Pirate Themed Steiner Birthday Crown

This is my first attempt at a Steiner Birthday Crown.

I needle-felted from L-R

A Robin, skull and crossbones, L, ladybird and bee.

These are Spring things he asked for.

I used orange blanket stitch as this is his favourite colour right now.

He had a Steiner-style party and he invited 4 of his favourite friends.

I kept the numbers low incase it rained too, but it turned out to be great.

I used many ideas from an old post here:

I made our own party bags from pirate fabric
and made " Seaweed Sticks" by attaching ribbons to sticks for them to play with in the garden.

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Presenting Choices For Play With A Toddler Around

How do I present choices in our play and learning area

when I have a toddler who likes to tip everything out and create chaos?

It has been frustrating because I want to create a lovely Steiner/Montessori 

area for them but I could not get it to work...

until NOW!

Here we have our cheap shelves which are occasionally used as a roleplay area,
but it has got a bit tired lately so I am trying something new,
and I think Little Seed is just old enough to go with it.

I put some Montessori activities in bowls on the top shelf where Captain Chaos can't reach.
I will do a post on what the activities are this week.

The middle shelf houses the imaginative play mat, influenced by Steiner.
Big Seed got it out this week so I have made a permanent fixture on the middle shelf for now.

On the bottom are Little Seed's toys, and things I don't mind him tipping.

Next to the shelf on the floor is a basket of Steiner based tree blocks and a few baby books.

The top shelf has a basket of envelopes containing Montessori card activities.

Now here is the best part for all you Montessori homeschoolers with destructive toddlers:
clear boxes with lids with activities in it such as Practical life; scooping, pouring, etc
so that Big Seed can still see what's there. The items for pouring are in jars with lids inside.
Problem sorted!

Bottom shelf has roleplay cooking toys which they both enjoy playing with.I have put the bulk of the cooking stuff away, as they just want to make cups of tea these days.

Big Seed has shown great interest in the boxes and baskets, and so far Little Seed has respected the area.

This is progress.

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Storytelling Bookshelf

Stories don't just come from books...if you want to encourage imaginative play

you can give them examples and tell stories to them orally.

Storytelling is a huge element of Steiner teaching.

Big Seed has a 3 tiered bookshelf in his bedroom.

We have put his favourite bedtime stories that I tell him on the top shelf.

I have put some spring themed cloth on the bottom.

This is "Little Rabbit Foo Foo" who bonks mice on the head. The Good Fairy warns that

she will turn him into an egg after she gives him 3 chances.

Rabbit is from Schleich through Amazon.

We use it in Peter Rabbit stories.

"Three Billy Goats Gruff"

The fox is for the German version where the goats want to pass on the lane to go to the forest.

The bridge and gnome is for the troll hiding under the bridge version which I grew up with, whereby the goats want to cross the river.

Gorgeous wooden goats are from here.

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears"

from here.

There is a crocheted bee on the table because other items appear on here sporadically.

Big Seed likes to add other animals/people when he retells these stories.

Big Seed doesn't easily engage in imaginative play unless it has a purpose

or he is re-enacting real life eg cooking on his toy stove, collecting rubbish, etc

He needs me to give him examples like these.

I love hearing him tell ME stories.

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