One thing I’ve loved about the Waldorf ideas, is the concept of drawing to learn.  This isn’t solely exclusive to Waldorf, of course, I’ve seen it pop up in many curricula and philosophies.  It’s just especially prevalent in Waldorf, and so it’s led me to re-examine the idea with more freedom and more deliberate cogitation… how can we work main-lesson-style drawings into Flipper’s other subjects?  It’s one thing when you’re working with a resource that already includes drawing, but it’s another thing altogether when you want to keep using the materials you have, but add/substitute drawings where appropriate.

Well, I had a flash of brilliance today (if I say so myself).  I confess it wasn’t entirely original.  I was inspired while reading about The Sentence Family.  This particular grammar resource reminds me a bit of Sentence Island, which I’ve been thinking of using with Pomme when she’s old enough.  They are similar in that they both teach the facts through interesting stories with anthropomorphised grammatical concepts, rather than dry academic text.

Where Sentence Family takes a step beyond Sentence Island is in the active, creative element from the student.  Given cues and suggestions, they are to draw their own pictures of the grammatical characters.  For instance, Verb is an energetic young boy who wears red, and he should be drawn doing something active.

This approach is similar in concept to lapbooking, narration, and Waldorf main lessons, in that the child does not merely parrot back fill-in-the-blank answers, but becomes part of the process, engaging in an act of creativity which helps to secure the information in their consciousness – not just their short-term memory.

I was so impressed with this, that it struck me, that this is the way to incorporate drawings for Flipper’s other subjects.

First up, was French.  He is currently on unit one of book two of L’art de lire, and in general is doing very well.  He’s remembering the vocabulary and the pronounciations, his translations are generally accurate, he’s even getting the hang of gender and number agreement (which we don’t have to worry about in English).

But for some strange reason, the basic verbs avoir and être cause him constant confusion.  Not for lack of practice – he’s actually been taught these as early as age 4 or 5.  He sings the songs I learned as a child (conjugating to the tune of Mexican Hat Dance) with joy and enthusiasm.  He translates them accurately from french to english.  But english to french?  He’ll mix up “vous” with “il”, “est” with “êtes”, spell them wrong everywhere (he even used “ill” and “ills” recently), confuse the avoir conjugations with the être conjugations… many of the mix-ups are understandable… but not really after this length of time.

He needed a way to make each one more concrete, more individual.  Enter the main lesson drawing book.

I had him divide four pages into 2 sections each.  Then in each of the 8 sections, he labelled and illustrated one conjugation of être.  I gave him some hints of ideas where needed, but for the most part I just let him be creative and draw whatever was meaningful to him.

So, for “je suis”, he drew a simple stick figure of himself, with an arrow pointing to it saying “me”.  At my suggestion, he added a background of grass and a beautiful tree.  Then he thought of adding another person to the picture, smaller and in the background, to differentiate between the “me” and the “other.”

Then, for “tu es”, he drew the same two figures, but this time the other was the one in center focus.  For “il est”, the same two figures were located one on either side of a new figure, both pointing to him. “Elle est” repeated a similar picture, but with a girl in the center.

For “nous sommes”, he created a soccer team.  Complete with matching jerseys, a soccer ball, and an intricate net.  “Vous êtes” became, of course, the opposing team, with a couple of the first team off to the side pointing to them.  For “ils sont” and “elles sont”, the solitary figure of himself again took the center, pointing off to the side to a gaggle of boys (or girls) in the background.

He loved every moment of this activity.  It remains to be seen how much different it actually makes to his retention of the verb conjugations, but I love this approach.  We will continue tomorrow with the “avoir” conjugation — I can’t wait to see what objects his little characters will “have”!

I have to say that I’ve tried to demonstrate the conjugations in a similar manner previously… by explaining to him, by speaking and pointing to imaginary people whiler reciting the conjugation.  The difference is that then, I was the one doing the activity, and he was a mere passive observer.  That’s fine for your pure visual learners, not so much for your kinesthetic ones.  With this project, he was doing the activity, he was internalizing the meaning of the verbs in a more concrete way than rote worksheet exercises.

And most importantly – he liked it.

First, it was Charlotte Mason.  Then Montessori.  Now most recently, Waldorf and Enki.  Each time that I researched a new philosophy with an open mind, I found measureless inspiration and wisdom.

I also found nonsense, of course.    No single curriculum or philosophy is likely to suit any individual 100%.  But rather than simply rejecting the entire philosophy outright due to a few weird bits, or even without really understanding the philosophy at all, much can be gained from an honest investigation of some idea you had not previously considered.

