Category Archives: Waldorf

Watercolor

rounded rainbow

Lately Mondays have been our day for watercolor painting, for really no particular reason other then that’s the way it worked out.

snow2 rounded

This set of paintings are some of my favorites from the last couple of months.  They are currently hanging on a wall in my kitchen.

snow 3 rounded

First we painted in blue, then used clean brushes to remove the paint to make the trees and ground, then we sprinkled them with salt while they were still wet.

snow 1 rounded

This week while Galen was painting I told him the story of the yellow sun fairies and the blue rain fairies and how when they come together the bring life to all of the green and growing things.

leaves 2

Once his painting was dry, we cut it into leaves, which he hung on the wall with loops of masking tape, first in the shape of a tree and then in many other shapes, as he seems to like to rearrange them into a different pattern every time he walks past.

By
crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Waldorf
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Animal Fables

coverCover of one of Elijah’s Main Lesson Books

One of the classic Waldorf, second grade, main lessons for language arts.

town mouse

From our work with “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”.  He knitted some sweet mice finger puppets for a puppet show that we put on, but I forgot to get pictures!

country mouseJan Brett has a fun version of this one.

rabbitMain Lesson page from the Jataka Tale “Foolish Words”

mural 2 copy

Mural created for the story “Foolish Words”; in full above and some details below.  This story is included in the Donna Simmons book that I mention below, but we also enjoyed “Twenty Jataka Tales” retold by Noor Inayat Khan.

mural 1

I culled from different sources two years ago when I did this block with Iain, mostly just working directly with Aesop’s Fables.    Since then we’ve been gifted a copy of “Animal Legends” by Donna Simmons of Christopherus, which I like a lot because it pulls stories from different cultures and lays them all out with ideas on how to work with them.  Also, as with all of Donna’s books that I’ve used, it makes planning e-a-s-y.  Seriously, easy as pie.  It’s all laid out right there.  And I can choose to diverge from that at any point I please (and there are times when I certainly do), but if I’m having a low energy, low motivation, sleep deprivation fueled kind of day, I can still pull off a pretty good lesson with minimal effort.

lionIllustration from “The Mouse and the Lion”.  I recently found this beautiful, wordless adaptation by Jerry Pinkney.  While I generally try to share stories for our Main Lesson work from my own memory, I will occasionally have a child read the story them self (more so with an older child, less so with a younger).  But later in the year, I do think that it’s fun to revisit a story in the form of a beautiful and/or well written picture book.

Elijah’s one of those kids who when presented with Waldorf style drawings with vague features and just the “gesture” of the subject, will go back in his own picture and add in all the details.  It kind of makes me laugh.

lamb and wolf“The Wolf and the Lamb” I do so love that little lamb!

lamb

diaramaElijah’s beautiful diorama to go with the story “The Old Man and the Bear”. That one is a fun story!  It made him laugh.

hareI think you probably all know what this one is from!

fox

“The Hungry Fox” (a Middle Eastern Tale)

This week we are finishing up a math block, with one “Saints and Heroes” lesson slipped in-between…

st

And next week we’ll be starting on the “Saints and Heroes” block in earnest.

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Books, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Waldorf
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Around my kitchen table…

On a random Tuesday morning.  Last Tuesday, to be precise.iain one

Iain with a fraction tree in progress.

elijah one

Elijah working on a diorama.

mg one

And the little folks playing at being “bubble factory workers” (an idea blatantly stolen from Kyrie of “Are So Happy“).

Not pictured: me baking Cinnamon Bun Muffins, because I’m still on my giddy cinnamon buns are a part of my life again kick but needed something at least a bit more healthy and a lot less high maintenance.  It’s not the same, but a reasonable substitute in a pinch.

Anywho.

