Looking for help

[masa...@yahoo.com]

I am a newbie so please forgive me if this question has already been asked and answered - or just point me in the right direction. I've read just about everything I could get my hands on online and just ordered a copy of the Foundation Guides; everything sounds wonderful, but a potential issue I see is with the availability of material. What happens if Enki is the perfect fit for my family and we get to the point where my daughter is ready to move on to the next grade and there is nothing out there to work with? What do people do in such instances? Choose a completely different program? Which direction does Beth suggest one take at that point? Enki sounds like exactly what we're looking for, but I'm a little apprehensive about investing a significant amount of money and effort and taking my family on what is going to be a dead end road, so to speak. I'd appreciate any input.

[Amy Wallace]

Hello (sorry I don't have your name),
There is an article about this in the reference files on this group. It is in the folder titled, "What Children is Enki For?"

What I have seen over the years is that people make decisions about what to do in 4th grade based on looking at what will best serve their child and family. This really is the heart of Enki, so at that point, with the tools and experience of working with the Enki framework in place, the child and the parent/teacher are supported in whatever direction they choose.

I have never heard a parent say they wished they had not used Enki because there were not materials beyond grade 4. I also haven't heard that people experience it as a dead end. Yes, there are some for whom the approach does not feel like a fit because the materials are not complete beyond grade 4, and they choose something else. Surely, people would very much like to have the materials completed. They are amazing and there isn't anything close that I have found available. But, the experience for the child, parent and family, is nourishing as you go through it and you have that in place as you move into grade 4 - whatever direction you choose to go; continue with an Enki approach gathering your own resources and materials, switching to a Waldorf curriculum using what you have learned with Enki to make adaptations, or whatever else your path brings...

Does that answer your questions?

Amy Wallace

[masa...@yahoo.com]

Thanks for the answer. My daughter is only 10 months old now so none of this applies to us in the immediate future; and who knows, maybe by the time she is really ready to start a curriculum, more material will be available. One can always hope! :)
Masa

[bas]

Masa, 

Glad you got the Foundation Guides with one so young. I have often heard from parents that they wished they had those and the Early Childhood guides from the day of birth! I was just at the airport and there was the very well meaning, loving mom there trying to explain to her toddler why the snow delay was happening. The toddler was just excited to see all that snow blowing out the window and getting ever less connected to it all as she tried to do what her mother wanted (listen to the explanation), when all she wanted was to be in the beauty of it. It reminded me how glad I was when I had little children, that I had spent a lot of time with children and studied a lot of child development. 

You can certainly hope materials for the older grades will be there before you get there - and you will have us hoping and working right along with you! But for now, I hope you enjoy the early materials and find them useful. 

Beth

[ranger...@gmail.com]

Thank you for asking this question and for the answers.  I, too, am hoping that more grades will be available when the time comes.  My children are 5, 2 and 2 months.  Though I have not purchased the Foundation Guides yet, I can already feel in kinship with a lot of the documents I read here and what I see on the site.  It does seem, from the outside looking in, as a mindset that can be adapted to one's family life and could shape future homeschooling, whatever it looks like.

[Julie Robinson]

I see this was a discussion back inJanuary, but I'm new to the group and just wanted to chime in here.... That is so great that you are looking into these things now! I didn't purchase my curriculum until just before the fall of my daughter's kindergarten year. Glad to have it then, but oh, how I wish I could have read through it five years earlier. Luckily, I have had an earlier start with my younger children! Never too early! Good for you!

[jpcooks]

Hi--I homeschooled my son (who's now 15 and in 9th grade) through 6th grade, even though the Enki materials at the time were really only complete through grade 2. Still, I have no regrets about my choice of curriculum. The heart of Enki--the principles that it stands for--can be used as a guide for homeschooling kids of any age. By the end of grade 2 (and with some guidance from Beth for how to get grade 3 started), I had a feel for how to pull materials together for the next year(s). Most importantly, I felt fairly well-versed in the Enki approach, which stood me in good stead (and still does) as I navigated the changing needs of my child. I ended up enjoying the creativity involved in choosing the materials to use for our studies.

There is so much that will happen in your life between now and when your child gets through 3rd grade. If you go with Enki, I think you will find yourself so enriched by Enki that by grade 4, either there will be more materials for you or you will feel ready to spread your wings and take it from there because you got such a good grounding from using Enki in the early years.

All the best to you on your homeschooling journey.
Take care,
Jan

[masa...@yahoo.com]

Thank you guys for the encouragement. I do think we are fortunate to have come to the decision to homeschool this early into her life, and even though she is changing daily and it is yet to be seen exactly what her learning style is going to be, I'm confident that Enki is going to fit into our lives in just the right way and hopefully prove to be the best choice for her. Currently just sitting back and waiting to see how the grade packages and prices are going to be restructured, before actually getting the K curriculum.