Library Lady's Corner
Update from Waldorf Publications March 23 2020
We will continue to work and fulfill orders as we can. Our 15% discount sale on all Waldorf Publications will continue throughout the time of this emergency.Heightened Awareness is a Wonderful Thing March 18 2020
For the duration of the state of emergency we are offering our books at 15% off.Book Review: Growing Up Healthy in a World of Digital Media January 02 2020
Growing Up Healthy in a World of Digital Media: A guide for parents and caregivers of children and adolescentsThis is an essential and timely book that addresses the dangers of screen time, addiction, and EMFs on human beings, especially on young ones. It helps empower parents and teachers to be mindful and vigilant. The overwhelming acceptance of digital media (digital everything!) happened as if without Input from us, parents, teachers, everyone! Schools, businesses, and ordinary people were, within a decade, all managing, reading, learning and communicating on wired, digital devices. Only recently have the deleterious effects of free-range use of digital media become well-known. Behavior disorders, depression, addiction, loss of concentration, and general feelings of malaise or unhappiness have been traced back to screen time for many. The younger the user, the more powerful the impact.
The Weeks Before Christmas and All through the School all the children were stirring…. December 19 2019
The holidays bring a lot of excitement into a child’s life, and there are so many events in a Waldorf school and at home:
- Thanksgiving ushers in “Advent” in many schools with a winter garden spiral in which the children experience the growing of light in the darkness with individual candles lighting a pathway of winter greens;
- In many schools St. Nicholas comes and explains to the children all their good and other deeds, with hope for the future;
Great Gift Ideas For Waldorf Teachers December 11 2019
Wondering how to spoil your child's teacher but don't want to partake in the materialism that is taking over our culture? How about a purposeful and enriching book? Below is a list of a few of our most loved titles!
Buy Nothing Day 2019! That's the statement! Today's the Day! November 29 2019
Join us for our 7th annual BUY NOTHING DAY! Instead of Black Friday, make this relax at home Friday. Stay home with your family, be offline and create pine-cone decorations, festive felt ball garland, scented fire-starters, or learn a song, (all instructions, lyrics, and ideas included here). Or snuggle in and read a story!
*** We want to hear from you! Send us photos and descriptions of your 2019 Buy Nothing Day creations to receive $7 off your next purchase from Waldorf Publications! Email your information to
sarah@waldorf-research.org
by December 2, 2019, and on December 3, you will receive a code with redemption instructions. Hope to hear from you soon!
Are you ready for “Buy Nothing Day” and a Cozy Thanksgiving Weekend? November 24 2019
We’re in Year Seven of our celebrations, and we want to hear from you!
The moment is coming to gather in your family and friends and take up a craft or two together: BUY NOTHING FRIDAY.
The day after Thanksgiving, the hectic day traditionally called “Black Friday,” is our day to say, “Let’s relax, sing tell stories and craft together.”
Get ready! This day of giving thanks, particular to American and Canadian cultures, is a holiday, a pause, a gift-free weekend that has only to do with the people we love and good food in all the abundance we can muster. The day after the big day of family and feasting, Friday can be one of sustaining the feelings of gratitude, the keynote of Thanksgiving Day. Feeling appreciation for all we have in our lives is the reason for this break in regular life. Feeling grateful is a restorative mood of the soul all by itself. Why not maintain it for more than a single day?
Here at Waldorf Publications and the Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE), we are preparing to offer ideas for crafts, songs, stories, and plans for fun things to share with your family and friends that help you to relax, avoid the frenzy “out there” and to take advantage of the more inward aspects of the season of thanks and the season of grace that follows. Doing things together unites us and builds understanding and peace on earth.
Some of you may have joined us for “Screen-Free September.” Friends from around the world worked to eliminate or curtail the number of hours spent in front of a screen. The University of Witten in Germany joined in. It surveyed participants both before and after to measure participants’ moods and feelings of well-being after measurable numbers of hours away from screen activity.
Those of you who joined us will recognize immediately the opportunity in Buy Nothing Friday to continue practices that give us joy in working together, working with our hands, working with real (not virtual) things!
Come along with us on Buy Nothing Friday and look forward to the wonderful easy, fun, and heartwarming projects for this golden day of family, friends, and quiet fun.
To celebrate our Seventh Anniversary of Buy Nothing Friday, we’d be glad to hear from you about what your good craft ideas are, and on the very day, what you do to celebrate being together with your family and friends. Anyone who sends us ideas or pictures of your Buy Nothing Friday will receive a code to earn $7.00 off any purchase at Waldorf Publications. Let us know and celebrate by buying nothing!
We will be posting the Buy Nothing Friday activity packet (and the instructions to receive $7 off your next purchase) on Thursday evening. However, it is not too early to begin gathering materials to use for some of the crafts. Specifically, dried pinecones and felt balls! Gather as many as you can and get ready for Buy Nothing Friday 2019!
Book Review: Bare Hand Knitting October 01 2019
Bare Hand Knitting — Tool Free Knitting at It's Finest
Aleshanee Aikin does not think as ordinary people do. She is multi-lingual, interested in everything, and endlessly busy with her creative hands. In her new book, Bare Hand Knitting, Tool Free Knitting at Its Finest, she applies these remarkably different ways of thinking to teaching us a technique known mostly by Waldorf kindergarten teachers: finger knitting.
Dear Generous Participants in our Screen-Free September/Waldorf100 efforts! September 30 2019
Today is the last day of Screen-Free (or as Free as Possible) September. Your Screen-Free commitment is a gift to the Waldorf100 celebrations. Thank you all so much for your willingness and success—however, that looked for you! We plan to continue with this plan for next year. Mark your calendars!
