The Christopherus Curriculum

A Rough Guide to

Sixth Grade
by Donna Simmons
Christopherus Homeschool Resources
PO Box 231
Viroqua, WI, 54665
608-637-8559

www.christopherushomeschool.org

A Rough Guide to Sixth Grade

Welcome to our Rough Guide to Sixth Grade. Please feel free to print this document out
for your own use or to share with others though we request that you credit us if you
share our work.
Please be sure to check back to the document on our website fairly frequently as we will
be revising and changing it as we add further relevant publications to our Bookstore.
Dont forget to visit our Amazon Store where you can purchase most of the books
referred to in the following pages.

The following is an excerpt from our Fifth Grade Syllabus as we thought it would be
helpful to you as you plan for sixth grade. We have removed specific references to fifth
grade. Some of this will be relevant to you, some will not, depending on how you
structure your childs at-home schooling.

Key to the Years Schedule

Daily Warm-up Time The need to move and get the blood moving remains as
important as in earlier years. So a daily walk or bike ride or some sort of personal-best
warm-up time is in order. Now that your child is a bit older, more disciplined
movement such as martial arts or yoga could also be appropriate.
Music We recommend that you schedule specific time for music lessons. This can be
time for practicing the recorder or another instrument or, if you are able, for you to
instruct your child in music. Further practice will probably take place outside the
school schedule. Fit in singing where you can.
Games Play games with your child on a regular basis. Board games, card games,
strategy games and outdoor games are all possible anything other than computer
games, basically! And save math games for math lessons.
Cooking Spend time during your study of geography cooking specialties from the
countries that you study.
Modeling and Painting These activities can take place during main lesson or Extra
Main Lesson. Either tie your work in with main lesson content or come up with other
ideas for subjects to paint or model during scheduled slots. Dont forget to allow time
for a free painting (childs choice) after he does what he is meant to be focused on.
And do open your modeling lessons with some of the exercises from Learning About
the World Through Modeling which will continue to be an invaluable guide through the
middle grades. Never worry about repeating exercises or subjects from earlier years.

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Handwork and Crafts Schedule these as seems best but do make sure that projects
get finished and that there is a sensible progression of work throughout the year.
Gardening This can take place during various times in the year. If possible, tie in
geology and biomes lessons with your gardening work.
Health and Social Studies Refer to the notes to follow to decide what you need to
do about these topics, if anything at all.
Extra Main Lesson All Waldorf schools have Extra Main Lesson time built into the
schedules from about fourth grade on so as to give the children enough time to finish
what they were working on in the morning.
Five Day Week Our main lesson schedules assume a four-day teacher/student week
plus one day a week when the child does some work alone. For ease of scheduling, we
make this a Friday, though there is no particular reason why your Day Five should be
a Friday. If this fifth day is your co-op day, then make sure your child has an hour
before you leave the house to do some lessons. Perhaps he also has further work to do
when you get home in the afternoon. Tasks for the fifth day could include: finishing up
main lesson work from the day before; reading; worksheets; doing handwork or
finishing a craft project; music practice; copying something into a notebook. Keep an
Assignment Book, a fairly small notebook in which to clearly write what your child
should be doing each Friday (or Day Five). Make headings and keep it simple. Your
child can check off work as he finishes and show you at the end of the day. More
independent homeschooling in later years will rely heavily on processes like this.
Daily Read Aloud Ideally, you will read aloud to your child every day. The daily
reading is not bedtime reading which should really continue to be more peaceful and
conducive to getting off to sleep. Daily reading is stories which are more challenging,
gripping or exciting and many relate to main lesson content. We realize that those of
you with several children will need to make some compromises. A read-aloud time
that includes everyone should be geared toward younger children. You big sixth grader
can listen in and perhaps he will have to read most of the suggested read-alouds to
himself. Thats just one of the things one has to do when one homeschools. And
perhaps, there are special times when just he gets read to.
Rest Time Yup, rest time for twelve-year-olds. Human beings need a bit of a rest
after eating and children also need a bit of a rest after a full mornings work. It is no
longer necessary that your child rest on her bed, but she should be in her room or perhaps curled up on the couch. Reading might be OK but guard that this doesnt morph
into other activities. This is rest time and rest does not mean doing things! I have
heard too many parents say that their child needs to do something during down time.
That may be true but it means there is then a problem and that needs to be tackled.
Every human being needs to develop the capacity to rest and go inward. Music tapes
do not constitute rest though one might find them restful. Help your child with this
she is too young to completely decide this for herself.
Field Trips Field trips would be great during your geology studies, when you need to
spend time looking at local geographic features of where you live. A trip to a science
museum can support further geology work as well as physics and studies of biomes. A
trip to an art museum to look at Roman, Islamic art as well as art from Europe in the

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Middle Ages would be great. Do spend a little time comparing what you see with a look
at the Greek and Chinese art you might have looked at last year.
This year there are 11 main lessons which take 15 weeks for the first semester and 19
weeks for the second semester (plus a suggested extra finishing up week). Think
carefully about when you begin your year so that you have time for breaks during holiday times and perhaps at other points during the year. We strongly discourage parents
from homeschooling all year round as we feel that the long out-breath of an extended
summer break far outweighs the bonuses of longish breaks punctuating the year.
We suggest you consider scheduling in a finishing up week at the end of the year.
This week will give you time to ensure that there are no projects left hanging or main
lesson books sitting on a shelf unfinished. It is very healthy for children to have a
sense of completion and of drawing their work to a close. Rudolf Steiner recommended
that at the end of the year the class teacher, together with the children, think back
over the year and verbally recapitulate what they did together. Touch on all subjects;
on projects, field trips and artwork; on highs and on lows. Dont rush. Perhaps spend
two mornings on this. Use this time also as preparation for an end-of-year celebration.
Having an end of year celebration to enjoy and review what was accomplished over
the year is a terrific thing to do and something that homeschooled children can miss
out on. Invite family, friends, neighbors join with other homeschoolers and put on a
big show! Why not? They would at school!

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Schedule of Main Lessons

Here is a possible schedule for you to use this year. Do adapt as necessary.
Fall
Geology, biomes, weather 4 weeks
Business Math 3 weeks
Literature/drama 2 weeks
Roman History

6 weeks

Break
Winter/Spring
Geometry

3 weeks

Physics I 3 weeks
Medieval History
Geography
Physics II

5 weeks

4 weeks
3 weeks

Finishing up Week
Notes:

Have your Business Math main lesson early in the year so you can spend the
whole of the year helping your child develop his business and also work on math
skills (decimals, percent etc) within the business math framework.
Schedule geography lessons for times when you can really go out on field trips
and look at the land where you live i.e. when it is not covered in snow or too
hot to be outside.
Likewise, schedule Physics II for when you can also be outside, fiddling about
with playground equipment and other outdoor apparatus for your experiments.

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Daily Schedule
800 Warm-up Time, chores or daily walk
900 Main Lesson (open with a candle and verse)
1015 Snack
1030 Lesson A
1100 Lesson B
1130 Lunch prep, play, lunch and rest time
100 Read Aloud
130 Lesson C
200 Lesson D
Finish school at 3pm
After school play, movement, music lessons, sports, free time to draw, hang out,
read, do nothing, cook, etc.
Working with the rhythm of head, heart and hands, the head is engaged in the morning, with an academic slant to lessons. Late morning is the time for the heart, with
more artistic lessons scheduled. (Obviously there is overlap here as head, heart and
hands are also elements within each lesson as well. Nevertheless, one should give
some thought to when different lessons are scheduled.)
Lessons C and D are for hands where possible This is the time when, ideally, to
strengthen your child for intellectual work, training such qualities as perseverance,
planning, observation, coordination, forethought and mindfulness in the course of
gardening, crafts and handwork lessons.
You need to be very organized in order to homeschool: if you havent figured that out
yet, heres your chance! And the more children you have, the more you have to be, on
the one hand, rigorously well-organized and, on the other, relaxed. Its a question of
balance when to let go and when to make sure it happens, whatever it is!

