Library Lady's Corner
“What’s the Big Deal about Teeth in Waldorf Schools?” June 13 2016
First Grade Readiness and the Waldorf School Plan
A parent of a kindergartner asked a teacher this question one day, “What’s the big deal about teeth in a Waldorf school?” It’s a good question as Waldorf teachers take seriously the changing of teeth, from milk teeth, or “baby teeth,” to the new growth of adult or second teeth.
Deciding whether or not to declare a child ready to move from kindergarten to first grade is a weighty decision to make.
The Waldorf School and the End of Year Report May 27 2016
Assessment is a “hot topic” in the news and in educational debate. In Waldorf schools assessment takes many forms, none of which includes standardized testing.
During the year, concentrated “blocks” of study might include an end-of-block assessment. A block might be three or four weeks long and concentrate study on one topic. After a botany block in the fifth grade an outdoor “treasure” hunt to find, for example, a monocotyledon, a pistil, a tap root, a deciduous conifer branch, a dicotyledon, and so on, might be the "test.” Read More...
Three Timelines in the Education of a Youngster: Three Opportunities for Misunderstanding April 28 2016
Let us think peace and use the understanding of dissimilar timelines to weave collaboration and solutions instead of additional strife in an unsettled and unsettling world. Our children will thrive if we do.Bedtime February 09 2016
There are children who love bedtime and go willingly. But more children love life, love the daytime and wish it could be longer! Bedtime for these children can often be a harangue that exhausts even the most robust parents!
Parents report over and again that once there is a rhythm that never varies, bedtime more and more takes care of itself. Mindfulness from parents around bedtime helps a lot. This is a sacrifice for parents to give up their own activities to shepherd children attentively at bed time.
Music Instruction in Waldorf Schools January 22 2016
Once a child reaches first grade, the change of teeth tell the teachers that the child is ready to learn in a new way.The Winter Garden in Waldorf Schools December 01 2015
During the month of December, the days grow their darkest. In Waldorf schools, just after Thanksgiving, there is a celebration called the Winter Garden, or the Advent Garden. Advent means “To Come” and aside from this term used in some religious celebrations, it is meant to announce the coming of the light.In Our Image: Why Make a “Waldorf” Doll? August 21 2015
Waldorf dolls, like many toys used in Waldorf classrooms, are handmade using natural materials and are very simple in appearance. Designed to encourage and stimulate a child’s imagination the doll’s simple expression easily reflects the child’s mood and creativity. This is one doll maker’s account of the magical process of making a Waldorf doll.Temperaments in a Waldorf School August 18 2015
The four temperaments are used in Waldorf schools for evaluating the character of each child one is teaching. These temperaments provide the teacher with tools for forging an inner connection, making the child feel that his or her teacher knows with wisdom what is behind each decision made in the classroom. Diagnosing temperaments correctly helps to build trust between teacher and student, teacher and class. Teachers often arrange seating of children so that students with similar temperaments are seated together or near each other. This provides a kind of gentle “homeopathic” experience or mirror to the child that helps the child build balance within his or her character without being heavy-handed, or too didactic.Waldorf Education is Developmentally Appropriate - What exactly does this mean? July 26 2015
When Waldorf teachers say their curriculum is developmentally appropriate they mean it! But Waldorf educators understand child development in a unique way. Child development in the Waldorf plan is very specific. The decisions about the curriculum are based on exactly what is happening in the child’s physical, and emotional development and also in the development of the child’s consciousness.What Do Children Learn in a Waldorf Kindergarten? Everything! July 08 2015
The grandmother of the birthday child in the Waldorf Kindergarten was pleased to be invited to her granddaughter’s birthday celebration at the Waldorf kindergarten. She ended up more deeply moved and impressed as she participated in the birthday celebration. When she came to the kindergarten, mid-morning, she noticed the soft beautiful colors of the room and the natural wood finish of the tables and chairs. She also felt the busy hum of the room as children cleaned up after having made bread dough. The aroma of bread baking filled the room. Two children smiled at her and excitedly said, “It’s bread roll day for Michaela’s birthday!” The special guest for the big day was invited to sit in a special chair and watched as her granddaughter was led by two children, holding her hands, to the chair prepared for the child with a rose-colored silken cloth draped over it."No Homework Day" and Homework in Waldorf Schools May 06 2015
Over the last decade or so homework has taken center stage in many child development debates and research projects. The increased scrutiny has even sparked a national “No Homework Day” which is celebrated today, May 6.
In a child’s early years, there is concern that homework will restrict a child’s active learning by limiting... READ MORE
The highly anticipated new release is finally here ~ The Sun with Loving Light March 16 2015
This new Waldorf reader, The Sun With Loving Light, was assembled as a transliteration of the original reader, Der Sonne Licht, in the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany. Caroline von Heydebrand was the original collector who put the Waldorf reader together for those children in that inaugural school. In the United States in the 1950s, the New York City Rudolf Steiner School did a transliteration and named it The Key to the Kingdom, now out of print. Hansjoerg Hofrichter in Germany has since resurrected and republished the original reader and wished mightily, being a Waldorf graduate with clear memories of the book as his own first reader, that similar readers could be made for children in Waldorf schools around the world, in the language of every country that has a Waldorf school.Meal Times December 19 2014
Mothers and fathers tell us here that meal times are getting harder and harder to have together as families. We can tell you all that this gathering of the family over a meal is worth working hard to maintain!
Even if the meal must be take out because everyone is too busy to cook something, to sit down together at the same time and share food and the events of everyone’s day is one element in mental and physical health! First of all, to sit still and eat more slowly because of the talk and the passing of food, helps in digestion. Racing off with food in one’s mouth has the likelihood of creating digestive problems later in a child’s (or an adult’s life).
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