DISCLAIMER : Waldorf Purists need not be triggered by someone thinking differently. You are free to do whatever you like in your own waldorf homeschool. Just like I’m free to delete your ridiculous comments on my blog. Want to share your opinion? Get your own blog. Have a great day!
I knew when I posted about the upcoming creation and release of our Waldorf Curricula, I would get messages and comments from people disagreeing, so I’ll chat about it here for those that misunderstand or for those that would enjoy some clarification.
Waldorf education focuses on teaching to the whole person of a child, not just the head or academic. You can, indeed, teach to the whole person of your child, that is mind, body and spirit from a Christian (Catholic or protestant) faith perspective. As with any curriculum or method of education, you can absolutely leave behind the stuff that us people of faith find weird in a Waldorf school.
There are things about child development that come from a scientific perspective and they happen to be true. Science was and is created by God – science also confirms the existence of God – so there’s nothing wrong with believe the truths from the field of science and research.
We know that children all develop at their own pace generally but there are some general things, educationally, that when you wait until the right age to introduce them, do so much more for the child. An example in my own children : unless it was of particular interest, they remember NOTHING from history class until like 7th/8th grade. They got a LOT out of history, I’m talking about modern world history and war events, in high school – which just so happens to be when those topics are covered in traditional Waldorf schools.
Instead of going over the same historical events, ad nauseam from grades 2-12, just the once through in depth high school course was so enriching for them. The conversations we had were had great value to them academically and to our relationships with each other. I also don’t remember much history from grade school unless it was a field trip, to be honest. 😬
Today and recent society pushes kids too much too soon academically which has usually been to the detriment overall. Kids already grow up too fast, let’s linger in childhood a bit longer, shall we?
TL:DR – wait until they’re older/ready and it’ll sink in better and with more interest and value for everyone involved.
What will my curriculum do that is traditionally done in a Waldorf education? That’s a great question, I would love to tell you #ElyseMyers #IYKYN :
- Delay start until 6/7 years old. If your kid is already reading at age 2.5, cool, I had one of those too, but they still need the fun imaginative learning that I remember from kindergarten even in public school – ya know – before there were tests in kindergarten. Kids love stories and fables! Nothing bad happens from skipping kindergarten. I promise. I just graduated our first homeschooler.
- No/Low tech. I get it, tech is everywhere, but it doesn’t have to be so invasive in childhood. Too much tech is where imaginations go to die. True story. I’ve watched my kids for years be MUCH more productive and imaginative when I take back the tech in our home. We are the first generations raising children that grew up with tech at their fingertips. This area would be my greatest regret with my eldest three children, that I have revised with our younger children.
- Lots of stories, fables, gnomes, fairies, imaginative play, block crayons, main lessons….
- Teaching head, heart and hand with Christ as the center.
- 9 Subjects/Topics taught in Blocks that follow the same sequence as a traditional Waldorf School. For example botany is taught in grade 5 [approx. age 10/11] at every Waldorf School. It will also be taught in our waldorf homeschool curricula in grade 5. Literally every topic follows the same sequence with very little variance – see the third point in the section below.
- Main lessons with main lesson books : in Charlotte Mason homeschooling that would be similar but not the same as a unit study. There is a specific flow and rhythm to the day.
- Learning about Saints & The Maccabees. A lot of people incorrectly assume that traditional waldorf education is part Catholic because it teaches about saints. For the protestants reading this, we will learn about Saints and the Maccabees. Please know that these people are Christian and they love God very much and did great things that we can absolutely aspire to. People like : St. Joan of Arc, St. Patrick, St Hildegard, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Lucia/Lucy, and so many more.
- Festivals and seasons we will learn about/celebrate : Advent, Christmas, Easter, Martinmas, Hanukkah [Jewish Christians celebrate as part of their culture], Passover, St. Nicholas Day, St. Valentine’s Day, and more. If you don’t want to celebrate a holiday, don’t. As with any curricula you are always free to use the parts you love and skip what you don’t. As for celebrating the seasons, God made those.
What will my curriculum not do that is traditionally done in a Waldorf education? I’m glad you asked!
- Hold to every teaching of anthroposophy. This alone might make the purist waldorf teachers say that it can no longer be called a waldorf education. I wholeheartedly disagree. I am both well versed in Christian faith and Waldorf education – having deeply studied theology at the collegiate level, I know there are important issues with anthroposophy.
- If you are familiar with waldorf education, anywhere you find a woo-woo “spiritual” earth-worship type of take in a waldorf – yeah, we won’t be doing that. Not even a little. God is creator of all and everything else flows from that. If I hold it up and it doesn’t gel with God, it doesn’t make the cut. You can be appreciative and caring in nature without making it some weird God. Not sorry. I’ve seen this occur in the “morning verses” they do in waldorf schools. We will be reciting Scripture in full replacement.
- I do find it of great importance to learn about other faiths, however, there is a way to go about it and I don’t agree with the way traditional Waldorf Curricula goes about it. We DO need to learn about other faiths and we need to do it respectfully, however as Christians, we do know that Christ is the answer so we aren’t able to teach it as if those other faiths are also the right path to God. What we CAN teach is what exactly, and honestly, what people of other faiths believe. We always follow that up for why we don’t agree. What does this do? It means your child can have kind, intelligent conversations with people of other faith, without insulting them. The other person might walk away not thinking all Christians are jerks. It plants a seed. We need more seeds.
