The Longevity of Waldorf Toys

I have posted a few times this year about my kids (10, 12 and 14) and how they still use so many of their 'Waldorf Toys'. I am always amazed to find them playing with the wooden figures, wooden kitchen set or the silks or other things I invested so much money (or time, if I made it) into when they were little. It makes me so happy to see them still using those same toys! Last weekend I was amazed yet again when Mosi, my 14-year-old, dressed as a fairy for the Renassaince Festival and wore the silk wings that I bought her when she was 4-years old! Amazing!

Can a Non-Waldorf Toy Become REAL Like the Velveteen Rabbit?

Relocated to New BLOG at: http://earthschooling.info/thebearthinstitute/?page_id=103

Small Spaces & Waldorf

The question came up on the list this week about how one could work within a small space. What essentials would a person need to homeschool within a space budget? List members have shared some great ideas for essential toys, crafting items and books. One of my favorite ideas was to use a window ledge as a nature table. This reminded me of all the other ways in which we creatively fit things into small spaces. We used to live in a condo and had very little space, but even now that we live in a house it seems that we still don't have enough space because my imagination is endless! If I had unlimited space and money I would have a music room, a craft room, a library, and...well, you get the idea! Even people with a lot of space can benefit from space saving ideas.

When I think of fitting a lot into a little space the first thing I do is try to scale everything down. Instead of purchasing large paper, you can purchase smaller sizes of watercolor paper. Instead of using an entire table for the nature table, why not use the window ledge, as a couple members already pointed out? Other things you can downsize -

1. A small table-top puppet theater can substitute for an entire shelf of wooden figures or even for a larger puppet show. This little theater is small and portable. It is also easy to store and easy to access when you want to use it for storytelling time (see picture).

2. There are so many things that are "table top" nowadays - how about a table-top blackboard? A table-top easel?

3. Instead of shelves with large baskets you can place smaller baskets of crafts and items around the house in different areas.

4. Instead of large blocks you can buy a small set of architecture blocks.

5. Instead of a piano or guitar or violin you can go with the traditional Waldorf recorder and/or kinder-harp. These are much smaller than the instruments many children play today and take less space to store.

6. Instead of a large dollhouse you can have the dolls live under a wooden mushroom, in a tree house (made from a trunk) or in a small tent.

7. Instead of a doll-bed, the dolls can co-sleep with the "little parent".

8. Instead of a stroller for the doll a child can use a miniature version of a sling to carry their doll.

Whatever you are thinking of buying think about what smaller versions there may be available. Of course, smaller is not always "better" if the child is 3 or under and still putting objects in their mouth. However, children over the age of 4 or 5 seem to have a fascination with small objects and toys. The popularity of "Polly Pockets" and "Littlest Pet Shop" mainstream toys have proven that with their great success in the mainstream market.

The Dangers of Building with Muffins

Early in the morning the dim light reveals last night's project. I got our old blocks out of storage so the girls (9 and 10) could make a rat-maze for our rat. Instead they decided to build castles and they added a couple muffins for "royal cakes". I am so excited they still like the blocks! I guess I will take them out of storage! My grandfather made haf of them...my dad gave them to me.

The sun rises to reveal more of the castle...

Someone smells the muffins and starts her rampage of distruction :)...

Who - ME? Really I didn't knock over the castles! I'm a sweet innocent bunny!

(Grrr...WHERE are those muffins????)

Member BLOG posts this week include:

(Join at: www.HerbnHome.com)

Snack Inspirations & Philosophy

Using a Kids' Business as a Homeschooling Lesson

(and they even earn money and practice their music for "fun"!)

Previous Posts to Members-only BLOG:

Member BLOG posts this week included:
Easy Christmas Handiwork for Cat Lovers
Knitted Mouse
Map Making & Woodburning with a Story - Complete Lesson
Autumn Snack Inspirations
Mom - vs - Manager
Fantasy Party Snack Idea
Independant Learning Tips

Member Tutorials at The Waldorf Channel include:

How to Make Block Crayons
How to Make Molding Beeswax
How to Knit a Rabbit
How to Make Fairy Wings
Pre-Needle Felting
Form Drawing
and MUCH MORE...

