SPACE to SOW and GROW - Compassion

I read Seraphina the story of The Little Match Girl today, written by Hans Christian Anderson.   If you are familiar with his original stories you will know that they are deep and thought provoking and often sad and heartbreaking.

Something I used to do with the older kids was read them a passage or chapter of a story and then have them draw a picture afterwards. It might be of a favourite character or scene, whatever connected with them at the time. I loved seeing what they would come up with and how although they both heard the same story, they would each create a different picture and in their own unique way.

I could see that Seraphina was really feeling the tragedy of the story and kept asking a lot of questions.   Like, why was the little match girl so poor? and Why would her father beat her if she couldn't sell any matches? This was a great opportunity for us to discuss these issues and to feel gratitude for our fortunate lives. We talked about homeless people and how they would feel when the cold winter rolls in.

Seraphina chose to draw the Christmas tree that the little match girl saw in the story and then drew the girl smiling. Unfortunately, without thinking, I said, "She wasn't very happy in the story was she" and Sera said "No" and rubbed out her mouth and drew a sad face.

I regret to have interfered with her creative expression. It was more me thinking out loud but Sera quickly took that as me telling her that her picture was wrong.  Such a shame on my part but another lessoned learned. I will not say a word next time.

Seraphina explained to me that she drew the happy face because she hoped that the little girl would feel the happiness that SHE feels at Christmas time. What a sweet gesture xx

The story of The Little Match Girl inspired us to make some precious candle holders. This Autumn we have been having fun making beeswax candles to connect with the shorter days and longer nights of the season.

I found a sweet tutorial on felt tealight candle holders in Amber Schmida Green's new book "Parenting Fun Everyday". Amber's book is full of useful information on keeping a natural rhythm flowing in the home while parenting small children. I've only read a handful of chapters so far but can highly recommend her work.

Here are the candle holders we made..

While we were sewing we made up a little song to honour the Little Match Girl. We felt her sadness and her pain and it was our way of sending a prayer out to all of the less fortunate people in the world. 

Sera would like to do some knitting so perhaps we could work together on a project to donate to charity and homeless people. Do you know of any such charities?

Here's our song..

"Little Match Girl we light a candle for you, Little Match Girl we light a candle for you, To warm your fingers, your hands, your toes and feet, Little Match Girl we pray your life will be sweet."

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SPACE to SOW and GROW - Waldorf Alphabet (D)

Well, this week there was a great deal of fire breathing and unfortunately I don't mean literally.. That would have been super cool!

I told the girls the Grimms story of "The Dragon's Grandmother" and when it came to doing our drawing Seraphina chose not to draw... She was still anti-drawing since the week before :(

She kept saying "You just draw it for me!".

I didn't want Seraphina to think I agreed that she could no longer produce a lovely drawing for her book so we stalled for a couple of days while I put my thinking cap on...

At the end of the week I made a suggestion that surprisingly she liked. We decided to help each other draw each other's dragon! It was fun and a little silly and I have to say the result was most wonderful x

 

During the week we dressed up, danced and played our djiembe drums. We discovered new dips and desserts and loved up Dad for Father's Day xx

 

 

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SPACE to SOW and GROW - Waldorf Alphabet (C)

"C is for Cookie" yom yom yom yom yom...

Cookies and cake were on the agenda this week. We played around with different varieties until we were all cookied out! Smartie cookies were the most fun to make and eat.

Story time has always been a lovely experience in our home. Since travelling along our Alphabet Journey, Seraphina has been getting upset if her drawing isn't "perfect". She cries and wants to throw her drawing in the bin saying it's not as good as mine :(

Although I'm flattered that she thinks my drawings are so lovely, I am finding it challenging finding the right words to encourage her as she's not very receptive to anything I have to say in these moments.

I try and tell Seraphina that Art comes from the Heart. It is an expression of our own inner beauty and feelings and that even if it's not perfect, it's perfect!

This week we read "Alice in Wonderland" and the scene where Alice meets the Cheshire Cat was the inspiration for our "C" page.

Let's see what "D" will bring....

 

 

 

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SPACE to SOW and GROW - Waldorf Alphabet (B)

Our 'B' page was inspired by a classic Winnie The Pooh story. Here you can see the bear in the 'B' and if you look closely you will see the wings of the bees are 'B' shaped too.

Seraphina decided to draw a home for her bear too. So sweet x

Earlier in the week we did some traditional butterfly paintings where you fold a sheet of paper in half and put blobs of paint on one side only. Then you fold the paper closed and smooth over the top, spreading and mixing the paint underneath. The girls really enjoyed this activity and they couldn't stop at one or two. They made sooo many.. My logical brain kicked in and I started thinking, "time to wrap this up, they've experienced the concept.. Seriously, how many butterfly prints do you really need?" (I have a thing about "wasting" paper) but then I relaxed and went with the flow letting them get what ever they needed from the moment. The result was lots and lots and LOTS of gorgeous, colourful pieces of paper.

I knew that they would come in handy one day for decorating gifts or being a gift in itself or even perhaps morph into some other fabulous crafty creation... I was right :)

Going with our 'B' theme, I folded the prints in half again and cut an outline of half a butterfly. I let the girls open them and to their delight they saw beautiful colourful butterflies appearing before their eyes. They also commented on how each side was exactly the same. There's our lesson on symmetry!!

