Sprinkle a Little Magic for that Special Child’s Holiday Time! November 21 2023

Gnomes Galore

What could be better than a little Gnome-enclature to twinkle things up with some golloping good gnome stories – by the master of sparkle in a good story, Jakob Streit.

Bees — and Books about Them! September 27 2023

Can there ever be too many books for the young about bees? In our time of worries about the diminishing number of bees in the world, stories that help us all, children especially, to feel connected to bees through appreciation and gratitude, through love, are important. Fostering a lifelong sense of wonder and protectiveness for these tiny creatures who give us honey, nourishment, bees wax, and who pollinate fruit trees, herbs, and all flowering plants is imperative to the bees and our own survival.

Book Review: Louis Braille - A Blind Boy Invents Braille July 24 2023

How can we stand firm in love and gratitude when misfortune descends upon us? Trust in the purposefulness of all that comes our way is a difficult skill to master! Louis Braille demonstrates to us a humbling answer to this challenging question and to mastering the demanding skill of trust.

This latest release from Waldorf Publications has us excited like never before. Louis Braille, a Blind Boy Invents Braille is another masterful telling of a story by Jakob Streit, made possible by the Streit Family Foundation in Switzerland and by Nina Kuettel, the fine translator.

Martinmas and Lantern Walks in Waldorf Schools November 09 2022

Many Waldorf schools host a Lantern Walk in November and around Martinmas, the feast day for St. Martin of Tours — also Veterans’ Day in the United States. St. Martin, the patron saint of beggars and outcasts, was known for his unassuming nature and ability to bring light and warmth to the impoverished.

Book Review - Honey Bee Haven January 12 2022

Honey Bee Haven that is a real delight. Teaching ourselves and our children about the precious work done by pollinators, especially bees, has become a topic of some urgency in the last decades. With gloriously colorful pictures, done in watercolor paintings by the author, and the simple telling of how bees live and work, a penetrating story gets told in this little masterpiece of a book. It is about the significance of the work of honey bees, and about our part in making them feel appreciated, cared-for, and loved!

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.

Book Review: Xavier Sings Stories of His Alphabet Friends January 12 2021

Technology has opened vistas galore on the science of brain development. One remarkable discovery for Waldorf teachers and parents is how potent music is in developing memory. All of us are much more likely to remember something if we learn it in song.

 

This isn't surprising in one significant way: music often makes us feel, sometimes very deeply. It cultivates a mood, and we are more likely to recall the mood than the content. If something is very funny or very sad or very moving or very shocking, we are much more likely to remember than if there is no mood at all. Once the mood is evoked, the content then follows.

Book Review - Tatatuck’s Journey to Crystal Mountain October 07 2020

Finding a story that has authentic imagination is a true delight and this story of a small gnome hero has just that! Tatatuck is an ordinary root pulling gnome who wishes to become a crystal mining gnome.  He is small and so his dream seems highly unlikely to be fulfilled. One day he is asked if he feels brave enough to travel over the seven mountains to Crystal Mountain to bring back an important jewel for the gnomes.

Book Review: The Invisible Boat and the Molten Dragon April 20 2018

One genuinely marvelous thing about this second book in Eric Mueller’s Invisible Boat series is the steady stream of pictures of how nature looks behind the curtain of beauty we see. The creatures and the palaces, and the gardens and the light, are all resplendent with imaginations that ring true and lift the heart with a feeling of what’s happening on this living Earth of ours!

These pictures are charming, sometimes breathtaking, and ofttimes startling. Through these images, we are drawn closer to the earth.

Book Review: The Moon Prince and the Sea August 21 2017

Waldorf graduates like Daniela Rose Anderson often carry a global consciousness.  They often volunteer for service in unlikely places with the greatest needs. Daniela did such volunteering and came to know a boy named Sumit and a girl named Marina Both were very young and both had terminal leukemia. The heart of Daniela linked the two hearts of the children who shared the same illness from faraway places.Save

Book Review: Active Arithmetic! and Math Lessons for Elementary Grades April 28 2017

Are you concerned about your child’s math skills?  Are you wondering how to bring a math idea to your class in an unusual, memorable way?  These books are indispensable! Perhaps the best thing about these books is that they turn your mind from the drier approaches to teaching arithmetic, and open the faucet of your own imaginative ideas for teaching math.

Traditional Tales Retold by Kelly Morrow April 20 2017

Lazy Jack; King Thrushbeard; The Prince and the Dragon; and Sylvain and Jocosa

When class teacher Kelly Morrow’s search for first readers appropriate and challenging for her students proved fruitless, she created her own. The four little books range from 18 to 38 pages. Each book tells a folk story in a simple, clear, but interesting way, and each story is enriched by a moral truth. The cover of each is an engaging color illustration, and there are black and white drawings throughout.

Waldorf Publications and WECAN Form a More Perfect Union February 26 2017

Here in the land of publishing it’s not always easy to tell what is happening beyond the borders of a completed book process. During the journey of publishing a book there are proposals from authors, committee decisions about those proposals, backs-and-forths with authors, decisions about the age range of the book’s usefulness, permissions from other publishers, decisions about illustrations where needed, layouts, font choices, size of the book, cover decisions, edits, proofreading, biographies of authors, sometimes translation issues, and then the actual lining up for printing of the book before going to press.       Read More...

There’s No Minute Like the Last Minute! December 16 2016

Waldorf Publications and the Research Institute for Waldorf Education have many fine possibilities for thoughtful gifts when thoughtfulness in the hectic season becomes hard to muster.

Consider the caliber and depth of some of these gifts — remember, books and subscriptions keep giving long into the future!