About
I am a stay at home, waldorf influenced homeschooling mother of one amazing 8 year old girl. We are vegetarians who live in the Carolinas. I am keeping this blog in order to share what we are doing with friends, journal our daily life, and share fun projects with others. I am always open to comments & ideas.
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1.
Wendy | November 3, 2008 at 5:16 am
Hi,
I love your crafts. I’m a gardening teacher and trying to figure a way to make easy crafts based on a nature theme. Can you help me figure out how to use old wool sweaters to
make little birds nests? We’ll put little acorns in them to sell.
2.
azuresage | November 4, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Wendy,
Thanks for your comment. I am thinking of how to make the sweater nests. If I can come up with anything I will do a post on it.
Jenn from nature nest
3.
Lisa | November 12, 2008 at 5:15 am
Hi Jenn, I am so thrilled to see you are homeschooling an only daughter. I just began this year with my five year old girl–eclectic but certainly waldorf inspired in the areas of nature, crafts, honoring the seasons and slow living. I would love to read any thoughts you have on homeschooling an only daughter. I am very happy with this choice, but I know no other homeschoolers with only children. Beautiful site, we are definitely doing Dinali next year!
4.
WendyZ | November 21, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Hello! I just discovered your blog and wanted to let you know it’s inspiring.
I am just learning about Waldorf education, but with my background in art and early childhood, I am loving this site.
Where in the Carolinas are you located? We are considering Emerson Waldorf School for our daughter.
Best wishes!
5.
Donna | January 26, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Hi! Just stumbled across your blog and think it is wonderful!I wish I had all day to just read through your posts..I will try when I can *wink!
I am homeschooling twin girls who are 6 and I live in SC! Where are you?? I am always trying to find some Waldorf neighbors…
You can email me offline if you wish.
Blessings!
Donna
6.
azuresage | January 27, 2009 at 3:03 am
Hi Donna,
It’s nice to hear from someone that is so close. I live in Conway, just outside of Myrtle Beach. Where are you located?
Jenn
7.
connie foster | February 5, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Hi
I am a waldorf trained class teacher who has decided to opt out of the confines of a school to homeschool my nine year old daughter, I happened across the website and it is wonderful! well Done! I will definitely be visiting it on a regular basis. One can feel a little isolated when homeschooling, particularly steiner inspired material, it is comforting to know there are other like-minded folks out there. So hello to all from a rainy South Africa.
Connie
8.
azuresage | February 7, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Thanks so much Connie for your comment. It’s comments like yours that let me know I am doing a good thing, and give me the confidence to continue.
9.
Jennifer Tan | February 26, 2009 at 9:28 am
Hi Jenn! I nominated you for a Tree of Happiness Award. I will be following your blog now, too! Please check out our blog when you get a chance.
–Jennifer
10.
minka | March 4, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Hi
i have just found your blog while looking for blackboard drawings. we live in very rural france and have one 9 year old and a new baby. Minka had always been in steiner school until we moved here and now im trying to teach her at home. there are no other waldorf families here and the local french think we are weird.
your blog is great very inspiring. i find it ironic that i am so reliant on the computer now for support, community and contact with chums, when i had perviously banned them from our home. hey ho – you live and learn.
catherine
11.
Jennifer | March 19, 2009 at 12:47 am
I love your blog, it is so beautiful and inspiring! I’d love to use some of your lessons next year for second grade, what resources do you recommend?
Thanks,
Jennifer
12.
Pauline Meek | March 30, 2009 at 8:44 am
Thank you for this wonerful site! – And my word, what a good mother you are – I just stuck mine in front of “Okey Doke” and “Postman Pat” for about 16 hours a day.
