Snow Fun

I took my kids out to the Candlemass celebration and it was very magical. One of their activities was painting in the snow. The kids had made a giant castle for the gnomes and some snow people and then all the children were given big paintbrushes and some yogurt containers full of very diluted watercolour paints and they LOVEd painting the scene. My kids have been doing it non-stop ever since. I'm sure tempura paints would work as well, and it really isn't just for little-kids, as I can just imagine the magnificent artwork Maggie could create on her front lawn! We're finding that the slushy snow is perfect for this activity (and not much else?) as you can quickly scoop up a slushy castle with the wet snow... SO fun! Maybe this is an old idea for all of you, but just wanted to share in case you're looking for something fun outside to do...

Resources from our Feb. 7 meeting

Hi, so I said I would give you the info on the free on-line audio stories: http://www.homeschoolradioshows.com/
You sign up and get one free story a week - it's the old radio shows and some are pretty cool. I just play them on the computer and the boys sit in my office and listen to them.

The other resource I wanted to mention is a book called Keeping A Nature Journal. It's available at Amazon.ca and I've heard really great things about it - for introducing people of all ages to observing and recording nature. I have ordered it so can bring it to the next meeting.

And - here are some books for kids that are about philosophy/our place in the cosmos - that sort of thing. I haven't read them yet but many are in our library:
Old Turtle (there are a couple, the first is not in the library YET - I'm requesting they buy it, but they have one of the other...Old Turtle and the Broken Promise I think
All I See is Part of Me - Chara Curtis
The Three Questions - Jon Muth
Zen Shorts - Jon Muth
The Jupiter Stone

it was great to see you all - great conversation!! AND - I do think the work-bee idea for house cleaning is great - especially for those of you who are going to be moving - we ought to come and help you clean either your old house or your new house or both!

crafting next week

For those of you interested in getting together to do collage...how does Monday morning work for you? I'm thinking that some of us have babies that need to sleep in the afternoon so maybe 9:30 or 10 until noonish?

Parents Support Meeting this Wed, Feb 7

Just a reminder that this Wednesday at Bean to Cup at 7pm is our support meeting. I am really feeling the need to connect in this way - especially after missing last month's. I put the notice in the paper, too. I look forward to seeing you all and drinking some lavender tea!

Candelmas Festival

The Cedar Bridge Waldorf School is hosting a canlelmas festival this Wednesday from 3-5:15 at their school in Lavington. Their poster says:

Our celebration is a festival of food, colour and warmth. Dress warmly and wear a
costume as we will make instruments to play as we parade our school grounds with
the Candlemas King and Queen. We'll light candles to warm the earth to help the
gnomes as they light the seeds beneath the snow mantle above. A special puppet show,
"The Star Child" will be presented as well. Please RSVP at 547-9351. We look forward to
seeing you!

I'm going to take my kids out there to check it out. Jen says that they are considering giving homeschoolers the option of doing school one day a week. Hope to see some of you there!

I needed that...

My crabby day turned wonderful when I saw all of you this morning. I've missed you all so much- we need to do this way more often. Thank-you Mary-Sue for putting it on and taking the initiative to lead us in a meaningful seasonal celebration. We were inspired to have our own fire tonight with daddy and burn a few more little slips of paper. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. See you soon for some crafting I hope.

Celebration Tomorrow

Brrrrrrrr! If tomorrow is anything like today, we'll be celebrating INdoors! We have a hearth fire, which is a big part of the Imbolc celebration, so we'll gather around it. It'll be more crowded, but we'll manage nicely, I'm sure. So 9 o'clock it is.
Just a couple of things: There is one part of the fire ritual where we encourage our children (and us) to release any psychic "dust" we may be holding onto from the past year. We draw a picture or write something we regret, a word we wished we hadn't said, or something we wish we'd done differently. This is all done in private, unless someone feels they want to share what they're releasing. Then we crumple the paper and THROW it into the fire symbolically releasing it from our minds and hearts. So, we all can keep this ceremony in mind in case we need a little time to think of something. Then the other part is writing down something we want to manifest in this coming year, so we can be thinking of that too.
See you tomorrow! Use the comments to ask any questions or share ideas...