Author Archives: Carrie

Waldorf Consultants

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It is that time of the year!  Whether you have questions about finishing up this school year, or questions in regarding planning for your upcoming school year, my dear friend over at Loveyland  (http://lovey-land.blogspot.com/) put together this great list of Waldorf consultants and gave me permission to share it with you all!

David Darcy – David Darcy Consulting:

http://ddarcy.com/

Consulting – contact for fee

Workshops, Speaking Engagements –   *Contact for fee

Resources – Subject guides from $12

Blog – http://DDarcysView.blogstream.com/

Siegline de Francesca – Teach Wonderment:

http://teachwonderment.com/

Consulting –   *Contact for fees

Workshops – See website

Resources – Subject guides from $25

Additional Resources – http://www.kitntales.com/kitntales.html  Stories, Kits, Guides from $4

Barbara Dewey – Waldorf Without Walls:

http://waldorfwithoutwalls.com/

Consulting – *Contact for fee

Workshops, Speaking Engagements   *Contact for fee

Resources – Booklets for K-8 range from $4

Marsha Johnson – Waldorf Home Educators/Shining Star School:

http://shiningstarschool.com/

Workshops –   *Held at Shining Star School in Portland, Oregon

Resources –   *See Files section of forum, Curriculum overview $30

Forum – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorfhomeeducators/

Melisa Nielsen – A Little Garden Flower:

http://alittlegardenflower.com/

Consulting – *Contact for fee

Workshops, Speaking Engagements – *Contact for fee

Resources – Curriculum guides K-5 from $15, DVD, Audio, Handcrafts

Forum – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschoolingwaldorf/

Blog – http://www.waldorfjourney.typepad.com/

Blog – http://www.alittlegardenflower.blogspot.com/

Podcasts – http://www.thegnomeshome.com/

Donna Simmons – Christopherus Homeschool:

http://christopherushomeschool.org/

Consulting – *Contact for fee, do be aware she has several experienced Waldorf homeschooling mothers also working with her on consultations.

Workshops, Speaking Engagements    *Contact for fee

Resources – Curriculum guides from $125, Subject guides from $10, Audio from $14

Forum – http://www.waldorf-at-home.com/forums/    *Cost $15/three months

Blog – http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/blog/

Blog – http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/highschool/

Eugene Schwartz – Millennial Child:

http://millennialchild.com

Consulting   *Contact for fee

Workshops, Speaking Engagements – Summer Intensives and other workshops  *Contact for fees

Resources – CD-Rom guides from $17.50, Audio lectures from $17.50

Rainbow Rosenbloom/Bruce Bischof – Live Education:

http://live-education.com/

Consulting: Basic included with curriculum, $90/three hours

Workshops, Speaking Engagements   *Contact for fee

Resources – Curriculum guides K-8 from $360

Forum – Clients only

Hope this helps you as you organize and plan your Waldorf homeschooling experience. 

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world, with thanks to my friend!

The Importance of Breastfeeding in the First Few Days

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Okay, here is my second mini-rant of the day:  Colostrum and its benefits!

For those of you who are not as familiar with the early days of breastfeeding, this is what happens within the breasts:  Lactogenesis I occurs midway through pregnancy as estrogen causes the ductal system to grow and progesterone increases the size of lobes, lobules, and alveoli of the breast.  Most women have colostrum during pregnancy.  Lactogenesis II occurs with the sudden drop in progesterone after birth and the  mature human milk comes in within three to five days after giving birth.  There may be a mix of  colostrum/mature milk for up to two weeks post partum

Colostrum has many advantages.  At birth, the infant’s stomach is the size of a marble.  Colostrum is readily available in small amounts to match this.  Colostrum has a laxative effect and promotes the passage of meconium in the early days after birth.

Colostrum contains 60 components, 30 of which are exclusive to human milk.  Some of the most important components for the early days include:

  • Secretory IgA (sIgA), which paints the lining of the stomach and intestines.  This important immunoglobin protects the mucosal membranes in the body from germs, foreign proteins, and harmful invaders. Even as colostrum decreases and the volume of mature milk increases, there is still plenty of sIgA. A woman produces about 2.5 grams of IgA daily for her own use; a baby, who is less than 1/10th of the mother’s  size, receives .5 gram to one full gram while nursing.  Even past the first birthday, there are significant amounts of IgA in the milk and the concentrations of this immunoglobin increase during weaning. The presence of IgA stimulates the infant’s own gastrointestinal production of IgA.
  • High amounts of sodium, potassium, chloride and cholesterol
  • High in protein –three times higher than mature milk
  • Live cells in colostrum, which  survive in the baby’s GI tract and secrete growth factors, hormones and immune regulators.
  • White cells – there are as many live white cells in colostrum as there are in blood in the early weeks
  • Lactoferrin, the main protein in human milk.  Lactoferrin kills certain kinds of bacteria, viruses, fungi and tumor cells.
  • Oligosaccharides, which prevent bacteria from binding itself to surfaces in the respiratory tract.

