Here is a round-up of ideas for the first week of Advent with many links for free resources on the Internet:

Here is the “Children’s Song of the Nativity”.  The music and words are traditional; one written version can be found in Candey Verney’s “The Singing Year” book (with accompanying CD).  Here is a version on YouTube sung by the St. Patrick Cathedral’s Boy Choir in Dublin:

I was unsuccessful in locating any other song from the Winter Wynstones on YouTube, so if anyone else has leads as to where an audio for these Winter songs are, please do leave a comment so we all can listen.  I know these books can be very tough if you do not read music well!

For this week, some families are telling stories about  Mother Mary (many families are also using song/ring games that have to do with Mother Mary). Some are telling Saint Nicholas stories in preparation for Saint Nicholas Day on Monday (I believe the Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast day of this saint later in the month).  Here is a link to all the stories over at the St. Nicholas Center:  http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=890.  You might also consider the festival stories by Eugene Schwartz here: http://members.millennialchild.com/products/catalog_page/Resources_FestivalStories.html

Good crafts for this week include making an Advent Wreath if you have not already, making an Advent Calendar, crafts for Saint Nicholas (see this link for ideas:  http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=122), baking Christmas treats and cookies, starting Christmas gifts from the children to others, making homemade wrapping paper.

Most of all, have fun together and await with reverence this magical time of the year,

Carrie

Hello all my dear readers!  In the United States today we are celebrating Thanksgiving.  This came across Marsha Johnson’s Waldorf Home Educators Yahoo!Group and I thought is was a nice thought for today. 

She wrote:

Dear Friends!

Warm thoughts are flowing towards all of you, each and every precious one, who has chosen to come and be present in this group, on the earth, in your communities, in your families, in your own very self! This is the American Thanksgiving Holiday, a unique festival of gratitude for what has been given and what has been provided, roots deep in a religious tradition, yes, but one that has become a national holiday of harvest to a great degree, with the largest focus on family, food, and the gathering….in groups, as friends, as families, as communities, as humans.

The children are quite excited by all the to-do, with much cooking happening with traditional foods of roasted turkeys (a large fowl), harvest foods such as mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing (a bready dressing with vegetables, fruits, more), a dish made with sweet potatoes, often, salads, baked desserts such as pumpkin pies served with whipped cream, often many other side dishes, appetizers, drinks, and so on.

It is a time that celebrates an event in our American history when the first immigrants came to the eastern shores and were essentially starving and the native people came with food to share. These foreigners were ill equipped to survive in the new country, nearly starving to death while surrounded by food sources well known to the native peoples, large beds of seafood practically swimming into your hands, native foods unknown to the Europeans such as corn, squash, and so on….

It is a celebration that has some rather bleak images for the native peoples here who subsequently lost their entire ‘country’ and most of their population due to strange imported diseases for which they had no resistance whatsoever….it was this generous provision of food which in some ways contributed directly to their own demise.

Can we be grateful in the moment, unaware of what is to come? Can we teach our children to experience and express thankfulness as a virtue? In today’s competitive world, is promoting this virtue a viable choice or is it perceived as some kind of weakness?

In the Waldorf Way, we are filled at every conscious moment with the love of the ‘other’, the ‘other’ who has come to be near us, with us, around us, befriend us, play with us, spend time with us…..we are so aware of the gift of the ‘other’, the children and their parents, who come willingly and whole hearted, to spend precious time in the school and in the classes, in conferences, and meetings….it is a gift to be together and I am acutely aware of each passing moment, now lost in time, that has been spent with me…

Teaching thankfulness is the job of the adult in all communities, taking time to pause and be very public about the grace that has fallen down upon us in each moment, we can express this for the child and of course, the feelings are present in the youngest child and we can provide a model for imitation, in our vocal quality, in our facial expressions, in our everyday ordinary moments…not just once a year.

Here is a list of potential words to begin to include in your speaking and in your conscious thinking, listen and see if your child(ren) will imitate you and use these, frequently…
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so very much.
I am so thankful.
I am so thankful that you thought of me (us).
I am grateful.
I am so very grateful for your help (thought, intention, action).
I feel so grateful for you.
How thoughtful!
How kind!
How sweet of you to remember me!
I appreciate that.
I appreciate you.
I appreciate what you have done.
I appreciate your help.
I appreciate your concern.
I appreciate your attitude (help, presence, questions, assistance).
Don’t we appreciate what you have done!
I am so pleased with you.
I am so happy with what you have done today.
I give thanks to you.
I give thanks to God for you.
I am so happy that you are here with me.
Isn’t it wonderful that “name” has helped us!

