Waldorf Homeschooling in 2025

EP232: What does Waldorf homeschooling look like in 2025? How has the homeschooling landscape and the Waldorf homeschooling movement changed? And what remains steady at the heart of Waldorf homeschooling?

Join Jean on the Art of Homeschooling podcast this week to explore the changing landscape of Waldorf homeschooling as families seek a more connected, creative, and holistic approach to educating their children at home.

Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode232/

If this  episode resonates with you as a Waldorf-inspired homeschooler in 2025, please join Jean and her team at the 19th annual Taproot Teacher Training in northeastern Ohio from August 14th to 17th, 2025.

Taproot is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to connect with kindred spirits, step away from the day-to-day, and immerse yourself in the arts, storytelling, music, and nature. Reconnect with your homeschooling purpose at Taproot 2025!

Join us at The Taproot Teacher Training www.artofhomeschooling.com/taproot

Come fill your cup this summer at the Taproot Teacher Training for Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers. 

Through hands-on workshops, soulful conversations, and quiet moments in nature, you’ll walk away feeling grounded, inspired, and equipped to bring more rhythm and joy to your homeschooling.

You don’t have to do this alone. 💛

Visit www.artofhomeschooling.com/taproot2025 to learn more and save your spot today.

Chapters

• 2:52 How homeschooling is different in 2025
• 5:15 The changing landscape of Waldorf homeschooling and "responsible innovation"
• 9:31 What remains constant at the heart of Waldorf education
• 10:08 The challenges of Waldorf homeschooling in 2025
• 13:22 The tools that Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers need today in 2025
• 14:31 You don't have to do this alone! A special invitation to Taproot 2025
• 16:38 Waldorf-inspired homeschooling in 2025 is about creating a nurturing life of learning

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:19

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. Hello and welcome to the Art of Homeschooling podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Today. We're diving into a conversation about Waldorf homeschooling in 2025. What's changing, what's staying the same and how we can take inspiration from the Waldorf approach for teaching our children at home. Whether you're brand new to Waldorf-inspired homeschooling or you've been at it for a while, this episode is meant to offer insight, encouragement and a little spark of inspiration as many of you are planning for your year ahead, and I would love for you to follow and share about the art of homeschooling over on Instagram, because you never know whose life you might change. You can find me on Instagram at artofhomeschooling. Let's dive in what's shifting in the Waldorf homeschooling world. Let's start with the homeschooling landscape. Homeschooling in 2025 looks a little different than it did even just a few years ago, and so different from when our family started homeschooling nearly 30 years ago. More and more families are seeking alternatives to traditional schooling, looking for more connection, creativity, safety, individualized learning and more room, I think, for their kids to grow at their own pace. According to a 2023 Washington Post Schar School survey, the first of its kind, post-pandemic homeschooling is less religious and more racially and ideologically diverse than in earlier times. There is also a lot more mixing and matching of homeschooling with public or online school programs, depending on a particular child's needs. I'll link to this article in the show notes where you can see a graph of the reasons parents choose to homeschool. You can find those show notes at artofhomeschoolingcom slash, episode 232. In the article, robert Kunzman, a professor at Indiana University School of Education and director of the International Center for Home Education Research, is quoted as saying and here's the quote families who choose homeschooling less for ideological reasons and more for matters of circumstance and what meets the needs of their child in the present moment will help change our conception of what it means to be a homeschooler.

Speaker 1: 4:49

I love this focus on the individual child. I talk about that a lot here on the podcast. Homeschooling has really been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. We all know that right, and I always find it fascinating to see all the varied reasons that families choose to homeschool and I think the range of variations is getting broader and broader. Waldorf homeschooling has also been on the rise, from my observations, and along with that, the broader Waldorf movement, including the school movement, seems to be more accepting of Waldorf-inspired homeschooling. There was a time when homeschooling parents attending Waldorf teacher training programs wouldn't dare say that they were homeschoolers. I have a very good friend who went to a grades training back in the early years when we started out homeschooling and she felt compelled to lie about the fact that she was a homeschooler. Today, waldorf homeschooling has grown to be part of this broader movement. I think there's so much more acceptance. Many thanks, I would say, to my mentor, barbara Dewey, who decided to become a trained Waldorf teacher in order to specifically work with homeschoolers back in the 1990s.

Speaker 1: 6:16

I think a big shift came during the 100th anniversary festivities within the Waldorf movement in 2019. The first Waldorf school was opened in 1919. And in 2019, there were conferences, articles, videos, even a lot of conversation about the first 100 years of Waldorf and what the next 100 years might look like. At a conference that year, the term responsible innovation emerged as a guiding light into the next century, encouraging Waldorf teachers worldwide to adapt the Waldorf approach to meet the needs of children today. We want to build on the strong foundation of child development, rhythm, the lively arts and reverence for the natural world. We want to continue to honor that foundation. But what we don't want is to become dogmatic in our teaching, where we just blindly follow an approach without question because we think it's what we have to do or how we have to do things. Teaching can become fixed and inflexible when we think there's only one right way.

Speaker 1: 7:33

I see more and more homeschooling families adapting Waldorf to fit their real lives, and that's a beautiful thing. In my opinion, a growing number of parents who are homeschooling children of multiple ages like trying to translate this approach that was created for the classroom, translate it to a homeschool setting where we often have more than one child. We're homeschooling and also adapting to children with diverse learning needs. All these parents are finding ways to personalize Waldorf-inspired homeschooling. That's really what we're all about around here at Art of Homeschooling customizing and personalizing curriculum and your homeschooling plans to meet the needs of your children. And truly, rudolf Steiner's vision when he created the Waldorf approach was for a living education that would not grow stagnant.

