Posted with kind permission by the Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE)©.

Waldorf teachers often include questions about children’s sleep in both initial interviews and scheduled parent conferences. “What time does your child go to bed?” “How many hours does your child sleep each night?” “Is your child’s sleep uninterrupted, or do they wake up in the night?” All of these questions are familiar to Waldorf parents and teachers. This essay addresses the question, “Why are these questions asked, and why is this information important?” Recent research regarding the vital functions supported by sleep is cited. We now know that sleep restores and refreshes the entire physical body, from inside out. In addition, neurological processes that only occur during sleep strengthen our social and relational capacities; process our daily experiences into memories as well as allowing us to forget what we do not need to remember; and enhance the ability to solve problems and think creatively. In fact, without consistent sleep averaging 8 hours/night, normal people will suffer from a loss of health as well as from an inability to engage meaningfully in daily activities. As research is continually revealing to us, sleep is more important than we know. Our culture tends to treat sleep as if time spent in sleep is wasted time, a mark of a lazy and indulgent person. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As this summary will show, and as has been emphasized in Waldorf Education for the last 100 years, healthy sleep is a critical part of one’s overall health and ability to learn.

Sleep restores and refreshes the physical body.

To determine the effects of sleep on the physical body, researchers have looked at the opposite situation—what happens to the body when it is deprived of sleep? And so we know that, first of all, a lack of consistent, quality sleep results in raised blood pressure, increased heart beat, and, over time, deteriorated arterial walls. When we don’t get enough sleep, our sympathetic nervous system is activated. This is the part of the nervous system which carries the stress hormone cortisol throughout the body, reacting to perceived threats with the well-known “fight, flight, or freeze” behaviors. We do need these responses at times of shock or danger, but when the sympathetic nervous system is overactive, our bodies respond in the ways listed above. When we do not sleep enough, the normal nightly flow of substances which repair and protect the body is compromised. The growth hormone, for example, repairs damage and stimulates growth throughout the organs and tissues of the body. It regulates blood sugar and insulin. When deprived of healthy sleep, the growth hormone cannot do its work and, over time, the entire body suffers. The hormone prolactin supports the immune system and affects the ability to focus. Along with ghrelin and leptin, also hormones, prolactin influences the appetite. Research has shown a strong connection between weight gain and lack of sleep. [Walker] [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/obesity-and-sleep], [Sleep Better Naturally, by Rhinomed] And, as if this were all not enough, the release of cytokines [certain proteins] by the immune system occurs during sleep. These cytokines help fight inflammation, trauma, and infection. [health.qid.gov.au/news-events/news/7-amazing-things-that-happen-to-your-body-while-you-sleep]

Emotional and Social Effects of a Lack of Sleep

Almost everyone has experienced the after-effects of a night of poor sleep. We are grouchy and out-of-sorts, quick to take offense and often quick to give it. Research has now made clear the connection between sleep, emotional regulation, and the ability to form strong social relationships. One study, for example, investigated the effect of sleep deprivation on behaviors at the individual, group, and societal levels. [https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles] Individuals deprived of sleep were shown to be less willing to help others than they had been when they received a full night’s sleep. Research participants who had lost sleep were less likely to be able to understand social cues. In addition, donations to charities was found to decrease in the weeks following the switch to daylight savings time—which deprives millions of people of one hour of sleep every year. The same study revealed that individuals who sleep poorly or not long enough are less interested in engaging socially with others and are more likely to interpret behaviors as threatening. To the surprise of the investigators, sleep-deprived individuals were also seen as socially undesirable by other people. Turning our attention to children, the sleep of young children has been found to be directly related to the development of social skills and emotional well-being. Not only does a lack of sleep lead to an increase of negative emotions such as depression and anxiety, sleep loss can also lead to a diminished enjoyment and memory of positive experiences. A study of Japanese children [Tomisaki et al.:Child Adolescent Psychiatry Mental Health 2018] points to three sleep-related practices that have a positive effect on the development of social competence: sleep onset by 10 p.m., more than 10 hrs. of sleep each night, and total sleep of more than 12 1/4 hours at age 18 months. This study also indicates that disrupted sleep patterns of babies might lead to hyperactivity, impulsivity, and aggression in older children. Importantly, a lack of sleep also leads to diminished self-regulation and self-control. Here, we might bring to mind the recognized sleep deprivation of adolescents because of early school start times, an overload of homework, and late night attention to media. Lack of self-control is a well-known developmental marker of adolescence, even without the addition of these influences.

Learning, Memory and Forgetting

Almost 75 years ago, researchers discovered that the unconsciousness of sleep is not one-dimensional. Rather, a healthy night’s sleep proceeds in a predictable cycle of two stages: REM [“rapid eye movement”] and NREM [“non rapid eyemovement”], with each two-stage cycle lasting 90 minutes. REM sleep signifies dreaming, while NREM sleep, divided into four stages, signifies that unneeded neural connections are being discarded. [Walker, Why We Sleep, pp. 44-45] Moreover, while each cycle lasts 90 minutes, the ratio of REM to NREM sleep changes during the night, with more NREM sleep occurring earlier and, as the night progresses, more REM sleep occurring. How are these two types of sleep related to learning? Think of everything that happens during the day: sensations, events, habits, thoughts, activities. Hundreds, if not thousands, of impressions strike us during any 12-hour period. As we cannot possibly remember everything, what happens to them all? First, memories are retained in the area of the brain called the hippocampus, a sort of storage facility for short-term memory. Then every night during Stage 2 NREM sleep, the hippocampus is cleared. Some memories are discarded, while some are transferred to a more permanent storage in the cortex. During Stage 3 NREM sleep, memories become stabilized and therefore accessible, for example, for the next day’s lesson review. What about motor skills, like riding a bike, driving a car, or playing the piano? As Matthew Walker reports [Why We Sleep, 2017] , speed, accuracy, and automaticity of motor skills are enhanced during Stage 2 NREM sleep, especially during the last two hours of an 8-hour sleep. [see also https://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3119836/] This finding not only contradicts the conventional wisdom of pulling athletes out of bed for pre-dawn practice, it also points to the very real dangers of driving a car or a truck without adequate sleep.

Creativity and Problem-Solving

Clearly, our unconscious selves are very active during the NREM portions of the sleep cycles. But what about the REM portions, when we are dreaming? Very simply, while memories are discarded or saved during the NREM stages, connections between the memories are formed during the REM stage. It is the connections between memories that make possible unique and creative solutions to problems or conundrums. Many of us, for example, have experienced going to sleep with questions in our minds and waking up with inspired ways to proceed. While declarative memory refers to fact-based learning, and procedural memory refers to the learning of motor skills, the REM experiences make relational memory possible. Our dreams make the building of relationships between memories and what we have learned possible. Most NREM sleep, during which declarative memory and procedural memory are enhanced, takes place earlier in the night, while most REM sleep, during which relational memory occurs, takes place later. Considering the importance of both, it should be obvious why we all need a good 7 1/2-9 hours of sleep each night. [https://recharge.energy/en/]

Societal Ramifications of Insufficient Sleep

Researchers will be exploring the mysteries of consciousness and sleep for a long time to come; but as recent studies have shown, the effects of sleep loss on society are stunning and significant. Underscoring the seriousness of the issue, the CDC has identified insufficient sleep as a public health concern, citing research that shows that a third of the adult American population does not get enough sleep. Research in the Netherlands, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada reveals similar findings, which means that insufficient sleep is in fact a global health issue. In an effort to highlight the seriousness of the problem, economists have actually placed monetary value on the individual, business, and national consequences of sleep loss. We have already indicated several ways in which insufficient sleep affects the individual. In the U.S. alone, sleep loss has been linked to 7 of the 15 most common causes of death: cardiovascular disease, cancerous tumors, cerebrovascular disease, accidents, diabetes, septicemia, and hypertension. [“The Global Problem of Insufficient Sleep and Its Serious Public Health Implications”] An Australian study [“The Economic Cost of Inadequate Sleep,” the Sleep Research Society, 2018, pp. 1-13] identified several categories in which sleep loss affects a nation’s economy: reduced employment; premature death; and absenteeism. Each category is subdivided into more specific causes, including psychological or physical illness, workplace injury, and motor vehicle accidents. Workplace accidents are often attributed to known consequences of inadequate sleep, such as difficulty concentrating and exercising good judgment. In addition to these areas of financial loss, one must include the increased use of health care, which must often be absorbed by the employer. In real dollars, it is estimated that a typical company employing 1,000 workers could save $536,000 per year by instituting sleep improvement programs. When employees do not get adequate sleep, they are 200% more likely to have accidents at work and to cause 150% more errors. This results in an additional 274,000 accidents and errors per year, at a cost of $31.1 billion. In total, the loss to U.S. employers due to insomnia is approximately $66 billion in 2017 dollars. [https://www.goodpath.com/learn/employer-cost-poor-sleep]

Conclusion

Although much of the research cited in this report has focused on adults, sleep patterns, like those of many behaviors, are often established in childhood. When a Waldorf teacher asks for information regarding a child’s sleep habits, it is not an idle question. Understanding a child’s relationship to sleep can provide invaluable insights into a child’s physical and emotional health, social life, and learning styles. “Learning how to sleep” was considered by Rudolf Steiner to be one of the most important skills a teacher was to assist the children in learning. In 1910, Steiner characterized sleep as “the only thing that makes it possible for experiences to be transformed...into abilities and skills,” and noted that “the forces we used up during the day are replenished during the night as we sleep.” In addition, he perhaps summarized the current research findings when he said, “We realize that this awareness of the self would be destroyed if it were not for the intermittent periods of sleep. In order to develop an ordinary sense of [selfhood], it is necessary for our conscious memory to be interrupted by the periods of sleep.”20

By Heather Parrish

“Mommy, I am bored.“

“Boredom is a choice, honey. “

Picture a seven-year-old homeschooler standing firm on her bare feet on the cool tile floors of a Florida home in February. From the waist up, she leans intently forward, raising her elbows to the sky and clenching her fists until there are white knuckles, her stare so intense it could burn a hole through its destination. 

This was the full body physical reaction received each time my child informed me that she wasn’t being entertained. She knew that was going to be my answer to this statement every time since the first and yet she still proclaimed it and still had the same reaction and still does, 10 years later. Although, now, it’s a bit of a nostalgic joke between us. 

In this fast-paced instant gratification world that we live in, children often feel that they must always have something to do. This is an interesting concept as I observe adults in similar situations— scanning their phones in restaurants while waiting for food rather than talking to the people in their parties or even talking on the phone while riding a bicycle with phone in hand or watching TV in a waiting room.  It’s almost like we have to always be doing something while doing something else. 

Boredom allows for creativity.  Creativity comes in so many forms— the arts, decorating, experimentation with a recipe, rearranging a room, organizing a closet or toys, etc. Creativity brought us the printing press, and the discovery of electricity, and the airplane. 

The creative process— thinking of an idea and its execution may not happen quickly. It requires patience and determination. It took Johannes Gutenberg over 10 years (most of that in hiding) to perfect his press. Benjamin Franklin possessed one of the best scientific minds of his time and knew there was more to electricity than static so to prove it to himself and the world he devised his now famous “kite and key” experiment, which took nearly a decade to develop. Wilbur and Orville Wright spent 4 years experimenting, designing, and researching flight before Kitty Hawk.  Think about what the outcome may have been if these inventors had lived during our time, where distractions are the norm and society dictates need to always have something to do. 

Boredom forces the brain to think outside of the box. Boredom allows for observation. People who observe the world they live in see the problems in it and are motivated to find solutions. Observation brought us refrigeration, the automobile, and the camera. 

For thousands of years folks have known to keep certain food and substances cool or there would be severe consequences. Many individuals contributed to the refrigeration process as we know it today. Who could have guessed in the mid 18th century that the evaporation of certain liquids could have a cooling effect? With the invention of the automobile people were able to travel much faster from point A to point B aiding with the problem of personal and public transportation. Photography has changed the way we look at ourselves and others, not to mention revolutionized some professions, even creating new ones. 

It’s funny that the very things that people before us have invented sometimes (or oftentimes) distract us from creativity, observation, and invention in our own right. Inventions typically save us time, help us do something better, or entertain us.  We, as a people, are moving ever forward. Progress is happening.  What do you want your children to be? A part of the progress or a product of the progress? 

My iPhone rings on a Saturday morning in late August. I glance at the screen. I see it’s my first born who I dropped off at college 5 days before.  I’m excited she’s calling. I answer. She fills me in on retreat activities, scavenger hunts, class tours, etc. I’m grateful to be a part of her day and delighted that she’s enjoying her time. On the docket for tomorrow— a concert, a dinner, a dance. They are definitely keeping freshman busy before classes begin. However, I know at some point she will call me and say she has nothing to do and I’ve already prepared my retort— “Love, you have everything to do!” I can’t wait to use that. I know it will be a topic of conversation with my grandchildren. LOL. 

How we use our time is up to us. The gift of boredom has endless possibilities. 

The Waldorf curriculum at Lotus & Ivy is at its core, a mechanism for developing creativity in students. Let us support your child’s imagination and individuality with over 90 experiential classes from which to choose, ranging from Main Lesson to Math & Language Arts Skills Practice to a wide variety of Complements to fit your family’s rhythm. 

by Vivian Jones-Schmidt

In each of the categories I’ve listed, imaginative play takes the lead. Think about how important imagination is throughout life. Possessing a strong imagination is foundational to new discoveries in science; understanding geometry and higher math; writing stories, poems, and novels; planning a vacation; deciding what to cook for supper; organizing free time. Almost any activity you can think of will be enriched and expanded by using your imagination. But a strong imagination doesn’t just happen. Most of us are born with the ability to develop imagination; but being able to do so is dependent on a supportive environment. Children need time and space. And guess what? They also need time to be “bored.” So please don’t feel that it’s the grownup’s responsibility to entertain the child. When they say they’re “bored,” think of that as a compost time that allows seeds to germinate. Ideas are seeds!

Large Motor Activities

Activities that use those large muscles are so important! Children need to move in order to learn how to control and focus their bodies. Large muscles develop first, and this development is the foundation for the ability to use those small muscles so necessary for academic work. So plan for your child to get outside and move this summer!

• Imaginative play with friends

• Swimming

• Outdoor play: run, jump, hop, skip, climb

• Jump-roping

• Build a playhouse from: cardboard boxes, sheets, branches

• Water play: paint your house with water! Find out what floats and what sinks in a tub or pool

• Ride bikes

• Roller-skate

• Pogo stick

• Have daily and weekly chores, not for a monetary allowance but as your child’s contribution to the household. Everybody shares the work!

