Can you support us in 2020? If you see the value in our goals and activities we encourage you to help us continue to build our farm's capacity to serve the public and expand our resources. You can support us through the following avenues: Online donations can be made by selecting "Pay Now" on our website: click here. Send check donations made out to Living Environment Foundation to 120024 Everett Drive, Scottsbluff, NE 69361

The Living Environment Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit and donations are tax exempt. You will receive a receipt upon your donation that you can use for those purposes. We are so grateful to all of you and we welcome your feedback so we can continue to provide education in a way that makes the most sense for you and for us! Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram and check out our website if you have not done so already.  Happy Holiday season and best wishes for you all! -- Meadowlark Hearth Living Environment Team ... more ...

Giving Tuesday, born from a simple idea fostering generosity that was first created in 2012. Falling on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (Dec 3 this year), it offers an alternative to the intensity of shopping leading toward the gift giving holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah. The impulse is to make gifts to good causes and do helpful deeds for those in need. Your gifts to APO bring the wisdom of anthroposophy to individuals who are in prison, changing lives and providing impulses that carry forward into future incarnations. What an amazing gift that is! We currently have over 1,000 active students and the number grows every month. Please follow this link to make a gift to the APO in honor of Giving Tuesday this year. We also have an active campaign on our Facebook page if that is more convenient for you. Your gift serves a real need in someone’s life.

 In the words of Travis, currently serving time in a Texas prison,  
“The biggest take away that I have received from my anthroposophical study is the development of a solid character that no longer pursues power for personal gain. My time spent on inner reflection and meditations allows for development of this character so that my outer life has greater purpose and clarity. I am able to see beyond the immediate presenting concerns and view underlying causes as they manifest in behavior. And I've learned to speak up for what is morally correct because of Rudolf Steiner's teachings that morality must be the first area to develop. However if a conflict appears to have no resolution I honor their view and reflect on how I may perhaps be coming across to others. Meditating on the experience I look for ways of connectedness rather than separation.”         --Travis, Venus, TX

As an additional opportunity, for Giving Tuesday we are participating in a “matching grant” on Facebook, 8 am - midnight (EST), 5am - 9 pm  (PST) on Tuesday, December 3rd. If you have a Facebook account, and would like to give through that platform, they will match your gift. If you give $100, they give $100. They have a cap of $7 million, so it is best if you can give early in the day. They do not charge us any fees for gifts received. Follow this link to donate on Facebook and help us qualify for a matching grant! APO encourages incarcerated individuals to take responsibility for their lives. This is accomplished through the study of anthroposophy, the practice of meditation, meaningful reflection on their own biographies and the development of positive human relationships. Follow this link to make a secure, online gift to the APO today. What an amazing gift to offer the wisdom of anthroposophy to someone who is truly seeking to turn their life around. Thank you for your consideration and your generous support.

With gratitude, Kathy Serafin, Eileen Bristol, Fred Janney, Rick Ruffin for the APO Advisory Group

P.S. Your gift will make a difference in the life of an incarcerated and seeking individual. Follow this link to make a gift today! Thank you.

Anthroposophical Prison Outreach is part of the Anthroposophical Society in America, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
Gifts are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Join us for our 7th annual BUY NOTHING DAY! Instead of Black Friday, make this relax at home Friday. Stay home with your family, be offline and create pine-cone decorations, festive felt ball garland, scented fire-starters, or learn a song, (all instructions, lyrics, and ideas included here). Or snuggle in and read a story! Balance the universe with quiet, loving, relationships at home with the people you cherish most on this (traditionally frantic) Friday. - Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE)

Spirit of the Lake recently purchased the old Lester Park United Methodist Church at 54th Avenue East and Superior Street in Duluth. -- By Adelle Whitefoot

Spirit of the Lake Community School sixth grade teacher Suzanna Didier quizzes students in a classroom in the school’s new Lakeside location Thursday. (Photo: Steve Kuchera)The Spirit of the Lake Community School has been renting space since it opened its doors in 2012. Seven years later, the Waldorf-style school has a home to call its own in the Lakeside neighborhood. Spirit of the Lake recently purchased the old Lester Park United Methodist Church at 54th Avenue East and Superior Street in Duluth. The church held its last service in April 2018, closing its doors due to the small size of the congregation. But the abandoned church now has new life as school serving grades one through eight. The school's director of enrollment and community relations Ivy Nelson said it's made a big difference to own a space for the 30 students. “We were outgrowing rental spaces as we were gaining more children and more classes,” Nelson said. Nelson said the consistency, comfort and safety that comes with having a home base for the children was really important. “I was driving two of our then fifth graders to an event that we were doing last year and they've been with the school since kindergarten, so they've moved the most,” Nelson said. “So I asked them what they think of us getting our new building, and one of them said, ‘I'm so excited that we finally get to go home.’” When looking for a space of their own, Nelson said the school wanted something that would be easily accessible to parents and students but also have the nature aspect that is important to the school’s values. “So that's how we ended up looking up here. We own a strip of creek, we are able to use the community center and their woods and the sixth grade students go to Lester Park almost every day,” she said. “We've just really fallen in love with being in the Lakeside community. There's a lot of really wonderful welcoming neighbors.”

