Songs and Poems

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe --
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.

So begins this beloved lullaby poem, so beautiful and so certain to sooth children (and their parents!) off into peaceful dreams on a smooth sea.  In this edition, we are treated to the complete text of this luminous poem and illustrations that simply warm the heart.  Here Wynken, Blynken and Nod are dear rabbits come to fish the starry seas, returning to sprinkle their sparkling catch over a child's bed, a covering of soft sleep.

For children of all ages.  Very highly recommended.

Tiptap the Gnome and Other Tales

Lucia Grosse was a teacher of eurythmy and painting for many years at the Rudolf Steiner School in Basel, Switzerland.  During that time she created these little rhyming stories for her grandchildren and illustrated them with beautiful watercolor paintings.  The result is Tiptap the Gnome and Other Tales, one of the sweetest, dearest little books for young children.

In the six stories held between its covers, Tiptap draws children and adults into the soft joys of the natural world and of human kindness.  All the stories are told in rhyme, each verse being accompanied by its own wonderful picture.  Really a joy for young children and those who love them!

A Day Full of Song

This is how we knead our bread,
Push and pat, push and pat!
Roll it up and start again,
Push and pat, push and pat,
Push-a-pat-a-pat.

- from A Day Full of Song by Karen Lonsky

So many people have asked for more songs in the mood of the fifth* to share with young children. It is a joy to be able to announce this beautiful little book that is just what parents and teachers have been wanting - a beautiful way to carry children through the day and introduce them to the world where we do things to make life better for all. Just browsing through these songs is inspiring and joyous.

Please do share these songs with all the young ones in your care - they speak of a love of the earth at every turn.

*"The Mood of the Fifth" describes a type of pentatonic music, usually centered around A above middle C, which is light and delicate sounding, just right for very young children.

A Day Full of Song - Audio CD

Learn the songs from the teacher who wrote them - a beautiful accompaniment to Lonsky's songbook.

Hiding in the Green

Sweet poems, happy songs, engaging photos all lead children and adults into the garden and into nature's magical world through the wonder packed between the covers of this dear little book.

This is not a didactical discourse on how to teach children about nature - Hiding in the Green is simply a collection of songs and poems paired with beautiful photos of children in a vibrant garden.

You can use this book for story time, you can learn the poems and use them for garden circles, games and joy. I predict that the poems and songs will become a part of daily life for you and for any children in your care. What a lovely celebration of nature!

Goodnight

The soft watercolor pictures by Marjan van Zeyl follow the child’s journey into sleep, through the night, and to waking in the morning.

Goodnight is a “concertina” board book, with five sections that fold out to a beautiful four foot panorama—all in beautiful color.

(Ages 3–6)

Gesture Games for Autumn and Winter

Long awaited, it will be long loved! Gesture Games for Autumn and Winter brings with it the same love and warmth of Ellersiek's Spring and Summer volume and her incomparable Giving Love, Bringing Joy. Anyone with young children in their lives will discover a new world of joy in Autumn and Winter - one with crackly leaves and crunchy frost, one with beauty all around. This beautiful book is a gift to children and the adults who love them - we warmly invite you to enter its world.

Gesture Games for Spring and Summer

These songs, hand gestures and movement games foster a joy and enthusiasm that leads our children toward a love and understanding of nature -- and no wonder, as they were created by the author of Giving Love, Bringing Joy. What an inspiring work! You'll love these as much as the children do.

Gesture Games for Spring and Summer, Autumn and Winter - CD

Beautifully performed songs from Gesture Games for Spring and Summer and Gesture Games for Autumn and Winter -- for you to learn to sing with the children in your care.

Contains 19 songs of Spring/Summer and 18 Autumn/Winter songs.

Gesture Games Set

Giving Love - Bringing Joy

Here is a beautiful collection of original songs, hand games, touch games, lullabies, and, well, just about everything you could want to create a joyful moment with a child or class of children. I have personally never seen an offering quite like this one - Ellersiek's gift is that the tapestry of her songs and games actually awakens love within the adult which then streams out in joy to the child(ren) with whom the adult plays and sings. These are wonderful! If you have young children in your life, try these. They are like liquid drops of golden sunshine.

Giving Love-Bringing Joy CD

A beautiful way to teach yourself the lullabies, hand games and simple songs of Giving Love - Bringing Joy. Connie Manson sings all fifteen of of these very special songs with a simplicity and lilting grace that evoke the love we carry for our children. There's a bonus song, too!

Giving Love - Bringing Joy - Book & CD

Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack

This lovely collection of songs became an almost constant companion when our children were young. We sang just about all of them -- some, like the lullabies, were heard every day; others, like the songs for Christmas, Michaelmas, Easter and the seasons, became hallmarks of joyous times and occasions.

For sheer beauty and delight, and for songs that both children and parents love, Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack is just the ticket!

