Part 1 & Part 2

Waldorf window stars have long been a favorite way to brighten our classrooms and homes. This is an activity that can be shared easily with little hands to bring happiness to our homes and community! Below we share this simple Waldorf window star tutorial with your families. We would love to see your creations! Post a pic on our Facebook page Waldorf Moraine Community Bulletin or post on your Facebook or Instagram and tag us as well as use #waldorfwindows.

Waldorf Window Stars

Grandma’s Hat
by Suzanne Down
A “protecting story” with a sense that all is well with the world: exactly what the young child needs – JK

Once there was a grandmother who loved to garden.  It was a lovely summer morning, and she went outside to work in her garden.  The garden beds were already overflowing with fresh, colorful vegetables and flowers.  Butterflies and ladybugs nestled on the leaves and blossoms, and bees happily buzzed as they sipped the sweet nectar.  Grandmother knelt down to weed the rows of carrots and beets, and then started to pick enough lettuce for a salad for lunch.  Already the sun was hot, and she took off her straw hat to cool off.

Suddenly, a gust of wind whirled and twirled over the garden, and picked up her hat and blew it here and there, high and low!  Grandmother started to chase after her hat,  she reached high, she reached low, but the wind blew it higher and higher, and finally away from sight.

‘Oh my old straw hat,’ laughed Grandmother, ‘ it was a good hat for many years, now it deserves a little adventure!”   She kept on laughing as she picked up her basket of lettuce, and went inside to make her lunch.  ‘What a fun little tale to tell my grandchildren!’

Meanwhile, the wind blew the hat far away from the garden, over a forest of aspen trees, and finally settled it down in a lovely peaceful meadow full of summer wildflowers.  It was a happy place to land, and the hat was content to sit there and enjoy the blue sky, and sweet smells of the flowers.

Summer turned to Autumn, and the golden leaves of the aspen trees fluttered in the breezes and settled down all over the meadow, and covered the hat with a blanket of gold. 

Autumn turned chilly and soon after the first frost, beautiful white snowflakes fell over the land, and the hat was covered with a blanket of white snow.

The snow fell all through the winter months, and the hat rested still, under many blankets of snow.

The spring sun began to warm the snow, and slowly, slowly, the snow began to melt, and the straw hat was able to peek out at the meadow in springtime.  The rains of spring came, and the grass greened, and spring flowers started to grow all over the meadow.  Some of the grasses and flowers started to grow in and out of the straw hat.  The hat was pleased to become so lovely. 

And when summer came again, with the sun high in the sky, and long hot days filled the meadow, the straw hat had become a beautiful garden.  How happy the little hat was.  Then one day a little mouse appeared in the meadow.  When mouse saw the straw hat garden, he thought, ‘ this might make a fine house for me’.  Mouse went closer and climbed all over the straw hat, and even nibbled a little hole in the hat, like a window, and looked inside.  Oh my, what a big room and high ceiling there was.  Yes indeed, mouse had found a wonderful house. 

He went all through the meadow gathering soft feathers, and flower petals, he went into the forest to find some moss, and brought them all back to his new house, and went through the little window and made a soft nest to sleep in on the floor of the big room. 

When his nest was finished, mouse looked out the window of his house.  The sun was beginning to set, and the last warm golden rays of sunshine settled on the meadow, and on the straw hat house.  Mouse looked out for a long time, until the night sky began to grow deep blue, and the stars twinkled over the meadow and the straw hat house.  All was well, and mouse was happy in his new home.  He had one last look out at the beautiful world and said, ‘Good Night Meadowland’.  Then he settled down in his wee soft cozy nest, in the big room with the high ceiling of his new straw hat house.  How peaceful it was.

Garden Full of Joy & Love
By Kristin Hughes

Once upon a time, tucked behind a school was a little garden. And every day of the week the dear teachers at the school would take the children to this garden to do their good work and play.

Oh, how the children loved this garden! They would dig, rake, and sweep every nook and cranny. They would dutifully collect acorns for Squirrel Nutkin and his family. They would slide down the slide and roll down its hill. They would play hide and seek and journey through the bushes with one another. They would make cakes, soup, and delicious mud muffins for each other and the teachers. Each day they played there they filled the garden up to the brim with love and joy.

