Sunday 27 May 2012

May Fair images

May Fair at Greenwich Steiner School: happy children, smiling parents, sunny weather, music, dance, games, laughter...what more could one want for a perfect Sunday afternoon?
A relaxed and low key event, wonderful for chatting and chilling out, while kids are having fun!
Somehow I missed the singing, though I did arrive late...


Running to the cake stall...


bringing home made scones with cream and jam, I thought it was very English- Jubilee type thing, and it went down very well!


























Then setting up for my puppet play, had lunch and enjoyed watching  children around the maypole...




















Morgana playing cello with Maritza 




Such a lovely day!




x
Susannah
"Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes -
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."
-  Elizabeth Barrett Browning



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Whitsun mood


In preparation for the Festival of Flowers 


Such a nice mellow and relaxed mood, the air is filled with Sun rays and happiness, for me this is the Festival that holds the meaning of what is to be human and an individual and the sense of belonging to each other, love and relationship and the spirit of togetherness in the wider sense as a community; this is where I feel I am an individual with my own ideas and thoughts, my beliefs and my background, yet I need to feel I belong somewhere. This is why it is important to feel respected and appreciated by the people around me and I must say I do.
I feel the love and the support of all who know me well, and this makes me blessed.


This is what me and Morgana did yesterday in our living room:
















In the Whitsun garden



White the flowers grow




Earth is listening, glistening, listening,


Warm the breezes blow.






My heart opening to the Sky above
Like flowers blooming
Opening their petals wide
For Sun King is kissing us all
Bless the Sun, bless the flowers,
 bless the bees and bless the butterflies




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Saturday 26 May 2012

May Fair

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 Tomorrow, Sunday 27th May!

You will find me at the 
May Fair & Craft Market

Entrance: adults £1 /children free
Woodlands 90 Mycenae Road Blackheath SE3 7SE
020 8 858 4404 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            020 8 858 4404      end_of_the_skype_highlighting www.greenwichsteinerschool.org.uk
Sun 27th May
11am - 4pm

Maypole Dancing 


Sensory Garden 


Children's Crafts & Games 


Donkey Ride


 Puppet Play 


Face Painting

Delicious Home Made Food & Cakes 


Festive Musical Performances

Gifts
Hand-made Crafts


 Fair Trade & Wooden Toys Children’s & Natural Parenting Books Weleda & Hauschka Cosmetics


Macrobiotic Gathering

I would like to invite you to this great mini holiday. I have been going for the last 8 years or more...can't remember, we are all getting old!


It is a beautiful and relaxing family friendly gathering in a lovely location.


It is a community feeling and a sharing experience. Very nourishing for the body, mind and soul.


I am as always involved as part of staff, the early years team.


My daughter Morgana feels like the children of past times when they were free to play and roam and come home for supper.






Summer Gathering
7 – 10 June 2012
(half-term)


Unstone Grange,
Derbyshire


· Beautiful safe location, orchard, organic garden
· Delicious family-style macrobiotic food
· Relax, laugh, learn & make new friends
· Creative children’s programme
· Great camp-site, hill views & walks.




these are photos taken by me a few years ago:










A friendly, family event open to all, with an exciting programme of workshops and talks relating to Macrobiotics.






Morgana has always enjoyed all the meals there!






 Beginners welcome.






 Our outstanding team of teachers includes: Jan & Mieke Verveken, Oliver Cowmeadow, Anna Mackenzie, Neil Gulliver, Maria Serrano, Susannah Andrews, Florence Price, Frederick Gulliver… Activities include: cooking classes, shiatsu, meditation, guided walks, chanting, do-in, yoga, dancing, lectures, children's programmes for 3- 7's & 8 - 12's.
 From: £135 adult, £55 child (under 13), £81 young person (13 – 25) including
programme and all meals for 3 nights.


Contact:
 Nigel Walker T: +44 (0)1760 755888 E: mba@vegiventures.com
Download the brochure & booking form at:
www.macrobiotics.org.uk

Friday 25 May 2012

Cradle to Cradle

I like to share this with you....for me this is the only way forward.

I like architecture and design for gardens and homes that respect nature.

From Wikipedia, a better definition:

Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.




