Festivals Archives - Another Day

Advent :: Week One

December 10, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Advent, Advent – A candle shines,
Advent, Advent – A candle shines,
First One – Then Two – Then Three – Then Four,
Then the Christ Child is at the door.

The first light of Advent is the light of the stones,
That shines through the crystals, the seashells and the bones.

One little candle lighted in the wreath,
The earth below – begins to glow.

:: Adding our traditional ‘crystal path’ to the stable area. This leads Mary and Joseph into the stable on Christmas Eve ::

It was asked a few times on various forums, what was in our Belle and Boo Advent bags that we have strung up this year. We are also using elements from the Father Christmas pack amongst our festivities. I like to fill our bags with details of our daily activity. Unfortunately this year, we’re still finishing up the final few weeks of our Grade 1 program. I’d hoped we’d be able to finish up at the beginning of Advent to fully immerse in the Festive preparations, but I’ve just scaled back what we’re doing to cap off the final important lessons amongst our Grade 1 year. I find a lot of these final lessons are predominantly revision and review anyway – which I realise are still important, but they can be done in less formal ways and woven into our Advent happenings. Next year hopefully our plan will stay on track and we’ll have the weeks leading up to Christmas free of school to fully immerse in all of Advent’s loveliness.

:: To be honest – living in a Summer climate for Christmas, I normally try to avoid very heavily based Northern Hemisphere, snowy type Christmas images – and these Belle and Boo Advent bags are very Wintery, but I knew my Belle and Boo loving children would just adore them. Possibly I might have to find a way to incorporate them into our Winter Solstice Activities ::

:: The Graphic Designer in me had to make sure the cards matched the bags! ::

Anyway, I thought I’d share the week in review of what was in our Advent bag for each day. The main source of inspiration I use for our Advent plan is The Advent Craft and Activity Book. I don’t follow the daily plan exactly, but I go through and pick out the activities that we’ll do and then weave them into our Advent program.

Saturday (before Advent commences) – Tell the story of ‘Little Parsley’s Star Crown‘

Sunday (Advent begins) – Prepare for our First Advent Sunday and make the Advent Trifle (this dessert is delicious – page 21 of the book I mentioned. It reminds me of my favourite German cake – The Black Forest Cherry Cake).

Monday – Paint watercolour sheets in golden colours which will be our Christmas cards and tags. I told the story of ‘The Solstice Party’ (as it is Summer here) from page 24 of Earthschooling’s Year of Watercolour Stories program.

Tuesday – Stamp the front of the cards with our Christmas stamps and incorporate the Oak Meadow Kindergarten craft of sponge painting. Summer arrives in our home as well with a ‘Summer cave’ surprise and story in the afternoon. We also begin listening to the Sparkle Stories Audio Advent Calendar.

Wednesday – Answer one of the riddles from The Advent Craft and Activity Book before finding out about today’s activity, which is to make Straw Stars. We also made Date Macaroons (recipe in the book) for Christmas gifts.

:: Marlin was my little helper this week – anytime I sat to do a task, he was by my side asking how he could help or saying “Ma pass Mumma this” ::

:: These are clay tile prints, another Oak Meadow craft. The children imprinted a ‘Christmas Star’ onto the clay pendants and we strung them with Festive ribbon as Christmas gifts for friends ::

Thursday – Baking hazelnut cookies for Christmas gifts with the accompanying story (page 49 in the book)

Friday – Make a pentagram star lantern using previously painted watercolour card. We also spoke about Saint Barbara and the story the author gives in the book about her memories of the cherry branch her grandmother always picked on this day. The children picked a cherry branch to bring inside, remembering the message of Saint Barbara.

:: “Ho Ho Ho – Merry Christmas” – Marlin is playing Saint Nicholas with bubbles from the hand wash bowl ::

:: Chilli and Marlin made gifts to leave out for Saint Nicholas ::

:: The Father Christmas pack from Belle and Boo has these wonderful carrot wraps and signs. The children had a great time walking around the property discussing where Saint Nicholas and his white horse would ‘land’ and then which path they’d take to the house. They laid out the signs directing him to the house and of course, at the front door was this ‘animal parking station’. Our ‘farm kids’ also thought St Nic would need a lead rope to tie his white horse up to! ::

Saturday – Another riddle to answer before finding out about today’s activity. Today is Saint Nicholas Eve so we prepared for that, were supposed to bake Lebkuchen and play the Lebkuchen game from the book. When we finally got around to baking our Lebkuchen, we spoke about the history of Lebkuchen and the differences in the various recipes.

:: Marlin’s current ‘modelling’ stage is to cut the medium into tiny little pieces. I remember this with Chilli when she was the same age and I wondered why she wouldn’t model ‘like she was supposed to’! ::

:: I love that Chilli still lives so much in the magic. On Saint Nicholas morning she said “Lucky Saint Nicholas visits us, Mummy would never buy us these things!” Saint Nicholas’ special gifts this year included modelling bathtime fun from LUSH, Phoenix Raspberry soft drink for their new Frosty mugs, giant – red (organic!!! if you can believe it) candy canes and Saint Nicholas chocolates. Yes, she is quite right – Mummy would never buy her those things! 😉 Luckily Saint Nic also brought his traditional cherries and some pistachios for a dose of good health! ::

Sunday – Celebrating Saint Nicholas Day, baking a star cake and making chocolate clusters for Christmas gifts (recipe from the book).

In reality with still working on a few Grade 1 end of year lessons, some of our baking got missed here and there and we’ve had a big ‘bake day’ this Monday just passed – covering off a few of the missed baking activities from last week so we stay on track with our Christmas gift making.

The things that I love about The Advent Craft and Activity Book is that woven in amongst the recipes and activities there are beautiful stories and verses that I use to accompany activities I feel they pair well with. The stories are Saint legends, fables and experiences from the author’s own childhood. These ‘experience’ stories can easily be told as ‘stories’ to the children – “Once upon a time there was a lady who remembered beautiful things about Christmas’ when she was a little girl. One day she was thinking about the time when…. ” I had seen this book for a few years before I decided to purchase it. Sometimes I do have restraint with my book buying! And when I did, it really inspired and transformed our Advent activities and celebrations. Being of German heritage, I connect very deeply with the activities and remember many of the things the author writes about from my own childhood Christmas’. That’s not to say you have to be German to enjoy nor connect with this book – quite the opposite. The activities, recipes and stories the author shares, the legend and history behind so many classic treats and traditions of the time are really quite wonderful, inspiring and very enriching. I remember the year I did have this book to use in our Advent preparations, I felt there was a deeper ‘richness’ to our Advent period that year, and every year forward since I have used it.

:: Do you remember these Frosty mugs from way back when we were young? I loved my Frosty mug and the children were just as enchanted by this start of Advent and Summer gift as I thought they would be. It is a rather amazing thing. I never cease to be captivated by the Frosty mug! ::

What are some of your favourite or most inspiring Advent resources?

Festivals :: The Scent of Advent

November 30, 2015 | Leave a Comment

In the centre of our school table is a candle for the children as a tool for focus during lessons. I have a ‘teacher’s candle’ which helps me to bring my focus and mindfulness to our lessons. Of course candles, naturally in themselves, bring such a lovely energy to a space and I’ve written before about making our own beeswax candles and why we like to burn beeswax candles in the home through the year. Sitting around the children’s candle is our guiding crystal of the month. We bring mindfulness to the crystal properties and the Archangel associated with that crystal. The third element in our school table centre candle trio is an oil burner. Again, in that post I linked to above, I talk about why we have oils burning in the home daily. In the school room I particularly like to have oils (sometimes the children have a pre-made blend they have put together in an aromatherapy lesson) that help with concentration, focus and centring. I do have to say that these elements, in my opinion, help wonderfully within the school space as I generally find the children calm, centred and focussed in their time within this space.

