Concerns About Forest Kindergartens

Posted by Donna Simmons

I have worked with children, largely on the land (city farms, youth projects, farm visits–all sorts of outdoor adventures and play) for more than 35 years. Ten years ago, had you asked me if children could be outdoors too much…

School Readiness – the Developmental View

Posted by Christopherus

by Earl J. Ogletree (Reprinted with kind permission from Steiner Education, Vol.24, No.2  – 1990) In this hurry-up society, can anything wait? Apparently not, when it comes to determining the appropriate time your children should begin formal schooling. The majority…

First Grade Readiness by a Homeschooling Mother in Vermont

Posted by Christopherus

Our Story (edited version) She was ready, I knew it. She turned 6 in September, could already read very well, add and subtract. She could jump, follow directions and loved learning. She had lost five teeth. She was definitely ready….

First Grade Readiness : Help Your Child by Getting the Timing Right

Posted by Christopherus

by Alicia Benoit-Clark Studies indicate that children who start school too soon can experience a number of difficulties. Researchers James Uphoff and June Gilmore found that children who started first grade under six years three months tended to have greater…

Books for Three Year Olds

Posted by Christopherus

The following is a very common question which, over the years, I have answered many times. We have reprinted it here to help others. Question: Do you have any book recommendations for three year olds? And what are the types…

The Frustrated Two Year Old

Posted by Christopherus

The agony of the frustrated two year old! A very popular topic for discussion over the years on my old forum, with clients….at conferences. Here are some thoughts. And don’t forget to look at our early years book The Journey…

Musings on School Readiness and Older Children

Posted by Christopherus

It’s that time of year again…parents agonizing about whether their six year old should start first grade or stay in kindergarten….Such a big decision. Steiner’s entire picture of the development of the human being rests on an understanding of the seven…

Review: A Warm and Gentle Welcome, a WECAN publication

Posted by Christopherus

  Kudos to Carrie Dentler (theparentingpassageway) for jumping into the midst of what I see as a huge contradiction in the world of Waldorf Early Childhood. She highlights what I also see to be as a real problem – the…

Drowning in Dialogue

Posted by Christopherus

Just the other day I was in our local co-op (center of life here in our small Midwest town – especially now when there are two feet of snow on the ground) bobbing about doing my shopping when I became…

Imagination and Discipline

Posted by Christopherus

by Donna Simmons Today I had an opportunity to remember how one needs to develop one’s own imagination so as to deal creatively with a potential discipline problem with young children. What happened was both typical and easily dealt with…

Is Childcare as Good as Mama-care?

Posted by Christopherus

Every once in awhile I have one of those “Emperor’s New Clothes” moments – you know what I mean. In this story, the emperor is gullible and gets taken in by two con-men who claim to make him the most…

Revisiting Jean Liedloff and the Continuum Concept

Posted by Christopherus

The very first book that I read that set me off and running on the road to “natural parenting” was Jean Liedloff’s The Continuum Concept. Having devoured Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery and militantly given birth to my first son…

Early Years Rant 3

Posted by Christopherus

(So if this was a movie, I’d entitle it Early Years: The Rant Continues……!) Do have a read through my original piece on this topic and then the follow-up. There have been many wonderful contributions by readers as well – which I…

Follow-Up – Early Years Rant

Posted by Christopherus

Well, well, well – I have been bowled over by the responses to the Early Years Rant I wrote last month. It seems I have hit a chord. I am honored to be able to hold a safe space for…

Early Years Rant

Posted by Christopherus

Every once in a while a thread on my discussion forum hits me in such a way that I let lose with what basically amounts to a rant…. Most of my “sensitive spots” have to do with issues having to do with societal …

When A Child Kills A Pet

Posted by Christopherus

By Donna Simmons (2008) (this is a post from our discussion forum. The thread was from a distressed forum member whose 3 year old son killed their pet rabbit. She was concerned that he did not seem to show any…

Daddy Central

Posted by Christopherus

Here’s a post from my old yahoo group on a popular question : how to cope with the chaos that Daddy’s daily arrival home wrecks on the peaceful pre-bedtime routine?! How to honor Dad’s need to see his children -…

A Question of Control

Posted by Christopherus

Here’s a somewhat reworked piece that I wrote on my forum in response to a member wondering whether she was being too controlling of her children. She has three little girls – a pair of twins and another child, all…

Helping Little Ones with Manners

Posted by Christopherus

Here’s another reworked post from our Waldorf at Home discussion forum…. If this is a topic which interests you, do consider purchasing my talks on Good Manners and on Talking Pictorially to Young Children for more practical help with this!…

Caring for a Cat

Posted by Christopherus

(I am now starting to put selected posts which I have written on my discussion forum here on my blog… I can’t re-print the whole conversation which we have, but just a few snippets here and there which I think…

So How Do You Manage All Day at Home?

Posted by Christopherus

Following on from my last blog which I wrote earlier today I want to help parents think through how they actually can mange to be at home all day with tiny children if they too believe that this is what…

From two to three – early ed for tinies

Posted by Christopherus

A few weeks ago I gave a talk to parents in our community about early years parenting. Most of the parents attending had their children part time at one of the local Waldorf-inspired  in-home nursery or day-care providers here. The…

Review: ” Beyond the Rainbow Bridge”

Posted by Christopherus

Just about everyone who is interested in ways of working with Waldorf with young children knows about Rahima Baldwin’s You Are Your Child’s First Teacher. But then…. then what? What is another good book to read? I have a number…

Speaking and Reading to Little Ones

Posted by Christopherus

(Here’s another reworked post of mine from my yahoo group, Waldorf_At_Home) In this thread I have not been saying that we shouldn’t talk to our children!! What I am saying is that there is balance needed – that parents who…

Fantasy and Imagination

Posted by Christopherus

(the following was written in response to a question I received many years ago on my old yahoo group…)   When working with questions around the existence of fairies, I guess it all depends on how one views the world,…

Magazines for Little Children

Posted by Christopherus

(this has been adapted from a message I posted on my yahoo list, Waldorf At Home.)   Children under the age of 7 live wholly in their bodies – they are on the go, meeting the world bodily from the…

Little Ones Who Chatter

Posted by Christopherus

(the following is adapted from a message I posted on my yahoo group “Waldorf-At_Home”) Fundamental to a Waldorf understanding of young children is therecognition that they are in  the imitative phase of their lives. Everything that goes on around them…

Reading Readiness

Posted by Christopherus

The following is from my yahoo discussion group – it is obviously part of a thread but I thought there is enough that might be of interest here to warrant re-printing it. My experience tells me to be even more…

Early Learning

Posted by Christopherus

This article first published in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, August 2004 I recently received a catalog from a well-known, well-established and, apparently, well-respected homeschool curriculum provider. These folks have been in the homeschooling business for a long, long time and…