Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Our Winter Book Basket

My little ones are just now getting to the age where they will sit and listen to a book be read to them, prior to this month we have just done puppet plays.  Recently we were stuck on the house do to an ice storm that transformed the farm into a freezing, muddy swamp.  It was a great day for baking and curling up on the couch, under the blankets, with a book.  I decided I would try and read "The Tomten" to them since they already have a great love for The Tomten performed as a puppet play.  Much to my surprise not only did they sit and listen to the entire book, they requested that I read it to them over and over and even asked for it the next morning.  It became clear to me, it was time for our first book basket.


I filled the basket with winter themed books we already had and ordered an illustrated version of another one of our favorite puppet plays, "The Mitten".

These are the books in our basket:






Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December 1- Stones

We celebrated the first week of advent this week, which is the week to honor the mineral kingdom.  It seemed only fitting to choose stones for this week's theme.
Above is our advent garden and below is a little advent table I set up for the children.  Every morning, they can open a door on their Advent Calendars for a chocolate treat and our friend, Pico the Gnome, leaves an ornament to hang on Phillip, our Christmas tree, and an activity for the day.  Today he left out paint and paint brushes so we could paint the treasure boxes he brought.




Good morning, dear earth.
Good morning, dear sun.
Good morning, dear trees
And the flowers, every one.
Good morning, dear beasts
And the birds in the trees.
Good morning to you
And good morning to me!






For this week's circle (and all the circle times in December) it is nice to have an advent garden or wreath in the center.

Light one candle, Advent is here,
Light one candle, Advent is here,
Light one candle, Christmas (Solstice) time is near!

With this first light of Advent,
we give thanks to the stones.
To the shells and the sand,
to the crystals and bones.

Bless the strength
and support they provide,
holding us steady
on our foundation outside.

Bless their beauty
and inner light.
Illuminating our lives
in the darkest of nights.

The little gnomes
Are sitting on their crystal thrones.
The red, blue, yellow precious stones
Are all in their homes.

We hammer and polish the gold crystal eyes
That sun, golden sun, can look in from the skies.
We hammer and polish the silvery eyes
That moon, silver moon, can look in from the skies
So all their homes
Are red, blue, yellow previous stones
They're sitting on their crystal thrones,
The little gnomes.



Rufty and Tufty
Rufty and Tufty were two little elves that 
lived in a hollow tree
They did all the cooking and cleaning themselves
And often had friends in for tea.
 Rufty wore red and Tufty wore blue, 
And each had a hat with a feather,
They kept their finest shoes under the bed, 
that were made of Magic green leather.
 Rufty was clever and kept the accounts,
And Tufty did all of the cooking.
He made the finest  cakes without weighing amounts
And eat them when no one was looking.

This week's story for the first week of advent featured dwarves  mining rocks beneath the earth but one particularly dreamy dwarf sneaks out at night to star gaze, he dreams ( or is it a dream?) that he sails down the river in a boat shaped like the moon up to the stars where he is gifted with their light.  The next morning while working in the mines he sees starlight in the crystals ( I light candles behind the rocks) and uncover dew drops under the silk and this is how the stones were filled with light.  " the first week of advent we celebrate the light of the stones, the shells and the sand, the crystals and the bones". That is the end of our story, there is no more.

Saint Nicholas made a special visit to our home this week too!

"Kind old man, St. Nicholas, dear, Come to our house this year!  Her's some straw and here's some hay - For your little donkey grey!  Pray put something in my shoe - I've been good the whole year through - Kind old man St. Nichols dear, come to out house this year!"