Monday, March 31, 2008

Herbal Fairytales are NOW HERE!



I am very happy to announce that the long awaited first book in my series of Herbal Fairytales is now ready for purchase!


Each book tells a fairytale about the herb that incorporates the appearance and medicinal uses of the herb into the story itself. This is a wonderful way for children AND adults to learn about herbal healing. Additionally, each book has been illustrated by a Waldorf classroom, led by their main teacher, and is not only a visual treat, but a guide for you to use if you want to turn the story into a main lesson and water-color painting session for your own classroom.


Finally, each book includes a child-friendly recipe for the herb.
Anyone who purchases this book will also receive FREE the E-books "Waldorf Watercolor Painting" AND "A Year of Waldorf Watercolor Painting" - a $12.00 value.
(If you have already purchased these e-books you can choose two other e-books to receive for free, however, no refunds will be available).


Book One is called Red Clover and is available NOW!


Rather than have you pay for the costs of on demmand publishing and inflated shipping costs I will be making a large order of these books on April 15th and will send them out to people via Media Mail. This will save everyone $6.00 on the cost of the book. However, because I need to order a set of books at one time to be sent to me I am taking pre-orders at this time so I know how many books to order in the first shipment.


This is a 6 x 8" softcover full-color book with 31 original watercolor paintings that you and your children will learn from as well as enjoy reading and gazing at for many hours. Paintings were done by the children of the 5th and 6th grade class at the Four Winds School in the suburbs of Chicago. They were paid to be illustrators of the book as a class fundraising project.


You can pre-order this book for only $15.50 plus $2.50 shipping and handling by sending payment to: herbnhome@yahoo.com via Paypal OR by paying at the Herb'n Home Amazon Paypage (please send a note if you pay via Amazon as they do not alert me).


To ship anywhere outside the USA will cost $7.50. If you are purchasing other items from The Dream Angels EBAY then I can put this book in your shipment with other items and the shipping will be FREE.


Blessings & Health,

Kristie


Sunday, March 30, 2008

Extra Special Waldorf Enrichment Newsletter

This can now be found at: http://earthschooling.info/thebearthinstitute/?page_id=5824

Easy Frugal Indoor/Outdoor Fort

This can now be found at www.BEarthBLOG.com

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

A New Unicorn Family is Born...

Click to play Custom Unicorn Order
Create your own photobook - Powered by Smilebox
Make a photobook - it's easy!



These are pictures of my most recent custom order. The order was for a family of unicorns to reflect the personalities of the members of the family that ordered them. They are already in the mail on the way to their new home.

Purchase was made through The Dream Angels ETSY.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Mystery Solved!

This is now part of the G3 Curriculum at www.Earthschooling.com

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Sneaky Sneaky...



Warning: If you don't have a weird sense of humor don't read this. If you do then I claim complete immunity to what you may think about me after this post (LOL)...


oooh....the thing I love about BLOGGING is it is so easy I can just sneak away for five minutes here...post something....and everyone thinks I've just gone to get a drink of water in the kitchen or something (LOL)....anyway...wanted to share a highlight of our Easter morning. The Easter bunny left piles and piles of artificially colored AND flavored Jelly Bellies all over our house - even soap and bacon flavor! (this is our artifically flavored and colored allowance for the YEAR!).


So...to let you in on a little sense of the weird humor we have around here (we like to laugh A LOT!!!)...we have this bunny that roams free in our house and she sometimes leaves little bunny poopies places. She is very good about peeing in her litter box, but the little balls sometimes need to be picked up. This is OK with me since they are always very dry and compact and it is not a big deal...


So I could not resist seeing the similarities in the Easter Bunny. Hey! The Easter Bunny leaves Jelly Beans instead of little brown balls like our bunny does. Cool! My kids just groaned "MOM!", looked at the jelly beans a little closer (I might not be joking after all...) and then decided to eat them anyway.


Perhaps it was the Tibetan singing bowl they put them in that purified them? I was asleep when they did their jelly bean hunt so I am not sure how the Tibetan singing bowl became an Easter Basket....


Anyway...next time you see jelly bellies all over your house just think...the Easter Bunny can't do all that work in one night without stopping for a break somewhere!


Blessings & Health,

Kristie


Curriculum, Video Tutorials, E-books, MP3 Waldorf verses and more...

Happy Spring! Happy Easter!


Happy Spring and Happy Easter to Everyone! Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!


