Summer Fridays

Dear Rosebud Families,

WIWS families will gather at Maxwelton Beach informally on Fridays from 10 to 3 this summer. I'll miss the first few but look forward to reconnecting later in the summer.

Blessings on your weeks ahead,

William

A Waiter's Reflections on Bears, Newspapers, and Media

PREFATORY REMARKS: CHOICES ABOUT TELEVISION

If you have not done so, I encourage you to read an article about screen media's effects upon young children. "The Waldorf View of Television" by Jennifer Saleem offers the added benefit of going back to Waldorf Education's founder, Rudolf Steiner, and speaks a bit of the wellness the education tries to promote.

Part 1 of the article: http://www.tvfreeliving.com/the-effects-of-tv-articlesmenu-43/74-the-waldorf-view-of-television

Part 2: http://www.tvfreeliving.com/the-effects-of-tv-articlesmenu-43/77-the-waldorf-view-of-television-part-two


PREFATORY REMARKS 2: FAULKNER'S ABSALOM, ABSALOM!

While I am looking at a screen as I type this, over the past years I have watched almost no videos or movies (with more efficient use of computer technology so I spend less time staring at words on screens as well). It seems my ability to create mental images in my head is improving. Pictures in my head seem more vivid. Last week I was meeting with teachers in the Butterfly Room. Lights were out. The sun went behind a cloud for the meeting, and it was darker than one might want for a meeting. Soporific. At the conclusion of the meeting (which I promise I stayed present for), I had a wonderful appreciation of the initial scene from Faulkner's fairly abstruse masterpiece--Absalom, Absalom!--in which Quentin Compson (before he would go to Harvard and tell what he learned to his roommate and then unravel in The Sound and the Fury) sits in a crepuscular office about to hear of the legacy of the Sutpen and Coldfield families. I read this book once, 22 years ago. I appreciated its vigor and complexity then. I know I did not create mental images of the scenes from the book as vividly back then as I do now. That I watched movies such as Caddyshack and Die Hard with my roommates to unwind (rather than retelling chilling and Gothic tales of southern families) rather than meditating and walking in nature to unwind as I do may have nothing to with my ability to create these pictures. It is just something to explore.


THE HEART OF WHAT I INTENDED TO WRITE: BEARS AND NEWSPAPERS AND SMART PHONES

"Only Connect" -- E.M. Forster

I love technology when it frees us, connects us. I love listening to literature in audio format. I loved to read in college and grad school, and the physical act of reading--still, head in an awkward position--took a toll on my body.

All this is to say I am biased to be a defender of smart phones and the like, so I find myself becoming defensive when a fellow educator or parent associates the decline of the modern family with the smart phone or other gadget.

In many older children's books I read with my sons, a father--whether bear or badger or human--often seems to be reading a newspaper at the breakfast table, often having no connection with his children or spouse. An occasional badger is perhaps just bashful, and uses the newspaper to hide the glory of love and wisdom within him, and he is able to dispense loving wisdom to his daughter. But some of these other dads seem to drift in and out of the narrative, never really connecting with the family at all. I think of adults I've known addicted to CNN, or NPR, or talk shows, or the Price is Right, or Dickens (O, that's me).

In the restaurant I see many families in which children are playing video games the entire meal (and perhaps having a tantrum or becoming sullen when asked to shut the game for a moment) and young adults are checking out by checking in on Facebook and dads can't stop playing words with friends or solitaire or searching for a new poem at the Poetry Foundation app (OK, that's me again, and I try not to do this while dining out with my boys).

I also see families with no gadgets having miserable times, with all sorts of out of alignment emotions and moods and pushing against one another.

And then there are many families with no gadgets who are there to have fun, who expect to find good things in each other and in their environment and so attract this to them, who remind you that eating out can actually be pleasant (with not a few other families I marvel that I think I am having a much better time than the diners are; I also expect waiting tables to be a pleasant experience, good for my body and mental and emotional capacities).

And from time to time I see families using gadgets together to plan their next adventure that afternoon in perhaps their first visit to Seattle or other mutual plans. One mother, father, and son stand out for me. The dad seems to always have a laptop (he may be on call); the preteen son often has a book or an ipad. The mom has a smart phone. They somehow seem to be really connected despite or almost because of this; they share information with one another; they clearly value and love one another; they like the restaurant; they are pleasant to their waiter; they expect good things to come. They remain present and open to life's wonders around them even with their books and gadgets.

If this thin excuse to justify my listening to Bleak House via bluetooth on my ipad has any sort of conclusion or next direction, it would be to encourage us to think of Eckhart Tolle or others who remind us of the value of the present moment, of being present in the present moment, of allowing, of celebrating the present moment. TVs and computers and smart phones can pull us out of the present moment. So can books, newspapers, racing thoughts, grudges that we could allow to float away, and the like. And we can connect no matter what is there.

Katrina Kenison, editor and write, describes some of this in "Dailiness" from Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry. Her book is helpful (and available from our school library when it reopens in the fall). Here is an excerpt: http://www.ofspirit.com/tw-mittenstringsforgod.htm.

final class, potluck, summer beach days, next year

Dear Parents,

Friday, June 1, will conclude our session. We'll have class as usual in the morning. Siblings and spouses are welcome to join us at 5pm at Maxwelton Beach for a pot-luck (surprise us), play, sun (or refreshing rain), and a drama about the Mossy Men. I will invite parents and children to take the roles of fairies, butterflies, and gnome-like mossy men. I seek one brave adult to wear red and yellow silks to portray the role of the "Fireman" (the sun forces without balance which dry out the flowers) in a not too scary way. Let me know. I speak all the lines; you will be miming.

Traditionally WIWS families decide to gather at Maxwelton Beach one morning a week over the summer. Once a plan emerges, I will let you know.

In addition to teaching a mixed age nursery/kindergarten next year, I am pleased to continue to teach parent & child classes on Fridays. Class time will likely change to 9:30 to 11:30am. Rather than try to fit 3 sessions in with school breaks, we will likely have 2 slightly longer sessions, with a fallow period in the months of January and February.

Blessings on your summers,

William

"Here's the Towel": Feedback and Bikram Yoga

In "Rhythm and Discipline in Home Life," Rahima Baldwin Dancy reminds us that we will find ourselves tuned up to guide our children once we release our (false) expectation that they will remember our (ostensibly) wisdom tomorrow. Rather than, "Why do you always slam the door? I tell you every day not to!" we might make it a (spiritual) practice to be present at the door like a zen master ready to help our child close the door gently. Sharifa Oppenheimer gives this analogy: anytime we have to direct our children in an incendiary moment, we soothe our children and shift their vibrations if we can offer our words with the same inflection we might say to a guest, "Here's the towel."

I remember uttering (out loud!) "Here's the towel" to girls in an explosive conflict over a doll. Strangeness disarmed them. They paused, descried their weird teacher, and flowed into collaborative and imaginative play they were both wanting so much.

Andrea Gambardella, the teacher who launched me into nursery and parent & child teaching in Baltimore, a teacher who drips with erudition and integrity and warmth, encourages us to find metaphors that work for us. She pictured herself as a sturdy oak, able to stand no matter what winds or storms blew by it.

Recently I took my first Bikram Yoga class. Glorious. 90 minutes at 105 degrees. This intensity tasted like the wee little bear's porridge to me: I opened, expanded, released. I adored the teachers. This was Seattle. Classes had about 30 to 50 students. The poses are difficult. Teachers need to correct us constantly. They need to correct sometimes one student. Sometimes they have to give generic feedback that will help everyone without causing one or a few students to overcompensate. The four teachers I've witnessed seemed a master at giving this necessary and almost constant feedback in a supportive and nonjudgmental tone. I never once felt my worthiness in question.

Eureka. I had a vibrant, living, refreshed metaphor for my teaching. While I would not talk constantly in an early childhood classroom, I did wonder if I could carry this attitude of giving feedback with such equanimity, something I know we are supposed to do--yet it is so easy to slide into the slough of despair and exasperation. Could I guide that child about to strike another child with a stick (important for me to intervene) with the same calmness and freedom from judgment my yoga instructors treat me with when I can't touch my forehead to the floor while having my knees locked? I could! And did. And it helped the children realize that they did not have to be stuck in their same patterns. These things actually work!

We want to feel well. We want to flow. We want to expand. We want to be free. We want to lift others. And it is so easy to fall into unconscious habits that take us out of the present moment, that bring in doubt, judgment. It is such a blessing when a new experience can help to wake us up yet again and remind us that we can step back into a place of presence, free from resistance, full of allowing, knowing, seeing, loving, helping, nurturing, soothing, sweating. Here's the towel to dry off your sweat when you find your practice.

Maxwelton Beach, June 1, 5 to 7pm

Dear Nursery and Parent & Child Families and Friends,

Please gather with us on our final day of Rosebud classes (and our final full week of nursery classes) at Maxwelton Beach on Friday, June 1, from 5 to 7pm for a pot-luck and festive summer expansion. The weather will invite, as appropriate, Maypole dancing, fiddle tunes, and folk song singing from Rise Up Singing.

If there are enough willing adults, we may even put on a play for and with the children. We did this with the Elves and The Shoemaker a few winters ago, and it was delightful.

Wednesday, May 16, 6pm Meeting

Dear Rosebud Parents,

You are invited to gather with other early childhood families tomorrow night in the Butterfly Room at 6pm. Among other topics about next year, we will be introducing more and expanded enrollment options for our school's youngest children. We will also try to make a review of the new information available for and perhaps even in Friday's class.

With appreciation,

William

Challenge as Strength

Dear Families,

Here I digress. If you seek long peregrinations through my mind on matters related to Waldorf education and child development, consider visiting butterflynursery.blogspot.com and/or dewdroprosebud.blogspot.com. Both blogs have a search feature. You can type in, for example, "sleep" or "conflict" to uncover and dust off posts from past years that address these topics.

My present intent it to present a series of shorter essays that present one topic at a time.

Steiner extolled the lively child, the active child, the defiant child. In the fire of early childhood, Steiner foresaw the strength that would aid the child in work and life as an adult. Steiner did not, however, exhort us to give children free reign while we stood around, helpless, wondering when the angels drop down to tell us what to do. It be can be quizzical to maddening to liberating to read Steiner and notice the times he recommends intervention when I would not have thought of one and when he advises us to let things be when one might have thought of intervening. There is no exact formula. No exact recipe. Each child is unique. Again and again we are told to observe without judgment, and the inspiration will come to us.

I propose the following: for the next days or weeks, seek out a behavior of your child that seems annoying or upsetting. With as much fun as possible, create a scenario in your mind of your child as an adult, with this perhaps disturbing seed of early childhood serving as a strength. You may find it best to start with an easy one. You may find it easy to start with a difficult one and spin out a far-fetched fantasy (the world will change a lot in 20 years). Perhaps you will imagine or intuit things that can help guide the child's challenge into strength. Perhaps not. But even the gesture of making peace with the Now, the suchness of the moment, may bring pleasure, contentment, radiance, a winged chariot pulled by 2 pegasus (keep it fun and imaginative), and the like. This may be easy. It may not. Have fun either way.

Here I defy my inclination to compare this to multifarious processes from other educational and spiritual streams. Tell me how you fare. Expect more later.

With appreciation of your willingness to play,

William

Maypole Songs

Dear Families,

Happy MayFaire. Below are lyrics to the Maypole songs we have been singing at the conclusion of our Friday classes.

Maypole Songs -- Butterfly Nursery, Dewdrop, and Rosebud
(learned in a folk manner)


(clockwise)
We're dancing, we're dancing
Around the Maypole high.
In colors of the rainbow
Our ribbons do fly.
Dear children, take a ribbon please.
Today May flowers all are we.
Around, around, around,
A garland we do weave.

Tra la la, tra la la, tra la la, la la la.
Tra la la, tra la la, tra la la laa.

(faster)
Hi diddle dee, hi diddle dee, come join me, come join me.
Hi diddle dee, hi diddle dee, come join me please.

(very quickly)
Tralalalalala la la la, tra la la la la la
Tralalalalala la la la, tra la la laa.

(turn around and start with great speed the other way)

Tralalalalala la la la, tra la la la la la
Tralalalalala la la la, tra la la laa.

(more slowly)
Hi diddle dee, hi diddle dee, come join me, come join me.
Hi diddle dee, hi diddle dee, come join me please.

(slowly like a turtle)

Tra la la, tra la la, tra la la, la la la.
Tra la la, tra la la, tra la la laa.


Vive la Vie

(clockwise)
Let every good person join in the song, vive la Compagnie
Success to each other and pass it along, vive la Compagnie

(on the chorus, dancers stop rotating and walk in and out to the center)
(in) Vive la vive la vive la joie
(out) Vive la vive la vive la joie
(in) Vive l'amour, vive la joie
(out) Vive la Compagnie

(clockwise again)
A friend on your left and a friend on your right, vive la Compagnie
In love and good fellowship let us unite, vive la Compagnie.

Chorus (again stop circling and in and out)

Now wider and wider our circle expands, vive la Compagnie.
We sing to our comrades in far away lands, vive la Compagnie.

Chorus

(Repeat the entire song, circling counter-clockwise on the verses)

Here we go Round the Maypole High

Here we go round the Maypole high, Maypole high, Maypole high.
Here we go round the Maypole high, let colored ribbons fly.

See lads and lassies skipping by, skipping by, skipping by.
See lads and lassies skipping by, let colored ribbons fly.

(repeat and allow ribbons to fly at the end).

Meeting, Wednesday, May 16

Dear Nursery and Parent & Child Families,

You are invited to join all early childhood families on Wednesday, May 16, as teachers describe and answer questions about expanded programming options for the 2012-2013 school year.  Please see below for times.

Wednesday May 16th
All Early Childhood Parent Meeting 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Parents of Rising First Grade Students only (Fall 2013) 7:00pm - 7:45pm
Please join us as we look ahead to next years early childhood program.
The early childhood teachers will present an overview of some inspired program 
changes in our early childhood department for the fall.

Feel free to contact me with any questions,

William

Requests for help: Compassionate Response, Confident Captain, Library

Dear Families,

Although I am endeavoring to craft short yet helpful letters, I will cheat here and offer links to longer pieces of prose for those interested. This comes upon two separate requests from parents of children of different ages--it seems they were seeking inspiration, courage, support, more for being present with their ever changing child.

Consider attending the Compassionate Response meditation work (from Kim Payne) Wednesday after school (ads in the newsletter). If you cannot attend, a CD of Kim Payne's lecture on this subject is available in the school library. In the past decade, several parents have reported to me that this work has brought light and relief during times of moderate to intense stress.

If you visit my blog at the link below, you will find some of my gathered thoughts on parenting.

http://butterflynursery.blogspot.com/2010/10/parent-evening-confident-captain-zen.html


Finally, the Kathrine Dickerson library has many resources. "Rhythm and Discipline in Home Life" from You Are Your Child's First Teacher can be very helpful. 1, 2, 3 . . . The Toddler Years has short chapters on subjects such as biting, fighting, tantrums, sibling rivalry, and the like and can offer quick relief. If you prefer a longer, more meditative, George Eliot Victorian novel type process (which, to be honest, is more my style), wading through Whole Child/Whole Parent or A New Earth could be quite helpful.

Blessings,

William

Spring fingerplays at the table

Spring 2012 Rosebud verses and songs
(Most of these come from Wilma Ellersiek)



Softly tippytoes,
On his trip the Sandman goes.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap,
Slips through garden and the house.
Scatters all his dreams about.
Scatters all his dreams about.
La la la la la la la laa.
Mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mmm.
La la laaa.
Mm mm mmmmm.


Teck teck teck teck teck teck teck.
Hammers here woodpecker small in every bark he pecks.
Teck teck teck teck teck teck teck.
Hammers here woodpecker small a little worm he seeks.

In every bark he pecks.
A little worm he seeks.
T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t teck teck teck.
T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t teck teck teck.


To the woods, the children all take a walk today.
Listen to the birdies' song, joyous tirilay.
Ti-ri ti-ri-li, ti-ri ti-ri ti-ri-liii.
Ti-ri ti-ri-li, ti-ri ti-ri ti-ri-lay.

They stop and listen well.
Teck teck teck, teck teck teck.
Hammers the woodpecker, t-t-t-t-t-t teck.

The mourning dove coos coo-oo coo coo coo, coo-oo coo coo coo.
The chickadee twitters chickadee-dee-dee, chickadee-dee-dee.
The finch sings widgibbet, widgibbet, widgibbet.
The robin chirps tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit.

There's a concert in the wood.
Listen, listen, it sounds good.

Teck teck teck, teck teck teck.
T-t-t-t-t-t teck.

Coo-oo, coo coo coo, coo-oo coo coo coo.
Chickadee-dee-dee, chickadee-dee-dee.
Widgibbet, widgibbet, widgibbet.
Tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit, tilliwit.

It calls and twitters far and near,
Just as the children like to hear.
The sun to listens as they cheep,
And when he sets and goes to sleep,
The many birdies small
Stop their singing, one and all.
Snuggle in their cosy nest,
From their singing now they rest.
(humming lullaby)
The concert is done.
Children leave now, one by one.


See, but see.
In the green grass, the grass so green,
A million golden suns are seen.

Dandelion, Dandelion
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la
(repeat)

And then all the blossoms must close
And for a little while repose.
A second time the blossoms open out,
And--see!--a puffy flower looks about.

The wind blows strong -- phhhhh
Into the air the star-child throng.

The seeds hover, high and low, high and low,
Hovering so, high and low.
Gently sink down to the earth below,
That a new crop of dandelions may grow.

Dandelion, Dandelion
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
(repeat)


The little daisy, small and fine
Is waiting for the sun to shine.

Climbs the sun up to his height,
She opens up her blossoms white.

Goes the sun to sleep at night,
She shuts her petals tight.

Let's see who comes to visit our garden.

In my garden, the flower in bloom is waiting, waiting for whom?
For the beetle child, the beetle child!
She ree ra rocks it, in the breeze mild, the beetle child (repeat).

The flower in bloom is waiting, waiting for whom?
For the butterfly, the flutter child.
She ree ra rocks it, in the breeze mild, the flutter child (repeat).

The flower in bloom is waiting, waiting for whom?
bzzz, bzzz, bzzz, bzzz, for the buzzy bee, the buzzy child--bzzz, bzzz.
She ree ra rocks it, in the breeze mild, the buzzy child (repeat).

Stays the flower now alone?
O no. To her comes down the sunshine bright.
Stroking her so soft and light.
And when the sunshine goes, she falls asleep at night.

trying something new with the "puppet" show this Friday

Dear Returning Parents,

Although I have tinkered with my method of teaching parent & child classes in minor and significant ways over the past decade, in recent years I have consistently offered what strives to be an age appropriate puppet show after a series of gesture games and right before snack. "The Flower in Bloom," tends to elicit such an enthusiastic response from infants and toddlers that I present it as a spring puppet show year after year. A number of you would have seen this last spring ("The flower in bloom is waiting, is waiting for whom . . . The beetle child . . . and soforth." I will send words to verses and songs once the class roster is settled).

Before its debut as a puppet show in my classes, "The Flower in Bloom" was and is a hand gesture game composed by Wilma Ellersiek. Because my nursery children seem so enchanted and transported and present and delighted by this gesture game presented just as a hand gesture game--that is, with my hands representing the beetle, the butterfly, and the bee--I want to see what is like if for the first two or three weeks, I present this in our Friday class as part of the pre-snack medley without the use of puppets. Perhaps there will be revolution and I will bring the puppets in week 2. Perhaps I will wait 2 or more weeks; I will bring the puppets at some point.

Please help by treating this as a normal part of the routine; no preview or explanation needed. Let's let it be a surprise (hopefully a pleasant one) when the puppets appear as if out of the blue one week. You might observe your child or other children over the coming weeks. I'd be interested if you notice a different affect or expression on their faces with hands or puppets. Thank you for your flexibility.

We will of course share soup and bread. And, it being spring, start dancing the Maypole.

With appreciation,

William

Joan Almon and the Vital Importance of Play

Dear Nursery and Parent & Child Families,

We are approaching two weeks off from our nursery and parent & child program.  After these breaks, I discover and marvel at (though it happens every year) the new ideas, patterns, imaginations, social flexibilities, occasional social sticking points to work through, and the like that young children bring into the classroom (and the outdoor play spaces as well).  It reminds me of Joan Almon, one of my favorite Wise Women of Waldorf education, a former kindergarten teacher and public speaker who has warmth and love effervescing from every bit of her being when she is with you or speaking to you in a crowd.  You can see her in the video (for adults) "Where Do the Children Play."  Like Glenda Moore, Almon celebrates the manner in which our loving work as adults can animate and enliven the play of the children in our care.

She has written and revised her article about play many times to include new research.  Her version below (which comes from http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/article.asp?id=5) seems a particularly effective one. 

The Vital Role of Play in Childhood Joan Almon "The ability to play is one of the principal criteria of mental health." Ashley Montagu The Universal Nature of Play In over 30 years of working with young children, families, and teachers in Waldorf kindergartens all over the world, I have observed one consistent feature of childhood: creative play is a central activity in the lives of healthy children. Play helps children weave together all the elements of life as they experience it. It is an outlet for the fullness of their creativity, and it is an absolutely critical part of their childhood. The unique qualities of each child become apparent in the way they play. Some cultural differences emerge, for children imitate what they see around them and play it out. But there are strong universal qualities in play. For example, three-year-olds around the world play in similar ways; their play is different from that of five- or six-year-olds. The universal nature of play is evident. One can speak of the language of play that unites young children all over the world. It is fascinating to watch children from different countries playing together. Although they may not be able to speak one word of the other's language, they can play together for hours. They enter a common realm where the external differences of language and culture are small compared to the vast similarities embedded in the child's inner urge to play. Although play is a steady part of healthy children's lives, it is not easy to define what play is. I prefer to think of it as a bubbling spring of health and creativity within each child—and, for that matter, within every human being. Sometimes this spring seems to stop flowing, but it remains at the heart of every human being and, with a bit of effort, the blockages can be cleared away and a creative, playful spirit can flow again. This can happen at any age. When young children are ill they often stop playing for a few days. As soon as they are better, their parents notice the spark of play shining in their eyes again. In general, when children are able to play creatively, they blossom and flourish. If they stop playing over an extended period of time, they can suffer a decline and even become depressed or show signs of other illnesses. Play is of central importance in a child's life. This is well supported by decades of research, some of which is described in this article. Despite its central importance in children's healthy development, play—in the creative, open-ended sense in which I use the term—is now seriously endangered in the United States and many other countries. It is being pushed out of children's lives for a number of reasons. I will mention four: 1. Children have become dependent on electronic entertainment: television, videos, and computers. U.S. children spend three to five hours per day in front of screens outside school hours. This leaves little time or inclination for real play. When media-filled children do play, it is naturally full of media characters and stories. It becomes increasingly hard for children to make up their own creative stories in play, for their imaginations have been overpowered by what they have seen on the screen. In extreme cases children are fixated on these screen images and will not allow any changes in the story they are playing out. 2. Kindergarten programs in the U.S. focus so strongly on teaching literacy, numeracy, and other academic subjects that many children no longer have time to play in kindergarten. Many kindergartens are now full day. In a typical six-hour public kindergarten in the New York or Washington area, for instance, children spend ninety minutes per day on early literacy drills, sixty minutes on mathematics, and thirty minutes on science. They have about thirty minutes for outdoor play but no time for indoor play. They have music once a week, art once a week, and a few other subjects. In Montgomery County, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., I have been told that the word "play" does not appear at all in the kindergarten curriculum. 3. This academic approach to early learning is shifting downward. Three- and four-year-olds are now expected to engage in far more early writing and reading activities than ever before. Head Start, the U.S. federal program for low-income children, was forced to revise its curriculum this year to make more time for early literacy and less time for play. Children will be assessed on their overall gains and programs will be evaluated according to how the children do. Since it is difficult, although not impossible, to assess children on how well they play, normal assessments focus on how many letters and numbers children know, and how many of the basic steps in literacy and numeracy they have taken. 4. The amount of time spent in sports and other organized activities for young children has increased greatly in the past thirty years, beginning with pre-schoolers, so that children have little time for their own play activities. Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld, a noted child and adolescent psychiatrist who is concerned about the demise of play and of family time, recently quoted these statistics: This over-scheduled family style has insinuated itself into the fabric of our family lives. In the past twenty years, structured sports time has doubled, unstructured children's activities have declined by 50%, household conversations have become far less frequent, family dinners have declined 33%, and family vacations have decreased by 28% (Rosenfeld, 2004). Given the importance of play for children's physical, social, emotional, and mental development, the demise of play will certainly have serious consequences during childhood and throughout children's lives. Indeed, there is growing concern about what kind of society we are creating if a generation of children grow up without play and the creative thinking that emerges from play. Can democracy survive if creative thinking dies out? I have observed the steady decline of play over the past thirty years, but even I was astonished by a recent call from a counselor in an elementary school near Washington. She had been talking with a first-grade class and used the word "imagination." When they stared blankly at her, she explained its meaning, but the children continued to look puzzled. She gave an example from her own childhood when she loved to play Wonder Woman. She would put on a cape, she said, and run down the hill near her house with arms outstretched, pretending to be aloft. "That's imagination, when you pretend to be someone you're not," she explained to the children. "But we don't know how to do that," said one child, and all the others nodded their heads in agreement. Not one child in that first grade seemed to know what imaginative play was. What Research Tells Us about Play There has been a great deal of research about play over many decades. In general the research shows strong links between creative play and language, physical, cognitive, and social development. According to researcher Sara Smilansky, children who show the greatest capacities for social make-believe play also display more imagination and less aggression, and a greater ability to use language for speaking and understanding others (Smilansky, p. 35). Research in Germany in the 1970s showed that by fourth grade children who had attended play-oriented kindergartens surpassed those from academic-oriented kindergartens in physical, social, emotional, and mental development. The findings were so compelling that Germany switched all its kindergartens back to being play-oriented (Der Spiegel, pp. 89-90). In the U.S. the research of the High/Scope Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan is often cited. There, sixty-nine low-income children, ages three and four, who were considered to be at risk of future school failure were divided into three groups. One, called the High/Scope group, was offered a program with much child-initiated activity, including play. Another, called the Direct Instruction group, received much instruction in academic subjects. The third, called the Nursery Program, was a combination of the other two. As the children grew up, those who had been in the High/Scope and Nursery programs succeeded in school and life significantly better than the children in the more academic, Direct Instruction program. At age fifteen, the following results were noted: Initially, all three curriculum approaches improved young children's intellectual performance substantially, with the average IQs of children in all three groups rising twenty-seven points. By age fifteen, however, students in the High/Scope group and the Nursery School group. . . reported only half as much delinquent activity as the students in the Direct Instruction group. . . (High/Scope). By the time the children had grown up and were age twenty-three, the research continued to point to a much higher success level for those who had been able to play in nursery school. The High/Scope and Nursery School groups showed gains over the Direct Instruction group on seventeen different variables. At a time when young people in the U.S. are going to prison in record numbers, I think it is especially important to note that the Direct Instruction group had significantly more felony arrests than the other two groups. They also had had more years of special education for emotional impairment, and their level of schooling did not rise as high as the youngsters from the High/Scope group. A recent study by Rebecca Marcon of the University of North Florida found results similar to those of High/Scope when children from different preschool programs were followed through fourth grade. Those who had attended play-oriented programs where child-initiated activities predominated did better academically than those who had attended academic-oriented programs (Marcon). I would have thought that such research alone would convince educators, parents and policymakers that it is foolish—and even dangerously unhealthy—to immerse three- and four-year-olds in direct instruction programs. Yet these programs are gaining favor throughout the United States. The president and Congress have set the highest levels ever for academic achievement for Head Start children, and have supported legislation that would influence all pre-school programs to move in this direction. Recent research looks at how young children learn in terms of brain development. This new research does not seem to produce radical new findings about play and learning. Rather, it confirms that the healthy essentials of childhood, including forming trusting relations with caring adults and exploring the world through play, movement, language, and hands-on activities, are in fact essential. Brain researchers continually remind us that the brain is not an isolated organ in the body. It is linked to everything else—to language, to movement, to social and emotional experiences. Thus, when the hands, the eyes, the ears, or the heart are being stimulated through life activity, so is the brain. Dr. Frank Wilson, a neurologist at Stanford University who has specialized in working with performing artists with hand problems, makes the point that an unusually large part of the brain is linked to the human hand. Thus, if you want to stimulate the brain, get children involved in hands-on activities. He is concerned that children today use their hands primarily for computer operations. He does not consider this to be true hands-on learning and is concerned that the brain is actually under-stimulated in ways that really count. Wilson says, "I would argue that any theory of human intelligence which ignores the interdependence of hand and brain function, the historic origins of that relationship, or the impact of that history on developmental dynamics in modern humans, is grossly misleading and sterile" (Wilson, p. 7). Jane Healy, a learning expert who has written extensively about brain development and about computer use in childhood, emphasizes the need for children to move their bodies and to be engaged in nature and in life. At birth the brain has the capacity to learn to walk, run, jump, and do a host of other things. But the capacity in the brain develops only if the child actually does these things and doesn't just watch them being done on a screen. The brain is waiting to be awakened, but it needs a multi-sensory, enriched environment to be awakened (Healy, p. 177). It is important to note here that an enriched environment does not mean an over-stimulating environment. It means a normally enriched environment. My experience is that children thrive when given space for indoor and outdoor play and have a sense of comfort from knowing that a caring adult is nearby, preferably doing things like gardening, woodwork, cooking, or cleaning. These life activities stimulate children's play. Add some basic play materials like logs, stones, cloths, and ropes, from which they can fashion their own toys, plus some artistic materials for self-expression, and a healthy scattering of stories, songs, and verses, and you quickly have a playful child. Under-stimulation, such as I have seen in very poor kindergartens in Africa, is a problem, but so is over-stimulation, which I see in nearly every kindergarten in the United States. Children need a calm and lovely environment, full of warm-hearted human beings who create a sense of security, are engaged in meaningful activity, and provide children with a reasonable amount of materials that can be used in dozens of different ways. Some research shows a direct link between play and the development of mathematical abilities. Ranald Jarrell of the University of Arizona reports that "play is vital to the development of children's mathematical thinking. Unlike some forms of knowledge, mathematical knowledge, which deals with the relationships between and among things, cannot be learned by hearing adults talk about it. Experimental research on play shows a strong relationship between play, the growth of mathematical understanding, and improved mathematical performance" (Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff, p. 220). As mentioned above, Sara Smilansky found strong evidence that the children who were best able to engage in sociodramatic play, that is, who could play with others in make-believe activities, also showed the greatest gains in many forms of language and social development. She also found that the more advanced players developed more imagination and were less aggressive (Klugman and Smilansky, p. 35). The development of problem-solving skills has also been linked to play. One type of these skills is called "convergent," where there is one solution to a problem. The other is "divergent," where there are many possible ways to solve a problem. Both are needed in life. The former is what is measured on most standardized tests, which have a single correct answer to a question. Increasingly it is the type of thinking we educate children for. But the second type is what is often called for by life. Complex social, political, or economic questions rarely have just one clear-cut answer. In Einstein Never Used Flash Cards, the authors report on a simple but impressive piece of research. One group of three-year-olds, led by a child named Amala, was given convergent materials to play with, including puzzles and other toys that have just one right way to be used. Michael's group was given blocks and other divergent play materials that can be used in many ways. Then both groups were asked to build a village with forty-five pieces of the play materials that Michael's group had been using. Researchers watched both groups to see how many structures they built and how many names they created for their structures. Michael's group built more structures and had more diverse names for them. When they had problems with the task they did not give up but found new solutions. They used trial and error a lot. "Amala's group acted very differently," the authors write. "Having played with convergent toys they had one right answer, they got stuck and did the same things over and over again when they couldn't do a divergent problem. They also gave up more quickly than Michael's group. It was as if they had learned that problems have a single answer. . . " The authors go on to point out that school generally teaches children to answer questions correctly. But play teaches children to think "outside the box." If one wants children to grow up with creative capacities, then play is essential. "Where does creativity come from?" ask the authors. "From play—good old unmonitored, unstructured free and open play" (Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff, pp. 223-224). A similar link between play and creativity in adulthood was researched by Stuart Brown, a psychiatrist then working in Texas. He interviewed prisoners who were incarcerated for murder or very aggressive driving that had resulted in a death and found that these prisoners did not have a history of play in their lives. In contrast, when he interviewed winners of the MacArthur "genius" award, a prestigious prize given to creative individuals in a wide range of fields by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, he found that nearly all had a rich history of play from childhood onwards. In all, Brown interviewed about 8,000 people. What they told him confirmed his conclusion that healthy, varied play in childhood is necessary "for the development of empathy, social altruism and . . . a repertoire of social behaviors enabling the player to handle stress. It fosters curiosity, is a major catalyst to learning, and through long acquaintance with playful imagination, gives angry provoked individuals alternatives to acting impulsively and violently" (Stuart Brown, web site). Animal Research Linking Play and Brain Development A number of researchers have looked at the relationship between play and brain size. John Byers of the University of Idaho compared the playful wombats with the more docile koala bears and found that the wombats had bigger brains per body weight. When he and other researchers tracked the actual rates of brain growth from infancy to maturity in different animal types, they found correlations between periods of rapid brain growth and periods of more active play (cited in Furlow, 2001). There is no certainty yet as to why play and brain size may go together. One explanation is that the most active periods of play may correlate with times when more synapses are forming in the brain. Synapses are the connections that develop between neighboring neurons. Another explanation is that play may stimulate the development of myelin, a fatty substance that allows nerves to transmit more complex information than they can while uncoated. Researchers tend to be cautious in their conclusions and so also point out that perhaps there is not a direct correlation between play and brain growth. Both might be stimulated by another factor such as metabolism. More research is needed, but meanwhile there is a growing sense that play and brain growth are in fact related. Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado studied coyote pups at play. He found that their behavior was much more varied and unpredictable than that of adults. He reasons that acting in this way activates many parts of the brain and that their brains receive a great deal of stimulation from their playful behavior. Bekoff concludes that "play creates a brain that has greater behavioral flexibility and improved potential for learning later in life." He also states that "people have not paid enough attention to the amount of the brain activated by play." He adds that there is enormous cognitive development in play (cited in Furlow). The Relationship of Play to Health As an early childhood teacher, I was struck by how often parents said things like this to me: "My child was sick, but it wasn't too serious. He played the whole time." Or they might say, "She was really sick and didn't play at all." Unconsciously they were associating play with health. There is a great wisdom in this. The relationship was confirmed for me by the psychiatrist Stuart Brown. As a young intern he worked with very ill children in hospitals where one often did not know if the children would live or die. He noticed that sometimes he would enter the room of a very sick child, but the child would have a playful gleam in his or her eye for the first time. He found consistently that this was an indication of a return to health (Brown, State of World Forum). Many other experts on play also point to the relationship between children's overall health and their ability to play. Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado says play is a sign of healthy development. He adds, "When play drops out, something is wrong." He adds that we have become a "play-less society" and points to problems such as the prevalence of organized sports rather than spontaneous play and the fact that school is beginning earlier and is becoming increasingly exam-oriented. If these trends continue, there is even less likelihood that children will be given time to play in the future (cited in Furlow, 2001). Bryant Furlow, writing in New Scientist, expresses concern about the relationship between play and mental health: "Children destined to suffer mental illnesses such as schizophrenia as adults, for example, engage in precious little social play early in life. But can a lack of play affect the creativity and learning abilities of normal children?" No one knows for sure, but there is a growing concern that play is disappearing from childhood and that this will affect children's physical, social, and emotional health. Furlow points out that when "rat pups are denied the opportunity to play [they] grow smaller neocortices and lose the ability to apply social rules when they do interact with their peers" (Furlow, 2001). Implications for the Future If imaginative free play continues to disappear from childhood, I anticipate several serious outcomes: • An increase in mental illness beginning in childhood. • Difficulties in the way children socialize and communicate with each other, including more aggression in social relationships. • A change in the development of thinking with a loss of divergent thinking and a growing emphasis on convergent thinking. Already there is serious concern about increases in mental illness in childhood, including depression, hyperactive disorders, and anxiety disorders. The World Health Organization of the United Nations reports that by the year 2020 childhood neuropsychiatric disorders will rise proportionately by over 50 percent, internationally, to become one of the five most common causes of morbidity, mortality, and disability among children (Surgeon General, 2001). There is also a growing concern among teachers, psychologists, and others that children's social capacities are weakening. In general, technologically developed countries place such an emphasis on intellectual achievement that they forget how critical social abilities are. We are now seeing extreme situations, the cause of which is not yet known, such as the increase in Asperger syndrome and other forms of autism. The state of California reported a 210 percent increase in autism between 1987 and 1998, and the median age of patients dropped from fifteen to nine years (California Department of Developmental Services, p. 10). Many feel that the increase in autism may be emblematic of a more widespread problem—the growth of a social type of autism caused by too many hours staring at screens instead of interacting with humans in play and other ways, as well as other factors. This situation is not yet documented and needs research. The example of Amala and Michael above showed how creative play is linked to open-ended divergent thinking. If one does not develop this type of exploratory, open-ended thinking, how does one approach today's social, political, economic, and ecological problems? Not many of our complex contemporary issues can be solved with a simple right or wrong answer. Most are far more intricate and require trial and error and a willingness to keep going through difficulties until one comes to the best solution possible. I am very concerned that without opportunities for open-ended, imaginative play, our children will not be capable of this type of creative thinking as they grow older. Modern democratic processes call for complex divergent thinking, and without it the tendency to favor authoritarian decision-making, where one person says what is right or wrong, grows much greater. We may well become a society with a narrow orientation to problem solving. When situations are not easily resolved, we may become more inclined to resort to aggression and violence, rather than complex problem solving. I cannot help but wonder whether the politicians who are pushing for early literacy and other forms of direct instruction for three- to six-year-olds are simply ignorant of the importance of play, or whether they would prefer a populace whose creative thinking and social capacities are impaired. Such a populace would find it harder to participate in a diverse, democratic society, and might well opt to be ruled by a government with a strong hand. Restoring Play There are many steps that can be taken to restore play to children's lives, but here are a few: 1. Leading educators, health professionals, and other child advocates need to work together to examine the role of play in childhood and the ways in which it is endangered. Their findings need to be publicized as widely as possible, with an emphasis on what children need for healthy development. The formation of commissions of prominent experts needs to be done as quickly as possible, for there are many countries at this time that are on the brink of eliminating play in early childhood education in favor of direct instruction of academic subjects for young children. The experience in the United States is that once this change happens, it is very difficult to reverse the process. The U.S. has offered academic instruction to five-year-olds in kindergartens for 30 years. There is no evidence that it has worked, and there is much concern that it has caused great harm. Nonetheless, rather than admitting failure, policymakers are now insisting that one start teaching reading through direct instruction to three- and four-year-olds. They believe that the younger one begins the better, despite research and experience that prove the opposite. In 2002, the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee prepared legislation to support preschool programs for three- and four-year-olds. Such financial support is badly needed, but the legislation was controversial. In part, it called for healthy steps toward a holistic approach to early childhood education, but it also repeatedly called for early literacy and offered bonuses to states that could show gains in "kindergarten readiness." These gains would almost certainly need to be shown in academic areas, as few programs assess children's gains in social and emotional development. The Alliance for Childhood issued a statement of concern that was signed by leading educators and health professionals and was distributed in the Senate and to other government officials (Alliance for Childhood). 2. Parents, educators, and health professionals need to become activists on behalf of young children and engage directly in the development of healthy approaches to early childhood education. At present, in the United States and other countries, politicians have actively entered the realm of early childhood education and are insisting that early childhood programs promote early literacy and numeracy at the expense of child-initiated activity. This needs to be countered by grassroots and other forms of activism in every community and in every preschool and kindergarten program. Research and experience clearly show what young children actually need for balanced, healthy development. It is time that the fruits of that research and experience are implemented in every early childhood setting. To do anything else is to promote the miseducation of children. 3. Develop large-scale public education campaigns to help parents and professionals understand the importance of play and how to strengthen children's play. Most early childhood teachers in the U.S., for instance, receive little or no training in helping children play. Since the play patterns of children are already disturbed, simply encouraging children to play is often not enough. Teachers and parents need workshops, literature, videos, and other educational tools to help them support children in play. 4. Parents and community leaders need to work together to create safe play spaces for children. Children need play spaces where they can run in the grass, roll down hills, and, if possible, play in a stream or fountain. Such play spaces need some adult supervision at a paid or volunteer level. Just as parents now volunteer to coach sports, they can be encouraged to volunteer to supervise free play spaces and receive training on how to do this. A starting place is to organize a play day in a neighborhood or community (International Play Association). Conclusion Research and experience show strong relationships between a child's capacity to play and his or her overall development—physical, social, emotional, and intellectual. There is reason to be deeply concerned that as play disappears from childhood children will suffer in all these areas. In many countries, play is diminishing and the first indications of such suffering are becoming apparent. Yet nation after nation is rushing toward removing play from young children's lives in the misguided belief that three- to six-year-olds are ripe and ready for direct instruction in early literacy and other academic subjects. For the sake of the children, and for the sake of the society they are part of, this direction needs to be reversed now and play needs to be restored as a healthy essential of childhood. (Parts of this article are adapted from one that appeared in the book All Work and No Play, Sharna Olfman, editor, Praeger, 2003.) __________________ References: Alliance for Childhood. "Children from birth to five: A statement of first principles on early education for educators and policymakers." Retrieved 1.29.03 from http://www.allianceforchildhood.com/projects/play/index.htm Brown, Stuart (1999). State of the World Forum, Whole Child Roundtable, San Francisco. Brown, Stuart. "About us: Stuart Brown, Founder of the Institute for Play". Retrieved 3.14.04 from http://www.instituteforplay.com/13stuart_brown.htm. California Department of Developmental Services (1999). Changes in the population of persons with autism and PDD's in California's developmental services system: 1987-1998. A report to the legislature. Retrieved 1.29.03 from http://www.dds.cahwnet.gov/autism/pdf/autism_report_1999.pdf Der Spiegel (1977). (German news magazine, No. 20). Furlow, Bryant (2001). "Play's the Thing," New Scientist, No. 2294, p. 28; http://archive.newscientist.com/secure/article/article.jsp?rp=1&id=mg17022944.600 Healy, Jane (1998). Failure to Connect. (New York: Simon and Schuster) High/Scope Summary. "Different effects from different preschool models: High/Scope preschool curriculum comparison study." Drawn from works by Schweinhart, L. J., & Weikart, D. P., et. al. Retrieved 1.29.03 from http://www.highscope.org/Research/curriccomp.htm Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy and Roberta Michnik Golinkoff (2003). Einstein Never Used Flash Cards. Rodale. International Play Association, USA. "What is a Playday?" Retrieved 3.10.04 from http://www.ipausa.org/playday.htm Marcon, Rebecca A. (2002, Spring). Moving up the grades: Relationship between preschool model and later school success. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 4, (1), [Electronic Version]. Montagu, Ashley (1981). Growing Young. New York: McGraw-Hill. Olfman, Sharna (2003). All Work and No Play: How educational reforms are harming our preschoolers. Westport, CT: Praeger. Rosenfeld, Alvin, M.D. From a talk at Rodeph Shalom School, New York, NY and sent to the Alliance by Dr. Rosenfeld on February 27, 2004. Smilansky, Sara (1990). Sociodramatic play: Its relevance to behavior and achievement in school. In E. Klugman & S. Smilansky (Eds.), Children's Play and Learning. New York: Teacher's College Press. Surgeon General (2001). Summary of conference on children's mental health. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved 1.29.03 from http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/cmh/childreport.htm#sum Wilson, Frank (1998). The Hand. New York: Pantheon. Joan Almon is the Coordinator of the U.S. branch of the Alliance for Childhood. She is a former Waldorf kindergarten teacher in North America and has worked internationally as a consultant to Waldorf educators and training programs.

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Calendar Reminders/Work in Early Childhood

CALENDAR REMINDERS

No class for nursery of parent & child class on Friday, March 23.  It is Grandparent's Day.  If a grandparent does wish to attend for a special early childhood experience (8:45ish to 9:45ish), please let me know yesterday--or the first Monday after St. Patrick's Day.

Our young children, with their parents and/or grandparents, may well enjoy the Rainbow Circus assembly at 11am on the 23rd at Huckleberry Hall (right in sight of the Butterfly Room).  Check the school's newsletter on Sunday night for more information.

Our final classes for nursery and parent & child before a 2 week spring break will be on March 29 (nursery) and March 30 (parent & child).  Please remember that the nursery is closed along with the kindergartens on April 2 - 4 even though the elementary grades are in session.

WORK AND PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

With delight I rediscovered an article by Glenda Moore (experienced kindergarten teacher) that informed much of my work and parent education when I was a green nursery and parent & child teacher a decade ago.  I have been listening to many Rudolf Steiner lectures recently (rudolfsteineraudio.com), and I find I stand bolt upright whenever Steiner emphasizes the importance of intentionally engaging in meaningful and beautiful and practical work in the presence of young children, much like whenever the Shepherds hear or speak the word "wolf" in the Oberufer Shepherds Play.  Over the years and over recent weeks, making work accessible and joyful and lawful and loving has been a path with which I have encountered more or less success, chances for improvement, chances to watch my hair gray, chances to take deep breaths, and the like.  Each group of child (and parents), in concert with the varying physical spaces, seems to evoke a different array of tasks that provide nourishment.  I find myself doing the dance of finding that just right balance between being too rigid ("What do you mean ironing isn't nourishing this group of children!  It has always worked for me") and potentially breaking one of Nancy Foster's commandments by yielding to whim of a child or parent or me ("Am I giving up on this task just because I am bored?  Or because this child, who really needs me to be in charge, is testing me to see if I will stay in charge?").

Compromise and logistics give me pleasure--with occasional consternation, and not infrequent joy.  I have been pleased with the way, for example, Lynne and the children and I have tended the garden in front of our nursery room.  It has never quite flowed naturally to have the whole class work or play right in the garden (not being in a play-yard but as a gateway to a more wide-open elementary playground), so finally we had Lynne or me take 2 children outside early to assist, while the other teacher washed dishes inside and guided the tidying up of the room.  After experiments of floor care that provided varying nourishment (some of you will remember the frequency with which children pulled apart the Bissells to wield the handle as a weapon; I was wise enough to remove them completely in setting up the current nursery children for social success), I am pretty happy with a hi-tech yet simple and sturdy rubber broom that actually gets sand and dirt out of a carpet.  Sweeping is such a lovely activity to bathe children in.  I find myself make judgment calls about how much imagination I allow children to use with the broom.  It is a dance:  my sense is that we as adults benefit when we imbue our work with more of a sense of play (while retaining reverence), and I know of studies in which children solve problems better if they are allowed to play freely with problem solving tools, yet the benefits of bathing children in the real work of sweeping are lost if the broom is always squirreled away as a rifle in a fort.

What follows is Moore's article, which I found at this address 

http://www.climbingrosekindergarten.com/articles.htm#Work_and_Play

Work and Play in the Home and Waldorf KindergartenAs adults we often find a feeling of distaste creeping into our attitude about work. I saw a bumper sticker that illustrated this perfectly - "The worst day fishing is better than the best day working," it said. Enlivening the repetitive homemaking tasks (cooking, washing dishes, cleaning windows) can provide a special challenge.  So we develop feelings about our necessary tasks that lead us to wish for more 'play' time and a dichotomy between work and play develops within us. The young child has no such duality in his/her being. Work and play form a marvelous, flowing lemniscates. Play is the joyful out breathing inspired by the working grown-ups who surround the child.  Work, the inbreathing, becomes creative and joyous activity, indistinguishable from play. When we hurry to finish our work so we can 'play' with our child, or always respond to the insistent demands to 'play with me' on the child's level, we have given up a precious opportunity to help our child answer a most important question - how do we live upon the earth?In the Waldorf kindergarten, we work thoughtfully with this question, bringing knowledge to the children, not through our words and intellect, but through our deeds, our rhythmic working through the days and weeks - for we know that the children learn through imitation, through doing. Therefore the grown-ups are nearly always engaged in some useful task - sewing, cleaning, cooking, gardening; even visitors are given some handwork to do. And yet mere outward busyness is not really the aim at all; there can often be a frantic and goal-oriented quality to our work that sweeps the present out of our consciousness. A poem, penned by some anonymous hand, presents an ideal picture of work.  

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love,  

But only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work 

And sit at the gate of the temple and
Take alms from those who work with joy. 

Certainly, while we live upon the earth, there are few of us who can always work with a positive inward attitude and yet it is something to strive towards. But if our childhood experience with work was unpleasant, as in "Get in there and clean your room," how can we transform our prejudice? There are movements in work - the rhythm of sweeping with the broom, the dishwashing that brings a swirl of bubbles on a plate, the chop-chop of the hoe, the push and sway of kneading bread.  There is movement in dance as well and many find the joy of dance easy to discover. When we move to music in dance we are often one with the movement - there is no separation of thinking and doing - our awareness is in our feet and our hands. I wonder if we can find the joyful dancing movement of sweeping the floor, the precision of folding a towel with our full attention.

Perhaps it may be easier if, at first, we try sweeping or mopping the floor in slow motion as if we were a mime artist or a Tai Chi master, to help bring our full awareness into our movement. When we are one with our doing, a feeling of peace is often attendant.  We enliven our own picture of work and we become ready to work with the children. And, yes, it often takes more time to complete the tasks with these small helpers beside us, but the effort reaps great rewards for now and far into the future.

Here are some practical suggestions for including the children in our day-to-day work in a meaningful way:

Laundry: There are opportunities here for sorting the clothes into different colors, matching socks, folding and delivering clothes to various destinations. If there is hand washing to be done, the possibilities are even richer.  A small scrub board can be used, the clothes swirled in the rinse water, wrung out and, most wonderful of all, hung on the line to dry. When my daughter was small, I had a clothesline up high and she had one at her height.Dishes: The adult can wash and the child can rinse, playing with the dishes as boats in the sink of water. Or the child can wash a few select and special items - colander, wire whisk, in the rainbow bubbly water while mother or father is making dinner nearby.Cooking/Baking: My four, five and six year olds are fine and serious chefs and quite capable of chopping vegetables if they are first cut into thin strips (potatoes are easiest, carrots more difficult).  When baking, bowls and sifters are placed around and dedicated workers arise - the flour is recycled through several siftings and high mountains are created. Pans can be oiled, stirring is a joy and, when making bread, kneading and shaping the dough is the ultimate creative, modeling experience.General Cleaning: Children enjoy holding the dustpan. They love dusting with a feather or lambs wool duster, sweeping the cobwebs down and cleaning windows. They can have a little basket of cleaning supplies, complete with window cleaner spray and rag.Outside: Raking leaves and grass at appropriate times of year are especially enjoyed. Piles of grass or leaves can be hauled around in a wagon and used to create wonderful forts and nests.  Gardening offers rich possibilities for planting, watering and gathering. A word about tools: the child's tools, inside and out, should be real tools so they can be used without frustration and breakage. Though the initial expense of a good shovel may seem prohibitive, the quality tool will outlast the toy many times over, especially if cared for properly.The children will want to move in and out of our work, joining for a time, drifting off to work and play of their own. When I think of my own work experiences as a child, one moment shines forth as a transcendent experience. At four years of age, I was visiting my grandparents who lived on a farm; I had always lived in apartments.  My grandmother, whose greatest joy in life was gardening, was moving slowly ahead of me making holes in the soft spring earth. I followed her, carefully dropping beans in the holes, reverently patting the earth over them. I felt the mystery of our act in my very bones; I was sure those were magic seeds, and I was in the midst of a fairy tale. The very light of this memory still has a golden and glowing reflection. Such moments bring their own special blessing to later life, blessings that follow from the child's joy-in-work as surely as evening follows morning.

summary of principles of Waldorf Early Childhood Education

Dear Families,

In a discussion today, I was reminded that I have the attached article and the blessing to distribute it. It does a great job of giving a quick picture of a variety of core principles that inform our interactions with your children in a Waldorf Early Childhood setting.

Caveat

1) This was written in serious fun by an experienced teacher. The target audience is teachers. We would never want parents to think they have to follow "commandments." I would want you to get a taste of what a teacher might consider.

Please do ask questions if any arise from this.

Warmly,

William

Kim Payne 2 -- Loving our Times

In Baltimore the handwork teacher and I were having a lively discussion, kindled by something Kim Payne sparked in me. The handwork teacher passed along wisdom from her evaluator--a venerable fellow, full of gravitas, full of experience; no "softy." That said, my colleague was quite competent and received mainly commendations. One recommendation stood out for her and rings out for me these many years later. Her evaluator noted that she sounded way too disappointed when telling her 5th graders, "5th Grade, you are being too loud."

He told her something like the following: in a 5th grade handwork class, children get their directions from the teacher, start their knitting or sewing, converse quietly, get to a pleasant hum, and then become too loud. It always happens; he should know; he had taught for decades and visited dozens of schools as an evaluator. This natural rhythm of getting too loud has nothing to do with the worthiness of the teacher. And, yes, the teacher then has to shift the mood to restore a quiet hum that supports concentration and pleasant engagement, but the teacher need never be disappointed when performing this task because it is an expected task; groups of people become louder and quieter.

In his lectures to teachers opening the first Waldorf school, Rudolf Steiner exhorted the teachers to be prepared to receive insults from rascally students with the same composure that they might accept rain if they had forgotten their umbrella (pretty easy for us in the Pacific Northwest, where umbrellas are few and far between).

We still guide the class. As I've written and spoken before, we can still be confident Zen captains, working with the laws of the sea as we guide our family or classroom ship. We do so from a place of acceptance and composure. There is never a need to feel lack or unworthiness. We will have far more effectiveness and bring more joy and light and happiness if we start from a place of allowing the present (even as we are about to attempt to guide behavior).

I think the handwork example resonates for me is that it doesn't cut so close to the bone as a parent and teacher of young children (I'm not tempted to compare myself favorable or unfavorably with this most excellent handwork teacher)--yet the principle is the same. As parent or teacher I find myself frequently inspired or called upon to shift a situation. If I can start from a place of acceptance ("These things happen, and I there are many ways to make the situation even better), I will be all the more able to bring enriching outcomes for everyone. As one Waldorf kindergarten teacher says, if we can speak any statement guiding behavior with the same tone as we would speak, "Here's the towel," we will find ourselves helping all the more. True confession here: in the past decade, there have a couple of times in which I have been so at my wit's end at help to free up an electric conflict situation, I have stated, "Here's the towel." That nonsequitur so confused everyone that it allowed a pause to come and a path toward healing begin.

Another reason I am drawn to the handwork example is it leaves us a bit freer as parents of very young children to recognize the diversity of our experiences. Your base point of expansion with your child or children may be very different from mine, and that is OK.

Kim Payne asks teachers (and parents), "Do we love our times?" His question is rhetorical: really, he is saying, "Find a way to love our times for your benefit and your children's benefit." Our positive outlook will help to bring about positive outcomes for our children. In our WIWS process with social inclusion, we will likely start a "put down diet" for adults (and later ask our children to join us). We will benefit from finding alternatives to criticism--including criticism of our governments and financial leaders. Esther Hicks, inspired by Abraham, speaks with infectious enthusiasm about all that is going well on planet earth; it is a delicious time to be alive.

We are not burying our heads in the sand. Rather than making us blind to bullying or teasing or other elements we need to shift, our composure and positive outlook will make us most able to help all children. We can appreciate what is, and be eager for even better times. Magda Gerber, who has helped parents celebrate our infants and toddlers where they are rather than feeling disappointed that they are not yet at the next phase (that is, rather than worrying about when our child will walk, we witness all the joy she or he experiences in crawling). Celebrate what is, even as we look forward to what is to come.