Sights of Christmas In Our Front Room

Honey scented pine cones dipped in golden beeswax with edges of shimmering glitter,

warming gently as they are hung over the fireplace...leaving a sweet scent mixed with cinnamon 

sprinkled on the iron fire

Pine twigs hang across the stairs tied with wool and decorated with red and gold ribbons

bring more Mother Nature into our home.

A lovely bold statement as we walk into our house.

Wispy, floaty angels made from wool watch over the children playing in the front room

Warming fiery red Poinsettia with petals like velvet

 A sweet gingerbread house made by two excited boys

decorated with treats and happiness

Enjoy your holidays

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Bring Warmth To Your Morning

Breakfast by Advent Candlelight.

Such a heart-warming contrasting way to start our day today.

It really is dark at breakfast isn't it?

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Cloth Bags Christmas Gifts

Just that.


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Jewel Encrusted Candle Gifts

The boys made these jewel encrusted beeswax candles as gifts for family.

Roll up a third of a green or red beeswax sheet (bought from here)

Cut up squares of modelling beeswax for them to stick on.

Even Little Seed could do this...even though his were a bit squashed.

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Star Christmas Cards

Big Seed had to make lots of cards for his school friends.

I cut a star from a potato...dipped it in PVA glue ( Elmer's glue)

and then squashed it on a plate of glitter.

Simple and effect.

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Rainbow Angels

I am reposting how to make these Rainbow Angels.

We shall be making these at home this week as we are in the midst of lots of decorating and
gift making.

Instructions are here

I hope you are enjoying your preparations as much as we are.

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Preparations for St Nicklaus on the 6th December

If you have never celebrated St Nicklaus before let this year be the first.

It is a lovely warm celebration upon which some of our current Christmas 

traditions are based.

See last year's post here

and also how to make boot gnomes for the day here.

This year I will be telling this story which is easy to tell for little ones....

"One day long ago in Winter there was a town and the children there had 
nothing to eat. They were very hungry and very poor.
A bird came and saw what was happening and flew many miles to tell Bishop Nicholas who
was a very kind and very good man. He told all the people around them to gather apples, nuts and biscuits
and load them onto the boat. The boat sailed for seven days and seven nights following the bird
to the hungry children.
One night the children had placed their socks at the ends of their beds.
St Nicholas came and not wanting to wake the children quietly filled their socks
with apples, nuts and biscuits.
When the children awoke they were so happy to see these gifts and they 
were not hungry anymore as the good people had shared what they had."


There are many variations upon this story, and more traditional one involving 3 sisters for older children is commonplace.

The children should clean their boots/shoes and leave them on the windowsill

overnight. (This is where some people think the stocking idea has come from)

nuts, chocolate coins, biscuits, some nuts and a small gift

are left for them to find as a surprise in the morning.

Enjoy

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Rain Mini Montessori Topic

Now I am back working some days I find it quite difficult

to organise Montessori based trays but I did this with

things I had in the house already and kept it very simple.

This started with Big Seed's current interest in "What are clouds?"

Here is what is on our shelves for our rain week.

Activities for a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

Playscape: Blue silk, felted pond, ducks, blue bricks, wool, blue and clear glass beads as rain drops, frogs, felt lilypads, eco blocks, a little bell and a huge shell.

One of Little Seeds watercolours cut into a cloud with drops drawn on.

He has to cover the drops with glass beads.

More of Little Seeds watercolour paintings.

I have drawn raindrops and clouds for them to cut out and to hang/make a mobile.

Using pipette to drop water on to soap pad.

Also used this with paper towels covered in felt-tip dots.

This was popular.

Tonging clouds ( cotton wool balls)

2 tongs for 2 abilities.

Drawing box. 

Paper cut into clouds and raindrop shapes.

Different blue mediums.

Spooning raindrops.

Small mini crystals/ clear beads from Ebay.

Opening 6 cocktail umbrellas onto a sponge.

( Too hard for Little Seed on his own.. He did enjoy trying though.

He likes this the best because he needs to master it....

Thankfully you can buy them in a bulk pack from Ebay!)

Making puddles expand.

Dropping water with a pipette onto kitchen towel.

Good with felt-tip dots on them too.

Explaining how clouds work. Dropping water with a pipette

then squeezing them when they feel heavy.

Using blue do-a-dot pen to put raindrops on raincloud shaped paper.

I put marks for him to aim for.

3 part cards - clouds

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Paper Owls

Paper owls made from tear drop shaped paper pre-cut.

Big Seed had to glue them in rows like real feathers.

Little Seed just stuck them randomly... I love the fact that he turned the beak into a mouth.

