Wonderful Illustrated Season Books

I absolutely love these picture books based on each season. Gerda Muller is the illustrator of these wordless wonders. They are great for all ages and each of my kids love them. I usually put one on the bookshelf that corresponds with the current season and tuck the others away on a less frequented shelf. These can be found at any book seller or reseller. I bought these used on Amazon for cheap. These are great for anyone who is curious about or involved with Waldorf education, anyone who loves nature and art, or for anyone interested in warm, fuzzy picture books for their little ones.

As one might suspect, we currently have the *Winter* edition out for the boys. Below is one of the detailed, soft paintings within the board book. There is always something happening everywhere you look. Bobcat can listen to my narration as he absorbs the lively colors and images. Jaguar can tell the story to me differently each time we go through it. Plus, it gives him several ideas of what he wants to do, expanding his imagination and creativity.

 Below is an example of each of the books' illustrations throughout, in addition to the beautiful panoramic images. These pages display separate smaller paintings that depict particular activities by the which the characters engage. Characters include children, sometimes their parents, and their dog.

At any rate, check your local library or purchase them used. It is well worth it. The paintings suck you right into a land of childhood experiences, family, traditions, nature.... Again this set of books are fantastic for toddlers, preschoolers, and older children, as well.

Top Holiday Gifts for Baby to Age 12

Baby
~Soft, cuddly animals or dolls, preferably made with a natural material.
~Stackable blocks or rings.
~Short tunnel for crawling practice.
~Soft baby rattle, preferably in an organic material (they are going to be chewing on it).
~Wooden cars or animals with wheels (great concept to learn at this stage).
~Nesting blocks, eggs, dolls, or bowls.
~Balls.
~Knit, crocheted, sewed, felted, or quilted item made especially for the baby in your life.

Toddler
~Wooden Blocks.
~Sandbox.
~Dolls.
~Tricycle.
~ABC Blocks.
~Step Stool.
~Wooden puzzles.
~Hand and finger puppets.
~Dress-up clothing and accessories.
~Variety of shapes of larger wooden building blocks.
~Wooden cars and animals with wheels.
~Books with short sentences. These should be about how things really are in everyday life. It is better to introduce fantasy after age 3, according to Montessori.
~Play toys that simulate real life: Kitchen sets, strollers, tool sets, etc...
~Knit, crocheted, sewed, felted, or quilted item made especially for your little one.


Age 3-6
~Child sized broom and dustpan and mop.
~Child sized kitchenware.
~Child sized gardening tools.
~Books that are a little more intesive. These books can be more imaginative now.
~Simple painting and building kits.
~Molding clay.
~Stencils and other drawing supplies.
~Connectable building sets.
~Art easel and other supplies.
~Wooden lacing dolls and animals.
~Practical life frames, such as lace tying, buttoning, zipping, etc...
~Age level games like checkers.
~Wooden train or car/street set.
~Marbles, jacks, jump rope.
~Again, knit, crocheted, sewed, felted, or quilted item made especially for your preschooler. This can be inspirational to their own interest in crafting.
~Materials for beginning knitting or sewing.
~Musical instruments.
~Dollhouse or treehouse.
~Bicycle.
~Fairly large letters for manipulation.



Age 6-9
~Knitting, sewing, quilting, looming kits and/or materials.
~Art activities.
~Basic pottery-making set.
~Musical instruments.
~Building construction sets.
~More coplex puzzles, like science or map selections
~Wooden puzzles that deal with fractions.
~Age appropriate science sets.
~Gardening/botany kits or supplies.
~Globe.
~More complex building sets.
~Sports equipment.
~More complex games, like chess.
~Archery set.


Age 9-12
~Stilts, unicycle, or a pogo stick.
~Trampoline.
~Sports equipment, like a snow board or stuff for volleyball or soccer.
~Chapter books, literature, poetry books.
~Sewing Machine.
~More compex crafts, like candle making.
~Craft supplies. For instance, yarn and accessories for the young knitter or lots of fabric for the experimental quilter.
~Wood working supplies (tools, materials, , accessories, books) for an aspiring woodworker.
~Musical instruments and a variety of music...or lessons.
~Architecture sets.
~Challenging, developmental games.
~Science and Nature sets.
~Journal or notbook for writing.

Babies Galore: Tadpoles and Shoots!

Today was a nice balance from that of yesterday. Much cooler at home and in the car, much more smooth-flowing, and everyone kept busy and Bobcat was less needy. Ah, sweet relief!


