Waldorf Books and Wrap-Sacks - Free Shipping Too

For Sunday Sharing to day I wanted to share that I just uploaded 50 new vintage books (total 164 now) to my shopping site AND some beautiful wrap-sacks (reusable and trackable gift sacks). All these things are at least half off the retail price because when I find treasures I share them with my shoppers :) Of course I kept some of the awesome wrap-sacks for myself but I purchased a lot of extras. They are a great price so if you want more than one visit soon.

And if you order more than one book you get FREE SHIPPING on all your books - even if you order 20.

You can see all the new books at:

Vintage Waldorf Books

You can see the Wrap-Sacks at:

Wrap-Sacks and Holiday Items

And now something to share...

We went to the apple festival at Living History Farms yesterday and had so much fun but perhaps our favorite thing was sampling the apple fritters that they were cooking in cast-iron pots on the open fire! Sunii made me get the recipe:

Apple-Fritters

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 handful finely chopped apples

1-2 cups water

Combine all ingredients, add apples last. Batter will be thick. Spoon into hot oil. Batter should float to the top and flip over when its ready. Fry until golden - about 3-5 minutes. Drain on a paper towel, roll in sugar :)

My Favorite Acorn Craft

As you all know we have a million acorns in our front yard (yes, even after sending out over 1000 of them to friends online). So in my quest for more acorn crafts I came across a wonderfully simple and fun craft to make with the acorns. I have to admit this kept us occupied for at least an hour - we made many of them and had a "contest" to see how many we could get to spin at the same time. These really work as well as any top I've purchased from any store and they are much more fun because you make them yourself. The kids were wide-eyed when I showed them what "magic" acorns could do! Aparently this was a popular toy many years ago because I found the instructions for this on a lot of sites.

To make these adorable little toys -

1. Get a nice acorn with no cracks

2. Drill a small hole in the top with a hand-drill (or you could use a nail and hammer gently?)

3. Stick a half of a match-stick in the top (NOW I have a use for all those used matches!)

4. Spin, spin, spin it around.

5. Giggle

If you like this BLOG post consider becoming a member in the "members-only BLOG" - this ALSO includes membership in the Waldorf Channel Members-only site (shows and tutorials for members only) AND the Health and Homeschooling Resource and Consulting Group (herbnhonmeconsulting@yahoogroups.com). You can sign up for only $5.00 a month at: www.herbnhome.com ($15.00 for the first month only). Just one of these services is worth the $5.00 a month but I know not everyone is going to sign up and use all of them so I am only charging the fee for ONE service but giving everyone ALL THREE.

Member BLOG posts this week included:

Easy Christmas Handiwork for Cat Lovers

Knitted Mouse

Map Making & Woodburning with a Story - Complete Lesson

Autumn Snack Inspirations

Mom - vs - Manager

Fantasy Party Snack Idea

Independant Learning Tips

Member Tutorials at The Waldorf Channel include:

How to Make Block Crayons

How to Make Molding Beeswax

How to Knit a Rabbit

How to Make Fairy Wings

Pre-Needle Felting

Form Drawing

and MUCH MORE...

Join at: www.herbnhome.com

Waldorfy/Synthetic Hybrid Acorn Things

Relocated to New BLOG at: http://earthschooling.info/thebearthinstitute/?page_id=103

A Childhood of Playstands

When I attended the Waldorf parent-child class with my eldest daughter (now almost 14! WOW) I immediately fell in love with the playstands. I wanted one so badly! I was so envious of my friend who had a husband who was so good at making them he even donated a couple to a new initiative! But alas, I could not afford to purchase them. Years later, when I found myself in a better financial state and able to purchase a few more hierloom toys for my children I looked back at our photo albums and realized we already had playstands! In fact, we had so many of them - we were rich in playstands! I thought I would share some pictures of some of the playstands we have had over the years...

Dining room chairs of course...

Sawed off bedstands/bed frames....



Logs and sticks...



Even small chairs...

Mom -vs- Manager & Pumpkin Seeds

This is the title of our first members-only BLOG post. You are always welcome to browse the many offerings on this free BLOG. However, to gain access to the member's BLOG you must be a member of:

http://www.earthschooling.com/ Year Member
http://www.earthschooling.com/ Lifetime Member
http://www.herbnhome.com/ Consulting Member

If you are a member you can always login to the member's BLOG by using the password gate in the right hand-column.

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

New Member BLOG!

Year and lifetime members of the Waldorf Enrichment School/EarthSchooling Online now have their own private BLOG! I will be posting lessons and inspirations to that BLOG for all members of the year and the lifetime program. If you are a year or lifetime member you can login to your online member page and find a link to the new BLOG there. All members of herbnhomeconsulting@yahoogroups.com also have access to this new BLOG.

You are always welcome to enjoy the free Blogger BLOG, www.TheWaldorfChannel.com and waldorfschoolonline@yahoogroups.com - all free from www.EarthSchooling.com

To gain access to more features and become a member of www.EarthSchooling.com you have 4 options:

1. "Try Us Out" - you can purchase 1 month of Waldorf Enrichment and receive an E-book for that month, life-long updates, student conversation all year, verses with audio AND 2 video tutorials (each month). There are many more features all described at: www.EarthSchooling.com

2. "Monthly Member" - if you decide to continue purchasing months you can make payments on a monthly basis and gain access to each month as you pay. You only pay for each month ONCE and then you remain a member for life.