The teachers and the children would sing songs and tell stories in this garden and always sitting close by was the house wren. She would fly from branch to branch getting just close enough to see the children’s smiles and hear their laughter.

One day just as King Winter was leaving the land, the house wren came to the garden and the children were not there. She cocked her head to look closer and see if they were hiding in the house or the shed. She peeked deep into the tall bushes and behind the trees, but there were no children to be seen. The songs and stories the teacher told were now only whispers in the wind.

Day after day the house wren came to the garden and day after day the flowers grew and soon bountiful blooms opened on the tops of their stems. The trees began to open their leaves and the grass on the hill grew more green.

The house wren missed the sound of the children’s laughter and the songs and stories… 

One fine day, when the sun was beginning to rise in the east, as it always does, the house wren flew quickly to the garden wondering if, perhaps, she would see her friends. But alas, they were not there. As she flew closer she saw that Lady Spring was in the garden wearing her primrose crown and a dress made of flower petals. This made the house wren happy. “Good morning, Lady Spring!”, tweeted the house wren. Lady Spring replied in song, as she always does “Spring is coming, spring is coming, birdies build your nest”. Lady Spring looked at the house wren and smiled and said “You know what to do to fill this garden with joy, wonder, and beauty, just like the children and the teachers did!” The house wren did know in her heart what to do for that was the song the teachers and the children sang when they did their good work and played in the garden. The house wren searched and searched for just the right place to build her nest. She gathered twigs and straw, dried grasses, and pine needles, too. The whole while she sang the song the teachers and children had taught her. “Spring is coming, spring is coming, birdies build your nest”.

When the nest was ready, the house wren laid her eggs and settled on top of the nest to keep her eggs warm and safe. On the day the eggs hatched, the baby birds brought joy and love into the heart of the mother house wren and to the little garden tucked behind the school.

Kristin Hughes
Early Childhood Teacher
Waldorf School of Princeton
Princeton, New Jersey

By Michael Mansur

Chicken Little was in the woods.
A seed fell on his tail.
Chicken Little said, “The sky is falling. I will run and tell the king”

Chicken Little met Henny Penny.
He said “The sky is falling Henny Penny”
Henny Penny said “How do you know Chicken Little?”
“Some of it fell on my tail.”
“We will run,” said Henny Penny. “We will run and tell the king.”

They met Turkey Lurkey.
Henny Penny said “The sky is falling Turkey Lurkey.”
“How do you know Henny Penny?”
“Chicken Little told me.”
“How do you know Chicken Little?”
“I saw it with my eyes.
I heard it with my ears.
Some of it fell on my tail.”
Turkey Lurkey said, “we will run. We will run and tell the king.”

They met Ducky Lucky.
Turkey Lurkey said, “the sky is falling Ducky Lucky.”
“How do you know Turkey Lurkey?”
“Henny Penny told me.”
“How do you know Henny Penny?”
“Chicken Little told me.”
“How do you know Chicken Little?”
“I saw it with my eyes.
I heard it with my ears.
Some of it fell on my tail.”
Ducky Lucky said, “we will run. We will run and tell the king.”

They met Goosey Loosey.
Ducky Lucky said “The sky is falling Goosey Loosey.”
“How do you know Ducky Lucky?”
“Turkey Lurkey told me.”
“How do you know Turkey Lurkey?”
“Henny Penny told me.”
“How do you know Henny Penny?”
“Chicken Little told me.”
“How do you know Chicken Little?”
“I saw it with my eyes.
I heard it with my ears.
Some of it fell on my tail.”
Goosey Loosey said, “we will run. We will run and tell the king.”

They met Foxy Loxy.
Goosey Loosey said, “The sky is falling Foxy Loxy.”
“How do you know Goosey Loosey?”
“Ducky Lucky told me.”
“How do you know Ducky Lucky?”
“Turkey Lurkey told me.”
“How do you know Turkey Lurkey?”
“Henny Penny told me.”
“How do you know Henny Penny?”
“Chicken Little told me.”
“How do you know Chicken Little?”
“I saw it with my eyes.
I heard it with my ears.
Some of it fell on my tail.”
Foxy Loxy said, “we will run. We will run into my den and I will tell the king.”

