La Balance

Here we are at the end of summer, moving towards the dark and cold of the year. The Wheel of the Year is turning and with it are we, within.

The autumn equinox comes along with the stars in the sky known as Libra, the scale to weigh in our deeds. The sign of Libra is often depicted as Justice holding the scales of balance, here.

We are back to school yet still holding on to the long, luxuriant days of summer. The Bleeding Hearts are brown and shriveling. The tomatoes have given up their fruits. The autumn lanterns are warmly aglow amidst the decaying leaves of the plants that grew them.



 Mother Earth is calling her children home where they have much work to do to conserve the concentrated energies generated over the summer into the deep dark days of winter ahead.

I've been enjoying Lynn Jericho's Inner Year class on Balance. My relationship with balance has demanded my attention this month with lingering dizziness that came from many spinning rides at the fair.

This is my third round of inner balance work with Lynn Jericho and each year it seems that life is way out of balance for me in September, those long, lazy days of summer are hard to compress into the shorter days of autumn, so much so that it is hard for me to find the balancing point to really focus on the class.

We want to stay up late and be out of doors and linger at the beach with friends yet school is calling, there is food to dry, freeze and can, the garage needs a good clean out before winter, the grass needs to be cut, the garden put to bed, and work beckons. Where is the balance?

Part of me is pulling in. I've made my first cup of hot tea and took out the crock pot for a long and slow cooking of beef to eat with chili and nachos. I nearly built a fire last weekend to take the chill out of the house yet wrapped us up in warm woolen blankets instead. I'm not ready to close the windows.

The woolen picnic blanket has become a robe to snuggle under to ward off the night chill at night time football games.

I was glad to find an e-mail from Donna Simmons with a recent blogpost in which she offers reassurance for all homeschoolers, new and seasoned, on what she refers to as the September Boom or Bust, here.

When I saw Carrie Dentdter's recent post over on The Parenting Passageway on the Balance chapter, from her book study of The Well Balanced Child, I decided to join in the conversation on The Well Balanced Child. This book has been on my shelf for a few years and is one I have picked up and put down many times. It is a blog post in progress. Thank you Carrie.

How is the balance of your life?

Daily Life is the Curriculum

Summer has drawn back its heat and light, the days are beginning to feel crisp and cool. We're feeling drawn back to some kind of order and fresh start in everyday life. It seems like a good time to talk about homeschooling also known as the education of our children at home. 

Since how to get started and what sort of curriculum to use is often a first question, I thought I’d address the curriculum for the young child in the world of  Waldorf education. By young child I mean children who are toddling up to until around age nine. These are the years when they are curious, open and enthusiastic to join us in these tasks, which in turn provide a strong foundation for life. 

It is already well known to us as daily life: eating, sleeping, play and household work to keep everything flowing. And with the daily work, it is our task to help our child learn how to be fully human.

This includes healthy rhythms of eating, sleeping, movement and play as well as the activities of daily life, art, time with others and most fundamental of all nurturing activities that build connection between the child and the parent. 

Daily Homemaking Activities: like cooking and baking and housework, setting the table, clearing the table, sweeping after the meal.

Playful, Artistic Activities: like singing, ring games, coloring and painting, beeswax modeling, simple storytelling, puppetry.

Being with Others: like meal times and playing with other children (for 3′s and older), being with mom at the grocery or post office and reaching out to others in our building, neighborhood, or community.

Nurturing Activities and this means physically nourishing like touch, whole food and good sleep as well as warm baths, and attentive hand washing, and drying, and dressing, and hair combing, and protection from too much stimulation of the media, adult world, colors and stuff. Soulful activities stories rich in imagination, time and space for free play are deeply nourishing on a soul level. We the adults need to nourish ourselves too for we are the source of the strength to keep the household momentum going. (You know the saying, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy... well it is so, no?)

Stories are an artistic activity that are very important for children because they help create pictures of life and of what it means to be human. Stories connect us with humanity and bring powerful archetypal images that have lived within human consciousness for thousands of years. Adults love stories too.

