This is the first year that I feel like Sage is really chomping at the bit to get started ‘learning’ officially. We’ve known since Sage was 6 months old that this was the path for our family, and I truly never doubt that homeschooling is the right thing for us both as a whole family unit and as individuals. This year though, I find myself on the cusp of discovery: what will it be like to balance our lives and truly ‘do school’.

We draw from two main educational pedagogies: Waldorf (based on Rudolf Steiner’s writings) and Enki Education (based on the work of Beth Sutton). I have spent the past six years immersing myself and the whole family in Waldorf and Enki methods, ideas, books, conversations, preparing to learn together in a way that will fit our family.

One of the most important concepts I ever learned was about finding our family rhythm. But rhythm is a funny thing- no one can sell you a rhythm, no one can tell you what your family’s rhythm should be, no one can really even tell you about their own rhythm… you have to live it to really feel it. When I first became a mother I was still in a phase of rejecting ‘routine’ and ’scheduling’. After being a witness to the extremes of both rigid scheduling of family life and the opposite style of complete chaos reigned in only by external constraints I had chosen to live much more in the chaos realm and had to learn my lessons the hard way.

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The number One. The Monad. The ONE. The purest form, the source and birth of all… without the one there is no ‘other’.

Esoteric enough for you?

I finally found my way into the number qualities block, and it was through a door I had no idea I would ever enjoy. Actually I’m not certain I knew it exsisted before a couple of years ago. The spiritual side of numbers, the beauty, the intrinsic Nature of Number. The correlation of the spiral, the circle, the line…considered the purest form of thought and acedamia in Plato’s age. Mathematics.

I found a book titled A Beginner’s Guide to Creating the Universe and it opened me up to the beauty and non-threatening nature of numbers. The author warmed my heart with his tales of being lost in the boredom and tediousness of math in school. This was EXACTLY what was causing all of my aprehension about teaching math. I too was bored, and then through learned apathy became a ‘bad’ math student. I want so much for my own children to feel at home with numbers and to feel their connection with the entire universe around them. The book has really helped me to find that spirit. I would not recommend actually using it with a child until after the age of 9 when the learning style changes to a more intellectual capability, but it would be a great asset for learning Artistic Geometry together with your older child. And I am finding that just reading it is giving me the depth I need to bring the kids into the sense of each number.

We have done number one, the kids realized quickly that they are each a ONE. The essence of the number being uniquness I would say that each child is the definition of a ONE. Nature never repeats herself exactly, each of these children with me is a completely unique expression of her heritage, birth, parenting, world….

If I can’t find beauty in that, then where could I?

Today was the first day of our Enki-inspired Learning Circle. This is a two part group, the older kids are 6-9 years old and the younger kids (Little Enkis) are 9months to 4 years. I am \leading the older kids in a Main Lesson Story, Drawing related to the Story, games, Circle and Handwork or Recorder. In later months we will add in French with a Waldorf-trained French teacher who taught my own kids last year. The Little Enkis will be co-led by two dear friends, Kerrie and Stacy. They will have a Circle, Story puppet play, Free play and simple craft or art project.
So, today we met for the first time, though we were minus one family who only returned from vacation yesterday. The kids spent the day feeling out this new group, though most knew each other from previous activities the dynamic was completely different by having only kids of traditional ‘school age’ vs. a wide range from birth-teen. The group has only 1 boy right now, and I was concerned that he might feel singled out in some way, but as luck would have it two of the girls have very competitive, masculine energies and they work well together. The ages were also of concern, there is one almost 6, three 6.5, two 8.5 and one almost 10 year old. I am concerned with meeting all of these different developmental levels; the parents of the group though see this as more of a positive social experience, with any academic goals eing secondary to knowing that the kids will create lasting friendships with other home educated kids.
It was POURING rain today. We started with a circle that lasted for 45 minutes, repeating each song and verse three times so that they could really sink in. We didn’t do all of the seasonal autumn verses as it was a warm day, and will probably stay warm for a while yet. The kids all participated in circle, Sage had a bit of trouble sharing her space and her mom with everyone but came around to each activity in her time.
After circle I lit a candle, laid out a crystal, and knelt on my meditation cushion. I chose to read rather than tell stories to the group to relieve some of the pressure of preparation each week. I read the first half of the little Falcon story and they all sat on their cushions entranced. Afterwards, they all received their pouches from me. Next week I will continue and they will here the whole story start to finish so that the missing family will be up to speed.
We had a nice snack at the table, then cleared the table and they played for a few minutes to burn off energy. When they seemed ready, we moved back to the table to introduce block crayons- not all the kids had used them before. I had a big basket of them and asked each child to be sure to cover their paper completely (this encouraged them to use the wide edges of the crayons). They really absorbed in this, though most made just color patterns, some drew pictures.
As they finished coloring I led them through the origami folding of boats http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-boat.html They each needed help with some steps, but overall they got it and everyone was excited when they finished with a boat. At this point it had stopped pouring and we went for a walk to the river. I quickly sewed little strings through the bow of each boat and we walked down and rolled up our pants and floated them in the water. The river was running so we couldn’t go far. The crayon wax coating was very helpful in keeping the boats afloat. We were walking down to the bridge at a neighbors when two of the kids were stung by bees- we stopped to pop jewelweed- so we ran into my mom’s house next door for some ice. The stung kids recovered very quickly, no allergies thank goodness!
By the time we reached home it was time for lunch together, then the Little Enkis were back with their moms to pick up the kids. All in all, I think it was a great first day!