Waldorf Homeschooling Botany Resources

botany waldorf by grade Feb 23, 2025

Steiner's suggestions:

Grade 6-8: Practical gardening. cultivating the soil, tending and harvesting plants.  Repeating this through these three years helps them understand rotation.

Grade 9: Focus on vegetable gardening, tending to flowers, fruit-bearing shrubs and trees.

Grade 10: Thinning out of trees and shrubs.  It is also suggested that manuring be discussed during this time as well as sustainable agriculture.  At this age they can really begin to make some strong opinions based in facts - show them all kinds of agriculture.

Now of course there is the discussion that children should have a knowledge of farming in grade 3 - this is so true!  This easily goes with the studies of the year.  Adam and Eve had a garden and then when they were cast out, they had to learn to farm and garden without the help of it being started for them.  A child of this age should be gardening alongside Mom, harvesting, cooking, etc. This is very cooperative. As they grow, you can allow them to be a b...

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Coming to Waldorf Education Late

Grade 2 (age 7-8):  In many ways, grade two is an extension of grade one.  Some children are reading well and some are still coming along. When you come to Waldorf at this stage, you will need many of the foundations that we recommend for grade one, the exception being that you will want our grade two curriculum instead.


Grade 3 (age 8-9):  Consider not working on the regular Waldorf festivals this year but rather celebrate Jewish festivals and ease into your year.  Remember to keep any history to an age-appropriate level.  You can skip the fairy tales and the fables at this point unless you want to use them as extra stories.

 

Grade 4 (age 9-10):  If you begin with Waldorf this year, you will want to be certain you fully understand the man/animal main lesson as this will give you a foundation of what is to come in the upper elementary grades. You may also consider some drawing classes or our block crayon lessons.

 

Grade 5 (age 10-11):  You should consider doing the 4th grade man...

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Waldorf Education - Science Through the Grades Road Map Pt. 2

science waldorf by grade Jun 11, 2023

This is a two part post.  Part 1 is HERE.

The first post focused on science through grade 5.  Now we'll tackle what comes next. I do think for homeschoolers, the most important thing to keep in mind is not to be intimidated. Science was never my strong point in school, but I found myself enjoying it so much while I have been preparing for our lessons.  Remember that it is about owning what you do know and blessing it so you can take it to your children - take the time to prepare, not cram, preparation can be as simple as working through the material and letting it sit or it can be actually working through experiments to see the outcome.  So much has to do with how you learn and how you can then transform that learning into a living experience for your child.

Grade 6/Class 6: This year children get a taste of physics with sound, heat, light, magnetism and static electricity. It also digs deeply into geology, minerals of the Earth and their qualities (in relation to geography) as well ...

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Waldorf Education - Science Through the Grades Road Map Pt. 1

science waldorf by grade Jun 04, 2023
 
Often I get emails from moms with young children that look forward to the first few years of the curriculum and don't see science and begin to panic.  I also get emails from those that are part of state/government mandated programs and they worry about the science content as well.  Unless you know where to look, it might seem that Waldorf doesn't have a strength in this area until middle elementary and even then it may look weak to some. It leaves an impression that this is only a liberal arts education and not heavy in math or science at all.  I am hoping this post will clear up some of that misconception and also help those that might need it to know just what to say when nay-sayers come knocking.

In the text "Rudolf Steiner's Curriculum for Waldorf Schools," Karl Stockmeyer methodically lays out Steiner's recommendations for the first schools - in fact the subtitle is "An attempt to summarise his indications" - I am not sure I would recommend this book for the masses, while it i

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What is Waldorf?

waldorf by grade Apr 18, 2023
Most of us did not grow up with Waldorf education.
It's common to wonder:

What is Waldorf education?
How do I find the best Waldorf curriculum for our family. 
How is Waldorf different than Montessori? 
Is Waldorf secular or religious?

Waldorf is a method of education that explores cultures through history as a means to connect children to this world and those that live in it.  

Let’s take a brief walk through the literature aspects of the curriculum.



In grade 1, children learn through fairy tales. Some are happy, some are sad, all do an amazing amount of work on our children’s souls. The child of seven is very much in a place of working through good and bad, they are seeing the world with different eyes than they did a year ago and they need stories that nourish this new place. Feel uncomfortable with fairy tales? Check out our blog post specifically talking about Grade 1 and fairy tales here.

In grade 2, children learn through the stories of saints and animal stories. The child of eight i...
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