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

How to Teach
As with last year, a major pedagogical difference from earlier years lies in the
emphasis on what I would like to call considered conversation. Obviously you have
been talking with your child for years about different issues he has raised or that have
come up in the course of school work, but that is different from the purposeful
approach to discussion that began in fifth grade.
Considered conversation takes the place of much teacher presentation. Were you a
teacher in a Waldorf school (or using a Waldorf curriculum which, in many ways, is
more suitable for the classroom) you would present all material from yourself and not
read to your child from books, look at books together, or give him books to read for
the content of his studies. At Christopherus we believe that this is both impractical
and counter to the homeschool dynamic. A parent cannot build up a presentation at
home like a teacher can in a classroom, simple as that. Just as group storytelling is a
completely different experience from oneon-one storytelling, so presentation, like
revisiting, must be approached differently at home.
The natural vehicle for learning at home is conversation. And so from fifth grade on
we encourage you to lead your child in conversation about what you read and study
together.
Obviously this does not mean that there is no presentation of material from you, that
you only read to your child or hand him a book to read. Not at all! But there is an important shift in emphasis here that one needs to be mindful of.
And when your child is reading for part of a main lessons work then through
conversation he can share with you what he read about and you can discuss it
together. Do ensure that this really is conversation, that you never interrogate or grill
your child, hurling endless questions at him. Conversation is a gentle art and often
what remains unsaid, and the quality of listening and the raised eyebrow or the warm
smile is more important than extraction of information.
Do weave conversation into your Two Day Rhythm so that there is plenty of time to
digest and consider what has been read, done, seen, experienced. Make it a practice
to end most of your lessons by saying something like this, OK. Lets leave this now.
Lets think about what happened when we looked through the different prisms and get
back to that tomorrow. More important perhaps than any other pedagogical law in
Waldorf education is the practice of never rushing to opinion about something, but
always letting the story material or the phenomena rest and settle in the childs soul.
This makes for a deeper, more considered approach to study and to life something
more individuals in our society would be well advised to cultivate.
If you used our syllabus last year you may have begun to use quizzes with your child.
Children of this age need to be challenged and a well designed quiz can provide some
of this. We include a quiz in our Medieval History book.

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

The following are some of the most salient points to keep in mind when thinking
about how to teach your child.

As a first step toward addressing the cultivation of good work habits in your child,
have a good long think about your work habits. Parents are the main role models
for all children and in homeschooling this is accentuated. Try to be wellorganized, communicate clearly and present work thoughtfully to your child. Good
humor, an active interest in the world and a peaceful sense of calm will take you
far in successful homeschooling!

Something to keep in mind is beginnings and endings. How do I begin each lesson?
How do I draw each lesson to a conclusion? Do we drift through the day or are we
purposeful? One can consider this in terms of each lesson and also in terms of each
main lesson how do I launch this new subject? Many people get excited about
their beginnings but have a habit of letting go of lessons and letting them drift
where they will. While some spontaneity is good and while one also must be flexible with the direction of ones lessons, that is not the same as unconsciously
moving in a different direction than planned. That is key. I recommend that you
have a clear goal for every lesson you undertake with your child but be prepared
to go another direction. Then remember to regroup and assess whether you still
need to adhere to those original goals.

An image one can use for lessons is to imagine oneself circling and weaving not
traveling in an arrow-straight progression. If you have an arrow and go another
direction, then the arrow breaks. But if you have a path which weaves, its fine if
one meanders off for a while. But it is a path and there is a destination which
one is heading toward! Dont let yourself get lost in the woods.

A tantalizing piece of Waldorf pedagogy to keep in mind is to often leave something undone, unfinished. Leave a drawing, a math problem, a picture on the
board even a story incomplete for the next days lesson. You can think about
this in terms of leaving off from the story at the exciting part (stay tuned till
tomorrow!). Dont do it every day just enough to prick interest.

Do not allow your child to interrupt your narration, either with his own agenda or
questions relating to what you are doing. Similarly, do not constantly question him.
Simply present the material and encourage your child to listen. Repeat salient
points as necessary. Do not be afraid to occasionally say, Lets come back to this
tomorrow if your child doesnt get it.

Having said that, please dont think I have something against a child asking or a
parent answering questions! Its just that there is a tendency in our society to seek
quick answers and to not pause to think or listen before asking. It is these good
habits which I urge you to encourage.

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Always let your lessons breathe. Our object is not to have fun in the trivial sort
of way, but for children to enjoy what they are doing. Theres quite a difference
there. Waldorf is not about the trite kind of edutainment so popular today. Children do not need tacky gimmicks or silliness to learn: such an approach creates a
facile approach to life. But if one brings material which speaks deeply to the soul
of the child, if one is creative and also developmentally appropriate in approach,
then learning is deeply satisfying and enjoyable. This is our goal.

One of the most important things for you to strive toward in your teaching is
balance. Be mindful of achieving a healthy balance between book work, hands-on
explorations, artistic work, working in silence, and discussion. All are of vital
importance.

Always keep in mind the importance of developing such qualities as perseverance,

mindfulness and care in your growing child. Whether through learning to play a
piece on the recorder, slowing down a child who writes hastily or waking up a child
who dreams through her drawings, every day youll be able to find gentle and nonconfrontational ways to help your child develop her inner capacities. If you expect
and require her best efforts, her wakeful attention to what shes doing, her innate
ability to create beautiful work, then she will. It may take time and results might
be uneven, but if one of your heartfelt desires for your child is for her to grow into
a balanced and harmonious human being in touch with her own potential, then
youll find ways to ensure she gets ample opportunity to stretch herself in this
way.

This does not mean guilt and burn-out! This does not mean feverishly learning ten
new skills before you can start to teach your child or beating yourself up because
you forgot the lyrics to a song! It means bringing your best to what you do. It
means being realistic and knowing that some things will have to be skipped either
because you dont have time or cant do it. It may mean doing fewer things with
your child, but it also means doing what you do out of the sincere desire to do your
best.

Related to the above, one must also now be really clear about ones limitations in
terms of ability to teach certain topics. There are choices to be made. If one is
really lacking in the ability to teach handwork, grammar, math or music, one can
learn. Or one can find someone else to teach these subjects. Or one can learn together. While the latter choice is probably not advisable with academic subjects, it
could be a wonderful thing for you and your child to take a knitting or fiddle class
together. And if you struggle with something like math, do what you can. It is a
great life lesson and a bonus of homeschooling for a child to witness an adult
addressing a lack in herself and not merely giving up or passing the buck.

