We are very excited about our upcoming homeschooling classes in Davis, CA! Winter term begins January 26, 2016. Registration is available online at www.wholisticlearningresources.net.
We also travel and teach workshops for homeschooling groups, parents and teachers! Contact us for more information on scheduling workshops near you.
We are very fortunate to coordinate and teach at the Davis Waldorf School Summergarden Camp in Davis, California. This summer was our 4th year. Children entering grades 2-6 attended for one-week sessions. Older students could attend as Jr. Counselors. We have highly qualified teachers for handwork, gardening and cooking, and a host of amazing high school and college volunteers who help the program run smoothly. Children come to us from the Davis Waldorf Schools, and also from the local public schools, Waldorf schools from other cities and states, and homeschooling families. Some families travel from afar and stay in Davis for a week or more on vacation while their children attend camp.
Children rotate each day through the kitchen, garden and handwork room/woodworking area. The calendar provides breathing in (learning) and breathing out (playing) times throughout the day. Gardening includes planting, harvesting, weeding, composting, learning about herbs, and garden crafts.
Week 3 - Wood Toy Boxes, Flower Essences, Herbal Cheese
Children help prepare their own snack and lunch made mostly from local and organic ingredients. This summer, we were fortunate to have produce from Good Hummus Farm in nearby Capay Valley. Live musicians perform for the children during lunch once per week (harp, guitar, fiddlers, flute, clarinet). A beautiful aftercare program is available for children who want to stay longer than 1pm each day.
Each morning starts with circle time: Good morning song, gardening song, yoga stretches, summer song. Each learning session includes an opening and closing verse. Eating times begin with a meal verse. By the end of the week, children learn 8 verses and 3-5 songs. Children watercolor paint a cover for their journals which includes the week's recipes, songs, verses, and drawings.
Summergarden 2015 information will be on the website around February, 2015!
So fortunate to have incredible teachers -- Jennifer Tan, Par Duncan, Bill Critchfield, Robyn Wolfe, Jan Plotkin, Dahlia Haberman, Hue Thao, and Aftercare providers Karen Hansen-Downey and Misty DeGennaro
Below is a photo album that we created featuring our 5 weeks of summer camp adventures!
We love doing handwork projects as a family! Our new eBook was written to inspire families to create beautiful handwork projects as a family at home. Available in our Etsy shop.
Our eBook contains instructions and colorful photos for four projects: 1. Knitted gnome and bed 2. Crochet/Knit Baby Blanket 3. Natural Silk Gift Wrapping 4. Handspun Woven Table Runner
Information about supplies, planning, importance of family handwork and resources included. 18 pages. This listing is for one digital copy that is in pdf format. Upon purchase, you will be able to download it directly through Etsy. eBook is for your own personal family use, only. Schools and co-op groups may email us for information on a custom listing for their organization.
Need some ideas for handwork projects at home? Our seasonal handwork eBooks are available through Little Acorn Learning. Each one features a variety of handwork, verses and pictures.
Jennifer had the great fortune of attending a handcrafts conference at Steiner College in Fair Oaks, CA this past week called "Recreating the Human Vessel: Educating through Rhythm and Craft." The conference featured staff from Ruskin Mill Educational Trust in England (please take a moment to see what their amazing colleges offer). Woodworking, iron forging, soap making and felting all occured throughout the week, along with in-depth lectures by Dennis Klocek, William Bento and Aongus Gordon, and a vibrant Movement class!
The felting group started off the week by observing sheep on campus. We teased apart fresh (unclean!) wool and made felted balls.
A trek through Raphael Garden revealed lovely flowers for dyeing. Using weld, indigo, cochineal, chamomile from England and coreopsis, we dyed up a rainbow of colors with our wool.
Felting pictures was an experiment in color and design, layering bits of brown or white wool on the bottom, and continuing with layers of color to form an image.
Then, it was time to do feltwork in 3-D! Wool slippers were created by tracing feet for a template, cutting a piece of plastic, laying wool on both sides of the plastic, wet-felting, cutting open...then, voila! Slippers were turned right-side out, and the design that was created in the first layer was revealed.
Wet, soapy slippers were massaged onto feet. What a treat! Molding and shaping continued with hands, and then fine details were needlefelted.
Here are some pictures of woodworking, iron forging and soap making....
The felting group had a little extra time and wool left, so each person felted a handprint, and then felted the hands into a large vessel (thus the theme of the conference!), complete with a lid. The vessel was presented to the wonderful felting teacher, Marianne van der Tas, on the last day for her birthday.
The final plenum was filled with sharing projects and insight about reflection topics of the week: challenge, effort, rhythm, gift and gold nuggets...the words were profound and the projects absolutely beautiful!
Jennifer then found out that she truly had become "the human vessel" at the end of the week...pregnant with baby #4, due in March, 2011!