Those kinds of remarks can make a deep impression on the child and support the growth of gratitude as a virtue in a time when civility as a custom has been a bit replaced by sarcasm and cynicism

.

Grateful for your friendship,
Mrs. M

Here is toward fostering gratitude in our children, in our homes, and appreciating every day what is right in front  of us as opposed to waiting for the “If Onlys” of the future – “if only” I live somewhere else, “if only” our family had more income, “if only” this or “if only” that.  Gratitude can start in the here and now.

Gratitude for today, gratitude for you!

Many blessings,

Carrie

Next Sunday begins the Season of Advent.  I love this long season of Light that culminates in the Twelve Holy Nights and Epiphany.  My family is currently  settling into a new church, and it is exciting that there are many preparations underway for the Season of Advent, culminating in a large Epiphany pageant for the children.  This emphasis upon the liturgical year and the resources that this large parish has to organize, plan and lead these festivities has me as excited and giddy as any small child!

Steiner  himself acknowledged the different festivals revolving around light for the darkness of the year, but also wrote how different Christmas is from other winter festivals in that:

“The birth of the light will be followed by life in the light. Christians, therefore, should not see in the Christmas festival something that passes. It is not a memorial festival commemorating what has occurred in the past. The Christmas message does not say, “Christ has been born, Christ was born.” It says, “Today Christ is born.” Today is always emphasized. This is significant. The emphasis on today should be understood in the sense in which Christ has spoken, “I am with you always even unto the end of days.” This confronts us anew each year and reveals to us the connection between man and the heavens.” (From Signs and Symbols of the Christian Festival, Lecture One, available here:  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SignSymbols/19041219p01.html)

Advent in the Waldorf Home is something that is frequently celebrated by people of every religious background, every faith, every spiritual path as part of the festivals of the cycle of the year.  This quote is attributed to Rudolf Steiner, although I don’t think anyone has been able to show exactly where Steiner said this:

The first light of Advent is the light of stone–.
Light that lives in crystals, seashells, and bones.
The second light of Advent is the light of plants–
Plants that reach up to the sun and in the breezes dance.
The third light of Advent is the light of beasts–
All await the birth, from the greatest and in least.
The fourth light of Advent is the light of humankind–
The light of hope that we may learn to love and understand.”

From this, many Waldorf schools and families celebrate Advent by looking each week at the natural kingdoms on Earth: minerals the first week, plants the second week, animals the third week and humans the fourth week, all waiting for the birth of Christ. This can be a lovely idea, and certainly one that has been fairly well-fleshed out within the Waldorf community with many resources available on the Internet.

Since the first week of Advent is fast approaching, here are some ideas:

** -I highly recommend reading the Advent devotions of your religion if you have a religious path and focusing your Advent activities around the activities of your place of worship.  What could be more meaningful for your small child or older children to be immersed in a community that is preparing and waiting together?

**- I highly suggest you take the things your community has to offer, the things your religious community has to offer, and mark them on the calendar and make them a focal point for this quiet time of preparing and waiting.  Our calendar right now has marked on it an Advent Spiral, St. Nicholas Day, Wednesday night dinners at our parish complete with the church baking as a community, Advent lessons and caroling at a special liturgy, Santa Lucia Day, and special liturgies up to Christmas Day, through the 12 Holy Nights and Epiphany.

There are several ways to count down to Christmas or all the way to Epiphany:

• Here is an idea for a spiral that one could make to include 24 days or 37 (to Epiphany)http://maymomvt.blogspot.com/2008/11/spiraling-in.html:
• Here is an idea for an Advent Stick: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5rahJXVt_oY/SRK9-nYI2eI/AAAAAAAAAAk/OPk-bSq3g9M/s1600-h/advent+stick.jpg
• You could also just order an Advent Calendar from Art Makes Sense: http://art-makes-sense.com/
• Or you could make one following the instructions in “All Year Round”  or using these on-line directions:  http://www.ourbigearth.com/2009/11/28/seeking-the-light-and-the-warmth-with-advent/

This is a good week to focus on the mineral kingdom preparing for the birth of the Christ Child. There is a song I like in the Winter Wynstones book where the lyrics say (my emphasis on the one line):

Hush-a-bye, hush-a-bye, holy night,

angels have brought the Child of Light:

All mankind shall gently bear Him;

all the beasts shall nestle near Him,

all the flowers shall adore Him,

all the stones shall kneel before Him,

all the world shall worship Him,

cherubim and seraphim.

