Creating magical moments in the home.

How do you bring the extraordinary to the ordinary?

Here at home the smallest details make everyday childhood experiences magical. After all of such a thing as an ant on its daily walk is enchanting and magical then we don’t need to go over board..some simple ideas which we do from time to time..

🍞 Pictures and shapes in flour ready for kneading bread • A spiral is our fave shape at the moment but we have also done a bee hive, leaves etc! Tie it in with something your child has noticed and loved this week.

🍲 Snacks and meals made into pictures • Because children love seeing imagination in their parents, however rubbish You may think it is, I once made a pirate in a plate of chilli and rice and my children STILL talk about it now over six years later.

🧚‍♀️ Fairy tea • Make healthy drinks magical with organic no caffeine fruits tea, chill and add ice cubes to the jug with frozen edible flowers and edible glitter.

🌹 Rose petals in hand washing water • Rose petals or indeed a drop of rose water in warm water to clean suds off from hand washing before drying hands feels magical and ancient.

💐 Flowers picked from walks or the garden on the table

🕯 Candlelit meal times and snacks • A Waldorf favourite and something which can be a monthly craft project decorating a beeswax candle for the month.

💃 Dance like nobody is watching! Let your children see you laugh and be so carefree, remember that scene in the movie Mermaids with Cher? I always wanted to dance around the table with my family, We don’t do it as often as we should but the time is now for Joy!

🧺 Pyjamas and towels warmed before being put on, because everybody loves that snuggly feeling after a bath before bed.

🛁 Lavender flowers in the bath or lavender essential oil mixed with a carrier oil. For relaxing bedtimes preparing for restful sleep.

Just a few ideas there…leave any small moments of magic below for others to gain inspiration from…

Waldorf Early Childhood Education

thisgardenofgrace

🌈 Waldorf Early Childhood in the home 🏡 Discovering Steiner-Waldorf for me has been a life changing experience. From the moment I scrolled through those dreamy images of the Kindergartens around the world, with their soft pink walls, as alive and ethereal as the pink clouds at sunset, the wooden tables and chairs, polished and enriched by hands of the generations of children who had gathered for mealtimes and and snack times in friendship and song. The womb like spaces filled with natural toys and playthings, spaces which cradled children’s bodies, minds and souls as they grew and developed. These spaces had my heart. As I began to delve more into the work of Rudolf Steiner, of Anthroposophy and of his vision, of a society which was rich in tradition and reverence, in appreciation for the human being, for the natural world for the rhythms of the nature, I found a man who was trying to provide solutions for the epidemic of modernity that was changing the world so quickly in the early part of the 20th Century trying so desperately to bind together human beings and societies who were divided by war, by science, by faith. Health Care, Social Care, Banking, Education, Medicine, Agriculture just a few of the areas his work informed and touched - which has had a lasting impact on the world today. I loved this approach and it greatly began to inform my thinking on what education could be as part of a world working together to a common goal. Waldorf education educates the children in love and reverence, through the head heart and hands, and the simplest way I can describe it as a whole is it aligns itself with the life of the child, the whole child, outer and inner. It does not impose on the child but allows itself to relate to them, to become a tool for growth, a catalyst for learning, an ode to their time, their generation. Early Childhood however, Steiner never intended to be in a school environment - and we have developed kindergartens through society’s need for wrap around care. Indeed I only have a playroom because I was set to open a home based kindergarten until the pandemic hit. If you are in the midst of or are embarking on a journey in Waldorf education be rest assured it is one of the most beautiful ways of allowing your child to live in their youth.

Treasuring Days Like These

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand,

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower.

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,

And Eternity in an hour.”

William Blake

Oh how I treasure these days, these days which sometimes seem endless, sometimes as fleeting as a butterfly. There is something infinitely beautiful about being drawn into the world of your child, into their timeless existence which is so intimate with the world, where every grain of dirt holds importance, every creature and insect holds reverence for just being in the same space as her.

Every moment is a gift, every encounter held in her heart, every experience imprinted on her soul.

Her day, her love, her life she offers as a gift to everyone freely everyday! From a conversation with the smallest ant, to kisses on my cheek when she feels affectionate. She knows no walls, knows nothing of heartbreak and disappointment, nothing of the strive, and suffering in this world..and it breaks my heart that one day in the future her eyes will be opened to a place, so very different to the one she loves every day.

It makes me so sad that admittedly she and I are very lucky to be in the position we are in..when there are so many out there living in poverty, in hunger in violence and despair.

From this month would like to begin donating a proportion of my Waldorf Magic Profit to charity, I want to change the charity each month and thought it might be quite nice to do some fundraising collectivity maybe via a just giving page as individually we might not be able to contribute a lot, but collectively we can make a big difference.

I am open ears to charities and causes local and international which have your heart! Leave links and tags in the comments and I will announce Julys charity in my July guide and on this page.