Tuesday, July 30, 2013

How old can you be?


Are we really here without a map, seeking scraps of information all about to direct us as to what is good and true? In matters of the heart, moreover, matters of children and family, what is good and true today may be something they hear about fifty years from now, and possibly give a second thought.

It is always a wonder the parent of four children always seems like she or he has got it covered, not worried at all they might f this up. Even better, is the grandparent, or great grandparent who worries even less and loves without the limits of control or fear.

I always tell myself my goal is to parent like a grandparent, hard work indeed.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Giveaway!!! Babytime! by Episencial

HOORAY FOR GIVEAWAYS!
Kim Walls, CEO of Babytime! by Episencial and skin-health expert, is sharing the how-to's and whys of baby and child skincare in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 10th at 7PM


To register for this free event, please RSVP to info@playgrouplosangeles.com



To jumpstart enthusiasm on this amazing Playgroup LA Event, Babytime! is generously giving away an amazing gift basket featuring their entire product line!!


Event attendees are automatically entered, winner announced at event!


You may also enter this giveaway when you Like our Facebook pages!!




Share this post on your Facebook page!! 
Leave a comment on this blog post when you are done!!

Friday, June 14, 2013

On School and Education


Sadly, yes, though I always thought my first book would be called Hands-off Parenting: Does Anyone Know Whose Kid This Is?! It turns out I have been a helicopter parent in the name of providing an amazing, challenging-only-in-ways-I-like, godly educational experience for my first-born daughter.

Currently, when a camp, soccer or library application asks "name of school" my throat closes a little and a little acid starts to brew, because we just left a school and we are signing on for new school(s), and I am learning more about my motivations than ever.

For the past four years, my daughter has gone to a small, "intimate", nurturing enabling supportive private school in the heart of Hollywood, and now she will go to a public school in the same locale give or take 20 miles, exhale. I was relieved when she got a spot at a coveted charter school, the kind that can be described as a private public school, until I wasn't.

First, it was the commute, and then it was that I was literally signing a contract on how I would parent outside of school and what kind of lunch I would pack (not talking about peanut-free). I think my past-life under fascism started to rear it's hot head roaring, S A Y  W H A T! I sat with it for a few days, let clarity bubble, and reasoned it out with my sweetheart and a trusted compadre. 

And, this is when the helicopter light bulb went off. My daughter's last school, the private we left, is littered with parents, which is exactly what I wanted! But, it turns out, for better or worse, self included,  adults can be a-holes. They are no longer innocent: they soiree, include, exclude, judge, rule, pay, etc. And this privileged police state is what we chose and then declined.  The charter will be much of the same but free, at what cost?

And then there's the school down the street that I have always trash-talked--don't even look at it!! Never in a million years did I think I would even consider it over the fabulous charter if we were going public, yet somehow, in my sleepless nights, this school pops in my head, and the gossip that's circulating word-of-mouth about it as well--it's getting really good, there's an amazing principal, it's depressing, etc. 

I have done research: the reviews online are great, the school seems to have greatly improved, and there seems to be a dedicated parent body, not in a helicopter.

We can walk there, and there will be a child-presented diversity, not a committee or admissions director. But, there is something too traditional, not magical or special--or wait, is there? Oh yes, there will be hundreds of kids, kids in classrooms and on blacktops, without well-informed and fabulous helicopter parents (like myself) flying about.

Just for today, we can't decide where we'll send her in August or September--how's that for hands off? but I'm getting humbly schooled along the way. 

Monday, June 3, 2013

Temperaments in Waldorf Education


Though we are (wisely) warned not to weigh too heavily on the four temperaments in relating to our children, one can't help but be fascinated and somewhat enlightened into a new perspective.

Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf Education, talked of four temperaments that are universal among humankind, great and small. Choleric, Melancholic, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic, none the better, all serving one another in our mutual evolution. Waldorf teachers and parents are given information about these temperaments as they can be an incredible tool in serving a group of children, organizing and teaching. 

The information about temperaments may help better serve our families and classrooms as we learn how to best direct everyone's energy and contributions.

Great news for those in the Los Angeles area! 

Lisa Profumo, currently at Westside Waldorf School, will be leading a talk on the temperaments on July 2nd, 2013 from 7:30-9PM at the Besant Lodge in Hollywood. For more information and tickets, please visit:


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Making Peg Dolls


While there may not be a Burning Bush, it is clear there is a Power greater than myself. I have been so delighted with pleasant surprises lately. I don't know if they didn't used to happen or if I did just not receive them. 

Today I received an email from Margaret at We Bloom Here with a Lifeways book offering, pennies from Heaven as far as I am concerned--there are endless books out there for me, I have to pace myself. 

An unexpected letter, a gift from someone out there, offers so much more than meets the eye. How deeply meaningful it is to follow the path that is mine, and have put myself "out there" over the years and today.

Margaret's is a blog I always check out when I am in the blogosphere. There is nothing she can't do with a peg doll, and the pictures alone tickle me. I am so happy to announce to all of my crafty friends and Waldorf people, Hawthorn Press has just published Margaret's book, Making Peg Dolls!

I encourage you to buy her book, read her blog post about how meaningful these dolls can be for children of all ages:


It's the little things after all.


Thursday, January 31, 2013

Lost and Found, Stories of Hope and the Human Heart



I have always wished their would be something truly uplifting on television; this is it, and watch it.


These two women were once girls who survived the Holocaust. Their respective families saved their lives by putting them on a ship to America to escape certain death, never to see their loved ones again.

