ABOUT 
THE BOOK


​​"​Unhurried education, and teaching to the heart through stories, develop a lifelong love of a continually unfolding process of learning and loving the world.”

​Teaching Through Stories: Jane and Jeremy Learn to Knit will encourage you to take things into your own hands by giving you the tools to teach others. It’s effective and fun to teach using stories—this book tells you how!The first in a series on teaching handwork, this complete guide is written for teachers and others who want to teach this popular craft—or any subject—to children through storytelling, fostering personal connection in any educational setting.

This handbook is a practical guide to creating and telling your own stories, and connecting with listeners, with examples from knitting lessons. It introduces important pedagogical foundations and offers suggestions for managing a busy handwork classroom. The last chapter shares ideas about selecting patterns and materials and over a dozen of the best patterns the author has developed or modified. 

Teaching Through Stories embodies an unhurried approach to education used successfully for a hundred years in Waldorf schools around the world.

PRAISE FOR
​TEACHING THROUGH STORIES

I began my Waldorf teaching career as a handwork teacher before becoming a class teacher and high school teacher. How I would have loved to have had Elizabeth Seward as a guide at my side. There is nothing else available like it.”

-Betty Staley, co-founder of Rudolf Steiner College, currently Advisory Board member of Alliance for Public Waldorf Education.
“. . . a master class in storytelling as the path to deep learning. . . . her emphasis on an ‘unhurried education’ wakes us from the teach-to-the-test fog that has overtaken much of American education”.

​-Bernadette Murphy, author, Zen and the Art of Knitting and The Knitter’s Gift
"This book is a treasure!"
"The best handwork curriculum book I've found" 
​"Your book is an inspiration"
"Thank you!"
- Teachers, homeschoolers, and parents
​​
"This is a wonderful book and resource for anyone teaching a child to knit" ​
​- Deborah Staggs, owner of A Child's Dream​
"​I found your information on storytelling to be both profound and unique. I have also never seen any book that coached the reader as intimately as you have done. Should this book get the circulation that it deserves, you could well be responsible for re-enlivening the oral tradition of teaching. Brilliant work!" 
 
- Nancy Parsons, Founder of Waldorf Books (waldorfbooks.com)
"A big hug of gratitude . . .  Thank you for making my job seamless and enjoyable for all. . . . your book gives me a solid foundation to work from, and confident wings for variation."
- Patty Urda, Handwork teacher at Detroit Waldorf School

PURCHASE
YOUR COPY

Book Details:
212 pages
Black & White
8.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBNs:
978-1-5255-4029-5 eBook
978-1-5255-4028-8 Paperback
978-1-5255-4027-1 Hardcover
​Keywords:
Knitting, Teaching Knitting, Handwork, Teaching Through Stories, Homeschooling, Waldorf, Education, Storytelling, Unhurried Education

EVENTS 2025

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SPRING 2025​
In-person classes for children in the Northern Los Angeles area:
  • Knitting
  • Crochet
  • Hand-sewing and Embroidery
Some places still available. For more information: ​
MARCH AND APRIL 2025
ONLINE WORKSHOPS, LECTURES AND PANELS
March 20
Continuing Textile Traditions: Encouraging Children Through Literature
Free panel and discussion sponsored by
​WARP - Weave A Real Peace - Creating a Connected Textile Community
​ 
​
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March 22
FREE ONLINE WORKSHOP
Overview of the WALDORF HANDWORK CURRICULUM , grades 1-8: What, when, why, and how.
Conversational Support!
April 6 
​
​WOOL FOR HEALTH

5TH ANNUAL EUROPEAN WOOL DAY ​ in Rome, Italy
ONLINE presentation on the therapeutic, social and cognitive benefits of working with wool in traditional fiber arts, such as knitting, felting, crochet

​TWO-YEAR WALDORF HANDWORK TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM
​ONLINE, INTERNATIONAL

2 - year ONLINE Handwork Teacher Training for teachers, homeschoolers, others!
Soon enrolling for August 2025           

VIDEOS available!

Elizabeth Seward Handwork offers multiple techniques from her book - and beyond

Waldorf Handwork Educators on YouTube - offers a growing number of handwork how-to's from throughout the curriculum
​

GET IN TOUCH

Please leave a comment, review, or ask about Waldorf Handwork Educators'
conferences in February and in summer
classes - basic skills for teachers and homeschoolers,
​video library for specific skills
handwork curriculum guides for teachers and homeschoolers,
and our 2-year handwork teacher training program
ALL 100% ONLINE



​TEACHING THROUGH STORIES: Jane and Jeremy Learn to Knit

Available in Paperback, Hardback, and e-book





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