Anthroposophy.org

Eastern Region events calendar

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This is an amazing resource; definitely something to bookmark on your computer if you're interested in pursuing a study of anthroposophy further!

Waldorf Kindergarten Curriculum - Cheap!

When people are starting out with Waldorf they are often overwhelmed at the apparent cost of it all. If you are trying to implement a Waldorf kindy "curric" -- remember, a Waldorf kindy is simply trying to recreate the home environment -- and you have a tight budget, here's what I recommend:

• 1. FREE - Read The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy by Rudolf Steiner. This will explain WHY the kindergarten curriculum is the way it is. If you don't like what he has to say, stop here. Waldorf isn't a good fit for your family. May as well get that figured out right off the bat!

• 2. FREE - Join the Waldorf Today weekly newsletter. Join Suzanne Down's Juniper Tree Puppets monthly newsletter. Join Marsha Johnson's waldorfhomeeducators Yahoo group. She has a lot of helpful files and concrete advice.

• 3. FREE - Read back issues of the Waldorf Clearing House Newsletter -- a newsletter TO and FROM Waldorf teachers. Spring 1978 focused on preschool/kindy. What you'll find there is what you would find in any authentic Waldorf curriculum for that age. NO day to day specific suggestions. NO lesson plans.

4. If you want some more specific suggestions on what to do with your child, this is where I recommend some titles.


out of print - available used from $8.89



$23.50


$17.10

That comes to $50.00, not including shipping.

If you can go a little higher than that, and you want more support for creating rhythms (both daily rhythms and seasonal rhythms), I suggest adding on:

$13.18


$23.40

Rah, Rah, Radishes!

I'm taking the first course for my School Librarianship certification, Literature for Children.  This first assignment is to read 21-30 current (within the past four years) picture books and create annotations for them.  The annotation is the short blurb that makes you want to read the book but doesn't give away the ending.  It's a challenge for me to find recent books, because I tend to hang on to old favorites.  But, I have my pile and I'm ready to dive in!

Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant

The first thing I thought of with this book is how cool it would be to do papermaking with vegetables with the kids (The Gourmet Paper Maker by Ellaraine Lockie comes to mind) and then have a special display in the library of great picture books about vegetables. Or, if you're a homeschooler, you could go to the library and ask the librarian for recommendations and check out a whole bunch of books.

Here's a start to a list like that; feel free to share!

More thoughts (and if I spend an hour being inspired by every book in my box, I'll never get my homework done in time...)

Her website is here: http://www.aprilsayre.com.

She also did a companion book on fruits called Go, Go, Grapes!: A Fruit Chant

This would be fun for older kids to go into art lessons like watercolor paintings or sketching veggies. We are doing a residency with a local artist as part of our Local Lunches cooking lessons where we photograph the produce and then will make oversized paintings that celebrate their colors and textures. This book is a great intro to a concept like that! Someone also does funny art where veggies are made into animals... I have to see if I can find it. Ah! Here it is.

Of course, then you could always go in the direction of Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo...

The Chisel-Tooth Tribe

Just updated the page on Class 4 with a great recommendation for a read-aloud for the Zoology MLB!

Wilfrid Swancourt Bronson also wrote lots of other well-researched and accessible books, including volumes on Cats, Goats, Coyotes, Grasshoppers, and Ants.