My friend Jodie is working feverishly on a Waldorf Music Curriculum for the early grades specifically tailored for the homeschooling parent with little to no music background. Please see the details on her blog here:
http://homemusicmaking.blogspot.com/2009/03/music-curriculum.html
Happy Music Making,
Carrie
The six-year-old year seems to be a make or break point for many parents as they sort through their homeschooling options, and it is an age where many parents give up on Waldorf, doubt they can do Waldorf in First Grade, or just decide Waldorf is not right for their six-year-old and forge ahead with academics (usually in a Classical style).
Some parents I have talked to fear their child is “getting behind” because in the United States, most six-year-olds are in the first grade. If the parent keeps the child in “Waldorf Kindergarten” another year, not only will they behind in homeschooling, but suppose they ever have to transfer to public school? Then they will be behind and everyone will know it!
If you go back and read the series of four posts on the six-year-old, I think you will clearly see by BOTH traditional developmental views and anthroposophical views, six year olds are DOERS, not deep thinkers. They may be ready for “more” but that can easily be satisfied with real projects, real work, longer stories, more physical activity. It does not mean that the early six-year-old year is a time for stringent academic work.
I remember a time in our six-year-old year where my eldest, who was just over six-and-a-half at the time, really did seem to want to do academics. It was near the end of our school year, (our last year of Waldorf Kindergarten), so we started to look at math in preparation for the fall. Her urge to do “real math” lasted about a week. I didn’t push it, and let the issue fade away. Some six-and-a-half year olds may be ready for Waldorf first grade, but mine was not. Someone asked me what I would do if she did that in the fall ; what would happen if she would quickly loose interest at that point, when it was time for real work. I guessed that she would not lose interest, that she would be seven then and would be ready. And she was.
Some parents feel their first grader will be bored in Waldorf first grade because the child can read and write already, and he or she already knows the numbers or even beginning mathematics. This has been addressed again and again in the section of “Waldorf First Grade” in the tag section. My eldest was reading at a fourth grade level when we started first grade this year. The stories of the first grade are designed to speak and live in the hearts of the first grader, the almost seven-year-old, to come out in their play. It is not all about the academics, and while the academics are important, there certainly are many ways to adjust Waldorf first grade for children who are “ahead” or “behind”. (Oh, how I hate those terms in our homeschooling vocabulary!). In our case, we did do all the things anyone else would do in first grade, we did many hands -on things for our main lessons, lived into our bodies and into art and music. My daughter read books for pleasure at her reading level, and did not feel it beneath her to not have to write volumes of words about the fairy tales. She enjoyed learning about the qualities of numbers. This is because this is where the child is developmentally. The American method of pushing early learning has not speeded up the process of learning, and has in fact put our children further and further behind at the middle school and high school levels when compared to children of other countries who start their formal learning later.
Your six-year-old child is still little, just crossing over the bridge into the land of authority mixed with imitation as they approach first grade. Waldorf first grade for the almost seven-year-old should be this, should be a three-day rhythm, a wonder of art and main lesson book drawing, of music. Is your six-year-old truly ready for that? And should your little six-year-old be doing this? It is our job to protect the six-year-old, their senses until they are ready for first grade. Waldorf is about unfolding, and protection in these early years, not pushing.
And I know this view will probably irritate my eclectic Waldorf homeschoolers, but here goes: as far as parents forging ahead during the six-year-old year with Classical studies, I do feel there is a crossroads there. Doing arts and crafts and wet –on -wet watercolor painting does not a Waldorf homeschooler make. Doing arts and crafts to “balance out academics”, as I have heard some parents say, does not a Waldorf homeschooler make.
In many ways, either one agrees with the seven-year-cycles as a viable theory of childhood development and adjusts the schooling to meet the child’s developmental needs, or one decides that the seven-year-cycles, the Waldorf way of teaching whole to parts and all the ways Waldorf introduces math, letters, and science in the first grade is a bunch of crock. Choose and decide. You are the parent, and you do the best for your own family and your own child, but sometimes you do actually have to make a choice.
I think there are ways to mix topics of interest to your child and Waldorf, but it is much harder to mix Classical and Waldorf. Donna Simmons has a post about this on her blog, perhaps it will provide food for thought for you if you are at this crossroads of deciding what is best for your child. This is a decided pro-Waldorf view of comparing Classical and Waldorf methodology:
http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/blog/2006/10/the_well_traine.html
Another blog post that can help one sort out how other methods can be integrated into Waldorf can be found on Donna Simmons’ blog here:
http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/blog/2006/01/the_waldorf_vie.html
If you need some inspiration, I humbly refer you to my blog post about why we chose Waldorf as a method to homeschool:
https://theparentingpassageway.com/2008/11/06/wonderful-waldorf/
Many parents feel Waldorf homeschooling requires so much of the teacher, and feel Classical homeschooling is much simpler, much easier to look at definable progress with their children. The goal of Waldorf education is to encompass the whole child, the whole being, to lay a solid foundation for the future health of the child in the adult years. I honestly think once one reads Steiner, sees examples of blocks and starts to think, it is not any more difficult to create teaching plans in the Waldorf style than it is to open up a bunch of workbooks for your child. It is just that this creative way of looking at bringing academics and morality to our children is often not the way we were taught, and seems so foreign to all of us.