A Childhood of Playstands

When I attended the Waldorf parent-child class with my eldest daughter (now almost 14! WOW) I immediately fell in love with the playstands. I wanted one so badly! I was so envious of my friend who had a husband who was so good at making them he even donated a couple to a new initiative! But alas, I could not afford to purchase them. Years later, when I found myself in a better financial state and able to purchase a few more hierloom toys for my children I looked back at our photo albums and realized we already had playstands! In fact, we had so many of them - we were rich in playstands! I thought I would share some pictures of some of the playstands we have had over the years...

Dining room chairs of course...

Sawed off bedstands/bed frames....



Logs and sticks...



Even small chairs...

Don't put those Waldorf toys in storage yet!

I took this photo of my son and a friend playing in the gazebo with the wooden kitchen set. They had fun for about a half hour with this game - trying to see how many fruits and veggies they could balance on the scale. My son is 11 and will be 12 in January. This picture makes me so happy because I paid so much for these toys so to still be getting use out of them in their 11th year just THRILLS ME! And Sofi and her friends (9 and 10) have really been using the gazebo and kitchen set - every day they are out there creating dishes and playing some imaginary game. So if you were wondering if it is worth it to invest in these toys? Yes.

The Saga of the Playsilks

The Saga of the Play Silks

There once was a young lady who had a little baby. She wanted some Waldorf playsilks but she didn't like to sew and she lived far far away from anyone who sold them. So she did what any clever young lady would do - she asked her mama to sew some for her.

A few weeks later an airmail package came from America to Saudi Arabia and a pile of pretty, soft and silky play silks fell out of the package. They were so dreamy! The young lady was happy and the baby was happy.

The baby chewed on the play silks and laughed when her mama played peek-abo with them. She put them over her head and played peek-abo too.

When the baby was 3 years old she used the silks as wings and skirts and capes and dressed up as a fairy, a pirate and a princess. When she grew up to be 5-years-old she tucked her baby dolls into bed with a scarf as a blanket and kissed them goodnight.

When her baby sister was born that year she covered her baby sister in playsilks and watched her giggle.

The play-silks continued to entertain all her friends, her sister and even her sister's friends. Sometimes they were draped over the nature table and sometimes they were worn as cloaks or hoods. Sometimes they were picnic blankets and sometimes walls of a fort or a house. They were table cloths, blankets and everything you can imagine.

But they were very sad because they always stayed at home. They wanted to have adventures. Once, one of them got to go to the Mayfair and often they got to play outdoors but they wanted to go on a real adventure.

So one day...13-years after their birth, the sister of the little baby (who was now 13-years-old) was going to be a fairy at the Renaissance Festival and she needed a skirt.






Her mama, who was an older woman now, said "I still don't like to sew. I like to knit so I can pay someone else to sew for me." And she laughed a little rascally laugh. Then the little sister, who was now 9-years-old said, "But mama, I want you to MAKE my fairy outfit. You HAVE to make something for me (in less than 20 minutes of course)." And she looked at her mama with beautiful wide brown eyes.



So the mama took an old belt with a lot of holes in it, she folded & draped some of the playsilks over the belt and used thread to secure them every few centimeters through the holes in the belt. Then she sprinkled some fairy dust on the scarves and attached some felt butterflies and dragonflies and some silk flowers. She clipped butterflies in the little girl's hair and the little girl spied a pussy willow branch on the nature table and said "THAT is the perfect wand!"




And because the mother loved to knit she bobby pinned a little knitted unicorn to the top of her outfit and sprinkled some fairy dust on the baby unicorn too. She saw her beading box on top of the craft table and quickly strung a clasp onto some clear thread, attached a crystal and made a necklace for the fairy too.




Now the little fairy was very happy and the scarves were happy too. And now they are both having many adventures today being fairies at the Renaissance Festival all day!

