February Enrichment Guide from Little Acorn Learning

Introducing the *New* February Enrichment Guide from Litle Acorn Learning!
We have restructured things just a bit and are now offering 'Monthly Enrichment Guides' filled with over 100 Pages of Crafting, Recipes, Verses, Songs, Stories, Book Recommendations, Inner-Work, Caregiver Meditations and Much, Much More!

These beautiful monthly ebooks follow the rhythm of a weekly theme with the flexibility that teachers, homeschoolers and afterschooling parents need to enrich their children's Waldorf learning experience at home or school.

Week One, February
Candlemas, Cleansing

Week Two, February
Valentine's Day, Spreading Love

Week Three, February
One Planet, Peace

Week Four, February
Seeds, Self-Reflection

For more details on each week's wonderful activities and a sample of the beautiful songs you will teach your children - visit us at Little Acorn Learning

Winter Work

Connecticut has been bombarded with SNOW these last few weeks! As I type this my little daycare children are napping and the local schools have been dismissed EARLY because of another big storm that has begun. In the morning, we've been enjoying the snow as much as possible while waiting for the bus. Sometimes one of my daycare children will arrive while we are waiting and join in the fun.

This day we had a LOT of shoveling to do and the children didn't want to let Miss Eileen lift a finger! Its wonderful how little children can find so much joy in daily work and every day tasks. Wouldn't it be wonderful, if we as caregivers, could once again find it within ourselves to feel that same way while we go through our day?

We have our wood stacked, our pathways shoveled and plenty of warm clothes and crafts to keep us cozy over these winter months in our little school.

Did you get any snow?

xoxo

FREE February Guide and Wooden Winter Trees!

Head on over to the Natural Kids Blog to enter this awesome giveaway including a FREE February 5 Day Guide from Little Acorn Learning and these beautiful Winter Trees from The Enchanted Cupboard!

Art Journaling for Self Reflection

Before I began writing my seasonal guides for teachers and families, I put most of my creative energy into my artwork as well as some handcrafts. I enjoy mixed-media art and even sold a few paintings at one time. Since writing has become my main creative outlet with Little Acorn Learning, I've had less time to work on my art but made an effort this week to carve it into my schedule.

This is actually a sneak peek into my February book that I am writing. Week Four's theme for February is Seeds, Self-Reflection and I thought - what a wonderful time to do some art journaling to delve deeper into the month as a whole and our 'selves'. I decided to make this a project for caregivers. In my journaling, you can see that I used art supplies to draw out the four distinct themes of February in my book. Candlemas - Valentine's Day - One Planet and Seeds.

I then worked slowly over the course of the week letting each sit with me... I wrote down what it meant to me and what I could work on to incorporate them.

For example, Candlemas is a time of cleansing and purification. I thought of words that symbolized what I could benefit from cleansing OUT of my life... words such as guilt, resentment, anger, perfection...

For One Planet, Peace - I wrote down words I feel support those ideals. Unity - Service - Tolerance - Acceptance.

Next I plan on taking those words and expanding with ideas of action - volunteering, forgiving, showing love in new ways, etc. I created a blank page above to journal more.

Here is an older journal page from one of my books.

The front cover and back.

You can art journal with children too. There are so many different ways to do this. My girls decided they wanted to begin with a sketch of their favorite type of animal.

I then took out old magazines and papers, etc. so they could cut and paste things that speak to them to fill in the shape of their animal and create a piece of art.

Its amazing what some glue, papers and magazines can turn into with a little time and imagination.

An artful elephant!

or a colorful horse and pony :)

And three really proud...

Fulfilled ...

And excited children.

xoxox

Snow Play

“Help one another,” the snowflakes said,
As they cuddled down in their fleecy bed.
"One of us here would not be felt,
One of us here would quickly melt;
But I'll help you, and you help me,
And then what a splendid drift there'll be."

"Help one another," the maple spray
Said to its fellow-leaves one day;
"The sun would wither me here alone,
Long enough ere the day is gone;
But I'll help you, and you help me,
And then what a splendid shade there'll be."

"Help one another," the dewdrop cried,
Seeing another drop close to its side;
"The warm south wind would dry me away,
And I should be gone ere noon to-day;
But I'll help you, and you help me,
And we'll make a brook and run to the sea."

"Help one another," a grain of sand
Said to another grain close at hand;
"The wind may carry me over the sea,
And then, oh, what will become of me?
But come, my brother, give me your hand,
We'll build a mountain and then we'll stand."

And so the snowflakes grew to drifts;
The grains of sand to a mountain;
The leaves became a summer shade;
The dewdrops fed a fountain.

Our Three Kings Celebration

We celebrated The Epiphany today because my girls had a SNOW DAY and we had the entire day together to sing, craft, play music and listen to stories.

First we worked on our Stars of Wonder... we followed the instructions in the ebook and decided to paint our paper first with watercolors.

Keira made such beautiful designs...

If you really look at children's artwork, it is so very beautiful and amazing - isn't it? Where does art come from?... I think it is from our souls. Pure creative energy from deep inside.

For me, this is a visual of my daughter's beautiful souls.

After the paper dried, we followed our instructions and folded each piece the correct way.

This was not easy for the girls but I have to admit that it was the most fun part of the process. The challenge of folding and getting each point just-so was a learning experience in itself.

And I did my best to guide them without doing the work entirely for them. Even my four year old did her best to fold her stars.

Afterwards, I used a hot glue gun to adhere the points and the two stars together. Regular glue could be used also but we want to be sure our last a very long time - they really are so beautiful... you can hardly believe they are made from paper!

Being a working mom, I cannot do all of the activities I want to do with the girls at the exact moment I hope to. Yesterday was Three Kings Day but with writing and releasing the book and caring for my family, we did little more than discuss the holiday together.

In the past, this may have been something that made me feel guilty - or I may have thought it was 'too late' and left the celebration alone completely. But I've learned over the years that the timing does not have to be exact to give your children a beautiful experience. And for me, I have been working on the spiritual meaning behind The Epiphany more this year... and it will definitely take me more than one day to do so.

So our little celebration started today and will likely trickle into the rest of the week :)

So we made our beautiful stars together and we shared some of the sweet verses.

We hung them up over our nature table

and they really are so pretty.

We tried something new today and took a video of our painting. It was fun to do this but I will not do it too often only because you can see how it really does distract the children from getting into their artwork. But I'm so happy to share my girls and our 'realness' with you and I think it will be lovely for them to see these memories when they get older.

In addition to our crafting, Keira spent time today practicing We Three Kings on her flute thanks to Jodie's beautiful music included in the ebook. This was a big step for Keira as she is a true beginner and I think she did GREAT! Here is a video clip :)

Later we spent the afternoon PLAYING in the snow! I absolutely love being snowed in with my family - with a fire burning and lots of fun to share together.

I hope you decide to celebrate this week too. And remember, it is NEVER too late!

xoxo