They ran into Foxy Loxy’s Den.
But they did not come out again.

by J. Metha

by Mary Mansur, kindergarten teacher at our school for many years

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Alice who loved flowers. Wherever she went, if there was a flower to be found, she would find it.

One sunny day in early spring, Alice was playing in her yard when she noticed something purple poking its head up through the brown earth. It had been a snowy winter, and even though it was April there were still patches of snow on the ground.

As she got closer, she saw that it was a beautiful purple crocus with a sunny yellow center. “Oh how beautiful!” thought Alice. “I have to show this to Mother.” So Alice picked the crocus and ran with it inside. “Mama,” she cried, “This is for you!”

Her mother was at the sink washing dishes. As she turned around she first noticed Alice’s beaming smile, and then she saw the beautiful flower she held in her outstretched hand.

Mother’s heart was filled with appreciation for her daughter, for her gift and for the beautiful flower. “Oh, thank you!” said Mother, as she warmly and gently accepted her gift. “It is so beautiful!”

Together, Mother and Alice found a vase just the right size, filled it with water, placed the flower in it, and set it on their table.

 Alice said, “Oh Mama, the flowers are so beautiful, I am going to pick them all and give them to you!”

“I’m sure you could,” said her mother, “because if there is a flower to be found, you will find it. But did you know that there are hundreds of other little girls in our yard right now who are looking for flowers for their mother?”

Alice ran to the window to look out. She saw her sandbox and the large maple tree. She saw Coal, her grey cat, lounging on the sidewalk soaking up the sun. But she didn’t see any people. “Where, Mama? I don’t see anyone.”

 “Let’s go take a closer look,” said Mother.

So out they went into their yard and Alice led the way to where she had found the flower. There were crocuses and snowdrops and many other flowers just beginning to poke their heads up through the earth.

“Where are the other girls you were talking about?” asked Alice.

“Hmmm…. Let’s stand and watch for a minute and maybe we’ll see them,” answered Mother.

So Alice and her mother stood enjoying the feel of the warm spring sun on their faces, the gentle spring breeze blowing in their hair, and the sound of the birds singing. It wasn’t long before a honeybee lighted on one of the flowers. She took a few steps into the golden center. She moved around and it looked like she was tasting the flower. Sometimes she would take a good long drink. Alice noticed that the honeybee’s legs were getting covered with gold.

“This is one of the little girls I was talking about,” explained Mother. “She can’t bring the whole flower back to her mother, Queen Bee, so she brings the sweetest and tastiest parts. And that flower will have nectar and pollen to share with the bees only as long as it is blooming and growing on the earth.”

Just then Alice reached down to pick another flower but stopped when her mother said, “You know, Alice, just one single flower is enough to make me happy. But the bees need hundreds and hundreds to make their mother happy. Let’s leave the growing flowers for them, and you know what? Whenever you wish to give me a flower, just come get me and share them with me here.”

Alice liked that idea and smiled as she watched the honeybee fly up into the air.

“I think we’ll be sharing a lot of flowers with these honeybees,” she said.

Mama gave Alice a big hug, “I think so, too, because you are very much like them. If there is a flower to be found, you will find it.”

by Suzanne Down

The old hollow tree had fallen to the ground a long time ago, and soft, soft moss had covered it up so well you could hardly see the little doorway that led inside.

One day, Fluffy Tail the Rabbit was hopping along that very same old hollow tree looking for good things to eat, when he nearly fell right through the small round doorway.

‘Oh my’, he called out, ‘I wonder who lives here?’

He peered inside the dark hallway. He did not see a thing. ‘Is anyone at home,’ he called into the hallway.

Up in the tall oak tree nearby, Robin was watching Fluffy Tail. She sang out…

‘Welcome spring today ho hey,

I’m glad you’ve come along this way,

Your help is needed, follow me,

Into the hollow tree and see’

Robin flew down and perched on the hollow tree. ‘Fluffy Tail, don’t be afraid, come with me, your help is greatly needed!

