A very interesting article available through www.waldorflibrary.org at this link:
http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW55breipohl.pdf
Happy Reading!
Carrie
Movement For the Child Under the Age of 3
Reply
Science in the First and Second Grade Waldorf Homeschool Curriculum
There is a wonderful article here regarding the approach toward science within the Waldorf curriculum: http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/ScienceDavid.pdf
As a science person, I also wrote an article on this blog regarding how I view the rigorousness of science as presented throughout the Waldorf curriculum and also traced what subjects in science are brought in when here:
https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/02/28/science-in-waldorf-homeschooling/
Science is a very important subject to me and to our family. I think Waldorf education provides a very rigorous and age-appropriate, developmentally- appropriate way to science education. For First Grade and Second Grade, many parents wonder what they should be doing within the curriculum for Science since most of the emphasis is placed upon Language Arts, Math and Form Drawing. Let me assure you there are plenty of places to work science in!
Here are some ideas and suggestions:
- Form drawing off of simple nature stories. This is especially effective during these early grades.
- Tell spontaneous made-up stories regarding the animals around your home and in your area. A wonderful reference is Anna Comstock’s “Handbook of Nature Study.” Read up on what animal or plant you would like to make a story about and work those characteristics into your story.
- Do several short one to two-week blocks on backyard nature each season.
- Spend lots of time outside just feeling, observing, using the 12 senses every day and in every kind of weather. Look at how the weather affects plants and animals throughout the seasons.
- Do get Joseph Cornell’s “Sharing Nature with Children” and work nature games into your school year.
- Do plenty of festival preparation – this is part of science: the cycle of the year.
- Do plenty of arts and crafts involving natural materials on your craft days. Look at things such as the cycles of wool from visiting sheep at a farm to raw fleece washing to carding and spinning to dyeing yarn and knitting as part of your handwork.
- Start a garden! Garden throughout much of the year. See my review on “Gardening with Young Children” by Beatrys Lockie here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/08/07/book-review-gardening-with-young-children-by-beatrys-lockie/
- Cooking provides many opportunities to observe chemical phenomenon.
- Visit farms, orchards, aquariums, zoos, beaches, mountains, grasslands and other places.
- Start terrariums and aquariums.
- Catch small animals and keep them overnight and then let them go! We currently have a snail that we found and have enjoyed watching the snail move with its one foot, seeing the snail’s eyes on the end of the stalks up close, finding out what a snail loves to eat, how to build a snail habitat.
- Feed the birds throughout the winter, put up bird boxes, bat houses, owl houses.
- Get your little outdoor space certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat.
- Read stories that have to do with nature. Donna Simmons has great lists in her book “From Nature Stories to Natural Science” available here: http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/bookstore-for-waldorf-homeschooling/essential-christopherus-publications/from-nature-stories-to-natural-science.html
- In first and second grade, provide opportunities to work through the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Some second grade families do an entire block on these elements through toy and craft making.
- Look at thing with the NAKED eye to really develop observation skills – you have years left in which to use microscopes, magnifying glasses and telescopes. You do not need these things yet! Save your money until you really need these things in later years!
- Work through poetry and movement. Choose seasonal fingerplays, songs, circle time work that looks at animals and plants in the seasons. Move like these animals.
- Work with any pets you may have to train them. Clicker training is just wonderful, and works with pretty much any animal from dogs to cats to Oscars (the fish). If you google “clicker training”, lots of resources will come up. Help your child to do such things as feed and brush the dog, but do NOT expect the child to take full responsibility for a pet yet! Work to include your animals in the rhythm of your day.
- Other appropriate blocks to work in science include a block of the four seasons, length of year, length of months in First or Second Grade. A good resource for stories involving the seasons is Dorothy Harrer’s
- Blocks that include work with the Four Elements are great sources of inspiration and scientific thinking.
- Blocks that include stories that revolve around the animals and plants of a specific habitat – mountain, desert, ocean.
