Rainy summer days and a couple teeth!

I love, love, love summer thunderstorms! (My neurotic dog, not so much.)

I had been saving a set of window crayons for just such a day and they were a big hit!  And they came back off the glass really easily as well (bonus!).

And in other random news, R lost his first and second tooth (bottom middle).  All in one night!  And he has another loose one, this one on top.  The tooth fairy is busy!  Glad that I participated in that toothfairy swap ages ago!!!

The letter "C"

This last week we covered the letters:

We read the fairy tale, then worked on writing some C's.  I served chicken noodle soup and carrots for lunch.  Then we talked about every word that started with the letter "C" we possibly could.

Then we made caterpillars.

Handwork consisted of making a cat toy (another great C word).  One of our favorite activities 'round these parts.  And we have two lovely kitties who really enjoy them.

We start with a square piece of felt, some embroidery floss, a needle, a bell, and a pinch of catnip.

R sews these together any way he sees fit and I tie it off.  They end up round-ish, but the cats don't mind.

The letter "B"

Once again, we read the fairy tale and practiced writing upper and lower case "B's".  Since S is only three, I don't make her participate if she doesn't want to.  She's discovered that she likes to color or draw on her own while R practices writing the letters.

So while R decided to draw a bumble bee (which is amazing because he really dislikes drawing), S worked on a coloring sheet I had printed out.

The two books above are what we've used to introduce the letters.  The one on the right is the book of Fairy Tales and the one on the left is the Waldorf Alphabet Book which shows the letter in pictorial form (so "B" looks like a baby on a blanket) and other words that start with that letter.  Excellent drawings/depictions for visual learners like R!

Here's the man with his proud bumble bee!

And here's a little girl who looks as if she may need to take up the "nap habit" again.

"A" in review

For the letters, we've been reading the fairy tale in the Oak Meadow book, then drawing a couple examples.  The following day we do a craft or drawing inspired by the letter.

So here's A:
After the drawings, R wanted to try watercolor painting the letter.

Then we collected acorn caps while discussing the long "A" sound in "acorn" and the short "a" sound in "cap".  Setting the acorn caps aside, they cut out large letter A's (they each did this) and then glued them to construction paper.  The final step was gluing the caps onto the A's.  (Cutting, squeezing the glue, and placing caps are all good fine motor work for 3 year olds).  

While not "Waldorf", I still think I did a good job of getting us outdoors and using nature for crafts.  

A Waldorf Inspired Craft: Getting Ready for School

Since we haven't worked on letters much around these parts and it looks like we'll be Waldorf "Afterschoolers" I figured it might be a good time to work on the alphabet.

Also, on our double Graduate Assistant Income, we've got to be as frugal as possible.  Here's what I started with:

The little treasure boxes were a facebook trade.  I traded some modeling clay for theses boxes and some fabric.  So cost involved was only shipping.  The little chalkboards are from a resale group called The Waldorf Tag Sale (also on Facebook).  Cost with shipping was about $12.  The two boxes of chalk were purchased from a co-operative called Cedar Ring Circle.  I think they came in at less than $2 a box.

The little treasure boxes were rough hewn wood and needed a good sanding.  After the sanding and a quick woodburned letter, I "stained" them with some instant decaf (my favorite wood stain) and topped off with a nice coat of my homemade beeswax polish.  S had a good time painting the coffee on and helping me seal with polish.  Perfect messy craft for a 3 year old.

Coffee stain and wood polish can make any cheap wood look richer!

Here's how they turned out:

And here's a shot of our "homeschool" complete with Stitch sitting there in the window:

Happy Easter!

Have a very Happy Easter!  Here we are decorating eggs (and YES we are in our jammies):

First Christmas Craft of 2013

Upcycled Christmas cards.  I saved last years cards to repurpose into cards this year.  The process and results were really fun. 

Summer Solstice

What a beautiful thing, the first day of Summer, the longest day of the year.  We celebrated with sun themed art projects, a batch of sun tea (made with herbs from the garden), lamb's quarters done up like kale chips (which were fantastic!), and ended the night with a bonfire and toasted marshmallows.  I was quite inspired by this blog. 

Next year I'd like to try making sun bread and to leave treats for the fairies...

Welcome Summer!

Chalk Art

Much like traditional mandalas created by Tibetan Sandpainting, sidewalk chalk art lasts for only a brief moment in space and time. 

This bat was worth keeping in my memory.

Fine Art's First Day

Finally got a chance to dig out some artwork... mostly from preschool, but some from home...

I'm trying out the mini-clothespins and sting method.  So far, S wants to pull them off the string.  We'll see how it goes.

Martinmas

For the last several years, I've had aspirations of celebrating Martinmas.  Yet, each year we are either "sick" or "off" on this date.  Regardless, we make lanterns (in theory, to celebrate St. Martin's kindness to Jesus and his ability to bring warmth and light to those who were previously in darkness) to take on a nighttime walk. 

Here we are making said (unused) lanterns...

Watercolors

Our little group learned about rainbows this last week.  I pulled out my old watercolor paints and paper.  I put a glob of paints (in order) on the paper and let the kids squirt them with a water bottle.  It turned out kinda cool.  Might be good for a lesson on gravity???