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Children Processing Current Pandemic Through Play

Experts say children who are openly talking about the worldwide pandemic are having a normal, healthy response.

If your child is casually mentioning COVID-19 in their day to day activities, you shouldn’t be alarmed, experts told The Atlantic.

Parenting Advice: Navigating Distance Learning Feelings and Emotion

School Counselor, Christa Marvenko-Athas

Our guest blogger and school counselor, Christa Marvenko-Athas, has some useful insight for coping with our feelings during this stressful time. Take a look at her suggestions of how to approach this unprecedented situation at home.

As we all are determining how to manage our lives, obligations, and feelings regarding the coronavirus, it is important to consider we are being flooded with information regarding COVID-19.  This information is upsetting, concerning, and scary; our fight-or-flight responses are being activated not only daily, but also for days on end.

With each new piece of information most of us experience mounting stress.  In response to acute stress a cascade of stress hormones are produced in the body, which produces physiological change.  We are not meant to sustain this high level of fight-or-flight for long periods as this can create problems of its own.  Many of us are not only managing this stress response in ourselves but also in our children.  As we continue to face this challenge, I feel it is important to focus on a counter measure to this fight-or-flight response in order to calm the body, the mind, each other, and our children, and stay in touch with our strength and resilience.

An Eighth Grader Interviews her Grandmother - Fairy Grass Jelly and Chicken Nuggets

Over Thanksgiving break, each eighth grade student interviewed a grandparent, or other beloved elder, and wrote out the answers to some twenty questions about his or her childhood. When they returned to language arts class, they wrote extensive descriptive essays based on their interviews. Take a look at this interview from Abigail S.:

My Grandma

Stepping On Stage

Class plays teach life skills and invigorate subject lessons as an important part of Waldorf education. Find out why class plays are an important part of Waldorf education.

Parent Chat: The Talk: October 16th, Tamarind Hall 6:30 pm

Mark your calendars for The Talk: October 16th, Tamarind Hall 6:30 pm

Today, children often get introduced to sexual themes earlier and earlier. It is a challenge to figure out how to create an open environment at home to have honest, age-appropriate, and value based conversation about human sexuality. We believe that adults need to lead the conversations, not media or peers.

The Seventh Grade and the International Climate Strike

Sign displays the slogan: Only Fossils Like Fossil Fuels

During the international climate student strike on Friday, September 20th, Mr. Ciofalo’s 7th grade took Robert Frost’s poem—about taking the load less traveled—to heart and participated in their own way. The main lesson began with a recap of what they had learned during their Environmental Science block about the climate crisis from their 6th-grade year. The 7th grade then watched an interview from Democracy Now with the heroic Swedish leader of the climate strike, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, to warm them up for their own interview.

Let Children Get Bored Again

Cold weather weekends are the perfect time to do... nothing. 

"Boredom is something to experience rather than hastily swipe away... boredom is useful. It’s good for you. 
Things happen when you’re bored... Boredom teaches you to respond constructively, to make something happen for yourself. But unless we are faced with a steady diet of stultifying boredom, we never learn how."

Waldorf Admissions Assessments

Following a tour of our school, many parents bring their children in for classroom visitations. These mini immersions offer additional, valuable feedback about a child's academic readiness from veteran teachers and experts.

 

"They nailed her personality and her learning style and had a dialogue with me about her that was just spot on... and this was 45 minutes after meeting her." https://www.detroitwaldorf.org/media/1/15/2014-2 (Video by the Detroit Waldorf School)

Teach and LEARN

Wow! Waldorf education continues to touch lives across the globe! 

 

"Yukta Mookhey, Miss India/ Miss World 1999, says she has found her real calling here in Pune— a city that has brought her closer to nature and prepped her to embark on her new career as an educationist, traversing the path laid out by Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy." http://ow.ly/LC8730nkZsZ

Learning Empathy Starts at Home

The year is still young, and February is the perfect time to "find small, daily ways to practice sharing." https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/03/magazine/how-to-get-preschoolers-to-s...