One of the loveliest things about Waldorf Education is the use of really wonderful, quality drawing materials. Though these materials are expensive, they will last a long time if they are well-cared for. Caring for them means storing them properly.

These beautiful pouches are available from this seller on Etsy. The pouches hold the crayons individually so they don’t rub against each other. This keeps the crayons clean — your yellow won’t have little bits of other colors on it. The pouch also means that crayons are easy to bring along places — a distinct advantage over having a crayon basket. It also means that individual children have their own set, which many children prefer.

Here is a pencil couch with the same premise. I love that this one has the slots different colors.

For younger children, who mainly draw with crayons but use colored pencils for writing, a wooden block pencil holder is a good solution. These can be kept on a shelf in the classroom and brought out just for writing.

Caring for our materials is so important and it’s nice when we can find such beautiful handcrafted things to use for this purpose.

Every year one of the things I need to prepare for my students is a system for keeping track of their work. They need paper to work on and a place to put everything when it’s done. My system uses pretty basic school supplies, but it bears mentioning here.

For our daily morning work, we use inexpensive composition books. Our daily rhythm this year will involve recording the weather (writing down the temperatures and drawing a little picture of the sun), our daily dictation sentence and a math problem or two. These things will all go into these composition books — a page for each day.

For regular main lesson work, the students will work on loose leaf paper that I keep in the classroom. When their work is finished it will go into this binder. Last year I used divider tabs to mark sections for drafts, dictations, and math practice. At the end of each block we pulled out all of the work pertaining to that block, stapled it together and put it in the front of that block’s main lesson book. It was a pretty good system, and I think I’ll use it again this year.

For our math practice, we’ll use regular spiral notebooks similar to these. This is the first year we’ll be using this system for math practice so I plan on being really clear with the students about the formatting of their work. With my last class I sometimes found that students tended to be sloppy and either squeeze too much work onto one page or spread their work out too much, writing too large and leaving lots of white space. I’ll give some conscious attention to helping my students find the happy medium.

I’ve mentioned these pencils before but they are definitely worth mentioning again. Ticonderoga bills these pencils as The World’s Best Pencil which sounds like a pretty big claim, but it is absolutely true. I have tried buying the discount pencils you can find in the large office stores, but it is definitely worth spending a little extra to get these. They don’t break. They write smoothly and the erasers work really well. Your students will use them until they are tiny little stubs. Worth the money.

If there is a pencil I like even better than Ticonderoga’s regular pencil, it is this special black one that they make. They write even smoother and the erasers work even better. We love them. I usually indulge in these pencils a couple times a year and the children guard them well, so they last.

Awhile back I wrote a series of posts about supplies for main lesson. In those posts I go through my recommendations for main lesson books, crayons and pencils.

This year, though, I’m going against my own advice regarding our drawing materials.

The first time I taught sixth grade, I switched to the thinner Rembrandt Polycolor pencils. Many of my students held onto their thicker Lyra Ferby pencils right through eighth grade and used them quite a bit. I also often found myself longing for the vibrant color of the Ferby’s and would pull them out on occasion. My son’s teacher decided he liked them so much more that he stuck with them right through eighth grade.

So, this year I decided to continue using the thicker Lyra Ferbys. Maybe we’ll switch next year, but for now I am very pleased with my decision and I can’t wait to get drawing with my students!

When people first learn about Waldorf methods they are captivated by the beauty. Silks, watercolor paints, beeswax crayons are such lovely treats for the senses. But it isn’t until these materials are put to practical purpose that the beauty of Waldorf education truly shines forth.

Some may wonder, though, why are beeswax crayons — blocks or sticks — and Ferby pencils best? Why shouldn’t we let our children use traditional graphite pencils for writing and Crayolas for drawing?

Crayons — Those lovely, sweet smelling crayons do more than just treat our senses. They actually encourage healthy artistic habits in our children. All though my teaching years I have worked quite hard with my students to prevent them from drawing outlines in the pictures. When a child draws a person, a house, a tree, anything, from the inside out several things are achieved.

