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Soul Blossom Kids

compassionate support for holistic parenting

Child development

Hop into spring with this happy Waldorf circle video

In my experience, the children tend to start to hop into spring at least a few weeks before it actually arrives. They tend to get hoppy and restless. So I find that right about now–early March, is a great time to bring a circle with lots of movement–and movement journey as we say in the biz.

Hop into spring with me

hop into spring
A bunny I knitted as a birthday gift for a child in my class

If you’re ready for a circle with lots of movement and a fun story, join me for this Waldorf March movement journey based loosely on the story of Peter Rabbit. March can be a great time to bring a movement journey to your circle time–at home or at school. The children’s energy tends like the sap will soon be in the trees and like the plants that will soon be pushing their way through the cool earth. Some fun developmental movement combined with a lively, imaginative story can be just the thing! I wrote this circle, inspired by a circle in the book Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures by Nancy Blanning and Laurie Clark.

What’s a movement journey?

In recent years, it seems like it’s become more difficult for children to play and move, in general. In our Waldorf early childhood classrooms, we try to find ways to nourish the four foundational senses (Steiner talks about 12 senses) of touch, life, self-movement, and balance. A movement journey is one tool that we’ve developed–these circles “emphasize movements that strengthen the development of the foundational senses. The movements are fun, enjoyable and sensorially strengthening.” (From the Introduction to Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures.

I learned about these fun circles from Nancy Blanning. She used to do them with all of the early childhood classes once a week–in her own room where she could set up all kinds of fun stuff. But if you’re doing them at home or in a classroom–make it doable, even though it is fun to have a few things set up to make the movements even more fun. As always, with these things, I encourage you to make them your own.

Here’s the video–

You can get a free pdf of the words here.

And here are some time markers for you:

0:00 introduction

1:23 I traveled far across the sea song

3:10 Peter at home

3:30Mama rabbit goes shopping

4:10 Peter goes to the pond

4:38 Fish

5:12 Ducks

7:04 Peter arrives at the garden

7:41 5 little peas

9:30 under the gate

10:10 home again

11:04 lullaby

11:58 Brother rabbit song

13:20 Some thoughts about this circle and movement journeys

european-rabbits-bunnies-grass-wildlife.jpg
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Please let me know if you have any questions–or if you try out the circle, let me know how it goes.

Thanks for hopping by!

xoxo

Understanding the fascinating world of kid’s drawings

When I began my journey as a Waldorf teacher, one thing I learned about was how much we can learn from looking at kid’s drawings.

Young children go through many developmental milestones like learning to sit, walk, talk, etc. They generally progress through these milestones in a predictable order, though each step–and the timing of each step–reflects their individuality, as well.

In the same way, kid’s drawings follow a predictable pattern of development–with individual variations, as well.

This is the second of three parts of a series on kid’s drawings. In the first part, I shared how I set up for drawing in my early childhood classrooms–including materials, set up, and how to interact with the little ones and their drawings.

Kid’s drawings–the video

I created this video to give you an overview of how kid’s drawings develop from 1 or so up through about 6 years of age. It includes me demonstrating the different types of drawings.

I encourage you to try this yourself and see how it feels. If you can, put your whole self into the drawing and really see what it feels like to, for example, connect a circle for the first time.

An overview of children’s drawings

Here’s a brief overview of how children’s drawings develop. We Waldorf teachers tend to dive deep, but I’m not an expert on this by any means. But I have enjoyed observing children drawing for many years now.

kid's drawings
my version of early stages of drawing

Before 3--The child under 3 tends to draw “scribble scrabble,” but it tends to be round in form. It reminds me of the joy that little ones take in running around in circles. They can fly with the colors on the page. The drawings at this stage are just about the joy of movement and of making marks on the page.

Around 3–In Waldorf-world, we talk about the child having their first sense of being a separate being somewhere around the age of 3 to 3 1/2. This is when the child starts referring to themself as “I.”

This change in consciousness is reflected in their drawings by the closing of a circle (as in my middle drawing). Now there is an inside and an outside, and “I” and “other.”

At this point, the child goes from just experiencing the movement of the crayon in their drawing–or from orienting themselves to their own body–to reaching out into the world.

3 1/2 to 5 The child starts to explore the outer world in a new way, to feel their way into the world, to become more social. In their drawings, you often see the first images of the human being. These often consist of a head with limbs dangling off of it. The child’s consciousness grows from the head down. The limbs reach out like feelers into the world, sometimes branching into numerous fingers and toes.

more kid's drawings
the next phases of drawing

Gradually, the drawings become more consciously formed. Their figures grow a middle, so to speak.

