Author Archives: Carrie

The Twelve Senses

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I am going to try and synthesize a few things for you all that I recently learned from Donna Simmons at the Waldorf At Home conference held in Atlanta,  a presentation by Daena Ross for Waldorf In the Home (available through Rahima Baldwin Dancy’s on-line store in CD and DVD versions) and Barbara Dewey’s section on the twelve senses in her book “Beyond the Rainbow Bridge”. 

I am by no means an expert on the twelve senses, although I will say the twelve senses make a whole lot of sense to me due to my background as a neonatal/pediatric physical therapist.

Steiner postulated in his lectures that there were not only the five most obvious senses that we think of, but actually twelve senses that required development.  This has been proved in the medical community, although sometimes in medical literature and therapy literature you see reference to “systems” rather than “senses” although they are truly talking about the same thing!

The twelve senses are what unites the inner and outer world of the individual and what allows us healthy interaction with other people at the highest developed levels.  It takes a long time for these senses to be developed, but the foundational senses needed to develop some of the upper senses are most developed in the first seven years.  There we are, back to my soapbox about the first seven years!

The Lower Senses are seen in our will forces, they are unconscious, and they manifest in the metabolic-limbic system.  These include:

The Sense of Touch – through the organ of the skin.  This includes what is inside of me and what is outside of me.  Important ways to boost this foundational sense include vaginal birth, swaddling, holding, positive tactile experiences (NOT PASSIVE experiences, like through media or Baby Einstein! Active experiences!)  The lack of completion of this  sense is strongly related to ADHD according to Daena Ross. 

The Sense of Life or sometimes called The Sense of Well-Being – this encompasses such things as if you can tell if you are tired, thirsty, hungry.  The best way to boost this sense is to provide your children with a rhythm to help support this while it is developing.  Some children have great difficulty recognizing their own hunger or thirst cues, their own need for rest or sleep. A rhythm can be a great therapeutic help in this regard.

The Sense of Self-Movement – this is probably more familiar to therapists in some ways as the “proprioceptive system” in some ways.  This sense encompasses the ability to move and hold back movement, and can also encompass such sensory experiences as containment (which can be a form of massage for premature babies) and also swaddling.  Childhood games that involve starting, stopping can also affect this sense.

The Sense of Balance – This is balance in two separate realms, from what I gather from the Daena Ross presentation.  It is not only the ability to balance by use of the semicircular canals of the ears  for midline balance so one can cross midline but also refers to the  balance of life and being able to be centered, which again goes back to rhythm and the idea of in-breath and out-breath.  Donna Simmons calls this one a gateway to The Middle Senses.

The Middle Senses are seen in our feeling lives, involve us reaching out into the world a bit, they are seen as “dreamy” senses and manifesting in the rhythmic system.  THE CHILD HAS NO FILTER TO FILTER THESE SENSORY EXPERIENCES OUT IN THE EARLY YEARS.   In the later years, the arts build these senses, which is why the Waldorf curriculum includes teaching through art in the grades.   These senses  include:

The Sense of Smell –  strongly correlated with memory.  This can be an ally in education of the grades age child, but beware of scented everything when your children are in the foundational first seven years. 

The Sense of Taste – Not only on a physical plane, but an emotional plane in naming experiences (a “putrid” experience, a “sweet” experience)

The Sense of Sight  – with two different ways to visualize something:  one is the ability to distinguish color, and the other is the ability to distinguish form (which Daena Ross says is more related to The Sense of Self-Movement).  The best way to help this sense is to protect the eye from media while developing.  A way to bolster this sense in the grades, but not the Early under 7 Years, is through form drawing.

The Sense of Warmth –   Donna Simmons calls this one a gateway to The Higher Senses.  This sense does not fully develop until age 9 and can literally cause a hardening of creativity and new thought as the child matures, but also can refer to a literal inability of the child to be able to tell if they are hot or cold.  Warmth implies not only physical warmth, but warmth on a soul level.  Joy, humor, love, connection are all important developers of this sense along with PROTECTION from extreme and garish sensory experiences that would cause hardening.  This is a very important sense, and children need help with protecting this sense until the age of 9 or 10, so much longer than many parents think!