Fluffy Tail looked in the long dark hallway, he twitched his nose and thought…

‘I will be brave,

I will be strong,

I’ll follow true to Robin’s song.’

So in flew Robin, Fluffy Tail close behind, down, down the old hollow tree. Down, down the great big roots into the earth. Down, down the sweet smelling early spring soil, until, there, in the distance Fluffy Tail could see the golden glow of a lantern.

Right away he felt better, and as they got closer the narrow pathway opened up into a great room full of ladybugs and beetles of all colors and sizes. In the corner by the lantern was a round woman dressed in browns and greens with the kindest face Fluffy Tail had ever seen.

‘Thank you Robin, for bringing a fine helper,’ the woman said, ‘and welcome to you Fluffy Tail!’

All at once Fluffy Tail knew who she was. She was the great and wonderful Mother Earth. He bowed to her with gratitude.

‘Fluffy Tail, she said, ‘as you can see I am preparing everyone for Spring. But I have so many beetles and ladybugs to clean, I will never be ready on time. With your fine fluffy tail, you could help me! Will you do that?’

Fluffy Tail went to work at once, he washed and polished blue beetles, green beetles, red and black ladybugs, even yellow ladybugs with his soft and very fluffy tail. The bugs gleamed and glistened! You could see your face in them, they were so shiny! Fluffy Tail was tired, but it felt so good to be helpful.

Before long, all of them were clean and shining bright, ready for Spring! Dear Mother Earth asked Fluffy Tail to lead the procession through the hollow tree and out into the meadowland. The tiniest red ladybug asked Fluffy Tail if he could ride on his back. Fluffy Tail blushed a sweet pink of happiness, and said, ‘of course little ladybug’.

One by one they marched up the long hallway, through the sweet earth, marching over the roots and along the inside of the hollow tree. One by one they proudly marched out the little hidden doorway into Spring.

Fluffy Tail led them all, hippity hop, thumpity thump, wiggling his tail all the way. Once they reached the spring meadow, the little ladybug flew up and all around singing, ‘hurray for Spring!’ How happy they all were.

“Pitter, patter, pitter, patter
Listen to the rain
Knocking on the window sills
And on the window panes
Sounding like the pitter pat
Of little fairy feet
Running down the garden path
Running down the street
Washing everybody’s house
And everybody’s shop
Pitter, patter, pitter, patter
When’s it going to stop?” 

My Lady Spring is dressed in green,
She wears a primrose crown,
And little baby buds and twigs
Are clinging to her gown;
The sun shines if she laughs at all,
But if she weeps the raindrops fall.

We farmers plant the finest of seeds
With a pit-a-pat
Pit-a-pat
Pit-a-pat….PIP

And water them each day so tenderly
With a drippity
Droppity
Droppity…DRIP

For a longer version, used in the Kindergarten,
here is “A Growing Rhyme,” by J. S. Westrup: 

A farmer once planted some little brown seeds
With a pit-a-pit, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, pat.
He watered them often and pulled up the weeds,
With a tug-tug at this and a tug-tug at that.
The little seeds grew tall and green in the sun,
With a push-push up here, and a push-push up there,
And a beautiful plant grew from every one,
With a hey diddle, holding their heads in the air.

Morning has come
Night is away
Rise with the sun and welcome the day
Birds bees and flowers
Good children all
Rise with the sun and welcome the day

Good morning, good morning
It is a ______ day (Let your child answer — don’t be surprised if it’s raining and they say ‘sunny’; the young child has a naturally sunny identity)
We will laugh and work and play on this
Sunny / rainy / day!

Enjoy with fresh fruit and whipped cream.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Dry Ingredients:
2 ½ cups organic white flour
1 ½ cups organic whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup organic butter
¼ cup maple syrup
¾ cup honey
2 ⅛ cups organic yogurt (I use Trader Joe’s vanilla yogurt)
1 tbs vanilla

Add dry ingredients to wet; beat 100 strokes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes in a greased and floured pan (time varies according to your oven).