Get ready for a return to ordinary habits of screen use for all of us at Waldorf Publications — or not, if you are lucky enough to continue Screen-Free! Our collaborators at Witten University would be grateful if everyone who participated could take fifteen minutes and answer their questionnaire so that all of our experiences become part of their research.
Here’s their message to us all— become a part of scientific history! Answer the survey from our friends at Witten U.:
We are planning on comparing the pre/post data to identify the effects of the fasting.
Many thanks for your help. We are very happy about our collaboration.
Waldorf Publications and RIWE return to post Screen-Free with a mixed reaction of trepidation and relief. As we reported, giving up hours on the computer squeezed the work a bit, even as it made the day go more quickly and improved moods.
Hooray for our group of intrepid Screen-Free-ers! A warm and happy Michaelmas to you all!
Patrice
Book Review: Exploring Shapes Creatively Through Pure Form Modeling September 01 2019
Exploring Shapes Creatively Through Pure Form ModelingArthur Auer’s new book on modeling is a genuine launch into the unknown territory of creating form and knowing yourself better while exploring! He gathers thoughts from many before him, including himself! But the book casts a new look at using clay for modeling as a means to self-development and creativity. The book is big, chock full of strong ideas, with specific exercises to attempt, and worthwhile practices.
Screen Free September Begins! August 31 2019
Here at Waldorf Publications we have been discussing what we might do for Screen Free September. [Be sure to fill out the “before” survey from Witten University https://survey.uni-wh.de/index.php/362649 before Sunday to help in the research about technology and its effects on us all.]
We cannot go off screen entirely or we would need to shut down our whole publishing business.
October School Year Sales are Coming! August 21 2019
Once you get back on screen, [IF YOU HAVE NOT SIGNED UP TO JOIN US FOR SCREEN FREE SEPTEMBER — DON’T WAIT! Just send your email to Patrice @waldorf-research.org, and you can sign up for a complete media fast or a “disciplined curtailment” for four weeks!] Look for school-year sales coming once Screen Free September concludes is completed!! A mystery gift goes to everyone who orders at BIG DISCOUNTS in OCTOBER on October 1, 2 or 3!!!
The Invisible Boat by Eric Mueller receives a starred Kirkus Review! August 14 2019
KIRKUS REVIEW
In this middle-grade novel, three children journey in a magical boat to help reunite humans with the elemental world.
Author Eric Müller likened to C. S. Lewis August 13 2019
Kirkus Reviews likened Eric’s imaginative tale to C.S. Lewis’s, stating that the magic in The Invisible Boat attains a sense of reality often not achieved in stories for young adults.Waldorf Publications Sales to Start OCTOBER 1, 2019 August 12 2019
Waldorf Publications Sales to Start
OCTOBER 1, 2019
In honor of our Screen Free September project (want to participate? let Patrice know by emailing patrice@waldorf-research.org) with students, teachers and parents off screens completely and those of us in businesses that require daily screens working to reduce drastically our screen time in September…
Book Review: Emil and Berta, The Origins of the Waldorf School Movement August 06 2019
Waldorf Education is named after the cigarette and tobacco company partly owned and completely managed by Emil Molt but named from family names, the Waldorf and Astoria families. The cigarette company was primarily owned by an inheriting family, the Giorgiis, who so trusted Emil that he was given 47% shareholding in the company and free rein in management. The company was remarkably profitable while Emil was the “CEO” and so the owning family was content to allow Emil free rein. (Where does the name Waldorf come from, she may want to know.)
Emil and his wife, Berta, were earnest students of Rudolf Steiner.
From the Non-Public Education Newsletter July 18 2019
ONPE fosters maximum participation of nonpublic school students and teachers in federal education programs and initiatives. Since the initial passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965, private school students and teachers have been eligible to participate in certain federal education programs.Book Review: See the Child, Love the Child, Know Yourself: Now Teach June 30 2019
See the Child, Love the Child, Know Yourself: Now Teach
Elan Leibner
For the six years that the Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE) was fortunate enough to have Elan Leibner as the editor of the Research Bulletin, a striking confluence of practices and consciousness from both the Pedagogical Section Council of North America, (PSC) and that of more standard research ideals was possible. Elan was and is the chair of the PSC and has stimulated attention and effective practices in spiritual research out of his own Waldorf teaching experiences, and out of his research.
Join us for Screen Free September: Take a Break and Get Ready for School! June 30 2019
We have received a great deal of thanks for the Screen Free September Project! Sounds to us like just the right thing for many people and organizations. Join us! Just send your name as a participant and we will add you to our growing list! It’s now international! Witten University in Germany is our partner in research around this screen free effort for the first days of school and autumn. Act now! Don’t wait. Start planning and sharing your plans for the screen free days of September. We are planning here at Waldorf Publications. As a publishing house, our days are filled with on screen time, but we will cut this back and practice differently.TURN OFF YOUR SCREENS FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER: TAKE A BREAK (and Get Ready for School)! June 11 2019
Join us in an agreement to turn off screens for the month of September. The Research Institute for Waldorf Education is offering this campaign as one of its contributions for the Waldorf100 celebration year.Book Review: Truth, Beauty and Goodness June 07 2019
Truth, Beauty and Goodness: The Future of Education, Healing Arts and Health Care
Lectures by Michaela Glöckler
This book offers the best we can offer to children in need of special care. The transformative powers of truth, beauty, and goodness are those that give birth to love, the most potent agent in a child’s development possible.