Children will play out what they see and hear in their environment and stories are a way to provide pictorial images that the child will play out. This is why Waldorf teachers are always encouraging parents to protect children from the stimulation of the media, to protect the inner world of childhood, so rich with imagination, imagination for the moment and the future.

What is important with daily life as the curriculum is that it be filled with meaningful and purposeful work that is tangibly productive for a child. Computers and books and typing are not, they are too abstract for the young child to grasp but chopping and kneading and washing are, they produce something the child can grasp, literally and physically. So that is why it is the picture of little house on the prairie with making bread and soup and tending the garden and the animals that is found in the Waldorf kindergarten, a space tended with care and love for all the beings who pass by.

Children need real tools to work with as well, an apron, a sturdy rake, a strong snow shovel and a small version but strong adult garden shovel.

This is where the craft making and handwork in Waldorf come from, in having a relationship to the articles we need for daily living, wash clothes, pot holders, caps, mittens scarves and anything made by mom is so dear to the child, even if they do not outwardly express it, it is.

The what of the curriculum is life, eating, sleeping, caring for the child, caring for the family caring for the home and caring for others in the community. The how to get there in tiny steps is a topic for next time.

Celebrate the Rhythm of Life 

Waldorf in the Home
Guides, eCourses, Mentoring
Mothering, Homemaking, Home education

Sign up now for October Program

October's focus topic is The Rhythm of Food and Meal Planning ~ We'll focus on how food and meal planning can bring rhythm to our days, week and month and foster reverence within and without, in the child, parent and home environment.

We will set up an individual monthly plan for each participant and look at weekly and daily rhythms around food and meals with simple practical ways to tweak your days and weeks to find more time and peace in your days and home.

We'll make aprons for the children and design a meal plan as our practical activities.

Click here for more...

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

inspired by Amanda over at SouleMama

Michaelmas

September 29th is known in the Christian world as the feast day of the Archangel Michael.  Michaelmas is also an important season in the Waldorf community. It's the first festival celebration in the school year at Waldorf communities in the northern hemisphere. 

Michaelmas is one of what I call the “ Big Four" Waldorf festivals. 

The “ Big Four”  festivals are: 

• Michaelmas
• Christmas
• Easter and 
• St. John’s Tide

Each takes place near one of the cardinal points in the year - the solstices and the equinoxes.

Michaelmas takes place near the autumn equinox, a time of balance, with equal day and equal night. The word equinox means equal night, “equi + nox." 

The Archangel Michael is an important figure in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In the world of Waldorf education, anthroposophy and medicine he is said to be the guiding force of our times. Michael appears in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

Michaelmas (pronounced mikel-mas) is a season, the season of the final ripening and gathering in, the harvesting of the earth's bounty. It's the season in which the earth begins to inhale her forces, which marks the turning of the year from the long hot expansive days of summer towards the dark cold contraction of winter.  Plants wither, leaves drop, the last ripened fruits, nuts and vegetables are taken in, feasted upon and put up for the cold days ahead. The geese are heading south. We are in the season of Michaelmas. 

As parents we begin to bring out the layers of clothing for physical warmth, cook up warm soups, stews and roasts and imbue our stories for children with light and warmth to carry us through the cold and dark days to come. An afternoon cup of tea brings warmth to body and soul in that moment of the day of quiet just before the shift towards dinner, bath and bed. A fire, either outdoors or inside warms body and soul.

When our family lived on the equator, autumn heralded in a marked change in the year, the storm season began with high swells on the sea, strong winds, heavy rain and typhoons. It was the time of year when we avoided certain crossings across the waters for it was likely to be rough. That was a time for pulling in a bit - despite the heat. The days grew shorter by thirty minutes and we noticed it. 

Michaelmas is the first of the festivals typically celebrated during the new school year at Waldorf schools. It is celebrated with stories about Michael and stories of shooting stars, courage, balance and strength are told. The grade school students often perform a play with a dragon. The older child might use a scale to contemplate the balance of his or her deeds over the course of time, and take stock.

