Natural Parenting- Rhythm in the Home- Part Three

How does Rhythm help with creative time, I hear you ask?  We mums are so busy, and often our own projects get pushed to the background.  We mums 'choose the smallest potato'!

Rhythm helps to free up blocks of time in the day.  Smart mama's use some of this time for their own projects.   Everyone is a winner.

Not only that, but with a weekly rhythm in place, it is easy to 'schedule' in creative time in our diary. 
Literally block off an hour or two, a couple of times a week, to spend time on a creative task. 

I am lucky in that I do 'work from home', (and appreciate that many women don't have this luxury)  but it is all a matter of priorities too.  When creating is your first or second goal, or your "north star",  some things do sit on the altar of sacrifice- like that extra coffee with a friend or browse time at the shops. I make a big point of STAYING HOME as much as possible.

One quick fix is getting rid of the TV. Straight away, there are a few hours free time each night for creating but more importantly, getting rid of the tv is a godsend if you have children. Sound weird?  I know many parents swear by putting on the tv babysitter to 'get time for themselves' but I find it works the opposite.

Give the children a little of your time each day, and then support them to find their own things to do. They soon become self directed and independent, and you never have a child nagging at you to turn it on, or the tantrums when you turn it off (both of which take up lots of time). It is really simple but truly works!  

The daily and weekly rhythms also help us by prioritising our day.  When we know it is cleaning day, or washing day, or baking day, we have a goal and a direction to follow and we find ourselves motivated to do these things.  Children love to help, so the more you can include them the better.  Modern parents often feel guilty for not 'playing' with their children more but this is the first time in history where parents sometimes become the child's playmate. 

One big helpful sentence got rid of my play guilts many years ago.  The sentence was "It is not your job to play puzzles with your child".  As a parent for a second time round, now I get it.  My 'job' is to help prepare them for their own lives.  Having them 'play' alongside me (and help out, as little ones choose to do) whilst I do my work, provides them with real world experience of managing themselves and a home, but also gives them plenty of scope for their imaginative play later.  Cooking, ironing, playing mum's and dad's.  This is what they do when they choose their own adventures. 

Of course, we'll still play puzzles, and read books, and sing songs, and stack blocks, and snuggle but without the parent guilt, this is super dooper enjoyable!

Hand carving stamp adventures!

My new blog header is mostly made from my hand carved stamps.
The MamaMoontime word is made up of all individual letters (I only had to carve 7 letters for this but am slowly working through the alphabet) and my MamaMoontime girl is one stamp but I have just coloured her with different inks.  I couldn't resist popping in a mushroom or two, and a little flower! 

Hope you like it!  Keep an eye out for a post on my hand carving adventures.  I love it like I love no other craft!!

Three Kings Day

Today, my joyful friend Renee hosted a celebration for the arrival of the 3 Kings.  I was delighted to attend, and particularly loved the good company and singing around the piano.  There should be more singing around the piano, I say!

You can visit both Renee's and Jen's blogs for photos and a more thorough explanation.  Needless to say, I hope we are invited next year!!  I love these quirky, life loving, exuberant friends!!

Natural Parenting- Rhythm in the Home- Part Two

Rhythm 'n Blue, originally uploaded by acastellano.

I just love this picture. It is a fantastic pictorial image of Rhythm.

Rhythm.  Such a glorious word.  Makes me think of latin dancing, and samba nights, and tequila.
The word is so full of LIFE. 
And rhythm IS life.  There are rhythms all around us.
For the past 7 years or so, whenever I have done a talk or a parent workshop, I have asked parents to list all the worldly rhythms they know.

As a group, we come up with many.

Daylight to darkness, seasons, ocean tides, moon cycles, plant growth and harvest cycles, fish breeding cycles, weather patterns (eg summer storms in December), birth gestation periods, menstral cycles....  the list is enormous.

Yet, although we are surrounded by worldly rhythms all the time, it is not until we begin to list them that many of us can truly see that we, meaning human beings, cannot be separate from all these.   Indeed, our very breathing and heartbeats are two predictable rhythms inside our own bodies.

