Education & Volunteering

We have been discovering the joys of volunteering this autumn! Mosi, my 14-year-old (will be 15 in one month!) has been learning about a number of volunteer opportunities from a volunteer club in our community. This club puts out announcements about opportunities so you don't have to go search for them or wonder "Do they really need help this week or do they already have too many volunteers?". Community organizations around town contact the club so it becomes a really nice central place to request volunteers as well as find opportunities for volunteering. If you do not have a club like this in your community it would be a really great idea to start one. This is a secular club and involves the entire community. It is easy to start and only needs a few e-mails back and forth to maintain itself.

We have been thrilled with what Mosi's volunteering has brought to her and to the entire family.

1. This has been a great way for Mosi to meet new people - from all age groups. And to meet people who have similar interests as her.

2. Because I need to provide transport to these events the other two children and I have attended events we would not have attended otherwise.

3. Some of these events I never would have known about if not for the volunteer opportunity Mosi had - like the annual PowWow in November. They have not advertised for this powwow anywhere that I usually find information. I was thrilled to find out about it and Mosi is excited to be able to help them serve food on that day!

4. Mosi gets to experience some of the places she loved as a child but has "grown out of" the events for. She was a volunteer at the zoo and Living History Farms Halloween events - she is really too old to attend the events, although she would have loved to - so this is a way for her to continue to stay connected to her favorite events and places.

5. Mosi loves helping. Her favorite event so far was helping kids carve pumpkins at the local Autumn fest. She had so much fun with the little kids. She even got to be one of the judges for the "pet costume" contest.

6. Mosi gets to do new things - she has been a pet costume judge, dancing pumpkin, official marshmallow roaster, and more. It is always a surprise!

We are so thankful for this organization! It has really provided so many wonderful opportunities for Mosi and our family and I am sure they are happy having people to help out with their events as well :)

Fashion Design 101

Sofi and I discovered this wonderful book on the $2.00 table at Barnes and Noble a month ago. It is called, "Sew Teen" and it shows you how to make about 20 different outfits from scratch - no patterns or anything - it tells YOU how to measure & cut (talk about amazing math practice!) your own pattern based on the measurements you take of yourself. This book was perfect for Sofi because she loves to design her own fashion. She is always cutting up old clothes to make something new and creating things for her dolls out of scraps of fabric. I didn't want to stifle her natural creativity and make sewing a chore for her by bringing in all the pre-stamped patterns and complex directions. And intuitively I was right - she LOVES this method.

So we started by making her Halloween costume - the bottom part will be a skirt - and with the leftover fabric we can easily make something to match for her doll because there is no pattern, we just follow the cutting instructions for the doll down to the doll's size and all is well.

And isn't the skirt pattern so clever? It is just two squares placed at an angle to each other and a waistband in the middle (see picture).

What Type of Script Do I Teach?

Question: I was schooled in Switzerland and Italy in a Waldorf Inspired elementary school. I am homeschooling my son who is now in first grade...but I am confused about why we would introduce the manuscript style now...I remember learning a ceratin type of alphabet that looked very beautiful...it wasn't script...why are we teaching script? I am a bit confused and need help. Somebody told me you have a book for sale on how to intoduce lower case
letters:)

Answer: This is a good question! What you introduce depends on what you choose to introduce. There are many choices in today's world that were not available in Steiner's time so I tend to go outside of the traditional confines of Waldorf with this. You can read more about the different styles here:

http://desktoppub.about.com/od/fonts/p/schoolfontstyle.htm

We tend towards a Zaner-Bloser style but I let the kids develop their own style (Ok, I am a renegade mama I know) as long as it is clear and readable.

One of the other styles may be more suitable for you. The E-books I publish can be adapted to any style of handwriting. Any creative mama could modify the pictures that tiny bit.

I would definitely introduce manuscript (in whichever style) before cursive, however.

Hope this helps?

The E-books I have (I am offering both together now) are at:

http://waldorftv.weebly.com/e-books.html

October Special

October special - any curriculum can be ordered in two payments - only $42.50 now and $42.50 in one month. Includes free access to new website, videos, glossary, articles, FAQs page, Forum, Live Chats., MP3s and so many extras! See: http://waldorfenrichment.weebly.com/curriculum.html

Introduction to the New Earthschooling Member Website

Click to Play

This video is for people wanting to preview the new website or for members wanting a quick review of the website before they start using it.

All Children Are Homeschooled

(well, every child with an attentive parent anyway LOL)

I found this article/editorial in the Anchorage news yesterday and found it interesting. She expresses some of what Earthschooling is all about - it is a realization that you are not powerless to educate your child no matter what system you are in. In years of doing homeschool and health consulting I have seen so many families put undue pressure on themselves trying to decide if they should "homeschool" or "not homeschool" but in today's world that question is no longer valid (in many areas of the United States at least) because everyone has so many options that they can choose any mix they want. The questi0n should be - how much percentage do I want to have my children at home? How much percentage of their education do I want to have someone else help with? How much percentage do I want to be cooperative educati0n (perhaps hosting groups in your own home)? How much of their education will they lead? How much of their education will be through nature? How much of their education will be through their connection with their religious group activities or extra curricular activities? These are the questions we need to consider. When we are managers of our child's education - when we are making decisions with them that are in their best interests - we are Earthschooling - and that brings everyone together.

