In the Light of a Child
A Journey Through the 52 Weeks of the Year in Both Hemispheres
For Children and the Child in Each Human Being

Michael Hedley Burton

$14.95

Michael Burton has created something very special for our children (and for us, as well). Taking Rudolf Steiner's Calendar of the Soul as his inspiration, he has crafted 52 verses to carry children throughout the year. Each verse touches on the feeling qualities of its particular place within the seasons of our Earth and in clear and loving language helps anyone forge a firmer connection to the natural world. At the same time, these verses also reflect the various qualities of Divine Love, as it manifests within each season. This uniting of heaven and earth within the seasonal round is poignantly beautiful - and very highly recommend for the child in all of us.

A Children's Anthologia
50 Poems for Primary and Junior High School

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$18.95

Follow the winding curriculum road with a verse at hand for each new turn! Alan's poems for classes 1-8 go to the heart of the subject with verses humorous, serious, charming, and poignent. Each one of them is "just right" for the age group and subject addressed; each one is sure to add a dash more beauty and depth to the lesson.

Verses cover language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and the festivals. Includes the 12 Greek Zodiacal Rhythms, the 7 Meters and 7 Speech Styles.

Nature Stories

Margaret Peckham

Stapled booklet

$5.50

Margaret Peckham originally created these dear stories for her first graders at the Rudolf Steiner School in NYC. They are a lively, imaginative introduction to nature and its ways -- sure to captivate any child who hears them.

Contents:

• The Littlest Gnome
• The Second Gnome
• The Discontented Brook
• First Signs of Spring
• The Little Girl in the Woods
• The Butterfly
• Treasure Chests

Nature Ways in Story and Verse

Dorothy Harrer

Illustrated by Robin Crofts Lawrence

Softbound

$9.95

Nature Ways is filled with lilting stories that will captivate the children to whom they are read. It is, in fact, intended to be read aloud by parents, grandparents, and, yes, teachers, too. These stories and poems share the magic of nature that occasionally breaks in upon us all -- even when we, like the character Twig, aren't particularly happy with the way things are going.

A golden Waldorf classic - for children in the early grades.

Sharing Nature with Children

20th Anniversary Edition - Revised and Expanded

Joseph Cornell

Softbound

$9.95

We used this book when our children were young and still love the memories it evokes. The book itself is packed with ideas and inspriation -- enough to see to it that you and your children discover the joy nature holds for us. Now, this same book is even bigger and better - with more of the same infectious enthusiasm that made Cornell's first printing a beloved classic.

If you are a class teacher, homeschool teacher or parent, Sharing Nature with Children is like having a magic wand in your back pocket - just bring out one of the games or activities and watch the fun, I mean, learning begin!

Sacred Places
A Spiritual Science Insight on the Mineral Earth

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$18.95

This is a fascinating study of myth, legend, geography, minerology, and the weather! Alan Whitehead, who lives in the area of Sydney, Australia, takes a close look at our visible Earth, then dives into Aboriginal and world mythology and cosmology to emerge with insights esoteric and exoteric, questions, and a basket of facts that will keep you happily reading (and chuckling! - this is also one of Alan's more humorous offerings) as you learn and wonder about the planet upon which we make our homes. Alan has succeeded in writing a book that is at once a great rainy-day read and a really valuable resource. I'm confident you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

Sacred Fauna
World Zoology in the Light of Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Science

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$18.95

This is the companion volume to Sacred Flora and is every bit as interesting and useful. The content covers not only things of interest to anyone teaching a Waldorf 4th grade biology block, but goes on to address points that become parts of other zoology lessons throughout the remaining 8 school years. Anyone who teaches will find much to use and much to celebrate.

Included are chapters addressing the 4-planet animal evolution, 12 animal phyla zodiac; 7 planetary vertebrates; animal ethers - migration; faunal form; faunal movement; animal astral Africa; 12 zodiac mammals; Australian fauna; animal conservation; animal apocrypha; zoology of the Americas; sacred Asian animals.

