my children.

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1 reply · active 342 weeks ago

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FrontierDreams 111p · 342 weeks ago

"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." -Psalm 90:2

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Erin · 342 weeks ago

Looks great! Do you mind sharing what changed to help you be less stressed? (From a homeschool mom who is too stressed)

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3 replies · active 342 weeks ago

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FrontierDreams 111p · 342 weeks ago

Hey Erin. Really it came down to two things - 1 our curriculum. I was trying too hard to be Waldorf purist but in reality it just is not possible when you are teaching 3 different grades and handling a baby or toddler. Each child's lessons took up about 4 -5 hours of our day. Times that by 3 and well, I am sure you can see the problem. My children weren't happy, I wasn't happy. It just wasn't for us. Plus the hours every.single.night of planning for the next day It just did me in. Now we are still following Waldorf but a much more laid back approach with some things moving to computer work when the child is older - ie. my 2 girls now do their math with a computer program. 2 -Heaven not Harvard. I have been caught up in trying to keep up with all the other homeschoolers thinking oh my child needs to be a brainiac and be able to memorize everything, etc. but then someone put is simply - Heaven not Harvard. What is more important for me to be teaching them? That really eased my mind.

Not sure if that helped much but I hope in some way it did!

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Erin · 342 weeks ago

Great thoughts there! I homeschool four children (plus have a toddler) and definitely would find teaching so many main lessons impossible! We’ve moved to some computer work for my older children as well, and it has helped! And yes, heaven not Harvard (any child of mine who did want to go to Harvard would just have to be very self-motivated). Thanks for sharing! So glad to see your fun projects! I love your blog and have read it and been inspired by it for many years!

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Andrea · 342 weeks ago

I was also wondering how did you change the course of the learning! Though not purist Waldorf, i kinda followed the curriculum with my oldest daughter, she is a few months younger than L. But the planning and adding more chickens to our brood ( we are a family of 8, the youngest is 4 months), made everything soo difficult. I used the scope in the Curriculum as a guide of topics to learn from as my oldest is very hands on learning, and she loved to create stories, so that part of Waldorf fit perfectly with us. But then 3 boys... and it didn't work. We are trying to find our groove now.
Would you mind to share the rhythm of your days, incluiding taking care of the animals? That's also a struggle! Fitting it all. Being organized. And how are you using the Waldorf Curriculum? Are they doing main lessons together or do you teach them separately? i hope i didn't overwhelmed you with all my struggle!!

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juniperroots 1p · 342 weeks ago

Looks great! I'm still busily making math gnomes in anticipation of our first week of school starting on the first day of Autumn. I agree with your above comment. Relaxing the dogmatic approach really does lead to less stress and in the end, that's really what leads to happy children rather than wooden toys and beeswax crayons. (This is what I'm repeating to myself, anyway).

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Fiordelisa · 339 weeks ago

I always wondered why some antique Christmas cards showed Baby Jesus or Toddler Jesus in the nude and suddenly I understand. Just too dear a moment to explain. The lovely photos of waterplay are great, too. Thanks for all that you share...

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