I was helping another soon-to-be-homeschooler on the phone the other day. She was going to be teaching her daughter the Steiner way. Now I knew about the anthroposophy and the worship of Mother Earth and such like (we had been to the local schools open day and had read a few articles over the years) enough to reject it as not aligning with our philosophy.

What I didn't understand is that some of the education principles are ones that we already embrace and to a large extent I saw as part of the German culture when I lived there.

No T.V. is the first. Check.

Natural toys and manipulatives. Check.

But I would never have called ourselves Steiner homeschoolers.



When you look at it we could say we are:

ecclectic/ unschooling (we use a variety of materials and resources to learn from - no one 'curriculum')

scheduled (we have a 12 year plan mapped out for what we will use although we see how the day goes)

steiner (no tv and natural products where possible)



christian (this is so intrinsic I overlook it)

and I am sure there are so many more boxes we could fit ourselves into, in part.

Personally I think that in homeschooling as in life we are the ones that keep ourselves in those boxes, whether it be because others idolise us in them and we don't want to disappoint, or we haven't taken time to peer outside their safety - taking a risk is too much for us added to the daily grind.

Its taken me 5 years to get to the place where I am content with the rich fabric of materials and the style of learning we have made available to our children. I have continuously looked around and researched products, and analysed others recommendations to see why what they use is the 'best there is'.

I am happy that we don't fit into one single box. Our children sure don't and I hope that they will learn to see amidst the plethora of paths we could have chosen, that we decided upon the one we walk as the best fit for us, at this time. May they grow to understand that, so they may too be free to make choices that best fit their situations without the confines of other peoples restrictions or expectations.

To use a phrase I all to often heard whilst an exchange student "Its not right, its not wrong, its just different".