Many teachers use a bundt pan, but I like to use muffin tins. The batter is so dense that it’s a bit tricky baking with a bundt pan. Muffin tins allow for more even baking. Enjoy!

In a rice cooker or in a pot, cook 2 parts millet, 1 part red lentils together with 8 parts water and some olive oil. Feel free to include chopped onions, celery, butternut squash, and salt. (We often have leftover chopped vegetables from soup day, which we add right to the millet mixture)

Serve the millet mixture in a flour tortilla wrap, with shredded cheddar cheese, sliced tomatoes and avocado, and salt. 

Old Raggy is a game designed to explore the sense of touch. In an opaque bag, put items that feel different eg, a ball, a small car, a rock, a paper clip, a wooden block, a piece of coral, a spoon, a cottonwool ball etc. Have your child close his/her eyes or use a blindfold, and then reach into the bag to pull out one item. The goal is to guess what the item is by feeling it, before opening their eyes. You can use prompting questions such as: is it smooth, scratchy, soft etc.

Old Raggy is a game the children loved to play on days when we spent a little more time inside when it was very cold. When they heard the “Old Raggy” song (above), the children would gather around in a circle to wait there turn to pull an item out of Old Raggies bag.

https://waldorfmoraine.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Old-Raggy.m4a

Opportunity for clear, kind and fun language sounds from the adult, which soon translates to the young child exploring those sounds herself. I use it with three- and four-year olds, but children of all ages love it.  Here is how to play. 

With a small item hidden in one hand, hold out two fists, one on top of the other.

 Switching fists up and down in rhythm (basically 4 times per line) say clearly (and with feeling 🙂 the rhyme: 

Pinka, penka, pick, pen,
Schmidt is a sick man.
Where shall he go for care?
Upstairs? Or downstairs?

Wait for the child to choose “upstairs” or “down.”  

The child usually points and says upstairs or downstairs. The game is not over yet. Once chosen, prepare to open the chosen hand. Don’t be disappointed if the “wrong” hand is chosen! Just open that hand with anticipation, show the open empty palm and say,
“He is not upstairs, He has gone out!” 

Then put that hand down, open other palm and and say,
“He is downstairs without a doubt!”

 If the “right” hand is chosen first, open that hand in anticipation and just say,
“He is downstairs without a doubt!” 

 If they like, I do let the children pick up the stone/acorn/twig out of my open hand at that point, but a few moments later I hold out my cupped hands for them to return it, so that we can play again or someone else can have a turn. Like anything, this can be done 101 ways. Some of the children like to do this game for each other. If they want to play it for you, with you, try experimenting, observing what happens if you choose not to correct them when/if they say the rhyme incorrectly, but but just play the game and enjoy it. 

Jon Young, a renowned naturalist, educator, and co-author of Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, advises children and adults to find a special place in nature, whether it’s under a tree, by a creek, or a field. “Know it by day; know it by night; know it in the rain and in the snow, in the depth of winter and in the heat of summer,” he writes. “Know the birds that live there, know the trees they live in. Get to know these things as if they were your relatives.” In addition, building a fort, den, or tree house can help children with problem-solving, creativity, planning, and a sense of security and place.

by Susan Gray Weber

Life is full of rhythm!  Our bodies are full of it: our heartbeats, our breathing, our organs, for example, all have rhythms.  We walk rhythmically, and we talk with rhythm.  We dance and sing with rhythm, and we wake and sleep rhythmically. 

Children, especially, benefit from life rhythms.  They are in the midst of the process of creating and developing the rhythms of their hearts, their breath, their digestion. and sleep.  For them, the possibility to trust in regular times and sequences for the activities of their lives brings bodily health and security.  In the early months and years, it is the familiar that brings comfort – a familiar blanket, face, hand, or voice; a predictable sequence of events.  Regular sequences and times help a newborn baby settle into life, and give a secure foundation from which to get to know the world.  All the special people and places, the sounds and smells that greet her are new, and they are her life!  For the adult, caregiving may become repetitious and uninteresting, but for the child, it is the greatest joy.  Imagine the child’s joyful anticipation of special time with those who love her, taking care of her: after we eat, daddy will give me my bath, momma will help me to put on my pajamas, a familiar voice will sing to me and tuck me in bed.  This familiar sequence and pattern bring delight for the child, and as these sequences become a habit, they later become the source of discipline, because “this is just the way we do it”.

