Focus on a simple, natural, slower paced, soulful life with children by implementing daily, weekly and monthly rhythms through the year, full of domestic, social, nurturing and artistic activities that deeply nourish family life for children and adults alike. With this program you find your rhythm of the home through the year and receive support for conscious, creative and connected parenting.
This program is geared to take you on a journey through the rhythm of the year, exploring our own connection to nature, rhythm, storytelling, movement games, our own work with our hands with food and natural materials, singing, painting, puppetry, coloring, the role and importance of color in childhood, the temperaments, the senses, the importance of movement and fresh air and the importance of each other :: connection through the lens of wonder, awe and reverence.
Keep it Simple, Slow and Spacious
The Monthly Program is an online workshop/e-course/curriculum with blog posts, talks, presentations, videos and conversations, packets of supportive material (see below for more on packets) and regular support through the month. Material includes a fairy tale curriculum for the kindergarten child and a nature story curriculum for the nursery child. Puppetry ideas to go along with the stories are included each month through the year along with recipes and handwork, parenting support and a rich curriculum for early childhood.
The Year Round Program is a full nursery and kindergarten curriculum that builds through the year on the monthly topics and provides a rich and interwoven experience of the essential elements of early childhood, with time to slowly and gradually bring them into your life, and revisit them from different angles through the year, thus deepening your experience. In returning the following year, the experience of revisiting the month and the topics is for an ever deepening relationship to it. If something does not make sense at first, in looking at in with another lens the following month, it becomes clear. The following year will reveal new insights.
The Year Round Program is a full nursery and kindergarten curriculum that builds through the year on the monthly topics and provides a rich and interwoven experience of the essential elements of early childhood, with time to slowly and gradually bring them into your life, and revisit them from different angles through the year, thus deepening your experience. In returning the following year, the experience of revisiting the month and the topics is for an ever deepening relationship to it. If something does not make sense at first, in looking at in with another lens the following month, it becomes clear. The following year will reveal new insights.
For those who become Year Round Members in this first year, I am making it a Lifelong Membership. This offer is good until September 30, 2013. After that date, an annual renewal fee will be charged.
Year round members will have a special planning session this summer to sketch out the school year for 2013 -2014.
Sign up is at the at the bottom of this page.
The material is available in packets (pdf) and online with a discussion group and focus topic posts from me. If you need to see it in action, I'll make a video. Participants may sign up for the month or for the full year. You may join as a year round member at any time of the year. Year round participants are lifetime participants and may return the following years at no charge.
Each month the material for The Celebrating the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children Curriculum and Interactive Program includes:
- Start Up Guide: How to get going
- Finding Daily Rhythm with Yourself
- Daily, Weekly and Monthly Rhythm Plan (if you want it sketched out ~ it's here)
- Guide for putting it all together
- Circle, Song, Story, Fingerplay and Movement games for the Nursery child (3-4) and the Kindergarten child (5-6)
- Fairy Tale ideas for the month
- Nature Story Curriculum for the Nursery Child
- Puppetry ideas to go along with the stories for each month
- Menus with recipes based on the grains of the Waldorf kindergarten (breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea)
- Meal Planning Support
- Housework Rhythms
- Handwork for each month with hands on tutorial
- Celebration and Festival background and ideas
- Seasonal foods to plant, harvest, prepare and eat with children
- In the Morning Garden ~ a tip each month for group programs
- Afterchool Care of the child ~ Rhythm and Rest, Activities, Festival Life, Movement Games and Stories for the grade school child
- Focus topic for each month (these include Essential Elements of Early Childhood such as Play, Storytelling, Speech, Reverence, Spiritual Elements of early childhood, Child Development, Rhythm, Discipline, Transitions, Color, Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Summer Vacation Fun, Creating a simple and nurturing environment
- Explanation of the underlying developmental needs of the child in Waldorf early childhood, the whys
- Pedagogy behind the topic
- Practical activity to accompany monthly topic
- Exercise to do with the topic ~ practice
- Reflection ~ questions for nurturing the inner life
- Private online discussion group where we discuss parenting concerns, balancing it all, how to best use the curriculum material, balancing housework, bringing in artistic activities, self care and most of all finding the rhythm that best supports our own families and tending to that rhythm with care, creativity and consciousness.
- Posts through the month on the focus topic
- Ideas for creating community where you live
- Resources for finding high quality and affordable materials
- Ongoing discussion through the month
- Consultation through the month or year depending on the type of membership
Deepen your connection with your child.
