Waldorf and unschooling

I spoke to Karen on the phone this morning.

Olivia was transforming herself with each new t-shirt she was pulling on one over the next, Will strumming on his guitar, Kinder was mixing up water, soap and Sambucol in his new "test tube" (a small soft plastic tube container which has since warped in the microwave during the heating part of the experiment) and First was surfing around the U. S. Mint website where he discovered that gold coins with portraits of "first spouses" will be minted starting this year.

Karen and Brent are preparing to officially begin homeschooling soon. Very exciting.

As our conversation danced and dipped, a thought crystallized for me. A way of making some sense of some of the stuff I've been grappling with recently. I'm attracted to and inspired by two different "schools" of education: Waldorf and unschooling. At the moment I am feeling pulled by the two, but have been unable to put them together..to unify them in a way that feels smooth, day in and day out. Kind of an oil and water thing, though I don't think that's because of anything inherent to the philosophies.

Karen gets me because she is like me in a lot of ways. It's not unusual for us to be in our pajamas past noon. If we could, we'd be snuggled on a couch with a book in hand, our partners bringing us tea with honey, our kids playing around us, all day on a Saturday...or maybe even the whole weekend. Inspiration will suddenly hit us, a specific vision of a particular dish burned in our brains and we will spend the rest of the day shopping for ingredients, chopping and cutting and mixing and stirring, inhaling the luscious aromas and basking.

So, as we talked about meeting other homeschoolers, about group dynamics, about differing personalities, and about fearing rejection and wanting acceptance (for our kids more than for ourselves), I realized something. As I said to Karen, I re-remembered and re-embraced one of the main reasons I wanted to homeschool in the first place: to be at home with my kids.

I like being home and the kids do, too. I think Waldorf thought and practice strongly supports this which is what attracts me to it. It's not only okay, but desireable to spend a lot of time at home, making your home together. Cooking, baking, the arts, the rhythm of the day, of the week, of the season, of the year...to pay attention to these things and to hold them in reverence is something which means a lot to me, not only as a mom, but as a person.

What has drawn me to unschooling thus far, is the people I've met. The unschooling moms I've met since being here are warm, intelligent, enthusiastic and completely lovable. It has been so easy to spend time with them. And the kids are friendly, imaginative and exuberant. The electric undercurrent of no holds barred conversation, play and possibility (that also feels completely safe) at Fiber Arts is intoxicating to me. (Fiber Arts is not limited to unschoolers, but the core group happens to be comprised of them.)

I am both thrilled and cowed by the sheer number of activities that are available to us, that many of our homeschooling friends seem to do: ice sakting, swimming, bowling, regular field trips to the zoo, museums, etc.

For me, the gaps that need to be bridged come in two areas. One is time at home vs. time with others/outside of home and the other has to do with structure, schedules, freedom, and fluidity...

Balance, moderation, discipline...these are all qualities that I recognize as being important, but they don't come easily or naturally to me. I think I've spent some time trying to be more of these things, and feeling badly about myself as a parent because I just couldn't be more like "that". I feel these qualities come in handy when following Waldorf pedagogy.

I'm grateful to be feeling some relief and new energy in reconfiguring my approach (I have always considered myself an eclectic homeschooler and am renweing my connection to that identity). I think I am going to go directly to Donna's site and buy the audio download on Waldorf homeschooling and unschooling. It feels good to allow myself more freedom in truly figuring out what my style is and to give myself the time and space to do that without freaking out that my kids aren't "doing" anything.

As I've been blogging, Kinder has been continuing with his water experiments, moving onto the experiments from the book I Get Wet by Vicki Cobb (thanks Mummu!) and First drew a wonderfully vibrant abstract drawing ("Äiti, doesn't it look like Van Gogh?") for the musuem which still has its wall exhibits up in the living room. He made two color copies, one for Ellie who they will meet for the first time tomorrow, and one for Jiji, whose b-day package I am getting ready a little early.

I love this life of ours and feel hugely lucky.