One of the core aims of Christopherus Homeschool Resources is to create curriculum materials grounded in the essence of Waldorf education. Having been a student, teacher, parent educator, Waldorf school parent and homeschooler with over 35 years’ experience of working with children out of my own ever-deepening relationship to anthroposophy, I feel uniquely positioned to bring the riches of Waldorf education to homeschoolers and, increasingly, Waldorf teachers.
Anthroposophy (‘anthropos’ – the human being and ‘sophia’ – wisdom) is the science of the spirit brought to us by Rudolf Steiner (1861 - 1925) an Austrian scientist, philosopher and educator.
Anthroposophy is not only the basis of Waldorf education, but also of forms of medicine, architecture, agriculture and gardening, curative education and eurythmy (a form of movement with artistic and therapeutic applications). Steiner also lectured extensively on the importance of new economic relationships based neither on capitalism nor on state socialism. Anthroposophy has also enriched Christianity, with a new church called The Christian Community working out of Steiner’s indications.
The core of this wisdom of humanity is the recognition that human beings are spiritual beings, descended from the spiritual worlds, who incarnate on this earth and face, out of a weaving between their personal karma (in anthroposophy karma is not seen as something fixed and unchanging) and their freedom, choices in how they feel, act and think. These abilities are of course in situ in every human being: but the task that challenges us, and which anthroposophy can be aid in, is to develop each of these capacities to their fullest. To stand upright as a human being in freedom is to be in balance between one’s thinking, feeling and willing, and to not be unconsciously swayed by them nor reactive to external circumstances.
The path to achieve such balance is long – and is well beyond the scope of this article to even touch on. But it seems important that when a parent or teacher is considering their own relationship to Waldorf education that they become aware of what lies behind it, is its foundation and its strength. By understanding the foundations of Waldorf education – even if one decides that anthroposophy is not the path that one wants to take – one can then ‘make the curriculum one’s own’ so to speak, and work gracefully as an educator and parent.
Speaking to the first teachers at the original Waldorf school (established in 1919 at the request of Emil Molt, a German industrialist who wanted a good school for the children of the workers at his factory) Rudolf Steiner said that there were three things each individual needs to commit to become a Waldorf teacher:
For homeschoolers, it is obvious that these three points are important as well – though of course if Waldorf education is not one’s chosen path of education for one’s children, then the first becomes irrelevant. But every parent wants to base what s/he does in terms of education and parenting on a sound understanding of child development. And every parent strives to understand her own children. As for self (spiritual) development, although some people might side step this point, in my experience, it is absolutely essential for a parent to take himself (gently!) by the scruff of the neck and commit to working on his inner life. Without this crucial step, all the tangles and messes inside oneself just burst out whilst one is trying to parent and to educate one’s children.
Even just striving to determine what is one’s own ‘stuff’ and what is one’s child can be a major step toward the kind of self-development that eases the challenges of parenting and educating.
And if it is indeed so that human beings are spiritual beings, then the three steps Steiner speaks of must have a spiritual basis – or else any talk of a holistic approach is sorely misleading, missing its basis and its rationale. This is where anthroposophy can be such a valuable tool, giving those who study it a vista from which to survey and – essentially – to understand the human journey between the Cosmos and the earthly realm, over time, and across religion, culture, nation and peoples.
In terms of parenting and educating children, this is where Christopherus can come in handy. In all our materials – books, syllabuses, talks, videos, webinars and on our forum – the purpose is to help people who wish to deepen their relationship to Waldorf education to do just that.
The approach I take is to explain aspects of the Waldorf curriculum and to point out how they mirror the developmental stages children pass through. Why stories of saints in second grade – and why does Christopherus uniquely expand this to include both saints and heroes? What is happening in the soul of the child at age 8 (second grade) that is fed by such stories? Why at age 11 (fifth grade) does Greek Mythology and the grace of geometry speak to deeply to a child? What is happening at age 11 when the curriculum turns from a mythological consciousness to historical consciousness? Why (again uniquely to Christopherus) do we have lessons focused on time, on making sundials and water clocks just at this age? And so on, from the earliest years right into the high school years.
At Christopherus we explain whysomething is done, howit is usually done in school and, critically, how one might work with it at home. We aim to help empower parents so they can make the curriculum their own – and to move beyond what they find in our materials to create their own unique homeschools – based on their own understanding of child development, of their own children and enriched by their own unique path of inner growth. Our rich basis in anthroposophy helps enormously with this goal.
Christopherus is also completely pragmatic – ‘make it work’ can be said to be our motto! As homeschoolers are found on every part of the globe, have every imaginable family constellation, come from widely differing cultural, religious, spiritual, racial, and economic backgrounds, a ‘one-size fits all approach’ would be a nonsense.
