The Gnomes Home

October 5th Show: Developing the Will

If you missed today's radio show at the Gnome's Home then you missed a good one!  This really is an important topic.  For those of you who are following our inner work series on our main blog, this information will help bring it all together; for those who are coming to this new, you'll want to go do the inner work series.  This topic is wonderfully transformative, and I encourage you to listen to the show then read some of the resources below each of them comes from the Waldorf Online Library).

Education of the Will as the Wellspring of Morality by Michaela Glockler, MD

The Research Institute for Waldorf Education Progress Report (Great information about the will and also fun other things.)

Education of the Will in the Crafts Lesson

Felting as Handwork in Early Childhood

On the Real Nature of the Will and the Child

Don't forget that we sell handwork supplies in our shop at A Little Garden Flower.  Knitting, felting, needle felting, painting, modeling, and drawing are all great tools for building the will in your child and yourself.

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I'll close with a thought from Steiner:

"Never will a person's will - nor as a result a person's character - develop in a healthy way, if one cannot during this period of childhood receive religious impulses deep into the soul.  How people feel their place and part in the universal whole will be expressed in the unity of their life of will. If they do not feel linked with strong bonds to a divine-spiritual, their will and character must remain uncertain, divided, and unsound."

September 21st Show: Integrating Waldorf

Today's show focused on integrating Waldorf.  Most people have a stereotypical purist in mind when they set their Waldorf standard.  On today's show, I worked to help you overcome that standard by talking about what the heart of Waldorf is and how you can make it work no matter where you are on the journey or your circumstances.

I shared this verse by Elsa Beskow, from her book "Around the Year":

"Dear apple on your branch
please fall into my hat
for if I take you off the tree,
they'll not be pleased with that!"

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Our next show is October 5th and the topic is developing the will.  We will continue to discuss "Rhythms of Learning" by Roberto Trostli.  We had some requests to revisit chapter 5.  Send us your ideas and questions to discuss on air waldorfessentials@gmail.com.  Otherwise... I'll just pick my favorite parts!

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I want to again thank everyone who has helped us with the radio show.  We really enjoy putting it together.

From our home to yours...

Melisa & Erik Nielsen
Owners, A Little Garden Flower

Sept 14th Show: Michaelmas & Inner Work

If you missed today's show then be sure to go download it.  You missed a lot.  In an hour, we talked about inner work and the fall festivals.  Below are some things I promised to share.

Download our simple festival planner (available in PDF format).

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Next week we will discuss chapter 6 of "Rhythms of Learning" by Roberto Trostli through page 231.

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Today's verse is from "In the Light of a Child" by Michael Hedley Burton:
In striving forth toward the goal,
I feel new firmness in my soul.
The I-of-God in knowing sight
Fills all my will with gleaming light.

And in these hidden depths, this radiant glow,
By bringing light to darkness, makes the good fruit grow.

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Great book for festival planning: "Festivals, Family, and Food" by Diana Carey and Judy Large.

Another favorite resource: "The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book" by Lisa Hildreth & Jo Valens.  This is my favorite bread recipe from their book:
2 cups very warm water
1 large spoonful of honey
1 T. yeast
flour
1 t. salt

Bake at 350 for 20 min.  Use standard bread practices, it will come out YUM!

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Steiner's Six Basic Exercises.  These are great, I have used them for years.
1. Differentiate in meditation between essentials and inessentials.
2. Initiative - one act each day, same time for two weeks.
3. Equanimity - holding back expression of emotions to help us find perspective.
4. Positivity - find something positive in every situation.
5. Freedom from bias - develop in oneself the feeling of approaching every new experience totally without prejudice - be ready to accept a totally new experience.
6. Persistence.  Practice the above.

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Next week's show on Sept. 21st will focus on integrating Waldorf into your life.  This applies to many situations such as:

• Waldorf with only some of your kids at home;
• Waldorf with a charter (homeschool and sending them);
• Waldorf while public schooling;
• read world Waldorf - TV, video games... all that 'TABOO' stuff.

Sept. 7th Show

Thank you for joining us for our first show broadcast at our new home at Blog Talk Radio.  As promised, here are the verses we shared on the air:

Anyway 

by Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Also we shared our morning verse that we start school off with each day:

There lives in me an image
of all God wants for me
until I have become it
my heart can not be free.

This is a Steiner verse that has taken on many forms in our home over the years, words changed to fit our needs. 

September 7th's show is available for download at our station.

From our home to yours...

