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A Little Garden Flower
Waldorf Homeschool Guides
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Before the Journey
Includes book, 2 DVDs featuring craft demonstrations, plus 1 CD with photos and recordings
of family singing
Melisa and Erik Nielsen
Softbound
$35.00
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It seems to me that young mothers and fathers have a very good friend in Melisa Nielsen. I
remember all too well the bewilderment I faced when my children were young, and I had
only just learned about Waldorf Education and Rudolf Steiner’s approach to the
world. At that long-ago time, I was living where no Waldorf schools existed; I
personally knew no one who was raising their children in this light; and, the wonderful “old
guard” Waldorf teachers and anthroposophists who I met here and there along the
way seemed to know only one way to do things, and it seemed to me that I could never
find a way to fit their wise suggestions into the life we actually lived.
And it is just this that I love about Melisia’s work and especially about this
dear little book, Before the Journey: that she at no time assumes that there
is only one way to bring love, light, and learning into a child’s life. Out
of her own experiences and, I think, out of a deep place within her, she always allows
each of us have a unique life and destiny, a unique way of connecting with Spirit and
Place. She also always allows that each of us has a gift to offer our children,
and her task as friend and advisor is more that of helping us find and use our very
special gift than it is of transforming us into a “model parent and teacher.”
That she thought to create a helpful, warm little book for parents of young children,
a book that doesn’t instruct, but rather offers possible examples of four very
different households with very different amounts of money, beliefs and directions is
her gift to our children. After reading through her accounts of these four (seasonal!)
households, I believe that you, like I, will come away both filled and inspired. You’ll
also come away with a clean and clear sense of freedom to create what your home
can be for you child.
Not to mention, you’ll have gathered a treasure chest of hearth-warming recipes
and craft ideas along the way.
It is my hope that young parents everywhere will read Before the Journey and
walk a while with Melisa. My prediction is that before long, your own family
life will glow with a renewed warmth as you discover your special gifts and bear them
homeward in confidence.
Contents:
- Foreword by Nancy Parsons
- Introduction
- History of Waldorf schools and anthroposophy
- Chapter 1: Autumn - Meet Mindy
- Chapter 2: Winter - Meet Jennifer
- Chapter 3: Spring - Meet Elizabeth
- Chapter 4: Summer - Meet Willow
- Chapter 5: Rhythms, Festivals, The basics of storytelling
- Closing remarks
- Resource list - DVD & Companion CD contents - Waldorf school curriculum chart
- Index of recipes, patterns and verses
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My Journey
A Day Planner for Waldorf Homeschoolers
A Little Garden Flower Book
Melisa Nielson
Sturdy Spiral Binding
$36.00
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In our family, there was a time when our children were sharp-tongued
teenagers that the running family joke was that neither Bob nor
I had time to go out and do anything because we had to "stay home and
plan our day." Of course, this wasn't really true (honest, it really wasn't
true), but there is no denying that we leaned hard and heavy on
our day planners to get us through those years raising a houseful
of teenagers. And, we found them very, very helpful.
Needless to say, I think that Melisa Nielson's day planner is
just the ticket for homeschooling parents, most especially those who work with
Waldorf education.
In addition to daily scheduling pages that give ample room for
quickly-noted schedules alongside longer entries and to-do lists, you'll also
find:
- Verses
- Festivals and their approximate dates
- Nature table planning help
- Grains and days of the week chart
- Inner work with Steiner's six basic exercises
- Notes and ideas on planning your year
- Goal setting for the year
- Year-at-a-glance (one int he front for this year and one in the back for
next year)
- Tasks and notes for each month
- Two pages per week with plenty of planning space
- Plenty of room for notes and journaling (use these pages for book lists,
assessments of your children, your year, etc.
- And a contacts section!
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A Journey . . .
Audio CD Set
Melisa Nielsen
7 Audio CDs
Regular Price: $40.00
Introductory Price: $38.00
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Busy parents want to know ~ but sometimes they simply don't have
time to sit down and read. That's why Melisa Nielsen created this audio cd
set, so that mothers on the way to the grocery store and fathers commuting
to work could all listen to her describe her approach to Waldorf homeschooling.
The result is simply lovely - what a warm and engaging way to discover the
ways of Waldorf in the home!
Bob and I had such a good time listening to Melisa - in her descriptions
we found someone who has taken the basics of Waldorf education and shaped them
in ways that not only educate, but that bring families together. For instance,
when she describes how her family keeps a Nature Table, we were so touched
at how she has engaged her children in the creation of each week's table (she
uses a 4-week cycle). We were also moved by the gentle way in which she holds
her own authority over the life of the table, like a guiding light that casts
a broad enough beam to enable exploration without wandering from the path.