Hope that sparks some ideas for you as you plan,
Carrie
The Habit of Happiness
To me, happiness is a habit. Happiness is not something that comes from external sources – ie, the whole “this made me happy today” and “this made me sad” and “this made me angry”. Yes, things happen and we sometimes feel happy, sad or angry as a first reaction – but with time and practice, we can learn to modify our inner landscape and choose how to react, help rid ourselves of stress, worry and anxiety and put in its place a sense of peace instead. Peace, to me, is the Real Deal of Happiness. Peace is that inner quality that occurs no matter what the circumstances of life surround you.
The way to this path is to choose to be happy and peaceful as your journey, as a conscious step every day, and not just viewing happiness as this elusive goal. Here are some thoughts for how to do this:
1. Practice basic meditation – Steiner has some great exercises for anthroposophical inner work and if you go here you will find the inner work of the day posted: http://www.rsarchive.org/
2. Do your best to not model worry, anxiety and guilt for your family members. I would venture to say that many of us have worried, anxious and guilty thought patterns because this is what was modeled to us as children. It is an easy thing to pass on to the next generation.
3. Limit your hurrying: being hurried and overscheduled can lead quickly to feeling overwhelmed, guilt-ridden and anxiety-ridden. As homeschoolers, many of us could be so booked with activities we could be out of the house every day, morning, afternoon, and night. Pick and choose and realize that homeschooling can be about, and should be about, being in your home.
4. Religious practices can provide peace – easy to knock it until you try it and create a practice. Many people are very cynical regarding organized religion, but I urge you to investigate this if this is a stumbling block for you. Find the religious path that works for you and work at it. Certain faiths, such as the Catholic faith and the Episcopal faith, have a “Daily Office” where prayers are said at certain times of the day – this can be a very grounding experience to help you focus your attention off of yourself and onto something higher. To my Orthodox readers, does this also exist in the Orthodox Church as well?
5. Exercise. Walk, bike, swim, take the time to go to the gym if you have the financial luxury to be able to afford a gym, walk on some nature trails, do some yoga. Make this a priority for yourself and for your children. This is very important for dealing with depression and anxiety, and to help feel more peaceful.
6. Re-frame how you look at things, and how you say things. Watch your words like the pearls you are, because the words you say are the reality for your children.
7. Forge as close and intimate a relationship as you can with your spouse or partner. Your children are NOT a substitute for the intimacy you should be experiencing with your adult partner, and your children will be better for it to see this wonderful, healthy relationship between two adults who can laugh and have fun together. Having this relationship as a bedrock in your life will provide you with peace!
I think creating a habit of happiness for your inner work is this coming school year is very important. I hear so many mothers who tell me up and down how fortunate they are to be able to be home during this economy, how they like being a stay-at-home mother but yet all they do is complain about their husbands, their homes, their weight and body image, their children’s behavior and themselves.
Stop complaining; choose peace and happiness instead. Start with yourself in small steps and model this for your spouse and your children; you may be surprised with the wonderful results!
Many blessings,
Carrie
The Newborn: Traditional and Anthroposophical Perspectives
From a Traditional Physical Therapy Perspective regarding Normal Development:
Full-term is 38 weeks onward. 37 weeks’ gestational age is NOT full-term.
The neonate has NO experience with life outside of the womb – Please remember that as you expose your infant to his or her first sounds and sights of the outside world.
Very little movement is independently controlled – most movement is random and affected by gravity (gravity is also a new experience).
The elbows, hips, knees, and ankles have strong flexion, meaning that they are bent up and if you try to straighten them they will recoil back into a bent position.
Newborns are usually moving when they are awake and display a wide range of vigorous movement with rotational components of the ankles and wrists. Usually one can see this better when the infant is lying on his or her back. There is much about tummy time and its importance out there, but giving an infant opportunity to freely kick and move while lying on their back is also important.
A neonate is interested in breastfeeding, being held and cuddled and in hearing their mother’s voice. If you are a first-time mother, I am here to reassure you that less material things are needed than you think.