Our work with rhythm is grounded in our relationship with our child. We'll look at specific things we can do to forge a strong connection with our child and create the space for all to unfold within the rhythm of the home.
Is this a Homeschool Curriculum?
Yes and no. This is a question I wrestle with all the time. It is a curriculum as much as early childhood might have a curriculum with Waldorf education although honestly it is more of a way of life that comes out of homemaking and self development.
On the one hand we know that the adult and a rich rhythmic home life is the curriculum in early childhood. This program supports you to find your stride and create spaciousness in your family life to create and sustain healthy rhythms for your family and to take up some of the most delightful aspects of childhood: creativity, wonder, enchantment, beauty and goodness along with self care and healthy boundaries.
On the one hand we know that the adult and a rich rhythmic home life is the curriculum in early childhood. This program supports you to find your stride and create spaciousness in your family life to create and sustain healthy rhythms for your family and to take up some of the most delightful aspects of childhood: creativity, wonder, enchantment, beauty and goodness along with self care and healthy boundaries.
The material contains songs, verse, stories, puppetry, recipes, inner work, handwork and more to nourish a beautiful, strong rhythmic connection with the natural world and celebrate the rhythm of life through the year with your child. So yes, it is a curriculum in that sense.
The materials and support come out of my experience of teaching and mothering children in the nursery and kindergarten years and are of the caliber one would find in a lovely Waldorf kindergarten program. I also bring the experience of my work with parents experiencing pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood that spans nearly twenty five years. I am so pleased to be able to share them in ways that are ongoing and truly supportive.
Come join in, create community, find support, receive encouragement!
This program/curriculum guides and supports parents, child care providers, homemakers, early childhood educators and those who work with young children to find a deeper understanding of the needs of children, Waldorf education, self knowledge, rhythm, play, strength, nourishment and community, in the task of caring for children.
Some of the questions we will look at in May, our month of focus on circle, ring time and movement games:
- What do I do with my child from birth to age three?
- Is circle right for a two year old? three year old?
- What about the Nursery and Kindergarten age child?
- What do we do at home, is it different from school?
- Are there games I can play with my child?
- Is this a Waldorf thing?
- Is it good to talk to my child?
- Do we need to do "circle" at home?
- What age is circle time suited for?
- What is circle?
- Where did circle come from?
- Is it the same thing that happens in the grades?
- When do children stop doing circle in Waldorf education? And why?
- Are there reasons bound by child development for circle work or is it an arbitrary thing?
Clear as mud? Send me an e-mail at lisaboisvert (at) yahoo (dot) com with your questions.
For more information, visit the new FAQ page
Members are saying:
For more information, visit the new FAQ page
Members are saying:
"This program changed my life. I was struggling to find rhythm and understand why it matters and what it really looks like in my messy house with active children, you know reality. Lisa's program is so simple and straightforward yet delves into the philosophy of Waldorf education and makes it easy to put into practice. We have rhythm and more time for fun"
"Lisa, your program is such a gift. It is so full of rich sparks of imagination. It helped me bring it all together with my family. It now comes out of me, not a curriculum or guide. Thank you."
" I was like totally skeptical at first, I have done other monthly programs without really making any changes. This one is the best by far. I became a lifetime member after two months. The materials are so good and Lisa goes the extra mile in sharing her amazing wisdom."
" I guess I didn't believe that mealtimes could be harmonious with young children. They are now. Thanks to Lisa Boisvert Mackenzie's Celebrate the Rhythm of Life through the Year. "
"I'm a lifetime member and so grateful for this program. It is so much fun to discover the beautiful new materials each month. The focus work is so helpful. The circles are lovely and I now feel confident doing circle and telling stories with my children It has brought such depth to my understanding of Waldorf education, mothering and life."
Cost:
Cost:
By the month $45 per month
By the year $495 for lifetime membership
By the year $495 for lifetime membership
Sign Up Here:
Celebrate the Rhythm of Life :: Year Round :: Lifetime Membership
As soon as I receive notice of your enrollment via PayPal, you will receive a welcome, confirmation and enrollment form.
Questions? E-mail me at: lisaboisvert@yahoo.com
As soon as I receive notice of your enrollment via PayPal, you will receive a welcome, confirmation and enrollment form.
Questions? E-mail me at: lisaboisvert@yahoo.com
