Now that 8th grade graduation is behind me, I’m starting to get all geared up for 1st grade. I’ve got just 3 weeks before my family and I head off for our big summer trip, so I’m wasting no time getting going on my summer prep. Years ago a former colleague of mine put together […]

Are you embarking on your Waldorf journey? There are some quintessentials supplies you don’t want to do without, and then there are many supplies that are sure to enrich your lessons, environ…

First grade is such a sweet, memorable year. It’s the bridge between the kindergarten and elementary years. Like the kindergarten child, the first grader still thrives on days full of play, connection, and rhythm. (For more on supporting these needs, see this post on How to Teach Kindergarten ). Yo

Are you embarking on your Waldorf journey? There are some quintessentials supplies you don’t want to do without, and then there are many supplies that are sure to enrich your lessons, environ…

I can’t quite believe our magical first grade year has come to a close. I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed teaching Waldorf first grade. Over the course of the past few weeks, the first graders and I have gradually prepared ourselves for second grade. We’ve moved into our new classroom, we stitched […]

Are you looking for resources for Waldorf homeschooling? This extensive list includes curriculum, supplies, organizations, and favorite book titles. A comprehensive list of over 50 resources put together by Jean, a mother of three and longtime Waldorf homeschooler.

I am a Waldorf homeschooling mother, just like YOU! This was a block I made up for First Grade (a January block) and thought it may give some of you inspiration for working science in with all the…

Create your own homeschool curriculum plan for main lessons with this outline of the traditional Waldorf block rotation for homeschoolers.

I can’t quite believe our magical first grade year has come to a close. I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed teaching Waldorf first grade. Over the course of the past few weeks, the first graders and I have gradually prepared ourselves for second grade. We’ve moved into our new classroom, we stitched […]

This year I’ve made a commitment to myself (and my readers) to make every effort to share my curriculum materials as soon as possible. Waldorf Math You see, my curriculum guides come straight from my lesson planner. When I sit down to put them all together in a final polished document for all of you, […]

Let’s talk all things first grade! In Waldorf education, there is so much emphasis placed on the transition from kindergarten to first grade, and in many ways, it’s for good reason! The child is ready to transition into the grades, and with that comes a need to approach things a little differently:

Waldorfish Form Drawing teacher Rev Bowen was recently asked by a caregiver about whether form drawing lessons need to include full stories, or not. We wanted to share his thoughts with the Waldorfish community at large! Here is a commonly-asked question in regard to form drawing: "D

Last week, I introduced the girls to the character of Gnome Share through an extensive story here. We continued through the week with various exposure to the concept of division. Here is some of what we did that tied into math... In our first Maths Block, I had several stories going for the qualities of numbers that I thought I would weave number stories into this block. So for the number One, I told the girls the story of "Offerus the Giant" by Jakob Streit found in "The Easter Story Book" (the legend is actually of St. Christopher and is found in many books by various authors. Here is a very short version of it more appropriate for young ones, which takes out the devil section and the section in the end where St. Christopher goes Home to Heaven.) One represents God. We then went into the living room and Gnome Share revealed his sign in nature. I showed the girls the chalkboard drawing and read the verse to them. We then drew it in our main lesson books together. Gnome Share told the story for number 2, which was "The Two Kings' Children" by the Brothers Grimm. For number 3, he told, "The Three Sons of Fortune" by the Brothers Grimm. All week we've had fun *sharing* things together. For the first exercise, I took the basket of eggs we painted and counted out 12 of them in one basket. I presented two empty baskets next to it as follows: I told Elena that I'd like her to count the eggs and then divide them evenly so that she and her sister would have an equal amount. She loved this! I then made up a story of some squirrels who were hungry and gathered around her, hoping she would share some nuts. So she worked within the confines of the story and was dividing them equally among the squirrels. I then would increase or decrease the number of squirrels so that she could see that 24 divided by 4 equals 6 and 24 divided by 6 equals 4. Or 24 divided by 2 equals 12, etc. Then Charley finished what she had been working on and came to try, too. I started her with the 12 eggs divided into two baskets, then told her I wanted some eggs, too - so she divided 12 by 3. And then Daddy wanted some eggs, as well so she divided 12 by 4. They had so much fun with this and started to see some patterns. I wrote down the equations on a dry erase board. And we made a second MLB drawing to represent our equations. We also worked with bean bags and rhythms. We were counting by two's and passing our bean bag to the next person on the 2's and then jazzed it up by alternating the bean bag from hand to hand while passing on the 2's. That was a bit of a challenge for them as it involves the thinking and the movement on the appropriate number. I wrote down the numbers on a board so they could see a pattern. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 32, 34, 36, 38, 40 etc... When they could see the pattern emerging, they could count by 2's up to 144 (and then they kept going even though we're focusing up to 144)... This week, we'll be meeting the next process gnome...

