Switzerite: Why Ruzuku Courses?

Sunday, August 7, 2022

Why Ruzuku Courses?

When I first began my website, waldorfcurriculum.com, it was January 2005.

A LOT has changed, but this image has been on the homepage the entire time! It used to go with a little blurb that said

There's nothing like watching the sun rise with your child to start each day in a particularly magical way.
Need information on sunrise and sunset times for your area?
Get a free monthly Sunrise & Sunset calendar for your town, zip code, or latitude and longitude.

The calendar also includes twilight times (civil twilight, nautical twilight, or astronomical twilight) and moon phases, as well as moonrise and moonset times.

You could still register practically any domain name you wanted back then, because they weren't all taken yet! I decided I wanted an online repository for all of my notes as I researched Waldorf education to see what it was all about (Becca was born that month, Leah was 1, Natalie was 2). So I thought what would my ideal domain name be? Typed it in and it was available!

This was meant to just be a personal online binder of sorts, to help me rembember what Waldorf did when and what books and museums and things might be good for a particular block when my children got to the right age. I had NO idea it would rise to the top of the Google search results as it did, or that so many people would find my notes for myself to be so useful!

I started the blog, Switzerite, on April 19, 2007 to be a place to talk about what we did day by day. The website was organized by grade level, but the blog was organized chronologically by what we did as the months went by. And I started happily homeschooling my girls.

January 2007

From November 2008 to June 2014, I got a job teaching at a local Montessori school (and got certified in Lower Elementary, ages 6-9) and so for a few years I was putting all of my daily notes on my classroom blog site which, sadly, they deleted after my co-teacher retired.

In 2016, a year after Zac was born, I started the homeschool co-op.

November 2018

Then my notes on the blog shifted to what I was doing with multiple main lesson blocks simultaneously. This got pretty hard to keep track of! Anyone reading my blog would have to go to a ton of different posts to put the pieces together. So I decided to write Ruzuku courses for each separate main lesson block, putting everything together -- webpages, blog posts, photos, etc. -- in one place. Ruzuku courses also allow people to write to me and get specific consulting help, as well as post their own ideas and create a community with other homeschoolers planning and teaching that same main lesson block. It allows for so much collaboration! The website doesn't allow that at all, and the blog only a small amount (in the comments section).

Now, many years have passed since 2005 when it all began. I've taught LOTS of children and almost all the Waldorf main lesson blocks and I'm in the middle of a four year Waldorf Handwork Teacher Training program at Sunbridge, and I have a huge quantity of notes notes notes notes!!!!

As time went on, I went from notes on "this is what this block is about" to "this is something I think I would use if I were going to teach this block" to "this is what we DID do when I taught this block... the first time... the second time... the third time."

my profile on LinkedIn

The website is super text-heavy because I write it myself (old school html) and making lists of links is what I know how to do. I can put photos on but it is somewhat clunky to do.

The blog allows me to share photos easily but I can't share videos.

And Ruzuku allows me to share text, photos, and videos AND chat with people and answer their questions. So I love it! I like being able to make videos of how to use a Montessori math material, how to do a Waldorf beanbag game, etc. So if you've been wondering how Ruzuku fits into the greater scheme of things -- both of me documenting my daily work with my students and of me supporting homeschool families -- that is why I chose it!

Here is a complete list of the courses I have so far. Many others are in the works. If you have a specific request, please tell me! The courses are not very expensive and allow unlimited use of a homeschool consultant (that's me) for the block you're planning for. And you get lifetime access! The Immersive Experiences are where I share my daily bullet point notes for that grade level, main lesson block by main lesson block, month by month, for the entire academic year. First Grade is all of my notes from last year, and Second Grade will be all of my notes as I go through this year with Zac.

Grades 1 - 8