Online Teacher Training

Zac is recovering from the flu and I'm (hopefully) making sure I don't get it by boosting my immune system, drinking fluids, and getting lots of rest. Today was a relaxing and easy day. We started our new Sunday afternoon routine, Handwork Hangouts, which is an open invitation window from 1 - 4:30 for my friends to come and bring their handwork projects and just work side by side on whatever they are doing. Kids who want to learn handwork can also come and I can teach them. Today's kid session consisted of reading Extra Yarn, learning finger knitting (Leah told us a story about the naughty sheep at her dad's house jumping repeatedly over the hog fence and escaping into the field of fresh green grass, which went perfectly with the finger knitting lesson), practicing finger string games from Finger Strings: A Book of Cat's Cradles and String Figures (Necklace Link on page 22 is a nice easy one to start), and doing paper weaving. This was with a seven year old.

I keep my 12 x 12 cardstock and colored papers for paper weaving in a fabulous vintage turquoise metal record album carrying case, which works perfectly. It is easy for me to grab it when it's time for this craft. I use my Fiskars 15 Inch Portable Rotary Paper Trimmer to cut the paper.

Paton's Classic Wool Roving Yarn

Another quiet activity slated for today is my online teacher training. The internet makes so much Waldorf information available; it's wonderful! Today I watched one of the sessions (Year 1, Session 2, "Peppermint and Daisy") of Learning the Language of Healing Plants, a course I'm taking from PAAM. There are only two live sessions remaining for Year 2 (Feb 1st and Mar 1st), but all of the old session recordings are available for viewing on Vimeo.

We are working with Markus Sommer's book Healing Plants: Herbal Remedies from Traditional to Anthroposophical Medicine.

I'm also working today on Suzanne Down's online course "Walkabout Tales: 10 Day Children’s Story Writing Challenge Course." Our group is on day 2 of this brand-new course. Upon completion I will be transferring both of these courses in as electives in my Waldorf teacher training through the Sophia Institute. It's incredible that you can get your Waldorf teacher training -- for Early Childhood or the Grades -- now completely online! Nowadays you can even get a full Eurythmy curriculum online with Cynthia Hoven! When I was a brand-new Waldorf mom back in 2005, none of these things were possible.

This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!