Easter/Spring Basket

We aren’t a chocolate free house but Luath (and us) don’t need big chocolate eggs so I thought I would make up a Easter/Spring  basket instead,  mostly with items that we would be giving to Luath or ourselves anyway.
 
I lined a basket with a green tea towel that we use for play. The basket contains a child size hand fork and trowel, some seeds (sunflower, carrot, wildflowers), some garden gloves (too big but I plan to adapt once Luath tries them on), a terracotta sheep that you can grow grass on, a chew treat for the dog and a mandarin orange (Christmas stockings must have a citrus fruit so Easter baskets will too).

We are doing an egg hunt and the basket will be at the end.  Hoping we can use the gardening gear soon.
(Luath is 26 months)

Outdoors everyday – week 13

A very stormy start to the week and ending with some warm sunshine if sheltered.  Some of the things we did while outdoors this week included:
Walking against strong winds.  A walk along Fairies road.  Took part in a spring wildsquare survey.  Had a snack in a tree hollow.  Make a scarecrow.  Played with loose wood parts.  Gave the dog a brush and left the hair for the birds.

(Luath is 26 months)

Book of the week – Eddie’s Toolbox by Sarah Garland

I selected Eddie's Toolbox: And How to Make and Mend Things from the library as Luath has enjoyed helping me put together furniture and fix things.  It is a picture book featuring Eddie, his little sister and mum, and there new neighbours a little girl and her dad (Tom).  Eddie is sad that there is no new friend for him, but Tom asks Eddie to help him saw some wood to make a bed.  Eddie then thinks he will make a boat for his sister.  Eddie’s adventure with tools has began.  At the end of the book there is a description of different tools for making and mending (saw, hammer, sewing kit etc).
Luath immediately liked this book on first reading and has asked for it a few times this week.  She also enjoys looking at the tools at the end.
(Luath is 26 months)

Amaryllis – a flower that grows fast and tall.

Most Christmases someone within our family is given an amaryllis.  They are lovely plants that produce beautiful big blooms.  They grow fast and tall which makes them perfect for toddlers or impatient gardeners.  Most bulbs come pre potted so all you need to do is remove from the box and add water.  For Luath we were simply caring for the plant, watching and measuring it’s growth.  I forgot to take a picture when we started.  It wasn’t long until we measured the height with five blocks.

Within a week it had increased to almost eight blocks.

It continued to grow rapidly and reached over 15 blocks – it was getting difficult to balance the blocks.  A second shoot had appeared and grew faster than the first.
 
We had a lot of colourful blooms that lasted for weeks on the kitchen windowsill.
 
(Luath is 26 months)

Exploring where we live – A walk on Fairies Road

We are lucky to live in beautiful scenery that we can explore freely.  Following a group we attend we took the opportunity to visit an ancient oak wood that was nearby.  I have been here once (while I was pregnant) and this was Luath’s first proper visit.

Even though it was out of season I hoped that we might find at least one acorn or acorn cap. We saw none but lots of oak leaves were littering the ground.  The walk signs had oak leaves and acorns on them, which Luath loved finding.  She also liked choosing which direction we took if we came to a junction. 

Luath walked most of the ninety minutes we were there. She investigated sticks, stones, cones, muddy puddles…… She also made up many games but her favourite was follow me, usually the dog and me following her.
 
We crossed a river twice once by a bridge and the other by wading across, it was shallow but Luath was on my back at this point.
 
Once we were across the river we came to Fairies Road.  Luath had a good look but found none.

 
We climbed up to a large rock which we decided was Fairy rock.
   
We are nearby to these woods about once a month so we will definitely explore the area while it changes over the seasons.

(Luath is 26 months)

Practical Life Play – Pouring Afternoon Tea

One afternoon Luath spied the tea set that we have used for play and asked if we could have tea.  We were enjoying our pretend drinking and pouring when I thought we could fill the teapot with liquid.  Luath does do a lot of water play, mainly in the swimming pool or bath.  This week she tried to fill a small vase from a water jug.  She missed completely.  On the third go she was getting closer.

