Urban Waldorf blog?

[klk197]

Does anyone have a favorite Waldorf blog that is set in a very urban area?  I frequently find inspiration in the usual Waldorf suspects, but I also find a real disconnect with my own reality: I live in a tiny house in a very dense neighborhood, no car, and consider myself lucky to live a block from a city park; but walks in the woods and digging deep into the soil are not part of our everyday experience (although these sound lovely).   I know I'm not alone, and someone out there must be documenting the intersection of their little piece of concrete and the Waldorf way of thinking.  Could someone point me in the right direction?

[waldorfknitmama]

Aw, hang in there mama!  I totally completely understand where you are coming from.  Not all of us can live on 5 acres and let our children roam freely experiencing nature.  I used to live in the most amazing neighborhood in Minneapolis, very teeeeeeennnyy house, in the city, with a walking trail and park within walking distance but no garden or yard to play much in.  It was hard to connect with nature when I lived in the city, but I found ways.  A couple of ways for my littles to experience some greenery where:

Plant some pots of herbs and easy to grow veggies, we let the kiddies "harvest" them for baking day and such during our Waldorf inspired homeschool time

Grab a wooden box large enough to fill with dirt and a drop cloth, let the kiddos "play in the dirt" with cups, and spoons and other containers.  I must add this was a "mommy has a lot to do today, play with this" kind of a thing--- never everyday as it can get messy in a small home.

Let the babies grow sprouts on the counter.  All you need is some beans, a mason jar, water and some sunlight.  They are VERY tasty and super hard to get wrong.

You can still go on walks in the city and experience nature, listen to birds, pick up fallen leaves, notcie rocks on the ground if even in the cement your walking on. 

It can be hard, but try not to get caught up on the "perfect Waldorf life" while there are many examples of Waldorf life that looks absolutely dreamy, there are many many many of us living in the city and enjoying life there too.

I really hope this helps, you sound very honest, and I think that's how a lot of Waldorfers feel :)

[waldorfknitmama]

And just to be clear so you don't think I'm a hypocrite, I used to live in a concrete jungle in a 950sq ft house, but have since moved to the country.  It was not however because I wanted to live a more Waldorfy life, but because we are pursing our family's goal of farming. 

I'd love for you to check out my blog, it's a little bit Waldorf (we are Waldorf homeschoolers) a little bit crafty (I'm a WAHM making Waldorf dolls and crafts in my Etsy store) a little bit family, a little of this and that.  You might gain some inspiration!

HTH!

Samantha

[superbeans]

If you find one let me know! I would love to see it too. We're in the city as well.

[aHikaru]

we live an apartment lifestyle and I always incorporate waldorf into our home...

-we co sleep in the same bedroom

- the 2nd bedroom is my DD's waldorf playroom

- our patio has gardening boxes and we have started growing veggies 

we also have the goal of having at least .25-.5 an acre for having an urban homestead, being in the country would be a plus, but hubby needs to be at least an 1 hr driving distance to work.

hope you find what your looking for 

[honeybunmom]

We are a Waldorf family in an urban setting.  We live within the city limits in a large house, but in a rough neighborhood (which is how we could afford a large house, hoping the neighborhood would soon gentrify, but then 2008 happened) and the school is within the city limits.  I do have a blog, but it is not kept up very well since I work full time out of the house.  My most recent entries are crafting and knitting focused.  We planted a few tomato plants and basil last year.  Our next door neighbor has to lots and keeps quite a large garden on one of them.  We plan to erect raised beds this year, and I do plan to blog about it.  I'll put my blog address in my profile.

[LuxPerpetua]

We live in an apartment in a suburb of a major city.  We do a lot of container gardening and take nature walks around where we live (they landscape for each season).  We also have our own sandbox and lots of free playtime when we aren't homeschooling.  No TV, an aquarium, a swing inside one of our doorways, plants growing on our balcony and dining room table ... well, there are lots of things you can do.  We also do wet-on-wet painting each week and hang dd's paintings for decoration on all our walls, which adds great color.  You can easily dye your own silks, do container gardening, do wet-on-wet painting, take nature walks around where you live (if possible) otherwise visit a special naturey place once a month or so for an afternoon, incorporate movement and songs into everyday life, bake bread and cook from scratch ... there's so much more to Waldorf than just roaming around the woods. :)  The Parenting Passageway is a great blog I read for inspiration to make our lives more holistic and rich without all the commercial aspects of Waldorf that I loathe.

[MammaG]

I haven't found that 'blog, either, and I've been looking!  We're also an urban Waldorf homeschooling family.  We have an itty bitty outdoor space (I put three 5'x5' raised beds along the itty bitty driveway.  We love our little veggie garden!).  We're in a gritty neighbourhood with all that comes with that: frequent police visits somewhere on the street, trash, lots of paved front yards...and neighbours who really live by helping each other out; one side lets us pick their peaches, the other side plays peek-a-boo with the baby every time we meet.  We housed the neighbours and the Red Cross one cold morning when there was a fire, they helped us by taking the old washer and dryer when it would have cost a BUNCH to have the city pick 'em up.  In practical terms, we have very little in common with many of those in our street, but somehow it always comes down to all needing one another occasionally.  Another major plus, it's wonderfully muticultural around here!  And we can walk to our fav. coffee shop and all the downtown festivals and free kid concerts.

But we don't have chickens (for some odd reason, you can raise pigeons but not chickens in our city), and we have to really plan it to get out into the woods (and we do.  Often!).  We play outside during school hours whan the slightly crazy and really 'salty-tongued' mama behind us is not likely to be hanging out of the second story window 'communicating' with her kids.

It'd sure be nice to have a blog about all the beauty to be found in the city with a Waldorf lifestyle, wouldn't it?!  And maybe occasionally some tips for just turning a blind eye where beauty is scarce (or better yet, planting beauty in exactly those spaces).

I'll be this thread!