Waldorf Education and Parenting Today

Please join us for an evening of insight, humor, and practical parenting advice. We hope you will join us next Thursday, March 19 at 7:00pm in the Community Room for a lecture entitled Waldorf Education and Parenting Today offered by Nancy Poer. In addition to being the co-founder of Rudolf Steiner College, Ms. Poer is also a Waldorf educator, author, artist, and mother of six children.

Ms. Poer's lecture will center on how to foster the growing consciousness of our often strong-willed children. Waldorf education supports cognitive brain development, and instills a love of learning and a deep sense of what is right and good. A deeper knowledge of the stages of child development—body soul and spirit—can aid in our parenting. This knowledge is the basis of Waldorf education. By strengthening self-discipline through the arts, academics, and through nurturing a strong individual inner life, Waldorf students develop the resilience to follow their own star in a culture of overwhelming, stressful consumerism and to shine with their own clear thinking and creativity as adults.

For more information about this lecture, please contact Trish Bondurant at (206) 624-6176.

In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chalkboard drawing by Grade Eight teacher Mia Fioravanti

We hope you were able to join us this morning for our Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly. Susan Koelle and her Strings students presented a lovely rendition of the Black Eyed Peas' Where is the Love? which brought tears to the eyes of almost everyone who attended. Well done Strings students, and great thanks Susan Koelle!

It was such a joy to celebrate the life and work of Dr. King, and we hope that you will continue to respect his memory on Monday, January 20, when we will take a day off from school. Rather than sleeping in, you may want to get involved in local events that honor his great civil rights advocacy and fight for social change.

Thanks to all who came and we will see you Tuesday morning!

Annual Fund

This year's Annual Fund is in full swing!

Did you know that our new President-elect, Barack Obama, was the recipient of tuition assistance that allowed him to attend an independent school? This year, all donations to the Annual Fund go directly towards tuition assistance. Your contribution to the Annual Fund can have positive ripples into a child's future that may reach farther than you can imagine.

Our Annual Fund has just tipped over the 50% mark both in participation and in dollars! Many thanks to those of you who have already pledged. To those of you who have not yet turned in your pledge, you may pledge by email if you haven't been able to return your pledge card to the office yet. As with every year, we are seeking 100% participation from families, faculty, and staff.

Our goal is $30,000, all of which will be used for tuition assistance, and our hope is to conclude our Annual Fund before the Thanksgiving break. Thank you making a difference in the life of a child.

Day of the Dead

Today we celebrated El Día de Los Muertos here at Bright Water School, with an assembly organized and led by Spanish teacher Señor Michael Domini. It was a beautiful celebration of a cultural event that is celebrated in Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

Señor Domini explained to us how El Día de Los Muertos is really a celebration of our deceased love ones and how they loved and cared for us when they were alive. He explained the symbolism of the ofrenda, or the altar. The candles on the ofrenda and the flowers surrounding it provided a bright light for the spirit of our loved ones to find us during the celebration.

After Señor Domini's introduction, each class gave a small presentation of the verses and poems they had been working on. It was a wonderful event for our whole community!

Time For A Picnic!

Whew! The last week of school here at Bright Water has been a flurry of activity. As you may know, one of the features of Waldorf education is that the class teacher remains with his or her class all the way through grade school. This creates deep bonds of understanding between teacher and student, but it has one slight complication: all of the supplies, furniture, and other items belonging to the class have to move into the classroom of the next highest grade each year. After all of that moving, everyone at BWS agreed it was time for a picnic in the park.



Actually, the end-of-year picnic is an annual tradition at Bright Water School. As the school year winds down and both parents and students begin to feel the excitement of summer approaching, the last days of school understandably become a little hectic. As a final time for the entire school to gather informally and enjoy food and social time together, a picnic is a great way to "decompress" before our last official event of the year: our eighth grade graduation ceremony.

Medieval Games

Each year, sixth graders from Waldorf schools all over Washington state gather to complete their study of the Medieval period in style - with a Medieval style feast and tournament! The annual Medieval Games are a much anticipated event in the Waldorf world, and this year, Bright Water School was lucky enough to host the Games.


Upon arrival, the students split up into "shires," allowing students from different schools to meet and interact. Students feasted with their shire on Thursday night and enjoyed stories and other activities. Friday morning, the Games began! The Games themselves took place in nearby Volunteer Park, where beautiful tree-lined meadows provided the perfect space for Medieval activities.


Tournament style challenges on offer at the games included archery, javelin, and tug-o-war. The shires showed a great deal of team spirit and support for one another. Here, archers pause on the firing line while awaiting instructions from the Tournament Master, Bright Water's very own Coach Bryan.


Javelin throwers approach their targets. Thanks to Coach Bryan and all the parent volunteers from Bright Water and other schools for making this year's Medieval Games a safe, fun, and exciting learning experience for everyone.

Honey Hollow

Just a few steps down an enchanted path behind Bright Water School's playground is a magical place for children of preschool through first grade. "Honey Hollow" is a place very dear to the hearts of our youngest students.


Apart from being a beautiful play area with its own garden, playhouse, and picnic area, Honey Hollow is a sanctuary for small people (and their teachers!). Here, surrounded by the quiet beauty of nature, the little ones are free to play without being swept up in the swirl of recess-time activity on the larger playground.


Favorite Honey Hollow activities include gardening, sweeping, and other big person chores... albeit with much smaller rakes, brooms, and wheelbarrows. Free play is also an important component of the Honey Hollow experience.


We hope you enjoyed this brief visit to Honey Hollow... come back any time!