Once upon a time...

Registration is now open for Celebrate the Rhythm of Life in September. 

This month's focus topic is Storytelling with Children and I am delighted to bring you a very special guest teacher.

My special guest is Connie Manson of Starlite Puppets. Connie is an early childhood teacher, a gifted storyteller and puppeteer and the founder of Starlite Puppets. Connie will join me for our four week focus topic eCourse of Storytelling with Children as part of the monthly program.

                                                                                                                 photograph courtesy of Sunbridge Institute

About Connie: Connie Manson, B.F.A, M.Ed. holds an undergraduate degree in Theater and a Master's degree in Waldorf early childhood education. Connie's first teaching experience was in a small private school one block from her apartment in New York City, where she assisted in teaching pre-school children using Bank Street curriculum and Montessori methods. During that time she was introduced to Waldorf education, and was immediately impressed with it's deep respect and understanding of childhood and child development! 

She was inspired to found Starlite Puppets and begin her Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge College in New York. After graduation she taught kindergarten at Green Meadow Waldorf School nearby. She then moved to California, where she developed and taught the Parent-Child Program at the Waldorf School of Santa Barbara, where she also ran a Waldorf-inspired home nursery for five years. She then packed up a 15 foot moving truck and drove cross country to teach at Waldorf Sarasota in Flordia with her husband Peter Chin, who is also a Waldorf teacher. 

Connie has provided workshops in music, practical arts and artistic activities for parents and teachers of young children at Sunbridge, Sophia's Hearth, and other Waldorf educational centers. Her study of the RIE (Resource of Infant Educarers) approach has provided a powerful inspiration for being with the very young. Connie has been sharing puppetry and music with young children for over twenty years. She created the Tea 'n Puppets Story Time currently offered at Waldorf Sarasota, where she also teaches the Parent Child and Nursery Programs. Her lifelong love of the expressive arts has led her to teach music, drama and dance to grade school aged children at the Santa Barbara Waldorf School and Waldorf Sarasota.

This eCourse runs for four weeks, from September 9th until October 6th. Each week we'll bring a presentation on  specific aspects of Storytelling with Children as well as Exercises for you to do over the week, along with discussion of the material and presentations.

The Program includes Daily Messages, Weekly Rhythm Support and packets of Support Material for the month with stories, circle for nursery, circle for kindergarten, finger play, recipes, housework rhythm, and more, as well as a lively discussion group.

Storytelling is so enchanting for the young child. Have you ever watched your child's eyes go wide open and the jaw go slack and drop as you begin with "Once upon a time..." 

Magical. Have you ever been to a Waldorf school event and wished you too could tell stories in such a magical way?

• Are you homeschooling and wanting to incorporate stories into your day?
• Are you part of a playgroup and wishing you had storytelling skills?
• Are you a child care provider who wants to tell stories?
• Are you a teacher who would like a refresher?
• Would you like to begin telling stories to your child? 
• Are you seeking stories to tell?
• Are you feeling adrift and wondering where to start? 
• Would you like some support to get going and set the tone for this school?

Join us in September for four weeks of focus on Storytelling with Children

We'll explore:
Storytelling through the year, what stories for each season?
What kind of stories to tell? At what age?
How do stories serve children?
How does storytelling serve the adult?
How to approach storytelling with children?
Preparing the Self
Preparing the Space
Community

Join us and receive all the Support Packets and Materials as well as a focused four week e-course on Storytelling with Children with a special guest teacher. More information on the Program here.

Registration is Closed

Being Sexy

INSPIRING TIPS FOR ALL

be sexy

Ha, ha, I bet the title caught your attention! Sexy. I love this. Ashton Kutcher was just a name  to me  until I saw this video yesterday. Now he is an inspiration I want to share with you. Ashton Kutcher shares his insider's tips on life at this award event.

http://youtu.be/FNXwKGZHmDc

What he shares reflects the three soul capacities in anthroposophy or the thinking, feeling and willing aspects of the human being. I'm not going to say anymore about what he says until you have a chance to watch this short video.

Happy Thursday~ing!

Waldorf Education :: Where to Begin?

Oh my, this little Get Organized :: Sketch it Out Planning Session of mine has brought all of us, in this fabulous, wise, warm, tender, mighty, courageous, vulnerable, funny, supportive and generous group of women into so many places with real life questions, really good questions we are penetrating, the sort of questions that so many parents wrestle with at one time or another...

