~ Corona Treasure Chest ~
Parent✶Child & Nursery
During these unusual and challenging times,
here is a treasure chest of developmental gems
to create a more harmonious and
enjoyable home life or classroom with the children.
~ Welcome Video ~
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions and comments as you're working through the materials! I look forward to hearing from you! Just email Lynn at: dancinghandsfrolickingvoices@gmail.com
Latest Updates!
~ Upcoming Live-streaming Zoom info and Instructional Videos ~
Wednesday January 26th ~ 7pm east, 4pm west US time zones
Saturday January 29th ~ noon east, 9am west
Tuesday February 1st ~ 6:30pm east, 3:30pm west
☙ Transitions ☙
From the moment your child wakes up until the moment they fall asleep, there are countless transitions throughout the day. These are often the times when challenges occur. Maybe the children don’t want to stop playing when it’s snack time. Or at bedtime, they make request after request, extending the bedtime routine and frustrating parents. With simple hand gesture, movement and touch plays at these transitional times, children cheerfully move on to the next activity.
Good Morning!
~ Before Dawn ~ Parent*Child & Nursery
This delightful play brings the picture of the rooster calling cock-a-doodle-doo and the rising sun. At last the children wake up too "and laugh and laugh and laugh, yoohoo!" All through the year we slowly introduce other farm animals. Each month we add another creature, except January there's no change. In February we add another creature and by April we have the entire barnyard!
Dancing Hand - Trotting Pony, by Wilma Ellersiek, page 153, is available in the WECAN online store.
For many more transitional plays:
Parents Corona Treasure Chest
These delightful plays bring seasonal fun for everyone!
Loving touch plays are calming and comforting.
Hand gesture plays bring rhythm, rhyme and great joy!
Moving together heightens the child’s awareness of themselves and others.
Here are several possibilities for harmonious transitions.
☙ Parent Self-care ☙
In these times with many unknowns and the stress of daily adjusting to the changes required to keep everyone safe during this corona pandemic, it’s easy to forget about our own self-care. Yet, unless we are rested, nourished and supported ourselves, we will not be able to take care of our children and loved ones very well. Here are some resources and ideas that take just a few moments.
☙ Inspirational Music and Poetry ☙
Early Childhood Insights from Henry David Thoreau
“ I am struck by the fact that the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think that the same is true of human beings. We do not wish to see children precocious, making great strides in their early years like sprouts, producing a soft and perishable timber, but better if they expand slowly at first, as if contending with difficulties, and so are solidified and perfected. Such trees continue to expand with equal rapidity to extreme old age. “
Musical Meditation ~ Breathing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Poem by L.R. Knost
Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go . . . . Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you."
Music -
Drop Pebbles of Love on Spotify
Poem by Hafiz
☙ Articles and Websites ☙
☙ Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America
https://waldorfearlychildhood.org – here you will find the Wilma Ellersiek books with all the little plays on this page as well as wonderful support for these times in the online bookstore and parent articles section. Parenting, discipline, beautiful story books, song books and CDs, seasonal rhythms, daily rhythms and more.....
☙ Patrick Kennedy – Director of the Seminary of the Christian Community (facebook link)
"A Renewed Declaration:
We hold these truths to be our guiding star: That all human beings possess an inherent, sacred value and dignity and their equality in the eyes of the Creator must also be expressed in the law; that their very humanity is an endowment of the Universe - an original, creative spark that no one has the right to extinguish; that each human being is destined to be the lord of their own life in full liberty of mind, soul and body; and that our nation has the simple and holy task: to foster a society in which each individual human being can pursue what they believe will bring true fulfillment, something no one can force upon them from without."
☙ L.R. Knost - Editor of Holistic Parenting, Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting Resources
☙ Below is the link to an article about the corona pandemic from an anthroposophic point of view. This is a newsletter from Dr. Adam Blanning, an anthroposophical physician and lecturer from Denver, CO. Dr. Blanning is an inspiring and enlightening speaker who presents practical tips for parents and teachers. Below the article you’ll also see other offerings.
https://denvertherapies.com/looking-towards-the-recovery-stage-of-a-healing-crisis/
☙ Article - Your Current Situation Isn't Your final Destination
https://soulanalyse.com/2017/0