The Upper or Higher Senses develop during adolescence and require a strong foundation of The Lower Senses and The Middle Senses to come to maturity.  These senses are associated with awakening of the individual, with being concerned with other people and are seen as being centered in The Head.  These senses include:

The Sense of Hearing (which Daena Ross calls “a bridge between The Middle and Higher Senses” in her presentation)  This requires completion of The Sense of Balance – both of these senses involve the organ of the ear.

The Sense of Speech or The Sense of the Word (this is the speech of another person, not yourself) – Requires completion of The Sense of Self-Movement as you must be able to quiet your own speech in order to really hear another person.

The Sense of Thought or The Sense of Concept (again, of the other person, not your own thoughts!) – Requires completion of  The Sense of Well-Being.  Rhythm builds this ability to quiet oneself in order to hear someone else’s thoughts.

The Sense of  the Individuality of the Other (Donna Simmons also calls this the “I-Thou” relationship of boundaries) – This requires integration and completion of all senses, but particularly involves The Sense of Touch according to Daena Ross. 

The most important take-away point for my parents of children under the age of 7 is that children need rhythm, a balance of in-breath and out-breath and protection of the senses from too much stimulation, from media and boundaries set by the parents to wear clothes (VERY difficult with some little nudists!).  The development of these senses is also profoundly related to sleeping and what occurs during sleep to build all of this up.

Waldorf Education is first and foremost about health and the twelve senses provide a glimpse into some of why things are done in Waldorf the way they are!  I encourage you to investigate the twelve senses on your own.  In this age and day of skyrocketing ADHD/ADD, autism spectrum disorders, sensory processing disorders, this should be mandatory learning for all parents. 

With love,

Carrie

Some Thoughts for Christian Education at Home

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(Note:  There are also mention of several Waldorf resources for spiritual education at home in this post, so if you are searching for those read towards the bottom).

My faith is very important to me, and I believe that God put His hand on my heart to teach my children about having a very personal  faith and beliefs of our denomination.  Someone asked me how I fit our religious studies in with Waldorf homeschooling, so I thought I would outline it here:

1.  One of the number one things we do is to model – I read the Bible, we pray for people in need, we pray in thanksgiving for God’s blessings, we pray before meals.  We try very hard to be thankful in all circumstances, to see the positive, to love everyone and to help people when we can.   Our faith is just part of everyday life.

2. As a family, we show gratitude, wonder and respect for God’s creation – all the different people and cultures in the world, the Earth and all the wonderful things in nature.

3.  It is  a priority to take children to church and to be involved in church.  Making our Sundays a day of true Sabbath is an important priority in our family right now.  I found this great little booklet called, “A Day of Delight:  Making Sunday the Best Day of the Week” and its 26 pages has really helped me plan and organize  to make Sunday a true day of rest, worship and family time.  It is published by Doorposts Publishing in Oregon, and I have not done any Google searches to see if it is available over the Internet, but for the small cost it is a worthy read!

4.  We have family devotions in the morning at breakfast.  Last year we used “Leading Little Ones to God”, which had some parts that I had to modify for my own denominational beliefs, but it was a great introduction for a young crowd.  Right now we are using “Our 24 Family Ways:  Family Devotional Guide”, which is a bit over my almost five-year-old’s head, (and every devotional starts with questions to think about, which is not my favorite for the under 7 crowd) but about right for my almost eight-year-old and you can certainly modify it any way you see fit.   That is the beautiful thing about homeschooling and living together! 

We also model trying to grow in our own faith, and I usually have some sort of a Beth Moore Bible Study going on – it is harder for me to get out at night, so I just go to Lifeways Christian Bookstore and buy a participant copy of whatever study interests me and the audio CD’s and do it myself!  Right now I am studying the Book of Daniel. 

5.  Every Friday in lieu of school, we held a Peace Circle and had a time to spend in learning about God.  This past year I picked a Fruit of the Spirit for every month of school (worked out well because we spent nine months in school and there are nine fruits, so we had one fruit for each month) and each Friday we had an example from the Bible and an activity focused on that Fruit.   I also did an adult study of Beth Moore’s on this subject at the same time. 