As November is drawing to a close and December’s crystal will be emerging through tonight to greet the children in the morning, we had a little impromptu lesson as we came to our school table this morning. I find Earthschooling’s ‘Kid’s Can Heal’ program wonderful. The lessons and basis for/philosophy behind the lessons are easy to weave into every day life, without them actually feeling like ‘lessons’. I often find these little ‘impromptu’ lessons arise in opportunity through the day when I least expect it. Having the material ‘within’ me, it’s easy to draw on the foundation of those lessons offered in the program, to bring these natural therapy modalities to the children at many moment through daily life. It is an area of passion for our daughter as well as an area of interest for our whole family.

Firstly today, we recalled the properties of the Emerald crystal and then spent a moment thanking the crystal, the associated Archangel and the full moon of the month. Before putting our daily oils into the burner, we spoke about ‘The Scents of Advent’. I asked Chilli what Festival season we’d just moved into and asked her what ‘smells’ she identifies with the season. I was surprised at her answers, and it gave me the opportunity to add a few more oils to my intended ‘Advent mix’! Here are Chilli’s answers and what we discussed…

• Peppermint – because I love the candy canes that the angels bring!

• Pine – just like the tree we bring in to decorate…

• Rose – Chilli said rose, surprisingly which was one of the oils I had chosen out (and she can’t read the bottle label, it’s in a really hard to read script!). Chilli didn’t know why she thought of rose, she said possibly because the roses are starting to bloom in the garden at this time of year – which I thought was a really lovely symbolism to tie into the Summer season happening around us here in Australia during Advent. I had chosen rose oil because we have a Jungebad oil of Rose-Gold that we have used on Chilli through her early childhood. It is beautifully calming and relaxing – great for after bath time when children are getting into their pj’s, particularly after busy or highly spirited days! For this reason, rose and gold seem intertwined to me, so I chose rose to symbolise the gold of the Three Wise Men. Then Chilli and I spoke about the symbol of the roses blooming in our gardens at this time and we spoke about how the season of Advent is like a budding, unfolding rose that blossoms on Christmas Day. We also spoke about how Thumberlina was found in the middle of a rosebud just like a baby is born at Christmas as the rose of Advent unfolds. It was a nice visual, the rose bud unfolding slowly over Advent to reveal the Baby Jesus in the middle of the rose bloom. Quite Grade 1, fairytale realm, appropriate – and it tied the Advent Festival season in nicely to our Nature season of Summer here. We also spoke about how rose-quartz is a crystal of love and the heart and it is one of the main crystals Chilli and Marlin use to create the ring around the stable during this mineral week of Advent.

• Myrrh – Having spoken about the gifts of the Three Wise Men, we also brought in the oil of Myrrh.

We passed the oils around, waving them back and forth under our nose and spoke about the scents. Are they light, heavy – more of the Earth or Air element. We then also spoke, after we’d smelt them all, about which was the softest and strongest. We lined them up according to this characteristic and then spoke about which oil we’d put more drops of into the burner, and which we’d put less of in. Chilli then suggested the number of drops in a wonderful descending order! Great Grade 1 maths revision! 😉 We added; Rose – 6 drops (this is 10% PEO in a carrier), Myrrh – 4 drops, Pine – 4 drops and then Peppermint – 2 drops.

Over the coming weeks as we add these daily, we’ll talk about the characteristics of each individual oil by smelling that oil on it’s own, discuss the properties of the scent – how we feel when we smell it and then the therapeutic properties of that oil. I think we’ll focus on 1 per week, starting with rose in week 1. We might even tie in some of our Herbal Roots Zine work for that plant during our time in our nature walks.

For the program on our monthly guiding crystal and full moon we use the Little Acorn Learning Enrichment guides. I also find the ‘caregiver meditations’ in these guides are wonderful. I researched the information online about which Archangel is associated with each crystal so that we could weave that into our monthly studies as well.

What does Advent smell like to you?

Christmas :: The Gift Bringer

November 29, 2015 | Leave a Comment

This post has some musings from me about my thoughts, our values and what we celebrate at Christmas. I hope it conveys the message that we are very respectful that what is true and right for us is definitely not going to be for the next family. Each family has their own beliefs and what is ‘truth’ for them. That is the beauty in our world. My thoughts here do not pass judgement on what others may do, there’s definitely no right or wrong – only what ‘feels’ right for each individual person and family. All Blessings.

When Chilli was first born and through her early childhood days, it was ‘The Christmas Angels’ that would visit her at Christmas time. They would bring one main gift and maybe 1-2 other smaller things. We were passionate from the beginning about the story of Christmas and the messages of the time being the main focus for her as she grew. Of course there was gifts from grandparents, relatives and close friends – but the receiving of these was spread out over several days as we visited various gatherings. Presents from those that had been sent in the post, were slowly over the 12 days, left out to be enjoyed. We’ve always been mindful within our home, not only at Christmas, but even at birthdays, Easter and other times through the year when gifts are exchanged – that this is done in a calm manner. We hoped the gifts that were given and received would as much as possible be exchanged personally and for our family to sit quietly as the gift was opened – appreciating that gift and the person it was received from. Today in our home with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we try to still bring a quiet and reverent mood to the Festival and especially any present opening times.

When children are young and the world that surrounds them is predominantly of similar values to your own, it is easy to live with the mindset “This is what our family does” – and this is what the children see, believe and take as their truth. But as children grow, it is our experience with Chilli that with that increasing awareness of what other families celebrate, seeing what is around at Christmas time and as their consciousness expands, that it is necessary to be flexible and flow like the river with the story that is held as the family truth.

We’ve never told our children anything negative about what other people believe or celebrate, we’ve just said that this is what our family celebrates and that is what their family celebrates. Each person is visited by the people or beings that their family believes in. If you ask the Christmas Angels to visit, that is who comes to see you, if you ask Saint Nicholas to visit, he will come visit you and if you ask Father Christmas to come then he will be the one to visit you on Christmas – each of them has their purpose and each of them brings their own story. Obviously the question arises at sometime through the years “Why doesn’t St Nicholas visit this friend or that person” and the answer for us has been simple – because he only visits the families that ask him to.

While we are mindful to keep Christmas as uncommercial as possible and as focussed on the story and meaningful coming together through the time, there are also some traditions that are beautiful and that we as parents hold special and dear from our childhood memories. A few years back, I remember deliberating over The Christmas Stocking. I have such fond memories of opening those tiny little parcels on Christmas morning. I’d wake through the night and look over at my door handle to see if the stocking was bulging yet – Had he been? I’d wonder…. I remember the immense joy that was held in each tiny little piece of tightly taped wrapping paper. I remember the feeling of my hand reaching down into the very tip toe of the stocking, hoping and praying that there was just one more teeny tiny little something. Not for the greedy want of ‘more’ but just for that joy of opening those tiny little parcels. Anyone who is a parent knows what joy is held in tiny little treasures for children. Pockets and pouches are filled with any and all matter of tininess. Delicate pieces of coloured paper fold into tiny little fairy notes. Mini jars are filled with tiny little bits and pieces lined up on shelves as thought they hold the most magical contents – because they do! These precious little treasures. There is something magical about the tiny for wee ones. I can tell you that I have vague at best memories of opening any other Christmas gifts through the years, but I can vividly remember sitting year after year alongside my brother unwrapping those tiny trinkets. So I meditated on this Christmas Stocking. Why do we have Christmas Stockings, what is the meaning of them? Would it increase the expectation of ‘more’ and then feed a ‘greediness’ at Christmas time? After much deliberation, conversations with special friends I turn to as mentors and chatting it over with Graham, we decided to include a Christmas Stocking in our celebrations. We also include a lovely little book with a gorgeous story holding the meaning of why we hang stockings. It was the same with candy canes. I stumbled upon organic candy canes and remembered with such fondness the traditions around candy canes when I was younger. It took me again, a lot of meditating and pondering to arrive at the decision to weave these and the story of them, into our family’s Christmas.

