Waldorf Member Question #22: CarSchooling

Dear Waldorf Parents,

The following is a little schedule I made up for one of the members of the Waldorf Enrichment Program Online to help her with some ideas for a carschooling schedule. I hope it is inspiring to you too during your summer of travel - even if that travel is just to the local park or pool!

Dear S,

I have made a sample schedule for the week to give you some ideas. I have used most my curriculum as you requested. However, I did want to also take into consideration what your children are working on right now and what they are doing outside of the Waldorf Enrichment. I have used the April lesson plans as an example since that is what you have. If you would like more details on something please tell me. I hope this is closer to what you were looking for.

General Outline

Monday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work - Take from circle time verses
Three hour wait
Circle Time - Can include yoga, verses, chatting, prayer, meditation, stretches, anything regular that you need to do each day when you get out of the car and need to center yourselves again.
Lunch
Story/Math (Set the theme for the week) - All three ages
Rest - This can be a walk, sitting, reading, whatever each person finds restful. You will need a rest a bit after the intense morning of working and driving.
1 hour car ride
Math Practice - All three ages
Tuesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Language (set the theme for rest of the week) - All three ages
Rest
1 hour car ride
Language Practice - All three ages
Wednesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Knitting/Handiwork
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Thursday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Drawing & Art
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Friday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Science Story
Field Trip/Nature Walk - You can have more of these if opportunity presents itself. And you can combine these with other lessons. For example, on the knitting or handiwork o drawing day you could have a short lesson and then take a field trip OR you could do a longer lesson IN an interesting location, like drawing in the art museum, knitting in a fancy cafe or the library or a rose garden or on a boat...
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice

Notes: I included math practice daily in the car ride home because a lot of the math is verbal, memorization, practice and a state of mind, rather than the lesson itself. You said that they needed more math practice so doing it daily at the same time will help as math is inherently rhythmic so it will help to have it at the same time each day. Also, many studies have shown that movement helps to learn math and CAR movement is a good substitute for body movement. I find that movement of any kind increases learning abilities even if it is just a train or a car.

I used the April lesson plans to add the details...however, you can "plug in" other lessons you are doing or request me to send you additional literature for those lessons. For example, when I mention language work...this is a good time to bring in the study of history as you will be studying it through language.

Circle time can be anything you create - it is a time for centering and coming together as a family. Choose some verses and/or music from the lessons. Bring a Kinder-harp and/or recorder along with you and create your own circle time. It will take some time...but it will become something wonderful. If the kids don't like the singing at first you can do Yoga or prayer or just chat. You can make it 10 minutes long or an hour long...whatever suits you.

Note - I have started the week "easier" - peaked in the middle with more intense work and then ended with Friday being a more restful day. You may want to re-arrange this if you family has a different rhythm.

Now here are some details filled in from April for one week...