Today was sort of exciting because there were many little baby surprises (no, I am not pregnant). This morning, after taking a trip to the post office, we stopped at the store for spring water (yeah, I know I should have obtained it from upstream, but this was easier), and then headed to Lee's Feed for some tadpoles. We bought 6 cute little critters and brought them home. They are swimming in a large heavy-duty bin of spring water (chlorine is in tap water, which kills tadpoles). We are going to create a pond for them, soon, once we dig it out and prepare it. We will have to wait 5-7 days after filling it with hose water, so the sun can filter out the chlorine. They are so simple to care for. Simply feed them lettuce, ensure 3/4 shade, and keep the water clean. Also, they can't be too close to pines (which we have a lot of) because the pine needles are toxic. Jaguar and Bobcat are both completely intrigued by them, as am I!

Also, we went out to check Jaguar's garden that he planted on Sunday, and many-a-baby have been sprouted! We were both really happy to see such progress. He has at least 4 each of 2 types of tomato, 8 each of 2 different beets, 4 each of 2 lettuces, at least 6 onions, 1 of his 4 bean plants, tons of 2 different corns, and a bunch of his sunflowers are sprouting, as well. Very rewarding! Oh and a little broccoli is peaking through, also. After checking and watering the garden, Jaguar decided to play in the dirt with a watering can to simulate the gardening he had just done.

This morning, he was able to help Mommy clean house, do yoga for about 10 minutes, and play at the park with some other children (like I said before, he is a social little dude when he wants to be). This afternoon, we went to the store to get lettuce for the tadpoles, we read Summer by Gerda Muller, we made homemade Screamers (again, a pb/banana smoothie), we talked, Jaguar built floor puzzles, Bobcat slept a while, Jaguar explored outside... I recieved Soul Mate Dolls by Noreen-Crone Findlay in the mail, which is wonderful because we were already supposed to be working on a doll this week. I think we can fill in some time this weekend for meticulous doll-making (Handwork is important for any child).

This evening, Jaguar took a bath and played on top of his newly-built loft bed with Bobcat, while Daddy finished the bed off with lemon oil. Then Jaguar spent a solid 15 mintues on the back deck singing and playing his drum set that we found at the thrift store a while back. Then he began boasting about his rock and roll song and urging me to dance while he played it again. He went outside a few times to check on his tadpoles, and continued telling Daddy about them. We ate bow tie pasta with garlic marinara, and homemade garlic bread, with steamed asparagus on the side. It was actually a hit with Jaguar and Bobcat. Jaguar is so picky sometimes, but not usually with any kind of greens. And it is still hard feeding Bobcat our food sometimes, too. We had rocky road for dessert. Daddy gave into a movie again with Jaguar this evening. Disney's Robin Hood is on the menu for tv viewing tonight. I guess it's okay...I like the movie and the music, too. This is about it, other than working on my other blogs a bit tonight. Then I will hit the hay - Daddy's already passed out. So is the baby. I am allowing Jaguar to finish his movie - bad Momma...

First Day of Home School for my Preschooler

Yesterday, I managed to successfully begin home-schooling my preschooler without even a morsel of the tv! He had a lot of fun, even though he was asking me about movies periodically. I had to keep reminding him about our new rule of no movies during the week. He was pretty accepting of this, though he doesn't really know the concept of no tv for 5 days straight. Eh, he'll get used to it, as long as he is being stimulated properly, actually doing things, rather than passively watching the simulation of others doing things, and then getting up afterwards with all this pent up energy and nothing in his brain other than the crap he just watched. So, today will be our second day of tv detox.

So, anyway, we have decided to do a 6-week unit on weather because it is summer. Yesterday morning, Bobcat and Jaguar and I all took a long walk in the morning and discussed all the things we saw and the traits of the current weather. We then ate some apple slices and drank water (Man, it's hot out, especially carrying a rollie-pollie 25-Lb baby in a sling!). Bobcat is being a little kling-on lately, so it is hard getting anything done without having to hold him. So, when we got home he still wanted me to hold him and threw a huge fit. Then, I struggled to prepare my etsy orders for shipping, and scooped up the boys for trip to the post office and the store for food coloring.

After we returned back home to the more shady tall pines, I put the baby to sleep. Jaguar and I went into the kitchen and filled an ice tray with water and he created mixtures of colors within. We stuck it in the freezer and ta da!, we had colorful ice cubes. Outside, there were some patches of sun that we used to lay down papers and ice cubes on top. We left it for the sun to do it's watercolor magic. The colors traveled and melted and created a beautiful masterpiece. He also spent much of his time drawing pictures of people, animals, rainbows, summer landscapes... He loves drawing.