Blessings & Health,

Kristie

Monthly Lesson Plans including video downloads, MP3s, free consulting, vintage books online, mini-tutorials and more.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Waldorf April E-book Now Available - 200 Pages of Lesson Plans

In my ongoing project to turn my lesson plans into E-books the April E-book is now ready for download. Remeber, all lesson plans for the year ARE AVAILABLE NOW. However, the E-books are being created FROM these plans this year. As I create the e-books I am also adding new features. The April E-book includes more than 15 additional stories over last year's lesson plans and many many more features (see below):

This 200-page E-book contains Waldorf lesson plans for ages 3-11 Preschool through 4th grade and includes membership in the Waldorf School Online and free consulting. The book is indexed and has sections for each age group for verses, crafts, stories & lessons.

Other Features Include:
MP3s of all verses
6 Video Tutorials
3 Original Watercolor Stories by Kristie Karima Burns
Sixth Sense Math Lessons & Sixth Sense Writing & Reading Lessons
3 Vintage Books Online from my own personal library (NEW FEATURE just started today! I thought I would make wider use of some of my vintage books).

To Download the April lesson plans you can visit:
WALDORF LESSON PLANS


Other Membership Options
3 months for $36.00
6 months for $60.00
12 months for $100.00
Lifetime Membership with all Videos, E-books and Lesson Plans that have been published NOW and in the FUTURE - $182.00

One Member commented that the lifetime membership is "Like attending an ongoing Waldorf Conference"

Other membership options can be purchased at:

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

Friday, March 21, 2008

The Mystery Continues....Kids Starting to Catch On...

This is now part of the G3 curriculum at www.Earthschooling.com

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Had to Share a Lovely Moment!

"Let Me Tell You What This Key is For..."
I was just sitting here finishing up a few unicorns and my son walked in with his friend. He had scootered to his friends house and then they both scootered back here and are planning on carving more sticks and doing more scootering (can you tell it just got warm?) and lots of "boy things" They are just two adorable flopsy haired boy boys - reminds me of a Tom Sawyer book.





Anyway...so they walk in and this is the conversation:





Sunii: "Hey mom - how are the unicorns coming?"


Me: "Oh fine...almost done!"


Friend: "You can do knitting that fast?" (he is actually impressed?!)


Sunii: "Yah, my mom is really good at knitting" (said as if it was a really cool thing and he is really proud of me)





Now...that is a conversation I didn't imagine :) To be a "cool mom" because I knit unicorns? Awesome! OK...just had to share...now back to knitting...they have to make it there by Easter!

Mystery and Adventure Continues...

This is now part of the G3 curriculum at www.Earthschooling.com

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Waldorf Mystery of the Week

This post is now found in the G3 Gardening block at www.Earthschooling.com

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day


Today we enjoyed donut making instead of the traditional bread to start off our week. The kids response? "Hey! Why didn't we do this yesterday and all those other days too?"


I enjoy making homemade donuts because we use olive oil in the dough instead of lard and whole wheat flour and all organic ingredients. We use canola oil for frying, which is not ideal but it is better than corn oil or who-knows-what oils they use in the shops! The kids love them and they are the only donuts I can eat without feeling ill :)


I probably already shared this recipe with you but this is my mom's old recipe that we used to make as kids...at that time we used a glass for the donut and a plastic curler to cut out the middle of the donut :)


Before we made donuts we told the story about Red Riding Hood bringing donuts to her grandma and about the little girl and her basket going to the market to sell donuts (another version of “Little Girl and the Milk Pail”)


Grandma’s Donuts (Recipe used in my family since 1934 or earlier)

1 TBS. Yeast
¼ cup water

¾ cup milk, scalded
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup organic pure dried cane juice (cane sugar)
1 tsp. Salt
1 egg
3 ½ - 3 ¾ cup flours (I use WW and a touch of white or other)

You can put all this in the bread machine – wet ingredients first, dry next and yeast last and press “make dough only” OR you can do the following:

Soften the yeast in the warm water
Combine milk, shortening, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm
Add one cup of the flour and beat well
Add softened yeast and egg. Mix well.
Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough
Turn out on a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth and satiny.
Place in a greased bowl and let rise of 1 ¼ hours or until double.
Punch down and let rise again until double.
Roll out the dough 1/3 inch thick (we did this in class)
Cut the dough into shapes and cut a hole in the middle (we did this in class)
Let rise about 30-40 minutes (we skipped this step in class, but if we did it the donuts would be more light and fluffy).
Fry in deep fry oil until slightly browned (375 degrees). Drain on paper towels.
While they are warm frost them with a simple glaze

SIMPLE ORANGE GLAZE (This is MY favorite but we did not do this one in class)

Add 1 tsp. Grated orange peel and 3 TBS. Orange juice to 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar (icing sugar)

SIMPLE VANILLA GLAZE

Add 1 tsp. Vanilla and 3 TBS. Milk to 2 cups of sifted confectioners (icing) sugar.

