What is schoolwork?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about Oldest's academic and developmental needs, and how to best meet them. In the beginning of the school year (well, sometime in September) I was all about planning lessons, Waldorf-style, and presenting them after circle. Some form of school-at-home, which I see described by so many other Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers.

Some days this school at home idea works magically. We have fun in circle, do short academic work with stories, pictures and later letters and numbers, play the recorder and work on our knitting. But I'm starting to see where the benefits of this type of learning are eroded. First, having knowledge presented to her rather than discovering it by herself, just seems to take much of the joy out of it for Oldest. Second, when we "do school" we give up at least 2 hours of our day, and sometimes that includes quality time with Youngest.

So I've been thinking that for now we're going to skip academics and revert to focusing on our family rhythm, include some Kindergarten level crafts, visit museums and performances, and leave the learning to Oldest's adventuresome spirit. We will keep our commitment to weekly German classes, and will continue to volunteer at the farm over the year.

All this means that she has two extra hours in her day to learn what she wants to. This week that has included figuring out how many centimeters are in an inch (she needed to measure something and we only had a metric measuring tape available), counting to 100 by 10s (she was figuring out how much her dimes were worth), and sewing a doll quilt by hand. Instead of doing circle, we've been going for family walks in the mornings, and we sing and recite verses as they come into our heads. Reading has focused on Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren, where she has delighted in reading ahead and telling me what is going to happen in the story. I humor her by pretending I'm surprised. After all, does she really need to know I screen her books to make sure they're suitable?

So in essence, we're leaving First Grade and doing Kindy again, as this is where joy lies for both of us at the moment. In this way Oldest can work on her reading, writing, math and other skills without the pressure of having to make a main lesson book. We can make some lovely projects over several weeks as she no longer needs the instant gratification of a finished product. I'm beginning to think I now understand why Waldorf delays academics, and why indeed that is a wise idea. Better late than never!