The Sixth Grade Basket

EP204: Discover the magic of making geology and the Roman Empire come alive for your sixth grader with the Waldorf-inspired approach to homeschooling. In this episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast, Jean invites you to explore how the lively arts and compelling stories can transform these subjects from mundane to magnificent. Reflecting on her personal homeschooling journey with her three children and insights from countless families, Jean gives you practical tools and resources to foster a holistic, engaging learning experience that resonates with your child’s developmental stage. Listen in for how homeschooling shifts in the upper elementary grades.

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Transcript

Jean: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, jean Miller, and here on this podcast you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin, as I was preparing this episode all about homeschooling, sixth grade. What came to mind was that the sixth grade topics may seem a little dry at first, literally geology, rocks and minerals, and the Roman Empire. You might remember from your own school years things like memorizing dates, labeling maps, copying definitions. Oh, that was not fun for me. What about you? So I thought this would be a wonderful time to talk a bit about the Waldorf-inspired approach in the upper elementary grades and how it evolves through the grades as our children grow, and how we can really bring the learning to life. These sixth grade topics are anything but boring when you are experiencing them through the lively arts and stories that highlight historical figures, discoveries and events that changed the world. Welcome to the 6th Grade Basket. In this episode I'll be sharing about books and resources, supplies, features of a holistic Waldorf curriculum and insights from my experience teaching my three kiddos and working with hundreds of homeschooling families. Grade six is a year when teaching may change significantly in your homeschool. As children approach adolescence they take a firm, intentional step out into the world. There's a greater orientation with gravity and cause and effect. How does the curriculum match where children are developmentally? One example is the study of geology, because metaphorically, mountains are the bones of the earth and give structure to the land, just as our bones and skeletons give structure to our bodies.

Jean: 2:41

There's a phrase often used to describe the Waldorf approach to teaching science in particular, known as the phenomenological approach. For the science subjects this refers to observing phenomenon first before hypothesizing or drawing conclusions, just like a true scientist would. This is why we focus so much in the early years on nature study and honing those observation skills. If you want to hear more about that, check out episode 171 here on the podcast Nature Study, the Foundation of Science. I'll put a link in the show notes.

Jean: 3:23

The goal of a phenomenological approach to teaching is to focus on an individual's firsthand experiences rather than abstract experiences of others. Today I want to suggest the notion of taking this phenomenological idea beyond the study of science into other subjects as well. So with history, for example, rather than studying about different time periods in a comprehensive way we can immerse ourselves into history through direct experience as much as possible reading stories, visiting museums, role-playing different historical figures. Another way to consider distinguishing the teaching of history using the Waldorf approach is to think of an episodic approach at this age, which refers to studying history by focusing on individual, distinct events or episodes, rather than analyzing broad trends or long-term developments. We want to drop in to fascinating moments in history, as my homeschooling friend, allison likes to say. Essentially, we're treating history as a collection of individual stories with a focus on key moments and turning points. It's like looking at history through a series of snapshots rather than one continuous film, because kids really do start to get interested in the real stories from history at this age. This is how we bring history in sixth grade and we bring stories of ancient civilizations like Rome, in which everything was highly structured to match the child's more systematic way of thinking. Just don't forget that we want to continue bringing as much hands-on experience as possible to the learning, no matter what the subject.

Jean: 5:28

Here's a great quote from the East African Waldorf Teacher Development Program in their Child Development Manual. You can look at this and read it online. I'll be sure to include a link in the show notes. Here's the quote the danger of the new intellectual development that is now beginning is that children start to separate themselves from the feeling aspect of learning. It is very important that the teacher finds a new way of bringing artistic activities to deepen the content that he or she presents to the children. More than ever, the children need to be engaged in artistic work to avoid a one-sided, unfeeling way of thinking from developing. End quote.

Jean: 6:18

I have one more suggestion for you to keep in mind as you think about sixth grade and children moving into the thinking phase of learning, because this really is a pivotal year in terms of how we teach. Steiner's ideas about cognitive development during grade six align with those of Piaget, vygotsky and other educational psychologists. 12-year-olds are just on the cusp of abstract thinking, and the themes of a Waldorf-inspired grade six help us navigate these changes together with our children. That means this is a year to really focus on the balance of thinking, feeling and willing. If you want to hear more about these stages of development, be sure to have a listen to episode number 126, thinking, feeling, willing Three Ways Children Learn. It's all about creating a meaningful learning process through intentional, purposeful activity that meets children right where they are developmentally. I'll be sure to put a link to this episode in the show notes for you, and also I recommend you pick up our free Ages and Stages Guide Waldorf-inspired grades at a glance. You'll find these all linked in the show notes at artofhomeschoolingcom, slash, episode 204. At artofhomeschoolingcom, slash, episode 204.