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

In closing, here are some words by Rudolf Steiner from Discussions with Teachers:
The teacher must be a person of initiative in everything that is done, great or small.
The teacher should be one who is interested in the being of the whole world and of
humanity.
The teacher must be the one who never strikes a compromise in heart or mind with
what is untrue.
The teacher must never get stale or grow sour.
And some thoughts from Herman von Baraville, one of the teachers hand-picked by
Steiner to teach at the first Waldorf school:

First we know

then we write it down

First it is dynamic

then it is static

It starts in gesture

then it becomes a rule

First it is activity

then it is a concept

Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Language Arts
We have included our usual Daily Schedule (see above) as guidance but we strongly
suggest that you consider changing the way you approach language arts with your child
this year. We suggest that you schedule one 1 hour lesson and one 30 minute lesson per
week, instead of three 30 minute periods as in past years. This will give you and your
child a longer uninterrupted period during which you can work in-depth on a paper and
discuss relevant points about grammar, spelling or so on. During the shorter lessons your
child can work in a workbook or copy things into his English Notebook as in past years.
Remember, you will also have plenty of time to address language arts issues during most
of your main lessons.
Here is a rough sequence of goals and expectations for language arts this year. Much of
this is review from last year:

Poems/Verses
Find suitable poems or verses for your child to memorize this year. Excerpts from
speeches made by appropriate historical figures or excerpts from pays (such as
Shakespeare) or other historical documents are possible alternatives. Some can be copied
into main lesson books. Try to ensure that your child has an opportunity to memorize at
least one really long piece this year.

Oral Reports
Make sure your child has an opportunity to give at least one oral report this year. If
possible, this should be given to a small audience. Your child should not read aloud a
paper he has written, but should be able to speak clearly and in a lively and comfortable
way about a subject. He should have a clear ending and beginning.

Read Aloud (child)

Your child should continue to read aloud to you 15 minutes once every two weeks
should be sufficient.

Read Aloud (you)

Ideally you should read aloud to your child every day. If you have more than one child,
most reading should geared more toward the younger children though it would be good to
have occasionally times when you are reading grade appropriate material just to your
sixth grader. This simply does not always work out in all families!

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Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Reading
Here is just a sprinkling of books for your child to read to herself or for you to read to
her. Some of these titles appeared in our Fifth Grade Syllabus but you might not have
gotten to them or your child might have been a little too young. Please also check our
Amazon Store page Great Read Alouds Age 12 14 for more suggestions. But do know
that many of the books listed there really are too old for a 12 year old! Something new
this year is the possibility of reading biographies to your child as well as historical
fiction. We have many suggestions in both our Roman History and Medieval History
books.
The Ribbajack and Other Curious Yarns, Brian Jacques
Dare to Be Scared , Robert San Souci
Double-Dare to Be Scared, Robert San Souci
The Canine Collection: Stories About Dogs and People, Betsy Hearne
The Lost Years of Merlin (series), T. A. Barron
The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
The Thief Lord, Cornelia Funke
A Single Shard, Linda Sue Park
The Case of the Baker Street Irregular, Robert Newman
Dragonwings and other titles, Lawrence Yep
The Cat Who Went to Heaven, Elizabeth Coatsworth
A Wrinkle in Time and other titles, Madeleine LEngle
The Earthsea series, Ursula LeGuin
The Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper
Swallows and Amazons series, Arthur Ransome
Eragon and other titles, Christopher Paolini
The next couple of Harry Potter books.but wait a little longer for the last 3 or 4 titles!
The Jungle Book, R. Kipling
Dragon Magic (series), Andre Norton
Various Dragon titles, Ann McCaffrey

Spelling
Devise worksheets and various exercises to support weaknesses in spelling; have
occasional or weekly spelling Bees; play games such as Boggle, Quiddler, Scrabble;
address most spelling issues via correcting of student writing together. If your child
would benefit from an orderly spelling program, do consider Spectrum workbooks. Have
a look at the books for fourth and fifth grade as well as sixth. And do be aware that the
books include other Language Arts lessons which might not blend smoothly with the
approach youve taken with your child thus far.
Spelling Made Simple by Stephen V. Ross or Painless Spelling by Mary Elizabeth
Podhaizer are decent resources for you, the teacher, to ensure that you cover an orderly
progression of spelling lessons if that is what you feel your child needs. The latter book
also has a few rather interesting ways to approach spelling. Butthese books are for you
not for your child as far as Im concerned! Use with care!

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Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

Writing
Science reports; creative descriptions and narratives; copying your writing or that of an
authors; dictation; writing summaries from history lessons or of stories you tell or your
child reads; working together to write short pieces as well as a couple of biographies.
This year pay special attention to use of dialogue; and ensuring your child is sensitive to
point of view both when reading and writing.
Next year we have a couple of texts to help you with guiding your childs writing.
Continue to take a fairly low-key approach this year. There is more on writing in both our
Roman History and Medieval History books.

Using a dictionary and thesaurus

Be sure that your child has reason, on occasion, to consult a dictionary and thesaurus.
Review how to use these tools.

Abbreviations and Contractions

Your child should know what common abbreviations and contractions stand for when he
encounters them in reading and should be able to use them appropriately when writing.

Letter-writing
As in past years, make sure your child has several opportunities to write to businesses,
perhaps requesting a catalogue or for other reasons (perhaps in connection with business
math?). These should be proper letters, not emails. Knowing how to graciously write
thank you and other letters and cards should also be part of every childs education.

Grammar
Review the four types of sentences, parts of speech; antonyms, homonyms and
synonyms; use of possessives; capitalization and punctuation; verb tenses; and the use of
active and passive voice from last year. Move ahead with work on verb phrases and
awareness of the use of linking verbs; compound sentences; direct and indirect objects;
subject and predicate; and the use of speech marks in dialogue. Draw your childs
attention to the use of quotations in books you read or look at but do not expect him to be
able to use quotes or examples in his writing yet.
If you are a bit rusty on grammar rules and so on, it might be a good idea for you to get a
good guide for your own use. Everything You Need to Know About English Homework by
Anne Zeman and Kate Kelly is one such possibility, but with a strong caveat that this
book is for your use and do not give it to your child for her own use. Further, please do
NOT think that you should subject your child to any of the paragraph building exercises
outlined. Really, you should just ignore the sections on writing (and that holds for just
about every other writing/composition book on the market except for books by Gabriel
Aquilevich which we sell in the Christopherus Bookstore). But you might find this book
useful to brush up on your own English skills (do you know what an adverbial phrase is?)

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and to become aware of what otherly-educated children are doing. This book is also a
good guide to help you see what areas of language arts you might or might not have yet
covered.
Grammar Skills grades 4 5 by Rosemary Allen (World Teachers Press) is ok. The
graphics are pretty horrible and some of the exercises are pretty dumb but it covers the
bases and so could be a good guide for you as you design exercises for your child.
Grammar Practice Simplified gr 5 -6 from Essential Learning Products is also okish.

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Copyright 2010 Donna Simmons