• how to find rhythm? 
• what is Waldorf education? 
• how to find time? 
• what is important? 
• what can I let go of? 
• how to let go?
• what is getting in my way? 
• where is support? 
• who is community? 
• how do I connect with the world? 
• how do I respond to my child? 
• what is the purpose of education? 
• of parenting? 
• how do parenting and homeschooling go with Waldorf? 
• is Waldorf right for me? 
• what is Waldorf at home? 
• how do I homeschool?
• how do I teach my child?

Waldorf education has been rapidly expanding around the world since the very first school, inspired by Rudolf Steiner and Emil Molt, opened its doors nearly 100 years ago, in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. Waldorf schools are expanding to accommodate the requests of parents for programs for younger and younger children with nurseries, all day care of the child, parent child groups, even prenatal groups, as well as requests for older children with the opening of more high schools.

Waldorf education is taking new directions. Field, Farm and Forest programs are sprouting up all over the world. Semester expeditions provide a living education, going to the heart of Waldorf education, in bringing high school students opportunities to meet the world. Living Education series on farms are becoming more and more available to Waldorf homeschoolers. And it seems that more and more homeschoolers are turning to Waldorf education.

Some folks are attracted to the connection to nature. Some love the beauty and simplicity. Some love the simple toys of natural materials. Some are moved deeply upon entering a classroom. Others attend a festival, fair or puppet show at a Waldorf school and become smitten.

Yet what is it that is at the core of Waldorf education that makes Waldorf Waldorf and not a nature based program? What is the essence of Waldorf that makes it distinctly Waldorf and not other? This seems to me a living question today, especially among homeschoolers who want to know more.

Yet for anyone who has been involved with Waldorf education for any amount of time, we know that there is no easy answer or formula. There is no one size fits all curriculum. Yet there is something that is distinctly Waldorf. What does that essence look like in the home?

One of the questions I am asked most often is where to begin, how to understand Waldorf education?

Yet there is no simple and easy answer. Waldorf education is intertwined with the view of the child as a spiritual being as well as the view of all humans as spiritual beings with distinct phases of development. Yet the teacher looks to the child, through the lens of child development for understanding of the child's needs, not in following the child's whims and desires of the moment but in seeing the child from the position of authority: adult as artist, author and wise guide.  It is grounded in freedom and love. 

Just as no two artists will approach a creative project in the same way, no two teachers or parents will approach a child in the same way when working out of anthroposophy and Waldorf education. We do not apply equal portions of all the same life potions to every child, we look to the needs of the individual child and respond specifically to the child's need, always striving to provide what each child needs.

There is no one size fits all curriculum and no one size fits all behavior or way to be with a child or group of children, it is unique to the relationship. Just as seeking out curriculum support is unique to the relationship. A wise and seasoned classroom teacher may inspire me with his or her particular artistic flair. It need not be someone who homeschools to inspire the artistic. Fellow homeschoolers can help us with the nuts and bolts of organizing the day yet anyone can inspire us with the artistic elements.

Look to the artistic. When you are seeking help, look for the artistic flair of the curriculum writer or consultant. Do you see something unique to that person that inspires you? Trust that. For Waldorf is above all an artistic approach to development and education. Waldorf education is not just about providing certain stories each year. It is about our own work, our ability to take in the stories and really digest them first. Then we bring them out of our inner being, artistically, with our own flair, to the child it is about artistically inspiring an interest in the world that meets our child's developmental needs by doing the work ourselves first. This is where it gets rigorous.

Each of us comes on our own path and finds our own way that is unique to each of us. Waldorf education is very much a social one and one way to learn more is to connect with others. When we are in a group, magical things can come forth that do not emerge in our solitude. Reach out to others on this path. Gather together to knit, sew, preserve. Ask your Waldorf local school if it might be possible to participate in festival singing or festivities, plays, community chorus and the fifth grade Pentathalon as homeschoolers.

On the other hand is the path of inner development. Waldorf education is grounded in our own inner development. It is in pushing ourselves and developing our own artistic qualities that we inspire our children to do their best. When we go to the heart of discipline for our children, we find it within, within ourselves, within our hearts, it is our own self discipline that provides the path for providing the gentle and loving guidance our children need as they meet the world. 