So this is what Cradle to Cradle is:

Principles


As with all Cradle to Cradle designs, our work is inspired by natural systems and seeks to embody three principles derived from nature:
  • Everything is a resource for something else. In nature the discharge of one system becomes food for another. Buildings can be designed to be disassembled and safely returned to the soil (biological nutrients), or re-utilized as high quality materials for new products and buildings (technical nutrients).
  • Use renewable energy. Living things thrive on the energy of current solar income. Similarly, human constructs can utilize renewable energy in many forms—such as wind, geothermal and gravitational energy—thereby capitalizing on these abundant resources while supporting human and environmental health.
  • Celebrate diversity. Around the world, geology, hydrology, photosynthesis and nutrient cycling, adapted to locale, yield an astonishing diversity of natural and cultural life. Designs that respond to the unique challenges and opportunities offered by each place fit elegantly and effectively into their own niches



copied and pasted from this link, please read more:



http://www.mcdonoughpartners.com/design_approach/philosophy






I like the way buildings 'breathe' and the organic shapes that are used in 'green' architecture; in Steiner schools you feel it too and one day maybe I would love to have a house built on these principles....


have a look at these amazing images and read this blog on the link:

http://naturalbuild.wordpress.com/category/academic-articles-on-green-building/




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A Waldorf kindergarten


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A characteristic that is common in all buildings used by Waldorf Steiner schools and education centres is the rounding of the edges: walls and ceilings have very soft corners or no corners at all.
Materials used are natural and the interiors blend with the exteriors and nature from outside seem to be allowed in and blend in a way that lets the house or building 'breathe'...


My ideal house has to have a lot of light and needs to look natural, simple and harmonious. I like wood and stone to look smooth but not glossy or varnish, neither straightened!

Something like this is very inspiring:

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Or this:


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I realize though that special 'organic' natural homes like this ones are more expensive, but I am sure people should be able to build basic simple ones by themselves...

Meanwhile I keep on dreaming of these houses...

Maybe, just maybe...one day...!


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Thursday 24 May 2012


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The sun with loving light
Makes bright for me each day.
The soul with spirit power
Gives strength into my limbs.
In sunlight shining clear
I reverence, O God,
The strength of humankind
Which thou, so graciously,
Hast planted in my soul
That I, with all my might,
May love to work and learn
From thee comes light and strength
To thee rise love and thanks.



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The Festival of Whitsun
(50 days after Easter)

Whitsun is known also as Pentecost or Shavuot, the latter two being the Greek and Hebrew for the ‘fiftieth day’ or seven weeks (after Passover). The disciples were together on this day and united in heart and mind. 


Into the harmony of their thoughts, feelings and common religious practice came the gift of inspiration from the Holy Spirit. In the great rushing flow of joy in their souls they were enlightened with the knowledge that Christ is united with each and every one of us in the deepest way possible; he has not disappeared – he is here. Being thus inspired, the disciples were able to go out and bring about a similar experience in other people, speaking languages that everyone could understand.




This festival can be characterised in many ways: the festival of flowers, the festival of awakening, of free individuality, of baptism, of the first fruits of the earth and of the first fruits of the spirit. It is a festival of community.


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The Easter experience, the moveable feast, comes to each of us in our own time. Whitsun is both moveable and fixed, in that it follows fifty days after Easter; that is to say, the experience of death and resurrection leads in due course to the experience of understanding oneself as a spiritual being.

As the sprouting grain is a picture of resurrection, so the blossom is the image of the flowering of the spirit of Whitsun:
The heart of the human being may be symbolised by the flower opening itself to the sun; and what pours down from the sun, giving the flower the fertilizing power it needs, may be symbolized by the tongues of fire descending upon the heads of the disciples.

Rudolf Steiner,
 ‘The Whitsun Mystery and its connection with Ascension’








Sunday 13 May 2012

Bluebell gnome

Had fun on Saturday making gnomes at


Blossoming Together cafe!


With Mechtild gently guiding us through the stages, white plain wool first the layers of clourd wool, I decided to make a bluebell gnome!


This is what happened in stages:


Morgana chose darker greens and blues,
 you need to card the wool to have a blended effect of the colours together...





















Stef chose more pinks, as she has two little girls!



Keep poking...poke poke poke!



My naked gnome!


Now dressed, with a crazy hairdo!


Well, the hair was the gnome's hat!












