The Schedule of the Festive Christmas Season; Nov-Feb

Recently I was asked in a Waldorf homeschooling group about the Christmastime observance and practice of those in our Eastern traditions, how long and when Christmas is celebrated, and the times around them and how we celebrate (there are variations depending on cultural heritage and which branch/church one follows -- some follow a different calendar of dates).  Such a big question! Below is a very brief summary of how we do things in our family's Slavic based traditions, with a bit of not-Slav thrown in. We also have some family personal patron saints to add in during this time, too.

Preparation for Christmas/Nativity/Incarnation starts on Nov 14th and celebrating big parts of the pre-Nativity narrative, and related story, occur during this time. It is our Advent. It's a fasting period (children, sick, elderly, and nursing and pregnant mothers do not fast), and every night there is a special reading or reflection to do along with a candle lighting ceremony and special candle holder that has a place for each of the six weeks and one special place in the middle for Christmas Eve & Christmas day. Depending on the household this evening candle lighting prayer/reading service might have an Old Testament story focus or a New Testament focus. It is called the Phillipian Fast, or Philopovka (because it starts on the feast day of St Phillip), and it goes for 40 days (weekends do not count amoung the fasting/preparation days). 

Traditionally, these special candle holders are made of wood in the shape of a six pointed star to sit in the center of the table. I made this one to hang vertically on the wall to save space and keep flames away from curious little hands. (click on the pic for instructions)

Our children get their presents on St Nicholas day which starts with discovering their boots that were left outside overnight have a candy cane left in them. Later that day each child gets one big gift wrapped in paper and ribbons that is specific to them. This is about when we start putting Christmas decor up.
 
On Christmas Eve we have Holy Supper: a long meal/prayer service that takes basically from the afternoon till the evening. It is loaded with symbolism in the set up and the amount of vegetarian food (it is still within the fasting period), and is meant as a blessing to family unity, history, and for the year ahead of the family. The day includes preparation and songs, and the meal starts when the children see the first star outside. It includes prayers blessings toasts and rituals interspersed with the meal. Our animals get the first food & first treats of the evening since animals were also witness to the Christ child's birth, and kept Him warm. If the children are old enough to do so, it might also include a play. At the end, our daddy does "fortune telling" for each member of the family from the smoke of a candle they blow out.

 
Christmas is December 25th and holy day full of church attendance and singing and joy. The leftovers from the night before are added to a few new dishes to eat during the day so that momma does not have to do a lot of work. Jolly times with family! and gratitude during this lazy day.
Christmas starts on the 25th and we celebrate Nativity until January 6th.


Jan 6th is Theophany, when we celebrate the Baptism of Christ (in the Western tradition they celebrate this day as Epiphany with a focus on the Three Kings). In preparation we decorating bottles for the kids to take to church. Water is blessed then (churches that are located near a body of water like a river or lake might process there to bless it), and each kiddo gets their own bottle to fill with Theophany holy water, and we also fill big bottles for our home use. We talk about how the whole world is washed clean in blessing.

We celebrate the Wise Men on Jan 7th, and the story of the Magi's journey captures young imaginations in so many ways! There is always something to focus on each year and related crafts to make that help plant the seeds for understanding this important part of the story later on.
We leave the Nativity things up for a little while longer for the children to explore the story a bit more, and then Nativity items get packed away and the tree comes down. The rest of the Christmas decor and lights stay up.

On the Sunday closest to Feb 2nd, the Presentation in the Temple, we bless the candles for our homes for the coming year. We spend the preceding weeks taking inventory of what we need, and making candles. Then we arrange them neatly in a basket to take to church where everyone places their baskets up front to be blessed.

The festive season continues until February altho' within that Christmas season we might no longer be focusing on the Nativity story part of it as strongly after the 6th, there is a lot more story & fun stuff in there. We leave up all our decorations and garlands until Feb when we take most of them down. I still leave up greenery which we can decorate with other fun things until Spring. 

February also begins the season of house blessings! The priest comes to your house and blesses it all, and then you follow to the next house of the person in your area, and end up at one last person's house for a party all together. These prayers are not spoken but sung, so it's a day full of singing, holy water, candles, and then feasting with friends. The priest walks around with holy water, and blesses every bit of it while we sing. I make sure to have all our cupboards and closets open to also get the nooks & crannys blessed. Sometimes there is a toast and some goodies to eat before going to the next house. It can be a lovely community building event. It also encourage not being too dormant during the cold months -- we don't have "Spring Cleaning", we have hurry-and-rush-Winter-house-blessing-cleaning.


