“Kirsten, there are not any other parents staring in the window, let’s go.” Cam said to me, lightly pulling my elbow. “But I want to watch!” I said as a poor excuse. Elle’s class looked so gentle and calm. Eleven neat wooden desks, of lovely proportion and quality formed two lines in the center of […]
Maya has been working with Stockmar Modeling Beeswax for a few years and I have seen how beneficial this is for her nature. Patiently she warms the wax with her fingers and with attention to detail she sculpts away. Made from all natural 100% beeswax it requires an understanding of how temperature alters the consistency. […]
It is that time of year again when we start to make glass jar lanterns. This is a wonderful Autumn craft activity that you can do before Halloween and use for both Halloween and for Martinmas Lantern Walk. We were introduced to the Lantern Walk by our Waldorf Playgroup when we lived in Brooklyn and […]
You know something has become a tradition when I start titling it by the year, for example…Maypole 2012. It makes me so happy to know we have settled in America for long enough to have a larger pattern and rhythm forming in our life…we now have annual traditions….and lucky for us, Maypole is one of […]
We have a favorite toy in our home at the moment that is the source of much creative play and so I am going to introduce you to our unicorn. I designed and needle felted this unicorn from scratch and since finishing it the unicorn has been within reach more often than not. Currently unicorn […]
Happy May Day! One of my favorite times of year, the celebration of fertility, and of new life. Our May Day began with rising early and dressing quickly so we could go out and pick flowers to fill May Day baskets. Last night we made some simple cone shaped baskets out of cereal boxes from the […]
A few weeks ago our family became a part of something special that has changed our life. That something special was Sparkle Stories. We are often looking for calm and gentle ways teach our children, and we are often looking for ways to teach or children to be calm and gentle – Sparkle Stories does […]
To celebrate vernal equinox I organized a spring planting project for Maya’s class. I was inspired by the wheat grass baskets the teachers from Maya’s Waldorf Playgroup had done in the past and decided I wanted to carry on this tradition with Maya’s Montessori Kindergarten class. It is a lovely project to do with young […]
My Grandmother spent almost a week at our house after our trip to Canada. As I have mentioned a few times, Grandma came all the way to New York from Australia, then up to Canada, and then back to New Jersey, with a broken foot, and so her week spent with us was not about […]
On Friday we had Maya’s Waldorf Playgroup Farewell Picnic. With Springs end, we are entering a new phase, and it feels like there may be a few ‘last time’ occasions for us this Summer. Although it was not actually Maya’s last day (as she is attending a month of Summer School aka ‘June days’, it […]
On Sunday we celebrated Spring with Maya’s Waldorf Playgroup Maypole event. Maypole comes but once a year, and all year long I look forward to it. The experience of Maypole has an out of regular life quality – through the simply act of friends coming together, putting flower garlands upon our heads and dancing, […]
The Advent spiral inward turns in each apple a candle burns, Each little Child will share his light Till all the world is warm and bright. On Thursday evening we had the Winter Spiral event at Maya’s playgroup. Of all the events at Playgroup this is the sweetest, most understated event. Very gentle and serene and so […]
Last night a friend held a needle felting workshop that I attended. I have admired needle felting for some time, and really enjoyed learning the new skills. We started a simple project of making a needle felted doll/angel or king. I had intentions all along of making an angel tree topper and so I worked […]
Tonight was the Martinmas Lantern Walk with Maya’s Waldorf Playgroup. We met in Prospect Park at dusk with our homemade lanterns gathering there until all of our friends arrived. The sun quickly set and with the darkness a magnificent array of lanterns shone bright . We sang songs together and commenced on the walk through […]
Here is another lantern option beside the paper lantern variety I have been making. We made these today with glass jars, tissue paper and glue. They are a lovely colourful, very simple lantern to make, especially simple for children. The tissue paper can be cut or torn and then applied with glue to the bottle. […]
This weekend I started making lanterns. I made this style lantern for the Lantern Parade at Maya’s Playgroup last Winter. I held a workshop for parents and siblings to come along and make lanterns to carry in the parade. I enjoyed it so much that I always knew it was only a matter of time […]
Today was the Harvest Festival at Maya’s Playgroup. Once again, this year I am the Festival and Events organizer and so I enjoyed the preparation of the day. It is a small simple Festival, that today was held indoors due to tremendous amounts of rain we have been having. Parents arrived at 11am, for the […]
With the first week of school over I have had time to reflect on all the positive things about going to the Waldorf Playgroup. Although Maya only goes to school three half days, the days that she does go become a full day devoted to the Group. After pick-up many of the parents go to […]
Maya started back to Playgroup on Tuesday. The first day of school is an exciting day in our household as Maya enjoys playgroup very much. We are so grateful for the warm loving teachers! Bright and early she got up and got dressed. She came into my room all ready to go! Funny enough I […]
On Saturday we had Maya’s Playgroup Welcome Picnic. It was the welcome day for the new Families, and the welcome back to the old. We fall into the latter category this year as Maya begins her second and sadly the final year at the Waldorf Playgroup. It was wonderful to see our friends, some of […]