I liked the examples she gave here. I hope more people write articles highlighting these similarities between "homeschoolers" and "schoolers" so we can all see how close so many of us have become. (although perhaps not in a defensive way as this journalist did) My own children have experienced a variety of situations and mixes and the interesting thing is, we are so focused on the educational center being at home that one year has not really felt much different from the next even though they have been vastly different in so many ways.

Here is the article:

Every Child is Home-schooled

By MARY KANCEWICK

Published: September 28th, 2009 07:23 PM
Last Modified: September 28th, 2009 07:23 PM

The recent Daily News article about home schooling sets up a dichotomy between "home-school advocates" and "others," or, as she later characterizes it, between "traditional bricks-and-mortar educators" and "fiercely independent home-schooling parents." This dichotomy is neither accurate nor helpful.

First of all, we are all home-schooling parents, whether or not our children also attend school outside the home. We home school our children every time we have a discussion at the dinner table, when we take them to a movie or a concert, when we help with homework, and, always, by our example.

Secondly, none of us educates in isolation. We use books written by others, television -- radio-movie programming produced by others, the Internet, etc. If a child has any contact with the world at all, the child is not only home-schooled.

Thirdly, in the Anchorage School District, families can and do pick and choose along a continuum, from ABC "traditional bricks-and-mortar" programs to wide-open home-schooling support for "fiercely independent home-schooling parents," allowing education to be tailored to suit individual needs and family styles.

ASD options at the elementary level include ABC schools; optional programs emphasizing alternative teaching styles; Spanish, Russian and Japanese immersion programs; a pull-out program for gifted students plus a magnet school for highly gifted students; special education and tutoring programs; and charter schools, including a Waldorf-style arts-based school, a school with a curriculum designed for Alaska Natives, a German school, and two home-school support schools.

Middle and high school offerings include optional language immersion, science-based, technology-centered, vocational and gifted-cluster schools; middle school gifted classes and high school honors and AP; a Credit-by-Choice program offering credit for community service, research projects, participation in special interest programs, educational travel, correspondence or college classes, on-line classes and independent study; and a gifted mentorship program.

The McBryde children featured in the article are far from being only independently home-schooled. The McBrydes are registered with one of the ASD home- school support charter schools -- which means that they accept money from the district and participate in yearly national testing -- and they participate in ASD school sports. They also take classes outside the home, such as music lessons and college classes. The family intelligently picks and chooses among the options available, to create an educational package that works for them.

My own children are far from being only public schooled, certainly in the "traditional bricks-and-mortar" sense. Each has taken advantage of the various special programs offered by the School District, including gifted programs, optional programs, online classes, credit-by-choice, independent study, and credit for college classes. And each has been schooled at home for various periods of time, for various reasons, from having exhausted program offerings, to vision difficulties, to travel opportunities, to simple personal choice.

The Daily News article gives no good evidence for tightening home-schooling laws. There are home-schooled students, just as there are public school students, who do not do well. Holland quotes school administrators complaining that when parents fail to teach their children, they end up back in the public schools where teachers are left to make up for the mess parents have made. What is not acknowledged is that public school teachers may not have done any better with that child. Home-schooled children who go on the record and take standardized tests, as a rule, perform better than public school students.

The article notes concern about isolated Bush families, who lack the multiplicity of opportunities found in urban school districts. That concern would seem to be better addressed by increasing local resources and opportunities than by tightening home-schooling regulations, which in any case would likely be difficult to enforce in isolated rural areas.

It is reasonable for State Education Commissioner Larry LeDoux to take the investigatory step of comparing Permanent Fund dividend records to school records to ascertain how many children are off the state education grid, and where, but he should keep an open mind as to how to address the results of his research.

Friday's Live Chat- Unconditional Parenting with Chis Cade

Dear Members,

Our next live Earthschooling Waldorf chat is this Friday, October 2nd at 11am CST/USA. It is with Chris Cade, whom many of you know from the website www.Spiritualshortstories.com - the topic will be "Staying Inspired as a Parent" however, you will have the opportunity to ask any questions you want including questions about stories.

Registration is limited. You can sign up HERE to attend this session or sign upHERE to attend more than one session.

October 2nd, 10AM PST - Inspiration for Parents - Unconditional Parenting, How to Stay Inspired and Using Stories in Parenting
with Chris Cade of http://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/

Chris Cade has been inspiring millions of people daily through his website Spiritual Short Stories. Many Earthschooling and Waldorf parents subscribe to his newsletter and are already familiar with his work. I know that a number of Waldorf teachers and parents use stories from his website for their daily "inner work" meditation as well as for Main Lessons or story time. Chris will join us for an hour on October 2nd to answer questions and share wisdom about "Unconditional Parenting", stories in parenting and how he stays inspired as a parent. Chris is the visionary behind world's #1 Spiritual Story site online. In April, Chris asked to be laid off so that he could follow his dreams to empower people worldwide with his network of spiritual websites, the Inscribe Your Life program, and his upcoming printed book "Think Without the Box."
www.inscribeyourlife.com
www.spiritual-short-stories.com
www.chriscade.com