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The winds are changing and while the days still reach into the 80's here in south east Idaho, our evenings are in the cool 40's.  I am grabbing a sweater more often to run errands and enjoying the autumn breezes.  The children keep asking for snow... it doesn't help that stores already have holiday trees for sale.  I remind them to stay present and enjoy where we are - look at the trees changing, see how much the ducks at the river have grown, enjoy cooler walks to the farmer's market - they giggle and ask me then if it is too early to make a list for St. Nick!  I remember the days when life was about birthdays and the winter holidays... seems so long ago until I watch the wonder in their eyes.  Our older children are growing so fast and aren't always content with all of our beautiful wooden toys.  The big boys have bins with more Legos and my daughter is enjoying clothes... but then I pull out the handwork and they all come running, everyone needs an autumn gnome.  Our youngest of course loves his little wooden friends, although I did find a tiny Hulk figure living with the gnomes in the mushroom house - when I asked him which gnome invited the Hulk, he told me they needed help cleaning and he was strong!  So we balance one little plastic friend with a family of wooden gnomes, such is life.

UPDATES and HAPPENINGS:

New Products - we are proud to bring families the same fair pricing for Waldorf art supplies that they have come to love about our curriculum pricing.  See our store for details on Mercurius supplies.

Conferences - we had a tough time with conferences this year.  The only ones we were able to gather successfully were our local endeavors, but we have not given up.  I know there are folks who would like conferences and workshops, we have talked to several people experiencing the economy crunch - we understand fully!  We are trying to see what options we have to make things more do-able for families of all incomes, including scholarship programs where possible. We are planning to reschedule southern California for October or November sometime since we would really like to make a family trip and combine the two.  Over the coming weeks we will be chatting with families in the area and finding out just what they want. 

Conference refunds - we are working through refunds for conferences that cancelled, thank you for being patient.  For those who would rather have store credit please feel free to chat with us about that. We are even open to a variation of the two.

Referral program - How about free products?  anyone want that? We just started a referral program that could get you $10 off for each new customer you send our way.  All they need to do is tell us you referred them and we'll send you a store credit for $10! It is that easy, you can save up your credits and get a big chunk off of an order, or just use $10 at a time, you drive the boat - it is all up to you! This is our way of saying "thank you" for helping us grow. Make sure you pass along our coupon code to your friends, then you'll both get a deal!  I realized we missed a few over the last month so if you know you referred a friend and didn't get an email from us with a referral, please let us know!

Monthly coaching calls - We got rolling on these last month and then it hit me... we should be doing these for free! So we changed our focus a bit.  Now that families have had a few weeks to settle into homeschooling or to at least start planning, we thought we'd start the first Friday in October with Kindergarten and pre-k calls and move through the grades each week.  When we are done, we'll start again. Feel free to join in as many as you'd like.  Email us for details.  The call wills be early in the a.m. - 6 a.m. Mountain Time.  

Project Updates:

• Grade 6 - we are nearly done, it is available for purchase and we are sending out ecopies of where we are so far.  We had the project ready to go to print a few weeks back and experienced a huge data loss resulting in much of the book needing to be re-written - after the initial shock, I realized it was a blessing, the new work is more vibrant and full of life than the first one!  We are editing the finals and hope to see it go to the printer anytime. 
• Full curriculum packages - we are now carrying supplies and will be expanding our line in the months to come.  Our books will also begin carrying much more artistic content from full lessons to more work for mom, our packages are evolving more and more.
• A Journey through Waldorf Math - we love, love, love Harrer's book "Math Lessons for Elementary Grades" but we hear parents being frustrated about how to use this book to really serve them.  If you aren't used to the Waldorf way of doing math it can sometimes be a challenge, we are working to help with this challenge.  We are compiling a variety of lessons I have used to teach our children over the last few years and will be putting them together in a book with concrete lessons for grades 1 through 5, with some ideas for grade 6 as well.  For more in depth math in grade 6, we recommend "Making Math Meaningful Series" by Jamie York.
• "A Journey through Waldorf Music" - We have tabled this for now as we are planning to expand the project more over the coming months.
• Updated day planner - it has been about a year since we put out the first planner and we have listened to recommendations and suggestions from all of you and will be unveiling a new planner in the coming months - better than that... we will be giving away some planners during our Advent Celebration this winter..
• "Starting Your Journey" - this will be a free download for families new to Waldorf and/or homeschooling.
• "The Mushroom Doorway... Tales from the Gnomes" - we are obsessed you could say... these wee folk are so enchanting and I have been making up stories about them for years.  A taste of those stories can be found in our new book "Before the Journey" - this little book will focus on seasonal gnome stories.
• Supplements for both LDS families and Pagan families - these will be available for free as downloads.
• Updates and revisions - we hoped we would get to these over the summer but time got away from us!  We will be re-editing all the books over the winter months and adding some fun details to them where we can.  If you have copies of books we have updated, we will gladly provide you with a link to the new material.
• More ideas to come! Including a joint venture with Sigi (Coloring with Block Crayons) for a great DVD project.

We know the rest of the site is in serious need of updating... we are working on that this fall - stay up to date with new lesson ideas from our blog.  Keep checking back as we plan to tackle a different section of the site each week.

Needle Felting Fun  is our silly but informative video on needle felting - it is also included in our Before the Journey book set on the DVDs. If you would like to download it or purchase a DVD copy, please visit our store.

ERIK'S WRITING SERVICES: Do you sometimes feel like you are flying blind with knowing if your child is progressing in their writing?  Erik has a background in English, journalism, and film, he has worked as an editor and a newspaper reporter, and he lends his background to you! He can help you assess your child's writing and help you with the tools to move them forward becoming wonderful writers. For a full description of his services please visit the consulting section of our store. 

The Virtuous Woman, this book is being written now and will not focus on homeschooling, its main focus is MOM. Moms of all paths often have a hard time remembering that they are the beacon for their family, we all want to be seen as the "Virtuous Woman" described in Proverbs 31:10 - no matter what our religious background (if you don't know the verse, I highly suggest reading it, it can be viewed here.)  Becoming this woman and living it for myself first and then my family is turning into my life's work.  I have had so much fun sharing this topic with others.  The book will contain meditations for all faiths.  We are all ONE. The book will be available late in 2008.