Welcome to A Little Garden Flower & Waldorf Essentials

Math and punctuation gnomes!

We just love gnomes (big secret!) my mother in law was being silly the other day and made the comment that she bet we had fairy blood in us somewhere - I countered with "Speak for yourself, I think I might have gnome blood!" I fell in love with gnomes years ago and when I created the first math gnomes (back when I owned The Spiral Garden) I knew they would be a hit - I think the first month we sold about 200 sets.  They were so easy and now I look back and have the mind set that I would love parents to make these on their own - they are so much fun and can be a great handwork project for moms beginning to knit or needle felt. We put together a few kits that we thought our readers would enjoy.  The great thing about math gnomes is that they can also double as punctuation gnomes and we have a great little story we are including in the kit that will show you just how much fun it is to stretch this set. These are cute little kits and ready to ship now.  

The knitted set includes: 4 mini skeins of wool Peace Fleece yarn in red, yellow, green and blue, 4 natural cherry wood buttons, knitting instructions and two stories, one for math gnomes and one for punctuation.  You will need, stuffing and knitting needles in a size 8 or 9 (we carry them in our store) $18.50

Prefer to needle felt them? This kit includes: 5 colors of wool roving (red, blue, green, yellow and cream for the face), our DVD Needle Felting Fun, 2 felting needles, a sponge, instructions for putting them together and two stories - one for math and one for punctuation. $8.50

If you are using our math book then these will be a perfect addition to your grade one or grade two math stories. These are also available in our store along with our other handwork products, including gnomes in many colors.

Enjoy your journey!

Melisa Nielsen

Coming to Waldorf Late

The past two radio shows focused on coming to Waldorf during the grade school years.  I want to address some of the key points that we feel are important when you are new to Waldorf homeschooling.  Most people only think of the beeswax crayons, nice pencils and paint - these are great, but what do you do with them?  It all starts with good planning and understanding the curriculum, otherwise the materials are just things - they aren't the heart and soul of Waldorf.  Below are some sets for each of the grades (you can find full descriptions in our store), purchasing these bundled sets directly from our blog will save you some money as they are discounted from the full price.  Be sure to visit our radio station to listen to both shows on the topic.

Our daughter showing some grade 1 work

Grade 1 (age 6-7):  While you want to make sure you have a good grasp of the grade one basics, be sure you also do your background work.  I recommend studying Steiner himself where possible.  I also recommend this bundle below that includes: A Journey... audio series (in download mp3 format), Coloring with Block Crayons DVD set, Form Drawing DVDs, Waldorf Homeschool Planning DVDs, e-book versions of our Grade 1 curriculum and our Grades 1-5 math book.  $125

Our daughter with her grade two Saint Patrick drawing.

Grade 2 (age 7-8):  In many ways, grade two is an extension of grade one.  Some children are reading well and some are still coming along.  When you come to Waldorf at this stage, you will need many of the foundations that we recommend for grade one, the exception being that you will want our grade two curriculum instead. This bundle includes everything above substituting with grade two. $120

Math wheel

Grade 3 (age 8-9):  Consider not working on the regular Waldorf festivals this year but rather celebrate Jewish festivals and ease into your year.  Remember to keep any history to an age-appropriate level.  You can skip the fairy tales and the fables at this point unless you want to use them as extra stories.   This bundle includes: A Journey...downloads, e-book copies of our Grade 3 curriculum and Math book, Block Crayon DVDs, Planning DVDs, and Form Drawing DVDs. $122

Grade four lesson from Norse myth, past, present & future.

Grade 4 (age 9-10):  If you begin with Waldorf this year, you will want to be certain you fully understand the man/animal main lesson as this will give you a foundation of what is to come in the upper elementary grades.  You may also consider some drawing classes or our block crayon DVD.  For this year's bundle we recommend: e-books of our Grade 4 curriculum and our Math book, A Journey downloads, Planning DVDs, and Form Drawing DVDs.  $90

Grade 5 Geometry drawing

Grade 5 (age 10-11):  You should consider doing the 4th grade man/animal lesson block before the botany block.  Be sure not to skip form drawing and geometry.  The fifth grade bundle includes: Grade 5 curriculum and Math both e-books, A Journey downloads, Planning DVDs, Form Drawing DVDs, and Geometry e-book & DVDs. $120

Example of grade 6 map drawing

Grade 6 (age 11-12):  This year will start off great if you have a good understanding of the history covered in grade five through ancient cultures.  Take the time to understand the time periods and the geography.  Spend time covering zoology and botany.  The bundle for this grade includes: Grade 6 curriculum e-book, A Journey downloads, Planning DVDs, Form Drawing DVDs, and Geometry DVDs. $97

**Although I didn't bundle our Block Crayon DVD for the upper elementary grades, it can be a great tool for you as a resource on learning how to make beautiful chalk board drawings - the processes are very similar.  Also, while I did not mention it in each grade, handwork is an important part of Waldorf education.  We have many handwork supplies in our shop.

