Valley Mama

Co-op Day: Apples!

Oh how we love apples.  What is it about the apple that makes this most common of fruits so irresistible? Whatever it is, we spent our co-op morning this week celebrating this favorite fruit through food, story, art, movement and song.  I usually think of apples as more of a fall theme, but for some reason I was inspired to have some apple fun with our group this week...and fun we had.

This is what we did for apple day:

As usual, more information on our Waldorf-inspired home-school co-op can be found here.

What would an apple day be without apple pie?  Not near as fun as with apple pie, of this I'm quite sure. When the children arrived we began assembling the apple pies for snack.  For simplicity's sake (and time) I sliced and peeled the apples to prepare the filling and made the dough for crust ahead of time.  The little ones got to help with preparing the pans, rolling (and tasting) the dough, assembling the pies, brushing on the egg wash and making little shapes with extra dough to place on top.

Then into the oven went the pies and to the rug for circle time went the children.  Circle time was a little different than normal today, as I wanted to tell our story first.  So, we sat down and I told one of my favorite apple stories, The Little House With No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside.  It's a fun riddle story, where a child goes on a journey to find a little red house, with no doors or windows, and a star inside.  At the end of a story I cut open an apple to reveal the little star-room where the seeds live...

We passed the apple halves around so the children could examine them, and then we did "apple yoga". We basically told a story of an apple seed/tree/pie, starting as a tiny seed curled up on the ground (child's pose), slowly growing roots and sprouting up to the sun.  We grew into full trees (tree pose) and grew out our strong branches.  We stood in mountain pose and then swayed in the wind with our ripening apples. Then we became children going for a walk and reaching up to pick apples from a tree.  After gathering our apples we took them home and baked our apple pie in various seated poses.  

Storytelling yoga is such a fun way to introduce little ones to yoga...they absolutely love it.

Then it was to the table for our apple art project...apple star stamping!  We had so much fun with our beet stamps that I thought we'd try it with apples as well.  I saved all the cores from making pie.  They make perfect round little star stamps.  Melissa also cut up a couple of apples in various ways to highlight that sweet center star to make a few more stamps.  Instead of making ink pads this time we just used brushes to paint our stamps with watercolors.  So much fun.

As the little ones finished up their apple stamp art they made their way back to our main play area (the living room) for a little play time.  Check out this amazing castle (wait, I think it was a hotel) creation of Lily's...

Soon the scent of apple pie filled the air, and we pulled two beautiful pies out of the oven.  Candle lit and blessing sung we served up the most delicious apple pie ever (seriously, I'm not even joking) and enjoyed our snack time.  We even had a little snack time music listening to Kira Willey's song Making Pie.  

After snack the beautifully warm valley day was calling, so out we went to enjoy the warm sunshine, the mud, and last summer sunflower stalks...

Then back in the house for clean-up time, a sweet story (The Apple Pie That Papa Baked) and closing circle.

Hurray for apples, warmth, and another fun morning spent with friends!

Sweet Beet Heart Stamps

The Valentine's fun has officially begun around here.  Though I have not always been a Valentine's Day enthusiast, over the last few years we have begun to embrace this holiday and make it our own.  

I will never forget when this shift began for me...it was actually before I had Mason.  It was Valentine's day (of course) and I was at work in my office (wait..I once had a job...in an office?), when two of my favorite people showed up to visit.  In walked Renee and her daughter Seanna...she must have been around four years old at the time.  This sweet-spirited beautiful little girl handed me a homemade Valentine and my heart melted.  The kind of heart-melting that is reserved for when you receive a special, handmade something from a child you love.  They were going around delivering little notes to people they loved, and also opening my eyes to a Valentine's day beyond teddy bears, heart-shaped candy, red roses and Hallmark cards.  

Holidays, regular days, moments...they are only what we choose to make them.

For us, Valentine's day is about taking time to recognize and celebrate all of the people and things we love every day of the year.  Mason and I spend a week working on little Valentine's surprises to secretly deliver to people we love.  It really is a heart-warming thing to share in this process with him (and now River as well)...to see the delight that he takes in creating these "Valentine's surprises" for people he loves and appreciates in his life.  We have so much fun working together, and celebrating holidays is one of many things we do that brings more rhythm to our year.   