Sacred Flora
World Botany in the Light of Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Science

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$18.95

Alan takes us on a fascinating exploration of the plant world, the spiritual realms within and without, medicinal, nutritional and sacred signatures of flora, and much more. Along the way, he delves into the mysteries of death and enlightenment, substances therapeutic and delightful, planetary influences upon plants, the distribution of plant species worldwide and gardening.

Sacred Flora is the sort of book to nibble at and contemplate; or, if you prefer, to dive into and not stop until you emerged drenched in a sparkling new world view. Great as background inspiration for teachers or gardeners. A collection of insight, musing and facts that will have you pondering them over and over again.

Contents:

• Sign of Flame, Sign of Smoke: The Pneumical Wedding of Christian Esotericism
• The Medicine Woman - Sacred Floral Therapy
• The Medicine Land - Seven Sacred Plant Substances
• The Medicine Plants - Seven Sacred Spices
• I Think Speech - I Eat - Five Sacred Floral Foods
• Fire, Air, Water, Earth - The Cryptic Cryptogamae
• The World Garden - Seven Planet Plant Influences
• Annunciation to Ascension - Spectrum Plant Signatures
• The 4 Elements - A Spiritual & Natural Science Exposition
• I Had a Good Teacher - Seven Geographic Plant Mansions
• 12 Days of Community Service - An Esoteric Plant Classification
• A Botanical Garden? - Every Town Should Have One

Native Plant Stories

Told by Joseph Bruchac

Stories from Keepers of Life

Softbound

$12.95

For those who already have Native American Gardening (the projects and activities from Keepers of Life), or for those who simply wish to share these stories with their children, but whose situation does not permit gardening, Native Plant Stories gathers all the stories from Keepers of Life into one place.

The stories are rich and carry with them an awe and reverence to the Creator who made all plants and all the earth. The drawings that accompany them are "just right" - they convey elements of the stories in a way that enlivens but leaves plenty of room for a child's imagination to roam.

NOTE: I completely agree with Donna Simmons (Christopherus Homeschool Resources) that as rich as these stories are, parental guidance is advised. Within many of them is a tone of bitterness at those who came after the Native populations and were not as respectful of the Earth as the keepers of these stories. While that may (or may not) have been true, it is inappropriate for an adult to pass that attitude along to young children. Therefore, I advise along with Donna that you read the stories yourself and then bawdlerize as necessary before sharing them with your class or children. They are truly great stories and legends, but not everything in them is appropriate for children.

Native American Gardening
Stories, Projects and Recipes for Families

The practical activities from Keepers of Life

Michael J Caduto and Joseph Bruchac

Softbound

$15.95

For those who already have Native Plant Stories or whose preference is to get right to work in the soil and the kitchen, Native American Gardening presents the practical activities found in Keepers of Life.

I personally love the way this book unites Native garden traditions with modern approaches to composting and planting. It is possible to learn the full spectrum of the art of gardening from this book, it is that complete. To be able to do so from within a tradition that so honors the Earth is a privilege. It is really a treasure of things to do outdoors, so much so that I predict anyone who uses it will find it hard to go back inside once "gardening time" is over.

Do enjoy! Especially for 5th grade in the Waldorf curriculum.

Keepers of Life
Discovering Plants through Native American Stories and Earth Activities for Children

Combines the contents of Native Plant Stories and Native American Gardening

Michael J Caduto and Joseph Bruchac

Softbound

$19.95

Keepers of Life includes both the stories from Native Plant Stories as well as the practical activities from Native American Gardening. It is a treasure, for young and old.

NOTE: I completely agree with Donna Simmons (Christopherus Homeschool Resources) that as rich as the stories are, parental guidance is advised. Within many of them is a tone of bitterness at those who came after the Native populations and were not as respectful of the Earth as the keepers of these stories. While that may (or may not) have been true, it is inappropriate for an adult to pass that attitude along to young children. Therefore, I advise along with Donna that you read the stories yourself and then bawdlerize as necessary before sharing them with your class or children. They are truly great stories and legends, but not everything in them is appropriate for children.

