We went to our Waldorf homeschooling group’s Michaelmas celebration last night.  It was very lovely, and I wanted to share with you all some of the things we did.

First of all, we had 22 children plus their parents, so it was a fairy sizeable gathering.  This made me feel proud as this group only started a few years ago, and it is lovely to see it grow.

We had dyed capes several weeks ago at a playgroup in a bath made from tumeric and carrot tops and the capes turned out to be a beautiful golden, sunny yellow. Just gorgeous!  We have a Waldorf-trained teacher in our group who said they were truly lovely, which made all of us feel great since it was our first group dyeing experience.

The children gathered outside for Circle Time with their parents.  Our leader was none other than Jodie Mesler (musician, music teacher and author of a Waldorf-inspired homeschool music curriculum for pennywhistle and pentatonic flute – see http://homemusicmaking.blogspot.com/ for more details), who played guitar, pennywhistle and native american flute and another mother played the pentatonic flute.  After circle, we had a scavenger hunt for natural items found outside (pictures taped onto gathering bags) and dragon’s tears.  We then had a  dad who dressed up as a dragon.  He played a game of tag with the children and as the children were tagged, the children came forward to receive their beautiful capes to give them an extra dose of courage with a special verse to accompany the receiving of the capes.

Then, of course, came the food.  We had two kinds of dragon bread, challah bread, two kinds of soup, muffins/pumpkin bread, salads, fruit and caramel apples and pumpkin cupcakes for dessert.

Best of all was the wonderful company of Waldorf homeschooling families!

Hope you had a wonderful Michaelmas festival as well!

Peace,

Carrie

Michaelmas has long turned into one of my very favorite holidays!! If this festival is new or unfamiliar to you, please read on about this day.  September 29th is the special day!

Michaelmas is an autumn festival that to me really opens up the season for the awakening of our souls as the weather gets colder, the light recedes, and we look toward strengthening our own inner reserves, our own inner strength.  I LOVE this time of year!  After the expansiveness of summer (which I personally often find exhausting, LOL), I am so happy to have the cooler weather return and to be more meditative and inward.

Michaelmas, as you can probably guess, is named for Saint Michael.  Michael was one of the four archangels, and is the angel who threw Lucifer out of Heaven.  He is the Angel of Courage, the Angel of the Fight Against Evil.  Take courage for the long, cold winter from Saint Michael!  Saint Michael usually is painted as riding a white steer, carrying a heavenly sword, and slaying a dragon.  Sometimes he is portrayed as carrying scales, because he also has the task of weighing the souls of men. 

The Wikipedia definition cites where Michael fits into Christianity, Islam and the Jewish religions (and more,) here: 

“Michael (Hebrew: מִיכָאֵל‎, Micha’el or Mîkhā’ēl; Greek: Μιχαήλ, Mikhaḗl; Latin: Michael or Míchaël; Arabic: میکائیل‎, Mikā’īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He is viewed as the field commander of the Army of God. He is mentioned by name in the Book of Daniel,^[1] the Book of Jude^[2] and the Book of Revelation.^[3] In the book of Daniel, Michael appears as “one of the chief princes”^[1] who in Daniel‘s vision comes to the angel Gabriel‘s aid in his contest with the angel of Persia (Dobiel), and is also described there as the advocate of Israel and “great prince who stands up for the children of your [Daniel’s] people”.^[4]

The Talmudic tradition rendered Michael’s name as meaning “who is like El?”, – so Michael could consequently mean “One who is like God.” But its being a question is alternatively understood as a rhetorical question, implying that no one is like God.”

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the full entry:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_%28archangel%29

There are all sorts of things one can look at for this time to celebrate.  We would never explain to small children all I just wrote about Saint Michael, the joy of the festivals with a small child is the DOING, not the explaining!

