Natural Suburbia Sponsor Giveaway from Waldorf Essentials

Balancing business and family and homeschooling is not an easy road!  For the first year, I wrote in the wee hours of the morning, taught school and filled orders, all while Erik worked full time at a local newspaper as a reporter. He would come home and edit at night. We were growing like mad but we were so challenged as a family, I had to stand back and make some choices. Erik had the opportunity to leave his job and work at home full time so we took it and haven’t looked back.  That doesn’t mean we haven’t had rough times, but we have worked together to make it through.  Our balance comes from the decisions we made in those early months of him being home.  He has duties he completes for our business (filming, editing, production of discs, a lot of our tech work and much more) and I wanted to be sure that I was always the main one homeschooling.  Over the years he has taken over a few subjects (upper grades mathematics, some sciences & writing) and when he does, we plan the lesson blocks together.  These days, in addition to my early mornings 5 days a week, I also work one full day each week.  This full day is Erik’s with the children.  He loves it!  They all start with a trip to the library and then usually the museum or park or something fun with me popping in for meals with them. Our big kids are BIG now and they help a lot.  Waldorf Essentials IS a family effort.  Our children love the freedom our business brings.  They get all silly when we send our work across the world and rush to find it on the map.  They still don’t understand why people want to talk to me – you know I give the children my advice for free… they aren’t always as willing to listen as are other moms!  I am still the one that plans the lessons, I am still the one that is right there working with our children.  I am so blessed to have little ones so I can do it again!

 

We have actually been working to refine who we are lately.  For a while, I tended to be just a mom that was writing.  I know that I am not that person anymore.  Over the years my knowledge of Steiner, parenting and development has strengthened and I know that I am working to provide a bridge for families coming to this education. I know that in the beginning we were compared a lot to the larger curricula companies and that made me uncomfortable – NOW… I know we have so much more behind what we do.  We are every bit as strong as the big guys, families just have to take a chance with us. I think our strengths are that we Understand Steiner.  We Understand Homeschooling. We Understand Marriages & Partnerships.  We Understand Families. We work with the intent to help any family that desires it – no matter what their income.  Our Thinking Feeling Willing program has a large number of scholarship participants.  We give freely of our time and even our curriculum for families in need.  We work with helping families understand the Essential parts of Waldorf FIRST. Understand the How and more importantly the Why… then enjoy the pretty.