• Hopscotch

• Make an obstacle course, inside or outside

• Big chalk on the driveway or sidewalk

• Paint your house, driveway, or sidewalk with water and a big brush

• Plant a small garden in your yard or in a container. It will be your child’s responsibility to care for the plants.

Fine Motor Activities

These are the activities that focus on using and coordinating those small muscles, primarily those in the hand and eye.

• Imaginative play with friends

• Cooking

• Painting with your liquid watercolors, wet on wet, with 1” wide brushes

• Drawing with crayons and/or chalk

• Cutting with scissors

• String games

• Clay and/or play-do modeling

Instructional Practice

The skills we’ve focused on this year will be reviewed in Second Grade. But summer is a great time to reinforce those skills in a playful and relaxed way.

• Imaginative play with friends

• Practice writing letters and numbers correctly, using the templates I’ve sent you this year.

• Please reinforce the proper pencil grip and seated posture when your child is writing or drawing. 

• Write letters to friends and family members

• Read: get recommendations from your local library

• Parents: read to your child!! Get recommendations from your local library

• Counting by ones, twos, threes, fives, and tens. 

• If you go on a car trip, count the cows or the train cars! Play the alphabet game: “I see an apple tree! I see a bus! I see corn!”

• Play board games and card games

by Sarah Barrett

I can’t think of a time when feeling hurried or rushed is a good thing. When we feel the need to hurry, it is accompanied by feelings of distress, impatience, overwhelm, pressure, or frustration. In just saying these words, I can feel my body tense up.  Sometimes even physical symptoms like headaches or stomach aches accompany feelings of hurry and rush. It has the same impact on children.

But when we move throughout the day at a non-hurried pace, things feel much different, much healthier. “Slow movements” have popped up all over the world in recent years. The slow food movement, the slow living movement, slow productivity, slow parenting, slow leadership, slow spending, even slow TV. 

In these movements, the word slow embodies feelings of calm, stillness, patience, meaningfulness, inspiration, and other life-affirming and health-giving attributes.  It’s not about how much you accomplish, or how “productive” you are, but instead it is about quality over quantity.  When we measure productivity in a mainstream sense, we don’t measure the quality of our work, just the amount of work or the hours put in. But the quality is more valuable in the long run.  

For example, a student can do 10 worksheets in a “productive” day, but did they call forth their authentic creativity or curiosity, or did it transform their thinking? Did it call on their hands and heart to partake in the experience, along with the head? (After all, research shows whole-body education results in better learning outcomes, even impacting a student’s well-being.)

Did it stir their feelings and interest so much that they brought it into their pretend life and playtime?  Did they enjoy the learning process thereby contributing to a lifelong love of learning?  Did it help them find new purpose, new perspective, or strengthen their capacity for critical thinking? 

Or was it just a rush to get to the finish line because it was deeply un-meaningful to them? Even worse, did it associate “learning” with dread, fear or worthlessness, or did it create feelings of shame, incapability, or low self-confidence?

The slow food movement is about taking the time to prepare and eat whole food, healthy meals as opposed to fast food and processed quick-energy, short-lasting meals. It’s about taking time to nourish your body and appreciate the food this earth provides. This movement has numerous health benefits and even social and environmental benefits.

We’ve probably all had experience in a doctor’s office where the doctor is rushed from patient to patient every 8 to 10 minutes according to the day’s schedule. Does the healthcare we receive in that environment feel as high-quality as when the doctor can spend more time and doesn’t seem rushed? 

And in your own work, you’ve probably noticed when you spend all day processing administrative tasks, emails and phone calls or Zoom meetings, you don’t have much capacity, if any, left at the end of the day for producing inspired high-quality work that comes from your authentic gifts, which would be more impactful for your career. 

It's easy to see how these slow movements can contribute to a better quality of life and work. At Lotus & Ivy, we are particularly interested in the slow education movement.

What is Slow Education?

Slow education does not mean students are behind or not following an age-appropriate curriculum. It does not mean they have holes in their learning or undeveloped skills. Quite the contrary, they are relaxed in their learning, and they are often learning above “grade-level” because they are interested in it. Children cannot learn when they’re rushed or feel hurried or stressed. Pressure does not equate to greater learning outcomes. Children who are relaxed in their learning form questions about topics which develop their critical thinking skills, and they are inspired to imagine and create new methods, inventions, ideas, stories, plays, games, and other beautiful things that are the result of transformed thinking.  

Slow education supports wonder, creativity, and well-being and is rooted in a schedule that allows for balance. Slow education aligns so well with homeschooling because it allows for students to explore their interests and pursue their curiosities. 

When a child is able to fully develop their authentic talents and gifts, this is when new inventions are developed, new medical innovations are discovered, allowing humanity to evolve and progress to greater heights.

The slow education movement and Waldorf education go hand in hand. At Lotus & Ivy, we embrace the idea of slow education so that students can enjoy their learning, while still strengthening their will to work, having time to look with wonder and curiosity at the beauty in the world around them, experiencing a joyful education through stories and songs and movement and hands-on experiments. Our curriculum lends itself to an authentic education because of its depth and breadth, and there are a multitude of opportunities and instigations for work that is meaningful to the student.  Our daily intention is to strengthen creativity, questioning, and problem solving.

Does the slow education movement call to your heart for your children? Here are three ways you can deepen your connection to the slow education movement.

1. Recognize when your child tenses and “closes up” when it comes to learning. Make note of what enlivens them, what fills them with openness, joy, and curiosity.  This is a unique list for each child.  Maybe it’s taking things apart, hearing you tell a story, learning about outer space, drawing, playing soccer, learning the names of all types of birds, or singing math songs.  Once you have this list, bring more of this into their curriculum.

Some parents worry that their child’s list of what enlivens them is too short, or maybe there are things on it, like video games, or watching TV that they would rather not be on the list. This may mean their video game or TV time allotment is out of balance and they probably have not had enough opportunities to experience more things to add to their list.  If this is the case for you, I recommend spending a few months broadening their horizons with field trips, time in nature, community service, visits to the library, and some new classes they may be interested. Lotus & Ivy offers classes in cooking, ukulele, painting & drawing, Spanish, German, woodworking, and more. 

2. Allow your children to engage in real and meaningful work that matters to them.  When we are busy checking off boxes and rushing from one activity to the next, we become part of the toxic “hustle culture” and it can overshadow our children’s true selves, dreams, and desires.  Allowing them the time to do meaningful work, calls forth their authenticity and strengthens their capacities for empathy, curiosity, and purpose, which will serve them throughout their lives. 

When the intention of the education or curriculum is to call forth the child’s own unique talents and authenticity, and when we allow them to play and think in freedom, this is when transformation happens – from the early years and into high school and beyond.  As homeschoolers, we have the great privilege to create a more personalized education for our children.  

If a student wants to learn about dinosaurs, then let them draw dinosaurs, imagine new species of dinosaurs, write a story about dinosaurs, pretend to play dinosaurs, make a dinosaur costume, read dinosaur books, etc.  Allow them to do this work because this is what helps them develop a love for learning, and it is engaging the brain and developing strong neural pathways which will serve their future work. If a student wants to sit out in the heat all day to sell lemonade to benefit the local pet shelter, make the time for them to do this because this develops self-purpose. 

Developing self-purpose or a love of learning are far more valuable outcomes of education than reciting battle dates, acing a spelling test, or even a high SAT score.

3. Strive for your home to embody words such as these.  Still, receptive, calm, moments of serenity, patient, unhurried, quality over quantity, interesting, thought-full, mindful, genuine. Reflect on each day and think about where you can make gentle shifts (it doesn’t need to happen fast of course!) toward slow.  Not only does this benefit the children, but it benefits everyone in the household and those you interact with.

When the grown-ups adopt principles of slow living into their work and personal life, it overflows into the children, positively affecting their well-being. Maybe your digital practices could use a slow overhaul or maybe the slow food movement appeals to you.  Maybe you can make more room in your schedule by hiring out for some tasks or maybe the slow spending movement is something you feel drawn to. Seek out little ways to adopt more slowness into your life and see how good it feels. 

Let us know what you think about the slow education movement and how you have brought practices into your own life and home.

By Vivian Jones-Schmidt

A good place to begin our exploration is to ask, “What is science?” What are we really referring to when we say “science?” Interestingly, most of the dictionary entries I found focused on the physical world. However, the definition given on the Science Council.org website states: “Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.”

Then I went further and investigated the history of the word. “Science” derives from the Latin word “scire” which means “to know or understand.” And in fact, the approach taken by Waldorf Education is to support children in getting to know the world, and then to help them understand it.

How exactly can one describe the Waldorf approach to teaching science? Here’s a starter list.

First, of greatest importance is that the science curriculum is presented in a way that meets the developmental stage of the child. As some of you probably know, the Waldorf curriculum is keyed to a particular view of child development. Every stage of a child’s life is seen as embodying a certain way of experiencing the world, and the curriculum for that stage is keyed to that experience.

Secondly, we start our study of every subject with what is closest to the child, what the child knows best—the human being. We focus on the connection between the human being and the world, which supports both a deeper understanding of oneself as a human being and of one’s responsibility to the natural world.

Third, our understanding and presentation of science are based in observation and experience. This knowledge is transmitted in imaginative stories to children through second grade. From third grade on, however, Steiner sees children as “delving into the elements of their immediate surroundings that they are capable of understanding.”

And fourth, whatever we teach will be artistically presented. Certainly, every Waldorf teacher is not a trained artist, and it would be unrealistic and unfair to expect that. But every Waldorf teacher must be seen as striving to present material as artistically as they can, and indeed, working hard to improve their skill. In Steiner’s lectures, science through the Third Grade is called “the Study of Home Surroundings.” Grades 3-6 focus on what he calls “Nature Studies.” Grades 6-12 refer to the specific disciplines of physics, chemistry, and so forth.

Early Childhood

Young children relate to the world through their senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste are the obvious ones. Young children do not analyze, nor do they even necessarily verbalize, their experiences, they just actively engage with their environments. Watch a child on a playground as she climbs onto a playhouse roof, adds water to sand, looks up at the sound of a dove, digs up the grass to uncover—and collect—an earthworm. Here we have obvious demonstrations of physics, chemistry, botany, and zoology. Early childhood in a Waldorf preschool program establishes the foundation for later, more formal, explorations in science. Teachers provide the possibilities of experience for their children.

Every week, for example, the class goes on a nature walk. The point of the walk is: the walk itself. There’s no goal, but the children are encouraged to look around, to listen, perhaps to smell or to touch. Cooking is an integral part of the early childhood program, and cooking involves touch, seeing, taste, smell, and listening to instructions, or perhaps to an alarm that indicates the food is ready to eat. Fundamentally, cooking is chemistry. When substances are mixed together, when heat or cold are applied, the substances are changed. (We are pleased to offer cooking classes this year for all grades at Lotus & Ivy!)

Each week includes time for modeling with beeswax or clay—a direct experience with manipulating matter. Painting provides experiences with light, water, and color. And of course, clean-up time means organizing the room and creating order out of chaos. Scientists must know how to organize and systematize their questions and their observations. Through all these activities, experience is the key, not intellectual or fact-filled discussion. If a child asks a question, the teacher will respond in simple, straightforward, and literal language. Sometimes the teacher will respond with another question because the teacher knows that sometimes questions are more valuable than answers.

First and Second Grades

As the child moves into Grade School, experience is still primary because this is the way children of this age relate to their surroundings. Now, the children have a responsibility in caring for their world. They take turns watering the plants, washing the paint jars, sweeping the floor. Often the teacher in these early grades continues the practice of a nature walk as well as cooking with the class. The children continue to paint and model and of course, to clean up. They become fierce classroom helpers.

Again, intellectual discussion about what they’re doing does not enter into the activity. They are experiencing how their work transforms the environment and how necessary human action is to supporting life in the natural world. Is this plant unhappy? Is it getting too much water, or not enough sun? Here are questions, based on observation, which help lay a foundation for later scientific inquiry.

Now, stories begin to reflect activity in the natural world. The children hear about the change of seasons, the division of day and night, what happens to a seed underground and what happens to a squirrel in the treetops. All of these themes, and many others, are addressed but in a story form. At this age, children live in a rich, imaginative world.

Here is an example from a phonics lesson in first grade. The children write the letter and talk about the sound we say when we see it. They then think of words that start with that sound, and we draw a picture of the word. Often the words are the names of animals. As we draw, we talk about where the animal lives, what it eats, how it moves. In one second grade story, we talk about Peacemaker who took the message of peace to the people in his stone canoe. A stone canoe? Wouldn’t it sink? St. Brendan explored the North Atlantic. What hardships did he overcome? The donkey sat down in the middle of the stream and wouldn’t move; its owner filled the bags with sponges. What happened when the salt got wet? What happened when the sponges got wet?

Teaching through stories matches the learning style of the child at this stage. The stories are always based in reality, so that by including facts about the natural world—the animals and plants children are familiar with or are interested in—teachers are presenting information that children will remember more easily than if it is presented in a more straight-forward manner. The material addressed in stories will return in later school years as lessons in geography, botany, zoology, and the other sciences. In emphasizing connections and sequences of events, stories help to lay the foundation for scientific thinking.

Third Grade

Waldorf Education recognizes and respects the changes which often occur in children around the age of nine. At this point, many children experience a sort of existential crisis, as acknowledged in many biographies. At some level, the child understands that a holistic connection to the world has been lost and the child can feel very alone.

On the one hand, children of this age can sense the greater freedom of adolescence and adulthood approaching them and are excited by it. On the other hand, they realize at some level that they are not capable of complete independence, so they can feel a deep insecurity and anxiety.

Waldorf Education supports third grade children by giving them a curriculum that emphasizes how people came to live on the earth—how people grew from an innocent age when everything was given to them or made for them, to a point when they could create what they needed.

An understanding of measurement is crucial for human activity. I started this block after telling the story of Noah. This allowed us to think about the fact that how we measure has changed through time. We went outside and measured the dimensions of the ark on the playground. It was so huge, it was almost unimaginable. Then we looked at the later practice of using the human body to create units of measurement. We each create our own “feet” and “inches” and use them to measure furniture and the classroom itself.