History
Do purchase our Roman History book as well as our Medieval History book to help you
plan and create your two history main lessons this year.
In both books you will find long detailed lists of various books you might wish to
purchase (check our Amazon Store) or borrow from your public library. In addition, you
might also want to give some thought to what general history resources you have in your
family library as these books will become increasingly important in the years to come. I
highly recommend the multi-volume The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant.
Though not all parts of the world get the treatment they deserve, these books are some of
the most brilliant, entertaining, scholarly yet accessible history books available.
Another possibility is Hendrick van Looms The Story of Mankind. I do not recommend
Susan Wise Bauers history books as they bring an unfortunate triviality and lack of
depth to the retelling of history.
You could also think about getting a couple of history textbooks. You can get second
hand ones from Amazon or sometimes local public schools sell their outdated (ie a few
years old and usually in good condition!) textbooks for very reasonable prices. I suggest
you get one middle grades text and a high school text and that you use these to give
yourself the background and chronology that you need. Sixth graders are too young to
have history spoiled for them by the dry or, conversely, hokey, ways that modern
textbooks approach history. Remember, from a Waldorf perspective we are treating
history as story, as narrative and as the adventures and misadventures of individuals.
Mass movements, cause and effect and a concern with dates is for high school. And text
books are never used for history in Waldorf schools even in high school.
Here are a few additional childrens books I discovered after writing our two history
books:
The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela, Uri Shulevitz
El Cid, and also Canterbury Tales, Geraldine McCaughrean
If All the Swords in England: A Story of Thomas a Becket, Barbara Willard
The Red Keep, Allen French
Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Janet Gray
Crispin: the Cross of Lead, Avi
Chingis Khan, Demi
Traveling Man: the Journey of Ibn Battuta, James Rumford
Mansa Musa, Lion of Mali, Khephra Burns
The Glorious Impossible, Madeleine LEngle
Putting together the above additions and with the list of books I recommend in Medieval
History, here are the 5 titles I recommend most strongly:
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The Dancing Bear, Crispin: the Cross of Lead; Canterbury Tales; Mansa Musa, Lion of
Mali; The Travels of Benjamin Tudela; and The Glorious Impossible. OK thats six but
I just couldnt leave any out (and dont forget these are in addition to the non fiction
choices outlines in our Medieval History book).
And this is why I put an additional week for your middle ages main lesson here in this
Rough Guide. In the book I allow 4 weeks but there are so many wonderful books
which your child must read or which you must read to him that I want you to add an
additional week just so that you have enough time for all of this! And do make sure that
you allow your child time to read during extra main lesson and even (and encourage him
to read during his own time as well, if he needs any encouragement!). Reading good
literature really is more important than agonizing over spelling and grammar and
much of the lessons your child needs for those subjects will come through reading great
literature anyway. Do make sure your child creates a really solid main lesson book and
does a good bit of writing during these weeks. Then dont worry about all that time he
spends reading!
I did not create a flow for your 6-weeks of Roman history in our Roman History book so
I will provide one now:
Week One
Theme: The Founding of Rome
Read In Search of a Homeland to your child and tie in with the Trojan War and other
themes from last years studies of Greece.
Draw the map of the Seven Hills of Rome.
Summaries I and II use as dictation and illustrate
Look at various books on Rome together.
Week Two
Theme: The Kings of Rome
Read from Great Men of Rome or similar.
Start working on Horatius Keeps the Bridge by Thomas Babington Macaulay can your
child memorize the entire poem? (Its 70 stanzas long!) Dont bother to have your child
copy it into her mlb keep it an oral experience.
Have your child copy Summary III into her book.
Have your child write a creative piece on Hannibal.
Model or perhaps paint Hannibals army crossing the Alps.
Look at various books on Rome together.

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Week Three
Theme: The Republic
Continue reading to your child
Child should begin to read The Bronze Bow.
Work on Horatius.
Use Summary IV as a dictation or have your child copy it from the board.
Week Four
Theme: Julius Caesar
Read/tell your child about Caesars life.
Write a creative piece on Julius Caesar
Watch BBCs Julius Caesar (by Shakespeare)
Work on The Bronze Bow discussion topics together.
Roman mosaic patterns.
Model Roman Coliseum (see Auer)
Carry on memorizing Horatius
Week Five
Theme: The Rise of Empire
Focus on important figures such as Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, Cleopatra and Octavian
(Caesar Augustus)
Research and write a short biography on one of these people with your child help him
so that when he writes another biography during his Medieval History block he can do
more of the work by himself. Your child should also draw a picture, either from
imagination or copying a piece of artwork, of the person he writes about.
Read aloud from Augustus Caesars World
Work on mosaic forms
Work on Horatius
Week Six
Theme: The Fall of Rome
Carry on reading to your child from Great Men, Augustus Caesars World etc as
appropriate
Look at Macaulays City together and have your child copy a picture into her main lesson
book.
Child to begin The Dancing Bear
Look at the beginnings of Christianity together
Dictate a piece on the fall of Rome to your child

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Geography
This years focus is on Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Some of the
preparation for this block will have taken place in your earlier
geology/biomes/meteorology block when you talked about the face of the Earth and how
it presents itself across the globe. You can introduce your geography lesson by starting at
that point, as almost all of the earths biomes are represented in this geographical region.
Start then with looking at the land itself and making maps. You could try to make a giant
map stretching from the far North in Europe down to North Africa that would be a
wonderful project. You could also do one or more smaller raised paper mache or similar
maps of various smaller regions, of perhaps Europe.
From looking at the whole of this area, you can then spend the rest of the main lesson
looking more closely at the various regions and countries. Try always to tie in how
people live (or lived) with the land. Do also refresh your and your childs memories of
past lessons in fourth and fifth grade focused on the myths and legends of people from
this area. You will also have had your Roman History and Medieval History main
lessons, so do revisit as appropriate.
Here are some further things to consider:

as always, look at the land, plants, animals, water, weather, and human
culture/industry

look at the vast variety of languages and where languages are the same for
instance, ask your child if she remembers or can think why Arabic is the language of
such a vast part of the land you are studying.

Tell or read stories and myths from various countries and look for ways that similar
stories traveled from one culture to another

Do not make a main lesson book for this block. Instead, make a portfolio, collage,
scrapbook or other way of recording what your child has done.

Your child can, with your help, write a short report on one country. It could be nice if
that report is based at least in part on a conversation your child has with someone
from that country (with you present helping keep track of information and organizing
note taking your child is too young to take notes whilst having a conversation).

Create a variety of folk crafts from various countries/regions. There are zillions of
books in any public library which can help with this. Resources for regional recipes
will also be plentiful!

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As with last years geography lessons, you should create a quiz for your child. She
should have to name the countries and their capitals and/or fill in blank maps with the
correct names of the countries. Learning a few major rivers and other waterways and
features (mountain ranges, deserts) is also important.

Do help your child understand that maps change and are created by people they are
political and often have little to do with the realities of the land or of the human lives
which they separate or bind together. Spend some time looking at historical maps and
how, especially in Europe, boundaries changed frequently over time. And that in
places like Africa, map lines werent even drawn by the people who lived there, but
by men meeting in Europe who desired to strengthen their influence over the globe.
This can get pretty heavy, but it is time that such lessons be gently introduced.

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Handwork, Crafts and Art

The most important handwork project created by 6th graders in Waldorf schools is a 3dimensional stuffed animal. The child decides what animal he wishes to make and then
he has to create the pattern for it. Thus he is challenged to think 3-dimensionally! This is
a wonderful thinking exercise. It can be very easy to imagine how to create a flat stuffed
animal but to create a 3-dimensional one involves being able to visualize the animal
from all directions. How do I make the tummy, the back, the head? The child sketches the
animal from all angles and then has to create the pattern.

Handwork
Usually children create a cross-stitch pillow in 5th grade in Waldorf schools. We didnt
get to that in our curriculum so maybe your child can make one now.
A wet felting project could be good, too. Maybe a bag? Slippers come next year.

Crafts
The children in a fully staffed Waldorf middle school have woodwork lessons in 6th
grade. Here they are given an opportunity to push against matter, to really exert their
wills. This can be quite a challenge for many youngsters of this age who are inclined to
be sluggish. Projects include carving a wooden bowl from a block of wood, whilst
respecting the grain and demands of the wood itself. Another lovely project is to make a
salad spoon and fork, again, carved from a single piece of wood. This is not whittling
the child is using tools such as a gauge, rasp and possibly plane.
A wonderful resource with some clear directions for such projects is Educating the Will
by Michael Howard. This book also gives profound insight into some of the deepest and
most significant aspects of Waldorf education. It is absolutely brilliant.
Your child could also carve soapstone but the wonder of handling the wood and getting
to know something of the qualities of different woods is missing from this experience.
Another possibility is to make a few projects carved from balsa wood first, before
tackling hardwoods.