A neonate can fixate on your smiling face and track briefly. They typically see best when the object (your bright smiling face!) is about 9 inches away.
Extension (lifting) of the head and neck while lying on the stomach is one of the first things you will see against gravity, but I am not so personally convinced that a neonate needs a whole separate “playtime-tummy time” on the floor on a blanket by themselves. Tummy time can also be achieved over your legs, over your lap or being held with the infant’s tummy on your chest as you are laying down.
There are a wide range of reflexes that help the infant organize themselves and drive an infant’s ability at this age, along with the musculoskeletal constraints already mentioned (strong flexion) and the way the bones start out.
If your baby has a history of prematurity, intraventricular hemorrhage, bronchopulmonary dyplasia, low birth weight under 1500 grams, or lack of oxygen to the brain, please follow your baby’s development carefully.
From an Anthroposophical Point of View:
(One of the best resources on the Web regarding The Waldorf Baby can be found here: http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/early-years-nurturing-young-children-at-home/the-waldorf-baby.html).
Rahima Baldwin Dancy talks about in her book how the infant experiences space, time and gravity differently once born compared to life within the womb. Birth also is the first experience an infant has with temperature regulation and the rhythmical qualities of breathing.
“With the first breath,” she writes, “inner emotional life begins, and the breath serves as the connection between the inner and outer worlds. With the first in-breath, the possibility exists for the soul life to enter into a deeper relationship with the body, a relationship it will keep until the last expiration. Although the baby is spiritually present and physically responsive to stimuli while in the womb, the soul cannot come into the body without the breath. Then the soul gives expression to our emotions through the breath as sound and speech.”
Incarnation into the body is a gradual process.
The infant is viewed as entirely a sense-organ where all impressions from the environment go into the infant without filters and influence physiological processes – such as digestion and circulation of the blood.
Sleep of the infant is seen as needed to “shut-off” from the world because if one is a sense organ where impressions are just flooding in, imagine how exhausting that is!
Things typically recommended by authors such as Rahima Baldwin Dancy, and Joan Salter include having a special place for the baby to rest, such as a bassinet or co-sleeper, and draping this with silks to provide rest for the infant’s eyes.
Provide harmony and rhythm through singing. You can also play a soft flute or kinderlyre.
Provide a sense of warmth for your infant and keep your infant’s head covered throughout the first year. Remember, an infant does not do a great job regulating temperature by themselves!
Think about 40 days of rest and of being at home – there is an entire post on this blog regarding that subject here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/17/40-days-after-birth-and-beyond/
Joan Salter asserts that the baby’s most natural position within the first six weeks is HORIZONTAL, not vertical.
You may consider keeping your infant inside for the first 40 days and after that introducing your infant to the wonderful sounds of nature outside. Trips to the store, in the car, in a bus, etc should be avoided if at all possible.
Joan Salter recommends swaddling with the upper extremities bent and the hands near the infant’s mouth – as a therapist, this is the position I most frequently recommend as well.
I suggest if you would like to read more about The Waldorf Baby, to go back and re-read pertinent chapters in “You Are Your Child’s First Teacher” and “The Incarnating Child.” Sometimes a third or fourth read of these chapters can really provide further illumination!
Many blessings,
Carrie
Sexual Education for Children Under the Age of 7
I have myself received and seen many questions on other on-line forums and discussion groups regarding sexual education for the child under the age of 7. Children are very curious about their bodies, about other children’s bodies and yes, about sex. This especially occurs at age four and again at age 6.
I have no problem calling a vagina a vagina or a penis a penis or talking about how boys and girls are different. I personally am very grateful our Creator made us different!
However, when a six year old starts asking direct and specific questions regarding how a sperm gets into an egg or how “males and females mate” or something very direct along those lines, I have a few thoughts.
