Geneii of Language (was curriculum/math stories)

From the Prologue, “The miracle of words calls on the ego forces of the writer, speaker/listener, and reader – it calls on the Self. The potential in children for self-expression is enhanced by a comprehensive, consistent, and creative language education – this small manual is directed to these high ends.”

Like most of the Golden Beetles, the Geneii of Language is a small booklet, about 90 pages and about 5″ x 7′. It focuses on the language arts main lessons and middle lessons for the first and second grades.

For 1st, the Mains are The Capital Alphabet, Writing of Nature, Letter Combinations, and the Middles are Foreign Language, Story Speech & News, Letter Structure and Spacing

For Second, the Mains are Lower Case Alphabet, 12 Word Families, Reading and Library. and the Middles are Word Games and Lower Case Writing Practice. (The Drama lesson is in a separate drama book.)

Each section gives you an essay on what the general ideas are behind each main lesson, and usually one or more sample lesson ideas is broadly presented to get you started. The rest is up to you to create. Every once in a while you’ll find a complete lesson plan (as in his grade one music book) but usually not. He is chock full of really great ideas that you can then adapt for your own child, but you have to do lots of creating. If that is what you’re wanting to do, then Golden Beetle might be what you’re looking for.

Often, the information is presented in a story or a wacky narrative. Whitehead is an excellent writer. To me, this sort of helps to pull me into the creative brain mood I have to be in to write lessons. Lots of other people either like the style or hate it–sort of like Monty Python or Kurt Vonnegut. He also believe strongly in embracing the home culture, so Australian culture runs deep throughout, thus inspiring me to bring in our unique culture.

These books also completely embrace Waldorf ideas and thus attribute different lessons to different body forces: the language stream of main lessons is a “head” stream; where the middle lessons are really a literary “chest” stream–thus the emphasis on speaking and doing. It sounds odd at first, but then it really helps to remind yourself what type of lesson you are teaching and where the child should be taking this information in. The different streams combine to awaken the child to language holistically.

I can’t really do the book justice other than to put in another quote (from The Writing of the Bush-writing of nature main lesson), “Now let me see, the essence of a language of Nature main lesson is to expand the child’s horizon to realize that language is indeed a universal principle. A bird inscribes a message in the air with its flight pattern; a koala leaves tell-tale scratches in the bark of a smooth gum tree; a tiny pile of sawdust tells of a witchetty grub inside a stump; ants hurrying their eggs to the penthouse indicate heavy rain on the way. Nature is, as a first principle, language.” – Alan Whitehead

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The Spiritual Syllabus Series is by far the most comprehensive catalogue of the Rudolf Steiner teaching program ever produced….

QUESTION: I just recently purchase 3 of Alan Whitehead’s SSS: Genii of Lanugage & Numeria (both for class 1&2) and A Steiner Homeschool? My question is this, Mr. Whitehead speaks of 3 lesson streams: mains, middles & blocks. I think most of us are familiar with the idea of a “main lesson” that lasts 3-5 weeks. It seems that at our local schools, other ongoing subjects are then organized for the late morning & afternoon hours (handwork, music, eurthymy, games, etc.) But Mr. Whitehead’s book seems to organize all the other subjects into the ‘middle’ or ‘block’ lesson (late a.m. and afternoon); and they rotate in their emphasis (such as numeracy, literacy, etc.) similarly to the main lessons. Do you know where I can get more info on this method? Is this method specific to Australia? Any feedback on pros/cons of organizing lessons in this manner?

ANSWER: Rudolf Steiner originally intended the sequential ‘main lesson’ system, as opposed to ‘period’ teaching, for all lessons morning, middle and afternoon. Alas, bureaucratic demands, like being forced to have one or two periods each week of things like languages, religion, gym and so on, prevented this. In fact he was lucky to be able to

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Plus TWENTY SIX OTHER TITLES by Golden Beetle Books including A Steiner Homeschool, books by Susan Whitehead – Little Story and Picture handbooks for the Under-7′s, and General Educational titles.