This curriculum includes studies of shelter construction throughout history. This study culminates in a building project for the class. Projects I’ve seen include an outdoor oven for baking bread, a wall, a greenhouse, and a yurt. The emphasis is on creating a structure that the school can use. It’s very helpful for children in the third grade to learn about how homes are built—the planning, the machinery, the materials used. My parents built a house when I was young, so I used that experience to teach them how many people work together to create a home.

The children study traditional ways of making fabric. So they might clean and card sheep’s wool and spin it into fiber that they weave into a scarf. They’ll meet fiber craftsmen and learn about working with large looms.

One block will focus on the development of agriculture, and the children will study the seven grains that have supported human life throughout history, and in different climates. They’ll work in the school garden or perhaps create their own, learning how and why we compost. They’ll bake bread, make soup, or chop vegetables for a salad. My mother’s family were farmers; so, again, I used my own story to illustrate this study of agriculture.

Measurement will be extended to include weight, volume, time, and money. I told the class about my family’s small store; we talked about the prices of the items sold there and how much things have changed. It’s always good for the children to hear a teacher’s own life experiences, as it strengthens the bond between the class and the teacher.

By the end of the third grade, the children will feel that they have gained a competency in creating shelters and clothing and in growing food, as well as confidence in their own capacities. And of course notes on animal husbandry will be explored when relevant. Some fortunate Waldorf schools partner with a farm or raise chickens or goats, or tend bees. In the Third Grade curriculum, we see the foundations for studying architecture, botany, zoology, the physics of weather systems, the importance of geography in the development of culture.

Fourth Grade

By fourth grade, the children have already learned much about the cycles of the day and the year, and plant and animal life. Their learning has not been sentimental or fictional, but rather based on observable elements in the natural world.

The fourth grade, however, marks the first time that a science is explored as a separate topic. We begin with studying animals, but we enter into this study through a contemplation of the human being. In the first zoology block, we consider the human form.

What do we notice about the human being? The human head is round and hard on the outside and soft on the inside. It moves very little; in fact, it is very like royalty being carried about in a carriage. The head carries our eyes, ears, noses, mouths, and brains. What happens in my head? I connect with the world through those senses, and I think. Our limbs are long and thin, hard on the inside but covered with soft tissue on the outside. In contrast to the head, the limbs are very mobile. With my limbs, I reach out into the world, I walk, I create. I act.

The human hand is a true miracle. Think of what you can do with your hands: gesture, write, model, paint, touch.

In between the head and the limbs is the chest. The form of the chest area is also in between the forms of head and the limbs. At the upper end of the chest, the ribs connect, forming a sort of open sphere. The lower ribs are not connected across the chest and are straighter, like the limbs. We think in our heads; we do with our limbs. What human function takes place in the chest? This is where we experience the rhythms of breathing and heartbeat. This is where we feel. We know this because of the obvious relationship between breathing, heart, and strong emotions. When angry, blood might rush to the face while breathing speeds up. When threatened, blood might rush to the feet and breathing slow down.

Discussing the form and function of these three aspects of the human being introduces the child, in a pictorial and gentle way, to human physiology. The next step is to relate this material to animals.

Are there animals which embody the head form of the human being? Yes: if one examines the octopus, squid, or cuttlefish, one sees an animal which appears to be mostly head. The teacher chooses an animal to start with and presents as full a picture as possible of where and how that animal lives. The goal is to present such a rich imagination of the animal that the children experience it as being a “head” animal.

Are there animals which represent the chest form? The little mouse is almost all chest, with a tiny head and miniature limbs. Where and how do mice live? What do they eat? How do they move? Have you ever seen a mouse? How did the mouse act? And what about the limb form? Here we can study the horse and admire the gracefulness of its movement and how it relates to its environment.

The second animal study of the fourth grade focuses on three animals—the eagle, the lion, and the cow—as representations of the three primary physiological systems of the human body. The eagle, with its keen sight and focused flight, represents the nerve/sense system. The lion, with its great heart, represents the rhythmic system. And the cow, with four stomachs and day-long grazing, represents the metabolic/limb system.

But wait. We can all understand the comparison between the thinking of the human being and that of the eagle, as well as the comparison between the heart/lung systems of the human and the lion. But what about the action of the limbs? The human being cannot run like a wolf, leap like a deer, swim like a fish, or fly like an eagle. Comparing the limbs of the human being to those of an animal, we can see that animals far surpass humans in specific capacities. We realize that, rather than perfecting one type of motion or skill, in the human limb system, the human being is a generalist. The entire animal kingdom can be seen as present and in harmony in the human being. It has seemed to me that every fourth grade class has children who love animals and who see humans as being equal to animals. These children rage at the disrespectful treatment of animals, and rightfully so. But Waldorf Education teaches that there are four kingdoms: mineral, plant, animal, and human. How do we bring this to children? What does separate humans from animals? I once brought part of my class to understand that humans have choices and animals don’t—an animal acts pretty much like others of its species do. A cat is a cat, a dog is a dog. But each human is unique, and one reason that is true is that human beings have choices.

Still, at least one child did not accept this and confronted me with, “Well, what if you wanted to be a professional football player? You wouldn’t have that choice!” [This was a child of another Waldorf teacher!] It was a classic “gotcha’!” moment. My response was, “I couldn’t choose to be a professional football player, but I could choose how I would deal with not having that choice. Would I stomp up to my room and cry at the unfairness of it all?” This response brought the entire class to a thoughtful recognition of their own choices and their own privilege as human beings.

The fourth grade also extends the “geography” study. In third grade we studied our immediate surroundings, drawing maps of the classroom and our rooms at home. In fourth grade, we draw floorpans of the school itself and the routes taken to get to school. Finally, we draw a map of our state. Throughout this block, we are learning about the differences in soil, landforms, and water availability in the various areas.

Fifth Grade

Now we come to the fifth grade. As I stated earlier, Waldorf educators see the natural world as being composed of four kingdoms: the mineral, the plant, the animal, and the human. As we move into formal presentations of science, we start with that which is closest to the human child: the animal kingdom. This allows the child a gentle transition from self to world, as most children love animals and, at the same time, can be a little objective about their relationships to animals. In fifth grade, we study the plant kingdom—one more step removed from the human being. In sixth grade, we’ll study the mineral kingdom, which is as different from humans as one can imagine. Twelve-year olds, who are trying to work with the newfound awkwardness of their own bodies and emotions, thus learn about the inside of the earth—the “emotions,” if you will, of the volcano and the earthquake. The earth itself is not finished yet! On some level, that has to be reassuring to a middle school child.

Here we show an example of an archetypal plant. It has roots, a stem, leaves, and a blossom that contains little fruits and seeds. We study each part of the plant in isolation; and we talk about what the plant needs to flourish. We study the life cycle of the plant, illustrated through the cycle of the seasons. We go a little deeper into the form of the flower and notice that each flower presents a geometric shape in the arrangement of its leaves.

Next, we compare the human being to the plant. What part of the plant most resembles the head in its lack of movement and in its sensitivity to its environment? The root. What part of the plant most resembles the metabolism in its work with heat and transformation? The blossom. What part of the plant most resembles the heart and lungs in the delivery of essential nutrients to the roots and blossoms? The stem. Especially in the grade school, we connect the human being to whatever we are studying. While this can seem egocentric and/or anthropomorphic, the effect is in fact the opposite. The children learn that we are all connected to each other and to the world; they learn a deep respect for their environment and a responsibility toward it. As George Washington Carver remarked, ““When I touch that flower, I am not merely touching that flower. I am touching infinity.”

Now we study certain plants in more detail. By this time, the children are creating their own compositions from the conversations we’ve had in class. We think of the plant kingdom as being a “ladder,” progressing from the “root” plants [fungus, algae, lichen], through the “stem” plants [mosses, ferns, conifers], to the flowering plants. The flowering plants include the grasses and culminate in the rose family. Finally, we compare the growing plant to the surface of the earth itself. In the illustration, if you imagine the earth on its side with the polar region to the left and the equator to the right, you will see how this works. Plants closer to the polar regions are primarily root, and as we come closer to the equator, the entire six-part plant appears: root, stem, leaf, blossom, fruit, and seed. Moreover, the closer we come to the equator, the taller plants become. This analogy also works when we look at the landforms of the earth. High mountain regions resemble the poles; flat ground resembles the equator. And as we ascend the mountain, aspects of the archetypal plant recede until we have first roots and then no growing thing at all.

As we study the geography of North America, the students go deeper into our work with shelters in the third grade. We look at each region of the continent, not only in terms of the traditional shelters of the native peoples, but also in terms of the plant and animal life found there. The more we learn about geography, the more we realize that it is not only the foundation of human history; it also sets the stage for further exploration of the sciences in the middle school.

Aristotle once said that knowledge begins in wonder. In the Waldorf school science curriculum, we seek to respect the wonder and the imagination that children bring with them when they enter earthly life. Then we hope to help them transform their wonder into knowledge. - To quote George Washington Carver again, “Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.”

By Sarah Barrett

A little over one hundred years ago at the start of the Waldorf education movement, Rudolf Steiner and the first Waldorf teachers surely could not have imagined the evolution of technology we have experienced in the last 100 years. From video games to smart phones, the Internet, Zoom, FaceTime, social media, and AI -- all were largely unimaginable.  As the recent generations of students have grown up in these fascinating times, we as educators must figure out where this all fits into our rich and nourishing curriculum. After all, open-mindedness is one of the virtues Steiner challenges us to embody. Perhaps it does not serve the future of the Waldorf education movement for us to turn our backs on these technologies and reject them altogether.

Certainly the power of taking the soul-food story from the Main Lesson into the child’s sleep is lessened by the use of screens in the evening before bed. Parents and teachers have tried to fight this battle for the last couple of decades, and at the very least, calling for balance and limitations, especially on school days. 

Now we are faced with a new technology that is transforming the written word as we know it and threatening our creativity.  Programs like ChatGPT can write a lovely sounding poem, story or essay when fed simple notes or even just a topic in a matter of seconds. I prompted ChatGPT to write a poem about the evolution of parenting, using the metaphor of the parent as the sun and then the moon as their children grow up.  I was astounded at the beautiful poem I received from the AI tool before I could count to five. 

Not only this, but with the accessibility of self-publishing on websites like Amazon, it is legal to have ChatGPT write a book listing you as the author as long as you note that you used AI to help you write the book. This sounds like a horrifying prospect to every teacher out there, I’m sure. And our students are certainly aware of this capability, and many have dabbled in it to write papers.  

How can we remain open-minded to such technology and strike a balance between its appropriate and inappropriate use?  Is there an appropriate use? Or should we rally all our efforts against it turning it into a forbidden fruit for this young generation? It may be that more time is needed to fully answer these questions.

Let’s start by remembering some of the guiding principles behind the Waldorf curriculum.  Rudolf Steiner speaks over and over about our goal of freedom in thinking. Waldorf education seeks to awaken the creativity and unique individual thoughts within each child so they can step forward as change agents. Creating an environment to awaken this creativity is essential. Schools, curriculum, and even parents can become caught up in test scores, rote memorization, and “busy work” leaving no space for calling forth each child’s authentic capacities for critical thinking and creativity that make each one of us uniquely ourselves. 

Lotus & Ivy Guest Speaker, Daniel Packer, said at a recent Grown-Up Workshop that “the experience of being creative is full of every virtue….reverence, gratitude, devotion to a higher possibility, beauty, fulfillment, perseverance” and more.  Being full of virtue is surely a sign that something is profoundly right and true and worthy of our striving. 

All day long every day there are things that can intervene in our freedom in thinking. As we react to all that life throws at us, we are pushed away from witnessing our true capacities. The purpose of Waldorf education is to awaken the creative being within each of us and in the children so as to continue to bring forward this grand evolution of humanity. And the more we strengthen the muscle of thinking and creativity, the more thoughts and creativity we will have; and a stronger sense for what is real or true.

In the end, what truly matters is not completing the task, i.e., the essay, but all the virtues one gains from the process of writing it.  Because in the process is the practice of calling forth one’s own thinking and creativity. This is what Waldorf education provides.

I have heard other Waldorf teachers speak about the soul-body of humans that does not exist in a machine, and this soul, for lack of a more secular term, does perhaps put more weight to the richness of loveliness of the human thought. A topic for exploring further on another day.

So where does ChatGPT fit into our curriculum today?  I think for our students now, it can be a fun thing to play around with, and it is important for our students to have familiarity with technology.  We can learn from AI.  But we must help the students separate its use from when they are having fun and when they are called to use their own thinking and creativity. And it is up to us to be honest with them and not avoid the topic or treat it as a forbidden fruit, but to talk to them about the importance of developing their own thinking capacities – so they can be discerning decision makers and problem solvers when life gets complicated and when we are faced with the unknown of the next 50 years.

At Lotus & Ivy, our 2024 policy for using AI is the following:

Lotus & Ivy Artificial Intelligence Usage Policy

Our highest purpose as Waldorf educators is to create an environment that allows the students to develop their whole being to its fullest potential. Waldorf education seeks to awaken the creativity and unique individual thoughts within each child so they can step forward as adults as change agents in our world. 

Creating an environment to awaken this creativity is essential and is our goal at Lotus & Ivy. Schools, curriculum, and even parents can become caught up in test scores, rote memorization, and “busy work” leaving no space for calling forth each child’s authentic capacities for critical thinking and creativity that make each one of us uniquely ourselves.

We believe the value of what a human being thinks and creates will always be higher than that of a machine because authentic human thinking comes from places of wonder, heartfelt emotion, feelings of the senses, ancestral wisdom in our cells, and sometimes mysterious places we don't understand.

The availability of artificial intelligence must not be hidden from our students because we must educate them to grow in and learn about the world in which they live. But we must prepare them to be thinkers in and of themselves. Using AI to write an essay is like learning to play basketball by watching a video of someone playing basketball rather than taking up a regular practice in playing basketball oneself. Maybe the video will give one strategies or technical pointers, but to reach one's fullest potential as a player, one must embody the physical practice over a period of time. 

Lotus & Ivy students are not permitted to use AI to write original work for class. If AI is used to write an assignment, the assignment will not be accepted and a zero will be given for the assignment.  The student's grown-ups will be notified. If using AI for research, students must verify the content using primary sources. 

One of Steiner's basic exercises is to cultivate open-mindedness. While we remain open minded about the possible good use of AI in the future, we believe it should not replace the student's daily practice of using their own capacities to develop their thinking in their school work.