One of the things that I get asked a lot is how I balance caring for and teaching 4 children of different ages and stages.  Which I always find kind of funny, because it’s usually asked in a what-a-ridiculous-thing-to-even-attempt sort of tone, that makes me want to respond by asking the student to teacher ratio of their local school district.  That said, it is true that it can be a challenge.  The structure of home is  very different from that of a school where everything is set up with teaching many children at once in mind (case in point, I don’t tend to make the kids line up to go places).  But I think that there are plenty of ways to make it work and I actually relish the challenge.

Our days go smoother when I’m well prepared, well rested and in a peaceful and reasonable state of mind.  I suppose all that is pretty obvious in theory, but there is a big difference between knowing these things to be true and actively cultivating a life that allows for those things.  I’ve learned time and time again that my state of mind can make or break a day.

From a practical point of view, it helps to have a little metal list, or even an actual list of things for each child to accomplish in a day, with thoughts towards what one child can be doing when I’m otherwise occupied.  So if Iain finishes with his math practice and is ready for his Main Lesson work, but I’m still involved in work with Elijah, I can suggest he go do a certain chore to get it out of the way or get a head start on some other independent work.  Handwork fits in well here.  Other times I’ll request that one of the older ones read to or otherwise entertain one of the younger ones.  We all work together here to make our home, our family and our education work.

Which brings me to perhaps the most important part of fostering an atmosphere for multi-age learning; respect.  I talk about it a lot, with even the littlest of the kids.  They know that when I’m working with one child that they need to be patient and not cause disruptions and in turn their siblings will do the same for them (clearly there is a bit a leeway here for very young people, but they really do start to learn this surprisingly early).

So that’s a very general overview of how we try to find balance and make things work for us all.  Tomorrow I’ll be sharing some of the things that we’ve been working on this year.

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crafts, Food, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, Mothering, Our Little Home, Waldorf
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Winter Season’s Round Exchange: Part II

If the first part of my package was a disappointment, I have nothing but love for the second part.

I love everything about it, the whole process of making her, the way she turned out the feeling of giving her and knowing that she would be loved in her new home.

note: my package did actually go out on time, but it was right before me moved and it seems I forgot to post about it. I still have to get some pictures of the package from my partner. It’s wonderful!
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celebrations and festivals, crafts, doll making, Waldorf
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Winter Season’s Round, and all that jazz…

When I was a little girl and taking piano lessons, there was one recital that I remember being particularly nervous about. My father, who has been a musician all his life, said to me, “If you make a mistake, just do it twice and call it jazz.”
Well, let’s just say we are going to call this one jazz!

Over the years the terms have changed for me, but the concept has remained the same. Now things are “original” or “artistic” and if all else fails, I can always slap on the label of “folk art” and get on with my day. It’s my own sly way of saying, “yeah, I meant to do that…”


The pattern for this one was featured in this winter’s issue of Living Crafts and it’s a great little pattern. I’m planning on making quite a few for our own family. It’s kind of large and rather floppy, so I do wonder how they will hang though. I imagined this one as the sort of thing one would lay out on a nature table.

The theme of this exchange was “light” and my partner expressed a preference for lighter colors; yellow and cream, blues and purples, as opposed to the traditional red and green of the season. The preference was a big part of my inspiration for our package.


The “jazz” of this project comes from my apparent inability to count while working in the middle of the night. Being off by say, 100 or so beads, really puts a crimp in things. As does not having enough beads and having to supplement with beads of a different size. Needless to say, the whole thing was a bit of a compromise.

This was my first time knitting with beads and the whole process was aggravating, fiddly, and slow. And… I *loved* it. It makes no sense what-so-ever, but let’s face it, I rarely make any sense anyway.

Part II of the package tomorrow!

By
Waldorf, Yarn Crafts
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home for the holidays

We’re all here still trying to settle in, trying to settle down. Things are mostly going very well. I’m walking around the edges of a migraine today, which always gets me down, but I know that once the fog clears, life will be good again (I know that it’s good now too, but it’s also rather painful and blurry).



