#Earthschooling365: Day Ninety-Seven
Waldorf homeschooling, Inner work, Des Moines Photographer, Free Waldorf lesson, Waldorf nature walk
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Today we will work on the third and last pose that will help enhance inner work/meditation. I am not calling these poses “yoga” poses because they do not come from yoga, they do not need to be posed in a certain manner, and do not need to be held for a certain amount of time. Any relationship these poses may have to a yoga pose is coincidental. Poses can help you open up different parts of your mind to access emotions and even memories that may not be on the surface. Today’s pose is inspired by the dragonfly. Lie on the ground with the soles of your feet perpendicular to the floor and your arms and legs spread out like the dragon-flies wings (see below). Before you take this pose ask yourself, “What is one thing I could change in my life to make me light enough to land on this leaf like the dragon-fly?” Since this pose is not difficult to hold like the other two poses we will simply stay in this pose and take the thought process a bit farther. Once you have imagined removing that one thing and you feel lighter, ask yourself the same question again. Keep removing things, problems, issues, illness, financial difficulties, people, places, anything from your life you feel is weighing you down. When you feel you are light enough to land on the leaf you can stop the exercise.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): Today we saw hundreds of dragonflies whirring around the plants on both sides of the nature trail. There are so many dragonflies this time of year and they come in so many different colors! One thing that is amazing about dragonflies is how powerful they are and yet how light they are. Their wings move so fast and yet when they land on a leaf it is so gentle and light. It made me think about how much they actually weigh so I looked it up. The information I found says, ” dragonflies weigh about the same as a butterfly – 0.0001 ounce (0.003 grams) for the smallest, to 0.1 ounce (3 grams) for the largest.” Your assignment on your nature walk today is to think about how much things weigh. For younger children you can simply ask them questions like “which do you think weighs more – a butterfly or a bird?” For older children you can ask them to choose a variety of objects from the nature walk, bring them to the classroom/home and then have them arrange the items in order from lightest to heaviest. Weigh these items with a scale to see if they are correct. For children ages fourth grade and up you can have them choose a few items they see during the nature walk and look up their exact weight using reference books or online materials. Or, if they bring the objects back to the classroom/home they can weigh them with a scale.
Photography Notes (Hands): Today we will explore observing color in our photos again. However, today we will focus on yellow instead of blue. Notice how the leaves in the dragon-fly photos have a bit of a yellow hue to them? This is because they were taken in the middle of the day in the bright sunlight. Bright sunlight can sometimes add a slightly yellow hue to things or it can cause their colors to “pop”. This can sometimes result in a higher contrast photo as well (which is not always good) but we will talk about that in another lesson. Another place you will notice an excess of yellow in your photos is if you take photos indoors near an incandescent bulb or another source of light that glows “yellow”. Today’s assignment is to take photos of things that are yellow by choosing subjects that have yellow in them, reflect yellow, or are lit with “yellow” light. Remember, these assignments this week are to help us see what different colors look like in our photos so as you look over your photos from today notice how many different colors of yellow you see and ask yourself how “much” yellow you see in different parts of the photo. We will not do anything with this information yet – we are simply training our eyes to see these colors and be able to pick them out from the other colors in the photo.
Verse: Royalty
Copyright Kristie Burns
Woven with sunlight
Wreathed in luminous gems
I saw a cape magnificent
With diamonds on the hems
As a dragonfly flew by me
With iridescent wings
Dressed royally in lace
That was surely made for kings
*These poems have been created for many purposes – from early childhood circle time verses to inspirational or expressive. They vary from day to day so you may find the way you use them or enjoy them also varies. If you would like to set these poems to music consider our tutorial: Creating Your Ow Waldorf Verses or Finding Your Inner Voice.
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What is #Earthschooling365?
This series takes you through an entire year of our nature walks and is part of our non-profit project #Earthschooling365 at www.Earthschooling.org. The photos and posts in this series are all copyrighted. Please do not share or re-print them. Instead, share the link to this blog with your friends.
Along the way I will be sharing our favorite photo of the day, an inner work meditation for the day, photography assignment/tip for the day, nature walk theme for the day and a short verse for circle time (children) or meditation (teens/adults). We invite you to “walk along with us” this year, take some time to use the inner work meditation, be inspired by the nature walk theme of the day and perhaps even start a photo series of your own. To join the community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram please tag your photos #Earthschooling365. To receive these inspirations in your e-mail inbox daily please subscribe to our blog alerts HERE. Don’t worry about missing days – you can join us as many days as you want this year!
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