summer days...

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A summer girl, with a birthday coming very soon.

Greens and herbs, best friends to high altitude gardeners.

Bare feet.

Eager hands seeking treasures.

Looking like it will be our best strawberry season yet.


Sweetest deer families who come to visit us often.


And a mama who has been very busy with the gardens, the birthday gift making, the homeschool planning which seem to greatly occupy her thoughts during this time of year, and much other goodness of life...


Wishing all of my dear friends a wonderful summer weekend!


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yarn along, and pinafore pieces, and summer...

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Well, I sure have been quiet here lately... So before I get on with anything else I need to wish you all a happy summer solstice! We celebrated with a little picnic, a lot of gardening, and so much appreciating of the sun and warmth that has finally come to us.


It has been a while since I have joined Ginny for her Yarn Along, I am happy to have a little contribution this week. Most of my reading lately has been in preparation for the coming homeschool year. Chloe will be in 5th grade so two of our main lesson subjects will be botany and ancient civilizations. I'm very excited about these Charles Kovacs books, so many homeschool thoughts filling my mind lately...


Also so many knitting thoughts filling my mind lately. I am going to soon be starting on my first sweater, a cardigan for Chloe, to of course be followed by a second one for Chessa. (Who knows though how long this ambitious project will take me!)

So lots of knitting thoughts, no actual knitting. I am missing it. I have been occupying a few spare moments with a little crochet project though. A set of nesting bowls, the largest one having scalloped edges. It reminds me of a flower.

Mostly my yarn basket has sat neglected. I have even set aside my granny squares for a bit, things such as sewing and gardening have taken much of my time lately. The granny squares will patiently wait for slower days to come.

Lots of sewing has been happening though. I wish I could say I was getting as much accomplished before Chloe's birthday as I did before Chessa's. But no, I have not finished one single birthday gift yet! I suddenly decided I wanted to make Chloe a pinafore rather than a dress or a skirt. It is coming along nicely and will hopefully be done very soon.


Happy stitching, happy gardening, happy summer days to all!
(And happy cozy days to my friends beginning their beautiful winter season!)


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handmade ~ birthday gifts

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Her birthday was at the end of May. I actually did pretty good getting most things made in time. Quite surprisingly I had her skirt and top sewed like 10 whole days before her birthday. This has never, ever happened before. I have always made the girls dresses, or once in a while now skirts, for their birthdays (and winter solstice). And I am always sewing in the days just before, and of course many times till very, very late the night before.

So it was nice to have some more free time to consider what else I might like to make her. Our gifts are always few and fairly simple, but still there is so much thought put into the specialness of each gift. Also for the set of books they always receive, often the only gift that is not handmade, how I love to choose their stories for the season or the year.

And since Chessa was getting two very sweet gnome books I decided that she must have a little gnome. This little gnome has been given the name of Leaf. She was very fun to make. I thought I would want to add some embroidery to her dress, but then I felt like I really like the plainness of her just as she was. Chessa loves her.


And I knew all along the other gift I was going to make her. My mother helped us get her this set of beeswax stick crayons. Since she will be beginning first grade this year! It would have been nice also to give her these when we were actually starting school in september, but this way it helps us so much when it comes to getting what we need for school supplies and books for the coming year.

So I made her a crayon pouch to hold all of her new crayons. I made crayon pouches like this for their block crayons, which they have had for a few years now, and it really helps to keep the crayons clean, organized, and all in one place. Chloe has a set of stick crayons but I never made anything to hold them. They are just in their tray, and Chessa uses them too, and that has worked okay, but not as nice as the crayon pouches.

And then there are always the handmade birthday cards. This one made by Chloe, because she knows Chessa likes when she makes her this kind of card, meaning a door that opens, the house opens up too. And she wrote "cats", I guess in case anyone was confused as to whether they were cats or mice, which is exactly what happened.

Cats can be very wild in the house you know.. (We know, we have four cats..) Do you see the one inside the house standing on it's head? That's the one you see when you open the door from the front. I think this is very funny...

