{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. a photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

inspired by SouleMama

Happy Weekending!

Planning the Waldorf Year in the Home

The Merry Month of May is a time of a great expansion, a great breathing out. On warm days we can throw open the windows and relax. The crab apples are blossoming and the willow trees are beginning to unfurl their leaves.

Celebrations in May include May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day and Memorial Day here in the USA. It's a time for outdoor celebration with cook outs, pot lucks and play.

We now turn to planning, having woken from our long winter's rest, having dreamed and imagined our vision for the future, we turn to planning next year, of home education and home making for our families, ourselves and our children before the expansive energy of summer swoops us off our feet and away.
Celebrate the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children in May will focus on sketching out the year.

What do we want to bring to our children through the year? through the seasons? through the weeks and the days from September 2012 until June 2013.


In May we'll look at::

• What do we have at hand to use and what do we need to procure

• Do you want to do a 3, 4 or 6 week Circle or Main Lesson block? We'll look at the benefits and drawbacks of each

• How often to change circle? How to change circle?

• What is circle or ring time anyway? Do you need to do it at home? Can it be easier and more fun?

• What props to use in circle and storytelling and main lesson? Props?

• We'll look at how to organize your plan and get clear on what it is you want to bring to your child, your family, yourself.

• What are the milestones you want to reach before January?

• What about the holidays, how do they fit in the plan?

With the great popularity and gratitude expressed for the Rhythm focus, we'll continue along with that, looking at our daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and yearly rhythms, bringing more form and finding more freedom within the form.
In the month of June, we'll get into the details of the day, we'll look at how to implement that plan, how to organize the space and make it more play and education (if we are doing the grades) friendly, how to make the materials we need and how to use them through the year. We'll cover wet on wet watercolor painting, beeswax crayon drawing and coloring, bean bag making and use, jump rope, speech exercise, body geography, sensory nourishment and putting your circle into lively action.
In June, we'll look at the Pillars of Waldorf education that I have outlined in our blogs over virtual tea, here with Carrie Dendtler of The Parenting Passageway:

• Drawing with Beeswax Crayons
• Wet on Wet Watercolor Painting
• Modeling with Dough, Beeswax and Clay
• Speech
• Movement
• Drama
• Singing and Musical Instrument
• Handwork :: Ideas for each grade

Join us on this adventure to sketch out the year ahead and remain well anchored in the day before us.
Sign up for the month of May is here.
Sign up for the month of June is here.
If you sign up for only one month, know that you will be doing only half the planning and may not emerge with a sense of completion. The planning is designed over two months to give you the opportunity to sketch out the curriculum in detail and to prepare your space and your self for bringing it in the year ahead. We will be implementing the schedule in June, not designing it. In May we will be designing the schedule and focusing more of the rhythm of the year, season, month week and day rather than looking in depth at the pillars, which we will do in June.
Clear as mud? Send me an e-mail at lisaboisvert (at) yahoo (dot) com with your questions.

Celebrate the Beauty and Wonder of our home.

Take ten minutes out of your day for this gem.

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

along with SouleMama

The Flowers in My Garden Nigh are Waiting...

Who is coming by?

The Fairy Caps will soon be along. 

Waiting for a child to come by ...

Those beautiful violets are in blossom right now. Any suggestions for what to do with them?  What's happening in your garden today? I'd love to hear from you. Leave a link below.

" You have to trust that the dots will connect..."

Sunday :: Day of Renewal 

Today in honor of the importance of spiritual renewal,  I'm going to share this inspiring talk from Steve Jobs. I knew very little of the man before his passing yet in learning about his life, I am so deeply touched by who he was and how he lived his life.

This speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford is so full of wisdom for all of us. He speaks of life, of trust and of making sense of it all, by looking backwards not forward. In his words:

"If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” ~ Steve Jobs

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 - October 5, 2011)

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A few photos- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Along with SouleMama

Happy Weekending Friends!

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A few photos- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

We've made way for ducklings. 

No not the beloved Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings  book, but real feathered and webbed, good natured ducklings.

Our family grew, ahem... well, the feathered family members that is. Two newly hatched mallard ducks have come to live with us. 

They are so calm and amenable to being held.

Dolly doesn't seem to notice, as long as she can sleep, she is happy. 

Just look at those webbed feet, so solid on the earth and so ready for a swim any time.

We wonder if they have imprinted on Duncan for they are following him around. Dunkie's ducklings. 

Welcome little ducklings.

adapted from this moment with Amanda over at SouleMama

(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

{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

{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

Oh will you be my Valentine?

Will you? Yes, you.

Hello friends, it has been nearly two years now since I began to show up in this space and write a bit about my life, a bit about Waldorf education, a bit about parenting, striving to find my voice, to figure out what it is I am writing about. Is it our family life? Is it reflections on my children? Is it about Waldorf education? Is it as a teacher or as a mother? or both?

I'm not sure.

I've been trying to find my way through this blog world. I love visiting your blogs and connecting with you. It is fun to see where you live and how your children are growing. I love the recipes and craft ideas too.  I love most knowing that other moms, like me, are striving to hold it all together, to be present with their children and to find themselves and their voice among adults at the same time.

I imagine we are having tea together around the crackling fire of the wood stove in the playroom, each of us seeking a place to rest our cup, out of the grasp of little hands. This is my picture of us. You give me comfort that I am not alone in my challenges, in my strivings. You inspire me to keep on keeping on. You help me see the beauty along the way as well. I am grateful for that.

I'm thrilled to make connections with you in person. It was delightful to meet Mary at the WECAN conference last weekend. I feel like I have known you for years. I look forward to meeting Megan this spring too. Hopefully we won't be buried under snow this time,or if we are, we'll have an alternative plan, like skiing, so we connect no matter what.

I am flattered and honored to hear that early childhood teachers and parents read my blog too and enjoy it but do not comment. I'd love to hear from you. It's a bit like putting oneself in the window of the pet store. "Ah, cute puppy" or "no, not that one." Tap on the window pane with your comment below. I like to know that you have passed by. And it gives me a path to you as well.

We had a sweet Valentine's day this year. It began with a spectacular rose red sunrise that went on and on and on for what seemed like a while but was only a brief few moments, sort of like childhood, I though as I was rousing my sixteen year old that morning...

Valentine's continued with some sweets and a stone in each child's Valentine dish set out by the bed. I received  lovely hand made Valentines too, some hung on doors, one on the ironing board. Now isn't that a good reason to iron?

We had a visit from the secret Valentine too.

Because Valentine's is so much fun we are stretching it out over the week. Here's a sweet little ditty for you.

If apples were pears

And peaches were plums

And the rose had a different name.

If tigers were bears

And fingers were thumbs

I'd love you just the same.

Wishing you and yours all the love in the world and many moments of sweetness this week.

Happy Weekending!

Lisa

PS I'd love to know you were here. Leave a link to your blog and say hello.