Let’s talk all things first grade! In Waldorf education, there is so much emphasis placed on the transition from kindergarten to first grade, and in many ways, it’s for good reason! The child is ready to transition into the grades, and with that comes a need to approach things a little differently:

Whether you are new to Waldorf or have been inspired by its beauty & depth for some time, these free resources offer support for Waldorf homeschooling.

The beauty of Waldorf education is that it meets the child where he is developmentally. The synergy of Waldorf teaching methods and child development is discussed wonderfully in an article by Dr Reggie Melrose called ‘Waldorf from a Neuroscientific Perspective‘. The Morning circle is a great example of how Waldorf meets the young child where […]

I'm going to take a brief break from my Main Lesson Book Photography Project to say that I've finally finished my list of stories for Waldorf First Grade Capital Letters! There are LOTS and LOTS of resources for using Grimm's fairy tales to teach the letters, and I'm happy to share the traditional story list with anyone who asks, but I wanted to come up with a creative way of doing the stories using picture books which I already had on my shelf. I was looking for some unusual choices for the letter illustrations, and some fun creative follow-up ideas for the stories I picked. Here is the web page with all of the details on this main lesson block! my merry little jumping juggling jester which I painted years ago, when I was first learning about Waldorf It also includes ALL of the links to the traditional resources as well, and lots of photos of the traditional illustrations. But here are my choices, first in alphabetical order, and then in the combinations which I will use for them. The web page includes all the stories which go with each letter and links to all the books I'm choosing, so I don't feel like I need to repeat that here. A - Asparagus B - Bubbles C - Cave D - Door & Den E - Elephant F - Feather G - Goose H - House I - Icicle J - Jump & Joy K - King L - Ledge M - Mountain N - Net O - Otter P - Parrot Q - Queen R - River S - Shooting Star T - Tower U - Underground V - Valley W - Worm X - Xylophone Y - Yak Z - Zucchini Story and Activity Combinations: #1 - Worm + Underground #2 - Tower + Bubbles #3 - Yak + House #4 - River + Net #5 - Otter + Shooting Star #6 - Mountain + Elephant #7 - Feather + Goose #8 - Xylophone + Parrot #9 - King + Queen #10 - Ledge + Valley + Cave #11 - Icicle + Jump/Joy + Door/Den #12 - Asparagus + Zucchini I would do this over two main lesson blocks, combinations 1 through 6 in one block and combinations 7 through 12 in the second block. Please, as always, feel free to share any comments in the comment box and I will be sure to respond! UPDATES: Looking back at this old post, I've realized that I have some newer ones that go with it very well. See How Waldorf Teaches Capital Letters (October 14, 2019) for my detailed lesson plan notes from Tue, Oct 1 (L - Ledge, D - Dragon) Thur, Oct 3 (R - River, N - Net) Mon, Oct 7 (V - Valley, C - Cave) Thu, Oct 10 (M - Mountain, E - Elephant) Fri, Oct 11 (W - Worm, U - Underground) You may also be interested in the post Shopping List for Capital Letters Block (March 25, 2020) which gives a summary of the artistic and hands-on projects I like to do for this block and all of the supplies needed. This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!

Q: In Waldorf education, main lesson books are used throughout the grades as part of a student’s educational experience: what are they used for? (This post is part of a series in which we answer the most common questions we receive in our inbox re: homeschooling, Waldorf curriculum/pedagogy, an

Are you teaching the Waldorf first grade Quality of Numbers block? I took a bunch of photos of my main lesson book. What a great block!

Seems like lately I’ve been having lots of conversations with my colleagues about math. Could be because (if you ask me) January is a perfect time for a math block. The more inward, reflective quality of this time of year makes it a great time to sit down and crunch numbers. (That’s what we’re doing […]

First grade is such a sweet, memorable year. It’s the bridge between the kindergarten and elementary years. Like the kindergarten child, the first grader still thrives on days full of play, connection, and rhythm. (For more on supporting these needs, see this post on How to Teach Kindergarten ). Yo