We finish our southern hemisphere summer program

 In the past we have had up to 100 children for our 'summer camp' but this year, due to Covid restrictions we were only able to accept 25 children and youth.  I taught English to two teenagers who thnkfully were keen to learn.  We also advanced in table-tennis skills.

Lourdes and one helper had the younger children learning english songs, doing arts and crafts as well as academic subjects.  We finished our 8-week program with a celebration in which each child received gifts and good things to eat and drink.

Our regular program will resume in March.

Classroom furniture

 

One way of looking at Waldorf education is to consider the right and left hemispheres of the brain in the developing child.  Arts and crafts are right brain activities which tend to to balance the tendency to over-emphasize academic left brain learning in modern education.  Since the beginnings of Waldorf education over a century ago, grade school age children have been doing water color painting with high quality plant-based paints.  To let the paintings dry on their individual wooden boards a special cabinet with a drawer above for paper, brushes and paint has been designed and a variation of this classroom furniture is to be found in most of the 1000 plus Waldorf schools throughout the world.

I just completed this one for the Khuyay ('love' in the Quechua language) Waldorf School in the city of Tarapoto, Peru which is just now finishing a new kindergarten structure set in lush tropical grounds.

I dyed the wood with diluted Stockmar paint and finished up with 3 coats of water-base varnish.