This coming year we will be using “Young Children and Worship” Bible stories with some of the accompanying wooden figures to wind our way through the Bible for both children.   I also have materials specific to the missions of our church and denomination. 

On Fridays this year, I will also be telling stories out of Rudolf Copple’s “To Grow and Become” which are stories told in the Waldorf tradition.    You can find this book through the Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore –which, by the way, you will be able to order off of on-line starting in July!- or Bob and Nancy’s Bookshop.  The Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore’s catalog has this to say about this little book:  “These stories were told-not read- in a Waldorf school by the class teacher, in place of religious instruction, on Fridays during the last period of the day.  No retelling or other work with them was done.  The intention was to bring a spiritual content to the children for the weekend.”

(You may know that during Rudolf Steiner’s time there were religious lessons taught by a local priest to the Catholic students at the school and also a Protestant leader for the Protestant students, and then there was also a period of spiritual studies for those with no religious background.    At least that is my understanding from reading the lectures in “Soul Economy”, but I have never asked anyone about this directly!)

6.  We routinely review, pray for and save our money for the missions our  church and denomination are working with and sponsoring.    You could do this with any charity you choose.  One of my favorite other charities is  this one:  http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/    Heifer International.

7.  We celebrate the festivals and holidays of our denomination and faith throughout the year in celebration of liturgical year.  This year, besides the materials of our denomination and the Bible, we will be using the book, “Celebrating the Festivals of the Year” by Irene Johansen, which is a book that has stories for many of the festivals and holidays we celebrate and can be found at www.waldorfbooks.org or Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore.

I celebrate all of you who are walking in faith with your children.  I believe faith  and a personal relationship with the Creator is an extremely important part of a child’s life.   I hope all of you work to bring your children up in the belief that there is something bigger than themselves at work in this wondrous world, because it really does affect children in a positive way.  If you have no particular faith or religious path, I encourage you to explore this.   It is not only the essence of Waldorf education, but the foundation of life.

Be the positive light you wish to see,

Carrie

The Simplicity of Parenting

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Sometimes I wonder why we make parenting so hard on ourselves.  Seriously!    Do the indigenous tribes of the world  sit around and read a million books on breastfeeding, and then co-sleeping and then how to parent and how to be gentle and educational methods and how to raise productive citizens?  No, of course not. They have each other, they have traditional ways of doing things, they have elders who help, they have huge close communities.

Our problem is that we have lost our way in our society and we are  re-creating the parenting wheel ourselves, bit by bit, in our own homes.   The wonderful book “The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker” by Manfred Schmidt-Brabant is precisely about this subject.   We have lost so much of the intrinsic, the from the heart parenting, that sometimes we wonder if we will ever see it again.  And in the meantime, our children look to us to lead and to guide and to love and to cherish them.

Here are some rules of simplicity in parenting that really struck me tonight:

Love your child. Hold your child, tell them you love them, breastfeed them, sleep with them, be close to them.  Look at the world from their eyes, but do not assume they feel about things as you do or understand the things you understand – they are not a miniature extension of you, they have not had your experience, they have a different consciousness!  Respect them, and also respect them enough to know when they need you and your gentle help to guide them.

Enjoy life and be confident in your life!  Enjoy your children. Don’t you think they know when in your heart you feel irritable, trapped, resentful, wondering where your life is?  If you cannot enjoy this life that you were given, please, please, help yourself out.  Discuss your feelings with your spouse and with your extended family, find a friend to talk to, find a mother’s helper for  a few hours each day, talk to a counselor, go see a doctor to rule out any physical causes of depression, create a community for yourself.   Your children deserve a whole human being, a whole beautiful and wonderful and wise woman to take care of them!

Re-frame your own attitude. Parenting should not be the end of your life; parenting is just the beginning!  Find things for you that you need to do to be that whole person, work with your spouse or a friend to make it happen, but also realize this is BIGGER than just you; this is not all about you; it is about these wonderful spiritual beings that decided to come and be with you and be a part of your family!  Family is a bigger and more beautiful thing than you alone!

