Homemade Apple Picker

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Falling Trees and Friday the 13th

So what is the perfect handiwork project to do when rainstorms have knocked down numerous branches in your yard and it is Friday the 13th? Right! Use a saw! Make something out of wood!

(Ok, my 11-year-olds thought that was funny LOL)...

Today we made Father's Day frames from felled trees.

First we cut a slice of tree branch...

Then we sanded the slice...

Then we cut a groove in the slice...

Then we put a piece of wood in the slice

This wood can now prop up photos and makes a nice desk frame :)

We decided to put pictures of the kids sawing the wood into the frames.

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

http://www.earthschooling.com/

http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/

The Un-Planned Waldorf Enrichment Day

I had so many plans for today but the best parts of the day turned out to be the things I had not planned at all!

We took a nature walk on the drippy muddy trail and discovered patches of clover, a tulip getting ready to bloom and some daffodils by the creek. We discovered that the water sounded gentle in one area of the creek but it sounded much louder in the area where it was running faster. We all had a pair of binoculars and we saw a Goldfinch, a Robin and a Bluejay! G said, "I can always tell what a bird is before I see it because they always say their names. Like a hawk says "haaaawk! haaaaawk! and a blue jay says "Jaaaay! Jaaaaay!" I thought that was wonderful!

When we came home from the walk we got out the block crayons and colored pencils to draw and color. However, we ended up spending just as much time reading the German names of the colors on the Lyra pencil set and enjoying the different sounds of the language...

After lunch we were going to do some theater and storytelling but then the kids saw my "magic trunk" in the corner (a trunk where I keep a bunch of wooden magic set props that I have collected over the years) and we ended up learning how to use all the tricks in the box and giving shows to each other for 2 hours! Towards the end Sweetie Pie (the bunny) got a little too curious and almost ended up in a magic trick but she was too quick for the magician's hat - LOL! So she ate some leftover apple peels from snack time instead...

So I end the day feeling like I've just been 7-years-old again :) What fun!

Hope you all your schedule changes were joyful surprises today too!

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/

http://www.waldorfschoolonline.com/

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day

Today we enjoyed donut making instead of the traditional bread to start off our week. The kids response? "Hey! Why didn't we do this yesterday and all those other days too?"

I enjoy making homemade donuts because we use olive oil in the dough instead of lard and whole wheat flour and all organic ingredients. We use canola oil for frying, which is not ideal but it is better than corn oil or who-knows-what oils they use in the shops! The kids love them and they are the only donuts I can eat without feeling ill :)

I probably already shared this recipe with you but this is my mom's old recipe that we used to make as kids...at that time we used a glass for the donut and a plastic curler to cut out the middle of the donut :)

Before we made donuts we told the story about Red Riding Hood bringing donuts to her grandma and about the little girl and her basket going to the market to sell donuts (another version of “Little Girl and the Milk Pail”)


Grandma’s Donuts (Recipe used in my family since 1934 or earlier)

1 TBS. Yeast
¼ cup water

¾ cup milk, scalded
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup organic pure dried cane juice (cane sugar)
1 tsp. Salt
1 egg
3 ½ - 3 ¾ cup flours (I use WW and a touch of white or other)

You can put all this in the bread machine – wet ingredients first, dry next and yeast last and press “make dough only” OR you can do the following:

Soften the yeast in the warm water
Combine milk, shortening, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm
Add one cup of the flour and beat well
Add softened yeast and egg. Mix well.
Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough
Turn out on a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth and satiny.
Place in a greased bowl and let rise of 1 ¼ hours or until double.
Punch down and let rise again until double.
Roll out the dough 1/3 inch thick (we did this in class)
Cut the dough into shapes and cut a hole in the middle (we did this in class)
Let rise about 30-40 minutes (we skipped this step in class, but if we did it the donuts would be more light and fluffy).
Fry in deep fry oil until slightly browned (375 degrees). Drain on paper towels.
While they are warm frost them with a simple glaze

SIMPLE ORANGE GLAZE (This is MY favorite but we did not do this one in class)

Add 1 tsp. Grated orange peel and 3 TBS. Orange juice to 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar (icing sugar)

SIMPLE VANILLA GLAZE

Add 1 tsp. Vanilla and 3 TBS. Milk to 2 cups of sifted confectioners (icing) sugar.

YOU CAN THEN ADD SPRINKLES OVER THE GLAZE! YUM!

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day - How to Make Everything

We had a lot of fun on Friday learning how to make "everything". We made catsup, seed mats, granola, paints (two kinds), lip balm, spice mixtures and more. Just sharing some pictures....

- Kristie

Tea Tasting & Dye Party

Here is a reprint of an article I wrote last year for Easter:

http://studiocam.wordpress.com/2007/04/07/spring-tea-party/

This year we did the same thing...only we extended it to a "Tea Tasting" party and we dyed YARN instead of eggs.