Students in Waldorf schools don't learn from traditional textbooks but instead delve into subjects and write about those studies in self-styled workbooks, melding art and academics. Instead of issuing grades and report cards, teachers provide families with regular updates on the progress of each student. Teachers stay with their students each year, moving with them to a higher grade each fall. Perin Ellsworth-Heller is a first grade teacher this year. He said he’s enjoying the new space. “It really makes all the difference (having our own space),” he said. “To be in someone else's space where you can't just go and repaint a wall or paint a tree that reflects the fall leaves on this wall, and now to just have that creative license and the children to have that creative license to do that is great.” Ellsworth-Heller and Nelson said there have been some hiccups with the new space but thanks to a dedicated parent base, it's really coming together. “It's just a huge project to move into a new space,” Ellsworth-Heller said. “So really right now our classrooms are closer to where we want them to be and the rest of the building is an ongoing work in progress.” The offices and classrooms are being used for just that. The former great hall is being used as a gym area for students as well as a community meeting space. The former sanctuary hasn’t really changed much, Nelson said. “We are using the sanctuary for our assemblies and plays,” she said. “All of our children participate in theater, so that's been really wonderful to have that space already there with a stage.”
To learn more about the Spirit of the Lake Community School, visit slcsduluth.org. From The Duluth News Tribune

The Puppet Shape
Shadow puppet shapes are made to block some or all of the light and cast a shadow. If you are trying for crisp edges on your shadows, it's important to keep the material thin. Anything can be used, but I use thin black poster-board. It's hard to find quality poster-board since most is produced for quick, disposable school projects. Still the good stuff is out there and worth looking for. The first step in construction is to transfer your design from the paper where you've drawn it on to the poster-board. I use white carbon paper found at art supply stores. It leaves a white line on the poster-board and is far, far easier to see than pencil. Next, I cut out the design with scissors. Good quality, small scissors give clean edges and the curved scissors make cutting round shapes easy. Remember, it is the edges of the puppet shape the audience notices most, so spend extra time making sure they are clean and even. The body of my puppets are controlled with 16 - 14 gauge soft wire. You may need to experiment with various types of wire to find one that bends well over and over without breaking. Piano wire is strong, but very hard to bend, brittle when bent several times, and springy. Springy wire tends to make the puppet shapes shiver as you move them. I attach the wire to my puppets in two ways. I use either a flexible hinge or tape the wire directly to the puppet with masking tape. A flexible hinge attachment can be made by bending the end of the wire 90 degrees and running it through a short piece of plastic or metal tubing. This gives a joint at the attachment point which allows the puppet to stay tight against the screen even if your hand is a bit high or low. I use the flexible hinge attachment in all my hand-held puppets. At the other end of the control wire is either a dowel stick (I use 1/2" for my big hands) or a wooden base. For hand-held puppets, I drill the dowel stick and glue the end of the wire into it. It's not under a lot of strain so that works well enough. For some puppets, I want to be able to have them stand by themselves while I operate the main characters. The control wire on these is screwed down to a wooden base which stands on a shelf backstage. The base lets a solo performer have several puppets onstage at once, but remember that motionless puppets tend to 'die' in the eyes of the audience. Simple puppets use just the main control wire, but more complicated puppets may need a second wire to operate a moving part. For most performances, two wires is about all a puppeteer can handle. While the same type of wire will do for both main wire and second wire, the best second wires are old umbrella wires. These have a tiny eyelet in the end and let you attach the wire to the arm, leg, head, etc. with thread. I also use black thread to make arm or leg joints and there's quite a trick to getting them tight. First, I use the smallest needle I can so the hole left behind isn't too large. After waxing the thread, I pull it through both pieces of cardboard and put knots on both sides. My knots are never tight enough the first time so I usually put one or more knots between my first knot and the cardboard to tighten things up. I finish the knot with a drop of white glue and it's done. Plain poster-board puppets are great, but you can get interesting effects by adding lace, netting, and colored plastic behind cut-out areas. You can also use found objects for puppet shapes, but these tend to give very fuzzy edges since they are usually much thicker than poster-board.

From WSoP

Imagine a classroom that grows student minds, hearts, and experiences, serves as a model for other schools in the region, and builds stronger community connections with our surrounding neighborhoods.


Imagine a path to normalize deliberate choices that contribute to the natural world in a positive, sustainable way.