I placed the tea set along with a water (cold) jug on an upturned box lid to contain any spillage.  We had some used teabags awaiting composting so I placed these on a plate.  I put the teabags in the teapot and poured some water in.  I demonstrated the first pour and then replaced the teapot on the tray.
   
Luath immediately said I had forgotten to remove the lid of the teapot.  “Silly me” as Luath would say.  She loved the real pouring and could actually fill the small cups well and could stop before they overflowed.

She did miss sometimes, although I think not necessary always by mistake as she filled a few saucers.
 
I brought a cloth and sponge for cleaning up.  She had fun soaking up the tea on the sponge and then squeezing it back into the water jug.

Along with the act of pouring, pretend drinking and eating.  We talked about the tea bags changing the water from clear to lightly coloured and finally a dark brown.  We also talked about cups overflowing when filled to the top.
(Luath is 26 months)
Shared at Living Montessori Now

Rhythm of the week colours

Waldorf places importance in the use of colours and one thing that is often done is assigning a colour to a day.  I have been doing a weekly colour rhythm with Luath since she was under one, but not consistently.  I finally have made some coloured peg dolls and also day blocks to sit with our date blocks. 
I previously decided to follow the rainbow colours, altering violet for white. Starting with red for Monday.  I only recently discovered that Waldorf have set colours, along with planets and grains for each day.  I understand the link with the planets but not sure why colour/grain was chosen for each day.  I have stuck with what we have been doing.  The peg dolls are simple ones covered with scraps of felt.  I gave each one a different hat style for fun.

The coloured day blocks were plain building blocks that I coloured using water soluble pencils.  I then wrote the days of the week.  I made two sets, one in English the other in Gaelic.  They could be much prettier but getting them finished was the key.  We already had the months in English with the date block so I wrote the months in Gaelic on some plain blocks. 

The dolls and date blocks all now sit on a spice rack shelf in the living room.  Each morning we alter the date, turn the day block to the correct one and place the doll for that day next to the date block.  The rest of the dolls sit in order at the back of the shelf on the spare day blocks. Luath likes the colourful dolls so they don’t always stay on the shelf. On the shelf above I try to place a book of the day.  Meantime I have placed our Gaelic flashcards (these are aimed at parents learning Gaelic) and have a new word or phrase for me to try to use during the day.
  
We are still working on returning to/sorting out our daily rhythm.
(Luath is 26 months)

Toddler Kitchen – Making Muffins

This morning Luath asked for her play fruit and vegetable. She said she was going to make a fruit salad so I brought her a big bowl and a wooden spoon.  She immediately said she was going to bake for her best friends but needed eggs first.  I brought her some eggs but she said no they were wooden and walked to the fridge.  As we had no set plans for the morning I suggest we did some real baking.  I thought we could make some Easter cookies but we didn’t have enough spread so we made muffins instead so we could use vegetable oil.

We used the basic recipe from Muffins Fast and Fantastic  by  Susan Reimer, but added some raisins, a mushy banana, ginger and cinnamon.

Some of the ways Luath helped were:
Sifting the flour –  To safe flour being everywhere but in the bowl I gave her a spoon to stir the flour instead of shaking.

Cutting up the banana.  I also gave her a potato masher to make it mushier.

Pouring in the milk and other wet ingredients

Placing muffin cases in tin

Or deciding it is more fun to put the cookie cutters we had planned to use into the tin
The end result.  Great for eating, freezing and taking on adventures.
    
(Luath is 26 months)

Outdoors Everyday – week 12

Another week of mixed Spring weather, ending with very strong winds and snow flurries.  This week some of the things we did while outdoors were:

Take a rope for a walk and explore what could be done with it.  Make some natural art.  Investigate the buds on a bush. Point out letters on a drain cover. A very windy walk.
 
(Luath is 26 months)