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

Earthschooling Postcard Exchange Fun

We had a lot of fun participating in the postcard exchange at:
http://earthschooling.ning.com/forum/topics/earthschooling-postcard

We wrote to five families last week. We purchased postcards while we were enjoying summer activities around town so choosing the postcards was part of the fun. When we went to the zoo we chose postcards of our favorite animals. There was even one postcard of a lion sleeping on a rock that looked exactly like a picture we took! When we went to Living History Farms, The Botanical Center and the airport we also found postcards we liked.

At the end of two weeks of postcard collecting I put addresses on all the cards and put the age of the child in the upper left hand corner. We then sat around the table together and the kids chose who they wanted to write to. Sofi wanted to write to everyone from the UK because she "likes English accents" LOL! Mosi (age 14) wanted to write to some of the little kids (2 and 3 year olds) as well as some of the kids her age. Sunii wanted to write to some of the boys.

It was a great learning experience for the kids. Writing letters is such a lost art and writing postcards is difficult because you can only say a few things. Without being prompted the kids got the globe and the US atlas out and started to find places on the map. They wanted to know where the postcards were going! Then they all started talking about places they had been together. It was a great time of sharing, learning and writing practice.

It looks like some new people signed up since we sent out our postcards so we are going to do this again in another week or two. It would be fun to make this a bi-weekly event. We used to sit down once or twice a month and write letters to friends and relatives - this might just be what we needed to get us inspired to start doing that again! I love that this is an ongoing postcard exchange! You never know when someone will send you something or when someone new will sign up :)

Reading and Writing in Waldorf Education

This can now be found at www.BEarthBLOG.com

New Videos at www.thewaldorfchannel.com

Dear Members,

Check out the new videos at http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/, International Visual Resources for the Waldorf Parent. New posts include:

Eurythmy in the Class
Eurythmy on Stage
The Basics of Waldorf
Reading and Writing in the Waldorf Method

These videos were all generously donated by Eugene Schwartz, International speaker and Waldorf teacher who graduated THREE classes!

Enjoy!
Blessings & Health,
Kristie