Alternative LearningAre you a homeschooling mama? or maybe you unschool... or maybe you are interested in another alternative learning style? or maybe you don't have any idea what i am referring to?? this forum might just be for you! share your thoughts and ideas
I looked at this awhile ago and decided it wasn't yet time for such a purchase. I think that if we move into homeschooling without a plan, we'd be fine. My husband, however, is not as confident. He wants us to have some sort of plan to see "progress". He is a teacher and while the public school model displeases him and he's trying to get out, I think we are coming at homeschooling from different points on the educational continuum (Did I spell that right?).
And it does seem that when we have someTHING to focus on, we (Eli and I) do focus more...and that focus may be something worth buying rather than creating on my own. I guess I am worrying that I will spend hundreds of dollars on a curriculum that we won't use...My husband hasn't looked at it yet...and I know his initial reaction will be hesitation. And I can't blame him really. I am hesitant too.
I guess I am wondering what is in the curriculum...like there are art projects and things, right? I taught art for years so I think I could handle those. And stories? myths? legends? new stories?
I could always re-sell the curriculum if we got it and it didn't work for us...but hm...this was long and pointless, but in the world of curricula, I am simply lost.
I don't have the Enki curriculum, but I am watching this thread because I am also very interested in the answers. We are lucky in that there is a large handful of Amity mamas who have ordered Enki and hopefully we'll receive some helpful replies to your questions.
I've heard so many good things about Enki; I just wish there was a curriculum store where I could peruse it in person.
exactly!
If it's going to cost our family a large investment, then I want to be sure it's the best way to spend our money...and not just my latest jones...kwim? I get these notions sometimes...and if I ignore them, they go away...and if I try to satisfy them, it doesn't work.
Like...Oh, here's a good example - I used to absolutely fantacize (yes, this is insane) about my children having specific toys from the Playstore catalog. I was *sure* they would get hours of enjoyment from them...and blahblahblah...well, then, we saw the actual toy at a store an hour from here...and it was like, "Oh...that's kind of crap, isn't it?" I mean, seeing in person took all allure from it...and it taught me a couple of things:
1. I tend to lust after things (yes, things) that I think are unattainable...and drive myself up a wall trying to find ways to actually fulfill my desire.
2. I tend to deny myself things that are simple and easy to get - like organic orange juice. I won't pay extra for it...and I won't buy non-organic...BUT I will spend $6 on a nearly worthless magazine with adds for $1500 shoe chests for your guests to place their shoes in before coming into your home.
3. I do much better if I deal with things I can actually see and feel. Looking at pictures of things doesn't do it for me. I need to touch them...flip through them...etc. It's the "mystery" of it that gets me hooked.
4. I also have really bad follow-through. Good intentions, but bad at keeping up. This is one reason I feel a curriculum would be good for us. If I could use it, then it may keep me on track. And if I didn't have to gather everything and put it all in place, I could better concentrate on actually implementing the lessons.
So, I am not one of those people that can both get it together and keep it together. I can do one or the other.
Yegads...Where ya been, Jennifer? Self-revelation land?
Jennifer, I am so there with you. I plan and make lists but have aproblem getting off my butt and *doing* it. I think it's my life leson right now, to just plain do it.
I have emailed the Enki people to see what they have to say about gifted kids in their program. They have a brick and morter school and have several gifted kids in it. I need to read it a few more times before I really have a feel of what they are saying.
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Elizabeth
Mama to Annabelle who is making me feel ancient now that she's EIGHT!
Location: firmly planted in the postmodern pastoral economy
Posts: 12,328
Jennifer, I am so much the same way. But for some reason I didn't hesitate with Enki. I just knew, from reading the articles on the website, that I would use it, and love it. It was like falling in love. Now that sounds really cheesy, but I mean it. I felt a very deep, real connection to the underlying philosophy.
I think that is key. I just got my binder yesterday and am still reading the opening pages of the Teacher's Manual, which lays out the philosophy of Enki Education and its goals. One sentence said that its highest goals are compassion and reverence.
I am feeling so intense about it right now that I feel like this approach is truly saving humanity, raising children who are compassionate, thoughtful souls who may be able to turn this planet around from the destructive and violent path we are on.
Not to get too grandiose there. But there is a feeling of strong, intelligent, and heart-centered philosophical underpinnings to the curriculum.
Let me explain what I have and how it is laid out, from a practical perspective.