Wet felting stones, making star shaped candles, pulling out your crystals, geodes, and other nature finds for your table are all appropriate here.  Here was a post I wrote last year about how we celebrated the first week of Advent: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/11/29/the-first-week-of-advent/

Here is an idea for a Nature Table display:  http://waldorfwithoutwalls.com/articles/advent

Possible stories for this week include The Star Money from the Brothers Grimm,(and if you have the book “Rose Windows”, there is a lovely idea for a window transparency in there); other possible stories include the ones from “The Light In the Lantern:  Stories for Advent” from Wynstones Press; another possibility would be to read “Saint Nicholas” by Jakob Streit since St. Nicholas Day is on December 6th. If you would like more information regarding St. Nicholas, please see this back post:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/11/26/saint-nicholas-day-in-the-waldorf-home/

I have been wholly unsatisfied with the Advent Circles I have been finding in books.  There is something about this time of year that seems difficult to really place into a circle kind of format, at least in my opinion.

Here are some resources though because even though these things didn’t strike me, perhaps they will strike you!

Reflections on an Advent Circle from the Waldorf Kindergarten:  http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW3213.pdf

Hope that helps plan out your first week of Advent.  I would love to hear your ideas, circle time ideas, or anything else that strikes you this first week of Advent.

Many blessings to you!

Carrie

On Sunday night we had the wonderful fortune of being invited to a Lantern Walk that was being held through the German Church in town.  There were quite a few families present, and lots of children holding many different types of lanterns.  We had a small service, the priest read a story from Leo Tolstoy from the book “Stories For Telling”  (here on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Telling-William-R-White/dp/0806621923) and then we saw a dramatization of Saint Martin and the beggar.  This included a live horse, which thrilled the children as we got to walk behind St. Martin and his horse and a procession of trumpets.  Very lovely!

Here is a round-up of the songs we sang (in German, of course):

Ich geh mit meiner Laterne

Laterne, Laterne

Sankt Martin ritt durch Schnee und Wind

I wanted to post You Tube links to these songs, but I kept coming up with these odd techno-versions of these songs that were not really what I wanted…Perhaps my German-speaking readers can help with links so those unfamiliar with these can hear the songs?

Here are some ways other blogging families celebrated Martinmas:

http://maymomvt.blogspot.com/search/label/martinmas

http://mommyerin.blogspot.com/2010/11/celebrating-feast-of-st-martin-of-tours.html

http://thewheelandthedisk.blogspot.com/2010/11/martinmas.html

Over at Untrodden Paths:  http://untroddenpaths.blogspot.com/2010/11/recent-picture-books-and-st-martin.html

If you celebrated Martinmas and wrote a blog post, please leave your link below so others can find you!

Many blessings,

Carrie

(Updated with working links 11/2014).  The time of Martinmas (November 11)  is upon us again!  This is one of my favorite times of the year; I wrote about some of my thoughts regarding Martinmas  last year here :https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/10/29/martinmas-in-the-waldorf-home/

Martinmas marks the burial of St Martin of Tours (316-397 AD).    St. Martin may be well-known for his compassionate gesture of sharing his cloak with a beggar.  This charitable gesture is at the heart of this festival for many Waldorf schools, who hold coat drives and other charitable drives around this festival.

This festival is the middle point between Michaelmas and Christmas; the light of Martinmas fortifies our souls for the dark winter and prepares us for the birth of Christ.  One symbol of this is working with light from lanterns in the traditional Lantern Walk.

Regarding Lantern Walks, the authors of the book “All Year Round” write:  “The traditional way of celebrating Martinmas is with lantern walks or processions, accompanied by singing.  St. Martin recognized the divine spark in the poor man of Amiens, and gave it the protection of his own cloak.  When we make a paper lantern, we, too, may feel that we are giving protection to our own little “flame” that was beginning to shine at Michaelmas, so that we may carry it safely through the dark world.  It may only be a small and fragile light- but every light brings relief to the darkness.”

