Samples from my book:

Table of contents...

Foreword by Alan Whitehead
Introduction from the author 
History of Waldorf and Anthroposophy
Resource list  
Supplies list        
The kindergarten years   
Rhythm: Day, Month, Year     
Festivals    
The Nature Table        
Planning your year/ Using main lesson
   blocks/Working with multi aged children 
Using seasonal books and anthologies  
Painting, form drawing, and handwork with young children    
Circle Time  
Week by week schedule 
Favorite verses and circle time songs   
Recommended Vendors   
In closing                                                        
Appendices     

A snip from my chapter on the Kindergarten years...

An introduction to the Kindergarten years:

ages 4 through 7

“I met a child who stopped me with a glance
And, reading from my darkened eye in disbelief and fear,
Said, “Why have you forgotten how to dance?”
The Universe is sounding.  Only be awake, alive, and hear…”
~ Michael Hedley Burton

Our modern society would have everyone thinking that if your child doesn’t read and write by age seven then there must be something wrong… with either the child, or you as the parent!  I submit to you that there is no shame in not reading until age seven or even beyond if that is the drum beat your child follows.  Children in our culture need to almost be retrained in how to be children… how to play and pretend… without the influences of television, loud music, computers and movies. 

Media. I highly suggest that if the television is a crutch in your home that you find a way to leave it off, at least from the time you get up and start your day until after the child goes to bed at night, you will find life so much more enriching.  My husband and I have this funny bantering about the new big screen HDTVs… you walk into any store that sells home theater equipment and there seems to be this race by television manufacturers to see who can create the most life-like television picture quality. I stand there staring at the television wondering instead of watching movies that look more life like on your big screen… why not just go live life???   I will admit to having some of my own favorite shows and what a treat it is to me to watch them when I take some time for me.  I find that there are very few shows that are a series that I follow during the regular season, if it’s something I really want to watch, modern technology gives it to me in a boxed season set at the end of the season and allows me the peace to watch it in the middle of the night if I want.  So put a cloth over that TV if it must stay in your home or put it in a room where the children won’t want to watch it.  Our TV/family room is an extra bedroom converted, it is nice because I can shut the door and no one even misses what is in there!  This is a great idea if you have a spouse who is not so supportive of getting rid of the television, this way s/he can go in that room and watch in privacy… my guess is that when you are out living life though, your spouse will realize what s/he is missing and want to come and live life too!  If you doubt the effect of television on children and their behavior, just take a break for a week and then reintroduce it and see what happens.

Now of course many families enjoy an occasional family movie night and in my opinion those are completely fine if not done too often.  I personally try stay away from movies that are high marketing targets for children such as those put out in recent years by Disney or Pixar.  I have found older live action Disney movies such as Mary Poppins, Bed Knobs and Broom Sticks, The Three Lives of Thomasina, and movies like The Secret Garden and A Little Princess are far more appropriate than the potty humor that seems to invade movies today.

Music is another arena that I get groans about when I discuss it with parents new to Waldorf.  I will be the first to say that I don’t always follow my own rules.  We are a family with strong political opinions so we have music playing that often times follows our beliefs, but for the majority of the children’s listening, parents want to limit the radio as much as possible and stick to beautiful sounding music that goes along with the age group their child is in.  I again try to stay away from heavy commercialism even in children’s music. I found that the 4 to 7 crowd enjoys seasonal songs, church hymns and many folk music titles that are pleasing to the ear.  Some people fear that if they are not musically inclined that they will fail their children as a teacher of Waldorf, I say put those thoughts out of your mind!  While it will affect you in a curative way if you can learn the recorder and other instruments, you can still enjoy the music with your child and pay someone to help them learn!

“The musical element, however, does not live in me at all; it lives in inhalation and exhalation.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Computers are another device that while it can enrich our lives, it can also enslave us.   Young children should not become prey to that enslavement, there are many other avenues to playing games and learning that do not include the computer. 

“We cannot really avoid using the ahrimanic skills in the present age — taking shorthand, for instance, and using a typewriter. These are highly ahrimanic elements in our civilization. But we can also bring the spirit into it, and in this way raise such ahrimanic influences as stenography and typewriting into the sphere of the spirit, redeeming Ahriman in the process. It is only possible to do this if we bring the life of the spirit fully to mind. People who live as materialists today, using stenography and typewriters, get deeply caught up in the ahrimanic element. You see, it is not my purpose to preach reaction against these things; the demonic world that has come on us is not to be given a bad name; but the demons themselves need to be redeemed.”  ~ Rudolf Steiner

This is just a portion of this chapter, to read more please visit my estore to purchase the book.  Blessings.