Then there is all the fun of the Elf on the Shelf. We never had this as a child, but over the past few years I’ve watched on social media the fun families have with these little folk and thought about including this in our Christmas Festivities. It can be a hard balance – not buying into the commercial hype yet still having fun and giving children modern day relevant experiences. Sure the vintage, Victorian, yesteryear traditions have so much beauty – but our children also live in the world of today. Even if they homeschool, they go to extra curricula activities as they get older where people talk about this movie, that activity and the other new fun thing. I actually didn’t realise the Elf on the Shelf had been around for as long as he has. I thought he was a relatively new little being. Of course I knew if we did the ‘Elf on the Shelf’ thing that I’d not be buying a pre made one, nor bringing the story as is to our children – but I liked the idea of fun weaving through what can sometimes, despite our best intentions for serene and calmness, be a busy preparation time in Advent. There was however a few things about the ‘Elf on the Shelf’ concept as is, that didn’t sit right for me and I couldn’t see it being meaningful or a right ‘fit’ for our family.

I stumbled upon the ‘Kindness Elves’ idea and read these posts. This was getting closer for me – but it still wasn’t ‘there’ as such. I think whatever we bring to our children has to feel ‘just right’. It has to have thought, meditation and mindfulness behind it. Just like Santa, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas or the Christmas Angels – no one thing is perfect for every family, each one will put their own ‘spin’ on it, add their own personal ‘flavour’. I liked the idea with the Kindness Elves – thinking of others, bringing the message of giving into the preparations rather than thinking about ‘getting’.

Whether we talk about it or not, our children are thinking about what they’ll receive for Christmas. They know gifts have been organised and they know on Christmas morning, they’ll wake to fun things to unwrap. So while we don’t need to put a focus on it and make the season solely about this – it is still a part of the season, and I think to weave some magic into this – however a family chooses to do that, also keeps a sense of reverence to the festivities. I remember as a young child (who wasn’t really that young, I was the oldest in my family and amongst my cousins we celebrated with, so I had the magic kept alive for me until I was quite old!) standing on the front lawn in the dark of Christmas Eve, looking up at the sky in awe as we all watched Rudolf’s blinking red nose go travelling across the sky! I couldn’t believe we were actually lucky enough to see that! I am sure I could even hear the sleigh bells! Really and Truely! I remember my Oma telling me how as they walked through the snowy Spring woods of Germany that my Father and Uncle marvelled at the little white flick of the Easter Hare’s tail that they saw as he hopped off behind the tree from delivering their eggs in the woods. Our Easter egg hunt when I was younger was often amongst big old pine trees, because that is what Oma and Opa identified so strongly with where the Easter Hare left his gifts.

Back to the Christmas Elf idea. I knew I wanted to bring this fun to our Christmas. As I said the preparation period can be busy and I think it’s nice for the children to have some fun amongst that. It helps to keep us as parents grounded as well, by keeping hold of that magic in our daily preparations.

There’s also the consideration that as Chilli is getting older, we watch the occasional movie with her. There are so many lovely Christmas movies that I’d like to watch with her – but of course they all have and talk about Santa. So it’s foreign, strange and meaningless for her. It’s also slightly awkward because there is that question that starts to come up now – “Who is Santa”, “If there’s Santa, well then how is there also the Christmas Angels and who is Father Christmas”. I know she’s getting older, but I really want the magic to still live in her for a little while longer yet. She still does live so much in that early childhood Sanguine realm and magic really does make her Melancholy dissolve and let her take joy in a sense, to ‘Jump Up And Live Again’! It’s beautiful.

So after much meditating, pondering and consideration, as is always the way – I sat doing something focussed today – and the idea on how to answer some of these emerging questions, weave in the beliefs of others that Chilli’s starting to become aware of, open up the lovely opportunity for us to enjoy a Christmas family movie with her and to bring the fun of The Elf on the Shelf with the mindfulness of the Kindness Elves into our Christmas celebrations. I had this story take shape in my mind. The story will be brought in the form of a letter that sits on the laps of our Christmas Elves when they ‘appear’ on the morning of sometime around December 1… Notice I say ‘sometime around’ – yes, I still need to ‘bring them to life’! 😉 Here’s some fun ideas I’ve been saving on Pinterest to help these little beings come to life in my mind! I especially like the inspiration from Anna Bradford’s blog.

Hi Chilli and Marlin.

What a lovely home you have. We hope you don’t mind us visiting. We spoke with Mumma and Papa to see if it would be alright if we stopped in for a little while and they said they were sure you’d enjoy a visit from us.

We are Christmas Elves. We have been busy in the workshop this year, not only making some very precious and exciting gifts for you this Christmas, but also helping out some of the younger Elves that don’t work as fast or are still learning home to do certain things. Gosh, we’ve been; knitting, sewing, painting, sanding, glueing, felting, building and printing. There are so many different things that children from all over the world would like or need this year, that even we’ve learnt some new skills! And we hear you’ve been working on some new skills here as well. Marlin you’ve been learning to stitch and Chilli you’ve been doing some beautiful weaving and knitting. We even hear that you’ve been doing fantastically at school this year with learning to write, read and do maths. Our favourite lessons at school used to be the Science lessons. We love learning all about the rain and the clouds and the flowers and the snow. The bees that buzz and the butterflies that dance. Even the frogs that croak and the lizards that scurry make us giggle. For a large part of the year, it is very cold where we live. It has to be, because we are so busy we need it to be cooler. Running here, there and everywhere, tending to task after task, we get quite warm ourselves. When it is really cold, we get to sit around the log fire and do quieter activities like knitting and stitching as well. Marlin – you’ve been doing some beautiful drawings this year we hear, and your watercolour paintings are beautiful as well Mumma tells us. Chilli we heard that you’e been doing some crayoning drawings of your stories. We hope you can show us some of your work while we are here.

Well, since we’ve finished all our gift making now and everything is prepared in the Cottage for Christmas Eve, we’ve been allowed to come and visit you. Each year we’re allowed to choose some children we would like to go and visit if we’re ready early enough. We hear you still have some gifts to make, cards to decorate, baking to do for relatives and friends and that you’ll be going to some fun Christmas events. We’d love to stay with you a while if you’d like and we could help you with the preparations you are still working on. We’d also like to go along to some of the fun events you’ll be visiting, if you wouldn’t mind to take us. Make sure to keep us safe and close by you when we are out. It can get so busy at Christmas can’t it? We’re not really for playing with a lot, we’re not like your babies in Pumpkin House, we are rather delicate us Elves, so please remember to be gentle with us and just sit us beside you while you play or work.

We’ll have to go back home on Christmas Night, but we’ll enjoy to be here with you for Christmas Eve and Day. We hear you’ll be having a great party Christmas Eve and we’ll be excited to see how you spend Christmas Day. When we go back home Christmas Night, there is a great celebration for us after all the hard work we’ve done through the year. There are so many children in the world that we like to send special gifts to, that really we are working for most of the year. When we arrive home, Father Christmas has a big celebration for us. Everyone has normally arrived home by then – The Christmas Angels, Saint Nicholas, Ruprecht, their White Horse, Father Christmas, all his Helpers and The Reindeer that pull Father Christmas’ sleigh. There are so many of us that help to make Christmas special for the children of the world, you’ve probably seen a lot of Father Christmas’ helpers sitting in shopping centres, walking around town ringing a bell, riding on the back of fire trucks in Christmas parades or helping out at Charity events. We used to only need one helper in every town but now-a-days towns are getting so big we often need several! They even sometimes ask us to send Helpers to be in movies about Christmas! Often these helpers are called ‘Santa’ because it’s an English shortening of the original Christmas gift bringer Saint Nicholas who visits you early in Advent to bring the message that soon the baby will be born. Aren’t the stories about him fun. He loves to tell us about the time he threw the bag of coins down through the chimney hole for the girl who needed a dowry to be married. We laugh every time when he tells us how the bag landed in her stockings. We think he is so special, such a caring man, who sailed across the waters to take gifts to the people who had no food. Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas really are, well – The Fathers’ of Christmas! The Feast we have is filled with the most delicious food you can ever imagine. What is your favourite Christmas food? Ours is peppermint bark – but we have to wait until after dinner for that. We like to eat honey glazed ham and Father Christmas always finds the sweetest carrots to roast. That night we sit around the log fire (because it’s cold where we live remember) and we have warm spiced milk with tiny gingerbread houses. The Elves that choose to stay back at the Cottage and watch over everything – tending to any last minute preparations that need to be done, they normally make those tiny little houses for all of us who go to help the children with their final Christmas preparations.