For the young child, Michaelmas is a harvest festival, a time to savor the harvest, roast vegetables, polish apples, cut them in half to discover the stars within and celebrate through song, story and food the gifts and  wonders of nature and all her beauteous bounty. Michaelmas is also a time for purposeful work.

                                      " My nice red rosy apple has a secret midst unseen;

You’d see if you could slip inside, five rooms so neat and clean.

In each room there are hiding two seeds so shining bright;

Asleep they are and dreaming of a lovely warm sunlight.

And sometimes they are dreaming of many things to be

How some day they’ll be hanging upon a Christmas tree"

For the adult Michaelmas is a time to recognize the seeds of our own capacities and the inner dragons that obstruct our own path as well as the outer dragons of materialism, greed, stuff...what is our relationship to the material world? How do we enliven the swords of our imagination? How do we imbue it with spirit? How are we becoming human?

It is so hard to talk about Michaelmas as it is not about words or intellectuality, but about our thinking imagination, our deeds, our capacity to become more fully human. Michaelmas is a festival of strong will, of inner strength and courage.

• From Rudolf Steiner, on Michael and the Dragon, here
• For Reflections from Lynn Jericho on Michaelmas, here
• For Reflections from Danielle Epifani on Michaelmas as the Festival of Human Becoming, here
• Reflections from David Mitchell on why we celebrate Michaelmas, here

From Garrison Keillor of The Writer's Almanac on Minnesota Public Radio:

"In the Christian world, today is Michaelmas, feast day of the archangel Michael, which was a very important day in times past, falling near the equinox and so marking the fast darkening of the days in the northern world, the boundary of what was and what is to be. Today was the end of the harvest and the time for farm folk to calculate how many animals they could afford to feed through the winter and which would be sold or slaughtered. It was the end of the fishing season, the beginning of hunting, the time to pick apples and make cider.

Today was a day for settling rents and accounts, which farmers often paid for with a brace of birds from the flocks hatched that spring. Geese were given to the poor and their plucked down sold for the filling of mattresses and pillows.

Michaelmas was the time of the traditional printer's celebration, the wayzgoose, the day on which printers broke from their work to form the last of their pulp into paper with which to cover their open windows against the coming cold — the original solution for those who could not afford glass yet had more than nothing — and the advent of days spent working by candlelight.

In the past, the traditional Michaelmas meal would have been a roast stubble goose — the large gray geese that many of us only get to admire at our local state and county fairs. Today, when most poultry comes from the grocery store in parts and wrapped in plastic, a roast goose can be a difficult luxury to obtain, but any homey, unfussy meal is a fine substitute — especially with a posy of Michaelmas daisies or purple asters on the table.

In folklore, it is said that when Michael cast the Devil from Heaven, the fallen angel landed on a patch of blackberry brambles and so returns this day every year to spit upon the plant that tortured him. For this reason, blackberries would not be eaten after today, and so folks would gather them in masses on Michaelmas to put into pies and crumbles and preserves. And they would bake St. Michael's bannocks, a large, flat scone of oats and barley and rye, baked on a hot griddle and then eaten with butter or honey or a pot of blackberry preserves.

Whether you recognize Michaelmas or not, you can still greet what comes with the symbols of today: gloves, for open-handedness and generosity; and ginger to keep you warm and well in the coming cold."

Blessings on your season of Michaelmas! May your dragons be met with grace.

Hail to Thee Great Apple Tree!

Hail to thee great apple tree!

Climb right up that I may see...

Great big apples, ripe and sweet

Great big apples good to eat

 Weighing in our work

Serving it up for dessert

with homemade ice cream. 

Yum.

Thank you, thank you Mother Earth

Thank you for our food.

For more apple verses, songs, puppet story, recipes, rhythms and goodness:

Sign up for the Celebrate September Program. 

The focus topic for the month of September  2011 is Storytelling.

We'll look at:

• The riches Waldorf education brings through storytelling 
• Age appropriate stories and why, what story best supports the child at what age? 
• Tutorial on making table puppets 
• How to set up the space for puppet story 
• Ideas for creating a puppetry group in your community 

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

along with Amanda over at SouleMama

Monthly Guides are Back!

