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alexandrahaines-blog · 7 years ago

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Early Childhood Education

PURPOSE

Discuss educational approaches for children 0 to 3 years.

Define key concepts and educational styles.

Learn age appropriate places to push and those to leave to later.

Understand our own goals for our children.

This is NOT to discuss or explain parenting methods. That's a whole different ball game.

POSSIBLE GOALS FOR OUR CHILDREN

Raise a resilient child, that sees love and good in the world. Capable of creative thought, problem solving, and empathy towards others. A child with self-discipline and character.

This is for you to add to and modify for your own goals.

WHY DID I DO THIS

One, I knew nothing about preschool. Is it even necessary? (Yes. Because it happens during a key window for child socialization. Although I don’t have a study for that.) Terms were being thrown around at preschools I toured and I just smiled and nodded because I had no idea what they meant. Nor could I tour a preschool and see whether they were actually implementing what they said they were doing (often they aren’t).

Financial note: The local Waldorf school is twice as expensive as the Montessori school. Cal Tech is $300 more than Montessori. The Montessori school is $300 more than the next school option. Often there are fantastic, cheaper preschools but you gotta know what to look for.

Two, my child was hitting milestones almost every two weeks. I’d look at my kid and think, you just changed. I wanted to make sure that I was keeping up with him. The more I research the more I am learning about how much a teacher I have the opportunity to be for my child, and what it can mean to parent.

Three, I knew nothing about preschool. (Yup. Same as number one, but from a different perspective.) I knew nothing about schools other than what I experienced and I did pretty well. I didn’t go to preschool. I didn’t understand the criticisms of a classroom where children sit and watch the teacher and copy work all day. After my research it seems that kids become disengaged, even if they do well on grades, because they don’t have open time to do their own research.

LAUNCH POINT

Andy and Marisa Baker toured the CalTech preschool and were in love with it. It’s a highly rated preschool without a lot of peers. Also, it is expensive and they are booked. This is literally a preschool you have to be on a waiting list from birth to get into. So I looked at their approach and jumped from there. I have bolded the subjects I have been studying. Not on here is Waldorf, which I have added below. Here it is:

"The Children’s Center uses a constructivist approach, that is children constructing knowledge based on real experiences, inspired by other various educational approaches such as the Project Approach, Emergent Curriculum, Maria Montessori’s Practical Life and Game Shelf, Reggio Emilia, and Froebel Gifts to build a learning environment that tells children they are respected, trusted, capable, and competent in their own learning. In whole, our goal is to emphasize and nurture the process, not the product. Our inquiry-based curriculum can last anywhere from two months to a year. We use broad science concepts such as form and function, change, systems and interaction, stability, force and motion, simple machines, cause and effect, just to name a few, to build our curriculum around."

https://ccc.caltech.edu/about/curriculum/

TERMS *from Launch Point above in alphabetical order and some others

Constructivist

constructing knowledge based on real experiences

Froebel Gifts

Developed in the early 1800's by Friedrich Froebel, inventor of Kindergarten, the gifts are playthings that were both given the the child and also function as tools for adults to observe the innate human "gifts" each child posseses from birth. Froebel concluded that play is not idle behavior but a biological imperative to discover how things work. The original gifts are yarn balls, spheres, cylinders, cubes, blocks and rectangles.

http://www.froebelgifts.com/

Loose Parts, The Theory of

This is the idea that once someone imagines and makes an environment or toy the creative process is over. How you react to and within that building or with that farm house toy is predetermined by the designers. The theory of loose parts suggests providing loose parts for children to create their own toys and environments. Loose parts could be a pile of rocks, a bin of paper towel rolls, clips and pieces of fabric and rope to make tents and room divisions. By providing loose parts you are imparting to the users that their imagination and creativity are more important than someone else's. Interesting note on this, there was a study about why so many Barbies were torn apart and mutilated by children, and the conclusion was that as a toy it was too complete. There was nothing for the child to do with the toy that wasn't pre-determined by the toy itself - ie you change her clothes, you pose her, and that's it.