Firstly, when drawing with these materials the child gains a more holistic understanding of the subject. When drawing with a block or a stick crayon the child is drawing the thing itself, not just the line where the thing stops and the rest of the world begins. If I draw a leaf with a block or stick crayon I grow it from the inside outward, following the same growth pattern that the leaf itself follows. My drawing is more true to the inner nature of a leaf. With a traditional crayon or pencil I would simply be drawing a leaf shape and then filling it in afterwards.

Secondly, the child will be happier with his or her results! If a child draws an outline that line sets the drawing and the subject is fixed. Mistakes are more difficult to fix or redo. Drawing with block or stick crayons is incredibly forgiving as growing subjects from the inside out is a very safe way to draw. There’s not much that cannot be fixed.

Ferby Pencils

I strongly recommend using these pencils for writing only, at first. Their chunkier size and triangular shape encourage proper pencil grip. Using them for writing rather than using stick crayons sets writing apart from drawing from the beginning. Children are better able to make clear letters and they get a solid start with a proper pencil grip.

I’m getting ready to teach a new class next year and now is the time to be putting in my order for supplies. The major suppliers (Mercurius, Paper, Scissors, Stone) usually offer discounts if you order early enough in the year, so it pays to stop what you’re currently doing and try to look to the future a bit. Here’s what I usually think about when putting together my order. I’ll also mention what I’m planning on ordering for my group of fifth graders next year.

Drawing

Since so much of the students’ time is spent drawing, it makes sense to really think it through. The younger grades can get complicated as they’ll transition between crayons and pencils. My fifth graders will be drawing exclusively with colored pencils — the Lyra Giants. Last time around I switched to Lyra Rembrandts in sixth grade, but I just love the pigment and durability of the Giants so I’m considering sticking with them right through eighth grade.

I have always ordered boxes of single colors when it comes to purchasing for a whole class. This allowed me to replace the colors that needed replacing sooner than the others (red!) and I didn’t always like the color selection in the tin sets (who needs a white pencil? where’s the purple?). It’s not always easy to do it this way, though. For example, next year I’ll have 15 students, plus myself. I’ll need 16 sets of pencils and the individual colors come 12 in a box. I guess we’ll have a lot of left over pencils to be distributed over the course of the year.

Main Lesson Books

Every year I debate with myself about this choice. Here are the options:

• small or large
• portrait or landscape
• stapled or spiraled
• with onion skin or without
• traditional Mercurius books or RAAND books

I go through some of my preferences in this post. I’m reconsidering some of my choices, though. I’ll still stick with spiral-bound so we can bind our pages together at the end of the year if we want. I still don’t care for onion skin and would rather use loose blotter sheets if necessary. I also definitely prefer portrait orientation. I took a look, though, at the Mercurius books and I actually like the thicker, leather-like embossed cover and the slightly larger size. I still really like the RAAND books, so I’m thinking that I’ll end up getting whichever is more affordable.

Knowing how many to get and what colors is a little bit of a trick, though, because it is most helpful if you have your block rotation completely written so you can make sure you rotate books. We always needed a week at the beginning of the next block to finish up the work in the book of the previous block, so we always needed to switch books from block to block.

It’s also good to have this figured out so you know which blocks can share a book. For example, in fifth grade I know that all of my Ancient Civilizations will be going in one book. Greek History and Mythology will share a book. One book will have Math and another book will have Form Drawing/Free-hand Geometry. These books will then carry over into sixth grade. Botany will have its own book which will then carry over into sixth grade for Mineralogy.

Paint

Luckily my new school does a school-wide paper order, so I don’t have to think about that. But I do need to think about paint. In the past I have always used six Stockmar colors from fifth grade on — lemon yellow, golden yellow, carmine, red violet, ultra-marine blue, and prussian blue. I’ve noticed this year, though, that the Stockmar set does not include red violet but instead includes crimson (which is an orange-y red.) I’m not sure what I think of this. I’m inclined to stick with my tried and true — I really do like the red violet — but I think I’ll wait to see what the painting teacher in Sacramento suggests. Either way I will likely order the larger bottles of pigment so they’ll last awhile and I won’t feel too stingy with the good stuff.

Extras

This year I’ll need to order fountain pens, which though I search far and wide for a better, less-expensive option, I think I’ll be sticking with the standard Greenfield fountain pens. They’re serviceable enough and under $10 wholesale, which isn’t too bad.

