How to Create the Star of Your Family Culture
The Heaven on Earth Workbook
- Publisher
SteinerBooks - Published
18th September 2015 - ISBN 9781621481393
- Language English
- Pages 152 pp.
- Size 7.5" x 9"
- Images in Color
“In all the activities we do with our children we are making decisions that establish our family’s culture. Culture is nothing more or less than the way we live our lives. Although this ‘culture making’ is going on all the time, the quality of the culture pivots entirely on the awareness we bring to it. We are fashioning our family’s culture with each decision, so let us bring as much consciousness to this process as we can” (from the introduction).
In this gem of a book, parents are offered an exploratory approach to the principles introduced in Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children. Using excerpts as leading thoughts, as well as “The Star of Family Culture” as a guiding image, parents are given a warmhearted lens through which to view their family life.
Beginning with love as the foundation of the family, parents will have the opportunity to discover healthy family rhythms interactively, including family work and family play. They will be engaged in creating nourishing play spaces for their children, both indoors and out, and will learn to tell handmade stories, as well as to make art joyfully with their children.
Establishing this loving, disciplined approach to family lays a sturdy foundation. In this way, many twenty-first-century “discipline problems” are deterred. With love as a guide, parents are given insight for dealing with developmentally appropriate behavior issues.
C O N T E N T S:
Introduction: The Star of Your Family Culture
1. The Heart of Family Culture: The Love Connection
2. Family Life Rhythms
3. Family Work
4. Family Play
5. Children’s Artistic Experience
6. Story Essentials: The Wonder of Stories
7. Let Them Play!
8. Discipline as Imitation: The Heart of the Matter
Closure: Step Back and Assess
Pay It Forward
Notes
Sharifa Oppenheimer
Sharifa Oppenheimer was the founding teacher of the Charlottesville Waldorf School, Virginia, where she taught kindergarten for twenty-one years and served as day care director of the early-childhood program. She has helped develop new teachers through teacher-training programs at Sunbridge College in New York State, and at Rudolf Steiner College near Sacramento as a master teacher offering practicum and internship opportunities. She has written many articles on Waldorf education, helping the parents of her students create supportive home environments. Recently she initiated a home-based kindergarten program, The Rose Garden. Sharifa is the mother of three grown sons, who received Waldorf educations. She lives in an enchanted forest in Virginia.