Welcome and hello! I'm Lisa, mom to two boys and care giver to many little children over the years. We live in Northern Vermont where we keep hens and chicks and an occaisional duckling or two, spend a good deal of time in the gardens and love to cook from the food that we grow or find close to home. We are blessed to live in an agricultural state with many small farms just down the road carefully tended by farmers who are committed to healthy practices. We hear cattle bellow and occasional see American eagles flying around their nearby nesting places.
This is the longest I have lived away from the sea even though we make regular pilgrimages to the ocean.
Somehow, although I never consciously intended for it or sought it out, I have found myself surrounded by children at every age and in every place I live. What follows is a little piece of my story from when I became I mother.
Seventeen years ago, shortly after my first child was born, I stepped out of my midwifery practice, packed up our old farmhouse: my kitchen, favorite books, toys, clothing, furniture and two wooly dogs not knowing how they would fare in the heat of the equatorial tropics.
I found tenants for the house and left my childhood home of Maine and set off around the world as a new mom, to join my husband, who had gone ahead of us, to live on the remote island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, halfway around the world. Hawai'i became our midpoint, our point of leaving and returning to a more developed and faster world.
Island life ran on island time, slow and relaxed with plenty of time to digest life's trials, tribulations and joys. Island life was family friendly and many hands were always available to pitch in and help with cleaning up after a party or setting up swings for the children, someone was always available and willing to help. It seemed like everyone was wanting to celebrate too with lots of outdoor parties and time in and on the water, making visits to islands on the surrounding reef or venturing a little farther for a weekend on an atoll with no electricity, just the night lights of stars and moon.
I knew from my explorations into Steiner as a philosophy major, visits to Waldorf schools, and friends with older children in Waldorf schools that I wanted a Waldorf education for my child. When we got to the island and settled into visits, plays and parties with other families, I inquired of other ex-pat moms if they knew of Waldorf education. My neighbor Pat had a copy of You Are Your Child's First Teacher and we shared our passion about this approach to mothering.
Two years later, we moved to another island and there at the end of our very first playgroup, a mom asked me if I had heard of Waldorf education, because a small group of moms wanted to start a Waldorf Play group and she wondered if I might be interested. I was jubilant. I joined.
We began meeting weekly for free play, circle, bread baking and a story. We began a study group that grew to include teachers. We learned how to pronounce Anthroposophy. We celebrated together and our children grew over the years. We shared our joys and challenges of mothering and living far away from our extended families.
As the children grew older, I began offering a second day for the 4 and 5 year olds to come to my house without their moms (though moms were welcome) and have a Waldorf morning with free play, circle, painting and story.
Eventually the younger playgroup shifted to my house. It was usually nannies and children. Over time the nannies and I shared many conversations about caring for children, often comparing their lives in the Philippines to their experience of life with North Americans and Australian ex-pats.
We made bread on Thursdays with the little ones and painted on Wednesday, Mercury's day of transformation, with the older group.
Our group numbered around twelve families and sometimes extended to twenty. We celebrated festivals together and learned to make beautiful flower crowns and May Pole toppings for our May Day celebration. We had lantern walks and Advent spirals.
I returned home to New England one summer and attended a workshop on Play in the Kindergarten with Joan Almon at the Rudolf Steiner Institute. This was to change my life.
I returned to the island and we began a kindergarten.
The following year we left the island and moved to yet another island, Palau. We knew we were going to stay for one year only so we made that a year of swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving and outrigger canoe racing, camping, picnics and fun. We home schooled on the beach and had a little hut for our classroom.
We returned to New England and chose a community with an established Waldorf school. I applied for a job in the kindergarten and was hired. I left when my second child was born and stayed home with him.
When he began toddling, I began a nursery program in my home. It was open three mornings a week. Over the years, as moms slowly went back to work and my son grew, the Morning Garden grew to four days, with an afterschool pick up, and an end of day pick up. I also expanded to include a mixed age group of children.
Over the years I have attended many trainings, workshops and conferences and have had the very good fortune of observing and being supported by brilliant, generous, loving and inspiring mentors. I am so grateful for their presence in my life. I'm also grateful for the friendships that have emerged along the way.
The online community was my anchor to Waldorf education in the 1990's when we lived so far away from any schools. Over the years I have watched it grow and grow with a booming interest in Waldorf education and with homeschooling families go through al the grades. I am loving the friendships and connections I am making here.