Know that you set the tone in your home.  Men do things differently than women, they parent differently; so why nag?  Where and what does nagging get you?  Model and set the tone.  Healthy eating, healthy sleeping, healthy communication, rest, peacefulness, fun together, joy, being outside:  the keys to a healthy life no matter what your age!

Find the positive.  Find the positive intent.  Instead of assuming the worst of your children, your spouse, the friends you thought you had, assume something positive.  Assume the people who love you want to help you, that they do support you and understand you. Cut those people some slack; we are not perfect beings in this perfect world!    Maintain some of a feeling of joy and innocence regarding your world, it is possible!  Look at the possible  needs behind your child’s behavior and don’t discuss it with them, for heaven’s sake, but use it to help  guide your child!  Uplift your child, move and dance with them and love them  to where they are supposed to be in life and who they are unfolding to be!

Love your children, love yourself and love each other.  Simplicity in parenting!

Blessings to you all,

Carrie

The Power of Being A Positive Mother!

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Today we had some friends with their children  over to swim and I looked around in amazement at how much the children  had grown – how many of them have already “thinned out”, how many were all legs and such.  It was truly a time to enjoy the marvels of their healthy bodies running and playing and swimming under the sun.

And what I realized in that shining sunlight was that these were what a friend of mine would call “tender and precious” children.  It is not that these children don’t have their own bumps in the path, or their times of disequilibrium as they grow and mature, but that they are truly tender and precious – just like their beautiful, wise and wonderful mothers!

Because all of us are spiritual beings on a spiritual path.  My path is to draw closer to God throughout my lifetime.  How much are we called to be positive beacons for our children,  to lift our children up to the next level, the next place, to support and love unconditionally?  How much are we called to just love one another and these beautiful beings who chose to share their souls with ourselves and within our family?

There are so many myths surrounding motherhood in our society – that motherhood somehow forces a woman not to use all of her skills, that motherhood somehow stunts a woman’s growth in her life, that motherhood is somehow “just being a mother”.

We have the unique opportunity to model for our children the very best qualities of ourselves and our society.  We have an incredible opportunity for self-examination and self-discovery.  Why does this behavior bother me so?  How can I surrender myself and decrease myself and increase my neutral, calm, centered peacefulness more?  How can I be a better listener?  How can I use less words but still gently guide my child as needed?  Motherhood  provides us the opportunity to ask the difficult questions of our own values and priorities and really solidify that.

Being a positive mother is one of the most wonderful gifts you can give your children.  Use your words so wisely, so carefully with your tender and precious children.  We are all adept at finding one another’s faults, those weaknesses.  Back off and also see the good, see the wonderful moments as they are.  See the things that people say to you with the best underlying intention that you can imagine. See the things your children do with the best underlying intention possible.  As a Waldorf parent, I believe that small children are truly neither good nor bad, but again, on this spiritual path and learning.  I have tremendous influence here.  I am a woman of worth for my children and my family. 

Encourage your children, encourage other mothers, encourage your spouse and encourage yourself. 

Be wonderful in living this moment together,

Carrie

A Review: “In A Nutshell: Dialogues with Parents at Acorn Hill”

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I had a reader from Down Under ask my thoughts on this book as it would be expensive to buy it and have it shipped. 

Let’s take a quick peek at this little book:

It is about 91 pages long, and is formulated in a series of questions that parents ask and the author answers.

The Table of Contents:

(after the Foreword, the Preface, the Introduction):

Our Classroom Environment

Color in the Classroom

Why Curtains?

Teachers’ Dress

The Significance of Candles

Naming the Teacher

No Cars and Trucks?

What About Puzzles?

Musical Instruments in the Classroom

Work and Play at School

The Rhythm of the Morning

Saying, “You May”…

Ironing in the Classroom:  Danger?

Boys and Waldorf Education

Playing Cats and Dogs

Music in the Mood of the Fifth

Can Energetic Boys Enjoy Handwork?

Gun Play at School?

Field Trips?