When the Christmas season is done, and we pack away the decor, we get a small breather before preparing for the next festal season: Pascha/Easter! 

~and back to homeschooling we go!

Well, it looks like we will be moving this Fall/Autumn of 2013.  It is very exciting (and nerve-wracking) to be getting a new place, but the house is attractive enough and the property is absolutely beautiful.  However, the location means that our plans for schooling this year have changed.

We adored the Waldorf school the kids went to last year.  The teachers and staff were so respectful, the community was accepting and non-judgemental, the environment was orderly and beautiful, and the kids really flourished there.  We simply cannot justify the commute from our new location.

So, we are going to be continuing on the Waldorf path, but from home instead, and hopefully with a coupla' other families to join us for some things along the way. 

I am making some decisions soon, and comparing various highly recommended home curricula to figure out what will work best for us.  Even so, the next year will be a bit 'light' schooling & schedule-wise since we will also be adjusting to a new living situation as well as welcoming sibling #5 into the family. 

A Comparison of Waldorf Homeschool Curriculum/Curricula

Note: this is a compilation of comments and experiences of other people. At the time of this post, I do not have any first hand experience with these. Many of the materials for these can be purchased second-hand, and the cost/prices listed are directly from the curriculum's main website. There are more options out there than are discussed here. Presented below in alphabetical order are thoughts & review notes on BEarth/EarthSchooling, Christopherous, Enki, Live Education, Oak Meadow, Waldorf Essentials, and Wee Folk.

BEARTH INSTITUTE / EARTHSCHOOLING

– affordability: $85 ($650 for family membership)

– through 8th grade

– can buy just parts of it, a year's curriculum or just subject blocks, or purchase a lifetime membership

– a lot of information offered and to go through

– offers many additional and supplemental classes, workshops, and skill teaching, and some free online resources and articles

– not pre-prepared for the parent teacher, and at the time of this blog entry the information was hard to sort through because the file name & organization on the site was not consistent 

CHRISTOPHERUS 

– affordability: $275-$475

– generally considered very true to the Waldorf method of child developmental stages

– names after the legend of St Christopher who carried the Christ child across the river

– 1st grade through 4th grade available as of this blog post; guides for subsequent grades, and more coming out each year

– written by a Waldorf trained teacher who also homeschooled, and written specifically for the homeschooling environment

– generally considered very true to the Waldorf method of child developmental stages

– simple to follow; laid out in very easy to find and follow blocks

– guide books have a lot of detail

– ways to incorporate the daily activities of the home into learning opportunities

ENKI EDUCATION 

– affordability: $325-$750

– Waldorf-y with a Buddhist bent; name “Enki” after an ancient symbol of flexible wisdom

– as of this blog post, it is only up through grade 3, and adding more each year

– focus and drive behind curriculum choices is to provide a multi-cultural exposure

– moves from teacher-led, to peer-led, to student-led learning

– does not provide a day by day approach to home education, requires additional work by parent

– offers teacher training and consulting packages

LIVE EDUCATION

– affordability: $420-$480 (note: can't buy just the books without also purchasing consulting)

– very true to the philosophy behind Waldorf education

– kindergarten through 8th grade

– LE is like a bunch of how-to books, or instruction manuals that teach the parent how to teach Waldorf style; like teacher training; similar to what would be done in a school/institutional setting

– comes with a personal consultant to guide & answer questions

– offer a block (3 to 4 weeks) of lessons to present for each block subject. The parent then creates a similar block to rotate into the schedule later in the year. It's not hard because you already have the template and the info to plug into the lesson, but it is more work, more time-consuming that a completely prepared syllabus

– requires additional research, reading, parent-education, organization and preparation; parent has to create additional lessons beyond what is directly/immediately offered

– a flexible, sequential curriculum that can be adapted to the family’s needs

– not a day-by-day syllabus/template, but rather about the subjects and how to approach it, what to cover, presentation of it

– an abundance of add-on material to choose from

OAK MEADOW

– affordability: $130-$450 

– general characterization: Waldorf inspired, quite a bit of Montessori influence

