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Written by Jaimmie Stugard: After nearly half a year of frigid Wisconsin winter, gradually the snow and the half-foot of ice buried beneath it began to melt away. Here and there we caught a few glimpses of sunshine with a warmish 50 degree breeze, only to have the temperature plummet again the next day. The last week has brought us constant rain, wind and thunder along with frigid temperatures. And yet, at LifeWays we go outside nearly every single day.
Jaimmie writes: When my husband asked what I wanted for my first Mother's Day, I told him I wanted to go camping. So we packed up too much gear and our nearly one-year-old baby and headed out to nearby Kettle Moraine State Forest. It was cold and rainy at night and the gravel-covered site was swarming with biting gnats during the day. With the baby in the sling, we hiked trails that were buried under increasingly large, swampy puddles until the marshes and the mosquitoes compelled us to turn back. Of course, we had a splendid time.
Cynthia writes: It's happening! The conference we have been thinking about and hoping for over the past few years is coming to California this spring, co-sponsored by Marin Waldorf School!
Sometimes it seems as though I am in a time warp. It's as if toddlers have the power to bend, shape and shrink time until it nearly disappears. I wonder how I will ever manage to do all the things I need to do and at least a few of the things I'd like to do. I have lots of creative projects I'd like to start and others that I'd like to finish. A lovely wool romper sits patiently awaiting more rows of stitches. There is a basket of stained clothes ready to be dyed that I am eager to tend to.
By Jaimmie Stugard
When I was pregnant with my first child, my mailbox swelled with unsolicited parenting magazines, ads and baby life insurance offers. Just open your pocketbook, the ads implied, and you can procure all the items your unborn baby needs to get ahead in the world she hasn't even seen yet. You can teach her to read, or better yet, put her in front of the television and she'll morph into Einstein himself.
by Pamela Perkins
What value beyond personal enjoyment might there be for someone in her mid-sixties enrolling in a LifeWays training, especially someone who has ‘already been there’ with much of the content? Interestingly, the answers to this question arose only in retrospect, after I had finished my yearly round of the four sessions. When the initial opportunity to participate presented itself, my immediate and instinctive response was simply, spontaneously, “So how soon can I begin?” Through attending the four sessions on the mainland, I was looking forward to re-experiencing the seasons in the fullness of their contrast after so many years of the subtle transitions I had grown accustomed to in Hawaii. (At that time, the Hawaii training did not exist yet.)
Have you ever wanted to do something special for a festival and then thought, "No, I could never get all of the parents to keep their voices down/sit still/wear appropriate clothing/sing the same song"? See how Susan Siverio helps the parents at Spindlewood Waldorf Kindergarten and LifeWays Center, to prepare for their Advent Spiral in early December. She sets the scene, shares the adult symolism of the event, and asks that parents allow their children to have their own experiences, without the adult interpretations. How lovely.
At Rainbow Bridge we always scheduled our “Winter Festival” on the last day before winter break. We would invite all the parents to come from 11:30-12:30 and take their children home with them—no afternoon care that day because it’s so hard for children to have parents come and go without taking them home. Because December is COLD in Colorado, this festival required careful planning to fit everyone inside! Here’s how we did it.
I remember the day that the lesson really sank in for me: I was sitting on the couch, and the children in my care were playing all around me. There were two brothers playing nearby: Charles (age 2) and Jamie (not quite 4 years old). Jamie had a beanbag and was dropping it on Charles, over and over again.
I have a little boy in my suite. When he first learned how to talk, he would ask me every day throughout the day, “Where is Mama?” Sometimes he would ask me where Dada was, but mostly he asked me about Mama. I would then ask him, “Where is Mama? Is Mama at work?”
“No.” He would answer with a definitive shake of his head.
“Is Mama at home?”
Same shake of the head.
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