Still waiting on Seb to come back and let me just say it's loooong this time. It's been two weeks now and we have another to go. I really feel like I'm the single mom with no family around. Yes this is me whining! I want my husband back. He actually is pretty handy to have around.
In all my spare non couple time I've been reading up on ready made homeschool curriculums and this seems like the sanest route for me--especially with all the changes of us moving to a new home and country. I don't really have time to design a curriculum and I think I just need something "microwavable" for at least the first year even if I'm not necessarily the microwavable, type of educator. I'm looking at three different Waldorf inspired curriculums--Oak Meadow, Christopherus and another one designed by a homeschool Waldorf mom who seems really together in her video presentations. The problem is I can't decide! I'm awful with making choices. I can spend six hours just trying to choose a winter coat so choices just confuse me. I'm a knit picker and they only give you teeny samples of the curricula on the various sites. My big fear is to pay all that money for something (they aren't cheap) and end up with a curriculum whose secret agenda is religious or worse still Americentric, and be stuck skipping over huge passages or tearing out my hair trying to make them work.
I'm really eager to get started and I'm hoping Seb continues to agree and approves of the method I choose. I don't think I'll be as academically strict as he likes but I think these methods will work for me and our kids and to me that's what's important. I'm on my second John Holt book since Seb left for China and I've read enough about Waldorf-Steiner to make me feel like this is definitely the right choice. In fact I'm so in to my readings it's gotten so as soon as I walk in Charlottes's school I groan a little more each time. I can see all the problems jumping out at me in big bold letters. All the while though I have to pretend that this is the right choice for her sake because she's still crying each time I take her and I can't be anything but cheery and positive. Today she had another substitute teacher though and I was ready to just say never mind and take her home but I left her crying on the floor because the school was closing its doors and I felt pressured to leave and not be the indulgent parent. Then when she came home she told me she was in Mme. Lanne's class (another teacher) and she wasn't scared. So as far as I can see they divided the class yet again and put her off into another group for the day and I'm not even sure why! Poor thing. When I see the Oak Meadow curriculum for preschool it makes me think why don't I just take her out now and invest a few hours a day in playing games with her and going on nature walks instead of sending her off to the Land of Chaos. I may end up doing that after the vacation if Seb will agree but I'm not sure if he will.
As for Little S he is zipping through the CP (first grade) global reading method like gangbusters and it's also got me worried. He isn't necessarily understanding much of it though and they just keep going and going. One mom told me "they go too slow! they should be halfway through the book by Christmas shouldn't they! I think they must be bored" I didn't know what to say. "Actually the book is crap and full of "prattle" and I'd like to throw it out the window" but instead I said, "well I'm glad they're going slow for some of the kids who aren't raedy to move on yet."
For me it's too much too fast. It's the pail analogy--he's being filled and filled and I think his pail is overflowing. He just seems saturated with information and you can sense the urgency of the system to get him reading and writing and on his way. In December and January we'll empty the pail, dry things out and in February I will try to light the spark, but maybe the pail will need to be emptied a little more before it can light. I won' t start his Grade One program until at least February and we'll continue it through the Summer at a very casual pace. I can't wait.
4 comments:
We homeschooled from first grade through 9th grade for my oldest. We used Oak Meadow some, but I wasn't strict about following a curriculum. We explored life and found books to read on the topics that enthralled the kids at the time. From what I've read about French schools and child rearing, it seems like the French are all about separating kids from their moms. They go to preschool as infants even when the mom is home. Is the point to give the moms a break from the kids? I've known homeschooled kids who didn't learn to read until they were in the fourth grade, they caught up with their peers within a few months. I just don't think they need rigorous academics as first graders -- but, I'm not French
I didn't know you homeschooled waldorf, interesting. Did you like it?
There is a lot of pressure to get the kids away from the parents here, you're right. I'll have to work to convince seb to let her out of school early mainly because there will be a huge backlash about it from everyone around us. It doesn't help that Charlotte is going through a super clingy phase lately since her dad's is gone and school has started. They see her attached to my leg and they say, see she NEEDS school to be more independent!! Or lots of people tell me I need MY time which may or may not be true but it's my business so that drives me nuts. I think I'll manage just fine with them home.
Hang in there, Chris. I have been very inspired by your ability to light the spark with not only your own kids but those of others with your art ateliers. You can get through this week. I think you should write a book about the art Ateliers. It would sell like gangbusters. You have probably thought of this but I'll say it anyway, maybe there are some forums where people following these curriculums discuss them and you can glean some ideas about what to expect that way by lurking?
I have used all the curriculums you mentioned in this post! We are only doing grade 2 now, but I have learned so much since we started!
There really are good and less good aspects to all the curriculums. I personally just like having something as a foundation, to get ideas from, to springboard off onto other things from, to follow down to the letter when we hit a slump. :-P
too much to say for the comments section. haha
what an exciting time for you guys!
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