threefoldmama (2024)

23/08/2020

A homemade wooden moving moon phase picture. We are learning about the stars and the moon. Our girls enjoy a longer walk at night with candles each full moon, a new tradition we have begun. It is important to notice the night sky and the changes in nature just as we notice the seasonal changes during the day. We like to look to the sky each night just before bed.
"I see the moon,
And the moon sees me.
God bless the moon,
And God bless me".
We also say this to the moon, even our youngest likes to say the words.
My husband helped me to make this moon phases moving picture using some plywood off cuts we had. I have been wanting to make one for awhile that was more durable and would last longer than our simple cardboard one (which made a great template to copy). To make we used two pieces of plywood cut so that one circle was smaller (and had a section cut out so we can see the moon). I painted and sealed the design. We attached the top layer with wooden dowel, and placed a metal washer between the layers. The dowel goes through to the back of the second so that it can spin (it can also be spun using the dowel from behind). I will add some more details of our making in to my stories.

23/08/2020

Our weekly family rhythm- a moveable visual.
People are rhythmical beings and rhythms are a part of our lives naturally we feel comfort because they are regular and expected, it is a constant. Having a weekly family rhythm especially helps children to feel secure. The security of knowing and being is grown through the rhythm of the day and the repetition of the familiar. The rhythm and repetition of how things are done, even where things are kept, as well as a rhythm in the appropriate response of the parent (or teacher) all contribute to the development of the child.
To create our really simple rhythm we start with the Waldorf colour of the day (we also use our 7 moons Grapat calendar to match). Next we add one daily goal and our quiet time activity. Lastly, a main meal. These really help to anchor our days and have made such a big difference to our lives. Do you follow a weekly pattern or rhythm? Have you considered displaying it visually to guide?
We decided to make our new family rhythm visual out of something more permanent than cardboard this time as it is used everyday and also something we can change when our rhythm does. Using another plywood offcut we cut the centre section and measured and painted the design. Once dry and sealed we added a leaf using a piece of dowel and held it on with another small circle of ply behind. The leaf is able to slide and tell our girls what our day is going to look like. The right hand side is able to be removed and changed if it is needed- it is a piece of watercolour paper. We included pictures to match the colours as this visual is for our children to follow also.
Rudolf Steiner referred to the need to teach the child to breathe rightly in the widest sense and on a number of levels. The general meaning was to give the child a daily breath-like rhythm so we can live as we breathe. There is a rhythmical flow of contraction (breathing in) and expansion (breathing out). Put simply if you have a big out day to balance the rhythm follow with some breathing in. This also can flow through your day. If you would like more information about this breathing in and out I have posted previously about our daily rhythm.

23/08/2020

Early childhood is like spring, blooming with growth forces and overflowing with fresh beauty. We can nurture each child’s flowering by providing gentle, yet sensory rich environments and play-based activities that encourage investigation of the natural world and expand imaginative capacities (these activities lay crucial foundations for development).
How do we provide such an environment that encourages children to want to play?
Watching our girls play today with their blocks from I witnessed the true love of environment and the world shown in deep child's play. These photos were taken quickly as the play was drawing to a close (I try very hard not to interrupt their play). Our eldest is playing a story about a tree and singing songs about apple blossoms, our middle pushing cars and building shelters so they could hide from the falling blossoms, our youngest stacking and pushing blocks and climbing...
"...The child takes in the contents of their spatial environment with an unbelievable intensity. They do not experience things as inanimate, dead objects, but rather as animate beings. Later, the child will want to understand the world with their intellect, but right now the child wishes to understand with their hands and whole body. The child climbs, slides, crawls, holds themself up and lets go again. Behind all this activity is the inner desire to taste, feel, and experience the world and get as close to it as possible. These are the forces of purest sympathy expressing themselves. At this age, play is fundamentally nothing more than a love of the world. The child loves the object they are climbing upon or crawling around and they deepen this love through constantly new encounters. The whole strength of an unspoiled mind streams into the world and it receives what it gives. A pile of dirt nine feet high is “their mountain.” This is not merely a pile of dead material but something thoroughly alive. A child knows this being very well and interacts with it as if they are interacting with one of their own kind" Waldorf Journal Project 4: Child’s Play and Its Significance for Healthy Development (Rudolf Kischnick
Translated by Nina Kuettel).

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threefoldmama

23/08/2020

23/08/2020

23/08/2020

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