ABOUT ALAN WHITEHEAD

ALAN WHITEHEAD has enjoyed a career in Steiner Education for over three decades. He received his teacher-education at

GLENAEON SCHOOL under the tutelage of Miss Sylvia Brose. There he was privileged, in 1967, to be one of the founding teachers of Australia’s first Steiner High School, where he was a Class Guardian and Specialist Art Teacher. He was also a principal founder, and pioneer teacher (of both the Primary and High Schools) at Australia’s second Steiner school, LORIEN NOVALIS, in Dural, Sydney. He was Chairman of the school from its 1971 inception, until he left in 1985. As well, he founded, and was the Director of, the first full-time Steiner teacher-training facility in Australia, the LORIEN NOVALIS COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION. He was Convenor of RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOLS OF AUSTRALIA – AN ASSOCIATION, the current national body of Steiner Education, framing the initial policies and principles. He now works with his wife Susan (Under-7s and Life Movement- Eurythmy) as an author, social commentator and consultant on Spiritual Science in general, and Rudolf Steiner Education in particular.

ABOUT SUSAN WHITEHEAD

SUSAN WHITEHEAD has over three decades experience in the luminous world of small children. As well as having a husband and two children, she entered a world of teaching and training at DALCROSS/GLENAEON STEINER SCHOOL at Pymble in 1968. In 1971 she was a co-founder of LORIEN NOVALIS SCHOOL for Rudolf Steiner Education in Dural, Sydney. She was a director of the school for nearly fifteen years and held other positions, including Primary Co-ordinator. Susan both established and was Director and Guardian of the Children’s Garden (Kindergarten) at Lorien Novalis. In this homely environment she pioneered the creation of songs, stories and poems in the world of her Under-7s, telling tales relevant to Australia and The Spirit of the Times. She assisted in the creation of the LORIEN NOVALIS TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM, establishing courses for Story Content (their telling and creation), Kindergarten and Child Development. She was also the convenor of the school’s Adult Evening Courses. Always her love of the arts went alongside her day-to-day tasks, and she was particularly active in painting, speech and especially the Art of Life Movement (Eurythmy) all of which she considers a necessity to enhance her work with small children and as an essential element in the student teacher program. From 1986 she has carried forward the creative impulse in teacher education and Parental Imaginative Care of Under-7s. All this she is presently engaged in, as well as writing, consulting and conducting courses in The Art Of Life Movement both in Australia and Overseas.

Alan and Susan Whitehead are members of the Anthroposophical Society.

Contact Alan and Susan directly at: goldenbeetlebooks@bigpond.com

Parents Reviews:

We loved Coco and Lono! We did an entire lesson block on it and you could easily do much more than that. I think we may revisit it each fall as there are so many activity ideas in it I can see how my kids would love to grow with it. I don’t have the winter one but I am thinking about buying the Spring one. The only thing that caught me off guard when I got it was the size, it’s tiny, but PACKED with the story, songs, and activities. ~Melisa

Kytka’s Reviews:

I strongly encourage you to visit their website and to purchase and collect as many of their products as you can! Reading their materials is better than attending a conference or a workshop because you can read at your leisure time and time again!

Touch the Earth Gently: Games & Sport Class 1 – 12, Dance Class 1 – 7
This is a wonderful 112 page book which is truly a treasure trove of information, inspiration and lesson ideas & plans. The content include headings such as: The Class Trip, Family Fun, Play, Games & Sport, Primary Games, Water Games, Facilities, Ball Games, 7 Movement Children, Gymnastics, 4 Temperaments, Bush Games, Field Games, Indoor Games, Equipment Games, High School Sport, Sport Physiology, SCUBA Diving, Martial Arts, Sport’s a Joke!, Fishing, Clean-up Australia, Hunting, Dancing, Steiner as Sportsperson, and a complete Class 1- 7 outline for a Dance curriculum. (Which for those of us who are home schooling, provides a wonderful alternative to Eurythmy!). Like all of the Whitehead’s books, the book is literally overflowing with information. The resources are so vast, it’s truly difficult to write a review as the scope of what is covered on these pages is so immense. However, please don’t take that to mean that each subject is touched upon briefly – rather it seems that they have found a way to condense information to make it both understandable to the reader and yet vast in it’s scope of where it can go… Filled with black and white and color photographs, as well as illustrations, drawings and a few comic strips – this book is the best manual I have found to date on Movement and Dance in a Waldorf Curriculum. I highly recommend it for EVERY home school.
Kytka’s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Alan Discusses Main, Middle and Block lessons, click here.

More reviews, Geneii of Language, click here