Magical Cedar Tree: A Home School Tale to Spin
Since the beginning, we have sat together listening to the stories of our ancestors. Storytelling is the vehicle for which we learn.
Forest Schooling on the Homestead
Our very best memories are made during our Forest Schooling hours. Most afternoons are spent wondering through the acres of forest behind our home. We have adventures and find all sorts of living things … many of which I never knew existed. Our recent adventure accompanied a story called, "The Legend of the Cedar" In the Waldorf pedagogy, stories from the ingenious people of the land are told to the children to help them connect with the earth beneath their feet. This generally takes place in Second grade, but the Native American stories all tie in wonderfully with our afternoon Forest Schooling. One of the books I'm using for activity ideas is, Forest Schooling. The idea for a magic wand made out of sacred tree branches, came from this book. Earlier that day, I stumbled across a stunning website of folktales, Spirit of Trees. This is where I found the story, "The Legend of the Cedar"
I am working on reading a text and then retelling it by heart. The littles respond to the stories on a deeper level when I am looking them in the eyes telling it to them. I know that the stories are resonating with them because I see their eyes light up.
I had the perfect cedar in mind to hike to. We visit it often, as it is one of our best climbing trees. I told the story under the tree and afterwards we looked around on the ground for sticks that had broken off that tree. We collected several other items that day to tie to the end of our magic wands. Kayden was lucky enough to find a feather for his. We avoided putting anything poisonous on our wands. Once home, we assembled our wands and they are now reside above the front door of our home. The Cherokee author, Jim Fox, noted that many Cherokee medicine men have cedar in their medicine bags and hand cedar branches above their doors to ward off bad spirits.
Homeschooling
I have been homeschooling my twin six year old's since the beginning of August. They are considered Kindergarteners by traditional U.S. schooling methods and are considered to be in the "early years" of Waldorf education. We are a special circumstance, as they were in a traditional public school for Head Start and Pre-K. When we started in August, they were already readers. So, my biggest challenge this year has been "slowing" down the adult guided learning process to get them on track with the Waldorf pedagogy, without stopping completely. Children can become disinterested in learning whenever they become board with it. That would be counterintuitive because my highest endeavor is to cultivate a love of learning for my children.
Our Kindergarten is comprised of a circle time where we learn poems and music on our glockenspiel. We spend about 45 minutes in the mornings doing a Seasonal Circle Time. We offer several of the Circle Times we used instead our Etsy Shop
Our afternoons are taken up with the magical experience of Forest Schooling. I hope they never out grow Forest Schooling. <3
First Grade Homeschool Curriculum
☆☆ This activity warped into an entire Waldorf First Grade curriculum, I wrote for the boys. It uses Native American stories to teach the children the quality of numbers. Check it out here:
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