Do keep in mind these benefits of exclusively breastfeeding your infant within the early days of life:

  • Helps mature milk come in earlier
  • Decreases severity of engorgement
  • Enhances milk supply
  • Helps uterus to involute
  • Bolsters mother’s confidence that she can be the sole provider for her infant
  • Gives mother plenty of practice
  • Prevents nipple confusion
  • Baby can practice at breast on small amounts of fluid before mature milk comes in
  • Colostrum’s supply of IgA coats the mucous membranes of the linings of the digestive tract, keeping harmful pathogens out and helping to activate the infant’s own immune system
  • Colostrum is high in protein, concentrated in volume,  and is easily digestible
  • Colostrum acts as a laxative and minimizes risk of jaundice
  • Assists with bonding and attachment

There are times when supplementation is necessary after birth but please do understand the risks of supplementing with artificial infant milk.  Even one bottle of artificial infant milk can sensitize a newborn to cow’s milk protein.  Formula changes the gut flora by breaking down the mucosal barrier colostrum provides and allows pathogens and allergens to enter. 

So, please have an open dialogue with your health care team if they are advocating supplementation for your healthy, full-term newborn.   Know what levels of bilirubin and blood glucose your baby has, and how breastfeeding can help.  Understand how to nurse your baby with a good latch, and how nursing your baby at least nine to 12  times within a 24- hour period is more likely to lead to breastfeeding success and satisfactory outcomes.  Talk to your pediatrician before you give birth as to what scenarios they would advocate supplementation for and why.  If you are giving birth in a hospital, know your hospital’s policies regarding supplementation of term infants.

Hope this will help some of you out there.

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

Extended Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding Beyond A Year

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Okay, here is my mini-rant of the day!  I have had three separate mothers come and talk to me about their pediatricians telling them that human milk has no nutritive value after the first year of an infant’s life!  I cannot believe these pediatricians are in practice, I really can’t.  This is such misinformation to be spreading, and while these particular mothers were educated enough to know this isn’t true, what about the mothers who do not know the facts, hear this, and prematurely wean their child based on this information? 

So, let’s talk about the facts.  If you want to breastfeed your child beyond a year, here are some facts about the advantages of extended nursing.

First of all, many organizations around the world recommend nursing beyond a year:

  • The World Health Organization recommends nursing for a minimum of two years.
  • The United Nations Children’s Fund also recommends a minimum of two years.
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends nursing for at least a year and for as long after that as is “mutually desirable”.
  • And the best organization, the organization of motherhood,  has this to say :  the estimated median age of weaning throughout the world is between three to five YEARS.

Why Breastfeed Beyond a Year?

  • At one year of age, a baby’s immune system is functioning only at 60 percent of the adult levels. A child’s immune system is not fully functioning at adult levels until six years of age. Nursing toddlers grow better and have better resistance to infection.
  • In particular, secretory IgA, an immunoglobin, appears to remain low for the first 18 months of a child’s life, so breastfeeding is an important source of this immunoglobin.  Breastmilk contains IgA, IgG and IgM to augment a child’s immune system until it is functioning at optimal levels.  Human milk still contains nutrients, growth hormone factors and immunoglobins after the infant is one year of age.
  • From the wonderful site www.kellymom.com:  “Human milk expressed by mothers who have been lactating for >1 year has significantly increased fat and energy contents, compared with milk expressed by women who have been lactating for shorter periods. During prolonged lactation, the fat energy contribution of breast milk to the infant diet might be significant.”
    — Mandel 2005
  • Also from www.kellymom.com:  “Breast milk continues to provide substantial amounts of key nutrients well beyond the first year of life, especially protein, fat, and most vitamins.”
    — Dewey 2001
  • In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides:
    • 29% of energy requirements
    • 43% of protein requirements
    • 36% of calcium requirements
    • 75% of vitamin A requirements
    • 76% of folate requirements
    • 94% of vitamin B12 requirements
    • 60% of vitamin C requirements

