Waldorf is Age Appropriate Learning that Meets Your Child's Age

WHY do we teach what we do for each grade?
WHEN do we place children for their ages?
WHAT about moving ahead and holding back?

Waldorf is much different than anything you have ever experienced.
You must suspend all you know about how the mainstream education system. All you know about grades, what age your child should go to school and whether or not they are gifted (or delayed) EVERYTHING. It is only when you do this that you can be fully ready to understand Waldorf. Ready?

Suppose that you can look beyond the physical being standing before you and really understand your child's development - more than that, suppose you can learn to understand what they need at each stage of your child's development. Many of us are attracted to Waldorf because of early childhood and how gentle it is, how it seems to meet the child just where they are...we stay in love with this model until our neighbor or sister in law gets ready to send their child to preschool at age four...then we start to do the math and questions begin flying...two years of kindergarten?

Seriously? Kids that don't go to first grade until they are nearly 7? At that very moment, you have to decide...ready? AM I WILLING TO NOT FIT IN? America isn't the only country with the dilemma, we are seeing it in some places in Europe as well as other places in the world. As homeschoolers, we have the opportunity to not fall prey to this pressure.  Waldorf is different.  Waldorf is not like anything else.

"The Three-Fold Concept of Man as a whole person, fully developed in willing (doing), feeling, and thinking is maintained through the curriculum. Children experience the world differently from adults.  The child is not a miniature adult who grows bigger; differences in the child's experience of the world can be illustrated by how memory functions at different stages."

This is from "Waldorf Education - A Family Guide" pg 53.

Waldorf is age appropriate learning that meets your child's AGE, not the mainstream idea of grade. Steiner had specific recommendations for each age group to meet children at their developmental age and to help their soul on this journey through life.  

I also want to encourage moms - when it comes to mathematics or grammar, there is no being behind or too gifted. That gifted child still needs the story and history content for their grade, even if they are eons ahead in math or if they are years behind in their grammar studies.

Waldorf layers concepts when it comes to the curriculum, so while this story content is so very important, especially for these first 4-6 years of schooling, we can be a bit more fluid in math and grammar. Also remember that you don't need 15 resources to teach with Waldorf.

While mainstream homeschooling often has you purchasing something for math, history, science, etc. Waldorf is all contained, all of the curriculum fully ties into each piece, these layers are visible when you can view the whole - which I will admit is tough when your children are young and you are trying to navigate these waters. 

It is very useful to have some help as you walk through this. 
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