I have been studying anthroposophy for many years, both in its application to education, as well as spirituality and human nature as a whole. 

"Every education is self-education, and as teachers we can only provide the environment for children’s self-education. We have to provide the most favorable conditions where, through our agency, children can educate themselves according to their own destinies.”

It can be really challenging to read blogs and then try to decide what Waldorf actually IS! Waldorf is something different to many different people.  Some are only interested in understanding Waldorf as far as what the schools would be doing.

My question to those is...why?
The schools can have WONDERFUL experiences associated with them, I have visited many and fallen in love with the beauty of the classrooms, the artistry of a Waldorf teacher's chalk board, marveled at the selection of books in the classroom... but my reality is at home.
Do I want to base my schooling on what the schools do?
Or is it better to understand what Steiner himself suggested? 

In the first lecture of "Kingdom of Childhood," Steiner suggests that each grades class room will look a bit different as each teacher will take the information from what they have learned and fashion it into something that makes their heart soar, all the while staying in line with Steiner's recommendations.

When I started...

Let's look at something you might already know how to do but didn't realize you should be doing it for yourself, not just your children:

Form drawing - this is incredible inner work. I find that working on forms gives me peace and comfort when I am struggling to connect to God because I can't get over myself, lol... yes, I have days when my ego wants to rule and I need to step back.  If I can't get out of that angry place on my own, I turn to form drawing.  Knocking out some of those knotted grade 4 forms will help rebalance me and allow me to connect back to the mama I enjoy being.

Block crayon drawing, painting or any other artistic endeavor that is NOT school related.  Now that doesn't mean you can't be practicing a picture you want to bring to your child later, but it does mean that school work with your child does not count.  This is about working on YOU so if your energies are divided and your focus is your child then you won't be able to have the healing...

Steiner describes the etheric body or life-body as he sometimes called it, as working "in a formative way on the substances and forces of the physical body and thus brings about the phenomena of growth, reproduction, and inner movement of vital body fluids. It is therefore the builder and shaper of the physical body, its inhabitant and architect. The physical body may even be spoken of as an image or expression of the life-body."  These etheric forces work on our body through our lives and for mothers, we have to work to protect ourselves from being drained.  Pregnancy, nursing and mothering young children can cause a drain on our etheric body. If we don't work to guard our bodies then we can find ourselves easily drained and then running in a circle... "I want to get up but I can't, I am too tired" turns into "Don't tell me how to take care of myself!  It is easier to just be grumpy and tired!"

What can we do physically to work on our bodies while nurturing young...