Waldorf Play with Non-Waldorf Toys

Baby bathing tub is really a toy bin to collect backyard toys at night. Fishy scrubber is from the bathroom upstairs. Bowl is from my kitchen, glass stones are from the fairy house and inside the bowl is a knick-knack in stone from my shelf in the livingroom. Robe is from the bedroom. In the next photo...chairs are from the garage and are usually used for emergency seating at large parties, the wooden table is for homeschooling work & art, the cloth is a headscarf from the dress-up bin, the plate is a garden tray of terracotta and the "food" in it is weeds from the garden. Cups are from the picnic basket. The spray bottle is supposed to be near the worm bin to keep it moist.

I would so love to write a 2-page article about this today but I don't have the time - LOL! I guess that is what BLOGS are for, after all!

I have been thinking about this idea for a long time. I had this friend ten years ago who's mom used to buy her kids all these plastic toys from Goodwill (it was her mom's form of entertainment) and she would just toss them all down in the basement playroom and let the kids play with them when they wanted. I was attending the Four Winds Waldorf School at that time and when I watched these children play it struck me how they played with these toys in such a "Waldorf Way" even though they were plastic, some broken, and some really odd toys! In fact, their style of play was more "Waldorf" than many of the kids at the school I knew.

Why was this? Well first, I need to define what I mean by "Waldorf Play". Waldorf toys seek to cultivate a bond with nature, a respect for nature and to nurture creativity in children by providing toys that they can be creative with. Rather than providing a toy that does only "one thing" a Waldorf toy is a toy that can be "many things". Children are encouraged to play creatively. When a child plays they are encouraged to connect with nature, to model what the environment around them is doing, and to use their body & voices to experience the imaginary world that they see as real. Of course, this is not a comprehensive description, but it is a start.

What I saw with these children was everything above. I saw them creating spaces by organizing the toys in certain ways. They never played with the toys the way they were meant to be played with. Instead (perhaps this was because there were so many and they were more like objects at that point rather than toys?) they would create new things with these toys, imaginary scenes, imaginary worlds and much more. They would often bring the toys outside or make the toys into "trees", 'Animals" or "plants". I was amazed at this because most children I saw playing with toy rooms filled with plastic toys were not having this kind of play. I did see a lot of creative play. However, the extent of creative play was not the same as with these two children. There was SOMETHING ELSE there. What was it?

I started to observe the family. Well, not really, they were my friends, so I just noticed things while I was hanging out with them! What I noticed was that the mother was very nature centered herself. Every day she took the children out to the local nature center or would walk on the trails near their home. She took them fishing and spent a lot of time outdoors with them in the garden or playing with their backyard fishpond. When they played they often spent time modeling her work by helping prepare a healthy snack or by weeding the garden with her.

So when it came time to play with the ole plastic toys in the basement...these toys became PART of their natural environment instead of the other way around. Because their minds and lives were filled with nature and mother energies everything around them became imbued with that flavor - even the plastic toys.

This led me to become convinced - not that plastic toys are OK in Waldorf or that they are better - but that there is something more to Waldorf Play than just what toys a child has. I had another friend who was very well off at the time and had a basement filled with a virtual Waldorf School. It was amazing and I was envious I admit! She had everything from the Waldorf Catalogs. However, her children were often in front of the TV and when they did play in their Waldorf paradise, they often had a very orderly way of doing it, the creativity and joy were not there. It was almost as if their creativity had been smothered by too many toys. The mother had placed them in such a wonderful and orderly way, they were so pretty! One was almost scared to play with them!

These are two extreme examples. Everyone I know now is someone in-between these two examples and I do have to say that I have not met anyone like these two women since. I have sense lost track of them. However, they did provide a good lesson for me in Waldorf play.

So what brought this topic into my head again today? Two things. Someone asked me about how to set up a playroom for their child and yesterday Sofi and her friend spent FOUR HOURS creating a paradise outside from plastic and wooden toys and nature.

I could make this post so much longer but for now I will just share what I have learned (and some pictures):

1. Waldorf toys are wonderful but more important is letting children choose their own toys from their environment and modeling after the parent. Perhaps flowers in the garden, some rocks and acorns become a toy, perhaps some pots and pans and a wooden spoon from the kitchen, or perhaps they love the plastic cups in your picnic basket. Whatever it is - the fact that the child discovered it and decided they wanted to play with it is very important.