Often, you’ll see ladders and/or spirals in their drawings. The ladders represent our middle realm–our heart and lungs which give us the rhythms of life through breathing and heartbeat. The spiral represents the breathing and the ladder–which may appear on a person, a tree, or even as a ladder–can be seen as the ribcage which holds the rhythmic system. (The children don’t see it this way, of course–this imagery all comes out of their unconscious). You’ll also start to see square shapes, which represent the same thing–in the form of houses, or just square designs like you see on the right side of my drawing. (The children tend to draw these more carefully than I did and color in completely.)

Around 5 The last of the basic shapes to find its way into the children’s drawings is the triangle. The triangle is a shape that brings a lot of balance and stability. The children have reached the earth in a new way. The triangle shows up in the human form, rooftops, all sorts of places.

kid's drawings--triangles
triangle drawings

As the child continues to grow and develop, their drawings become more complex and integrated. I’ve only shown a few simple examples here. But once they have all the shapes, children often draw wonderfully complex and detailed drawings of whatever they think of–from princesses to dragons to trains to garbage trucks and more.

As they approach grade school age, they may become self-conscious about their drawings. The drawings may not look the way they want them to look. This is a natural phase that can be addressed as they enter grade school by teaching some simple skills. But for the young child, it’s best to let them discover on their own.

Further reading

If you’d like to learn more, here are two books that have a lot of good information. If you know of others, please share them in the comments.

Young Children’s Drawings as a mirror of development by Christhilde Blume

Reading Children’s Drawings by Audrey McAllen

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please let me know if you have any questions.

xoxo

Children love to draw– do it the Waldorf way!

Most children love to draw! Today I share a video and some thoughts about how you can create a happy, healthy drawing experience for your little one(s). I draw (ha-ha) on my many years of experience as a Waldorf EC teacher. Plus my girls and I did a lot of drawing at home–and we all still love to draw!

The video–how to draw with your kiddos

If you’d rather read than watch, I share my thoughts below.

Let them draw!

I’m going to share about materials and set up below–but I want to start with this part, because to me, it’s the most important part.

Once everything is all set up, and the children know to color only on their paper, just let them go. Resist the urge to comment on what they are drawing or to ask questions. Don’t ask them what happens when they mix red and yellow–let them immerse themselves in the experience and discover.

How to respond when your child shows you their drawing

If they come to show you their drawing, really look at it–see the marks your child made on paper. These marks reflect their stage of development and their wonderful uniqueness.

Often, just a smile and a nod will be enough–after you take a moment to really appreciate what they’ve done. If you must say something, make an observation–“You filled up the whole page!” or “You used a lot of yellow today.”

And I tell you this not because I never do it, but because I know better and always feel surprised when it pops out of my mouth–don’t tell your child it’s a pretty drawing (or ugly or any other adjective). I know it’s hard, but, at least when they’re still little, it’s all about process and not product. Not that we can’t enjoy the product, but we don’t want to focus on it.

Scribble scrabble stories

One of my favorite things is when a little one comes to me with a scribble-scrabble drawing and proceeds to tell me a long story about what the drawing is all about. I listen in wonder as I look at the drawing and see none of what they are telling me–but knowing it is truly their experience. If you are lucky enough to have this happen to you, sit back and listen. When they finish, write it down if you want–for your own memories or to show them when they get older.

And sit down and draw with them sometimes

So many adults feel self-conscious about their drawing skills. We forget how to just have fun with crayons. I invite you to sit down and draw with your child sometimes.

Drawing was part of my weekly rhythm in my classroom. At the beginning of one day during the week, we’d all sit down and draw together. It doesn’t matter what you draw. And the little ones certainly won’t care–althought they’ll probably be interested.

Young children learn through imitation. They know that if you do it, it’s important. They’ll watch what you do and imitate not only your gestures but your feelings. So if you can let yourself play with crayons, they’ll learn to enjoy coloring even more.

If you use stick crayons (more below) and demonstrate a pencil grip–by doing it, not by explaining it!–it will help your child learn this grip, as well (when they’re ready).

So, I invite you to sit with your child and color. And have fun!

The basics of drawing with children

Materials:

Crayons

First, I want to say that we only draw with crayons in our EC classrooms–we don’t have the children draw with pencils, pens, markers, etc.–just crayons.