Some ways to celebrate and lead up to the festival:

• Start learning Michaelmas songs and verses.  Try Autumn Wynstones and many other traditional Waldorf books for ideas.  You may also have hymns or music within your own religious path.
• Look for Michaelmas Daisies.  Here is a picture:  http://www.bestgarden.net/Photo_Album/Pages/Aster_novi-belgii.htm
• Have Harvest Foods. (This used to include roasting a goose – tell me, my European readers, does it still??)
• Tell stories about Saint Michael  or St. George.  St. George is  the Earthly counterpart to Saint Michael – you could make Saint George tunics (white pillowcases with red crosses sewn on).  Swords and shields are also customary, which makes some Waldorf teachers and parents nervous.    Here is a link of how one Waldorf Kindergarten teacher dealt with this in her classroom:   http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW4007.pdf
• Stories could include “The Kite” from “Festivals, Families and Food”, any number of Kindergarten Stories from that pink book “An Overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten.”  For younger children, Melisa Nielsen has a story in her “Before the Journey” book and Suzanne Down has a lovely story called “Little Boy Knight” in her book “Autumn Tales.”   Reg Down has put his Michaelmas story from the Tiptoes Lightly stories on his website here: http://www.tiptoes-lightly.net/DOWNLOADS/tales_FESTIVAL/The%20Most%20Beautiful%20Dragon%20in%20the%20Whole%20World.pdf
•   I believe there is also a story of St. George on-line at Main Lesson that would be lovely for the Second Grader studying Saints and Heroes. There are also two stories by Irene Johanson in the book “Stories for the Festivals of the Year”, available from Bob and Nancy’s Bookshop or Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore.    If you are religious, perhaps you could read from your own religious texts.
• You could dye capes from marigolds for the big day.
• You could make a Courage Salve from Calendulas.
• You could do something that requires bravery that day – a hike, an obstacle course?   How about a scavenger hunt for Dragon Tears? 
• Making dragon bread is very traditional. There is a lovely bread recipe and  corresponding story in the festival book “All Year Round”.
• You can make Michaelmas Candles, see page 143 of “All Year Round”
• Crafting “shooting stars” and dragons are also traditional.  Try this link:  http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW3211.pdf 
• You could make a mobile with a dragon and an angel representation on it. 

Start early, go slow and add things year by year – it does not all have to happen this year!  There should plenty of preparation and work leading up to a festival as well, festivals are not a one-day celebration!

Use this time for your own inner work, what do you need to strengthen?  What resolve will you need as you head into fall?

Much love,

Carrie

We are going to embark on a series of posts discussing some ideas for the typical skills a Waldorf homeschooling mother needs for the Kindergarten years and beyond.  Many Waldorf schools and Waldorf homeschooling families have a baking day for their families within their weekly rhythms. 

A mother who does work and practical homemaking as a model for her children is very valuable indeed within a Waldorf framework.  From the framework of Waldorf Education, when the child sees the true work that the mother does and can imitate it in play, this strengthens the will of the child.  Doing the same (ACTIVE!) thing at the same time each week is also what strengthens the will.  We work through the will during the Early Years (under 7) as this is what helps to form the physical body for future physical health and lays down the foundation for the rest of the four body….

This post is  not meant to be an exhaustive bread-making tutorial, but a few thoughts regarding this important skill.

First of all, if you can eat wheat, there is something to consider about this much-maligned grain.  Wheat, according to Bread Beckers, is first among the grains for nutritional value including critical B-vitamins when freshly milled and eaten in its entirety, and also of Vitamin E when freshly milled. (You can grind your wheat in a grain mill or in the dry container of a Vita-Mix).    Wheat does have gluten in it, and gluten is the protein of the wheat that you develop by kneading, which then traps and holds the yeast and causes your dough to rise.  Wheat is about the only grain that can make soft, light bread.  Hard wheat has a higher gluten content than soft wheat.  Wheat varieties include hard wheat, soft wheat (red and white), spelt and kamut.  Durum wheat is a pasta-making wheat that semonlina flour comes from.  Grains that have no gluten in them at all can be used in recipes that do not call for yeast. 

Yeast is an important ingredient in bread-making.  It is a living organism that likes a warm, moist environment.  Most of the time I use the yeast in with the water or liquids the recipe calls for and about half the amount of flour to “cool off” the water temperature. It seems to work well for me.   Another factor to consider is that salt is a controller of yeast. 

Sweeteners for bread include honey which you can substitute one to one for any sugar called for in a recipe.  Some folks use Sucanat as well.   Other ingredients sometimes called for in bread recipes include milk, oil or butter or eggs, lecithin (which is from soybeans, so you may  not be able to use if you have soybean allergies in your family), gluten and flax seed.