But our lives today are often completely and totally chaotic and devoid of any semblance of rhythm at all.  The second most common medical complaint in Australia is anxiety and depression related illness.  (Likewise, I have read that Zoloft, an anti anxiety/depression drug, was the most commonly prescribed medicine in Australia in 2008)   Is this a coincidence???   

There are so many wonderful technologies that we have embraced that help us to complete our days- we can stay up all night if we want to thanks to the invention of electric light, we can eat any kind of food at any time of the day (even if is truly 'out of season'), we can buy gadgets that help reduce our physical workloads (eg mowers, dishwashers) and we can circumvent our monthly cycles by taking a little pill.

But at what cost??  More and more, we are realising that we can't truly beat nature.  Living and working with no consideration for the natural cycles often does more harm than good.  More and more women rely on IVF technologies to fall and sustain a pregnancy, if they are one of the lucky ones.  Organic food sources are growing in number due to our demands for whole, unadulterated foods.  Numerous research studies are looking into the long term effects of lack of sleep, and recent findings include things such as increases in car crashes and loss of brain function.  Our sedentary lifestyles now mean that Gyms and homes fill with more gadgets and machines aimed at exercising our different muscles. Somehow, we have to fit exercise into our already full to the brims lives too!

Our health and lifestyles could do with a little bit of rhythm.  Let's get in tune!

Natural Parenting- Rhythm in the Home

Musical notes, originally uploaded by Emily & Greig Walker.

Many people ask me how I seem to find the time to do so many creative things? And I always say, Rhythm.

"Rhythm? What is rhythm?"

To steal a quote from an unknown source, "Rhythm is not mindless routine, but a MINDFUL awakening to the many blessings of the day"

The key word is MINDFUL.

You could think of it like this.

We can read a musical scale two ways:
Firstly- to hear each individual note, to name the notes eg A B B C, to isolate the instruments
Or- to play the notes of a piece of music, with feeling, taking notice of the greater harmony, the spaces in between the notes, the full picture of the symphony and all the instruments

The first picture is 'routine', repetitive days that bore you and the children, inflexibility, strict time rules = NO FUN!!
The second picture is 'rhythm'. A stable platform for the family orchestra. Full of music, and song, and art, and creation, and joy= EMBRACE LIFE!!

My home rhythm provides safety and predictability for my little man but each day flits along almost musically with time for inside play, time for outside play, time for eating, time for rest, time for creating, time for family, time for quiet and time for boisterousness. The transitions between the parts of the day become like little games, and he plays along happily.

A lot of the normal frustrations of a toddler disappear within a home rhythm as he 'expects' things to happen. For example, he knows that rest comes after lunch and happily goes, wide awake, into his bed, only to drop off to sleep within 5 minutes. He knows that dinner will come after we have said a little blessing, and he'll sit in his high chair to wait whilst we get everything ready.

A daily rhythm for our family means that there are less 'wasted minutes' and more blocks of time for creativity. This truly is the key.

I also know that a home rhythm requires a little planning and forethought, and conversely, letting go and being flexible.

I treat my home rhythm as I would my 'working week', in that Monday to Friday are pretty solid but weekends are for rejuvenation.

My home rhythm is far more relaxed than my classroom rhythm would have been, and I focus far more on my weekly touchstones than my daily ones. In my classroom, my entire day from 9am until 3pm was encompassed within my daily rhythm. At home, my daily rhythm is broken into four parts- eg the morning, before Ned's sleep; Ned's sleep time; the afternoon (including dinner/bath/story) after Ned's sleep; and evening time. It is even less about the clock than my classroom rhythm and more about being in touch and in tune with our own body clocks.

(The classroom -whilst flexible about time frames- did, by virtue of being within a school framework , have some necessary time goals to meet eg being outside in time for our relief staff to do lunch breaks, meeting child-adult ratios etc.)

