RE: kids in school

[Guest guest]

Hi Paige,

Thanks for the info on your son's school. I love the idea of a place we

can go from Mommy-and-Me all the way through grade 12 - that's my dream,

but we have nothing like that close to us yet. (We're in northern San

Diego County, in the central inland area.) And your son's new buildings

will be green . . . ahhhhh (dreamy swoon). :-) How ideal! I don't

know of any meet-ups in your area, and you're probably over 2 hours from

our area (we're an hour and 20 from Costa Mesa, if that helps give you

an idea), but isn't there a natural/organic fair coming up in the L.A.

area this summer? I don't know details, and couldn't find anything in a

quick google search, but I can ask around if you don't find anything. I

know folks who go each year and might know the date/info. I also hear

great things about the in your area - maybe search

groups for natural families or attachment parenting or vegetarian and

" southern CA. " We've made great friends via our local .

Good luck! And if you don't find anything in your area, maybe we could

make an effort to meet half-way sometime - what would that be - north

Orange County?

Thanks for your input on schools!

Lorraine

 

 

On

Behalf Of Paige

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 10:16 PM

 

RE: RE: Re: Re: kids in school

 

Lorraine,

 

I am in Southern CA also. My son is in Kindergarten at Highland Hall in

Northridge. The school is based on a Waldorf curricula rather than

Montessori methods, but I highly recommend it as an option. They have

mommy

and me classes and are a K-12 school. Current building plans involve

green

buildings that are 100% off the grid. A long-term project, but such a

great

thing to support in addition to my child getting a fantastic education

that

is developmentally appropriate. (just wanted to throw that in as an

option).

 

http://www.highland <http://www.highlandhall.org/> hall.org/

 

Paige

 

PS- let me know if you are aware of any meet groups in our area- I am

definitely interested in getting together with like minded parents for

play

dates.

 

_____

 

@gro <%40> ups.com

[@gro <%40>

ups.com] On

Behalf Of Lorraine

Monday, March 31, 2008 11:16 AM

@gro <%40> ups.com

[Norton AntiSpam] RE: Re: Re: kids in school

 

Hi Vicki,

We're looking into Montessori for our child in the next year or two

(Mommy-and-me program in the next year, kindergarten in 2 years), so I'd

be very interested in hearing anything that is non-vegetarian in

Montessori. We're lacto-ovos, so I'm fine with cheese slicing or even

beeswax stuff (like mentioned in the Waldorf discussion), but things

with leather or fur or felt or wool will be an issue for me, if they

exist. We're also being careful to choose a school that doesn't misuse

religion within Montessori curriculum, and would really prefer a

vegetarian-only lunch policy . . . but hey, what do I want, the moon and

the stars, too? :-) We're in southern California, but it still is

tough finding a school we like, within reasonable driving distance.

Anyway, any input you might have, or anyone else might have, on the

vegetarian-friendliness or not, of Montessori schools would be grand!

Thanks!!

Lorraine

 

 

@gro <%40> ups.com

[@gro <%40>

ups.com]

On

Behalf Of Vicki Thompson

Monday, March 31, 2008 9:54 AM

@gro <%40> ups.com

RE: Re: Re: kids in school

 

I am new to this group having been pretty much just reading posts and

soaking it all in the last week or so. I have been a veggie for a long

time, however as a family we are just starting to make the transition

from

Vegetarians to Vegans. My children (9,7, and 5) go to a Montessori

school

and as we were asked to pick up carrots and Ranch Dressing for the

children's snack time this week, I realized how difficult this

transition

is when comes to the school. Montessori also has " non-vegan " aspects to

their curriculum as well. Cheese slicing in the " practical life " center

jumps to mind immediately but I know that if I think about there are

other

aspects will surface. Since this transition for us is fairly new, (and

since we have yet to figure out some alternatives and how to get some

products completely out of our diets ourselves) I haven't addressed it

with

the school yet. I am interested in how other parents deal with these

challenges as well.

 

Vicki

 

_____

 

@gro <%40> ups.com

[@gro <%40>

ups.com] On

Behalf Of Paige

Sunday, March 30, 2008 2:29 PM

@gro <%40> ups.com

RE: Re: Re: kids in school

 

Chandelle,

 

I would love to get in touch with you outside of the group via email to

discuss Waldorf challenges as a vegan. My five year old is at a Waldorf

school, which we love, but as a vegan I do have some struggles with the

felting, beeswax and other items and activities that are integrated into

the

Waldorf lifestyle and curriculum. I am wondering how you deal with some

of

the challenges.

 

Please contact me if you are interested in discussing.

 

gosstucker@roadrunn <gosstucker%40roadrunner.com> er.com

 

Paige

 

_____

 

@gro <%40> ups.com

[@gro <%40>

ups.com]

On

Behalf Of chandelle'

Saturday, March 29, 2008 7:03 AM

@gro <%40> ups.com

[Norton AntiSpam] Re: Re: kids in school

 

yeah, we've converted my BIL and his wife, which is great because we can

do

holiday dinners together and nobody gets grossed out or offended by

what's

being eaten. but other than that we really don't know too many

veg*ns...there are a few families at my husband's/son's waldorf school

that

are veg but we don't know them well enough to " hang out " yet. and we get

a

lot of pressure from family to at least feed meat and other crap to our

kids; we don't really trust them not to feed our kids a lot of sugar and

crap when we're not right on top of them preventing it, and they treat

us

like we're so cruel for it...it's hard to be veg in utah, for sure!!

