Why Waldorf

I will tell you why.  When I only had one child, Mercury was 2 and my husband and I went to see "Bowling for Columbine" in the theater in New Mexico.  I was a new mother and could not see beyond the name, and we both agreed our children would be home schooled, and I was more then happy to oblige to that responsibility.  After all, I wanted nothing then to be with my baby constantly - why should I believe it would ever change?

Enter into the time at which Mercury, the oldest, should begin kindergarten.  I had heart failure, a 6 month old nursing son, a three year old son, and no husband, job, or income.  Homeschooling went out the window.  By the time first grade was beginning, the family unit was giving a good try at being cohesive, and there was some income of sorts, so I pulled her out and taught at home.  I began with nothing - some old hand-me-down texts from my mom - a high school teacher - some relevant, some not - a lot of crayons and imagination.  We learned all sorts of things in this fashion, never buying any curriculum, no website handouts or schedules.  By the end of the year, the marriage had completely broken up for good and the children and I went to live with my grandmother, with severe Alzheimer's.  I was to take care of her, which helped everyone out temporarily.  Well, I say that, but I'm still living in her house.  It was one of those miraculous coincidences, that was actually more a miracle. . .

So now, I have an income, and that's about all I can speak for.  There is no time as our lives revolve around keeping the peace and a strict schedule to appease my grandma.  Samson was wearing cloth diapers, I was still weak from cardiomyopathy, Bunny fought with Samson and despaired that I was her late husband's mistress and we were sleeping together upstairs every night (there is no upstairs), the police would be called once a month. . . so what about Mercury's education??

I visited the local school - where they attend now - but compared to the freedom and attention and tailoring that was possible with what we had been doing, besides the real food I served, the comfortable environment making learning easier and more pleasant, the availability to all sorts of other groups and activities due to the flexibility of our schedule - oh, and no germ warfare constantly. . . oh, it was like a hell to me.  The white walls, the sick kids, the stale air, the wasteful time. . . I said "no, I can finish this year out just fine at home."  And then we adopted the 'un-schooling' method, before I even knew something like what we were doing had a name.

Mercury entered into second grade at that school the next year because I needed to go to work during the day (and the night).  A week later I was called for a meeting with the principal - they wanted to move her to third grade.  They wanted to know what I had used, what curriculum I had purchased!  She tested on a near genius level and was enrolled in a gifted program once a week.  She had already made friends in the class and being smallish also, did not feel comfortable being with older children.  The younger we get, the more significant the years can be in differences. . .

She finished the year by going to third grade for reading and being a helper.  When third grade came, she had already finished that curriculum, so, at 8 years old, she finished all the Harry Potter series, the Narnia Chronicles, and the majority of Hank the Cow Dog books.  To test her understanding, she was given computer tests on each book and always made 100.

And that concludes the boasting, but really, this isn't about my daughter being so bright - it's simple to me - ALL kids, ALL people have this wonderful potential and we are robbed of it early on, very early on, and by well meaning folks.

We ALL learn by doing, no matter if your method is better by reading, you can't admit you don't learn anything by just experiencing.  You would need to consciously TRY to NOT learn while you were riding a horse or building a chicken coop or planting a garden.  It just happens, 'we learn something new everyday'.

I would have no problem incorporating - if you can incorporate such a laid back attitude of learning into a schedule - un-schooling into our lives on the road, but there is just so much I want them to know, and so much we need to learn together, that I decided to purchase a curriculum, but a very open, flowing, creative one - I found Waldorf.

I know it's wikipedia, kinda lame, but it's a fair summary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education

I need our expectantly un-hinged, feral lifestyle to also hold onto a thread of continuity, some form of same, schedule, expectation in the form of staying with the same subject matter.  There's no doubt I could utilize all the things we will be experiencing and see the science, social studies, language, math, art, music, PE, foreign language, religious and spiritual studies, home economics in them - and all the many sub-categories, as well as, well, field trips.  I'm 110% certain the children would test to the top level for any state's development criteria after all that.

BUT!  Saying all that, as aforementioned, I need some continuous harmony to the unpredictability of our lives and journey.  I will let those who are un-familiar with Waldorf and Rudolph Steiner visit the link or research it yourselves - I cannot properly summarize the philosophy, but I know that it is what we need, our specific family.

This is the company I would like to use for material.
http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/home.html

We have been in dialog but they cannot offer any financial assistance at this time.
So. . . something to think about.  Samson will not require a curriculum, but Ezekiel and Mercury, in addition to continuing in Cub and Girl scouts on their own, will require at least some minimal materials, including a syllabus for the year - 2nd and 5th grades.  This is my prayer.  Or if that prayer tells me 'no', then I'll opt to teach Mercury to drive the bus and Ezekiel to fix diesel engines, Samson can model.  Life skills.  (Just kidding)