The pajamas are coming along, though sadly, I suspect today is going to be a loss sewing wise. I’m almost done all the pajama pants, I finished a bonnet (ideally I would love to add a bit of embroidery…), and one robe is complete, with the patterns traced for two more.



Maybe today is a day for baking? Maybe it’s just a day for rest. I know that it’s a day to step back, take it easy on everyone and see where we end up.


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celebrations and festivals, Housewifery, Kids, Our Little Home, Waldorf
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Saint Martin

“Golden light is turning gray,
Mist begins to rule the day,
Bare the trees their branches lift,
Clouds of dead leaves earthward drift.
Deep below, deep below
New life will spring.”

~Elijah’s illustration for the story of Saint Martin~


“Through the fields the beggar goes,
Weary feet and tattered clothes,
Trust that God will keep him warm,
Shelter him from cold and harm.
Deep below, deep below,
New life will spring.”

~ the opening song to “Saint Martin’s Play“
Adapted from the legend of St. Martin by William Ward

This past Sunday, the children were in their first play; one angel, one soldier and one St. Martin himself.

I honestly felt that it was really spectacularly beautiful (even if the Littlest Angel, ahem Galen, did get bored halfway through, take off his sash and pretend to go fishing with it down from heaven).

We got the script for this particular version from a teacher at a local Waldorf school and I’m so glad we did. It was really just lovely, full of poetry and music.

We have two 2nd grade boys in our little group, so they played the role of Martin concurrently. We have two fourth graders at the moment as well and my hope is that our next performance will be related to the subjects they are studying. There has already been mention of a play geared toward our third grader this spring. I’ve been thinking about how great it would be if we as the parents could come together to put on a small fairytale (perhaps with puppets or marionettes?) for our kindergarten and preschool set.

Can you tell that I’ve been missing the theater days of my youth?

We were blessed with warm weather, which allowed us to stage the performance outside. I don’t think that this stone circle could have been more perfect for the show. And the fact that we were nearing dusk just made it all the more enchanting.

The performance was well received by our little audience of family and friends. And after we enjoyed a potluck dinner while waiting for the darkness to arrive in earnest.

Then we went out for our lantern walk, followed by spiced cider.

It certainly could have been worse, but during the walk, we didn’t exactly manage to foster the reverent atmosphere that we were hoping for. We had some set backs in the beginning with lanterns falling apart (not the ones that we just made). And I think that a big part of the issue was that we never really talked about it in advance and didn’t actually have someone set up to lead the walk.


live and learn.

We still got out there and we took our walk and sang our songs.

The three of us founding mothers all agreed, managing to pull off the play in such a short period of time was a mightily impressive task, there was no shame in not having the perfect walk too and there’s always next year.

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, sewing, toy making, Waldorf
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Leaf Mobile

Monday morning Galen woke up with a burning desire to make a mobile. I have absolutely no idea what inspired this, but it was all he could talk about all morning. Really, his resolve suited me just fine as I’ve always loved mobiles of all sorts. The only thing was to decide on what kind to make. Simplicity was of the utmost importance to me. And a bit mother nature’s bounty was the answer.


We gathered our leaves that day, though most of the ones around our home are decidedly past their prime. The blackberry bushes still yielded some interesting splashes of color. And the little bit of red oak available to us was still at it’s stunning best. We managed a bit of yellow from the birches. And really nothing says “autumn” like the big brown oak leaves anyway. And they are so sturdy that they we often find the wind skidding them around on top of a crusty snow; with no sign of a blemish or a crease.


We dipped our leaves in beeswax that evening before dinner.


Then our project sat until Wednesday. We had plans for a full family field trip on this day, but the rotation of this illness made it so that we had to divide up. Steve, out and about with the older boys, and me at home, tending under the weather littles.


