Melbourne Steiner Playgroup.

This very inspiring course in Rudolf Steiner Early Childhood Education starts 16th February. Have a look at the course overview, timetable, and our highly experienced faculty of Steiner Early Childhood Educators.
Enrol via rapid registration online. This course exploring the vital years 0-7 is for parents, kindergarten teachers and assistants, and anyone who spends time with very young children and would like to know more about the Steiner/Waldorf pedagogy for early childhood.
Live streaming every Wednesday evening and recorded for all time zones.
Information: +03 9876 5199 or e: [email protected]
Visit the page at http://www.steinerseminar.com and go to 'part-time online courses.'

🌟ADVENT Sunday 28th November -Friday Dec 24th 🌟

Dear friends,
We begin to wave goodbye to Spring and look forward to a hopefully benign and golden Summer.

We have indeed been living through times that have caused great disruption to the world, to the social realm in which we live, and to our inner life and it’s healthy expression. The ramifications of this are bound to continue and are unknown and so more than ever it seems important to build into family life traditions that are strengthening, beautiful and hopeful.
We can create within our homes a festival that connects us to the seasons, the world around us and to one another.
Children in particular love making preparations! They have such open hearts, imagination and enthusiasm for all the components.

The four week festival of Advent (Latin “to arrive, to become“) begins this Sunday 28th where we can start to prepare for Christmas.
We begin slowly.

An Advent festival table -
Centrally located on a bench or sideboard, or a dedicated table. This can be the centrepiece upon which one can build a tableau. The colour for Advent is blue, so a cloth laid out or draped provides the perfect holding space. You can build up this Christmas festival table over time.

Week 1 The mineral world - enjoy a walk and collect some small rocks or pebbles, you may have crystals, wash and dry and polish. Place on the cloth.
Week 2 The plant world- gather gum nuts, seed pods, pine cone, even a stick or grasses.
Week 3 The animal world - shells, felt or wood animals, fleece, feathers.
Week 4 The human world - a small figurine, a silk angel.

A beautiful post card or a small vase of flowers can be ever present, or gold stars (stickers!) to provide a backdrop canopy. This scene may benefit from some discreet tidying up at times (Avoid Lego dinosaurs).

Nearby can be the Advent wreath.
Four beeswax pillar candles stand inside a wreath that is bound in fresh pine needles (smelling beautiful), or native eucalyptus, and can be lit at dinner time.
On the 1st Sunday light a candle (sing a song, continue lighting the same candle each night), on the 2nd Sunday light the next candle and so forth, and thus we can see the approach of Christmas in the growing fullness of light. Have attention around the burning candles and perhaps blow out after dinner!

Food is a loved and important element of any celebration and children will adore baking the special food that belong to the occasion.

Read carefully selected Christmas picture books - avoid cartoon type illustrations as children look deeply into the images, sing traditional carols, make simple presents/cards, paper garlands, tell children about your memories of Christmas, decorate a tree (but not too early).

There is so much wonder and magic in participating in a family festival, a golden thread that connects us to one another, to the passing of time, and to the sublime and mysterious wisdom of the cosmos.
Blessings.
🌸

Information session on this wonderful teacher training course!👩🏻‍🎓👨🏽‍🎓
Tonight Mon 30 August !

Graduate success story- meet Sinead who completed our Advanced Diploma Rudolf Steiner Ed, and finished off her Bachelor of Ed- today she is Prep Teacher at State school with a Steiner stream and loves her career! Sinead will share her experience studying the Ad Dip Rudolf Steiner Ed at our Information Session on Zoom Monday 30th August at 7.00 pm. Register for this and download a course guide via go to https://bit.ly/3jolsxc
Info: + 61 93 9876 5199 or News/events page at www.steinerseminar.com

(RTO 3948, course code 10825NAT)

What a stunning day for MID-WINTER SOLSTICE! ❄️✨
Today June 21st, marks the turning point in the year, where the day is the shortest and the night the longest.
Our earth sits poised between these points, and we can see this in the Latin meaning of the word solstice,“ the sun stands still”.

The celebration of the winter solstice, as with all seasonal festivals, helps us to become aware of the inner reality of the seasons. Children have a natural affinity with the experience of festivals - they are something to look forward to, part of our becoming.
Festivals help to strengthen family life, acting as a golden thread that weaves throughout the year, indeed there is a creative power when we build an environment of “physical substance but also of soul substance” (L. St Clair).
This winter solstice, enjoy a lantern walk and look at the stars, decorate the table and share a candlelit dinner, winter songs, poems and stories, delicious special food (apple pie and spiced tea), and celebrate the season with human warmth. 🌟

Here is a wonderful opportunity to learn about Steiner education!
The informative talk followed by a walk to the dining room is a chance to learn about the curriculum and soak up the atmosphere of this most beautiful school. An early childhood programme and classes through to VCE,come along and be truly inspired.🌸