I’m a British Speech and Language Therapist and a lay Church Reader. I found your site when looking for something to do with young children for St George’s day. I had already exhauseted my own imagination – pupets, masks, shields, decorated biscuits, stained glass windows, dragon hunts, face painting etc and just wanted to find something abit more inspirational. I’m going to pinch your “Looby Loo” song and put a dragon in the title role – this is all I could find for this service, but ther is a ton of stuff that I can use at other times – what a wonderful resourse. I occasionally have ideas myself that might be useful to others,or find useful sites – is there any way I can add them to yours. or link sites.
Thank you again for your lovely, lovley site.
13.
hope | April 9, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I just found your blog and LOVE it!!! I am just getting started with Waldorf and live in North Carolina. It is hard to find like minded people here!!! Keep up the great work and I look forward to more inspiration from you in the future.
14.
audrey elwood | April 16, 2009 at 11:19 pm
i love your blog!
i’m so inspired!
thank you!!!
audrey
15.
Juliann | May 18, 2009 at 2:05 am
Wow! what a beatutiful blog that overflows with ideas and helpful info!!!
Thanks so much for your dedication and generosity to share this!
I am a mother to one amazing boy who now attends public school and I supplement him and teach handwork at his school.
Thanks again from hot North Florida!
16.
Tammy | June 18, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Hi and thank you so much for doing this website. I have been thinking of homeschooling for 2 years now. I think I finally have the gumption to do it. I have an eight year old boy. He will turn nine in Jan. I’ve been reading up on all these different homeschooling styles. Waldorf just keeps coming back to me. It just seem to fit. I’ve been trying to get organized and decide on curriculum. One thing that is a problem is $$$. Buying a package would be easier but it’s expensive. So, I’m still trying to figure out what to do and not be too stressed out our first year of homeschooling. Any suggestions?
17.
azuresage | June 19, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Hi Tammy,
Congrats on deciding to take the leap. You will not regret it. You will be exhausted, but you will reap many rewards. Getting started is the hardest part, but it does get easier. First I would join the waldorf home educators group on yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorfhomeeducators/ The message boards are helpful, and Ms. Marsha ( a waldorf teacher) will answer most questions. What is really helpful about this group is the file section. It has activities, how to lay out your year, painting, verses, grade by grade curriculum directives, and so much more that I can not even type about it all here. If money is tight I would just not buy a curriculum. Buy some key books, and use your library. Waldorf education is not a pre-fab method anyway. A curriculum in a waldorf school is developed for the students by the teacher based on the needs of his/her class. They all follow the developemental guidelines, but the teacher is where the curriculum comes from. Just make sure you can do handwork with him. This is so important, and so many moms are intimidated by it. This is basic stuff anyone can do. Kristie Karima Burns over at the earthschooling website also publishes and sells (in a digital format) a monthly curriculum that is pretty well set up & I think would be good for a beginning waldorf homeschooler. I think it is around $20 for a months lessons. She also offers annual & lifetime memberships. I hope this helps you, and if I can help in the future I will be glad to do so.
Love & light, Jenn
18.
Deborah Thalberg | June 26, 2009 at 2:25 am
Jenn,
again, what a beautiful and inspiring site you have! and i saw the link to Loveyland, so I will certainly be contacting her in Atlanta. I was so happy to find you at bi-lo today. I so enjoyed yours and Azure’s company. I hadn’t had a chance to talk with just the two of you before. You are inspiriational to me in beginning my homeschooling journey.
with blessings,
deborah
19.
debbi watts | July 26, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Hi there,
I am new to reading your blog. It is very inspiring and creative. Can you please tell me how to subscribe. I am having trouble finding the link on the blog.
Thank you!!
20.
azuresage | July 27, 2009 at 3:00 am
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for your comments. I like to hear from people. I am not sure how to subscribe. Belive it or not, I am not very tech savy. On the top, right side of my blog it has a gray button that says “blog info”. When I click on that it says “subscribe”. I’m not sure if you have to be logged into wordpress to see it. I am going to look into this further when I have a chance. Sorry I couldn’t give you a clearer answer.
Warmly, Jenn
21.
