Waldorf Family

I found something wonderful that I wanted to share, from another blog, Celebrate the Rhythm of Life.  It clearly demonstrates what it is about the Waldorf model that I love and hope to incorporate into my home. The words in green especially spoke to me and nearly gave me goosebumps in some cases.  Our lives here on earth are so short, I feel so strongly about focusing on what really matters!  God gave me this beautiful family and I want to purpose to protect, inspire, and encourage them.  {Please remember that these are meant to be guidelines, not a strict regiment you must follow to the letter}   

How to Create a Waldorf Family Life: 

Get rid of the televisions, video games, and limit computer access until age twelve.

Go outside and play everyday, year round.

Eat your food whole.

Hug every day.

Be open to what the little ones will teach you.

Be the firm and loving authority.

Make it yourself, and if you don't know how, learn.

Tell stories and play games.  A lot.

Think about how your things speak to you.

Keep the voices calm, quiet, and as natural as possible.

"Do not worry that your children never listen to you, worry that they are always watching you." - Robert Fulgum

Meditate and do some form of inner work daily.

Rid yourself of anything that has not been touched in over a month.

Sing and share lovely verses for important days and every day.

Create rituals around bedtime, light a candle, sing lullabies and pray.

Hold back intellectual concepts from under 7 as they are in the motor centre still.*

Try and keep a dreamlike quality in everything you do.

Slow down and take time.

Establish rhythm, use repetition, foster reverence, awe and wonder.

Create a beautiful and harmonious environment.

Honor the need for time and space.

Sing throughout the day.

Have conversations with the spirit world {pray}

Remember the elemental beings.

Be authentic in what you do and say.

Involve the children in household tasks in all areas of domestic work from a very young age.

Active learning - learning by doing, by observing, by making, by experiencing.

Make things from scratch, let the kids be involved and observe the TIME and love necessary to create something beautiful and lasting: gardens, meals, tree forts, gifts, art...

Work on ones self

*I surprised myself by agreeing with this quite a bit.  If you do more reading on Waldorf, you'd know that this doesn't mean don't do any intellectual learning. It means don't push that learning, especially at the cost of imaginative play.