Waldorf Learning Support: Books from Audrey McAllen, Joep Eikenboom NOW AVAILABLE! October 22 2024

For decades through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, in England, Audrey McAllen studied the indications given by Rudolf Steiner about child development, sleep, breathing, children’s drawings, and the circulation of the blood, the system of our nerves, temperaments, and much more. She worked these into specific exercises and specific class exercises to give strength to the therapeutic work made possible by a Waldorf class and classroom.

Ingun Schneider worked with Audrey McAllen for fifteen year to merge her own in depth experiences in the classroom with the knowledge of Audrey McAllen. Ingun has founded Waldorf Learning Support (WLS) to help teachers comprehend the power of accomplishing exercises with a whole class that helps all children to master specific capacities to aid in a more complete incarnation and a harmonious blending of therapeutic activities into a whole class experience.

The tendency in the contemporary culture is to isolate children who are struggling with ordinary learning in a classroom setting. While exercises of support for individuals such as these children is also a possibility, work with a whole class to utilize the social intentions of the ideals behind the building of a class community and the cultivation of care, one for another, possible in that class community. What is excellent support for a struggling child become good for the whole class of children.

Waldorf is very excited to be selected by WLS to publish and distribute the books that form the body of the Extra Lesson work, developed over the last fifty years. With help from Steiner Books, Waldorf Publications now can off these books for supporting teachers in remedial care as Waldorf Learning Support develops an all new edition of The Extra Lesson:

This Extra Lesson book is the original edition by Audrey McAllen and will be replaced soon with a new, expanded edition including Ingun Schneider’s edits and additions out of the long-time work done developing ideas. This edition is the last of the original stock remaining.

These books offer a treasure trove of ideas for balancing and supporting difficulties in learning children have. Thoughtful, experientially-based practices are all through these valuable manuscripts with explanations about why as well as how. Ingun is working to revise the books to include her own research and exercises based on her work with Audrey McAllen.

Deeper Look - Autumn-Nature Activities for Children October 08 2024

"Autumn Nature Activities for Children" is a comprehensive guide filled with creative and engaging nature-based projects designed to connect children with the natural world.

New Release - Parzival: A Forerunner of the Modern Human Being June 25 2024

Parzival
Forerunner of the Modern Human Being

The archetypal legend of the famous, bungling hero, Parzival, holds lessons for all human beings. We start out as ignorant ingenues, without a clue about the great world; stumbling after what we believe we want and wish to be, hurting others, making wrong assumptions, following rules others have laid out instead of finding for ourselves what it is that we are called to do.

Book Review: Handbook of Research on Waldorf Education — Jost Schieren, Ed. August 25 2023

Here, at long last, is a book which identifies the scientific underpinnings of Waldorf Education!!

Published by Routledge, the internationally acclaimed academic publisher, this book defines the exclusion of Waldorf Education for 100 years from circles on educational science, missing the opportunities for mutual stimulation and collaboration.

Book Review: From Mechanism to Organism: Enlivening the Study of Human Biology August 16 2022

At long last, a resource book for high school teachers, parents, and students that brings to life the experiential approach to the complex subject of human biology!  Michael Holdrege’s decades of experience at the Chicago Waldorf School teaching middle and high school science and math shines on every page of this penetrating book. From Mechanism to Organism contains wonderful illustrations that demonstrate valuable ideas for teachers to use in bringing different aspects of the ninth-and tenth-grade science in a Waldorf curriculum to high school students.

Book Review: The First Waldorf Teachers December 08 2021

Read of them in the NEW Waldorf Publications book: The First Waldorf Teachers: Twelve Biographical Vignettes of Leaders of the First School

Tomas Zdrazil has collected twelve biographical sketches of the twelve teachers and Emil Molt, the bold industrialist who started the whole idea of a new school, in one collection, wrapped in a single book by your friends at Waldorf Publications!