From an anthroposophical perspective, the child is a spiritual being on a spiritual journey. We address the under-7 child with these questions the same way we address other questions children under-7 child asks. We provide pictorial imagery through fairy tales (think of the number of fairy tales where a baby just “shows up” after the parents wish for a baby- Thumbelina comes to mind, the Polish tale of The Hedgehog Prince and many, many of the Grimm’s tales). These really point to the spiritual longing for a child to be a part of the family and I think is a lovely thing not to bring in right the moment a child asks a pointed question, but at bedtime or at other times since you know this is on your child’s mind! (Yes, nothing like asking a pointed question that like in line at the grocery store and you launching into a repetitive version of The Hedgehog Prince right then and there, LOL).
Nature tales, not pointed factoid nature tales of animals mating, but of animals creating a family and a space for new life also come to mind. Looking for animal babies on nature walks, looking for baby birds in nests, rejoicing at all the new life about and around is an important part of establishing reverence for
Some families answer these types of questions from a religious or spiritual perspective and say that God helped put the baby inside Mommy, or that the baby choose the Mommy and Daddy and big brother or sister and how lucky we all are! Sometimes if you are just calm, warm and silent for a moment the child will provide their own answer to their very own question! That is a special thing to be witness to!
You may say, well, if my child is asking a very direct and pointed question, isn’t it my job to answer that question? Yes, but in an age appropriate way. A six-year old is not ready to hear an intricate accounting of sexual intercourse and is at the height of sexual curiousity and play, so providing pictorial imagery that coincides with the wonder and beauty of new life is most appropriate. The more factual (and often devoid of wonder and reverence) descriptions found in “child discovery” kinds of books can be kept for later as the child reaches greater depths of understanding and maturity than an under-7 child possesses.
Sometimes children ask us innocent questions and are not asking us to provide the factual answer we as adults think they are asking. The point is not to pull them into their heads regarding all this, but to point out this journey of new life that is created by love. Honor that, cherish that, nurture that, and provide the right information in the right way at the right time.
Blessings,
Carrie
Book Review: “Gardening With Young Children” by Beatrys Lockie
I have to admit right off that this is one of my favorite books because I feel it brings the experience of a wonderful gardener and Kindergarten teacher and marries it to an imaginative approach to nature and gardening for children between the ages of three and seven.
This is one of my favorite quotes in the entire book, presented in the “About This Book” section (and this is after the author presents a case that children live in pictures, in stories, in the imagination): “Many grown-ups, by contrast, live in a world of the intellect, of logical cause and effect. This is foreign territory for a small child. The child can make little of this approach, and quickly becomes bored. Worst of all, a child fed nothing but intellectual fodder can later become emotionally stunted. An intellectual adult often finds it more difficult to conjure vivid images than does a more intuitive person. But we can all try. Otherwise, what we give to children goes right over their heads.”
Many parents coming to Waldorf lament that they “don’t know how to NOT teach” or they have no idea how to answer children’s questions in a pictorial way. This book will give you some great ideas!
The first chapter of this book talks about some of the practical aspects of gardening with small children that the adult needs to be aware of: soil acidity, plant preferences, soil acidity, weather, fitting gardening into your schedule. The next four chapters cover each season with plentiful suggestions and examples of stories, activities, songs, arts and crafts ideas, baking and cooking ideas. Such traditional festivals as Advent and Candlemas are also covered. After that, there is a section on “The Town Child” for folks who live in densely populated cities and how to work with that, and the last chapter includes a month-by-month gardener’s calendar.
This book packs in a lot of information and suggestions for its 136 pages, and I feel is a resource one will refer to for multiple years. Again, this would be an especially wonderful resource for those just starting out in gardening and those unsure of how to approach gardening and nature in a more imaginative, wonderous way.
Blessings,
Carrie
Book Review: “Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children”
“Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children” by Carol Petrash is a much-loved book by a Waldorf teacher (and her husband, Jack Petrash, as many of you know, is a Waldorf Class Teacher) and is an easily accessible place to start to learn about how to construct a nature table, how to look at arts and crafts from a natural materials standpoint, how to work seasonally within your homeschool.
