Every Wednesday our members get to ask Waldorf teacher Diane Power questions about their homeschooling experience, Waldorf education and more. These Q & A sessions are posted on the member blog every week so you have access to all the past Q & A sessions. Become a member of Earthschooling to get your questions answered personally every week.
Question from Member: How can I better encourage (lightly structured) teaching down with my children, 12, 10, 7? Older one teaching younger one? – O. A.
Response from Diane: Regarding older children teaching younger ones, you could make it as part of the review work of the older student to bring the material to the younger. They could come up with ideas for the drawings or different ways to write a story review, come up with a project, teach a favorite song from their time in the younger grade. Also whatever subject they are passionate about could be brought to those younger or older.
How do we guide an older child to teach from a place of wisdom and patience, and how can we prevent the older child from teaching too high of math, for example, too soon? I have a 6th and a 1st grader. He enjoys teaching her very advanced addition and subtraction and she does surprisingly well at it, but sometimes he even pressures her that she should be able to figure some things out she’s not ready for.
Hi Marcia, Can you post this to Diane on the forum on Wednesdays? She does not reply to questions here. Thank you!