Grateful: Day Three

I am grateful for Waldorf education.
This morning, after taking Lily to school, Miss Helen asked me to stay for a cup of tea. So I did.
Upon the child-sized table we sat around there were fresh flowers, a candle burning, a teapot warming, sugar-coated almonds, apple slices and teacups.
We drank our tea and ate our snack.
Wednesdays are painting day.
Miss Helen got out the painting boards, began to soak the watercolor paper in water, set out the little glass jars of yellow, red, and blue paint.
Did you know that it is best to limit the very young child's paint colors to only the primary colors? Red, yellow, blue. And the youngest children (3s and young 4s) should really only paint with yellow and red. Why? Because those are the first two chakras that are present in a young child. AND, because little ones love to mix the paints together and mixing more than 2 colors makes....BROWN. Yuck. Blue paint is introduced after Christmas. Today was the first time they'd get to use blue!
Natalie and I sat together. Lily was next to us. We were ready to paint.
Natalie and I had red and yellow. Lily had red and blue.
Miss Helen goes to each child and sings a special song and gently paints with a dry brush onto their open palm (the hand with which they paint). She sings a special song about the fairies dancing in the water and jumping into the paint color. When the fairy is done with one color she dances in the water again and then jumps into the next color. (To encourage them to wash their brushes before starting a new color!)
The art of painting is very sacred and an expression from the soul so it is a very quiet activity. Even Natalie was quiet.
As the other children with red and blue paint were creating, one little girl exclaimed, "Purple! I have purple paint! My favorite color!" All of the other children watched with amazement and what she had created.
I helped Lily swirl her fairy (the paint brush) around her paper gently mixing the splotches of red and blue together to make a lovely shade of purple.
They do one painting and then that is all. The painting stays on the board to dry. It is labeled with their name and date and that activity comes to a natural close.
I stayed a few minutes more and watched Lily put together a puppet show with handmade puppets on a string. She set it all up and fixed the curtain to begin the show. It was short and sweet and went something like this, "There was a wicked witch who cast a spell on the little boy. And the witch could fly (flying the witch across the stage.)"
Then Natalie got crazy and I had to interrupt to say we would be leaving now...
And if you could be in the room...oh, it's just so lovely.

I hope we can ensure the school succeeds.

Our school:http://www.greatoakschool.org
Our Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/saracat (all money goes to the school!)