Galen and I took this opportunity to string up our leaves and hang them in the playroom. It was hard to limit the kids when they were so enjoying dipping the leaves. Which meant that we ended up with a lot of leaves. And of course Galen insisted that we simply must use them all, making the resulting mobile quite large. It’s hung close to the ceiling and he can still reach it while standing on the ground.


It’s a bit lop-sided at the moment. One very large and heavy leaf fell off the end, setting it off balance. I kind of like it. We’re going to say it has artistic flair. A decision that probably had a lot to do with the fact that I have absolutely no desire to climb on a ladder to fix it!
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crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Our Little Home, toy making, Waldorf
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Season’s Round Exchange: Received!


Our Season’s Round Exchange package was late in coming, for reasons that we can’t quite understand. For a while we feared that it was held up at customs due to the inclusion of some chestnuts, but tracking confirmed that it cleared customs and yet it still took another week and a half to make it to us. Very strange. My partner and I sent our packages on the same day and they arrived two weeks apart!

But it’s here now and oh, what a very special gift it is. This little house is a model of our original Little House, complete with a little gnome for each family member.

You can read more about my partner Tine’s reasons for making the house here. He also has some nice pictures of the outside, which I just realized I am lacking here. It has a front piece that is removable, complete with a little porch. So sweet. It’s tucked up high at the moment, as certain very young people weren’t being as careful with it as one would like.


I think it’s funny when they all try to play in it together at the same time. It’s a tight squeeze. Kind of like the real Little House. Màiri is a clever little thing and quietly watches and waits until everyone else is out of the way. Funny. She waited until there was more room to move into this house too.


This exchange ended up being so much more then I ever could have anticipated.


I’m really looking forward to the next round!
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celebrations and festivals, Kids, toy making, Waldorf
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Today’s thoughts on homeschooling

I’ve had the pleasure of recently becoming friends with a women who is new to my area and new to homeschooling. Last year she brought her 4 children home to school for the first time, and while I think she is doing a bang up job, she still has her doubts. Yesterday she confided in me that she feels like she’s freaking out on a weekly basis, thinking about all the things that they “need” to experience and learn and how she can possibly meet those needs. She asked if I ever felt that way when we first started out.

Honestly, I had to laugh!

I still feel this way on a semi-regular basis, and my children have been home with me since birth! Really that’s something that I think we all go through at one point or another. It’s so easy to get bogged down with the wealth of information that’s available to us these days. But at the end of every year, when I’m sitting down and sorting through the year’s work to send to the school district, I can see how much progress they’ve made and I feel better about things. And since I’ve now had this experience several times, I’m able to remind myself of that when those feelings come up.

I’ve also come to believe that it’s not so much about accumulating as much knowledge as possible, but the process of learning that matters. Sarah spoke a bit about this concept last week and I think she’s dead on. I wholeheartedly agree that the goal of education shouldn’t be to teach children everything in the world there is to learn, but to teach them *how* to learn so that they can learn anything in the world that they need. From there the possibilities are endless.

I think we all tend to worry about all of the “things” we want them to learn, but it’s really the skills and the affect that the process of learning has on the child that is important. For that reason, I think it would behoove us as parents and educators to really live into our lessons. To take our time with them and really experience them for what they are, rather then just rushing from one thing to the next and worrying about “fitting it all in”. That’s where the work happens on the child. And what a wonderful lesson to learn, this slowing down for what is important!

And I don’t mean this all from an entirely practical and logical sense. I believe that there are some very real changes that happen in a child’s heart and soul as they come to know about the world and how things work, while learning about themselves through that experience. One of the things that I really like about Waldorf education is the effort that is made to match subject matter with the developmental phase that the child is in. It’s not just a straightforward they can do A, B and C and therefore are ready for D, but an outlook that encompasses soul development as well. It asks what their hearts are ready for and feeds both mind and heart at the same time, slowly growing the strength of self-awareness and self-discipline.

And that’s all from me for now….

By
Homeschooling, Waldorf
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