If nothing else, your existing assumptions and beliefs will be challenged, and if you decide that this path is not for you, your beliefs will be all the stronger for having met and withstood a challenge.  And misguided beliefs (however well-intentioned they may have been to begin with) will be cleared away.

So as I mentioned, the most recent exploration has been Waldorf (and the greatly related Enki).  There is much about the root of Waldorf that does not sit right with me.  I am not, personally, a fan of anthoposophy, or of Steiner in general.  The idea of the “morality of colour”, with black crayons being forbidden, seems unnatural to me.  Then there’s the strictness of delaying reading instruction until age 7… while in principal I agree with this, ‘pure’ Waldorf makes no exceptions for exceptional children.  Individual variations in development are disregarded.  All children are expected to develop at pretty much the same rate, at the same ages, solely as a product of age.

If you believe the anthoposophic ideas of the schedule by which the soul enters and inhabits the body, this makes perfect sense.  But if you don’t, well, then, it doesn’t.  No more than it makes sense to expect children to all walk or talk at the same age.  Strict Waldorf teaches that a 5-year-old child who is already reading is “too much in their head” and their reading should be limited, so that their body can be properly developed instead.  But would you tell a 10-month old baby who has begun to walk or talk, that they should refrain from doing so because it’s too early?

That being said, there is some good wisdom to glean from this (on-the-surface rather bizarre) belief.  Namely, that a child who does show early propensity for academics could be at risk of neglecting their physical and practical skills development.  Not merely because of the child’s own natural development, but because of an over-zealous parent eagerly pouncing on their child’s academic gifts, spending hours on books and worksheets, rather than time spent cooking together, painting, drawing, learning to fasten buttons, pour liquids, or use scissors.

In other words, it can be a warning to “the rest of us” to be careful with our precociously academic youngsters, to ensure that they still have a rich diet of natural, physical activities, even if we do commit the grievous sin of allowing them to read, if they want to.

And this is the great strength of the Waldorf philosophy: the emphasis on art and on nature.  Not merely as enjoyable activities for children, but as important learning tools.

Form Drawing, a progressive study of drawing shapes, moving from simple lines and curves to complex Celtic knots, works along the same lines as “brain training” exercises.  Many forms work on “crossing the midline”, a common difficult task for children with sensory integration issues.  There is almost a meditative quality to the forms, which are said to help with attention and calmness, as well as with handwriting.

Full-body movement also addresses “crossing the midline” and other sensory integrative tasks.  Strict Waldorf uses a specific kind of movement called “Eurhythmy”, while Waldorf-inspired programs may use various other types of dance and movement.  Think: action songs with a purpose.

Drawing and painting are central to Waldorf as well.  Lessons are taught through story (frequently involving fairies and gnomes), which children then interpret through pictures.  This reminds me a lot of the Charlotte Mason ideas of learning through living books, and of narration.   While oral and written narrations are the “standard”, drawing is one of the many other options available as well.

In fact, drawn narrations are what drew me to Charlotte Mason in the first place, and one of the most appealing features of Waldorf to me.

The final main aspect of Waldorf (in my understanding, anyway), is that of rhythm.  Rhythm to your days, as well as rhythm to the seasons of the year.  There is much focus on routine, with verses and songs to ease transitions.  Festivals and holidays are celebrated throughout the year.

In our house, we are not as attached to the idea of seasonal rhythms and endless festivals as some are.  But I am intrigued by this particular version of developing a daily schedule that is smooth, natural, and effective.  And I confess, I’m starting to appreciate the value of at least some recognition of the passing of the seasons, renewing a connection to nature and our world which is sorely lacking in modern generations.

This is not, by any means, a thorough and exhaustive review of All Things Waldorf.  There are many other great elements… and many not-so-great ones as well (depending on where you’re standing).  This is, rather, a collection of my personal thoughts after researching Waldorf to the best of my ability over the last couple of weeks.

