Introducing Jenny Sage's
Woodstock Waldorf Homeschooling Classes!
These unique courses have been developed in response to parents who are homeschooling their children, but also wish to give them some of the benefits of a Waldorf education.
Children learn together in groups, and have the valuable experience of being in a group setting, with a teacher and a class. Unlike school, these classes meet for only a short part of the day, and only for certain subjects. Course offerings include Main Lesson Blocks, Handwork, and Music. Please follow the appropriate links to find information about these, and how they are structured.
Because they are designed with homeschoolers' needs in mind, these courses are meant to be tailored to the individual. Jenny will meet with each family, prior to enrollment, in order to create a plan of study.
The Challenge of Waldorf Homeschooling
Waldorf Homeschooling is not a new concept. In many ways, Waldorf education and Homeschooling seem to be made to go together. On the other hand, however, reconciling the two presents a particular set of challenges. Programs have been developed that provide parents with a Waldorf-based curriculum, with which to teach their children on their own. For anyone familiar with Waldorf education, this brings up the immediate question of the loss of group dynamic. Most Waldorf activities are designed to be done in groups. The most obvious examples of this include circle games, hand-clapping games, and singing, which help the children grow naturally and joyfully into socialization, while promoting the healthy growth of various brain functions. But even in subtler ways, the importance of the group experience for the children's personal and academic growth cannot be underestimated. Most of the teaching and learning happens orally, and the students get the chance to recreate the previous day's lessons, while taking turns and supporting each other.
Children also crave mentoring outside their own homes and family circles. This begins especially around the time when they are ready to enter first grade, and increases as they grow older. Children increasingly crave a relationship with a teacher, a truly strong and upright adult role model who is independent from the immediate family. Such a relationship, especially when the child feels him- or herself to be part of a class that is held and loved by that teacher, can prove a source of peace and safety in childhood, and provide a foundation for strength, integrity, and leadership later in life.
Jenny Sage grew up in the Hudson Valley, and has been connected to both the homeschooling and Waldorf communities in that area. She was a Waldorf and homeschooled student herself, and has worked as a full time nanny, as well as taught and tutored in Waldorf, Montessori, and public school classrooms. She holds a B.A. in English and a B.Mus. in Recorder performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, and is a graduate of the Resonare program (a foundation course in music with a Waldorf based approach). She has been teaching private music lessons to children and adults for over twelve years. Other Waldorf based experience includes having lived and worked in a Camphill Village in Norway, caring for special needs adults in a volunteer capacity. After a successful and rewarding experience as a teacher in a Waldorf school, she is excited to return and offer her gifts to Hudson Valley homeschoolers.
Jenny Sage
Group Homeschool Instruction in true Waldorf style
