Family Science Weekend — A Flying Success!
We have had two successful Family Weekends here at Taproot Farm. The first, Family Arts Weekend, involved 30 people of all ages living in community, making meals together, and we actually, as groups, wrote and produced two plays, including costumes and scenery, which were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone!
At the second, Family Science and Art Weekend, again involved about 30 people. We enjoyed activities such as building a digestive system with junk parts, hatching baby chicks and studying the embryology of the developing fetus in the egg, kitchen chemistry, the science of bread making, creating herbal salves, building wooden physics toys, drawing and painting nature, and probably the biggest hit: making and flying hot air balloons. Up, up and away!
The next Family Weekend, Harvest Arts Weekend, will be held September 28-30.
We hope you can be there! Save the date!
Discretionary Playtime Needed!
Especially in summer!
Do you remember the hazy, lazy days of summer from your childhood? I do! Fondly!
Most children in the U.S. today spend most of their waking hours in activities conceived and presented by adults (school, running to one or another adult-directed lesson or sport, or watching the media). In addition, the child is considered to be wasting her time if she is not absorbing information from adults, talking toys or media. A great amount of this "information" is to correct the child's imperfect understanding of the world in the light of modern scientific knowledge.
Steiner points out in his lecture, "Interests, Talent and Education," ( in The Education of the Child and Early Lectures in Education, Anthroposophic Press, 1996) that play is the means "of enabling children to work on changing, modifying and mobilizing what lives in their spirit-soul, thus providing free space for the development of human nature."
Most of you are aware of the play atmosphere of the Waldorf Kindergarten. Some amount of that kind of free play needs to continue throughout childhood (really throughout life!) with some adjustments as the child develops. Steiner says, "We must create a balance that is possible only when we are in a position to do things at a particular time that the outer world does not require and to be satisfied with the activity itself. Human nature meets that need through playing." (op. cit., emphasis mine) A good amount of time is needed by the child to get into the mood and create the play activity. It is not likely to happen in the 10 minutes between the time she gets home from piano lesson and dinner is served. And it will not happen at all of she is free to turn on the TV power switch whenever she wants.
Learning is not a linear process. It happens when it happens: in a moment of inspiration, while looking at a flower, digging in the garden, diverting a stream, humming to oneself, scrubbing a floor, washing the dishes, cutting up vegetables, etc. While unschooling is not a choice for mant parents as a sole method of education, I think the movement has a lot to offer the Waldorf inspired parent in the area of following a child's interest in setting up an age appropriate environment for free play. Free play does not mean cutting the child loose from the parent. It means that you as a parent are present, doing your own work, but available to help when needed with supplies, encouragement and appreciation. You set a creative example in your own life which the child will imitate.
Be ready to learn a new skill with your child. When my youngest son was in third grade, he got very interested in bees and wanted a beehive. So we went to the library, got out some books, called a local beekeeper, bought a build it yourself beehive kit, and ordered some bees through the mail. I enjoyed it so much that I still kept bees 25 years later!
When they were about 9 and 11 my two older sons and their friends, started digging a hole in our back yard, which was at the top of a hill. They dug down about 8 feet, with my husband shoring up the sides with them each night. One night at dinner, they asked their dad if it wouldn't be possible to dig a tunnel in from the side of the hill to meet the vertical hole they had dug. He said yes, it was possible, but it would involve a lot of measuring, figuring, and then a lot more digging and shoring up. They decided they wanted to do it. He helped them do the figuring and we set some safety rules: no digging alone, one person had to be outside the opening of the tunnel any time anyone was digging, every foot of tunnel had to be supported with beams before proceeding any further. We thought they would get tired of it in about two days, but the tunnel became a neighborhood kids project and they dug all that summer and all the next summer, completing the tunnel just before school started! I will never forget the look on all their smudgy faces when they finally broke through!
Some suggestions to set up an environment for the school age child:
- Workbench with scraps of wood and simple hand tools: hammer, saw, miter box, screwdriver, hand crank drill, screws, nails and miscellaneous hardware
- Sewing basket with needles, thread, sharp scissors (Fiskars for kids), and fabric.
- Dress-up basket of large cotton cloths, smaller silks and including fancy things like lace and ribbons
- Handmade standing puppets: king, queen, prince and princess
- Baskets of cotton and wool yarn and string.
