A Day in the Homeschool-Life of a Waldorf Kindergartener with Two Older Siblings

The beauty of Waldorf kindergarten is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling. As my youngest (5-years-old), River, approached the kindergarten years, I began to wonder if it would be as beautiful as it was for my older two children (now 14 and 11-years-old). With the older two we had mostly slow days, filled with stories, baking and nature. Now, our days are punctuated with music lessons, ballet, choir and orchestra (for the older children). On top of that, my husband travels during the weekdays, only coming home on the weekends. How could I possibly let my youngest feel the beauty I remembered and envisioned?

I am finding that though it may be a different kind of beauty, we are still able to make it all come together and offer our youngest the slowness and deep play of the early years. One of the unforeseen things that is helping the most is that my oldest two children, Haydn and Torin, remember how wonderful their early years were and want to help me give that gift to River. It is taking all of us to give this gift, but perhaps that is truly the way it should be.

To give you a taste of our daily rhythm, I will re-cap our Tuesday for you.

Haydn, Torin and I wake up at 7:15 a.m. I am not a morning person, so do not make myself wake up any earlier than the children. River usually sleeps a little later than everyone else. Today, he wandered in while I was finishing up my yoga practice and his older siblings were doing their responsibilities. He took a few minutes to just sit and ease into the morning. When he felt ready, he did his responsibility of feeding the cats. He also checked on the chicks we are raising. As soon as I finished my yoga practice, I began to set out our breakfast things. We had boiled eggs (I had already started these in the Instant Pot before practicing yoga), granola/cereal and milk, and toast. River buttered his own toast and spread the jam. He also cleared his own dishes after breakfast.

After breakfast, we have Morning Lesson. Morning Lesson is for everyone. We read about someone inspiring and work in our growth mindset journals. This morning we read a picture book about the Greek scholar and mathematician, Erastothenes. River usually loves the reading portion of the morning, but wandered around a bit during this book, as it did get slightly tedious for a 5-year-old. After reading, we work in our guided journals. I always give him the option to work in his journal when the older two are working in theirs. I would have not given him the journal if he were an only child, but this is one way in which life is different for the youngest. He wants to participate and imitate the older two, so he has a journal like they do. He chose to work in is journal this morning (he usually does). I wrote down the name of a person he told me he finds inspiring (Jacques Cousteau) and why. We read about Jacques Cousteau last year and River has been inspired by him ever since. I tried to write down River's exact words. He then drew a picture of Jacques.

After morning lesson, everyone goes outside. It is still quite hot where we live, so it is important to spend some time outside before it heats up. River stayed outside while I had a morning meeting with the older two children, each in turn (usually one of us stays outside with him as we have 20 wooded acres and two ponds). After I met with the older two children and they were clear on what they need to work on, River and I had our time together. Here is the order of our "lesson."

Go outside to check on the weather and talk about how it feels on our skin and looks to our eyes

Light our candle (singing while we light it)

Put our day-of-the-week-gnome in the center of our wheel of the year (add a new month piece, if needed)

Look at our rhythm card for the day (Tuesday is baking)

Read our story

Work on our handwork or craft project (R finished his simple sewing/embroidery project today)

Talk a bit about our theme for the week (this week is squirrels and nuts)

Sing one or two songs together

Baking (today we made nutty graham crackers)

Read a book that follows our theme, if time (sometimes we read this book in the evening)

After this we ate lunch, and everyone enjoyed some of the crackers River and I made. After lunch Haydn played with him. Then River had a rest on his bed.

Torin has ballet on Tuesdays, so in the late afternoon she and I left for ballet. Haydn stayed with River at home. They usually play together or River plays Legos or stuffed animals, while Haydn finishes homework. Sometimes they do baking together, if we were unable to do it earlier in the day (last week they baked oatmeal cookies). They usually have a chapter book going together and sometimes Haydn reads to him while I am gone.

Torin and I were home by 6:30 p.m. All the children helped put away groceries I bought in town, while I prepared a quick dinner. After dinner, we had some free time, which we spent outside planting a few flowers and tending the chickens. Then we tidied up a bit and got ready for bed. Our bedtime routine usually looks like this:

Bath

Floss and brush teeth

Read (we all come together to read a chapter book)

Sparkle Stories (a wonderful children's audio story subscription we use often)

Sleep

These days certainly look different than they did for my older children, but they are special and I love that we are working together to give River wonderful kindergarten years.