Earth, Water, Fire and Air
Playful explorations in the four elements

Walter Kraul

Softbound

$16.95

This craft book for children shows how to make a waterwheel, paddle-steamer, propeller plane, parachute, windmill, simple pendulum clock, spinning tops, a little hot-air balloon, and lots more. Some suggestions are simple enough for 6 year olds, others challenging enough for a skillful 12 year old. This book is chock-full of really fun ways to learn about the world - outstanding!

The Lonely Lake
Der Einsame See

Arnold Zimmermann

An English/German Dual Language Story of the Seasons in the North Country

Charming pen and ink drawings by the author

Softbound

$12.00

Arnold Zimmermann was not only the husband of master knitter Elizabeth Zimmermann, he was a wonderful teller of stories and lover of nature. His many children's books delighted our own children years ago -- it's a warm pleasure to be able to offer them to a new generation of young people.

The Lonely Lake/Der Einsame See is much more than an interesting way to experience English and German together. It is a sensitive and engaging observation of the life that guides and animates Nature through all the seasons. With simple yet evocative prose, Zimmermann shares with us the events large and small as they occur among nature's inhabitants and guests at the lonely lake. What he has accomplished in this gentle and warm telling is reminiscent of the Burgess Nature Stories, but there is something in Zimmermann's tale that I have always missed in Burgess -- a real sense for the Love that underlies all Life; a sense of the sheer Majesty of the natural world.

This is a book that would work equally well as a nature study or a German text -- what a lovely way to integrate the two!

For those teaching German (or wanting to learn it!), I would place the prose at an 'early intermediate' level. Here's a sample, first in English and then in German to help you judge for yourself:

Toward evening, which came early now, the storm abated. The dark clouds slid down the horizon and let the stars come out.

A Brightness appeared behind the steep hill in the North and spread upward, covering half the dome of the night sky. and now it condensed into green-golden curtains which silently folded and unfolded, sending strong beams of white light to the very top of the sky.

The northern lights were playing their silent, intricate ballet which is a a prelude to the dance of the little spirits of the North that sweeps over hills and woods and streams and lakes.

* * *

Gegen Abend, der jetzt frueh kam, liess der Sturm nach, die dunklen Wolken glitten ueber den Horizont hinunter und liessen die Sterne erscheinen.

Eine Helligkeit erschien hinter dem steilen Huegel im Norden und erstreckte sich aufwaerts ueber die Haelfte des naechtlichen Himmelsdomes.

Und nun verdichtete sich diese Helligkeit in gruen-goldene Vorhaenge die sich schweigend falteten und wieder entfalteten. Intensive Strahlenbuendel weissen Lichtes schossen bis zum Himmelsdach.

Die Nordlichter brachten ihr stummes, durchwobenes Ballet zur Schau, das Vorspiel zum Tanz der kleinen Geister des Nordens ist, der ueber Huegel und Wald und Fluss und See fegt.

Big Tree

Mary & Conrad Buff

Softbound - charming illustrations throughout

$12.95

What a wonderful way to allow children to discover (and to renew your own discovery!) the vastness of time, the potentials of life and the beauty of creation! This is the story of a Sequoia tree named Wawona which extends from the time before recorded history, when he was a little seed packed tightly in a cone with two hundred others. The story takes us to the recent past when, over three hundred feet tall and having survived magnificently the widely varied attacks of insects, fires, drought and more throughout the twenty-five centuries of his life, Wawona almost falls prey to the greediest and most clever of them all - human beings.

Wawona's history, his life, forms the main body of the text which is highlighted by insertions that tell of the significant events that were happening across the ocean as Wawona grew and thrived. This juxtaposition offers a wonderful vastness and perspective while it highlights both the exceptional longevity of the Sequoias and the key events of of Western history.

When children is ready to learn about the life of plants (in Waldorf schools, this is begun in 5th grade), this is the book to hand them. Big Tree will have a treasured place in either the classroom or home - this is a wonderful book!