Fairy Tales for Young Children

The Challenge of Circle Time

Puppetry and “Told” Stories

Children at Home

Colors for a Child’s Bedroom

Older and Younger Siblings

Boredom

Telephone

Bedtime Ritual

Feeding a Child

Swords vs. Guns

TV Away from Home

Barbie

Forbidden Words?

Appropriate Gifts

“What Did You Do in School Today?”

Toys in the Neighborhood

Helping Children in a Time of Trouble – A Few Thoughts

Is the World a Good Place?

In Conclusion

About the Author

 

I have enjoyed this book and there is much food for thought here; however I do think many of these questions can be answered either by reading Steiner’s works or some of the classic Kindergarten Years texts that are out there such as “You Are Your Child’s First Teacher”, “Heaven on Earth”, or “Beyond the Rainbow Bridge.”   There is also a wonderful service available to us with free on-line articles of “Gateways” (a Waldorf Early Years publication) available through www.waldorflibrary.org that frequently addressed these types of questions.  Also, I would encourage you all to join some of the “National” waldorf group lists – Melisa Nielsen’s list homeschoolingwaldorf@yahoogroups.com; Marsha Johnson’s list at waldorfhomeeducators@yahoogroups.com or Donna Simmon’s paid subscription forum at  http://www.waldorf-at-home.com/forums/

On the other hand, if you are planning on enrolling your child within a Waldorf school setting, this work may answer some of the typical questions parents have from a classroom perspective.

Hope that helps,

Carrie

Mindful Parenting Practices That Every Parent Should Know

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1. Love and warmth for your child – warmth and love not only in your actions, but in your word, in your head and in your heart.  Do you love and adore your child?  Or do you secretly ( or not-so secretly??)  feel negatively toward your child?  Waldorf parenting and education views that there are no difficult children, although children can certainly have difficult behaviors!  You don’t don’t have to love every behavior, but love your child!  Give your child that warmth and energy and unconditional acceptance from your soul! How many positive things do you think and say about your child every day, especially compared to the negative things you think?!   Connect with your child, love your child, enjoy your child.

A child under the age of 7 is often seen within Waldorf parenting and educaiton as more of “neither inherently good nor bad” – rather a child that is learning and  that needs gentle guidance.

2.  Protection of the child’s senses – there are 12 senses to be protected, and the small child has no filter to “screen” things out.  This is why repetition, being home, sameness is so important to the young child.  I am going to write a post on the 12 senses soon based on some things we recently talked about in Donna Simmons’ Waldorf At Home Conference.

3.  Humor, Happiness, Joy!  Your house should have a soul-quality of warmth, humor, joy.  How many times a day do you laugh with your children?  How many times a day do you smile at them?  How often do you hug them or kiss them?  How many times a day does your children feel the joy that comes from being a family together?  You don’t need a lot of words, but to be able to exude that feeling of joy, that the world is a good place!

4.  Cultivation of gratitude is of paramount importance in the first seven years as the basis of love in the next seven year cycle and of the feeling of dedication and loyalty in the cycle after that…How do express gratitude to your children?  To your spouse?  Do you wonder at things together and find thankfulness in the everyday of your lives?  Are you doing any of kind of inner work, spiritual work?

5.  Rhythm is essential.  I am not going to go into everything about rhythm here, as there are many, many posts on this blog about rhythm, but understand this is the place that can carry so much for you without much effort if your rhythm is established.

6.  Don’t create the battlefield in your mind!  Get clear in your heart about how you feel about something, with love set it  forth and go have fun!

7.  Show your child some meaningful work, something than more than pushing a button to turn something on…..Cook together, garden together, be together in mass quantities of time.

8.  Look at play and fostering connection to nature as the essential work of the child during the years when they are small.

There are more things considered “essential” in the early years, but I feel these are the things that truly are of great importance, and also cause parents the most difficulty.

Mindful parenting, gentle parenting, loving parenting, can be a challenging path but so worth it!

Keep striving,

Carrie

Mindful Parenting

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As St. John’s Day calls us to be more inward and focused in the midst of outer expansion, perhaps a meditative focus for all of us as mothers could be contemplation of the phrase “mindful parenting”. 

