Festivals The festival is a celebration of life. Each festival is a mood and an experience, a social expression reflecting the season. Celebrating festivals together is a great way to build a sense of community within our families or with a larger group of friends. “Celebrating festivals illuminates our life on earth with heavenly meaning…
Michaelmas is a fall celebration that takes place in many Waldorf schools and communities all over the world. The themes of this holiday include gathering strength and courage for the coming darkness, banning together, and facing our fears. Many choose verses of courage and tell the story of St. George and the Dragon at a festival…
I feel scattered and a bit crabby as we transition to our fall schedule. It’s just all a bit unsettling. I will be teaching a high school course this year of Composition & Literature with some World History integrated in! And I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities. In my usual style, I like…
Specials In Waldorf education, the “Specials” refer to the activities outside of the main lesson blocks. This includes both the before lesson activities – such as songs, verses, movement, and form drawing– as well as late morning or afternoon activities – such as recorder and handwork. Begin slowly with these specials, and you will gradually find ways of…
I’ve been feeling a bit untethered lately because I am so scattered. This always happens to me mid-summer! So I’ve decided to own it, and speak it out loud. Waldorf homeschool planning and organizing often makes things messier before everything gets pulled together. In the spirit of acknowledging this, here is a photo of my…
Steiner discusses all three of these topics on Day Five in his Discussions with Teachers: speech, temperaments, and misbehavior. We want to “cultivate clear articulation” through constant practice to make our speech organs flexible. Rudolf Steiner asks Mrs. Steiner to say certain sentences artistically first (they are tongue twisters and sentences without any real meaning)…
“Now it is really very important, particularly for those who want to work as teachers, to get rid of the habit of unnecessary criticism…it is not a question of always trying to improve on what has already been done. A thing can be good in a variety of ways.” Rudolf Steiner spoke these words to…
I love this series of books – One Small Square. The series includes a variety of titles like Backyard, Woods, Pond, and Seashore. I encourage you to try nature study with one small square. The concept in these books is to measure off a yardstick square of outdoor space and observe it closely over time. Each…
It is 9:00 am on August 22, 1919, day two of the lectures to prepare the teachers in the very first Waldorf School. Picture a group of a dozen adults, only one of whom had every taught in a classroom before, gathered in a Stuttgart cafe which Emil Molt of the cigarette factory had purchased…
Rhythm allows us to get in sync with one another. And what exactly is rhythm? It’s an easily recognized, regular pattern. Poems and verses contain rhythm within, and they are great tools to help us bring rhythm to our days. They provide a way to build both rhythm and ritual. Here are some verses for lessons,…