Bread baking usually takes a bit of time, but well worth the results.  After you grind your wheat, try putting your liquids in a bowl, adding the salt and yeast and part of the flour.  Add the rest of the flour as needed; the dough will be soft when you turn it out onto a floured board.  Kneading times for dough vary; usually about 2 to 5 minutes does the trick.  Then the rising of the dough takes place, which is typically done in a warm place until doubled in size, punched down and shaped as desired.  If time allows, you can do a second rising and then shape the dough.  If you need to slow the rising process, you can also put the dough into the refrigerator overnight.

I feel sometimes making bread dough and shaping it into rolls is an easier place to start for novice bread-bakers.  If your bread dough is not done on the inside, you may need a longer cooking time at a lower temperature.

Bread baking is an excellent way to start a weekly rhythm within your home,

Carrie

Some people wonder what the difference is between the solstice and Midsummer’s Day.  Summer solstice is on June 21st and is the longest day of the year.  Midsummer’s Day is fixed on June 24th, which is St. John’s Day or St. John’s Tide Day.  This day is said to be the day of birth of John the Baptist.

In the book, “Waldorf Education:  A Family Guide,” Karen Rivers writes, “John the Baptist represents man at the center of history, devoted to what is beyond himself, to the revelation of the spirit brought by Christ.  His summons was to turn inward, to search within toward a confrontation with oneself.”  St. John’s Day is a fitting time to re-assess and re-balance ourselves in this spirit.

Traditionally,  a fire was lit at sunset on the eve of St. John’s Tide Day.  The firewood was collected for days beforehand, and prayers and blessings were spoken as the fire was lit.  There are also other traditions associated with the fire, including walking around the fire three times and throwing a pebble into the center of the fire with a special prayer, and also jumping over the embers of the fire as it died to get new endeavors off to a good start or to rid themselves of their own weaknesses and inadequacies.  The book “Celebrating Irish Festivals” remarks that sometimes the embers of the fire were carried about as a smoldering torch to smoke-cleanse areas or even fields. 

St. John’s Day is also known as a wonderful time to collect herbs.  Herbs such as elderflowers, St. John’s Wort and many others may be ready at this time in your area.    With small children, one can make the eve of St. John’s Day the time to leave out small treats for the fairies in the garden or to build fairy houses.

According to the book, “All Year Round”, Midsummer Day is an excellent day to eat outside, to cook food over an open fire, use edible flowers as part of the meal.  Nature tables at this time of the year often include bees, gold spirals, and hanging suns.  Some people celebrate  by hanging a bunch of coneflowers on their front door, leave a light on all night long, or bring in sunflowers for a corner of the room.

Here are some resources for this lovely festival:

This is link to the wonderful Calendar of the Soul verses for this lovely day:

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA040/CoTS/GA040_41-12.html

Here is wonderful article covering many of the major festivals from our friends at the North London Steiner School (if you scroll to the bottom of this article there is a section on St. John’s Tide Day):

http://www.rudolfsteiner.london.sch.uk/SchoolEvents/Festivals.aspx#midsummer

Here is a link to some festival books at Bob and Nancy’s Bookshop, and there is a lecture by Steiner regarding this festival included:

http://www.waldorfbooks.com/anthro/festivals.htm

There is also this book by Charles Kovacs:

http://www.florisbooks.co.uk/books/9780863156014

Here is a more general link to the Wiki entry on Midsummer’s Eve and Day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer

The Wynstones Press “Summer” book also has many songs, verses and stories appropriate for this festival.

Hope that helps those of you planning festivities this month!

Carrie

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you out there; I appreciate the time all of you take in reading this blog.  This blog is currently getting somewhere between 300-500 hits a day!  Thank you for all you do for children, for all the thought and care you give to your family life.  You all are such an inspiration to me!

Happy Mother’s Day,

Carrie

I hope everyone had a wonderful Three Kings Day.  We had a terrific time finding gifts yesterday morning, having a storytelling session around the Coming of the Magi, making crowns, and having rice pudding with those secretly buried almonds for the kids to find!

