Chalking on the paving stones, a fun activity for summertime! We simply bought some Chunky Chalks from the Early Learning Centre, but as these chalks are pretty small and intended for chalk boards, I think they will wear down quite quickly. They had so much fun, I have just ordered some of these Crayola 15 Outdoor Crayons !
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(Mud kitchen flower soup with alpine strawberries)
It's the first day of K's summer holidays! Today, she went out into the garden to play with her mud kitchen. There are two enamel mugs, an old fashioned kettle, a white enamel pot, a stainless steel pot with lid, a metal dish and a spoon for stirring. Outside the green house, there is an old tin bath filled with compost for the girls to scoop soil from to make their mud pies and mud soups with. They use rain water to stir into the soil, and mix in flowers,leaves and twigs or anything else they might find in the garden.
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(Water play with paddling pool and water table)
With the summer soltice last week, summertime feels like it is really here! Voices floating on the warm breeze through open windows late into the evening, water play out in the garden, bees buzzing in and out of the lavender and the call of the swifts as dusk falls.
Hello summer! We're so glad you're here!
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Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Here We are Together's home, it was so cosy and welcoming. K and L loved exploring the baskets of toys, colouring and sharing popcorn and warm cocoa with Miri's children. Thank you Miriam for welcoming our family into your beautiful home.
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The children played in and out of the trees in the sunshine and then were grateful for shelter when light rain began to fall. We looked for rainbows as we walked home. They both clutched tightly to their heart shaped balloons but one caught adrift on a February breeze.
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(K threading beads)
When I opened the door to the garden on the morning of January 1st, I felt a sense of renewal in the air. The green of the grass looked that little bit greener and fresher and I could clearly hear the wildlife in the garden which maybe I hadn't noticed for a while in the fullness of the holiday season. I felt optimistic for the coming months, an excitement for new adventures, journeys and sweet and simple joys.
K has been gently getting ready for her return to school. We've been buying her new school uniforn which she has outgrown, she has been practising her reading and using her threading beads to help her add up and take away.
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K and L have named their Christmas bedtime dolls Laura and Mary (inspired, I think, from our favourite Little House story books) They have been carried, held and kept close pretty much since they have been opened. We chose these dolls because they are stuffed with organic wool, K mentioned how warm they are to cuddle. It's sweet to see the dolls in the girls arms when they are fast asleep at night.
We are enjoying this quiet pocket of time in between Christmas and the New Year, enjoying having unscheduled family time, keeping things slow and simple and not having to rush. I think we have a lovely week ahead of us, here together.
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(Our Ostheimer Nativity)
As each Christmas passes we are more and more striving for simplicity in our celebrations. We want the holiday season to be celebrated by traditions and activities we do together as a family rather than through consumerism. I started thinking about Christmas as far back as July over on Mothering.Com so I could consciously decide not to over- buy toys for our children, when really, they had so many beautiful toys already. We wanted to move away from buying toys completely. In my heart, I knew that I didn't want to give in to the pressure of just buying more and more 'stuff' because I felt I had too.
Lots of ideas came up over on Mothering.Com and I realised that I am not the only one who is trying to move away from consumerism at Christmas, there are lots of families striving for simplicity and celebrating through experience rather then through things.
This idea seemed very popular:
Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to wear,
And something to read.
We decided to only have one present for each of our children on Christmas day from mummy and daddy. We chose these organic Pink Stripy Toddler dolls made by Nanchen so the girls can have a cuddly bedtime doll each. Each one is stuffed with wool which makes them very cuddly and warming!
We also decided that 'Father Christmas' would keep their stockings special with a few nice quality things, but simple at the same time.
For K we got:
For Little L we got:
We tried to keep in mind things the girls could actually use. We knew they would need some new play-doh. Little L has just started to wear hair bands but has been borrowing K's, so we knew she would like some of her own. The dwarf dice game we bought for little L will be great for when we go camping in the summer as it is so small and easy to pack. K will enjoy making friendship bracelets to give to the girls at her school in the new year....
To help put this into context for any new readers, this is what the girls already have in their playroom collected over the last three years:
We're really looking forward to keeping Christmas simple this year!
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(Can you see Little L clutching her paper snowflake she got from King Winter?)
While we were waiting to go into the puppet show at the Waldorf winter fair, the children explored the outdoor area at the centre of the Kindergarten classrooms. There were wheelbarrows to push, a wooden swing and see-saw and puddles to jump in. As it is winter, the large sand pits that are sunk into the ground were covered up with planks of woods to stop the rain flooding them. The girls loved jumping up and down on the planks as they were quite flexible because they were wet! It was a lesson for me that no matter how cold and damp it can appear outside to an adult at this time of year, the weather doesn't stop children using what they have around them and making their own fun. It's a personal challenge for me, because I'm not fond of being outdoors in very cold weather and prefer to be cozy inside! Luckily, we had a spare change of clothes for little L because even with welly boots on she soaked her pink dress in those puddles.
I love to photograph our local Waldorf school as it is such an inspiration for our home, indoors and out. From the soft, muted colours inside and the collection of well played with pots and pans, spades, rakes and buckets outside that have been weathered and aged by the elements. Oh, and I can never resist photographing the wellies all lined up outdoors just waiting for little children to pull them on and go and get busy with their days 'work'.
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