Oh and Mummy tells us that she told you a special story about Little Parsley’s Star Crown – is it just like the Star Crown that Mother Mary wears on Epiphany? Hopefully you’ll be able to tell us that story sometime during our stay. We always like Epiphany – it’s the last Feast before we go back to work the following Monday – Plough Monday … Is that when you start school again? That was traditionally the day when the farmers returned to the fields as well after their Christmas Celebrations and rest time.

We better get busy then. What do you have on today? What can we help with? We’re excited we can help you get ready for Christmas. Oh and we’ll try to behave, but you know us Elves we can occasionally get into mischief, we don’t mean to – we just like to have fun – just like you do! Hopefully we won’t make too much mess while we’re staying. Perhaps if we do, you could help us clean it up so Mumma and Papa don’t get too cranky!

Let’s have a Happy Advent together and enjoy a fantastic Christmas.

Love from – Well, we actually don’t have names! You see, when we’re at home, we’re just called ‘Elf’ so if you could give us a name that’d really be wonderful – we always think it’s so amazing that children have their very own names! Please, could you give us our own name – make sure you think of something special. We’re excited to see what you come up with.

Do you have a magical Elf that comes to visit your children through the Advent and preparation period? What is your favourite thing abut these Elves, and what is the story that follows your little friends?

Preparing :: Little Parsley and her Star Crown

November 26, 2015 | 1 Comment

I always think it is important for stories to really ‘speak’ to children and that the stories we choose to bring to our children, have strong seasonal and local climate/geographical relevance. We adjust to the corresponding seasonal time, some of our Festivals through the year that speak more strongly of seasons rather than dates to us. Others we leave on the date a Festival is generally celebrated and find meaning for that Festival within our own Australian environment.

When Chilli was young and we were living on the East Coast of New South Wales, the days that approached and carried us through Advent in the lead up to Christmas were hot and humid. We’d spend long days swimming in the river and taking family strolls along the golden sands and shorelines of the surf beaches that our East Coast hometown is known for. There are a few stories that bring a beautiful activity to this Summery Christmas time, of collecting ‘Christmas Stars’ (spinifex grass seed heads) that tumble along the beaches at this time of year. Susan Perrow’s ‘The Star Grass Man’ and ‘A Gift of Starlight’ as well as Jacqui Lindon-Smallpage’s ‘The Summer Star’ (which I am sorry I cannot find any link to a resource for this online) bring beautiful summery, Christmas, beach-themed wonder. As well as this, Agapanthus ‘Star of Bethlehem’ heads are in full bloom in that climate during this time, so bringing ‘star’ symbolism to our children in multiple ways through these daily nature walk activities was easy and nourishing.

When we moved south just before Chilli’s 5th Christmas, I was somewhat lost with these activities that we identified Advent preparations with. These activities that were gently woven into our daily Advent celebrations had become our traditions. However here in Tasmania, agapanthus might have the odd head here and there blooming, but from my observations the height of their season is not until early January – it’s beautiful for Epiphany, but slim pickings for Advent and Christmas. The rocky, bay style beaches that are more common here in our new little island home – which have their own immense beauty – don’t from what I have seen have the tumbling spinifex seed heads rolling along in the island breezes, these seem to be more common to those East Coast surf shorelines. I’ve struggled inside myself these past few years for something that is commonly found in our local habitat which can strongly call to the children through their Spring and Summer time immersion that Christmas is coming.

Over the past few years, we’ve found lovely, nourishing activities that bring quite beautifully the star symbolism to this Festive season – but ‘something’ has just still felt to me, in my heart, to be ‘missing’. Something wasn’t ‘filling in’ this ‘nature star’ wonderland. Sure, the garden is full of stars dancing around on springtime flower heads and there is lovely symbolism of the season in plantain ‘candles’ and coriander ‘baubles’, but nothing really ‘jumped up and sang’ like the symbolism of the grass stars do…. Then this week amongst our daily garden time that we’ve been enjoying through this glorious Spring time rhythm – there it was, right in front of me! Standing tall, waving and ‘shining’ just like the grass stars do as they tumble along the East Coast beaches was Mother Mary’s crown of stars that Little Parsley wears, to remind us in our busy Spring garden enjoyment that soon – the Christ Child will be born. Little Parsley calls out “are you getting ready?” 🙂

As I sat there during our nature time, helping the children to arrange a ‘spring garden’ of letters (for the G1 child) and snails (for the nursery aged child) made out of collected nature treasures including lupin flower petals – this story idea trickled through my mind as we noticed the beauty of little parsely’s seed heads. If you look close enough, they look just like tiny little shimmering stars. I mused how every year – Advent, despite my best intentions to be more organised and prepared than the year before, always seems to creep up on us. Every year it seems it is the week leading up to Advent before we even really notice. Our lives are so busy with all our Springtime happenings in this food-garden-tending life we now live.

I’m excited about the weaving of this ‘star crown’ story into our Advent preparations over the next few days. I must of course thank here, Susan Perrow and Jacqui Lindon-Smallpage for their beautiful stories that not only nourished us all those years ago and started a wonderful family tradition for us, but also for that idea of the children being so busy with the warmer, longer days that they almost might forget about Mother Mary and the journey she is soon to make. It was this concept that was so strongly identified with our preparations revolving around the grass star collecting. In my soul searching of weaving something meaningful into our new southern life, this still had to be the essence of our story. This story now speaks to myself and I know it will to our children as well, with the symbolism of our own environment, climate and busy food-garden-farming life that they are immersed in here in their new southern home.

Little Parsley and her Star Crown
A Southern Tasmanian food-garden-tending Christmas story

It had been a long, cold Winter. The children had enjoyed it immensely; tobogganing, maple taffy making, snowman building and animal tracking. Hot chocolates by the fire, plenty of herbal tea and lots of delicious baked treats. It had even snowed at the children’s house where it doesn’t normally snow! The snow was thick and low.
Such a fun, wintery wonderland.

Well as you can imagine, when the first signs appeared of King Winter stepping off the seasonal throne to make way for Lady Spring’s beautiful dance, the children were very excited. They’d spent even more time sitting by the window through this winter – bundled under quilts, propped up against blanket and pillow forts, dreaming of time outside on warm, sunny days; the colours, the perfumes, the fun, the songs and the longer days. This Spring seemed even more magical than ever before – everything seemed to Jump up to Live Again with great gusto – more vibrant and colourful than the children had ever remembered in any other Spring before. The birds seemed to sing louder, the flowers seemed to bloom brighter and the days seemed to lengthen so quickly. It wasn’t long before their Mother was saying “Yes, it is bedtime – even though Father Sun hasn’t put on his red pyjamas yet and climbed into bed, you, my dears do have to go to bed now” … “Ohhhhh” the children would grumble as they tiredly tumbled into bed. Surely they could (yawn) just have (yawn) one more (yawn) little run out (yawn)….. s…..i…..d……e…. zzzzzzzz…. Mother would barely have finished the first lullaby before the children had fallen faaaaast asleep – so tired they really were from all their outside running, jumping, skipping and hopping. Soon they were dreaming, on the dream land train, of all the wonderful things they’d do outside again
in the gardens tomorrow.