What does mindful parenting mean to you personally?  To me, it means that I am in control of myself and my actions in front of my children, that I consider their feelings along with their needs, that I show my children empathy for their feelings, that I bring joy and laughter and warmth to my parenting.  To be a mindful parent, I must consider the “bigger picture” of parenting – where my children are developmentally, where they have been, where they are going, what their temperaments are and who they are as beautiful individuals and how we all work together in one family.  I must also consider my own “cup” – is it full, how do I get it full within the context of parenting?  I can be a beacon of light and love for my children when I am centered and calm and peaceful.

I feel blessed to be a parent, and I truly enjoy my children.  I think people have different ages of parenting they like and enjoy – my mother-in-law always says how wonderful she finds ages three and four, while other people I know really rather dislike these stages.  Some mothers have commented to me that teenagers are so difficult, and I have other friends who say they just love the teenaged energy in their home and want all of their teenager’s friends to come and hang out within their family!

Even if you are in a parenting stage that perhaps you are not particularly enjoying, perhaps here is a Waldorf parenting view you can take and use:  the notion that there really are no difficult children, but there are difficult behaviors that children show us.  When we break things down into a behavior and NOT the child, it opens a gateway so we can look at that behavior. Why is this behavior triggering me as a parent so?  What do I need in this moment to be more fulfilled and peaceful that is separate from what my child is doing? Is this an issue of safety?  Or is it an issue that just bothers me but I could gently direct it?  Do I have to direct it at all?  What is the need of the child under the behavior?  Is there more than one way to meet that need and am I comfortable meeting that need for my child and in what way?  Can my child meet their own need?  Can we work together so that in our family all of us can be happy and peaceful?

How can I use my words like pearls….instead of spouting off the book of lectures, can I use a few positively-worded phrases?  Can I be warm and loving and caring even if I have to set a limit?  Is the limit necessary at all?  I actually don’t use many limits in my family, our rhythm carries much of it, modeling carries much of it, love carries much of it.  We are respectful to each other.

These are the kinds of inward questions that shape my days of parenting, and the kinds of inward contemplation I do in my own parenting as we draw closer to St. John’s Day(Midsummer’s Day).

Thanks for reading,

Carrie

“What Is the Purpose of School?”

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http://www.lilipoh.com/articles/2009Issues/Spring2009/what_is_the_purpose_of_school.aspx

This is a great article from Lilipoh!  Enjoy!

Carrie

Summer Planning for the Five and Six Year Old Kindergarten Years

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We have been talking about summer planning on this blog for a few posts now and today I wanted to talk specifically about the five and six year old years and how planning might look.

One thing to immediately consider is if your state has reporting requirements for a certain age (in my state you have to start reporting for age 6).  How many days of attendance a year is required?  Take out a calendar and think about when you would like to generally start and end your school year (because in Waldorf we do REST over the summer!), when your vacations will be, and how many days you can plot out to meet those state requirements.  Get involved with your homeschooling organization in your state so you know what laws affect you, what is coming up – you are now part of a community of ALL homeschoolers, whether the other homeschoolers use Waldorf or not!

Think about the goals you have for your child.  What do they need to work on in the realms of gross motor, fine motor, in language, in social settings, from a spiritual/religious perspective, in creative play, in ordering of thoughts (the basis of pre-mathematical thinking)?

Secondly, look at what festivals you would like to celebrate and start making monthly headings with the festivals you will be celebrating each month.  For example, perhaps you will celebrate Michaelmas, Martinmas, Advent, St. Nicholas Day, Candlemas, etc.  Mark those down under each month and make sure you give yourself a couple of weeks to plan baking, cooking, arts and crafts and other things around these festivals.

Now turn to your daily rhythm and  think about how you will call and start school each day.  Will you have a song you sing, a chime, a drum? Will you light a candle? Will you always sing the same song or use songs that change monthly in accordance with the season, month or festival?  Will you do circle or finger plays or some sort of movement to warm up the body and will these always be the same or will they change monthly?

Will you do your practical work next or will you do a story first?  Your story can be the same for a whole month, although depending on what festival is during the month you may want to do a fairy tale for two weeks and then a festival story in the weeks leading up to the festival. Verses are a great way to bring in counting, mathematical ordering, the rhythm of language and rich vocabulary.   