YOU CAN THEN ADD SPRINKLES OVER THE GLAZE! YUM!


Waldorf Heaven for Flowers


About a month ago a dear friend sent me flowers from Hawaii. We were all enchanted and I put them in the middle of the room and took great care with them so they would last a long time.

A few days ago they started to fade so I told Sofi she could now "have" them. They only had a few days left to live and she had been begging me so...

The flowers then became part of a fort that her and her friend built in the livingroom
- surrounded by silk and wooden toys and dolls and giggling singing girls...

I thought to myself - so this is flower heaven :)

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Zarelda brings a nest and gets a handmade swing from Sofi!

Sofi was busy this week remodelling Zarelda's fairy house and helping her friend Morgan build one as well.


What a busy week for Zarelda! She went shopping at: Fairie Bling and purchased the most gorgeous nest with eggs and bird (see picture at her shop here)


Sofi was so thrilled with the nest she left a note for Zarelda asking her to please give a gift to her friend Morgan (who has been building a fairy house at our house with Sofi this week and left it here until she moves into her new house).


Luckily Tizi, at Fairie Bling had enclosed an extra gift in the package she sent so the wish was quickly fulfilled! Thank you to Tizi for making two girls happy!


Sofi was so happy she made Zarelda a little swing from the flower cuttings we had on the kitchen counter. Sofi had purchased some flowers at the grocery store earlier in the day, cut them and put them in a vase and then wondered...what can I do with the stems?

Friday, March 14, 2008

Cheeto Flames


So what do you do when you have one of those nutty health-freak moms that tells you not to eat Cheetoes? And your friend brings a bag over to snack on? And then you have free time to play so you build a fort and of course your fort needs a FIRE! Right? And the FIRE needs flames. Right?
I just went out to take pics of the kids forts and had to share this. It was just too funny!
Kristie
www.TheWaldorfChannel.com

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Zarelda Visited Again...


Well, Zarelda visited the fairy house again. You may remember from her last visit that she added a small water-color painting to the home. If you want to read more about her last visit you can link here: Sofi's Fairy House


This time she shopped at Izile's Oddities and left a lovely pendant like the one in the picture above :)


I wonder where she will go shopping next? Zarelda only shops on ETSY and loves to buy crafts that are made from nature. She likes to support other crafters because she loves people that make things with their hands and honor nature in their crafts :).
OK...so I just made this up now...but she has already made two trips to ETSY for things we don't really need but they are just so cute! So it SOUNDs like a good tradition :) How else am I going to find an excuse for the tiny little things I love to buy on ETSY? It is all part of my "support home businesses" campaign but then...uh...why do I need these cute things?
So....I am thinking it is not ME! It is Zarelda that needs them to put in the fairy house and Sofi LOVES the little gifts that she leaves...so let's see what she will buy next?
Blessings & Health,
Kristie

Sunday, March 9, 2008

What is Waldorf? Waldorfize your Lesson Plans


I am excited to announce our new Waldorf Channel show for this week. It is called:



I am thrilled with this video and would LOVE to hear feedback on this from anyone and everyone as I will probably revise it at some point and make it a feature video on the channel. I think it is a very useful video for new Waldorf parents, experienced Waldorf parents and families of Waldorf parents who have no idea what they are doing! I am going to send everyone in my family a link to this video tonight!


You can link directly to the video at:
http://waldorftv.weebly.com/theory.html


Enjoy!
Blessings & Health,
Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
List Moderator
Mother to Mosi, 13, Sunii, 11, and Sofi, 9
http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/
http://www.thedreamangels.com/

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day - How to Make Everything






We had a lot of fun on Friday learning how to make "everything". We made catsup, seed mats, granola, paints (two kinds), lip balm, spice mixtures and more. Just sharing some pictures....


- Kristie

Friday, March 7, 2008

Tea Tasting & Dye Party




Here is a reprint of an article I wrote last year for Easter:








This year we did the same thing...only we extended it to a "Tea Tasting" party and we dyed YARN instead of eggs.




Blessings & Health, Kristie


Easter Dye Ideas


There is something about Easter that just makes me want to dye everything! We do play silks, clothing, yarn and of course, eggs. Why get out the dye and go to all that work just for one thing?


Here are a couple "tried a true" tips for using natural dyes (plants, herbs, etc...)