What came back to us again and again was that Melisa has taken
what I'll call "classic Waldorf" and re-imaged it to take on the
contours of home and hearth. Truly a beautiful work.
I should also add that as I listened, I found myself inwardly
having a conversation with Melisa, one in which my own perceptions, experience
and insight played alongside hers. The outcome was that I came away from my
audio session with her having understood her and myself better, and holding
an inspiration for approaches that emerged between us. I think you'll discover
the same thing - that her modesty in presenting her experiences to you allows
you to find your own star. This is truly what our children need of us.
Contents:
Disc #1
- Welcome to Waldorf Education
- Rhythm
Disc #2
- Festivals and Yearly Rhythm
- The Nature Table
Disc #3
- Planning Your Year
- Circle Time
Disc #4
- Basic Grades Overview
- Temperaments and 7-Year Cycles
Disc #5
- Inner Work
- Birth to Kindergarten
Disc #6
Disc #7
Grades 6, 7 and 8 are in progress and will be available in the future.
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A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling
Kindergarten
New Edition - includes CD with illustrations and audio material
Melisa Nielson
Contributions by Kimberly Rivera
Foreword by Alan Whitehead
Softbound
$22.00
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Welcome a lively little book that introduces the wonders of Waldorf homeschooling from the heart of someone who has done it. Melisa Nielson originally began her book as a companion to Susan Whitehead's seasonal kindergarten books, but it grew and deepened to the point where it will guide and nurture your efforts through any seasonally themed Waldorf kindergarten suggestions.
What I most like about A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling is the amount of life on each page -- the ideas and activities that are recounted here clearly came into the world with the full force of the author's creativity and imagination. The wonderful news is that she hands over to us not just a usable description of what she did, but her enthusiasm and joy in the doing of them. It is this latter quality which will nourish any children fortunate enough to be touched by it.
This is a book to be done, not just read. And in the doing, your own life and happiness will spring to life for your child.
Contents:
- Foreword by Alan Whitehead
- Introduction from the author
- Intro to Waldorf and Anthroposophy
- Book resource list
- Supplies list
- The kindergarten years
- Rhythm: Day, Month, Year
- Festivals
- The Nature Table
- Planning your year/ Using main lesson
blocks/Working with multi aged children
- Using seasonal books and anthologies
- Painting, form drawing, and handwork with young children
- Circle Time
- Week by week schedule
- Favorite verses and circle time songs
- Compiled Waldorf Curriculum
- Recommended Vendors
- In closing
- Appendix: recipes
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A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling
Grade One
Melisa Nielsen
Foreword by Eric Fairman
Softbound - Includes Companion CD with MP3 files and pictures to accompany the book
$30.00
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Melisa Nielsen has emerged from Kindergarten with a joyful confidence that will shine light and inspiration into anyone's experience of teaching first grade. Her hands-on approach to homeschooling is couched in a friendliness and warmth and gives lovingly unites both home and school. You'll see what I mean when you read the contents. Children everywhere must be cheering.
Contents:
Foreword by Eric Fairman
Introduction by the author
History of Waldorf Schools and anthroposophy
Chapter 1: Parent Care
- Caring for Ourselves so that we can care for them
- The role of gratitude in our lives and the laws of attraction
- Anthroposophy as inner work
- Finding like-minded parents
- Being comfortable and confident in your role as parent and teacher
Chapter 2: Ages and stages: Steiner and the 7 year cycles
Chapter 3: Temperaments and their role with our children and ourselves
Chapter 4: Setting the Mood
- Loving your home, no matter what the size
- Putting together your atmosphere in a school space and your home
- Toys and playthings
- Large families, special needs children, blended families and elder care
- Deschooling after being in a school setting
Chapter 5: The Basics of Waldorf
- A word about Waldorf dogma and guilt vs loving and living life
- Rhythm
- Festivals
- Nature table
Chapter 6: Grade One Overview
- Is your child ready?
- Planning your year
- Book resource list and reviews
- The role of drilling and use of workbooks/worksheets
- Movement, circle time, eurythmy
- Form drawing and handwriting
- Handwork
- Painting and modeling
- Language arts - Grimm's Fairy Tales
- Math
- Science and social studies
Chapter 7: Grade one lesson blocks and sample schedule
Closing Remarks
Appendix
- Stories for letter and number introduction
- Compiled curriculum chart for the grades
- Supplies list for grade one
- Other resources
- Companion CD table of contents
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A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling
Grade Two
Melisa Nielsen
Foreword by Esther Leisher
Softbound - Includes Companion CD with MP3 files and pictures to accompany the book
$22.00
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It is so very clear that Melisa Nielsen simply loves teaching grade two! Everything about the curriculum seems to excite her and carry her on to the next lesson -- happily, she shares that excitement with us, as well as so very many things that will help all homeschoolers present the richness that is grade two to their own students.
