St. Nicholas and Advent Rituals

It's late, though I'm by nature a night owl.  My children are nestled in their beds, snuggled down with their special friends and warm blankets.  We like to make the most of the few cold nights we get here in Houston by lighting some candles, donning our warm pajamas (that we grow out of too quickly for the amount of time we actually get to wear them), drinking or eating something warm for our tummies, and then burying ourselves in soft warm blankets following our bed time rhythms.

Tonight our story before bed was the story of St. Nicholas and his secret gift giving.  An added element for our ritual was setting shoes out (easy to do with laying out clothes for school in the morning) and making plans to do an unexpected kindness for someone else tomorrow.  Come the morrow, there will be a tiny chocolate St. Nick, a clementine, some whole walnuts with sparkly gold shells, and a small gift tucked inside each pair of shoes.  Around the shoes will be a light dusting of glittery magic dust.  Not much and nothing fancy but this festival day is a part of our family's advent rhythm and this year we're adding a potluck at our school to share the warmth of community.  I loved watching Evangeline, almost 4, really understand what's going on and after sharing our story together she enthusiastically encouraged everyone to get their shoes and then go to bed so St. Nicholas could come.  "Nicholas is coming!" she cried.  Tomorrow her face is going to be the real treat!  I love the wonder, the connection to a real person that lived so long ago giving of himself to care for others, the emphasis on giving to others and to giving to those in need, and developing the sense of expectant waiting that is advent.  Going through the day tomorrow we will all be aware of the history of St. Nicholas helping those in need and inspired by him seek ways to give warmth and hope to others in need this advent and seek to carry that spirit on throughout the year.

I wanted to share just a quick list of St. Nicholas resources if you'd like to try some this year or plan to incorporate them next advent season.  Keep in mind the date differs around the world though the most recognized St. Nicholas Feast Day is December 6th.  Some celebrate on the 19th, others on Christmas.

St. Nicholas Stories
St. Nicholas teaching story (From a Waldorf Kindergarten, I read and then retold an abridged version)
St Nicholas traditions from other families
St. Nicholas activities

St. Nicholas Day isn't the only advent ritual we observe, I'll be sharing more about those and about Waldorf festivals in general over the next few weeks.  What rituals and rhythms do you observe during advent?  What winter holidays are you preparing for and how will you celebrate them?

Preserving Play, Preserving Childhood

Today I read this article about what we're doing to our children's play.  With the rise in popularity of educational toys as a culture we've begun to push our children towards "productive play," meaning play that is going to teach them something we've determined to be educational.  Unfortunately, by educational we usually mean "what we can test."

Experts have been warning of the dangers of children not having open ended play, loss of imagination and problem solving skills, decrease in creativity and ingenuity, and pressure for children to produce results younger and younger.  These problems could have some very serious ramifications for our children as they become adults.

Before we were drawn to a Waldorf environment for our daughters' education, we fell into encouraging "educational" toys and "productive" play in our children.  It wasn't long before we started to see stress responses from our then second grader.  Which is how we ended up in our first Waldorf inspired school.  This move became a game changer not only for our daughters' education but our home life as well.  Through conversations with other parents, reading various materials, and parenting seminars offered by our school, we shifted to a different expectation of our children's play: joy.

I can tell you, from the change in our two older daughters' stress levels, it was completely worth it.  That was just the beginning.  Within months of altering our home life, our play expectations, and our educational approach, we had children that were excited to go to school, their creativity blossomed, their interactions with others became more peaceful, and the whining decreased!  These changes along with cutting out media- particularly screen based media, gave our family a gift we didn't realize we were missing: our children were given their childhood back.

This weekend Laura Olsen from the Austin Waldorf School, Waldorf teacher, and mother of 4 will be presenting on "Waldorf in the Home: Helping Children Stay Young" and "Rhythms, Ritual, and Reverence: How Waldorf Education Supports the Needs of the Growing Child."  Both of these presentations will be invaluable for parents that want to encourage their children to unfold in a peaceful setting that embraces their needs for peace and rhythm in their daily lives.  With practical tools to help parents preserve the childhood of their children, Laura will help parents explore what they can do to make their home a safe place that values joy and wonder in their play.

Don't miss out on these two opportunities to learn more on how to meet your child's needs without conforming to the dangers of a culture that is robbing our children of their play.  These presentations are open to anyone, not just to families within BVS, anyone interested in adding tools to their parenting toolbox are welcome to attend.  For more information visit either the school website events or the Facebook page.  Hope to see you there!

Today it is a priority in our home to preserve our children's childhood.  One that we enjoy.  Over the years our daughters have showed us how to slow down and embrace life.  Enjoying play for no other end than to play.  Through rhythm and ritual we are all developing a reverence for life, sharing in our chores, play, and learning with joy.  We have a lot to learn and plenty of room to grow (we also have our seasons that we struggle with falling back into old patterns) but the journey is worth the effort to continue to add to our toolbox.

This is our school

This is our school.  If your child goes to Bayou Village School you already know that it really is this picturesque and charming.  If your child doesn't, well, we can't wait to show you more about our school, our children, our families, and our joy in Waldorf inspired education.

Our school has something for children ages 3-6 and grades 1-5th.  In our community we enjoy festivals, gatherings, baking bread, handwork, lots of play, nature, gardening, friends, and learning.

I feel incredibly blessed to have my children at a Waldorf inspired school.  For years Waldorf was the kind of education environment I wanted for my children but the options in are area were limited and nothing provided the right fit.  After one school year in a Waldorf inspired school an hour away from our home we decided to homeschool our children, inspired as much as possible by the Waldorf model.  While we enjoyed homeschooling it wasn't quite the right fit for the needs of our family so we were very excited when Bayou Village School opened.  We are fortunate enough enroll our three middle children in the school.  Our three year old Evangeline is in the early childhood program, a Sweet Pea 2 days a week; our eight year old Helena and ten year old Lavinia are both in the grades programs, 3rd and 5th respectively.  Currently we're taking advantage of the partial week option, helping ease the transition from homeschooling the last 4 years to a classroom environment.  It's been such a gentle transition, giving my sweet girls time to adjust and embrace this new learning environment.  One of the aspects of BVS I appreciate so much is the flexibility to find what works for each family, taking the unique needs and situation of the students into consideration, embracing all in the community with gentleness and respect.  I couldn't ask for more for my family.