Well as Lady Spring had come and swept these children up in all her glorious beauty, they didn’t even really notice that Lady Spring was slowly starting to hand over the reign to Mrs Summer. The children were still so busy in the garden. And who else do you think was preparing for their annual visit? That is right… Joseph was saddling the donkey, Mother Mary was preparing herself and soon the baby Jesus would be born – but the children, they were still spending so much time in the garden, right up until bedtime some nights, they hadn’t even thought at all about who would soon be visiting, nor had they started to think about what treasures they would build their stable with this year!…

The Christmas Angels became quite concerned that these children in all their Spring excitement really would forget about Christmas this year. Oh how Mother Mary always loved to see the children carrying their little nativity figures slowly through their home each night, building a stable for the Holy Family to arrive in and the hanging of the Christmas Star as the Holy Night approached… Stars! Of course! That gave Mother Nature an idea! If the children were so busy in the garden – then she’d fill the garden with stars to remind the children that Mother Mary would soon be walking down
through the stars to visit them.

The Christmas Angels, Lady Spring, Mrs Summer and Mother Nature all worked together – weaving a beautiful array of tiny stars into the garden with flowers from; borage, tulbaghia, jonquils, violets, rampian and lychnis – the plantain sent up tapered tops on long stalks to remind the children of their Advent candles and the coriander burst into little round seed heads to try and call to the children – reminding them of the baubles they hung on their Christmas tree each year. … The Shepherd’s Purse even sent out little love heart shaped seed pods to try and remind the children how much they loved the Christmas season that they were soon going to forget this year – but nothing! … The children still galloped, sung, planted, weeded, mulched, watered and played all through the gardens. Sure – they noticed the pretty stars and created fairy stews and elemental gardens from them as well as the plantain and coriander that they even picked to take inside for their own meals! But even though the whole garden was singing at the top of their voices the children were so caught up in all the fun of their Springtime joy, that still they didn’t think about Mother Mary who was soon going to be visiting…

Then a little voice spoke up from down under the celery, hidden by the great canopy of Cape Gooseberry and circled around by baby oak leaf lettuce. “I think” said little parsley “that if I stretch up very high, right onto my tippy toes and hold my hands up the highest I can reach, that maybe, I will stand tall enough for the children to take notice. And then” suggested little parsley “possibly I could wear that starry crown of flowers and seeds that I’ve seen other parsley sisters wear, please Mother Nature, could I – could I? I really think it might help”. And then everyone smiled. Of course! Why hadn’t they thought of that! So the next day Mother Nature spoke to Father Sun, he shone bright and happy and beautifully warm. Little Parsley reached and stretched and stood up as tall as she could. And then… Right over the top of all the other plants in her little bed she reached high-high-high … And as she did, Mother Nature appeared with the starry crown little parsley had remembered – “Good Luck” whispered Mother Nature as she placed the crown on little parsley’s head….

Then the next morning when the children ran through the garden, singing to Lady Spring and picking a beautiful posy of all the sweet peas in the garden, they stopped and looked at little parsley standing tall and waving to them with the help of Baby Breeze. “Mumma, Mumma, come quick” they said “Look here at little parsley, look at her starry-starry crown! Isn’t it beautiful! Just like the crown Mother Mary wears when the Three Wise Men arrive – why Mother, isn’t Mother Mary coming to visit us again soon?”

And with that the whole garden cheered. The birds sang out loudly, Brother Wind whistled a sweet little tune and all the flowers cheered by letting out a little bit of extra Springtime perfume for Baby Breeze to blow around. The children smiled at all the delicious Springtime Magic and ran inside to prepare all the magic they liked to have awaiting Mother Mary along her journey.

I also wanted to share this beautiful post from The Little Gnome’s Home. It contains a lot of our own family Advent and Christmas traditions, that were also inspired and brought to life by the wise words of Ebba Bodame, all those years ago when our eldest was just a wee newborn baby.

I wish you all a Happy Advent. May your Festival be filled with rich tradition, meaningful stories and warm celebrations.

Celebrating :: Nine Years

October 28, 2015 | 1 Comment

Nine years ago today I stood under the bower of the most amazing mulberry tree I have ever seen, for a hand fasting ceremony that wed me to my best friend – a gorgeous man who supports me, inspires me, listens to my crazy and tells me I’m not so crazy, dreams with me, believes in me, infuriates me, makes me laugh, still loves me after I yell at him, holds me when I cry, buys me chocolates, brings me flowers, lets me watch all the sappy romantic films I want, reaches things that are too high for me, does all the ‘heavy’ work without complaining and attempts to laugh at my terrible jokes.

Woven into the gnarled trunk of this beautiful mulberry tree is the echo of something awe inspiring; countless years, generations of laughter, tears that have fallen on her leaves and numerous storms she’s weathered but survived – what didn’t break her only proved to grow her stronger. I couldn’t think of a better mascot for my wedding day. This tree stands in the quaint little garden of a 19th century stone Hotel – The Settler’s Arms Inn, Saint Albans.

As a young girl, I marvelled at the countryside on the drive down to Saint Albans. I’d often journey along this country road with Opa on his ‘school holiday drives’ he’d love to take us on. Saint Albans was a favourite destination. As I grew into a young adult myself, the nostalgia in me romanticised the whole area and I’d love to take drives there on a Sunday with my beloved, looking longingly out to the landscape, dreaming of one day living in such a place! We spent many a lazy sunny Sunday in that garden, snacking on ploughman’s platters and dreaming about our future together – while the mascot of the Inn itself who we’d named ‘Smokey’, sat in his usual chair out the front of the pub, puffing away with an ale in his weathered hands. The romantic in me loved and still does love everything about this historic little place. Therefore there really was no question about where the gathering that celebrated our wedding would be held.

Of course, the event had to be themed, if you know me there was always going to be something different about our day and I was never going to rock the white meringue with a neat french roll in my hair and the classic bridal baby face. Not that there’s anything wrong with that traditional ‘white wedding’ – they are beautiful, but just definitely not me at all. I’d fall over in the high heels trying to even get out of the car! My selection was a little more purple, a little more pixie and a bit more stardust! I also am not a big diamond ring type gal either. Luckily Graham knew me well and the engagement ring he had organised for me was from Fallers in Galway, Ireland. It is a simple gold band with a white gold triquetra in the middle. I love it. And the thought of another ring on my hand was totally not me – so I had a small little diamond (you literally have to squint to see it!) that was from my great-grandfather’s tie pin, set into the middle of the triquetra as my wedding ring. I love the symbol of the triquetra and have always felt such a connection to it. In the case of an engagement and wedding I think it is so perfect – to me I see it meaning the coming together of two life paths and creating this new weaving of one, this new life together, bringing the essence and energy of each of the two paths into one.

Our family and friends were invited to don costumes of the traditional era and journey to help us celebrate our Spring wedding. You know people like you if they travel that far to see you get married – you know people love you if they come dressed in costume – even those who swear they’ll never ‘do the fancy dress thing’! We had a town crier, Merlin, jesters, gypsies, maidens, masters, lords, ladies and knights. I didn’t like my chances of getting some of the bridal boys into costume, but in the end, with the promise of a real life sword – they agreed! Therefore there was also sword fights, tree climbing, a pumpkin carving and Havaiana thongs (silver of course!) for tired bridal girls feet! You’ll see in the pictures there was even a mock beheading between the middle and youngest brother! Quite ironic given the town we were marrying in! I’d love to call our homeschool after the Saint who is the namesake of the place we were wed in, but I’m still working through the ‘essence’ of Saint Alban – what do you think of this Saint, how did you name your homeschool? I think it’s lovely to have the place you married in, as part of your homeschool name (see, that’s the Romantic in me!) ‘Saint Albans School of Life’ but I’m still workshopping that one, I’m not sure how Saint Alban ‘sits’ with me yet. Oh and ‘Smokey’ who we found out is actually named ‘Gordon’ even graced us with his presence, which was such an honour! Hmmmmmm… Possibly our homeschool name needs to work in Smokey Gordon’s name as well!