My friend over at Nature’s Rhythm has this wonderful post up about their festivities, check it out and file the ideas away for next year!

http://naturesrhythm.blogspot.com/2009/01/sternsinger.html

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

I had a friend over today who requested I write a post regarding the celebration of Advent and other Winter festivals within the Waldorf Home.  She told me, very astutely, that this time of year was difficult for not just  herself but for so many people she knew who did not have a true religious leaning – it was hard to know what to celebrate and why, and not only that,  the consumerism and materialism of this time of the year really dampened her enthusiasm and excitement.  She summed it up by saying like, “What can I show my children about this time of the year when I don’t even have it all figured out?”

This is a hard time of year for the very reasons my friend stated.  I have a number of friends who encompass different faiths, spiritual leanings, denominations – atheism, agnosticism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islamic, Mormon, Presbyterianism, Reformed, Lutheran, Paganism, or just friends with leanings toward one place or another but no true “spiritual home” yet.  And this December, we all come together to celebrate different things; whether it be Saint Nicholas Day, Bodhi Day (when Buddhists celebrate the Enlightenment of Buddha), Eid al Adha (Islamic Feast of Sacrifice, the most important holiday of the Muslim calendar from my understanding), Santa Lucia Day, Las Posadas in Mexico, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa. But yet we are all in the darkness of Winter searching for Light.

It is my fervent hope this holiday season that no matter what our spiritual leanings are, that we are all working toward and being the most loving, compassionate people we can be.  Our children need that, and our country need that. 

I hope this holiday season and throughout the year we can all treat each other with respect and dignity.  We are one in humanity.  I had a beautiful family I worked with recently from Bangladesh and the father looked at me at one point and told me in broken English how he and his wife had just bought a house and how he did not especially want to hang around with the Bengali community in our town.

“My neighbor, he American and say he help me with whatever I need, “ he shrugged.   “I cut my finger, I bleed, you cut your finger, you bleed.”  He and I solemnly looked at one another over the head of  his little baby and nodded at each other.  One humanity, one world.  That is what we should be about this time of year and all times of the year.

We are not the only ones with difficulties this season. Consider the plight of the Waldorf school teacher.  In the book , “An Overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten,” edited by Joan Almon, she writes, “December brings special challenges to the Waldorf Kindergarten teacher, for Christmas is a vital part of our culture and a festival that brings joy to children.  However, there is sometimes a tendency to be so overt in one’s celebration of Christmas that the kindergarten comes to feel more like a Christian Sunday School than like a Waldorf school.  This brings great pain to our non-Christian families, but it is problematic even for the children of Christian background. Within the Waldorf Kindergarten the festivals are  not meant to be “taught” but are offered in a light manner, much like telling a fairy tale, which allows the children great freedom to come to the festival as they will.  When offered in a spirit of gratitude and with a sense of wonder and awe, something of the essence of the festival can speak to the children.”

In this same book, an article by Freya Jaffke, says this of the festivals, “DOING-DOING-DOING.  Never reasoning why something is done in a certain way, although sometimes children have their own philosophy about certain things.  Our task as kindergarten teachers is to try to transform everything we do, to transform our knowledge into activities: to make visible that about which we have been thinking.”

The joy of a Waldorf homeschooling experience, I think is that you can choose the festivals that resonate within you and your family in this season and little by little, year after year, bring them to light.  Just as you would not bring a fairy tale to your child that does not resonate with you, you would not try to bring a festival to your child that does not resonate with you.  So choose your festival carefully, and also the traditions that you start with these festivals as the children will expect the same things year after year.

So, let’s go through some of the Winter Festivals that are common to Waldorf Tradition and some of the typical ways they are celebrated. If the Winter festival you most enjoy or celebrate as part of your religious faith is not on this list, please do not be offended.  It just means I could not find information regarding this festival/holiday in the Waldorf books and resources I had on hand.  And I do hope people will post their holiday traditions in the comment section!  Let’s share the beauty of our traditions!

Advent – Advent means that which is coming, so this is the time of preparation for Christmas.  This year Advent began on November 30.  Advent can be celebrated with an Advent calendar, needle felted figures of Mary and Joseph that start somewhere in the room and make their way closer and closer to the stable for Christmas Eve, an Advent wreath, an expectant Nature Table covered with a simple cloth.  Some Christian families make a Jesse Tree.

