Busy Bees

One afternoon not too long ago this Mama needed to keep Miss H out of the house so that Baby L could get some much needed and sometimes elusive day sleep time. We headed outside and I suggested a walk in the little park that adjoins our house. We wandered downhill towards the large Casurina tree and while playing with the seed pods that we fond there an idea began to form in my mind. These pods make the best bees. This not an original idea rather one that I have seen in various places over the years and I cannot point you to a source. Perhaps it is The Nature Table book.

When we got back to the house I crept inside to get a few things and then we were all set to sit outside and enjoy some sunshine and make bees.

Our supplies : Scissors, wool (yarn) in brown and yellow, tulle, Casurina pods and sticks

The process is simple - wind the pod in the yellow wool and then tie off.
Cut an elongated oval from the tulle and roughly pleat with your fingers.
Cinch in the middle and tie the tulle on using the tails of the yellow wool.
Add the brown and tie a few knots.
Cut brown wool to desired length and then tie onto a stick and viola a simple little bee puppet perfect for flying around the garden.

These bees were so popular with H that she asked to make more so we had some to share with our little friends.

 

The bees also make a great addition to our seasonal nature table or as story props.

H in action telling me a little story about the bees visiting all the flowers in all the gardens

I will note that after a few days of play the knots on the original bees were beginning to loosen so I added a drop or two of PVA glue to keep them from unravelling and so far that seems to be working well.

Mother Earth standing doll

I have wanted to make a Mother Earth standing doll for a while now and as it is spring and the children have a renewed interest in reading the story of the root children I thought it was time to make it happen.
 I get a little time most evenings to work on projects in little chunks.While I can find it quite frustrating not to be able to do things quicker I know that if I work away at something it does eventually get completed (may not be helped by the fact that I have multiple project on the go at any given time and a backlog of ideas in my head - sometimes I don't know where to start!)

I still need to make a blouse/dress and either knit or crochet a shawl but I am very happy with my progress on Mother Earth.

The Mitten - a story set

 A little while ago (last year in fact!) there was a how to article in this issue of Living Crafts. It was on how to make a story set with wooden animals and was based on the story of The Mitten. I instantly knew that I would be making this for my own children because I love the Mitten story and also happened to have a copy of the Jan Brett book that I picked up at an op shop a few years ago.

Full of enthusiasm I carefully cut out the wooden figures and then popped them into a little basket with some sand paper ready for those quite moments, when the children are happily playing outside and I am all caught up with the washing and weeding and the million other little jobs that fill my time to be done so that I could hand sand those pieces. Well weeks and months passed, life was busy, it was a new year with a new baby and still the pieces waited. I did manage to do little bits here and there and then in mid May this year I decided that I really did want to get this project done so that A and H could play with it while it was winter.

So I got sanding, then added some simple detail with the wood burner tool. The article suggested painting the figures with a wash of watercolour paint but I loved the natural beauty of the wood so my next stepo was to seal each piece with some home made beeswax wood polish. H helped with this and loved the process. Then all I had to do was make a giant mitten.

Well I got it done and right before our household became very sick with colds, ear infection and asthma. Needless to say that it was very handy having something new to distract the children with and they both requested the mitten story many times.

I love that the mitten laces up. H loves it too

It feels so good to complete a project especially one that has waited so long. I am on a bit of a UFO (unfinished object) kick at the moment so hopefully I will be back soon to share some more.
Do you know the story of The Mitten? Do you have a favourite winter story?

Tell me a story

I love books - I think that I always have. I love reading to my children. As an early childhood teacher I had a pretty impressive book collection and that was before my own children came along!!
My weak point however has always been oral storytelling. I am not really a natural but I wish I was. Last year when we attended a Steiner playgroup A loved the weekly story and so did I.
So I have decided that it is an area that I am going to work on . I was recently inspired by this post and two weeks ago I gave it a go.

I chose to tell a story called "Brown Caterpillar" that I found in the book 'Very short stories for 3-4 year olds' compiled by Kim Preston and distributed by the Melbourne Rudolf Sreiner School. It is seasonally appropriate and I have heard it told so it was not to hard to memorise. All the props we already had - it was very simple - a few silks, river stones, pinecones, a brance, blooms from our front yard and a felt caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly.

Well both children LOVED it. They sat so still, taking it all in and then wanted to tell their own stories. A went first and his story was similar to the original but there were some points of difference. It was very sweet.

Then it was H's turn. She did a fantastic job of retelling the story for a 2 1/2 year old.

In fact we each had to have two turns and a story that I thought would take 5 - 10 minutes ended up taking at least 30 minutes - perfect entertainment on a rainy spring day.
My confidence has been given a real boost and I am planning on making story telling part of our regular rhythm.