    — Dewey 2001

  • Studies done in rural Bangladesh have shown that [human milk] continues to be an important source of vitamin A in the second and third year of life.
    — Persson 1998
  • Better skin.
  • There is no easier way to comfort a sick child.  A sick child will almost always nurse, even if they are not eating.
  • Nursing may help improve the dental arch
  • Comfort nursing can be a fundamental part and advantage of nursing a toddler.
  • Enjoyment of  the connection and closeness with your child!  Closeness and loving attachment are very important for all babies, children and teens, but the turbulent toddler years provide a special opportunity for love and reassurance that nursing can provide.
  • Norma Jean Bumgarner writes in the LLLI book “Mothering Your Nursing Toddler” :  “Some children are very shy and tend to withdraw from close interaction with people, even mother.  The shy child who is still nursing has a ready-made assertive behavior – asking to nurse-  that can help him learn how to get his other needs met, too.  Other children are so active that nursing is the only quiet, calm time in their busy waking hours.”

The Myths Surrounding Extended Nursing:

  • “If a child can ask to nurse, there is something wrong with doing so.”

THE FACT:  If we biologically compare human mammals to other mammals, the natural weaning age would be somewhere between 2.5 years and 7 years.  Please see this article by Katherine Dettwyler here: http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html.  This article will clear up many of the biological comparisons for you regarding the physiological age of weaning.

  • “Once a child no longer needs mother’s milk solely for nutritional purposes, there is no sense in breastfeeding.”   or “Your child should be drinking whole milk now instead of human milk.”

THE FACT:  While human milk does not provide all the nutrients a nursing child may need, see the truth regarding the child’s immune system in the above section and the benefits human milk provides. 

Norma Jean Bumgarner does write in her book, “If your child eats very little besides your milk and is anywhere past his first birthday, you should make a point of offering foods that are rich in minerals.  The little bit he eats should not be cheese or other dairy products that contribute nothing beyond what he is already getting from your milk.  His food should be mineral-rich and easy for people his age to eat, foods like tender meat, eggs, raisins, dried apricots, and foods made with wheat germ, including whole-grain breads……..Except for making iron-rich food attractive to your child his second or third year, it is usually best to trust your child’s preference for nursing or for eating.”

If you are concerned regarding Vitamin D and extended nursing in your toddler, please see this link from La Leche League International: http://www.llli.org/Release/vitamind.html  and here: http://www.llli.org/NB/NBJulAug04p124.html

  • “Your child would eat more solid food if you would just wean him.”

THE FACT:  Norma Jean Bumgarner writes in “Mothering Your Nursing Toddler”:  “Children in the second and third years are notorious for eating nothing, or so it seems to mother….[Nursing] should be more a comfort than a worry that a child has a regular source of nutritious food through nursing.”

  • “After a certain point, the nursing relationship is more for the mother than the child.” (This is especially said regarding 4, 5 year olds who still nurse)

THE FACT:  Uh, any mother who has nursed a child in this age range can tell you it is not for the mother….The child still wants to nurse, and the child is the other person within this relationship.  How would your child react if you tried to stop now?   As a parent you weigh your child’s need for nursing, connection and closeness to you with your own feelings and needs and come up with a plan that hopefully works for the both of you.  Look at your child and see what happy confidence is there from extended nursing, and go from there.

  • “Extended nursing will spoil a child.”

THE FACT:  Just based upon historical accounts of nursing children all over the world, we know the most treasured, precious children were nursed the longest so they would not be afflicted with the diseases that sometimes accompanied weaning; so I guess in that sense extended nursing does spoil your child (because preventing illness and death is obviously spoiling, LOL).

ANOTHER THOUGHT:  Children come into this world without inhibitions about their bodies or other people’s bodies. Extended nursing gives them an opportunity as they grow to learn boundaries of when nursing is accepted and when it is not.  Nursing often provides the first opportunities to practice gentle discipline and set boundaries while guiding and teaching your child.

  • “A toddler who is still nursing is too dependent on his or her mother.”

THE FACT:  See the comment above.  People who are critical of breastfeeding often say things such as that.  Above all, realize it is not other people’s  business and in fact, you do not have to mention your child is still nursing if you do not want to!  Talk to people who will support you and be encouraging!

A toddler or even early preschooler is still a very young child.  This child would be dependent upon you whether you were still nursing them or not!

  • “If you weaned your child, your child would not be (insert behavior here)”

THE FACT:  It is interesting how whatever behavior comes up, this is due to and completely caused by  breastfeeding whereas bottle feeding is never mentioned as a cause of behavior.  Funny how the world works, ain’t it??