This year Mason and I sat down with coffee and juice and together came up with a plan for our surprises. For one component of our surprises this year we needed to decorate some fabric pieces, and I thought stamping them would be fun.  How about heart stamps?  I reached for a potato, recently brought up by Aaron from the root cellar, to make a classic potato stamp, but then my eyes turned to a pink beet (also recently dug from the sand of it's winter home in the cellar).

Beet heart stamps!  I was instantly in love with the idea.

I started with two beets and created two different sizes of hearts.  

Aren't these beets just gorgeous?  They are one of my favorite varieties to grow, Chioggia beets (or candystriped beets).  These beets are sweet, earthy and wonderful...and they make the perfect Valentine's heart stamp.

That little saw from the pumpkin carving kit (which I referenced on the blog before) came in handy.  I never imagined how much use I would get out of it when we bought the kit last October...

For ink pads we just used a sponge, red paint, and a little water to keep the sponge damp.  There are many kinds of paint that would work well here, depending on what you want to stamp.

Once we had a little work space ready I gave Mason the fabric and he got to work...

This is just a sneak peak of the project...the full project will be revealed later in the week.  

We had so much fun with our beet stamps we decided to keep it going with our co-op group today.  We had a Valentine's-themed co-op group today, and the stamping project was so much fun. 

(For those of you who follow the co-op theme posts, I will compile everything that we did today for the Home school co-op page later this week.)

Last year, as a part of our Valentine's surprises, Mason and I made bookmarks to give out as Valentine's. It was a fun and easy project to share our love of reading with those people we love.  I thought book marks would be a great project for our group today as well because they are fun to make and...who doesn't need a good bookmark?

The children used a template and traced and cut out their bookmarks from watercolor paper.  Then they punched holes at one end and cut out hearts and other shapes from origami paper to decorate them.  After that it was time to stamp!  

I made several more heart stamps so there would be various sizes and each child could take one home as well.  Angie and Lilly made our ink pads, and then we got to work!

Once they were dry we added pieces of yarn through the holes and our beautiful bookmarks were ready to be gifted as Valentines to special book-lovers we know.

I had so much fun with these stamps...it might take a little restraint to not make even more beet stamps and heart everything in sight...

Check back this week for more Valentine's fun including a yummy recipe (with beets) and fun ideas for celebrating with children!

Watercolor Wednesday

I love finding ways to bring more rhythm to our lives.  The little ones and I are always more peaceful, calm and grounded when our days flow with a comforting rhythm...like breathing.   

The way we flow through our days, weeks, months and years all have a rhythm, and each one is important for keeping us centered, connected and present.  I watch my children and see how nourished they are by a strong sense of rhythm in their lives.

When I use the word 'rhythm' I am not talking about a rigid order where everything is always on a specific time schedule.  Far from it.  Rhythm (to me) is fluid and open, allowing for the spontaneity that keeps life interesting and flexibility to change course if the desire or need arises. 

Our weekly rhythm these past few years has often highlighted chores, meals, activities and outings.  I find that Mason really responds well to knowing what day it is, what he can expect that day to bring and what he might have to look forward to that day.  Knowing that "Friday is french toast for breakfast and story time at the library" gives him a predictable rhythm to his week which provides a sense of comfort and security in his world.

I also love alliteration (especially with Mason right now), and so I try to use it for our weekly rhythm whenever possible...and lately our weekly rhythm highlight has been on breakfast and activity.  The boy is very into letters and letter sounds right now, and seems to find a little more delight when our daily rhythm contains alliteration. 

Lately Wednesday has been Wednesday waffles and watercolor Wednesday.

Mason and I love painting with watercolors, and wet-on-wet watercolor is our favorite.  It is such a meditative, soothing way to just experience color, without the worry about creating a perfect form...just right for our little ones.  The process is enjoyable, and it is easy to create something beautiful.  It is also wonderful for learning about colors and color mixing, as the colors blend on the paper right in front of you.  

Sometimes we paint something specific, like a story, or a season, but today we just painted.  Mason wanted to paint a huge rainbow.

He also spinkled some salt on for a crystal effect.

Today I had hoped to paint with Mason while River was napping, but we had one of those days where her nap was cut short, so she joined us at the table for painting time as well.  

This was her first time, and she seemed to enjoy it.  I look at this photo and wonder if I might have two lefties... Eventually she got tired of the paper and started painting her tray, and then she experimented with painting her face.  Her brother thought this was hilarious.

We often try out new weekly rhythm focuses.  Some stick around and some fade away, but I think watercolor Wednesday will be with us for a while.  

What are your favorite ways to bring rhythm to your week?