I am not a “Waldorf Homeschooler”. However, being a hands-on learning advocate, I like the 7 Lively Arts.
I worked for a Waldorf Inspired HomeSchool last year. I attended their Waldorf Homeschool Conference. We have many Waldorf Homeschooling friends. There are many things I like about Waldorf and a few I don’t.
So, what are these 7 Lively Arts? Drama, Drawing, Movement, Music, Modeling, Painting, Speech
Why are these the 7 Lively Arts? Because these are the 7 Liberal Arts from Ancient Times. We teach them today as ‘electives’ in public school.
How do I translate these 7 Lively Arts into my Hands-On Learning Homeschool??
Drama = Act it Out. We are always acting out history lessons. We even act out adverbs! We might not rehearse a major play, but we do get into character.
Drawing = Drawing. We Sketch trees, plants, animals, castles, country borders, etc. I do not use the lines / methods of Waldorf drawing, but we still draw.
Movement = Games. We get up to hop, skip, and flip our way to answers. We used to paint the floor tiles the letters of the alphabet to hop Scotch around. bean bag tosses and hula hoops have made for fun lessons!
Music= Music. Both boys love to listen to music and try to play. My oldest is great on the piano, acoustic guitar, and ukulele.
Modeling = Sculpting. We buy modeling clay in bulk! We’ve sculpted animals, anatomy, and fun little things to reinforce our lessons.
Painting = Painting. {see Drawing again}
Speech = Read Aloud. My boys have been encouraged to write creative papers and read them aloud.
As you can see you can easily incorporate the 7 Lively Arts without being a Waldorf Homeschooler.
Many (many) moons ago when I was first blogging I was nominated for a “methods blogger” award. Readers asked me what was my “Homeschool Method”.
I had no idea. Hands-On Learning wasn’t really an option at the time. Fancy words like Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, Unschooling etc. ruled the top spots. These words were all new methods to me and took me a few years to see what I do and do not like from each.
Homeschooling offers such unique flexibility we can pick and choose what we like and create something perfect!