  • “Comfort nursing encourages the toddler to turn to food for comfort”

THE FACT:  The composition and quality of human milk (along with the quantity) changes throughout a twenty four hour period and within a feeding.  Many times toddlers nurse for comfort for only a few minutes and are off and running again; they are not sitting down to the eight-course nursing buffet the way a one-month-old does!

Handling Pressure to Wean

If a one year old is still not walking, chances are a pediatrician will reassure mother that the unfolding of this skill will happen in time and not to worry. Weaning is also a biological function and yet we think nothing of encouraging a child to wean. Weaning in the United States often does not have the same dangers as it does in other parts of the world, but it still deserves thought and respect as an important rite of passage in a child’s life.

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

Wet- on -Wet Watercolor Painting

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My local Waldorf homeschooling group recently had its first class with a wonderful trained Waldorf teacher who provided us with an introductory class to wet –on -wet watercolor painting.    It was a peaceful, meditative discovery of the medium of wet- on -wet painting, and I learned more in this class by doing than in all the things I have read regarding wet on wet painting. 

We started at the beginning by learning to tear large sheets of Arches watercolor paper into halves, quarters and eighths and then  we rounded off the corners with scissors to provide a pleasing shape of open possibilities for the young child.  Paint was mixed from a tube into a baby food jar with a very small amount of water while the 90 pound watercolor paper soaked for about 15 minutes.  We then were called to our task by a wooden pentatonic flute,  and a  beautiful song to sing together as a group. 

We all listened raptly to a story about a young child who came upon some gnomes in the wood who were using sticks and three colors to make all the colors of the world.  We received our own paintbrushes to make our own colors of the world and said this verse together, written by Regina Reiter in 1997:

All the colors of the world

Are gifts of love to me,

With skill and trust

I take my brush

And place it carefully

So that my work a gift will be.

Once the paper was on our board, we took sponges and smoothed from the center of the paper out to the corners until there were no bubbles under the paper. We all felt like children again with the excitement of holding our brushes and the prospect of creating something beautiful!

Next, we listened to  three separate stories and  painted three separate paintings with each of  our three color friends:  blue, red and yellow.  As we painted, we were searching for answers to questions about the qualities of the colors.  What is yellow like?  Does yellow explode onto the middle of the page or creep from the outside in?  What is blue like? Does blue shy around the edges or start in the middle?  Does red lend itself to a form as it comes up from the bottom of the page or should it go from the top of the page down or radiate from the middle of the page?  At the end of class we did a painting of the color wheel through a story of a party of our three color friends.  The paintings we did can be viewed at Loveyland’s blog through this link:  http://lovey-land.blogspot.com/2008/12/paintings.html

Being able to live in and feel the colors is the basis for all the wonderful art students create throughout the Waldorf curriculum.

There are several excellent Waldorf  books I have read in the past  regarding the subject of wet- on- wet watercolor painting.  These include the little “Painting with Children” book by Brunhild Muller, “Painting in Waldorf Education” by Dick Bruin and Attie Lichthart, Waldorf Without Walls’ little booklet, “Waldorf-inspired Watercolor Painting with Children” by Anita Briggs and Nadia Tan  and the painting sections in Donna Simmons’ kindergarten and first grade syllabi.   I also have the little booklet  “How to Do Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Painting and Teach It To Children” by  Rauld Russell being sold by Oregon Waldorf Teacher Marsha Johnson through her Yahoo!Group waldorfhomeeducators.  Marsha Johnson also has few FILES on her Yahoo!Group of color stories to help get you started.  You can also explore A Little Flower Garden to see what painting resources Melisa Nielsen has available (www.alittleflowergarden.com).   For younger children, there is also a small section with a verse in the book “A Child’s Seasonal Treasury”.     I will provide a review of some of these resources within my next post.

Remember, you are not painting shapes or forms at this point (and neither is a kindergartener, first grader and even a second grader is painting more out of moods, feelings and gesture than distinct forms and representations).  You are painting feelings and you are painting with the qualities the colors themselves dictate.

If your child is age 4 or 5, it would be a great thing to start painting with them.  You can never tell too many stories, you can never sing too many songs and you can’t do too many paintings! It would be wonderful if you could paint three times a week with your small child if that is possible (and yes, this can be challenging with the younger than kindergarten set around!  Wet –on- wet has a beautiful, peaceful, meditative quality. That mood can be readily destroyed by the lack of reverence of toddlers – see if you can arrange some time to paint with your kindergartner, first grader or second grader during naptime!)