Let's Dance and Sing

Let's Dance and Sing offers up some of the most beloved circle games of the Waldorf kindergarten. All of them tell little stories, some of them reflect fairy tales told during story time. The music is charming, engaging, memorable (the minute I saw these songs again, I started humming some of my favorites, so well did they live in my memory after nearly 20 years!). You'll love them, the children in your care will love them. A classic collection.

Contents:

• Introduction
• The Daffodil (a personal favorite of mine!)
• Eastertrain
• The Three Little Pigs
• The Seven Little Kids
• Birthday
• Aschenputtel
• The Carrot
• The Spinning Game
• St. George - A Play
• Stone Soup
• Old Joseph Goes Walking
• King Kaspar
• Christmas Night

The Winding Road

What pleasure awaits those who not only dip into this book at random, but who also search for the particular poem or verse which has personal meaning. What a gift for the family—and how wonderful to think of a new book growing with the family and being passed on, thoroughly finger-smudged, tear-stained and page turned.

—Jamila Gavin, author of Coram Boy

Matthew Barton has gifted us with the most sensitively gathered collection of verse available in print. With poems for children from toddlers to teenagers, The Winding Road has beautiful verse for all interests, ages, and situations. You simply can't do better than to have a copy of this book at hand, ready for you to dip into when looking for "just the right poem" to share with your child -- I promise you, you'll find it.

Over 200 poems, from Gaelic Blessings to Navajo prayers, from William Black to Eleanor Farjeon and Billy Collins, on the following themes:

• The Clay that Shapes: Before Birth
• A Shock of Light: Birth
• Raining Double Blessings Down: Blessing, Naming and Baptism
• To Shine on Earth: A Young Child's Brithday
• Arise, Arise! Morning Verses with Young Children
• Bread Is a Lovely Thing to Eat: Graces
• Sleep's Unlatched Door: Evening and Prayer
• Feet Find a Way: First Milestones
• Sorrow's Springs: Illness and Upset
• A Wind Where the Rose Was: Bereavement
• The Ground to Stand On: Stepping Out and Growing Away
• I Am Good Fortune: Leaving Home
• Waldorf School Verses

What Julianna Could See

Sometimes when we do small things, things just for a particular child, things only meant to stay within our own small family or circle of friends, sometimes these things have a greatness that bursts beyond the cozy place we have made for it. Then these things become a gift for everyone.

What Julianna Could See is one such small thing. Originally written by Paul Margulies for his daughter Julianna, it is now a glowing, colorful gateway to wonder for all children. And a delight to the adults to are allowed to share it!

Julianna will live in your heart and in the hearts of your children. The gentle rhymes and evocative paintings will spark any imagination as they wrap you and yours in the goodness that is our world.

Julianna could see

In the same field for hours

The wind in the trees

The sun in the flowers

Wynstones Kindergarten Series - All 6 Books

The Wynstones Kindergarten Series

If purchased separately: $92.70

Complete Set Price: $86.70

Gateways - Wynstones Kindergarten Collection

Morning, Evening, Birthdays, Fairytales! The changing times and things of wonder that make the world go round! In this volume of treasured songs, poems and stories from Waldorf kindergartens around the world, you will find:

• An outstanding essay on the value of music in a young child's life
• 31 poems for morning, evening, birthdays and fairy tales
• 40 songs about morning, evening, birthdays and fairy tales - with music
• 3 birthday stories
• recommended reading for parents and teachers

Spring - Wynstones Kindergarten Collection

Awake, awake, it's Springtime! In this volume of treasured songs, poems and stories from Waldorf kindergartens around the world, you will find:

• An outstanding essay on the value of music in a young child's life
• 50 poems celebrating spring
• 30 springtime songs with music
• 9 fairy tales and nature stories
• recommended reading for parents and teachers

Summer - Wynstones Kindergarten Collection

Ah! Summer! Dear little violet, open your eyes! I'm busy, busy, busy said the bee! In this volume of treasured songs, poems and stories from Waldorf kindergartens around the world, you will find:

• An outstanding essay on the value of music in a young child's life
• 59 poems celebrating summer
• 27 summer songs with music
• 13 fairy tales and nature stories
• recommended reading for parents and teachers

Autumn - Wynstones Kindergarten Collection

It's golden in the treetops! Autumn's on it's way! In this volume of treasured songs, poems and stories from Waldorf kindergartens around the world, you will find:

• An outstanding essay on the value of music in a young child's life
• 59 poems celebrating autumn
• 30 springtime songs with music
• 6 fairy tales and nature stories
• recommended reading for parents and teachers

Winter - Wynstones Kindergarten Collection

Let's go walking in the snow! Let's put our mittens on! In this volume of treasured songs, poems and stories from Waldorf kindergartens around the world, you will find:

• An outstanding essay on the value of music in a young child's life
• 52 poems celebrating winter
• 31 wintery songs with music
• 10 fairy tales and nature stories
• recommended reading for parents and teachers

Spindrift - Wynstones Kindergarten Collection

Celebrate the animals, the carpenters, the trees and mother making pancakes! Spindrift is a rich and wonderful celebration of daily life. In this volume of treasured songs, poems and stories from Waldorf kindergartens around the world, you will find:

• An outstanding essay on the value of music in a young child's life
• 156 poems celebrating all sorts of things
• 29 songs with music
• 43 fairy tales and nature stories
• recommended reading for parents and teachers

Lavender's Blue Dilly Dilly

Every nursery rhyme I've ever loved and sung to our children is here, accompanied Mary Thienes-Schunemann's soft, heart-opening voice on a learning CD. This is a beautiful collection of traditional children's songs and games - timeless, joy filled, life affirming.

Today's children are starved for singing, just as they are for touch, story telling, and play. . . . This songbook is truly a treasure, one that should be in the hands of every parent, care-giver, and teacher. This book fills a critical need in American childhood (and parenthood) today!

- Joseph Chilton Pearce,
Author: Magical Child, Evolution's End, and
The Biology of Transcendence

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Sing a Song of Seasons

Sing the new songs! Sing with Joy! . . . not only with your tongue, but with your life!

- St. Augustine

So begins - and rightly so! - this gift of a songbook for parents, teachers and children. Mary Thienes-Schunemann has created exactly the songbooks that I have for years heard adults who care for children begging for. As with her other songbooks, this one is packed with beautiful, mescal, expressive songs to share with young children - AND it comes with CD you can use to hear Mary sing all the songs in a voice so pure and simple it can bring tears (of joy and gratitude) to your eyes. And thus, in joy and beauty you can learn these songs and share them with your beloved children - who will grow with smiles and gladness and song at their singing.

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Sing a Song with Baby

For a caress is abode and shelter;
I caress the child
so as to protect her
and bring her joy . . .
Thereby she receives a sign
on the velvet of her face.

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The City in the Desert"

The songs in The Sing a Song with Baby are indeed caresses - of laughter, the joy of discover, of head-to-toe delight and soft soothing wonder. Mary Thienes-Schunemann has created exactly the songbooks that I have for years heard adults who care for children begging for. This songbook offers up a feast of parent-baby games, bounces and joy - all beautiful and deliciously musical. It comes with a CD you can use to hear Mary sing all the songs in a voice so pure and simple it can bring tears (of joy and gratitude) to your eyes. And thus, in joy and beauty you can learn these songs and share them with your beloved children - who will bring your their giggles and squeals and joy again and again and again.

One of our customers writes:

At the time we ordered the songbooks from you, my new son was about two months old and Grace, my 2+ year old daughter, seemed to be doing the "big sister withdrawal" that older siblings sometimes do . . . The music, and the beautiful drawings, drew her in right away. Especially The Singing Baby, which incorporates so much play and touching, was just what we needed to reconnect. Of course, when she was avoiding physical contact it was really that she wanted it very much because she saw how much Luke was getting. This allowed us to get close again in a happy, fun way.

- RD in Massachusetts

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The Wonder of Lullabies

. . . to all the children under the Sun, Moon and Stars

-Mary Thienes-Schunemann

Here are the songs mothers round the world use to grace their children at the close of each day. Mary Thienes-Schunemann has gathered lullabies from all over our dear planet, like glowing pearls on a necklace of love. This grace-filled songbook comes with a CD you can use to hear Mary sing - ever so sweetly - each lullaby in a voice so pure and simple it can bring tears (of joy and gratitude) to your eyes. And thus, in joy and beauty you can learn these songs to guide your children into sleep - and you can watch as your children smile into the arms of their angels.

The Christmas Star

In olden times, when a person wished to express something sacred and holy, they were not allowed to speak about it, they could only sing. It was recognized that singing contained a higher power than speech and was a holy activity. There are still echoes of this ancient practice in some cultures of the world today. The memory is still present that how we use our voices to sing and speak can contribute to healing and peace, in our hearts and in the world.

- Mary Thienes-Schunemann

Tears filled my eyes several times as I listened to the CD that accompanies this extraordinary song book. It was not just that the music and singing were so very beautiful, nor was it that the songs were so well chosen, nor even that they brought back some of the best memories of my life. It was that Mary's music is all these things and something much more as well - The Christmas Star is quite simply a sun-drenched outpouring of hope and love. What could have been just one more nice collection of Christmas carols has, through her healing artistry and deep sensitivity, come into the world a gleaming, golden gift of life offered to our children and their children beyond.

I can't think of a better gift for your children, your family, yourself - a true celebration of the Light of Love kindled in the darkest season.

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