My weekly rhythms, however, are pretty solid and stable.
Cleaning house day on Monday, Moondew Tuesday, Craft and MamaMoontime Club day Wednesday, Visiting and Library Day Thursday, Moondew Friday. Jobs get done in the afternoon- things like picking up and dropping off the teen, exercise, banking. Having a weekly rhythm means we get stuff done. I write everyday (when Ned sleeps). Mostly, the rhythm keeps our family life happily bobbing along so we all get a bit of time together and a bit of time to do our own bits and bobs too. Weekends are predominantly family time but the rhythms still support.

Funny enough, my first parent evening in a few weeks is about this very thing! It is a juicy idea, so I might explore it a little more for a few days.

Biodynamics Workshop with Sandra Frain

winter horn clay gets buried, originally uploaded by eileen_kaufman.

As part of my role being co-core group member for the Australian Association for Rudolf Steiner Early Childhood Education (North Coast region), I organise events for local Waldorf teachers and people interested in learning more about Steiner philosophy.
In 10 days time, a group of us are gathering to participate in a two day in-service on Biodynamic gardening with Children with the gregarious and humorous Sandra Frain.

"Through applied theory, participants learn about Biodynamics with enlivening activities for young children, transforming BD preparations, making compost and animal homes and creating food too".

I know a little about Biodynamic preparation in theory but am completely lacking in practical experience so this is something I have been wanting to learn for years. Sandra is from our local regional group who hosted this same workshop at Vital Years in 2009. This was the workshop of choice for a big majority of the conference participants and those lucky enough to join in sang the praises of the content and teacher. Thank you Sandra for finding time to come share with us!!

I know a little sneak preview! We are going to make creamy butter and I can't wait to share this with my playgroup friends.

Waldorf Steiner Education and Creativity

Hello 2010! And Welcome.

(Our family Christmas holiday 2009)

2010 feels like a great new beginning, and a welcome one.
I hope it feels like that for you too!
Today, my husband, Ned and I went for a drive and a look around the Byron region.  We went to look at property and affordable towns and calculate drive times because in the distant future, we hope this area will become our home.  You see, this year, my beloved local Waldorf school changed direction and moved away from the values I hold dear so we have now enrolled our son at the local Waldorf School in Byron Bay.  This is now our nearest Waldorf school and is just over an hour south from where we currently live. 
Waldorf education means that much.

Of course, 'formal schooling' is a while away, but as we all know, education begins from conception and part of education is being surrounded by people and community with similar values.   A Waldorf school community is filled with people who want to protect the essence of childhood- to give children the gift of imagination (not computer games), the wonder of story, the universal gift of worldly rhythms, the delight of song, the wonder of music, the love of art, the joy of creating.   A good education doesn't separate these things into compartments, but envelops the whole child in this world, all the time.  That is what GOOD Waldorf education does, and having worked and been immersed in it for over 10 years, I know it works.

I also know it creates good kids.  Children that find living and life really truly amazing, and who can get along with all kinds of people in all kinds of situations.  These children care about the earth, and this is a great (and now essential) thing for children to feel.  I'm sure lots of other schools get it right, or get bits of it right, but for me, a Waldorf school takes the puzzle pieces and arranges them with artistic flair. 

I also love the personal learning and 'golden drops' I have received as a person involved in Waldorf education and this look at the biographical development of the human being and this year, I might try to share some of these things for you to ponder.  Perhaps you'll be inspired by something......

For 2010 though, my goal is to write, write, and write.  I will continue with my two Moondew Playgroups and be surrounded by children (including my own) and their parents and hopefully inspire new thoughts about what they want for their family lives and the world of parenting little ones.  I want to delve deeply into the world of story, and bring new crafty goodies to the world.  And of course, bring my MamaMoontime Creativity Club course to as many wonderful women as I can, so our 'creative community' grows until creative women are demanding time for their creative inspirations and can take over the world!!   (or at least our little corner of it!!)

I wish you too, a productive, creative and inspired 2010!!  Pop in and say hi occasionally!!

PS :Have you ever seen a
Jumping Pillow ? This is so much fun I wish I had one in my own backyard!!