Melisa & Erik Nielsen
Owners
A Little Garden Flower & Gnomes Home Radio
www.alittlegardenflower.com

Gnomes Home Radio Show

For the past few months, we have been working on a solution for The Gnomes Home radio that is both user-friendly and family-friendly.  To keep the radio show free for listeners, we have tested out a few different sites but in doing so we had to compromise on standards.  We have decided that is just not how we want the show run.  We want an environment that works for the live listener and also someone coming back for archives.  To achieve these goals, we have partnered with BlogTalk Radio to give you the best internet radio experience possible.  

One of the benefits of our new home is that there is a permanent call-in number for listeners to ask a question on the air.  Another advantage is the ability to have guests on the show who live in different cities.  We are also working on one more bonus we think you will really like - you will eventually be able to download episodes as podcasts through iTunes.  We feel like these will greatly increase your enjoyment of the show, as well as, make it easier to access.

 

In order to make it possible for us to continue to bring this show to you, we are asking for your assistance.  A $5 contribution by each listener will help offset the charges incurred for hosting The Gnomes Home radio through BlogTalkRadio.  We will make the radio show available to you as long as it is financially viable for us.  We depend on you, the Waldorf community, for support and in return we give back with services such as this, blogging, video tutorials, webinars, and an online forum.  We want Waldorf homeschooling to be accessible to everyone.  Please let us know if you have a request for a show topic.

You can make a donation to the Gnomes Home Radio by visiting our store.

Additionally, to offset the cost of utilizing the site for our station we will be accepting sponsorships from businesses or community groups.  We are offering 10 introductory spots at $10 each.  After that, the cost will be $25 per sponsorship slot.  One paid sponsorship spot entitles your business or group to two "commercials" per show, as well as, a linked listing at the Gnomes Home Radio station on Blog Talk Radio and our radio show blog.  Sponsors which are relevant to the theme of a show will be given priority. You can purchase the sponsorships from our store as well.

To celebrate our new home, we will be loading some of our favorite shows this weekend.  You can log in Saturday beginning at 10am MST to listen to shows and view the scheduled line up.  You will also be able to download them to your computer and listen to them at your leisure.  On Monday, September 7th, we'll broadcast our first show from our new home.  The topic is "The First Weeks of School."  Don't forget our book study on "Rhythms of Learning" by Roberto Trostli.  We'll be chatting about chapter  4 in the second part of Monday's show.  Be sure to tune in Monday morning at 6 am MST.  You will need to sign up for an account with Blog Talk Radio to access the show and all of it's features like live chat and calling in.  

Bookmark our new station page at:

www.blogtalkradio.com/alittlegardenflower

Access to the Gnomes Home archives will change as we move to our new home.  At any given time, there will be several recent shows available for download at the Gnomes Home Radio station.  All other episodes will be available for download for $2.  You can visit our store to purchase the shows and a link will be sent for you to then download them.  They will be available in mp3 format.

Be sure to visit Blog Talk Radio this weekend to get registered so you are able to listen on Monday!  Just go to their website and sign up for an account, it is free.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com

We look forward to sharing this new route on the journey with you!

Blessings,

Melisa & Erik Nielsen

Owners, A Little Garden Flower & Gnomes Home Radio

www.ALittleGardenFlower.com

Confidence & Support

What do you do when others ask what Waldorf education is or when someone challenges your choice to homeschool?  The August 24th show covers how to talk to people about being a Waldorf homeschooler.  What to do with naysayers and the infamous 'bag of poo'.  

To buy this show visit our store.

We'll be back on Monday, September 7th with a new show!  Be sure to tune in.

Monday's show

Tomorrow's show:

When: Monday, August 24th 6am Mountain Time
Where: livevideo.com/alittlegardenflower
How long: about an hour
Topic: relationships - all kinds - with mom, MIL, family, spouse... and how it can have an affect on your homeschooling, what you can do to insulate yourself and still be a beacon for your child and family.

This will be the last show until September 7th.  We are soaking up the last of the rays on this end - dipping our toes in the lake and river as much as we can for a couple more weeks before we get to our regular rhythm. 

September 7th's show topic is: the first days back... how will it go? if you are back, how did it go?

Blessings to all. 

Melisa Nielsen

Planning part 3

Last week's show on planning is available in our store.

Part 2 on Planning!

Today's continued discussion of planning is ready for download from our store.

I hope you enjoy it! 

Also, if you are in planning mode and need some help from a little day planner, check out our Waldorf homeschooling planner ebook.  I recommend the ebook version because you can use it over and over in your school planning and life management.

Blessings!

Recent shows

We've got two shows available for you this week in our store.  This week's show is the first in a series of planning shows and the other is a show from June on handwork.