Pumpkin Decorating Day

Each yearone of our local schools holds a Pumpkin Decorating and Carving Day.

The children all bring in tools and supplies and a pumpkin to decorate or carve and their parents can attend to help as well.

This year the weather cooperated and the children were able to work on their pumpkins outside. I brought along fresh apple cider and pretzels and everyone got to work.

What I noticed about Keira's class this year is the beautiful diversity. Do you see? So many different types of children and families from all different backgrounds, faiths, nationalities and political positions. I was watching and taking photos of each child working on their pumpkin and noticed how each pumpkin was so beautifully different as well...

And how horribly boring and drab this day would have been if they were all the same. And how equally boring our world would be if everyone was the same.

And then I realized how very grateful I was for all of these beautiful differences. It reminded me that if I keep my mind in the right place, how I could find the good in all differences and situations and so can my children. When you send your children off to school, there are so many wonderful things for them to experience... new friendships, various opportunities and activities, sports....

But of course, there are some not-so-wonderful things - figuring out how to deal with difficult friends, adults who may be cranky that day, feeling like you are so different because you do not watch 'I-Carly' or know all of the popular TV shows because you spend your afternoons and weekends in the woods with a waldorf mom :)

And, as a parent, it is easy to take those not-so-perfect moments and run with them... wanting to protect your child from them all...wondering if you are making the right choices for your children... for me, I can get into this spiral of negative thinking that it blurs my vision and I am hardly able to see all of the GOOD.

And there is so much GOOD. More good than bad. And instead of constantly questioning myself, wanting to create the perfect life for my daughters...

I'm going to work harder to see the good in this beautiful but imperfect life we have been so very lucky to live...

And to help guide them and hold their hands through it all until they are ready to move forward on their own.

Looking forward to each up moment...

And remembering to stay focused to see the good clearly even during the down moments...

And just enjoy the RIDE!

Trick or Treating

Jack-O-Lanterns smiling bright...
Witches flying in the night...

Ghosts and goblins...

Cats and bats...

Witches with their funny hats...

Princess beauty...

Spooky homes...

Brooms that frighten little gnomes..

Pretty children dressed in style...
Trick or treat a little while...
Happy Halloween!

Carving Out Memories

These simple traditions we share each year have such deeper meaning to me as the girls get older. They build upon each other and we find ourselves reminiscing on years passed when we did the same activity...

The face we carved out that one year or the time we added cinnamon to our roasted pumpkin seeds to see what they tasted like.

I often find myself listening to the girls and I realize that we are weaving an entire life together with each experience we share.

I think about when they are mothers one day if a certain smell or activity will bring them back to one of these moments we are sharing in *this* right now...

And then I realize that one day - a day far from now - *this* right now will be a memory.

A memory that maybe I will cling to in my old age... or that one of my daughters share with their own children or lover.

And I get filled up inside with a mixture of emotion - gratitude for being blessed with this beautiful life and the opportunity to share such precious moments with my family... and sadness that one day they will be grown, out of our home and I will long for these moments of all of us here together again.

I hope our time together will help them build a beautiful life of their own one day. For now, I am going to breathe in every single delicious moment I have with them while they are still young.

Happy Halloween!

Spooky Halloween Scene

Oh just look and what the children and I made together! Isn't it beautiful?

We worked so very hard. Each little beeswax piece made by sweet little hands. My afterschool partner had this idea last month but we were unable to get it together in time for our guide so now its out there for everyone to enjoy :)

Our bats came from a suggestion from a Little Acorn Learning friend Helen who mentioned them after hearing that we were making our beeswax pumpkins.

We just used beeswax to make various items all week - bats, a witch, a spooky house, cat, ghosts, pumpkins, etc.

Then we took out our special silks and some wooden trees and other items and put them together very slowly and carefully. Each older child helped to create our spooky scene and we let everyone have a part in its creation.

It was a great way to use up some of our random pieces of beeswax. The witches' house for example is a hodge-podge of colors we weren't sure what to do with.

Then we added gray-blue wool roving - very thinly across and around our scene to give the effect of fog.

Happy Halloween from Little Acorn Learning!
xoxo

Needle Felted Pumpkin

A very simple pumpkin can be made for your nature table within an hour by using wool roving and needle felting supplies. Yesterday, during nap time, Brianna watch as I made this small but sweet pumpkin with supplies I purchased from Nova Natural Toys.

First, you wrap a small ball of roving. Do not twist - just gently form the ball as tightly as you can. Then you VERY carefully use your needles to poke around the entire ball over and over until you see that it is dry felting and 'sticking' together to form a ball.

I then added a few complimentary colors but only slightly to give the pumpkin the look of texture. The little lines you see above are simply just small strips of different colors wrapped around the ball to give the form of the indents many pumpkins have.

Needle felting is NOT for young children. The needles are super sharp and it hurts when you poke yourself. But they do enjoy watching the process. It kept Brianna entertained the whole time :)

Then I took a bit of green and separately worked my needle in and out to make a form of a leaf. I had to layer the wool a bit to make sure it was thick and sturdy enough and then I needle felted it onto my little pumpkin top.

I also did the stem separately... wrapping different colors and using my needle until I felt like it was the right color and thickness. Again, needle felting it onto the pumpkin top at the base of the stem. After adding one more little leaf - our pumpkin was done. Simple and pretty and fun to play with gentle hands.

I am not an expert at needle felting but enjoy simple projects. There are some amazing artists out there who make beautiful nature table doll, toys and landscapes. I'd love to expand and try some of these things when time allows. If you have links to any projects you have worked on (especially in Autumn), please share them in comments.

xoxo

Beeswax Pumpkins

The Pumpkin
(a fingerplay that can be done while sitting at desk or table)

Here is a long and trailing vine,
(Hands trailing over desks.)

Watch it and see the green stems twine,
(Hands twine in and out over desks.) This is a pretty yellow flower.
(Hands curved to form flower.)

That blossomed one day in a sunny hour.
When one by one the petals fall,
(Hands drop to desks.)

And now we see a small green ball.
(Hands curved to form ball.)

The big sun shone so warm and bright,
(Arms curved to form sun.)
That the ball grew bigger and yellow, quite,

And yellow, and yellower still it grew,
Until under Autumn skies so blue,
It lay so still on the sun-warmed ground,
And lo! it was a pumpkin round!
(Hands and arms curved to form a large pumpkin.)

And then one frosty Autumn day,
The pumpkin was taken quite away,
'Twas cut by a knife from the shelf so high,
And mother made a pumpkin pie!
(Forefingers and thumbs curved to form pie.)