Toys
This is a great year to make simple mechanical toys, picking up on themes from the
mechanics main lesson. Refer to Earth, Water, Fire and Air by Walter Kraul for
suggestions.

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You could really go to town with this theme of mechanical toys and make a set of
marionettes and a stage!

Art
Learning About the World through Modeling by Arthur Auer and Painting in Waldorf
Education by Dick Bruin and Attie Lichthart continue to be your main resources for these
two disciplines. Do remember that there are sections on drawing and charcoal drawing in
the latter book, including specific lessons for sixth grade.
The use of charcoal in drawing is a healing balm to children of this age. Caught up in the
agony of early adolescence, most 12 year olds tend to look at the world in extremes:
something is black, or it is white. By using charcoal, the children can explore these
polarities and also see that much in art and in life lies in the middle, in the grey
areas.
Charcoal drawing can mainly focus on the creation of shadows. Take a series of strongly
shaped objects (a box, a ball and something pyramidal) and place them on a white surface
and shine a strong lamp light on them in a darkened room. Draw the shapes and the
shadows they cast. Experiment with the position of the light and the differing shadows
created. There is the possibility of tying this in with geometry lessons as one explores
how shapes change.
You can also use charcoal to draw landscapes and still life pictures.

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Science
The main science subjects this year are geology and physics. We also suggest that you
expand your geology study to include meteorology and a study of biomes. You can bring
some of your geography studies into this as you will be touching on almost every biome
on earth as you study the geography of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Heres a rather old but still relevant article about teaching about color during 6th grade
physics lessons. It appears in the articles section of the Christopherus website:
Introducing Physics by Hans Gebert
Here are links to articles on the Waldorf library website (and there are many more to find
if you have the time to really go through all the Waldorf science teaching journals):
http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/firstscience.pdf
http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/PHENOMENOLOGY.pdf
http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/teachsciencehumanely.pdf
http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/edwardsscience.pdf
Okay so if I was to choose one of these articles as the most important, as the one that
you MUST read if you want to approach a Waldorf way to teach and think about science,
then its this one, by the amazing Craig Holdrege of the Nature Institute:
http://www.janushead.org/8-1/Holdrege.pdf
I strongly recommend that you read the above articles and take your time in digesting
them. The Waldorf approach to science is fundamentally different from the way science
is taught in conventional education in many significant ways. I also strongly suggest that
you purchase my audio download on Goethean (ie Waldorf) science:
Christopherus Audio Downloads
I also strongly recommend that you purchase our science book, From Nature Stories to
Natural Science to get a good picture of the flow and context for middle grades science.
In a nutshell, here are a few essential points to keep in mind as you work with your child:
Observation help your child to learn to look deeply at phenomena without setting out
to prove anything. Use all the senses to get a thorough impression of the thing
observed. Do not allow your child to jump to conclusions. Do not discuss let your
child take his observations into his sleep and then talk about them the next day, after he
has accurately described what it was he observed.

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Experimentation do not set up experiments to prove something. Experiment with

them! Fiddle about, adjust tings, try things, play with them.and observe what unfolds.
Extending/Deepening pull things together. Refer to other observations or other things
that you know or have done together. Again, do not jump to conclusions but listen to
what the phenomena tells you. Relate one experiment or observation to another. Use
artistic means to take the experience further.
So the idea would be to observe phenomena (a sunrise, various experiments with musical
instruments, some local rock formations) on the first day and then let it rest. Then on the
following day your child would describe to you with extreme attention to detail exactly
what happened the day before. Then you might discuss it. Or you might mess about with
similar experiments or take another field trip to look at similar or different
phenomena. And then on that day or the next, your child would write about what she
did/saw and/or draw it all from memory. It is also ok at times for her to draw what you
have set out. Or to draw a sample of rock or similar. One is striving for a balance and
over time you will get a feel for how to approach science with your child.
For now, try to neither do too much or too little in each days lesson. Okay thats an
annoying thing for me to say because it gives you no clue as to how to determine what is
the right amount. But you will!
And make sure you get some of the books I review and recommend in our From Nature
Stories to Natural Science so that you can get a feel for a good flow of lessons and how
much one might do each day.
There are no proofs or math in sixth grade science. The goal is to strengthen your childs
powers of observation and his ability to think clearly and to relate to what you are doing
without flights of fancy or wild postulations.

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Physics
This year you can schedule two physics main lessons. The first one is on sound, heat,
light and color. The second one is on simple mechanics. You could choose to delay the
second main lesson until seventh grade but be careful seventh grade is so full! You also
need to allow time in seventh grade for science subjects such as astronomy, chemistry,
nutrition and possibly your childs first physiology main lesson (the second taking place
in 8th grade). Thats a lot of science.
Physics I Sound, Heat, Light and Color
Here are some points to consider as you pull together this main lesson. Refer to our From
Nature Stories to Natural Science for more ideas and resources for this and other science
lessons.

This is mainly a hands-on main lesson,. Your goal is for the child to experience and
become aware of the phenomena he is observing. It is not time for a discussion of
scientific theories which cannot be observed so refrain from discussions of atomic
theories. However, it is appropriate to discuss the idea of waves, as sound and heat
clearly travel in discernable waves. You could mention that waves might be involved
in color as well, but this is not an important point right now. This is a sense-based
main lesson.

Create as many musical instruments with your child as possible during your studies of
sound. There are many fine kits available from various craft and music stores. There
are also many, many sets of instructions you can download from the internet on
making more instruments than you might care to think about! Try to create a variety
of instruments based on percussion, strings and wind. Let your child mess about with
materials and see what he comes up with. A good assignment for this part of your
block is to ask your child to create his own musical instrument, something unlike
anything anyones ever seen before!

Do mess about with any musical instruments you might have around the house as
well. This could be a wonderful time to have the piano, if you have one, tuned so that
your child can observe what is happening and how the mechanisms work.

Ensure your child is enabled to become sensitive to quality of sound. How does he
experience different sounds? How do they make him feel? Spend some time
discussing this.

If you can, do some sound experiments under water, whether in ones own pool or a
public pool. What happens to sound in water. It is fine to talk about animals and
sound during this study. You could discuss bats and dolphins, for example.

Preview next years anatomy and physiology main lesson by telling your child about
the ear and how its beautiful curves carry sound through sensitive channels to a little
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drum. Describe how sensitive the tiny hairs in the ear are and how they can be
damaged by loud sounds and never recover (plant a few seeds warning of too much
loud ipod or rock concert listening!). You can also ask your child to place her hand
over her larynx to feel how it vibrates when she speaks.

Ensure your child has opportunities to listen to silence as well as to sounds.

Developing sensitivity is a crucial step forward in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

Discuss words: hearing and listening have different meanings what are they.
What words are used to describe sound? Make a long list of such words and discuss
why and when one would use them.

Something I did when I did this block with my sons was to walk through our house
experiencing. I chose to do this when the weather was cooperating and we could
really feel the difference between the coolness in our basement and the heat in our
attic. Heat rises was then not just a concept. We also observed how heat waves can
rise from a hot pavement or road. You can extend this by talking about how birds
such as vultures ride on thermals, waves of heat that rise over the land where they
live. You might have touched on this in your metrology lessons.

Talk a bit about the experience of warmth and when it is pleasant and when it
becomes oppressive. Warmth is completely subjective. There are a number of
experiments whereby one sticks ones hands into containers of water of different
temperatures to see the disparity between what one experiences and what is.
Note how metals conduct and carry heat.

Keep your studies of light and color together. I recommend Eric Farimans Path of
Discovery Vol. 6 for the wonderful physics lessons he outlines. There you will also
find some terrific instructions for painting that will help your child experience the
connection between color and light.

