**PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE DISCUSSING GRADE 1 AND UP. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO KINDERGARTEN.**

Being attracted to Waldorf's beautiful lessons is a great place to fall in love, but then there is often a gap in translating that to our homes. It takes time and a great deal of practice. When our curriculum gives instruction to tell the story and draw/paint or model on day one and recall and summarize together on day two, what exactly does that mean? What is your planning part and how do you make that happen?

Let's break it down - first, this is NOT a replacement for proper planning, but consider this post a bit of a crash course.  What sets Waldorf apart is that it touches the WHOLE child.  The main lesson drawings are part of this WHOLE child approach.  This means that each main lesson touches the child: THINKING, FEELING and WILLING.  As part of your learning with Waldorf, it should be your goal to fully take in all that Waldorf is so you can bring it to your child....

Single mamas (and dads!) are very close to my heart.  I am talking mostly to divorced parents today. Being single has a completely different set of stress inducing frustrations.  Even if you are living on one income while married, there is generally that second person that can step up to the parenting plate and help - not so in single parent land.  Rather than this being a post on the nuts and bolts of single parent homeschooling, I want to focus on how you can take care of yourself and get back to a place of love.  Love has to be within us before it can be given to someone else. 

With all the divorces in our culture, I can only say one thing for certain... they are all different. All of them carry most of the same elements. Sadly amicable situations are NOT the norm.  The reality is that some co-parenting relationships are amicable for a time and volatile at others.  Do your best.  You can only work on you.

Working through your hurt...

Today we are going to tackle a two delicate issues...

1. Partnerships/marriages that came together because of a pregnancy.

2. Marriages that have somehow gotten so far off track that you are not in the same library, let alone the same book or on the same page.

First, while pregnancy outside of marriage used to be a taboo topic in society, today this scenario is fairly common place. Worldwide, there are more and more couples consciously deciding to have children without marrying  and those that come together after an unplanned pregnancy.  This can pose some interesting challenges in relationships and sometimes legal wrangling as well.

Marriage or not, realize that as you parent together and hopefully have a deep abiding love for each other, that this will be a daily, sometimes minute by minute undertaking.  You will have to be committed EVERYDAY, not just part of the time.  So if you didn't plan to stay with this person before you got pregnant you...

This encompasses more than just the dynamics between husbands and wives.  I work with same sex couples, couples that live together and are not married and also with single parents - what I find, is that the issues are the same.  The same dysfunction occurs and in turn the same beauty.  My aim will be to talk to all families without making too many generalizations. Please don't take my word as gospel truth, seek confirmation on your own.  Search, ponder and pray about your own relationships and your own connections.

This will not be an easy for some.  If you are struggling, it is likely that you will be upset with me at some point.  I want to say right now that it will never be my intent to make you sad or mad and if you do find yourself in that place, please step back and look deeper.  If I strike a cord there might be a reason. Also, if I say something that just doesn't resonate with you, skip that part and come back next time.

...

When my kids were little, cleaning needed to happen but it couldn't take all day. I thought I would share a bit on how I survived then.

Declutter.

Be simple.

So easy to say yet I know it isn't always easy to do. When my oldest was 5, we moved from a 2000 square foot house in Utah, to a 4000 square foot house in Idaho. Space doesn't help a ton, decluttering does! You still have to find a home for the stuff. Sure, that was a great house, I had a craft/sewing room, we had a guest room, a giant master... it didn't last. It was too much for me to handle, I felt like I was living too spread out and I didn't care to buy more furniture to fix it. Then we moved to a 1200 square foot 1900's house. I LOVED that house! That is the house that I remember doing the most cleaning - the most growing in. I spent some time in that house single after my divorce, before moving into a 600 square foot apartment. 

How do you do it? 

Be simple.

PLAN.  I know that is my answer to everything. I...

Boundaries are funny things.
We are constantly worrying about them.
Boundaries with our kids.
Boundaries with our parents
Boundaries with our in-laws.
Boundaries with neighbors. 
Boundaries are everywhere.  

I tend to spend a great deal of time talking about boundaries with the families we work with. Many of us live lives much different than the rest of our families and even some of our friends. We end up needing boundaries in order to keep our children on the path we have selected - it isn't always easy and we have to constantly evaluate if we can give in to that one episode of Sponge Bob at Grandma's or that candy bar with Uncle Joe or that video game with cousin Timmy. How do you stand up without being a beastie?

Sometimes boundary issues hit much closer. A few years back, I worked with a mom that was in a marriage that wasn't happy. She worried that she was past the point of no return. Her husband continually crossed boundaries and was verbally abusive. While this is...

Rhythm is more than just thinking about what you want to happen each day, it has underpinnings of the parents will development, cycles of the year and child development – all wrapped up in one.  To have a life that flows (for the most mart) and doesn’t feel chaotic or stressful, it takes us getting control what we can and knowing when to settle down and let the rest go.

Step One – evaluate how you want your life to FEEL. This step can’t be underestimated!  You have been walking through feeling chaos for some time, it can be an addicting way to live, going from one drama or crisis to the next.  Take the time to really examine how you feel and thinking about how you want your life to feel. This should take one-two days.  Take the time to write this out, sleep on it and then review what you have written.

Step Two – commit to doing what ever you have to.  How important is this thing called rhythm? How important is it to you to...

It doesn't really matter if you are falling back or springing forward, most of us have some sort of upset when the clocks change. If you are lucky enough to not have to change your time then carry on! The rest of us tend to suffer from something akin to jet lag.

If you didn't already have a rhythm in place, then give yourself a good week or two to adjust and then begin. Start with our posts here on rhythm, or come and join our Thinking Feeling Willing program for a good in depth study and successful management of your rhythm. 

Now if you have been coasting along and you have been keeping a pretty good rhythm, don't let the time change throw you off completely. Some things that really help me:

• Be kind to me!  I know that I will lose sleep no matter if I am springing forward or falling back so I really try to be kind to myself on the time change weekends. That means I make sure all my regular rhythmic things are in place - good bedtimes, menu for our meals, everyone's...