Many parents have found in Waldorf education a validation of some of their deepest wishes and aspirations for their children. The profound beauty of Waldorf education lies in a deep understanding of children and in honoring the development of the whole child. Further, Waldorf education is founded on the serious wish of the teacher - or parent-educator - to develop his or her own inner capacities, and offers many tools to aid this process.
We would like to offer our expertise in Waldorf education, parenting and homeschooling and help empower parents to fulfill their ideals.
To help parents learn to discipline a child without falling into either authoritarianism or abdication of the central role of the parent; to bring healthy rhythms into family life which meet each individual's needs; to feel validated in choosing parenting and educational methods which honor childhood and do not seek to prematurely shorten this precious stage of life – these are some of the goals of our consulting service.
Successful homeschooling means feeling comfortable and at ease at home with your family. Over the years, we have discovered that little can be achieved discussing curriculum materials or methodology until a parent is comfortable in herself at home. While we are, of course, happy to stick to purely educational topics with our clients, our experience is that most parents wish to have a broader consulting relationship with us.
And so we have identified three main areas of consulting work:
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Barbara Benson
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Parent Coaching
How do I set boundaries? What is OK behavior? How do I stop from approaching my little one intellectually? How do I work with rhythms? How do I meet the needs of my younger and older children? These are just a very few of the questions that parents bring us and which we can help you to work with, based on your particular family constellation. Related to such questions are a myriad of questions having to do with homemaking and overall family life.
Waldorf Education and Homeschooling
Can you help me understand the developmental stage of my child? How can I make the curriculum work to meet my child's particular needs? Can you help me design a plan for the year? How do I create this main lesson? Can you talk me through options and resources? How do I transition from school or one method of homeschooling to Christopherus? Can you help me think through whether homeschooling is the best option for my family?
Personal Development
As soon as one has a child, one's own 'stuff' starts to emerge! How do I work with my anger issues? What inner resources do I need to develop to be able to parent/homeschool with compassion? I'm stuck/burnt out/overwhelmed - help!
At Christopherus, we know that no two homeschools are alike and that every parent who comes to Waldorf will have a different relationship to it. Whilst we are obviously deeply immersed in Waldorf education, we are open to working both with those who wish to really take on the Waldorf philosophy as well as with those who would like to bring some aspects of Waldorf into their more eclectic approach to homeschooling.
We take Waldorf education and its underlying philosophy, Anthroposophy, very seriously, but in practice are flexible and adaptable. We appreciate, for instance, the harmony and wisdom of the Waldorf curriculum, but feel that it must be worked with creatively to meet the needs of homeschoolers. An obvious example of this is the necessity for multi-age teaching in most homeschool families.
Note: We do not offer advice on legal or medical matters nor do we provide or advice for use in court. if divorce-related issues arise in the course of a client-consultation relationship, that is fine. but none of the advice or help we offer constitutes, in any way, legal (or medical) advice.
Unfortunately, we also cannot offer specific advice or support for children with therapeutic needs (such as autism, downs syndrome, ADHD or similar challenges) as this is beyond our expertise.
Click here for more information about how our consultations work