If you make a commitment to try Waldorf First Grade, in the true Waldorf way, for six months, and then open up and look at the dryness of the workbooks and textbooks your child would be using in the First Grade with other methods, I think you will see there is no comparison. Waldorf is alive and bringing all that humanity in a developmentally appropriate way. Waldorf does cover the Greeks, the Romans, all the history that the Classical method covers but at a later time where Waldorf feels the child is developmentally ready. Waldorf is extremely academically rigorous, and the quality of work, understanding and knowledge is outstanding.
If you feel as if you are drowning in the six-year-old year, my thought is you are probably putting too much pressure on yourself and your child for this year. Enjoy the gift of the six-year-old year as you use it as the transition it is for First Grade. Make sure your child can handle the longer stories, memorizing longer verses and songs, can handle projects that span several days. Your child will need these skills in the First Grade.
If you are concerned that your workload will be too great (and do see my post about Waldorf Homeschooling planning – if you start now for only 10 or 15 minutes a day you could have your own open and go Waldorf Syllabus by fall, created by you, for your own child!), then do check into Melisa Nielsen’s open and go first grade curriculum at http://www.alittlegardenflower.com/store/ or Donna Simmons’ First Grade Syllabus at www.christopherushomeschool.org . Look at the free blocks available in the FILES section of Marsha Johnson’s Yahoo!Group. It may give you a jumping off point and give you the confidence to do Waldorf at all!
You have to consider what is best for your family, but please do not discount Waldorf education at home before you have even tried.
Think carefully, act mindfully, and best of love and luck in planning the best educational experience for your precious child.
Peacefully yours,
Carrie
As you may have guessed by reading through the previous three posts regarding the six-year-old, I am a big proponent of not starting academics during the six-year-old year while the children are in a time of developmental crisis. Within the Waldorf system, most six-year-olds should still be in their last year of Kindergarten.
However, with this age often comes problems for parents who perceive that their children are wanting “more” and needing more. Many parents equate this “wanting more” with needing more academic work.
I disagree and offer you some alternatives in this post for what to do with your child during their six-year-old year, their last year of kindergarten:
First and foremost, they need to be outside and connected to nature during all types of weather this year. They need to be outside every day possible to burn off that restless energy that often pervades the age of six. There is a rather popular post on this blog about connecting children to nature if you need ideas. (see https://theparentingpassageway.com/2008/11/24/connecting-your-children-to-nature/ for that post; it is one of the highest hit posts on here!). Some Waldorf teachers also feel that daily nature walks are important for children who are weak in their physical and etheric bodies.
Secondly, they need opportunity for real work that hopefully will involve physical energy expenditure. Do you need a pile of rocks moved? A great job for a six-year-old! Do you need the pile of firewood moved from one place to another? Think creatively about what could be done around your house, your land, your yard, that is REAL WORK. Many six-year-olds go through a crisis of play, so do think about work they could do. Woodworking, to make something real and functional, also comes to mind.
Thirdly, they need a strong rhythm, longer and more involved stories and more involved projects. Think about things that involve several days to complete – modeling something, then painting. Finger knitting and then attaching that finger knitting to something to complete a project. What could you and your six-year-old do with a very large box? Make a barn, a spaceship, a house – something that, again, involves multiple steps over multiple days.
Fourth, think about games that involve strategy. We played a lot of checkers, Battleship, card games, Junior Monopoly, Mancala and other games during my eldest’s six-year-old year.
Fifth, think about gross motor skills. At home, you can work with your child on riding a bike without training wheels if they cannot do that yet, jump roping, using stilts, using scissors to cut snowflakes and paper chains of figures to develop fine motor skills and threading needles and tying knots also comes to mind for fine motor skills.
Sixth, is there any way your six-year-old could help someone else? Some parents feel strongly their six-year-old should not be exposed, say, to residents in a nursing home or such because it is hard to explain in simple terms why we have such a thing in our society. I personally wonder what is wrong with us that we segregate our elders away from our young people, but perhaps my perspective comes from being raised by my grandparents and having my great-grandmother also live with us. Some Waldorf Kindergartners actually seek out having a relationship with a nursing facility of some sort.
Perhaps there is a way your six-year-old could serve within your own family, within your neighborhood (does your neighborhood plant bulbs or flowers or such with the changing seasons? Could you and your family help?) Could you bake cookies for elderly neighbors and deliver them? Make May Baskets on May Day for neighbors?
Seventh, work on social skills in a more direct way – it is okay now to do this! Not a guilt-trip laden, wordy way but a matter-of-fact way – “We wait to speak.” “You may have this when I am done.” Those sorts of things. For bossy, often drama-laden six, these are valuable skills indeed. You are working out of more than imitation now – the seven-year-old works out of a picture of authority and you are transitioning to that. For those of you who put the cart before the horse and have been using these direct words for a long time, please do not beat yourself up over it. Do remember, however, that the six-year-old may need direct words and authority at some times, but still need arms around them and re-direction with fantasy and movement at other times.
Eighth, work on festival experiences. Has your six-year-old ever made a sword and shield for Michaelmas? Gone on a Lantern Walk for Martinmas? Made Advent crafts in any capacity? Dipped candles for Candlemas? Made Easter or Spring crafts? May Day Baskets? There are many wonderful festival books out there with lots of ideas to try!
Try to enjoy this year. A year without being tied into main lesson time, main lesson blocks, main lesson books. A year of wonderful experiences with lots of time to enjoy each other. This last year of kindergarten is really the best!!
With love,
Carrie
Some mothers who have been feeling overwhelmed in their attempt to create a Waldorf Kindergarten at home have contacted me. I have a few thoughts on this subject.