Contents:
Foreword by Esther Leisher
Introduction
History of Waldorf schools and anthroposophy
Chapter 1: The "work" of the second year
- Grade two book and resource list
- Working with the temperaments in grade two
- How work begins to change in grade two
Chapter 2: Thoughts to ponder: Questions from clients
Chapter 3: Inner Work for parents and caregivers
- The Oneness of humankind
- The child in your eyes
- Discussions with teachers
Chapter 4: Book reviews
Chapter 5: Grade two lesson blocks and sample schedule
- Planning the blocks
- Rhythm
- Festivals
- Foreign language
- Recorder
- Form drawing
- Language arts
- Aesop's Fables
- Stories of saints
- Math
- Science
- Handwork
- A year at a glance planning
- Sample weekly schedule for grade two
Closing remarks
Appendix
- Resource list
- Form drawings
- Compiled curriculum chart
- Companion CD contents
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A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling
Grade Three
Includes companion CD
Melisa Nielsen
with contributions by Melissa Grable, Barbara Bresette-Mills, Amissa Burton, Sharon Sofia Fletter and Tammy Sher
Foreword by Tammy Sher
Softbound
$24.00
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Grade Three is the time of the "9-year-old change," where children often experience themselves as cast out from the garden, awake to the world in a new and exciting, but often also lonely and uncertain way. To meet this, Rudolf Steiner's curriculum offers the child both some reassurance and some company, as well as an "action plan" for resolving the problem of no longer having a home in the garden. Steiner does this by taking the children through the Old Testament stories up to the building of Solomon's temple: here they discover that others have been ejected from their gardens and left to wander (often in error). But, they also discover that God was always with them and in the end enables them to build a new home for God and themselves. At which point the children step outside and set to building a dwelling which can be as big as a playhouse or as small as a bird house. Thus, finishing this life transition empowered and sheltered.
That said, I want to tell you all how deeply Melisa Nielsen has understood this year, its importance to the child, and the way Steiner's curriculum addresses and guides. Her Grade Three book is just wonderful! It's like having someone next to you, helping you along with their experience and insight. Her contributors are all equally gifted and just right for the subjects they address. Do enjoy this one - it is lovely.
Contents:
- Introduction
- History of Waldorf schools and anthroposophy
- Chapter 1: The third grade
- Changes in the 9th Year
- Grade three book and resource list
- Layering in the elements of Waldorf
- The Old Testament: Accepting God by Melissa Grable
- Chapter 2: Eurythmy by Barbara Bresette-Mills
- Chapter 3: How a peron can become a school
- Chapter 4: Inner Work: Yoga by Amissa Burton
- Chapter 5: Supporting your Child's Connection to Spirit by Sharon Sofia Fletter
- Chapter 6: Grade three lesson blocks and sample schedule
- Planning the blocks
- Rhythm
- Festivals
- Language arts
- Cursive
- Social Studies/Science
- Math
- Form Drawng
- Crochet as Handwork by Tammy Sher
- Grade 3 container story
- Year at a glance
- Sample weekly schedule for grade three
- Closing remarks
- Appendix
- Recipes
- Resource list
- Form drawings
- Compiled curriculum chart
- Table of contents from prior books
- Companion CD contents
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A Journey through Waldorf Homeschooling
Grade 4
A Little Garden Flower Curriculum Guide
Melissa Nielsen
Softbound
Includes the unabridged, illustrated book, The Children of Odin by
Padraic Colum!!
$32.00
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Marvelous! Melisa's Grade 4 Journey offers so many things that
I've never before seen brought together, including many things I've never before
seen addressed in print. All in all, this book addresses not just Grade 4 and
the needs of those students, but all of us, our families and life itself, in
what is becoming an increasingly confusing and challenging world.
First, Grade 4 in the Waldorf curriculum can be perplexing to
many people. Just what is going on with all these Norse myths, anyway? And,
why won't the children sit still and listen they way they did last year? Those
two questions turn out to be intimately related -- Melisa's delvings into them
are simply splendid. You'll discover for yourself how nourishing and useful
they are.
Then, I want to comment especially on Chapter 4, aptly titled "Inner
Work for Self and Family." Of course, any inner work we do really always
begins with outer reality. Never have I seen this fact presented in such a
crystaline way: Melisa begins from the heart of the matter with "Blending
a family from hate to harmony." Her decision to share her journey and
that of others through divorce and remarriage, through the trials and joys
of blending two families into one is a huge gift. The authors offer it up with
such heart that I found myself feeling uplifted and empowered through tears
of recognition.
