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Rudolf Steiner’s course on light, which includes explorations of color, sound, mass, electricity, and magnetism, presages the dawn of a new worldview in the natural sciences that will stand your notion of the physical world on its head.

This “first course” in natural science, given to the teachers of the new Stuttgart Waldorf School as an inspiration for developing the physics curriculum, is based on Goethe’s approach to the study of nature.

Acknowledging that modern physicists had come to regard Goethe’s ideas on physics as a kind of “nonsense,” Steiner contrasts the traditional scientific approach, which treats phenomena as evidence of natural laws, with Goethean science, which rejects the idea of an abstract law behind natural phenomena and instead seeks to be a rational description of nature.

Steiner also refutes the mechanistic reductionism practiced by scientific positivists. He emphasizes the validity of human experience, pointing toward the revolution in scientific paradigms going on today that reclaims ground for the subject – the human being – in the study of nature.

Norman is a young gnome, only 8 years old, in fact.  Of course, a single gnome year is equal to 10 human years, but despite that fact, Norman was a very young gnome, a child still living with his parents.  One day Norman decides to follow the stream to see where it flows and sets off (a decision that was to bring his parents much worry). What happens next is why this story is told!

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Eric Fairman wrote  Norman Goes Down the River!! for Grade 3 students.  It serves as a bridge between the fairy tales of earlier grades and the realism that 3rd graders begin to crave.  The story takes Norman (and the children) on an exciting journey along a stream which has its source high in the densly forested mountain, down to the plains and from thence to the ever increasingly populated areas alongside what has now become a fast flowing river.  At last, Norman arrives in a large city at the mouth of the river where it joins the vast ocean.

Throughout the story, Norman meets with different birds and animals that have homes in the ever changing environment.  Geography and natural history, imagination and adventure all mix and ways both delightful and elucidating.  Norman is sure to be loved by children and adults alike

Very highly recommended for Grade 3 students and for the Grade 3 student in anyone!

Veronika van Duin has made it her life’s work to help others create homes that can contribute to the creation of a healthy society.  Her first book, Homemaking as a Social Art, remains a beloved companion and source of inspiration to homemakers throughout the world.  It is generally the first book we recommend to anyone seeking support and direction to their task of creating and keeping a home.

In Homemaking and Personal Development, Veronika explores the need of homemakers to find personal balance amid the delights and disappointments of daily life.  Truly, there are few tasks in this world that are as “real” as homemaking, and the opportunities for arriving at exhaustion, depression, self- and other-blame and more are legion.  Veronika is able to help because she has ‘been there and done that’ as a homemaker of more than 40 years experience.  Happily for all of us, she has found multiple pathways to joy and balance that are realistic for homemakers in the course of their busy days.

We very highly recommend this book:  There is truly something in it for every stage of homemaking and for every homemaker.  Out of Veronika’s experience, you can find exercises that can be “sandwiched” in between diaper changes and meals, imaginations and awarenesses you can hold to restore your balance and warm your soul when sleep-deprived, deeper meditations you can undertake to strengthen your soul and spirit when your life gives you that sort of time.  Most especially, Veronika is there to support your homemaking by supporting your inner life in every way she knows how.

Thank you, Veronika, for a book that is truly a seed for a better future.

This is simply the best collection of interesting, simple-to-knit, classic family knitting anywhere, and as such deserves a very warm place among our other books.  For beginning knitters and master knitters alike, you and your family can knit happily together and emerge with beautiful, useful clothing that teaching something about construction and technique at each and every step.  But mostly, this knitting is really fun and really engaging without being at all taxing – what could be more perfect to share with every member of the family?

Knit One Knit All is a love fest you can knit – and a beautifully scrumtious book to boot!  Seeing all of Elizabeth’s garter stitch designs in one place, beautifully photographed and with patterns and asides so nicely described is just about as good as it gets for anyone interested in knitting, in clothing construction, or even just in the wearable nature of geometry.

It is also a fantastic tour through the mind of a remarkably creative knitter and the woman I consider to be the Godmother of Modern Knitting.  Although I’ve read every one of Elizabeth’s books and even all her old newsletters from my subscription “way back when,” putting her garter stitch designs all in a single volume  shines a light on Elizabeth’s creative process as it developed over the course of her life. 

It also offers up an inexhaustable menu of things to knit and love.  You’ll find 39 different garments – hats, mittens, gloves, socks, booties, slippers, baby things of all description, vests, sweaters and jackets.  Each is wonderfully different from the rest, with innovative construction at every step. And each will set your fingers a-tingle with the urge to pick up your needles and knit! 

Knit One Knit All is a treasure and on the must-have list for anyone who loves knitting.

The Story of the Amulet is the delightful sequel to Five Children and It. Sometime after their adventures with the Psammead (the ancient sand fairy they found while digging for treasure), the children chance upon him again — held captive in a pet store where they owner had mistaken him for an exotic breed of dog!

Of course there’s a rescue, followed by astonishing adventure. The extraordinary creature leads them to an amulet — or rather, half an amulet, which has the power to take them back anywhere in time to search for the other half. The complete amulet can give them their hearts’ desires . . . as if they didn’t have enough on their hands already!

One of Nesbit’s very best books – a family favorite.

Nicki wants new mittens as white as the snow. Grandma doesn’t think that’s a very good idea, for when he drops one he’ll never be able to find it against the white snow. But Nicki really, truly wants white mittens, so Grandma knits them for him. And, of course, he drops one and can’t find it.

But other creatures have no trouble at all finding it and, one by one, climbing into it (Grandma must have used very resiliant wool!). After about a dozen animals have crowded into the mitten, one of them sneezes and off flies the mitten into the air where Nicki sees it against the blue ski. Do turn the very last page for the unspoken but delightfully illustrated conclusion is to be found after the words stop.

This retelling is not only a joy to read, but there are little vignette illustrations at the margins of each page that make the story all the more magical.

A treasure for any child ages 3 and older.