Use the best quality crayons you can afford. We always used Stockmar brand crayons, but there are lots of nice brands out there. The Stockmar crayons, even though more expensive than Crayolas (which I grew up with) also last longer.

draw with Stockmar crayons
You can find these here

The Waldorf EC teachers who I know think about everything they bring into the classroom. Thus, we come to the great “stick vs. block crayons” debate. Stockmar makes block crayons and stick crayons. There are also other shapes of crayons, too, but we won’t go there today!

Block crayons vs. stick crayons

When I first saw block crayons, I thought they were amazing. I loved using them, loved the way they felt in my hand. But later, when I became a teacher, I came to realize that the more traditionally shaped stick crayons help children develop their pencil grip. The block crayons are actually more appropriate for the grade school and beyond as their different sides, edges, and corners can all be used to make different kinds of marks.

Still, in my classrooms, I usually used both, just to give some variety.

I would start the year with only a few colors of crayons–red, yellow, blue, brown, green–and add a few more as the year went along and the seasons changed. We might add orange, for example, around Halloween.

We didn’t give the children black crayons. The black crayons tend to over power the other colors, so I just stayed away from them at school with the little ones. I use them myself when I draw, and I used them at home for my girls. Experiment for yourself and see what you like.

Paper

When choosing what paper to draw on, again, good quality paper is nice. But sometimes the kids at school (or home) drew so much that I would use regular old printer paper to save some money.

I always encouraged them to draw on both sides of the paper.

When we used individual sheets, I often rounded off the corners to give the paper a softer feel. Try it for yourself and see if you notice a difference.

Instead of using individual sheets of paper, you can also have your child draw in a sketchbook or a Waldorf main lesson book–which looks like this:

you can draw in main lesson books
Waldorf Main lesson books make great drawing books for kids. You can find these here

I sometimes used these lesson books in the classroom. They were a good way to keep a child’s drawings together. If we used loose sheets, each child had a folder to keep all their drawings and paintings in.

A drawing mat

You might want to get a drawing mat to put underneath the drawing paper–to keep the crayon marks of an enthusiastic drawer from getting on your table. You can use a piece of cardboard or pressed board. I’ll share a video on how to make your own out of a brown paper bag and newspaper.

Setting up

I liked to let the children draw anytime during our free play time–unless we were using our table for other activities like baking. To encourage this, I had the drawing boards and paper where the children could reach it. The crayons, however, I kept up high where only the teachers could reach them. You might not need to do this at home, but at school, I needed to keep track of the crayons.

I kept the crayons in little baskets and tried to have one basket per child. No matter how hard I tried, the crayons always got mixed together. Sorting crayons was a regular activity.

And here’s a helpful hint–if you do lose track of the crayons and end up with crayon marks on the table or floor, olive oil works well to remove it. I’d only use it on a hard shiny surface that won’t get stained by oil. But we’d put a little olive oil on a rag and child and adult would rub until all the crayon was gone. We usually had volunteers to help with this task–as we did with most tasks in the classroom. If done with a joyful spirit, anything can be fun. Our kids often remind us of that.

This long, drawn-out post comes to an end

Oh, my! This post is long, and I realize that I could go on and on about drawing. I’ll be sharing two more posts on drawing in the coming weeks. You’ll find the links here when I post them.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my post on watercolor painting with little ones.

I hope you enjoyed this post and feel inspired to draw with your little ones.

Have fun. Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

And thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

What is body geography–and why it’s important

What is body geography?

The short answer–body geography is knowing where the different parts of your body are.

body geography
It’s good to know where all your parts are!

When a baby is born, they have no orientation as to where they are in space or in relation to themselves. As their senses develop, especially the Four Foundational Senses, the baby discovers their hands–and that those hands belong to them, that they can control them. They go on to discover their feet and eventually they know the whole map of themselves. Then they’re ready to discover the rest of the world!

Why is it important?

Nancy Blanning, my friend and mentor, describes it this way:

[T]he sense of self-movement/proprioception gives the child her first “map” through the experience of body geography. Which are my shoulders, my elbows, my hands? What is their order in my body? Do I know them so well that I do not need to see where hands and arms are to put on my jacket? Can I sense how hard to pull to zip it up?


While self-movement gives us a geography of
the body in relation to itself, balance gives us our
orientation to the earth.

From “Educating the Movement Body” by Nancy Blanning–on page 20 of this Gateways Journal
body geography in action
Body geography in action!

So you can see how important it is to know where are body is in relation to itself–to know which pieces are where. If we haven’t internalized this map of ourselves, we can’t learn to move through space–or much of anything else.

When babies are little, they need lots of time and a safe space to explore their own body. We can’t teach them these things.

2 body geography songs

But once they’ve learned the basics, we can play with body geography. Here are 2 songs to share with your kids.

