We Nurture: Waldorf Inspired Parenting

Being a parent is so rewarding but also hard. There’s so much that you need to surrender to much of which you were not even aware of before having a child. Finding balance in daily life is definitely one as well as  balancing your needs with that of your child’s.  It’s really a constant challenge. 

What does the heartbeat in your home feel like?

Do you have clear intentions for your family's lifestyle?

Is there a rhythmic heartbeat in your home?

Join me in this episode for advice and tips that will reduce overwhelm and help you navigate balancing daily life.  

I've created a beautiful and unique Seasonal Family Rhythm Planner to help guide you in intentionally crafting a rhythm that aligns with the heartbeat you want for your home. The Rhythm Planner guides you step by step in creating a rhythm that will bring more balance to your days! Visit wenurturecollective.com to learn more or purchase your copy.

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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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Join Chinyelu for a talk on How to Create a Restorative Daily Rhythm: The key to reducing stress in your child’s day. A good rhythm is the foundation of a peaceful, low-stress home life with your children. In this webinar, you will learn the steps to creating a rhythm for your family and how to implement it each day.

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Spending time outdoors is real food for the soul, real food for the senses, as it nourishes the young child’s senses. Spending time outside helps your child breathe deeply and be better regulated.

Nature reduces overwhelm and eases tension. It will bring your child to a calm peaceful state. One of the great benefits of being out in nature is that it also gives your child time away from screens, and makes it possible for them to intimately reconnect with themselves. 

Join me in this episode as I talk about the Foundational senses, outdoor activities that strengthen these senses and how you can create an outdoor play area in your own backyard with toys that you curate that will interest your child and encourage them to spend hours in play outside.

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It’s Seasonal Thursday and I’m so excited to have you here today. Welcome to the We Nurture Podcast with me, your host, Chinyelu. Today, I’ll be talking about the benefits of creating a summer seasonal table for you and your child. Waldorf Education calls it a nature table and it is all about creating nature scenes that reflect what is happening outside in nature, during that season. I’ll speak to you about how a seasonal table opens up opportunities for creativity, engagement, bonding, communication, connection and care. It is a natural way to encourage outdoor play and it allows your child to connect with nature in a personal way, as you let them go about their explorations.  A seasonal table is all about engaging your child’s senses, as well as strengthening your bond with them through an activity that you can do together. Bring along your child-like wonder as you tune in for this one. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Being drawn to the ‘why‘ of a summer seasonal table/nature table as a young mother new to Waldorf Education. 
• Encouraging an interest in and respect for the natural world. 
• Helping your child learn about nature in a personal way, developing a caring attitude for the earth.  
• A natural way to encourage outside play. 
• How your child can get a deeper experience of exploring the world around them.
• Placing focus on allowing your child the opportunity to investigate and explore like a scientist. 
• The importance of play with objects from nature and further developing the sense of touch. 
• Why flowers matter and how to arrange them with your child. 
• The most important aspect of creating a seasonal table: being together with your child.
• Introducing seasonal foods/recipes to your child and having them help you prepare that meal.
• Crafting with natural objects and materials. 
• Having a crafted tree as a grounding presence on your seasonal table. 
• Ideas on how to start a seasonal table and where to place it in your home. 

Etsy

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Welcome to a new episode on The We Nurture Podcast! Today is Inspirational Wednesday, and I will be talking about five Waldorf-inspired practices that I believe will help you cultivate a more balanced, nourishing lifestyle for your family (and for you too!). No matter your parenting situation, looking after little ones is no easy task. While focusing on the five practices, which are self-care, rhythm (one of my favorites!), daily routines, family values, home life and connecting with nature, I will help you understand how to cultivate balance when you live intentionally! While looking at sleep times, mealtimes, and play times, I help you understand how to better meet your child’s needs. I also give you some tips on creating simple, nurturing, doable, and nourishing self-care practices for when life feels like an overwhelming balancing act.

Key Points From This Episode:

• A new perspective on how to view balance in our lives.
• Why parenting requires so much energy.
• Five Waldorf-inspired practices to cultivate in day to day life.
• 1: self-care (creating simple, nurturing, doable, and nourishing practices). 
• 2: rhythm (sleep times, mealtimes, and play times).
• 3: daily routines (building with intentionality to restore a sense of balance).
• 4: family values (the tools you give your child, defining your family story, and creating healthy values).
• 5: home life and connecting with nature (a place of security, safety, and cultivating a sanctuary).

