School at Home - structure

I've started "school" with my daughter now. I never thought I would do "school" at home but she's 7, will be 8 springs old in the Spring and I've felt a change come over her and also me. I feel she needs some kind of herding (gentle) and that if I don't give boundaries and places to head towards, she's going to lose out. We're only doing a couple of formal hours in the morning but I feel that she needs that skill of being able to sit down and focus, otherwise she will just flit through life in a whirlwind of chaos. I think that chaos can be very creative but it's a bit like breathing in and out (as per Waldorf) - just as the kindergarten children need to breathe in and out with their physical bodies, I feel as if my Class One child, now needs to breathe in and out with her love of learning and sitting down at the table and learning in a particular way is part of this (I confess that I have been using workbooks recently as well as other resources - Letts ones which are about a wizard and frogs - great fun).

With a different child I may not need to approach things in the same way (for instance my younger self would have quite happily sat at a desk for hours - school was a very strange place to me and change was a struggle). However, with my daughter, she loves to dance, forgets things and I feel at times like I am living with a butterfly on a spring day. If I don't focus her on the blossoms of knowledge she will be lifted by the breeze elsewhere so for at least 3 days of the week in the mornings we stick to a desk-style of learning.

I love the Steiner "Education towards Freedom" motto and I'm also understanding that developing will and focus can give you freedom because it's that inner self that is just as important as the outer self.

I baked a cake today where I wasn't focused properly. It went terribly wrong (just by adding 1 extra cup of flour). Education is about self discipline and trust too.

....

This morning, Springy managed her 2 Times Tables really well through memory. I've made her an A4 poster for her bedroom door and asked her to read it once in the morning and once in the evening and to say the 2 times tables out loud. She also has the 1 Times Table on her door.

Tonight we went outside and looked up outside. The sky is beautiful - it's very cold and there are no clouds and all you can see are the constellations and the planets. We saw Sirius twinkling so brightly and Venus and Orion, and Cassiopea and the Seven Sisters (pleaides). It makes you want to have magical abilities to fly.