Often moms will say that their child doesn't like the review or refuses to do it and so they will let it go.

Let me back up... just which review am I talking about?  In general, we tell a story or discuss theory (for older children) then we do something active or artistic and then allow it to sleep for a night, then reviewing this the next day and including some sort of writing element.  While the whole process doesn't need to be story/draw/sleep/write/move on, there does need to be an element of review. 

This review can come in many forms and the artistic portion can come in many forms.  The early grades, 1st and second especially can seem repetitive if you don't change things up so maybe one week you really focus on drawing skills for your artistic development, another painting, another modeling or another baking - keeping these alive.  Don't forget the review!  I hear moms often say "It is like pulling teeth" or "once I start the review the tears come"  - I am not sure how things ...

"An Art of Education that is at the same time a cultural Therapy-this is what Rudolf Steiner has bequeathed to us. It is permeated with those Divine powers that are revealed, in Art, in their garb of Beauty. It leads to those sources of life whence health and healing flow to the growing human being. In this educational activity, as a member of the community of artists in life, the teacher may feel himself in all humility, to be priest and healer as well."

What a quote!  This comes from the article "Education as a Healing Agent" by Caroline von Heydebrand.

This is one of those gems. This article reminds me that this education was intended for all and that there are some wonderful WHYs behind the HOWs and WHENs.  This article confirms that the first schools worked with children that didn't fit the "perfect child" mold - this is something harder and harder to find among the younger schools in the movement.  I fear it is a sign of the times - the movement is growing and more and more tea...

I rarely use the word punishment with my children because with very rare exception, the consequence always fits the situation. i.e., not finishing school work timely will mean we will not have time at the park/friend's house, etc. so one directly affects the other. Even when they are small, keeping the boundary firm with that mindset of consequences helps you to not use a ton of words. Toddler hitting or hurting someone? Remove toddler. Preschooler won't clean up toys? Remove toys. I will say that not all children need the toys taken away so most will opt to help clean up.

Experiencing authority helps us to see commonality. This is just my take on it. I will preface this with my own experience. I have been asking God to help me understand people more... I need to be more careful what I ask for! I keep getting into very interesting and sometimes stressful learning situations! 

Case in point, our time in our community. We lived in co-housing. I understand that some co-housing is VERY g...

Well Mrs. Bossy Pants... how are you doing today? I can poke fun at Mrs. Bossy Pants, because she is my base temperament.  As I have gotten older, I have mellowed a LOT. However... back me up against the wall and I will become Mrs. Bossy Pants to protect myself!

Mrs. Bossy Pants generally likes to be in control... prefers complete control, but will settle for partial control if she must.  She doesn't often work well with other Mrs. Bossies unless the other ones are completely competent and know what they are doing.  Then this mama can kick back a bit because she can trust another leader.  Mrs. Bossy Pants probably started planning for the new school year at least six months early and if she didn't, she will make it a priority to take a weekend and get it done.  She knows how to get things done.  She is a doer.  Being a doer is a GREAT thing!  She loves check lists and gets glee in marking things finished.

Sometimes my parenting backfires.
Does that ever happen to you?
Do you ever just start talking and somehow the wrong words are coming out and you are not sure how to stop them? 
I don't need to be perfect to be a good mom. Neither do you.

An example of my resident phlegmatic, Super Sam. Asks for his piece of comfort. He would like a full belly and a good television show. (GASP! Yes, TV!) For the phlegmatic child, no amount of TV is generally enough. It isn't that they are lazy, it is that they seek comfort. Older phlegmatic children and adults will often want to curl up with a book or even a book on tape. As a mom with children of all temperaments, I have to say that the phlegmatic is probably the most calm, most pleasant, most even tempered child to parent. UNLESS. Unless you need to go somewhere. Unless you need them to hurry up. Unless you need them to eat their breakfast so you can get out the door. Unless you have to be across town in ten minutes and they can't find their shoes or worse they know where their shoes are but they haven't even started putting them on and you asked them to do it ten minutes ago and can't they see you are in a hurry?! Then they look up at you with the sweetest eyes and tears are welling ...

In our series Crafting a Healthy Home Rhythm, I discussed mental health as an important aspect of  having a healthy rhythm and home life for your family.  Temperament is part of that mental health.  Temperament isn't something that Steiner invented, although today his work and the work that goes with Waldorf education is probably the most popular use of it.  When we read about temperament, we are usually reading about it for the children.  Most resources are written for the teacher to apply in the classroom and therefore have us as parents focusing our work completely on the child's temperament.  I believe this is very backward. My guess is that in Waldorf teacher training, they spend some time on this part of adult biography in their foundation studies, so the literature that is written, often assumes that the the adult has done this work for themselves or is at the very least working on it. Most parents are not in this position and generally only come to temperament as a means of und...

Hopefully you have had a little time to contemplate how you want your home to feel.  Now lets talk a bit more about how to get it that way. One big hot button for me is the decline of morality in our society. Things that would have never been ok twenty years ago seem to be ok now and it spills over into our parenting.  

As our children are tiny (0-5) some of the best things we can do is just remove them from the situation - even if we don't want to leave.  I have left the store... restaurants... friend's homes... so many times, but I sent one message "your behavior isn't appropriate, we are leaving."  There is nothing more irritating than leaving a cart of groceries, lol... well there is something more irritating... a child that is out of control!  Sam  learned this lesson well, lol, he reminded the big kids as we walked into the grocery store "Mommy said I can have a pear on the way home, please don't get crazy or she won't buy the pear!" He was 5 years old and understood the rules.....

I remember the first time Erik met the big kids, a few months before we married. I just had Jacob and Ellie with me that day and they were 4 and 6 years old at the time.  Those two were a handful at those ages. I couldn't take my eyes off of them for a second, especially not Jacob and Ellie just followed him everywhere. The evening is still etched in my memory as if it were yesterday. Erik needed something at a big box store and then we had planned to take the children out to dinner at a pizza place that had one of those fun arcades. The entire dinner was contingent on me not needing to fight with the children or chasing them.  I made the rules very clear to them before walking into the big box store, I remember thinking in the back of my head that I loved this man and I really wanted him to see that the children were not nuts! lol. I was very nervous.  We entered the store and I gave my usual talk "if you walk by my side then you don't have to ride in the cart." Both children agreed t...