Rhythm also helps avoid over-stimulation and fatigue for young children, because the “breathing” of the day – now more active, now less active and quiet – refreshes their energy.  It also builds good habits for later life when the pace of our day and the stress of life make us forget to pace ourselves in a reasonable way.  This work – play – rest rhythm is a healthy habit for a whole lifetime!

Dr. Jane Healy, a Ph. D in psychology with a background in neurological development feels that a rhythmic home life is vital to developing thinking skills.  Establishing order from chaos helps develop neural pathways that create routes within the brain that enable us to think.  The nursery rhymes and finger games we play with our children, the lullabies and songs all help with this process, and it is their rhythm that both brings delight to the children and helps them to recall them.

The year turns round, over and over, bringing birthdays, family celebrations, travels to visit grandparents.  The toddler remembers these events and finds joy in their repetition.

Spending time in nature is a wonderful support to rhythm within our homes.  Getting in touch with the seasons brings happiness to children and renewal to us.  The young child begins to feel a security in the order of the year — first springtime with the tiny blossoms, spring bulbs blooming, puddles, and new leaves. Then comes summer with its fluffy clouds, green all around, lightning bugs . . . all at a pace that a very young child can absorb without stress and the confusion of hurry.  These slower rhythms of nature can slow us down as well – the breezes, the crickets, the bird’s songs, sunsets – and then our internal rhythms become slower, more peaceful, and healthy. 

As a popular song of the 1940s (I think!) says, “I’ve got rhythm, I’ve got rhythm, I’ve got rhythm, who can ask for anything more?”

How can we create or strengthen rhythm in our lives? Creating rhythm arises out of a balance between the adult’s awareness of the child’s needs and the child’s naturally emerging rhythm. We begin with the rhythm of waking, sleeping, and eating, for in the beginning this is all there is. As we observe closely, patterns will begin to express themselves, and we can support these patterns becoming an actual predictable, secure rhythm.   As our children grow, play is added, and bathing, and time outdoors.  Our children take their cues from the sequence of the day’s activity. “If I have just had my walk, now it must be time for my nap”, imagines the infant.  The repetition of this sequence brings joyful anticipation over time and a willingness to be guided toward the next activity of the day.

Parents discover that when a rhythm is created, far from compromising their freedom, life actually begins to give more freedom.  Children are more relaxed and comfortable, more secure, less anxious and stress-filled because they know that the adult they love and trust is guiding the flow of the day.  They relax into this security and often are less clingy or demanding.  They need not be preoccupied with making sure that their own needs are met and can be free to play imaginatively, to explore, to observe. The alternative is a child who becomes preoccupied and at times obsessed with gaining adult attention, with manipulating the environment, or with gaining access to food continuously because she does not know what to anticipate and trust throughout a day.  The child who knows, for example, that meals will come on a predictable rhythm, can spend energy on other things. 

With a rhythmic life, our children are gently guided toward order from the chaos of their first days of life.  We refine our rhythm and recreate it as our children grow and change and as we discover how best to support them.

by Susan Weber

In difficult times such as these it is not easy to feel the goodness in life. In an external crisis, our urge is often to listen and see the news and to share our feelings with other adults. As a consequence, it is easy for the children around us to be exposed to things that they cannot understand, to become fearful about situations they will never see and cannot change even if we think that the media or adult conversations are not attended to by the children. Even pre-verbal children can sense profoundly the distress in our inner being.

But nothing brings stamina for life and daily wellbeing to our children more directly and strongly than surrounding them and immersing them into an atmosphere of goodness and joy. For us as adults, the message they seek from us is this:

“I am happy to be alive; I am interested in the world around me and I want to find a place for myself within it.”

Children are born with an openness to meet what their lives will bring. Despite their individual destinies and challenges, this openness is present and as the adults in the child’s world, we have tremendous potential to cultivate this openness.