Book Review: Form Drawing October 11 2021

Form Drawing is a book about a subject unique to Waldorf schools. This book offers the best introduction to form drawing this Library Lady has ever seen! Form Drawing is full-color and bursting-with-illustrations—it is a must-have for understanding this powerful and engaging artistic subject!

Beginning on the first day of first grade, form drawing helps artistically to develop in children a sense of space, movement, balance, proportion,

Waldorf Grade 7 Book Recommendations February 25 2021

Seventh graders are in the throes of the mighty force of puberty and the birth of the last of the “finer bodies” that some would call the “aura” of the human being. No births are quiet and the chatter in a classroom is the sound that begins in sixth grade and lasts through eighth and signals the arrival of a new birth, new capacities, and new challenges. The growth at this time in a young human being rivals the growth of a newborn and will not be repeated for the rest of life.

Waldorf Grade 6 Book Recommendations February 19 2021

In sixth grade, the 11/12 year-old is usually beginning to experience the onset of puberty. Growth happens at an increasingly rapid rate and the child often goes through a time of alarm, not recognizing who he or she is anymore. Just as a single example, somewhere during the time of puberty a girl’s larynx grows to three times its original size and a boy’s, seven times its original size. This growth rate will never be repeated in the life span of human development.

Now available - A Call to Teach February 14 2021

Among the few books available that address the vocational call to be a teacher, up rises A Call to Teach, like a friendly morning sun.  Torin Finser’s book celebrates the power of the vocation of teaching.  High time!

In the midst of the digital debacle in education caused by the pandemic of 2020, Finser’s timely book reminds us all of the importance teachers hold in the minds and hearts of the young. Films have been made around the transformations that become possible for a youngster from the dedicated heart of a teacher — and also about the damage that can be done by a teacher who deviates from the priceless calling to follow his or her own dislikes against a particular child. The power of the teacher is clear.

Waldorf Grade 5 Book Recommendations December 15 2020

The fifth-grade child is reaching the height of childhood. Capacities have solidified and consolidation runs through the whole fifth grade year. The child begins to realize what he or she knows and can do. Rudolf Steiner said that fifth grade is a year of balance. Though this is true, it can be misleading. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the fifth-grade year is without any problems. This balance is most clearly true for the physical maturing of the child, as a child. For the first time the breath and heartbeat reach adult proportions. Each breath is now accompanied by four heartbeats.

Waldorf Grade 4 Book Recommendations December 01 2020

Youngsters in grade four are now ten years old and have past the nine-year-old shift in consciousness but are still smoothing this out in their understanding of the world. Their new independence means a bit of separation from parents and teachers and some cantankerousness as this adjustment settles. The curriculum brings...

Waldorf Grade 2 Book Recommendations November 02 2020

Following Waldorf Grade 1 recommendations, here comes Waldorf Grade 2! Remember that books for general self-development and foundational work for teaching were offered in a previous writing. Also note that there are too many books in all these lists to presume that anyone should read them all, but knowing what books are available can help in deciding about the one or two or three books (or more!) that might prove useful as a guide both for teachers and students.

Waldorf Grade 1 Book Recommendations October 19 2020

Books for general self-development and foundational work for teaching were offered in a previous writing. Now we will offer grade by grade book recommendations. There are too many books in all these lists, remember, to think that we are advising that anyone read them all.

Book Review: Emil and Berta, The Origins of the Waldorf School Movement August 06 2019

Waldorf Education is named after the cigarette and tobacco company partly owned and completely managed by Emil Molt but named from family names, the Waldorf and Astoria families. The cigarette company was primarily owned by an inheriting family, the Giorgiis, who so trusted Emil that he was given 47% shareholding in the company and free rein in management. The company was remarkably profitable while Emil was the “CEO” and so the owning family was content to allow Emil free rein. (Where does the name Waldorf come from, she may want to know.)

Emil and his wife, Berta, were earnest students of Rudolf Steiner.

