lovelightleadsme: st. louis and merimec caverns

we spent two nights in the parking lot of the 'shining river waldorf school' in st. louis, missouri. as luck would have it we were there on a weekend when a very interesting lecture and workshop on storytelling was happening, which we went to. it was very interesting to learn about how different types of stories effect children in different ways, at different ages. how each character in a story represents an archetypal element or impulse that then lives in the child. we learned about the therapeutic aspects of story telling and lots of other interesting things as well as heard quite a few wonderful stories.

the main house

'shining rivers waldorf school' is a growing school that goes up to 5th grade at the moment. next year they will have three kinder gardens that will then flow into the first grade the year after that. they have had a 60% increase in enrollment this last year and will soon grow out our the two houses that they have in a quiet neighborhood of st. louis.

the bell house

recess yard

the way between the houses

the rain shelter

the driveway

kinder garden kitchen

old growth

the outside oven

ahhh the beauty

we left st. louis around noon and headed west towards kansas. before we left missouri we stopped at the merimec caverns. the caverns are amazing! we went on the 45 minute tour under the earth and wondered at the beauty we saw there. there is an underground river that runs through the side of a big stone hill. the caves were used by jesse james and his band of thieves back in the wild west days. the caves were perfect as a hideout because they were so high they could get their horses inside with no problem and then they could escape out the back side of the caverns by following the underground river. in the 1900's the locals used the first main room as a dance hall, holding square dance evenings and balls.

straight into the hill