The Theory of Loose Parts isn't too long of a paper, and is an interesting read. https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/SDEC/article/view/1204/1171

Practical Life Shelf and Game Shelf *file under Montessori

"A shelf with activities that provide purposeful activity, develop motor control and coordination, develop independence, concentration, and a sense of responsibility. The Practical Life exercises are organized into three main areas: care of the person, care of the environment, and grace and courtesy. Such as dressing frames to introduce such skills as buttoning, zipping, snapping, and tying. Other activities such as hand washing, baby doll washing, and manicuring nails are also consider caring for the person. Under the area of, caring for the environment, are exercises such as pouring, spooning, sweeping, cloth folding, dish washing, and taking care of animals and plants. Exercises in grace and courtesy consist of things such as walking, sitting, greeting others, manners (please, thank you, and "May I") how to interrupt a teacher or another child ("Excuse me" and tapping a teacher on the shoulder and waiting to be responded to), passing objects, following directions, how to open and close a door, and control of body through silence games."

http://www.justmontessori.com/practical-life/

So, this looks like a well organized shelf with different objects in baskets. Say for snack time there is a child size snack table and chair. Next to that is a shelf with the placemat (with outlines drawn on it for the cup, plate and fork), napkin, cup, plate, utensils, and a small pitcher. All the items are glass or porcelain - no plastic. The consequences are real for throwing a glass. All the items are lined up sequentially left to right, just like reading. The child is taught and directed to move through each step of setting the table. A small amount of water is put in a miniature pitcher for the child to pour. Every step is demonstrated - two hands on the plate with thumbs on top, pitcher and glass held with two hands. A small sponge is also on the shelf for the child to wipe up spills. The child is given the snack and then (and this is another activity) scrape the plate clean into a receptacle, wash the dishes, dry them and put them on the rack. A child's size broom and dustpan are provided for the child to clean the floor. (Montessori From the Start, p 104)

The kid does not magical get this. Each part may be added one at a time, with weeks in between as the child explores and then learns discipline.

A playful shelf game might be a basket with identical cars in different colors. You direct the child through naming the colors and handing them to you. Another basket might have all red vehicles and you direct the child through naming red truck, red car, red bicycle.

Montessori

An educational approach where children are in mixed age classrooms. Children get to learn from the older kids, and then in turn, get to become 'experts' teaching the younger kids. During the day there is individual student choice of activities with uninterrupted blocks of work time. Children can chose a practical life or game activity, say playing with sand paper letters, or drawing inside a solid outline, to work on by themselves. I visited a true Montessori classroom (buyer beware! Montessori did not trademark her name or method. Lots of schools call themselves Montessori, but aren't. You have to check the affiliations), and it was creepily quiet. The kids were competent and well behaved, though, and I did fall in love with the school.

Montessori is a discovery or constructionist model. There is a heavy emphasis on environment with items in natural materials, accessible to the children, and organized by subject. The independence of each child is strived for while children learn to set up their own snacks, clean up after themselves and do things for themselves. The environment is tailored to this. You won't find copies of the real thing, so there isn't even a play kitchen. There are real shelves with kitchen items on it that are at the child's height.

There is an absence of creative play, and a focus on real items that are used in real settings.

Children learn from their senses, particularly from the hands, so "nothing should be given to the brain that is not first given to the hand [...] abstract ideas and information of every possible kind should be given to the young child first in concrete form to be held, discovered, and explored." (Montessori From the Start, p3) Children have a way of absorbing the environment simple by existing within it.

Problematic for me is the idea in Montessori education that children 0-6 years old have no imagination. Instead, children play pretend about real items and real life. They act out what is happening in the real world, ie playing truck driver, or pretending mud pies are pies. This method believes that since children this age can't think abstractly or create rules any imaginative ideas are from an adult imagination and are therefore harmful because it does not relate to what the child needs to learn. So any imaginative books or play about say, dragons, is harmful, as are dolls like red bears or Elmo, because these are not real things that relate to the real world.

Non-Violence

When conflict arises, time-outs are not given. Instead of a punishment system where one child is labeled ‘good’ or ‘victim’ and the other child ‘bad,’ an adult steps in and talks through what is happening, why, and how the children feel about it. This process may end up with a child deciding they need personal space or downtime and taking a rest in a stimulation-free area.

Play Based

This means that in preschool the kids just play. Children have their own innate desire to learn and that they are constantly setting up experiments in the world and discovering new things. At the preschool age children are learning about social interactions through play.

Project Approach

The Project Approach refers to a set of teaching strategies that enable teachers to guide students through in-depth studies of real-world topics. A project, by definition, is an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic worthy of a student's attention and effort. So there might be a project block lasting a day/week/months on how leaves change color, or how to design a city, or how sea stars (formally known as star fish) regrow arms.

Reggio Emilia

'It is a pedagogy described as student-centered and constructivist that utilizes self-directed, experiential learning in relationship-driven environments.' Simple, right?

So you have a teacher that is involved with the kids listening to what their interests are. The teacher sets up 'provocations' for the students to spark a project or interest. It may be a bug station that the teacher creates and leaves out for the children to find and discover on their own. It may be a pile of loose parts and the teacher watches what kind of things the students start to build on their own. The teacher continues to document how the students are working together, what they are saying to each other, what direction they are taking their ideas, and then tries to make this clear to the students and reflect their learning process back to them with documentation posters. These posters are more than just pictures of what the kids are doing, and attempt to show how the kids are thinking. The children are eventually led to work together on long term, large scale projects.

In addition to the teacher there is an art teacher, called an atelierista, who helps the children learn how to work with different art mediums. All art mediums are seen as a language and not as a finished product that is owned by the individual. Art can be used and altered by other children to further the goals of the group. In this approach kids may learn about clay by playing with clay, sometimes for weeks, without being led to create a finished product, and definitely not a finished product of an adult’s design.

Then as kids begin to work on a project about bugs, for instance, maybe they draw bugs one day, model them in clay another and then paint pictures of bugs in color. When one child paints a bug another child could add their own ideas to the painting, as in an older child drawing eyes onto a bug. The teacher does not interfere to 'save' the original child's drawing of a bug because this behavior is considered the children exploring an idea with painting going back and forth just as in a verbal conversation. The teacher is also looking for changes in the child’s representation of the bugs. Yesterday you drew a red bug, why is the bug yellow today? These questions are used by the teacher to understand how the child is adding onto their knowledge of bugs, and then used in documenting learning back to the children.

Sensory Based

Education based on relating to the senses - hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and touching. Montessori said nothing enters the child’s mind that doesn’t first pass through the hand. This means that at the young age, children can only learn through their senses, so use that to the child’s advantage.

Waldorf

Waldorf emphasizes the role of imagination in learning. Waldorf seems to be about a magical childhood. They talk about teaching the whole child, particularly to integrate the intellectual, practical, and artistic development of kids. There is an awareness that children's brains develop from the brain stem, then the limbic system, and then the neocortex. Pushing things like reading and math before the age of seven is discouraged as it forces rigidity in the two lower levels thereby stunting creativity later in life.

Waldorf and Montessori merge where they try to teach children with their hands. There is a big emphasis on finger games, reinforcing language through poetry and rhymes with moving your hands - think Itsy Bitsy Spider. This idea is reinforced by the knowledge that humans have huge amounts of nerve endings in their fingers and getting the fingers working with the brain aids learning.

Routine is very important and an emphasis on doing home arts that the child can mimic like sweeping, hand washing dishes, sewing, kneading bread.

Stages of Waldorf education start with young children doing practical, hands on activity and creative play; to elementary education which focuses on developing artistic expression and social capacities; and to secondary education which focuses on developing critical reasoning and empathic understanding. Children stay with the same teacher from preschool to grade 8. Other schools have adopted this idea and call it 'pulsing,' but usually only do three grades at a time.

Waldorf for me is very pagan with an emphasis on celebrating the cycles and festivals of the year, creating routines throughout the week and year. They suggest for young children books focused on nature and social groups, rather than a single protagonist. So books on fairies and gnomes in the forest fit the bill, think Smurfs.

Teaching of all subjects relies on stories rather than rote memorization to teach concepts. An example would be the story of Noisy Ned (N) that you think would stop talking when the King (K) showed up, but Ned got Nervous and just talked louder. That's why when you see a word like Knight, the K is silent.

The Seven Lively Arts are a big part of Waldorf and are Movement, Speech, Drama, Music, Modelling, Drawing, Painting and the last art which is so important it is on it's own, Storytelling. Not reading, Storytelling.

If you don’t understand why I fell in love with Waldorf, just search that term on Pinterest. It looks like the most ethereal, beautiful, teaching method. Like a fairy or gnome school in the heart of a lush forest.

Waldorf comes under education criticism because for a long time in school they don’t focus on exactness and rigidity. From (very) limited studies Waldorf graduates test higher in science, but lower in math than traditional education. After a slow start in reading (after age seven) Waldorf kids catch up and tend to have more creative essays.

MY QUICK SUMMARY OF TEACHING METHODS

At the end of the day Waldorf and Montessori are very similar - Let children learn by repetition and imitation of real work that is in an orderly flow or schedule in a beautiful environment with natural materials. Montessori is more immediately accessible for the work they are talking about isn’t kneading bread, or crocheting Christmas presents, or darning socks like in Waldorf, but work most of us do during the day like putting on our shoes, pouring ourself some water, and wiping the table. Whatever the tasks, teaching requires consistent hands on cooperation with your child and if done lovingly, without an attachment to an end result, seems to only be helpful. You’ll win parenting!

Reggio speaks to the idea that our children are already scientists exploring the world with original research. Reggio Emilia asks us to join them in their open ended research by setting up things for them to explore, asking them questions, and without an attachment to an end result or ‘right’ answer, encourage their exploring. It asks us to observe how they are making deductions from their observations, augmenting their understanding of the world, and changing their minds.

STAGES AND AGES IN THE BUSBY HOUSE

0-6 months

TOYS

Balls, spheroids with holes or tension pieces

https://www.manhattantoy.com/products/skwish-classic

Teething Rings and Rattles

Books with a single focused picture on each page, pictures of babies, black and white

Mirror at baby level

Artwork with strong contrasts

Baby Floor Gym

A Beach ball half inflated so they can grab onto it

ACTIVITIES

Languages - this is the time to introduce multiple languages!

By 6 months "infants have already activated the neural structures for identifying the phonemes of the language surrounding them, and those for other languages are weakening." (Montessori from the Start, p 164)

Begin solid food 4-6 months

Singing and clapping

Some sign language

Physical singing games - Ika Bicka, Slowly Slowly, This is the Way the Cowboy Rides

http://store.barefootbooks.com/mother-goose-remembers.html

https://www.amazon.com/Playtime-Rhymes-Little-People-HC/dp/184686156X

BOOKS

RIE book (Resources for Infant Educarers) Your Self Confident Baby Magda Gerber

Simplicity Parenting Kim John Payne

You Are Your Child's First Teacher Rahima Baldwin Dancy

MY TAKE

What I learned... I bought a lot of toys and books for him and now that I've read Simplicity Parenting I probably would have treated myself to something. Adults need variety, babies need consistency. Also, not all books are created equally. Read them first and make sure they make sense for a baby.

6-12 months old

TOYS

Walker

We splurged on Pat Bells https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/musical-pat-bells

Introduce the potty, with potty training recommended no sooner than 18 months (15 months for Montessori)

ACTIVITIES

We introduced swimming because I needed to get out of the house.

More sign language

Montessori says to begin weaning (International weaning average is 4-5 years old)

BOOKS FOR PARENTS

Creative Play for your Baby Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

MY TAKE

Archibald reached a turning point at 10 months where he didn't need me as much anymore. The dynamic changed and the energy went outward.

I set up the backyard to be a one year old's space. Faux grass, loose dirt and rocks, sand box (yes, he still puts sand in his mouth, sigh), wiffle balls, water table, and little paths to walk around and pull him around on the Red Radio Flyer (a purchase for me when I was pregnant and not supposed to carry things, we should have bought one with sides like this for adventures in the wider world http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=118162186&cp=&parentPage=search).

Theory of Loose Parts https://media.kaboom.org/docs/documents/pdf/ip/Imagination-Playground-Theory-of-Loose-Parts-Simon-Nicholson.pdf

12-18 months old

TOYS

Water table

Large Spoon for outdoor play

Bubbles

Blocks

Push Car

(We bought one similar to this: http://www.toysrus.com/buy/push-pedal-ride-ons/radio-flyer-retro-rocket-powered-ride-on-red-600-93396976

Then learned that this was his favorite: http://www.toysrus.com/buy/save-up-to-20-on-bikes-trikes-junior-wheels/little-tikes-cozy-coupe-30th-anniversary-edition-612060-3455088 )

ACTIVITIES

Putting things into containers

Music

Montessori says as children have high emotions and begin to negotiate, distract the child with choices, words and details.

BOOKS FOR PARENTS

The Hundred Languages of Children

The Language of Art

MY TAKE

I've been really excited to get Archibald into all sorts of things, but he is still a baby and I need to meet him where he is. I've created a 'Waldorf' style schedule where we have certain activities and arts planned for each day. We don't always do the arts because he is too young. After shopping some very expensive music classes we found an $8 family music jam. You don't need more than some shakers, drums and a lively singing leader at this age.

Monday he watches me clean and has started mimicking me (yes!), Tuesday is music class, Wednesday mom's group at a playground, Friday we go to the park and have a beauty day where I trim his nails. There's more to it, with grocery shopping and additional cleaning days added in, but you get the idea. [Note: this could be considered an over scheduled kid per Simplicity Parenting, but I didn’t find two hours out of the house a day to get in the way of at home play in the garden, kitchen, etc.]

I also cleaned out half our toys and (sadly) books after reading Simplicity Parenting (the books are now on rotation with most of the collection out of sight). So many of the educational approaches focus on the environment as the third teacher. I do this through restraint in purchases and monitoring what gifts from others even enter the house, splurging on a few good toys that are of natural materials, and then purging the adult clutter as well.

18 months to present

TOYS

(Drank the kool-aid on Montessori here)

Replaced the High Chair with a Junior chair

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70253541/

Replaced the crib with a toddler bed on the floor

A child sized broom

https://www.etsy.com/shop/broomsforsale?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Play kitchen and real utensils, apple slicer, egg slicer

Watering can for the garden

More sandbox implements

Ukulele (only because I play one and he kept taking it)

ACTIVITIES

Sitting on the potty three times a day to normalize it

Laying the foundation for the next steps, so getting the environment ready for him to be able to dress himself, clean up after himself, etc.

Started a Parent and Me class that is free through the local community college. It’s a once a week pre-Preschool with mommy.

BOOKS FOR PARENTS

30 Days to Transform your Play

http://www.aneverydaystory.com/30-days-typ/

MY TAKE

Too soon to tell.

READING LIST

Your Self Confident Baby Magda Gerber

Simplicity Parenting Kim John Payne

You Are Your Child's First Teacher Rahima Baldwin Dancy

Understanding Waldorf Education Jack Petrash

Theory of Loose Parts https://media.kaboom.org/docs/documents/pdf/ip/Imagination-Playground-Theory-of-Loose-Parts-Simon-Nicholson.pdf

Creative Play for your Baby Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

Creative Play the Steiner Waldorf Way Expertise and Toy Projects for Your 2-4-year-old Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

Froebel Gifts http://www.froebelgifts.com/

Heaven on Earth Sharifa Oppenheimer

Beyond the Rainbow Bridge Nurturing Our Children from Birth to Seven Barbara J. Patterson and Pamela Bradley

Montessori from the Start Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen

The Absorbent Mind Maria Montessori

The Hundred Languages of Children Carolyn Edwards and Lella Gandini

The Language of Art, Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Setting Ann Pelo

RANDOM FUN FACTS

A child's neural speed is half an adults until age 12. MFTS, p165

From 2 to 7ish a child can learn a new word every 2 hours he is awake MFTS, p166

"By the time they are four years old, children have incorporated all the rules of syntax." MFTS, p167

Art - at 2 1/2 introduce a colored pencil and a piece of white paper.