Speaker 1: 8:34

If you haven't listened yet, be sure to check out episode 200 here on the podcast, where I chat with my friend, robin Beaufoy from Waldorfish about ditching the dogma and making Waldorf your own. In this episode, robin and I talk about how Waldorf homeschooling sometimes feels like this terrible game of telephone, and we give examples of Waldorf dogma in practice and talk about how we can embrace this idea of responsible innovation in our homeschools. I'll be sure to link to that episode in the show notes for you as well. I say let's celebrate the diversity of homeschoolers and that being a Waldorf homeschooler is no longer about doing it perfectly. It's about doing it in a way that brings more peace and purpose to your family and, particularly, more connection to your children.

Speaker 1: 9:31

The heart of Waldorf still matters In 2025, even as the landscape of Waldorf homeschooling is changing. Those grounding principles of rhythm, imagination, wonder and nature remain timeless and, from my vantage point, these principles are needed now more than ever before. Steiner really saw these elements as a healing impulse for a divided and uncertain world when he opened that first Waldorf school in 1919, amidst the devastation of World War I. Here in 2025, with the constant buzz of technology and information, all the curricula and online classes available. Waldorf homeschooling invites us to slow down and be fully present with our children, and while I appreciate all the options because they allow us to choose what works best for our own children, the plethora of educational options these days can create a sense of pressure that we can never do enough, that we're never doing enough.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Simplifying is really the answer Finding clarity and focusing on the children right in front of us and that's what I'm here for, with guidance, to help you navigate the landscape of so many options and help you focus in on what's most important to you. Here's something I always remind the families I work with you don't have to do everything. Start small, follow your child, trust your instincts. So what makes it hard right now? Let's be honest, there are also real challenges facing homeschooling parents these days. The homeschool curriculum overwhelm is real.

Speaker 1: 11:25

With the growth of homeschooling, the number of curriculum options available for purchase has grown exponentially as well. This can be so overwhelming for us as parents. This is one of the biggest differences from when my family started on the homeschooling journey back in the early 1990s. Today, there's really the opposite challenge of what I had when I started out. There really wasn't any curriculum available for homeschooling families using alternative approaches. There were a few companies selling faith-based classical curriculum packages for homeschoolers, but there wasn't anything for Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers in particular. So what lots of homeschooling parents did was search for resources that were made for classroom teachers and we worked on adapting those to the homeschool setting. Or maybe we had a friend of a friend who knew a Waldorf teacher, classroom teacher, and we could borrow or be handed down materials from them. Today there are almost too many options. The amount of curricula for sale has drastically increased, I think, in particular since the pandemic and even just the last couple of years, and now there seems to be a surplus of curriculum. Add to that the proliferation of social media, all the comparison that comes with that.

Speaker 1: 12:53

So often we think everyone else has it figured out right, when really we're all just trying to show up for our kids in the best way that we can. Many homeschoolers, I think, also feel very isolated, not having other parents to talk to who really get this lifestyle, especially when we want to bring the Waldorf approach to our homeschooling. It can be a lonely road at times, but here's the truth. You don't have to do this alone. So what do Waldorf homeschoolers need in 2025? What do we need in these current times? Here's a list of what I would say serves us best in this time A flexible structure that actually fits our family.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Strategies and resources that help us use the curriculum and learning materials so that we can help our children make progress in their learning. Permission to let go of perfection. Encouragement and clarity to know we're on the right track. The confidence to trust our intuition and the wisdom to be guided by our hearts. A sense of community, of being seen and supported. And time to reflect and connect, away from all the noise. These are the pieces that help us keep going, that help us homeschool, not just for a season but for the long haul, to keep the homeschooling journey sustainable. And that brings me to a very special invitation.

Speaker 1: 14:34

Each summer, I host the Taproot Teacher Training for Homeschoolers. It's a long weekend in August where Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers gather in person to learn, to share, to rest and to dream. Taproot is an in-person opportunity to step away from the day-to-day and reconnect with your why, surrounded by kindred spirits. This event is the heart of the work I do. There's something magical about stepping away from our day-to-day lives to be in community with others on a similar journey. We gather around picnic tables, sing in the field and share stories by the fire. We explore handwork, main lesson blocks, storytelling, rhythm and so much more. If you've ever wished, you could meet other homeschoolers who really get it. If you've been craving clarity and inspiration on your homeschooling path, taproot might be exactly what you need. One past participant said Taproot helped me come home to myself as a homeschooler. I left feeling refreshed, empowered and truly excited for the year ahead.

Speaker 1: 15:50

This year's Taproot, which is the 19th annual event, will be held August 14th through 17th that's 2025 in Northeastern Ohio. There's still space and if you want to find out more, head to artofhomeschoolingcom slash taproot 2025. If you're listening to this in the future, you can check out artofhomeschoolingcom slash taproot and you'll find out the most recent information for all the details. One of the beauties of Taproot is that you get to be the student for once and take in all the lessons as your child does the drawing and painting, summarizing stories in main lesson books, knitting circle time. We do all of this together at Taproot.

Speaker 1: 16:38

Now, in closing, here's what I want to say. My friend Waldorf Homeschooling in 2025 is about so much more than lessons and materials. It's about creating a life of learning that nurtures everyone in your home, including you. So, whether you join us at Taproot or not, I want you to know you are doing important, beautiful work. Keep going, keep growing and remember that you don't have to do it all or do it alone. Check out the show notes for this episode at artofhomeschoolingcom slash episode 232. Thanks so much for listening today and I'll see you next time here on the Art of Homeschooling podcast. 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.