As we approach the summer solstice, our task for the season is to remember what our ancestors knew with deep certainty: we share an integral connection with the natural world.

As the seasons shift and we witness the natural world in transformation, I find myself reflecting on the beautiful transitions our children experience throughout their Waldorf education journey. Each year brings new responsibilities, challenges, and growth opportunities as our students move through the carefully crafted curriculum designed to meet them exactly where they are developmentally.

The season of renewal, awakening, and love is upon us. Lately, each morning, as I step into my backyard, I smell nature’s perfume carried on the crisp morning air.

Fairy tales have long been a source of moral lessons, cultural wisdom, and imaginative inspiration. However, when we shift perspectives—perhaps retelling the story from the viewpoint of a character who is often overlooked, or considering how the setting might change if placed in another culture—we invite our children to think beyond the familiar.

​Happy Chinese New Year! This is the Year of the Snake, which is considered to be a year of renewal. Just like a snake shedding its skin, just like children growing out of their shoes and clothing, what is no longer fitting for you? How do you imagine a new version of yourself? A new version of your family? A new version of this community? Or a new version of this country?

In the Waldorf education model, the integration of outdoor education and farm work serves as a vital component of the holistic development of children. Central to Waldorf pedagogy is the belief that learning should engage the head, heart, and hands, fostering intellectual, emotional, and physical growth. Outdoor education allows students to connect directly with the natural world, developing an awareness of the environment and a sense of stewardship.

In our school community, we look for ways to celebrate festivals as a practice for marking the passage of time. We reflect on the circular nature of time, and the moments throughout the calendar year when we can practice traditions from the past while planting seeds for the future.

At Golden Bridges School, we engage with Community and Individual norms to help us guide our interactions. Norms are agreed upon standards of conduct. They help us know the interactions that are expected, and help us find the right action in uncertain situations.

Right now, with the time change and the changing times, we are needing to adjust to the balance of light and dark. We may feel disoriented or tired. Our kids and partners and everyone around us might feel the same as well. Some may be conscious and expressive of their discomfort while others may quietly adapt.

One way we engage our students is through special programming offered by guest teachers. This fall we are delighted to share some current and upcoming programs offered by guest teachers with specialties in their fields. Read on to learn more about our guests.

The courage festival is a celebration that marks the coming of autumn and invites the children to practice displaying courage through the seasonal transition between summer and winter.

We talk often of the teacher as a “loving authority”. What a masterful description of the work our teachers do. Not to wash over all of the practical, meaningful, and time-consuming work of research, curriculum development, lesson planning, material gathering, meetings, internal communications, parent/guardian communication, parent/guardian conferences, parent/guardian meetings, general classroom management, substituting, on and on.

We are thrilled to present to you the inaugural issue of our Golden Bridges School Magazine, a captivating journey into the heart of our beloved school.

Love is a moment and a journey. It is self-sufficient and requires nurturing. It can inspire levity or heaviness. It allows us to see and understand deeply or be blinded.

It can often feel overwhelming at this time of year to feel as though we need to set some grand intentions or change some lifelong habits so maybe just considering some more dynamic shifts in one ritual or simply posing these questions without seeking the answers is enough.  

The winter holiday season is the perfect illustration of the attraction of the polarities of light and dark.  There is such comfort and hope in our human condition that strives to bring light into the times of darkness.  We light candles or hang lights, celebrating miracles and the promise of love and peace.  The light enlivens the darkness that surrounds us.

At Golden Bridges School, we incorporate practices of gratitude throughout the day.  The most routine is gratitude around our meals.  We offer a verse or song of thanks to the earth, the plants, the sky, and the rain for bringing us the food we are about to eat and off we go. 

A fresh start.  A new beginning.  In the Jewish tradition, this is the time of the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Head of the Year. A time to reflect on the past year, clean out the spiritual pipes by blowing the shofar to WAKE US UP and step into a clean, new year.  It’s an interesting time, seasonally, to make this declaration.  We are about to transition into the fall.  The brightness of the Earth in the Northern Hemisphere is about to darken.  The leaves will start to fall, the days will soon shorten, and our energy will turn inward.  

As educators, parents, and just as humans in this future-oriented culture, it’s almost reflexive to look at the children before us and ask “I wonder what they will be when they grow up?”