On the website they describe the "Resource Book" (available right now in K and 1) and the "Teacher's Guide." The TG (for short) is 700 pages and first goes through an overview of the philosophy and the principles of Enki Ed, then each grade, laying out the developmental tasks in all areas for each grade. If you wanted, you could just buy the TG and collect your own songs, stories, books, projects, etc. The TG would be like a philosophical bedrock for you and would lay out "scope and sequence" (Enki doesn't really fit that model but...I think it explains what kind of info it is) for each grade. So it's like a framework or guideline for each grade. It's the hows, whens and whys of what you do.
The Resource Book is the what. It's the meat. For K (the level I got) it is songs, fingerplays, verses, stories and folk tales, art projects, and handwork. For the upper grades I think it is more like main lesson blocks a la Waldorf, but I'm not 100% sure.
I ordered the "K Resource Book." It came with the "what" *as well as* the relevant pages from the TG - the first 166 or so pages. It came with the overview of Enki philosophy and the when, why, how of applying it to kindergarten.
So far I am deep in the philosophy section but truly loving it. I wish I could reflect more on it but I can't yet, I am too immersed in it.
My suggestion is to read every article on the website to see how it fits with you and whether you like it. A lot of it is deep and requires rereading, digesting, and thought. Read them all, wait a week, then read them again. E-mail Beth with any questions you have. This is the best way IMO to try Enki on...if you like it, you will love the curriculum.
__________________ Be realistic: Plan for a miracle. ~Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
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I was all set to start typnig out a long response, but Lauren said it so well! I was going to say many of the exact same things, it is like falling in love... and I'm not the goooshy type.
I feel like there is truth at this ciriculum's heart. I too am immersed in the philosophy section, I also bought the TG so I have alot of readung and digesting going on. It will probably be a week or so before I can reflect at all.
In the mean time, I would join the yahoogroup WE_HS ( a waldorf group) and read the archives from two weeks ago... two peoples words there say more than volumes about the Enki way.
(you'll know the post I mean when you see it!)
I must say too that I am thrilled and almost speechless today- I spent an hour reading archives on the Enki users discussion forum and found nt one but almost a dozen of my "favorite" online people from Amity's and the Waldorf lists are there! These are the people who over the last four years, I have come to trust them and see them as incredible parents. I don't want to sound goofy, but Tara and Jenny C and Lauren and Alison and Kimberley and Steph and Michelle and Elizabeth, many of your posts over the last two years here at Amity's have given me the same things....I hope you all get a chance to read about Enki more and email Beth.
Oh, and we received the Enki school video too...my daughter walked in the house as I was watching it and said "mommy what are those kids doing?" and when I told her they were doing Enki things and that we were going to learn how to do them she hugged me and said "I've always wanted this" so hows that for odd and unusual response froma four year old?
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formerly known as sagemama
Sage Emma 10-21-99
Torin Rory 05-05-02
Rhys Maryn 11-15-04
MacEwan Arthur 05-23-2007
Thanks for all the long, well-thought out responses.
I think that Enki is the best thing I've seen and my gut reaction is to just buy it. But it's more money than I am used to spending on anything besides rent and/or a car payment.
I've read the website over and over and I really do think it is a good program. But sometimes, I get books from the library about things I'm interested in - homeschooling, cooking, being thrifty - and my reaction is "Well, DUH!" because the information is so insipid...Like a homeschooling book that instructs you to teach your children to cut with scissors. And? Like you could somehow miss cutting with scissors?
Or a thrifty living book that says, "Stop buying dry clean only items" or "Cut down on dinners out." I haven't bought a new piece of clothing for myself in years...and dinners out? Ha! Sometimes we still end up doing it, but not often...and I know the whole time it's an absolute waste of money.
Anyhow, that is what I am afraid of doing - wasting money - on something that doesn't really move me into a new place, my children into new places. If I bought it, and I opened it and thought, "Well, no *$&%." I'd be so disappointed and out so much money.
But you all are so helpful and informative, maybe we'll take the plunge.
Ahhh... well that's a more specific question. The money. That's exactly what kept me from buying it a year ago. I have EXACTLY the same jonsing for a new thing kind of way about me Jenny. It was a leap to think that Enki would Really be something new. Here's what I think now that I hold it:
First, the tone of the materials is very nourishing to me. I have been spending four years trying to get into Waldorf, but I kept treating it like a laundry list of things. Either toys I should buy/make, story books they must have, a specific color the walls should be... ect. Now, I son't think that is the intention of any of the big Waldorf sites or books, but that's how I was treating it none the less. I think this was because the web can read that way and so much of Steiner is either too dense or too abstract for the begginer. Also, I'm not an Anthroposophist so many of their spiritual truths just weren't resonating for me.