Blessings & Health, Kristie

http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/

Easter Dye Ideas

There is something about Easter that just makes me want to dye everything! We do play silks, clothing, yarn and of course, eggs. Why get out the dye and go to all that work just for one thing?

Here are a couple "tried a true" tips for using natural dyes (plants, herbs, etc...)

NATURAL FIXATIVE FOR PLANTS:1. Mix 8 cups of cold water with 2 cups of vinegar
2. Put in a cooking pot.
3. Simmer your cloth (do not boil) for an hour in this solution.
4. Rinse in clean tap-water and squeeze out the excess water
5. Line dry
6. Once it is dry it can be used and washed normally
For future reference

NATURAL FIXATIVE – GENERAL RECIPE
If you are using berries for color, you can make a simple fixative of 8 cups cold water and a half cup of salt. If you are using plant materials, mix 8 cups cold water with 2 cups of vinegar. Add your item, and simmer for an hour. Rinse and gently squeeze out excess water.

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day - Preparing for Spring

Today we planted herb gardens, tasted herbal tea, did a flower form-drawing, made some "story gardens" and enjoyed many stories. During free time the boys all decided to finger-knit so I decided to make up a story for them. They were doing that project that boys often do where they want to finger-knit the entire ball of yarn .

I had not planned ahead on this but part of the fun sometimes is seeing how the story will emerge. For example, the boy buried in the yarn in this story would not have eaten at all without my "audience" asking me, "didn't he get hungry?"

Here is my finger-knitting story. It includes the names of the children in class today:

The Finger-Knitting Hero

by Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND

http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/

Reprint this story only with my name and website included. Thank you.

There once was a boy named Nick who loved to finger-knit. It was obvious where he had come by this interest. His mother was an avid knitter herself. In fact, she was not JUST an avid knitter. She knitted sweaters for everyone in the village, she wove tablecloths from fiber and she knitted socks for all the girls and boys at school.

Even though they lived in a small cabin just outside of town, Nick's mother had reserved an entire room to store her yarn in. The room was packed to the ceiling with every color and kind of yarn you could imagine. From floor to ceiling with only one pathway through the entire room! And if you took a ball of yarn from the middle of the pile of course you had to be careful or the entire pile would fall on your head.

For this reason, Nick's mom would not let him enter the yarn room. She told him "You must never go into the yarn room. It is very dangerous!"

"Why," asked Nick, "will the yarn eat me or hurt me?"

"No," said Mama, "that is silly!"

"Will the yarn burn me?" asked Nick.

"No," said Mama, "the yarn will not burn you."

"Will the yarn scratch me?"

"No," said Mama, "the yarn will not scratch you. It is just dangerous!"

So Nick did not go into the room. When he wanted to finger-knit he had to ask his mother for yarn. One day he asked his mother for some yellow yarn. "What kind of yellow?" she asked.

"Do you want yellow like the sun? Like a lemon or like a flower?"

"I want yellow like lemons!" said Nick.

So his mother went into the yarn room, carefully pulled a yellow from the pile and gave it to Nick. Nick was overjoyed and went to his favorite corner of the house to finger-knit. He sat nearly half the day and knitted. It was a very big ball of yarn. Finally he finished the entire ball!

Nick wanted to show his mom what he had done and he wanted more yarn so her went to find his mother. But she was nowhere to be found. She was not in the kitchen making him a snack. She was not in her bed resting, she was not even at her loom weaving.

"Mom?" Nick yelled.

But all he heard was "mmmmmph!"

So Nick slowly opened the door to the yarn room to get his own ball of yarn. It looked a bit messy but he didn't think much of it. Almost immediately he saw the most lovely color of red yarn so he reached out to take it from the pile.

Almost immediately the pile fell on top of him and he was buried under all the yarn. He heard a "mmmmph!" again but he was too busy worrying about his predicament to think much of it.

He was trapped. Under hundreds of balls of yarn. So of course he started to finger-knit. First he knit a white ball, then a pink one, then the red one, then a multi-colored one, then one that looked like feathers and another than looked like little balls, then a very fluffy green one. He knit and knit and knit but soon he grew hungry. He said, "Oh, how I wish there were some food."

Suddenly he heard "scrittchy scratchy squeek squeek!" and a little mouse appeared with a nice thick slice of bread, dropped it on Nick's lap and ran away. Nick thought the bread looked lovely but he thought it would be even more lovely with some cheese. Almost immediately after thinking that he heard a "scritchy scratchy thunk thunk squeek" and the same mouse was back with a big hunk of cheese! Nick was very thankful for the dinner but he worried that he would be thirsty but the mouse was gone.

