Welcome to the Essential Guide for teaching the Moses block.
Whether you are new to Waldorf education or deep into Grade 3, this guide gives you the philosophy, goals, and daily rhythm you need to bring the unfolding story of Moses into your homeschool alongside verb tenses, paragraph writing, and continued cursive work.
The Philosophy: The Great Crossing
Moses is the most important story of the Grade 3 year. A baby hidden in a basket, floating on the Nile. A prince raised in a palace who does not quite belong. A grown man who flees to the wilderness, meets a burning bush, and returns to lead his people from slavery into freedom. A long wandering in the desert. A giving of the Law. The crossing over, at last, into a new land.
It is impossible to miss how closely this mirrors the inner journey of a nine year old. Your child is also leaving one way of being (the warm, unified world of early childhood) and moving toward another (the more conscious, individual self of middle childhood). They are wandering, too, through moments of confusion and new responsibility. The story of Moses does not explain this. It simply reflects it, and in that reflection your child finds courage.
Alongside the story, literacy work continues with verb tenses (past, present, irregular past tense forms), paragraph writing, digraph review, and cursive letter practice extending into simple words.
The Curriculum: What You Will Teach
This block is designed to take 15 instructional days. The story of Moses unfolds chronologically across the block.
The Story Your Child Will Hear:
The birth of Moses and the basket in the Nile.
Moses as a young man, fleeing to Midian.
The burning bush and Moses’ call.
The plagues of Egypt.
The crossing of the Red Sea.
The wilderness wandering and the giving of the Ten Commandments.
The view of the Promised Land.
The Language Progression:
Past and Present Tense Verbs: regular (-ed endings) and irregular forms.
Digraph Review: sh, ch, th, wh, ph, ck, tch, dge.
Paragraph Writing: short retells with clear tense.
Cursive Extension: practising letters within simple words.
Your Learning Intentions:
By the end of the 15 days, your child should be able to:
Retell the main events of Moses’ life in order.
Convert verbs between present and past tense, including common irregulars.
Read and identify common digraphs.
Write a clear paragraph in consistent past tense.
Record writing and drawings neatly in the Main Lesson book.
Practical Guidance: How to Set Up Your Space
Materials Needed:
Main Lesson Book and Lined Exercise Book: For drawings, writing, and skills practice.
Block and Stick Crayons, Coloured Pencils, Graphite Pencil: The usual Waldorf toolkit.
Scrap Paper or a Small Whiteboard: For tense modelling and digraph practice.
💡 Teacher Tip: Trust the Story to Speak to the Moment
Moses is not an easy hero. He stammers. He doubts. He argues with Yahweh. He is often afraid. Your nine year old is sometimes all of these things too. You do not need to point out the parallels. You do not need to extract a lesson from each chapter. Just tell the story, with warmth and quiet, and let your child sit with Moses at the edge of the wilderness. The story is doing work you cannot see. Let it.
The Waldorf Method: How to Structure a Daily Lesson
Each day follows a steady rhythm: Review, New Learning, Bookwork, Story. Here is how it looks on Day 1: The Birth of Moses.
Step 1: Introduce the Block
Recall the Patriarch stories briefly: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph; the Hebrew family settling in Egypt. Ask: “What happened after Joseph died? How might life change over many generations?”
Step 2: New Learning (Past Tense Verbs)
Ask your child what a verb is, and brainstorm examples. Introduce tense: if something is happening now, it is present tense. If it has already happened, it is past tense. Many past tense verbs end in -ed (walked, helped, carried). Some are irregular (go → went; see → saw).
Display 8 to 10 verbs: walk, see, climb, shout, hide, look, find, help, carry, go. Your child says each in present and past tense.
Step 3: Bookwork
Example Bookwork Instructions:
Open a new Main Lesson book. Leave the first page for a title page of Moses parting the sea.
Turn to the next page. Draw a block-crayon border and write the heading Past Tense Verbs.
Divide the page into two columns: Present Tense | Past Tense. Copy the verbs, writing each in both tenses.
Step 4: The Story
Put the books away. Read the Birth of Moses aloud: the new Pharaoh’s cruel command, the Hebrew mother who hides her baby in a basket of reeds, the princess who finds him, and the name she gives him because she drew him from the water. End the lesson here. Tomorrow the story continues with Moses as a young man.
Build It Yourself vs. The Guided Curriculum
You now have the method and the first day. If you have the time, you can plan the 15-day progression, write age-appropriate retellings of the Moses cycle, sequence the grammar and phonics work, and design Main Lesson book pages.
For many homeschooling families, three weeks of thoughtful retellings and coherent grammar teaching is more than a busy week allows. If you would rather spend your mornings reading to your child than planning late at night, the complete Moses block is ready for you.
What’s Inside the Complete Block?
15 Complete Daily Stories: Word-for-word retellings of the Moses cycle, paced for 8 to 9 year olds.
Verb Tense Sequence: Present, past, irregular forms, with colour-coded Main Lesson book pages.
Paragraph Writing Frameworks: Supporting clear, tense-consistent retelling.
Digraph Review: sh, ch, th, wh, ph, ck, tch, dge.
Cursive Word Practice: Moving from individual letters into simple words.
Main Lesson Book Artwork: Reference drawings for each major story moment.
Daily Skills Practice: Basic facts, factor pairs, mental arithmetic.
Teacher Tips Throughout: So you always know when to slow down and when to let the story do the work.
Everything is carefully structured to give you the confidence of an experienced Waldorf teacher, right through to the sight of the Promised Land.