The green top you saw in the last post. Chessa says one of her favorite colors is green. So I wanted to use this piece of treasured vintage calico to make her a top, to go with the green corduroy skirt that also has a trim of the calico. The skirt fits her a little big, which is just fine really (I always make everything big, but sometimes way too big) and I don't have any pictures of her in it yet. The top has a trim of light green on the front, really the pictures in the last post were better to really see the top.

Here you can see the back, it has some of the green corduroy to match the skirt. You can also see that the button is a little too small and the back keeps coming undone, so I will have to change that. I didn't have many button options, and Chessa always reminds that she doesn't like it when her gift doesn't have it's buttons sewn on. Just because that happened once...

By the way, in that last picture she is tying a rope to a little wooden rocking chair. All the dolls were having a picnic down by the garden, but then became to warm from the bright sun, so the girls had to quick get them all back inside, by making this rope pulley thing with the rocking chair and lifting each doll individually up onto the back deck.

~


Also, I really like to make things. Really really really. I love to sew, and often it's all I want to do, and I feel like I could just go on making things forever, which I probably will.


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green, thank goodness

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It took until June. It took until June for it to feel like spring, and then like summer all at once too. Spring was mostly a mix of cold and snow. Pastures becoming a bit greener each day, but still sometimes becoming covered in snow. Sixteen years of these cold mountain springs, you would think I would be used to the slowness of it by now...


So June sure is feeling wonderful. Outside everyday. Green everywhere.

Or at least almost everywhere. The gambel oak are slowest to bring their leaves, and if you look closely at that hillside above the horses you can see that they are only just beginning to show their greenness, their leaves are still small...

And then there is of course the happiness of beautiful food from farm and garden.


The girls love to create lunches from the garden all summer long. Mustard greens sauteed with onions and chive flowers.

And this salad was pretty interesting... Spinach, chives, green onions, lots of oregano leaves, and grapes.

Chessa took such care while making her own salad.

Because you know, she is not such a little girl anymore.

Yet she is...

Oh my sweetheart.

I am actually still not over the fact that she is 7 years old. She is amazing me with her growing up. Oh, but she is still so my little one.



A little more sweetness. And a little more green. The top Chessa is wearing is part of what I made her for her birthday. So this would be a good time to commit and say that I will post again this week and show you the rest of the handmade birthday gifts. See, now I have said it so I will really finally do it...
(Gosh, let's hope...)


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She turned seven...

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A day just for her.

We are so grateful she came to be with us.

And now she is not quite so little anymore.

She even lost a tooth on her birthday!

I hope all her wishes and dreams come true!


(I will post soon with pics of the handmade birthday gifts. Our days have been full of goodness. Sunshine. Gardens. Making. Reading. Lots to share, not lots of time to write. Thinking of my dear friends. Hope you are enjoying your days. Love to all!)


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Waldorf Early Years Resources

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I am sometimes asked what we do for kindergarten, what curriculum we use, etc...

I have been intending for a while now to write a post sharing some of our favorite Waldorf books and resources. And since my youngest child will be turning 7 in just a couple days, leaving these earliest years behind, it seems now would be a good time to get this post done...


I wrote a bit here about our daily rhythm as a family and as homeschoolers. As far as kindergarten goes we are very unofficial and do not use a curriculum. This is just our life. But we do have some favorite books that have accompanied us through the years and helped to enrich our days.

(As you may know, books are among my most favorite things ever. Our little Waldorf home library makes me very happy. There are many more books I could mention. But please realize that even just a few of these wonderful books will serve you well, and our collection actually grew quite slowly over the past 6 years.)

Story time is a big part of our every day. I will admit that stories in our home are more often read out loud than told from memory, though I would encourage you to try to at least sometimes bring the story directly from yourself to your child. Some favorite Kindergarten stories we told over the years I have handwritten into a special notebook.

Though many people may think the original Grimm's fairy tales are just that, grimm to say the least, even violent in many cases, there are many wonderful stories that I feel are so important for our children to experience. Of course you need to use your best judgement and know what is appropriate for your child (so many stories are too much, too intense for my sensitive Chloe, even still at 10 years old. But she now picks up this book and read freely on her own, they have truly nourished her over the years..)