Enki markets itself, in part, as deriving from Waldorf, but also drawing from the best of Montessori and Charlotte Mason.  In my recent wanderings, I’ve encountered several other homeschooling families hoping to accomplish a similar sort of blend on their own.  I think this is the direction I’m heading in as well…

I should give the disclaimer right up front: I haven’t really tried any of this yet!  Well, I’m trying to restructure our daily rhythm a bit.    But over the next little while, we will be incorporating some of my favourite ideas gleaned from Waldorf, and we’ll see how it goes.  I don’t think we’ll be having any visits from gnomes anytime soon, but there may well be some playsilks in our future…

            ]]> http://motherbynature.ca/2009/10/thoughts-on-waldorf/feed/ 1 http://motherbynature.ca/2009/05/her-first-representational-drawing/ http://motherbynature.ca/2009/05/her-first-representational-drawing/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 02:17:12 +0000 heather http://motherbynature.ca/?p=605 Pomme is almost 2.5 now, and just drew her first person.

I guess saying her first “representational drawing” isn’t 100% accurate, because she has been drawing “with intent” for awhile.  She has drawn rough oval shapes, thrown speckles into them, and said “whale!”

But this was different.

Tonight, she said “draw mommy.”  She drew a small circle.  Put a few dots inside the circle, then a curved line as well.  Then two long (very, very long) lines coming off the circle.  “There, mommy!”

Then she did it again, just beside the first one.  “Two mommies!”  She eventually drew six mommies, each like the other — a circle, a couple dots for eyes and a curved mouth, then two long legs (mommy is, after all, indeed very tall).

Then to top it all off, she added some speckles to the very end of the legs of one of the mommies and said “toes!”  Then she scribbled some more over top of the toes, and said “socks on it!”

Maybe I can get a scan of it…

She’s been keen on numbers for awhile now.  She loves to point out “fenen” when she sees one… that’s ‘7′ for the toddlerese-challenged.  The fun thing she did today was out of nowhere, in the middle of a parking lot, she shouted out “Fee!  Too!  Won!”

Whoa… counting backwards.  Even Flipper didn’t do that until he was closer to three… but then he counted down from five and folding down his fingers one at a time to boot.  Still, sibling rivalries aside, it was cool to see.

Of course, this is a 27-month-old who still says “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 6, 7, 5, 7, 9″ sometimes.

She also loves drawing.  And what she loves drawing best, is anything at all on her brother’s dry-erase board, ostensibly part of his math curriculum.  It’s great, she can draw all she likes, erase it, and start over, and I don’t have to deal with mountains of scribbled paper.

Her drawings are starting to become representational… at least to her.  To us, it’s still circles, zigzags, lines and dots, but to her it’s boats, cats, letters, and (most frequently) whales.

Today I tried drawing a ‘track’ for her to trace.  Two wavy lines about an inch or so apart.  I held her hand to give her the idea to get started, showing that she should follow down the middle of the track.  She quickly understood and finished on her own.  We did a few more at other times during the day as well.  She wobbles off the track occasionally, but for the most part stays in the middle and is definitely following the general shape.

She’s also singing the alphabet now.  This is, of course, totally unrelated to literacy and understanding of letters and phonics, and we had not been teaching it to her.  But she heard it, and it stuck.  Most often, we hear “ay bee see dee eee HEF JAAAAYEEE”… or we hear “koo ar ess, tee yu vee, dubbayu ess, tee yu vee… ”

And we’re also getting frequent renditions of “tinkow tinkow itta taaa” which is just too adorable to be believed.

We were out shopping today and I thought I should get her some new pants.  Many of our favourite pants are now too short on her, and most of the next size up we have in hand-me-downs are still like, size 5.  She’s a little shopping DIVA already, I swear.  Everything she saw was like “Oh!  Cooooooooool!” and “pitty pitty shooooos!!” and trying on sunglasses.   Where’s the tomboy we ordered?

Once I’d found the perfect pants she saw something way up high.  “Beena!  Beena!”  That’s her attempt at “ballerina”.  This girl is a dancer, and we can’t wait until next fall when she can start dance classes.   Anyway, sure enough, there was a cute little t-shirt with a silhouette of a ballerina on it.  She doesn’t need more shirts, but it was very cute, and only $6.  There were a few different designs, and the one she ended up choosing is a lovely image of ballet shoes.  Her two favourite things… dancing, and shoes.

The pants are nifty chocolate brown cargo pants.  Very, very cute.  Of course, I’m going to have to take in the crotch by a good 2″.  Stupid pants manufacturers and their “diaper fit” for toddler clothes.  Did you know it’s next to impossible to find pants “cut for undies” in anything less than a size 4?  While I understand that clothing manufacturers aren’t really familiar with the diaper-free movement and don’t get many requests for cut-for-undies pants for 18-month-olds… or 6-month-olds…  there are still plenty of potty-trained 2-year-olds out there.  And the average age for potty-training is age 3.  So I would at least expect that size 3 would be easy to find.