Work on it yourself after the children go to bed for several weeks and you will be able to bring this wonderful gift to your child!

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

The Need to Know

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(I was going to wait until after the Holy Nights were over to publish this post, but then it occurred to me that some of you may be meditating on this very subject during this time.  I hope this helps someone out there……Here goes!)

How much do our under  age 7 children need to know about things going on in the family and life?  This can be such a delicate subject because it gets at the heart of how parents talk to and relate to their children, but I believe it to be an important one.  Please do take what works within this post for you and your family and what resonates inside of you from this writing.  You know your family and children best, but I thought some of you may be curious to how Waldorf views this subject.

According to Steiner’s views of  the seven year cycles, a child under the age of 7 should be in their bodies, and in a rather dreamy state.  You would not want to do things in this period that would call the child’s attention to himself or to promote having a child think in a grown-up way.  The child should be immersed in feelings of warmth and delight by the parent, but not so many words.

How much we tell a child, how much we explain to a child,  and how we answer things can be part of what leads to premature intellectualization, premature analytical ability, and essentially putting the cart before the horse as we use discipline tools that are beyond the child’s developmental maturity level.  A three or four year old cannot reason, and they cannot put themselves in someone else’s shoes.  They need to have gentle discipline methods that reflect this reality.  They can certainly learn all the words that you say, and how to answer back “correctly” and play a very verbal game with you,  but this is NOT the same as truly being able to internalize and rationalize. The ability to do this really does not come in until the child is of age 14 or so, according to Steiner.    If you have a child who you think can do this at such any early age, I would argue that this child is 1. very verbal, but perhaps is not as advanced as you think and cannot understand the ramifications of things the way an adult does and 2. if the child is trying to do all this verbally with you, the child has been intellectualized too early and it is your job as the parent to bring this child back into balance.  More on that in just a moment.

Why do we get ourselves into this difficulty in the first place?  This is just a hard shift for many attached parents, especially with the first child.  After all, many attached children are just “always there, always around”, (and if you are co-sleeping they are even there at night!)    There is not much time without the child to work on or talk about grown-up things.  Furthermore, many attached parents have had to work so hard to surrender themselves to being an attached parent, to learning how to read an infant’s cues and how to breastfeed according to these cues, that they have difficulty not carrying this surrender over into other areas.  Breastfeeding and co-sleeping with a small child under the age of 3 is a wonderful, opening experience in which the mother and child almost seem as one.  The mother grows to feel her child is an extension and a part of her.  According to Waldorf, all small children under the age of 7 are under an extension of their mother’s etheric “Madonna Cloak” – in essence, sharing their mother’s energy and life forces, for lack of a better description.   Donna Simmons has more information about this notion here: http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/blog/2008/11/introducing-the-madonna-cloak-project.html

However, as a child heads past the age of  three, more boundaries need to be in place.  The child, at least according to Waldorf tradition, does not need to be privy to adult conversation and adult topics.  The child under the age of 7 does not need to know everything going on with you and your life.  The child under the age of 7 does not need to see how the adult decision-making process works.  They do not need all the answers to their questions in adult terms, even simple adult terms, and they certainly do not need your adult views and baggage. Let them dream and come up with their own fantastical answers!This comes up all the time within Waldorf – but children simply do not view things through the adult veil and experiences in which you view them.  Things in life can co-exist in many improbable ways for the small child that would be impossible for the adult.  This is developmentally normal, and please do not try to rush your child into adult logical thinking. Enjoy this stage with the wonder that your child has for life! 

If you have a child who has been intellectualized early, it will make integration into the Waldorf curriculum harder.  The child will have a tendency to take the fairy tales, the heart of the Waldorf kindergarten and first grade, very literally and with great difficulty.  The child will have difficulty accepting less explanation and will have difficulty coming up with their own explanation – they will be looking for the “right” answer, instead of being able to be an out of the box problem solver and imaginative person.  This will become an impeding factor in science and later for such subjects as creative writing.  But most of all, you are setting yourself up for very rocky teenaged years if you cannot let your child be a child when they are under the age of seven!

