I have been researching Waldorf learning a lot lately. I love the simplicity of the playthings. I love the openess of each item and the infinite purposes it could serve. I love the natural element, limiting carcinogens and toxins from my children's environment. But can I say, the pricetag makes me a little nauseous. This thing that bothers me most about that, is the home-made simplicity is lost through the commercial market. I have been searching through pages of ebay and amazon to find some block crayons made from beeswax but cannot fathom spending $40 on a set of 8 crayons. It's a little absurd..
so, Im going to the root of the philosophies, and becoming a little more hippy with each ingredient I collect in the process. My goal is to make the following:
-Full set of food colouring made with fruits, veggies, and spices
-Full set of water colour paints made from all natural ingredients
- A set of beeswax crayons for each child
- Several colours of beeswax modelling clay
- A waldorf doll for each child (Christmas presents?)
- Set of play siks
- A paint board for each child
I have a pinterest board of things to make: http://pinterest.com/ssmadella/kids-to-make-or-buy/
I'll be posting updates on our creations in upcoming posts. Today's project: food colouring. I will attempt to make red, blue, and yellow :)
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Sensory Play
We love sensory play! Here are some of our adventures:
Disclaimer: I always give the kids undivided attention during sensory play and use only materials that I feel I can control the safety of. Do at your own risk, and expect a mess.
Cooked Pasta
Dried Rice (Dinosaur excavation)
Coloured salt or sugar
Jello
Paint splatters on canvas
Cloud dough (flour and cooking oil)
Canvas tempera paint and salt
Paint slide- Rolling balls down or, hey, sliding
Cooked oatmeal
Disclaimer: I always give the kids undivided attention during sensory play and use only materials that I feel I can control the safety of. Do at your own risk, and expect a mess.
Cooked Pasta
Dried Rice (Dinosaur excavation)
Jello
Snow
Paint with salt
Cooked Pasta with water
Glow paint and highlighters under black light
chocolate pudding (muddy) pigs
Cloud dough (flour and cooking oil)
Cooked oatmeal
Lets start at the very beginning
This week was the first day of school for all of the big kids! How excited we were to see big yellow school buses drive by all day! My current group is made up of 1, 2, and 3 year olds, so nobody is going off to school this year, though I have started to homeschool my 3 year old daughter in a relaxed child-led way for JK. She is devouring everything I give her ask asking for "More! More learning, please, Mommy!" I hope her passion for learning never dies.
Our theme this week was fairly simple: Lets start at the very beginning
We didn't do much "seat work" because the weather still allowed us to be outside all day, and so we learned in nature, as usual.
Our week at a glance:
- I introduced the letter A
- We practiced writing A's
- We learned a song- "Do you know the Apple Man"
- We found 'A's and 1's in nature
- We counted ants and made them houses in the sand
- We learned the A note in music
- We learned the song "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound Of Music
- We did an alligator craft and read "Alligator Pie"
- We sang "The Wheels On The Bus" every time we saw a bus (they started it, as you can guess)
- We learned about the number 1
- We learned about the beginnings of plants- the seed
Tuesday was our first day back at playgroup. We brought along some friends. The kids didn't remember it at all and had a blast with all the new toys!
On Wednesday we received our fruits and veggies from Ottawa Organics. We got peaches, pears, kale, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, beets, carrots, green onions, zucchini squash (Sera described it as a long yellow sunburst squash!), strawberries, and turnips. Every week, we bring the box to the kitchen table and all sit around taking turns pulling out an item. The child who's turn it is tells us about it: what it's called what it looks like, whether they like it or not, what colours it is. If we dont know, we write down a description and look it up online or in a book.
We did music time loosly while some children played and others participated. This week we sang songs, I showed them the guitar, and how the strings are put on (I was in the middle of changing them, so it was a good opportunity), and I showed them an Amp. They sang into the mic to hear it work. Next week we will hook up the Bass (B for Bass!) to see what it sounds like plugged in and unplugged. We learned "Do Re Mi" while we sat under the gazebo in the park.
We practised cutting with safety scissors and then glued them onto alligators for teeth. We read "Alligator Pie" by Dennis Lee, practised writing A's and found objects outside that started with the A sound or looked like A's.
We learned about seeds: What they are, what they can become, where they come from. We found seeds in our food and outside. We will continue this theme next week when we try panting beans again.
Our theme this week was fairly simple: Lets start at the very beginning
We didn't do much "seat work" because the weather still allowed us to be outside all day, and so we learned in nature, as usual.
Our week at a glance:
- I introduced the letter A
- We practiced writing A's
- We learned a song- "Do you know the Apple Man"
- We found 'A's and 1's in nature
- We counted ants and made them houses in the sand
- We learned the A note in music
- We learned the song "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound Of Music
- We did an alligator craft and read "Alligator Pie"
- We sang "The Wheels On The Bus" every time we saw a bus (they started it, as you can guess)
- We learned about the number 1
- We learned about the beginnings of plants- the seed
Tuesday was our first day back at playgroup. We brought along some friends. The kids didn't remember it at all and had a blast with all the new toys!
On Wednesday we received our fruits and veggies from Ottawa Organics. We got peaches, pears, kale, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, beets, carrots, green onions, zucchini squash (Sera described it as a long yellow sunburst squash!), strawberries, and turnips. Every week, we bring the box to the kitchen table and all sit around taking turns pulling out an item. The child who's turn it is tells us about it: what it's called what it looks like, whether they like it or not, what colours it is. If we dont know, we write down a description and look it up online or in a book.
We did music time loosly while some children played and others participated. This week we sang songs, I showed them the guitar, and how the strings are put on (I was in the middle of changing them, so it was a good opportunity), and I showed them an Amp. They sang into the mic to hear it work. Next week we will hook up the Bass (B for Bass!) to see what it sounds like plugged in and unplugged. We learned "Do Re Mi" while we sat under the gazebo in the park.
We practised cutting with safety scissors and then glued them onto alligators for teeth. We read "Alligator Pie" by Dennis Lee, practised writing A's and found objects outside that started with the A sound or looked like A's.
We learned about seeds: What they are, what they can become, where they come from. We found seeds in our food and outside. We will continue this theme next week when we try panting beans again.
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