Your practical work will follow the same rhythm each week, but the activities will change in accordance with the seasons or festival coming up.  So you may have baking, gardening, arts and crafts, handwork, painting – but each week will be something different.  It takes time to plan these things and make supply lists to make sure you have the things you need on hand. 

Lastly, make sure you have a way to end your school day, whether that is again with singing or a verse or a chime.

Look at each day of your week and plan outside time, and what afternoon you may be out of the house.  Remember, the five and six year old needs rhythm, repetition, warmth! 

The six-year-old can probably start to handle some field trips to orchards for apple picking, or the nature center, but always keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish!  It is still not the time for explanation, but for doing.  Make a fishtank or pond.  Feed the birds and make bird treats.  Take care of animals, hike and be in nature, look at the stars and planets with the naked eye, have your child do chores, grow a garden.  Look for those longer and more involved fairy tales to tell and longer and more complex projects for the six-year-old. 

Happy Planning!

Carrie

Summer Planning: Waldorf and the Early Years

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For those of you doing “summer planning” and are feeling stressed out by planning for the Waldorf  Homeschooling Kindergarten for the 4, 5 and 6  year old year, I have a few words for you all. (And PS, I am not sure you have to do too much “special planning” for the four year old except for a daily time of lighting a candle and telling the same story for a month in addition to your rhythm – most mothers of four-year-olds are still working hard on their rhythms and that is the most vital piece!)

Foremost in your mind as you plan, even for the “big” six-year-old, keep in mind the hallmarks of Waldorf Education for these ages:

1.  Imitation, not words.  Show, help gently but don’t so much direct with your words.  Use your words for singing, for verses for transitions, for

2. A steady Rhythm of work at home, outside time, play and SLEEP and REST. Sleep and rest come up time and time again in Waldorf Education throughout all the grades, this is a very important piece to work with in the 4,5, and 6 year old who is no longer napping!

3. Warmth – yes, bodily warmth and soul warmth.

4.  Protection of all 12 Senses – the small child has no FILTER.   This is why the small child does not need “field trips” to stimulating places, and needs repetition and warmth and being at home.

5. Movement – a child under the age of 7 communicates in a PHYSICAL way, in the PHYSICAL realm!

6.  Enlivening the imagination through singing, verses, fingerplays, stories

7. Setting boundaries – where are you struggling in creating your peaceful home life and what boundaries do you need to set in a LOVING, WARM, and gentle way?  Somehow people seem to think these two things are exclusive and separate from each other, but they are not! You can do this because you are the parent, and you have this tiny 4,5, or 6 year old!

8.  Your meditative work:  The World is Good Place.  And if you cannot really think this in your thoughts, than that is your own personal work.  Goodness, truth and beauty go through all the years of Waldorf Education.

It is not that Waldorf educators do not believe that a child COULD learn whatever they want to learn or ask to learn, but that it is HARMFUL for the future stages of their growth to do so.   Steiner had a very high opinion of children and thought they were extremely smart, that they were the teachers of us in many regards!  However, if your child asks to stay up all night, or eat chocolate cake for every single meal for a week, chances are you will say no.  In this regard, Waldorf education takes the health of the child as paramount importance. 

The 4,5, and 6 year old child is NOT a miniature adult that needs “filling up” and just lacks experience!  The 4,5, and 6 year old child requires an entirely different way of being dealt with by adults. This is where Waldorf is  so successful and so many of the “talk your child with logical reasoning when they are not logical” and “fill up their heads with factoids” leads to children who are completely burned out by age 8 or 9 with academics, and children who are old before their time.  I have seen it time and time again! 

Required summer reading for you if you have children in this age range:

Steiner’s “Kingdom of Childhood” and   “Education of the Child” and

Rahima Baldwin Dancy’s “You Are Your Child’s First Teacher”

If you get really ambitious try “Waldorf Education: A Family Guide” and reassure yourself that the pink bubble of Waldorf Kindergarten does not last forever, but does indeed serve an essential place.

More about summer planning for the five and six year old soon,

Carrie