Blog confusion

Blog confusion is an invented 21st century problem. But here is what happened. Yesterday, another 21st century problem, my iPad was almost running out. Like 3% left. So i had no digital camera, cos it's not reading the memory card, another 21st century problem, i had taken all my pixes on the iPad and wanted to update the class blog. So i uploaded the photos to the blog, but to the WRONG blog. Hence, all the school photos from yesterday are now on this blog. But then i thought, that ain't such a bad thing. Well anyway, here they are. It's nice for my family to also see the school photos. In fact at this stage they are more interesting cos they get to Skype with me everyday. So my mug ain't as interesting any longer and i do not have any excuses to post selfies of myself any longer on this blog.

This is a half finished board drawing of St Catherine which i will be doing next week

St Catherine is a warning to women who are too smart... I was actually a bit infuriated when i researched it. Worse still, St Catherine of Alexandria was one of the most important medieval saints of her time. I sometimes think, imagine i am a girl in the medieval ages and i hear stories of women who are highly accomplished ending up being martyered.

The poor girl just wanted to be left alone in peace to study. But the Roman Emperor wanted to marry her. Being from a noble family and all she was under pressure to get married. So she said, i will only marry the man smarter than i am. And that would be Jesus. And since there wasn't any dude, apart from Jesus, who smarter than she was, so they tied her to a wheel and set fire to her as they rolled her down a hill. Hence, Catherine Wheel. Hmmm...

Of course we do not tell the terrible bit of the story. It will be told in such a way that the virtues of the saint, in this case diligence and being pure of heart are emphasised. We think we live in terrible times. When i read the lives of the saints and watch documentaries on medieval Europe, i think, man we have it too easy really. What a bunch of crazies. The danger is that we could return to that fundamentalism at any stage. Let that be a lesson to us. We are all capable of it. Inside all of us is a crazy extremist waiting to run free.

So in that spirit, the stories about the saints and the bible are never told as religious stories. They are really a progression from out of the world of childhood and fairytales to the world of history and fact which takes about four years in the Steiner curriculum. Children are encouraged to retain the connection for as long as they can, and then when it is time for them to leave, that passage is also done thoughtfully through not just stories but activity as well. In this the curriculum supports the child into a world which may well be uncertain, but it also shows that as human beings we are also able to take hold of our destinies and do something about it. In a positive way. There is no subject called 'character building' in the Waldorf curriculum. It is inherent in the curriculum. Whether the children end up doing so is anyone's guess, but then they have the choice, rather than have nothing at all.

One of the funniest questions i had this week was, did the saints ever get married and did they marry each other? Yes i said, they did get married. Which saints where those? I could not think of those saints off the top of my head. The temptation to say that saints married martyrs was quite strong i have to say, that would be known as a codependent relationship, but i did resist.

Here is a lovely wee chalk board from Class One
They are doing the alphabet

Our gorgeous school grounds

If you are EVER in doubt about what invasive species are good for, the answer is clear: they are good for making tree shelters which children can play in. Through all of winter and the first half of spring, parents and classes have been gardening in the school and slowly transforming the grounds to what must be the most loveliest grounds which i think are the right balance between order and chaos. I cannot bear those overclipped places where nothing can breathe, but too much overgrowth means that wonderul shrubs and trees are strangled and not given their full potential. Whether by design or happy accident, the trees in the school grounds have become so perfect for children playing in them. Sadly the insurance will not allow us to let children climb trees (i know how stupid is that?), but they can still swing from them. Class Two, working hard with saws and seceutars, an important part of the Steiner education is that children, when they are old enough, use real equipment because they are doing real work, not pretend work, gave these shrubs a good going over. I give the class a lesson on how to use the tools and then they use it while i supervise them. There are only seven of us, and whether i have been blessed with children from families who use toold all the time i do not know, but they take to it like a duck to water.

The result, natural climbing frames and a real life Selfish Giant's garden created.

The swing rope in kindergarten

The kindergarten has a playground all of its own which takes in the woodlands around the school. Fallen trees, thanks to the diligence and kindness of parents, have become beautiful play areas the children can climb and run around in. Honestly, it is ridiculously idyllic. I think that if i was a child my memories of being in school would be so much richer because i had the chance to be surrounded by all this astonishing nature. Each school also has its own gardens attached, where vegetables and flowers are grown.

The Middle and Upper School building

The far end of the woods

Kindergarden and the path leading to the 'Forbiddens'

This week our water colour was Francis and the birds

Learning to make brown from orange and green

Easter eggs and rabbits

The poem from this week's trip to Downpatrick

Lovely cursive writing about the spring

Children have such differing levels of abilities

In one of our seminars we were asked, what do human beings need the most? The answer was they need most to be acknowledged. When they are younger they need someone else to do this for them - when older, hopefully they will learn how to do this themselves. That must be one of the most important things a teacher does. Acknowledge what the children have done. We do not 'praise' children by saying everything is beautiful or lovely - we say it was very good the way you have made that curve on the crook so well. Or you remembered to include the background. The apples on the trees let me know what kind of tree it is. You find something good to say about everything, but it must be legitimate. Because children, like most people, will soon find these general motherhood statements of goodness and beauty meaningless.