- Crayons, paper scissors, glue, cardboard, and boxes of various sizes
- Beads of various sizes
- Set up a nature table and change it with the seasons with your child's help
- Outdoors: a hoop to roll, balance beam, jump-ropes, sand box, rocks and stumps, a place to dig and some shovels.
- Keep all these things in an organized way, a place for everything and everything in its place. Always warn your child of cleanup time about ten minutes before it is actually time to clean up so she can finish what she is doing. Then leave time for you to actually help her clean up and put things in their places. This teaches organization and reverence for things. By planning ahead a little, you are showing an example and avoiding the cleanup nagging that can ruin a wondrous playtime.
- Give your child free playtime and you will give her the gift of a real childhood.
Home Nurturing
I look at my four granddaughters, three of whom were born between Thanksgiving and Easter this past year, and smile with pleasure: who would have thought that I would again get to transform my house into a daily magical world of colored silks, puppets, dolls and wooden toys — including a play kitchen that I'd wanted when I was small!
Two daughters live close by me in East Hawaii and I am fortunately able to nurture the early experiences of their three daughters. Ke'anolani, the oldest at 2 _, enjoys staying with her "Nanya" (that's me) several days a week. She and I have established a rhythm to our day that flows between practical activities and artistic experiences. Mornings after breakfast, Ke'anolani helps to feed chickens, milk goats, and tend to the dogs and cat. Some days there are pineapples and bananas to harvest, eggs to bring into the house, or laundry to fold, two year old style. After these chores are done, Ke'anolani will enthusiastically join me in little circle times, movement games or puppet stories. We paint with watercolors, busy ourselves with crayons, check on the dollhouse families and dance with scarves and bells. Books are everywhere, and the stories and songs that are hidden in Nanya's memory, are teased out at a moment's notice. These are the things we love, Ke'anolani and me.
Although I experience much joy in what I do, the extent of my childcare involvement came about as a direct result of some intense unplanned occurrences. Two years ago, quite suddenly, I suffered a significant vision loss, so that I can no longer drive my car. Then Ke'anolani's mother suffered a severe health crisis - which is how my granddaughter came to spend so much time with me.
Assessing these situations, and asking myself how best to serve both my needs and that of my family, I decided to become a licensed family childcare provider. I am a part-time early childhood educator, love puppetry and storytelling, and have over thirty years' experience as a parent. I can, thankfully, still read those story books, run around with children in the play yard and function quite well in the context of my home. Thus, for six months this past year, five other children, ages 3-6, joined Ke'anolani and I three days a week in our daily activities.
Although I am aware of the issues facing families today, now I have experienced directly how much children reflect the stresses of our technocratic society. My efforts to understand the whole child, the uniqueness each one brings, plus working intensely at times with the parents, has sometimes required a great deal of patience, reflection and daily planning. In spite of the challenges however, time spent with young children nurtures my own creativity.
Many of the students in my adult education classes are likewise mothers and grandmothers (less frequently fathers and grandfathers) who want to stay home, as I do, with their own children/grandchildren. They have chosen to subsidize this by becoming licensed for home care.
In Hawaii, the high cost of living combined with the high percentage of low-paid, tourist-oriented employment often forces both parents to enter the workforce with more than one job. The stresses on single family homes can be even greater. Given the trend towards play-starved, computer-oriented early childhood curriculums, the over-crowding and understaffing in local preschools and the need of many children for a smaller care setting, home-schooling groups and trained family childcare providers are vital and urgently needed. Fortunately, I increasingly come into contact with providers and home-schooling parents who are either Waldorf-trained, in the Waldorf outreach training program, or are simply inspired to read and study this approach independently.
A consistent, quality environment, one with healthy rhythms and open-ended play, indoors and outside in a natural setting, fosters resiliency and brings balance into the hectic lifestyle of children today. Although my own entry into the profession was unplanned and unexpected, I am grateful for the opportunity to nurture children and their families in this way.
Pamela Celestine Perkins, M.Ed.Summer is turtle-time in many places all over the Mainland. In Hawaii, the green-backed sea turtle is called a honu. Keiki refers not only to young children but also to the young of any species. Here is one little poem/finger play from Pamela's upcoming publication:
Keiki Honu
One keiki honu, Alone and new, Finds a friend And now there are two! Two keiki honu Crawl towards the sea, Find a friend, And now, there are three! Three keiki honu Resting on the shore Find a friend And now there are four! Four keiki honu Go for a dive Up swims another And now there are five!