Question from Member: Spending Too Much Time on English & Math We seem to be doing English and Maths all the time. English is through stories, and Maths we have been doing fractions for ever so long. We are doing animal and humans and Norse myths, but I find we tend to spend too much […]
Waldorf Homeschol Curriculum
How Do I Teach Subjects I Find Boring?
Question from Member: Boring Subjects What can I do about subjects/activities I find dull, boring, or just lame? We all have things we like and dislike. – Angil Reply from Waldorf Teacher, Diane Power I totally agree! Be creative! Perhaps there is another way to bring the subject matter. If it’s the subject itself that is […]
Should My Child Skip First Grade?
Question from Member: Should My Child Skip First Grade? My 6 year old is currently in a mainstream kindergarten as she needed speech therapy that we could not afford to pay out of pocket. She loves going to school, has learned to read etc and most importantly, the speech impairment is gone. She and I […]
My First Grader Has a Hard Time Retaining Letters
Question from Member: My First Grader Has a Hard Time Retaining Letters Our 7 year old son (Sept. Birthday) started grade 1 this year. I have been sharing stories and introducing the letters of the alphabet. He is starting to catch on, but he has a hard time retaining all of the letters he has […]
Using Math with Creation Myth Stories in G3
Question from Member: How Can I Use Math in Creation Myth Stories? How can I bring in liquid or dry measurement (weights for grade 3 math) through those stories and be able to cover volume or dry measure or even housebuilding, that would be great. In your reply if you can please kindly specify which […]
Should I Instruct a KG Student During Block Crayon Lessons?
Question from Member: Should I Instruct a KG Student During Block Crayon Lessons? I was just watching the block coloring tutorial video and was hoping to get come clarification. My child is kindergarten and my understanding was at this age everything should be by imitation, giving the child little or no directions when it comes to […]
Should My Children of Different Ages Do Art at the Same Time?
Question from Member: Should My Children of Different Ages Do Art at the Same Time? I think homeschoolers have a challenging setup when we have multiple kids at differing abilities. My 4 yr old criticizes her work (she’s four!! And I’ve NEVER been negative about hers or any of my children’s work) when she compares it to […]
How to Deal with ‘Artist Competition’
Question from Member: My Kids Get Frustrated Their Drawings Don’t Look Like Mine… While you are on drawing, my kids (especially my younger one) get frustrated that their drawings don’t look like mine (which aren’t that great, but as she’s only 4 obviously I’ve got a bit better control). Beyond saying ýou’ll get better as […]
Using Beeswax with a First Grader
Using Beeswax with a First Grader: Question from Member The other day in the Grade 1 weekly catch up, we were discussing beeswax… Specifically for sculpting the letters as we learn them. Our daughter really struggled with being able to bring the letter together well in this medium, because of it’s firmness and often its inability […]
Easy Indoor-Outdoor Portable Fort for Kids
This project can be used for any age or it can be used as part of the third grade “housebuilding” lesson. To create a little portable indoor/outdoor fort… 1. Purchase a few bamboo rods (the kind you get at the gardening center for 1.00 each…they are also at the dollar store). If you are lucky you […]
Top Ten Reasons to Travel with Kids
When I tell the children stories of our travels together I always start with the trips they first took when they were “in my belly”. One of our most memorable trips was taking a photo assignment in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I was three months pregnant with Sofi and still working as a photographer along with teaching and natural […]
Save Monarch Butterflies with Fun Educational Activities
Biology, botany, gardening, farming, conservation, civics, entomology, math, science, language, art and history – that is what children will be learning this summer while engaging in these fun monarch-focused activities. However, they will be having so much fun they won’t realize how much they are learning. I remember purchasing some bushes at a local nursery […]