So Much Advent and Christmas!

The fourth light of Advent is the light of Humankind

The light of hope that we may learn to love and understand.

~ R. Steiner

So much to do!  So much to do!  Unfortunately,no matter how laid back I try to be about the holidays this week, that seems to be my mantra.  My tasks are not unpleasant, just a little too plentiful!

As we finish our last week of Advent, we are adding human figures to our nativity.  We started with the shepherd and now have two of the Three Kings.  Instead of adding the Three Kings to the scene immediately, they are at a far end of the table, for they have not yet begun their journey to bring their gifts to the Christmas Child.  They will be moving closer each day after Christmas until they arrive on January sixth.  See?  I might not be a religious person, but I've at least done my reading!  It's all in the spirit of keeping it in line with the story.

the shepherd joins his flock on the right

Speaking of stories, we did a little puppet play for one of our Christmas songs yesterday morning during circle time.  That old song, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" is such a nice little story and perfect for acting out with a few little dolls and simple props.  The kids thought it was great fun to sing the different parts and move the dolls accordingly.  We used one of the kings and the shepherd from the nativity, along with a cut out paper star with a "golden" tail.  The kings palace and throne were comprised of several plain wooden blocks.

Said the Night Wind to the Little Lamb, "Do you hear what I hear?"

Another nice little activity we've been doing ties in with the story of Mary's Journey.  Mary is up in the heavens gathering silver and golden threads to weave a shift for her baby.  She is wondering if she will finish it in time for the arrival of the baby.  But all ends well, because the children of the earth are doing good deeds.  The children's angels carry news of these deeds to the heavens where new threads are created in a quantity sufficient to complete the garment just in time.  (I was not able to find this story on line to link to, though I'm sure there must be one out there somewhere. The one I have is in our Live Ed curriculum.  Sorry!)

As much as I don't like to admit it, my kids have needed a few more reminders than usual to mind their actions towards one another this week.  So each time they do a good deed by sharing, using kind and loving words, or helping someone, I write their deed on a little paper star with a "golden" thread hanging from it.  The star then gets hung up around a door frame for all to see and to remind them of their good behavior.  I'm happy to say that the door frame is getting quite full of stars!

Tonight we're getting ready to walk our Solstice Spiral.  Many people kick off Advent with a walk in the Advent Spiral, but the appropriateness of walking the spiral on the actual Solstice made more sense, especially with our more nature-based approach to Advent and Christmas.  I believe there's a link to an explanation of the Advent spiral in my first Advent post.  We're taking a less solemn approach to our Spiral walk, and the children will be singing "This Little Light of Mine" as they walk in and out. (We'll be leaving out the Jesus and Satan parts, thank you!)

Lastly, in preparation for Winter, we stripped our nature table of Autumn items and set the scene for the new season.  Our nature table has three tiers, so we took a new approach this season.  Our lower tier represents the underground, where the gnomes are busy at work making and mining crystals, gems, and precious metals.  The middle tier is the surface of the earth, covered with snow (a white silk).  We will be adding King Winter to this part of the scene at a later date (as in when I finish making him!).  The top tier is for the heavens, where the Snow Queen sits on a soft cloud of white wool and makes the snow fall.  We had two little crystal prisms which we hung from this tier to represent sparkly snowflakes and ice.  The effect is quite charming, and the kids thought it was delightful to create.  They especially loved adding special stones and geodes for the gnomes.

our winter nature table

Since I most likely won't get a chance to write again until after Christmas, have a joyous holiday season with your families and love ones!

The Second Week of Advent and other holiday things

The second light of Advent is the light of Plants

Plants that reach up to the sun and in the breezes dance.

~ R. Steiner

Yesterday marked the start of the second week of Advent.  When the children awoke and came down to open their Advent calender, they found a little note telling them to check near the Advent wreath for a flowery surprise.  There, in a little pot, was a great, big Amaryllis bulb!  What a great way to start our celebration of plants!