From grade seven through high school, Waldorf can be a bit trickier to integrate.  My best suggestion is to go through the base history curriculum to be sure your child has a good understanding of the work and how we got to where we are as a society.  Be sure to cover the sciences in depth. 

Remember that Waldorf is about allowing the child to develop through age-appropriate material and activities.  Stand back and watch them blossom - do not be in a hurry.  Be sure to take the time to plan and understand the material for yourself.  You can do it!  Welcome to Waldorf!

Blessings.

Melisa Nielsen

OCTOBER RADIO SHOWS: Coming to Waldorf Late

Now that the school year has started, are you panicked?  Are you new to Waldorf and thought you had everything in order only to realize that there are so many things yet to learn?  Perhaps you are considering taking your child out of school to homeschool with the Waldorf method and you don't know how you will catch up. 

Take a breath and rest easy - this show is for you.  Now is not the time to worry but to become resolute.  This show will help you know what to focus on.  The scope of part one is grades one through three.  

Past radio shows that might interest you if you are coming to Waldorf homeschooling late are our shows on planning, inner work and the grades.  You might also be interested in our Planning DVDs or A Journey Audio Series.

Late in the show, we discussed chapter six of "Rhythms of Learning" by Roberto Trostli.  This chapter covers the upper elementary years, grades five through eight.  On October 19th, we will discuss chapter 7...the high school years.

Part two will air live on Monday, October 19th at 8:00 am EST and will cover grades four and up.

Show sponsor: Home Music Making

The show can be downloaded HERE

Hold back? Move ahead?

I recently had a chat with a mom new to Waldorf.  She has older children and was worried about the placement of her daughter in grade six.  She was worried about the fact that she wasn't up to speed with her math or writing, and questioned if her daughter should go back to grade five or even four to get the entire curriculum.

This is a good question and one that I get often.  I assured her that Waldorf education is so different than anything else whether in the homeschool or public school arena.  With Waldorf, you can keep a child at grade level developmentally and work independently on their other skills.  The method of presenting subjects and the sequence of presenting them is directly in line with the development of the each child's being.  A child of 12 years could be studying Rome (grade six) and understanding the concepts and stories while working to strengthen their writing and math skills of previous years.  It is as much a journey for them as it is for us.  We must remember that educating a child in this method is an art, and that as a parent-teacher we are refining and as we refine ourselves the children will come along.  Sometimes we notice that there might be an imbalance in skills so along comes the next main lesson block and a perfect opportunity to strengthen them.  Teaching in lesson blocks allows us to spend concentrated time to grow each area and then let it sleep for a while to work on something else.

There have been many times when I began to get frustrated with the level that one of my children was working at only to meditate and decide that it should go to sleep for a while.  Every time we have encouraged this "sleeping" it has paid off.  They always come back with renewed strength to dig back in. 

After about grade four, it is appropriate to do daily math practice (outside of a math main lesson) via 5-10 math problems per day - not new material, just problems that keep their skills active.

There is no substitution for prayer, meditation and planning when it comes to homeschooling with Waldorf or any method.  Take the time, you will be glad you did.

Many blessings.

Melisa & Erik Nielsen
www.alittlegardenflower.com

Busy Shop Gnomes

While we have been busy getting settled into the new school year, the little gnomes have been tinkering in our shop.  Take a peek at the goodies they have added:

Homeschool Planning Webinar - Join Melisa for nearly four hours of instruction as she details how to plan for and teach grades one through six of the Waldorf homeschool curriculum.  Some important topics covered are working with multiple children, how to present a lesson on the board, and how to put her curriculum into action.  Whether you are new to Waldorf or a veteran homeschooler, there are sure to be tips and tricks to help make teaching easier.  The set comes packaged in a sturdy case, and will make an excellent addition to your resource library.  Three DVD's for just $15.  Grab your copy today!

HomeMusicMaking Products - We're happy to offer a full selection of products from music teacher, Jodie Mesler.  With the traditional tin penny whistle, you can recreate the music on her CD or use it for soothing background music or take up her beginner's music curriculum.  The curriculum is geared towards the grade one parent and child, but can be used by anyone just learning to play an instrument.  Jodie's products are a cost-effective and simple solution to music instruction.

 

We'll keep you posted on the gnomes' work at A Little Garden Flower.  Until next time, blessings on your journey.

 

Melisa & Erik Nielsen

Ebook Sampler

A note to our loyal friends and customers:

Our bestselling E-book Curriculum Sampler will be discontinued this Wednesday, and I want to take this opportunity to let you know.  If you have been thinking about purchasing multiple grades or using our curriculum throughout your homeschooling years, don't delay.  This is your last chance to grab this deal!

