Creekside Academy

I realized that while we are a homeschooling family, I really haven't mentioned much about our days! I am not sure how that happened, but I am hoping to include more of our lessons, etc. for my own future reference. Here in North Carolina we are required to register our school with a name. I had chosen Creekside Academy based on how much time we spend at the creek at our local Nature Preserve. Some day, I hope to live on a piece of property that has a creek, but for now we will settle for a 10 minute drive. Anyways, we just finished up our 2nd language block of the year. In Waldorf education, subjects are presented in a block. We rotate through Language Arts, Math and Science, each block lasting 3-4 weeks. It is during this block when new material is introduced, so for example, this last language arts block we read the novel The King of Ireland's Son, covered vocabulary and created our own reader based on the novel. No new math or science material is presented (although we do review material in the form of movements and games!). This allows the material to "rest" and live into the child. We will do a week long Winter Nature block and then proceed into our 3rd Math block of the year.

Here we are doing one of our favorite winter crafts...paper snowflakes!
wet on wet watercolor painting. We are exploring the color blue at the moment. I am telling winter themed stories prior to them painting for inspiration.

Here is a pillow Blake sewed for his doll (more on that later!). He was having a difficult time knowing where to place the needle until I remembered a great tip I read on another blog...I used a sharpie to mark where he needed to sew and he had it done in no time. He was able to then stuff it with wool and finish sewing all by himself.

Handwork in progress

Morning Lesson Time: Blake is working on his vocabulary while the other boys are drawing pictures. They are free to join us at the table or to go off and play as they will. This is when I wished we had a seperate table for school/arts & crafts. I must clear the table at least 5 times a day of various crafting supplies/debris just so we can eat. I love how much creating occurs in our home...something that wouldn't happen in a traditional school setting!

The result of our snowflakes (we painted them with glue and sprinkled with sea salt for the glittery effect).

One of the wonderful things I love about the Waldorf philosophy is the delay of academics. Formal learning is not begun until the child is near 7 years of age. Up until that point, play is the main form of learning. Even once formal learning is begun, there is a sort of "easing" in to academics with a focus on approaching academics in a holistic manner. I have seen what a positive effect this gentle approach to learning has had on Blake (who ended is Kindergarten year in public school stressed and showing signs of anxiety!).