Mary Artemis | August 11, 2009 at 8:12 pm
It has just dawned on me how fantastic this is, like a seed for growth, heavenly in its multiplicity. Every women here is a seed.
I searched and found your instructions on making your own Main Lesson book. How lovely to find all these nice people. I am writing you from Greenwich/Stamford CT. And it is time to reach out to homeschool baby#4 who I gave birth to at the age of 46 in my living room. We come a long way, baby.
I am a Waldorf trained teacher yet feel like a neophyte. There is a first time for everything and I am also breaking out of the confines of the classroom. I somehow don’t believe children were meant to sit at a desk in a classroom for 6 hours.
I am stoked on FREEDOM! We will have it and take it and teach it and learn from it. How much smarter and richer our children will be from their learning. –Anyone near CT, NYC border, email me at maryartemis@optonline.net I would be happy to hear from anyone and would love to get together with another parent. My Athena has been raised without Broadcast TV (commercials & crap). It really does make a difference in your life to cut out that stuff. Thanks.
22.
Angelita Breiter | August 19, 2009 at 5:43 am
Hi. I just found your blog today. I am new to homeschooling and your blog is such an inspiration.
I was hoping to find out how your chalkboard is holding up? It is funny to find your blog the day after we made one pretty much exactly like yours, but instead of the masonite that I requested, my husband brought home thin plywood. We also screwed it to the wall (4′ x 8′) after we painted it, but it has warped badly. I am tempted to take it off and go get the masonite and try it again, but I am super curious if yours has warped or if it is still straight? I would love to hear back from you… Thanks!!
23.
Regina Mason | September 26, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Just found you by accident looking for some details for our curriculum prep this year! I wish you lived closer! I’ve got an 8 year old boy (last child home, 4 older sibs grown and gone), am a Waldorf teacher at home homeschooling, and fiber artist…..Just glad to “find you” online! Your pages are lovely. Regina Mason
24.
Regina Mason | September 26, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Still looking through your site, and found my dear friend Harmony Valley Homeschool! It is a small and beautiful world!
25.
Eric Z | October 10, 2009 at 1:47 am
Hello! What a beautiful and inspiring site. My wife and I homeschool our two sons of 5 & 7. I happened across this site as I have been searching out chalkboard chalk of all things. I have tried about 3 kinds and just can not get the colors to blend well and alot of them come right off of the board when we try to lay down a lot of background color. Your drawings are amazing. Please do tell what chalk you use and where one could obtain it. This site is definitely going into our favorites. Thank you!
26.
Sara Rivka | October 13, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Hi Jenn, I’m still getting hits from a few months ago when you linked to my paper medallion project. Now there are so many more projects that your readers would love, do visit the blog!
http://www.creativejewishmom.com
27.
Kerstin | October 25, 2009 at 2:46 am
Hello,
I’ve been reading your site for a week now, and I love it. Thank you for sharing it. I am a Waldorf-certified teacher, although I haven’t taught in a W school since leaving NJ, and I am impressed with your blackboard work – the forms, the drawings, the poems. It’s so nice to see all that again, and inspiring, too. It’s also comforting to see that you’re a mother of an only child, as I am. My four-year-old girl is not in either of the local (southern VT) start-up Waldorf schools because of the expense, but hopefully some day soon I can get her there. I stumbled upon your site because I was searching for new seasonal crafts for my after-school enrichment program, and I love your pumpkin seed mosaics! I will commence gutting pumpkins and dying their innards asap.
28.
Kim Bair | October 25, 2009 at 3:47 am
Your blog has been a godsend. Thank you for all of the time and effort in which you have so beautifully recorded your homeschooling experiences. I wanted to share that the Getty and Dubay Italic Handwriting Series from Portland State University has been real helpful. Her Waldorf teacher last year started the series in second grade and Rosa does 3-4 pages a week this year. And yes, my handwriting has improved considerably too.
29.