Some paths to learning more:

:: For Inner Development, Lynn Jericho provides a year full of courses on inner development at her site Imagine Self with juicy, artistic, creative, inner exploration as well as one on one consultation. Work with Lynn is always freeing, inspiring and empowering.

:: For help with understanding the child and the curriculum out of anthroposophy, where they intersect, and how to work with the curriculum artistically to meet the needs of the child I love the Essential Waldorf Workshops provided by Eugene Schwartz with Raine Springer, Robert Trostli and Meg Chittenden.

:: For Parenting and Waldorf homeschooling support of all sorts, my friend Carrie over at The Parenting Passageway offers support and insight into the inner growth of the parent and development of the child with Waldorf homeschooling. This link is to a fine post on 5 things Carrie would like folks to know about Waldorf homeschooling.

:: For help with simplifying your life, consider Simplicity Parenting. This approach began as a book by Kim John Payne, and now can be experienced in groups and at talks. Simplicity Parenting helps families become aware of how our lives and homes may be over complicated and take stock of what is getting in the way of peaceful daily living and then make gradual, gentle and lasting changes to simplify life with children.

:: Don't forget my Program, going into its third year, Celebrate the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children through the Year is grounded in the gentle art of mothering, we focus on our inner and outer experience of the seasons and the wonder of an ordinary day. Each month we take up a focus topic and make an in depth study at an element of early childhood with inner reflection and conversation in a warm and nourishing community. We also focus on tending the hearth and homeschooling from the deeply nourishing perspective of anthroposophy and Waldorf education.

Blessings!

This Week

SAVORING SUMMER 

tasty

lazy days

warm and cosy spots

favorite places

new adventures

 looking forward

oh my, hard to believe it is nearly August! summer where have you gone?

Announcing a Planning E-Course!

GET ORGANIZED!
something new

please note this planning session e-course will run again from August 19th until September 16th for four more weeks of sketching out the rhythm of the year with a plan for homemaking and homeschooling that reflects the seasons and the rhythm of the year where you live

Okay friends, it's that time of year. You know the phrase, it's time to fish or cut bait...? Well now is a great time to sketch out, delve into and firm up your homeschool and homemaking plans. There's still plenty of time to explore, chew on, and digest material and have a long leisurely summer with plenty of time for reading up on what interests you. The new moon that began on Monday lends the perfect oomph! energetically to start a project that involves commitment and intention and yet leaves plenty of time to to go slowly and to savor the work. 

savor: taste and enjoy it completely 

Isn't that what we all want of life, to savor it and enjoy it completely? Yet who has enough time with parenting, homeschooling and homemaking? We do! If we start now and go with the energy of the new moon, we'll have time to simmer our plans for fall and sketch out our program for winter and spring - and even next summer too, if you wish to go that far.

Let's ride the energy of this new moon and Get Organized!

"When the Moon is new, the Sun and Moon are aligned in the same sign, and a powerful energy portal is opened. New Moons are a great time to set intentions for things you'd like to create, develop, cultivate, make manifest. There are many ways to initiate this communion with the Universe from lighting a candle to elaborate rituals. What matters is that you're committing yourself to your vision, and open to receiving guidance, healing, support from Spirit."  ~ New Moon Magic 

• Do you approach each new year with big plans and then grope for how to implement them?
• Would you like to be organized so you'll feel fully ready and confident when September rolls around? 
• Do you have too many resources and struggle with what to use?
• Wondering where to start? What's out there? What's right for you? and how to pull it all together? 

 I am offering a planning session over the next four weeks from July 15th to August 11th to lead you in organizing a planner and sketching out your coming year for homemaking and homeschooling.

We'll focus on the rhythm of the year, work with the seasons and work into our weekly and daily rhythms.

We'll begin with a look at the rhythm of the year. How does it contract and expand? How does that work with our homeschooling and homemaking? How can we put the energy of the year to work in supporting us and our homemaking and homeschooling endeavors?

We'll look at seasonal activities and celebrations as well as Main Lessons for the 2013 - 2014 school year, including festivals, crafts and handwork from nursery age through eighth grade.