Nick started to eat his bread and pretty soon he heard a "scritchy scratchy rolly polly squeek squeek squeek" and the little mouse rolled a bottle of water right into his lap! Nick ate well and then went to sleep.

The next morning he woke up to the bright yellow and orange of the sun and was so happy! But it was not the sun it was just more yarn! Nick saw at once that he must get back to work. So he started finger-knitting again. Soon he was almost out of the pile and he heard a "hmmmmmp!" again. So he knitted and knitted and pretty soon he was out of the pile. Then he knitted and knitted some more towards the sound of the "hmmmph".

Pretty soon his mother was unburied too. For the yarn had fallen on her and that is why Nick could not find her when he went looking. His mom gave him a big hug and said "It is such a good thing you learned how to finger-knit and that you are so fast Nick!"

After that, Nick started a new project. He started building some nice wooden shelves for his mother to keep her yarn on. And they were never buried in the yarn again. Although sometimes they did find little pieces of cheese here and there...and a nibble out of some of the skeins.

THE END

Hope you enjoyed your day too!

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

www.TheWaldorfChannel.com

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day - Herbs and More!

Dear Parents,

Last Friday we had another fun Waldorf enrichment day that we shared with three other children. We did some herbal activities like "herbal yoga" and other things. Here are some photos of our day together.

Waldorf - Montessori Enrichment Fun

The Montessori kids had two days off school this week so we had two full days of "Waldorf Enrichment" fun with my kids and three others. We did some Chinese Form Drawing (see member's video at www.thewaldorfchannel.com), we did some Chinese Brush painting while I told the story "The Boy Who Drew Cats". Then we did a play about the story.

We made our own pizzas the first day and although I had other plans for day two, the pizza was so popular they insisted on pizza again the next day :)

We played a cooperative game where you read words in other languages off of cards and you have to act out or draw the word so others can guess what you are saying. The game is called "Tower of Babel" and since nobody knew the story (GASP!) I told them the story as well.

We had a lot of fun talking in Chinese, Swahili, Japanese, Russian, Navajo and Greek (The words are sounded out on the card to help the child pronounce it)! We learned that Basketball sounds the same in Russian as it does in English, and that the word for crazy is similar in Greek and in Spanish (most of us speak Spanish). However, the most popular word of the day was "PEE-pee" , the Swahili word for candy. Now tell me....are you EVER going to forget the Swahili word for candy?

In the afternoon we had a coffee-making lesson with the hand-grinder and French press led by Sunii and the kids all had a basic lesson in Su-Jok reflexology. They were amazed and had a lot of questions!

I am offering a download of the Su-Jok reflexology lesson for kids for only $7.50. If you would like a copy of this video please e-mail me at: herbnhome@yahoo.com. You can also purchase the DVD for only $12.00. I will have this DVD avaialable on the website sometime this week. However, you can e-mail me and I can send it to you before I have it listed since I will not be listing things until later this week but I do have the DVD/download ready at the time of this posting.

And I do have to admit I have an ulterior motive in teaching the kids reflexology...it is a GREAT way to get FREE reflexology treatments. Really, the kids are so good at it and they love to practice (LOL).

Enjoy the photos!

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

Scroll down for enrichment day photos...

I've added a post since I told everyone about my enrichment day photos so please scroll down a bit to see those. They are not at the top of the page anymore :) - Kristie

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day :)

I had four Montessori students come over yesterday to share our day with us. They were here from 8am-3pm and we had so much fun. My favorite comment of the day was by the little four-year-old who looked at me while we were making lunch and said, 'Miss Kristie, why are we having so much fun here today?'

Since they don't come over every day we did a little Chinese New Year - Winter Cold inspired lesson. We did a lot of cooking and baking (a great winter activity!) and I told a story about Dragon Stew. Then the kids (having been here before) asked "Oh! Can we do a play about the story?" I really had not planned on it - but they were really into the idea and they already knew what role they wanted in the play so we spent another half hour doing a "play"! What I do for this type of "play" is that I tell the story again but I pause as often as I can and leave out as much as I can (like a narrator and a bit more sometimes) so the kids can have a chance to act out and say their parts. Depending on which child is in the role I will leave out more or less. Some kids really get into the improvisation in this!

We also did some watercolor paintings of dragon flames which everyone enjoyed. It was an easy enough project for the four-year-old but also interesting enough for the 11-year old.

Well, it is said that pictures say 1000 words so I will leave the rest of our day to the pictures above!

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

Free Waldorf Tutorials & Resources

This can now be found on our new BLOG at www.BEarthBlog.com

FREE: "How to Start Your Own Waldorf Enrichment Program"

You can get a very comprehesive packet on how to start your own Waldorf Enrichment Program either for your own family, a co-op or for profit. You can download the packets and e-books for free at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorfschoolonline/files/