If this is what has happened to your child and you would like to change this, (and it is not too late, even for a child that is seven or eight!)  here are some suggestions:

  • Get rid of all media exposure for awhile. 
  • Do not discuss world events and household affairs in front of this child. Do not discuss the happenings of your child’s friends and their families with your child unless it is a small, happy, warm event that can be described in a sentence or two.   Your child should be in a dreamy state.  There will be plenty of time to know about these things, and about people and events.  The child should know that the world and the people in it are good.  Do your own inner work if you cannot believe this, because this is YOUR baggage, not your child’s thing to carry around.
  • Stop any back and forth bantering you do with your child.  Just. Stop. It.  These verbal games are not appropriate to play with a small child.
  • A child under the age of 7 can be told things pretty much right before they are going to happen, or you can use your daily, weekly rhythm to carry what events are going to happen.
  • This child does not need a myriad of choices when recovering from early intellectualization; they don’t need to think all the time – this is your job.
  • They do not need to have all their “why’s” answered – hum, a warm smile, a hug, a very simple statement is all that is needed – and to move on to practical work and involve them in that.  Don’t you ever remember being told when you were little, “We will talk about that when you are older?”  We vowed as parents to never do that to our children, but guess what, there was common sense in that for some situations!  Let your child tell you their own explanation for something – answer their why with “Hmm, I wonder about that too. ”  Guaranteed they will come up with something creative and wonderful and free of adult baggage and gray-ness.  They live in a world of black and white, and a world of fantasy where things co-exist; this is normal developmentally.  They should not live in gray-ness, in the land of seeing all the exceptions to the rule.
  • Use your songs and verses to announce what is going on next.
  • If your child is asking for “something to do”, get something out and start playing with it – without words!
  • This child needs to be outside in nature for hours a day without you explaining everything to the child about nature and why the leaves turn yellow and brown.  Let them be!  Let them come up with their own names of animals, and their own explanations! Joseph Cornell, in his wonderful book “Sharing Nature With Children” (and yes, this one absolutely should be on your bookshelf!) says this:

Don’t feel badly about not knowing names.  The names of plants and animals are only superficial labels for what those things really are.  Just as your own essence isn’t captured by your name, or even by your physical and personality traits, there is also much more to an oak tree, for example, than a name and a list of facts about it.  You can gain a deeper appreciation of an oak tree by watching how the tree’s mood shifts with changes in lighting at different times of day.  Observe the tree from unusual perspectives. Feel and smell its bark and leaves.  Quietly sit on or under its branches, and be aware of all the forms of life that live in and around the tree and depend on it.

This, my friends, is the heart of not only nature education at its best, but of Waldorf education and the way to relate to small children under the age of 7 who are one with everything in the world.

  • Think about the concept of warmth with this child – warm foods, warm foot baths, warm beds, candlelight, warm thoughts.
  • Provide liberal doses of oral storytelling and simple made up stories.
  • Provide lots of experiences with baking, gardening, wet on wet watercolor painting, and imaginative play all through story and song, not verbally oriented instructions.
  • If your child is doing something that you do not like, if it is at all possible, involve the child in practical work.  If it involves an item, gently take the item away without words and then  immediately involve the child in practical work!  This does not mean to IGNORE the behavior, but to have the child make restitution later with their hands or their bodies (but do not intellectualize it for them).  A simple sentence is all that is needed!
  • If your child balks at the new rhythm, the new way of doing things, so be it for right now.  This is important, and you have to be the one to carry this one.  Your child will quickly adapt and be better for it –  a better problem solver, a better imaginative thinker down the road, a more reverent and observant person, a better listener.  You do not have to explain why you  are not explaining anymore, LOL!
  • The work for you in this period is to stop talking to your child so much about everything!  Get some time with other adults for you, and stop putting your child into the adult role.  Do your own inner work and see how you can bring the joy, humor, fun and warmth back to this little being.  The other work for you is to find out about normal childhood development.  Many parents are amazed when they read books such as the Gesell Institute books ‘Your Three Year Old”, “Your Four Year Old”, how children really do typically view things such as pregnancy, death.  They realize their totally verbal child actually understands much less than they originally thought!

I know this is so hard, but if you have ever wondered why your child speaks to you like they are a grown up, if you have ever wondered why your child asks why constantly, if you have every wondered why your child takes every single story so literally, try this plan for eight weeks and see what happens.  You may have a different child on your hands at the end of eight weeks!

And lest you be worried this will somehow stunt their maturity or developmental growth, let me assure you you will only be putting them back on track, back into where they should be….And when they are seven, or even nine and closer to the age of separation of themselves from the world, the parents and the plants and animals, then you start answering all the questions.  There is a time to answer questions!  There is a time to move forward!

