We Nurture: Waldorf Inspired Parenting

Welcome to a new episode of the We Nurture Podcast! Today is Inspirational Wednesday, and we will be chatting about the power of cooking with your child. In this episode, I share personal experiences I had with my mother, my experience as a Waldorf educator, and experiences  with my children in their early childhood years. I use all of these experiences to guide you through the benefits of cooking and preparing food with your child. From social-emotional and cognitive development, building self-esteem, promoting hand-eye coordination, and creating an awareness of their senses, the list of benefits seems endless. You'll begin to understand how, by allowing your child to participate in the kitchen, you'd can create lifelong memories, foster positive relationships, and cultivate a connection to the natural world. My aim is to provide comfort in the face of this potentially daunting task, and encourage a shift in your mindset to move away from your potential fears of mess and imperfection. I hope you can join us for this informative and advice-filled episode!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Children’s interest in adults’ day-to-day tasks.
• A look at my childhood in Nigeria as the beginning of my relationship with food.
• Cooking as an early childhood experience is integral to the Waldorf curriculum.
• The holistic perspective of nourishment as an experience that promotes a healthy relationship with food.
• The importance of children being immersed and included in their surrounding environments.
• Accepting that including your child in cooking may be messy and be imperfect.
• How cooking nurtures your relationship with your child and builds their self-esteem.
• How helping prepare food promotes pre-maths thinking and helps build hand-eye coordination skills.
• How cooking develops language skills, social-emotional and cognitive development, and problem-solving skills.
• Age-appropriate considerations to make in the kitchen.
• Recommendations on how to ensure your child’s safety while preparing food. 

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Do you feel like your home needs more calm? Well, get ready for some peace at home as we welcome you to another episode of the We Nurture Podcast! Today, on Blossoming Tuesday, I talk about activities that you can do to ground and calm your child. Behavior is something that needs to be carefully considered and in this episode you'll learn how your child’s behavior determines which calming activity best suits their needs. You'll also discover just how important it is to identify your child’s individual needs. You’ll come to know why the ‘time of day’ makes a difference in your child’s behavior. There are four foundational senses that we are made aware of and there is a calming activity that speaks to each one of them. I talk about about warmth as a calming essential, water as therapy, and the benefits of creating a little fort for your child. Make sure that you tune in to find out how you can bring calm to your home!  

Key Points From This Episode:

Things to notice about your child’s behavior. 

• How behavior determines the necessary calming activity. 
• The importance of identifying the ‘need’ of your child. 
• What different types of calming activities look like.
• Why time of day is an important factor to consider. 
• How sense is important when choosing the right calming activity. 
• Looking at the four foundational senses. 
• Four calming activities that relate to the senses. 
• Grounding experiences for the imbalanced child.
• Why warmth is used as a calming essential tool. 
• How water is akin to therapy. 
• The importance of cozy nooks and blanketed forts for you.

You'll find our recipe for Homemade Warm Lavender Scented Play dough in today's instagram post.

Link to Waldorf Play Frame

Link to Waldorf Play Stands

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Welcome to another exciting edition of Mindful Monday on the We Nurture Podcast! In this episode, I’ll be talking about the importance of letting children know that there is goodness in the world. Life is hard, so children need to know that even in difficult times, goodness does exist. You'll learn that parents need to protect our children from our adult fears and anxieties and that we, as adults, need to be a model of happiness that our children can look up too. We come to understand that fear can make a child shut down and that we shouldn’t expose them to news and other adult content while they are still young. We should, instead, shower them with love and positivity. Positive affirmations can help your child develop a sense of being safe. And, we can positively affirm that today’s episode is not to be missed!  

May this episode encourage you and help you to discover hope and joy in life everyday and that you'll find the strength and courage to show your child that there is indeed Goodness in the World!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Why it is important for children to know that there is goodness in the world. 

• Why children need to be protected from adult fears and anxieties.

• The way Chinyelu’s childhood experiences of war formed her beliefs!

• Discovering ways to be a model of happiness for our kids. 

• How to help your child develop a sense of safety.

• What it means to meet the world with warmth and an open heart.

• How to create moments of stillness.

• The importance of positive affirmations.

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Long ago, in a tiny house at the edge of the forest lived grandmother.  

Grandmother loved to spend her days in the garden tending to the flowers.  She grew more than she needed so she could share with the birds and small animals that came to visit.  Grandmother had a tiny root cellar beneath her house where she stored her carrots and pumpkins in the winter and in the summer it was cool. in the summer. It was where she always went when there was a storm and she needed to be safe.   

“This protection story was written for the children of Ukraine. It is in loving memory of my beautiful grandmother who passed away last winter, a first generation Czechoslovakian farmer with Ukrainian ancestry. Her name meant “one who comes from where the wild roses grow.”  And in gratitude to my Ukrainian friends whose light and beauty sustained me for 10 years when I was away from home. There is nothing more important than home and kin.  

We recommend this story for ages 3 - 7

About the Author

Darla Barrows was born and raised on a small family owned dairy farm in the Driftless region of the Midwest.  She and her family recently moved back to the Driftless to be near her parents who have turned their 70 acres of farmland into prairie flower conservation. Darla holds a degree in ASL Interpretation and Transliteration from Saint Paul College and is a graduate of the Birth to Three Program at Sophia’s Hearth in Keene, New Hampshire. Darla first began teaching Parent and Child classes twenty years ago in ASL before becoming a Waldorf Parent and Child educator and running her own program in Canada for nearly a decade. Darla is a mother, a gardener, and works as the Online Programming Coordinator for Sophia’s Hearth.

