Festivals and Studies

We have been thinking for a while about the internet use, and to make it more balanced, it is better for us to keep a discipline with the posting, for that reason instead of writing whenever an inspiration comes, or something urges to be written, the posts will follow every Thursday, as it would be a Thursday faculty meeting.

Because of the nature of homeschooling, we are working in more isolation than a school body would be, and this situation may bring some handiccaps and some advantages.

The handiccaps are encouragement and sharing of issues, with the result in increase of effectiveness. Where homeschoolers can find this comraderie? this encouragement? this well of ideas from others? many times it is in homeschoolers groups, many times is in internet forums. There is actually a forum coming soon ( Homespun Waldorf) that a friend of us is starting, and I would like to welcome anybody that would like to form part of it, you could see it at http://homespunwaldorf.com/

But really nothing beats the face to face sharing, the community of homeschoolers getting together. We just were at one of those gatherings today and it was great!

There are some things we would like to see going on, and the first is four main festivals of the year celebrated in a gathering, Saint John, Saint Michael, Christmas, and Easter, with families getting together and sharing with songs and meal. After that the grown-ups would join in conversation or study of the deep aspects of the festival in the turning of the seasons each year.

Secondly, the deepening of our knowledge, with book studies. Not so long ago, there was an article by Christof Wiechert, appealing to all the teachers to come back to the basics in reevaluating how they were teaching, how the materials were presented, and this basic book is The Study of Man.

Two years ago there was a study going on in the community about this book, and it was very good to work with the material of the book in such a special way. Some books you can read through them and grasp the ideas, but some other books are like fountains of wisdom, and you can study in a more lively way. For this study we gathered around and each read a small part of the book, and then repeat the part read in each own words, it was a difficult exercise of memory, but of important results. After that was done for a while going around, there was some reflection on the text read. One of the aims doing it this way was to build up a Goethean observation of the material to study.

I think the study of this book may resume this fall, but I would like to have some kind of this particular book study in the internet, with fellow friends that cannot attend the live study groups. Let me know if this might be something of your interest.