Thank you to parent, Julie Fields, for making this picture montage video of the Grade 8 students woodworking over Spring Break. The students have taken a log that was dropped in the field at school at the start of the school year and they are making chairs out of the log using nothing but hand tools and man powered machines. They will make enough chairs during the school year for each graduating child to sit on at graduation and take home with them.

Articles on Education Policy:

TED: Do Schools Kill Creativity? An update from Sir Ken on his popular talk.

Best Education In The World: Finland, South Korea Top Country Rankings, U.S.Rated Average

Articles on the Importance of Play:

WSJ: The Importance of Child’s Play

Telegraph: Bright Children Should Start School at age Six

NYT: Scientific Inquiry Among The Preschool Set

Harvard: Einstein May Never Have Used Flashcards, but He Probably Built Forts

Telegraph: Daily exercise ‘significantly improves pupils’ test scores’

The Tech Debate:

The Techno-Savvy Favor a Non-Tech Education, at Least For Their Kids

NYT: Technology Changing How Students Learn

And Finally: 

The Onion: Budget Mixup Provides Nations Schools with Enough Money to Properly Educate Children

There’s a lot of online articles about cultivating a simple, green, less-commercial season. But who has time to read them? In an effort to truly keep things simple, we’ve gone through a slew of articles and compiled our favorite ideas and tips for the season.

Simple:

This lady has it covered! Michelle at NannyPro has compiled 30 blog posts about scaling down, planning ahead, and managing materialism at the holidays.

Here are a few unique tips from two bloggers that resonated with us:

• Only do traditions that bring your family great joy.
• Say No to the parties.
• Organize your house now to make room for gifts.
• Buy online and ship gifts direct, even to those who live nearby.

Green:

Eartheasy.com offers this startling stat for the Holiday.

“Half of the paper America consumes each year is used to wrap and decorate consumer products. (Source: The Recycler’s Handbook, 1990)  In the US, the annual trash from gift wrap and shopping bags totals over 4 million tons.”

No need to be a part of that statistic. Use recycled paper to wrap gifts or buy re-usable cloth gift bags (available at our school store). Here are some other great ideas online for going green:

• Lift the taboo on re-gifting.
• Gift up-cycled items.
• Give the gifts that require no batteries.
• Choose environmentally friendly decorations like LED Lights and Live Potted Trees.

Less Commercial:

We’ve all been urged to buy local and buy less.  Here are some ideas for getting buy-in from family. Treehugger.com says:

• Talk to your extended family now about changing gift giving rituals for the long term (you’re not the only one overwhelmed by the stuff).
• Shorten your adult gift list. They’re grown ups. They’ll understand.
• Give those still on the adult list a simple handmade item or small token of gratitude.
• And for the kids, ask your children to create a short gift list and put items in order of importance.

Good luck out there. Enjoy the season!

Join us for our upcoming series of educational films and conversation.

December 5th: 9 a.m. Consuming Kids-The Commercialization of Childhood.  This movie throws light on the practices of the multi billion dollar marketing industry that sells kids everything from junk food to video games.

December 19th: 9 a.m. The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner. This documentary tells the story of his life, interwoven with contemporary examples of how his ideas and insights have influenced pioneering work all over the world in education, agriculture, medicine, finance and the arts.

January 23rd: 9 a.m.  Mother Nature’s Child – Growing Outdoors in the Media Age.  This documentary explores the essential ways nature experience promotes children’s well-being, contributes to the future of the planet, and nourishes the human spirit.

Join us in celebrating the awareness and wonder of ancient festivals that connect us to the rhythms of nature and the progression of the seasons. This fun filled day includes story telling, live music, food, crafts, shopping and more!

• Time: Saturday, November 17, 2012 / 10 am to 4pm
• Location: Spring Garden Waldorf School — 1791 South Jacoby Rd in Copley, OH.
• Cost: Admission is $2 — $1 goes to SGWS and the other is donated to the Good Samaritan Hunger Center. Cash only please.

Check out our FaceBook Event Page

Enjoy…

• Unique kid crafts like yarn dolls, paper stars and more.
• Music from great local bands like Hey Mavis.
• Young child entertainment like puppet shows, marble room, and the infamous magical cookie fairy and boat rooms.
• Older child entertainment like the pocket person hunt and trebuchet challenge.
• Eating wholesome and delicious homemade food and baked goods.
• Shopping at a handmade artists’ market, child-item raffles and our special child-only shop for Mom and Dad holiday room.

Spring Garden children often take walks around the grounds in the morning and there are many beautiful things to see and watch.  Mr. Grimes’ new garden is also a popular place with the children.

The left bed of the garden is adorned with sunflowers, marigolds, cosmos, nasturtium, and zinnias. The right side is cover crop which is visually interesting too.  On both sides, a plethora of insect life is thriving…assassin beetles, ladybugs, butterflies, green things, iridescent things…and yes…bees.

The right side plays guest to a different variety of insect life…alfalfa, clover and fava beans are in that row.  On the right side row, children are encouraged to pick the tiny purple flowers, but just the purple flowers; not the purple and white ones. Teachers often tell the little ones that the gnomes have a much easier time in the spring if they help them do this job.

The east side of the garden is the pumpkin patch, where mysterious round objects of various sizes peek out from the foliage. These objects are in the process of serious transformation and one can see changes in size and color virtually on a daily basis. The children will be able to help come harvest time.