To discover more please visit wenurturecollective.com/stories-for-children

In this episode, I talk about my parenting experience with bossy and aggressive behavior.  I discuss the importance of having unconditional love, compassion, and empathy as a way to understanding how our child's behavior stems from their internal fears and desire to control (because of their fears).

In sharing my personal story my hope is that it will help you if you are facing this kind of behavior. If you think my story and advice might help a family member or friend, please share it with them.

Throughout the episode, I challenge you to shift how you view aggressive behavior to see that what your child is actually needing, is actually asking for is you. They’re asking for your unconditional love, your compassion, your empathy, your understanding and your kindness. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• My personal experience with bossy and aggressive behavior
• The power of judgment-free observation.
• A consistent approach to moving through the locked aggressive feelings of a toddler. 
• How to understand your child’s behavior with unconditional love and empathy. 
• How to support all your children when one is hurting from the actions of their sibling.
• Remodeling aggressive actions to become respectful communication and healthy interactions. 
• The main goal when dealing with challenging behavior.
• The importance of a parent’s kindness, empathy, unconditional love, and compassion.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

We Nurture Collective

We Nurture on Instagram

We Nurture on Facebook

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Today, the We Nurture Podcast is all about making your child blossom like a spring flower! We have the added pleasure of being joined by health and beauty coach, Jolene Hart.

Jolene speaks about the importance of getting your child into the rhythm of eating with the seasons from an early age. And that it’s possible to make healthy eating fun for them!

Tune in to hear Jolene's advice and tips from her own personal and professional experience.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Jolene’s most important food recommendations to include in family meals.
• Making healthy eating, vegetables in particular, fun for children.
• Detoxing: why this is not a scary concept but one to be embraced. 
• A bit about Jolene’s research process.
• How you can cultivate a foodie curiosity in your own home.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jolene Hart Website

Jolene on Twitter

Eat Pretty: Nutrition for Beauty Inside and Out

Eat Pretty Live Well - A Guided Journal

Eat Pretty Everyday - 365 Daily Inspirations

Shine On

Ignite Your Light

We Nurture Collective

We Nurture on Instagram

We Nurture on Facebook

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Today on Inspirational Wednesday, I'll show you ways in which you can nurture your child's confidence and I'll share the value of raising a self-confident child, how to achieve this, and how a child’s early experiences lay the foundation for their life. For a child to be self-confident, they need to be given the freedom to experience new things in their world of “play“ and you, as their parent, need to allow them the opportunity to be governed by their own will. Moreover, parents need to practice what they preach, as children learn as much from observation as they do from activity. Make sure you tune in to hear how you can raise a self-confident child!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Self-confidence is developed and driven by the child’s own will (impulse and desire to do what interests them).

• Nurture your child’s will by giving them opportunities to help in daily life activities.

• Give your child plenty of time for unstructured play.

• Engaging a child’s will harnesses their inner strength and thus builds their confidence.

• As a parent, work on your own self-confidence.

• Mindfulness of your words and actions that are directed at your child.

• Being a strong role model for your child to imitate.

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Today on Blossoming Tuesday, I am continuing the discussion of how to understand your child's drawings. I'll explain the importance of being patient with your child and allowing them freedom of expression as they transition through their developmental stages. You will begin to understand that something as simple as the ability to draw a circular shape, sun-ray shapes, dots, and lines sees a child go through many processes and developmental stages. We start to understand the significance of drawing as allowing a child to begin their exploration of their path to self-discovery. We follow along as Chinyelu explains how drawings can represent ego-consciousness, self-awareness, and cognitive connections. We are left with many examples and interpretations of the meaning behind drawings. Tune in to understand how to use these interpretations to better understand your child!  

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Once upon a time, in a green meadow dotted with wildflowers, there was a cozy earthen hollow that went deep into the ground. This is where a family of groundhogs lived. Every morning they climbed out of their hollow and ate handfuls of yellow dandelions and red clover. But it was not enough food for little groundhog because he was always hungry. So the family scurried to Farmer John’s compost pile to look for good food to eat. 

We recommend this story for ages 3 - 7

About the Author

Chinyelu Kunz, is the founder of We Nurture Collective. In 2020, after 25 years as a Waldorf early childhood educator, her growing passion to support parents of young children, on a bigger platform, led her to leave classroom teaching. She created the parenting podcast, We Nurture which was quickly followed by The Stories for Children podcast. She loves writing stories for children and hopes to do this more in the future.

To discover more please visit wenurturecollective.com/stories-for-children

Today on Mindful Monday, I will be exploring what it means to cultivate a habit of mindful eating. You will learn, through my personal stories and tips, what wholesome food is and how to introduce it into your children's lives. First, I'll begin with the understanding that food needs to be seen as much more than just what we eat. I will guide you through what a good relationship with food looks like and how to foster this in your children. Secondly, I will share insight into the healing properties and connections that come with being present in all aspects of your food purchasing, preparation, and eating. I will then share tips on how joy, gratitude, and experiences shape the way your child will grow up thinking about food. Tune in to explore all the ways you can help your child connect with wholesome food!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Understanding Chinyelu’s inspiration behind the book, Farmhouse Manna.
• A background of her relationship with food and her love for cooking and gardening.
• The importance behind our intentions when preparing and eating a meal.
•  Exploring what it means to feel our soul senses.
• How children develop life skills by participating in meal preparation and food shopping.
• The power of observing our child's reactions and behavior towards different foods.
• Rhythm, repetition, and joy allow a child to develop a positive relationship with food.
• Minimizing pressure around finishing food 

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