The groovy, tribal beats of the day were provided by some great musicians who were a part of the group The Rhythm Hunters – one of which was an old high school friend. The amazing rhythm of the drums came echoing across the valley to the old court house where I was getting ready with the girls. When we were around 20 minutes late, my Uncle said to me “You really need to hurry up – the drummers arms are going to fall off”!

Here is a little story of our day in pictures, with a few of our honeymoon along the Great Ocean Road as well. Nine years ago today – I’m wondering if the first poppy might have bloomed in our garden today in honour of this day we celebrated way back in 2006.

Festivals :: Turning Eight

October 13, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Recently our little girl – who’s really not so little anymore, but still little enough for me to call her our ‘little girl’ – turned eight. We celebrated with a simple birthday party and then a rather elaborate interstate holiday! It was Chilli’s choice of hotel for her birthday evening and the restaurant. She chose Royal on the Park in Brisbane with dinner in their Walnut Restaurant! If you’re a local to this area, you’ll understand just the kind of champagne taste our little girl has!

Since we’d be away on her actual birthday, we planned a simple little party for a few friends the week before we flew out. I knew I’d be swamped with organising the holiday and finishing up the school term so I chose the easy option birthday party and went with purchased party decor. Despite my best intentions, I was still up until 11pm the night before the party – wrapping pass the parcel, tying names onto party boxes and organising drink tags.

This was the first of our children’s parties my parents haven’t been in town for and it really had me scrambling. I always appreciate their help at our functions and festival celebrations, however that appreciation deepened to a whole new level when I didn’t have them around to bark orders at this time. Luckily some very kind friends were staying over who weren’t at all perturbed by my pre-party frenzied self and happily obliged to my many requests for things to be moved here, others to be carried over there and that pile over there to be carried out and set up down there! I couldn’t have done it without them and my ever supportive hubby!

This was Chilli’s most ‘traditional’ birthday party through the years, as we thought the classic theme of Belle and Boo leant itself well to all the common party goings on. We played a-tisket a-tasket, tunnel ball, clothes pin drop, apples on the line and pass the parcel. We also had a Belle and Boo pin the tail on the donkey game planned, but since my running of the party was already 1 hour over time without the regular hands of my Mum on deck in the kitchen, cooking behind the scenes while I run the party – we didn’t get to that final game.

Through the years, we’ve always started our Spring baby’s birthday celebrations with garland making – however this year we thought that crown colouring would be nice with the theme so the children crayoned a cardboard crown while the friends arrived and then found a little flower to attach to the front with some Stockmar Sticky Wax. We brought the party together with a morning circle singing the beautiful song ‘Make New Friends, but Keep the Old‘ as well as having fun with a name game, thinking of an animal that started with the same sound as our own name and a city we came from that also started with the same sound as our first name. I was “Elke the Elephant from Mount Everest”! I wanted to draw in the skills these Grade 1 children had been learning this year, predominantly being letters, sounds and the beginning of reading. Instead of telling a story this year at the party, we read the Belle and Boo Birthday Surprise book and I invited those children who had begun reading to read a small sentence if they would like. The children then all signed the cover page of the book as a memento for Chilli of her party. Pass the parcel had a small badge inside for each child with a little wooden pot and wooden acorn for the younger toddler children of the party. Following the clothes pin drop each child selected a tattyoo they liked and after apples on the line they were given a woollen string loop and we played some string game stories together. At the end of the party, Chilli gave each child a little bag that contained a paper dress up doll. The goodies were collected throughout the party by each child in their little party box to take home at the end of the day.

The children ate whole-foods style chocolate crackles for morning snack – vegan sausage rolls, ham and cheese toasties, pigs in blankets, lid potatoes and hummus with crudities for lunch, sipping on fresh spring-garden tea beverages. The cake was a simple layered sponge cake with jam and cream sandwiching – Chilli’s request. We recycled the cake bunting from Daddy’s Fathers’ Day ‘King for a Day‘ celebration a few weeks earlier, as well as using the Belle and Boo cake bunting. The dress Chilli wore on the day was of course that rather elaborate piece I was working on solidly for days leading up to the celebration. As per usual I totally underestimated the amount of work involved in this pattern, but it was a lot of fun to make and greatly satisfying to see it all come together beautifully in the end. Paired with Bisgaard Brogue Maryjane shoes, a Belle and Boo headband, newly pierced ears and her recent first ever style haircut, she looked quite the beautiful Miss 8!

Still in the drafts section on this blog are of course last year’s Herb Fairies birthday celebration when Chilli turned 7 and Marlin’s Teddy Bears’ Picnic to celebrate him turning 2 earlier this year. I will get around to finishing those posts I am sure – another day! When the rest of this school year is planned, Christmas is wrapped and organised and the fast approaching Grade 2 has been laid out in a skeleton plan of the year! Ha!

What have been your favourite birthday party celebrations for your children?

Festivals :: Saint Patrick’s Day

March 18, 2015 | 2 Comments

:: Can you believe I accidentally deleted this photo off our camera? It captures so perfectly the character of both our children. Lucky my IT savvy husband was able to retrieve it from the jaws of IT nothingness ::

In her book ‘Traditions :: Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort and Joy’, when speaking about Saint Patrick’s Day, Mrs Sharp reminds us of the Irish Proverb “There is no fireside like your own fireside”. How true that is. As much as our family loves our camping and adventuring holidays we take through the year at various times, it’s also lovely to arrive home to the warmth of our own fireside. After a lovely long weekend spent camping in the gorgeous Mount Field National Park with a few very close friends and relatives – to celebrate Marlin turning 2 – it was also lovely to arrive home and re-settle into our everyday rhythm. You can imagine how topsy-turvy our recent weeks had been as we busied ourselves with party preparations and camping organisation. Of course, every single moment of time spent dreaming, planning, creating and organising is beyond worth it when one sees the children’s joy as they enjoy the Teddy Bears’ Picnic we held to celebrate Marlin’s birthday, it was also nice to ‘get back to rhythm’ yesterday and what better way to ease back into school than with a Festival!

Despite our celebrations of this Irish Saint being a far cry from the days of pub crawls through The Rocks with the boys drinking copious amounts of Guinness – the festivities we enjoy now-a-days are still surrounded by shenanigans that I am sure have the scent of Leprechauns at work! Mrs Sharp tells us that 40 million Americans claim Irish Heritage, but on March 17 – that number increases dramatically! How true that is! I have to say, this Festival has to be amongst one of my favourites, it is such fun to plan and celebrate. I think many people dig deep into their Ancestral roots on March 17 to find any reason to celebrate the calamity of this mischievous day honouring a wonderful Saint. The children delight in the mischief of the Leprechauns and just quietly, I think it’s a day that they subconsciously channel their inner Leprechaun; running amok, laughing heartily, playing pranks, being cheeky and having a jolly old goof of a time. It’s a real ‘let-your-hair-down’ day and I think that’s lovely for not only the children, but ourselves as well.

:: Chilli picked this delightful end of Summer flower bunch from amidst our food gardens and arranged it so perfectly in this very appropriate green vase that she chose from the cupboard on her own ::

We always scour our wardrobe for any items that are green and we pull together, sometimes some of the most uncoordinated – but fun all the same, outfits. Marlin did indeed look like a little Leprechaun yesterday in his green outfit, and to be honest – it’s probably a very fitting character for him – he’s quite the cheeky little one, our very own Leprechaun indeed!