NATURAL FIXATIVE FOR PLANTS:1. Mix 8 cups of cold water with 2 cups of vinegar
2. Put in a cooking pot.
3. Simmer your cloth (do not boil) for an hour in this solution.
4. Rinse in clean tap-water and squeeze out the excess water
5. Line dry
6. Once it is dry it can be used and washed normally
For future reference


NATURAL FIXATIVE – GENERAL RECIPE
If you are using berries for color, you can make a simple fixative of 8 cups cold water and a half cup of salt. If you are using plant materials, mix 8 cups cold water with 2 cups of vinegar. Add your item, and simmer for an hour. Rinse and gently squeeze out excess water.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day - Preparing for Spring


Today we planted herb gardens, tasted herbal tea, did a flower form-drawing, made some "story gardens" and enjoyed many stories. During free time the boys all decided to finger-knit so I decided to make up a story for them. They were doing that project that boys often do where they want to finger-knit the entire ball of yarn .


I had not planned ahead on this but part of the fun sometimes is seeing how the story will emerge. For example, the boy buried in the yarn in this story would not have eaten at all without my "audience" asking me, "didn't he get hungry?"


Here is my finger-knitting story. It includes the names of the children in class today:


The Finger-Knitting Hero

by Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND


Reprint this story only with my name and website included. Thank you.


There once was a boy named Nick who loved to finger-knit. It was obvious where he had come by this interest. His mother was an avid knitter herself. In fact, she was not JUST an avid knitter. She knitted sweaters for everyone in the village, she wove tablecloths from fiber and she knitted socks for all the girls and boys at school.


Even though they lived in a small cabin just outside of town, Nick's mother had reserved an entire room to store her yarn in. The room was packed to the ceiling with every color and kind of yarn you could imagine. From floor to ceiling with only one pathway through the entire room! And if you took a ball of yarn from the middle of the pile of course you had to be careful or the entire pile would fall on your head.


For this reason, Nick's mom would not let him enter the yarn room. She told him "You must never go into the yarn room. It is very dangerous!"


"Why," asked Nick, "will the yarn eat me or hurt me?"


"No," said Mama, "that is silly!"


"Will the yarn burn me?" asked Nick.


"No," said Mama, "the yarn will not burn you."


"Will the yarn scratch me?"


"No," said Mama, "the yarn will not scratch you. It is just dangerous!"


So Nick did not go into the room. When he wanted to finger-knit he had to ask his mother for yarn. One day he asked his mother for some yellow yarn. "What kind of yellow?" she asked.


"Do you want yellow like the sun? Like a lemon or like a flower?"


"I want yellow like lemons!" said Nick.


So his mother went into the yarn room, carefully pulled a yellow from the pile and gave it to Nick. Nick was overjoyed and went to his favorite corner of the house to finger-knit. He sat nearly half the day and knitted. It was a very big ball of yarn. Finally he finished the entire ball!


Nick wanted to show his mom what he had done and he wanted more yarn so her went to find his mother. But she was nowhere to be found. She was not in the kitchen making him a snack. She was not in her bed resting, she was not even at her loom weaving.


"Mom?" Nick yelled.


But all he heard was "mmmmmph!"


So Nick slowly opened the door to the yarn room to get his own ball of yarn. It looked a bit messy but he didn't think much of it. Almost immediately he saw the most lovely color of red yarn so he reached out to take it from the pile.


Almost immediately the pile fell on top of him and he was buried under all the yarn. He heard a "mmmmph!" again but he was too busy worrying about his predicament to think much of it.


He was trapped. Under hundreds of balls of yarn. So of course he started to finger-knit. First he knit a white ball, then a pink one, then the red one, then a multi-colored one, then one that looked like feathers and another than looked like little balls, then a very fluffy green one. He knit and knit and knit but soon he grew hungry. He said, "Oh, how I wish there were some food."


Suddenly he heard "scrittchy scratchy squeek squeek!" and a little mouse appeared with a nice thick slice of bread, dropped it on Nick's lap and ran away. Nick thought the bread looked lovely but he thought it would be even more lovely with some cheese. Almost immediately after thinking that he heard a "scritchy scratchy thunk thunk squeek" and the same mouse was back with a big hunk of cheese! Nick was very thankful for the dinner but he worried that he would be thirsty but the mouse was gone.


Nick started to eat his bread and pretty soon he heard a "scritchy scratchy rolly polly squeek squeek squeek" and the little mouse rolled a bottle of water right into his lap! Nick ate well and then went to sleep.


The next morning he woke up to the bright yellow and orange of the sun and was so happy! But it was not the sun it was just more yarn! Nick saw at once that he must get back to work. So he started finger-knitting again. Soon he was almost out of the pile and he heard a "hmmmmmp!" again. So he knitted and knitted and pretty soon he was out of the pile. Then he knitted and knitted some more towards the sound of the "hmmmph".