I am so very excited to share with you the news of the return of the Celebrating the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children through the Year materials. I have read all of your very kind, honest and thorough comments in the feedback and taken them to heart. The new format retains all of the elements you love with some expansion in a few areas. I've been striving to keep it all very simple, easy for you to read and digest. I have also made it more process and community oriented this time around.

The material will be available in a packet (pdf) and online along with the rest of the program. Participants may sign up for the month or for the school year, from September to July

Each month the material for The Celebrating the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children Program includes:

• Materials packet with verse, song, circle, finger play, story, activities
• Daily and Weekly rhythm plan (if you want it sketched out ~ it's here)
• Menus with recipes based on Steiner's grains (breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea)
• Handwork for each month with hands on tutorial
• Artistic Activity for each month
• Festival life ~ background and celebration ideas
• Seasonal foods to plant, harvest and prepare with children
• My favorite book suggestions
• In the Morning Garden ( a tip each month for group programs)
• After school (Activities, Recipes, Stories for the grade school child)
• Focus topic for each month
• Pedagogy behind the topic
•  Practical activity with monthly topic
• Exercise to do with the topic ~ practice
• Reflection ~ questions for nurturing the inner life
• Partners to support each other
• Private online discussion group
• Occasional blog posts throughout the month
• Ideas for creating community where you live

Come join in, create community, find support, receive encouragement!

Often the artistic, handwork and practical activity with overlap with each other so you will not have a huge number of projects each month.

After many years of giving freely to help others along the Waldorf Way, I have made the decision to charge a fee for this material to help me continue to do this work and support my family. The Wonder of Childhood will continue to be free of a subscription charge.

Cost:

By the month $45 per month
From September until July (with July as bonus) $45


Go here to enroll.

Cookie Making for Beach Going

We had a big chunk of time alone together on a beautiful, warm, sunny, summer morning.

I gave it up to my little one, "whatever you want to do, I'm game."

Can you guess what he chose....

We put on our aprons and let the mixer do its magic with butter and sugar...

we whisked  flour, salt and baling powder...

added  eggs and vanilla.

Then I realized, we had no chips. So I raided the S'mores stash and he chopped up some Hershey bars.

We packed it up and rambled down to the beach for a swim.

Oh please, just one more minute in the water....one more swim to the rocks?

Who could say no?

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

inspired by SouleMama

It's Calling Me

I'm trying so hard to get here.
I am supposed to be working this week: writing, editing, washing, ironing, cooking, painting and planning.

Big brother is off on a Kroka expedition and little brother and his dad are off having adventures together. This is my time to work through the "to do" list.

The first articles of August are up on the Magazine and looking good. I love bringing together the work that expresses the passion of so many gifted people. I have more ideas and visions than I have time to put together in a day or a week, maybe in a lifetime. So I keep at it, "inch by inch and step by step," as my dear friend Aaiyn says. But after a while my thoughts get frazzled.

And you know how it goes when your brain is so scrambled from trying to think too much, in too many directions at the same moment? I usually  try to step out of my life without going too far away, a walk in the woods helps, so does a movie. So the other night I watched a movie, a really good movie, one of those movies with beautiful lingering images and the reminder that even though life is hard, life is beautiful.

Have you seen it? It's A Sunshine of Rainbows? It takes place on the rugged coast of Ireland. It's a timeless movie with simple, natural, beauty. So much beauty, the rugged coast, the simple life, the kindness and goodness of people. The clothing of the characters is so lovely, all of it,  handmade and surely full of love, knit sweaters, crochet scarves and wraps, hand made socks, woven fabrics, all gorgeous and beautiful in their simplicity and connection to the land and animals. Chickens, sheep and the garden supply food and wool. So simple. Such beauty and loss and grief. It's not all happy happy you know.

Back to work for me. Have you seen the movie? Did you like it? Any not- to- miss movies you might recommend? I need more movies.

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.