These characters are hanging from the ends of our fireplace.

Cheers us up in the morning.

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Twice Around The Sun

Some of this Steiner business has been rubbing off on Daddy Seed.

He made this lovely decoration for the door!

Gifts wrapped in silks with handmade cards from us.

A rainbow bamboo velour handmade pillowcase.

Made with love by Bonnie here at Holden's Landing.

Our bedtime story was his Rainbow Bridge Birthday Story,

told with silks by candlelight.

Sweet Dreams Little Seed.

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Pipe Building With Playdough

Inspired by this kit:

It's a crazy straw kit with plastic connectors.

We went onto this:

Simple straws cut up into different lengths and playdough.

Shapes....

and animals.

Although what a great idea for star constellations!!

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If you miss the festival - don't miss the fun!

This post comes from a mum who struggles to balance

Steiner in the home with going to normal school and working part-time.

Last year's Martinmas celebration was peaceful and focussed.

This year I missed it with a hectic work schedule.

Instead of beating myself up about it : we celebrated on a different day.

Luckily my two seeds have no concept of time.

Better to encourage some awe and wonder 

than nothing at all.

So we went for our walk in the garden with our tin lanterns.

Special occasions remind us of the need for these rituals, to do something out of the ordinary,

to make us focus on nature, simplicity, important moments;

but they need not be confined to certain dates of the year.

Make up another celebration...

the end of Autumn, the start of Winter, the start of December, etc

but do go for that walk in the dark by candlelight.

x

Autumn Storytelling

After the gnomes' fire party we were all the right mood for a fire story.

I saved a few Autumn treasures; leaves, old flower heads, acorns, etc and scattered 

them on the silk floor.

" Two Autumn gnomes said that they felt very cold with the

frosts coming so they wanted to build a fire.

They gathered some twigs and put some leaves in a pile for the fire.

It took them so long to make it that they were tired and had to go to bed.

Along came a hedgehog and thought that pile of leaves would make a lovely 

place to hibernate so he snuggled up under the pile and went to sleep.

The next evening the gnomes were ready to light the fire and invited King Autumn

along to celebrate. He asked the 2 little gnomes if they had checked under the fire first.

They said they had not and when they checked there they found a hedgehog!

He wandered off to find a safer place to sleep.

They all helped to add a few things to the fire but it wouldn't light.

So King Autumn summoned the dragon to fly down and breathe on the fire.

Out of his mouth came hot flames ( orange fairy wool) and the fire started to burn.

They all stood around the fire and threw seed pods and acorns and conkers into the fire.

Each one made a spark and an exciting noise. They were splattering like mini

fireworks.

They all stood around the fire and thought about how tired they were

beginning to feel because soon it would be time for them to sleep too."

My Two Seeds were so enthralled by a fire story that Big Seed wanted to re-enact it

straight away. Then Little Seed had his first go at storytelling.

It was so sweet!

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Gnome Fire Party : First Fire Of The Year

The first frost came this morning so I wanted to celebrate with a fire.

Little Seed is too poorly to go outside for a real fire so 

we brought some warmth inside for him.

Big Seed helped to gather some Autumn treasures from outside in our garden

to add to those he has collected and played with earlier this year.

Twigs, dead stems, seed heads, leaves, old dried lavender, acorns, etc

We made our first fire and all threw the Autumn treasures into it,

turned off the lights and listened to the noises and watched it burn.

All the gnomes were also here to watch and share in the first fire party.

Soon it will be time for the Autumn gnomes to go to sleep, it's getting very cold.

This inspired some storytelling about fires which I will post tomorrow.

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Autumn Sensory Activity

Cornflour and lentils in a plastic tub:

They played for 40 minutes together...

We added teacups and spoons and things from their play kitchen,

made "ice creams" and drinks...

They really enjoyed exploring together.

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Easy Peasy Stained Glass Windows

We love the colours on these...

.

Trapped air bubbles, and a rainbow of colour.

It's just a large sandwich bag ( plastic bag) with 3 blobs of paint: primary colours.

Squish and squash together and attach to window with Blu-tak.

They can play with it all day on the window as it takes a day or so to dry...

Blending and merging. Looks so beautiful!

Lovely autumnal colours.

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Autumn Gnome Necklaces

One oak leaf and one birch leaf,

providing sleeping bag pouches for 2 little gnomes.

Go for a wander around the garden looking for signs of Autumn and ripening pumpkins...

and they helped the Two Little Seeds to turn over some soil.

Thank you gnomes for your company today !

x

Linking to Beneath The Rowan Tree