You probably know the first–Head, shoulders, knees and toes (and the words are below in case you need a refresher). It’s good for littles from around 3 or so and older.

The second song, one I learned from my daughter, Gabi, when she was in first grade, is for kids a little older–maybe 5 and up. But you can try it with littler ones if you want. When I did it with littler ones, they just got confused–but everyone is different! Anyhow, it’s called “Tony Chestnut” And the words are below, too.

Here are the time stamps, in case you want to just listen to the songs:

0:00 Introduction

1:15 Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

2:20 Tony Chestnut

3:10 Conclusion

The words to the songs

I've got head, shoulders, knees, and toes,
knees and toes. 
I've got head, shoulders, knees, and toes, 
knees and toes. 
I've got eyes and ears and mouth and nose, 
I've got head, shoulders, knees, and toes, 
knees and toes. 

Tony Chestnut knows I love you, 
Tony knows, Tony knows 
Tony Chestnut knows I love you, 
That's what Tony knows

Make snow for Modeling or Painting–it’s Easy!

Happy new year–whether it’s snowing outside or not, let’s make snow inside. You just need some Ivory soap, warm water, and possibly some toilet paper. Plus a few odds and ends for decorating your snow scene/snow person if you want.

make snow
Make it snow!

Ivory snow–3 ways, the movie!

In this video, I demonstrate 3 ways to make snow–2 are for sculpting and one is for painting. I’ve also put together a pdf with the recipes, that you can get below.

In the old days, I used to buy Ivory soap flakes. But for some reason, they stopped making them. So, after doing a little research, I found that the best thing to do is to get Ivory bar soap and grate it.

You could be annoyed by this, as I was at first–until I realized that grating the soap made for one more fun step to do in making and sculpting or painting with snow.

2 kinds of snow for modeling

The difference between the 2 recipes for modeling snow is that one has toilet paper in it and the other is just soap and water. I had never tried the recipe using toilet paper before, but I really liked it.

It seemed almost sacrilegious after our recent TP shortage, but I did it anyway. Ripped up about half a roll of toilet paper into little-ish pieces and mixed it with the soap and water. I really liked how it felt for modeling. I liked it better than just soap and water, although that was fine, too. It just had a different texture. You can try them both if you like.

For both you add about 1/4 cup of warm water to about 2 cups (1 bar) of grated soap. Then you add the toilet paper, if you’re using it. You can just mix all of this together with your hands.

One bar per person makes a nice amount to work with.

Or for painting with

make snow

You can use this paint on windows, sturdy paper–like watercolor or finger painting paper, you could paint on plates. I used my fingers and a painting board. Any hard smooth surface would work well.

For the paint, mix the soap and water one to one. One cup of each makes a good amount of paint.

You’ll probably want to mix this with something other than your hands. I used my immersible blender. But if you have an egg beater (the old-fashioned, non-electric kind), that could be one more task for your little one to do. You can also use an electric mixer. You want to mix until until it’s nice and foamy.

After that, you can divide it into smaller bowls and add food coloring or water color paint (just a little at a time). Then paint away with a brush or with fingers.

If you’d like a pdf of the recipes, you can get it here.

A note about Ivory soap-

I’ve done soap snow sculpting at home and at school and have always used Ivory soap. So I don’t know if other brands work or not. But you could certainly give it a try. If you do, let me know how it goes.

Happy New Year

Here’s hoping that 2021 will be a better one that 2020.

Thanks for stopping by. Let me know how your snow sculpting or painting goes! And even though Christmas is over, if you haven’t heard it yet, check out my post with the story I wrote about Mother Mary and the Star Child coming to visit the earth children.

In the meantime, I wish you health, joy, and love.

xoxo

How to: Enjoy Waldorf wet-on-wet painting at home

Have you ever tried wet-on-wet painting? What is that? Well, we soak the paper in water and use watercolor paints to paint on the wet paper.

When you paint this way, the colors flow. You get a real experience of color in motion. I find it relaxing and rather meditative.

This is the kind of painting I’ve done with the children in my classes and with parents and children in my parent child classes.

wet-on-wet painting
wet-on-wet paintings made into lanterns in a parent-child class

Wet-on-wet painting-an opportunity for quiet enjoyment of the colors

It’s hard for us grown-ups not to explain about colors mixing together or to not ask our child what they are painting or to tell them what we see.

Resist! and Be Still!

Allow your child and yourself to enjoy the experience of color flowing over water. Set the tone for your child. Immerse yourself in the experience of color.