For the child just beginning life, there is one single mantra that needs to guide those early steps and years: the world is good. No other belief will carry him forward through the tumbles and stumbles, through the mysteries of his encounters with confidence and eagerness. Without this overarching rainbow of trust in life around and above them, children shrink back into themselves, lose the shine in their eyes, forgo the impulse to experiment, to see things as the adults around them never have, to imagine new solutions to the simplest experiments – piling blocks, washing a dish, dressing themselves upside down.

The world is good – and therefore I enter into it, explore it, wonder, stop and look, touch, encounter, meet what comes to me with interest and growing confidence.

Fear paralyzes children – it reverses children’s natural gesture of trust, openness, and interest in the world. To develop in any way – cognitively, emotionally, physically – children need to be able to enter easily into life around them. They need to feel welcome, and above all, safe. For who of us is able to take risks, try new things, when we have a question about the safety of our surroundings?

There are times when circumstances beyond our control create uncertainty or worse for our families. In addition, we could also say that our times are, in fact, uncertain times. At the same time, however, our children are just beginning their lives. We owe to them their birthright: the world is good, and I am grateful and happy to be in it. It is a safe place for me to grow in. And later, much later, I will be able to take on its pain and burdens. But give me time, peace, and space in which to discover the goodness in life for myself, in which to grow strong, capable, brave, and enthusiastic for life. Protect me from the challenges of adulthood until I am ready.

How can we do this for them?

• We can protect them from information that they cannot comprehend or digest – saving our adult conversations for later, turning off televisions and radios in their presence.
• Give them the strength-building elements of rhythm, form in daily life, predictability, that reassure them of the goodness and security of each day.

I was once told that young children are very good observers, but poor interpreters. I, and many parents as well, have found this to be true. Whether it be the large world and its sphere of difficulties, political situations near and far, our professional work and its daily challenges, our own personal frustrations, angers, and fears – young children are not able to interpret any of these. None of these are a suitable menu for young children who cannot digest it. It all then goes inside of them to then be expressed in ways that we ourselves may not correlate with what they might have heard, for information about these realms of life will often bring anxiety, nervousness, fear, withdrawal, sleepless nights, or aggressive behavior.

As the adults in their lives, we have the possibility to stand there beside the children with confidence for life offering them a model for imitation. We lead them out into our world: we walk alongside them. We have seen much, experienced much. It is an amalgam of joy, of pain, suffering, discovery, celebration, disappointment – and at times of fear, questioning. All these experiences and feelings will have come to us by the time we reach parenthood. As adults, we have tremendous freedom to explore these feelings, to reflect upon our own experiences. If we as adults listen to the outer world as it often presents itself, how do we then find our own paths to believing confidently in the goodness of the world? It is of utmost significance that we strive toward this belief, for our children look to us for signals, for images of where to begin seeking their places in the world. They imitate our deepest inmost feelings and beliefs, and these carry them far as pillars of strength when they require it.

Take a walk, find your way into nature, hold deep in memory the most recent good thing we have encountered. Begin and end your day with gratitude for the good in our lives – however challenging this may feel at moments. Pick a tiny bouquet of wildflowers or seasonal things from the nature just outside our doors – the wonder of one snowdrop or crocus in spring bloom emerging through the receding snow, a single acorn, one brightly polished apple – each of these can remind us of the wonder and miracles of the universe. Look up at the stars in the heavens and ponder the miracle that all over the earth human beings are united by experiencing the same starry heavens above them. Find a poem, even if you have never thought of poetry as your interest – just a few lines – copy it onto a piece of paper and put it on your refrigerator. Recall a human relationship that has helped you along your way. And see if, step by tiny step, you can rediscover, in difficult times, that the world truly is good.

Rudolf Steiner offers us a verse that can bring us strength in difficult times:

Steadfast I stand in the world
With certainty I tread the path of life
Love I cherish in the core of my being
Hope I carry into every deed
Confidence I imprint upon my thinking.

These five lead me to my goal These five give me my existence.