BOOK REVIEW

GENERAL TOPIC

Froebel Gifts http://www.froebelgifts.com/

The quickest most concise breakdown of Froebel and his gifts. It’s quick and direct.

Simplicity Parenting Kim John Payne

The book relates some of the problems children have today with PTSD symptoms of kids in refugee camps. By overstimulating our kids with choices, the news, options, loud sounds, loud flavors, too many toys, etc. kids that are quirky move down the spectrum to have legitimate problems. Cut back and create a space for the innocence of childhood. I loved the book.

Theory of Loose Parts https://media.kaboom.org/docs/documents/pdf/ip/Imagination-Playground-Theory-of-Loose-Parts-Simon-Nicholson.pdf

This is a quick read about the Theory of Loose Parts, it IS the Theory of Loose Parts. Once you know the theory you’ll see it used in Children’s and Science Museums, and also in the better preschools.

You Are Your Child's First Teacher Rahima Baldwin Dancy

A great book. This book is Waldorf leaning and gives great resources and recommendations on further books. I can’t remember much of the book, although I devoured it at the time. Sometimes ‘mom brain’ is real. Honestly, if you read two books off this list, I say this one and Simplicity Parenting.

Your Self Confident Baby Magda Gerber

Read this one when my son was very little. It inspired me to give him a child proof room, sometimes called a ‘yes’ room. I thought I could use half his room as an art studio for me for his first year, and had also decorated the room with a really ornate, oh-so-cute, and totally dangerous bookshelf. Totally changed my mind. Child proof means that if left for 8 hours your child would be hungry, wet and cranky, but OK. Madge Gerber is the head of the RIE movement, Resources for Infant Educarers.

MONTESSORI

The Absorbent Mind Maria Montessori

This is aspirational, I haven’t read it yet.

Montessori from the Start The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen

Loved it! This was the book I was looking for when I was at home seeing my child change every couple weeks and wondering what I could do to help him and keep up with him and DO something. I don’t agree with everything in here, but it gives a timeline for things like when to introduce activities like potty training, setting the table, sweeping the floor, etc.

REGGIO EMILIA

The Hundred Languages of Children Carolyn Edwards and Lella Gandini

Jeez louise! This book is dense. It’s made up of multiple essays based on interviews with people working the Reggio Emilia program in Italy. Each interview starts with the interviewee saying how they couldn’t possibly tell you what Reggio Emilia means in your own context of community, geography, etc, etc, etc, until they do tell you what Reggio means. After the pomp it gets down to brass tacks and blew my mind. This book changed what I thought about education. If you want to KNOW Reggio, this is where you start. If you want to start working Reggio Emilia principles in your home, an action book like The Language of Art is a quicker entree.

The Language of Art, Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Setting Ann Pelo

This, and the half dozen or so other books like it, are a great step by step guide to setting up a Reggio Emilia experience from beginning to end. It lists the art mediums, how to use them, build on them and lists open questions for kids.

Thirty Days to Transform Your Play

http://www.aneverydaystory.com/30-days-typ/

It’s not a book, but it’s a great blog post to help implement Reggio in your house.

WALDORF

A Child’s Seasonal Treasury Betty Jones

Yet another highly recommended Waldorf book for bringing in the seasons and festivities of the year into your home with crafts, recipes, poems, and finger plays. I haven’t used this one much yet, and I realize I just have to keep it out and read the poems each night for bedtime and start showing some initiative to get it going. It’s also a little weird since a lot of the content is Betty’s own verses and games she created. Which is a god send for educators looking for new content, but I like the age old poems and stories that children and adults of all backgrounds could know and relate to.

Beyond the Rainbow Bridge Nurturing Our Children from Birth to Seven Barbara J. Patterson and Pamela Bradley

One of the cornerstone books on Waldorf. It is out of print and a little hard to get and maybe not worth it (I say after reading every other book on Waldorf first. It does hit all the topics). If you’ve got it read it. Otherwise pick a different book on Waldorf. You’ll do fine.

Clare Beaton’s Mother Goose Remembers w CD Clare Beaton

Absolutely great for learning all the old poems and songs.

Clare Beaton’s Playtime Rhymes for Little People w CD Clare Beaton

This is a must have. I learned a lot of the songs and movement games that I played with Archibald since he was 8 weeks old at the local library’s Baby Storytime. If I didn’t have that, this would be where to find them. Especially the first 10 or so rhymes are for babies and bouncing them on your knee, or walking your hands up their arms and legs to a rhyme, etc.

Creative Play for your Baby Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

This is a Waldorf book about how to make age appropriate toys for your baby in natural materials and how these toys can be used in guide and exploratory play. It encouraged me to pick up crochet again.

Creative Play the Steiner Waldorf Way Expertise and Toy Projects for Your 2-4-year-old Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

A great craft book for parents showing toys to make for your 2 to 4 year old and why, and how to play.

Festivals Family and Food Diana Carey and Judy Large

This was another highly recommended Waldorf book for bringing in the seasons and festivities of the year into your home. I find it dense and hard to unpack into my daily schedule. I would skip it in favor of my other Waldorf picks.

Heaven on Earth Sharifa Oppenheimer

When I went to the Waldorf school bookstore and bought the companion workbook to this book, How to Create the Star of Your Family Culture, and not Heaven on Earth, the clerk almost cried. She thought I wouldn’t understand anything without reading this amazing book. Nope. No mysteries to the universe that she keeps out of the workbook. I bought the workbook because it was cheaper and I hadn’t seen it anywhere else. I keep obsessing about Waldorf because it has a subtlety that is hard to pin down. This book spells it out. Heaven on Earth has been helpful to actually work through, here is a simple, easy, descriptive rich story that you can tell about the color red as you let your kid work with red watercolor. And then she talks you through breaking down the year colorwise and going back to the watercolor exercise again and again. I’ve been in out in the weeds with all the old school Waldorf books, which are fine, but dated.

How to Create the Star of Your Family Culture Sharifa Oppenheimer

A companion Workbook to Heaven on Earth. I erroneously thought the title meant how to make your child the star of your family. But it refers to a 5 point star where you work on Family Rhythms, Family Work & Play, Child’s Play, Child’s Artistic Expression, and Discipline. It walks you through changing your home and life on each topic (plus Storytelling, because if you know Waldorf, you know Storytelling is so important it gets it’s own category and isn’t mentioned with all the other stuff), each one getting about four weeks of Interactive Exploration. Grab your journal and your partner, do your love/happiness meditation, and move toward making a Waldorf family. Each page has summaries in the margins so you can read this no matter how busy you are.

Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions Sarah Ban Breathnach

This is an out of print book that you can scoop up on Amazon for a dollar or two. It’s a favorite of mine. It breaks down each month with activities, stories and old time traditions to revive. It’s done with a wink and a smile of a woman who found Victorian magazines showing a happy home life and realizing it was the Pinterest of the day - a complete fantasy. As in Victorian times, the reader is invited to pick and choose from the ideas presented and adapt them to create a happy home life filled with Simple Abundance. This was my gateway to learning about how to celebrate the whole year through before I ever heard of Waldorf.

Seven Times the Sun Shea Darian

Ok. I kinda went bucko with all the Waldorf books, but I was really enchanted with the topic. I borrowed this one from the library and copied a bunch of poems so I wouldn’t have to buy the book. It breaks down poems and songs into subjects like mealtime, morning time, bedtime, chore time, sick days, personal renewal, etc. Rather than a book that works through the year, this one works through daily routines. It’s lovely if you want to learn poems and songs to use to coax your child through their day.

Understanding Waldorf Education Jack Petrash

Too far reaching for my purposes, it goes all the way through high school explaining the curriculum and teaching approach.

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