It was so warm yesterday, we had a light lunch of avacado on toast and fruit. Jaguar played thoughout the day in his transforming bedroom and outside in the dirt and on the swing. He was building roads and buildings with scrap chunks of wood from Daddy's bunk bed-making. He would dance to the lingering music on the radio periodically. He helped sort the dirty clothes and swept the garage of it's saw dust and goodies tracked in from outside. He fed the kitty, watered the garden, took out the compost.... All the while, Bobcat tags along, often wanting me to hold him, and explores the things in his little sensory world. Right now, he is exploring clapping, running, dancing and climbing...

We also started on our felt "paper doll", whereas I drew and cut it out for him after he attempted both, and he drew the eyes, mouth, and nostrils (he had to have a nose on his doll). Then he picked out the colors of embroidery floss and began carefully and meticulously stitching the eyes and nostrils. By that time, he had had enough. So we will continue today.

We made a curry lentil dish for dinner, and then the boys went outside even longer, this time with Daddy because he was home. After my dinner cleanup, I decided to take a bike ride all the way up to the corner store and over to this other house we were going to buy a year ago. It was a major fixer and I wanted to see the progress made by the people who had ended up moving in there. It is like night and day from what it was. But now I had to pump up this huge hill just to get out of there....I made it, without getting off the bike once.

I then gave the boys a bath, read Jaguar "The Earth and I", which we have actually continuously read for about 5 days (he dives in further and further each time) and "Summer" by Gerda Muller. Then he went night night. Bobcat actually had an odd sleep schedule last night, taking a "nap" late and waking at around 10:00 pm...Yeah...(sarcasm). So, he stayed wide awake with us till 12:30.

And we are up again at 7:20 this morning......

Rearranging the Boys' Bedroom

This last weekend, I decided to go through the kids' bedroom once again to do a cleansing. I took out 95% of the of remaining plastic toys, junk, and character stuff from the last toy cleanout. Most of that is in my trunk, ready to be sent off to the local thrift store. Then, I decided to remove all the movies from the living room (too accessable, and yes, we are still watching movies, though we haven't had TV in about 6 years) and into the top shelves of the kids' closet. I want them to still be accessable, but sort of forgotten as they gather dust up there. I can't remove them completely yet, but it is a gradual process. Although, I did implement a new rule upon starting to formally "homeschool" my preschooler yesterday, which was that he can only watch movies on the weekends. This, I am excited about because I have been bad with this since we moved to our new house a few months ago.

My husband is starting a bunk bed business and he just built a short loft bed for my son, which has a spacious space underneath for just about anything in a young child's world. Right now, all we have done is hang a sarong across the front and put some cushions and animals inside. I plan to refine this, like put playsilks across the ceiling of the "castle" or "cave" part of the bed or hang needle felted ornaments from the wooden slats, or something. This inspired me to do a whole bedroom/living room arrangement. My husband is going to build a tall loft bed that creates an even bigger space below to place a desk or whatever. We are getting rid of the previous bunk bed that was separated into 2 beds and the matching colossal dresser/shelves. I am excited because there is all this open space and vacant room...I can think clear-minded, the kids can play clear-minded. Well it will be filled in with more attractive custom made drawers, kitchenette, fridge, and low shelves. This will be a slow process, but hopefully we can get this all implemented within a couple of months. There is still a bit of rearranging to do, but we are headed n that direction.

Books were another category of items we had too much of. So many of these books that I decided to get rid of were based on movie characters, or were just of lower quality. From 2 bookshelves-full, we ended up with one. So, I moved the low bookshelf into the boys' room as a temporary home for all of their kitchen toys. When I was in there, I gazed at our 9-year-old's bookshelf. I ended up eliminating 1/3 of his chapter books, which were mostly GooseBumps. Now he is left with an array of Newberrys, naturesque books, animal stories, fairy tales, and so on...

Furthermore, the only kiddie things we have in the living room anymore are the couple of Waldorf babies in the corner of the sectional couch blanketed by a couple of fairy play silks, and our developing nature table, which, by the way, gets "rearranged" at least 20 times daily by our 16-month-old...we are working on it. See pic for our nature-table-in-progress. This is great because our old house was dominated by little kid junk! I guess I just didn't really know where to start at the time.

There will be more updates in the future on the updates in our home and life!