In a nutshell, Goethe says that color is produced where light and dark meet. Newton
claimed that color is light splitting apart. His experiments are easy to duplicate and
to disprove.

Observe both a sunrise and a sunset during this block. Observe in silence and then
discuss the experience later. When did the first light appear or disappear? What colors
did you see? What was it like? How did you feel? Spend time observing shadows as
well.

Here is a short summary which you can dictate to your child on the first day of your
physics main lesson:
The human being learns about the world through his or her senses. He learns about
sound through his ears; hot and cold through his sense for warmth; light and color

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through his sense of sight; and about force and movement through his own sense of
movement and balance.
The study of acoustics (sound); hot and cold (temperature); light and color (optics); and
force and movement is called physics.
Tell your child that you will come back to force in movement in your second physics
main lesson this year.

Physics II
This main lesson is based on simple machines. Some years ago I lived on a farm where
we regularly hosted visits from several nearby Waldorf schools and we used to do a great
Physics on the Farm block with students of appropriate grades. Often this was done in
8th grade but that was because in some of the schools they did mathematical proofs
along with their experiments focused on force and movement. One does not want to work
with formula in 6th grade but a non mathematical mechanics block is just perfect for
sixth graders. Then in 8th grade we will provide you with a wonderful book which looks
at force, movement, gravity and the urge for uprightness in the human being as a means
to deepen these basic 6th grade studies and to examine physics formulas.
Anyway, I urge you to transform your backyard into an arena for experimentation with
simple machines. You and your child can mess about with inclined planes (ramps and
wedges); pulleys; wheelbarrows and crowbars; bicycles; and a host of other tools and
machines which will help your child understand the physics that come into play during
their use. If you can sail a boat, nows the time for your child to really get to understand
the pulley system on the sails as well as how one uses the force of the wind to sail the
boat.
Repairing a bike or similar vehicle; splitting wood with a wedge and sledgehammer;
using a non electric can opener and bottle opener and a nut cracker; digging holes with a
spade (wedge and lever); trying to move things with and without the use of wheels; and
using a screwdriver to turn a screw are all possibilities. Catapults, water pumps,
slingshots, pendulums, roller coaters, merry-go-rounds and other amusement park rides
are also wonderful examples of physics at work (and play!).
A trip to the local playground is also fruitful as most of the play equipment is based on
the principles you will be presenting to your child. Positioning several children of
different weights at various points on a seesaw is a great way to grasp the principles of a
fulcrum and lever!
In conventional homeschooling catalogues and resources youll find lots of little kits to
use which demonstrate various mechanical principles. Try as much as possible to avoid

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these and instead use real tools and do real work and settings up so that your child,
through experimentation, finds out for herself how much easier it is, for example, to use a
wheelbarrow to move a heavy sack of compost or potatoes, than it is to carry it n her
arms.
Your child should get the opportunity to feel these physical laws in her own body and not
merely grasp them conceptually.

Geology, Weather and Biomes

We have scheduled 4 weeks for this main lesson and have placed it in the beginning of
the year so that you can spend lots of time outdoors, taking field trips to examine places
of geological interest in your area and to also have a look at your local biome, or biomes.
Those of you lucky enough where you can visit more than 1 or 2 are lucky indeed! One
obvious place for this is where mountains meet deserts and where one can be in different
biomes depending upon the altitude.
Try as much as possible to weave geology, biomes and weather (meteorology) together.
This is rarely done in Waldorf school for logistical reasons but is clearly the aim of
geology and geography lessons. Be as holistic as possible. You will find further notes for
this main lesson under the Geography section that main lesson will pick up on themes
introduced in this one.
The idea, as always, is to go from whole to part. Look at the globe and the structure of the
earth. Talk about Pangaea and about the continents and the fault lines between them.
Help your child understand that the earth moves and shifts and that volcanoes and
earthquakes are just two of the manifestations of this movement. Draw a cross section of
the earth, with its layers, for your child to draw.
When you speak about the weather, you can also take the large view, helping your child
see that the earth as a whole has weather patterns and that things such as the Gulf Current
and the movement of the globe itself cause and effect weather. Dont go into too much
detail about the tilt of the earth on its axis or the movement of the sun and earth this
will come during astronomy next year. But you can prepare for those lessons by speaking
about what is relevant now.
Together geology and weather are expressed across the globe as the 7 main biomes:
arctic/tundra; taiga (coniferous forest); grassland (steppes, savannahs or prairies);
deciduous forests; tropical or temperate rainforest; desert; the ocean. Look at maps
together and draw a large picture of the globe with the different biomes drawn in
appropriate colors. Dont forget to spend a bit of time looking at major rivers and
mountain ranges. There is no need to go into much detail about the ocean as you will
spend time studying the ocean in 8th grade.

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Describe the various biomes and revisit some of what you learned in botany last year
whilst discussing the plant life. Talk about animal life and also how people traditionally
live in various biomes. If you used our Third Grade Syllabus you can remind yourselves
about the people of the Ice and Snow, People of the Prairies and so on. And, of course,
while you are describing weather, do talk about the weather data you gathered and other
experiences from your 3rd grade weather block.
I would have liked to create a 4 week schedule for you for this block but its not really
possible because so much of what you will do during this block is based on your locality.
Having said that, I know it could seem really complicated to some of you to figure out
how to weave these themes together into a coherent whole. So here are a few notes which
I hope will help:

Spend about a week looking at the globe as a whole land forms, a general sketch
of weather across the globe and of biomes. Keep it general.

Now look more specifically at each of the 7 biomes in your second week.

Look more carefully at weather but dont get into too much detail about cold fronts or
any of the technical details of weather. Be as experiential and picture-based as
possible. The goal is for your child to get a broad sweep of understanding and not to
necessarily understand how local weather patterns form. Spend week 3 on this.

During your last week look at the Mineral Kingdom and at the 3 main types of rock
(igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic). Tie in their occurrence with what you
taught in the past 3 weeks (i.e. where are specific rocks like limestone found and what
is the land like where it is the dominant constituent of the soil). Spend a bit of time on
gems as well. You can leave an exploration of metals for 7th or 8th grade chemistry.
You should touch on fossils during this week as well.

Do pick up on the housing theme from third grade whilst looking at biomes
(remember; always refer to human activity in all lessons!). A terrific book you can
refer to is Wonderful Houses Around the World by Yoshio Komatsu

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Mathematics and Geometry

Make sure you begin by having a quick peek at our
Christopherus overview of math through the grades
Here is a wonderful article written by one of the original Waldorf school teachers on why
we teach mathematics. Much food for thought:
The Teaching of Mathematics by Hans Gerbert
Please refer to our various resources first of all to decide how to proceed with math. You
might need to purchase some of our fifth grade math resources if your child is behind in
math.
Mathematic Lessons for Sixth Grade is the main text for 6th grade math which focuses on
business math. It has examples in it, but youll need a selection of Key To math
workbooks for practice and drill, unless you are willing to create all the extra problems
yourself!
Here is our guide to selecting the appropriate Key To books:
A Guide to Key To Math Workbooks grades 6 - 8
You also need String, Straightedge & Shadow which you used last year, assuming you
used our fifth grade materials. If not, work through the book with your child, including
the sections on the Pythagorean theorem. Go easy, though your child will have many
opportunities over the next few years to grasp the full implications of the Pythagorean
Theorem.
The Key To geometry books provide an introduction to proofs and to the language and a
way of thinking necessary to be at ease with geometry. In Waldorf education, the beauty
and grace of geometry are never forfeited. Here is a book which provides step-by-step
guidance on how to construct a variety of beautiful geometric forms:
Compass Drawings
This year we move from free hand geometry to working with a compass and possibly
protractor (though some people might wait until next year for that). Get the best compass
you can afford. Do not, on any account, get one of those cheapo ones which close as you
use them! You need a proper compass with a mechanism, probably a wheel, that keeps
the compass open to where you want it. Office Depot sells good compasses along with
other architectural tools.