 

chandelle

 

On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 1:54 PM, Kristen <Ladybug810 (AT) (DOT)

<Ladybug810%40> com> wrote:

 

> Holy cow.....so I'm not the only vegetarian in the state of Utah

> after all! :-) Aside from a few immediate family members, I've met

> exactly ONE vegetarian here in the last year.

>

> Kristen (Sandy)

>

> @gro <%40>

ups.com

<%40>, Katie

> Norris <norris929

> wrote:

>

> >

> > Hello to my fellow Utahn! Where in Utah do you live? My son will

> be entering kindergarten this year, but we live in Sugarhouse

> (pretty liberal) so I think he'll be okay with other kids and being

> vegan.

> > I would tell my child if they were in that situation to have a

> witty comeback ready, " Wow, that's too bad that you won't be my

> friend because I don't eat meat. I'm willing to be your friend even

> though you kill animals. "

> > Good Luck!

> > Katie

> >

> >

> > : earthmother213: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:42:32 -

> 0600Re: kids in school

> >

> > where do you live? we live in utah and practically everybody we

> meethunts. it's hard to find like-minded parents here not only in

> terms ofdietary habits but in terms of any number of alternative

> choices...mychildren are only 3 and 1 but my son is in his father's

> class in a waldorfschool; lots of the families in this school

> are " alternative, " and some ofthem are vegetarian or vegan.

> findingthatalternativecommunityhasbeenhugelyimportantasfar as

> maintaining some stability in the midst of suchafirmly-

> entrenchedmainstream.idon'tknowhowwe'lldealwithitwhenourkidsreceiveun

> pleasanttreatmentfortheirveganism...sadly,forus,they'll probably

> receive that most of all from " well-meaning " " family. " :(chandelle

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Susan,

Oh, wow, that sounds great - I'm glad to hear that some Montessori's

work that way! Clearly, we're going to have to put together a list of

questions as we interview schools. I should start on that now even

though we won't likely start til the fall or later. :-)

Thanks much for all your input!

Lorraine

 

 

On

Behalf Of Susan Williams

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 6:00 AM

 

Re: Re: Re: kids in school

 

We haven't run into any such restrictions. DS plays with the rings from

one

exercise and the tower from another. One part of the structure is they

learn that you do one thing at a time, and then you put that exercise

away

before you get out something else. The exercise is structured, but there

is

freedom in that the children " play " with what they want. It's not a

typical

school structure where we have craft time from 8 - 9, then music from 9

-

10, etc. The children get to do what they want based on their interest

at

the time. I think it is beneficial to responsibility, but it is not for

everyone.

 

Susan

 

On 4/1/08, chandelle' <earthmother213@

<earthmother213%40gmail.com> gmail.com> wrote:

>

> *I've actually been concerned that Montessori might be too much

> structure sometimes for our free-playing son - like the pink blocks

are

> to be used for this exercise, not for any other, and not mixed with

> other items. *

>

> what is the purpose of such a restriction?

>

> chandelle

>

>

[Guest guest]

Chandelle,

 

Thanks for explaining to me why they might be pushing the veggie not vegan

thing, I was completely clueless!

 

 

 

On our end I am lucky about the diversity and pricing of our school. Where

we are is one of the cheaper schools in L.A. to begin with (before we even

decided Waldorf was the way to go for us) and then the community is very

into activism so there is financial aid funding to ensure we get diverse

groups into the school. I love it because my son is into maps and flags

right now. In his class of 18 we have a families from Egypt, Russia, Italy,

Japan, Ireland. that is just his class.. and some families have adopted from

other countries such as Ethiopia- so when we have play dates we get to

discuss diversity within families. It is pretty cool, I feel very lucky-

but I would like to break them of the wool and beeswax thing (wool moreso).

 

 

 

Paige

 

_____

 

On

Behalf Of chandelle'

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 6:14 AM

 

[Norton AntiSpam] Re: RE: Re: Re: kids in school

 

 

 

* although sometimes they wish we

were vegetarian rather than vegan as the teachers we know advocate cheese

for children and butter, not sure why? *

 

uh, yeah...that would be because so many waldorf teachers have been infected

by the WAPF. rudolf steiner was actually a vegetarian, so, kinda weird,

but he also said something about kids needing milk to ground them to the

earth, or something random like that, and sadly lots of waldorfy people take

steiner's work as the word 'o god. :::sigh::: my husband is a in a teacher

training program at steiner college in sacramento and last year they had a

discussion of nutrition based on sally fallon's " work. " yuck, yuck, yuck.

:*(

 

the whole " white flight " thing bothers me. a lot. a lot of the reason we

want to move out of utah is so our children won't grow up with the mistaken

belief that everyone in the world is white, upper middle class and mormon.

the high expense of most waldorf schools is prohibitive to many families and

that lack of diversity really gets to me. hey, the only reason we can

afford it ourselves is because my husband teaches there. but this is why my

husband has always intended to open a free waldorf community school someday,

within the next few years.

 

chandelle