I am offering this special Get Organized! planning session for homemakers, homeschoolers, teachers, child care providers, and anyone else, for a small registration fee to keep it inclusive and affordable for all. It runs from Sunday July 14th (Jour de la Bastille or French Revolution Day!) to Sunday August 11th. No need to be "Waldorf." Anyone with an interest in planning with the seasons is welcome.

*By popular demand we will start anew on Monday August 19th and go for another four weeks to September 16th*

Each week in we'll look at a different element of "sketching it out" and by the end of the session you'll walk away with planner in place, full of what is nearest and dearest to your heart for the upcoming school year along with links and resources for supplies and supporting materials.

WHAT WE WILL TAKE UP IN THIS COURSE

What are your family values?

How to align it with daily living?

What are the distinct characteristics of Waldorf education and how do they translate with homeschooling?

Daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal rhythms for main lesson, crafts, handwork and festivals

Domestic activities to support a rhythmic home life and get everyone on board

Speech

Movement

Drama

Singing and Musical Instrument

Handwork from Nursery through Grade 8

Guest speakers include Lynn Jericho on Tempermants, Rahima Baldwin on Homeschooling and Homemaking, Howard Schrader on A Strong Start, Christine Natale on storytelling and Nancy Parsons Whittaker on Resources for Homeschoolers.

This online course includes handouts (pdf form), blog posts, articles, resources, guest speakers, roundtable discussion and four weeks of guidance from experienced Waldorf homeschooling Mamas, grandmas and wise women!

First and foremost Waldorf education is an artistic endeavor in which the teacher as artist brings the material to the student through drawing, painting, modeling, speech, drama, puppetry, storytelling and more. As it is through our own artistic striving that our children benefit, we'll set off on the right artistic foot with a creative project of our own, our planner.

ORGANIZE YOUR PLANNER

We'll ground our planning in the four seasons and the rhythm of the year.  I'll offer examples and templates for planning the day, weeks, months and year. We'll explore different strategies for organization and you'll  chose the one that suits your needs best and put it into your planner.

SKETCH IT OUT

Next we'll take up planning the year through the year, the seasons, the months, the weeks and the daily rhythm of life, in the Waldorf home for nursery, kindergarten and grade school children. We'll fill in the planner.

This planning session supports families who school school yet want to have a Waldorf home life with a focus on seasonal living a well as families who wish to bring elements of Waldorf into their lives. We'll look at how and where you can integrate the Pillars of Waldorf Homeschooling with Rudolf Steiner's approach through "soul economy" to make for a rich, satisfying, rhythmic and energizing year.

You'll be encouraged to figure out what is important for your needs and your family. I'll share resources and tips to find the material you need to bring the kind of Main Lessons/Daily Activities that are important to you.  We can talk about what sort of Main Lesson to start and end the year with as well as the rhythm of main lessons, within the family day.

Most of all I can help you find the rhythm of the home that will carry you and your family through the days, weeks, months and seasons of the coming year. I can explain the whys of the Waldorf ways and help you discern the whys as to what is important developmentally and support you to explore what is important for your family.

There is no one way to homeschool with Waldorf education, there are many. I can support you to create imaginations and find the one that is right for you.

Join me, a Waldorf mom who first began Waldorf homeschooling in 1998 when we had no Waldorf homeschooling resources online. Today, I am preparing our homeschool year with a rising fifth grader and a twelfth grader who will be away on an adventure. I  have seen just about every English language Waldorf curriculum out there, I have made my own curriculum and have used others' curriculums, as well as worked in Waldorf schools, and observed Waldorf grade classrooms, in addition to work as an early childhood teacher, in the kindergarten and nursery along the way.

I love homeschooling with the Waldorf approach to life, it is truly a life shaping, life changing and growth full pathway for parent as well as child and family. Each time we return to material, something new emerges, understanding goes deeper. I'd like to help you find your way into this too. My own path has taken may turns in this endeavor and I'd be glad to share with you what I have learned along the way.

Join me on this adventure to sketch out the year ahead and remain well anchored in the day before us.

The program includes blog posts, conference calls, resource and support materials and a private discussion group devoted to Getting Organized ::  Sketch it Out!