The 8th Grade Classroom aspires to meet Core Green Building Certification, a framework outlining ten achievements a building must obtain to be considered green and sustainable. This will be the first classroom of its kind for a school in the country and is a true reflection of our values as a Waldorf school.

Watch the video here.

12 Questors set out in quest of the Round Table where they hope to be crowned  with their StarStone.  But Questors beware! At every turn, Dark and Light Demons lurk on every side, ready to block and capture as many Questors as possible.  Each Questor must find their own way, but for all to succeed, the Questors must battle their Demons together through the high art of CoQuest.

By Michael Howard

In the spring of 1979 I was playing chess with a friend when I found myself feeling uncomfortable with the fact that only one of us could win and the other must lose. Ever since, I have lived with the question: Is competition essential to a good game? Why can’t a good game be based on collaboration? For 40 years, I have been exploring how to create a game based on CoQuest rather than Conquest.

All the great games of the past depend on competition to make them challenging and exciting to play. Team sports transfer this competitive dynamic from two individuals to two groups battling to win. And yet, each team exercises a high level of collaboration among themselves in order to be effective in defeating the other team. This curious mix of collaboration and competitiveness in team sports is also found in business, politics and warfare. Why do we compete with some people and co-operate with others? Why don't we try to collaborate with all people, all the time? For one thing, it is very difficult. Competing may not be easy, but collaborating is much more challenging because it means we must find strategies that serve the progress and success of all the players, not just our own. The prevailing assumption is that self-interest is so deeply rooted in human nature that competition is unavoidable and, therefore, must be accepted as a fact of life. And yet, as self-interest only seems to intensify in today's world, more and more people aspire to live in harmony with all who dwell upon our living Earth. It may not be possible to eradicate self-interest entirely, but our very humanity depends on our striving to harmonize our own needs and aspirations with those of others. When playing Conquest games, like chess and Go, players are limited to an adversarial relationship. Each one tries to outsmart the other in order to be the sole winner. In CoQuest, Dark and Light Demons obstruct all the players from reaching their StarStones. For all to be crowned with their StarStone, the players must battle their Demons together through the high art of CoQuest.

Like traditional board games, CoQuest can be played among family and friends simply to have a good time together. In addition, CoQuest can be played by groups looking for ways to foster team building, conflict resolution and other social capacities. CoQuest develops self-determination and decisiveness in ways that enhance rather than undermine social harmony. CoQuest can also be played Solitaire to strengthen individual social capacities. Solitaire CoQuest can also be played as a contemplative practice to focus the mind, promote equanimity and awaken our creative spirit.

CoQuest is more than a game; by learning to master our Demons together, we become more fully our self, and live in harmony with others at the same time. Learn more and ordering information at coquest.org.


Michael Howard was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1946, Michael began sculpting at the age of fifteen. He studied sculpture at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and received a BFA from Eastern Michigan University, and a MA in Fine Arts from Columbia Pacific University in CA. He met the work of Rudolf Steiner in 1969 when he attended Emerson College in England. Since that time he has researched the relationship between qualities of movement, sound and form. From this foundation, exploring the nature of metamorphosis has been a central part of his creative activity. In addition to making visible speech, in recent years he has also explored making visible music in drawings, paintings, relief sculptures and light art. His writing includes the introduction to Art as Spiritual Activity, a collection of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on art and Educating the Will, concerning the role of the visual arts in education. Currently, he is working on a book entitled Art and Humanity In Metamorphosis that introduces the perspective that artistic capacities must be developed in all human beings so that, individually and collectively, we can better understand and meet the personal, social and ecological challenges of our time. He lives and works in Amherst, MA.  Visit his website at livingformstudio.org

By DR. PETER GUTTENHOEFER

On our beautiful earth, nature is at risk. Flowers and animals disappear from the planet, everybody talks about the climate.

But something else is at risk: childhood.

In every country of the world the pressure on children is increasing: school enrollment is gradually being moved to an earlier age, governmental curriculum is enforced for the first ten years of life, reading is taught at the age of three, competition is being intensified among the children, lots of tests, classes become more intellectual, less movement, no arts, no playing.

At home: family structures are breaking down, stressed parents, unemployment, poverty, children sitting alone in front of the screen, computer games. Even the rich people’s children are poor!

Let us take some necessary steps to preserve childhood! Let us give our children at least ten years of childhood! Only this way will they be able to have enough fantasy to reshape life on earth in a new and better way when they become adults. We’re dealing with the earth and the youth forces of the earth.
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The whole idea of “School” must be re-thought anew! Schools, where children can live, play and work in such a way that their natural gift of imagination can turn into creative fantasy. We need schools where they can live without pressure or fear, thus being happy while they learn and grow healthy.