2. If you want a child to play with more natural toys make sure that more things around your house are natural - not just the toys. And make sure they get out into nature more so they can gather treasures from the natural world around them.

3. Playing in a "Waldorf Way" needs to have an element of freedom (time to play), creativity (not restricted to one use for the toy) and nature (playing outdoors frequently).

4. Toddlers often play by modeling what a parent is doing - not necessarily by playing with their toys. This is the best way for a toddler to play.

5. Children will play in the world they know. If you spend all your time at the mall, in front of the TV and are surrounded by electronics and plastic your child will often create electronic plastic worlds from their nice wooden Waldorf toys (I've seen kids make a wooden block into a TV more than once!). If a child is surrounded by nature and nurture then they will be able to create this from any toy they have.

6. Ideally toys should be handmade and natural. This is important. But you can't feel guilty or bad or disqualify the value of a child's play just because they are not. Waldorf play is only partially about what toy the child is playing WITH.

Enjoy!

Blessings & Health.
Kristie
http://www.earthschooling.com/

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

Felting Without the Needle

Ever since we started working on this video the kids and I have not been able to stop making these adorable little felted figures! The figures you see in the pictures above were made by a 3,5,9 and 11-year old without needles. How? Find out by downloading the member video of the week at The Waldorf Channel. It is available at: Felting Video

IN THE NEWS: Chinese Toys

I am sure none of you have missed the articles in the news lately about the dangers of some Chinese toys. It looks like appreciation of handmade &/or natural toys are finally seeing their time in the spotlight!

However, in the chaos that has emerged from this I want to remind people not to make their choices based on fear. Information and research are the best way to shop. I know of some wonderful fair trade products that come out of China, as well as some products that are sub-standard made by crafters or made in the USA. So before you buy anything make sure you have all the information you can on the person who made the product and how they made it. Even though the newspapers are finally "on our side" we don't want to make the mistake of blindly following what we are told to do. Keep doing your own research and following your own intuition. That said...

There was one article, however, that stood out for me because it was so shocking. Here is a quote from that article:"You might be surprised to hear Chinese suppliers complaining that the prices at Wal-Mart are too low, but that is just what this translated article appears to be saying. The complaint is related to the retailer's classic fallback position of slashing prices across the board in order to boost sales whenever revenue performance is lagging.

Although Wal-Mart has tried to increase profits by recruiting a different kind of customer -- one who is interested in more fashionable clothes and name-brand products and has the money to buy them -- its classic price chops continue to serve as an old, reliable crutch. In other words, it will likely never recover from the "always low prices" mantra it has built for itself.

So it's interesting that many of the retailer's largest Chinese suppliers are now saying they can't continue to supply Wal-Mart with the "low prices" it requires of them. It's quite a retail epiphany when a Chinese supplier says that it can't supply products as cheaply as retail requires. Only Wal-Mart has this kind of power, and if these vendor and supplier feelings are true, then signs of desperation are probably starting to swirl in the hallways of Bentonville right now.

PARENT CRAFT: Baby or Doll Sling

Dear Parents,

I am not very good at sewing and to make it worse I really don't like to sew! However, when my daughter was born I managed to make a sling for her and a few years later I made a smaller one so she could carry around her dolls - she LOVE them. Give it a try for a holiday gift. Make your child a sling for their dolls or animals and save a lot of money! You are basically paying for the price of a little bit of fabric.

Here is a nice online link on how to make them:

http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1894

ALERT: Linseed Oil Self-Ignites

Dear Waldorf Parents,

Just as "safe and natural" herbs sometimes have dangerous contraindications so do other natural products. Be sure to use everything you have with wisdom and knowlege - if it is "natural" or not!

There are many reports (confirmed by a firefighter as well) that cloths soaked in linseed (used sometimes to put a natural finish on wood or remove old paint) will SELF-IGNITE. Please be aware of this if you are going to use this natural product and be sure to clean and store cloths related to this oil properly.

MOM'S CRAFT: Knitted Teacups

This site has a gorgeous pattern for knitted teacups. The pattern seems a challenge but the result is worth it!

http://www.craftzine.com/blog/archive/2007/08/safe_toys_you_can_make.html