We Nurture: Waldorf Inspired Parenting – Details, episodes & analysis

Young children thrive in the ordinary, to them it's reliable, predictable and feels safe. There's less anxiety, less overwhelm, less to be nervous about especially when the ordinary is nourished by a healthy rhythm.

It can be hard to slow down, be present and fully embrace ordinary moments and ordinary days. How you wash the dishes, do the laundry, sweep the floor, set the table; these and more can make you feel like you're not seen and perhaps this is what makes simple, ordinary moments and days so hard.

In this episode I offer advice as well as inspiration for finding joy in ordinary days. I also tell my story of how I embraced ordinary days as a first time mom.

Here are two episodes from Season 4 that offer more on this topic.

The Key to More Joyful Days with Your Child (part 1)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-nurture/id1481862269?i=1000528963100

The Key to More Joyful Days with Your Child (part 2)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-nurture/id1481862269?i=1000529682364

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Welcome back to the We Nurture Podcast!  We are so excited to announce that Season 7 will be starting next Monday.  Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss the first episode.

Subscribe to our newsletter, The We Nurture Journal, to be notified when the season has begun and to receive updates throughout the season!

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Welcome to a new episode of the We Nurture Podcast! Today is Seasonal Thursday, and I am going to be chatting about how to create, and maintain, a nourishing, balancing summertime rhythm to nurture your child and family. We all know that the summer season is notorious for unplanned, changing activities. So, when reflecting on our rhythms, we need to focus on creating predictable and consistent routines that will support our child's ability to self-regulate, have a sense of normality, and support their sense of wellbeing. I discuss the three essential cornerstones of support (sleep time, mealtime, and playtime) and how they promote a healthy daily rhythm. I will help you recognize when your child is expressing, their feelings of being unsettled and overwhelmed; whether it is through behavior or actions, and how to approach and implement a balanced routine to get them back to feeling their best. I hope you tune in to hear my personal summertime rhythm guide, which includes estimated times of the day, for creating a sustainable and supportive rhythm!

Key Points From This Episode:

• How the summer season brings a change in rhythms.
• Creating predictable and consistent routines.
• The foundation of rhythm and the three cornerstones: sleep time, mealtime, and playtime. 
• How to help your child self-regulate, have a sense of normality, and support their sense of wellbeing.
• Understanding your child’s negative behavior (and boundary-pushing) as communicating feelings of being unsettled and overwhelmed. 
• The major role of balancing your day-to-day life
• The power of slowing down (and expanding) the activities we do with our children.
• A framework for creating your summer rhythm.
• Sleep time: the correct number of hours for restorative sleep. 
• Mealtime: helping keep the system in balance, nourishment, and blood sugar regulation.
• Playtime: nourishing cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being and language and communication skills development. 
• The power of being in nature during your summer mealtime.
• A summertime rhythm guide, based on times of the day, for creating a nourishing routine. 

Sleep Foundation

We Nurture Collective

We Nurture on Instagram

We Nurture on Facebook

We Nurture on YouTube

The Three Little Deers and the Great Storm

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Head to over to our website wenurturecollective.com to download todays printable on mom guilt.

Mom guilt comes in many forms. You might feel like you are not doing enough, that you are making the wrong decisions for your child, or even as if you are just not parenting in the “right” way. Today, on Inspirational Wednesday, we offer you some practical advice to help you overcome mom guilt and be the best parent you can be for your little ones. From honoring your emotions to leaning on your community and using your truth as an anchor, there is so much that you can start doing today to care for and nurture yourself just as much as you care for and nurture your child. Make sure to tune into this inspirational episode to learn more about taking those first steps!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Mom Guilt Worksheet

We Nurture Collective

We Nurture on Instagram

We Nurture on Facebook

The Three Little Deers and The Great Storm

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In today’s episode, we continue our series with Meagan Rose Wilson, a parent
educator, author, and mother of four. Meagan has supported hundreds of parents to create a
strong family rhythm unique to their own values and culture and, today, she applies her expertise to the subject of mealtimes. We discuss how to make mealtimes calmer and how
to instill more intention into the experience to help it become the most treasured part of the day. You’ll find out how to cultivate and enrich your relationship and your children’s relationship with food and how to nurture this through gardening, and Meagan explains the value of meal planning to save time and reduce stress, providing a number of helpful meal and snack ideas. Listen in to learn how to model the type of behavior you expect, teach table manners, keep small children seated at the table for the duration of the meal, and stimulate and encourage the types of conversation you want to have at the dinner table. Establishing mealtime rituals can create a sense of calm and reverence, so make sure to tune in to discover some of the rituals that work for us!

Key Points From This Episode:
• An introduction to the series with Meagan and how it ties into the Waldorf philosophy.
• Today’s topic: instilling family mealtimes with calmness, intention, ritual, and reverence.
• How to nurture a child's relationship with food through gardening.
• Why Meagan doesn’t believe in demonizing or banning any one specific ingredient.
• The value of meal planning to save time and reduce stress.
• Meagan provides a number of meal and snack ideas.
• How we can bring greater mindfulness to mealtimes and create more calm at the dinner table.
• Tips for creating rituals to set the tone for the meal.
• How to stimulate and encourage appropriate conversation in small children.
• How to model the type of behavior you expect at the dinner table.
• Some ideas for some other mealtime rituals you can create.
• Advice for teaching table manners; the importance of modeling.
• Methods for keeping children seated at the table for the meal, such as the candle ritual.

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In this episode, Dr Adam Blanning joins us for a conversation on technology. We are living in a time where technology is becoming ever more present in daily life. It’s vital to be informed about its effects on the well being of young children.

