New Session Starts January 7 & 8

Dear Families,

Thank you for coming to our holiday workshop and advent spiral. I look forward to seeing you in the New Year. Our regular parent & child classes begin on Thursday and Friday, January 7 & 8. Please visit this link or call our school to procure an application.

While our Christmas Festival on Tuesday, December 22, at 10:30am at Thomas Berry Hall at the Whidbey Institute may be on the longish side for some of our infants and toddlers (by the time the choir performances and Shepherds Play conclude, the event may last close to 90 minutes), the Shepherds Play is full of music, mirth, reverence, and foolishness and has been known to charm some of our youngest children in the past. Do be aware that the Shepherds themselves are quite active, and sensitive children might enjoy their physical humor from further back in the audience.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

More details about the Advent Garden

Dear Rosebud and Dewdrop Families, Friends, Guests, and Visitors,

Again, you are cordially invited to our Advent Garden on Friday, December 11, at 10am at the Sanctuary at the Whidbey Institute (down Old Pietila Road from the Waldorf School).

Follow this link for a brief description of next Friday's festival along with lyrics to many of the songs we will sing. Below is a description I have composed with more details to help you prepare for the festival.

Many Waldorf School set up an Advent Spiral for their early childhood and some elementary grade classes. Traditionally, a class and teacher will enter a darkened space. There will be harp or lyre or other quiet, meditative music. A child or adult portraying an angel will light a candle in the center of a spiral of greens. One by one, children have the opportunity to walk alone or with a teacher, light a candle from the central light, and place it along the path of the evergreen spiral. It is a beautiful event, and like the lantern walk (and festivals and religious holidays such a Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hannukah, Holi, Solstice, and others) helps given an image of strength for the dark months of winter. Our many lights together can light up the darkness of the months ahead.

In teaching parent & child classes, I have observed that some infants and toddlers find great nourishment from an event such as the Advent Spiral if I can adapt it. Our parent & child Advent Spiral will take place in the morning, so the light outside will make it not quite so dark inside the Sanctuary. Rather than having quiet harp music, I will welcome us with some fiddle tunes, and then we will sing songs about stars and from the season together (I will provide lyrics sheets) inside the Sanctuary. My vision is that it will still be reverent, just noisier with more space for authentic infant and toddler interjections. Rather than having children walk (or crawl!) alone, families will be invited to walk together, parents holding a child or a child's hand as they walk with a candle for the family. I will walk along in cases where a parent needs two arms to hold a child and wants me to carry a candle.

Although I have adapted this festival, it may not feel just right for every child at her or his particular moment in development. We will be singing and encouraging children to sing. Children do not need to walk alone in front of a group. Children do, however, need to be comfortable sitting on a parent's lap or next to a parent while others walk through the spiral. There will be lit candles, so this will not be an appropriate place for a child to walk or crawl around freely. If everyone arrives somewhat promptly, the festival itself should not take that long, and we welcome families to leave early if it is too hard for a child to sit. Please contact me if you have questions. I have seen some 6 month olds and 1 year olds enchanted by the singing and the light. Some 1, 2, and 3 year olds find this delightful. Other 1, 2, and 3 year olds (and their parents) find it an incredible struggle because the child is at a phase in which she or he needs to be always in motion and sitting and waiting provides more stress than is needed during this busy season.

Older siblings are welcome, but please keep the following in mind. This festival is intended for infants, toddlers, and young preschoolers and their families. If the older children can come as a support, sing with the family, and provide structure, it will be lovely to have them. Some older children who have seen an Advent Spiral in kindergarten or their grades class might be frustrated because elements are simplified or missing. In these cases, it may be best to seek care for the older child with another parent or friend. Some older siblings, however, will be moved themselves as they witness the joy our infants and toddlers experience coming together in reverence, and having them along will be just right.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Preview of Advent Garden and Holiday Workshop

Dear Families and Friends,

Please note the following two invitations from Vanessa. I will provide more details about the Advent Garden soon--it is open to current families, past families, friends, grandparents, parents, and so forth.

You are invited to attend the Dewdrop & Rosebud Advent Garden Friday, December 11th, from 10 - 11am. This special festival provides an experience to remember to keep our inner light shining during these dark months. Please contact William Dolde at wdolde@gmail.com for more information or if you are planning to attend.

The Holiday Workshop is Saturday, December 5^th from 10am to 3pm here at our beautiful school. The event is open not just to our school community but to anyone who would like to join us, so please encourage friends, family, and neighbors to stop by and enjoy a day of music, food creative work, and enchantment.

This year, we’ll have an array of live music from students, teachers, and parents including the bands Subito and Rendezvous. Tickets will be sold for participation in the various crafts including candle dipping, silk dyeing, wool and wood crafts, and a story and adventure in a gnome gingerbread factory. The Holiday Cafe will nourish hungry elves with delicious food and drink. Orders will be taken for holiday wreaths and there is a raffle to win a cut-your-own Noble Fir.

And our wonderful Holiday Gift Shop will be selling Waldorf-inspired toys, art and craft supplies including wool fiber for spinning, play silks and capes, puzzles, and other well-made beautiful items. The store will also feature the creations of local artisans including Berry Bowen’s handmade dolls, both large and stocking-stuffer size, a limited edition coffee blend made specifically for WIWS by Useless Bay Coffee Company’s own Dez Rock, handmade toys including wooden play stands and cradles crafted by local carpenter Mark Kohlhaas, and more.

For more information about this event, you may contact Kelly Dolde at 360-341-4124.

WIWS Parent & Child Playgroups
Winter Session Starting this January

To Read More from Helle Heckmann

Thank you to everyone who attended the WIWS workshop with Helle Heckmann. For those who would like to hear more about her work, here are some resources:

Articles to read on-line --

Rhythm of Life by Helle Heckmann

An Interview with Helle Heckmann at Nøkken in Copenhagen
(by Roberta Ducharme, who taught Nursery and Parent/ Child at WIWS two years ago)

Books to purchase --

Childhood's Garden by Helle Heckmann
Shaping everyday life around the needs of young children

A Garden for Kids: More News from Nökken by Helle Heckmann

Nøkken by Helle Heckmann

All the above publications can be purchased by WECAN, WECAN Books, and Bob and Nancy's Bookshop.

Warm wishes,
Vanessa
--

Helle Heckmann speaks Tuesday night

Dear Rosebud and Dewdrop Families,

Please remember the following:

Whidbey Island Waldorf School Presents
Helle Heckmann
Founder of Nøkken Child Care Center in Denmark
Helle Heckmann is the founder of Nøkken, a renowned early childhood program. She is active in teacher education throughout the world,
supporting educators in Europe, North America and South America. Her books include Nøkken, More News from Nøkken,
and most recently, Childhood’s Garden.
“No Reruns on Childhood”
December 1st
6:00—7:30pm
You are invited to join the WIWS Early Childhood Faculty for an
evening lecture by Helle Heckmann. Helle will speak about her
experiences in the Nøkken community in Denmark and about issues related to raising children in modern society. This evening promises
to be lively and inspiring.
Suggested Donation: $5.00—$10.00
Whidbey Island Waldorf School
6335 Old Pietila Rd.
Clinton, WA 98236
(360) 341-5686
www.wiws.org

With warmth and light,

William Dolde

Visiting WIWS in December

Dear Rosebud and Dewdrop Families,

Even though our fall session concludes this Friday, we do have several opportunities for you and your child to stay connected with our school.

On Tuesday, December 1, at 6pm, Helle Heckmann, a teacher of Waldorf early childhood teachers from Denmark, will visit our school to speak to parents and teachers on the topic "No Reruns on Childhood." The lecture will likely be in the Common Room at Forest Hall (where our lantern walk puppet show took place). Here is an article by Heckmann to giver you a sense of her style.

On Saturday, December 5, our school hosts a Children's Holiday Workshop from 10 to 3. While some of the craft activities may not be just right for our infants and toddlers, there will be music almost all day long, food, and holiday spirit (including a chance to shop for Waldorf-inspired toys).

On Friday, December 11, at 10am at the Sanctuary at the Whidbey Institute (down the private road from our school), our Advent Spiral for parent & child families and infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their parents, granparents, and friends takes place. I will write more about this as the date approaches.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Songs and verses at snack time

Dear Families,

Per your request, this document contains the words to the songs and finger games I present at the table before snack time.

I will also print out a few copies.

Cheers,

William

Lantern Walk, November 13

LANTERN WALK

Dear Rosebud and Dewdrop Families and Friends,

As winter approaches we will kindle the light within us all at our upcoming Lantern Walk this Friday November 13th. We will gather our courage for the dark days ahead as we walk into the night with our shining lanterns guiding us. The lanterns are a symbol of our inner light that must be kindled during the long winter months ahead.

There will be two lantern walks, one at 5:00pm and one at 6:15pm. Rosebud families with kindergarten siblings have been invited to the 6:15pm lantern walk. I invite other Dewdrop and Rosebud families, past and present and future, to our 5pm walk. If you are not currently enrolled in our class (or Cordula's or Vanessa's program) but would like to attend our walk, please contact me so that I can prepare a lantern for you. Siblings are welcome if they are able to support a reverent mood and stay close to their parents at all times during the festival, including the walk where they should be by the side of their parents. They can bring their own lanterns if they have one.

Please arrive on time and walk quietly to the playground where we will have hot apple cider. Please do not arrive early. (This is very important). Park in the lower parking lot just off Campbell Rd (you turn immediately right as you come into the main driveway on Old Pietila Road).

After a few minutes we will go inside to the Butterfly classroom to watch a puppet play. The teachers will then lead us on the lantern walk. After the lantern walk we will lead you back to your cars and say goodbye.

Please look in your parent folders on Wednesday November 11th for a small gift to put under your child's pillow to find after the Lantern walk, right before bed or the following morning. (We will not have these for siblings who attend, apologies).

This is a quiet and reverent festival and we ask that you help support this mood by quietly guiding your children through the experience.

Blessings

Dyanne, Kim, William, Vanessa and Cordula

Lantern Workshop Monday night

The sunlight fast is dwindling, my little lamp needs kindling.
Its beam shines far in darkest night,
Oh, lantern guide me with your light.

Celebrating Fall Festivals
A Parent Workshop on Lantern Walks
Presented by Cordula Hetland and Vanessa Kohlhaas

Monday, November 9th
7 – 9pm

As the days grow shorter, we must keep our inner light burning. Come join us in talking about how to celebrate this season of darkness with children through lantern walks. Participants will learn about lantern walks, sing lantern songs, and make a lantern to share with their family. This symbolic tradition brings home the deeper truth in the words of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism (563-483 B.C.) “There isn’t enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle.”

Whidbey Island Waldorf School
6335 Old Pietila Rd. in Clinton

Advanced registration required
Suggested donation: $5.00
Supplies to make your own lantern will be provided

For more information or to register:
Email: butterflygarden@gmail.com
Or call: 360-221-2270

Option for Parent & Teacher Conferences

Dear Families,

Outside the Butterfly classroom, I have posted Thursday morning parent & teacher conference times. While we do not expect parent & child families to sign up for a conference, I want to offer this possibility for you. It would be a chance for me to answer any questions about Waldorf education, my classes, or whatever you would want to talk about without the possible interruptions of class as usual.

The healthy social life is found
When, in the mirror of each human soul,
The entire community finds its reflection,
And when, in the community,
The virtue of each one is living.

Rudolf Steiner—The Social Motto

Elsewhere Steiner wrote that a social group can be at its healthiest and most effective when the work of the individual serves the needs of the group and when the needs of the individual are served by the work of the group. As I reflect upon the manner in which I teach parent & child classes and the changes I have made to my format over the years, I see that I strive to get closer and closer to this ideal in which children can bring their love of work into serving the class as a whole. As such, craft projects that led to individual objects to take home (not that there is anything wrong with this) tended to yield to cooking and cleaning projects in which the whole group could serve the individual or the individual could serve the whole group (all, of course, infused with the possibility of child-directed free play with a background of song and rhyme). Andrea Gambardella writes of this combination of work and play in "Sun and Rain." As children move through their first six years, they want to develop their senses of autonomy, initiative, and industry, and I have found that allowing them to be involved as much as possible in adult work from start to finish (with obvious limitations for safety--and respect for comfort levels of different families; some are quite willing to have a young child use and learn from a sharp and effective knife for cutting vegetables; others will want to wait until an older age feels just right; both are valid positions) has been a way to cultivate hearty and strong individuals and classes.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

More About Crayons

Dear Families,

Last Friday as we began work on our lanterns, I talked a bit about the crayons we were using. When I began as an assistant teacher in 1997, early childhood teachers in Waldorf Classrooms were beginning to take a hard look at the use of block crayons in early childhood--up to that point they seemed a natural gift for early childhood classrooms: they did not break; no paper to be removed; they seemed to encourage exploration and divergent artistic thinking rather than outlining and perhaps more convergent form making. Remedial teachers such as Ingun Schneider were asking kindergarten teachers to take a second look the the use of thick, block crayons. As Schneider points out in her article on supporting the development of the hand, our arms and shoulders become very tense when we hold a block crayon; they are noticeably less tense when holding a stick crayon and pencil. Remedial teachers began to wonder if the overuse of block crayons in kindergarten classes were interfering with a smooth and natural process of developing pencil grip and learning to write. I remember my lead teacher packing away all the block crayons and purchasing stick crayons to use exclusively.

Not long after this I was fortunate to take a week of classes with Ingun Schneider as part of my training to become a lead teacher, and for me the use of stick crayons for very young children (including toddlers) made a lot of sense. As with any educational system, there are different opinions and streams, and I respect colleagues who make more frequent use of block crayons; indeed, I thought they would be more appropriate for filling the page with color as in painting to make our lanterns. That being said, one preference I have for stick crayons (or even sturdy colored pencils) for young children is that they help dispel the illusion that in a Waldorf early childhood setting everything needs to be soft and fuzzy: there are places for lines and angles as in the crosses and scribbles young children make as they work with crayons; and there is space for lines and hard spaces and toddlers work through conflicts as we have read in recent articles on toddler conflicts.

Schneider's article provides helpful insights into how we can help our children develop; she begins with infancy and early toddlerhood. If we can allow our children opportunities to move, climb, roll, crawl, fall, and tumble, we allow them the chance to form the foundations for fine motor development in future years.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

One more preview/bonus class this Thursday

Dear Current and Potential Families,

After our festive class last Thursday, we will have an additional extra class this Thursday from 9 to 11am. We will also have Rosebud class as usual this coming Friday morning (yes, you can come two days in a row if you wish). Thank you for bringing vegetables to enhance the soup.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Extra class Thursday, songs from the morning

Dear Families,

Here is a reminder: although school is closed on Friday, October 16, we will have an extra class open to current Rosebud and Dewdrop families and others on Thursday, October 15, from 9 to 11am. Please bring a vegetable for the soup if possible.

Here are lyrics to many of the songs I sing throughout the morning. I offer these not with the expectation that you have to sing these songs outside of class but so that you are able to offer them for your child as either of you feels inspired.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Bonus class next Thursday, October 15

Dear Families,

As you may know, the Whidbey Island Waldorf School will be closed on Friday, October 16. Because it seems a shame to interrupt our Rosebud class two weeks after the start of the session, next week we invite all current families to join us next Thursday from 9 to 11am for a mixed age parent & child class. This will be an extra class in addition to the regular session. Children birth to 3 and their caregivers who have not yet signed up for class are also welcome next Thursday as a chance to sample our program or reconnect with friends. As always, please bring a vegetable for soup if possible.

In our kindergarten and nursery classes, we have distributed an article about support toddlers in conflict. I have made copies for parent & child families (this article is not yet available on line) and will leave them outside the Butterfly Room. For people reading this blog from afar, you may find a similar article by the same author in this newsletter from Sophia's Hearth in Keene, NH.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Parent Talk, Wednesday, October 7, 5pm

Dear Dewdrop and Rosebud Families and Community Members,

On Wednesday, October 7, we invite all adults to a parenting lecture in the Butterfly Classroom from 5 to 6pm. Although the talk is part of our parent & child program, the topic may interest parents of children of all ages. Contact William Dolde with questions.

"Let's Try That Again"
Ostensibly Crazy Things to Say to Children that Really Work

(This talk was formerly known as Strunk and White speak to children)

Our children offer us many opportunities to express ourselves in challenging situations (what to say to a child licking the table, to a child who insists on picking up every piece of garbage in the street, to a child who says yuck to the dinner you spent 12 hours creating), and we can find ourselves overwhelmed with the plethora of how-to-parent books that offer us conflicting advice (whether choices are good for children or choices paralyze children and make them feel insecure; whether praise helps build self-esteem or global praise such as "good girl" or "you are so smart" make children less willing to exert effort and learn). With humor and humility, William Dolde will attempt to work through the advice from experts to distill principles of speaking to children that can be helpful in many situations.

Parents may wish to read a couple of pieces by William in advance: 1) "Speaking to a Toddler," and 2) "Beyond Personal."

William will strive to resist the temptation to create an orthodox list of proper and improper things to say. At the same time, in his examples, it remains possible that some of his examples may strike a nerve. He may possibly make fun of national lecturers who are much more successful than him. He will ask lecture participants to avoid venturing forth to correct spouses and colleagues. He will do his best to avoid insulting people (but his best might not be good enough).

Interested parents may also wish to read the following two articles on the inverse power of praise. This first offers a parent's perspective. This second article is by Professor Carol Dweck (the researcher quoted in the first article).

Reminder -- Festival this Friday / Tilth Saturday

Dear Families,

Please remember that our Autumn Festival for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, parents, grandparents, and friends takes place this Friday morning, September 25, from 9 to 10:30am around, in, and near the Butterfly Room at the Whidbey Island Waldorf School.

Here is an approximate schedule

9am Gather Outside -- butter making and play on the playground
9:15am Outdoor dance to the fiddle and continued butter making
9:20am Picnic of bread and butter and vegetable soup
9:40am Washing up and continued outdoor play
9:50am Puppet show inside the Butterfly Classroom
10am Walk to the teepee, during which we might find some pleasant surprises
10:20am Return to school, graceful departure with our harvest gifts

Elementary students will gather for recess shortly after our festival. While you need not rush, I recommend departing without too much delay.

For students/families unable to make Friday's festival, or interested in getting a sense of making more of a connection after our summer break, know that I will also be playing violin and fiddle at the Tilth Farmer's market from about 10am to 2pm on Saturday.

With Warmth and Light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Invitation to the Autumn Festival and Fall Session

Dear Families,

Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Parents, Grandparents, and Friends are invited to our Autumn Festival on Friday, September 25, from 9 to 10:30am.

As summer changes to fall, days shorten, and the frost and cold of winter approaches, we as humans need strength and courage to help us stand upright through the darkness of winter. Different cultures have received inspiration from the meteor showers (heavenly iron, shooting stars) they observed around late September; the iron from the stars of heaven gave people strength. In various cultures and religions, this comes forth as a tale of a hero--a knight like St. George or Archangel Michael conquering or taming a dragon. For Rudolf Steiner, this battle between a knight and a dragon goes on inside each one of us--the dragon is not some other out there to be excluded, but, rather, that part of ourselves that we need to confront, acknowledge, and tame so we are ready to be free individuals capable of serving humanity and the world.

Explanations of a psychic battle inside each of us or battles with dragons can be too much for children birth to 4, who, rather, find seasonal inspiration as days shorten and nights lengthen by looking in wonderment toward the stars. An early childhood teacher could simplify the celebration of Michaelmas toward an examination of stars--singing "Twinkle Twinkle" and cutting open an apple to reveal the star come to earth on the inside.

On Friday the 25th parents and children will gather outside to play and share a snack (Nursery children and I will have baked extra bread and made extra soup in class that week). We will also have a harvest dance to tune of the fiddle. Then we'll go inside for a puppet show. After that, we will walk to the woods to meet (as a surprise for the children) a knight from the stars and Mother Earth--they will both present us with gifts. After the walk, children and parents will depart with their gifts.

While this festival is open to the community, it also commences our school year for Dewdrop (Thursday) and Rosebud (Friday) classes. We will have class as usual from 9 to 11am beginning on October 1 and 2. Here is an electronic copy of our parent & child brochure; you may also procure one at school.

For families new to our program or are considering enrolling, this synopsis of the parent & child morning may help provide a sense of what your child and you will experience each week.

Here is additional information about our program:

Our classes take place in the Butterfly Room, the first room you come to when you go down the stairs in the main building.

Vegetables and Extra Clothes -- We will make vegetable soup and bread every week; children love to explore, play, and help when their parents and teacher join together in community work such as cooking. Please bring a vegetable if possible. Our classes try to make activities such as washing dishes inviting for children (and their parents). While I try to keep splashing to a reasonable level, your child may get very wet. Please bring a change of clothes.

Our 7 week session runs from October 1 to November 20. There will be no Rosebud class on Friday, October 16, and no Dewdrop class on Thursday, November 19. You will be invited to join the nursery for our lantern walk in the early evening on November 13.

At 5pm on Wednesday, October 7, adults are invited to a parenting talk in the Butterfly Room.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Song of the Seeing Being, Moving in Slow Motion

Farewells from Whole Child/Whole Parent

Polly Berrien Berends

As the truly parently parent is the childlike parent,

As the truly nourishing parent is the nursing parent,

As the truly teaching parent is the learning parent,

As the truly freeing parent is the obedient parent,

As the truly unifying parent is the unified parent,

As the truly beautifying parent is the truthful parent,

As the truly creative parent is the beholding parent,

As the truly communicating parent is the listening parent,

So is the truly loving parent after all no parent at all, but only the loved child of God.

Song of the Seeing Being

The more we see that seeing is the issue in life, the more we look at everything for what it has to teach us.

The more we look at everything for what it has to teach us, the more we see that we are being taught.

The more we see that we are being taught, the more we know that we are loved.

The more we know are loved, the more lovingly we are seeing.

The more lovingly we are seeing, the more loving we are being.

The more loving we are being, the more we see that seeing is the issue in life.

[start over]

Dear Families,

      My hope is that these updates from parent & child classes are helpful to you.  As we look ahead toward the summer and the new school year, I want to make information available to you without these posts becoming an annoyance.  For current Rosebud children who are moving on to the Butterfly nursery, please let me know if you want me to keep you on the parent & child list as well next year.  For everyone else, I will assume that you wish to continue to receive information unless you tell me otherwise.  You can email me or call the school 341-5686 or tell me in person.  You can also visit the Dewdrop and Rosebud google groups page, click on Edit my Membership on the right side of the page, and click on Unsubscribe.

      As I have written before, Polly Berrien Berends' Whole Child/Whole Parent continues to provide me inspiration and insight.  I recommend her book.  Our school library will procure new, updated copies this summer.  One of my favorite aspects of Berends' style is that she places revisions and additional reflections in updated copies of this book--"This is what I thought 20 years ago, but here, now, are my additional reflections."  Her style of writing reflects her recommendation for parenting--rather than seeking an easy answer, we accept the challenges as an ever-continuing opportunity for development and growth.  At the end of her book, Berends reprises "The Song of the Seeing Being" and reframes the concept of farewell and good bye as "bon voyage"--or, for her, "good seeing."  

Here is a talk on orality, literacy, and excitement by Professor Barry Sanders--author of A is for Ox and founder of the Pasadena Waldorf School.  Although Sanders' style and topic may seem different from Berends', and although his piece provides a response to times of crisis in the broader culture, his complex search for simplicity and renewal in the human breath harmonizes with Berends' approach.  Like James Joyce (and many others), both Sanders and Berends help show us that the "longest way round is the shortest way home," that often to find the simple solution, we have to take the complex path.

        I will be presenting songs, music, rhymes, gesture games, and puppet shows at the Langley library on Tuesdays in July at 11am.  Some of the material will be familiar to your child.

Bon Voyage and Good Seeing,

William Dolde

Two more weeks of classes left

Dear Families,

       Thank you for coming to the festival yesterday, and thank you for bringing friends along.  Along with the school, I hope to host four festivals for young children a year (with children being invited to other festivals such as the Lantern Walk):

1)  An Autumn Festival, in which children take a walk and meet Mother Earth and other imaginative characters who give them gifts to prepare for winter.

2)  An Advent Spiral in the morning for young children.

3)  A Spring Festival, with Mother Wind, Sister Rain, Father Sun, and Brother Wind.

4)  A May/Summer Festival, much as what we experienced yesterday.

Although yesterday felt conclusive, we do still have two more weeks of parent & child classes.  I look forward to seeing you and your family in the weeks ahead.

With warmth and light,

William Dolde

Further Preview of Thursday's Festival

Dear Families,

       The forecast is for sunnier and warmer weather on Thursday.  Our festival is outside, and I am setting the Butterfly Room up for a summer puppet show (to which I'll invite everyone at 9:30am).  To preserve a sense of wonder and magic, the Butterfly Room will remain closed until the time for the puppet show; if you come as an 8:30am earlybird, be prepared that the weather may be cool. 

Whenever you arrive, feel free to start dyeing silks right away.  Because Brazilwood sawdust was unavailable, I am offering 3 dyes:

Osage Orange sawdust -- which generally produces yellow

Madder Root -- which produces orangey red or reddish orange

Annato -- another reddish dye in case the Madder is acting particularly orange

A challenge and blessing of plant dyes is that they produce slightly different results on different occasions.

Because I want the process to be more tangible, I choose not to use dye sacks or strainers; the sawdust or bits of roots are floating in the pots, and you may have to pick them off once you take your silk out.  Although someone seeking a "perfect" silk may find minor flaws with this method (idyes and rit dyes and other synthetics do a much better job of producing absolute uniformity if that is what you seek), parents and children in past years have found the process and results very satisfying.

Although the dye pots themselves are hot, I will have tubs for rinsing.  Once the silk has entered the cool water, children tend to love to help with rinsing.

Brief process description

1)  Put your silk in the first color for 5 seconds to 5 minutes (observe how others are coming out).

2)  As best you can, allow the liquid to drip back into the pot as you take out your silk.

3)  Rinse in cold water.

4)  Hang to dry (and keep track of your silks' location).

5)  If you want to dye in more than one color (stripes, tie dye, yellow sun in the middle with a red exterior, and soforth), please start with the osage orange yellow and rinse between colors.  This will keep the colors as true as possible for others.

If you preordered extra silks, I will have them set aside for you.  Because I have not submitted an invoice yet for reimbursement, it is easiest for you to pay me directly with cash or a check to William Dolde, and I will deduct this from what I ask back from the school (rather than flooding our business office with a bunch of checks).

It is probable that we will have extra silks even if you did not preorder.  After I get a sense of how many visitors we have, I will release extra silks.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Pirates, Metaphor, Festival

Dear Families,

      We have class as usual this coming week (May 14 & 15).  From 8:30 to 10:30am on May 21, all families, friends, and alums are invited to our May and Summer Festival for young children and parents.  Thank you to parents who have let me know they intend to buy extra silks on that day.  You still have a chance to let me know--I will place the order this Monday.

There is no class on Friday, May 22.  School is closed.

We had a discussion about pirates, fairy tales, and metaphor yesterday.  Here are some thoughts about images I wrote for my nursery families that you may also find useful. 

In my most recent nursery blog post, I wrote at length about fairy tales, violence, and gender roles.  If this subject is of interest to you, you may wish to visit my nursery blog to read the latest entry (or anything that interests you).

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Helpful Article on Toddler Conflict

Dear Families,

      At Mayfaire I had a helpful and appreciative conversation with a parent about conflict and the permission to sometimes allow conflicts to evolve with children taking the lead toward the solution (while remaining close enough to provide security and physical safety if it comes to that).  When I took my RIE training in Los Angeles, one of my instructors, Bev Kovach, shared her article on assisting toddlers in conflict situations with us.  It is written for caregivers working with groups of children with one or two or three adults, not necessarily for parents or for teachers of parent & child classes.  As such, I have the following thoughts (some of which I shared with this parent on Sunday, or she shared with me).

1)  You will likely find Kovach's ideas consistent with ideas from Vanessa's presentation at WIWS last spring.

2)  When children are of different ages (toddlers and infants together; older and younger toddlers), we may have to intervene, defend, redirect more.  When children are hungry or tired, we need to intervene or redirect more.

3)  RIE's wisdom comes from Loczy in Hungary, which is shown to have fostered excellent child development (not just in light of being an orphanage).  In Loczy, the caregivers are incredibly consistent (same group of carers with children their whole first 3 years; same caregivers stay with Loczy for decades and decades), and their ability to refrain from intervening too soon leads to a more harmonious social network among the toddlers over time.  As parents, we may be in a variety of places all the time, and we don't know how other parents will react to a conflict at a playground or birthday party.  If we feel things might not work out for the best, sometimes our best option may be to come up with a creative redirection (excuse, pretend coughing fit) and decide that there will be other chances for our own to child to learn from conflict later.

4)  As Kim Payne quotes from one of my friends in Baltimore, "Don't just do something.  Stand there!"  Sometimes our calm presence is enough to help.  Sometimes our objective reporting ("both children are pulling on the rope") is enough to help children feel recognized so that they can find their own direction.  It is very helpful at these times if we can project confidence, calmness, grace, stability rather than fear and worry.

5)  The following imaginative picture (which I've written about before) works for me.  Use it if it works for you.  As you may know, Rudolf Steiner provided us with elaborate pictures of the spiritual.  Brian Gray, a teacher at Rudolf Steiner college (and rock musician in the house band), had a gift for translating Steiner to make his insights accessible.  Brian summed up a complex discussion with the following:  "So in essence, when we take care of pets or farm animals, we are practicing to become angels."  As angels tend to each of us, the quiet and removed and strong archangels tend to interactions amongst us.  It helps me, during tense times of conflict, to practice being an archangel--confident, strong, removed.

6)  This image may not work for you.  I've heard others use the term shadowing for being close to children to ensure safety and broadcasting or narrating for the factual, nonjudgmental reporting of what is happening.  Andrea Gambardella, Waldorf teacher of teachers, recommended that as teachers and parents we find our own metaphor to help during turbulent times.  When teaching the nursery class, Andrea meditated upon being a heavy stone in a river.  Water and currents might rush and dash and bubble and gurgle about, but the stone remains strong, steady, and consistent.  Whatever metaphor you use. I recommend finding one.  Our children learn a great deal not just from our words, but from our thoughts (or thoughts expressed by body language, gesture, and intentions).

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Preview of Spring/Summer Festival, Thursday, May 21

Dear Current Families, Relatives, Alums, and Friends,

You are invited to our parent & child Mayfaire and summer festival for young children and parents on Thursday, May 21, from 8:30 to 10:30am (you are also invited to the school's larger Mayfaire on Sunday, May 3, from 11 to 3pm). Feel free to come later if 8:30am is too soon. Here is a provisional schedule. It is an outdoor festival--rain, snow, or shine.

8:30 to 9:30am Arrival, conversation, outdoor play, silk dyeing
9:15am First set of Maypole dances
9:30am Puppet show
9:40am Outdoor snack (picnic)
10am Reprise of Maypole dances
10:10am Dancing to the fiddle
Continued outdoor play and conversation until 10:30am.

To celebrate the gifts of plants and sun and bring us toward a summer mood (when the sun's fire is manifest), we will be dyeing silks in brazilwood (which produces red/orange) and osage orange (which produces yellow) plant dyes. The school will provide every visiting family with 1 30x30 silk (a good size for making a cape with for a young child). If you wish to dye more than one silk, we will also be selling additional 30 x 30 silks at cost ($3 per silk), payable by cash or check to WIWS (cash would make the administrative work easier).

You might choose, for example, to dye 3 silks--one red, one yellow, one with a yellow sun in the middle of a red background. You might want to dye extra silks for older siblings, as gifts, and the like.

It will help us procure and mordant the right amount of silks if you email me (wdolde@gmail.com) to let me know if you plan to buy silks in addition to the one the school is providing you. Please let me know as soon as possible. If you are not sure, do know that we will try to have some extras on the day of the festival.

I will do the work of preparing the silks (mordanting with alum and cream of tartar) and warming the dye vats. If you feel inspired to try this at home, or if you wish more information, I recommend Joan Almon's First Steps in Natural Dyeing.

Here are a few pages to give you a sense of the book. I am experimenting with ways of sharing pdfs on line, so here is the same selection given to you in 2 different ways. Please let me know if option A or B works for you.

A. This is a version uploaded to scribd.com.

B. This version uses google's document viewer.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Last Child in the Woods, walks at end of class

Dear Families,

     In preparing to view Where Do the Children Play (there is another showing at school this Wednesday night with a discussion), I was inspired to read Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods (available in the Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library once I return my copy).  I recommend the book highly.  Even as we live in a place where nature seems relatively easy to access, Louv's book helps us as islanders (and friends near the island in beautiful places) frame questions about stewardship, safety, freedom, and exploration.  Louv encourages us to allow children to find secret spaces, to get dirty, to build and feel, to participate in nature and not just develop an abstract sense of nature.  Our school is blessed with its berry bushes, large amount of fallen logs in the woods, and absence of irritants such as poison ivy or poison oak (and the nettle, if one were to call this healthful herb an irritant, tends not to grow on any of the paths on which the nursery children and I walk).

       Louv's book and a thought to helping the transition to the Butterfly nursery class for your children next year or in a future year encourages me to offer the following:  after each Dewdrop and Rosebud class for the rest of the session, I will walk with interested families to the teepee near our school (the site where Mother Earth met us during the Spring Festival).  We'll probably leave at 11:10am or so (once everyone who wants to go has had a chance to get dressed for the outside).  Stay as long or as little as you want.  This is optional and not officially part of class, so if your child is exhausted and you need to leave (or if your child wants to stay on the swings at the Berry Patch playground), feel free to do so.   

       There are many potential benefits to this activity.  Here are a few:

1)  The clearing near the teepee is close to school (children can walk themselves at their own pace) so this will not be a forced march for the children (longer walks for parents have their place, too, but I have learned that young children can be quite satisfied with a shorter walk with more chances to explore, touch, smell, dig, and explore).

2)  The clearing has lots of uneven terrain to explore.  What we offer in playgrounds and curriculum such as gymnastics attempt to replicate the motor development activities humans have found in nature.

3)  We begin our nursery day outside and walk every day to the teepee at about 9:05am or so (once all children have arrived).  It will help the nursery next fall if a number of children know the way to the teepee.  Without judging the way other teachers might do things, I find--through my reading, observations, meditations, and books like Louv's--that young children benefit much more from a nature walk if they can go at their own pace and are not forced to hold hands or hold onto a rope (if we were an urban school with traffic or other perils I would of course adapt and do things differently).  In my nursery, I go towards the front, making sure children go the right direction while my assistant walks in the back with children who choose a slower pace (sometimes a much slower pace, but our method prevents this from causing tension or a power struggle).

       In the video, Where do the Children Play, a professor, after talking about the manner in which mass media can inhibit child development, suggests that he could train children to be environmentalists using the mass media because it is such a powerful teacher.  Louv (also appearing frequently in the video) would disagree; Louv worries, in fact, about some environmental organizations that do so much teaching of the mind but won't allow children to pick flowers, catch frogs, or build tree houses.  Louv writes about John Muir chasing gulls with his homemade gun as a boy (Muir was apparently a bad shot); Louv worries that if we try too hard to train children to always leave nature in peace as young children (not that we should encourage children to violate hunting laws), they will grow up with the sense of nature as an abstraction and feel, as adults, no connection or need to preserve wild and natural spaces.

  The professor in the media also suggests that children who do have a lot of media exposure have a richer vocabulary and know more about the world.  Louv, again, laments that children know about the Amazon rainforest but nothing about flora and fauna near their home.  I want to quote here Louv quoting D.H. Lawrence:

. . . Twenty-first century Western culture accepts the view that because of omnipresent technology we are awash in data.  But in this information age, vital information is missing.  Nature is about smelling, hearing, tasting, seeing below the "transparent mucous-paper in which the world like a bon-bon is wrapped so carefully that we can never get at it," as D.H. Lawrence put it, in a relatively obscure but extraordinary description of his own awakening to nature's sensory gift.  Lawrence described his awakening in Taos, New Mexico, as an antidote to the "know-it-all state of mind," that poor substitute for wisdom and wonder:

Superficially, the world has become small and known.  Poor little globe of earth, the tourists trot round you as easily as they trot round the Bois or Central Park.  There is no mystery left, we've been there, we've seen it, we know all about it.  We've done the globe and the globe is done.

This is quite true, superficially.  On the superficies, horizontally, we've been everywhere and done everything, we know all about it.  Yet the more we know, superficially, the less we penetrate, vertically.  It's all very well skimming across the surface of the ocean and saying you know all about the sea . . . .

As a matter of fact, our great-grandfathers, who never went anywhere, in actuality had more experience of the world than we have, who have seen everything.  When they listened to a lecture with lantern-slides, they really held their breath before the unknown, as they sat in the village school-room.  We, bowling along in a rickshaw in Ceylon, say to ourselves:  "It's very much what you'd expect."  We really know it all.

We are mistaken.  The know-it-all state of mind is just the result of being outside the mucous-paper wrapping of civilization.  Underneath is everything we don't know and are afraid of knowing.

Last Child in the Woods (57-58), Richard Louv

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

 

Lyrics and Words to Verses and Songs this Session

Dear Families,

        Please remember that we have no classes on April 9, 10, 16, & 17.  Our school is closed for spring break.

Here are the words and lyrics for the finger games, songs, and puppet show at the table in the middle of class.

As I typed these out, it became quite clear how much onomonapoeia, phonemic play, and nonsense exist in my spring repertoire.  My guess would be that it is easiest to learn these verse and songs from class, and I wonder if my typed out words make any sense to families not currently attending class.  If you are interested, there are three books of games and songs composed by Wilma Ellersiek available in English (currently), with other drafts floating around from workshops.  Her directions for the gestures are thorough (at first I found them overwhelming).

        I offer so many Ellersiek games and songs because children seem to respond so well to them.  Ellersiek was a university teacher of music, drama, and Eurhythmics (not Waldorf's Eurythmy) in Germany.  In the fifties, she was disturbed by the elimination of play from German kindergartens and began composing verses and songs based upon nature observation as a balance, or antidote, for the increasing and (she believed) improper academics and precocious intellectual work.  Even though the academic kindergartens in Germany were a flop and there was a return to more play-based kindergarten (though today, apparently, in much of Europe there are government pressures to follow a No Child Left Behind approach to early childhood [decisions based upon questionable research, but that is another topic]), Ellersiek continued with her passion of observing nature and children at play and crafting these into games and verses for teacher or caregiver and child.  Some of the gestures that seem strange or awkward at first (such as twisting the wrists above the head) are ones Ellersiek observed children using in spontaneous joy and play.   Although these can be hard at first for an adult, children tend to love them, and in the long term I find them helpful for adults as well (as a nice reprieve for the wrists, for example, after a busy night of typing songs and verses).

  A story goes that Ellersiek was on vacation in the Black Forest and met Klara Hatterman, a Waldorf kindergarten teacher, also on vacation.  The two discovered the harmony in their work, and this was the introduction of Ellersiek games into Waldorf early childhood programs.  Kundry Willwerth has carefully translated these verses into English.  Here is Willwerth's tribute to Wilma Ellersiek.  (It seems the pdf version of the tribute does not contain Ellersiek's poem "Call to Deeds" that Willwerth alludes to.  I will post this on a future blog).   Even if we are not destined to compose intricate songs and verses for the classroom, we can find a model of attention and mindfulness in Wilma Ellersiek.  The qualities that Magda Gerber, Emmi Pikler, Dorothy Corkille-Briggs, Susan Weber, and others working with and for young children hope to cultivate in adults--careful observation, creative not-knowing, trust in the child, genuine encounter and presence--blossom in the artistic work of Wilma Ellersiek.

       Here are lyrics for our dances around the Maypole at the end of class.  Please do not worry if your child does not stay at the Maypole.  Please do keep dancing.  My observation has been that as weeks progress, more and more children like to join in, and even children who do not join for every dance have an authentic experience as they watch adults and others dance.  

For new families or families that seek a refresher, here are the lyrics to many of the other songs I sing throughout the morning.   This is the same document I have distributed earlier in the year.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Follow-up from Strunk and White Talk

Dear Families,

Thank you for being so responsive and offering your insights and experiences during yesterday's Strunk and White Speak to Children talk. From the positive response I have received, I intend to offer this talk again in the fall--perhaps with a different title so more parents will be inspired to attend. Other of my talks for next school year may include, "An Apology for Self-Esteem," "Making Choices about Choices," and "Here, Eat a Carrot Instead: Apparently Crazy Discipline Ideas from Experienced Teachers that Really Work."

During Sunday's talk, I spoke about the articles describing the research on the inverse power of praise--that too much global praise (good job, good girl, great job, you're so smart) can make a child risk averse and less likely to prosper academically, emotionally, and socially. I have published links to these articles before, but I offer them again here to make them easy to find.

This article from New York Magazine offers a parent's perspective on the research.

This article from Scientific American Mind is by Professor Carol Dweck (the researcher mentioned in the previous article) and is a bit more formal in nature.

I look forward to seeing many of as begin our new Spring Session this Thursday and Friday. We will have new finger games, songs, and a puppet show for the spring--along with Maypole dancing at the end of each class (the fiddle with Brother Wind's green cloth will be there, too). Call the school if you still need an application--341-5686.

Applications for next year's 3 day nursery class are also available. Please call Adam Fawcett at school (341-5686) to procure one. You may also visit www.wiws.org to obtain documents.

Please know that beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, our administration and board are launching a 100/50/0 tuition policy for new families (with the goal of giving current families the same benefit as soon as possible). This means that for a family's second child enrolling at our school, that child's tuition will be half of what it would normally be. The third child comes to school for free. This is part of a larger plan to make Waldorf education as accessible as possible to all families in the South Whidbey and surrounding areas. Please share this information with friends who may have dismissed our school because they assumed the tuition for multiple children would be unaffordable.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Brochures and Applications Available

Dear Families,

The brochures/applications for the Dewdrop and Rosebud classes for the spring session are now available outside the Butterfly Classroom. After this, the final week of our winter session, the spring session commences on March 26 & 27.

Here is a preview of the schedule for the spring. There are 8 classes and one open festival.

Week 1 -- March 26 & 27
Week 2 -- April 2 & 3

closed for Spring break (April 9, 10, 16, & 17)

Week 3 -- April 23 & 24
Week 4 -- April 30 & May 1
Week 5 -- May 7 & 8
Week 6 -- May 14 & 15

no classes May 21 & 22 (The Waldorf School has an altered schedule on the 22nd as a snow makeup day. Many of our Rosebud families will have older siblings without school on that day).

Thursday, May 21, Parent & Child Summer festival open to all current families, friends, alums, and guests. Details and location to be announced.

Week 7 -- May 28 & 29
Week 8 -- June 4 & 5

Applications and Intentions for next year's nursery class

Thanks to families who included their enrollment intentions for Rosebud children when returning renrollment forms for their older siblings. You may procure an application for next year's nursery from our enrollment director, Adam Fawcett. It would be helpful to know what current or past Rosebud families have thoughts of starting the nursery next fall (or later in the year). Our faculty is in a process of allocating our teaching resources where our skills will be of most help to the school, and it will help this process to have at least an estimate of what 3 day nursery enrollment will be next year. Please share your thoughts about your child's enrollment for next year with me by email (wdolde@gmail.com) or in person--or tell our administrator, Maureen Marklin. She and Adam share an office upstairs; both can be reached by phone at 341-5686.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Spring Festival This Thursday

Dear Families,

       I look forward to seeing many of you this Thursday, March 12, at 9:30am for our spring festival.  Although the weather should be warmer than the past of couple of days, it is an outdoor festival, so please be prepared with warm clothes.

       While the children often find the festival more magical and nourishing if they can have the experience without explanation beforehand, I am offering a more detailed description of the events for adults so that you can be prepared to help if needed (please do not share with children).

9:30am  Children and parents arrive.  Bread and butter, water, and herbal tea will be available in the shelter near our playground.  If you are bringing cut vegetables to share, please bring them here.  Children play and/or eat.

9:45am (or when it seems all families intending to attend have arrived), William will play music, sing, and present a fingerplay or puppet show, depending on the weather.

9:50am  William will lead us into the woods to the teepee (the walk is 200 yards at the most).  There, Mother Earth will silently greet us.  She will present William with a fiber pot and plant cosmos seeds into the pot.   Ideally, Mother Earth will present a pot and seeds to each child.  If there are many children, and the waiting seems too stressful, William (and other parents) will help.  It is nice, however, if things do not feel rushed.  Some children, of course, may be intimated by Mother Earth, so a parent could receive the gift for the child.  Be prepared to help your child carry the pot.  We will have extra potting soil and seeds at the end of the walk if, as is possible, your child's pot spills.  We thank Mother Earth.

9:55am (or so) We walk a few more yards to another clearing in the wood.  There Sister Rain will greet us and water each pot.  We thank Sister Rain.

10am (or so)  We emerge from the woods (another few yards) and head back toward the playground.  There, Father Sun greets us.  He ties a spring crown around William's head.  Next it is ideal if Father Sun ties a spring crown on each child's head.  If there are a lot of children, William and parents can help Father Sun.  Again, it is nice if we avoid a sense of hurry.  Some children, of course, will not feel comfortable with a stranger putting on a crown; parents are welcome to help their own child with their crown.  We thank Father Sun.

10:05am (or so) Back at the playground, Brother Wind greets us and presents us with a large spring cloth for dancing.  We thank Brother Wind.  Unless it is bitterly cold, William will play the fiddle as parents and children dance with the large cloth from Brother Wind.

10:15am Children play some more, children and parents eat more snack.  Each child is welcome to take home a pot.  There will be extra in case one is misplaced or spilled.  This particular cosmos (which you can plant outside after 6 weeks or so) is supposed to help attract butterflies. to remind you of your time in the Butterfly Room.  Each child is welcome to take a crown home.  If you enroll in the spring session of parent and child classes (beginning March 26), please bring the crown to class.  We will decorate the crowns with wool roving and embroidery for May Day.  

10:30am  Children and parents depart.  Beginning at 10:45am or sooner, elementary children come outside for recess, and it will be good to leave them space.

Lyrics to songs William will sing (he will repeat them and you are encouraged to sing along)

Spring is coming, spring is coming.

Birdies build your nest.

Weave together straw and feather,

Doing each your best.

Spring is coming, spring is coming.

Flowers are coming, too.

Pansies, lilies, daffodillies,

Each is coming through.

Spring is coming, spring is coming.

All around is fair.

Shimmer, quiver on the river.

Joy is everywhere.

Mother Earth, Mother Earth,

Take our seed and give it birth.

Sister Rain, Sister Rain,

Shed thy tears to swell the grain.

Father Sun, Gleam and glow,

That the roots begin to grow. 

Brother Wind, breathe and blow,

That the blade green will grow.

Earth and Sun, Wind and Rain,

Turn to gold the the living grain.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Simplicity Parenting -- from a nursery discussion

Dear Parents,

       Please remember that there are no parent & child classes on Thursday and Friday March 12 & 13.  You are all invited to attend our Spring Festival on Thursday, March 12, from 9:30 - 10:30am outside.  Grandparents and special friends are invited to attend a puppet show and discussion on Friday the 13th (children can come along from 9 until 9:15am, then parents take children home while grandparents and friends stay for discussion and food and entertainment).  Please do RSVP to Christyn Johnson at school 341-5686 or whippet2me@aol.com if a grandparent or friend of your child's will be coming to school next Friday.

       The final classes of the winter session are Thursday and Friday, March 19 & 20.

        Here was a discussion with my nursery families about the Simplicity Parenting lecture that you may find relevant.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Spring Festival Invitation, Snow Policy

Dear Current Rosebud and Dewdrop Families, Friends, Alums, and Prospective Families,

You and your child(ren) are invited to our Spring Festival on Thursday, March 12, from 9:30 to 10:30am. It is an outdoor festival; we will get to meet Spring whether she presents herself as a lion or a lamb. Children and parents will gather on the playground and shelter where I will serve warm bread and chamomile tea; although we will not have soup, families are invited to bring crunchy vegetables to share.
At about 9:45am, we will take a short walk into the woods (alas, most strollers will not fit on the trails; ergos and other carriers will). There we will meet Mother Earth, Father Sun, Brother Wind, and Sister Rain; these friendly characters may even give us gifts. After the walk, we will return to the playground for more snacks, play, and conversation. If weather permits, I will end our festival with fiddle tunes and dancing outside.
There are a number of good books about festivals in the Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library. Here also is an article written by an experienced kindergarten teacher from Santa Cruz Steve Spitalny about festivals. Although Steve is writing for teachers in this article, he helps us as parents as well simplify and clarify our thinking about marking the seasons of the year to support our children.

Here is a reminder for current parent & child families about our snow delay policy (snow is in the forecast this week). Please check www.schoolreport.org or call our school--360-341-5686. We follow the South Whidbey Public School decisions. If schools are delayed one hour, our parent & child classes will take place as usual, beginning at 9am. If schools are delayed two hours, our parent & child classes will begin at 10am and go until noon. If schools are closed, parent & child classes are cancelled, and you will receive a credit for that class.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Schedule Reminder

Dear Dewdrop and Rosebud Families,

        Here is a reminder of upcoming dates:

No classes February 19 & 20.

2 weeks of classes February 26 & 27, March 5 & 6.

No classes March 12 & 13.

A festival open to all parent & child families, alums, friends, relatives, community members, Thursday, March 12, 9:30am, outside the Butterfly Room.  We will walk into the woods to look for Spring and perhaps meet Mother Earth, Father Sun, Sister Rain, and Brother Wind.

Final classes of the winter session:  March 19 & 20.

The spring session commences on March 26 & 27.

Feel free to contact me if confusion persists.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Simplicity and Spring Cleaning

Dear Families,

I hope many adults are able to attend tonight (Wednesday's) lecture on Simplicty Parenting by Kim Payne. In his talk he often exhorts parents to remove clutter from their child's physical environment and schedule. As I think about cleaning and clarifying, I am reminded of an article by Linda Thomas on chaos and cleaning and caring. As head house mother of the Goetheanum in Switzerland, in charge of keeping a center of spiritual and altruistic thought tidy, Thomas developed great insights into the spiritual aspects of, say, cleaning a toilet. She is an inspiring speaker, and her article alone has helped parents find new rewards in what were formerly odious tasks. Rather than becoming a distraction from parenting or personal growth, cleaning can become an aspect of our personal growth through parenting (much the argument of Whole Child/Whole Parent, an excellent book available in the Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library).

As we remove clutter from our children's lives, we want to be careful to preserve the right for our children to encounter and overcome and learn from obstacles. Last week I showed the rest of the faculty video footage of infants and toddlers interacting at Loczy in Budapest. The faculty showed interest in what I narrated and what they observed. A colleague asked what I thought about the apparent clutter in the play room the infants at Loczy shared. I remarked that the Pikler and Gerber work reminds us to refrain from cleaning everything up right away to make things easy for the infants and toddlers. Infants and toddlers learn something as they try to crawl or walk or climb through and around all the toys on the playroom floor, and the nurses (and RIE teachers in America) are careful to refrain from clearing everything out of the way to make things easy. When left to develop with loving attention and trust, infants and toddlers will amaze us with what they are able to accomplish.

Joan Almon, Waldorf teacher of early childhood teachers and head of the Alliance for Childhood, writes with eloquence of the fluid play scenarios of the 3 to 5 year old. A 4 year old may have toys scattered about the house and have seemed to switch from playing boats to cats to dolls to tea party to dragons to construction to bus driving. When a parent suggests the child put away a toy from several scenarios ago, the child might object, "I'm still playing with that!" because, in the fluid, developing attention span of the 3 to 5 year old, the child is still playing with it. This Protean flow, rather than being a diversion from the development of attention span, is the way the 3 to 5 year old develops attention span. While we as parents and teachers help our children by bringing form to their surroundings, we also help then by becoming a bit comfortable with chaos, clutter, and challenge.

This reminds me of an interaction with a girl in the nursery class today. Many nursery children have become interested in washing dishes of late, and the more children there are, the more likely it is that someone will get wet. Rather than changing this girl's shirt right away, I offered her a couple of towels to dry herself with. She became very engaged with drying herself and then a classmate, and deep attention and cooperation were in the process of developing. Whereas at the beginning of the year becoming wet might have paralyzed her, now it gave her an opportunity to work and bond and imagine. We give gifts by what we as adults do and don't do. To paraphrase Kim Payne quoting something else, sometimes in a heated situation or crisis our presence is enough. The message to adults: Don't just do something, stand there!

With warmth and light,

William Dolde

Looking ahead to the Nursery

Dear Rosebud and Dewdrop Families,

If you are interested in further insights into last week's discussion of redirecting a toddler's desire to learn without fighting battles all day long, I have composed this meditation upon various ways of speaking to toddlers.

You may also find these reflections from Whole Child/Whole Parent (linked to in a previous session) helpful.

Because many of you plan to join our Butterfly nursery next year or in a future, I thought I'd pass along some thoughts about rain and snow gear that are always too late for the current nursery families. We are blessed to be surrounded by woods. Not only do walks (climbs and runs) foster the development of initiative and autonomy amongst the nursery children, but the many clearings we visit provide different materials and scenarios for cooperative and imaginative play. Inside Waldorf early childhood classrooms, we bring in natural materials to spur children's imagination. At the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, we are so fortunate to bring the children outside to a variety of outdoor rooms, stocked with the makings of forts, fairy houses, bridges, caves, pretend ovens, and the like. While the nursery children play well and imaginatively indoors, often their ability to imagine and cooperate soars when they are outside.

While my experience finds that a mainly or entirely indoor class works well for parent & child classes, the nursery children thrive when we have generous amounts of time outside every day--sometimes as much as two hours if the weather permits (and it has been very mild and dry of late). Even when the weather is dry as it has been of late, children wear rain pants and boots every day from late September to early May. Getting dressed becomes part of the habit and part of the learning process--as children develop a sense of autonomy and competence. While warmth is important, and while you could find many articles about warmth in Waldorf periodicals, I think it important to remember that autonomy and initiative and industry (terms from Erik Erikson) are important parts of the nursery years. Some children who get dressed or undressed with confidence and grace when wearing slightly lighter clothes (rain pants and rain boots) resist getting dressed when provided with snow boots and snow pants.  While we want your child to be comfortable next year, take into account your child's sense of accomplishment when selecting gear next year.  Lighter outer clothes over multiple indoor layers may not work for all children, but some nursery children seem quite comfortable outside and heartened by their ability to dress themselves.

Also consider, as you think about procuring clothes for next year, what might give your child support as she or he uses the bathroom independently.  Although snow pants with bibs keep children very warm, for a child just learning to use the toilet, the extra time for taking them off (and the coat) in a emergency can make hard to get clothes off quickly enough.  If you already have your wet and cold weather clothes for next year, I am not asking you to spend more money to change things.  My assistant and I patiently help children with their gear, and all the nursery children enjoy the outdoors whether they get ready quickly or slowly.  I provide this advance information with the hope that it will help some parents.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Calendar, Joseph Chilton Pearce on Toddlerhood

Dear Families,

       Here is a reprise from the welcome letter of closures:

No classes February 19 & 20 -- school closed for February break and Waldorf teacher conferences.

No classes March 12 & 13  -- early childhood classrooms in use for Grandparents' and Special Friends day.

(We took these closures into account when setting the fee for the Winter session.  There are 8 regular Rosebud and Dewdrop classes.)

Spring Festival open to all parent & child families and open to the greater Whidbey community, Thursday, March 12, 9:30am.  We will gather outside, take a walk, and meet Mother Earth, Father Sun, Sister Rain, and Brother Wind.  The festival will conclude by or before 10:30am.

Joseph Chilton Pearce on Toddlers

Last week there was a good discussion about balancing our growing children's desire and need to explore with our need to keep them safe.  While healthy and consistent (and age appropriate) limits are healthy, it also helps our child and helps keep us sane if we can find appropriate ways for them to learn about the world--and toddlers learn about the world through climbing, running, tumbling, slamming, wrestling, building, toppling, throwing, splashing, and breaking.  As Rahima Baldwin writes in "Rhythm and Discipline in Home Life," the first Waldorf kindergarten teachers found it most effective to find an acceptable outlet for something she needed to forbid--ideally before the children even thought of trying the forbidden activity.

Using brain research, Joseph Chilton Pearce describes the toddler's innate need to explore and learn in "The Cycle of Competence" and "Will and the Terrible Two."  Because you may need to download and/or print the above selections in order to view them, here is a synopsis of Pearce's argument.  As book such as The Scientist in the Crib would suggest, from birth children are "wired" to explore and learn about the world, to develop connections in their brain.  The most profound way they do this is in their bonds with parents and other primary caregivers.  Another important way is through free movement and exploration in the environment.  Children do not open and close the cabinets or try to open the oven to annoy us (at least at first).  They are following a divine and spiritual plan to learn about everything.  

Because children have such a strong bond with their parents and and such a strong desire to learn from everything, toddlers find themselves pulled in two directions at once.  Pearce describes how a toddler may pause and look at a parent saying, for example, "Don't touch the oven.  It is hot!" The toddler, after pausing, proceeds to touch the oven, causing pain in the toddler and dismay in the parent.  "He looked right at me and then ignored me!"  Pearce advises us to reframe our way of viewing this.  The toddler's pause and then apparent disobedience are not, Pearce says, a challenge to us, a toddler pausing to say a la Clint Eastwood, "Go ahead.   Make my day."  The toddler, rather, has not yet developed  control of his will yet and is being carried along by two strong forces:  one, always having to explore and learn about everything; the other, wanting to maintain this strong bond with a parent and primary caregiver.  The toddler wants to strengthen the bond with mom or dad--hence the pause--but also feels driven to keep exploring--hence the apparent disobedience.

This does not mean we as parents should let our children turn on the oven, drive our cars, and practice with a welding torch just because they have a lot to teach us (though we may find with less dangerous forms of exploration such as climbing, cutting, and jumping we can find ways for the children to challenge themselves without coming into undo harm).  Limits and boundaries are healthy.  What Pearce and others help us remember is that we should also expect our young children (up to six or seven) to forget our boundaries and need patient reminders.  As Sharifa Oppenheimer writes, when we are redirecting our children or setting a limit, our words will be much more effective at guiding our children when we use the same tone we would for a statement such as, "Here's the towel."  If we steadfastly refrain from transforming our toddlers' need to explore into power struggles, we may find ourselves able to guide them while staying calmer ourselves.  Although it is healthy for children to see a diversity of emotions from parents and learn that it is OK to be sad, glad, angry, and anxious, if we provide ostentatious or explosive reactions to our children's forbidden explorations, we may inadvertently foster the development of a young social scientist:  "If I do this, Dad explodes like this.  Boy, I wonder what Dad would do if I do this!"  

Children do need limits.  It is helpful if we state them positively, telling the child what she or me may do, or--even better--stating in a general way what is the appropriate thing to do.  When mentoring other teachers, I have observed them at a time when a child is disruptive say, "Joe, you may be quiet now," only to have Joe experiment with how long he can be noisy before the teacher does something else.  A power struggle begins.  I have asked the teachers to consider a phrase such as, "This is the right time to be quiet," or "When we are all quiet, the beauty of silence can come" or "It is polite to listen quietly or sing along."  Teachers have reported back that these phrases (and the gesture they implied) have reduced power struggles dramatically and invited more compliance.   When a power struggle does emerge with an older toddler or kindergartner  and our child needs a cooling off period, Rahima Baldwin advises us to leave the room with the child rather than sending them off by themselves (the chapter in discipline in Hold on to Your Kids follows a similar approach).  We stay with the child calmly without lecturing (long tirades tend not to penetrate and may be entertaining) and sit in a calm and boring manner with our child.  After a minute to 3, we say, "Let's go try that again" or "We'll do that again in a polite way" or "The kings and queens have been called to the table.  I'll be queen and you be king."  Young children live and think in pictures, and when we can garner the resources to create living pictures as we guide them, we may find ourselves more effective.

I hope this is helpful.  In a follow-up conversation with the parent who sent me to read Pearce again, the parent reported having adjusted the location of some furniture in the kitchen, permitting climbing in a certain area, and redirecting the exploration there.  It sounded as if the parent and child were both satisfied--the child could explore; the parent could ensure safety; it was no longer a power struggle.

If you have trouble downloading the selections, they are available in Evolution's End, available in the Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library. 

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Welcome to the Winter Session

Dear Families,

Here is a link to our welcome letter for the new session. It contains information about parking, school closures, and the dates for our session. Here is a rhythm of the morning with some details about what informs my decisions about to include in the morning's work and play. I distributed printed copies of this at our orientation.

Here are lyrics to many of the songs I sing throughout the morning. I have no expectation that families will sing these songs at home. My hope is that parents feel inspired to sing for and with their children, whether songs from school, the Beatles, or Mozart.

At the orientation, several parents showed interest in an article I was preparing for nursery families about responding to children's questions. I have posted the article outside the classroom door, and here is an electronic copy of it.

Finally, here are lyrics to the songs and rhymes I sing and say at the table time and the closing circle.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde