Steiner Curriculum

 

As I've been review my blog, I came across the link to this, which was no longer working.  Fortunately I was aware that it may still be accessable on the Wayback machine, which it was.  It's such a nice handy reference chart for following Steiner curriculum at home, that I thought I'd share it directly here.  I'm not sure who the original author is (Who compiled it) but Thanks to them for this very useful guide.

Knitting, Thinking and the Importance of Handicrafts in a Steiner Education

 https://educationfreedom.locals.com/upost/4672591/knitting-and-crafts-in-steiner-education

This article that I've shared in my local's account, on knitting, is a great read, and clearly explains why handicrafts are so important to life, and bodily development.  All of my children have followed a variation of this plan to become accomplished in a variety of  handicrafts, and on a more personal level different crafts continue to appeal to each of the children as they grow older.

Knitting and Thinking

This is great reading, on the importance of knitting and crafts in Steiner schools.

https://new.pyrites.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Knitting-begets-thinking.pdf

-

2025

All four of my children can knit- with Irving still in the process of developing more advanced skills.  Willow had enjoyed it the most, and done the most knitting.  But the main reason that I like having everyone being able to knit, is that they have the skills to deal with minor issues in knitted clothing.  The deskilling of society into consumers instead of creators has been extremely sad IMO, and has created enormous waste.  

I was part of the generation that lost those skills that those before me had- my mum could sew and knit well, my Dad could do exceptional woodwork and had great handyman and problem solving skills.  I did learn a bunch of these from my Dad, but as we started to homeschool I was aware just how many skills I had not received to enable me to pass them down easily.  I am really grateful to say that we have reclaimed some of them.

Willow's sock knitting

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/03/summer-coming-to-end.html

Gabriel learning to knit.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2008/07/activities.html

Gabriel's socks.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014.html

Arden learning to knit.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2014/05/projects.html

Arden's socks.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2020/09/term-2-lockdown-and-winter-solstice.html

Stone Bridge School Blog

There are some great ideas here for different lessons and projects.  Covering grade 3 upwards in Steiner methodology.

http://jamedaris.weebly.com/index.html

Birthday Crafts

Recently our neice and cousin, Elly, celebrated her fourth birthday. Since they were staying in Adelaide it was the first time we've been able to attend her birthday party- they reside in Mt Gambier. So since we usually have a rule where we don't give presents for cousins at birthday time- there are too many of us- Willow, Gabriel and I had a crafting session to make a present for her.

We recently bought a knitting book called 'Usborne's How to Knit' which has some nice simple patterns for children learning to knit, with simple instructions to help them learn to follow a pattern. So I decided to give a try felting some wool, that was in my basket, from when we lived in Scotland. Unfortunately I had no idea as to what type of wool it was- ie if it would felt, so I knitted a few pieces to see what would happen. The result was one unfelted yellow piece, one felted magenta piece, and one stretched and much more fluffy purple piece. Gabriel and I used the magenta to make some shapes- his were placed in the gift box, whilst I sewed mine onto the purple which had made a very nice small scarfe shape through all the washing.

Meanwhile Willow had been hard at work knitting a party bag from the same knitting book, and after some dedicated knitting finished it in time for the party. We thread some ribbon through just before it was time to go, and everything looked lovely!