Reading and Telling Stories

Posted by Donna Simmons

Everything Comes from the Teacher One of the hallmarks of Waldorf education is the practice that teachers have of telling stories to their class. Lessons are not a series of points from the teacher’s notes, or passages from a text…

Educating for Excellence

Posted by Donna Simmons

Sometimes I get the feeling that people forget to look beyond the “fluffy pink” beginnings of Waldorf and do not know much of where the education they are working with is aiming. Sometimes the Waldorf bubble encapsulates the parent as…

Fall Festivals

Posted by Donna Simmons

If you work with the “Waldorf calendar” of festivals, then you know that these next few months are busy ones. Michaelmas, Martinmas, Advent…. Succos, harvest festivals, Channukah, Solstice, and Christmas, are all on the way. We are currently having an…

Team Sports – what age?

Posted by Donna Simmons

It can be challenging sometimes to decide when it is appropriate to allow children to engage in organized sport – does one say yes when the child shows interest or are there some guiding principles to keep in mind? For those…

Review: Living into Dying

Posted by Donna Simmons

Every once in a while one reads a book which feels, from the first page through the last, as if one has been handed a great gift. One feels honored that the author has shared her story, has even bared…

Sword and Gun Play

Posted by Donna Simmons

(The first part of this entry is a re-worked post from my old yahoo group… I then went on to discuss gun play….)  I think the key to a lot of the questions around sword play is “can my child rise…

Birthday Loveliness

Posted by Donna Simmons

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my 45th birthday (huzzah – Happy Birthday to me!). My 14 year old wanted precise instructions for what I wanted for my birthday. He also took it upon himself to coordinate his brother…

Museum Baby

Posted by Donna Simmons

A few weeks ago my husband Paul and I went to New York for a family visit. I am a native New Yorker but my mother now lives across the bridge in New Jersey. Whilst in NYC Paul and I…

Self Development as a Parent

Posted by Donna Simmons

Steiner said there were three absolutes which every teacher must undertake as part of his essential task of being a teacher: to understand child development; to strive to understand the particular children one is working with; and to work on…

Planning For Next Year

Posted by Donna Simmons

So…. I thought I’d give you all a few tips on planning for the next year (and all you Southern Hemisphere readers you’ll just have to come back to this blog entry later in the year!). One of my main…