Teaching the Waldorf Way

Watch for Under the Apple Tree Waldorf Parent and Child Programming starting back up in the St. John’s area this coming Autumn 🍂

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbVpnGUjsOy/?img_index=6&igsh=MXYwcDNjNWVkZG5iZQ==

Many Waldorf schools offer classes designed for toddlers and their caregivers to experience together. Called by many names — Toddler and Me, Parent and Child, Infant and Toddler — these classes serve as a warm first step into the Waldorf way of learning and living, bridging the space between home and school. Children thrive in these gentle, predictable classes that include activities like baking, crafting, story, and singing. While caregivers engage in meaningful activity alongside their children, the little ones are able to socialize and learn how to participate in a group, listen and share, and move gently through transitions. #waldorfeducation #waldorfearlychildhood

If you want to read the full lecture.

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA295/English/AP1997/19190823d03.html

July is here 💛

The sun is hot,
for July is here,
haymaking time
in the fields.

Now is the time
when cabbages grow,
the spinach
and cress,
the lettuce and onions
and leeks.

From Around the Year by Elsa Beskow

Happy Summer Solstice

Celebrate the Summer Solstice and Father’s Day by lighting a candle with this verse from Let Us Form A Ring: An Acorn Hill Anthology, edited by Nancy Foster.

Celebrating Mother’s of all who teach, nurture and love. Happy Mother’s Day

3 spaces remaining in this 4 week Session.
We meet every Wednesday from 10-12pm. To register or for more information email [email protected]

May!

May comes but once a year,
the dancing month,
the sky light and high,
the birch trees bursting.

May is daisy time,
and cowslip
and primrose
and harebell
and dancing anemones.

Happy 1st May! 🪻🌷

From Around the Year by Elsa Beskow

The change in season now ushers in a celebration that honoured fertility of the land, and social gathering. A day apart, Beltane and May Day celebrate this transition time. They can be honoured in small and large ways. What do you see changing outside in nature and inside you?

May Day and Beltane: what’s the difference?

1 May is known as May Day. It falls at the same seasonal point as Beltane, which is traditionally marked from the evening of 30 April into 1 May.

They share the same time of year, but they come from different traditions.

Beltane is the older, Gaelic celebration. It has roots in pre-Christian seasonal observance and is linked to the shift into summer, fertility, and protection. Historically, it was associated with bonfires, livestock, crops, and rites marking the changing season.

The Dancing Lights of Beltane: in Derbyshire, there are old stories of the Dancing Lights appearing on Beltane night. These glowing orbs were said to be the faerie folk, or spirits of the land, celebrating the arrival of summer.

Villagers would sometimes go to hilltops on Beltane Eve and wait to see them. If the lights appeared, it was taken as a good sign that the land was protected and fertile for the season ahead.

Simple offerings like honey, milk, and flowers were left near trees or stone circles as a sign of respect for the land.

May Day is a later folk celebration, drawing on medieval and early modern European customs. It is more focused on spring, community, and renewal. In England, this has included maypole dancing, flower crowns, Morris dancing, and choosing a May Queen.

So while the two overlap, they are not the same thing.

Beltane is more land-based, ritual, and rooted in Gaelic tradition.

May Day is more public, festive, and communal.

Enjoy!