However, protection is developmentally appropriate and normal and right for a under 7 aged child.  They are not miniature adults with less experience. Honor that within this first seven year cycle.  If you are interested in Waldorf, you most likely are not the type of parent to let them watch 15 hours of TV straight, or eat chocolate all day long (um, except for holiday cookies? ha ha), or stay up all night.  Just as you would safeguard against those physical things, you as the parent are now learning how to safeguard their imagination, their innocence, their problem-solving ability and their future adult physical health.

Please consider trying this plan, and do let me know how it goes.  And again, please take what works for you from this post.  You may agree, you may disagree but thanks for reading!  You can leave a comment below.

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

A Happy New Year’s Wish

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May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours.

From an Old Irish Blessing, author unknown.

Happy New Year to you and your family!

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

For Parents of the Five to Seven Year Old

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Melisa Nielsen over at A Little Garden Flower wrote a great response with some practical ideas to those of you starting to deal with the six and seven year old transformation (and there is a nice link to this blog in that post!  Thanks Melisa!)

http://waldorfjourney.typepad.com/a_journey_through_waldorf/2008/12/children-going-through-change-.html

Read and enjoy, I will have more to say about this important stage of childhood development after The Holy Nights are over.

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

The Holy Nights

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Happy Holidays to everyone!  I wanted to take this opportunity to address the time fast approaching us,  that time between Christmas Day and Epiphany, referred to by many as the Twelve Days of Christmas or The Holy Nights.  This is a very introspective and meditative time for me.  You can read Rudolf Steiner’s views of The Holy Nights  here:  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Christmas/19111226p01.html. 

The Holy Nights is a time when I dream and plan for the coming year.  It is a time where I really look at how homeschooling is going, and what things we still need to accomplish in the rest of our year (We school September through June, with July and and August off for my oldest – my youngest most likely will run January through June and then September through December for her school year once she is at the age to do grades).

Do you have plans for your homeschool for the coming year?  Some of the things I am thinking and meditating on is bringing more puppetry into our homeschool, and also how many days a week I should be bringing in handwork.  I also look at my own personal goals in regards to homeschool  – what do I need to learn for the grade that is upcoming?  What areas do I need to work on and refine my skills in?

I also use this time to look at my own personal goals for the coming year.  Many of you know from previous posts that I have worked with the mantra of being easy with myself and others for several years now.  I will continue to do that but now I am also looking at the concept of “letting go.”  I will use the Holy Nights to look at my inner work and how that is progressing.  How I communicate with others is also of great importance, so I hope to have a little extra time each day of The Holy Nights in order to check out NVC Academy (there is a post about that on this blog you can see to access the link).

Do you have personal goals or things you would like to work on this year?  Another website someone passed on to me that I have not had a chance to get out is this one regarding Radical Forgiveness:  www.radicalforgiveness.com .  Whatever the thing you would like to work on this year, the Holy Nights is a wonderful time to ponder how you will put this desire into action in the coming year.

The other thing I would like to accomplish during these days is a bit more reading of Steiner’s lectures, which are always inspiring to me.

The above encapsulates the kind of work I will be doing during this time.  The kids will be working on a play for Epiphany, and of course we will be clearing all the greenery out of our house, and changing the Nature Table to include King Winter. (although our straw Christmas star will stay suspended over the table until Candlemas on February 2nd).  And of course we are all looking forward to the little cake with a crown and a bean baked inside for Epiphany!  I am also planning on making puppets for the tale “The Snow Maiden” from the little book “Plays for Puppets” for our January puppet show.  For my first grader, we will then be starting with a week of form drawing and then a block on the four seasons, the four elements and the twelve months of the year for the rest of January before diving back into language arts through the fairy tales and the four math processes.  My kindergartner will be working on a circle related to Winter and on a few stories related to animals in Winter.

So, dear reader, you may not see as many posts here until after Epiphany is over (January 6).  But please do be assured I have lots of ideas for wonderful posts regarding Waldorf homeschooling, gentle discipline and whatever topics you would like me to address!  Please do let me know what you would like to talk about on this blog in the comment section. 

I appreciate the fast readership this blog has gained in such a short amount of time.  Thank you for passing my posts and this site on to your family and friends.  I hope you and your family are having a wonderful holiday season and I wish you the happiest of New Year’s.

See you in 2009!