Green food is always a must for the day; For breakfast we juiced new season apples with carrot tops from our food garden – bright green ‘Leprechaun juice’. We foraged in the garden for greens and of course the mix included clover from our food garden paths. Boiled eggs from our ladies were sliced in rounds and arranged to look like shamrocks a-top our fresh Leprechaun salad. Lunch was ‘Green Soup’ – lots of onion and garlic fried around with a few zuc’s from our abundant supply in the food garden at the moment, a splash of stock (but not too much as I like this soup quite thick), salt and pepper, then whizz it up once the zuc is cooked through. As far as quick and easy meals go, this one is top of the list. I love the way the zuc’s take on the onion flavour so beautifully, it’s a little like a French Onion Soup – just green! With dinner we served fresh steamed beans and mustard from our food garden and mixed some of our flourishing chives through the butter. I love that our cooling Autumnal days make the weather so conducive to a real hearty Irish meal. Irish stew was our meal of the night, prepared by Chilli and I earlier in the day and left to slow bake through the afternoon. Normally we make Dublin Coddle which is another of my favourite Irish and Winter meals, but we’d just had that the week past when we were camping (makes an easy camp meal!). Of course no Irish stew is complete without a good Irish Soda Bread to accompany it, this year we made ours in the shape of a Shamrock and used our favourite bread baking book recipe (although I sub in our natural baking powder instead of bicarb soda, the bicarb gives quite a sharp, zesty flavour otherwise. So maybe our Irish Bread isn’t so ‘soda’ after all!)

:: Sometimes it seems like overnight, the children just ‘grow up’ with certain abilities. Chilli has always loved to help me cook and has from a young age been very able with kitchen tasks, but yesterday I marvelled at her attention to, ability with and neatness of peeling/chopping the garlic ::

Irish Music is always played throughout the day and my favourite album is ‘Celtic Woman :: Songs from the Heart’. Amongst the songs in this collection are some of my all time favourites and the women’s voices in this group are phenomenal – goosebump and tear evoking!

:: Yes, that band-aid is from a felting injury! ::

:: Despite her look captured here, Chilli was quite chuffed with her felted clover fashioning it into a ring to wear around for the rest of the day ::

For school on Festival Day, Chilli needle felted a Shamrock using a cookie cutter and then we made a Triquetra design on the front, adding a fleece wrapped pipe cleaner to the back as the stalk. (There’s something I love about the Triquetra form and design – it’s actually on my engagement/wedding ring!) Marlin had lots of fun with potato stamping and then the children both headed outdoors to collect supplies for, and build their Leprechaun Gardens.

With our evening meal we said an Irish Blessing (there is so many beautiful Irish Blessings to choose from) and played a fun ‘Leprechaun’s Family Game‘. I wrote out the activities as well as our blessing onto cards created from one of Marlin’s stamping artworks from the day. Following our meal, we each took a stone the children had painted green and I’d painted little shamrocks onto. We held the stone, made a wish and put our breath onto the stone and wish before placing the little wishing stones into the children’s Leprechaun gardens.

To cap off our evening, we enjoyed fresh apple pie with new season apples, while listening to a great Saint Patrick’s Day story from our favourite storyteller Sparkle Stories. The story we listened to was a Martin and Sylvia story, titled ‘Saint Patricks Day’ which is week 36 (or week 10 on a Southern Hemisphere feed) in the ‘Martin and Sylvia’ subscription series. Marlin is coming to an age where he really enjoys the stories now – he spent most of the story doing this funny little belly laugh that he’s recently started doing, it was quite amusing indeed!

:: Saint Patrick is a simple peg doll, the sheep is made from roving wrapped around a basic pipe cleaner frame, the snake is a roving covered pipe cleaner twisted around to look like a snake and the pig is an Ostheimer one the children had amongst their play things. Saint Patrick’s hood lifts up and down to change him from the young boy in Ireland to the shepherd and then the Bishop. The wooden driftwood stick ties into the side of his cloak with a strand sewn there for that purpose and changes the young Irish boy into the shepherd and then becomes his staff as he becomes Bishop ::

When the children close the curtains over for the evening on their gardens outside, they say a prayer to the Leprechauns and hope for a little bit of gold to be left when the Leprechauns pass through to enjoy the gardens they leave out for them. Sure enough, Leprechaun dust was to be seen this morning all over the gardens, and as usual, they did leave the children a piece of gold. However because those cheeky little, mischief loving Leprechauns can’t ever just do anything straight forward, they always leave the gold in a little pile of honey! Sticky Honey Money! This year, I helped the Leprechauns with a little Saint Patrick’s Day gift I’ve had my eye on making for a few years now. I finally got around to making a ‘Saint Patrick’s Day Story Bag‘. It was quite simple, easy and fun to put together in the low light of a quite home once the children had settled last night. I think it came together quite lovely and would like to explore the idea of using this for the Saints we study in Grade 2 next year. I also think we’ll make a Leprechaun trap next year. I think Grade 2 is a nice age for this activity and Chilli is excited to think about this through the coming year and create some great trap ideas!

There were smiles all around this morning as these parting Leprechaun gifts were discovered. Chilli always delights in the Honey Money, Marlin seemed a little concerned why the money was sticky – but enjoyed immensely the story bag, while Chilli flicked through a simple book with lovely illustrations and short stories about the life and legends surrounding Saint Patrick.

What is your favourite part of Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations?

“May your Troubles be less
And your Blessings be more

And nothing but Happiness
Come through your door”

:: Irish Blessing ::

Autumn :: Apples and Easter

March 1, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Who would think an apple,
Red, gold, green and round,
Would have a secret deep inside,
When cut it can be found!

I thought this secret only shone,
In deep and darkest night,
But when I cut my apple,
It shines with five points bright!

And now you know the secret,
Where shining stars are found,
In every crunchy apple,
Red, gold, green and round.

Apple Secrets :: Betty Jones

Easter in Autumn is such a beautiful celebration. I remember when Chilli was a wee bubba, approaching her very first Easter, I attended an evening talk by our playgroup teacher – such a wise woman who was a wonderful mentor to me in those early years. Much of our home rhythm, traditions and celebrations have grown from her inspiration in those first years. Following on from that evening, I purchased the book ‘Easter in Autumn‘ by Collette Leenman, and now, to be honest – I couldn’t imagine celebrating Easter in any other season. I have no doubt the energy of Spring is so beautiful to the message of Easter, but amongst our own Southern Season, there is such strong archetypal messages and activities that we can bring to share the story of Easter gently with wee ones.

One story and activity that is synonymous of Easter to Chilli is related to a favourite and iconic Autumnal fruit – Apples. As Easter approaches each year, I know that Chilli looks forward to and is always excited when we have the story of the ‘Little Round House’. When she was a young child, it was told every Easter at her playgroup, with a slight variation to the end. I brought the story into our home in the weeks that it would be at playgroup and now it is just entrenched in our Easter traditions. You’ll find many variations of the ‘Little Round House’ story online, but I couldn’t find a link that told the story in the way we do, so I’ve created a downloadable file for you with the story as we tell it.

As part of our ‘immersion’ in this theme, we often go out to watch the night sky. As the moon waxes to the final full moon before Easter, it’s lovely for the children to each night, see ‘just a little more’ of the Easter Hare ‘hopping across the face of the moon’. You might even like to look to the stars while you are out there and ‘look for the new baby stars’ that were born from your apple stars! We’ll definitely be doing that this year. I know the children will have such fun looking for the ‘new stars’ they can see each night.