Alas, it is not to be.  You’ve got to make them yourself, buy them from someone who makes them herself, or alter them yourself.

Finally, while driving around today for my many errands, I noticed that she was being very quiet in the back seat.  She had her toy monkey with her and seemed to be cradling him close, and I wondered if she was falling asleep.  When we arrived, and I was opening her door to let her out, she pulled the monkey away from herself and said “all done nurse!”

All together now:  awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

According to her, the one on the bottom is a cat, the one at the very top is a pig, and the rest are whales.  The spots are eyes.  She has labelled her drawings before (usually as whales lol), and she has drawn circles, spots, and lines before.  The new thing this week was deliberately making spots to represent eyes, using different drawing techniques to represent different parts of a whole.

She has also started to be able to trace shapes within a stencil.  I’d love to get the set of Montessori metal insets for this purpose, but can’t really afford them right now.  For now, I picked up a $1.50 wooden craft frame with an oval shape (which you can see in the picture), and we also use Flipper’s drawing tools triangles.

She loves to use Flipper’s dry erase board, and that’s fine by me.  It’s easy to clean the dry erase marker if she ‘misses’ the board, and she can erase and do it all over again, getting lots of drawing practice without leaving mountains of scribbled paper.

One Montessori item we did invest in was a set of wooden place value number cards.  I had initially put them out of her reach, because she’s not really ready for those kinds of math concepts yet.  But she found them and took them down and has been happily playing with them for weeks.  She sorts them by size and colour, identifies what digits she recognizes (for instance, she’ll say “one zero zero zero” for the one thousand tile), and practices putting them away:

We haven’t “instructed” her on anything with these, she has created all her own activities with them.

In fact, just after this picture was taken of her putting them away, I turned my back to her to focus on the stove and dinner.  When I turned back again a few minutes later, I assumed that I’d see them all put away, or perhaps taken out again to repeat putting them away.  What I saw instead, was this:

How cool is that?

Anyway, as I said, she likes to identify what digits she knows so far.  She has a wooden number puzzle which has pictures under the digits.  For instance, there are four dogs under “4″, seven hippos under “7″, etc.  At first, she would solve the puzzle just by fitting the shapes, but soon made the association with the animals.  She would pick up the puzzle number “7″ and say “hippos!!”  One exciting day (exciting for me as a proud mama), she saw a number 7 in a completely different context, just a regular printed digit 7, and very enthusiastically said “hippos!!”

Ah, the first step… the recognition that this particular shape, or symbol, represents something.  It didn’t really matter that she hadn’t yet made the connection with the symbol and the concept of quantity.  What mattered was the concept of symbol itself, of one thing standing for something else.  And what’s more, this 7 did not look exactly like the one in her puzzle, which is slightly cartoonish.  So she was recognizing that it was not the size, or the colour, or style, or the wooden-ness, or the texture of it that mattered… it was the basic shape itself.  Very, very cool indeed.

We haven’t done anything to “correct” her animal associations.  All we do is add to it… when she says “hippos!” for 7, we say “yes, seven hippos.”  Over time, she is picking up on this concept and has now substituted the real number name for most of the digits.  She identifies 0, 1, 5, and 7 consistently, 4 most of the time, sometimes mixes up 8 and 9, or 6 and 9, but she’s got the idea.

We have another set of smaller place value cards, that I made myself for Flipper before deciding to buy the wooden set.  She loves to pull them out of the baggie they’re stored in and sort them, and label the digits she knows.  As you can see in this video, she still uses the animal association for some numbers:

So that’s it! A week in the life of an unschooling, self-determining, Montessori-inspired 26-month old.

Of course, schooled kids do this too… but I’d guess that homeschooled kids do it more.  Why?  Maybe because of the greater freedom for exploration and non-stiflement of their creativity.  Maybe just because they have more time to dedicate to their own interests.

Flipper, of course, loves whales, dolphins, fish… anything to do with the ocean.  He wants to be a marine biologist.  He also loves drawing.  Today, he showed me a drawing he did last night during his quiet time (when I was out at chorale rehearsal).  I loved it so much I asked him if I could scan it and post it — he seemed shy, but flattered!  So here it is (click on the pic to see it in full detail):

I love the depth markers, the little scuba diver, and the coral reef at the right.  Oh, and the little touch of yellow for the deep-see angler fish ‘light’!  Ain’t he clever???