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

New Math Book for Grades Kindergarten-5

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Have you all heard that Melisa Nielsen of A Little Garden Flower (http://www.alittlegardenflower.com/) has come out with a brand-new math book called “A Journey Through Waldorf Math” and it actually covers Kindergarten through Grade 5.  The price for math for all this is only $38.50 for the hard printed copy and $25 for the ebook version.  This is a steal!!  To order, see her store at http://www.alittlegardenflower.com/ and to see a review please the blog LoveyLand.  There is a detailed review you can access at this link: http://lovey-land.blogspot.com/2008/12/journey-through-waldorf-math.html.  Be forewarned, though, you will be completely intrigued by the Waldorf approach to math, you will want to look at the samples on Melisa’s site and you will want to watch the math video she has up on her site and then  you will want this book!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.

How to Handle Potty Talk In Small Children

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I have had several moms ask me lately how to handle potty talk and/or repeated belching  that sometimes accompanies rough playing or just takes over any creative playing. This post is specifically addressed for both a child under 7 and a child over 7.  So, without further ado, here are a few thoughts in no particular order.  Please take what resonates with you and your family.  These thoughts come from a Waldorf perspective, but would also fit in well with parents who are practicing gentle discipline.

1. Penis talk and potty talk belongs in the bathroom, so when it starts just calmly take the children by the hand and walk them to the bathroom and tell them this is the room where those words belong and to come out when they are done.  The same really goes for the repeated belching that some children think is funny.

2.   When penis and potty talk abounds, another tactic might be to just  the change the scene – start singing a song, get out a book and start reading aloud, start building a block tower and they will run to join you.  Then at bedtime, address this with your child who is over seven year that those actions belong in the bathroom and he is a model for his younger sibling.  Don’t over-talk it, over-explain it, guilt your child.  You can just say, “I know your mouth forgot what it was doing, but those words belong in the bathroom.”  

3. If the belching and penis talk is just because the children are ramped up and running around with all kinds of energy, bring them their shoes and coats and tell them to go outside or take them from a walk.  Also, I think it is easy to stay in more now that the weather is a bit colder and we forget these are the same children that are running around or swimming for five hours a day in the summer.  That physical energy is still there!  A mini-trampoline for inside can be a lifesaver as can building forts out of cushions and pillows.

4. Keep surrounding them with peaceful energy, but do address the behavior calmly and guide it.

5. The other thought is how does your husband feel this should be addressed?  Does he address it if the children do it when he is around?  It may mean more coming from him, an adult male,  as well to talk about this and manners in front of other people, especially Mommies that we need to show respect for.  Everyone in the family should be treated with respect and dignity.

I also would look to things and activities that would involve a strong, nice male authority if you can find that in your community.

6.  This is kind of a technique from my pediatric physical therapy days, but sometimes just walking up to them in the  height of this kind of talk or play and placing your hand on their shoulder seems to ground them and shift the energy.

8. Sometimes you can just say, “You  may find something else to do.”   Take the little one with you into the kitchen to peel something and before you know it, the energy has shifted and off they go to some kind of meaningful play.

9. My last thought was maybe they need you to go through their toys and re-arrange or rotate out toys and put ones out they have not seen in awhile.  Sometimes that alone is enough to get them out of a rut where they do not know what to play and end up with penis talk, belching, etc.

10. If this is occurring around the holidays and you feel they are just really over-stimulated and having a hard time figuring out what to do without escalating out of control, really try to stick to some kind of rhythm and really involve them in your work while they recover.

11. Consider warmth – warming foods, candle light, soups and stews and teas with honey, warm baths, foot baths….warmth is so calming when you feel like spiraling out of control.

Part of living in a family means setting loving boundaries that everyone can live with and feel comfortable with.

Four and six years old can definitely be a height of bathroom humor, etc.  If you have a younger child, is the younger child  typically the one starting it?  I guess if this was being started  by the younger child, I would have some kind of rhythmical activity at the ready.  “I need your help to card all this wool.” (Wind this ball of yarn, grate this carrot, sift this flour, knead this bread, whatever). 

With repeated belching, imitation is also important so perhaps the first time the child  belched I might say, “Oh, excuse you.” And if he did it repeatedly  then I would just take him by the hand to the bathroom or I would get him involved in something right next to me.   The good thing about a four year old is hopefully the child  is distractible with fantasy and movement so even just saying to the child, “Wow, that was a big burp horsie” and involving him in  a big story/play about being a horse from that point may move the child onto other things. 

If this sort of play or talk  is happening during the time the children are supposed to be free  playing, I would take it as a sign they need help and guidance in finding something to do, and would either set up a play scene before they are to play,  or work on setting one up the night before so they can find it when they wake up, or seriously go toward taking them outside.

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.