I’ve always preferred blue ink for main lesson books. In eighth grade last time around I allowed my students to use black ink if they chose and in the end I regretted it. I think I’ll be a stickler this time — fountain pen, blue ink, in cursive — right through eighth grade.

I’ll also look to buy some clay to have on hand in the classroom. Last time around I always realized I needed it so late I had to rush out to the art store and buy it. It’ll be nice to have it on hand so we can use it whenever the mood strikes.

Other years things like flutes and recorders need to be ordered, but we’re good for this year. I’ll see about doing a separate post on the various instruments and when they are introduced.

This is sort of an oddball topic, I suppose, but today as I was looking around at the children I work with I started to realize some of the opinions I have about Waldorf wearables. In the Waldorf world we’re always wanting to care for the children’s well-being — whether it is so they can pay attention better, move with greater freedom or stay warm — it is all about creating optimal conditions for children to learn. What children are wearing can definitely be a part of this picture.

Slippers

Generally children are not warm enough just in socks. Every kindergarten teacher I know requires that their children have some sort of footwear on in the classroom, and often this requirement extends right into 3rd or 4th grade. Over the course of my years in the classroom I have definitely formed some opinions about what works and what doesn’t. Most teachers agree that the footwear needs to have a back (so the child can walk backwards) and, depending on the child, it should provide some level of support. Things I have seen that do not work? Ballet slippers. Crocs. Things that I think work best? Lightweight sneakers (like Keds or Converse). Velcro sandals (with socks, of course). I think it’s better to err on the side of providing too much support, rather than too little. And those beautiful handmade wool felted slippers are often too hot, soak through if they get wet, and don’t hold up to daily wear. Think “indoor shoes” instead of “slippers.” Oh, and if your 1st or 2nd grader has slip-on or velcro outdoor shoes make sure his or her indoor shoes have ties.

Rainpants

You want to provide your children with as much experience of the natural world as possible. At the same time you want to protect their senses so they do not get too cold or wet and uncomfortable. For little ones this means finding proper outdoor wear, including rain pants. I know that when I was a child we never wore rain pants, and only rarely could our parents talk us into putting on that uncomfortable rubber slicker. We’d rather stay inside, thank you very much. But things are not so uncomfortable anymore, and getting outside is essential.

The best rainpants are easy to get on and off and close off at the ankles, as well as at the waist. Years ago LL Bean made a pair that had quite wide legs and closed with velcro at the ankle. They made all of our outings painless as it was a so easy to get them on over boots but still came off with ease. When I taught preschool I made them mandatory. Short of the vintage LL Bean’s elastic at the ankles will work and if you can find a pair with suspenders and loose elastic at the waist, all the better.

Undershirts

I consider undershirts essential. My children wore them as babies and even still my 11 year old wears them (heck, even I still wear them!). When my children were babies they wore woolen undershirts and leggings everyday in the winter. I got such mileage out of them that I didn’t mind spending the money to get good quality woolens, and for the little ones whose senses were in such need of protection, I felt it was important.

Hats

One of those old “Steiner says” adages requires that children keep their heads covered all the time while they’re babies (maybe even up to age 3, I think?). Providing your child with warmth is an important part of protecting her lower senses when she’s little. Warmth ensures proper development, which sets the stage for learning. If you’d like to read more about the importance of warmth for children, especially in early childhood, read this article.

I remember it took me awhile to find the right kind of hat that wasn’t too hot, that didn’t always come off, that wasn’t silk, European and expensive. Until I found the Hanna Andersson pilot cap.

I loved this little cap for my babies. They could wear them year-round (under a warmer hat in the winter) and these hats were so affordable I didn’t cringe at the thought of losing one. At $8 a piece I bought a few in different colors and rotated them. Definitely an infant wardrobe staple.

What are your Waldorf Wear Essentials? (Sounds like a brand name — maybe I should copyright it!)

