Articles by Nancy

I really, really like this book.  It has just about every activity and craft I’ve ever witnessed at a Waldorf school, along with lovely pencil drawings, color painting examples, and instructions for stage craft, upright loom building, guidance for main lesson illustrations and content, as well as its core grade-by-grade discussion of activities to integrate into the lessons.

There is a vigor and a joy to it that will inspire and energize any teacher or parent who uses it as a resource.  Whether you are teaching in a classroom, teaching at home, or simply want to integrate these activities into your child’s life, this is a book to love.  Thank you, Elizabeth Auer!

Grades 1 thru 8.

This issue is filled with perspectives from members and friends on an extremely essential topic: What are the guiding principles when employing various methods and therapies to lessen a child’s hindrances?

Contents:

• President’s Message
• Multidisciplinary Approach for Movement Programs – Mary Jo Oresti, MA
• Suggestions for “Outside” Interventions – Ingun Schneider
• Reflections on Sharing a Space with a Non-Extra Lesson Therapist – Beth Down
• Extra Lesson and Therapeutic Eurythmy – Rachel Ross, M.Ed.
• Extra Lesson and Chirophonetics: A Meaningful Combination – Maria Eugenia Obniski
• Therapeutic Singing – Diane Barnes
• Look for the Silver Lining – Sue Martin
• Announcements

Sir Gillygad is a knight, a doughty knight who rides about on his trusty frog called Gorf.  They sally forth on adventures bold and exciting: to the Twinkle, to Holey Hill, to the Plain of Dreams – even as far as World’s End.  The rumors are heard, rumors of an egg, a Gruesome Egg with two leggs, a left leg and a right leg, and the leggs are bird’s leggs – which makes sense in an eggy sort of way.  The egg is haunting the Daark Foreset, close to teh Mumbly Mews and the gerwine Greneff.  So off Sir Gillygad gallops (well, hoppedy-hops), there to meet and confront this unique and remarkable beast.

Sir Gillygad and the Gruesome Egg is an adventuresome tale, suitable for children aged 9 to 12 or thereabouts – and adults, too, if they are still young at heart and open to the wonders that speak of the mystery of becoming.

While it is true that Rudolf Steiner created Waldorf Education and its pedagogy, it is equally true that without Emil Molt, there would be no Waldorf schools, nor would Steiner have been called upon to create the curriculum guidelines.  It was Emil Molt’s idea to begin a school for the children of the workers in the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette factory, and it was Emil Molt who personally funded most of the school during Steiner’s lifetime.  He wanted very much to improve the lives of the factory workers and to create a school where children could grow into adults who bore within them both a social and spiritual vision.

Sophia Christine Murphy has given us a beautifully written, amazingly well-researched and detailed biography of her grandfather, Emil Molt.  We are so happy to see his life portrayed with such care and understanding.  Emil Molt’s was truly a spirit who sought always to offset the destruction he saw from the war, from revolutionary movements with violent tendencies, and from uncaring industrialism.  That he succeeded so very well is in itself inspiring – that his work continues in the form of Waldorf Schools, remarkable.

We hope many people can get to know Emil Molt through this book.  The strength of his character comes as an answer to much that our world needs in the present.

Keeping beauty within the administration of a growing organization; ensuring that the reasons that organization exists don’t get lost; setting a standard of excellence for all who make up the body of the organization; and creating an atmosphere of both enthusiasm and peace — none of this is easy.  At Waldorf schools, however, it is really essential to the outcomes of the education of children that these goals be achieved.

Christopher Schaefer has explored the multifaceted life of Waldorf schools in ways that are inspiring and useful.  In Partnerships of Hope, he takes us into the heart of the various areas of school life and shows how we can come together wakefully and move forward both joyfully and effectively.  I find that there is a quiet beauty in what he offers that I hope will find its way into increasingly more schools.

Contents:

• The Dialogue of Social Creation: Practicing Social Art
• Phases of Waldorf School Development
• Self-Administration and Governance in Waldorf Schools
• Working Together in Groups and Communities
• Developing a Culture of Leadership, Learning and Service
• Transformation and Renewal in Waldorf Schools
• Rudolf Steiner as Social Thinker and Reformer
• The Experience of Hope: Waldorf Schools as Cathedrals of the 21st Century
• An Education for Peace, for Hope and for the Social Future

We often talk about nature as if it were some sort of parallel universe – a Great Outdoors that we canonly visit from time to time: seashore, mountains, zoo, farm, national park, bird sanctuary.  The fact is, nature is all around us, every day, and we can learn a lot from it just by paying attention.  The simple activities in this book, seasonally arranged, respect the capacity of children and parents to share in the excitement of what’s happening in the world around them, to wake up and have fun in the moment. There are no learning points or weighty intentions . . . only some gentle-but-insistent prompting to get you out the door.  You’ll soon discover your own motivations for whiling away the hours amid nature’s abundant delights.

