Waldorf and Steiner inspired unschooling

[waldorf homeschoolers]

Hello to all. I am a newbie to this site, but have found some great people, info and groups here. We foster peaceful parenting, attachment parenting, natural living and Steiner - (I'm in Australia!)... (Waldorf in the US) inspired home environment and nurturing of the child. We have one child, Chilli - 18 months old. We have a beautiful Steiner school locally that we have always planned to send Chilli to in 2013, she is pre-enrolled, but we have recently stumbled across the unschooling philosophies and are starting to research into this option. If Chilli does go to school, it will be to our local Steiner school, but I am very interested in homeschooling and more focused on unschooling. I believe Steiner philosophy to be very in tune with 'unschooling' principles. Whatever our decision in 2013 regarding schooling, in the present moment, we very much embrace the 'unschooling' principles in our home environment with Chilli. We do not 'teach' her anything, everything she 'learns' is through her own initiated exploring and discovery.

I wanted to discuss with some Steiner/Waldorf inspired parents how they apply the unschooling philosophies in their homes and the rhythms/planning that they use. When I read alot about unschooling, I see alot of pictures and comments regarding children on computers and children watching 'educational' tv. Fostering Steiner values, we do not have TV in our home and the computers are in our study which is not a room our daughter has access to explore in. Therefore in her 'schooling' years, tv and computers will not be part of the offering in our home. I do believe in myself I would be able to successfully home/unschool our daughter, I just wanted to start a discussion for inspiration, ideas and thoughts about incorporating Steiner/Waldorf into the home/unschooling lifestyle. I know there is Steiner homeschool programs, but to follow the 'unschooling' philosophy, these would not be included/followed. I wonder what resources parents unschooling in the Steiner modalities use?....Looking forward to reading peoples experiences and ideas. Love and Blessings xxx

[Dandarius Cavallaro]

Hi Elke...

I have always loved the Hands, Heart, Head approach of the Waldorf education and I believe it is the best first portal to unschooling. I believe if Steiner had been alive today he would have evolved his philosophies and been the pioneer of the unschooling movement. When Jade was around 6 I purchased the Oak Meadow Waldorf homeschool curriculum ... I used the kindergarten through 2nd grade syllabus for about 3 years but not with any strict structure around it. It was in using this beginning curriculum that Jade and now Jaron were able to find their own 'learning guides' and have since been unstoppable in their desire to learn.

The television has been an interesting entity in their education. I was dead set on not having TV be a part of our lives and when Jade was 6 he had never even had access to television. I remember the first time he watched some programs at a friends house - Teletubbies - and how he did not seem to exhibit the 'trance' that most children get into while watching tv. By the time he was 7 he requested that I get him a tv/vcr so he could watch 'nature' videos. I thoroughly explained to him the nature of virtual reality, how it effects the brain and body of children, the negative influences of subliminal messages, and had him promise me that we would work together to make sure the tv would be our ally in his learning process. I could write a book on how Jade developed his own senses around television and now he and Jaron are actually producing films that they call "Movies for Kids made by Kids" - Leopard Productions....I don't regret allowing this technology to be mastered by them and I believe they will make positive contributions to that arena in their adult lives. Maybe I will write a book about it! :-)

The rhythms of the Waldorf approach have been very important in the first 5-6 years and now Jade & Jaron have their own rhythm that I do not necessarily have to be in with them on a daily basis. The two of them are really incredible on how they manage themselves throughout the day. I have never had to 'regulate' on too much this or not enough that - they seem to know for themselves their own limits and that amazes me and proves the inner wisdom that humans do have if left alone to develop themselves.

So all in all I believe the Waldorf approach and methods are the perfect tools and philosophies to begin the path of unschooling with and I have always felt that if someday the boys wanted to attend a regular school I would seek out a Waldorf School for them to have that experience with - there are many Waldorf High Schools in California and Colorado (our two home states).

I will write more later about the computers....I have to go outside to feed the horses now!

Blessings
Dar

[Elke Vidler]

HI Dar,

Thank you so much for your time and energy to reply to my discussion. I am very appreciative of your information. You know a few months ago when I first became really aware of the whole unschooling concept, it sounded good, but very daunting. Now the more I think about it, the more I honestly believe it will honour and nourish our daughter the best way we can through her 'learning years'.

The whole aspect of social contact with other children was a massive issue for me when I first considered home schooling, but the more I think about it, the more I do not feel this will be a 'problem' as such. We are already involved in a mothers group from our local steiner school, so our daughter has friends from similar value families/homes and I would ensure her contact with them continued even if she didn't go to school with them in years to come, out of this contact and involvement in the local steiner/natural community, I know she would develop many valuable friendships. Out of interest, how do you find this aspect - the all too often debated subject of social contact in home/unschooling families. I know there are local networks of homeschooling families that you can connect with, but I also know they can be home schooling in any modality, so their values may be very different from ours and I would not want our daughter necessarily having alot of close friends that had very different home values ie: foods, environment etc to ours. As I type this, it sounds quite terrible, but being passionate about the Steiner environment, I wouldn't want her spending alot of time in environments where there was lots of TV watching, heavy commercialism influence and lots of food nasties (we eat only organic whole foods in our home) I guess within the homeschooling network, their would be other steiner home schooling families that we would connect more with, hence Chilli having more children of these family values in her experience.... OH IT IS ALL SUCH A BIG DECISION! I guess the toss up is that by sending your child to a steiner school, even thought there are a few families generally within each class that don't come from home environments that fully embrace the bio-dynamic and natural living philosophies of steiner, the ratio of those that do is higher....

I am interested in your information on computers, please do not hurry to write this, just when you have a chance. We find Jane Healeys work and books very interesting on this subject...

Chat to you soon xxx Elke