Jay Mohler | October 25, 2009 at 6:48 am
Jenn! I’m glad you found my website, and appreciate you kind comments. Please also note my facebook page where I post my latest work, and leave comments about making ojos etc. I even have started adding video about ojo making
You don’t have to be a facebook member to access the pages. Anyone can join as a *fan* and leave comments also.
Love and LIght,
Jay
30.
Jay Mohler | October 27, 2009 at 12:50 am
You were hoping for a workshop? Well, I am hoping for some students! see http://ojos-de-dios.com/workshop1.html
Jay
31.
azuresage | October 27, 2009 at 1:38 am
Yeah!!!!!!!!!! I’m very happy about this. I know a few other waldorf mamas who would love to learn a skill such as this also.
32.
Teri | October 30, 2009 at 5:37 am
Hello!
I am enjoying your blog very much! Your post in June describing a place value lesson (trees and the kingdom twins) referenced a place value game. Would you mind sharing that when you have time?
Thank you!
33.
azuresage | October 30, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I definitely will post about that very soon. I was thinking of pulling it back out so that we could review place value. I will post it next week.
34.
Jay Mohler | October 30, 2009 at 5:49 am
Come as a group, I love it! The mother of my 4 boys and I also home-schooled, out in California…..although in the end, the boys spent more time in the public school system then they spent being home-schooled. I’m a big believer in art lessons for all ages of children, as a major part of schooling, that’s for sure.
35.
Ann | November 3, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Thank you for sharing with us your amazing creativity and talent!!!
36.
Faith | November 18, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Hi Jenn, I am really enjoying your posts. I wanted more info on waldorf math stories and was excited to see your links to a few resources. I haven’t been able to track down an alternative link to the Nomowapa stories (the stated link is inactive). Do you know if they are anywhere else, in a book, reposted…?
Sincerely, Faith (homeschooling mommy of Jay, 10, Simonne, 8, Zachary, 5)
37.
azuresage | November 18, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Hi,
I found the new links to the math stories… http://ion.uwinnipeg.ca/~jameis/ this should take you to the main page, and from there you can go to the story corner.
Jenn
38.
Cathy | November 22, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Hi,
I am in New Zealand, and have recently started homeschooling my son (6) using Waldorf as our “backbone”. I love your chalkboard work. Do you use regular chalks or pastels? Do you have any good tips on this? I am fairly new to art (not much of it in my schooling!), and it is a big learning curve for me. I am only just starting to believe it is something I can do, and that my end products are “good enough”. Enjoying the process helps!
Blessings, and thank you for sharing your homeschool journey – I really do appreciate it!
Cathy
39.
azuresage | November 23, 2009 at 1:36 am
Hi Cathy,
Good for you for deciding to homeschool your son. The chalk I use varies. I sometimes use chalk pastels. They are inexpensive, easy to find, and some in so many beautiful colors. I also use regular chalk, and I have bought some of the chalks you see in waldorf supply shops. You really go through it when you use a chalkboard for homeschooling, so the waldorf chalks can get prohibitively expensive, and it is not as easy to keep it around since I would have to order it every time I run out of a particular color. The best tip I can give you is to work from the back to the front. Start with beautiful sweeps of color & build the picture up. Also, using the block crayons on paper is very similar to using chalks on a blackboard. If you can, get the book “coloring with block crayons”, there is also a dvd by the same title, but I do not have it, so I can not vouch for it’s value. This book will really help you learn, and then you can give that knowledge back to your son. What you learn from the book will directly apply to drawing on a chalkboard. Art IS something you can do. What does “not good enough” mean anyway? Not good enough for what? No matter how “good” someone gets they always have that feeling. There will always be someone better, but in your childs mind his mummy “is the very, very bestest artist in the whole world.” Good for you for being brave, and just doing it. The more you do it, the more you will grow. Being scared of failure is the single most unproductive, useless, human emotion I can think of. It robs us of so much. Also, if you are too good it may create those same feelings of “not good enough” in your son. It is good that your skill will grow along with your sons.
Love & light, Jenn