Minn of the Mississippi

Holling Clancy Holling

A Newbery Honor Book

Beautiful and detailed color and black & white illustrations

Softbound

$11.95

Another favorite book from my own childhood, Minn of the Mississippi is a great story, a wonderful natural history of the Mississippi River, and an outstanding geography/history lesson all rolled into one.

Minn is a snapping turtle who begins life as an egg laid at the source of the Mighty Mississippi. [I still remember my amazement when I learned while reading Minn at around age 9 that the Mississippi River also begins as something so small a child can stand astride it. The only part of the Mississippi I had ever seen was under the bridge we crossed every year to get to my grandmother's house in southern Iowa -- I had assumed the river was always about half a mile wide.]

One thing leads to another, and over the course of many, many years, Minn makes his way down the full length of the Mississippi, at last making his home among barnacle encrusted treasures left on the Gulf bottom by pirates and adventurers of long ago. Minn's travels bring him into contact with most of the wildlife that makes its home in and near the river, many of the people, and evidence many peoples gone long before.

I just love Minn of the Mississippi and the story that is told here. One of the remarkable things that H. C. Hollings does here and elsewhere is to create a story where the animal at the center of the action remains an animal (i.e., no talking, thinking or anthropomorphic behavior), yet evokes in the reader a great sympathy and involvement. And he does this while teaching a huge amount about nature, geography and history! It doesn't get better than this.

Pagoo

Holling Clancy Holling

Softbound

$11.95

The stories of Holling Clancy Hollings rest as some of my childhood favorites - I still remember the thrill of getting to check them out of the library (again and again!) and my rapt absorbtion in the stories of creatures and things that were such great adventurers. As the captivating page turners rolled out their tales, I learned so very much about the aspect of the natural world in which the story took place. Hollings stories are a rarity in that they are great books and while also being great learning tools.

Pagoo is an intricate study of the teeming life of tide pools, told through the adventures and misadventures of Pagoo, a hermit crab.

Paddle-to-the-Sea

Holling Clancy Holling

A Caldecott Honor Book

Softbound

Captivating illustrations in color and black & white

$11.95

An Indian boy living along the shores of Lake Superior carves a small canoe with a "Paddle Person" in it. He names it "Paddle-to-the-Sea" and sets it on its journey from Lake Superior all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. As Paddle-to-the-Sea travels, we journey with him through all the Great Lakes, meeting boats and barges and seafarers along the way. Paddle even goes over Niagra Falls and through the locks on the St. Lawrence River. And after surviving all those adventures, it should come as no surpirse to learn that he eventually crosses the whole Atlantic Ocean and arrives in France!

A great book with a riveting story. I don't think the natural and social life of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway has a better chronicler than Holling.

Tree in the Trail

Holling Clancy Holling

Softbound

Full color and black & white illustrations

$11.95

As with Big Tree (below), Tree in the Trail uses the life of a tree to portray both the passing of history and life cycles of nature. Where Big Tree uses a Redwood to survey the founding moments of Western Civilization, Tree in the Trail is about a Cottonwood and the things that happened within the tree's view over two hundred years along the Santa Fe Trail in the American Southwest. There are animals and people that bring to life the history, both natural and human, of this amazing part of the world. And through all the dramatic changes, the tree continues to stand and grow.

Like Holling's other books, this one is packed with story and teaching; with life itself.

Seabird

Holling Clancy Hollings

A Newbery Honor Book

Softbound

$11.95

In the days of the great square-rigged sailing ships, a seaman and his ship are saved from a collision with an iceberg by the swooping flight of a seagull off the shores of Greenland. In gratitude and for future good luck, Ezra Brown, the seaman, buys some ivory ashore and carves a beautiful ivory gull. Together they travel the seas on their whaling ship. Later, when the seaman is captain of his own ship, they sail together on the swift Clipper Ships to the South Seas and the Orient.

Seabird continues to ride the waves with Ezra's son, and then with his grandson, traveling on the fastest sailing ships, then on the steam ships that replaced them. At the end of the book, Ezra's great-grandson takes the Seabird along as he flies the skies, soaring through the air as he pilots the new airplanes around and around the world.

