Friday's Nature Table.

Thank you for all of your wonderfully inspiring posts last Friday... I LOVE visiting all of you!

I encourage everyone to participate... just add your link in the form below and your post will become the next on the list for all to enjoy.

Grab the above Friday's Nature Table button and link it to www.themagiconions.blogspot.com on your blog so that others can find this wonderful resource too.

Blessings and magic to you for sharing today!

Discovering Waldorf - 'The Nature Table'.

Today's Discovering Waldorf's discussion is on one of my favorite topics, the Nature Table. Amber, a wonderfully creative mom of 2, presents this Waldorf idea in a very thought provoking way... enjoy!

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Meditations on the Nature Table by Amber Greene.

What is a “Nature Table” and why do you see one in most, if not every, Waldorf/Steiner kindergartens and lower primary classroom, and in the homes of families who subscribe to the values of Waldorf education? What purpose do they serve?

I like to think of a Nature Table as a little bit of magic in an otherwise ordinary day. Whilst ordinary days are wonderful things, a little bit magic does wonders for the renewal of our spirits and reminds us that there really IS something bigger going on.

The motifs of the familiar story of “Jack and the Beanstalk” correlate with the potential of a Nature table and give us a wonderful living picture of the essence of it.

Jack demonstrates trust in the words of the trader. He hopesagainst odds that there really is magic in the beans. Inaccepting the magic beans, he acknowledges his belief in the somewhat predictable, yet wonder-filled nature of the earth and her seasonal shifts and turns. Observing his mother’s lack of vision and oversight, he questions himself, his motives and his deeply held need for magic. Later, as Jack watches the beanstalk reach into the heavenly realms, he is encouraged and excited that untold treasures may lay just beyond, hidden out of sight. Jack’s adventures and the element of risk-taking in his quest to claim his just delights inspire our own “treasure hunting” and make us believe that anything is truly possible.

Our nature tables silently hold the same promise. Trusting that nature will provide, we set up a table or shelf in the corner of the room. Hope and acceptance help us to suspend our judgements and allows the form of the nature table to grow, change and transform. We too, can have questions about the nature table, and wonder about its value. We know that the nature table can have an impact on the lives of those who drink the images in but it is unmeasurable and unpredictable. It can inspire the play and crafting of small children or it can have no visible effect at all. But, we continue to watch in glee as the story of the table ebbs and flows. Lastly, we are encouraged, and acknowledge the inspiration that nature can bring to our own creative lives.

To truly ‘own’ your nature table and have it mean something more than a token gesture requires us to delve deeply into our thinking processes. “Why” becomes a critical question. It is not enough to have one, because everyone in the Waldorf world ‘has one’. It is essential to contemplate the presence of a nature table for yourself and to be careful to evaluate your motives, rather than buy into a myth. Without a question, there is a real risk of a stereotype or caricature running rampant, potentially destroying something good. We can work hard to break down assumptions by being open and forgiving in our search for answers.

(In a similar vein, many a kindergarten teacher wears a pink apron because they buy into a “tradition”, or believe it is something they must do. A thinking person would first ask the ‘why’ question and find out the back story of their mentor’s pink apron before they ever contemplated wearing their own. A well placed question can unravel a gaggle of myths. Well balanced and insightful mentors definitely welcome it.)

Your job is to find your own answers. Is your nature table purely a place of beauty where you can create a ‘still life’ of your present moment in time? Is it a tool for inspiring your children’s imaginative play? Is it a storehouse for your story props? Is it a link between the outside and inside world? Does it serve as an altar to the blessings of Nature? Is it a showcase of your creative outgoings? What else might it serve?

Whatever it is for you is what it is. There is no right or wrong, but acknowledging the true purpose of your nature table will guide its presence in your life. This is surely the goal of Waldorf education; to think something through and find your own relationship to it based on your experiences in life and living. A nature table can be a wonderful tool for an imaginative meditation on your own process of thinking and being, or, it can be just a “lovely thing”. I wish you happy creating with your own nature tables!

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Thank you, Amber, you have me thinking deeply on our Nature Table. Ours is interactive... a place for my kids to put the treasures they have found in Mother Nature... nothing stays put for long as it is played with endlessly. It is a rule to tidy the nature table before bed so that each day's 'nature table' play can start off afresh.

Amber writes a great blog called MamaMoomTime where she shares her free spirit... it's definitely worth a visit. She also runs a fantastic workshop that inspires creativity, called Create and Love Life.