They became instant and inseparable friends, who had only one another to relate an impossible reality.

Upon arrival in the U.S. they were adopted by different families and never saw one another again. Miraculously, by the determination of a group of teenagers in the Midwest, they are reunited more than 70 years later, a lifetime.

OWN network, thank you for offering this profound series, Lost and Found, which not only reveals the depth, constancy and unstoppable power of the human heart, but breathes the presence of a universal connectivity, a unified field, the pulse of us all.




Friday, January 18, 2013

Waldorf Speech, Wake up Your Words!




Let's build it! Years ago, parents kept urging me to have adult classes, and voila they are here. 


Speech for Parents and Educators is the most fun you will have on a Wednesday afternoon at 12:30PM hands down and guaranteed. 


Daniel has been a celebrated teacher for many moons and he leads of fun-filled and enlightening class that will wake up words for you. Why is this important? The same motivation you have for reading or story-telling with your little one in the first place--connection, literacy, ritual, and love. 

Not to be missed if you have ever been Waldorf-curious as well. In all of the beautiful gems of my teacher training, this was one of the most memorable and immediately useful.

Speech for Parents and Educators, Wednesday, January  23rd at The Besant Lodge.







Thursday, January 17, 2013

We Already Love You


It is not always like hot butter going through a knife or the other way around, rather. By nature, there is some kind of confidence enough to go forward with the classes I hold, and yet, never was I ready to perform at any age even if I had the ability. I was repeatedly reminded of the track and field incident where I insisted on not racing because I was terrified of the crowd, though at the time I did not know how to articulate that. 

So in my small world it is always a miracle when I find myself able to lead a playgroup and sing in front of anyone, and the reason I do this work is because I must be small enough somewhere to meet those children.

 I am doubly blessed when a parent connects with what I offer and even sings my praises. However, it is always a fearful confirmation when I get the opposite message even intuitively.

I have to remember at awkward times as these that I already love you before you've even walked through the gate, whether you will like me or not.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Hooray! He's Back, Hooray


Can you believe it? I have dusted off my blog, and here I am again! New Year here I come.

I really appreciate the above image. I think it illustrates exactly my happy place, and where I'd really like to be and where I will ultimately wind up once upon a time. The children are each just perfectly in their private exposed glee and their grown-up holds a place for this and allows and soaks in and radiates out their glee like the sun.

I am very grateful and fulfilled to host playgroups out of my home. It is really a balance of my hoping to gracefully share the ideas and suggestions I have gathered from both experience and study, and my deep craving to connect with both the grown-ups and the little ones.

Oolah Woolah
Oolah Woolah
Olah Wolah Clap

Oolah Woolah 
Oolah Woolah
Olah Wolah Slap

Sits in the Sack

Pin Pun
Pin Pun
Pout Jumps Out

Hooray!
He's Back
Hooray!
Pin Pun Pin Pun
Pay and Away

-Wilma Ellersiek

Monday, May 7, 2012

Spring and Me! Weekend Parent and Me Class Los Angeles, CA



Though our Mini May Faire may have been wee, I am replete knowing I pursued a vision of toddlers enjoying a sweet "Mommy and Me" based on Waldorf principles.  Over the course of 6 weeks, our sunflower seeds sprouted and grew so big (and will hopefully flower quite soon).  We learned many fingerplays and poems, made beautiful Spring-inspired artwork together, met baby animals, and made new friends.


We walked around the maypole saying good-bye to our class with this song,

Sow the seeds in the ground below
Add the sun and the rain
Watch a garden grow,
I can see in front of me,
A garden by "Rosie" just as pretty as can be.

(Each child grew a miniature garden in a picnic basket to take home at the last class.)



DIY: to make the Maypole I found a thick stick and nailed ribbons to the top, stuck in a flower pot with soil, and covered with cloth and flowers.

If you are in Los Angeles, please join the next session, visit http://playgrouplosangeles.com

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Down to Connection




A genuine love of family, a profound feeling towards children propels my consciousness, guides me through my life's work.  I can't seem to listen to enough (conversations about) children, period.


I have been fortunate to attend two interesting lectures concerning early childhood in the past month.  One with Dr. Reggie Melrose at Maple Village Waldorf School and the other with Polly Elam at the RIE conference.  (I intend to write about those in more detail.)

A practical approach to parenthood and personhood is what I crave from life first and foremost--when I  am not doing it, I am learning about it.  Ultimately, there is a marked difference between knowing about something and being it.

And, though I imagine I will always attend and engage in conversations about the ways to see children and be with them, I probably have most singularly been influenced by my spiritual teacher, David Hawkins.  When asked how to be the best teacher for children, he offers, just love them, they know when you love them, they get it instantly.

When I reflect on what informs or at least navigates my approach, I would say I rely most heavily on an instant connection.  I feel the rainbow bridge, I see One, when I look into the eyes of my young friends.

Very grateful to pause for a moment and acknowledge that I am in the vortex of what I want to be when I grow up.  

I suppose out of love arises all of the right suggestions.




Wednesday, April 11, 2012

'Tis A Gift To Be Simple, 'Tis A Gift To Be Free


I am a huge fan of mermaids (luckily so is my child), and I have grown to have a deep appreciation for handmade dolls = win, win.  Thus, I am compelled to share Julie's Meltdown Monday Giveaway, where one lucky person takes home this beautiful handmade doll.  Dolls made from natural material with limited facial expression are tradition in Waldorf Early Education.  In this way, the children can project their own feelings and experiences onto the doll.  Also, recommended is to only give children one doll.  Let it be a mermaid!