But, since each human being basically follows the same lawful progression of human development whilst at the same time being a unique individual, anthroposophy can help a parent gain rich insights into understanding their child’s developmental needs and how to meet that appropriately though the riches of Waldorf education. Our sincere wish at Christopherus is to aid parents achieve this understanding to the level that they feel comfortable with.
Please visit our very large and informative website www.christopherushomeschool.org for more information on anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf education and more. We offer many free resources as well as materials to purchase.
Donna Simmons is an anthroposophist, libertarian-socialist and member of The Christian Community. She has been involved in one way or another with Waldorf education since she was four-years-old. Currently (2018) she lives in Viroqua, WI.
]]>At Fairy Finery, we are dedicated to nurturing the imagination and magic that live in young children through beautiful dress-up clothes that open the door to hours of creative playtime: play that is unstructured, open-ended, imaginative, carefree, and fun.
Why is imaginative play so important? And how do capes and costumes help?
WHAT IS IMAGINATIVE PLAY?
Fairy Finery supports the belief of Waldorf education that imaginative play is the key to creative thinking later in life. In imaginative play, children play freely, using their imagination to guide them, usually without adult involvement.
Children love to create stories with toys, costumes, or props. They act out scenes from home, the community, and from relationships they encounter in their daily life: playing house, playing teacher or doctor.
Even when they are playing in fantasy worlds (like going to the moon, or pretending to be a dog), these scenes also mimic the world they are most familiar with. When children bring toys into this play, the toys are merely vehicles for the imagination, not the destination. They are not the focus of the play, but rather a tool to be powered by the child’s creativity.
THE BENEFITS OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY
Imaginative, open-ended play strengthens a child’s creativity. Waldorf education values creativity as a critical life skill for all adults, not just for artists.
Throughout our lives, we rely on our creative problem-solving skills as we navigate the complexities of relationships, life and work. Imaginative play develops a child’s creativity as they engage their imagination to invent the story-line of the play. Whether the child is recreating a memorable experience from earlier in the week, taking an adventure to outer space, or pretending to be a fairy, the child engages their imagination to tell the story, and to navigate their way through it.
Playing freely in this way also develops a child’s sense of identity. Imaginative play allows the child to explore who they are and the world around them. When they play “family,” children try on the roles of parents, which allows them to imagine the world from a perspective of an age or a gender different than their own. Playing professional roles like doctor or teacher allows children to explore the kinds of jobs that they see around them-- and to learn what about those roles appeals to them as they develop their identity.
At Fairy Finery, we believe that imaginative play has psycho-social benefits for children as well. It helps them process events in their lives and it develops empathy for other people by stepping into their shoes. For example, imagine a child whose sibling had a bad fall the day before. The child may reenact the scene playing house or playing doctor. They may take the role of the person they saw get injured, or they may act the role of the adult who came in and helped the sibling to safety. This kind of role-play teaches children empathy for people different than them, allowing them to take a walk in someone else’s shoes.
When dress-up clothes are incorporated into imaginative play, it can help children step into particular roles such as doctor, chef, or queen, or perhaps historical, literary or imaginary characters.
Dress-up is also a natural way for children to explore gender identity and gender expression. All children are observing female and male gender roles in society and figuring out where they fit in. Dressing up allows them to explore what it means to be traditionally masculine or feminine. This is important for all children as they understand how they fit in the world. It is especially important for children who may be figuring out that their gender identity is different than the one they were assigned at birth.
CAPES ARE THE SPRINGBOARD TO MANY GREAT ADVENTURES
Slipping into dress-up clothes is an easy way for kids to slip into imaginative play. At Fairy Finery, we specialize in quality playwear for imaginative play. Our beautiful capes and hats invite children to different make-believe adventures.
A child in the middle of the city can don a woodsy cape and hat, becoming Robin Hood and set off on to adventures of bravery in the woods! Another child puts on a crown and robe, and begins to imagine how they would rule the world, exploring what kind of leader they could be, perhaps rewriting some of the family rules more to their liking!
Dress-up play with capes is a great way to invite your child to imaginative play that develops their imagination and creativity, teaching them more about themselves and the world around them.
Explore our capes and other dress-up finery at www.FairyFinery.com!
Susan Berns is the founder and owner of Fairy Finery.
Fairy Finery has been making heirloom-quality dress-up costumes and accessories for children since 1997 in their studio in the USA. Discover the world of imaginative play with capes, hats, dresses, fairy wings, and adventure costumes that will meet the criteria of even the most discriminating fairy godparents!
]]>For those of us living in the wintry northern hemisphere, making it half-way through winter is a cause for celebration!
