Leafy gnomes

Leafy gnomes 🍁

It definitely feels like we are ready to delve into the depths of winter, and all which comes with the Christmas season. So for the next couple of weeks we are cherishing every moment of autumn before it drifts away on the cold winter wind 🌬 ❄️

Yesterday after brushing the garden we collected some leaves and today made some gnomes from them, a simple activity which my 3yo loved.

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To make these gnomes you will need :

• Air drying clay, playdough or modelling wax

• Leaves

• A matchstick

• a large wooden bead and a small wooden bead

• Wool roving

Make…

• Insert your matchstick into a lump of wax so it stands.

• Add the leaves one by one to make bodies

• Add the large bead to the top of the matchstick.

• Place a small amount of roving over the bead for a beard.

• shape some clay around your finger to form a hat shape and place on top of the head punching down gently.

• Add a small bead for a nose.

All done! Why not hide around your home for a autumn treasure hunt? Leave natural items next to them such as acorns and conkers.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thursday!

#craftswithchildren #gnomecrafts #naturalgnomes #autumngnomes #thewaywewaldorf #leafygnomes

The wonder of play

Children work through experiences in play. It’s how they process information, it’s how they work through things they have experienced and turn them into ideas which they can apply to their own being. It’s how they make sense of the world around them.

Play is empowering, play is precious, play is the gateway to imagination, to extending ideas and learning, to trying out ideas.

Play which is unstructured, deep and engaging changes the very structure of the pre-frontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex contributes to a wide variety of executive functions, including: Focusing one's attention. Predicting the consequences of one's actions; anticipating events in the environment. Impulse control; managing emotional reactions amongst many others. Add to that the deep emotional satisfaction of losing yourself in something you love and it becomes something more than science, it becomes magic.

Play is healing, play is powerful, play is empowering, play is liberating, play is therapy.

And play isn’t just for children…Let’s all play more today and do something we can lose ourself be in and enjoy (even just for ten minutes)

Today we visited the beautiful Clitheroe castle with @fairoakfell and Her lovely little one (swipe to see the lovely photos of the castle, some fairy doors the little one spotted) and for all the distractions the little one had when we got home, what did she want to do? Play. With the castle block set I purchased from the gift shop.

Precious days and such precious moments in her childhood, which she may not always remember but will sit within her forever.

#daysout #thewaywewaldorf #play #earlychildhoodplay #empoweringplay #inspiringplay

An autumn day out

“Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;

Lengthen night and shorten day;

Every leaf speaks bliss to me

Fluttering from the autumn tree.

I shall smile when wreaths of snow

Blossom where the rose should grow;

I shall sing when night’s decay

Ushers in a drearier day.”

Emily Brontë

Another beautiful autumn day and visit to @ntdunhammassey some deer spotting and rambling through the woodland with the little one, an old friend @claireabellalord and her ‘O’

The little one found a fairy hole in a tree trunk (swipe to see it) and we spotted more deer grazing amongst the trees.

The smell was amazing and I definitely feel like I’ve had time to really fill my cup and nourish the senses today. As has the little one.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday!

#thewaywewaldorf #waldorfwednesdays #naturetime #outdoorlove #autumn #autumnpoetry