– has a Waldorf flavor, but it's not very true to the philosophy behind Waldorf education, takes aspects of it like crafts and art; does not have all the stories and fairy tales

– preschool through 8th grade

– is fundamentally set up differently and starts academic, alphabet, and reading/literacy work earlier; considered more mainstream

– does not follow the Waldorf/Steiner year-by-year to build upon the child's developmental stages

– well established & lays out day to day lessons

– OM is scheduled out for you by the week

– often considered “too academic" for those following a Waldorf path, or "not academic enough" for those expecting their children to be reading and doing math early

– some say it's labor intensive for the parent teacher, others say it's easy to follow and to dive in as an untrained teacher

WALDORF ESSENTIALS


- affordability: $40-$550
- purchase individual grade components, notes, and guides, or buy a lifetime membership that gives access to all materials of all grades and includes mentoring and coaching
- very Waldorf authentic
- creator has schooled all her children through all grades
- a lot of parent support and availability to answer questions, includes possible parent guides and parent lessons
- has home rhythms and school rhythms laid out
- main complaint is that requires a lot of inner/personal work on the part of the teacher, which is also a major bonus to a lot of people


Wee Folk's Curriculum Guides

– affordability: free to download
– preschool-kindergarten (4-6 years old)
– four seasonal 12 weekly units laid out by week and not day-by-day
– moves with the seasons; stories and related crafts/activities
– easy to do, no pressure, easily modifiable and does not take large chunks of time nor every single day
– generally kids love it; easy to present at several ages all at once
– easily modifiable, allows a lot of flexibility for the household schedule; go at whatever pace you want/need

Maybe No More Homeschool?..

It has been a hard year for us, harder than we really let on. Balancing all the aspects of my life is not an option. It's not that I need to try harder, or change my perspective, or just try a different approach. I am not a failure. I have not given up. I can only cheat the cards life has given me so much before I simply must accept and play them.

I am frustrated.  I am tired.  I am sick. I am lonely. I am overwhelmed and it is too much for me. And I am on the verge of being too depressed to function, and am already past the point of being physically able to function (hopefully we can get to the bottom of that soon). There was a time when I would justify stretching and half-destroying myself to meet family needs, but it is becoming more clear that in doing so our domestic life and family needs are actually being harmed. Even if the curriculum we had decided on were still available (it strangely disappeared off the face of the web), I still don't think I could manage it.

like this doubled -- the older two are off creating their own adventure somewhere else

 <----  This from Simcha Fischer's blog, but it could almost be from our house, too. 






I have been very strong, and I have done good things. Great things, even. I am still a huge proponent of homeschool, and that will not change.  However, other things must change if we are to survive in half-way decent shape and I be able to continue to give my children the love and respect the deserve, let alone meet their basic physical needs.

Many people have struggled with not being able to homeschool, or having to abandon that route (if even just for a short while),  or making decisions they never planed to make for their child's schooling and development. Here are some blog posts that I resonated with on one level or another:

Homeschooling Guilt Trip

Why we're dropping out of homeschool

And then I quit homeschooling and joined a cult

Quiet desperation: a humbling look at my own homeschool burnout

I must never forget that my goal as a parent is not to homeschool, or even see that my children are well educated. The core goal is to raise my children in such as way as to foster them being the wonderful creatures they were created to be, in union with God, and towards goals in life that I don't even know. Although I never really lose track of this, I still need to re-visit everything from scratch from this perspective now and again.I cannot get in the way of that, even if it means giving up something I thought I knew was the right thing to do. I need to follow the flow that God presents to me.  

We have been on a path of Waldorf style homeschooling, and we are deciding whether to send our kids to the Waldorf school in the area.  There, they do what I would  want to do at home but can't right now with the exception of religious education (which I will still actively do, as well as the preschool & kindergarten years). The decision is all but finalized as "yes", but I still need to come to terms with it.  As soon as I do that, I know it will be easier to let go & trust God. I will not be taking a back seat, mind you, but rather a less directly active one.

addendum: I met with my daughters future teacher.  She is great, and everything I would want for a teacher of my kiddo, as well as being super willing to work with me.  As a bonus, she is Roman Catholic, and although that is not exactly the same religion & beliefs as we are, it is close enough that she knows where we're coming from.  This makes me feel a lot better.  

2013 addendum: Our year at the school was great! but since we are moving, we will be too far away to make the commute work, so it's back to homeschooling we go.