Our teachers use AI detection software and if it is suspected AI was used for an assignment, the teacher reaches out to the student and/or the student’s grown-ups and gently explains their findings. The teacher and family work to support the student.

It will be exciting to witness how this policy may evolve or expand. Please share your thoughts with us on this topic!  It is an evolving topic, and we want to hear your thoughts too. 

By Sarah Barrett

The Waldorf festivals are part of what makes the Waldorf curriculum so special. These festivals, or holidays, are connected to the rhythm of life and the passing of the seasons. In celebrating seasonal holidays, the goal is to develop in the child (and adult) a sense of the rhythm of the seasons, the passage of time and a sense that there is something bigger than oneself. 

Our lives are seasonal. We go through ups and downs, and it’s important for us to remember that seasons change and time passes, so we are never in a “down season” forever. Celebrating the rhythm of the year helps us remember and embody this truth.

Candlemas is celebrated on February 2 and traditionally marks the return of the light.  We are leaving the dark deep winter and just beginning to notice more daylight in the evenings. Younger children may recite the verse “Candle, candle burning bright; Winter’s halfway done tonight. With a-glowing we are knowing; Spring will come again.” Hundreds of years ago it is said the priests melted the candles that had grown short with use and fashioned new and tall candles this time of year. 

There is something very special about this festival for homeschoolers. Like the candles of the winter, we may sense the coming of Candlemas by feeling our own burn-out.  We may be feeling worn down, bored, restless, metaphorically needing to be melted and remolded in preparation for what is next. In the wider homeschool community, this feeling is often referred to as the “February slump.”

It reminds me of the wonderful tale, The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis when it was always winter and never Christmas. It was dark, dreary, and even hopeless until there began to be whispers that, “Aslan is on the move!” Something wonderful is coming! 

Rudolf Steiner likened the winter solstice to the time at which Earth turns from its deep in-breath of the Autumn to begin its out-breath into Spring. As creatures of the Earth, we too begin to feel the need for activities that ring of out-breath this time of year. 

This is the restlessness that we begin to feel in February. As homeschoolers who have worked hard through Autumn and Winter when the Earth takes her great in-breath, now it is time to begin our exhale. We feel the mysterious feeling that something just isn’t right. The antidote is to bring renewal into your rhythm.

This “February slump” isn’t so much of a slump as it is a call to begin to awaken to the spring that is coming. May we “live in each season as it passes, breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.” (Thoreau)

Candlemas is the time to intentionally bring some out-breaths to your homeschool rhythm. This may look like artistic activities, nature, singing, playing an instrument, gardening, and just plain recess.  These can provide a balance and a breathing to other inbreath activities, and this is the time to bring more weight to the out-breath side of the scale.  

Remember that a child is rarely served by “just going crazy” or being overstimulated so we are not saying to fill the day with out-breath activities, but to shift the balance a bit, following the voice within us that is calling for a shift this time of year.  What a privilege we have as homeschoolers to be able to change our rhythm this time of year!

As a homeschool grown-up, what is needing to shift within you to prepare for what is next?  What is preparing to take root now and rise within you this Spring? 

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At Lotus & Ivy, our teachers are here to help you get through the “February slump”, and we have a wonderful list of new classes that begin on January 29.  Email us at lotusandivyvirtualclasses@gmail.com or call us at 321.866.6860 if you have any questions about how our classes may help enliven your rhythm this time of year.

And join us for our Candlemas Celebration on January 28 as we honor this time of year with singing, movement, and artistic activities.

by Angelika DiPasquali, Lotus & Ivy Teacher

"The goal is to balance colors corresponding to a feeling of inner well-being"

Children in Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner) schools are fortunate recipients of a rich curriculum which enlivens and strengthens their emerging capacities for thinking, feeling and willing. Painting throughout the elementary school years enhances the healthy manifestation of these faculties as well as the child’s social relationships.

In Waldorf schools, especially in lower grades, watercolor paint is applied to wet, soaked paper. This method creates beautiful blending and teaches children the basic principles of color theory in an organic, hands-on way. To describe a way of creating with color is not easy without showing actual examples, since the painting process is a visual experience. One needs to experiment for oneself, repeating exercises many times over, striving for a new kind of feeling-perception.

Then, for the teacher, the challenge is to imaginatively present color exercises to the children in a manner suitable for each age. Only a bare indication of how this may be accomplished can be given here. The goal is to balance colors corresponding to a feeling of inner well-being. To achieve such a balance one must develop a specific awareness, as one does in other art forms. In form drawing, for instance, the children take care to guide the crayon so that they may achieve harmony of space and symmetry. Playing a stringed instrument, they learn how to hold their bow and to listen for the correct pitch. Similar care and dedication to principles of beauty and lawfulness are necessary when painting with watercolors.

The child explores color through his feeling life. How far does the lively, joyous yellow wish to radiate into the surrounding white? How happily and safely protected it feels when surrounded by blue, if their meeting leads to a delicate merging of each, producing a third color, green, which is not dense or heavy, but more like a gentle bridge between its two “friends”. Or, in a different exercise, one might begin with green (pre-mixed) as the first step taken by the colors in “building a house”. The green lays itself down evenly across the bottom to be the floor of the house, measured in an amount suitable to the page as a whole. The bright, active red comes to its rightful place, sitting in the middle on the green floor while also arching above to form the walls and roof! Now yellow and blue contribute their part. And what do they offer their two friends and each other in this story? The teacher’s task will be to embody the conversations of the colors with each other in a language felt and understood by the children.

The Waldorf curriculum contains a wide range of themes which can be transposed so as to re-emerge as color motifs. Another aspect of painting with children deserving attention is the selection of colors the teacher makes available to the children. Naturally, the pure colors, in that they give clear expression to the essential will nature of each color, are to be painted first. When these colors meet and interpenetrate, the mixed colors are born. It then becomes appropriate to paint with colors such as green, orange, violet, and even brown, in their various shades and gradations. These colors all appear in the natural world. There is lawfulness, for example, in the fact that green (as well as brown) is a firm enough color on which to stand. It belongs under our feet and feels “right” painted at the bottom of the page when starting a painting exercise with this color. As the picture develops, and colors merge with each other, green may nonetheless arise elsewhere, as a more “atmospheric” color.

In preparing the painting lesson, the teacher may ask what “color mood” the motif suggests. As Rudolf Steiner indicated, we can instruct the children to tone their whole paper with a pale wash of a color on which the other colors are to be painted. For instance, a light warm yellow might set the mood for a lion to arise. On the other hand, first toning the paper a pale blue might be just the right mood for painting the eagle. Then, the colors of the animal, the ground beneath it and the vegetation are all to be chosen with care as well.

One can establish a mood by means of colored washes when coming to such motifs as sunrise and sunset, the life of plants through the various seasons, as well as in connection with stories. A particular color mood may come to mind when contemplating, for example, the Old Testament story of Moses and the burning bush and quite another for let us say, an Eskimo tale.

Essential to this approach is the question of balancing of one color against another. Rudolf Steiner initiated a new qualitative color balancing principle. To qualitatively ‘measure’ colors to each other in this way strengthens capacities of observation and empathy. Whereas green can have a certain weight as “image” color, yellow (a “luster” color) is by its very nature completely weightless. Thus we would feel a contradiction in beginning a picture by painting green across the top of the empty white page. The bottom of the page will seem its natural and right place. As the painting develops, we sense a clear need to establish balance in terms of above, below, right and left.

However, the essential key is that the quantity, strength and placement of colors depend on the answer one color gives another as they strive for harmonious balance. We must therefore “listen” to the colors. A social relation between the colors is striven for, just as the children are encouraged to take account of each other’s needs and feelings.

When guiding children’s experience of true balance and harmony of colors, it is important that they are able to stand vis-a-vis their painting (rather than sit) and view it frontally. For this purpose, painting boards can be propped on simple, small table easels, as soon as the children are able to manage their materials. Good quality soft, natural hair brushes, quality absorbent paper and fine watercolors go a long way in making for a satisfying painting experience.

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About Angelika Di Pasquali

Angelika Di Pasquali was born and raised in Germany and lived in Germany until 1992. She holds two citizenships, German and Italian, and has spent many years living in Italy. She graduated as a Waldorf teacher in Mannheim, Germany, and begin her teaching career in Italy in 1992. She taught grades 3, 4, and 5 and, after that, took on with another class in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 as their class teacher.

After this, she taught exclusively German in a private High School in Bolzano for over 10 years and gave classes for all levels, including adult classes in the evening in a training center. At the same time, she studied modern languages at the University of Trento, Italy and became an examiner for the international Goehte Institut, which releases certificates for German studies.

From 2015 until 2018 she was the German teacher in the Spring Valley Waldorf School in Beijing, China and also gave lessons in the teacher training center of Spring Valley for Movement, Rhythms and Bothmer. In the year 2019, she was the leader of a summer camp for the Worldwide Waldorf Sommercamps in Yunnan, China. Angelika teaches German and Watercolor Painting to Lotus & Ivy students.

Angelika’s greatest passions are watercolor painting and traveling. She loves teaching children around the world online at Lotus & Ivy.

by Sarah Barrett

In The Foundations of Human Experience, Lecture 10, Rudolf Steiner challenges us to move away from a shallow understanding of education that, according to him, views the child as a small animal that we must help to grow a little further than nature has already done. A shallow understanding of education centers on checking boxes like spell these words, compute these math problems, hold the pencil correctly, or sing a song.

Steiner tells us that education goes much deeper than this, and that each child is instead a center of the great cosmos, where each action has a butterfly effect that extends out to the entire cosmos, “and when I do my work with every one of these growing children, I do something that has meaning for the entire universe.” For we are not training an animal to survive; we are calling forth an innate wisdom and creative being who is impacting the world with his or her presence.

And in the process, we are trying to remove all obstacles from the path so the child is not stunted by trauma, fear, insecurities, false beliefs, or a number of other things that could get in the way.

How many times have we compared our child’s reading level to their peers or worried about whether the multiplication facts are memorized? How many times have we become frustrated that they are still forgetting commas or capital letters, or even felt proud that they exceeded the “standards” in some way? Steiner would refer to these as materialistic checkboxes, not true education. Of course, it is still important that a child knows how to do all these things to be successful in life, but we must not lose sight of what is most important when it comes to learning.

In Lecture 10, Steiner says that teachers stay in the material plane until they gain this awareness – this awareness that the child has purpose in the great cosmos and will affect it every day. And in that moment that the teacher gains this awareness, “sub-earthly bonds” are formed between the teacher and the child. What a magnificent image.

There’s a saying that goes something like, “When you look for the Buddha in others, the Buddha comes forward.” When we, as parents and teachers, have faith in the impact the child has on the cosmos, the child then becomes aware of it themselves. Oh, the beauty! As Waldorf homeschoolers, we must strive to view our children in this way so they can live in confidence with a strong sense of self and worth and purpose.

What, then, does education look like when we take on this new perspective? Steiner summed it up for us at the end of Lecture 14 when he calls us to:

“Enliven Imagination. Stand for Truth. Feel Responsibility.”

These three instructions feel right when it comes to teaching kids –certainly meaningful and worth pondering as we prepare to teach them.

Steiner says the sub-earthly bonds can be felt by the teacher and he encourages the teacher to live into the feelings so that the curriculum is developed as art-form based on the students in front of you. What do they need? What brings them alive in the moment of a lesson?

For me, storytelling is a big way for me to feel these mysterious connections with my children and my students. Being fully present with them in the moment of a story imparts so much unspoken wisdom. There’s no other way to put it into words other than you can just feel it. I’ve heard the connection described as an imaginary beam of lift that is moving in the shape of an infinity symbol between your heart and the child’s heart. The Waldorf curriculum gives us story after rich story to use throughout the grades. Stories from your own life are conduits for connection too.

The role of parent and teacher comes with a lot of responsibility when education is viewed in the way Steiner challenges us to view it. This is why our inner work or spiritual practice is so important. The universe is counting on us!

by Sarah Barrett

How would you describe the Waldorf Curriculum? We challenged ourselves to describe how the Waldorf curriculum speaks to the child in as few words as possible for each grade level. What are your thoughts? How would you describe it? We'd love to hear!

Kindergarten

I am part of a community, and I am safe, loved, and I belong.

First Grade

I can learn new things in this beautiful and magical world.

Second Grade

There are a lot of people with Good Hearts doing good in our world (and the tricksters are funny!).

Third Grade

I can live on the earth and do things on my own. I can cook, grow food, build, make, measure, weigh, and I am safe.  The world is a good place to live.

Fourth Grade

I love the animals who live alongside me in this world; however, I am different from these creatures in that my hands are freed for good work. Human hands can cook, heal, build, create, hug, help, and so much more.  I am wrestling with the question of my own morality. Tell me about larger-than-life characters who have flaws so I can feel what it is like to help or hurt others.

Fifth Grade

“Let your belly be full,

Make merry day and night.

Of each day make a feast of rejoicing.

Day and night dance and play!”

Sixth Grade

I feel safer being one in 1,000 Roman soldiers who all look the same, but I feel supported as I “cross the Rubicon” into adolescence, and I sing as I go.

Seventh Grade

My flame of individuality begins to flicker as I explore new things outside of my comfort zone. Biographies of real people support me in my journeys of exploration.

Eighth Grade

It’s time for a revolution! I have strong opinions and feel passionate about them!

Ninth Grade

I strengthen my capacities for observation so I can learn what the world is like.

Tenth Grade

I dig deeper to strengthen my thinking capacities to find out how things work.

Eleventh Grade

I strengthen my appreciation for perspective to investigate why things are the way they are. 

Twelfth Grade

How can I make a difference in the world?

“Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility – these three forces are the very nerve of education.”   ~Rudolf Steiner

by Sarah Barrett

In the Foundations teacher training, teachers are introduced to Steiner’s Six Basic Exercises. In a nutshell, these are recommended daily practices to free yourself from all the things that influence your behaviors and reactions in a negative way – impulses, jealousy, fear, things grown-ups said to you when you were a child, your own past experiences, social media, etc.

Charcoal drawing by Lotus & Ivy 7th Grade Student

Have you ever noticed yourself reacting on impulse in a way that you wish you hadn’t? Or do you sometimes catch yourself doing something the same way grown-ups did it when you were young, but maybe there is a better way? Maybe your child says/does something and it triggers you to react in less than admirable ways.