Here are the other interesting posts in the Discovering Waldorf Series.

Thank you, Amber, and blessings and magic to all.

Lilacs in Bloom.

Have you visited the Descanso Garden in Southern California? If you are in the LA area, it is a gem worth seeking out. It has a gorgeous Camellia forest and if you are lucky enough to be there in the Spring, you will be blown away by the beauty of the Lilac garden.
Lilacs are hard to grow in Southern California but, in Descanso, they grow wonderfully. We visited them to wrap ourselves in their glorious perfume.
We drank in each and every bloom.
And decided that, for that day, Lilacs were our favorite flowers!
Lilacs are of the Olive family and are native to Europe and Western Asia. Their botanical name is Syringa. Lilacs symbolize first love and innocence.

The Lilacs Mother Planted

I listened by the doorstep

as the evening shadows fell,
While from the distance floated

the faint tinklings of a bell,
The night hawk circled overhead

then dropped straight down below,
The same as when I first lived there,

in childhood, long ago.
The trees have grown much taller

in the yard where once I played,
And now looked so majestic

in their summer robes arrayed;
And near the walk the lilacs flung

their fragrance to the air
The lilacs that my darling mother

planted for us there.

by Ed Blair

Blessings and magic to all Lilac Lovers!

Make a No-Knit Yarn Nest.

A few weeks ago, to K's utter delight, we discovered a little nest in the eves inside our front porch. We have been watching Mr and Mrs House Finch building this nest from our front window. K has been consumed... it reminds me, a little uncomfortably, of myself when the first Big Brother came out.

Whenever I ask if she'd like to make something, the answer is always... 'a nest! Oh please, Mommy, can we make a nest?'

So today, we made a nest.

As I'm no knitter... (I can't knit... shock horror!) I have been thinking of ways to make a nest using yarn that doesn't require knitting. This is what we came up with...

What you'll need is:

* Glue or Hodge Podge

* Water

* A baloon

* Scissors

* Yarn

We blew up the balloons to the right size for a nest.
We cut long strips of the yarn.
I lined a glass dish with a plastic packet for easy clean-up later and filled it with glue. I added enough water to the glue to make it about the consistency of milk.
We dipped the yarn into the glue mixture and wrapped it around the balloon, making sure to keep the yarn in a nest shape.
When our nests were wrapped around the balloons, we set them in the sun to dry.

When they were dry, we popped the balloons with a pin and our perfect little nest were left.

They have been treasured playthings all day and K is so delighted to be able to play 'Birdie-in-a-nest'!

Blessings and magic.

Silent Saturday.

Fishing in the fountain with Dad.

Blessings and magic!

Winner of the Natural Kids Giveaway.

And, the lucky winner of our Natural Kids Earth Day Giveaway is...

RunninL8, who's sweet comment was...

"Oh my gosh! I could spend HOURS!!!! But one of the first things to pop out at me was this WONDERFUL Tree hugger hoodie from HANDFULL

I will be posting about this giveaway on both my blog and my FB! Thanks so much for such a wonderful offering!!!!"

Congratulations!!! Your gorgeous goodies will be sent to you soon. Thank you so much for participating.

Sorry to all of you who came second. Don't be too sad, though, as we'll be hosting our next Giveaway with Periwinkle Sky for Mother's Day... be sure to look out for it.

Blessings and magic!

Friday's Nature Table.

Thank you for all of your wonderfully inspiring posts. I hope you all had a wonderful Earth Day and were reminded, once again, how Mother Nature's beauty is all around... her magic is everywhere!

I encourage everyone to participate... just add your link in the form below and your post will become the next on the list for all to enjoy.

Grab the above Friday's Nature Table button and link it to www.themagiconions.blogspot.com on your blog so that others can find this wonderful resource too.

Blessings and magic to you for sharing today!

Discovering Waldorf - 'Earth Day in the Waldorf Home'.

I am so excited that Carrie from the wonderful Waldorf-inspired blog, The Parenting Passageway, has joined us for todays Discovering Waldorf. Her discussion is on celebrating Earth Day in the Waldorf home. Welcome, Carrie.

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Earth Day in the Waldorf Home by Carrie.