What Color Is the Wind? is about parents and children connecting with each other, the ground under their fee, the sky above them, and everything in-between.  Societal pressures, busy schedules, ‘virtual’ entertainments and a daunting economic climate have been conspiring to limit the time parents spend with their children, in the open air most of all.  In Ed Bieber’s 40 years as a naturalist/educator who has introduced thousands of children to the out-of-doors, he has found one sure-fire answer to what has been called “nature deficit disorder.”  It lies right outside our doors and windows.  Open them wide, and get outside.

This book will help you do just that.  With joy.

Here is a joyous collection of folktales from around the world, retold from the heart for young children.  In addition to some of the best stories the world’s people have to offer, an extra treat is the recipes from many of the cultures that contributed to this rich and wonderful book.  Each recipe was clear chosen to be tasty and wholesome for young children, as well as being simple enough to make while tending our little ones.  Altogether, this is a vibrant collection that evokes love and wonder.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Contents:

AFRICA

• The Name of the Tree (South Africa)

ASIA

• Tunjur, Tunjur (Israel)
• Momotaro, the Peach Boy (Japan)

AUSTRALIA

• The Little Flame
• The Little Possum Who Wanted a Peach
• Time for Bed
• Where Has Father Sun Gone?
• Recipe: Peppercorn Birthday Cake

EUROPE

• The Duckling’s Journey (Austria)
• The Story of the Cat with the Long, Long Tail (Belgium)
• Tailor Tom (Denmark)
• Little Ash Squirel and Little Oak Squirrel (France)
• Turlutin (France)
• The Lantern (Germany)
• Speaking Grapes, Smiling Apples and Ringing Peaches (Hungary)
• The Old Woman and the Little Mouse (Sweden)
• Sir Cat-O-Puss (Ukraine)
• The Soupstone Story (United Kingdom)
• Recipes:  Spitzbuben Cookies, Michaelmas Soup, St. John’s Elderflower Drink, Potato Pogatcha, Salty Pretzels, Hot Cross Buns

NORTH AMERICA

• How the Robin Got Its Red Breast (Canada)
• Tajin and the Seven Thunders (Mexico)
• The Legend of the Tepozteco (Mexico)
• The Story of the Jumping Mouse (United States)
• Recipes: Cree Bannock Bread, Tamales, Birthday Muffins

SOUTH AMERICA

• The Magic Stone (Brazil)
• The Golden Fish and the Magic Star (Brazil)
• The Little Seed (Brazil)

Spring is full of life and life is full of eggs, all sorts of eggs: great cosmic eggs and tiny butterfly eggs, salmon eggs and bird eggs, rabbit eggs and special eggs being gilded and painted by two gnomes called Pine Cone and Pepper Pot. They have been told (gossiped, to be correct) that Farmer John’s children, Tom and June, are going to give them special eggs for Easter, and they decide to reciprocate. However, if you are a gnome, a small gnome—even if you are two small gnomes—then the simplest of tasks (such as finding a bird who does not mind giving you a couple of their eggs) can be a problem … !!!

Woven into the fabric of the book are many tales, myths and legends: Pepper Pot reads the history of King Karnac and the Turning of Time, Madam Two-Pecks tells her chicks how the universe was created from the World Egg, and the Wise Salmon in Running River tells the fingerlings about the great cycle, the Egg of Life. ‘Eggs for the Hunting’ is a spring tale, a wonder tale, affirming the joy, humor and mystery of life.

Another joyous, delicious story by Reg Down for children of all ages!  Very highly recommended.

Offered with both compassion and depth, Dr. Steegman’s presents valuable insights into the ways experiences and conditions of early childhood craft what later becomes the health and outlook of adults. Key developmental stages are described afresh, and a path indicated that can help caregivers to “read” in the physiology of hte child what he or she needs in order to grow into a free adult.

With his typically warm, masterful retelling, Jakob Streit has taken three tales from the Age of Chivalry and crafted them as stories for Waldorf students in Grades 6 or 7. The stories capture the virtues of bravery, goodness and sacrifice and evoke the panoply of an age long past. The stories are “Henry the Afflicted,” taken from Hartmann van der Aue, “Gerald the Good” from Rudolf von Ems, and “Magelone the Beautiful” first recorded anonymously in the late 15th Century. Highly recommended!