Rudolf Steiner said, “Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, and send them forth in freedom.” What does it mean to send them forth in freedom? It means to help them come into their authentic selves, not influenced by bias, impulse, beliefs of other people, etc.

As parents and teachers, it starts with freeing ourselves. What would you be doing today if you lived in total freedom from your negative beliefs, past experiences, impulses? How can you break the cycle? I am inspired by the quote from an unknown person, “An awakened human spirit working collectively with others can change the world. The possibilities are extraordinary.”

Needle-felted dragon by Lotus & ivy 5th Grade Student

As Waldorf educators and homeschool families, we can change the world when we come into our authentic selves and help our students do the same. Living in authenticity means living out our gifts to our fullest potential, in love and service to ourselves, our families, and to our world.

These are the six exercises in the form of a brief “cheat sheet” that Steiner gave for helping one find freedom from these negative default behaviors.

Control of Thoughts

Have you ever tried to meditate but find your mind wandering to to-do lists? This first exercise is designed to help strengthen our meditative work by practicing controlling our thoughts. This practice also promotes objectivity, so our thoughts are not based solely on our own subjective experiences, beliefs, or habits.

Start by spending two minutes thinking about an object that is boring to you, like a paperclip or a staple. Once you can easily spend two minutes thinking about the paperclip, add another minute until you can do this for five minutes each day. Think about the physical qualities and history of that object. Controlling your thoughts so that you are thinking about something meaningless, like a paperclip, strengthens your capacity for choosing higher thoughts. An angry thought has a different impact than a loving thought so strengthening your capacity to choose a loving thought is powerful.

Control of Actions

Do you ever feel like your to-do list controls you and not the other way around? Or perhaps your past experiences or your upbringing have more control over you than you think. This exercise calls on us to start small by setting an intention to do one small action each day, gradually adding to it. The key to showing you are in control of your actions is to make this small action “meaningless” – like turning your ring 360 degrees around your finger at 12:30pm. Wake up in the morning and give yourself the command, “Today at 12:30pm, I am going to…” What usually happens is we forget to do it. Once you have mastered fulfilling your command for yourself, add another command.

As we practice control of our actions, we strengthen our capacities to act from a place of our choosing – perhaps acting from a place of compassion and love for one another, not from a place of stress, worry, fear, or anger.

Chalkboard drawing by Lotus & Ivy First Grade Teacher, Ms. Jones-Schmidt

Equanimity (Control of Feelings)

Practicing the control of feelings each day leads to inner tranquility and calm emotional responses. We are not to be overcome by a feeling of anger, anxiety, sorrow, or even joy. We still must feel these things deeply; however, we control our expression of these emotions. Steiner said that practicing control of feelings does not dull our feelings, but even has an opposite effect because we are now giving ourselves permission to express this emotion and we are in control of how we respond. Instead of being the victim of our emotions, we have control and are hence more effective in situations.

How to control your emotions starts with practicing numbers 1 & 2 above. When we can control our thoughts and actions, we can control how we react to our emotions. Acknowledge the emotion by noticing it. Then choose how you want to respond by thinking through the response before reacting on impulse. It may help to imagine yourself responding first.

Geometric drawing and paper crafting by Lotus & Ivy 6th Grade student.

Positivity

This exercise asks us to find truth, beauty, and goodness in every situation. By practicing this daily, perhaps before bed, you will soon automatically notice the good in everything, especially things you would not have before. To perceive things differently strengthens our capacity for perception and allows us to find more truth, beauty, and goodness in the world.

Putting daily effort into positive thinking by becoming aware of where we would have before seen only the negative can be life changing. This doesn’t mean we gloss over error, decay, or darkness, but in addition to being conscious of the bad, we look for the good.

It is a good practice to write down three things you are grateful for each day. Each day must be three different things never repeated. Doing this for 28 days in a row trains your brain to scan for things to be positive about every day.

Open-mindedness

This exercise asks us to always be open to new experiences, especially if it contradicts all your previous knowledge and experience. Ask yourself daily, “Where am I not being open-minded?” If you have teenagers, like us, I think this is a powerful exercise to better your relationship with your teen. This exercise strengthens growth and progress.

If we assume that everyone is doing their best, especially our own children, we can relate to them with an open-minded attitude that opens us up to the possibilities of learning and growing ourselves.

We’ve all heard of the story of the child who is holding two apples. The mother asks if the child will give one of the apples to the mother. The child takes a bite of both apples, and the mother becomes disappointed at her child’s behavior. She asks the child why they did this, and the child replies, “I was checking to see which one was the sweetest, so I could give that one to you.” Being close-minded can harm our relationships with others and can keep us from growing to our own full potential.

Form drawing by Lotus & Ivy 5th Grade student

Harmony

This exercise calls on us to begin combining the above five exercises by practicing two or three at a time in various combinations. When we can do this, we strengthen our capacity to love, to be creative, and to grow into our highest self.

Steiner did intentionally list these exercises in order from one to six to be practiced in order. There exists more in-depth research online and in print to dive deeper into each exercise if you want to learn more.

In the meantime, we wish for you to find quiet time each day to seek the highest version of yourself so that you show up for your children and families in the best way possible. We are all capable of transformation and showing our children that we can transform, in the smallest of ways, is a powerful example for them.

Acknowledgement: There is controversy over many of Rudolf Steiner’s beliefs and writings. Some of his words and ideas are inspiring and innovative; some are cringeworthy; and some are downright wrong. We reject any view which questions the equal value of every individual. We explicitly reject any racial doctrine attributed to or inferred from the ideas of Rudolf Steiner or any other person. We acknowledge Waldorf education to be a unique and exceptional pedagogy that is evolving over the last 100 years. Lotus & Ivy teachers and families are at the forefront of this evolving curriculum as we are inspired by the best aspects of this developmentally appropriate, whole-child, academically rigorous, arts-based approach to education.

by Sarah Barrett

I remember learning about the Pythagorean Theorem in 8th grade Algebra class. The teacher wrote the formula a^2 + b^2 = c^2 on the board and taught us how to “plug in” numbers to find the value of a, b, or c. Easy enough. 

Fast forward almost 30 years and I had continued my math journey going to a top engineering school and then having a career as an Industrial Engineer. Later, homeschooling my own children using a curriculum written by a teacher who received Waldorf training at Emerson College in England and preparing to teach my own 7th grader the Introduction to Algebra Main Lesson. The curriculum was guiding me to introduce her to the Pythagorean Theorem by telling a story about Pythagoras and his intriguing secret society among other interesting aspects of his life. We then imagine Pythagoras studying the floor tiles and we draw a diagram of the floor tiles and cut the square formed by the two smaller sides to see how they perfectly fit into the square formed by the larger side. That was the day I learned what the Pythagorean Theorem actually is!

I had fallen in love with this type of education after meeting a friend whose children went to the City of Lakes Waldorf School of Minneapolis years before that, but this reinforced my belief that leading students to the discovery of math concepts through stories, art, drawing, or other hands-on activities makes math so much more meaningful and interesting to them. If I want my kids to enjoy learning math, this is the way.

Through my years of studying this approach to education, I have found more benefits to arts-based learning.  Here are what I like to call the “Golden Nuggets of Teaching Math Through Discovery.”

According to an article published by the Waldorf Research Institute entitled “Waldorf Education is Developmentally Appropriate – What Exactly Does this Mean?”, 

“Recent MRI equipment has illuminated the fact that in young children, artistic work, full body playing, and sensory stimulation all light up the whole brain. Focused academic work, on the other hand, only lights up small parts of the brain. That ‘lighting’ up points to the development of neurons, making the child’s brain replete with neurons which end up looking, at their best, like a gorgeous, mature tree crown. Once myelinated, these neurons communicate for clear thinking, flexible problem solving, executive function, and creativity.”  

(https://www.waldorflibrary.org/articles/1249-waldorf-education-is-developmentally-appropriate-what-exactly-does-this-mean)

Cutting-edge studies by neuroscientists and educators at the Learning & Brain conference in San Francisco in 2015 found that students in arts-integrated classrooms are more creative, positively challenged, and more engaged in their schoolwork than those not in arts-integrated classrooms.  After a decade of studying the human brain, scientists at this conference were able to confirm that “the arts enhance math and science comprehension.”

Research presented at the Learning & Brain conference highlight how the arts:  

• encourage joyful, active learning.

• help students make and express personal connections to content.

• help students understand and express abstract concepts.

• stimulate higher level thinking.

• connect students to authentic learning that matters to them.

• provide opportunities for all learners—even struggling learners—to be successful.

• develop feelings of self-efficacy.

• increase intrinsic motivation to learn.

• develop students’ abilities to apply learning to new situations and experiences.

• motivate students to engage more fully with the related subject area.

• extend how learners process and retain information because it combines several learning modalities (visual, aural, and kinesthetic) and thus reach a wider range of students.

• (focused on drama and storytelling) “strengthen students’ visualization of the text and their emotional engagement with it, both of which contribute to greater retention and understanding.”

• naturally involve several ways of processing information that may have positive effects on long-term memory.

Research from the Kennedy Center was presented at this same conference, and you can find a lot more about the science behind arts-infused curriculum here:  https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/articles-and-hot-tos/articles/collections/arts-integration-resources/.  

This is one of my favorite videos on this topic:  Video:  The Powerful Effects of Drawing on Learning.  https://www.edutopia.org/video/powerful-effects-drawing-learning?fbclid=IwAR3C1l92P2B2hwtX89rNJIzuLFkhewMVp0LoL3IG2pM-oGrcA4fZRFldFUw

Students who draw content remember twice as much as their counterparts, and it is not attributed to learning style!  Drawing taps visual, kinesthetic, and linguistic parts of the brain at same time.

If you are interested in more research on this topic, I will list some more resources at the end of this article. At Lotus & Ivy, we incorporate the arts into all our classes, not only for optimal brain development, but to make education a more meaningful and fun experience for our virtual and in-person Pod students.  

More Resources on the Benefits of Drawing in Math and Science Lessons:

Study:  “The drawing of visual representations is important for learners and scientists alike, such as the drawing of models to enable visual model-based reasoning. Yet few biology instructors recognize drawing as a teachable science process skill….” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4353088/

Study:  “Drawings are an integral part of the dialogue a designer conducts with him or herself during design. They are a kind of external representation, a cognitive tool developed to facilitate information processing.”  (Applies to solving word problems in math.) http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.89.8835

Study:  “Findings indicate that level of spatial understanding and use of schematic drawings both were significantly correlated to problem solving performance….The art classroom is an important context for developing students' spatial understanding and proportional thinking abilities associated with artistic as well as mathematical ability.”  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00393541.2007.11650106

Article:  Why is Teaching Kids to Draw Not a More Important Part of the Curriculum?  https://theconversation.com/why-is-teaching-kids-to-draw-not-a-more-important-part-of-the-curriculum-60379

by Sarah Barrett

Is it possible to successfully homeschool multiple children at the same time? YES, it is possible, and you can do it! Lesson planning for one child is challenging enough; however, when you add another child or even more, the planning time increases significantly.

This becomes even more true if you are using a Waldorf-inspired curriculum because so much of the lesson is teacher-centered. To adequately prepare a story, practice lessons, artwork, circle time, in addition to the important inner work of a teacher can be overwhelming. What works for one family does not work for all, so it is important to spend some time considering how to customize your homeschool rhythm and curriculum for you and your family.

Before you begin, open your mind to a schooling schedule that may be considered unconventional. For example, it may not work for your family to follow a schedule where school starts at 8am and goes to 3pm for each child. Generally, homeschool students do not need 7 hours of “school” each day anyway.

Quite a lot can be accomplished in one hour with a low teacher-student ratio!

Here are the top six questions to consider when homeschooling multiple children at the same time.

1. What can be combined?

Considering the ages of your children, what subjects would serve them if they were combined? Some ideas are gardening/farming, family read-alouds, nature walks, circle time, movement, handwork, world languages, painting, recorder, and field trip Fridays. There will be times when learning presents itself unplanned, like during a car-ride discussion that turns out to be a meaningful learning experience. When you are fully present with your children during car rides, mealtimes, etc., special teaching moments happen, and these are the moments that make you smile when you think back on them.

Determine what subjects you can combine and then determine what days/times you will set aside for these subjects that work for all of your children.

2. What can be outsourced?

Outsourcing may mean hiring a tutor or enrolling in an online program like Lotus & Ivy for live virtual classes or in-person enrichment programs. It could also mean using an open-and-go curriculum or workbook for math or grammar practice.

Perhaps considering a babysitter to come in two or three times a week for a couple of hours to play with the little one while you homeschool. For example, when my daughter was younger, we hired a teenage neighbor to come in and play with her for a couple hours twice a week and she looked forward to this time with the babysitter. You may even decide to outsource house cleaning, yardwork, or cooking. Don’t forget about carpooling!

Outsourcing is a better alternative than spending money on toys to occupy little siblings or relying on TV or video games. Toys lose their novelty very quickly and end up as clutter and, of course, too much passive screen time is cognitively harmful.

3. What are your family’s weekly “specials”?

You may have heard about “busy boxes” for younger siblings. The idea is that you pull out a specific box of items to keep the younger sibling busy during the time when you are teaching an older sibling and need to minimize distractions. There is usually a busy box for each day of the week so that the items inside the box are only utilized once a week and thereby retain their novelty. Busy boxes can be a good idea if they stay simple and fairly low-cost.

Here are some ideas:

Mondays busy box: sculpting – clay, beeswax, playdough

Tuesdays: paints – watercolor, window paints, body paint

Wednesdays: a water-table, sand box, or outdoor activities like bubbles

Thursdays: chalk – for a chalkboard or the sidewalk

Fridays: Recycled items for a Rube Goldberg machine or a marble maze, blocks, or legos

You really need the busy box to help preserve at least 45 minutes of time for you to dedicate to a lesson with an older sibling. So you may need to give directions with the boxes each week. For example, for Monday’s box, slip in a little card that reads: “Today we are modeling animals!” Next week it can be flowers, houses, or food. It always helps to have a day when all work can be done in a homemade fort.

As children get older, the busy boxes may include craft supplies like macrame, whittling, designing clothes for paper dolls, or embroidery, puzzles like tangrams, origami, or cards and card tricks instructions. Or you can set aside this time for quiet reading, basketball, or gardening.