Later in the day, we went to a tree farm to choose and cut our Christmas tree.  We decorated the tree, wrapped some evergreen roping around the banister where our stockings are hung, and enjoyed a dinner by candle light.

F and S with their Christmas tree-to-be

I had a bit of a hard time coming up with little Advent calendar gifts for this week.  The bulb was easy, but as much as I would like to, I can't afford to fill the house with a new plant each day!  So what we're going to do is a different plant related actvity each day.  We'll hunt for berries and greens to add to our Creche.  We'll make twig stars to hang around the house, and maybe we'll make some more gifts with the rest of the birch log we hauled home a few weeks ago.

Next week, for the week of animals, I have started sewing little felt beasts for the Nativity.  Two sheep, a donkey, a camel, and an ox.  I think I'll include a few others too, like  the robin from the story of Robin Redbreast from the Winter Wynstones book.

For the final week, I'll make the human and angel figures.

Which brings me to making things in general.  Especially gifts.  As a child, I spent many, many hours at my grandparents' home making Christmas gifts for the members of my family.  I remember making little embroidered pictures, stenciling various useful wooden items, making candle holders from thick branches and many more handmade items.

Now that my children are old enough to participate in gift making, we are taking it on full force!  So far we have made some little birch tree candle holders, and a small birch tree reindeer for my Grampa, who used to make much larger ones evey winter to put on their back porch.  My daughter, who is five, has started to embroider a snowman picture that she drew herself and I traced onto cross-stitch fabric.  And of course, we'll be doing LOTS of baking and cooking in general.

Slices of birch log with a hole drilled for the candle.  Then
the kids glued on some moss, shells, acorns, and
dried apple stars.

Grampa's new reindeer

My greatest delight this year though was making the kids' big present myself.  I made a family of five little gnomes and a tree house for them to live in.  I make the kids little things all the time; dolls and animals, doll clothes, cardboard box castles, even clothes.  But this was a big deal.  I'm sure they'll love it, and I hope someday they'll even come to appreciate all the love and hard work it took to make it.

the kids' gnome home

Like many of you, we're trying to scale back on the holiday excess.  Making gifts requires much more thought, planning, and time than many of us have.  So if you can, please do make something special for a loved one, it will be cherished.  

Winter Tales and Other Resources

After finishing last night's blog post, I realized I had neglected to include some of the resources that have been valuable to me this Advent.  So here they are.  Also, please note that today at some point I will be changing the "This is the way we read" section below the posts to reflect current seasonal reading.

Winter-Wynstones Press.  An excellent source of inspiration for the winter holidays.  Songs, stories, and poems.  They make one for each season.  A must have!

All Year Round- Ann Druit. Another excellent book for celebrations year round.  Seasonal crafts, songs etc.  Great family resource.

The Festival of Stones-Reg Down.  Second in the series of the Tiptoes Lightly books.  Sort of a Chapter book, has lovely child friendly short stories of the winter celebrations as the characters celebrate them themselves.  A favorite of ours.

St. Nicholas Center-A website devoted entirely to St. Nicholas.  Information, stories, poems, and history for all ages.  Fascinating, and a tremendous resource!

Live Ed Homeschooling Curriculum-This is what we use as our main curriculum.  The Kindergarten Winter book is a great resource for this season's celebrations.  Can't say enough good things about Live Ed.  Love them!

A few good stories for this season (there are many more, but here's the short list!):

Hansel and Gretel (Grimm's)

The Star Money (Grimm's)

Pfeffernuse (found at the St. Nocholas Center website)

The Elves and the Shoemaker (Grimm's)

Mother Holle (Grimm's)

The Sweet Porridge (Grimm's)

The Story of the Advent Spiral (from Live Ed, but might be found elsewhere)

The Little Fir Tree (Winter-Wynstones)

An Advent Story (Live Ed, but might be found elsewhere)

Mary's Journey (Live Ed, but might be found elsewhere)

St. Nicholas (Winter-Wynstones)

The Cloak (Winter-Wynstones)

Happy Reading!