Thanks to everyone who commented in response to my beeswax giveaway. It’s nice to see so many friendly faces pop out of the woodwork. I went to www.random.org which randomly generated lucky number 27, which makes Rose the winner! Rose commented with this:

I love your blog! I am a homeschooling mom trying to incorporate the Waldorf method for my children. They love learning with the math gnomes! But we have never used beeswax before~what a great idea. Please put my name in for the giveaway. Thank you, Rose

I hope you and your children enjoy the beeswax — I’m always happy to inspire a newbie. Soon you’ll be hooked, finding random bits of beeswax warming in your bra when you get ready for bed at night. I’ll be sending you an email to get your address and I’ll send it off in the next couple of days.

I love this giveaway thing! Thanks to Fairhaven Toygarden for donating the beeswax. Go pay them a visit, and say hi to Roland for me .

I’ve been away from blogging for a week or so, with technical difficulties — hate when that happens. But, we’re back up and running just in time for a giveaway!

I’ve been wanting to post a review on one of the Waldorf supplies that I use daily — both for myself and my students — and that is modelling beeswax.

Stockmar makes these great sheets of modelling beeswax that children can use to create all kinds of things. Many of my students were so skilled with beeswax that it became their go-to material when they needed anything for a project. It comes in a variety of colors, though my favorite is the plain gold or the pale pink. It has a beautiful translucent quality when spread thin and when used in this way a little goes a long way. The warmer it is, the easier it is to work with, and because of this it can provide a little window into the child’s being. I remember noticing how some children who were full of life were able to soften up their beeswax right away. Other times the hardness of the beeswax helped me to realize that a child needed a cup of tea or a warm sweater. Some teachers warm the children’s beeswax using a heating pad or a cup of warm water, but I usually found that if the children put the beeswax in their “little ovens” (their armpits) while I told them a story, it would soften right up.

Very often children in the younger grades and kindergarten have a beeswax lesson each week during which the teacher tells a story while the children soften their beeswax and then the teacher leads the children through making something from the story (a much less guided approach is used in the kindergarten). Though a weekly beeswax lesson can be a wonderful thing, there are many other ways beeswax can be used in a Waldorf environment. Here are my top five uses for beeswax. . .

1. Making people, pets, flower gardens and food to go with dollhouses. My children could do this for hours. Definitely one of those times when the set-up for the play is so enjoyable and takes so much of the focus that the play itself is secondary and maybe never even happens at all.
2. As a free-rendering activity in the recall portion of main lesson. Beeswax can be a great way for children to synthesize and fully digest some of the material they study. There are some subjects that can be best understood through modelling, like botany, human and animal, and even physiology and anatomy in the upper grades. Clay can be used for some of these subjects, but the experience of modelling with beeswax is a very different one that is much more warming and nourishing than the cold, drying out experience of clay work.
3. A material to appease the “fiddlers.” There are some children who always need to have something in their hands. I found that if I didn’t give them something, they would find something ontheir own and come up with elaborate mechanical inventions using the contents of  my paper clip dish. Instead, I made an agreement with these children that they could hold onto some beeswax and model it with their hands in their laps, while they listened to me at story time.  It was a great compromise.
4. A rest-time pacifier. The children in my aftercare program who have a hard time staying still at rest time get a little bit of beeswax to hold onto. It helps them to stay active and engaged, but quiet enough for the younger children to fall asleep.
5. A candle holder. When we can’t get the candle to stick in the candle holder a little bit of beeswax does the trick. Sometimes we even create a new candleholder out of the beeswax itself.

The Giveaway!

For my very first giveaway I asked my friends at my local Waldorf toy store, Fairhaven Toygarden, if they had some beeswax they’d be willing to give to the cause. They came through and have donated a collection of 9 sticks of beeswax in all the colors you really need — red, gold and green!

To enter the giveaway comment to this post and just for fun mention your favorite beeswax creation. I’ll use a random  number generator to choose the winner that I will announce on Wednesday.

After you leave your comment go check out the Fairhaven Toygarden website. They have a great collection of imaginative toys and games, but also Waldorf supplies including wool roving, fountain pens, Lyra pencils, and, of course, beeswax. They’re a small, local business run by really wonderful people. If you buy something, let them know I sent you.

My series on story resources still needs completing so this weekend I’ll work on story resources for 7th and 8th grade. Thanks for reading and good luck with the giveaway!