This year I am on sabbatical and have been focused on writing and creating community online. I am being drawn to do more parent education, thus the Celebrating the Rhythm of Life with Children monthly program, here.
This is the longest I have lived away from the sea even though we make regular pilgrimages to the ocean.
Somehow, although I never consciously intended for it or sought it out, I have found myself surrounded by children at every age and in every place I live. What follows is a little piece of my story from when I became I mother.
Seventeen years ago, shortly after my first child was born, I stepped out of my midwifery practice, packed up our old farmhouse: my kitchen, favorite books, toys, clothing, furniture and two wooly dogs not knowing how they would fare in the heat of the equatorial tropics.
I found tenants for the house and left my childhood home of Maine and set off around the world as a new mom, to join my husband, who had gone ahead of us, to live on the remote island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, halfway around the world. Hawai'i became our midpoint, our point of leaving and returning to a more developed and faster world.
Island life ran on island time, slow and relaxed with plenty of time to digest life's trials, tribulations and joys. Island life was family friendly and many hands were always available to pitch in and help with cleaning up after a party or setting up swings for the children, someone was always available and willing to help. It seemed like everyone was wanting to celebrate too with lots of outdoor parties and time in and on the water, making visits to islands on the surrounding reef or venturing a little farther for a weekend on an atoll with no electricity, just the night lights of stars and moon.
I knew from my explorations into Steiner as a philosophy major, visits to Waldorf schools, and friends with older children in Waldorf schools that I wanted a Waldorf education for my child. When we got to the island and settled into visits, plays and parties with other families, I inquired of other ex-pat moms if they knew of Waldorf education. My neighbor Pat had a copy of You Are Your Child's First Teacher and we shared our passion about this approach to mothering.
Two years later, we moved to another island and there at the end of our very first playgroup, a mom asked me if I had heard of Waldorf education, because a small group of moms wanted to start a Waldorf Play group and she wondered if I might be interested. I was jubilant. I joined.
We began meeting weekly for free play, circle, bread baking and a story. We began a study group that grew to include teachers. We learned how to pronounce Anthroposophy. We celebrated together and our children grew over the years. We shared our joys and challenges of mothering and living far away from our extended families.
As the children grew older, I began offering a second day for the 4 and 5 year olds to come to my house without their moms (though moms were welcome) and have a Waldorf morning with free play, circle, painting and story.
Eventually the younger playgroup shifted to my house. It was usually nannies and children. Over time the nannies and I shared many conversations about caring for children, often comparing their lives in the Philippines to their experience of life with North Americans and Australian ex-pats.
We made bread on Thursdays with the little ones and painted on Wednesday, Mercury's day of transformation, with the older group.
Our group numbered around twelve families and sometimes extended to twenty. We celebrated festivals together and learned to make beautiful flower crowns and May Pole toppings for our May Day celebration. We had lantern walks and Advent spirals.
I returned home to New England one summer and attended a workshop on Play in the Kindergarten with Joan Almon at the Rudolf Steiner Institute. This was to change my life.
I returned to the island and we began a kindergarten.
The following year we left the island and moved to yet another island, Palau. We knew we were going to stay for one year only so we made that a year of swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving and outrigger canoe racing, camping, picnics and fun. We home schooled on the beach and had a little hut for our classroom.
We returned to New England and chose a community with an established Waldorf school. I applied for a job in the kindergarten and was hired. I left when my second child was born and stayed home with him.
When he began toddling, I began a nursery program in my home. It was open three mornings a week. Over the years, as moms slowly went back to work and my son grew, the Morning Garden grew to four days, with an afterschool pick up, and an end of day pick up. I also expanded to include a mixed age group of children.
Over the years I have attended many trainings, workshops and conferences and have had the very good fortune of observing and being supported by brilliant, generous, loving and inspiring mentors. I am so grateful for their presence in my life. I'm also grateful for the friendships that have emerged along the way.
The online community was my anchor to Waldorf education in the 1990's when we lived so far away from any schools. Over the years I have watched it grow and grow with a booming interest in Waldorf education and with homeschooling families go through al the grades. I am loving the friendships and connections I am making here.
This year I am on sabbatical and have been focused on writing and creating community online. I am being drawn to do more parent education, thus the Celebrating the Rhythm of Life with Children monthly program, here.