3. "Year Member" - you can purchase an entire year of Waldorf Enrichment and you remain a member FOR LIFE so you always get updates every year. You also receive all 24 video tutorials for the year, and an E-book for each month of the year. In addition you receive the E-books "Sixth Sense Math" and "A Year of Waldorf Watercolor". You have access to your own password protected page where you can download all your materials from one place. You only pay for the year once - you are then a member for life. Now, you also gain access to the NEW member's BLOG.

4. "Lifetime Member" - Lifetime members have the same benefits of year members but they ALSO receive EVERY Waldorf E-book and video I have ever published and ever will publish. This includes all videos from lectures I do around the United States. Now, lifetime members also gain access to the member's BLOG.

Add-Ons

ANY member OR non-member who needs ongoing consulting with homeschooling or health issues can join the Health and Homeschool Forum at herbnhomeconsuting@yahoogroups.com . You can read more about this at: www.HerbnHome.com

There is a very organized search feature to this group so you can easily look up previous questions and answers. All "chat" is deleted from the list weekly so the only files remaining in the archives are the answered questions, which can then be easily searched.

Michaelmas Dragon Puppet

This post is now available on our new blog HERE

Apple Picker CLOSE - UPS (as per request)

Someone asked for close-ups of the apple-picker. There are about ten close-ups and all sorts of angles I took photos from but I didn't want to "clog up the BLOG" with pictures so they are all here:

Apple Picking Day Photos (including close ups)

Enjoy! And please tell me about your experiences if you make one and use it! My son is STILL obsessed with his. He keeps it by the bed in his room :)

Blessings & Health,
Kristie
www.TheWaldorfChannel.com

Why a Waldorf Child Cooperates

This article can now be found on our new blog HERE.

Sunii's Hawk

Sunii had a close-encounter with a hawk today and took this photo with my cell phone. We were out biking at the time. He got within one foot of the hawk and stood there with it for about 5 minutes. Way cool! I didn't get very close because I didn't want to scare it away for Sunii. He has this "magic" with animals and I figured he had more chance to get close to the hawk than I did :)

Happy Acorns Take a Trip

We had a lot of fun packing up the acorns this morning. It was like wrapping peasants for a holiday! Sunii helped me stuff the envelopes and then we decided to bike down to the USPS to mail them. On the way we saw a HAWK! It was so cool. Sunii got of his bike and walked so close to it he could touch it. I had to yell, 'Protect your eyes!" But the bird never got upset. It just stared at Sunii for at least 5 minutes and finally flew away. It was a very very large Hawk and he got within one foot of it! WOW. On the way back home we had Pumpkin smoothies with soy milk at the local juice shop. YUM!!!!

Everyone's acorns are now happily on their way to you. I will make another shipment next Wednesday if there are any stragglers :)

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

Apple Picker Photos

This article can now be found on our new BLOG HERE

Homemade Apple Picker

This article is now located on our new blog HERE

Those Cinnamon Rolls Again...

Don't put those Waldorf toys in storage yet!

I took this photo of my son and a friend playing in the gazebo with the wooden kitchen set. They had fun for about a half hour with this game - trying to see how many fruits and veggies they could balance on the scale. My son is 11 and will be 12 in January. This picture makes me so happy because I paid so much for these toys so to still be getting use out of them in their 11th year just THRILLS ME! And Sofi and her friends (9 and 10) have really been using the gazebo and kitchen set - every day they are out there creating dishes and playing some imaginary game. So if you were wondering if it is worth it to invest in these toys? Yes.

Children, Nature and Us Conference in Boulder, CO

It's that time of year again...time to sign up for the annual Waldorf conference in Boulder, CO. The topic this year is "Children, Nature and Us" and browsing the flyer it looks like 90% of the topics would really appeal to anyone who is interested in that topic and not just Waldorf parents so please pass this information on to any environmental groups you are part of and your homeschooling lists. As usually I am "blown away" by the speakers that are gathering to speak. WOW!

I always get so excited looking at the brochure and browsing all the topics. There are always too many to choose from. But I have to admit (shhhh) that most of all I really look forward to all those homemade snacks the Waldorf teens sell outside the conference hall with warm tea and coffee ....hmmm...just the thing to have while I am browsing the dreamy Waldorf-toy vendors and my kids are happily knitting or making warm bread in one of the school-rooms. This will be the 6th time I have attended this conference. The first one I attended was 10 years ago when they were still being held in Ann Arbor, MI !

The lovely brochure is here. It has a list of all the speakers and Registration info.

http://www.informedfamilylife.org/pdf/Children_Nature-08-col-lg.pdf

You can also regiser below. Register early because the awesome Waldorf childcare fills up fast and that is one of the best things about the conference. I learned that the "hard way" the second year I attended. Now I make sure to sign up for childcare ASAP.