Dr. Blanning practices integrative and anthroposophic family medicine in Denver, Colorado where he started his holistic medical practice in 2003. Dr. Blanning lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics relating to holistic medicine and the dynamics of human development, with a special interest in supporting children. He is the author of “Understanding Deeper Developmental Needs: Holistic Approaches for Challenging Behaviors in Children.”

To learn more about his practice the Denver Center for Anthroposophical Therapies, please visit denvertherapies.com.

Music is “Dance With Me” and “Naive” by Sergey Cheremisinov.

To join one of our online courses, ask a parenting question, book a one-on-one consultation or join our community please visit wenurturecollective.com

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Time in a natural outdoor setting has so many benefits for children: fostering wonder, encouraging natural observation, building resilience and health, nourishing the senses, and promoting relationships. Recent events have led many early childhood professionals and parents to explore the possibilities of offering expanded outdoor opportunities. With the strengthening power of fresh air and the elements of nature, more time outdoors can be an elixir for adults and children! 

Sign up for the Learning in Nature online course.

Mary O'Connell has been working with the Anthroposophical care of young children for almost 20 years!  In 2002, she opened the very first LifeWays Early Childhood Center in Milwaukee where she served as the director for 13 years. 

Currently, Mary is the Board president of LifeWays North America, she is the training coordinator for LifeWays' extensive onsite and online programs AND she travels and teaches in some of these programs. Mary has taught teachers, caregivers, and parents all over the U.S. and internationally. 

In 2010, Mary co-authored Home Away From Home: LifeWays Care of Children and Families with Cynthia Aldinger, and in 2018 she authored Observing Young Children - A Tool for Meaningful Assessment.  Most recently, Mary started a non-profit farm education program at Paradise Farm in West Bend, WI where she and her colleagues provide outdoor, farm-based education to children and adults.

To discover more please visit lifewaysnorthamerica.org and kimberton.org. 

Music is Glacier Bells by Daniel Birch.

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Join Chinyelu Kunz and Molly Brett as they talk about the Senses. Waldorf Education addresses healthy human development from many perspectives and points of view and knowledge of the 12 senses is critical to understanding healthy human development. One of Rudolf Steiner’s many contributions is the understanding that we actually have 12 senses and after birth, they all require further development. Not only do the senses unite the inner and outer world in each one of us but they also make it possible for us as individuals to interact with others in healthy ways as well as be fully grounded in our bodies. It takes a long time for the senses to develop and there is a scaffolding of sorts that takes place as the Foundational, Middle and then Higher senses develop from birth to age 21. The development of the 4 Foundational senses, which are the Sense of Touch, the Sense of Life, the Sense of Self Movement and the Sense of Balance, takes place during the time from birth to 7 and their healthy development is critical to further development of the other senses. Join us as we begin the journey to understanding the 4 foundational senses. The Sense of Touch. As we experience ourselves and the world around us through touch, it is through these experiences that we develop an awareness of where our body ends and where everything else begins. We begin to experience boundaries. Touch can be viewed as the balance between our inner world and outer world and it is experience through the body’s largest organ, the skin. We’ll explore how the sense of touch is the foundation for the other senses.

To discover more about Rosebud Garden please visit farmhousemanna.com and kimberton.org

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Why do rhythmical meals work? And What are the benefits?

It's no surprise that young children do best when life is consistent and dependable. They feel safe when life happens in the same way over and over and even in the same order. They want daily life to be reliable and this is one reason why rhythmical meals work. When your rhythm includes a rotation of weekly meals that your child can count on then mealtimes are more likely to go smoother. Creating a rhythm with meals will also create more harmonious family mealtimes.

Listen to hear the other benefits of rhythmical meals!

In the episode, I give some healthy snack suggestions as well as dinner ideas. I dive a little bit into seasonal eating and offer some inspiration for meal planning.

If you're intrigued and want to explore rhythmical meals in your home, we have created a FREE printable to help you get started. All you need to do is subscribe to The Journal (there's no cost to subscribe) and you'll be on the list to receive the printable.  Subscribe here

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While it is true that all children develop at their own pace when it comes to speech, there are ways you can nurture their development. Today on Blossoming Tuesday I talk about how you can support your child’s speech development to help them blossom. I discuss how language develops from birth to preschool age and I break down the first five years of speech development. I also explain how important it is to understand that your child’s communication abilities may not parallel their emotional age until age seven and I  give tips to help with speech development and explain the connection between language and movement. I discuss games and activities that can support speech. Finally, I explain the importance of solo play to assist in language development. Tune in to We Nurture Podcast to help your child’s speech blossom!

 Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s topic: Speech Development.
• A brief overview of how speech develops from birth to preschool age. 
• Year one: crying and the dangers of letting them cry.
• Three to six months: laughing.
• Six to nine months: two-syllable words and understanding meaning. 
• 12 to 18 months: imitating sound and pitch. 
• 18 to 24 months: two-word sentences. 
• Year two: naming things and the dangers of correcting your child. 
• Year three: multiple words, even sentences with lots of words, asking why and the use of “I”. 
• Year four: complex sentences.
• Year five: good vocabulary and complex sentence structure. 
• The importance of understanding your child’s emotional age. 
• Tips to help with your child’s speech development. 
• The connection between movement and speech development. 
• How reading, songs, and nursery rhymes help with language. 
• How rapid movement games and household chores support speech development. 
• The importance of allowing your child alone time to digest what they’ve learned. 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

We Nurture Collective

We Nurture on Instagram

We Nurture on Facebook

Three Little Deers and the Great Storm

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