Summer & Spiders

So, this week in Gini Newcomb's book is Summer & Spiders. I had a good friend (who has known me for a long time and purchased much of my Waldorf curriculum work) write to ask me why I had given up on my own preschool units to use someone else's work. The answer is multifaceted, but part of it is that I need to claim A Guide for the Montessori Classroom as my official curriculum for Natalie's kindergarten year when I do the paperwork for homeschooling her and so I need to have documentation that I'm using it. I need to show that my lesson ideas are following the curriculum outline. Also, I will admit (frankly) it is easier than using my own curriculum because I am a huge perfectionist. When I write an idea and I have a plan in my mind of how it will go with my children, and it is less than perfect, I lose my temper very quickly. I'm ashamed to say this but it's true. When I am adapting other people's ideas I am much more flexible and relaxed. Another reason is that doing Waldorf is HARD and I'm a little bit lazy. Memorizing the verses and stories, doing puppetry, baking bread from scratch, preparing for watercolor painting... I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and sometimes I'm just too tired. Of course, I wish I could do more and that I was closer to the ideal Waldorf parent. But I console myself with the thought that a Waldorf kindy is merely designed to mimic the experience of staying home with Mom, and my kids ARE staying home with Mom so there you go. I work hard to give them consistent rhythms (daily, weekly, seasonally) and to allow them to live in the will stage undisturbed (not asking, Leah, why are you working so hard to drag that huge log down to the water?) and I think my children are turning out well. It's not perfect, but my husband and I have agreed that the Montessori plans (minus the academic "work" that she recommends) have been good for us overall. I am perfectly aware, however, that just taking out the academic work from a regular preschool program does not equal Waldorf, since there is so much in a Waldorf program that is added in to make it richer and more holistic. I would have to say on a scale of 1 to 10 about how I feel about school right now, I am at a flat 5. Could be better, could be worse. I have always tried to say on my website, right on the homepage, that my goal is to talk honestly about how it goes for us as we learn about Waldorf and not that I'm a perfect model to go by. However, if you're down on yourself for not doing Waldorf right and you feel like everyone else is doing it but you and you're about to give up, come read what I'm going through and know you are not alone. I've never seen any studies about whether doing Waldorf imperfectly is better or worse for your children emotionally and academically than putting your kids in public school, but I would wager to say that even Waldorf wrong is better than that. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and I just have to live with that in the future. Our main family goal is a school situation in which there is a firm plan, clear documentation, and a teacher who is not excessively stressed out (which I'm not). So I guess that's my answer to her, and I hope it's not coming off sounding too defensive.

Today we went out to the beach first thing (which you would think would tire the kids out so that they sleep well for naps but it doesn't seem to be working -- they're at the "too tired to sleep" point). I love going to the Bay! It was my favorite thing to do as a child, walk the beach. Now I have to sit still and watch my children to make sure no heads go under the water (95% of children who drown are supervised at the time) but I still enjoy being outdoors and warm. I'm not sure what we're going to do this afternoon. Monday is Housecleaning Day so the children will probably help sort and put away the clean laundry. I'm sitting at the computer now looking over the plans for this upcoming week and making sure that I'm organized. I try to not post what we will do, and stick to what we did do, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear what exactly we'll be talking about & our theme activities. I think it'll be a nice week, though.