The e-book sampler and downloads shouldn't even be called a sampler.  It includes full versions of nearly all of our books to-date plus our homeschool planner and some of our audio downloads.  This is an excellent opportunity increase your knowledge of Waldorf while being prepared for future grades.  Each curriculum contains complete monthly and weekly lesson plans, as well as, supporting information, stories, background on Anthroposophy and festivals, and articles by homeschooling parents.  The day planner has weekly at-a-glance sections, festival and seasonal information, other items to deepen your journey.  Before the Journey and the kindergarten book are not a curriculum but an inspiration for living in a healthy rhythm with your growing preschool and kindergartner.  The audio series covers topics of interest for parents such as relationships, child development, parenting, and homeschooling.  The e-books are in pdf format, and the audio downloads are in mp3 format.

You'll get all of this with your E-Book Curriculum Sampler:
My Journey Day Planner
Before the Journey
A Journey... Kindergarten
A Journey... Grade 1
A Journey... Grade 2
A Journey... Grade 3
A Journey... Grade 4
A Journey... Grade 5 
A Journey... Grade 6
A Journey... Math for Grades 1 through 5
A Journey Audio Series

Don't miss out on this amazing chance to have a full Waldorf homeschool library through grade six for a fraction of the cost of buying the items separately!  Be sure to watch our store for the addition of new curriculum, school and art products in the coming months.  We have many exciting things in store for you!

Visit our store for more details.  The cost for the above is $175.

*This product will be available in our store through Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 12:00 am MST.  Please save all files to your computer or a CD upon receipt as they will only be accessible for a short time.  E-books are not to be resold in any form and are only intended for use by the original purchaser.  Unless you are an overseas shopper, please do not print e-books in their entirety as they are meant to be an environmentally-friendly way to purchase and enjoy our products.  While we support the reselling and recycling of our printed products, reselling e-books violates our policies and copyrights.

Back to School Sale!

It's that time... you see school supplies and backpacks in every store... well we don't have backpacks but we do have a sale!  AND a new book too!

First the sale:
10% off our store from now until July 31st.  The coupon code is school2009. 

Now the book:
We just finished our geometry book and we think you will love it!  This project has been so much fun!  Here's the description from our store:
A Journey through Waldorf Geometry is a simple addition to your math program for grades 5, 6 and 7. With 12 or more lessons for each block plus suggestions for additional activities, you will have everything you need to confidently present geometry lessons to your fifth through seventh grader. The detailed instructions with accompanying illustrations will help even the most math-phobic parent implement the lessons.

This set includes a CD and two DVDs. The ebook is on the CD and individual pages can be printed if needed. The DVDs contains video demonstrations for you of all of the base constructions both on the chalkboard and on paper. In addition, each lesson in the book has step-by-step photos. Some of the constructions you will learn are hexagons, octagons, equiangular spirals, nested octagons, and many more.

Never fear - geometry made simple is here!

Other great things are happening too!  We hired more staff - we are really so excited about this.  We know it will decrease shipping times and get things into your hands faster than ever!  We have hired Tammy, Manager of Operations to over see our Idaho warehouse and get things whipped into shape!  We also have Betsie joining us as our Director of Marketing.  Both ladies are wonderful Waldorf mamas who have both older kids and younger ones, they know Waldorf and they are committed to helping us grow so we can continue to bring you great resources for your journey. 

Now go!  Shop... and then enjoy your summer some more! *wink* 
Blessings!

Our Ebook Sampler

Hi all!  I was trying to think of what to spotlight today in our market.  I have spent time meditating on the needs of our customers (both present and future) – one thing that keeps coming to mind is cost.  I get several emails a week from families we work with appreciating that we have a lower cost ebook option for our curriculum.  Many people don’t realize that our ebooks are just like our hard copy books only they are electronic so while saving on printing costs they are also very eco friendly.

 

The wheels of change are starting to move but I am still hearing tales of lay offs, foreclosures and hour reductions.  We want to make sure that you never have to make a choice between curriculum and eating!  And I also don’t ever want families to have to make choices between buying new supplies or not because they have to spend a lot on curriculum.  We aim to make our product very complete with day by day schedules through the grades and plenty of support for both the new Waldorf parent and the seasoned one as well.

 

We have some great options for families that are teaching several grades – our best option is our Ebook Sampler.  The Sampleris chock full of great tools for your journey including: ebook copies of all our books – “Before the Journey” through “A Journey… Grade 6,”  “A Journey through Waldorf Math,”  also a link to our day planner (great to get started on your planning!) – the bonus with the sampler is that you also get a link to our audio series, you can load them to your MP3 player or burn them to a disc, either way you can maximize your study time as a busy mom.  This sampler is well priced at $175 – now that is cheaper than many companies charge for just one year!  Remember you always have free access to support through our egroup, main lesson blog, our You Tube channel and our radio show as well.