A lovely activity to accompany this story and time of year is of course apple stamping. We cut the cheeks off the apple for snacks or apple and blackberry pie and then cut the core ‘block’ through the middle and reveal the ‘stars’. The ‘blocks’ then make handy little ‘stamps’ to create beautiful ‘starry night’ scenes.

This beautiful little story and apples are always such a treasured part of our Easter celebrations. Are you celebrating Easter in Autumn? What are your favourite Autumnal Easter celebrations and traditions?

Handwork :: Advent Calendar

November 26, 2014 | Leave a Comment

Recently, the Father of one of our daughter’s closest friends, suggested the girls should make each other Advent Calendars this year. Ever since, it’s been something Chilli speaks about often. I was a little overwhelmed by the idea, however as I browsed through resources, along with odds and ends I’ve bookmarked and collected through the years – planning our Christmas activities, I noticed a rough hand sketch I’d made many years ago when Chilli was a wee one. The sketch was made during a Steiner Playgroup Christmas evening where parents conscious of how and what we bring to our children at Christmas time, gathered together to listen to a beautiful, seasoned Steiner Teacher who was involved in the foundation of our local Steiner School when it began. The heading on the sketch read “Simple Advent Calendar for Kindergarteners”. I knew Chilli would love this handwork piece and would be extremely excited in making a Calendar to gift her friend as they had discussed and planned.

I wanted to say a quick word at this point about planning for Festivals, especially something that spans a larger time like the season of Christmas. Having said that, the same is true for shorter Festival periods as well – and it is regarding how much we as parents, educators and planners try to cram into our programs and homes. There is a plethora of inspiration these days to totally lose yourself in and be overwhelmed by. After 7 years of doing this homeschooling/homemaking Mumma thing, I’ve finally realised that less really is more. My focus now as I approach a Festival, especially something like Easter or Christmas is to be mindful not to become lost in all the wonderful things that Pinterest shows me I can do. Instead I sit and browse for a small amount of time through resources; books, online places like Pinterest, Facebook groups and blogs as well as pieces I’ve collected and saved through the years on my computer. I save in boards, Evernote and other resource places, things that interest me. To be honest, all through the year I’m bookmarking things in this manner, so that when a Festival rolls around, I have the resources all there ready to briefly flick through for inspiration in our planning. But here’s the thing… I highly recommend being mindful about what you are planning to incorporate and how much you incorporate. It sounds simple enough – but it is all too easy to think you’ll get a whole bundle of things done and then all that happens is yourself and your children end up frantically moving from one thing to another without any real meaning or mindfulness to what you are actually doing.

This year with Christmas, I really thought about the activities we would do. What were their purpose, what did they mean to me in the celebration, what message will they share with my children and our family about this holiday season. Having a wee one again has really made me pull back in a mindful way and embrace the ‘less is more’ philosophy, which brings deeper meaning and mindfulness to the well thought out, purposeful activities that we now incorporate into a Festival. My advice is – don’t have yourself so tightly planned that time for snuggling on the couch, reading a wonderful Festival story together while sipping a nice cup of some beautiful herbal infusion, eludes you. These are the real moments that hold beautiful treasures for our children. Moments of togetherness, calmness and times, as well as activities – imbued with meaning.

Onto this Advent Calendar then. The sketch I had was simple and rough. Inspiration at its best! On a piece of paper, I’d sketched a window in each of the four corners. There was a window to represent one of the Kingdoms through each week of Advent. In the middle is a larger window with a ‘two door’ type opening which is a special one for Christmas Morning. Here is how we made our Calendar;

We took two watercolour paintings from through the year – ‘The Three Kings Followed a Star’ for the front of the calendar and ‘The Rose and The Violet’ for the backing of the calendar (the piece the windows open to.) These Watercolour Lessons are found in the Pre School and Kindergarten Watercolour Lesson Book from Earthschooling. I like to use watercolour paintings for this as the pictures are beautiful and soft – perfect for the calendar, and the paper has a structure to it that once doubling the front and back together, will give great form to the calendar without the need for a mounting board.
In four corners of the star we traced around one of the circular shapes from our Rainbow Stacking Disc set. We flattened off the outer edge of each of the circles. In the centre we traced around a larger disc, again flattening off both the sides this time, as well as drawing a line down the centre of the circle. The line down the centre was cut through as well as the the circular part of the shape on this central window. The two outer sides that were flattened off were just ‘scored’. This makes a ‘double door’ opening.
I carefully cut with a scalpel on a cutting matt, around the circular part of each shape and we then ‘scored’ the flattened part of the shape with the back of the scalpel and a metal ruler.
We then erased the light pencil marks we had used as our guides for these windows.
Placing the top over the backing – we lightly drew around where the windows would sit on the backing.
Chilli then set to work making a little drawing in each window space we’d marked out, on the backing paper. In each window we did the following; Window/Week 1 :: Mineral Kingdom – A star drawing with glitter glue over the star, a gold foil snowflake centred on the star illustration and a tiny crystal chip fixed in the middle of the gold snowflake with a wee ball of Stockmar sticky wax. Window/Week 2 :: Plant Kingdom – A Christmas tree drawing with a mini wire and netting flower tacked again with sticky wax, onto the tree. Window/Week 3 :: Animal Kingdom – A sheep drawing with a little of the fleece from the animals we watch sheared in the Spring glued onto the sheep. Window/Week 4 :: Human Kingdom – A drawing of Chilli and her friend together with little woollen bows tacked onto their dresses. ‘Merry Christmas’/Central Window – Drawing of Mary and Joseph in the stable with the baby Jesus. Hay from the paddock next to a house we lived in once, tacked around the manger.
Before mounting the two pages together, Chilli relished the opportunity to put her new writing skills to good use! She numbered each window so her friend knows which window to open each Sunday and we also put the Kingdom name above each window. On the central window Chilli wrote ‘Merry Christmas’. Above and below the main window, she wrote ‘Advent Calendar 2014’ – she also wanted to sign her work of course! I loved this project for Chilli at this age – it was perfect for her. She had a real sense of achievement, something she’d made that was really functional for her friend. That’s what I love about Waldorf Handwork – the attention to purpose and function. We don’t just decorate a paper plate with pretty tissue paper squares to hang on the fridge – there is a purpose and function to the handwork the children and ourselves undertake. Not to say we don’t make decorations for Festivals and the like – some things are made and hung to look pretty, but it’s always with purpose.
Our final pre-mounting step was to thread the ties through the windows. I strung wool through with a thicker needle, knotted it and created ties on the door and where it met the card as it closed.
Glueing the two together, we were careful to ensure the windows were positioned correctly and then we tied closed our windows, ready to be opened by a very dear friend through the weeks of Advent to shortly come. I made sure to place glue all around the windows as well as the outer edges of the card, pressing all these points together well.
The final touch was to finger knit a short cord which could be attached through two hole punches at the top of the calendar, allowing the piece to be hung somewhere special amongst the Festivities of our friend’s home.

I say this whenever I write about Christmas… At that very same night when the foundation of how we as a family would celebrate Christmas was laid, this wonderful Steiner Teacher who was a beautiful mentor to me in those early parenting days said; Even if we are not religious, go to church regularly or no matter what our beliefs about how the world was created are – bringing these Archetypal stories that have such deep meaning in them, to our children is such a powerful and nourishing way to celebrate Christmas, not just for our wee ones but for ourselves as well. I have always held those very simple but wonderfully inspiring words in my heart and mind about the celebrations we create for our family. Watching the meaning that Mary and Joseph’s journey through our home each year to arrive at the stable that has slowly ‘come to life’ over the four weeks of Advent, has for our daughter and will as well have for our son, is so humbling. Every year I can’t hide nor help the tears of joy that roll silently down my cheeks as I witness the reverence and meaning our celebrations have to our children.

It is my hope that your celebrations bring just as much mindful, meaningful and memory making moments to your family as we experience with the rich traditions the Waldorf way has brought to our family.