REGISTER

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

Free Burr Oak Acorns

My lovely Oak has asked me to find good families for all of her babies. The only problem is she has about a million babies! The squirrels are over-worked because we have about 50 of these trees in our neighborhood so if you would like any lovely acorn caps just write to me and I'll send them out for free ... you just need to pay for the padded envelope and the postage. I'm estimating that to be about $2.50 altogether. It might be a little less for some, a little more for others...it will all even out in the end. USA requests only. Enjoy :) I just adore acorns!

You can send $2.50 by Paypal to: herbnhome@yahoo.com along with your address.

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/

http://www.earthschooling.com/

The Natural Living Channel

I would like to invite you to the grand opening of ...

The Natural Living Channel.

Steve and I have been working on this project for more than a year now so we are very happy to finally be announcing its debut!

For those of you that are familiar with www.TheWaldorfChannel.com - this new channel is done in the same style, however, it covers all areas of natural living and is hosted by Steven Zay Granberg as well as I. Of course we will have videos from other people - just like on The Waldorf Channel - however, we will both be hosting these videos. I hope you enjoy it! We will be updating it every two weeks.

Be sure to join the Herb'n Home mailing list to receive any further announcements about the channel and our free newsletter.

Blessings & Health,
Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
Steven Zay Granberg, MS Counseling Education

Fairy Girl Photo - Just for Fun Blog Post

I wanted to share a photo I had some fun with this week. I used a regular digital camera. Nothing fancy. A Canon A560 - 7.1 megapixels and a small zoom. I took a picture of my daughter and then after I uploaded it I adjusted all the color settings so it was black and white and I printed it out on acrylic paint paper (I wanted to use watercolor paper but we were all out for the day). Then I colored it in with my Lyra colored pencils. If you are into fun photos for scrapbooking or whatever I have some more samples of modified portraits in my Facebook album:

Fairy Girl

I would love to see your photos too. I like to take fun photos of the kids and have always been inspired by other people's scrapbooks and photos. My friend Brooke is a great inspiration to me when it comes to keeping memories!

The Nature Table: Nest in Tree with Bird Craft at The Waldorf Channel

A new FREE public show is on The Waldorf Channel at:



The Nature Table



This video shows you how to make a beautiful nest in a tree for your nature table with a beeswax bird. In the video we use homemade molding beeswax made using the member video "How to Make Your Own Waldorf Supplies: Molding Beeswax" found in the Tutorial section of the channel.



Enjoy :)

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

The Saga of the Playsilks

The Saga of the Play Silks

There once was a young lady who had a little baby. She wanted some Waldorf playsilks but she didn't like to sew and she lived far far away from anyone who sold them. So she did what any clever young lady would do - she asked her mama to sew some for her.

A few weeks later an airmail package came from America to Saudi Arabia and a pile of pretty, soft and silky play silks fell out of the package. They were so dreamy! The young lady was happy and the baby was happy.

The baby chewed on the play silks and laughed when her mama played peek-abo with them. She put them over her head and played peek-abo too.

When the baby was 3 years old she used the silks as wings and skirts and capes and dressed up as a fairy, a pirate and a princess. When she grew up to be 5-years-old she tucked her baby dolls into bed with a scarf as a blanket and kissed them goodnight.

When her baby sister was born that year she covered her baby sister in playsilks and watched her giggle.

The play-silks continued to entertain all her friends, her sister and even her sister's friends. Sometimes they were draped over the nature table and sometimes they were worn as cloaks or hoods. Sometimes they were picnic blankets and sometimes walls of a fort or a house. They were table cloths, blankets and everything you can imagine.

But they were very sad because they always stayed at home. They wanted to have adventures. Once, one of them got to go to the Mayfair and often they got to play outdoors but they wanted to go on a real adventure.

So one day...13-years after their birth, the sister of the little baby (who was now 13-years-old) was going to be a fairy at the Renaissance Festival and she needed a skirt.






Her mama, who was an older woman now, said "I still don't like to sew. I like to knit so I can pay someone else to sew for me." And she laughed a little rascally laugh. Then the little sister, who was now 9-years-old said, "But mama, I want you to MAKE my fairy outfit. You HAVE to make something for me (in less than 20 minutes of course)." And she looked at her mama with beautiful wide brown eyes.



So the mama took an old belt with a lot of holes in it, she folded & draped some of the playsilks over the belt and used thread to secure them every few centimeters through the holes in the belt. Then she sprinkled some fairy dust on the scarves and attached some felt butterflies and dragonflies and some silk flowers. She clipped butterflies in the little girl's hair and the little girl spied a pussy willow branch on the nature table and said "THAT is the perfect wand!"




And because the mother loved to knit she bobby pinned a little knitted unicorn to the top of her outfit and sprinkled some fairy dust on the baby unicorn too. She saw her beading box on top of the craft table and quickly strung a clasp onto some clear thread, attached a crystal and made a necklace for the fairy too.




Now the little fairy was very happy and the scarves were happy too. And now they are both having many adventures today being fairies at the Renaissance Festival all day!