We have begun to dip our toes into Home-Schooling, with a Waldorf at home curriculum from Oak Meadow.
We got the Pre-School package, everything but the block crayons as we l always have those around already. The paints are expensive, but they've been a big hit. I think I should shell out the dough for the Painting with Children book, as it's a wonderful but complex activity, and I'd like to get the most out of it.
I was pretty enthused about this particular curriculum before receiving the books, now I'm a little luke-warm, but it's good to be finding this out in the pre-school phase. I think basically, the reading list for the upper grades looked pretty impressive, and I like the idea of a structured program. We don't have to implement all the structure provided, but I figured that taking a looser approach to a tightly structured program would be easier than making up a structure for in information myself. I don't have any difficulty finding material, it's planning how to best present it that stumps me a little. Two things about the Oak Meadow program seem like a less than perfect fit though: the Yoga book is a great idea, but the style of it is a little cloying, and I'm not seeing the traditional Viking material and such for grade 4, which is something we were already looking forward to. Now I'm taking a harder look at the more expensive Enki program,
and the supposedly more true-to-Waldorf Live Education
I might get both Enki and one other program for the Kindergarten year and hope that I can choose just one for First Grade. Oak Meadow is supposedly the easiest top present for standard Homeschoolers, and focuses closely on the standards and benchmarks the state requires. That's frankly not a large concern to me, because giving as good an education as a public school frankly doesn't sound too difficult. Enki's main appeal to me at this point (having just read the site, and testimonials on a Home-School review site
is that it puts a heavy emphasis on arts and movement, and that's a big part of what I feel we are missing out on by not going to a brick & mortar Waldorf school, the dance, Eurethmy. This might be something we could do with a Home-School co-op or some other group, if we can find one. Or maybe form one.
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