Book Review: See the Child, Love the Child, Know Yourself: Now Teach June 30 2019

See the Child, Love the Child, Know Yourself: Now Teach
Elan Leibner

For the six years that the Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE) was fortunate enough to have Elan Leibner as the editor of the Research Bulletin, a striking confluence of practices and consciousness from both the Pedagogical Section Council of North America, (PSC) and that of more standard research ideals was possible. Elan was and is the chair of the PSC and has stimulated attention and effective practices in spiritual research out of his own Waldorf teaching experiences, and out of his research.

Interview with Betty Staley, author of "Tending the Spark" May 02 2019

Betty Staley’s new book, Tending the Spark, Lighting the Future for Middle Schools Students, has generated a spark! Clearly, all of us responsible for this vulnerable age need help in understanding. Meg Gorman stepped up to interviewing Betty to find out more about her motives in writing this book.

Book Review: Tending the Spark April 04 2019

Tending the Spark: Lighting the Future for Middle School Students is Betty Staley’s latest contribution to better understanding child development to better educate the child. This is a book every parent and teacher of eleven to fifteen-year-olds must read! Tending the Spark covers a multiplicity of topics related to raising and teaching middle-schoolers. Everything from physical development, brain development, peer pressure, social media, and creativity are covered in this thorough sweep through middle school changes and realities.

Interview with Frederick Amrine, author of Kicking Away the Ladder March 26 2019

We asked Fred Amrine, author of the newest release from Waldorf Publications, Kicking Away the Ladder, the Philosophical Roots of Waldorf Education, why he wrote his book and why its content is so important.

Fred Amrine: It’s very important for people to understand the roots of Waldorf education in German idealism. German idealism was, in fact, Steiner’s first choice as a vehicle and a language in which to put forth Anthroposophy. For a variety of reasons, this didn’t work out....

Book Review: Kicking Away the Ladder March 12 2019

It’s important to investigate the philosophical underpinnings of something as influential as the educational approach for our children. Clues about the image of human development, respect for life on earth, and the reasons for different methods used can be more deeply understood by comprehending the founding principles of educational philosophy.

In addition, following the lines of philosophical thought trains our own thinking and promotes clarity; qualities our children are inevitably going to imitate. Since the crown jewel of all education is thinking (clearly and inventively, lately called “executive function,” or “critical thinking”),

Book Review: Research Bulletin, Special Issue: Technology’s Rightful Place October 15 2018

This new book from Waldorf Publications is a compilation of three consecutive issues of the Research Bulletin all devoted to examination of technology and the results of its use. The Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE) held three international colloquia over as many years, expanded board meetings over several days, with presenters who prepared different aspects of technology, the element of silicon, and research on electronics. The book offers a handy reference to fine essays on the power, miraculous effectiveness, and devastation that result from technology’s defining of our culture.

Book Review: Painting at School April 16 2018

Dick Bruin and Attie Lichthart have devoted their lives to painting and the teaching of painting. In their new book, Painting at School, they express a deep understanding of color and joyful devotion to painting and its value in the lives of individuals, especially in children.

Their original work, now almost twenty years in the world, Painting in Waldorf Schools, is still rich with insights about painting as soul food for children (and adults) and valuable in its suggestions about approaching painting lessons. The original book came with a CD of paintings.

Book Review: Towards the Deepening of Waldorf Education October 19 2017

In the 1980s and early 1990s, The Pedagogical Section Council of North America worked closely with the Pedagogical Section in Dornach, Switzerland, to develop a publication that gathered the esoteric material Rudolf Steiner gave to the Waldorf teachers in the first Waldorf school in his first training lectures and along the way at teachers’ meetings. The book was beautiful and lovingly compiled.  It had a linen hard cover with gold leafing for the title.

Book Review: Award Winning "Helping Children on Their Way" August 16 2017

Waldorf Publications is proud to be recognized by Mom’s Choice Awards with Helping Children on Their Way

Elizabeth Auer has assembled a remarkable group of educators to write about many aspects of supporting children in their different and varied “stuck places” along the road to a balanced development for life.