4. How can you bring younger siblings into older siblings’ lessons once a month?

My youngest child loved to listen in on my daughter’s lessons and I was fortunate because he sat quietly and listened. He loved when he could help her with a project like acting out a scene from a story or building a diorama. We made a 3D model of Africa once and he loved modeling the animals or mountains. He helped her create a shadow puppet play for The Twelve Tasks of Heracles. At the end of each main lesson, we would collaborate on a poem to summarize the main lesson block and he would always help us with the rhyme.

Bringing younger siblings into the older siblings’ lessons can be rewarding for everyone, but the key is ensuring the frequency is just right and not too much.

5. Can an older sibling help teach a younger sibling something once a week?

This doesn’t work for every sibling combination, but perhaps an older sibling can read to a younger sibling for 30 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Or is there something an older sibling can teach a younger sibling? If their temperaments align well, of course :)

6. Finally, what does my child need right now?

This question is often best asked when you are alone with time to meditate on each child. I have always been given the best insight for this question while on my walks.

When I intentionally set aside time to think about each child and ask myself what she really needs, the answers that come intuitively are profound and true. This helps to cut through all the unnecessary and unhelpful mess of hectic schedules or comparing to other families and peers and helps me see what my child really needs this month or this year to serve her highest self. Sometimes it is more math practice and sometimes it is something not related to academics at all.

I hope these questions help to inspire you as you plan for the fall. What works this year will likely need to be adjusted for next year, and that is the beauty of homeschooling your own children because you are the best person to decide what they really need and when. Keep these questions in mind while you plan over the summer for the upcoming year as well as throughout the year when you are pondering your next lesson. May these tips be helpful to you on your homeschooling journey over the next 12 months and beyond.

by Sarah Barrett 

Looking back over our homeschooling journey, I remember so many special moments that make me smile.  The first play, the 8th Grade project presentation, the kindergarten “graduation”, the 13th birthday.  All of these special times were milestones that we celebrated with others.  I remember seeing in my children their pride and joy for their “arrival to this moment.”

A rite of passage is a ritual or experience that marks a major milestone or change in a person’s life. Baptisms, bar mitzvahs, graduations, weddings, quinceañeras, and proms are examples of modern rites of passage. These social events may help ease the individual into a new stage or help them go through difficulties. They often mark the beginning of new phases in life, helping a person to evolve and progress.  Rites of passage also provide a sense of connection to ancestors and community.

At Lotus & Ivy, rites of passage for children are important to help them feel supported and confident in their transformative journey through childhood to adolescence and then into adulthood. As reflected in the 7th grade curriculum, children around the age of 13 can feel that they are “sailing to waters of uncharted seas” which is exciting and scary at the same time.  Rites of passage provide support for them and can serve as a small voice within them saying, “You are ready.”

Some child development experts worry about the fading out of rites of passage from modern society. Waldorf schools have done a wonderful job over the last century of providing these rites of passage moments and ceremonies for students. From the Class 1 Rainbow Bridge ceremony to the Class 6 Knighting Ceremony to the Class 8 Maypole Dance and many moments in between, the students feel at each milestone that they are transforming as a person. They are becoming their own person, paving their own path, and they are lovingly supported by their family and their community every step of the way.

It is important that we, as homeschoolers, provide these same important rites of passage for our children.  They do not need to be elaborate or expensive, but they must be a time of reverence and importance for the whole family so that the student feels the pride and significance of the moment.   It is important for the younger students to wait for their “turn” to be the center of the event with great excitement and anticipation for that moment when they “arrive.”

Of course, Lotus & Ivy is much more than a series of virtual lessons. Our community is dedicated to providing these rites of passage events for our students, along with other important features of our beautiful curriculum, such as festivals and grown-up education. We hope you will join us for these events as they happen for your child’s age. Some are virtual, like our 8th grade graduation and 8th grade project presentations, and some are in-person, like our national pentathlon.

While you are creating these special moments for your family at home, some ideas include:

·        Decorate a bridge at a nature center or local park and having a Rainbow Bridge Ceremony with family and friends on the first day of first grade.  Music, a story and a potluck make this a very special event.  Perhaps an older family member can play the live music and perhaps the Lotus & Ivy Class 1 teacher can call in virtually to welcome the child to Class 1 during the event!

·        A series of challenges for the 12-year-old student at the end of Sixth Grade. Historically, this is called the Knighting Ceremony and follows the Medieval History main lesson.  We are reimagining this event for today’s times so that boys and girls relate to the gesture of the event.  For my son, he was tasked with coming up with three challenges – a school-related challenge (thinking), a social deed (feeling), and a new habit (willing).  He was given 4 weeks to complete his three challenges, and the culminating event was a meeting with his friends in the woods one night for a blindfolded challenge.  The students had to follow a string that led through the woods past some challenging obstacles.  They camped out that night and woke up to a grand feast with family and friends.  What a significant moment of bravery and capability pride for my son!  He felt a new sense of capability and pride in himself.  This time of leaving childhood can be rough, so we must give them moments like this to support their journey. 

·        A Maypole celebration with family and friends where, for example, the 8th Grade students perform the dance, the 5th & 6th Grade students play the music, and the 1st & 2nd Grade students lay the flower petaled path.  Everyone makes flower baskets for the neighbors and share a special dessert.

·        Second grade students wake up early for St. Lucia day to help prepare and serve their family breakfast for the first time.

·        Presentation of a special fountain pen at the end of 4th grade. They have reached a new milestone in their writing.

·        Loss of first tooth, first musical instrument lessons, first camping trip, first overnight sleepover without parents, etc.

·        A Michaelmas event with fellow homeschoolers where, for example, the 6th graders make and perform the dragon.  The 3rd graders perform a song, and the 5th graders play the music. 

·        The 8th Grade graduation ceremony and the 8th Grade Project.  Each of these events may be attended by family members, friends, and teachers followed by a special gathering after to share a celebratory meal.

Being part of a like-minded homeschool group, whether in-person or virtually, is a great opportunity for celebrating these rites of passage together. Our in-person Pods focus on sharing these moments together as well. If you are not part of a community like this, but would like to be, please contact us, and we will help support you in finding one virtually and in-person.

by Vivian Jones-Schmidt, Waldorf Teacher at Lotus & Ivy

The Waldorf approach to arithmetic is different from that of any other educational system in a few distinct areas.

In first grade, we start with whole numbers and make sure children are fully grounded in operations with whole numbers before proceeding to working with partial numbers [decimal and/or common fractions]. The entire process takes three years, beginning with the four basic processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) in First Grade; more practice with the four processes with larger numbers and introducing regrouping in Second Grade; and long multiplication and division in Third Grade. Hence, Fourth Grade is when fractions are introduced and when students are ready to really grasp the concept of partial numbers. In Fourth Grade, we work with all four processes with fractions, equivalent fractions, common denominators, and GCF. This is the first major difference between the Waldorf approach and that of other systems.

The second major difference has to do with how each operation is introduced. Waldorf teachers create lessons to teach the child’s intellectual thought, imaginative thought, and moral life. Moral and ethical values permeate everything we teach, but we rarely think about this aspect of teaching arithmetic. As I explain how we teach each operation later in this article, I’ll also point out the underlying values that are being taught.

In Waldorf arithmetic, we work within a three-year cycle: a concept is introduced in the first year, practiced in the second, and mastered in the third. Second Grade arithmetic thus continues the practice of the four operations, using larger numbers and including regrouping. Third Grade arithmetic, in addition to a focusing on long multiplication and long division, also explores various themes regarding measurement, time, money, and weight — all accompanied by intriguing and practical projects.

Unlike other methods of teaching arithmetic, Waldorf students are never given “blind procedures”, but are led by their teacher to the discovery of mathematical concepts. For instance, in later years, we do not tell them a-squared + b-squared = c-squared when teaching the Pythagorean Theorem, but we help them discover it by exploring patterns with triangles. In the early grades, this means we help the child experience, through stories, that 12 = 4 + 8 and not simply memorize the fact.

And in addition to these differences, as a teacher I add another layer. When teaching arithmetic to children, I talk about number stories, number journeys, or number exercises; but I never refer to arithmetic “problems.” I firmly believe that the language we use can be powerful: it can, subconsciously, create a mood or an expectation that lasts a lifetime. I want nothing to do with children equating “arithmetic” with “problems,” so I don’t use that word.

Quality of Number

After kindergarten years rich with manipulative materials, construction projects, measuring sand and water, and imaginative play, formal instruction in arithmetic starts in First Grade with an exploration of the quality of numbers. We don’t often think about this as adults, but what is “one”? And what does “one” mean? Where do we find oneness in our daily lives? Often, a class will soon begin to talk about the Sun, because most children have noticed the Sun and its significance as the largest body in the sky as well as its work in providing light and warmth.

We discuss and illustrate each number, 1-12, in this manner. I always end this introductory period by engaging the children in talking about the twelve months of the year.

Addition

The four operations in arithmetic are often taught in Waldorf first grades with stories of gnomes. Some teachers give the gnomes names like “Patty Plus,” but I just call them by their signs: Little Plus, Little Minus, Little Times, and Little Divide. Little Plus is associated with the color green. When we teach addition, we start with the sum. So, 12 = 4 + 8. Let’s think about the ramifications of that. Traditionally, addition is taught with the addends: 4 + 8 = 12. Not only does this approach limit the possible combinations of numbers for 12, but the subliminal focus of addition in this teaching method is on acquiring more and more. Acquisitiveness and greed are not moral qualities that we want to teach.

On the other hand, if we start with the sum, one already has the total and does not necessarily want more. Not only that, but think of the flexibility possible when one starts with the sum. How can you make 12?

12 = 4 + 8 12 = 3 + 9 12 = 6 + 6 and so on.

There are many ways to make 12, many correct answers to the question, “What makes 12?”

Subtraction

Little Minus is associated with the color blue. Poor Little Minus keeps dropping things. When we teach subtraction, we start with the number of “gems” Little Minus finds in a pocket when the castle is reached. The second number is the number Little Minus remembers counting along the way as each gem was picked up. So, 7 = 12 - ?. We want to find out how many gems were dropped by Little Minus. Here we emphasize a certain compassion toward Little Minus. After all, we all lose things.

We can also teach subtraction by talking about sharing: “Little Minus has 5 apples. After sharing some with a friend, Little Minus has 2. How many did Little Minus give his friend?” 2 = 5 - ?

Multiplication

Little Times is associated with the color yellow and is always in a hurry to give “gems” away. But if she has 12 and gives 3 to each friend, how many friends will she be able to share her gems with? 12 = ? x 3. In other words, how many threes are contained in twelve?

Multiplication is also taught as “fast addition,” for 4 x 3 is the same as 4 + 4 + 4, but it’s a much faster calculation.

Division

Little Divide is associated with the color red and always wants to make sure that each person has the same number of “gems.” So, if Little Divide has 12 gems and 6 friends, how many gems can he give to each friend?

12 divided by 6 = 2. Both division and multiplication stress generosity.

Division, of course, is fast subtraction. Dividing 12 by 6 is the same as subtracting two from twelve, six times; but it’s much faster.

After all four operations are introduced, we bring out 24 counting stones and work with all four operations on that number. This again reinforces flexibility of thinking, as we begin to see “24” from so many different directions. Of course, by the end of first grade, we do transition to the more traditional algorithms of each operation, as in

6 + 6 = 12 12 - 4 = 8 3 x 6 = 18

But along the way, we’ve avoided acquisitiveness and greed, as well as the idea that there’s only one way to work with any particular number. We’ve taught ethics and flexibility of thinking through story, discovery, and practice. The virtues of generosity, sharing, and compassion continue to be taught, discussed, and considered throughout the elementary years—even in the Business Math block in Sixth Grade.

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Vivian Jones-Schmidt, Class 1 Main Lesson & Math Teacher, 9am ET

BRINGING MAIN LESSONS TO LOTUS & IVY CLASS 1 STUDENTS FROM VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

Vivian has been teaching for over thirty years, and this will be her fourth First Grade class. She never planned to be a teacher, but her college mentor suggested that she explore early childhood education, and she did. After graduating from the College of William and Mary with a degree in Government, she travelled up the road to the University of Virginia, where she received an M.Ed. Having discovered that she loved teaching, she was one of the first kindergarten teachers in Virginia’s new public kindergarten program.

As music and especially singing had always been part of her life, Vivian sang in the College Choir and in Gilbert & Sullivan productions throughout her undergraduate years. G&S called to her again in Charlottesville, and that’s where she met her husband, a college history teacher. She then worked as an artist for several years before their daughter was born.

One day, Vivian walked into a Waldorf kindergarten and felt she had found Heaven. When their daughter, Rebecca, reached kindergarten age, Vivian started studying Waldorf Education. She knew she was drawn to the school, but what was this unknown education about, anyway? Finally satisfied that, in fact, Waldorf Education resonated with everything she’d always thought an education should be, she began teaching Handwork at the same time Rebecca entered kindergarten.

After a few years as a handwork teacher, class teaching called her, and she started with her first class of sparkling and challenging students, most of whom she is still in contact with, and some of whom now have children of their own. Vivian has spent most of her teaching years at the Charlottesville Waldorf School but was also privileged to teach for two years at the Richmond Waldorf School. In addition to teaching Handwork and Chorus, she has also served in many leadership positions at CWS. She has mentored several teachers as they’ve started their Waldorf journeys, and she was one of the earliest members of the Editorial Board of Renewal: A Journal for Waldorf Education. She has written many poems and songs for her classes, and a few of her middle school plays have been gathered into the book Three Plays for Small Classes.

Vivian is blessed with two adorable granddaughters.

*This is Part 1 of a three-part blog on the middle school years, grades 6, 7 and 8. 

It is a unique and fulfilling attribute of Waldorf education, thus adopted by Lotus & Ivy, in that we match the curriculum to the developmental age of the child, thus contributing to optimal physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. Rudolf Steiner left us with insightful knowledge about each year of childhood.

The twelve-year-old is leaving the golden years of childhood and fully entering adolescence.  This pivotal moment is reflected in the Ancient Rome block of sixth grade when Julius Caesar is making the difficult decision of whether to cross the Rubicon River.  “Should I go, or should I stay?  What will happen?” It can be quite scary, but ultimately Caesar decides to cross, and he is joined with his army singing joyously as they cross, leaving behind a life to which they can never return.

