Articles by Nancy

This classic handbook explores an anthroposophical approach to personal biography that can be both revealing and inspiring.  It has been long out of print and we are delighted to again be able to share it with what has become a much wider and receptive public.

Using the Life Chart as a pictorial representation of your own life and following the methods and insights offered by The Human Life, you will find your own patterns leaping off the sheet and into your awareness and heart.  Having done this many years ago, I am still startled at the power of this method and its revelations, and marvel that over and over again, it just works so very well and is so very accurate.

The gifts of The Human Life are there to be worked with.  Please, don’t let this just become bedside reading: try it.  Your surprise will be exceeded only by the clarity and warmth this knowledge about yourself will breathe into your life.

These story rhymes are a joy!  Jakob Streit has managed to capture so much that is essential about different animals and insects, and to do so in such a way as to charm child and adult alike.  We get to listen in as Butterfly talks to Cricket, or Squirrel and Cat converse, and in so doing get to meet them both as they might tell us they see their world.

I must mention how truly wonderful Nina Kuettel’s translations of these poems are: poetry, particularly metered and rhymed verse such as this, is incredibly hard to translate well.  Nina’s translations are nothing less than masterful.  Thank you, Nina.

Also – the black and white drawings by Kilian Beck, a very gifted 13-year-old, add a delightful dimension to this lovely book.

Perfect for the Grade 4 Animals block, for Grade 2 Fables, or for anytime when a humorous nature story seems like just the right thing.

Beautifully retold, beautifully translated stories from the life of St. Francis of Assisi.    No child can help but love the gentle saint whose life goes so far in showing us the power of kindness and faith.  These vignettes are perfect for the Waldorf grade 3 curriculum where saints and heroes people the lesson books of all subjects.  Adults and children will love these stories.

At the Rainbow Puppet Theatre of the Constantia Waldorf School in Cape Town, South Africa, children enter a magical world of beauty, wonder, and transformation.  Through the puppeteer’s art, stories old and new carry eternal truths in a away that brings life and healing to all who behold them.  In this book for everyone to enjoy are fourteen puppet plays that were created by Estelle Bryer and her colleagues for the stage of the Rainbo Puppet Theatre, and that have often been adapted for solo and tabletop puppetry.

I have read through several of them and can vouch that the plays and staging suggestions are superlative.  These are much simpler to perform than those who have never done it might think, and well worth the effort of creating the puppets and learning the plays.  Anyone who sees these plays will be gifted by them.

The plays included are:

• Jason and the Grey Witch
• Nursery Rhymes and Stories
• The Adventures of the Brave Little Rabbit
• Benjamin and His Christmas Rose
• Red Riding Hood
• Mother Holle
• The Frog Prince
• Saint George and the Dragon
• The Little Donkey Prince
• Hansel and Gretel
• Snow White and Rose Red
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Briar Rose

This issue contains reports on lectures and workshops from the first International Extra Lesson Seminar in Chestnut Ridge, New York.  In particular, Joep Eikenboom was the keynote speaker, with Ingun Schneider offering a review of the Extra Lesson exercies.  Five lectures by Eikenboom are summarized, as are Schnieder’s review and Rosana Torlay’s discussion of dyslexia.

Contents:

• President’s Message
• Earthly and Human Evolution; the Human Archetype – Joep Eikenboom
• The Imprinting of Christ into Humanity and Earth: The Resurrection Body Structural Archetype – Joep Eikenboom
• Structural Forces in Development Addressed Pedagogically – Joep Eikenboom
• pedagogical and Medical Constitutional Issues in Children – Joep Eikenboom
• PHT Interpretation – Structural and Constitutional Body in Drawing Archetypes – Joep Eikenboom
• Ingun Schneider Review of EL Exercises – Anisa Yeager
• Announcements
• “Dyslexia” by Rosana Torlay from the Summer 2012 International Extra Lesson Conference – Laura Alvarado-Coady
• On Strengthening Capacities for the Whole Class – Gerry LoDolce

Republican Academies is a collection of Rudolf Steiner’s insights for Waldorf schools on self-management, experiential study, self-education, and cooperative working. The book includes extensive excerpts from Steiner’s speeches and writings and explores his views on college life (the full faculty of teachers in a school), outlining some of the history and development of the Waldorf philosophy throughout the beginning of the twentieth century.

Steiner’s practical experiment in “republican self-management” at the Stuttgart Waldorf School now has its legacy in more than a thousand Waldorf-inspired schools around the world.

Richard Moore’s collection of seasonal plays are suitable for classes 1 to 5 and feature original songs. They include two Christmas plays, an Easter play, a St John’s festival play, and a Michaelmas play, as well as “Gilly of the Goatskin and the Churl of the Townland of Mischance.”

Throughout, Richard Moore’s insights into the nature of the festivals shines through in the beautiful language of the plays, each of which has been finely tuned by numerous performances. Also included is an introduction and notes on performances.

These five plays present a truly enjoyable challenge for students and their class teachers.

This book is a comprehensive collection of Rudolf Steiner’s thoughts and ideas on teaching religion in Waldorf schools. The carefully compiled collection documents the beginning and development of “Free Christian Religion Lessons” and “Services” as they were originally conceived and will be of great value for all teachers of religion.

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.

This popular book is a useful and practical resource for Waldorf school teachers and offers a great deal to homeschoolers as well. It provides detailed suggestions and checklists for teaching all lessons for classes 1 through 8. Especially useful are Avison’s Readiness and Skills checklist, which give quick clarification to anyone wishing to evaluate a student’s beginning understandings and capacities along with later accomplishments in a subject area.  General development is also covered, from several perspectives at each grade level.

The extensive appendix features a compilation of planners for Waldorf teachers, as well as a collection of example records for students and their teachers.

Avison’s frequently witty advice provides an interesting and easy-to-navigate help for creative teaching activities and management.