Welcoming the Fall of the Year!
Photo by Lea Kushwara
Successful Teacher Trainings
Barbara continues with her homeschool consulting on a daily basis, along with organic gardening, indoors and out.
We had excellent attendance at Kindergarten Training in July and Teacher Training in August, and plan to do so again in 2010. My son, JD Stillwater joined Jean Miller, Royse Crall, Quimby and I on staff this year to provide physics and geology information and my grand daughter, Robin Stillwater returned as Kitchen Manager, allowing us to very efficiently feed 35 people!
We are re-tooling our Family Homeschool Weekends and thinking of having programs for children as well, which may include, hiking, canoeing, gardening, farming, plant identification, forestry, edible wild plants, wilderness survival. Still at the planning stage! We are beginning to think that the next generation may need these skills to negotiate the world as it may become.
We are taking the time now to work on our facilities, as you will see below. With all the changes in our lives, our focus needs to be adjusted to new ways of making a difference in the world using our combined talents. As winter approaches, we are doing interior work, on our buildings and our own inner selves!
Taproot Farm Progress
We have finished all the cherry paneling on the inside of the cottage. It is amazing to realize that only a year ago that paneling was a cherry tree going into its declining years, one that we had hiked under many times. It would have died in a few more years and just rotted where it stood, but now it is preserved forever for everyone to admire!
Barbara made Roman shades for all the windows in the cottage, 11 of them, to keep the sun out on summer days and the heat in on winter nights. Quimby has moved all his furniture, art, and keepsakes into the cottage and it has now been occupied by several overnight guests! We hope you will soon be one of them!
With some of the leftover cherry, Quimby built Barbara a sewing center with lots of drawers, two fold out leaves, and room to store the sewing machine when not in use. He also built two Adirondack chairs for the cottage and an Adirondack settee for the glass house.
We planted several fruit trees and bushes, increased the size of the garden, and have been eating, freezing, canning, and drying food like crazy!
We hatched 23 baby chicks Easter weekend, and they are now beginning to lay eggs. We built a summer chicken house on an older trailer body with a moveable caged run attached so we can move the chickens to new pasture every few days. It is working really well!
We have not yet gotten Highland cattle, although it is still in the works. We have been studying up on fencing and watering systems, and hope to really do it next season.
My son, JD, was here for most of the summer making renovations on the Barn House, and my grandson and webmaster, Chris, has moved back into the Barn House. It has been good to have family back on the farm!
Waldorf Teacher News changed its name to Waldorf Today
This weekly email newsletter full of ideas and news about the world of Waldorf is extremely helpful for all those interested in Waldorf education.
To subscribe (for FREE) go to http://www.waldorftoday.com/ and click on the green tree icon labeled “Join the Mailing List!”
Recorder playing videos by David Darcy
David has posted a series of videos on YouTube to help parents and teachers learn how to play the pentatonic flute. He has twelve videos already up. Parents can find them by searching David Darcy on the YouTube site. The videos are intended to be used in conjunction with David’s booklet and CD, "Playing and Teaching the Pentatonic Flute" which parents can order by contacting him through his website, DDarcy.com. “Any feedback will help me make future videos more helpful, so please encourage people to tell me what they think!”
“Your Baby Shouldn’t Read,” Psychology Today!
by Marsha Lucas, Ph.D
A great article from a mainstream magazine supporting what Waldorf schools have been doing for 90 years!
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rewire-your-brain-love/201005/your-baby-shouldnt-read
The original page at Psychology Today has been taken down. Here are two other sites that have reposted it:
https://profiles.google.com/terwilkins/posts/HWLoz7SQdWK
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/blog-article-your-baby-shouldn't-read/msg75710/
Handbook of Nature Study
It is a blog that has many outdoor activities that you can do with your children. You can find it at: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ with simple things you can do with 15 minutes outdoors everyday. She takes you step by step using a book (Handbook of Nature Study) written many years ago by Anna B. Comstock. You can find the book at the library or order it online.
Does School Kill Creativity?
Here is another lecture by Sir Ken Robinson, who makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
Waldorf Supplies without a High Minimum
http://www.art-of-learning.com
This supplier is owned and operated by Gayle Griffiths, who for years managed Mercurius USA. She was fired during a bout of ill health by that company, and has since started this new supplier, with no minimum order amount. I have been happy with what I have ordered from her.