As a parent, it is important for you to penetrate a festival or holiday and discover what it means to you.  You can then bring that to your small child, and your older children, in a physical way.  If you would like to know more about a Waldorf School perspective regarding St. Martin, one can read this article from the Gateways Journal for Waldorf Early Years teachers:  http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW57martin.pdf.  Here is some information about St. Martin from a Roman Catholic website:  http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=81.

We usually host a Lantern Walk every year within our homeschooling group; this year my children walked with their German school but we were sadly not able to make our homeschooling group’s walk.  However, as a special treat, this weekend we are attending a Lantern Walk held by one of the German churches in our area that will include not only the walk but St. Martin on his horse!  This should be lots of fun.

Below find some links for ideas for your own Martinmas celebration.

Specific Resources:

If you would like to know more about a Waldorf School perspective regarding St. Martin, one can read this article from the Gateways Journal for Waldorf Early Years teachers:” http://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/Journal_Articles/GW57martin.pdf

“Lantern Walk Story:” http://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/Journal_Articles/GW3808.pdf

“A Waldorf Early Years Teacher’s Experience with a Lantern Walk: Here is one Waldorf teacher’s experience with a Martinmas Lantern Walk here:” http://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/Journal_Articles/GW53gallardo.pdf

And another story:  http://herbnites.tripod.com/waldorfinspiredschool/id15.html

Examples of Different Kinds of Lanterns to Make:  (German website, but good pictures):  http://www.kikisweb.de/spezial/stmartin/Laternen/laternen.htm

Lantern Walk Songs:  http://astorytellingofcrows.blogspot.com/search/label/lantern%20walk%20songs

Many blessings,

Carrie

Last year I wrote a post about Halloween In The Waldorf Home that also included a little bit about All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. You can find that post here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/10/07/halloween-in-the-waldorf-home/

I have to be very honest and tell you that in just one short year, my perspective on this time of the year has changed quite a bit.  Halloween has never been huge, huge on my list, but this year it is even lower than in the past.  This is because my religion’s liturgical year marks All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day as days of importance and therefore these days have become a newer tradition of importance in our family over Halloween. (And yes, I know my Orthodox friends must wait a bit!)

On the Eve of All Saints’ Day, there is a vigil for all saints known and unknown in the Church.   There are services at church this night that  are sung and are amongst the most beautiful of the whole year.   One example of  part of the Daily Office for the actual day of  All Saints’ Day can be found here:  http://www.missionstclare.com/english/people/nov1.html#prayer  and there is also a service at church as well.  I like the Mission St. Claire resource I just mentioned; the Daily Office calendar for November has links to Orthodox, Coptic and Roman Catholic Saints for each day as well, along with the Episcopalian celebrations and remembrances:  http://www.missionstclare.com/english/November/cal.html

Whilst these two days are still separate, there is a rather increased fusion of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (the explanation for the Common of Saints is here: http://www.missionstclare.com/english/November/morning/2m.html  and scroll down to “About All Souls’ Day”). 

Today we are celebrating by remembering  our family members who have died by making a beautiful display of photographs of them along with a winding crocheted “Thread of Life” to remind us that the dead are with us, that we can live our lives with their lives as models of goodness and kindness.   Tonight we will cook some of their favorite foods and talk about them all as we look at their photographs.  Today is also our day to make lanterns, a symbol of light for this season.  We will also be planting some dried, brown bulbs that will spring into new life around Christmas to remind us of the Eternal Life we have in Our Savior.

And that, my friends, is something worth taking into the darker days of Autumn.

Many blessings to you and Happy All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day,

Carrie

Happy Michaelmas!  I hope you all are having a wonderful day of festivities!  I wrote a few posts about Michaelmas quite awhile ago, you can find it here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/10/05/our-michaelmas-celebration/   and here:   https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/09/06/michaelmas-is-coming/

Our family celebrated Michaelmas with our homeschool group on Sunday.  We had approximately 40 other parents and children from our homeschool group gathered, and we had a wonderful time celebrating with stories, games, and other festivities.