This time of year has been celebrated for centuries in many ways in many places. Candlemas refers to the Christian festival, marking 40 days after the birth of Christ. It is a holiday of purification, with the candles representing the purifying nature of light, both spiritually and physically. It is also the ritual end to the Christmas season, and often Christmas greenery are burned on this day, and holiday decorations are put away.
But even before the creation of the Christian liturgical year, in agrarian societies, people were greatly attuned to the turning of the seasons, and celebrated the summer and winter solstices: the longest and shortest days of the year; the equinoxes, the days halfway between the solstices which mark the beginning of the spring and fall seasons. They also celebrated the cross-quarter days between the equinox and the solstice. Candlemas is such a day.
Candlemas is a time of year when the lengthening of daylight hours becomes noticeable. The day is celebrated because it means that winter will soon be over, and spring will come. The time of darkness and fallow earth will soon end, and new light and life-sustaining growth will come.
During a time when one’s diet and income relied on what could be grown locally, the end of winter was more than a time of cabin fever and seasonal depression–it could also be a time of hunger and poverty.
When the early church created its liturgical calendars and feast days, they mapped them onto existing Roman pagan holidays, which corresponded with the solar calendar. February 2nd was celebrated as the feast day of Juno Februata, the virgin mother of the god Mars. In the Christian liturgical year, this feast day became Candlemas, and celebrated the Purification of the virgin mother of the Christian God, Jesus, and the presentation of Christ in the temple.
Meanwhile, in Celtic lands, the winter cross-quarter day was celebrated as Imbolc, a feast honoring Brigid who, in Celtic tradition, is a goddess of the Dawn, of healing, of fertility. The feast day in her honor marks the beginning of the lambing season, a sign of the earth coming back to life after the fallow time of winter. As Celtic Christianity developed, Imbolc became Candlemas, and Brigid became a saint, and the celebrations merged. It is known as a celebration of hearth and home, of the coming warmth, of fertility and purification and new life.
People lit candles or bonfires as a sign of the warmth of the sun to come. They made “Brigid’s crosses” from rushes, and dolls of Brigid were carried from house to house to bring her blessings. People also made pilgrimages to holy wells and brought back water to bless the home.
As a time dedicated to anticipating the spring, weather divination customs developed, the precursor to our celebration of Groundhog Day in the United States.
A popular Scottish verse goes:
In other words, if it’s a dry, sunny day on Candlemas, there’s a lot more winter to come. If it’s cloudy and cold, spring will be here soon. Sound familiar?
This conventional wisdom about the weather at Candlemas being predictive of the end of winter turned into lore that if hibernating bears wake from their hibernation and go back to sleep, that winter would stick around, but if they stayed out, spring was near.
This evolved into the familiar Groundhog Day, The legend has it that if the groundhog comes out on February 2 and the weather is sunny, he will be scared by his own shadow and go back into hibernation for six more weeks of winter. But if it’s cloudy, he will not be frightened and spring will come quickly.
When we put these traditions together, we see a pattern of the celebration of the changing of light, fire and fertility, celebrating the end of the dark days and the promise of the coming light.
If you want to extend your celebrations beyond the observation of Groundhog Day and bring more meaning to the holiday, here are some other ways to celebrate Candlemas:
From Seven Times the Sun by Shea Darian
Happy Candlemas!
Were you familiar with Candlemas prior to reading this article? Are you inspired to celebrate? Please share your comments and any suggestions of other ways to observe the holiday.
]]>Waldorf education recognizes that the formation of a child’s mind academically is inextricably connected to the development of his or her body and spirit, and so Waldorf schools aim to educate the whole child: "Head, Heart and Hands."
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, based his philosophy (known as Anthroposophy) on the belief that every human being is born with the innate capacity for inner transformation. The goal of Waldorf education is to develop a student’s ability to access his inner resources in order to transform both himself and the world around him.
Founded in the early 20th century, and supported by contemporary brain research, Waldorf education seeks to nurture the whole child through experiential education that engages their imagination and their intellect, the right brain and their left brain, their body and their spirit.
In a Waldorf classroom, children experience age-appropriate hands-on learning that integrates arts, nature, and movement into every day learning, strengthening the child’s ability to apply classroom learning into their lived experience. An emphasis on the arts develops a child’s creativity and imaginations, and empowers them to become creative thinkers and problem-solvers in adulthood.
The Waldorf curriculum was designed to introduce subjects, grade-by-grade, to meet the child’s natural human development. A holistic approach nurtures the child’s mind, body and spirit, with the goal of creating whole human beings.
This comprehensive style of education and child development seeks to produce young adults who are creative thinkers, intellectual risk-takers, and engaged citizens. A Waldorf educated student is prepared to encounter the challenges of the world around her with creativity, flexibility and self-awareness.