First of all, while circle time is the heart of the Waldorf Kindergarten in a Waldorf School, I feel the heart of the Waldorf Kindergarten homeschooling experience is often the practical work we do in our homes and with our children. To me, it is much more important to work on the rhythm of your day and your week first. What day do you garden? What day do you bake or cook something special? What day do you do housekeeping?
Someone asked me if regular, mundane housework was what the children were being called to participate in. I could only share my own experience with her. When I started trying to commit to doing things on certain days, I started with washing one day and ironing the next. And what I discovered is that even having the children assist in sorting clothes, carrying clothes, putting clothes into the washer, hanging clothes up to dry, ironing – was just not riveting to my children, even with singing and verses involved and child-sized ironing boards and whatnot. They would be off playing (or more often than not, rolling in all the clean laundry I was trying to fold and iron :)). For some Waldorf families, washing and ironing works well as a weekly activity – for us it did not. Does this mean I stopped washing and ironing? No, it just means I include it more in our daily chores that I do after breakfast – where the kids can join in if they want or just play.
The work we do as part of the Kindergarten I do try to make special and I try to hook them in. This may look different from family to family. However, if you light a candle in the morning with a verse and then blow it out and do your work – whatever that may be- with a song or a story while you are doing it, and giving them opportunities to help – you may find things go better. You will find what resonates with your own children. In our family, we have devised weeks where our activities by day were wet-on-wet watercolor painting, bread baking or cooking something special, arts and crafts or festival preparation, gardening (always with stories, songs, and something a child would be more interested in than just pulling weeds for two hours!), housekeeping. This is separate from the daily chores we do around the house and yard. Again, each family will find their own activities and what works for them may also change as their children age.
Second of all, these mothers were going nuts trying to piece together verses and stories. I explained my thought would be to simplify. Pick three fingerplays that reflect something going on in the seasons and stick to those for a whole month. Have one song you learn together for the whole month that reflects something seasonal. Pick a story and tell it for a whole month.
We recently did the story “Why the Evergreen Leaves Don’t Lose Their Leaves” for a whole month. I just told it whenever we had story time, so perhaps three to four times a week. However, we did lots of different things with the story to bring it to life. We played the part of the bird and hopped around how we thought a bird with a broken wing would hop around. We stuck green silks on our heads and played the different parts of the different trees in the story. We made birds out of beeswax to sit in a nest. We made trees out of air-drying clay. We took nature walks and looked for nests in the bare trees. My oldest played her pennywhistle for the part of the wind as we added details about the weather in the story (which coincidentally reflected the weather we were experiencing outside. Hhhmmm, how did that happen?). We added repetitive phrases in that echoed throughout the story so by the end of the month my Kindergartner could say this phrase at the right points in the story. We made up a song to sing as the bird walked. We were never tired of this story,and many of these ideas came to me after I had lived the story for a few weeks. Try it and see if this happens to you.
If you cannot memorize a story, get two sheets of watercolor paper and write the story out and put it between the covers as your special book. But do try; you may find that just by reading the story for three nights every night before you go to bed and sleep on it that you have more memorized than you think. Use props. Write the key phrases down. Whatever works for you.
But most of all, keep it fun. You should be working together, having lots of time outside (see my “Connecting Children to Nature” post if you need help in that area), playing, singing.
You can do Waldorf Kindergarten at home; just keep it simple! You have several years of kindergarten, and your four-year-old should be at a really simple level; your six-year-old may need more.
Some of Waldorf Kindergarten really is just like the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.” Quit reading so much, keep it simple to start and just live it all together and see what wonderful things happen!
Breathe and smile,
Carrie
Many Waldorf mothers lament that while they know they should not use head-oriented commands with small children under the age of seven, they just are not sure how to get through the day without doing this. One way to think about this is how you could use songs and verses throughout your day for transition points. For example, instead of announcing all day long, “Now, little Jimmy, we are going to do XYZ”, you have a wonderful song or melody to do this that accompanies YOU starting to DO the physical activity. (Having small children is not to be directed from the sofa!!) Once you use the same song or verse for the same activity over and over, the child recognizes what goes with what melody.
I kept track the other day, and here are some of the ones I use with my family that we enjoy, and maybe this will give you some ideas for your own family! You will find the songs and verses that work for you!
For waking up in the morning, while I go around and open all the window shades: The song “Good morning, good morning and how do you do?” and also the song “Buenos Dias, Buenos Dias, como estas, como estas?” (sung to the tune of “Where is Thumpkin?”)
For making beds: The song “This is the way we make the beds, make the beds, make the beds, this is way we make the beds on a “XXXXXX” morning.”
For calling to breakfast and lunch – We sing the prayer “Thou Art Great and Thou Art Good” from Shea Darien’s book Seven Times the Sun.
For washing dishes: The song “This the way we wash the dishes, wash the dishes, wash the dishes” as above
For getting dressed: The nursery rhyme Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John
(I also make up songs sometimes for going potty, brushing teeth or brushing hair).
For being called to start homeschool: I always call children with a made- up tune on the pennywhistle and then play whatever song is the song of the month. For example, in November I played “The Pumpkin Pie” song and my kids learned it and sung it for everyone after Thanksgiving dinner while I played. For this month we are learning the song from the play “The Snowmaiden” from “Little Plays for Puppets” book and also a song about dwarves. After singing we have a candle-lighting verse and we also use the well-known Waldorf verse that begins, “Good Morning Dear Earth, Good Morning Dear Sun.”
