Pondering
Lately, I've been spending lots of time pondering all sorts of things but one of the things that's been most on my mind is the notion that I think we need to get back to our Waldorf roots. Over the last year we seem to have drifted away from it and it seems that in that drifting that something has been missing from our days. Sure, we still have our nature table and our daily rhythms and our verses and our lovely open ended toys and sweet cooperative games but something just seems....off. Something seems to be missing. I don't know if it's just the time of year (autumn although a wonderful season always seems to be a time of change for me) or if there is something more to it, but the one thing I keep coming back to is that the major thing that's different from last year to this year is that we have left behind our connection to the Waldorf world. We've never been truly Waldorf. We have allowed media in our days and home (where many pure Waldorf families don't) but we've never been purely radical unschoolers either. I have often said that we are unschoolers with a Waldorf flavor to us, though in the last year it seems that our Waldorf flavor has lessened considerably. Perhapse getting reconnected with the Waldorf homeschooling community will help. Perhapse returning to the way our days flowed before will help. Perhapse it's just one of those things that will figure itself out. Regardless, if any other mamas have wrestled with something like this I would love to hear your stories/wisdom/advice. And if not, no worries, I am sure one of these days I will have clarity on this topic of "who we are".
I think we have similar ideas; my children are too young to be "schooling" just yet, but I imagine we will take a more unschool-ish approach when the time for formal schooling comes, just because that suits the way we do things. But there is a definite Waldorf flavor. I don't know if I would call it unschooling with a Waldorf flavor or Waldorf with an unschooling undercurrent; it probably doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteI think the important thing is to recognize what your family needs at a given time and go with that. Perhaps over the last year what you have needed was less Waldorf and now what you need is more? It's all part of the ebb and flow of life, no? xo
Or maybe we're Waldorfy Unschoolers! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your sweet words and for "getting" it. I headed to the Y early this morning (arriving there before the sun came up and returning home even before the sun came up) and while I was walking around the indoor walking track I was continuting to reflect on this very topic. And while I don't really have any more clarity on it I just kept coming back to how much we love the beauty and slower pace of Waldorf (which, of course, is also key in unschooling). I know that my girls, especially Grace, would not do well in a traditional public school and if we ever needed to send them (or they should want to go) we'd prefer to have them at a Waldorf school provided we could afford it, of course.
Regardless, I think you are right. It is an ebb and flow and seeing what the family needs and meeting that need that matters most. Thank you for the reminder! xoxo