Monday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work - Take from circle time verses - Give each child a verse to work on - one verse and don't change the verse this week until they have "mastered" it in their own way. Then go on to the next verse. Start with the smaller verses or parts of verses. There are a lot of nice poets introduced in the monthly verses. This work will help them with their reading and writing skills.
4 year old - recite a verse to him and have him create a play to go with this verse. You can supply some clay or dough for him to make the figures that go with this verse. He can perform the "play" in the car or when you arrive. You can also allow him to draw it or color it if he prefers but the clay work is the best - you can use play dough if you are concerned about the effects of clay or homemade play dough on the car.
3rd grader - Write a verse in the main lesson book. Have him copy the verse from what you wrote and label the parts of speech - you choose - one day he can label the nouns, one day the verbs, etc...
7th grader - Write a verse or passage in her main lesson book - or have her copy one from her history or other book she is working on. Have her choose ten vocabulary words that she wants to work on that week. Have her read some of the lesson (choose ahead of time how much is suitable) and then write a summary of that in her own words or (this is fun) create a "historical fiction" account of what she read using herself, you and siblings as characters OR write a "modern" account of what she read - transposing all the events into what they would be in the modern day.
Three hour wait
Circle Time - Can include yoga, verses, chatting, prayer, meditation, stretches, anything regular that you need to do each day when you get out of the car and need to center yourselves again.
Lunch
Story/Math (Set the theme for the week) - All three ages
All: Nassrudin - which is more important...the sun or the moon? (circles)
4-year-old - Form drawing circles by tracing - block crayons to fill them in.
3rd Grade - Drawing circles and measurement of diameter/radius/circumference. Bring a tape measure and have him find things around you and draw a little sketch and write down the DIAMETER ONLY. of each of these things.
7th Grade - Geometry creation of Eastern Designs with circles.
Rest - This can be a walk, sitting, reading, whatever each person finds restful. You will need a rest a bit after the intense morning of working and driving.
1 hour car ride
Math Practice - All three ages
4-year-old - draw things WITH circles. Ask him to see how many pictures he can make from a circle. Sort of like the game "How many words can you make from this one word?"
3rd Grader - As you are driving have him tell you the diameter of each of the things he has sketched and have him figure out the radius and circumference from this information.
7th Grader - Have her finish her circular art and write a short evaluation of it or TELL you an evaluation of it. What has she learned about geometry from these patterns (there will be a lot and some surprises).
Tuesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Language (set the theme for rest of the week) - All three ages
4 Year Old - V, W, X - Have him act out the verses for these letters and find these letters in nature or around him. (See Sixth Sense Language)
3rd Grader - The Story of Creation (or other unit story you are working on this week...you can also choose from another story in the 3rd grade lesson plans if you want a more secular unit) - take the time to copy this story (or part of it) over in the main lesson book with the verbs in one color, nouns in one color and adjectives in another color. Choose some vocabulary words from the reading for him to write about OR tell you a story about. OR create a crossword puzzle with (I used to love doing that with words)
7th Grader - You said she is losing interest in reading. Perhaps a way to get her interested again would be to have her read a bit in her history lesson (or you can do what I did and READ the lesson yourself and TELL her the story (not read it to her) in storytelling style. You don't have to prepare this ahead of time. You could read the lesson while the kids are working and then TELL it after that. While you are reading it she could be reading a historical fiction novel of the same era. I have found this is a very good way to get children interested in history and reading again.
Rest
1 hour car ride
Language Practice - All three ages
Wednesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Knitting/Handiwork
4 - Finger-knitted Flowers (or other items...I have a list I can share with you)
3rd: Knitted rabbit (easy version)
7th: Knitted rabbit - start with easy version or hard version and move on...
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Thursday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Stories:4 years: The Golden Goose (Egg is almost a circle :) OR
The Pot that Died
3rd: The Dandelion
7th: Do You Know Why I Came Here Today? This story is actually intended for adults to learn from but it spans many many ages of people. Point out that in the story the people run a full circle of what they want to say, and end up where they started. What lesson can you learn from this? Can you incorporate this lesson into the mandala?
Story/Drawing & Art - Mandala (Art/Geometry)
4th - Take the circles from earlier in the week - create mandalas (see lesson plans)
3rd - Same
7th - Same
This is an activity that they all can do. Follow the lesson plans and you will find that each child can create their own mandala and it will be on their level of skill.
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Friday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Science Story:
The Butterfly Brothers (9-11)
A Drop of Water from Fairyland of Science or A Drop of Water from PRE/KG lessons.
How The Apple Blossom Came Back
Field Trip/Nature Walk - You can have more of these if opportunity presents itself. And you can combine these with other lessons. For example, on the knitting or handiwork o drawing day you could have a short lesson and then take a field trip OR you could do a longer lesson IN an interesting location, like drawing in the art museum, knitting in a fancy cafe or the library or a rose garden or on a boat. Another idea - take a craft or handiwork from the lesson plans that is difficult to do away from home (like henna or cooking) and find somewhere you can do something similar in town. Is there a cooking school in town? Can you bring some cooking supplies with you? The herb tahini balls can be made without a kitchen! Is there an Indian shop that does henna? Etc...
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice