Rhythm

We have found our rhythms at "school." The season is speedily becoming chilly. I am wondering if some non-slip booties for keeping feet warm is in order. Also, as nature develops, your child is most welcome to contribute to the nature table. Make that a morning mission on your way to school, to find a "gift from nature" for the nature table.

Let's look back to move forth.

The children enter, absorb the environment, do some yoga stretches on the rug with Sarah, touch items they need to, sometimes dive deep right into our friendships or activities. We gather then on the rug and use our hands to greet the day and create our basic intentions:
"Hello Earth, Hello Sky, Hello Body, Hello Friends."
Our hands say hello.... Our hands help people..... Our hands touch gently..... Our hands make bread. We wash these special hands, and then the bread dough grounds us each morning. We take our time with it, singing:
This is the way we ___ the bread...."
and Pat a Cake for each participant. The flour and the sticky dough are really lovely to experience. Dough time is something everyone seems to treasure, but some children test the question of arrival -- continuing to play, announcing they are not finished playing yet. Once two children were so busy playing, they missed the bread dough completely -- and this now becomes a story to help them take charge in a timely way of the choice they are making to miss the activity of the group. It's the principle of highlighting the "natural consequences" within choices being made.

Playing then unfolds. They all have their work and challenges so individually cut out for them. Sarah and I help to make sure there is safety while these "challenges" work themselves out. Cooking and sewing and reading books and collecting things.... the children get wonderfully busy. This time is the gem of a Waldorf classroom. Deep play.

Later, we clean up together gaining a sense of detail as we do, so that children can begin to sort items out for their appropriate place or basket. Then it's music time -- with instruments and songs. Our laying-down harp strings make our center piece, and on it our fingers dance to find sound. And finally the bread is ready and we wash up and set the table for snack. We have wonderful rituals to open and close snack, thanks to Suchi from last year. We eat plenty. We'll gain more and more table skills as we go along.

Soon after, we go outside. We paint the walls with water. We dig and fill and climb and ride and throw and chase. We notice nature and the details of the day. A morning glory. A snail. The wet rain.

Back inside, we've been painting. Wet on wet is the Waldorf way, so we've been trying that out a bit. Our paintings often end up all one wash of color. We bring our day to closure with a puppet show that I create for them with a simple friendship story. Three dolls I created lay near one another -- blue, brown, green. Their names are Water, Soil and Hill. Our main character has been the wooden pony (a marionette made by my Maine friend who creates a wonderful selection called Fish River Crafts). The pony encounters the 3 earth dolls each day. He has begun to find some friends: a bird, a moose. The puppet show always ends with the pony going to sleep and dreaming. The children are invited to lie down for a moment of dreaming as well. When we wake up it is time for the goodbye song, and we get ready for guardians to arrive.