For quiet time: We sing one of the quiet songs out of Shea Darien’s book Seven Times the Sun
For ending quiet time: We use that wonderful folk song that begins, “Bluebird, bluebird (or whatever bird you want!) fly through my window, bluebird, bluebird, fly through my window.” It is on Pete Seeger’s CD of folk songs
Favorite verse for going outside: The nursery rhyme that begins, “The grand old Duke of York, he had ten thousand men, he marched them up a hill and then he marched him down again.”
For practical work, I do have verses for wet on wet watercolor painting, baking, handwork, gardening and housekeeping that can be found in A Child’s Seasonal Treasury,
For dinner we rotate between these two prayers:
Father, we thank thee for this food before us
Give us strength to do Thy Will
Guide and Protect Us in Your Heavenly Path
For Christ’s Sake, Amen.
or this one:
Bless this food to our use
And us to thy (continued) service
And make us ever mindful of thy blessings
Amen.
For Bathtime- Rub a Dub Dub, Three Men in a Tub
For Bedtime- Prayers (we say four prayers at night)
First we say “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep”
Then we say this one:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless this bed that we lie on,
Two at our head, two at our feet,
Protect us (bless us) while we are fast asleep.
Then we say a quick prayer to the archangels of St. Raphael, St. Gabriel, St. Michael and St. Uriel, (and we list what we are thankful for from the day)
And then at last we say “Our Father Who Art in Heaven”.
This is just a small sampling, and you can come up with traditional verses, songs and prayers that speak to your own spiritual/religious life. I also make up many songs on the spot and sing. My oldest thinks my voice is beautiful, which I assure you it is not, but the point is you do not have to be a great singer to do this!! It is great fun, the kids learn all of this by heart easily, and it is so much better than walking around like a play-by-play football announcer each day.
Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.
Puppetry is one of the things that Steiner felt was so healing for children (and I think it is healing for adults as well, look how entranced we all become when we go to the Waldorf holiday faires and see those beautiful archetypal images in the puppet shows?). Puppetry, to me, is something that is so over-looked most of the time, and can have such a dramatic impact on your storytelling for your children.
The first resource I think of regarding Waldorf puppetry is the wonderful Suzanne Down’s website at www.junipertreepuppets.com. She has a wonderful newsletter that comes out with a seasonal story and a puppetry idea. She has three books out: Autumn Tales, Spring Tales and a puppetry around the world kind of book. I have all of them and love them. These gentle seasonal tales are just right for children under the age of 7, especially for the children who love nature. You can get these books through Suzanne, and also through the Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore. Suzanne also has wonderful wool roving and puppetry kits that are worth ordering from her and waiting for! It is my dream to do some longer puppetry workshops with her. I did take a workshop with her the last time she was here in town and it was so wonderful!
There are two other resources I really like for puppetry – one is the little booklet “Plays for Puppets” , which is a little book of typical Waldorf puppet plays and the other is Christel Dhom’s “Making Magical Fairy-Tale Puppets.” Also, the book “Toymaking with Children” has extensive instructions for making simple silk marionettes and simple marionettes for children to use.
You can use a silk on your lap for a simple puppetry stage like Suzanne Down and many Waldorf Kindergarten teachers do, but honestly I would eventually like to have a small platform stage built with some mountains cut out of plywood attached to the back (that way I could throw silks over them or they could be mountains) for my own home puppet shows. ( Uh, doesn’t every Waldorf household want one of these? LOL).
I also think a very indispensible part of puppetry is music, and I love the little book “Plays for Puppets” because most of those plays do feature music that comes into the story. The music, along with the veils of color the silks provide, is very important in its work for the child’s soul.
As you head into the contemplation that The Holy Nights gives us all as a gift, consider how you might bring more puppetry into your circle times, your verses and songs and your stories. The feeding of your child’s soul is well worth this effort.
Perhaps you can come along with me and what I am doing in the New Year. I am going to work toward making the puppets for “The Snow Maiden” from “Plays for Puppets” to put on at the end of January. Many of you probably know this Russian tale of the older childless couple who receives a snow daughter for a bit of time, a wonderful tale perfect for these long days of winter.
Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.
Whew, almost every day people ask me where to start with Waldorf homeschooling with their young children under the age of 7. My recommendation is to take a deep breath, get yourself a cup of tea with honey and come and sit back down at this screen.
Okay, have that cup of tea? Are you ready?
Let’s start with a quote by Rudolf Steiner himself, to get us in the mood. This is from page103 of the lectures compiled into the book, “Soul Economy” : “Anyone in charge of young children – especially those who work in children’s homes- who is aware of the activity of destiny, must ask, Have I been specifically chosen for the important task of guiding and educating these children? And other questions follow: What must I do to eliminate as far as possible my personal self, so I can leave those in my care unburdened by my subjective nature? How do I act so I do not interfere with a child’s destiny? And, above all, How can I best educate a child toward human freedom?”
This quote gives one a clue as to the framework and tools Steiner sees as appropriate with young children. It is not that it is only destiny, but that as a caregiver or parent one must act in the right way with the right thoughts as we are the utmost model for our children to imitate. It is a great quote to ponder and meditate on what this means to you and your work with small children.
[This is from the comment section below, maybe it will help explain this quote a bit: Steiner’s point was not just “hands off” for the early years; he had a strong notion that we are parents and teachers ARE the leaders within home and school. However, he also felt strongly that teachers and parents do the WRONG thing doing these early years by intellectualizing the child, by providing the child with toys that do not require imagination…I think the quote above was more the call to get out of our own way, to disregard what we think we know about childhood development from a traditional perspective and to look at the child from a spiritual perspective and what we can do in these early years to lay the best foundation for adulthood].
Here is my Top 10 List of the Essentials of Waldorf Kindergarten at home:
1. Understand what Waldorf kindergarten is – -> NO ACADEMICS. Yup, that is right, and there is a reason for this. If you are new to anthroposophic thought, a brief and probably unsatisfying summary would be to say that Steiner based Waldorf education upon his thoughts of the knowledge of the human being. The years from birth to seven are for forming the physical organism of the child, the memory is not seen as freed for academic work until the seventh year. The young child should be surrounded by joy and happiness, toys that encourage the imagination, but only the physical body is ready for influence by the outside world. Hence, no academics because the child is not yet ready.
2. So if there are NO ACADEMICS, what should I be doing? Preparing yourself in two areas is the first thing.
Inner work: Inner work is the hallmark of Waldorf education. How you do it is up to you. Many people use Steiner’s exercises. Other people use prayer, meditation, yoga, tai chi, walking meditation. Identify your strengths and your challenges for this homeschooling journey. Meditate on the quote from Steiner above and how to put that forth in your care of your small children.
Preparation of skills you will need to be able to show your child: oral storytelling, choosing fairy tales, knowing your local fauna and flora, singing, playing a blowing instrument (pennywhistle, pentatonic flute or recorder), washing and carding wool, spinning wool, dyeing wool and silks, toymaking, gardening, woodworking, knitting, other forms of handwork, drawing with block crayons, wet on wet watercolor painting, modeling, seasonal arts and crafts. Pick something and practice at night after your children go to bed.
3. The second thing to do is to prepare your ENVIRONMENT.
Screens: How much time are you spending in front of a screen? TV, computer, other? How much time is your child spending in front of a screen? Please see my blog post entitled, “Children and Media.”
Clutter: Is your house organized so you can find things? Do you have 10 of everything? Do you have too much furniture for your house?
Simplicity: What can you get rid of and be free of? What toys do your children actually play with and how many books and toys do you have out at one time?
4. The third thing to do is to start to establish a rhythm.
Awake times/naptimes/bedtimes: A wonderful place to start your rhythm is around awake times, naptimes and bedtimes. A wonderful cozy bedtime routine at an early hour sends your children off to peaceable sleep and starts your day off on the right foot the next day. Then start work on times of outbreath – outside time- and times of inbreath-storytelling, art. You can tell the same story for two weeks to a month! Repetition is the foundation of childhood!
Weekly: What practical work are you going to do when? Baking, laundry, housekeeping, gardening, handwork?
Yearly: What festivals will you celebrate and in what physical way will you show your small child? We do not explain the holidays, the festivals, only show these are the things we DO at this time.
5. Now that you have that in place, start reading about child development. Steiner said that this was essential, and the anthroposophic view of childhood development is much different than the traditional view of development. I highly recommend The Education of the Child, Soul Economy and The Study of Man.
6. Work on how you ARE with your children – are you a warm presence? can you just BE with your child? Are you completely running around after your child, is every day a frenzied day or are you setting the tone of your home by getting up at a consistent time with a plan and a rhythm for the day? Are you there for your child but letting your child see your work, your interests?
7. Protect your child’s 12 Senses. Steiner felt there were 12 senses instead of the traditional five senses we think about.
8. Work on getting your child into his or her body. This is the most important thing you can do for your young child under the age of 7 – games, circle time, free outside time, play and movement – are all critically important. Donna Simmons has some great suggestions in her book, “Joyful Movement.” Another book I really like from my pediatric physical therapist work is the book, “Activities Unlimited”, which was written by a group of Neurodevelopmentally- trained pediatric therapists. (This book is available through Amazon, and for more i nformation regarding Neurodevelopmental Treatment please see www.ndta.org). “Activities Unlimited” is not Waldorf by any means, but it would be fairly easy to put these activities into some sort of game or fantasy play.
Another great source of movement and getting children into their bodies is through all the circle time kind of games and fingerplays that go on in a Waldorf classroom. Please see the Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore or Bob and Nancy’s bookshop for books that have pre-planned circle times, or get adventurous and make up your own!
9. Watch how you frame discipline – are you using imitation, movement and fantasy to re-direct your child? Are you a chatter box and explainer with your child? Please see my blog post entitled, “Take My Three Day Challenge”.
10. Okay, now is the time to start slowly bringing in the skills you are learning – start with storytelling and puppetry, bring in baking once a week, needle felt something for your nature table…Bringing it all in and to your child is the last step.
You have the years of birth through age 6 to work on this…it is a process, it is an evolution, it is a learning. It will not happen in one day. But begin with your end in mind and work toward it. Hope that this will provide you with some inspiration and encouragement.
Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.
Our children are in grave danger of losing connection with nature and the four elements. The emphasis in American schools is on computer skills and literacy. Some programs say they bring children outside for a good while, but when pressed the reality is the children are going outside for perhaps 20 to 30 minutes a day and only if the weather is good.
In fact, a whole best selling book has been written about this topic. It is called “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv. I highly encourage you to read this book for the sake of your children.
.Our European friends are attempting to do something about this. In Scandinavia and Germany, there has been a recent explosion of Kindergarten programs that take place in the woods all day – not just that the children go outside for part of the day, but that the children literally have their program outside. I have a friend who experimented with this at home and you can read about her experience on her blog at this link: http://naturesrhythm.blogspot.com/2008/11/wood-kindergarten.html
Mothering Magazine (www.mothering.com) recently covered the topic of forest kindergarten programs in the article, “Forest For A Classroom” by Andrea Mills in the November-December 2009 issue. In this article, Ms. Mills writes: “American parents and educators can learn a lot from the Waldkindergarten. The media ensure that American families are plagued by fears of strangers, bug, sharp items, and other threats, both real and imagined. Technology makes it more likely that our children will be spending their free time plugged into TV’s, computers, or other media.”
The only forest preschool program I am aware of in the United States is the one Marsha Johnson runs in Portland, Oregon. If anyone knows of any others, please leave it in the comment section for me.
We recently spent several hours outside at a Nature Center. Typically attendance slows down in the winter months because not every family feels the way we do – that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes. Despite the chill in the air, we got outside every day for 2 to 4 hours. It is that important to the life of a small child (and to the grown-ups as well!).
Here are a few excellent reasons to get your children out more:
“The four elements, earth, water, air and fire, are the basic elements which children are nourished by and from which they grow. No shaped toys-be they wood or plastic-can compete with these materials. The seriousness with which the children play, the deep concentration speaks for itself, and shows how important this “playing” is. Nobody needs to fight about anything –there is plenty of mud for everybody.” —You Are Your Child’s First Teacher, page 184
“Young children are close to the realm of nature because they are natural beings. Because their consciousness is not yet parted from the environment, because they still live in the consciousness of oneness, of unity, they still belong to the natural world…..The process of separating from the parents and from the environment buds only around age seven..” –Heaven On Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children, Sharifa Oppenheimer, page 99.
Rudolf Steiner wanted the children to be able to connect to and feel at home on the land, to feel at one with the cycles of the year and the cycles of night and day, to really care for the land and he wanted the children to be able to work together socially and value the work that was done before them so that the children understood we all depend on the work of others (Adapted from -Gardening With Children Audio CD, informedfamilylife.org).
So, if you are trying to think about creating your own playspace, perhaps in your backyard or somewhere wild you have access to , here are some thoughts of things to include:
-flat grassy areas
-a hill of some sort
-natural screens (bushes, hedges, places to hide)
-building materials
-play structures – tipis, igloos, houses. Sharifa Oppenheimer talks about letting your child add things to the igloo or tipi structure – give hints for adding things to the structure – “When I was a small girl, we used to put pine needles on the floor as a carpet.” Or “I wonder what it would be like to put a few seashells around the outside, as decoration.” – page 102, Heaven On Earth
.-classic structures such as swings, slides, seesaws, hammocks
-sand play
-water play
-mud play – digging is important
-sensory play area inside or outside…….Some children need these sensory areas and inputs more than others. Waldorf kindergartens rarely have a “sensory table” available, but this may be something to work with at home, and it could be a way to bring the outside in if you have no yard. I have a dear friend who taught in a traditional three year old classroom for over ten years before having children of her own, and she volunteerd some of her wonderful sensory table ideas as follows –For example, a sensory table could be filled with:
sand-add water, shells, sticks, (sand will mold if it left very wet and covered), animals
beans-start with one kind and over time add different varieties-
water-add color, bubbles, funnels, waterwheel, clear plastic containers of all sizes, animals
soil-add rocks, sticks, acorns, etc. It is fun to add in lima beans or corn kernels as they will start to sprout in the moist soil when left for a few days
For autumn-Indian corn, acorns, seed pods, colorful leaves, pine cones, cranberries
Winter-build dens from bark, there are directions for making snow in the Earthways book, wooden snowflakes, ice cubes (freeze a dish of water for pond)
Spring-soil, seeds, small gardening tools, new leaves, flowers from trees, buds to explore
Summer-water, sand, green plants, wild flowers,
Thank you to my dear friend!
Think about equipment:
-small shovels, rakes, wagon, basket of tools (including hammers, wrenches, paintbrushes, pliers, nails), nails half driven into a log or stump for the children to hammer. There are also more ideas in that little book Toymaking With Children.
how about using your GARDEN as a playspace?
-“Care of plant life is a fundamental lesson in outdoor play.” –from Heaven On Earth
-Make a child-sized scarecrow in the fall or even early spring as you are planting
-Choose seeds that have a short time until maturity – lettuce, radishes, berries, snow peas
-try potatoes, pumpkins, corn
-make a bean tipi
-think about gardening with bees and butterflies in mind, with night blooming flowers for the moths
-encourage backyard wildlife – bird feeders, bird baths, bird houses, squirrel feeders, bat house, hummingbird feeders, owl houses, toad hotels
-Think of exploring the garden with all 12 senses!
Steiner discussed the importance of agriculture within the Waldorf curriculum, and “Being a teacher, we should avoid botanizing, taking the botany drum into class and showing the plants to the students. We should rather take the children outside to really emphasize the understanding of the context between the plant kingdom, the earth and the radiant sun.” – Steiner, Dornach, 1921-22. (Gardening usually occurs between the 6th and 10th grades as a yearly subject, but more and more Waldorf teachers are bringing beekeeping, composting, gardening etc into their classrooms as early as Kindergarten and First Grade).
Bring the Outdoors Inside!
-Try raising tadpoles, butterflies, praying mantis, ant farms, ladybug houses
-Try bringing play equipment inside – swings and small trampolines
-Try container gardening inside
-Try sprouting sunflower seeds and other seeds and beans
Other Major Ways to Connect Your Child to Nature:
Spend time outside every day, no matter what the weather – there is no bad weather, only bad clothes!
If you take a daily walk, focus on exploration, not distance, and have a basket to collect small treasures
Assign parts in fairy tales to dramatize which include the natural elements of the story – ie, children can be the trees, streams, etc. in different tales.
Celebrate FESTIVALS (see blog post regarding Changing Your Rhythm with the Seasons).
Celebrate the moon and phases of the moon – some Waldorf teachers have made hats with the moon phases on it for different fairy tales where a moon phase is mentioned
Have a color of the month that connects it to nature – ie, March is the color green and grow wheat grass on your nature table
Which of course, leads to the inevitable :Have a nature table!
Celebrate the elemental beings – gnomes who take care of the earth, fairies, etc. in circle time or fairy tales
Think about joining a CSA or going to farmer’s markets so children can meet farmers, beekeepers and other folks who work with nature and love it!
Crafts should involve natural items, playthings as well!
Experiences with Nature connect us with the Mysteries of Life and help the young child learn wonder, awe, reverence and respect!
For More Ideas See the Following Books, CD’s and DVD’s:
-Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots – Sharon Lovejoy
-Sunflower Houses – Sharon Lovejoy
-Gardening Classes At The Waldorf Schools – Krause
-Gardening With Children: The Waldorf Curriculum – Carolyn Brown, Audio CD from the Children, Nature and Us Conference -Available from www.informedfamilylife.org
-“Creating a “Kindergarden” for Young Children by Betty Peck, DVD from the Children, Nature and Us Conference – Available from www.informedfamilylife.org
Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.
As for books……
Some Favorite Books to Read Aloud for the Under 7 Age Group: (no order)
As always, please preview, pre-read and see if you think it is right for your child and your family:
Any Elsa Beskow books
The Chicken Who Wanted to Fly, Dora Duck and the Juicy Pears, Am I Really Different – Evelien van Dort
Any Room for Me? And The Pancake That Ran Away – Loek Koopmans
The Apple Cake – Nienke Van Hitchum
Pico the Gnome – Martina Muller
The Mouse and the Potato and Stan Bolivan and the Dragon – Thomas Berger
The Story of the Root Children and The Princess in the Forest – Sibylle von Offers
Peter William Butterblow – CJ Moore (poems)
When the Sun Rose, Grandfather Twilight – Barbara Helen Berger
The Snowy Day, Whistle for Willie, Peter’s Chair – Ezra Jack Keats
The Tomten, The Tomten and the Fox – Astrid Lindgren
Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal, Time of Wonder, One Morning in Maine – Robert McCloskey
Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer – Gerda Muller (no words, just pictures)
Tales of Tiptoes Lightly (series)- Reg Down – great for six and seven year olds
Teddy Robinson – a favorite, favorite, favorite for the five and a half to seven year olds.
Milly Molly Mandy Stories (series) – for six year olds and seven year olds.
Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.
Waldorf education considers fairy tales the foundation for children under the age of 7. Typically these tales are told orally, not read. So, this leads to several questions: Why should we consider oral storytelling in our homes? Shouldn’t we be reading books so our children can see the importance of books and want to read? Why should we use fairy tales? What about the violence in fairy tales?
Some of these quotes may get you thinking about this subject:
“The human soul has an inextinguishable need to have the substance of fairy tales flow through its veins, just as the body needs to have nourishing substances circulate through it.” -Rudolf Steiner
“We can interpret the fairy tales-to return to these-as answers to the ultimate questions about our outer and inner needs.” -An Overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten, page 48.
“Children who are ready for fairy tales instinctively know that these stories are not literally true on the physical plane, but are true pictures of inner events and circumstances, of inner challenges and forces which must be faced and overcome. Thus, they sense that beauty and ugliness refer to inner qualities, not external appearance.” -In A Nutshell: Dialogues with Parents At Acorn Hill, Nancy Foster, page 47.
“In regard to the issue of violence and evil, it is a reality that children, and all of us, do encounter challenges and bad or frightening experiences in life. The fairy tales, in which such experiences are redeemed in various ways according to the particular story, help to give children the trust that challenges can be overcome and that we are not powerless.” -In A Nutshell: Dialogues With Parents At Acorn Hill, Nancy Foster, page 48.
“That is the strength of fairy tales. They are filled with promise. The weak can be strong; evil can be turned to good; the ugly can become beautiful; Cinderella can become a princess, the frog a prince. Every human being can rise to his true stature. Even the smallest child can realize this and rejoice at future victories.” –An Overview of the Waldorf Kindergarten, page 54.
So, in short, we tell stories orally because once we, the parent, pick a story and are with the story for three days before we tell it, we put ourselves into it when we tell it to our children. That warmth from us is there, and there is no book that can create that. The children then create the pictures of these archtypal images in their heads. They realize truth and beauty and goodness come from people and life, not just in books. This sets the stage for the parent being an Authority in life, a Keeper of Knowledge, not just that knowledge comes from books. The oral storytelling provides a rich context for language and rhyme that is important in later reading.
The images within the fairy tale tell the story of all people, of all generations and of all times. It fulfills essential qualities within the child’s soul. Fairy tales are also a vital part of the moral education of a child. For more interesting insights into fairy tales and the role they fulfill for all of us, please do read Bruno Bettelhem’s “The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales.”
I love what Mr. Bettelham says on page 45 of his book: “Myths and fairy tales both answer the eternal questions: What is the world really like? How am I to live my life in it? How can I truly be myself? The answers given by myths are definite, while the fairy tale is suggestive.” He goes on to say on page 47,” The child asks himself: “Who am I? Where did I come from? How did the world come into being? Who created man and all the animals? What is the purpose of life? True, he ponders these vital questions not in the abstract, but mainly as they pertain to him. He worries not whether there is justice for individual man, but whether he will be treated justly. He wonders who or what projects him into adversity, and what can prevent this from happening to him. Are there benevolent powers in addition to his parents? Are his parents benevolent powers? How should he form himself, and why? ….Fairy tales provide answers to these pressing questions, many of which the child becomes aware of only as he follows these stories.”
Mr. Bettelhem also says in his book, “From an adult point of view and in terms of modern science, the answers which fairy tales offer are fantastic rather than true. As a matter of fact, these solutions seem so incorrect to many adults – who have become estranged from the ways in which young people experience the world – that they object to exposing children to such “false” information. However, realistic explanations are usually incomprehensible to children, because they lack the abstract understanding required to make sense of them. While giving a scientifically correct answer makes adults think they have clarified things for the child, such explanations leave the young child confused, overpowered and intellectually defeated.”
I hope I have at least put a brief thought in your head to consider telling your four, five, six and seven year olds some fairy tales! If you would like to do this, please read on for some suggestions to assist you!
Some Points to Consider In Preparing Tales to Tell:
-It is important for the storyteller to be familiar with the story, and to enjoy it.
-It is important for the storyteller to tell it in a matter-of-fact, non-dramatized way so the child may digest it without the adult feelings and intellectualization added in.
-If you do not like a certain fairy tale or it makes you uncomfortable, then it will not be good for your child – work with the fairy tales that resonate with you!
-Choose authentic versions of the fairy tale – the most authentic versions of the Grimm’s fairy tales can be found in the Pantheon edition edited by Padraic Colum. The stories by Hans Christian Anderson, Oscar Wilde (single authors, not handed down stories) are more suitable for older children than the under 7 bunch. Folktales and fables are covered in Second Grade, so save those until then.
-Pick very simple and repetitive stories for children under 5. As your child heads toward 6, pick stories where there are more complex plots and the hero needs to overcome more.
How to Prepare:
-Read the same story to yourself for three nights in a row. Marsha Johnson advocates this in her lesson planning notes (see Yahoo!Groups waldorfhomeeducators for her group). (My note: Yes, this is the three- day rhythm of the Waldorf grades as applied to adults. Waldorf uses sleep as an aid to learning!)
-Don’t be afraid to use props –props can really enliven the story. One of my favorite resources for this is to use puppetry. Please do see Suzanne Down’s wonderful website Juniper Tree Puppets. She has a seasonal newsletter you can sign up for that often has a story and a suggestion for a puppetry activity to go with the story. My favorite book on this subject is “Making Magical Fairy-Tale Puppets” by Christel Dhom, Rudolf Steiner College Press.
-Get into the rhythmic qualities of a fairy tale if it has those qualities – think of The Pancake or The Turnip. Very rhythmical and repetitive and comforting to young ones!
Fairy Tales – Which Ones to Choose for Oral Storytelling? These are just some suggestions. These are tales I have seen recommended for this age group in multiple Waldorf sources or ones we have personally done at that age.
Three and Four Year Olds –
Sweet Porridge (Grimm 103)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Little Louse and Little Flea (Spindrift, Let Us Form A Ring)
The Giant Turnip (Russian)
The Mitten (Russian)
The Gingerbread Man
The Bun (cannot remember where The Bun originated for sure, I believe Russia)
The Johnny Cake (English)
The Hungry Cat (Plays for Puppets)
The Old Woman and Her Pig (English)
The Cat and the Mouse (English)
Little Red Hen
The City Mouse and The Country Mouse
Any fairy tale that has repetitive elements and a very simple story line would do!
Four and Five Year Olds:
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Three Little Pigs
The Pancake Mill (Let Us Form A Ring)
Mashenka and the Bear (Russian, Spindrift)
The Elves (Grimm 39)
Star Money (Grimm 153) – I would say more for 5 year olds or even a six year old than a four year old, but that is just my own opinion.
Five and Six Year Olds:
The Frog Prince (Grimm 1)
Mother Holle (Grimm 24)
Little Red Cap (Grimm 25)
The Bremen Town Musicians (Grimm 27)
The Spindle, Shuttle and the Needle (Grimm 188)
The Hut in the Forest (Grimm 169)
The Queen Bee (Grimm 62)
The Seven Ravens (Grimm 25) – I didn’t tell this one until first grade
Snow White and Rose Red (Grimm 161) – we also used this one in first grade, but would be fine for a six year old in second year of Kindy.
The Princess in the Flaming Castle (Let Us Form A Ring)
Twiggy (Let Us Form A Ring)
The Donkey (Grimm 144)
Lazy Jack (English)
Tom-Tit-Tot (English)
Puss in Boots, sometimes also called The Master Cat
Necessary Resources:
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales – I like the Pantheon version. Look for Hunt and Stern as the editors.
Wynstones, Sprindrift books
Let Us Form A Ring
Plays for Puppets
The Pancake and Other Tales – available from Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore
Autumn Tales and Spring Tales by Suzanne Down
www.mainlesson.com has many suitable tales you can pre-read
Hope that helps someone, just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.
The Parenting Passageway 