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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Welcome back to another bountiful episode of blossoming Tuesday on the We Nurture Podcast. I’m your host, Chinyelu. Today, I talk about how you can use stories to calm your child when they are distressed. Your child could be agitated due to a break from routine or nervous about an upcoming event. In any case, stories are a way to capture your child’s attention and imagination, in an effort to bring calm to a situation. I will tell you how descriptive language is great for early childhood development, and how you, as a parent, do not need to tell the perfect story, only one that helps you connect with your child with a message that they can relate to. I will share two stories with you today, as examples of the ways that you can create imagery to bring peace to any moments of stress. I can’t wait for you to tune into this one! 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Using stories to help children manage behavior that has become disruptive. 
• How to use language to conjure up images that guide your child’s emotions to a calm state.
• Why the loss of a sense of security and safety can cause dysregulation.
• Descriptive language as an aid for early childhood development. 
• The way stories can capture a child’s attention and imagination. 
• Creating your own stories, as a parent, to bring calm. 
• The types of stories that you can use to create imagery. 
• Making sure that you do not direct your child through your stories. 
• Creating imagery that your child can relate to. 
• How to navigate through an unexpected event that interrupts the usual routine. 
• Your story does not have to be perfect, so rather focus on connecting with your child!
• Using animals in stories to better connect with your child. 
• An example of a preview story: The Fox Family. 

Waldorf Education

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Welcome to a new episode of the We Nurture Podcast! Today is Mindful Monday, and I will be discussing why giving a child a timeout doesn’t work. Timeouts, which are ineffective and punitive, never serve their intended purpose. While delving deep into the topic, I explain why we need to change our perception of dealing with negative behavior, and how by doing this, we create an opportunity to support our children, connect with them, and build a relationship. I try to help you understand the importance of being present when your child reflects and processes their behavior, how to teach your child emotional regulation, the ways to guide them with your own strengths and boundaries, and how timeouts cause our children to create beliefs that they are worthy of punishment.  Plus, I give you suggestions and helpful strategies on what to do instead of timeouts, how to acknowledge why you desire to send your child to timeout, and the importance of giving your child autonomy and choice. I hope you can join me!

Key Points From This Episode:

• How to change our response to our child’s negative behavior. 
• How to figure out what our child is trying to communicate when they have negative behavior.
• Helpful strategies to use when dealing with a child’s misbehavior. 
• Understanding what the flawed goal of timeout is.
• Why we need to be present when our children reflect on their behavior. 
• How we help our children with emotional regulation by being present.
• Why our children need to feel comforted and guided when they are presenting negative behavior.
• The lessons to teach our children when they are processing their feelings. 
• How to reflect on why you are sending your child to timeout.
• The power of giving a child autonomy and choice.
• How to incorporate the outside when you’re dealing with misbehavior. 
• The importance of reflecting on your child’s negative behavior. 

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Welcome to a new episode of the We Nurture Podcast! Today is Q&A Friday, and I am going to be talking about how to manage bedtimes when you have children of different ages. I am going to talk about the power of healthy, daily rhythms and having a holistic overview of the day. Before I get deep into today’s episode, I recap the six foundations of a healthy rhythm and give some quick examples of how to make sure you achieve these. Then, I will help you understand the effect a busy day has on the tiredness of your child, and I will draw on my own experiences to give you tips, tricks, and advice on how to juggle managing bedtime routines. I help you understand how to let go of the day and make peace with what has been, in the hopes of finding harmony tomorrow. From reading books before bed and having early dinners, to managing bathing and showering routines, this episode is helpful for parents and caregivers with children of all ages!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Chinyelu discusses why she was at home with her three children (of all different ages).
• The power of a healthy, daily rhythm and having a holistic overview of the day.
• Talking about how different emotions are expressed at the end of the day, normally at bedtime.
• Why children can become clingy at the end of the day.
• How to have a harmonious bedtime.
• The link between the end of today and the beginning of tomorrow. 
• Investing in a front carrier for your baby.
• Why you should have early dinners, and how to create a bathing/showering routine.
• Why you should read books (and the different kinds of books to read) before bed.
• How you can put your day to rest and give yourself peace during bedtime.

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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

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