© Susan Weber Sophia’s Hearth Family Center March 2011.

by Cristan Vineis

The Vestibular System

“Balance is not something that we automatically have; it is something we do.” Sally Goddard Blythe, The Well Balanced Child

As children gradually develop their sense of balance, they are gaining awareness of where their bodies are in space, which helps them effectively navigate and move around their environment with ease and control. Our sense of balance gives us our relationship to the three dimensions of space: above/below, front/back, right/left.

There are many ways children instinctively seek out this stimulation in their daily lives. Some seem to endlessly seek this type of sensory input. Then again, there are children who may actually avoid experiences that stimulate their vestibular system. These activities will help both types of children. By providing your sensory seeker with stimulation, you’re giving your child what they’re asking for. By gently offering the type of stimulation your child tends to avoid, you can provide opportunities for growth. Here are some ideas:

• Nature walks- by walking on uneven terrain, children unconsciously and constantly adjust their balance- maybe try going off the path, take a trip to the beach and walk barefoot in the deep sand, or try out those jetties and great North Shore rock walls! 
• Using a large physioball or beach ball, your child can roll over it, lie on top (on their belly or their back), sit and bounce, etc. 
• Roll/slide down hills or barrel roll (arms at sides, crossed at chest or up over head) on a flat surface
• Wheelbarrow rides- in an actual wheelbarrow, or with your bodies: one person holds the other’s legs while the second walks with their hands (ideally the feet are above the head) 
• Jumping on a trampoline
• Rocker boards images here
• Teeter totters- easy to make in your backyard: lay a long board over a fallen log
• Tumbling: somersaults, cartwheels and other ways to get your child upside down: lay off the side of the bed/couch, hang from their knees from the monkey bars, do head/handstands
• Swinging (hammocks, too)
• Walking on thick ropes, balance beams, and fallen logs
• Play “hot lava” at home- pretend the floor is hot lava and make your way around the room/house
• Spinning- tire swings, office chairs, or just plain spinning on their feet
• Climb trees
• Ride bikes
• Play bouncing lap games- see attached games

While many of these activities require parent preparation and guidance it is of course, best for your child to enter into these experiences out of imitation and their own will. Perhaps some slight coaxing and/or demonstration is needed. Certainly a light-hearted, fun-loving and interested attitude is required! Keep in mind that frenetic and crazy movement often brings the child quite out of themselves and can be unsettling. When their adult maintains a joyful yet calming presence, perhaps adopting an attitude of curiosity, the child then can better take in the movements and activities.  If your child refuses, don’t push. They instinctively know what they can handle. Try ratcheting the activity down a little. For example, instead of balancing on a log, try cracking a thinner stick on the ground by walking on it. Observe your child and how they engage their sense of balance while engaging with the world. And HAVE FUN!!

Sample A

Sample B 

Wake
Breakfast
Morning Walk
Snack
Chores
Free Play
A Small Activity (art, cooking, washing)
Lunch
Rest or Quiet Time
Snack
Free Play Outdoors, Outdoor Adult Work (sweeping, raking, collecting, stacking, moving, beautifying, tidying, planting, washing, etc.)
Chores
Dinner
Bedtime Routine — teeth, clothes for tomorrow, pajamas, story, lights out

Sample C

“This is my not-so-pretty school at home schedule. I’m not strict about the time. It’s more about the flow. Also, I have a teen who will have some more time awake after the bedtime on the schedule.” —LittleRoundSchoolHouse.com

Sample D

Adult wakes and prepares for the day. Child wakes, dresses, breakfast, brush teeth. The following times are only suggestions.

8:30 – 10:00 – Free play (outside or inside), ending with tidy up. (A good time to bring “circle” activities if you like, such as songs, rhymes, finger plays…) 

10:00 –  Snack

10:30 – Outside play, walk 

11:30 – Prepare lunch

12:00 – Lunch, clean up 

12:45  – Rest (or Quiet Time, or Alone Time, or Book Time, etc.)

2:00  – Snack

Daily Activity (Craft,  Cleaning project, Letter writing to a friend, Do something nice for someone,  etc.)

3:30 – Free play (inside or outside, preferably same each day) ending with tidy up

5:15  – Prepare dinner —  eat dinner, clean up

Bedtime Routine: Get ready for bed, brush teeth, (7:15) story, (7:30) lights out)