Bookstore ▪ The Christopherus Curriculum: 1st Grade ▪ 2nd Grade ▪ 3rd Grade ▪ 4th Grade ▪ 5th Grade
Waldorf Overview for Homeschoolers ▪ From Nature Stories to Natural Science ▪ Living Language 
Kindergarten ▪ Joyful Movement ▪ Drawing ▪ Form Drawing for Beginners ▪ Modeling
Plays ▪ 2nd Grade Math ▪ Animal Legends ▪ Saints & Heroes ▪ Old Testament
4th Grade Math ▪ Man and Animal ▪  Botany ▪ Roman History ▪ Medieval History ▪ Comedy & Tragedy
Hear the Voice of the Griot! ▪ Mitten Strings ▪ Painting in Waldorf Education ▪ Cooking for the Love of the World
Publications Age Guide ▪ About the Christopherus Curriculum ▪ About Unit Studies
NEW: D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths ▪ Earth, Water, Fire & Air ▪ Painting with Children ▪ 4th Grade Curriculum

Please note: This volume (and those to come) has been created with the "do-it-yourself" homeschooler in mind. Sections from this book appear in various years of the Christopherus Curriculum, so there is no need to purchase this if you are using our full curriculum each year.

This  300 page curriculum's aim is to take you and your child on an adventure into language arts! Though based strongly in the Waldorf curriculum, there are some differences throughout, based on Donna's experience as a homeschooler and Waldorf teacher. What is normally done in Waldorf schools is clearly explained and then various options are presented. As the homeschool situation is entirely different than the classroom and as children's abilities and needs vary enormously, this homeschool curriculum is flexible, easy to adapt and full of advice and strategies to empower you to create an individualized language arts experience for your child.

The content of this first volume of our language arts curriculum covers 1st through 5th grade. Lessons get more detailed as the children get older and we believe that parents of 4th or even 5th graders will find this book just as useful as parents of 1st graders just starting out.

Chapter Titles with Section Headings:

• My Basic Approach

• Language Arts in Waldorf Schools, Grades 1 - 5

• The Home Environment: What We Can Do at Home; Enhancing Learning: Listening, Immersion in Activities, Playing with Language, Rhythm, Mood, Creativity, Living Language and Electronic Media; Differences at Home: Group or Class Dynamics, Authority of the Teacher, Recall/Revisit

• Speech, Movement and Poetry: Speech Exercises; Working with Speech; Memorizing and Teaching Poetry; A Selection of Poems

• Writing and Reading: The Story Curriculum, Grades 1-5; Telling Stories: A Word About Fairy Tales; Teaching Reading and Writing: An Overview, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade and On, How to Write Summaries, Written Work with 4th and 5th Graders: Writing Reports, A Report on Bears, Dictation, Writing a Business Letter, Distinguishing Between One's Own and Another's Opinion; Reluctant Readers and Writers

• Handwriting: How to Proceed; Stages in Writing

• Grammar: Grammar in the Lower Grades; Outline of Steps in Grammar; Third Grade; Fourth Grade: Parts of Speech, Collective Nouns, Tenses, Four Types of Sentence, Use of Apostrophes, Capitalization and Punctuation; Fifth Grade: Contractions, Parts of Speech, Active and Passive Voice, Prepositional Phrases, Metaphor and Simile, Homonyms, Synonyms, Using a Thesaurus, Antonyms

• Spelling: Progression of Spelling; Spelling Lessons: 2nd Grade, Word Families, 3rd Grade, Using Vowels, Using Blends, Spelling Lists, 4th and 5th Grade, Silent Consonants, Learning to Use a Dictionary, Vowel Pairs, Spelling Rules, Abbreviations, Spelling Games and Tips

• Main Lessons and Mini Blocks: specific lesson plans

• Books, Wonderful Books! How to Choose Books; Book Reviews; Our Favorite Authors; Books by Grade; Specially Recommended Books: Family Read-Alouds, First Readers, Stage 2 Readers and Chapter Books, Stage Three Books, Easy Books for Older Beginning or Struggling Readers

• Miscellany: Waldorf Education; Practical Considerations, Resources, Worksheets

Donna has worked with many children who are 'late' or 'delayed' readers (including both her sons) and this book has much to offer to parents of children who won't or can't read and/or write for much of the period covered.

Remember - like the First Grade Syllabus, this language arts curriculum is not available from any booksellers. You can only purchase it directly from Christopherus Homeschool Resources (either by mail or online).

The following sample pages can be viewed with Adobe Reader:

p.26 from The Home Environment

p.47 from Speech, Movement and Poetry

p.53 from Grammar

p. 70 from Writing and Reading, and

p.99  from Writing and Reading