In August I will offer a follow up online class as part of the Celebrating the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children Program on Creating a Family Home :: Setting Up the Space ~ Handmade and Homemade Preparation (on a shoestring budget) for a year of creativity, wonder and rhythm, to ease us back into the homeschooling and homemaking year with strong daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal rhythms.

This planning session is free of charge for:

• Year round members of Celebrating the Rhythm of Life with Children
• Last Years Sketching it Out Members (June and July 2012) may return at no charge (kindky send me an email if you'd like to join in this year)

Registration is Closed

Lisa Boisvert Mackenzie began homeschooling on a remote tropical island in the South Pacific nearly two decades ago at a time when materials were scarce and the only approach was a simple one. The gifts of homeschooling while living "miles from nowhere" have remained with me and I can share with you, how to slow down, how to live simply and how to figure out what it is that matters for you in your homeschooling and homemaking with Celebrate the Rhythm of Life with Children through the Year, a program/curriculum for homemaking and homeschooling.

In Full Bloom

TODAY

Despite the heat or maybe because of it and all the recent rain, the flowers are glorious.

The sky was blue. I had forgotten that the sky is blue beneath the storm clouds.    

Some days are made for ice tea. Today is one of them.

Red roobios ice tea is so delicious, thank you Sarah for introducing me to it.

 Working on a planning session e-course.

Maybe you'll join me?

Morning Light

THIS WEEK
a glimpse of light

Dramatic thunder and lightening storms have brought a close to the afternoons this week, with loud startling bursts of thunder, sharp flashes of lightening and torrential rainfall that is flooding the garden and the roads. My furry boy has been glued to my side. He is no lover of the loud sound bursts.

Just at this time of year when I want to throw open all the doors and windows, fire up the grill, cook and eat outside and spend the afternoon curled up in the shade with a book, I find myself seeking shelter, making sure the hens are protected and settling for indoor meals.

The following morning, with the rising sun, I scout out the grounds, looking for a dry spot for the hens, one that provides some sun, some shade and some cover, yet won't  flood. I've been wondering what will become of the garden, will it drain or will it continue to flood. Do we build more raised beds?

The grass is tall, gently swaying with the breeze.

This morning, on the path between house and hen and garden beds, as I was happily drinking up the fleeting sunlight, I paused to take a few snapshots of sunlight bathed flowers.

 Coming soon is the sea of bee balm blossoms.

Waving goodbye until next year are the wood anemones, once a sea of cheerful blossoms, now a swath of greenery.

Shine on!

What's happening in your garden?

27 :: April

THIS MORNING

a cup of coffee

my fellow early riser

a walk in the garden

oh the sunshine!

   

breakfast makes for happy hens

first of the season

HAPPY SATURDAY!

How to Clean Beeswax Crayons

Beeswax crayons are such a pleasure to use, they make such beautiful colors and beautiful drawings. They are easy to use, feel good in the hand, and respond to our warmth by giving us more of their color. They last a very long time too.

Over time they get broken, bitten and chipped, and with use they get scuffed up from rubbing against the colors of the other crayons.

What to do to bring them back to their majestic purity of color?

The answer is simple and can be meditative.

• First, I gather my beeswax crayons
• Then I take out an old bed sheet or towel from the ragbag
• Then I tear off a corner of the cloth to make a cleaning cloth about the size of a lunch napkin

I use oil for cleaning beeswax crayons; it dissolves the crayon markings the get rubbed into the other color crayons. I was taught to use Citrasolve and over the years have tried lavender essential oil and even olive oil. I imagine coconut oil works too. Any oil. Citrasolve probably works the fastest, yet is probably the harshest. 

Put some oil on the cloth and rub away. The crayons will come clean.

In the end, you have clean crayons to color with and beautiful colors on the cleaning rag.

This month we are contemplating the experience of color in our lives and doing some grown up coloring with beeswax crayons over on Celebrate the Rhythm of LIfe through the Year, my interactive curriculum program that supports parents, teachers and childcare providers to awaken to the rhythms in daily, weekly and seasonal life through beauty, imagination and wonder.

I've also been doing Homeschool Consulting and now officially offer that as a Service.

Happy Weekend friends, what's on your slate for this weekend?

{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. 

Joining Amanda over at SouleMama

Happy Weekending!

{this moment}

(this moment)

Joining Amanda over at SouleMama

Happy Weekending!

{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