Waldorf early childhood education is grounded in three beliefs about the the life and development of young children:
Waldorf early childhood educators seek to create a learning environment that nurtures the young child’s imagination and senses, and provides plenty of repetition.
Classrooms are arranged to create a home-like environment. The learning activities mimic home life, bringing the child in to the basic activities of life in an age-appropriate way, such as:
Waldorf fills the learning experience with pleasant sensory input.
Stimulating children’s senses in an intentional, yet gentle manner creates a calm and encouraging setting for learning and play.
During the school day, the young child develops through imaginative play, whether through dress-up, playing with dolls or creating play-worlds out in nature. Early childhood educators know that fostering the imagination in early childhood leads to stronger creativity later in life.
Finally, bringing the children out of the classroom and into the natural world is an essential part of the Waldorf experience, cultivating children’s natural sense of wonder in the world around them, and providing an accessible learning laboratory for scientific exploration.
In all of these ways, the child is constantly learning and developing in an age-appropriate manner. Traditional schools may focus on school-ready goals such as learning the alphabet and counting. The Waldorf approach prepares the child for a life of learning in community, fostering imagination, a sense of wonder and curiosity, and participation in a loving and learning community.
This early childhood foundation will equip a child to flourish in an academic environment when they are ready for first grade at age of six or seven.
Between the ages 6 and 7, a child’s brain becomes ready for intellectual development and the academic work of grade school.
The aim of the grade school years in Waldorf education is to develop the whole child into a learning citizen, ready to engage with the world, with skills developed in creative problem-solving, adaptability, and cooperation.
Long before Howard Gardner developed his theory of multiple intelligences, Rudolf Steiner recognized that children learn best when they are intellectually engaged in multisensory ways. And so Waldorf education, since the 1920s, has always been hands-on, interactive, and multidisciplinary.
One of the distinctions of Waldorf grade school education is the cultivation of a learning community. Ideally, a student learns and grows with the same class and teacher from grade 1 through grade 8. "The class teacher" is a guide through the students’ academic and personal formation, getting to know each student and family deeply. This relationship allows the teacher to serve as mentor and guide as the child grows and develops.
The class teacher is responsible for the core academic learning and fostering community within the class. The school day starts with a "main lesson block" for one to two hours. Rather than having a daily period for history, a period for science, a period for math, and so on, the class will instead focus on a single subject unit for several weeks at a time.
While the block may be a subject in science or language arts, the approach is interdisciplinary, incorporating several different approaches while focusing on one major learning topic.
For example, in a first grade language arts block, a student will learn to draw the alphabet, incorporate storytelling, and developing her drawing and geometry skills as she learns to form the shapes of the letters. A sixth grade main lesson unit on astronomy might incorporate history and mythology into the scientific learning.
Rather than using textbooks, students document their learning by creating their own "main lesson books"–an artistic rendering of the academic lessons learned.
After the main lesson, other special subjects are incorporated into the rest of the day and taught by other teachers. These specialty subjects may include:
One of the hallmarks of Waldorf education is that ALL students participate in all artistic classes, not just the "talented" ones. All students learn to play an instrument, sing, knit, and perform in class plays, based on the belief that we are all born with these capacities, and experiencing them all is what makes us fully human.
As in early childhood, creativity and imagination are engaged, and outdoor play and learning are essential parts of the school day. Throughout the eight years of lower and middle school education, Waldorf students develop strong communication and social skills–a strong foundation for success in high school and as world citizens.
As the students advance, increasing intellectual rigor and more artistic freedom is introduced, preparing the students for higher levels of study.
By the age of 14 when a student typically enters high school, her brain is ready to engage with critical thinking. Teens begin to challenge authority and the question the world around them. They yearn to find their own identity as they mature into adulthood.
Waldorf high school teachers strive to meet the developmental needs of students of this age by offering greater depth, and inviting engagement with increasingly sophisticated subject matter.
The multi-modal, interdisciplinary, kinesthetic approach of Waldorf education reaches teens across multiple intelligences and learning styles. Waldorf high school pedagogy continues to use a variety of modes of instruction, deepening their academic learning, teaching them to think critically, and training them to communicate their developing ideas in clear and compelling ways.
As in the lower and middle school grades, the day is structured with a longer main lesson in the morning, covering subjects–such as math, science and history–with electives and track classes integrated into the rest of the day.
Students continue to document their work through their main lesson books, which become increasingly sophisticated along with their studies. As in the lower schools, the formation of the class community is critical as these adolescents learn to build relationships that strengthen and support each other emotionally as well as intellectually.
For those who want to know the essence of Waldorf education in a nutshell, perhaps the words of Rudolf Steiner sum it up best:
Receive the children in reverence; educate them in love; let them go forth in freedom.
Please share your thoughts, ideas, or questions by leaving a comment below!
]]>