Pretty soon his mother was unburied too. For the yarn had fallen on her and that is why Nick could not find her when he went looking. His mom gave him a big hug and said "It is such a good thing you learned how to finger-knit and that you are so fast Nick!"


After that, Nick started a new project. He started building some nice wooden shelves for his mother to keep her yarn on. And they were never buried in the yarn again. Although sometimes they did find little pieces of cheese here and there...and a nibble out of some of the skeins.


THE END


Hope you enjoyed your day too!

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

www.TheWaldorfChannel.com

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

How can I deal with iresource/information overload? MEMBER QUESTION #14

Dear Kristie,

I get so much good information from this list and others too. I guess I just love lists! But after a few days of reading all the information and resources I just feel overwhelmed and often the e-mails get lost and I never do end up looking at these great links! How do you deal with this? - JK

Dear JK,

I also belong to many lists and have found hours of inspiration from them. However, it can quickly become overwhelming if you don't have a system to organize everything into! If you are part of the monthly lesson plans you received a lesson planner with those plans and that is what I use to organize all of this information. I plan themes for each day, each week, each month and for the year. Every month I include themes of many kinds including a handicraft theme and a science theme, etc...

Now, when I get an e-mail from a list that has a link I just can't resist I file it in my notebook under the theme where it belongs. If I get a post that does not "belong" anywhere (in any month, holiday or theme) I create a new category. However, I have not created any new categories for a while!

You can do this in a notebook and "write in" or "clip in" information when you receive it and over time this becomes like a big scrapbook of learning and an invaluable resource. You can also organize this online in your e-mail account by creating a MAIN FOLDER called Lesson Plans and then SUBFOLDERS called Math, Science, March, April, etc....

You can also file the e-mails in your computer in the same way.

If you would like a great starting point for organizing your year you can use the Waldorf Lesson Plan Guide for the Year with ANY lesson plans you are now using. They are not just for use with my lesson plans. So even if you are using other lesson plans you can also "plug them in" the system.

If you are not part of the program you can purchase just the lesson planning guide at:

A Year of Waldorf Lesson Planning Guide

I will also be giving a lecture on organization and lesson planning at the Eastern Iowa Homeschooling Conference in April.

Hope this helps!
Blessings & Health,
Kristie

How can I teach counting by 2s? WALDORF QUESTION OF THE WEEK #13

How can I teach my child counting by 2s?

You can try doing some verses and when you say them you emphasize every other word. It helps with the Rhythm of 2's and gets the whole body involved which helps. Here is an example: (on the capitals stomp your feet or clap or throw a bean bag or bean bag animal or something).

The DRA-gon SEES a TOAD and HIS tail GOES swish-SWISH, swish-SWISH
(he still wants that toad for his lunch)
2, FOUR, 6, EIGHT, 10, TWELVE, four-TEEN, six-TEEN, eight-TEEN, twen-TY

Another one of my FAVORITE ways to learn counting by anything is to do a "math circle". This can also be a really fun woodworking project and is really very easy.

Take any scrap of wood or a circular tree slice and make a perfect circle on it (by tracing the outside of a bowl). Now, place ten dots around it - all evenly spaced.

Hammer nails into all ten dots.

Now you have a circle with ten nails around it.

Take some yarn and start at the top. Count by 2's and each 2nd nail you get to wrap the yarn around it. See what design you have after a while!

Count by 3's - there is a different design.

I LOVE playing with this game! (oh, the kids do too)

You can see an instructional video on how to make it at:

http://waldorftv.weebly.com/lessons.html

These are all from my math e-book for kids ages 4-8 at: http://www.waldorflessonplans.com/

Hope this helps.

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

New to Waldorf?

Don't forget the links at:

http://herbnites.tripod.com/waldorfinspiredschool/index.html

I posted them a long time ago for the parents in my classes and I thought it may be useful to mention them again.

Blessings & Health,
Kristie
http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/

My First Visit to the Rudolph Steiner College by Erron Evans

Dear Parents, I wanted to share the work of one of my favorite "Waldorf Photographers" with you. He is the photographer who made the video of Brian (the Waldorf teacher in CA) making the chalk drawing on the board at :

CHALK ART

He has a small exhibit of photos he took at the Rudolph Steiner College that are so WALDORF. Can photos BE Waldorf? If this is possible...he has achieved it!

You can see them at:

http://www.erronevans.com/RSC/index.html

Blessings & Health,

Kristie