Another wonderful book by Hollings.

Essays on the Modification of Clouds and the Language of Clouds

Luke Howard, FRS
Ernst Lehrs

Spiralbound

$11.95

In 1832, Luke Howard taught the Western World how to distinguish one cloud from another, giving them names and moving us all a bit further toward the science of Meteorology. Goethe recognized his genius and dedicated a poem to him. Ernst Lehrs refers to him as a "true reader of the book of Nature."

Both Howard's and Lehr's essays are invaluable resources for teachers of elementary meteorology. A teacher who can convey Howard's way of seeing clouds to the students will have given them a living approach to the world of nature. No small thing, that.

Keeping a Nature Journal
Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You

Clare Walker Leslie & Charles E Roth

Foreword by Edward O Wilson

Softbound, beautifully illustrated in pen and ink drawings and watercolor

$18.95

Clare Walker Leslie's work is so invaluable in the field of nature study, for all ages everywhere. We use it in our Roots & Shoots program to help young people sharpen their observation skills and deepen their connection with nature.

- Jane Goodall
Founder, The Jane Goodall Institute

For many years now, both Bob and I have felt strongly that there was a need to offer 6th, 7th and 8th grade students (and high school students, for that matter) more direct contact with living nature than the conventional Waldorf curriculum calls for. In our view, our modern world has become so very separated from the Life of the world, that it has become a pedagogical need to balance that reality with something more.

Keeping a Nature Journal offers a beautiful, lively way to do just this - and to do it in the contexts of Steiner's phenomenological approach to science, drawing & painting, and upper grades composition writing. Whether in a classroom or homeschool setting, this book opens doorways to really seeing our world and in the process, also really seeing ourselves and each other. It is simply a gifted work of art, something anyone who teaches will want to discover for themselves. There is even an entire section devoted to ways of teaching this to both children and adults.

Our hope is that the offering of this book will lead many more adults to travel the seasons with their students, and to share the love for nature that grows from such a journey.

Eric Sloane's Weather Book

Eric Sloane

Softbound

$9.95

Eric Sloane is one of my all-time favorite authors, and the reappearance after many years of his fascinating book on weather and weather lore is an event to be celebrated. This is a book that anyone teaching meteorology will want to have available -- absolutely no student could fail to find the subject interesting if you share Eric Sloane with them.

In simple language, Sloane explains the whys and wherefores of weather and weather forecasting - and does so in a universally appealing way.

With humor and common sense shining through in a book that's also lively and informative, Sloane shows readers how to predict the weather by "reading" such natural phenomena as winds, skies, and animal sounds. This beautifully illustrated and practical treasure trove of climate lore will enlighten outdoorsmen, farmers and sailors as much as it will your students. Anyone who has ever wondered what a large halo around the moon means, why birds "sit it out" before a storm, and whether or note to take an umbrella when leaving home will love this book.

Sky Phenomena
A Guide to Naked-eye Observation of the Stars

Norman Davidson

Softbound

Profusely illustrated

$25.00

This is the astronomy course I always wanted to take, but could find! Davidson takes us outside, has us look up at the starry wonder overhead, and then tells us what we are seeing. In the process, he also treats us to myths, legends and history, and even includes a whole chapter of poetry about the stars! Wonderful!

Contents:

• The Stars - I
• The Stars - II
• The Sun
• The Moon
• Eclipses
• The Planets
• The Copernican Revolution
• Comets and Meteors
• The Southern Hemisphere Sky
• The Stars in Poetry

Appendices:

• Astronomical Events
• Technical Data
• Astronimcal Symbols
• Star Maps for Observers at the Equator
• Useful Materials and Publications
• Some Famous Individuals in the History of Astronomy
• Glossary of Astronomical Terms

Colloquium on Life Science and Environmental Studies

AWSNA High School Reserch Project
March 2002

Works in Progress

Research Project #5

Spiral Bound

$22.00

This research on metamorphosis in the Waldorf high school curriculum was undertaken by a collection of experienced high school teachers. The Proceedings also includes three translated articles by Wolfgang Schad.

The Animals and Their Destiny

Karl König

Softbound

$39.95

Our time is one that has fostered a tragic relationship between human beings and nature, making it a very good time revisit Karl König's voice of conscience, a voice that spoke with compassion about the intertwined destinies of man and all twelve phyla of animals – the invertebrates (protozoa, coelenterates, echinoderms, tunicates, molluscs, worms, arthropods) and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals). His was a courageous, somewhat out-of-step voice in the climate of neo-Darwinian thinking of the early 1960s when these lectures were given. However, in the context of the moral dilemma provoked by recent developments in genetic engineering and the increasingly urgent calls for a reassessment of current attitudes towards the animal world, his thoughts and insights resonate with the concerns we all carry in our hearts.

König sought to place a new understanding of evolution alongside the orthodox view, and his radical approach still challenges the scientific mainstream in ways that offer food for thought to the open-minded student. These seminal lectures invite the reader into a landscape of perception and insight that can engender a new moral imagination towards our evolutionary brothers, the animals.

About Formative Forces in the Plant World

Dick van Romunde

Original Drawings by Elly van Hardeveld

Translated by James Lee and Jannebeth Röell

Hardbound, Dust Jacketed, Beautifully illustrated on semi-gloss paper

$28.00

This is one of the most unusual and beautiful books we have ever carried -- one of those rare books that is so filled with wonderful things to discover, and so well conceived, and so very, very well printed and bound that just holding it in your hand is enough to convince you that it is a treasure, in fact, something to be treasured for years and generations to come. It's as though what is inside the covers is so powerful and true that it reaches out to you before you lay eyes on the first words.

Dick van Romunde was a Waldorf science teacher who felt that part of his task on earth was to show his readers the natural world, seen through eyes trained by Goethe and Steiner. And what a warm and fascinating journey he takes us on! Plant by plant, we look with him and listen as he tells us what he has found to be most significant, most at the heart of that form of life. It's as though we were invited on a field trip with a naturalist who is as wise as he is learned, and who just loves to share what he knows.

This is a book that is lavishly illustrated -- in general, you'll find tasteful, elegant color drawings on every other page; yet, it is the text that keeps pulling my eyes away from the truly beautiful drawings. Yes, I know. I can hardly believe it either; in fact, I can't think of another instance where something this has happened. But van Romunde's insights and observations are so very engaging that I simply can't take my eyes off them, even when I want to.

This is a book to cherish and return to over and over.

And by the way, the translation is as elegant as van Romunde's work deserves -- clear, clean English that flows like a river across the author's thoughts.

From Abdera to Copenhagen
Studies in the evolution of atomic sciene with anthroposophical undertones

Book 1 - The Immutable Atom
(600 BC–1880AD)

Keith Francis

Spiralbound

$25.00

This book is for those who like to know about the origins, the evolution and the present state of the theories on which most current interpretations of the physical world and human consciousness rest, and to see how these things are related to spiritual scientific knowledge of human evolution. The author raises interesting questions, such as: why do people believe in atoms in the first place; why have ideas about the smallest particles of some sort been part of human consciousness for the past 2,500 years; what was going on in the twenty-four centuries that elapsed before any clear ideas about the internal structure of the atom appeared, and how is the evolution of atomism connected with the evolution of human consciousness.

Contents include:

• Greece, 500 BC, The Philosophical Atom;
• A Short Cut to Newton;
• The Mechanical Atom;
• The Attractive Atom;
• The Egyptian Art;
• Fire in Europe; The Chemical Atom;
• The Periodic Table—Metamorphoses Among the Elements;
• Back to Newton;
• The Optical Atom;
• Goethe vs. Newton;
• and much more.

The Dynamic Heart and Circulation

Edited by Craig Holdrege

Softbound

$15.00

Based on years of Goethean science research, the essays in this book provide a dynamic view of the heart and circulatory system, providing a wealth of factual material that a teacher can use for his or her blocks. This book will also be useful to anthroposophical and holistic health practitioners, as well as to scientists interested in a Goethean approach to human biology.