- If you have a different faith, you are fully welcome to substitute. What I can’t do is remove God.
None of this is by any means an exhaustive list. I hope that it just brings some clarification as to my focus and purpose for doing this. Again, purists might call this a waldorf education that isn’t “true” – there is a plethora of curricula on the market for them. This is for the rest of us.
This is so exciting!!! Thank you for doing this!
Sure thing, glad you’re excited! It has been a long time coming!
So very exciting!
It will be very fun to create! I’m excited, too!
Can’t wait!
Me either! So excited!!!
Wow! This is what I was looking for! I like a lot of things about Waldorf but the cult like rituals and see nature as a Godlike being.
Do you have a group to be part of in this journey? My daughter is almost 2 & I want to start drafting more of a routine thinking about my faith in Jesus and Waldorf good tools.
I don’t use Facebook but my first two curricula [lamp + light – no longer owned by me and salt + light] have Facebook groups. I’m sure one will be started once this is released! I’ll make sure to get one going by the community for sure!
The s+l group made one for the Waldorf one! It’s up!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1451762285253766/?ref=share
I just barely stumbled upon your website and haven’t read anything other than this one post at this point, but just reading this post has me almost in tears. Tears of relief and joy that is. I bought Waldorf curriculum from a different place about a month ago because it came with so many bonuses (video lessons galore, live coaching/community, master classes on zoom, etc.) and dove in head first (I have been studying Waldorf on my own for years, since my 10yo was 4, but never like this). Today I have been feeling very disheartened and frustrated because I’m realizing that $700 later I am stuck in the middle of planning a school year of stuff I never really wanted in my homeschool. I was first attracted to Waldorf for the slower learning, whole child, art and spiritual aspects of it but now that I am waist deep in actual Waldorf curriculum, where is God?! I’m left feeling like I don’t even have time to figure out how to add God in on my own because every spare second of my day is spent absolutely engrossing myself in so many things that just don’t sit right with me, all the while just being told “to let the stories live in you” and no answers to my questions of how it’s helpful to spend an entire week teaching my 6yo about a weird fairytale that teaches him it’s okay to steal as long as he doesn’t get caught. I’ve been left feeling like maybe there is something wrong with me when things don’t sit right, instead of the other way around, but I want God back in my homeschool! So I went on a search for Christian Waldorf homeschoolers, hoping to find something more like what I was looking for, or at the very least to find like-minded people with some insight on how to add my Christian beliefs back in. Thank you for being just what I needed exactly when I needed it. I feel like there is hope and that maybe our school year this year can be what we want/need it to be after all.
Hey Sarah!
Yes, it can be super overwhelming and hard to figure out where to make the changes to make it work while being totally engrossed AND wanting it to stay fun! I wish I could get this all done sooner for you! Definitely just do what you can, the best that you can. We often had a jigsaw of a puzzle together for our waldorf experience and wish it had been a bit smoother for sure. Start your days with some lit candles, gentle praise music, prayer intentions for the day with a short prayer or read a little Scripture. I love to use the app : The Word of Promise because it’s a dramatic audio of the Bible! It’s like listening to a movie! Jim Caviezel does the voice of Jesus in The Gospels. Another idea, if you haven’t watched it yet, The Chosen is a great option for a weekly “movie”!
I really hope that you have a wonderful homeschool year, praying for you!
Jane
Thank you so much for the tips! I will definitely have to check out the app, and yes! We LOVE the chosen! Thank you so much!
I was super jazzed about applying Waldorf practices into my own kids education (for the same reasons from your blog) but then backed away after reading more into some of its “spiritual ideologies.” I’m excited to look into your material when it comes available since it sounds like a great blend. Hope it is going well!
I love what you’re doing here! I found you when I googled Waldorf and Christianity and to top it off your Catholic too! Very interested in your homeschool curriculum. Although my oldest are 20 and 17 so it would be for my youngest, one year old daughter in the future.
Having recently learned about Waldorf and early childhood education I was immediately fascinated. I found a woman in Washington on IG who has a preschool group in her home and it all just looked so beautiful and magical! I found the Lifeways training she went to and ordered their book, Home Away From Home. I’ve been reading it and loving it.
Today I started digging in to see if this curriculum lines up with our Catholic beliefs. To my dismay it doesn’t appear that way. Rudolf Steiner was quite the character to say the least. The anthroposophy philosophy is based on the premise that the human intellect has the ability to contact spiritual worlds. He postulated the “existence of a spiritual world comprehensible to pure thought but fully accessible only to the faculties of knowledge latent in all humans”. I read about the strong links to occultism, belief in reincarnation, belief that light skinned people are superior, that we came from Atlantis and more.
This is a link with a list of reviews from parents whose children attended Waldorf schools that aren’t the glowing reviews we’re used to seeing https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/our-experience
This is a blog post I found titled, “Anthroposophy/Waldorf and Catholic Homeschooling” that covers if Waldorf curriculum is ok for Catholics. https://womenofgrace.com/blog/11451
I’m at a bit of a loss about it all right now. I just found this all out today. For weeks I’ve been daydreaming of starting a Waldorf inspired in home preschool with my one year old daughter in the future.
Perhaps I’ll have to learn to take the best from Waldorf and rebrand it with God at the center, but probably remove any Waldorf titles or mentions. I am also at a loss if I should take the Lifeways training.
Have you created a preK based curriculum?
All curricula I write has ZERO anthroposophy and 100% Christian beliefs and values.