It is not by chance that this topic should appear in a book created
to help adults teach 4th graders -- like one of Thor's lightening bolts, it
strikes with brilliance the experience of being a 4th grader, and shines a
light on how that experience is one we all share.
Additionally, Melisa has had the generosity to include the entirety
of Padraic Colum's Children of Odin, one of the best resources for
vibrant, 4th-grade-ready, Norse myths. What a treat to find it right there,
ready and waiting!
As you can see, I believe this is a wonderful, inspired curriuculm
guide. Do enjoy!
Contents:
- Foreword by Michael Rivera
- Introduction
- History of Waldorf Schools and Anthroposophy
- Chapter 1: The Fourth Grade
- Chapter 2: Drawing animals in grade four by Sieglinde de Francesca (author
of Coloring with Block Crayons)
- Chapter 3: Music in the Waldorf Curriculum by Judith Ivy
- Chapter 4: Inner Work for Self and Family
- Chapter 5: Grade Four Lesson Blocks and Sample Schedule
- Closing Remarks
- Appendix with resource lists and material, including Children of Odin
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A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling
Grade 5
Melisa Nielsen
Softbound - includes CD with illustrations and audio material and seed
packet for botany block
$40.00
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I have always thought of the Waldorf 5th Grade curriculum as the
jewel in the crown of Waldorf Education. The sweep and depth of it really are
spectacular: in a single year, teacher and student travel across centuries
and continents, savoring the developmental history of Western Civilization,
from it's historical beginnings in Ancient India through to the fulcrum-point
of Ancient Greece, which (in my mind, at least) served as a cultural gateway
to the Ancient past and became as well the springboard into our modern world.
As if that weren't breathtaking enough, 5th Grade also introduces
the world of plants and the beauty of geometric construction. Form drawing
can enter the world of very complex Celtic knots, and in handwork knitting
in the round is introduced along with the first opportunities to work with
sculptural clay and wood.
You see what I mean - this year is packed, start to finish, with
one wonder after another. It is into this richness that Melisa Nielsen leads
us with her abundant journey into the world of 5th Grade.
What I most love about this book is that she walks the reader/homeschooler
through the almost overwhelming glory of this teaching year with a calm, steady
pace that encourages joyful discovery and even leaves a bit of time for smelling
the flowers (remember the Botany block!). Amidst what can seem like the clamor
of competing possibilities, each vying for attention, Melisa calmly shows us
how to look and find the stepping stones that lead through this year. In some
instances her choices veer from the path laid down in Stuttgart in 1919 (e.g.,
the inclusion of Australian cultural history), but always her choices ring
with a truth, whether in her personal context or one that extends well beyond
her own family. In fact, one joy of this book is that she shows how to make
choices that meet the needs of the students at hand, and still stand within
the stream of Waldorf education. I think this is a beautiful book! Thanks again
to Melisa for her work and her love in creating it.
Contents:
- Foreword by Melissa Grable
- Introduction
- History of Waldorf schools and anthroposophy
- Chapter 1: The fifth grade
- Grade five book and resource list
- A Study of Ancient Greece through Astronomy by Robin McCloud
- Chapter 2: Treading Lightly on the Earth by Lisa Marshall
- Chapter 3: Music for our children
- Fifth Grade Music by Judith Ivy
- Music at Home: Our Experience with Suzuki by Robin McCloud
- Chapter 4: Inner work for self and family
- Japa and Chanting by Sandi Russi
- Non Violent Communication by Michael Banta
- Using the Vimala Handwriting Method in Waldorf Education by
Jennifer Crebbin* (see my note at the bottom of this review)
- Chapter 5: Grade five lesson blocks and sample schedule
- Planning the blocks
- Rhythm
- Festivals
- Language Arts
- Social studies/science
- Math
- Form drawing
- Handwork
- Year at a glance
- Sample weekly schedule for grade five
- Grade four container story
- Grade five container story
- Background information for ancient cultures
- Australia
- India
- Persia
- Egypt
- Greece
- Stories from ancient cultures
- Africa
- Australia
- India
- Persia
- Egypt
- Botany: The Wisdom of Plant
- Closing remarks
- Appendix, resource list, etc.
* I feel the need to comment on Jennifer Crebbin's article in this book.
While I agree with her completely that handwriting does, indeed,
contribute to shaping one's soul (and also expresses it), I do
not agree that the Vimala alphabet and its approach to handwriting
are pedagogically appropriate from the perspective of Waldorf education
and healthy soul development. Nonetheless, excluding her belief
in this handwriting style, Jennifer has written some very helpful
comments on Main Lesson book form that should serve everyone well.
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