The first Earth Day in the United States was held on April 22, 1970. It was organized by Senator Gaylord Nelsen, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, and was designed to be a day of environmental teaching. The participation in celebrating this holiday has since grown and Earth Day has become a day to mark an appreciation of the Earth, our environment, and of our role of environmental stewards. According to Wikipedia, Earth Day is now observed on April 22 each year by more than 500 million people and several national governments in 175 countries.

Within the framework of Waldorf parenting and education, we have a special opportunity because every day is truly Earth Day. The small child under the age of nine feels at one with that rock, that tree, that bird, that wind racing through their hair. Therefore, it is important to mark Earth Day in a way that takes into account the developmental stage of the under-nine child who still feels at one with all the elements.

Hopefully, you are building up to the celebration of Earth Day by spending time outside with your child every day in all kinds of weather. Help your child to really sense nature with all the twelve senses, from feeling rain on their skin to hearing the scuffling of the crunchy autumn leaves under their feet to wondering together at the beauty of the spider web in the garden.

For an older child, this experience into weather forms the beginnings of appreciation for our gardeners and farmers, cycles of life, the cycle of compost and much, much more. But this appreciation and groundwork is laid in the youngest years by just being outside and taking it all in.

The other important way to build up to Earth Day is what you model yourself in terms of taking care of the environment for your small child. If you model recycling, reducing spending and reusing things, your child will follow you. This affords the small child a positive way to help keep Mother Earth clean.

If you partake in a community celebration on Earth Day, please keep the tone upbeat and positive. A matter-of-fact tone of “We are helping to keep Mother Earth neat and clean” whilst you are helping to clean up a trail, a park or a river is wonderful, and empowers a small child more than hearing about all the things that are wrong with the environment. Perhaps you will mark that day in your family by planting a tree or giving some other gift to Mother Nature. Perhaps you will hike or canoe as a family and enjoy with wonder and awe the majesty of Mother Earth.

Our celebrations in Waldorf for small children are about the doing, not so much the words. For your small child, have a wonderful time doing, creating, and being in order to mark this day!

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Thank you, Carrie. I LOVE your quote 'Every day is Earth Day!' I agree that we must let our own actions show our love for the Earth. It is true that our children learn so much from watching us and what we do... be the change you want to see.

Carrie's blog, The Parenting Passageway, has pages and pages of wonderful Waldorf discussions. Her articles are thought provoking and so very informative.Her blog is a wonderful resource to those of us who are trying to follow the Waldorf way at home. She has helped me with many a struggle.

Thank you, Carrie.

Today is the last day to enter our Earth Day Giveaway!!! A winner will be announced tonight, so, if you haven't already, please head over to this post to enter... Good luck!!

Here are the other posts in the Discovering Waldorf Series.

Blessings and magic!

Name the Bird...

Now this is a bird after my own heart!

Can you guess what his name is?

Yes, he is a woodpecker, but what type of woodpecker?

I'll give you a clue...

YOU GOT IT!! He is an Acorn Woodpecker! Look at what he does!

He makes hundreds of little holes all over the tree trunk and then collects acorns to stick in the holes! Isn't he funny!

Look how hard he has worked...

A Good Man remarked that if I was a bird, I'd be an Acorn Woodpecker. So there you have it! What bird would you be?

Our Earth Day Giveaway ends on Earth Day, 22 April, please enter for your chance to win some really sweet goodies.

Blessings and magic.

Home of the Apple Pie.

On a whim, we packed up the RV and set off on a camping weekend. We headed to Julian, the home of the apple pie...

Such a quaint little town, old fashioned and sleepy and filled with pie shop after pie shop filled with delicious pastries and steaming pies.

We had our fair share,

And then headed out into countryside to explore the spring beauty.

Luscious green hills dotted with oak trees.

And wild flowers galore...

And wild turkey nests with 11 gorgeously speckled turkey eggs...

*(footnote: I must remember the image of A Good Man stumbling across Mrs Turkey sitting on her nest - I honestly can't decide who got the biggest fright; my big strong husband or poor Mrs Turkey!)

We love camping and the family fun it brings. Coloring together...

Cooking on the fire together and telling stories in the light of the candle...

Playing together in the dirt...And even rolling in it too!
As one of my favorite sayings goes... A dirty child is a happy child. Judging by the color of my children's bath last night... they must have been VERY happy children indeed!

Blessings and magic.

Your Chance to Win.

Natural Kids Earth Day Giveaway ends 22 May... Leave a comment HERE for your chance to win ALL of the following cuties...

The sweetest little Felt Sail you have ever seen, fromMuddy Feet.