Lucy helped punch holes in the top of each butterfly and with the help of a dear friend, we made a garland of butterflies to decorate our living room.

We made Honey Bee muffins and played the Bongos and I finished our 'B' week with a tale from The Brother's Grimm - Snow White and Rose Red...

 

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SPACE to SOW and GROW - Waldorf Alphabet (A)

Seraphina has really been wanting me to spend more one on one time with her doing "school stuff". Not that she knows what goes on in a classroom at school, but never the less, I took her request as a sign to start some formal kind of academic work.

She is already familiar with most of the letters of the alphabet but I have been secretly waiting for the day I could introduce her formally in a Waldorfy kind of way.

For 'A' we read two picture story books written by Neale Donald Walsch (author of the famed "Conversations With God".

The first book was "the Little Soul and the Sun" and the second, "the Little Soul and the Earth - I'm Somebody!".

These books are beautifully written and illustrated. The first story gentle describes our connection to God, the light and explains that all we see as "good" or "bad" is ultimately LOVE. It provides an understanding and awareness that we are ALL eternally connected.

It touches on life purpose ideals and that we make an agreement with God to have an experience on Earth. Depending on that choice, or choices, other souls will incarnate and help us to experience the feeling or lessons that we have agreed upon.

The second story is when the soul is born to Earth and guided by her personal guardian angel. It shows how as we begin our journey on Earth we are still aware of where we came from and WHO we are. Then as we begin to feel and think in our human bodies we tend to lose sight of this and forget why we came. That is when the guardian angel comes in to support and remind us of our purpose and our universal connection to God.

So, for us, these books were a great inspiration for our 'A' page...

Other things we did to reinforce 'A' was to listen to an old record of Johnny Appleseed, produce some Apple Cider and Apple Peel Vinegar and bake an apple pie. Lots of apples that week!!

Now we wait three months for the vinegar. It smells fantastic already!

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SPACE to SOW and GROW - In The Beginning...

One of the main reasons I created this blog was to record my family's unschooling adventures in a meaningful and joyful way.  I am naming these posts "Space to Sow and Grow" because I understand that true learning comes from having the freedom to follow your own passions in life.  The space to sow the seeds of that which is important to you and your future and the space to grow unhindered so that you may fully reach your own personal potential. 

I attended school for 12 years and  have both positive and negative memories from the experience.  None, I must add, that have swayed my decision to unschool our family.  It was only having the children themselves, watching them grow, naturally learning every single day without coercion, bribing, or manipulation on my part, that convinced me that it was the right decision for us.

My husband and I had always considered home educating our children and at the time our eldest was due to start school I had just completed a year long course in Massage Therapy.  I was keen to venture out in the big wide world as a self employed mum and the decision to put Lani in school was where we were at at this point in our journeys.  Lani was one of those kids who did well at school.  She had already learned to read before her first day and enjoyed the social interaction with her teachers and friends.  She was especially interested in music, reading, writing and art.  Nothing has changed there :)

Now Wade was a whole different ball game...  The year Lani started year 3, Wade started Preschool.  (Back then Prep was just being introduced to the school system.)  I knew immediately that this was not where he wanted to be and so I toyed with the idea again of homeschooling.  Lani was enjoying school and with my idea of homeschooling being "school at home", albeit with a funky, relevant curriculum, I began to doubt that I would be able to pull off such a huge time consuming feat.  At this point I was in two minds about the whole thing and so began to look for alternative schools.

This year I was pregnant with Seraphina, our third child, and with each pregnancy I grow and evolve a little more.  Seraphina lead me to homebirthing and I also believe it was her pregnancy that started leading me away from conventional schooling and into Steiner education.  Lani and Wade finished their state primary school year in 2005 and the following year spent a beautiful 6 months at the nearest Steiner school.

We loved the music, the art and the community of this school but there was still something luring me back to the idea of having the kids at home with me every day so that we could live and learn together.  (I was always one of those school mums that had to be kicked out of the classroom - especially at Steiner because it was such a healing space to be in.) 

I believed that all of the aspects of Steiner and Waldorf that I so admired, I could provide for the children in our own home.  And so there began our official "homeschooling" journey.  I often questioned why I didn't just homeschool the kids without going to Steiner, but understand now that our experience at Steiner set a precedence for the nurturing and loving learning environment I was yet to establish at home.  I still love Steiner's reverence to nature and all the crafty stuff!

So now we have been out of school for almost 5 years and it didn't take long at all to recognise that an unschooling life was the way to go. Even though at different times and for different reasons I would enter a place of fear and judge myself and my kids that we weren't doing "enough".  Family and strangers all had their negativity to add.  And yet I knew in my heart that we were living an authentic life, learning all the things that were important to us at any given moment and loving and nurturing each other along the way.

Life is too short to be learning a broad range of things that are of no interest to you, when you could be learning every little detail about that which makes your heart sing!! We are all individuals with something of great beauty and importance to share with the world.

We need a loving, rich space to remember the seed we planted well before our birth.  For it holds the blueprint of the way we need to grow.  We need to take time to tune in and connect to our own source of Light, so that our paths remain illuminated in all their glory and the pureness of our authenticity may shine out and be an inspiration to others.

We need to show Love and Acceptance always. We need to Trust.
 
Nothing can grow in the shadow of someone else's fear.

<3 <3 <3