space and Waldorf

Fantastic space section from the BBC – here with current observing notes too – we had a beautiful clear night last night and had a good look at the stars – saw Venus. Did lots of maths stuff yesterday, both games and workbook things. Cooked some gorgeous pumpkin soup and this coconut cake, though I halved the quantities – very nice but extremely sweet!

Daniel read yesterday that Mary Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ after a dream she had about it/him. So today the children are writing stories inspired by their own dreams. Seems to be going very well – all is silent. I have found it quite hard to persuade them that writing stories is fun and easy – they both seem to have an ingrained idea that it is hard and a source of stress, worrying about mistakes etc. I read an article recently about writing that made the point that we can’t create and censor at the same time. Telling Charlotte about this seems to have helped her no end – she is released from spelling worry. Her story is called ‘The Conker Birds’ – with the conkers now exceeding the 350 count it’s no wonder she is dreaming of them I suppose!! Daniel’s is about an evil professor who gets eaten by a firefly

This is Michaelmas. I have been remembering this day last year – Michaelmas is a big festival at Waldorf schools. It was a really good day – everyone had to bring in a vegetable, fruit or herb. These were all displayed during a school assembly in the morning and then taken off by the older pupils and turned into potloads of soup (all vegan). Each child had taken a mug and spoon from home and paid £1 for a mugful of soup and bread (Daniel had 3 mugs – rather a good deal for a pound!). The money was collected for the Waldorf One World charity. There was also a play about St. Michael – Dan was a knight and Charlotte a musician playing the recorder. The children in the class I worked in were gnomes. I don’t think I had to bake cakes for it – I seemed to spend many evenings baking for fundraisers all through their time there but Michaelmas was an exception! All the children had to make apple crumble in their cooking classes after Michaelmas as so many people had taken in apples

A beautiful and enriching book – a friend gave me this years ago and it has been used so much. Very Waldorf with crafts from nature and lots of traditional recipes for the whole year – details many festivals from various roots with lots of ideas for celebrating.
 Buy UK or Buy US 

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