Kinship with Nature
is a family affair
With Sharifa Oppenheimer
Self-paced course Begins February 4, 2026
Live Zoom Sessions February 5 & March 12
Research shows intimate connections with nature improve our health, mood and sense of purpose. Science affirms that the child’s love of nature, and its many health benefits, depends upon their adult’s depth of connection with the natural world. Are you not quite sure how to deepen and express your own love of nature? Would you love to know how to “pass the torch” of nature connection to the children in your care?
In this five week self-paced course explore the Elements (earth, water, fire, air or ether) and the Realms of Nature (mineral, plant, animal, human or unseen beings.) Through song, movement, story, breathwork, visualization and deep internal inquiry, your innate connection to the natural world will flourish.
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​You will also explore the interplay of these very same beings within your own inner-sphere, within your heart, psyche, soul and spirit. Weekly Deepening Practices will take you and your family or class out into the green world where, in your own neighborhood and at your own pace, you can put into practice all that you are discovering.
Course Content
Module One: Earth Element and Mineral Realm
We explore the grounding, steadying influence of the Earth Element. We’ll discover ways to find earth as a touchstone in our daily lives, as well as ways to honor our Mother in the natural world. We also live-into the foundational nature of minerals ~ within our own bones and bloodstream, as well as in the world of the Stone People. Deepening Practices throughout the week engage yours and the children's bodies, hearts and minds.
Module Two: Water Element and Plant Realm
We experience the essential nature of Water and her qualities of purification, revivification, accommodation, flow…the magic of water within the living systems of earth and within our own bodies and souls. We’ll inquire how to foster a balanced water element both within and without. We’ll also explore the Realm of Plants: recognizing plants as integral participants in earth’s hydraulic cycle and as the creators of the air we breathe ~ we will honor our symbiotic relationship. We will discover ways the plant world lives within our bodies and souls. Deepening Practices throughout the week engage ours and the children’s whole being in relationship with Water and Plants.
Module 3: Fire Element and the Realm of Animals
We will embrace our relationship with the Fire element, exploring fire’s qualities of purification, warmth, enthusiasm, creativity and more. We will learn how to create an inner “hearth” and “container” in order to work in dynamic relationship with fire…that we not be consumed by its brilliance. We will also explore ancient systems within the living earth, that are being practiced today, that create outer containers for the intensity and creativity of fire. We’ll also step into the intelligence and agency of the animal realm, discovering how our furred, feathered and finned cousins live directly inside our brains and bodies. We’ll explore ways to live more closely into our “soft animal bodies.” Deepening Practices encourage ours and the children’s gratitude to Fire and to our older cousins, the Animals.
Module Four: Air Element and the Realm of Human Beings
We will breathe into the Air element, discovering vast spaciousness within our being and experiencing the “breath of Gaia” that moves through us. We will learn ways of using our breath as a rudder for our ship of self. We will discover ways to listen to the wisdom that is carried on the wind, as our earth-ancestors speak to us. We will breathe in symbiosis with all our plant mothers and our four-legged cousins. We will also look into the complex and often divergent capacities of the human being. What ideals do we carry? Who models these Qualities for us? Deepening Practices bring us again and again throughout the week, to awareness of our breath and how we choose to “use” it to benefit all. Deepening Practices for the children are filled with the joy of windy days
Module Five: Ether Element and the Realm of the Unseen Beings
We experience the essential nature of Water and her qualities of purification, revivification, accommodation, flow…the magic of water within the living systems of earth and within our own bodies and souls. We’ll inquire how to foster a balanced water element both within and without. We’ll also explore the Realm of Plants: recognizing plants as integral participants in earth’s hydraulic cycle and as the creators of the air we breathe ~ we will honor our symbiotic relationship. We will discover ways the plant world lives within our bodies and souls. Deepening Practices throughout the week engage ours and the children’s whole being in relationship with Water and Plants.
Tuition:
$140 each
$119 each for groups of five or more
To bookend this beautiful course, we invite you to join Sharifa for two zoom sessions:
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Introductory Session on Thursday, February 5 6:30- 8 pm Central
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Final Q&A, Thursday, March 12 6:30- 8 pm Central
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In order to cultivate a sense of togetherness and active participation, we warmly insist that your video be turned on during our live sessions. Please do your best to make arrangements so this is possible. These sessions will be recorded and released for enrolled participants who are unable to attend.
**Childcare providers and early childhood teachers can earn a certificate for 15 CE hours through engagement with Deepening Practices and active discussions in Ruzuku by March 13th. **
About the Instructor:
Sharifa Oppenheimer was the founding teacher of the Charlottesville Waldorf School and is the author of the best-selling book Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children and its companion workbook How to Create the Star of Your Family Culture. Her recent book With Stars in their Eyes: Brain Science and Your Child’s Journey Toward the Self was published in 2019.
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After writing extensively from her experience, wisdom, and love of young children, she has turned her hand toward writing about other aspects of profound connection. She has been a student of Sufism for many decades and has deep respect for other indigenous wisdom traditions which point humanity toward the sacred nature of the living earth. She offers Sacred Earth ~ Sacred Self gatherings that explore humanity’s biological and spiritual inter-being with our other-than-human relations. Her new book A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology ( Red Elixir Press, Spring 2020) explores these themes through essays, poetry, and litany. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to many grandchildren, she lives with her husband in an enchanted forest in Virginia.