This season of Michaelmas, for me, really lasts from a few weeks before Michaelmas until a week or so before Halloween.  In honor of this occasion, I have been reading the words of Rudolf Steiner from his lectures  collected and entitled, “Michaelmas and the Soul- Forces of Man”  In the fourth lecture, he relates the four major festivals of the year:  Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter and St. John’s.  He says, “ Easter: death, then resurrection; Michaelmas: resurrection of the soul, then death. This makes of the Michael Festival a reversed Easter Festival. Easter commemorates for us the Resurrection of Christ from death; but in the Michael Festival we must feel with all the intensity of our soul: In order not to sleep in a half-dead state that will dim my self-consciousness between death and a new birth, but rather, to be able to pass through the portal of death in full alertness, I must rouse my soul through my inner forces before I die. First, resurrection of the soul — then death, so that in death that resurrection can be achieved which man celebrates within himself.”

You can read these four lectures for yourself here:  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/MichSoul/MiSoul_index.html  There is also this really interesting collection of articles, lectures, verses and stories all about Michaelmas available in  Waldorf Journal Project #15, edited by David Mitchell.  You can find that here:   http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/WJP15.pdf

I especially like this part from David Mitchell’s writings about Autumn:  “The evening skies come alive as meteor showers streak across the dark canopy like blazing arrows. The remnants of this cosmic metallic  presence is unknowingly absorbed into our blood from the very air we breathe,   invigorating our blood with its homeopathic qualities of iron. Darkness starts  to wrap around us and we are moved inside to the comfort of our homes. Our  thought life also goes inward. The dreamy mood of summer is replaced by a new  vigor that seems to aid us in our tasks.”

In this season, I challenge you to bring new consciousness to the elements of your life that need your attention; to overcome things that are difficult in your parenting with your attentiveness and will.

I challenge you to encourage your children in the areas that are challenging for them.  Every child deserves to hear every day about how strong they are, how healthy their bodies are, how brave and courageous they are.

Happy Michaelmas today,

Carrie

You all probably remember what a great time my family had celebrating the Chinese New Year with a friend of mine:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/02/09/chinese-new-year-in-the-waldorf-home/

Well, today I had a reader kind enough to write in and share her plans for celebrating the Chinese Moon Festival today.  You can see the links she shared here: 

http://www.thistinyasteroid.com/2010/09/moon-festival-planner/

and here: http://www.thistinyasteroid.com/2010/09/wip-moon-festival-lanterns/

Happy Celebrating!

Many blessings,

Carrie

We are at the end of our time of renewal between Easter and Ascension as Ascension is almost here!  I hope you had a wonderful time of renewal, and do stay tuned for a short blog post tomorrow as to what we will be covering the rest of May and into June! 

Ascension celebrates what is mentioned in Acts 1:2-12, where the Risen Christ was “taken up” into the Heavens and a cloud received Him.  “All Year Round” points out that on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene found what she was looking for in the garden, a place where Water brings life to Earth, and that on Ascension, the disciples looked steadfastly toward Heaven where amongst the clouds Water and Air elements mix together to create renewal for our planet.

I love this quote from “All Year Round”, and I think it says a lot about the “renewal” we focused on this Ascensiontide: “Between the common ground of our daily life and the vaulted heights of our ideals, the longings of our heart swell like summer clouds.  They may be shapeless and ill-defined at first, but if they take on form and substance  they can begin to shine for us, become an inspiration, a “castle in the air” that builds its own foundation on the earth.  By freeing our thoughts into a mobile landscape of the clouds, we may find our own life-landscape refreshed and reaffirmed.”

Here are a few ideas for celebrating Ascension:

• Hike to a hilltop and watch the clouds, see mist falling
• Look for shapes in the clouds, observe cloud formations
• Tell stories about dandelions; pick dandelions and blow the seeds with their stars out into the world.
• Play games with a giant parachute
• Make toys for summer air, like flying streamer bags, streamers on sticks,
• Tell the story of “Forgetful Sammy” from the back of “All Year Round” (for children ages four through age eight).  
• “Festivals With Children” by Brigitte Barz  discusses finding a print from the Middle Ages where many representations of Ascension were created and displaying this on the Nature Table.  She recommends using a green cloth on the table, with the Easter candle present and having a bouquet of colorful meadow flowers with a small number of golden stars beneath the bouquet as a symbol of heavenly forces now coming to earth.

Hope that gives you some ideas for celebrating Ascension with your small children.

Many blessings,

Carrie

My post on this subject is over at The Magic Onions, so head on over and take a look:

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/2010/04/discovering-waldorf-earth-day-in.html

Thank you and many blessings on this beautiful day,

Carrie