Business Math
This is your childs main focus for math this year. I scheduled this main lesson early on
in the year so that you can use it as a foundation and starting point and then carry on
with this theme for the rest f the year.

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One of the great things about homeschooling is that you can do things with your child
that simply arent possible in the classroom. One of these things is helping your child
launch a business, as a practical project for his business math studies.
It is best that this is a real business babysitting, mowing lawns, selling eggs, whatever.
The requirements are that your child (with your help) has to:

make a business plan and budget

keep a business bank account (which you might have to do with or for him)
keep accounts (with a book, not a computer please!)
have real experience with loans, interest and paying off a debt
understand something of concepts such as overhead, wages, expenses and capital
investment

Now, this is obviously pretty sophisticated and your child is, after all, only 12! It is not
important that your child fully grasp all of these concepts and their ramifications. But she
needs to have a working experience of them and to be exposed to the issues around, for
instance, fair wages and questions of debt and credit. But this is sixth grade, not high
school, so dont get too complex with either these issues or the business structure you
help your child set up.
You can also help your child consider issues such as fair trade/fair wages and issues
around charity and tithing.
Use the business you and your child establish to carry as many of your childs lessons in
decimals, fractions and percents as possible this year. Refer to the Schuberth book for
ideas.

Geometry
A challenge for geometry this year is to keep its beauty intact and not let it get too
fragmented by the approach Key To (good as they might be) takes. You might like to
consider these few thoughts:
The true goal of a study of geometry is to get closer to the universality of Truth, Beauty
and Goodness.
Through a high level of thinking we meet each other in Truth there is no difference of
opinion or relativity here, only Truth. However, there are many ways to get to Truth.
Our souls delight in the Beauty of geometry, its grace, lawfulness and harmony.
The world is Good because it can be understood and because there is both Truth and
Beauty in it.

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Geometry Main Lesson

Pick up where you left off last year in String, Straightedge, & Shadow. Do not hesitate to
once again draw, trace, cut out and generally approach what Diggins describes in as many
hands-on ways as possible. And then also take things a few steps further.
Work out a sensible sequence to follow using both the Key To geometry workbooks and
the compass drawing book. Your childs main lesson books can have things from the
Diggins book; forms drawn from the compass drawing book; and key concepts from the
Key To workbooks such as definitions of straight lines; how to bisect a line and so on.
Your can spend part of main lesson working on more hands-on type geometry ideas.
Paper crafts which are based on geometry could be a good idea. Create more window
stars from last year or take this further, doing stars your child could not manage last year.
Your child can also copy some of the beautiful compass drawings he makes into folded
card to make beautiful greeting cards.

Math Notes:

Make sure your child learns this year, if she hasnt already, that she must show all her
work! Yes, it is tedious and yes, some children get really upset about this
requirement. But it is crucial for further success in math. Once your child gets into
really complicated mathematics, she must be able to tell you how she worked out her
answer. And this means that she can then discover where she might have gone wrong.
So many problems children have with math are directly due to sloppy work habits.
Dont let your child fall victim to this!

Sixth grade marks the beginning of a new phase in your childs education: she is now
learning to think logically. She needs to learn to be systematic in her thinking and not
simply rely on flashes of brilliance which are wonderful but lead to a person being
one-sided and therefore limited. Showing her work when she does her problems is
one way of countering this. Another is insisting that she take a step by step approach
with, for instance, learning the early steps in geometry.

None of the resources we currently sell do much of a job providing word problems
and mental math. You must find other sources for this or devise such problems
yourself as they are an essential component of a strong middle grades math program.

Make sure you revisit Roman numerals this year perhaps during or after your
childs history block on Rome.

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Your childs focus on practical math can also extend into his cooking lessons. Help
him shop and compare prices, figuring out if buying bulk really saves money and how
much. Do the same with coupons and other savings.

The following is reprinted from our Fifth Grade Syllabus :

Resources
Geometry for Every Kid, Janice VanCleave
VanCleaves books are universally adored by conventional homeschoolers. Me? Well
not adored by me. Grudgingly used and somewhat admired for the clearness of presentation but definitely not adored. VanCleave merrily chops up the various subjects she
addresses in her books, failing to show any common thread or meaningful progression
which unifies her subject matter, thereby draining a subject such as geometry of all its
beauty and holistic majesty.
But she is a master at presenting her concepts very clearly and, because she breaks things
down, in making a subject such as geometry appear manageable. So her books can be
useful.
I recommend this book but only for you, the adult, the teacher. Read it through, brush up
on your own understanding of geometry, and then figure out how you can teach some of
what she brings in a more holistic and living way to your child. And I should also say that
this book is quite useful for sixth grade when your child will be doing constructions
(though these will be thoroughly explained in the texts we are selling). Nevertheless, this
book can be useful to those homeschooling parents who do not excel at geometry. And
there are a couple of quite decent exercises and activities which she recommends which
you might feel would benefit your child.
A Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe: the Mathematical Archetypes of
Nature, Art and Science, Michael S. Schneider
A wonderful, respectful and very clear guide to the mysteries of numbers and the forms
(geometry) they create or express. This book will give you a new appreciation of the
Quality of Numbers main lesson you taught your child way back in first grade! This is a
wonderful book to help you really prepare inwardly for the teaching of geometry over the
next several years.
As mentioned elsewhere, do consider getting Claudia Zaslavskys lively and enjoyable
books, Math Games and Activities from Around the World and More Math Games and
Activities from Around the World. Just dont use a compass or graph paper and no tracing
templates!
The above books are all available from our Amazon Store. And while youre on our
website, do have a look at some of our sixth grade math and geometry materials as these
will help you see where you are heading with your child.

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Literature/Drama
I have allowed 2 weeks in the years schedule for a literature or drama main lesson.
Those of you who used our curriculum in earlier years will remember that we had, for
instance, a block in second grade focused on Julius Lesters Brer Rabbit stories. Now in
sixth grade, it would be good to pick a suitable piece of literature and look at it in-depth
with your child.
This could be approached in a variety of ways. You could choose a book (or a couple of
books from a series) and just really relax into them over these two weeks. Or you could
choose a theme or subject that greatly interests your child and which isnt in the
curriculum (sports heroes perhaps, or dog stories) and look at a variety of books or short
stories.
Dont go into too heavy a comparative literature approach were not in high school
yet! But do take some time and discuss the books or stories as pieces of writing. What
excites your child, what does he really like about the book? How does the author describe
scenes, people, places?
Your child and you could create a simple puppet play from a story and perform it for
some younger children. Or maybe your child would like to draw a series of pictures or
make a diorama based on a scene from the book or stories. No need for a formal main
lesson book.
Or your child and you could work on a piece of drama, hopefully with other children.
That could also be a very good focus for these two weeks.