Second, I need to know WHY. Waldorf, Classical ed, Charlolette Mason, whatever it was I was fixating on at the moment I needed to know WHY this method was right for developing the kind of person I am hoping my kids will be, and HOW the method will help me to do it. That's what the TG is all about- the WHY. I am not a purist of anything, my kids get tv sometimes and I've even set foot in a Walmart... even religously speaking, I am Pagan, but love my Christian roots (the music speaks to my soul) So the explainations of what the soul is here to acomplish, how it is best guided to integration, that is what I crave.
Third, the focus on the teacher learning Mindfulness Meditation in a secular way - wow. How better to learn to open up my own inner peace and teach than to start here.
Forth, the multicultural stories: when I read about all cultures being covered so that the child could see the spiritual truths in all people... well I didn't need to read any more.
Wow, I didn't know I had that much to say. I guess the digesting is going well!
Good luck in your own decision, I know I'm glad I did it- wish I had two years ago!
I have/had the same reaction to Waldorf - like it was a close fit, but not just right. There are parts of it that really fit with us and parts that really do not...and most of the hard-core waldorf people I know IRL are uncompromising...and I've often felt as I did when attending my grandparent's church...like it was a nice place to be, but just not really for me. The people were nice; the music pretty, but still, just not something I could take in and make my own. I loved my time there, but for what it meant to my family and me as a part of that family...not really fulfilling for me alone....make sense?
Jennifer.
AND it's also really hard for me to spend a big chunk o' money when I don't bring any in. Not that it's an issue for my husband...his paycheck is "our" paycheck in his mind even more so than mine. It's just my issue. Guilt and self-doubt. Self-doubt and guilt...I'd tell anyone else to get over it...but me? I just keep dragging it around.
I just wanted to say that I appreciate the detailed replies. Can we ask the moderator to make this post part of the FAQ section? It would be great to refer to.
Location: firmly planted in the postmodern pastoral economy
Posts: 12,328
Jolene - you and all the people you mentioned on AW are women whose posts I have read with interest and passion over the years, and I have taken much from what everyone has shared, gained inspiration and insight. And the 2 people you mention who are on the WE_HS list and posted so eloquently about Enki are definitely a big reason why I decided to take the plunge and buy the curriculum. I hadn't read those posts in particular before I ordered but I had asked for input on another board and they responded. I have always admired them and their dedication, thoughtfulness and love for their children.
I am the same way about Waldorf - feel itchy and weird about anthroposophy, and am too eclectic to be dogmatic about anything!
Jenny, it would be wonderful if someone in your area has the Enki curriculum for you to look at before you buy. I wish I'd had that. I would've felt totally secure in ordering it. It's tough because I believe (?) you are not supposed to resell it, even.
I can say that while I find that we are already quite a ways down the path recommended in terms of setting up indoor and outdoor environment for the kids, and even in overall philosophy of development, there is a lot in the TG pages that is completely new to me, and integrates aspects of my life that weren't before. And it gives me a clear, unifying "why" for all the things I have chosen. It's like the underpinnings of many of my thoughts and choices through the years are being spelled out for me...and lots of new ideas to me are thrown in there, too.
Okay...I just wanted to say, since I've spoken of my husband in this thread, that we talked about this curriculum last night. He read everything - or I read it to him since he was in the bath - and he said he was expecting us to spend about $100/month homeschooling both of our children once they are both of age. The Enki curriculum will be about $380 or so...and he thought that if it was what I thought would work, paying a little over $1 a day to facilitate our children's learning would be a bargain.
He talked a long time about how because we perceive education as "free", Americans also think it's cheap. It's not cheap at all and to his way of thinking, if we should skimp anywhere in our spending (which we do), it shouldn't be with education.
We are starting a homeschooling account - separate from our checking and measley savings - to be sure we always have cash available to do field trips and buy supplies.
I thought that was a fabulous idea myself.
Our discussion brought me around to a new way of thinking and made me relax about the whole thing.
Now, we don't have $100/month extra. We don't have $20/month extra. I doubt we would need that much money, but we will have to do something differently...because I believe David is right...if we are going to skimp anywhere, it should be somewhere else.
*** Wanted to clarify - I wasn't saying in the above that anyone *should* spend $XXX to guarantee a quality homeschool education for their child...only that my husband pointed out to me that my worry was misplaced. If there is anything I should *not* worry about spending money, it's quality materials. I know people who homeschool without spending any money whatsoever and it works for them. I know people who spend $5,000 plus homeschooling and it works for them. My point was not that money need be spent, but that that expenditure need not be worried over, justified or otherwise scrutinized.
giving this a bump, I want to know too.
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