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

Potluck, February 17

Dear Parents,

Upon hearing feedback and interest from nursery parents, it has become clear to me that we will find more benefit in a Friday Maxwelton potluck (having faith in the weather) rather than a Thursday meeting without children.

NO MEETING THURSDAY THE 16th.

Yes, casual pot-luck on Friday the 17th from 4 to 5:30ish (staying a little later if the weather is nice) at Maxwelton Beach. I will also invite parent & child families.

With appreciation,

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.

Kim Payne 1 -- Noticing What Works

Crispin and I have been reading Winnie-the-Pooh and House at Pooh Corner again and again. I've enjoyed reading The Tao of Pooh for myself. I find I can offer a lot when I allow myself to be like Pooh, when I allow myself to allow. I notice my tendency to be like Rabbit or Owl (I remember being proud of how long my parent meetings would go and having the egotism to compare myself to a Bill Clinton State of the Union address; this impulse from my Rabbit Brain of that era seems foreign compared to the fluff between the ears I am welcoming now). Recently at our school I heard--and not for the first time--how Waldorf education is easy for the children but really really really hard for the parents. I would love to help Waldorf education flow easily for parents. AND I notice my own proclivity to make it complicated, my sense of guilt if I keep things short and hold back the erudition I once I knew little enough to believe I had.

So this winter/spring, I try to be on the path of writing shorter pieces that all seem to say the same thing. If this fails to appease, perhaps if you ate gobs of honey, that would satisfy.

I've worked with Kim Payne on Social Inclusion and Simplicity Parenting in Baltimore and New Hampshire. Amidst all his esoteric erudition, some simple moments stand out for me. We were discussing an electric situation, in which 7th grade girls were vicious toward another 7th grade girl who wasn't "cool." In working with one of the tormentors (separately), Kim was able to help her realize that although the less cool girl, like, really annoyed her and made her have to roll her eyes, she, like, really only rolled her eyes, like, 8 times of 10, or whatever. Kim helped this ostensible bully realize that, in fact, 2 times out of 10, she was able to interact with this other girl--the supposed target of her loathing--with tolerance, perhaps even acceptance. He encouraged the potential tormentor to work to 3 times out of 10 of acceptance (no teasing, eye rolling, and soforth); then checked in with her in a few days and moved it up to 4 or 5. Soon the once bully realized that everything worked better and flowed better if she tolerated the other girl (who had once been her best friend) , and they became friends again. This was a success story, and I took from it Kim's general recommendation: notice what works, and build from there (no matter how slight). Follow and focus upon the solution.

Jerry and Esther Hicks, in conveying wisdom from the spiritual world,--as they encourage us to attend to the solution rather than the problem--give us the metaphor of the buffet. When we go to a buffet, we choose the food that we enjoy and want to try and eat it. We don't lament or go into hysterics or give our attention to the food in the buffet we choose not to eat. We don't start yelling at the omelette chef because he has the gall to have those mushrooms we don't like there. They encourage us to look at what life gives us in the same way, to deliberately focus our attention on that which produces good feeling thoughts, which will attract more of the same.

Waldorf kindergarten teachers--from the first ones in Stuttgart to the likes of Rahima Baldwin Dancy and Barbara Patterson--notice the importance and effectiveness of stating the positive ("Let's stay on dry land" rather than "Don't go in that puddle") in guiding young children; they take their cue from Rudolf Steiner, who noted that young children DON'T register the "don't" in a phrase such as "Don't run" or "Don't hit," but instead register the verb "run" or "hit." (A parent informed that contemporary brain research backs this up).

In the social interactions of young children, it is tempting to get caught up in the charged moments--the hitting, the grabbing, the pushing, and the like. I am always asking how we can--while having a picture of love and wellness that includes physical and emotional safety--give our attention and energy to the abundant moments of cooperative and tolerant interactions. How we can build from this stream of wellness flowing here rather than pushing against a river of unwanted there.

At times I pause and wonder if this smacks too much of Skinner and Pavlov. "Reward" (with attention) that which you want to increase its frequency (give stimulus to achieve the desired response). But why wonder if it is "too much"? Why do spiritual streams and material streams need be in opposition? For Steiner and other spiritual seekers, the physical is the leading edge of the spiritual, the physical is spiritual. I appreciate so much some of tools (that is, spiritual insights) I received in my public school teaching--we called it "planned ignoring" when I taught public school. We also played a game of the "mystery helper" in which I as teacher chose a child a random. If that child's behavior or performance was prosocial, the whole class received a reward with a description of the activity that merited it. If that child's behavior did not, there was no mention of it.

matters calendaristic

FRIDAY CONFERENCES/OFFICE HOURS

Just about any Friday when school is in session between now and June at 11:30am presents a serendipitous time for our parent & teacher conference (or check-in if we have already had a conference). I will put a sign-up sheet in the classroom. You can email me back if you want me to sign you up.

CLASS MEETING/DISCUSSION, FEBRUARY 16, 5-6pm

2 talks that would have been great for us--Johanna Steegmans and Kim John Payne--have been cancelled. There is a talk from Karen Benson next Tuesday. I wonder if you nursery parent are hungry for a chance to gather as adults. A time that works well for me is Thursday, February 16, from 5 to 6pm (it is before the EC open house, aimed at drawing new families to our school). I imagine this meeting would be a discussion, not a lecture. If possible, we could go more into the social inclusion work of Kim John Payne and how I see it working in an early childhood classroom. Please email me, talk to me, call me, or write me a note to let me know if you would like to attend. If only 1 family wants to attend, I can make that time our parent & teacher conference. If there are 2 or 3 families, I'll give them the option of how to proceed. As the days become longer, we can try to find ways to bring adults and children together at pot-lucks and the like. This is to say that I present this potential February 16 as an opportunity, not as a burden.

LYNNE AWAY and then WILLIAM AWAY

There is no class February 20-23 for winter break. Lynne will be away the Wednesday and Thursday before break (15 and 16). William will be away the Monday and Tuesday after break (27 and 28). We are trying to get 1 substitute to be there all 4 days (with Lynne or William, as the case may be).

POSSIBLY NO CLASS APRIL 2-4

When the kindergartens close for rising first grade assessments, the original intention is for the nursery to be closed as well. There remains confusion around this in official calendars, for which I apologize. My vision is that if the kindergartens are closed, the nursery will be closed as well (that is from April 2 to April 12; the assessments and Spring Break). I have heard talk that the rising first grade assessment schedule might change. If kindergartens are open, the nursery will be open. I will keep you posted.

An Appreciation of Fruit

AN APPRECIATION OF SHARING FRUIT IN THE WOODS WITH YOUR CHILDREN

Often using the word "rhythm" to describe the process, a Waldorf early childhood teacher creates a schedule of a morning or day that allows time for vigorous movement (often called out breaths); and for times of quietness and interpersonal and self awareness (inbreaths). It is wonderful working with my kindergarten colleagues, with your children, and with my memories of children I have taught in the past: each group of children asks for nourishment in unique ways; each teacher answers this request in unique ways. Just when I thought I'd "never" serve fruit in the woods again because it had unsettled past groups (children focusing to whether they got as much as another; children expressing a sense of lack, a sense of competition; this mood lingering into the outdoor play of the children), your children have had the intrepidness to dispel my false conclusions.

We have a lovely time when we gather--after the longest nursery hike I've ever taken, longer than I thought I would take--to share apples, pears, and satsumas (thanks to Lynne). I still cut the apples and pears in half to display the stars in the center. The children wait with ease and equanimity. Rather than competing, children make sure I am not forgetting to serve their classmates. Your children have helped me to meet and nurture them where they are. They have also reminded me to celebrate and respond to the present: this current outdoor snack routine would not work so well if our class grows in size. Rather than worry about what if (a good what if for the school), I remain confident that we would shift and find other ways to create a rhythm or the morning that supports the children.

Lynne and I have been supplying a lot fruit recently and have source to bring quantities of organic fruit to school. Although the harvest season is over, if you find yourself near a bounty and want to share a bag with the class, wonderful. This is an invitation, not a request or exhortation; please feel no stress about it. It is great if each family can bring a vegetable or veggies for the soup on Wednesdays.