Rudolf Steiner believed following daily, weekly and seasonal rhythms important
for supporting our life forces, physical growth and general developement.
There are wonderful articles about rhythm, to be found on Waldorf Today and Celebrate the rhythm of life.
He outlined energies for each Day of the Week.
These are beautifully summarised for each day on the Well Wishers Group blog.
acknowledge the colours and grains attributed to each day of the week.
Monday - Purple, Rice
Tuesday - Red, Oats
Wednesday -Yellow, Millet
Thursday - Orange, Rye
Friday - Green, Barley
Saturday - Blue, Corn
Sunday - White, Wheat
Although every day is rainbow day!
(For those reading from our school, the grains differs slightly in the preschool.)
provides recipes using these different whole grains,
for a nourishing weekly rhythm.
Also providing further information of the properties of these grains.
In our pre-school (& our home) the children love to help cook.
provides some helpful advice on soaking most of these grains and further recipes.
again, is a wonderful reference book on a range of foods,
including these whole grains,
with some recipes for best digestion and nutrition.
I find
implementing the colour of the day,
as is done in within our Waldorf pre-school,
very helpful for two reasons.
1. Clothing.
Our children wear a cotton shirt of the respective day colour.
It makes things so much more simple for us all.
There's no fuss getting dressed in the morning.
2. Day names.
Sometimes the name of the day can get muddled in our little one's minds.
With reminders such as my Gnome Day Colour Calendar,
what the teachers are wearing and our children themselves;
remembering 'Green Day' helps them feel safe, when 'Friday' may not.
*In our home, we also have 'Chores Day - Monday', 'Library Day - Tuesday', 'Soccer Day - Wednesday',...
though we really do enjoy involving the colours.
Further ways to introduce and include the Colour of the Day to your home are helpfully suggested in a post by Kara on her blog Rockin' Granola.
I designed this family of rainbow gnomes over a year ago, when my first son was in pre-school. It seemed a great way to start our family day.
Also a lovely and fun reference point for our children to know what day it was.
Also a lovely and fun reference point for our children to know what day it was.
These are now used as part of the morning circle in our pre-school.
And many families at our school now own and use one too.
They are intentionally simple.
Each gnome is the colour of the day of the week. As the week progresses,
the gnome of the day sits up on his little stage, announcing his colour all day.
the gnome of the day sits up on his little stage, announcing his colour all day.
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These are beautiful Aleta and such a lovely idea. x
ReplyDeleteThey are amazing Aleta! :) I really love them - off to do some more reading! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a beautiful description of some whys and wherefores regarding color-days of the week (and your rainbow gnome calender is lovely!) Perhaps I should implement colors of the day for myself, at least as far as clothing goes. I am a bit of an angsty-urbanite and tend to wear black every day (I can just feel the ghost of Mr. Steiner frowning upon this habit -- "Much too gloomy," he surely mutters.
ReplyDeletexo
Thanks for all those links Aleta...can't wait to explore a little more...such an interesting post, i didn't realise that about the colours! I always love to see pics of your little gnomes...so sweet x
ReplyDeletethose rainbow gnomes are sooo cute! i favorite them on my etsy!
ReplyDeleteDelightful Ideas
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What a beautiful design - you are so clever!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you shared you beautiful creations, but also how you incorporate the colours of the days :-)
ReplyDeleteThey are so beautiful...my son would love them...
ReplyDeleteHe loves an Autumn fairy peg doll at our local playgroup, so I'd have to say that is my favourite.
Thank you and great work.
Very inspiring
They are just lovely Aleta. I know they would be a favourite here too :)
ReplyDeleteI am so fascinated with Waldorf. All the rhythms that I read about (outdoor, indoor, colours, grains) seem so calming and comforting. Your peg dolls are so beautiful - just adorable.
ReplyDeleteI love the gnomes, but I really love this concept of a colour associated with each day of the week- great for kids. Thanks for sharing.
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