How we as mothers hold our feelings steady impacts our family….Feelings can be like waves of emotion, but positive feelings can also have a quality of raying out to envelop those around us…
An action such as the meditative drawing of running forms before bed can help demonstrate joy and positivity, ever moving from us toward our families…
Ever striving, always working on our own attitudes…
Many Blessings this Holy Week,
Carrie
The Parenting Passageway 
Many blessings upon you dear Carrie.
Can you explain what “meditative drawing of running forms” is, please?
Sure, form drawing is an art form within Waldorf schools that translates in the upper grades to freehand geometry…Running forms are forms that are repeated over and over and are connected. Form drawing in and of itself is very awakening for children, but I think some of the easier running forms can be very meditative for an adult.
There are back posts on this blog about form drawing if you are interested in that, just type in form drawing into the search engine.
Cheers,
Carrie
Dear Carrie,
Hi, my name is Mia i have a 4 1/2 year old daughter, 2 1/2 year old son and 6 month old son Ever since I have had my third child on October, I have been reading your blog fervently! I have learned so much about slowing down and being present. I am a reflective person and take my job as a mother very seriously. Despite all of my best efforts and seemingly happy family life, I am being told by my daughter’s 3 half day Waldorf nursery school teacher that my daughter is having a hard time playing with her friends (indoors, not during outside play). The teacher doesn’t understand why. When we speak to try to put the puzzle together we find we are both still at a loss. I do not witness abnormally out of bounds behavior at home or on play dates; she doesn’t seem different from other 4 year old).
I need help because I keep wracking my brain to try to figure out why my daughter can not play! And I am finding myself constantly delving into the past to try to understand where I could have made mistakes. I find myself feeling like I have failed my daughter :(. The worst thought I have is that she suffers from my mistakes, or even worse simply because I’ve had two babies since she’s been born. She has never seemed jealous or hurt. Could something as natural as having children be so bad for siblings?? I hate to think so 😦
Please help me! I am going over every trait about myself and wondering if it is somehow causing my daughter’s struggle.
Thank you so much for all you do,
Mia
Hi Mia,
Perhaps you would like to email me to the email address at the bottom of my about page and we can talk more personally. I am curious if this behavior has always been this way, when it started, has something changed in the rhythm at school or have new students entered the class, does your daughter have any sensory issues that could be exacerbated indoors such as adverse to loud noise, has she gone through recent development change?
Have you taken a peek under the Development tab at all the posts under the four year old? There may be some helpful things here.
I guess I cannot advise too much until you tell me exactly what is happening – is she shy? Withdrawn? Bossy? Hanging around the teacher? I am not sure by your description what it means that she cannot enter fully into play. It sounds like you have a great relationship with the teacher; how does the teacher address what is going on? What does the teacher seem to think will help most? Four and a half is often a difficult developmental stage.
Many children go through phases of challenging behavior; it is always interesting to me that when our children are behaving correctly or right that we don’t consider our influence in that, but when our children are behaving not as we would like , it is all our fault. 🙂 I am saying that in love, and I hope you hear the message that as parents we really need to be easy with ourselves.
Looking forward to hearing more,
Carrie