Waldorf?

[meganrussell]

Could anyone explain this to me? I've been researching it and am intrigued by it. Anyone use this method?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Lots of emphasis on nature study.

No electronics even in the home.

Fairy tales for the younger set.

Lots of arts and crafts.

Weird religious/ philosophical roots (in my opinion but obviously not in everyone's opinion)

 

http://simplehomeschool.net/waldorf-basics/

 

I personally like Charlotte Mason (which shares a love of nature and story telling and arts and crafts without some of the "weirder" stuff) for the  younger ages.  I am using Oak Meadow materials (which are Waldorf influenced but without religious/philosophical overtones) for high school.  Just so you know my biases. 

Edited September 16, 2017 by Jean in Newcastle

[mellifera33]

In my opinion, Waldorf looks nice on the surface, but once you start looking into the underlying philosophies it gets murkier. We use some of the surface elements happily. :) The art supplies are lovely, and I like the focus on nature and seasons. It's easy to integrate a seasonal rhythm into your life using your own religious observances. Of course, once you strip away the Anthroposophy, is it really Waldorf anymore? To me it kind of seems like unschooling except for the 3 Rs. :) I call us eclectic, so I'm not hung up on labels anyway. How old are your kids? We use a loosely Waldorf-based elementary program, Wee Folk Art, and we like it a lot. My 4 y/o is going through Simple Seasons, my 7 and 10 y/os are doing Cultural Connections, and we love it. It's gentle, but provides a good base for rabbit-trailing. 

[Farrar]

There's a huge emphasis on conformity in Waldorf that makes me very uncomfortable. Obviously many of the products associated with it are really nice and many of the outer trappings (nature, fairy stories, quality art supplies, play silks, handicrafts, etc.) are wonderful and could be incorporated into a homeschool environment. However, in "real" Waldorf, there's a strong emphasis on everyone doing everything the same. It looks all cutesy and creative and "free" but the reality is that a child whose inner imaginary life is about, say, robots and aliens, will be "wrong" according to Waldorf. You must believe in and play fairy games (and this is not an exaggeration - I've heard some odd stories about children getting in trouble in Waldorf schools for not believing in fairies). Making your own "textbooks" is such a cool idea... until you see that every child's textbook is exactly the same, with the same text, the same illustrations, the same binding, the same "creative" choices. I just see it as a system that is pretty inflexible and not responsive to the individual, which is sort of the opposite of how people think of it.

[meganrussell]

Wow thanks for all these opinions! I definitely do not agree religiously. And we do not conform to anything! I just loved the emphasis on nature and beauty, but think we will stick with our Charlotte Mason style, which emulates the same ideas.

[daijobu]

I don't consider myself Waldorf, but I have several homeschooling friends whom I would describe as Waldorf-inspired.  Like many of us homeschoolers, they take what they like about the approach and leave the the rest behind.  

 

I really liked having them as friends for my own kids, because we both shared a low-media approach to childhood.  It allowed the whole cohort of friends to enjoy an extended childhood without iCarly ruining it for everyone.  

 

Over time, as my Waldorfy friends' kids aged, they gradually abandoned much of the material in favor of greater college-readiness.  

[Kareni]

There's a huge emphasis on conformity in Waldorf that makes me very uncomfortable. ... However, in "real" Waldorf, there's a strong emphasis on everyone doing everything the same. ... Making your own "textbooks" is such a cool idea... until you see that every child's textbook is exactly the same, with the same text, the same illustrations, the same binding, the same "creative" choices....

 

You make some very good points, Farrar.  My daughter attended a Waldorf inspired charter school when she was in 6th grade.  She had previously attended magnet schools for Kindergarten through fifth grades, and we began homeschooling the following year.  The year she was in sixth grade is the only time I remember her crying due to school frustrations -- she had drawn an extra person in one of her main lesson book illustrations and had been criticized for doing so.

 

Regards,

Kareni 

[Crimson Wife]

I read a book on Waldorf education and felt that it had a decidedly anti-academic bent to it. Children are actively prevented from reading until they start losing their baby teeth. My oldest taught herself to read at age 3 so I definitely disagree with Waldorf on kids & reading.

