I woke up this morning thinking about the “heart” of homeschooling.
In Waldorf education, the whole child is educated. This includes the hands (or will), heart, and head.
From birth to around age seven, children are learning how to use their bodies and accomplish goals like building towers and making mud pies. These activities involve the hands and the will.
By the time children start first grade, if they have been given ample opportunities to activate their will, they are usually ready to sit down for lessons. Although this is academic work, it primarily involves the heart because lessons are taught through stories and imagination. The hands and will are now working on writing and drawing in lesson books, and both the hands and heart are involved with art, handwork, and music.
High school lessons are focused mainly on the head, or intellectual, work, but these students can continue in art and handwork to bring the heart into their education.
Bringing the heart into homeschooling adds a nice balance to academic work. Even better, doing art or handwork together can give you and your child a relaxed time to connect with each other.
Here are some ideas for different age ranges:
Ages 2 – 7: acrylic and watercolor painting, finger painting, open ended crafting (with scissors, glue, crayons, paper, etc. and no end goal in mind), play dough, baking, wet wool felting, finger knitting for older children.
Ages 7 – 14: wet-on-wet watercolor painting, beeswax modeling, simple sewing (with felt, yarn, and a large needle), weaving, baking, playing an instrument, learning main lessons through stories.
As children get older in this age range, they can learn purling, crochet, cross stitch, needle felting, embroidering, sewing, and just about any other handwork you can think of.
Ages 14+: a continuation of previous skills and taking on or designing more advanced projects, as well as picking up skills that were not learned in previous years.
If children are learning about a modern or historical culture as part of their main lesson work, I like the idea of exploring related art and handwork. For example, quilling was popular during Colonial America, although it started much earlier, possibly in China or Egypt. Whenever my daughter does a study on Colonial America, I fully intend to try quilling with her (maybe more for me than for her since I’ve wanted to learn it for years!)
I hope you and your child will choose a project and enjoy your “heart” work together.