Sponsor Giveaway: The Waldorf Connection

Today I welcome Donna Ashton here with us. Donna is the founder and CEO of The Waldorf Connection, an online resource that provides workshops, courses, and coaching for homeschooling families all over the globe. Donna strives to bring confidence, clarity and community to the homeschoolers who are seeking to bring a rhythmic, organized approach to their days. As a homeschooling mother, entrepreneur, writer and coach, she knows the importance of daily balance and is dedicated to helping others with this balance in their own lives. She lives at the beach with her 9-year twins, husband, dog & cat, where she enjoys bike riding, reading, gardening and walks on the beach.

Donna wrote a short article on rhythm to share here today. Welcome Donna!

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“Getting Clear on Your Rhythm”

What’s all the talk about rhythm? Why do I need to have it?

There are important reasons for having a solid rhythm for both you
and your family including freeing you up to do the fun stuff, and
creating a stable, secure environment for your children.

If we are unsure how to map out our days and weeks, we may have
a tendency to model our days after someone else or something that
looked inspiring in a blog or book.

I did this at first. I had every 15 minutes scheduled out starting with
7:00 Get up. 7:15 Start breakfast.. it worked for about 2 days.

The most successful way to create a rhythm that sticks, is to create YOUR
ideal rhythm. Depending on your family dynamics, personalitiy and your
children, work status, married, single..will greatly change how your days look.

There are 4 Steps I use to help moms create their ideal rhythm.

1) Release your challenging moments. Take a look at your days and try to
pick the top 3 times of day or situations that are causing you headaches.
Make sure you look deep, as sometimes what seems to be the culprit may hiding the true problem.

2) Imagine your perfect day. You must paint the picture of what you would
like your day to look like. Loose and free flowing? More structured?
Rising before your children? There are endless possibilities. Decide what is important to include in your day. We get so busy doing tasks and “should do’s” we rarely make time for what is really important. Set some family values & mission statements.

3) Streamline you day. Check you environment for clutter and think “simplicity”. Less stuff means less decision your young children have to make and less stuff around you to clean! Make sure everything has a home to help with piles and items set aside. Now, tackle the top 3 challenges from step 1. Take small steps and find creative ways to work through the situation. Now you have “cleared away” the old energy, bring in some of the family activities you really want to be part of your family.

4) Empower yourself. Don’t forget to re-charge your own batteries or you will run out of steam. A great goal is to do something you are passionate about or a creative hobby. Paint, sing, dance walk, read.. Even once a week will help. Taking an hour away from your home to have coffee with friend can be the exact remedy to improve your mothering! Think about swapping childcare with another mom or set-up a weekly date night with your partner. It works!

A solid rhythm that fits you isn’t hard, but it does take some work and some time. Take bite size pieces instead of the whole thing at once for the best success.

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Today Donna is offering one lucky person a membership into the International Association of Waldorf Homeschooling (vaued at $127) for only $5! This is the perfect opportunity for any family learning Waldorf education or parent with a pre school aged child living the Waldorf method. For more information on what the International Association of Waldorf Homeschooling offers and to view a short video from Donna on the program, you can hop on over to her site.

Donna’s site also offers a free audio download for anyone who subscribes to “5 Things You Must Know before Choosing a Curriculum”.

To enter this giveaway simply leave a comment below.

**For a second entry hop on over and “like” The Waldorf Connection facebook page.**

(Please make sure to enter each entry separately in it’s own comment below.)

This giveaway will close WEDNESDAY morning 8am EST. The winner will be chosen via random number generator and announced in this post shortly after. COMMENTS ARE CLOSED

Thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to stop by here, and thank you to Donna for taking the time to be here with us!

And the winner is: Elizabeth, “Oh this is fabulous! I love Donna’s work, but due to lack of funds have only been able to participate in her free offerings. This would just be amazing!!!! Thanks for the chance.”