Circle Time

We have really been enjoying our circle times, the little ones have even started asking to do it again during the day.  We currently do ours after breakfast.  We keep it pretty short  as to keep two toddlers' attention,  We begin every circle, all year long, with:

 Good Morning Dear Earth, 

Good Morning Dear Sun,

Good Morning to the Trees,

And the Flowers Everyone.

Good Morning Dear Beast,

and the Birds in the Trees,

Good Morning to You,

and Good Morning to Me.

Then we change up our body with one song, one verse and one finger play weekly.  I use Little Acorn Learning's Monthly guides.  Last week's had a sheep theme, so we sang Mary Had a Little Lamb. then recited Ba Ba Black Sheep, then did a little finger play from Little Acorn Learning's January guide about sheep.

We end with this sweet little verse again not switching it out all year:

RUFTY AND TUFTY

Rufty and Tufty were two little elves
Who lived in a hollow oak tree
They did all the cooking and cleaning themselves
And often asked friends in to tea.

Rufty wore blue, and Tufty wore red,
And each had a hat with a feather,
Their best Sunday shoes they kept under the bed -
They were made of magic green leather.

Rufty was clever and kept the accounts,
But Tufty preferred to do cooking.
He could make a fine cake without weighing amounts -
And eat it when no one was looking!

Isabell Hempseed

Then we either go on a little walk or set up a walk in our living room, by draping a green silk over the table to be a bush to climb under, laying a blue silk on the floor as a stream to jump over or something fun like "Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick" by making a pile of red orange and yellow silks to be the flame of the candle stick.  

Oh and here is a little pocket I made for our weather gnomes to keep by the front door so the children can check the weather and choose the correct gnome for the day to be placed on our nature table.  We are still working on learning the correct symbols.  I think I will needle felt something onto the pocket as soon as I think of a design.  

Play Dough in the Playgarden

A  few photos from this weeks playgarden.  We made homemade aromatherapy play dough using this recipe.  The kids had fun mixing, kneading and coloring the dough and it really is a very nice texture.

And a few photos of our nature walk we take after snack time. The children were hunting for gnomes in the holes in the trees.  So cute!

We were also blessed with two extra set of hands, one of the mamas brought her teenage daughter and her friend visiting from Tennessee.  They are both unschooled, it is really neat to hear about all the amazing things they are up to!

Rhythm!

Rhythm seems to be the most important element in a Waldorf home, yet also the most elusive element.  We live in such a hurried busy little world that sometimes its simply too easy to get sucked into the hustle and bustle.

We have some aspects of our rhythm down. Our day usually goes a little something like this:

Wake up
Make beds, change out sheets as needed (which is usually every time the little ones go to sleep thank to cloth diapers).
Go to the front door, say our weather verse, talk briefly about the weather.
Head to the kitchen to cook our porridge (we try to do Steiner's grain a day) the children help measure and pour the water into the pot.
put away the laundry left from last nights final load sometimes they help sometimes they play,
Set the table, light the candle, say our blessing eat breakfast, clear the table and let the children was the dishes.
Gather for circle time
freeplay indoors or outdoors depending on the weather
naptime
prepare lunch, set table, light candle, say verse, eat lunch, clear table, do dishes
free play or daily activities either errands or meeting friends at the park, painting, baking etc...
naptime
prepare dinner, set table, light candle, say verse, eat dinner, clear table, do dishes
bath time
storytime (we do a little puppet play instead of reading books).
sing twinkle twinkle little star as we head to bed, say our goodnight verse.
Mom's "freetime" for the rest of the night.

We don't actually have times that all of this takes place just a sequence, so if we sleep in or something runs late it does not throw off our day.

I would like to get better about having a routine dinner meal plan I like the idea of having a soup day, a homemade pizza day, a casserole day etc, not so we eat the same 7 dishes every week, but so we have some guidelines,  Tuesday might be soup day, but think of all the wonderful soups you can make if you make a new one each week, It could be especially fun in the warmer months experimenting with cold soups. I had a lovely watermelon mint soup a few years ago that was just perfect!

I would love to hear more about your rhythms or any suggestions.

Gnomes

I had a 50% off coupon for our local craft store, so I decided to try my hand at a word burning tool.  I have never been a great artist and I do not have a steady hand but the tool ended up costing $8.  I figured I would have a go at it.  

I found it a bit hard to work with, and my designs came out um....primitive shall we say?  But I had fun and I think the gnomes came out really cute. 

First, I burned the designs, then water colored their bodies, and then sealed them with beeswax before gluing on their acorn or felt hats.  I think these will make sweet little Valentine's Day gifts for the children in our Playgarden and will provide some good practice for me.  I also listed them in my Etsy shop almost at cost, to reflect that these are practice gnomes, but I think I made them affordable enough that someone could actually hand these out instead of paper Valentines.  If you are interested I am selling the acorn capped gnomes for .75 cents each to my Blog readers and Facebook friends, when you purchase 20 or more.  Just send me a message on Etsy.

I also made a set of weather gnomes, that I had planned on using with our weather verse.  When the little ones wake up we go to the front door to see what the weather is today, We say this little verse from Little Acorn Learning,

Good morning to the glad new day, Whatever the skies let fall, If storm or sunshine, it is sent, A loving gift to all. For Sunshine: Good morning to the sunshine fair, That lights this world of ours, Good morning to the singing birds, Good morning to the flowers! For Clouds or Rain: Good-morning to the friendly clouds That bring refreshing rain, Which patters out "Good-morning, dears!' Against the window pane. For Snow: Good-morning to the lovely snow, That lies so soft and deep Above the little tender seeds In mother earth asleep. And then I showed them the gnomes and told them about their symbols.  They were both able to pick out which one was rain.  Although I'm not sure if they really understood the symbols on the gnomes yet, we will have to see how it shows up in their play over the next few days.  I often don't realize how much they understand until I see them imitate it later. I don't know if they can make the connection with the sun in the sky and the little sunshine symbol on the gnome yet, and they have not seen snow since before they turned one, so I don't think that is a clear concept for them yet either, but rain, we know rain!   Kiera was not interested in putting our little rain gnome on the nature table after we determined today too was raining. We have had our fair share of rain this week!   She cleared off her little table and grabbed the wand we use for story time and went to creating a little story with our new little weather gnomes.

The Enchanted Woods

We had a very magical day spending time with my mother and grandmother.  It was unseasonably warm today so we headed to a near by park we have affectionately dubbed "The Enchanted Woods" its actually a civil war battle site, but it has some lovely walking trails with lots of moss covered logs, mushrooms, pine cones, acorns and all sorts of magical things.  We took a trail that lead to a cute little bridge, and since we have been telling the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" story for storytime, my mom willing played the troll under the bridge.  Don't you just love when you encounter the perfect opportunities to bring a fairytale to life?  

We came home with some really large acorn tops, and a beautiful fallen branch with pinecones still attached.  My grandmother told me she has collected pinecones from her travels all over the world, and she preserves them by dipping them in colored wax, I think I will dip one of these in beeswax for her, as a memory of our special day together.

This Moment

Joining Amanda at Soule Mama, {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Luna Grey Yarn Giveaway

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