Speaking pictorially

In the Waldorf early childhood classroom, the teacher reminds us that we should aspire to keep our children in their "dreamlike" state as long as possible.  This includes speaking to them pictoriallly...not to mention, they think in that way and so they are more willing to respond when you speak to them pictorially.

If...Then

Lately, I have been trying VERY HARD not to use the "if...then" proposition.  If you don't do X, then you will not get Y.  That sort of thing.

I've heard it being repeated back to me by my sweet darling.  "Well, if you want me to do X, then you will have to give me Y..."

Fairies and chicks and horses, oh my!

Oh my, indeed.  It's no joke running a school...especially a relatively new one...and especially when my career path never included anything remotely close to "early childhood education".  But, run a school is what I do right now and it's for the love of Waldorf and the love of the teachers and the families and their children.  I firmly believe the South Bay needs a Waldorf school.

Frozen and no media

I'm always writing about how we go to a Waldorf School and there is a no media policy there.  The policy is there for a number of reasons, mainly because media affects children at a deeper level.  If put in front of a television or iPad, iPod, iPhone for too long, children forget how to entertain themselves.  They get uncomfortable

Whoa..who's been slacking?

ME, THAT'S WHO!

Well...not exactly.  I've been so up-to-my-ears running my daughter's school that it leaves very little time for play.  And my blog is play, isn't it?  I would need to play...outside, going to events, shopping, eating, etc to actually have content to post.

All right.  I'm just going to do a little bragging in this post so you all know just what I've been up to.

That's our little Waldorf Early Childhood Education Program. Isn't it sweet? School started on September 3rd so I've been really busy.  Prior to that, the fam and I took a trip to NYC.  I probably could've included some posts from that trip but, again, we were busy!  NYC is the city that never sleeps so neither did we!  More later....

Storytelling

There is magic in storytelling and I don't know about you, but as an adult, I've totally forgotten about that.  Only after I discovered Waldorf education was I reminded of the magic of storytelling.  Stories in the Waldorf classroom are told orally with puppets, not by reading from a book.  There really is a difference in these two storytelling formats (if you can even call the later storytelling).

D is really lucky because she has a grandma (G's mom) that is a wonderful storyteller. Grandma J was visiting a couple weeks ago and were driving around.  All the while, Grandma J was rattling off stories about their old dog, Pierre and made up silly antics.  Even I was getting mesmerized by her stories.

And it is believed that if your child was having any kind of issues, whether social or emotional, you could address it subconsciously through storytelling. Here is a good post from Parenting Passageway about the Importance of Fairy Tales

I'm not sure how in the world Grandma J knew this, but we are in the midst of swimming lessons for D and all of a sudden, Grandma J tells a story about Pierre, the dog meeting a turtle. And the two had a race.  The turtle won and Pierre was very disappointed so he practiced and practiced until he got better and the next time the two raced, Pierre won.

When I heard that story, I was so thankful for my mother-in-law and her infinite wisdom...I hope one day D thinks of me as such - full of wisdom as opposed to full of cr**.  Or maybe just a bit of both cuz full of cr** can be fun.

Actually, one of our Waldorf mothers told me - children LOVE stories.  They especially love when these stories are about you or their father!  But don't start the story with, "Once when I was young.."  Start the story as any story, "Once there was a girl and she..." and then after the story you end with, "...and that little girl was me! (or your mom! or Belinda)"

I tried that once, but the first thing D asked when I started the story was, "What was her name?" Guess that's not going to work so well for me.  Never mind. The point is - Storytelling is so important in childhood.  It's magical.

I'm not there yet. I still read D books every night before she goes to bed.  Maybe I'll try transitioning to storytelling as she gets a bit older??

That's us...

...pretending to be the anti-Waldorf family. See how we are all engrossed in our personal media devices?  Yes, I was busy FBing and reading up on the day's news before I realized how we looked and had to snap a photo.

Umm, our Waldorf community would be appalled! (I'm actually a bit appalled at myself for having to look up the spelling on that one...tsk!)  If we were at Orange County Waldorf School we may even be asked to leave the school.  But we don't go there so shhhh, don't tell anyone you saw us.

Yes, Waldorf schools have a no media policy

Knitting spool, Knitting Nancy...

I consider this a knitting spool.

Gluten Free and then some...

Our little Waldorf school community is so small right now...nine families to be exact. And would you believe that despite being so small, we have a nut-free, a gluten-free and a couple dairy-free children!  At first one might look at that and be exasperated since we are a co-op lunch bunch.

However, it really makes me think "Hmm, maybe we should all be eating less gluten, nuts..dairy?"  Nah.  Just maybe less gluten.  I'm okay with that since I have several friends who aren't necessarily allergic to gluten but have reported feeling better in their body since giving up gluten electively.

Tomorrow I will be making Sesame Cookies

A couple of things

Hubby just took me to see the Stevie Nicks documentary "In Your Dreams".  Here's a clip.  I highly recommend this film for everyone. Stevie is such a beautiful being.  This documentary firstly lets you see the creative process that goes into recording an album, but also lets you see just how deep Stevie's feelings go. She writes poems from the depths of her heart and those become songs.  I'm going to purchase her album tomorrow!