Many physical changes are happening in the twelve-year-old. You may see them sprout up in height.  Their brain is changing, and they crave sensory stimulation: loud music, spicy foods, physical challenges. You may see them pushing each other or wrestling as part of their need for sensory stimulation. Orderly habits they had in past years may go away and they may become absent-minded. Their sleep patterns change. This is when the “night owl” emerges.  The 12-year-old needs their sleep but may have trouble falling asleep early.  School really should begin later for them so they can get their sleep, which is another reason homeschooling is beneficial for this age, as well as why Lotus & Ivy offers classes at multiple times.  Some could even develop a caffeine habit at this age.

The twelve-year change has been compared to a river rafting trip.  There are beautiful, long moments of calm, then turbulence comes and there may be a period where we’re barely hanging in there. The good news is this is a normal and necessary part of moving from childhood to adulthood.

The twelve-year-old has passionate likes and dislikes. We bring black and white drawing into the art of 6th grade to help nourish where they are. This is the year they begin the search for their own identity.  You may notice them begin to experiment with their signature, or their handwriting may change from earlier years.  Perhaps it becomes very tiny when it was larger before. Part of searching for their own identity is shown in clothing and hair style choices. These changes can be alarming to parents, but psychologists advise parents not to “take the bait.”  A “whatever” attitude from the parent is the best approach.  Some Waldorf schools have adopted dress codes that simply say, “You must wear clothing, and it must not promote hate speech or racism.”  This simple response has eliminated many power struggles. If experimentation with new styles or new hobbies, albeit they must be safe, is uncomfortable for you, rest assured this stage will end in a few years. It is best to just ride the wave.

The twelve-year old experiences a strong awakening for peer relationships and an interest in the world. They no longer want to just feel, but they want to think.  The curriculum in the early years was centered on encouraging strong feelings in the student because they learned best when they experienced strong feelings around what they were hearing or doing.  The 12-year-old is still in the feeling stage, but their thinking is emerging too.

Lawfulness is a core sixth grade theme in the Waldorf curriculum. We study ancient Rome and how the plebeians and patricians work out a balance in government. We study Astronomy and Physics and the laws of nature that appear in both the heavens and the earth. In Business Math, students discover their first formulas introducing them to the laws of mathematics and business.   

Students in sixth grade no longer see the parent or teacher as the same leader or authority figure they once saw us as. We are still captains of the ship, but we must steer the ship without them feeling like we are the captain.  The curriculum for this year greatly supports us in this.

Interestingly, images of the 6th grader are reflected in the curriculum when we see thousands of Roman soldiers who are not distinguishable from one another, or the many monks in the monasteries of the Middle Ages working on illuminated manuscripts.  They do not stand out from one another, but 7th grade is coming, when that little flame of individuality ignites. 

Part 2 of this blog series, “7th Grade and the 13-Year-Old” is coming March 2022.  Steiner referred to the 13th year as the most important! 

by Sarah Barrett

In a Waldorf-inspired homeschool, the goal for each lesson is to provide nourishment to four realms of thinking within the student. Keep in mind, none of these four areas are higher than, or valued more than another.

The four realms of thinking are:

1. The child’s rational thinking. This is where the “academics” lie and needs little explanation because it is the primary focus of most conventional lessons.  A child’s rational thinking really begins to blossom around the age of 10, when we add formal science lessons.  However, the “Three R’s” (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic) would fall under this umbrella beginning in first grade.
   

2. The child’s imaginative thinking.  It was Einstein who said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.”  Allowing a child to think imaginatively and fostering creativity are vital to brain development and encourage children to explore the unknown.
   

3. The child’s moral reasoning. We have the honor and responsibility as grownups to both model and teach about integrity and good character.  Education of this nature shapes the future of humankind in positive and powerful ways.
   

4. The child’s capacity for awe and wonder.  The University of California at Berkeley conducted recent research on awe and found that “awe experiences may bring with them a host of physiological, psychological, and social effects. For example, studies have found that feelings of awe can be accompanied by heart rate changes, “goosebumps,” and the sensation of chills, and there is some evidence that awe may even decrease markers of chronic inflammation. When it comes to psychological effects, studies have found that awe can create a diminished sense of self (an effect known as “the small self”), give people the sense that they have more available time, increase feelings of connectedness, increase critical thinking and skepticism, increase positive mood, and decrease materialism. Multiple studies have found evidence that experiencing awe makes people more kind and generous.”

Read the full UC Berkeley research: The Science of Awe: GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Awe_FINAL.pdf (berkeley.edu)

At Lotus & Ivy, we believe all main lessons must teach to these four realms of thinking. Here is an example of what this looks like with the Human and Animal blocks in fourth grade.

Rational Thinking 

During these science blocks, we present facts and figures about the animals to nourish the child’s desire for real-world information. We bring to the student new vocabulary such as siphon, cephalopod, and ruminant; information about many animals and their habitats; their specializations; as well as animal classification.  We research and write expository essays and more.  All of this educates the child’s rational thinking.

Imaginative Thinking

Stories about the animals, though factual, must be told in imaginative ways to enliven this part of the child’s thinking. Wild tales about octopi in captivity or the story of Ms. Rowena Farr who kept her pet seal, Lora, for seven years and even taught it to sing!  Poems such as “The Octopus” by Ogden Nash, “A Cloak for a Fairy” by Anonymous, and many more strengthen the creative forces along with original drawings and artwork.

Moral Reasoning

Educating the moral life of the child is often overlooked in conventional lessons, but so important for the child and for our world.  In the fourth grade Human and Animal blocks, the teacher should spend time in discussion with the children about the differences between humans and other animals. Humans must not be presented as “better than”, but our spine is upright, freeing our hands for good work. Think of all the wonderful work we do with our free hands – we write books, we build, we paint, we grow food, we perform surgeries, we create, we invent, we hug, and we help each other in many ways.   During this discussion, one little girl once said, “We have a responsibility to the animals, but they do not have a responsibility to us.” The children often bring their own moral depth and truth to the conversation.

A common activity during this block is to collaborate on a list (that becomes a main lesson book page) of “Gifts from the Animals”. It is easy to generate over 25 gifts humans receive from the animals, like honey, pearls, violin bows, love, pollination, silk, chalk, down feathers, service animals, eggs, wool, medicines, and much more.  This activity lends to a greater awareness and appreciation for the creatures with whom we share this planet.

Awe and Wonder

And finally, each lesson must inspire the child to find awe in our world.  The snail creates a spiral shell with more exactness than any human can replicate.  The two-inch harvest mouse builds a spherical nest using 100 blades of grass that is exceptionally stronger and more precise than a human could build with the same materials. The octopus’s ability to camouflage in color and texture is amazing – and these sea creatures knew how to camouflage long before humans did.  And one of my favorite narratives for instilling wonder is about the blackbird.  The blackbird is one of the primary predators of the garden snail.  These snails reproduce at such an incredible rate, that if it were not for the blackbird, the snail population would be large enough to eat every leaf available, leaving humans with quite the bleak future.  Students look at the blackbird from here on with such awe and admiration, for we owe our existence to them in a sense!

The fourth grade curriculum, like the other grades, provides abundant nourishment for these four realms of thinking.  My favorite fourth grade block is certainly Norse mythology.  It lends itself so beautifully to speaking to the moral life of the child.  These classic tales are full of fallible gods whose imperfections speak loudly to the child with great humor and adventure. You know all is right when you hear the child say adamantly, “Why would they do that?!  They should have done <this> instead!”  Yes, child, you already know the better way.

Do you need support in your homeschool journey?  Lotus & Ivy’s Waldorf-trained teachers educate students with the goal in mind that each lesson must nourish the child’s four realms of thinking – rational thinking, imaginative thinking, moral reasoning, and awe -- opening the child to her highest self. 

Lotus & Ivy offers main lesson blocks, math, and complements for grades K – 8.  For more information, email us at lotusandivyvirtualclasses@gmail.com.

Do you feel like your children are uninspired?

Are your kids bored in school?

Is the program you’ve chosen falling short of your expectations?

Is flexibility important to your family?

Are the changes to mainstream curriculum making you scratch your head?

Is the planning of homeschool lessons for multiple children more than you bargained for?

Are you unsure if you are doing anything/everything correctly?

Do you desire to be a part of your child(ren)’s schooling, but you need assistance?

Have you been looking for a LIVE online Waldorf-inspired program with limited screen time and maximum learning potential?

Are you ready to make some changes to your child(ren)’s educational experience?

Do not worry if you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions. Read on to learn why online schooling is more than a trend. Nowadays there are so many options for homeschoolers and we owe so much to the homeschool families who came before us and paved the way for all the opportunities we have today. What a wonderful time be a homeschooler!

With all the choices, how do you choose what is the best for your family? Even after deciding that a Waldorf-inspired curriculum is right for your family, there are so many MORE decisions to be made! Is there a brick and mortar school near me? Can I afford it? Do I become my child(ren)’s teacher, planning and teaching ALL of the lessons? Do I enlist the help of a hybrid program, such as Lotus & Ivy? Within each of the above categories, there are even more options! Co-ops, classes, online, in-person, music, sports, and the possibilities never seem to end!

Fast forward, and now you’ve decided that you’d like to embrace the Waldorf movement; however, you’re still deciding if an online program can meet the needs of your family. Point blank, online programs are developed to create flexibility in busy lives. Be forewarned, though, not all online programs are created equal. Here are some points to ponder before committing.

How do you know when an online Waldorf-inspired hybrid program makes sense for your family?

1.      When the teacher’s delivery of instruction is LIVE and interactive, “teaching the children in front of them.” Does your students need constructive feedback from a Waldorf-trained teacher? Does your students thrive on interaction with peers? Do you see the value in being a part of student, parent, and/or whole-program communities?

2.      When grownups need help planning and instructing, but still want to play a significant role in the homeschooling. When you’ve decided homeschooling is the best choice for your family and you desire an experienced Waldorf teacher to support the family. This may be the case for families new to Waldorf, families with multiple students, families with working grownups, or families who just want the partnership with a Waldorf-trained teacher.

3.      When a brick-and-mortar Waldorf school is not an option physically, financially, or for other reasons. Many students live in cities where there are no Waldorf schools. The internet allows Lotus & Ivy to bring Waldorf-trained teachers and students from around the globe together. We keep our tuition and class size low to maintain affordability and provide more chances for children to participate in his/her class community.

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, said, “Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility—these three forces are the very nerve of education.” At Lotus & Ivy, we take these words to heart, infusing each our lessons with developmental content that reaches the child’s head through the work he/she does with the heart and the hands. Online learning can be as impactful, even more so in some situations, because of the way Lotus & Ivy brings together different geographical areas, origins, and cultures. Lotus & Ivy teachers are not only experts in the area of Waldorf pedagogy, they also bring this world of magical knowledge to life via small, LIVE, online, and interactive classes.

Is it trendy to want the best educational experience for your child?

When selecting an online Waldorf-inspired hybrid program, here are some things to consider:

·        Are the classes LIVE and are the teachers and students interacting in real time? Can students ask questions, laugh with their peers, and does the teacher have the opportunity to build a classroom community? Will my child be able to interact with their peers or just see them on a screen?

·        Are the teachers experienced and trained by an AWSNA-recognized Waldorf teacher training program?

•       Is the curriculum is developed by Waldorf teachers?

·        Does the program have equal focus on math and science as it does on humanities and language arts?

·        Are the teachers and staff available to the family for support and questions outside of class time?

·        Are parent education opportunities available? Is there access to a real person via phone, when you need them?

·        Do the teachers and staff have kind and loving dispositions paired with intelligence and passion for Waldorf education and their specialized grades/subjects?

•       Does the program value its teachers and pay them accordingly?

·        Is screen time carefully considered to foster optimal engagement? Do students look forward to attending class?

·        Are ALL lesson plans are provided by the program for a complete block or class? Is this a program where parents become a part of the learning process without the stress of planning so they may enjoy their child’s wonderment?

•       Is class size small for optimal connection with teachers and peers?

·        Do the program directors realize the importance of diversity and inclusion and the evolving Waldorf curriculum to reflect all children and to meet the needs of the 21st century?

·        Is the program International? Where do the teachers and students live? The makeup of a class community makes for a more diverse learning environment.

•       Is festival life supported through program events for the entire program community?

Making decisions about your child’s education may not be easy. Lotus & Ivy founders, Sarah Barrett and Heather Parrish, took all of these ideals into consideration when developing the Lotus & Ivy concept and when hiring all of Lotus & Ivy’s teachers. They know that online schooling is a wave of the future, not just a trend. Technology is taking Waldorf education places it has never been before. Lotus & Ivy is at the forefront of the evolution of homeschooling. Being a part of the Lotus & Ivy family means being a part of an International community of lifetime learners.

Lotus & Ivy Kindergarten Teacher, Ms. Smith, shares her expertise from over 17 years in the Waldorf Kindergarten.

It is important for parents to observe the developmental milestones of their children in early childhood. Children have incredibly malleable brains during early childhood. Waiting until a challenge is identified in grade school often means habits have become ingrained and are much more challenging to transform.

Below is a list of developmental milestones for kindergarten. It is best not to present this as a test for your child. Instead, spend some time having fun with your child while observing these skills. Try not to call attention to their actions as you watch their movements. It may take you multiple days to complete your observations. Remember, this is only a snapshot of your child’s developmental skills AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME. I implore you not to fret if your child cannot complete this list successfully yet.

By the time your child enters Grade 1, most of the skills on this list should be met, but in the meantime, having an idea of what they can/cannot do offers you a plan for additional activities that can support their development as they mature. In the Lotus & Ivy Kindergarten class, we incorporate activities throughout the year to prepare the child for meeting these critical milestones. For more about the Lotus & Ivy Kindergarten class, please visit: Kindergarten Class — Lotus & Ivy (lotusandivy.com)

Developmental Milestones for the Kindergarten Child: 

• Skip (How many skips? Does your child use alternating feet or gallop with only one forward-moving foot?)

• Balance on one foot while standing still (Which foot for how many seconds, 3 of 5 times?)

• Hop on one foot (How many hops, which foot 3 of 5 times?)

• Kick a ball (Which foot in 7 of 10 kicks? Aim the ball toward different sides each time.)

• When climbing/descending stairs, which foot automatically takes the first step?

• Crawl (Are arms and legs alternating, or does your child crawl with the arm/leg on the same side?)

• Ride a bike (With training wheels or without?)

• Jump rope (How many jumps? Are feet together or landing at different times?)

• Cross the monkey bars (How many bars?)

• Ties a knot

• Ties shoelaces into a bow

• Zips a coat (including engaging the zipper initially)

• Buttons a shirt with multiple buttons

• Coloring/drawing (Which hand is used?)

• Which hand is used with a fork/spoon?

• Cut a paper shape with scissors (Which hand is used?)

• Which ear does your child use when talking on the phone? (Please observe this multiple times, but not in a single setting. Instead, try handing the phone to different hands each time.)

• Which eye does your child use when looking through a kaleidoscope or a peephole? (Please observe this multiple times, but not in a single setting. Try handing the kaleidoscope to different hands each time.)

What is your child’s Dominance?        Hand R/L        Foot R/L        Eye R/L        Ear R/L

Parents should familiarize themselves with midline crossing to help their children meet their developmental milestones. 

“Midline Crossing” may be a new term for some parents. Still, it is vital to weave crossing movement into your child’s daily routine to support brain development, balance, and coordination, essential for future academics. For example, perhaps you could try to include midline crossing when you are doing circle, beanbag play, game movement, and even fingerplay activities by including movements through the various planes of space: left/right, forward/backward, up/down.

If you notice during this observation that your child is struggling to cross the midline, I encourage you to identify ways to support your child’s development now. Here is more information about midline crossing that I have compiled from many online sources.  

Importance of Midline Crossing

“Crossing the midline activities develops a child’s gross motor skills such as coordination and balance. Gross motor development is also essential to maintain a child’s development with their peers. A child’s poor gross motor skills can also negatively impact their attention and working memory. For example, the child can be too preoccupied coordinating themselves to retain the information they need in their working memory. Attention and working memory are necessary for completing the more complex activities of daily living, such as dressing or writing (e.g., knowing the sequences of dressing themselves or having enough attention to complete a writing task). Therefore, therapists incorporate crossing the midline activities to address numerous avenues of up-skilling and learning for the children.”

“When children are not able to easily cross the midline, learning to write becomes a struggle (especially if your child exhibits ambidextrous writing tendencies). Struggle happens because they now have two less skilled hands rather than one stronger, dominant hand. Difficulty crossing the midline can also impact reading, writing, and language. When children have difficulty visually tracking moving objects from one side to the other, it delays their reading ability. Being able to track left to right is a critical skill when reading.”

 Necessary building blocks for crossing the midline:

• Bilateral integration—This is using both sides of the body at the same time.

• Core strength—The muscles of the trunk are needed to stabilize your child’s body so that they can use their arms and legs with control.

• Trunk rotation—This allows for fluid body movement without the need to continually reposition the body to accomplish a seated task.

• Hand dominance—This allows advanced movement across the midline for tasks such as writing.

• Planning and sequencing—This is the ability to complete multi-step skills.

• Body awareness/sensation—Information from the body’s joints and muscles tells the brain about the body’s position.

 If your child has problems crossing the midline, you might see:

• Swapping hands when doing activities, e.g., drawing/painting, etc.

• Delayed hand dominance – Using their left hand for activities on the left and right hand for activities on the right, with no crossing over.

• Rotating their body rather than reaching across the imaginary midline.

• Having difficulty visually tracking an object – i.e., following text when reading.

• Having difficulty with complex gross motor skills –jumping jacks, skipping.

• Having difficulty learning to tie shoelaces.

 What you can do to help your child to cross the midline:

Encourage your child to use their two-handed skills, ex. dressing, catching a ball, threading beads, riding a bike.

• Help your child strengthen their core – ex. playing “row, row, row your boat”; doing yoga; riding a balance bike; swimming; crossing the monkey bars.

• Integrate crossing the midline while doing daily activities—ex. dressing, bathing, sweeping, raking, dusting, wiping tables, etc.

 Some activities that you can do with your child to help cross the midline:

• Craft activities – threading beads, painting, drawing, molding with play dough, finger knitting

• Finger puppets – taking puppets on/off using the other hand

• Playing with stickers—taking stickers off body parts on the right side using the left hand and taking stickers off body parts on the left side using the right hand.

• Playing musical instruments

• Marching games/yoga

• Playing Twister and Simon Says using specific hands and feet

• Crossing one foot over the other while walking sideways (dancing the Grape Vine)

• Touching elbows to opposite knees (when standing, this activity helps with balance as well as midline crossing)

• Hand clapping games – Patty Cake, Sailor Went to Sea/Sea/Sea, Miss Mary Mack

• Passing bean bags or balls from hand to hand

• Popping bubbles on opposite of body

• Placing utensils on the opposite side of the plate/bowl, so they have to reach over to use them

• Placing shoes on the floor on the wrong side of your child’s body, so when sitting, they have to reach over to pick up the shoes.

• Scooping toys from the floor on one side of the body and putting them into a bucket on the opposite side of the body.

• Playing balloon tennis while holding onto the racquet with both hands

• Clipping clothespins to your child’s shirt (especially the sleeves) and having your child remove them.

 When to get help: 

• If your child has difficulty with age-appropriate skills, i.e., buttoning buttons, threading beads, using scissors.

• If your child has not developed dominance by 3-4 years of age.

• If your child swaps hands when writing/drawing, i.e., cannot cross their hand over the midline to draw/write on the far most left/right side of the paper.

• If your child has difficulty visually tracking objects across the midline.

• If your child has difficulty with two-handed gross motor skills, ex. hitting a baseball and other ball skills.

Helpful articles to learn more about midlines:

https://www.centreofmovement.com.au/what-is-midline-and-why-is-crossing-the-midline-important-for-your-childs-brain-development/

https://therapiesforkids.com.au/importance-of-crossing-the-midline/

https://thethinksunpreschool.com/blog/2018/03/14/what-is-crossing-the-mid-line-and-why-is-it-so-important/

https://www.abcpediatrictherapy.com/the-importance-of-crossing-midline-in-children/

https://www.readingllcenter.com/why-is-crossing-midline-so-important/

Karen Smith, Lotus & Ivy Kindergarten Class Teacher

In 1999, Karen was smitten with Waldorf education the moment she walked into her four-year-old daughter's pre-school kindergarten class at The Waldorf School of Atlanta. The following year, Karen joined the WSA faculty as kindergarten assistant, and in 2001 she stepped forward to become a lead teacher in the kindergarten. She earned her Waldorf Early Childhood Teaching Certificate at Sunbridge College in New York, and she spent almost 17 years in the classroom guiding, laughing, and singing with her treasured students. She believes Waldorf education is able to meet the ever-changing needs of young children by honoring the unique gifts of each student.

Karen was born to older parents who took an early retirement just after her birth. With a 16-foot travel trailer hitched to the back of their car, the family drove across the country for two years, finally settling in rural Mississippi to live next door to her grandparents. Karen's family continued their love of travel, and they regularly enjoyed extended trips in their camper RV exploring the national parks of the West and Midwest. Telling stories, moving to music, making crafts, baking, and painting were activities that filled her life as a child. Although Karen didn’t have a Waldorf educational experience herself, living a simple childhood with much time spent outdoors filled her heart with fond memories and adventurous stories!

Before she discovered Waldorf, Karen attended Mississippi State University and graduated with a degree in graphic design. After moving to Atlanta, she worked at Turner Publishing for the next six years designing books of all kinds. She’s kept her hand in graphic design throughout her life, and after leaving her kindergarten classroom in 2017 for health reasons, she continues to help WSA with social media and occasional design projects.

Karen and her husband have two daughters who both live nearby in the Atlanta area. Her older daughter and her husband bestowed the title of grandmother on Karen, and she now has three precious grandchildren. Her younger daughter graduated from 8th grade at WSA, from 12th grade at Academe of the Oaks, Atlanta’s Waldorf high school, and recently from Auburn University where she studied Industrial Design.

These days, Karen’s two beloved dachshunds keep her chuckling, and she has noticed that Oscar and Remy's antics often remind her of exuberant kindergarten children! She spends quite a bit of time in her backyard garden growing vegetables, in her kitchen baking sourdough bread, and in her front yard greeting neighbors who’ve stopped by to claim a book at the “Little Free Library” she maintains.

By experiencing the rhythm of the seasons, celebrating simple traditions, observing nature’s quieter revelations, and enjoying the family-like feeling of a play-based kindergarten, Waldorf education offers the ideal platform for young children to build foundational skills that will help them evolve into well-rounded individuals. Karen is delighted to bring her genuine interest in the world around us to her online students in ways that create beauty and preserve their wide-eyed sense of wonder. She also feels it is equally important to work with parents and provide them with the same nurturing, guidance, and warmth as the children.

by Mary Jo AbiNader. Lotus & Ivy Class 3 Main Lesson, Class 3 Math, and Classes 1-8 Pentatonic Flute and Recorder Teacher

What are we talking about in Waldorf Education when we talk about rhythm?  This is a question that often comes up and it becomes even more important for us at Lotus & Ivy with the consideration of families in different time zones and schedules.  My experience comes from teaching in brick and mortar Waldorf schools for 17 years. I understand that each family will need to find a rhythm that works well, considering the differing ages of children in your household, your time zone and your extra curricular activities that happen at a fixed time of day.  So let’s go deeper into the question.  Rudolf Steiner tells educators that we are tasked with teaching children two things, 1) how to sleep and 2) how to breathe.  

When we look at nature, we can see sleeping and breathing in many instances.  Look at the four seasons, cycling around, giving the earth rest and rejuvenation during the winter, while the plant life is active underground.  Look at day and night.  For the human being, the night time when we are asleep is a time for healing sickness, rejuvenation, digesting the events and emotions of our day and in essence, an extremely important part of conceptualizing what we learn.  Sleeping is letting it go, resting.  In school, we experience this rest in a big way. Over the summertime,  children are not in school and almost forget all about numbers, or spelling.  Yet when we create the rhythm again in September, the effort that it takes to recall what we know creates a space where what has been learned is imprinted into the memory, actually right into the cells in the limbs.  And sometimes it does take effort! Building the rhythm of your school week will support your child’s effort in remembering what they already know.

Breathing in and out, as you know, is crucial for our survival.  Yet breathing can refer to more than bringing air into the lungs and letting it out again.  There are activities that are inbreath.  These activities require focus and clarity.  You can see it when your child is focusing on a math problem, or concentrating while writing an essay. They lean in and become still.  Depending on your child’s age, this kind of focus and concentration can only last for a while before they get tired or distracted.  Then your child might need an outbreath.  Outbreath activities allow us to stretch and broaden our capacities of focus and concentration.  Some outbreath activities include artistic activities, nature, singing, playing an instrument, gardening and just plain recess.   These can provide a balance and a breathing to other more inbreath activities.  However, a child is rarely served by “just going crazy” or being overstimulated.  This is different from the healthy inbreath and outbreath we try to create each day.

In general, in a Waldorf School, the daily schedule attempts to create a balance between inbreath and outbreath.  This creates the rhythm of the day. Usually there is the period in the morning for more inbreath lessons, especially the main lesson and afternoons are balanced between artistic, craft and subject lessons. Actually, teachers design each lesson with a balance between inbreath and outbreath as well.  After a verse or bonding activity, each lesson may contain movement, group work and individual work. 

Your class teacher may offer additional activities such as crafts, field trip suggestions and homework to spread out over your week to create the balance.  You may be signed up for homeschooling group activities as well. Now how can you create this balance of inbreath and outbreath weaving your family activities with Lotus & Ivy’s Zoom schedule?  Good Question!  Keep observing your children for fatigue or interest and shift your activity accordingly.  Know that they may need a shift to rejuvenate or reset from overwhelm or just need a break.  In my teaching experience, I did not always have the flexibility to follow a specific child’s need to transition slower, since I was also on a whole school schedule and needed to move along with the community.  However, some children do need a gentle nudge to develop their stamina and grow their ability to participate.  Try to find that nudge to increase your child’s ability to concentrate and focus for longer periods of time.  They may be uncomfortable at first but will soon develop increased capacity.

I have put our Lotus & Ivy School Zoom schedule in a chart, one for Eastern Time Zone and one for Western Time Zone. I’ve suggested activities to surround that schedule that might help you develop a schedule that works for your family.  Feel free to recreate a chart with your own family activities in there as well. 

As homeschoolers it is great to be able to slow down the schedule and have lots of space between activities.  It is still very important, however, to have a consistent schedule that you and your children can rely on.  There is comfort and safety in knowing what to expect.  We can develop the flexibility for things to change, once we have that feeling of being able to rely on the consistency around us.  The most success in whatever happens in your day is based on observation. 

“Where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? The children themselves are this book. We should not learn to teach out of any book other than the one lying open before us and consisting of the children themselves.”

― Rudolf Steiner, Kingdom of Childhood

Let us know how your routines and rhythms are shaping up over the next few weeks. Happy Breathing and Sleeping!

About Mary Jo AbiNader

Mary Jo AbiNader’s journey as a Waldorf teacher began in 2002.  She remembers her first class of 30 students so well in those beginning days of Class 1 in Portland, Oregon.  Those children are now grown, just about 24 years old and doing marvelous things out in the world.  That class went on to high school the same year that Ms. AbiNader’s daughter finished high school and went to college.  Ms. AbiNader then went for an adventure in Hawaii at the Honolulu Waldorf School bringing her class from Class 2 through to Class 8. These students are Juniors in High School now and keeping in touch has been awesome to see how they are taking their strengths from their Waldorf Education and applying them in High School through perseverance, creativity, initiative and courage. Ms. AbiNader returned to Portland, Oregon to teach Class 1 and 2, and now looks forward to continuing in Class 3 with a new online class with Lotus & Ivy.  

Prior to her Waldorf teacher training certification at Rudolf Steiner College, and working towards a Masters of Arts in Human Development from St. Mary’s University, Ms. AbiNader earned a BA in Theater Education, taught theater arts, creative dramatics and directed plays and built curriculum with teachers in public schools to integrate music, art and drama in the classroom—for a total of 18 years in Washington, D.C. and the Greater Portland, Oregon area.  This background has brought a richness into her Waldorf classroom over the years.  Ms. AbiNader continues to study to stay connected to new trends in education and deepen her understanding of The Waldorf Pedagogy.  She is currently working toward a certificate in Educational Support from Association for Healing Education with the intent of understanding and supporting the needs of all children, especially as we attempt to recover from the last year of pandemic stress and uncertainty.  Social-emotional learning can be supported through the arts and storytelling. 

Ms. AbiNader’s daughter lives and works in the Portland area, having been bolstered by her strong education in Waldorf kindergarten through Class 12.  Ms. AbiNader enjoyed the sunshine and beaches while living in Hawaii, and here in Portland, her loves include biking, bookstores and hiking through the forest.