 

There were other things that made me feel that Waldorf is anti-academic but I read the book so long ago I forget the specifics

 

 

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[nixpix5]

Farrar ' s post is so spot on. We used to get many ex-Waldorf kids at the Montessori school and many came in with rigidity and anxiety due to an idea of "being wrong" or "not doing something right" They definitely have a different philosophy; some is neat but it can be taken too far. Montessori is similar in that some just treat it like a religion and take it too far. Still, Waldorf has some lovely elements that can be incorporated.

Edited September 20, 2017 by nixpix5

[birchbark]

Most homeschoolers who like Waldorf use its methods and aren't doing true Waldorf education. As mentioned above, pure Waldorf is very specific about what to teach and when and how. It is one-size-fits-all. And since the lessons come from the teacher's head as opposed to a book, I think it sounds very exhausting for a homeschool mom to implement. 

 

We have used many Waldorf ideas for preK-2nd with great success. Nature table, festivals, cooking, time in nature, music, Waldorf-type crafts, etc. The book Heaven on Earth focuses more on the lifestyle part of Waldorf and could be added to any type of schooling. I also found the Christopherus kindergarten book helpful. Our all-time favorite grammar is the Waldorf-inspired Sentence Family. 

[Farrar]

Farrar ' s post is so spot on. We used to get many ex-Waldorf kids at the Montessori school and many came in with rigidity and anxiety due to an idea of "being wrong" or "not doing something right" They definitely have a different philosophy; some is neat but it can be taken too far. Montessori is similar in that some just treat it like a religion and take it too far. Still, Waldorf has some lovely elements that can be incorporated.

 

I've always thought that this classic, over-the-top story about the little boy whose desire to draw anything but red flowers with green stems was a Waldorf class. 

[eternalsummer]

We were part of a Waldorf charter for a year and a half.  Here's a thread I started about my kids in the charter: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/586530-waldorf-and-giftedness-any-advice-appreciated-update-sort-of-post-54/page-2

 

I quite like the curriculum, in a lot of ways.  It's quite traditional, which appeals.  The kids study mythology, including Christian mythology (the lives of the Saints, for example), Norse mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Persian mythology, etc.  There is a philosophical opposition to the use of technology for kids; in practice, all the kids and teachers had iphones.  We don't use technology much as a family and are opposed to the use of smartphones and tablets and think pretty much all of modern TV promotes degeneracy, so that part fit in theory but in practice meant nothing.

 

They do spend a lot of time on non-academic pursuits like knitting, gardening, etc.  These were great for my daughter, who is pretty girly and a bit dreamy/artistic, but awful for my son, who would prefer to be either fighting an invading army or designing a robot.  

 

They have some funny ideas about child development.  They think things must be done in certain stages, which, okay - but one is that they think the body must be developed before the mind, and that second graders should still be "asleep" (that is, not thinking very much).  

 

Waldorf education in the US has largely been adopted by liberals.  I have no idea why as the curriculum (separate of teaching knitting to boys) is actually pretty traditional.  

 

 

All of that said, with all the tradeoffs you make for a Waldorf charter, and there are a lot of them, what you get in return if your child is the type who is suited to that kind of school is a happy childhood and a loving school.  They give kids a lot of free rein - for instance, instead of picking up kids individually from school in the kind of regimented pick-up we've seen in other schools (and we've been to a lot of them), all the kids just run out onto the playground and play and chat and chase the chickens and climb the trees and talk to their parents (who are standing around or sitting on the steps chatting) and sort of slowly filter home.  They don't care if you're a few minutes late to school, and when my daughter was seriously late 2-3 times a week for a while as she was learning to get herself up, dressed, fed, and bike to school, she just told her teacher that she was learning to take responsibility for her own morning routine and her teacher was totally supportive.  They spent more time on building relationships and learning to be kind to one another than they spent on math. They had group projects, real ones like building an outdoor oven for the school, that spanned years.  They had festivals with real meaning behind them, and tradition, and beauty.

 

They also believed that you had to be bullied in order to develop compassion, so they didn't stop bullies in 2nd grade.  (By 5th you were expected to not bully).  A lot depends on the individual teacher, as the teacher has a ton of power and stays with the class for all 8 years, cycling through the grades.