Morgana's gnome









Platting hair on Stef's gnome


Morgana adding hair to her gnome


And here they all are together:




Thank you Mec!
so if you want to make one click on the link:


http://blossomingtogether.com/events/121/needle-felting-gnomes/

The Waldorf way




On rhythm and repetition, just a quick glance at how I am with children and why I do what I do.


















This is the way we plan our day, plan our day, plan our day,
This is the way we plan our day: work, sing, make and play!


(To the tune of 'Here we go round the Mulberry bush')




This is the Waldorf way of being with children and I do it automatically so that I catch myself singing a question to the stall keeper at the farmer's market, even if I am on my own, with no little children with me!
Such is the habit!

I sing all the time, when I am doing things, when I am making something, drawing, painting, needle felting, with or without children, I hum a tune...most of the time a typical 'Waldorf' song, a traditional song, and more rarely nowadays, a Kate Bush song, or Radiohead!

The Waldorf way means a gentle and non pushy way; saying something indirectly, while giving directions, or instructions, a gentle reminder, a transition song.

Children need telling, but we all know how uncooperative they are if ask them to do something!
The typical answer is a straight - 'No!'
So the Waldorf way is to sing the 'order':
rather than say 'Shall we go out?', or ' Do you want to put your coat on?', or 'Put your coat on, NOW!'
we sing ' Let's go out! We are going out! Out and about. How about that?'
'Come on children follow, follow, follow me!'
(PS, I use a sing song voice a bit like a see-saw playground song)
And then: 
'Girls and boys come out to play
It's a lovely sunny ( windy, rainy, cloudy) day!
Put on your shoes and put on your coat
Open the gate before it's too late!'

La, la , la, la,etc... (to the tune of 'Girls and boys come out to play')

Children respond to that, but also because they anticipate!
How do they anticipate?
They see me first getting ready, putting my shoes on, my coat on, I lead by example.
Before this I get things together in a bag, our snacks and drinks, nappies, etc...
Before this I may go to the loo...
before that I tidy up
We tidy up and I start with singing about our lovely little tidy mouse who lives in the house...You see, our mouse likes it very tidy!





So this is a transition, the stopping of one part of the morning and the 'going on to something else-soon' moment. and I need to be strict, no going out, eating or singing, or story time if we don't tidy up the toys first!

So the gesture is very important. I frown, look at the floor and all the toys scattered...I pick them up gently and put them in the right box ( it helps if I divide the toys, like cars, trains,etc...lego, soft dolls, cuddly toys, ropes and silks, cooking pots and cups in separate baskets.



And I sing along as I put things away.
This is the 'signal' and children respond ( they tidy up with you, unless, for some reason they feel they haven't played enough, and so they might resist tidying up, but usually 45 minutes is plenty for a child under 5)



I sing:


Time to tidy away


Time to tidy away


Put all the things away


Ready for another day


Time to tidy away


time to tidy away


put all the toys away


Play on another day


Time to tidy away


Time to tidy away


Put all the paints (or brushes)away


Ready for another day


etc...

I met a little tidy mouse
He said 'let's tidy up this house'
Tidy tidy here and there
Tidy tidy everywhere!


If there is good creative play it is likely to be tidier, especially 4 to 5 years old upwards have a theme and play with the theme for hours, so I make exceptions and leave doll's, houses and wooden villages as they are, so that the children can come back to it after the walk, or meal, or nap...


So I am 'ordering' the children to tidy up by tidying up myself...leading by example, hoping they help as well
They get the message: this is what is happening now, this is what we are all doing.
So they follow! 
Singing the 'order' is a clever thing! If there is resistance, I can't answer back...I carry on singing, as if I was in auto pilot...if there is cooperation then it's done so quickly and I make happy noises and say things like 'Oh!' The mice are quick today! Well done! And always: 'Thank you!'

This is the Waldorf way: anticipate, transition, changes, act first and children will follow.

They will never respond well to a spoken order such as:' I am busy cooking, you stay here and be quiet' , or, 'What a mess! Tidy up, or you will have no tea!' 
Even when they are older! 
Morgana says it is not fair if I tell her to clean and tidy her room, but if I tidy and clean my bedroom or the kitchen then she thinks it's fair. Occasionally she says 'Let me do the washing up'.


But always lick the bowl first, that is the fun of helping mummy to cook! So I can compromise and say 'Tidy mouse will lick the pan clean, first, then will help washing up and put toys away!'