Jean: 7:47

If you are embarking on grade six this year, know that the themes explored in this grade are chosen expressly to assist both the inner and outer questing of the young person. Here are some of the themes and topics that we bring in sixth grade the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, geology and mineralogy, physics, geography of the world, geometric drawing with straight edge and compass, business, math, decimals and percents. A little note here about the curriculum and choosing topics of study. Many of the block topics we're familiar with for each grade are what come from custom in Waldorf schools. But remember, we get to choose and, honestly, there's a lot more variation in block topics from grade five and up, variation and block topics from grade five and up even in traditional Waldorf settings. So then, our job as the parent is to look at our children and intuit what they need right now.

Jean: 8:51

The truth is that Steiner didn't lay out the curriculum in as much detail really. So I just want you to keep this in mind as you look at your sixth grader and choose topics of study for your family. There's more room for choice than you may think. If you haven't listened to episode number 200 yet on ditching the dogma, please go find that episode and have a listen In it. I have a great conversation with my friend Robin at Waldorfish, all about letting go of the dogma. I think you'll find it very freeing.

Jean: 9:27

As a teaching strategy, consider making your focus this year the creating and sharing of academic experiences and completing academic challenges. This really changed homeschooling for me and made it so much more fun and interesting. Around grade five or six my kiddos could consider what kinds of projects they wanted to do, to share about what they were learning and make choices about what they wanted to explore further related to our main lesson block topics. You create the structure with your child's input and provide guidance while your child does the research, makes the observations and communicates their reflections and conclusions in some form. Here's another great quote from the Child Development Manual from the East African Waldorf Teacher Development Program Quote the children in grade six are demanding to be recognized in a different way from before. They no longer want everything to be beautiful. Actually, they feel capable of coming to their own conclusions, of making their own decisions. They want to be able to solve real problems, to organize their own schedules and projects, to work out the ground rules. They want to be challenged mentally and allowed to work things out for themselves. Now for some resources for your sixth grade basket. I'll be sure to link to all of them in the show notes at artofhomeschoolingcom.

Jean: 11:03

Slash episode 204. The Crust of Our Earth An Armchair Traveler's Guide by Chet Ramo. Augustus Caesar's World by Genevieve Foster. String. Straight Edge and Shadow. The Story of Geometry by Julia Diggins. Your Business Math from Simply Charlotte Mason. Compass and straight edge for geometry. Collection of rock specimens. We loved borrowing this from our natural history museum, as well as collecting some of our own Field guides to rocks and minerals and supplies for charcoal drawing.

Jean: 11:51

One last idea I want to touch on is how to begin digging into more studious, longer books, while continuing with a two-day lesson rhythm, because with these longer books we really need to be reading some every day and keep a pace to get through them, and that means we are not making a main lesson book entry for every section we read. Here's what that might look like. Read a few chapters or more. You get to divide up the book how you want, but read some on day one and choose one interesting aspect of that section to draw a picture of. Then, on day two, you can review and write a summary of that one aspect, or some small slice of what you read, and then you'll read some more, or you might assign your child to do some additional afternoon reading independently. On day three, you pick up wherever you've left off with reading and again choose just one interesting part to draw and write about. Of course, some books allow you to pick and choose and only read parts of them, but for those longer books that you really want to read from beginning to end and want to get all the way through, you'll want to plan to read some or have your child read some on their own every single day. That's a wrap.

Jean: 13:09

Be sure to check out the show notes for this episode for links to the recommended tools and resources, along with links to the Ages and Stages Guide, as well as previous episodes in this series. You'll find episodes on kindergarten and grades one through six so far, with grades seven and eight coming soon. You'll find the show notes at artofhomeschoolingcom slash, episode 204. And we really appreciate you choosing to listen to the podcast and supporting the show. We would be so grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest rating and review of this show. Just go to lovethepodcastcom slash art of homeschooling to leave a review on the platform of your choice and, while you're there, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the upcoming episodes on how you can create homeschooling lessons you love that are simple, inspiring and doable. Until next time. That's all for today, my friend, but here's what I want you to remember Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.