If they speak to you, answer as briefly as possible–perhaps just with a smile and little nod. Or maybe, “Yes, I see.” and then go back to your painting.

If you do this, your child will find their way–maybe over the course of several painting sessions–to quietly enjoying the flow of color, as well.

Learning to find inner quiet is challenging these days. And it’s really important for children and for us.

wet-on-wet painting
We made a wishing tree–with our wishes for the year. The leaves made from our painted paper.

Wet-on-wet painting: the video

In this video, I share a lovely Waldorf how to: wet on wet painting with your little ones (or by yourself). I’ve done this kind of painting with kids as young as 1-1/2, as long as they are old enough to not drink the paint to pour it all over. I always paint with them–and I encourage you to do the same.

There are lots of benefits to this:

  • You get to paint!
  • If you feel that you’re not artistic, no problem! The idea is to experience the color moving on the paper, not to create a masterpiece
  • You get to spend time with your child doing something fun
  • Since young children learn through imitation, you can teach them by doing it yourself

Materials needed

It’s easy to do this kind of painting at home, but you will need a few supplies.

For wet-on-wet painting, you’ll need:

  • Painting boards (one for each person–and, as I mentioned above, I encourage you to paint with your child.) I prefer the plastic ones over the wood ones, as they don’t warp. You can find recycled ones, like these from Bellaluna toys--they’re recycled and biodegradable.
  • Watercolor paper–it’s worth getting good quality paper, so it won’t bubble or pill. I recommend 140 weight cold press paper. You’ll want to get paper that will fit onto your board, although you can always buy large sheets and cut them to size. For the little ones, I often round the corners–it gives a softer feeling.
  • Watercolor paint. I’ve always used Stockmar brand paint. It’s kind of expensive, but a little goes a long way. You only need the 3 primary colors. In Stockmar, I use–lemon yellow, carmine red, and ultramarine blue. These colors mix together nicely. (Stockmar carries other colors but these work the best for mixing.) You can also use watercolor in tubes if you prefer–you can get it at an art store or online. You’ll have to figure out which colors on your own for that.
  • Watercolor paintbrush–1 for each person. Again, I recommend getting good quality brushes–at least an inch wide up to 2 inches.
  • Jars for mixing and storing paint (store extra paint in the fridge if you can), jars for painting out of, and jars for rinsing water. You can use recycled jars for this–larger ones for mixing, storing, and rinsing, and smaller ones for painting out of (I like to use baby food jars for this). You can also purchase a set of three jars with a wooden stand. I’ve never used them, but they look nice and are more stable than just jars–I’ve mostly used recycled jars myself.

Where to get the supplies

Bellaluna toys, mentioned above, carries everything you’ll need–as do other Waldorf stores online (or in person if you have one of those near you). I know Bellaluna has a lovely set of jars for holding paint with a stand if you want to invest in something like that. Amazon carries all of these things, too–although I’m not sure about the jars and stand.

The painting song

wet-on-wet painting
A flowing rainbow from 3 colors of paint

Here are the words for my painting song that I share in the video:

My lovely rainbow,

See it span,

So lovely shining,

Over the land.

You are so red, gold, green and blue,

I’d like to climb it now with you.

Painting stories

A lot of Waldorf teachers tell a painting story before they start painting. You can try it if you like. In my experience, the children are so excited to start painting, that I often just sing the rainbow song and maybe tell a really short story and then start painting.

I usually don’t give the children the brushes or paints until I’m ready for them to start painting–I do have everything ready to go, though before we start!

I did share some painting stories with my last class in Chicago. They were stories about Rainbow Land. I’d sing the song and then tell these little stories–I’ve shared a few on the blog.

Rainbow Land: The red fairy

Rainbow Land: the golden fairy

How many colors should you use?

I always started wet-on-wet painting with my classes with one color. Since we started in September, and it was still summer, we started with yellow. This was my progression through the year (except for special occasions when I might bring in more colors)

  • September–yellow (1 color)
  • October–red (1 color)
  • October-November (I often started this around Halloween)–red and yellow (2 colors)
  • December-January blue
  • Late-January-February or early March blue and red (with some plain red around Valentine’s day)
  • March-June red, yellow and blue

I did this with my mixed age classes. With my parent-child classes, we often only used 1 or 2 colors. The littlest ones will usually paint until all of the paint is gone (a good reason to not give them too much paint!). If you do use three colors–which is fine–expect them to end up with a brown painting. This is a good reminder for us adults that this is about the process not the product.

As the children get older–and for you, too–the colors will be mixed more purposefully. It’s fun to watch the colors mix and change.