About Meagan
Meagan is the founder and educator behind Whole Family Rhythms. She is mother to 4 beautiful souls and a grateful and loving wife to Brad. After living ten years in Sydney, Australia they have recently put down new roots in the Canadian countryside just outside of Toronto.
Meagan’s interest in conscious and mindful living began while she earned her degree from McGill University in International Development, World Religion and Philosophy. In her early twenties, she taught TESOL to young children in South Korea and then Australia for the first time experiencing how it is that a family’s values shape a child’s coming into the world.
After the birth of her first child, she developed an interest in play-based learning, natural parenting and Waldorf Education and went on to complete her Foundations in Steiner Education and Anthroposophy at Sydney Steiner College. In 2017, under the direction of Kim John Payne and Davina Muse, she received her certification as a simplicity parenting family life coach. She is currently studying to receive a certificate in Waldorf Early Childhood Education at the Toronto Steiner Center.
Meagan began to document her journey as a Mama to young children on her blog almost ten years ago, and as its readership grew, the same burning questions arose time and again from like-minded Mamas around the world:
How can I connect with my children in meaningful ways, support them developmentally and model for them the values I hold in my heart?
Meagan offers a range of digital guides, courses and one-on-one coaching to support parents in their striving towards a more holistic and conscious way of parenting. On her website she hopes to connect holistic parents with each other and parenting experts from around the globe.
Our vision and values
At Whole Family Rhythms, our vision is to connect and inspire mothers, carers and communities with each other so that they feel empowered to raise children who are wholly connected with themselves, to others and to the earth we live on.
We believe that peace begins in the home.
We believe strongly that our unique Family Values should and can inform our daily lives and that living authentically aligned with these values models them for our children.
We value, respect and aim to enhance both our diversity as a community and our common threads through active listening, empathy, understanding and compassion.
We are especially interested in renewing Waldorf and Anthroposophical principles and festivals so that every family, regardless of racial identification, ancestry, nationality, native language, socioeconomic background, family structure, age, belief system, gender identity, gender expression, sexual identity, ability, appearance, occupation, and political affiliation feels that they are a valued and essential part of this community.
We are always looking for contributors who share this vision and these values. Click here for more information.
What they're saying...
FAQ
Although they are inspired by Waldorf philosophy and education they also borrow concepts from Montessori, Forest Schools, Reggio Emilia and other alternative education concepts.
The seasons and festivals are flipped depending on which hemisphere you live in. For example, Easter activities can be found in the Southern Hemisphere Autumn Guide and in the Northern Hemisphere Spring Guide, while Christmas activities are found in the Southern Hemisphere Summer Guide and in the Northern Hemisphere Winter Guide. Some of the crafts and stories are also slightly different in order to suit the hemisphere you live in.
I encourage you to look at your own lives, schedules and activities and to personalize your Daily Rhythm accordingly. Perhaps you want to begin with spending only one or two days a week working on a focused activity like watercolour painting or beeswax modeling.
The Daily Rhythm is not set in stone, with every Guide, you will receive an editable PDF version of the Daily Rhythm so that can do you own editing and planning. You can spread the activities out over a longer period of time, do the crafts or baking on the weekend with the entire family or skip over parts of the rhythm to entirely to suit your needs. The timing of activities is also flexible. I have tried to keep school pick-up times in mind as well as older children in the home, but perhaps you have a younger infant and naptimes are the perfect opportunity for you and your older toddler to share an hour together. Every family will have a slightly different rhythm that works for them.
The Guides are ideally for children ages 2-6 but younger and older siblings have used them with joy too! You can also click here to view a sample week from each of the four Seasonal Guides.
You can purchase the 4 Seasonal Guides (for the Northern Hemipshere only) from The Paper Pipit Shop. They ship internationally.