TOP OF THE SOUTH #4

Welcome to Top of the South News!

unknown Brazilian artist.

For when at a certain time of year the larks and the nightingales sing, what is thereby formed streams out into the cosmos, not through the air, but through the etheric element; it vibrates outward in the cosmos up to a certain boundary... then it vibrates back again to Earth, to be received by the animal realm — only now the divine-spiritual essence of the cosmos has united with it. -Rudolf Steiner     See more at: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19230403p01.html#sthash.8vKQdALr.dpuf
Image what the Tui s are bringing back!

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Last year of his life.....

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FESTIVAL DATES.

Easter: Easter Sunday the 27th of March 5pm at Alistair and Carolyn's place

St John Festival: Saturday the 25th of June at  4pm at Gundula's place

Michaelmas: Saturday 1st of October at 5pm at Gundula's place

Christmas:  Saturday the 17th of December at 5pm at Gundula's place

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EASTER

Rudolf Seiner's picture for Good Friday.

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​Everyone is cordially invited to our Easter Festival.

Easter Sunday​

Home of Alistair  Munro and Carolyn Hughes

Te Awa RD

Tasman.

5 pm.

We are fortunate to be having a presentation by  Marije Laarakker around the Isenheim Altar.

"Autumn brings us the celebration of Michaelmas, a time we can use to conquer our inner demons and prepare ourselves to receive the Light in the darker days of Winter.

Simultaneously the Northern hemisphere celebrates the cosmic event and the mystery of Death and Resurrection at Easter.

Both elements are obviously present in the Isenheim Altar piece that was painted between 1512 and 1516 by Matthias Grunewald.

The intense paintings of the altarpiece were used as a medium for very sick people who suffered from Ergotism. They were put in front of the altar piece to contemplate their disease and receive insight in a healing process, to conquer their demons and meditate on Death and Resurrection."

​The presentation will be flanked by music from Patsy and ​Edith, and some Taize music to finish.

POTLUCK.

Venue
113  AWA AWA ROAD, which is off Marriages  Road, Tasman
 PH 03 5403435  if  anyone is  having difficulty finding us.

Link to  Map:https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/113+Awa+Awa+Rd,+Tasman+7173/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d3b854b0cab7b9b:0x7069723bf574e57d?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH27mvgMnLAhXE5aYKHSpkAGYQ8gEIGjAA

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GROUPS

Thursday Group Motueka.

Our Thursday Group really enjoys the Mystrey Plays!   We appreciate that the whole of Anthroposophy is contained in them, and revel at the gems of wisdom that fall from the lips of the various characters.  Like a true picture of life unfolding  through the imaginations and pictures we enter in to.  All welcome!  Ask Michael Wilson [michael-wilson@ihug.co.nz] to put you on our mailing list!

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Nelson Group

Please contact 

Heather

heatheric@clear.net.nz

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MEDITATION GROUP TASMAN.

Please contact 

Alistair Munro

ackm@silkweb.net.nz

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Please Support the Motueka Steiner School Fair.

10th APRIL

High St

Motueka

Autumn comes, the Summer is past, Winter will come too soon,

Stars will shine clearer, skies seem nearer
Under the Harvest Moon
Autumn comes, so let us be glad, singing an Autumn tune...
Hearts will be lighter, skies seem brighter
Under a Harvest Moon
See More

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HEY!!!!!

​Link to the New Zealand Anthroposophical Website:​ http://www.anthroposophy.org.nz

Check it out!

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Report from:

Alamandria Meditation Retreat             

                                    

A group of fourteen of us took part in ‘The Art of Meditation 1’, a three day retreat held at the end of February.  We were a mixed group, including a range of ages and backgrounds, some coming from further afield. We all seemed to fit in well with each other.

We were fortunate that our workshop leaders, Emily Fletcher and Mark Geard brought their retreat to Motueka with the venue being the Riverside Community. This lovely space was ideal for a wide range of activities including meditative movement, meditation exercises, impromptu mime, chalk pastel painting and form drawing.

Our day began with Tai Chi to settle and relax us, which took us into our pastel drawings. Colour, and our relation to it, came into all aspects of our work. Some of us felt less confident in using the colours but the process was more important rather than the result. It felt very nourishing to do this twice a day.

Most of us felt the meditation exercises given made coming into meditation more accessible, especially those who were fairly new to it. Some of these exercises were for soul protection.

The longer meditations proved challenging for some but the process was well presented and supported throughout.

Movement happened throughout the day giving a real feeling of contraction and expansion over the rhythm and flow of the day. Our breathing and movements became slower and any tension disappeared taking us into a more peaceful place. By the end of the weekend we all felt able to take back what we had learned into our everyday lives.

We left with a feeling of gratitude for Mark & Emily’s sensitive and humorous approach to this workshop.

                                                 

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FROM AFAR.....

ELIANT Sponsoring Members

Dear friends The fireside meeting of sponsoring members on 25th February in Brussels was a very special occasion – and not only because of the unexpected arrival of three sponsoring members from Greece. It was the constructive nature of the discussion and the mood of brotherliness which made it into a genuinely festive occasion. We received important suggestions as to how our website could be improved and prepared the anniversary event of 8.11.16 together. The idea also arose - thanks to our Goethe motto - of promoting the Goetheanum Faust festival. See the invitation concerning this below.

No other work shows the problems of today in such detail as does this drama of European development; whether it be financial crises, the causes of war, boundaries of knowledge, the understanding of nature, spirituality versus materialism, religion and philosophy, identity crises, relationship problems and the great quest to find lasting individual and social values. The first part addresses the identity and freedom of the individual human being, the second part the development of mankind as a whole. Finding access to these processes of consciousness, entering different levels of experience with more than 900 people can, in a quite remarkable way, help us to grasp the mounting problems of our age – this is a chance not to be missed. We are keen to draw this opportunity to the attention of our sponsoring members. The relevant dates and registration details can be found here. With best wishes and warm greetings Michaela Glöckler

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Tamarack Waldorf School, Milwaukee, USA...East stairwell
as in all true lazure painting the aim is to en-soul architecture with life and warmth

JOHN STOLFO


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Centuries ago, with the future development of humanity in view, secret Orders which set themselves the highest conceivable tasks were established. One such Order was the Manichean. The individual members of the Order were specially trained for their great work. The Order knew that some day there will be men in whose karma there is no longer any evil, but that there will also be a race evil by nature, among whom all kinds of evil will be developed to a higher degree than in th...e most savage animals, for they will practice evil consciously, exquisitely, with the aid of highly developed intellects.

These evil races will not be like bad children in whom there is goodness which can be brought out by precept and example. The members of the Manichean Order are already learning how to transform quite radically those who by nature are wholly evil. And then the transformed evil will become a quite special good. The power to effect this change will bring about a condition of moral holiness on Earth. -rudolf steiner
sin eater

See More

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Meet Uncle taz!

THE SECRET LODGES OF THE WEST
and their sinister plans with the world population

Introducing Tarjei Straume   http://uncletaz.com/seclodg.html

The primal motive these opponents had (apart from all the hatred), was to stop Steiner's habit of making public occult secrets. But when we read his description of activities attributed to so-called secret lodges during and after the first world war, it becomes clear that if there was only a hint of truth in his pronouncements about the power and influence of these circles, he must have been aware that he took an enormous risk by speaking out as boldly as he did.

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THE UPHOLDER

Please take a minute to think about something you are really good at!

Something you have Mastered!

How have you arrived at that level of understanding?

Let's imagine I'm good at making cakes.  Can you connect to the idea that I have Mastered the 'Spirit of cake-making."   I have 'seen' how the alchemy of cake batter should be...I have 'seen' how the baking works perfectly through experience, I have learned that the finest ingredients make for the best possible flavour and texture.It becomes more than just the recipe.  I am fully confident in becoming an instrument of  patisserie!  I have entered in the very spirit of it.

In the latest ART SECTION NEWSLETTER it begins with the following excerpt from Rudolf Steiner.

    So you see: if you really stand within the vital forces that pulse through Anthroposophy , Then you acquire above all a feel for the artistic media that you are employing - and you begin to be able ,  not intellectually but through feeling, to see into the life of things.'

This preamble is about defending the 'faith.'  

In the Pacifica Journal Edition 49  there is an article entitled, 'Sticking Wings on a Butterfly.' by Neil Boland.  He contends that 'without a fundamental rethink are we going to find the authentic New Zealand curriculum we talk about ?' 

...and reminds us  'Southern Germany in 1919 is very different to contemporary New Zealand.'

He then goes on to question the use of Grimm's Fairy Tales as compared to tikanga Maori legends.

However, from Rudolf Steiner..

The brothers Grimm, and other collectors like them, devoted long years to bringing the world the somewhat civilized fairy tales they had gathered out of the folk tradition. Although they had no help from spiritual science, they lived wholeheartedly with these tales, convinced that they were giving human beings what belonged intrinsically to human nature itself. When you know this, you will understand that although the age of reason did its best for a hundred years or so to alienate everyone, even children, away from fairy tales, now things are changing. Fairy tale collections like the Grimms' have found their way to every person who is alive to such things; they have become the property and treasure of every child's heart, yes, property of all our hearts. This will grow even stronger when spiritual science is no longer considered just a theory but becomes a mood of soul, one that will lead the soul perceptively towards its spiritual roots. Then spiritual science, moving and spreading outwards, will be able to confirm everything that the genuine fairy tale collectors, fairy tale lovers, fairy tale tellers wanted to do.

To sum up what spiritual science would like to say today in describing the fairy tale, we can take the poetic and charming tribute that a devoted friend of the tales [Ludwig Laistner (1848 – 1896)] liked to use in his lectures, some of which I was able to hear. He was a man who understood how to collect the tales and how to value them.

“The fairy tale is like a good angel, given us at birth to go with us from our home to our earthly path through life, to be our trusted comrade throughout the journey and to give us angelic companionship, so that our life itself can become a truly heart- and soul-enlivened fairy tale!”

- See more at: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/PoeTales/19130206p01.html#sthash.RJhrpEg7.dpuf

Is there  a battle on-going to tinker with the Waldorf curriculum!
I would contend it would be a 'spiritual battle' .  Are we working out of the Sun Stream or the Moon Stream?
My concern is the longevity of the School. Will the spiritual world tolerate a 'grafting ' of older cultural practises into the new cultural impulse ' and not react? Where are failures occurring??? * Are we truly fired enough to carry 'the burning thread'  that will ignite a true modern future?
Isn't this the Call of Michael?   There is more than enough fuel in the Lectures to keep any teacher fully busy.

The anti-Christian impulse makes its appearance first and foremost in the form of nationalism. The old Luciferic principle of the blood comes to life once again in nation-consciousness. We see a revolt against Christianity in the nationalism of the 19th century, which reached its apex in Woodrow Wilson's phrase about the self-determination of nations, whereas the one and only reality befitting the present age would be to overcome nationalism, to eliminate it, and for men to be stirred by the impulse of the human universal. -rudolf steiner
fascist

Larry Young. ....pic


*   The Lakota School was started with the idea of making it Waldorf/Lakota.  A blending of cultures.  It closed down.  It did not withstand the mixing.    After some time it has now reopened with a new Waldorf trained teacher.

Personally, I reckon there is a need to re-enter the 'spirit of Waldorf.'  As a 5th generation Kiwi, I find myself referring back to the Oxford Lectures where the English speaking world was being set up to carry this Sun Impulse ;  this entirely new cultural impulse tailored for modern mankind which it seems to me few have truly entered.Those that have are Warriors.  For the searcher there is a whole fund of knowledge and practical advises to carry the teacher through the sometimes thorny path of  bringing education to a new level.

If one can only enter into the 'spirit' of these lectures one can be rewarded with inspirations and illuminations that compel a close companionship with the wisdom and its' inherent magic.  The caterpillar does indeed become the butterfly and the transformation is complete.    Those with ears to hear will know what I am saying

The house where Rudolf Steiner was born, in Kraljevic, present-day Croatia

Whanau icon ?

Māori Style

CONFLUX CAFE #8

GREETINGS!

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"The physical, cognitive, creative and psychological benefits of child-directed play are well-documented. Less acknowledged, though, is a secret that really shouldn’t be one: quietly observing our children playing is a magical experience for parents."

6 Gifts That Encourage Child-Directed Play

In case you haven’t noticed, play is hot. Once taken for granted as a universal childhood right, in the last decades aggressive marketers of early learning

janetlansbury.com

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"If a child has been able in his play to give up his whole living being to the the world around him, he will be able, in the serious tasks of later life, to devote himself with confidence to the service of the world."- Dr. Rudolf Steiner

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Many people think of Waldorf schools as "artsy." Well, yes. Waldorf schools have a curriculum infused with art. We don't think of art as "extra" - art is an integral part of every school day. Thank you to Eugene Waldorf Schoolfor explaining why!

The Art Curriculum in Waldorf Education :: Eugene Waldorf School

The Waldorf curriculum is fundamentally an artistic curriculum. It seeks to engage the developing child as his or her capacities for thinking, feeling and…

eugenewaldorf.org

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They should be free to choose what they think is worthy of saving from the past and decide for themselves what changes need to be made.

The Future Belongs to the Rising Generation, and Education is the Key to Unleashing Their...

While there is much controversy around education reform today, it is generally assumed by all parties that the education of the younger generation plays an…

edrenewal.org

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Why I Send My Children to Waldorf School

Nate Mullins

November 19, 2015

by Joy Lapseritis, parent & president WSCC Board of Trustees

<img src="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/51c494cae4b079ce7c20b61e/t/564e2891e4b01cc50dbc784d/1447962770381/" />

Waldorf School class teachers move through the grades with their students.
“You should check out the Waldorf School,” our son’s first childcare provider said to my husband and I as we lamented losing her as a “teacher” when he had grown too old for the infant room at the VNA Childcare Center in Falmouth.  We had entrusted this woman with his care since he was just 6 months old, and she had helped us learn to become parents, witnessing the messiness of our first attempts at parenting.  She was as much our teacher as his, and we wanted her to continue with him into the young toddler room at the tender age of 18 months.  “There is a type of school where the teachers do move along with the students,” she began, and directed me to the Waldorf School of Cape Cod, then located in Bourne.  Within short order I found myself sitting on the floor of a cozy, sunlit room listening to Claire Small conduct a model class and give a puppet show.  At first, I was confused by the faceless dolls and strange songs, but I was drawn to learn more, to discover the specific and thoughtful intentions behind each action and object.  Shortly thereafter our family moved to the Berkshires, and we had the rare fortune of choosing from among three local Waldorf schools.  Our son, Morgen, spent 4 years in early childhood bliss, and daughter Mathilde and I a year in a parent-child program before we moved back to Cape Cod and joined the Waldorf School of Cape Cod.  While we knew the Falmouth public schools were good enough, we actively desired for our children to experience a Waldorf Education.
Our children’s teachers are our co-parents.  Every day we learn how to parent our two very different children as they present us with new and unique challenges and joys, each needing something different from us – more space, more attention, fewer interventions, new boundaries.  This is true for all aspects of their lives, and it is more than reassuring that their class teachers are there to witness and guide them on their educational journeys with a long-term perspective. Waldorf teachers are specially trained to understand human development, and are well prepared for the next set of developmental challenges.  Having been Morgen’s teacher for five years, Kim Allsup has a deep knowledge of his personal growth over that time, and a view into the challenges he may face.  She brings this wisdom into her approach to him in the classroom, and to us as his parents so that we can be a mutually supportive team.  Waldorf teachers understand that education is not an event separate from the human development of a person – it is an integration of daily and lifelong experiences, internal and external – and we all educate each other as we move through life.  I shudder to think of how disconnected our children would be if they were passed from one teacher to another throughout their formative years.  Parenting has made me more reflective on my own childhood, and I have a real sense of distance and separation from my own education in public schools even though I was very successful academically.  Keeping a connection with a class teacher, even if only for several years in the event of a change, ameliorates that disconnection and forms a stronger bond between children and the adults who care for them daily.
Maintaining a class teacher from first through eighth grade presents benefits and challenges. Like many personal traits, the potential weaknesses of the class teacher/student relationship are closely tied to the strengths.  Human relationships are seldom without conflict, and there can be anxiety around keeping a teacher for eight years.  What if there are disagreements? (there will be). What if the teacher isn’t strong in all subjects? (they won’t be).  What if my child has a personality conflict or is “incompatible” with their teacher? (they likely will be at some point in the journey from age 7 to 14).  One of the gifts of the class teacher is that we are forced to discover and develop conflict resolution skills to cope with each of these eventualities – skills that are useful to everyone in life.  Parents, teachers, and children must find ways to resolve disagreements, to reach out for help from someone else, or agree to disagree and find a new path forward.  Faculty lean on each other to fill gaps, share techniques, and teach to the whole curriculum; they demonstrate to children how learning is a lifelong process and how no one knows everything.  Teachers must bring their maturity and long-term vision to both embrace and overcome interpersonal conflicts; children must learn tolerance and respect for every type of person.  All learn patience in this process.
Waldorf School graduates know how to learn and are successful in higher education.


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Kiss turkeys.....dont eat them.

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During my student teaching I remember telling my mentor teacher that I was nervous about the responsibility of teaching a whole room full of children "how to read". She let me in on the secret when she said "This is going to sound corny, but it just sort of happens magically." Of course, for the magic to happen, there needs to be a strong early childhood foundation! Take a look at this great article if you're interested to hear "the Waldorf way" smile emoticon

Learning To Read The Waldorf Way ⋆ Waldorf-Inspired Learning

This is a guest post written by Barbara Dewey of Waldorf Without Walls in which she describes learning to read the Waldorf way.

waldorfinspiredlearning.com

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Waldorf education shared a link.

How Free Play Creates Emotionally Stable Children in an Unstable World

It's one reason children during the Great Depression and World War II were…

pjmedia.com|By Rhonda Robinson​ 

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  CONFLUX CAFE

"An association is not an organization and not a combination. It comes into being through the conflux of the individuals within the economy. The individual does not have to adopt something handed out from a central body, but is able to contribute the knowledge and ability he has in his own field. From a collaboration in which each gives of his best, and where what is done springs from the agreement of many — only from such associations does economic life in general derive.

Associations of this kind will come into being. We can foster them and make them arise more quickly, or we can wait until they arise from necessity"....Rudolf Steiner.

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Anne Perry.

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Conflux Cafe # 7

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The Role of Purposeful Work in a Waldorf Kindergarten

by KAREN SMITH

Karen Smith’s article is available at the Online Waldorf Library. The OWL is a great resource for parents and teachers and has an extensive selection of articles, books and journals about Waldorf Education.

As Waldorf early childhood educators, one of our primary goals is to teach by example. Through our work, the children learn important lessons to prepare them for the academics they will begin in grade one. This teaching method is quite different from the trend in mainstream education today, where out-of-context abstract concepts provide the basis for all learning, and opportunities for shared work activity with adults are not available.
There is much work to be done in a Waldorf kindergarten. As the calm and steady focal point, the teacher places herself in the center of all the activity, projecting an attitude of purpose and enthusiasm for her work. Preparing the food, dusting, polishing, repairing toys, folding the laundry, washing the dishes, sewing, and mending are all jobs the children can learn to accomplish.
In all aspects, an important requirement of a Waldorf teacher is that her actions be worthy of imitation and filled with purposeful joy. The care with which an item is placed on a shelf, a door closed, or a chair moved is noticed and replicated by our young students. We must be consciously aware of the quality of our movements, for whether we like it or not, we will see the children mirror for us what we have presented to them as it emerges in their actions and play.
‘The joy of the child in and with his environment must be reckoned among the forces that build and mold the physical organs. He needs people around him with happy looks and manner and, above all, with an honest unaffected love.

‘A love which fills the physical environment of the child with warmth may literally be said to hatch out the forms of the physical organs. The child who lives in such an atmosphere of love and warmth and who has around him really good examples for his imitations is living in his right element. One should therefore strictly guard against anything being done in the child’s presence that he must not imitate.’ —Rudolph Steiner, ‘Education of the Child‘
Our daily work in the classroom inspires in the children an incentive toward industrious play. The meaningful tasks that a teacher performs can be better comprehended by children when those same gestures are experienced in their play as they explore how an activity is done. In today’s mechanized world, most of the tasks that formerly were completed by humans are now done by machines. Children have little opportunity to see adults use their hands to wash dishes or bake bread. Objects that in days long ago would have been repaired are now thrown away and replaced.
Observing the work of the adult engaged in meaningful activity serves to boost the energy of children, developing in them an I can do it attitude. According to Rudolph Steiner, “If before the seventh year children see only foolish actions in their surroundings, the brain will assume the forms that adapt it to foolishness in later life.”
The life skills that the kindergarten child learns in a loving and enjoyable way are essential as a foundation for their future experiences as a capable and responsible adult.
Sometimes the activities that must be completed in a classroom are not those we prefer to do, but rather those that need to be done. When children observe the perseverance of an adult completing a mundane task with as much reverence and pleasure as the tasks we do enjoy, it imparts the work ethic that all jobs can be done to a high standard‹any job can be a job well done.
The rhythm of our work is comforting for our students. The child who exhibits a chaotic will may gradually become more harmonious upon finding an outlet to calm him through scrubbing, sawing, shaking butter, and other forms of physically challenging work. Meaningful work is a positive cure for aggressive behavior. Children who exhibit unfocused and uncontrollable behaviors may gradually be redirected into positively focused imitative behaviors, as the teacher’s actions strengthen a child’s emerging will. The teacher seeks opportunities to gently, but firmly, guide a child toward greater self-control and focused attention, without fear of failure. Those children who find transitions to be difficult find comfort and satisfaction in the expected repetition of a daily routine.
When a teacher follows a set rhythm, the children can relax, as they have no need focus their energy and attention on worrying about what the teacher or the class will be doing next. They are carried peacefully along by the steady stream of the teacher’s activity. When inviting a child to join in an activity, it should not posed as a question. Simply stating I need your help, rather than Would you like to help? builds up a child’s self-confidence which will emerge in his future impulses of play. Helpful, is a high purpose, to which a child may have limited opportunities.

Children are always aware of what the teacher is doing. Whenever a new project or work activity is begun, they eagerly offer their interest and assistance. Even if they do not take an active role in helping, a child will often contentedly play in the shadow of the teacher, occasionally checking in on the progress of the activity. The teacher must have logically thought the activity through in advance, including tidying up the work place, so as to have all the materials needed for the children to be easily integrated. She must remain calm and purposeful as she guides them in the task. It is not important that work be completed quickly with as little mess or effort as possible. What is important is that the child be surrounded with a sense of pleasure and respect for the work they have contributed. By allowing a child to participate in real and practical work, the child gains satisfaction and a sense of purpose as an essential and needed member of the group.
Adults are responsible for setting the mood of the children’s play each day. When adults are engaged in meaningful and purposeful work, the children play in a much more imaginative, content, and focused manner. When we instead take an onlooker stance, the children feel the adult’s eyes focused upon them, and as a result, they often become more agitated and chaotic in their play. When adults chat idly among themselves, the children also become idle and fussy.
If we can find ways of introducing activities to children which are not verbal and awakening, an inner connection can be made that affects the child on a deeper, subconscious level. Certainly our advanced planning and preparation in bringing imitative work to the children can imbue our actions with a more sensitive inner quality.
Most teachers are comfortable filling their time inside the classroom with purposeful work. The challenge many teachers experience is finding a balance between purposeful work and the need to keep constant supervision over the children while outside. It is indeed important that we always know what is going on with the children in our care, but at the same time, it is also important that the children not feel as if they are always being watched. Children take comfort in knowing their teacher is accessibly nearby, and when a teacher has the courage to trust that all will be well, the universe and the angels help make it so. Taking up a meaningful task which still allows the teacher to keep a watchful eye over the play ground maybe best for the salutogenic health of the children.
I have found that in my own work, on the days that I have not brought a project of some kind outside, the children continually run to me to settle their minor conflicts. Conversely, on the days when I am intent on a task of my own, they more frequently find ways to work out difficulties among themselves. Although I am busily working, I am always available, and I readily stop whatever I am doing to come to a child in need.
Undertaking a project that has a long time before completion teaches by example the value of perseverance and a job well done. This year, my long-term outside project was to carve a wooden spoon. At the beginning of the school year, I began carving a seasoned branch from an apple tree. Throughout the months as the shape of the spoon slowly emerged, I never directly answered the children when I was asked what it would become. Because it is much more interesting for a child to ponder the outcome of a project, “What do you think it might be?” was my reply. Their answers were always quite charming. Some thought it might be a paddle for a boat, a sword, a hammer, a fork, or a walking stick. My response to their ponderings was, “Perhaps, but I am not sure yet what this tree wants to become.” Only in the spring did a few children think it might become a spoon. At the end of the project, as it was becoming a real spoon before their eyes, the children were eager to have me finish it to use to serve our porridge. I was delighted in their excitement when we were finally able to utilize the spoon in the last weeks of class, completing the lesson that diligent work does indeed have purpose.
The children have regularly wanted to help me work on my project, which I allowed them to do using a safe 4-in-1 rasp. In our class each year, the children themselves work for many months to make a wooden sword of their own, so they are familiar with the use of a rasping tool. They were quick to say that the rasping work on my project was more difficult, which was due to the very hard apple wood I chose for this spoon. They also watched me struggle with a carving tool, which only I used. By observing an adult engaged in work on a difficult activity all year long, the children witness the effort and the rewards from persevering to complete a project. For a child to understand self-discipline and self-control, he must have first experienced and observed it in the striving adults around him.
In gathering ideas from others, I found that most teachers fill their outside time with sweeping, raking, and gardening. Teachers at urban Waldorf schools with limiting playgrounds must find different ways to accomplish many of the activities commonly undertaken at Waldorf kindergartens. Our play ground is rented from a strict church landlord, so the opportunities we have to garden and compost are minimal. However difficult it may be, working with the soil is an important task for adults to undertake. Through caring
for our environment outdoors, we project through example a reverence for nature that fosters soul warmth within the children. Even planters filled with flowers offer children an opportunity to work with and care for the earth.

It is very beneficial for children to see something made from nothing. In watching an adult fashion an item such as a basket from nothing but vines, it sparks imaginative possibilities within children that should be nurtured at this young age.
The following list is offered as a seasonal spring board of purposeful work ideas. Some projects are meant for teachers alone and others are meant to be completed with the assistance of the children. These ideas offer a variety of ways to contribute to a child’s understanding and their development of fine and gross motor skills.
Ideas for Purposeful Work Outside:
The following list was gathered from Waldorf kindergarten teachers around the world. Those ideas noted with an *** indicate projects that are primarily done only by a teacher.
Autumn
-Wash napkins, placements, or other cloth items and hang on a clothes line to dry. The next day gather and fold.
-Make a scarecrow from old clothes stuffed with hay. Have the children sew on buttons for the facial features.
-Make a straw or vine wreath. Have the children help to decorate it
seasonally.
-Make leaf crowns and garlands for display in the classroom.
-Build a leaf press, then gather leaves and flowers to press for use in future projects.
-In corn season: take off silks and turn husks down to allow fresh corn to dry for 2-3 weeks. shell dried corn. use husks to make dolls or wreaths.
-Dry harvested gourds for one year to make Thanksgiving rattles.
-Carve a pumpkin and save the seeds to plant in late spring.
-Pick up pecans or other edible nuts to crack with a wooden mallet and eat.
-Plant spring bulbs.
-Harvest garden produce, herbs, or flowers for plant dying.
-Plant-dye fabric for Michaelmas and other festivals.
-Dry herbs to make tea, potpourri, scented pillows as gifts.
-Thresh grain to grind for bread.
-Rake leaves or the sand box.
-Spread wood chips or mulch.
Winter
-Build and maintain a bird feeder.
-String whole peanuts or apple slices for the birds.
-Fill terra cotta flower pots with lard and sunflower seeds for the birds.
-Build snow men.
-Shovel snow for paths.
***Cut ice blocks for igloos.
Spring
-Spread compost for new garden plantings.
-Plant pumpkin, gourd, or other seeds.
-Plant flowering plants, summer bulbs, etc.
-Make flower necklaces and garlands.
-Make horse reins using finger knitting and a felt chest cover.
-Gather fresh moss for the nature table.
-Wash windows with vinegar/water and dry with old newspaper.
-Wash wool fleece. Use it for felting projects.
-Help the children make a foot felting wall hanging for the classroom.
Summer
-Blow bubbles with a bubble pipe made from straws or hollow pithy twigs reamed out with a screw and cut into small pieces.
-Wash outdoor tools, toys, furniture.
-Create a large outdoor weaving using vines, flowers, yarn, roving, grasses, and other found objects.
Anytime of the year
-Weed the garden.
-Water the plants.
-Turn and sift compost.
-Turn the jump rope.
-Organize outside storage shed.
-Cut corners from painting/drawing paper.
-Untangle classroom ropes.
-Pick up trash.
-Clear the underbrush from a pathway in a forested area.
-Build a tepee or hut in the woods with fallen sticks and vines.
-Sweep walkways. Help the children to make little brooms by attaching pine needle clusters to a stick with yarn.
***Make a broom.
-Care for kindergarten animals.
***Handwork: felting, sewing, knitting, crocheting, drop spindle.
-Clean painting boards with nail brush.
-Make a bench from two tree trunks and a plank nailed in place.
-Make a chair from a tree stump by cutting a log from the top halfway, then from the side to form a seat. Sand till smooth, then finish with oil and beeswax polish.
-Saw wood or branches.
-Sand woodwork items and toys.
-Sand cutting boards with fine sandpaper, then re-wax with beeswax paste.
-Sand the wooden play structure when splinters are found.
-Split logs with a hammer and wedge. Help the children to make a pretend hatchet from a stick and a large wood chip tied together with yarn.
-Make clothes pins from split sticks wrapped with wire.
-Mend toys, fences, furniture, etc.
-Build fences or edges for a garden or pathway with branches or stones.
-Build a climbing ladder.
-Build a wheel barrow from planks and an old tricycle tire.
-Weave baskets using vines cut from the forest.
***Carve or rasp wood to become a spoon to use in the classroom (have a rotten log nearby for children to carve with blunt old dinner knives).
***Carve little toys for the class.
***Carve wooden handles for jump ropes.
-Saw a coconut in half to make little drums as a rhythm instrument for use in circle.
-Cut bamboo to make little flutes to use in circle.
Reflective Conclusion
After having spent the past year engaging in purposeful work outside (alongside and with the children)I am even more convinced of the critical importance of our activities throughout the day. As an experiment, some days toward the end of the year, I brought nothing outside to occupy my time. I stood around watching the children as I had done daily the previous year. I noted that the level of whining increased, as did the requests for me to settle differences among the children. I was used as base in games, whereas when I was working on a project, the children respected the space I needed to accomplish my task.
Next year, I plan to carve another spoon. I had considered working with a machined rectangle of softer butternut wood that I purchased from a woodworker store. However, upon reflection it seemed that the real blessing that I gave to the students was not the end product of the spoon, but rather the notion that a common bark-covered stick with no real purpose could become a useful item. Imagination and the will to act on it and follow through is an invaluable life ability. It enables a person to confront obstacles and propose solutions, however fanciful, that he can then execute. This nurturing of creativity and execution is a central pillar of the Waldorf philosophy. The hardness of the wood was not a hurdle, but instead very advantageous, for it showed that difficult tasks can be overcome by carving away at the problem at little bit every day.
For my future work, I intend to make an outside lesson plan each year that occasionally includes projects from the preceding list that the children can assist me in creating. This list is rich with project ideas which I have not yet explored myself. I intend to work my way through the list in the years to come, choosing projects which will challenge and refine my way of working with and inspiring the children in my care. Karen Smith is a kindergarten teacher at The Waldorf School of Atlanta, located in Decatur, Georgia. She obtained her early childhood teaching certificate from Sunbridge College in 2004, and this article was her final paper presented at the completion of her training.

In seeking worldwide collegiality, Karen created an international Waldorf Early Childhood teacher discussion group on the Internet. The membership of the group continues to grow with over 500 members from 15 countries. This closed list is open only to Waldorf teachers, ensuring a high level of trust and confidentiality in their discussions of Waldorf education. If you are interested in joining, please visit www.groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorfearlychildhoodteachers/ or you can contact Karen directly at karen@kevinandkaren.com to request an invitation to join the group.
Photos from the Cincinnati Waldorf School, the Russian Kindergarten Seminar, and the Waldorf School of New Orleans, in that order.


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Thanks for Reading!

Anne Perry.