So this is the Waldorf- Steiner approach to daily life and being with children especially.
We create a Rhythm, a morning Rhythm, or a ritual, things we do out of habit because there is a logical way to do things, like getting up singing, washing, dressing, making breakfast, eating breakfast. And I can hear you saying it's a bit like being in the army! But trust me the children will be much easier if you do this.
 I see families that don't do this over and over again...their children usually look dreamy and sweet, messy, untidy hair, scruffy, jam on the face, then cross, grumpy, shocked and or stubborn when you even suggest any changes, they may resist a lot and scream!

We don't need to explain anything to our children. Modern parents seem to think it is polite and a nice thing to treat children like equals. I wonder if this is the reason they respond in a negative way when we tell them to do things or give them too much choice.
They need to know that we are stronger, cleverer, that we know what is best for them and for us. We are their role models...they need to look up to us! We can do this by leading them gently, with kindness and firmness.
We mustn't shout to them like captains in the army! If we act too bossy we get them reacting back at us in the same way!

So creative discipline is to guide the children gently, leading them by example.
And with singing!

We sing the way through the day, the night, the days of the week and the months and the seasons.

We do things because this is what we are doing and we are happy doing them, we need to do them and we want to do them!
We sing through our chores, washing, scrubbing, cooking, eating, cleaning, etc...
We sing and hum while being arty and making things...




we play, sing and dance about nature and all things bright and beautiful. 
















This is because for little children things are always bright and beautiful. It is fun for them sweeping, dusting, I wash and scrub for real, the kitchen and the cooker and they can scrub the chairs and tables for us

 ( bubbles!)

when they are satisfied, they will go on to something else, usually their toys in the other room and leave us to mop the floor with the water puddle they made for us! - Handy!




Rhythm is knowing what we do now and also knowing what happens next for the young child feels safe when he knows what is happening and can anticipate. If we have no rhythm and don't follow a specific and always the same order of doing things, the child gets restless and confused, may resist, may not feel safe.

Little children are more relaxed when they know where they are and where they belong and if things are the same; in other words: repetition!
The children's heart is more open, the children's heart is beating slowly and the little child is happy and content, creative and has fun. The children energy is  focussed on to something like free play, which is their 'doing', their 'work'  and watching us all the time, their eyes on us, looking for guidance, reassurance, love; their body doing what we are doing, our real work, their body imitating what we are doing, each gesture, and what they see around them. Little children being a reflection of ourselves.

This is why we need to be careful of how we are, our temperaments and our gestures, our heart needs to be in what we are doing, our mind need to be present and we need to de-clutter ourselves, get rid of negative emotions, as the children feel their vibrations!

It helps if I have a 'schedule' or a plan...of course I allow creativity and spontaneous things, especially as I spend a lot of time outdoors, I must be ready for change, just like British weather!

It is always nice to greet the day, each day. Christian or Buddhist...or not...it doesn't matter, we need to show gratitude. Realize that we are well and alive each morning!

So when I am with children, either at home or out or in the Playgroup....we sing...

The Waldorf way!


Our morning song is a bit of a well known Waldorf classic

Morning has come Night is away
Rise with the sun … and welcome the day.


Good morning dear earth, Good morning dear sun
Good morning dear stones, and flowers everyone
Good morning dear bees, and the birds in the trees 

Good morning to you, and good morning to me.


Down is the Earth, up is the sky,


here are my friends, and here am I;
two eyes to see, two ears to hear,
two feet to walk and run!
Here are my hands, give yours to mine - good morning everyone!


At meal times we have

Blessings on the blossoms,
Blessings on the fruit,
Blessings on the leaves and stems and blessings on the root.
Spoken: Blessings on this meal, or blessing on the food!

The candle lighting song is used for story time or dinner time and it is a bit different in Parent and Child sessions, in Kindergarten I used to sing:

Fire fairy come to us, fire fairy come to us, and the fire fairy comes, bringing golden light from the sun.



Now we sing:
 Candle light, candle light, coming down to Earth,
Shining here, in our corner,
Oh so nice and bright.



And I know we are not the only ones to make liberal use of the tune to 'Here we go round the Mulberry Bush' - this is the way we wash our hands/clean our teeth/put on our clothes ... etc etc.





The Waldorf way makes sense to me and it works!




Susannah
xx