My copy was published in 1992, and has about 202 pages. It opens with an introduction regarding the environmental problems that are facing us today, but places this within the context of the developmental age of the young child:
“They come into life with a sense that the world is good and beautiful. Our interactions with them and the ways in which we bring them into contact with nature can either enhance these intuitions or destroy them. When children are met with love and respect, they will have love and respect to give. Our task as the parents and educators of young children is not to make them frightfully aware of environmental dangers, but rather to provide them with opportunities to experience what Rachel Carson called “the sense of wonder.” Out of this wonder can grow a feeling of kinship with the Earth.
She has a whole section of how to use this wonderful book, and how the book works in many projects from whole to parts (a foundation of Waldorf Education!)
Fall includes such things setting up an Earth-Friendly home and classroom, creating a Seasonal Garden (some of us may call this a Nature Table or Nature Space that changes with the seasons), and then a myriad of arts and crafts using natural materials – leaves and paint, pinecone people, baking activities, using pumpkins and Indian corn for baking and crafts. Winter focuses on the indoor play space, what your Seasonal Garden might look like for Winter, some finger knitting, woodworking and other indoor projects and things that would be appropriate for Saint Valentine’s Day. Spring focuses on the use of natural products to clean your home and classroom, the Seasonal Garden, experiences with the element of wind, working with wool from whole to parts, starting a garden. Finally, Summer focuses on creating an outdoor play space, the Summer Seasonal Garden, harvesting and eating berries, and more arts and crafts projects designed to capture the feeling of Summer.
There is a complete listing of mail-order supply companies, an extensive bibliography for teachers, and a list of picture books for small children arranged by season.
This book can sometimes be found on the shelves of local libraries, but I do think this is one you may want to have on your shelves. You will return to it time and time again!
Blessings,
Carrie
Start Now!
I think this may be part of the July doldrums following we mothers around, (or perhaps panic in the midst of planning for homeschooling to start in a month of so for many of us in the United States?), but I have heard so many mothers lamenting lately:
- “I found Waldorf so late.”
- “My young child was so intellectually awakened and now I look back it and I don’t think it was the right decision. She really burned out at age 8 and seems so unhappy.”
- “The way our family handled discipline was not good, and now we are paying for it.”
- “I didn’t know enough about connecting to my child when they were younger and I did everything wrong.”
- “I am still doing everything wrong even though I know more now than I did! I just can’t seem to put it all into place!”
Mothers, I am here to encourage you. This wonderful child came to you, to your family, for a reason. You are the right mother for this child. No other mother could do a better job than you can with this particular child that was called to be yours.
You did the best you could with the information you had at the time, and you did the best you could do with your child being the person you were at the time. The wonderful thing is that we are all continually growing and learning. You are a different parent with each child you have and that is truth! But it is okay to be that different parent and not lament the past!
The question is, what would help you today? What would help your child MOST today?
Evaluate – what is working for me with this child? What I am doing that is NOT working with this child? Where does this child need help in being balanced out the most? What is absolutely most challenging for this child? What is my role in helping this child? Where am I right now?
Pray, meditate and listen. Where you need to go from here? Where is the Divine, the Spirit, God, leading you in this question? Some mothers write things down and journal, some mothers just listen and absorb.
How will I put this into action? What does it require of me? Wayne Dyer, in his book, “What Do You Really Want For Your Children?” notes, “Imagine going to your dentist and having him give you a lecture on the importance of oral hygiene, while all the time smiling at you through rotting teeth. Or, visualize yourself talking to your doctor and having him tell you about the evils of nicotine addiction while blowing cigarette smoke in your face.”
In other words, if there is something that your small child needs to work on, work on it as well. Set the example, live by the example.
Be the change you want to see in your children.
Peace,
Carrie
Parenting the “High-Needs” Older Child
This post is one that has been hard to write, as there are many varying perspectives out there. Typically one reads something along the lines of, yes, there are children who have “difficult” behaviors, but if Mother and Father just get through it, the child will grow up to be a wonderful person.
Sometimes it seems these authors never really had a child with “difficult” behaviors to be gotten through for years on end, right??
I am talking in this post about children who are essentially within normal development, not children who have been diagnosed with ADHD, sensory processing disorders or autism spectrum disorders.
I have a few things that I have found to be helpful with my own “higher-needs, intense child”, not in any special order:
1. Get rid of that label. When I first was a parent, I thought “high-needs” was wonderful…..Now I think this label serves its purpose when the child may be in infancy so you don’t feel as if you are going insane, but really as the child grows, I think it is better to just accept where they are and what things are more challenging for them than labeling it. Every child brings challenges and things that need balancing and guidance and I think that can be easy to lose sight of if you consider your child “hard” and everyone else’s child “easy”.
I have also heard too many parents refer to their “higher-needs” child with the child standing right there! The child truly does understand this, and even if you think this is a nice way of saying “difficult”, the child translates it as such and feels something less than positive about themselves! Stop it! Stop telling the horror stories of your child’s infancy if your child is there, and even see if you can re-frame those thoughts in your head before they come out of your mouth. How about these instead: “We got through together the best we knew at the time.” “We did a great job in that situation.” “There were positive moments.”
Positive thoughts equal positive parenting, which is often exactly what this little person needs and longs for because sometimes these children are not the first to look on the sunny side!
Secondly, think about the fact that human development takes a LONG time and that three, four and five and even six is still little, is a period overall of rapid growth and often disequilibrium, and that in many cultures the child is perceived as not really having a set personality from infancy onward the way we look at this in the United States. Ask yourself, how would I be treating my child if I thought this “higher needs” was not so ingrained within them? Would I be able to be calmer and patient because I was guiding them, teaching them? Maybe not, but interesting food for thought. Your child may be a much, much different person at 7 or 8 than even at 4, 5 or 6. Seriously!
2. Stop drawing individual attention to that child’s behavior as much as possible, and accentuate the positive as much as possible. Less words for judging (because even saying, “Gosh, you are feeling aggressive today!” or “You are being so persistent” is judging in my book. Why go there?). Try meditating over your child while they sleep, try warm hugs and smiles, try really looking at the positive with your own warmth toward the child and finding the humor. Humor can diffuse a lot.
3.. Understand normal developmental stages and what works best – less words and don’t reason, more movement, more play, more imagination, more humor.
4. Be ready to accept your child’s behavior, pull back and be okay with that. This can be a real challenge for the adult, and I have been there. It was a challenge for me. So your three-year-old doesn’t do well at playgroups, so what? It used to be a child really didn’t have any play dates until they were over four and a half or so – maybe there was wisdom in that! It used to be small children were mainly at home with siblings and not off to gymnastics and art and museums and such. If your child doesn’t do groups well, look at it not as a character flaw, but normal development! It is really okay, and again, unless your child has been diagnosed with some sort of autism spectrum, it is likely to change as they grow.
5. Be calm and be patient. Try to understand things from your child’s point of view, and let your RHYTHM carry things. Have some limits that just include what you do, “We will play after lunch.” “We wash our hands after going to the bathroom.” We works really well.
6. Be aware of any reflux, food allergies or things within the environment that your child is sensitive to that triggers things not going well.
7. Make sure this child is getting enough rest and sleep. That is an absolute cornerstone of rhythm.
8. Are you feeling positive and centered? C’mon y’all, you knew I was going to say that one! Work on your own stuff so you can be what this child needs. Guard your words and your thoughts toward the positive and away from the negative.
Most importantly, FORGIVE YOURSELF. You are a wonderful mother, you are working hard, you wouldn’t be thinking and worried about this otherwise! Give yourself a break! Love yourself and use that as a model for how you can love and forgive your child!
9. It is okay to help your child play. Children under the age of 7 are in the height of the imitative phase, and may NOT be able to come up with what to play out of their heads. It is okay to help them out – set up play scenes, give them ideas (“I am the old woman of the villager who is washing dishes and you are coming to my village on a train! Here is a train cap and train whistle!”) Invite them to help you with practical work. Tell them stories and things that may spur their play. Your oldest child might really need this help, your younger ones will have the older one to imitate.
10. Try to spend some time alone with this child every day in a positive way. Whether this is just curled up together reading a book, tossing a ball, rolling around on the floor, just be together. The more you are together in positive ways the more you can love each other.
11. Again, this post was not geared toward children who have been diagnosed with something specific, but if you think your child is having issues with anger, or processing sounds or textures, or whatever, get help. Don’t wait! Trust your gut instinct because you are the expert on your child, you know your child best, and you are the advocate for your child!
Peace and cyber – hugs,
Carrie
Some Quick Ideas for September for the Waldorf Kindergarten Crowd
Here are some fast ideas for September for the Waldorf Kindergarten crowd:
Have some verses or songs to call your child to a circle/fingerplay time: Come, Follow, Follow is a classic one that comes to mind along with this easy verse (that seems to have a few variations out there, so don’t fret if this is not the version you know!):
Good morning Dear Earth,
Good morning Dear Sun,
Good morning Dear Trees and Stones every one,
Good morning Dear Beasts and Birds in the Tree
Good morning to You and Good Morning to me!
What songs will you be bringing to your child for the whole month of September? You can bring the same songs for a month! I like to base our songs of the month around what festivals are upcoming. There are many wonderful pentatonic Michaelmas songs one can play on a recorder, Choroi flute or pennywhistle. Classics include “A Knight and A Lady”, This is a great chance for you to practice learning your own blowing instrument so you will be able to teach your child in first grade!
Choose some fingerplays or plan out a whole circle time with songs and verses if your family likes circle time. Common circle time themes for September, at least in the United States, include squirrels and other little forest creatures getting ready for Winter, harvesting, apple picking and apples, leaves and changing of the colors of leaves, ponies going to and from the harvest and pulling carts of the harvest. Fingerplays can include such things as counting, colors, shapes.
You may want to go into your practical work for the day here, or you may want to sing a song and transition into a fairy tale. For a three or four year old, this would be either a very repetitive, simple tale or a nature tale. www.mainlesson.com has a number of wonderful tales. For a five or six year old, you could start getting into the Grimm’s fairy tales. Fairy tales that have repetitive phrases or songs are usually attention-getters and pleasers. The book “Let Us Form A Ring” has some tunes set for some of the Grimm’s fairy tales, along with “pre-made” circle times and a few stories that include music in the back of the book. For example, the story “The Pancake Mill”is in this book, complete with music and that would be a lovely fall story. What props, puppets or craft items will you need to complete this experience for your child? Do you have a song or verse to transition into a time of listening and sharing your told story?
Next, what practical work will you be doing? Housekeeping, wet on wet watercolor painting, baking, gardening, arts and crafts? Again, for September in the United States much can center around apples, the star inside an apple, baking and cooking with apples, apple drying, the changing of the seasons so perhaps leaf painting, rubbing, leaf banners, dipping leaves into glycerin wax to make a leaf banner, making little figures out of pinecones, collecting things from outside and making little “carpets’ with them on the ground……Just as a note, six year olds need longer and more complex projects than a three-year old! Think a bit on it!
Work in your outside time, creative inside play time (what can you add to your indoor space for fall, what will change, what play scenes will you arrange), preparations for the time of Michaelmas if you celebrate that festival and wa-la! A very loving Waldorf Kindergarten in your own home!
You also need a simple closing verse! Don’t let your school time just fade away into nothing! Close it up, and be satisfied at a job well-done!
There is a lot more to say on this subject, but that literally is a very fast skeleton to plan from for a small child.
Many Blessings,
Carrie
The Parenting Passageway 