It is popular in Waldorf to mark  stones, plants, animals and human beings each week within the Advent wreath or on the Nature Table each week.  So for example, the first week of Advent would include adding stones, crystals, shells to the Advent Wreath or Nature Table.  The second week one would add representations of the plants – mosses, ferns.  And so forth.  Examples of what a nature table for Advent would look like can be found in the book, “The Nature Table.”  There is a wonderful book that has seven stories in it for each week leading up to Christmas and the first week all the stories involves stones in some way, the second week the stories involve plants in some way, etc.  This book is called, “The Light in the Lantern.”

My German friends have told me in Germany, Advent is a time of peacefulness, a time of cookie making and craft making.  Paper window stars, making ornaments, paper snowflakes and straw stars are  typical crafts for the season.  Contrast to the hustle and bustle and materialism you see here, and think about how you can bring peace to your home during this time.

Advent Spiral 2008

Advent Spiral

– this is a peaceful, meditative time for young children.  We hold an Advent Spiral every year within our local Waldorf homeschooling group, and this is how we have done it.  The Advent Spiral is typically held inside where a large evergreen spiral is laid out on the floor.  The spiral is adorned with    The room is dark except for candlelight – the candle at the middle of the spiral. The children come in and receive a candle inside a hollowed-out apple.  One by one each child walks the evergreen spiral , which is typically adorned with representations of the mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms) to the center where they light their candle from a central candle. On their way out of the spiral, there are gold stars on the floor and the child chooses a star and places their candle on it.  All the children walk the spiral one by one until the spiral is lit up with all of the candles.  The children look at it for a moment and then file silently outside to go home.

Saint Nicholas Day – This day is celebrated on December 6th.  Children leave out their wooden clogs, shoes, a boot or even a sack on the Eve  of Saint Nicholas.  Saint Nicholas comes to earth on his snowy white steed, and leaves behind apples, tangerines, clementines, walnuts, hazelnuts and sometimes a little toy or book.   In many stories, Saint Nicholas is the forerunner that reminds children the Child of Light is coming.  Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, is loved in many countries, including Russia, where there are many churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas.   It is a major day for my friends in the Netherlands.  Saint Nicholas music, crafts, cookie cutters and recipes and more can be found at the wonderful website www.stnicholascenter.org.  There are also some wonderful handouts regarding the relationship between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus. 

A good source of St. Nicholas stores can be found in the Winter Wynstones book and also the little book I cited “An Overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten.”  One of the most famous stories of St. Nicholas is about his rescue of the three maidens who had no dowry to marry.

Tonight, (December 5th) my littlest child was looking wistfully out the window into the darkness tonight, softly singing under her breath a Saint Nicholas song.  That sweet knowledge of everything’s right with the world and the wonderful anticipation of good things to come.  My children left out hay and carrots for Saint Nicholas and his horse (oh, and a cookie as well :)) and polished up their wooden clogs.  Tomorrow they will wake up to one piece of candy each, a clementine each, a book each and small game to share together.  We have Saint Nicholas napkins for breakfast and Saint Nicholas cookie cutters to try our hand at decorating.  However, the best thing to do in the spirit of Saint Nicholas would be to do something wonderful for someone else, and not have them catch you whilst doing it! 

Santa Lucia Day– is another day some Waldorf school and homeschools celebrate.  This holiday is typically celebrate throughout the Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden.  You can google her and read quite a bit about her, but she is honored in Scandinavia as the bringer of boats filled with food when the people of Sweden were in a time of great famine.  The oldest girl in the family rises early in order to make sweet yellow buns for the family breakfast.  While serving, the oldest girl wears a white dress with a red sash and on her head a wreath of greens with four small candles lit – (yes, in this day and age you could use electric candles!)

Solstice – Unlike the very meditative inward experience of the Advent Spiral, the Solstice is parties and fun!  Round, yellow foods prevail with hopefully lots of friends and music!  Some families have a big bonfire, a Solstice tree, and some families “count up” to Solstice by starting with a set of 21 candles and lighting one each night until all 21 are lit on Solstice!

Look for a separate post regarding the 12 Days of Christmas and Epiphany soon.  Hope you have a wonderful holiday season celebrating with your close family and friends.

Peace, love, and joy.

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