Some original Grimm's stories that can be more suitable for 5/6 year olds, ones that we have enjoyed together, are...

The Frog Prince
Mother Holle
Snow White and Rose Red
The Elves and the Shoemaker
Sweet Porridge
Star Money
The Golden Goose
The Queen Bee
Little Briar Rose

Actually most of these stories Chessa experienced during her K years but for Chloe some of them were not told until her first grade year during our fairy tales/letters block.


Another favorite resource for not just stories but also songs and poems are the Wynstones seasonal books. These are particularly suited to the K years, and I always appreciated knowing that the stories would be gentle enough for my young children. These books can also help give you a good sense of how to tell a story, and there is lots of repetition that delights little ones. Some of these stories will be familiar to you from your childhood... Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Billy Goats Gruff. There are sweet little nature stories as well as stories related to traditional Waldorf festivals.


A Child's Seasonal Treasury is a beautiful book with verses, songs, and simple seasonal crafts and activities. I think it may be out of print though.

I just love the watercolor painting on the cover!

The Children's Year is full of so many sweet (and mostly simple) crafts and handwork projects to make with or for your children. (Toymaking with Children is another great one.) The other two books will guide you through the Waldorf festivals of the year. If I could only choose one to have it would probably be All Year Round, it goes into most detail for the festivals and has beautiful crafts.

Chloe especially loves The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book. The recipes are simple enough for her to follow on her own and the illustrations are inspiring. Remember, Chloe wants to be a Waldorf K teacher when she grows up, she has even created her own menu pages (lovingly illustrated) based on this book.

Baking Bread with Children is newer to us and definitely a favorite.

Besides valuable information on technique and recipes, the book includes stories, songs, poems, and blessings. The first chapter is on what baking bread brings to children. There is also a chapter on the seven grains and nutrition.

A Lifetime of Joy by Bronja Zahlingen is a book that seems to be not so well known, but I think it is exceptionally wonderful! It is one of the books we have had the longest and one that is most loved! So many stories, songs, verses, circle games and plays for puppets.

First chapters include "In Praise of Early Childhood", "Movement, Gesture and Language in the Life of the Young Child", and "The Pedagogical Value of Marionette and Table Puppet Shows for the Small Child".

Let Us Form a Ring (Acorn Hill Anthology) has a favorite "orchard" circle time that we have been doing for many years, along with many more great ones. There is a second book called Dancing As We Sing that includes more spring and summer circles. Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures is another one I like very much. Most of the circles are longer and more involved but you can start out shorter and add to them over the weeks that you continue the same circle. You can learn a lot about how circle time breathes and flows from both of these books.

And one last favorite resource to share for now, Sing a Song of Seasons by Mary Thienes Schunemann. We also love Lavenders Blue Dilly Dilly and This is the Way We Wash a Day. These books/cd's will bring so much song into your lives! Recently we have even started listening to the actual cd's, but only after singing the songs myself with the girls for many years before. Even Jason (husband) can be caught humming or singing nursery rhyme tunes throughout the day!


I will also mention a few online resources...

Lisa from Celebrate the Rhythm of Life has created wonderful monthly guides as well as a new online magazine called The Wonder of Childhood.

Marsha Johnson has a yahoo group where she shares all kinds of Waldorf wisdom with an especially great files section. I suggest searching the files for the articles "A Week in the Home Kindergarten" as well as "Please Do Not "Home School" Your K Child!"

Donna Simmons has a nice book called "Kindergarten With Your Three to Six Year Old". She also has written some very good early years post on her blog, including some very opinionated "early years rants", which I love.


Well, of course I could go on and on. I have favorite handwork books I could share, favorite Waldorf child development books (Beyond the Rainbow Bridge, The Incarnating Child), favorite personal development books (The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker, Homemaking as a Social Art)... See I can't stop myself...

And I don't know if I'm ready to leave these early years behind!!!


(p.s. I am editing this to add one more resource, Little Acorn Learning.
I haven't ever actually used the materials myself but from what I have heard from others and can see on her website and sample pages I think it looks very lovely. If you felt you needed more specific guidance it seems like this could be very nice and helpful.)



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