- The Marshall Family
"Hi I'm Lisa, forty-year-old mother to three children, daughters ages 9 and 10 and a son age 5. My formal education is in earth science with a B.S. from Claremont McKenna College in CA and an M.S. from Dartmouth College in NH. It was while doing research in Antarctica that I met Geoff, my husband of 12 years, a Navy officer and pilot. After school and before having children I taught middle school at two different private schools and taught an environmental education program for public school students. I grew up in many parts of the north-eastern U.S. - mostly in the N.Y. City area and in Reykjavik, Iceland where I attended middle school and high school. My interests and hobbies include, harmony singing, English and American country dancing, hiking and camping, photography, reading, cooking, politics, running, yoga, and most of all handwork especially knitting, quilting, and doll-making.
"Even before we had children, my husband and I had several discussions about what kind of life we wanted to provide for our family. Both of us were lucky to grow up with a mother who stayed at home and lived in places where we could run around, explore, daydream, and play without parental supervision. We came from families where reading and music were important and we both valued healthful eating and exercise as part of living a balanced life. Around us, we saw only children who were buried in home-work, saturated with TV and video games, and parents whose lives revolved around work and their kids' organized sports schedules. We knew that was not what we wanted for our children - we wanted a more holistic approach. When we were expecting our first child, we were skeptical of the medical approach to pregnancy and childbirth and ended up going to a midwife who delivered babies in her home. Our two daughters were both born at her "birth center" in Huntingtown, MD. Our son was born at home in a birth tub in our living room. In caring for our babies, we are indebted to the books by Dr. William Sears as well as the support of La Leche League. We practiced "Attachment Parenting" and found that our babies were happy and healthy and easy to care for.
"Our involvement with Waldorf education began back in 2000 in Jacksonville, Florida. At that time I was looking into pre-school options for my oldest child. As it happened, a little Waldorf-inspired Kindergarten had just started up only a few blocks from my home. The school was run with a daycare license out of the teacher's home and could only accommodate six children. The school did not have space for my daughter so I was invited to join a little Waldorf playgroup. My two girls and I enjoyed the playgroup very much and shortly a space became available for my older daughter at The Seaside Playgarden. Ms. Sharon Elliot was her teacher and my little girl thrived in the nurturing environment of the school from the very first day. We continued to attend playgroup once a week and little by little I integrated Waldorf principles into our home-life. The other Waldorf families became for me a nurturing group of like-minded friends who were committed to breast-feeding, wholesome diets, and Attachment Parenting just as I was. It was just the right fit for our family.
"Several months later, the woman running the playgroup quit and I started running one in my home. Over the next four years we lived in Jacksonville, I continued to run playgroups and I also took on many roles within the Waldorf community including festivals, puppetry, fundraising, enrollment, and my particular passion, hand-work. My middle child started attending The Seaside Playgarden with her sister and our baby was on the way. When our son was born, I formed a Waldorf-inspired baby group in my home. Over time, my knowledge and understanding of Waldorf principles increased through reading, experience, and study-groups. I also was able to take part in several workshops at the school with outside consultants from other Waldorf schools including, Casey Sanderlin-Taylor, Kate Donnelly, and Rena Osmer. Over the years, my commitment to Waldorf grew and grew, as did my anxiety as my oldest approached school age and no Waldorf school was available to us. At this point my husband, got orders to command a Navy squadron in Mildenhall, England. We were ecstatic at this opportunity to live overseas and the icing on the cake was we were able to enroll our girls in a Waldorf school. England was everything we had hoped for. The Cambridge Steiner School was a lovely welcoming community and our girls were loved their new school, teachers, and friends. I attended the toddler playgroup with my son and before long, I became one of several playgroup leaders under the tutelage of Janni Nicol. Having run playgroups for many years, I can say that while I enjoyed the children very much, I felt my particular calling was working with and supporting the parents on their own parenting journey. I became increasingly aware of the lack of such support in society both here in the U.S.A. and in the U.K. and I felt that this was a roll that I was well-suited to fill.
"Once again, Navy orders uprooted our family in 2006 and we found ourselves living in Pensacola, FL, hundreds of miles from the nearest Waldorf school. By this time I knew several families who were home-schooling using Waldorf principles. I knew that there was a variety of curriculum materials available for sale, and that Yahoo groups and other kinds of online support were available. Although I had serious doubts about my ability to home-school my children I decided to give it a shot. One of the first things I did was to buy a half-hour consultation with Donna Simmons. I had heard great things about her curriculum materials and I enjoyed her wisdom and her style on the Yahoo group that she was running at the time. Consulting with Donna and reading and re-reading her Curriculum Overview, were the things that spring-boarded me to be the confident home-educator that I am today. When Donna launched the Waldorf-at-Home forum, I joined up and became a very active member. I was honored to be asked to be the moderator for the Early Years subforum over a year ago and have enjoyed the opportunity to continue to mentor parents of babies and toddlers virtually, although I no longer lead the circle time or bake the banana bread. My Waldorf horizons have expanded from early years to early grades as I've home-schooled my daughters through grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. I recently attended a home-schooling workshop for grades 1-3 with Barbara Dewey of Waldorf Without Walls. We are now in our third year of Waldorf-inspired homeschooling: we are enjoying the journey. I am looking forward to working further with Donna as a consultant and welcome to opportunity to work one-on-one with Christopherus clients."