A little orange Pocket Baby, similar to this magical treasure, from German Dolls.

A pack of 5 Aromatic Play Clays from MamaKs, scented with the soothing fragrance of organic essential oils.

And last, but not least, an adorable 'Feltie' gnome, similar to this cutie, from SqrlBee.

Blessings and magic.

Silent Saturday.

Mother Earth in her golden gown.

Be sure to enter our Natural Kids Earth Day Giveaway.

Blessings and magic.

Friday's Nature Table.

Don't forget to enter our Natural Kids Earth Day Giveaway! The Snail in the photo above is just one of the lovely prizes to be won!!

Thank you all for the wonderful links from last Friday... I LOVE seeing other families enjoying Nature.

Please participate... just add your link in the form below and your post will become the next on the list for all to enjoy.

Blessings and magic and thank you for sharing today!

Natural Kids Earth Day Giveaway!!

Here are the gorgeous creations that one of you lucky Earthlings will win...

The sweetest little Felt Sail you have ever seen, fromMuddy Feet.

A little orange Pocket Baby, similar to this magical treasure, from German Dolls.

A pack of 5 Aromatic Play Clays from MamaKs, scented with the soothing fragrance of organic essential oils.

And last, but not least, an adorable 'Feltie' gnome, similar to this cutie, from SqrlBee.

See details on how to enter below.

Earth Day is an important celebration for us all... it is one day that focuses our energy into loving and nurturing our beautiful Mother Earth... a day for us to reflect on what we can do to help protect and cherish her, a day for us to meditate on how each one of us holds the power to honor her. Alone, we are just a cricket's chirp in the dark, together we are a universal symphony of unbridled power. Let's come together, through our actions, to keep our Mother safe and beautiful.

There are so many ways to show our respect for our earth and I'm sure each one of you are doing your part in being earth conscious every day. I thank you for this. One of the pledges I have taken is to be mindful of the toys I encourage my children to play with. Our children's toys are often OUR choice... I can choose a shiny, plastic, mass produced, piece of junk toy from a huge conglomerate toy store who gets the toy in bulk from another country who, we are all too aware, is sometimes not so vigilant in making sure that that toy is safe for our children, a toy that I know is made from non-degradable materials that will end up polluting our beautiful Earth. OR I can buy a toy that has been handmade with love by someone who thinks like me. A toy made from natural, often renewable, bio-degradable materials. A toy that is non-toxic, made to last and beautiful in it's creativity. I have chosen the latter. I'm not saying that we have none of the former in our home... we do, of course but I have made a conscious effort to move away from the cheap plastic toys in favor of the heirloom, handmade toys. It sometimes costs me more upfront, but not in the long run as these toys are heirloom and usually last from generation to generation. I make these toys too and in my journey into the marketplace of the eco friendly toy, I have been lucky enough to become part of a truly wonderful Etsy team called The Natural Kids Team.

This group of artisans are remarkable in their commitment to being eco-friendly. Their toys are often nature inspired and a reflection of the love they feel for our Mother Earth.

So, the Earth being our inspiration, our muse, what better day to come together as a team and show our global love for all that is nature in offering a Team Giveaway.

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

To enter the Giveaway, simply click on the Natural Kids Team Earth Day Promotion here... this will take you to our team blog and a list of all of our shops offering Earth Day Sales and Promotions. Please choose an item that grabs your fancy and tell me about it by leaving a comment below. Be warned... it wont be easy to choose a favorite as there are SO MANY gorgeous things to choose from... but have a go anyway :-D

If you blog, facebook or tweet about this giveaway (I'm sure your friends and readers will be delighted to have a chance to win these treasures too) you will be entered in this Giveaway an extra 3 times per time you share... just let me know and I'll mark down your extra entries. If you have trouble leaving a comment, email me and I'll enter you.

Mr Random will choose a winner on Earth Day evening... 22 April. This Giveaway is open to Earthlings everywhere!

Just think... with all of the wonderful sales and promotions this group of artisans is offering, NOW is a great time to get your hands on those heirloom toys your kids will treasure. (If your life is crazy like mine, Christmas will be here before you can say 'Jack Rabbit!' I, for one, am going to make the most of this great toy sale.)

The Natural Kids Team Blog is also having a Giveaway today so pop over for a second chance to win some gorgeous handmade toys.

Good Luck to all and blessings and magic to our Mother Earth!