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Other Lessons
Form Drawing
Last year was your childs last year of form drawing. Having said that, if this is a
discipline that really speaks to your child, then by all means find time to continue with it!
One really good resource for very complex forms is Rudolf Kuntzlis Creative Form
Drawings.
Otherwise, one way to continue with various elements of form drawing is to work with
Roman geometric designs during your Roman history block and with Islamic designs
during your Middle Ages block. We sell two books which you can use for these:
Geometric Patterns from Roman Designs and Geometric Patterns from Islamic Designs,
both by Robert Field. There is a third book in this series based on the arches and patterns
found in cathedrals and churches this is best left until 7th grade.
Try whenever possible to get your child to approach these drawings freehand. Though it
is okay to use graph paper from time to time, one then loses some of the therapeutic
benefits of form drawing. It is the inner picturing of the straight or curved lines and the
discipline of the will to make those lines correctly which is so healthful.
And dont ever hesitate to return to form drawings from past years. My very form
drawing-resistant son was thrilled in 6th grade to attempt drawings from 2nd and 3rd grade,
noting how much he had improved and how much easier he now found these
impossible forms to be. If form drawing is new to your child, do consider purchasing
our Form Drawing for Beginners. The only difference in using this with an older child is
that you would move a long at a much faster pace than with a little one.
Forms can be drawn for their own sake or as decoration for the borders of main lesson
book pages. Some can also be carefully drawn onto colored card and then glued onto note
cards to make attractive greeting cards.

Foreign Language
If your child has been having lessons in a foreign language or youve been teaching her,
do carry on. At this point your child should be reading short texts and begin (with help) to
translate them She should also be learning a bit about grammar.
Your child might express a desire to learn another language at this point in his education.
It could be that this is in addition to the other foreign language he studies or it could be
that he wants to change languages. In general, I would recommend studying two
languages over dropping the first language unless there are compelling logistical reasons
for doing so.

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Another possibility is that your child studies Latin this year. This could grow out of his
studies of Roman history. Your childs relationship to English (and to Romance
languages) will greatly benefit from any studies of Latin. However, Latin is a dead
language and does not carry a living picture of a vibrant culture and so there are definite
drawbacks.

Movement/Sports
Try to bring some variety to your childs exploration of sports and movement. See what
your community offers or if you can organize a homeschool class in.line dancing,
yoga, circus skills, gymnastics or some sport that your child hasnt yet tried.
Twelve year olds can be extremely sluggish they can become very bogged down by
the weight of gravity at this age and their resistance to movement (outside the favored
sport or two) can be overwhelming. Dont give up!

Social Studies
You should have no problem in meeting any state requirements for social studies as
geography, history and business math will amply satisfy any criteria. The only exception
might be if you are required to show that your child has studied American history this
year. If that is the case, you could add an element of American business to his main
lesson on business math; look at the establishment of the National Park system during
your biomes studies; and note down any books your child reads which are focused on
American themes.

Health & Safety

Health & Safety is obviously a very important subject and one can easily see why it is
required by most education authorities. However, health and safety is clearly the kind of
thing that lends itself most readily and sensibly to informal instruction at home, rather
than contrived lessons at school. For us, then, the point is to live ones life with ones
children and to do what every parent does to teach little ones not to stick things in
light sockets; to show an older child how to use a knife; and to talk about sensible use of
medicines, disinfectants and other potentially dangerous substances as the need arises.
Some of you will live in places where you need to document such lessons
You can spend time specifically covering some of the following content areas or you can
simply work in health or safety considerations during appropriate lessons. So, for
instance, when you make a point of having a conversation with your daughter about
stretches she should do before she plays basketball, document it! You can put down such

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a conversation both for Health & Safety and for Phy Ed (Physical Education for you nonYanks!).
During cooking lessons you could also spend time teaching your child about food
hygiene.
Here is how we feel this subject could progress without compromising what is appropriate for children at different stages of development (this document is found in our
syllabuses for the various grades):
First Grade
Knowing name, address and telephone number
Basic hygiene brushing teeth, caring for hair, using the toilet, when to wash
hands
Traffic awareness
Second Grade
Safety around animals (avoiding being kicked, bitten, scratched) and what to do if
something happens
Bicycle safety (and skating, skateboarding etc.)
Traffic awareness
Stranger danger as appropriate
Third Grade
Health and safety in the kitchen, around the house and in the yard and garage
Using tools safely
Weather safety
Fourth Grade
Learning to be safe around knives, guns, slingshots, etc.
Learning to be alone (for a while) at the library, mall, on the land, etc. and being
safe
Who to turn to for help
Safety in sports: the need to warm up and cool down
Fifth Grade
Working with herbs and simple herbal remedies (teas, etc.)
What to do in an emergency fire, hurricane, accident, etc.
Sixth Grade
First aid
Personal goals in fitness and health
The need for relaxation (learning techniques) and good eating and sleeping habits

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Seventh Grade
Cycles of life (sex education)
More sophisticated food safety/hygiene issues
Nutrition
What is health? What is disease?
Anatomy and Physiology
Learning about emotions, mine and other peoples
Conflict resolution
Eighth Grade
Taking a certified first aid course and/or babysitters course
The dangers of the internet and using a computer wisely
Drugs, sex and relationships
Consumer safety
Anatomy and Physiology

Music
Find ways to bring as much music as possible into your childs education. Singing in
groups, individual music lessons and group music playing are all extremely important
elements of the Waldorf curriculum and all or some take place every single day in a
Waldorf school.

Cooking
Our Christopherus cooking curriculum focuses on the use of dairy products and on
international cooking this year.
For the former, it would be great if you and your child could do things like make yogurt
and yogurt cheese together. Making kefir and simple cheeses such as feta are also
rewarding projects which are reasonably straightforward to undertake. Search the internet
for advice.
If your family has milk allergies then it could be that you examine why this might be. Or
that you focus your Cooking lessons on the use of alternatives to dairy products.
This year in geography you and your child will cover a huge range of cultures and a
huge range of cuisines! From the spicy hot food of Northern Africa to the mellow pasta
dishes of Southern Italy; from the intricacies of Persian cuisine to the delights of
Scandinavian cookery, there will be plenty to keep you busy during your cooking
lessons!

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Do make an effort to keep a countrys cuisine tied in with historical and geographical
studies. As Islam spread through the Middle East, its dietary restrictions influenced what
people ate and yet there are substantial differences in the cuisines of Islamic countries.
Countries that border the sea will reply heavily on seafood. Landlocked countries such as
Switzerland will be based on other foods. Rice features in the cooking of Northern Italy,
pasta in the South. And crescent rolls are a cultural reminder of the fact that Islam came
very near to conquering Vienna, the home of the original croissants.
And do try to use some exotic ingredients as you experiment with cooking: you really
must find a source of ligon berries when you make Scandinavian dishes, just as you need
harissa for North African dishes and rose water for Middle Eastern!
As you study the Crusades during your Middle Ages block, do take a look at how the
Crusaders brought sugar back to Europe. Before that, Europeans used honey when they
wanted something sweet. Sugar had an enormous effect on Europeans and many of the
Crusaders reported severe sugar highs in response to this alien food. Almonds and
coffee were also introduced to Europe at this time.
Do take some time to look at Spanish cuisine during these studies as well. You and your
child can really get a feel for the influence of the Islamic (or Moorish) world on the
culture and cookery of Spain.
You can talk about the excesses of Roman feasts during your Rome main lesson and even
try your hand at recreating a Roman feast! Theres at least one book in the Suggested
Reading section of our Roman History book which focuses on Roman cookery.
Do be mindful as you look at history and cooking that your child understands that the fine
cuisine which we value from various countries and from various historical periods was
not, by and large, the food of the masses. This was the food of royalty and of the wealthy.
Subsistence peasants did not live or eat well for most of history although some peasant
dishes have been preserved in some ethnic cuisines.
Do use cooking lessons as a time to brush up on metric math skills which must not be
forgotten. Conversion from one math system to another is a very good exercise.
Your child should be more independent in the kitchen now and most 12 year olds should
be able to cook an entire meal, assuming your child has not chosen dishes which are too
complex.

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