Did you know our math book was finished?

It's been out for a few weeks now and the reviews have surprised and delighted us!  You can purchase it through our store - want to read about it?

This is a customer review:

Melisa, I have to say I am amazed with this math book you wrote.
 
I have the ebook, which I printed out last night.  My hubby took it to zip-print this afternoon and had it spiral bound and a hard cover put on the front and back (cost less than $3.50) for me, and I have been reading through it for the past 4 hours.   
I am simply amazed with all of the stories, ideas, ways to present things to kids, examples, drawings, diagrams, etc... that are in here.
 
For everyone else on this group (Melisa already knows), I've loved waldorf since she introduced it to me years ago.  I try to keep our schooling as "waldorfy" as I can.
 
EXCEPT
 
for math.  :(
 
To be honest, I just didn't understand how to start and continue through all of the elementary grades with stories and math gnomes and such.  And I CAN NOT make up all of those cute little stories on my own.  I just can't.  lol.  Melisa tells me all the time I CAN, but I beg to differ.  It is a talent, one I truly don't have.
 
However, this math book is the answer to my prayers.  Melisa has literally put a story or idea for every concept and then some in this book.  I'm guessing there are hundreds of stories and ideas here.  I'm not going to count, I just know there are lots and lots.  I haven't seen the companion cd yet, but I'm sure it's also filled with many wonderful things.
 
Anyway, Melisa....I' m making it official.  I'm tossing the workbooks.  All of them.  They will be in the trash tonight or on ebay tomorrow.  And YOU, Melisa, know how much your book means to me if I can finally do that. 
 
I probably could have just told Melisa my thoughts in person or on the phone or something, but I thought it might be helpful for someone else to read how I have felt about waldorf math and how I finally feel like a weight has been taken off my shoulders. 

Tammy Sher

Another in depth review:  Lovey's review

Our review of the book can be seen here: our review

Blessings!

Autumn showers... aka the last of the pumpkin gnome tales or Gnomes Thanksgiving

Ever wonder what the gnomes do for their Thanksgiving (or late harvest) festival?  Well they like to sneak out and find the last of the big orange pumpkins and drag them back to the mushroom doorway and down the steps to the grand hall and all the gnomes take pieces of it to cook.  Why do they cook it? because they love pumpkin pie.  So while some of the gnomes drag the pumpkin into the hall, others are out tracking down pasture cattle to milk them so they can have cream for whipping cream. (Mom do you see where this is going?)

Stories like these are easy kindergarten tales and also great filler stories during the holidays when perhaps your lessons are thin.  We have been blessed with beautiful autumn weather this year and it has been the palette for some great autumn gnome stories in our home (we usually have wet heavy snow by now.)  Like our giant turnip story we had this story covering many things - we of course did writing and drawing, we also painted pumpkins, made beeswax pumpkins for the nature table and will roast a pumpkin tomorrow to use for pumpkin pie, bread and cookies - unless of course I lose my nerve to break up this giant thing sitting in my living room and use the stuff from a can instead!  Don't forget that you can extend this lesson for anyone working on farming - get some cream, make some of it into whipped cream for your pie and the rest into butter for your pumpkin bread!

A few recipes:

Pumpkin bread (can be halved)~
2 cups pumpkin
3 cups sucanat (or nasty old table sugar will work too!)
1 cup of water
1 cup of oil
3 eggs or egg replacer
3 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix wet, combine dry.  Combine the two together.  Pour into loaf pans and bake 60-70 minutes.  Cool 10-15 min, then remove from pans.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin pie ~
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree, canned or fresh
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or spices that make up pumpkin pie spice!)
1 tsp. flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup whipping cream
2 TBL water
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 pie shell

Combine pumpkin, sugar, salt, spices and flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add eggs, mix well.  Add cream, water, and vanilla, mix well.  Pour into pie shell, bake at 400 for 15 min. Then reduce heat to 350 and bake about 35 min. longer or until center is set.

This story worked out great for the handwork class I teach.  When using it for a painting story, layer the paper in circle yellow, then blue for the ground as it will turn to green, then circle red in a round shape to make the pumpkin, a little blue to make a green stem and voila!  An easy pumpkin for young ones (grade one-2) as it teaches blending.

Our beeswax pumpkins.  For more tips on beeswax, see the giant turnip story.

For writing practice, we adapted and borrowed a verse from Autumn by Wynstones Press -
"Autumn showers, autumn rain, wash the pumpkins clean again."

If you need more pumpkin action... listen to Jodie's great Pumpkin Pie song from Festivals, Family & Food.

Elleanor's lesson book.

 

Advent is coming... are you ready?