The Rowdy Pea

milkweed pod babies

I went back and fixed the links, so they should work now. Thanks for letting me know.

These milkweed pod babies were inspired by this amazing post from The Little Travelers.  I lovewhat she says about fostering connection, not collection. And that not only makes a lot of sense, but also rhymes. How completely perfect.

These babes were so simple to make. I just put a wooden bead on an inch or two of pipe cleaner and felted wool roving into a little bundle around the pipe cleaner. Then I added the acorn cap and a little more wool to make the milkweed pod cradle nice and soft. They look so sweet I almost wish they were real.

flannel board: the three billy goats gruff

Our favorite story this week is The Three Billy Goats Gruff, so a few days ago I used my paper cutter to make Ivo a flannel board set. He loves listening to stories told with the flannel board, and sometimes he tries his hand at being the storyteller. Yesterday he put on a show for Josh and me. It was a hoot: "Once upon a time there were three Billy Goats Gruff." Then, in a tiny voice, "Trip trap, trip trap," A booming voice, "Who's tripping over my bridge?" Tiny voice again, "It is I, the littlest Billy Goat Gruff." Then the troll voice again, "Oh, wow, I'm coming to eat you!" This is the funniest part . . . then in the little billy goat voice he said, "Oh, don't bother with me. My brother will be along soon and he has horns on his head and will bing you down off the bridge never to be seen again." So much for the surprise ending!

puddle party

Puddle Monday turned into Bike Monday (no rain, no puddles!). We also had Bike Tuesday and Bike Wednesday. But on Thursday . . . puddles! Ivo had some friends over to enjoy the simple pleasures of the season with us. By which I mean the mud, of course.

spring cleaning

We've been doing our spring cleaning this week, which is one time in the year that I am very thankful to be living in an apartment.  No yard work, no outside work at all, and then as if by magic, beautiful healthy flowers, green, manicured grass, tidy shrubbery and hanging baskets just appear. Oh, wait, it isn't magic after all. We do pay for it when we write our rent check every month. But still, it's pretty painless and the building managers go way over and above any of the standards I would have for my own house. Josh is so looking forward to getting a house once he graduates and we get re-settled in a new place, but I could happily live this way for a while. So much less work! Our spring cleaning consists of opening the windows, re-arranging all the furniture, lots of vacuuming, scrubbing and dusting those little forgotten corners (how can a 1,000 sf apartment have so many forgotten corners!) and just adding some little spring spruce-ups. 

These new junk-hiding curtains were a little spruce-up project for the kitchen. The old ones were a bright African inspired print of red, green, black, yellow, and white, so this pale Amy Butler floral print made a huge difference in our tiny little galley kitchen. 

I also cleared off our kitchen bulletin board which we usually use to hang postcards and photos and artwork and gave it a little Easter egg theme.  Ivo loved it and has spent many moments looking at the eggs. The little shelf is to hold objects that sort of relate to the theme, in this case eggs, but we haven't decorated any yet. Can you tell I made the Easter egg sign with those block-style Stockmar crayons we bought last fall? My handwriting is usually a little nicer than that, but those crayons are clumsy for writing. They do last a long time though.

And one more picture of the nature table, which Ivo has joyfully participated in creating and maintaining. In the foreground of the picture is his St. Patrick's Day present, a shamrock, in a pot painted for him by my awesome friend Molly, and way in the back is our eggshell and moss garden that we copied from The Little Nest.  In between are two little clay nests that we made together, pinch-pot style.  One holds a pompom bird named Quinn Bird that Ivo made a few months ago and has cherished ever since.  In the other is "tiny Wilbur" (borrowed from our Pig Mania game) and an acorn cap ("Wilbur's pillow"). And I also noticed that Ivo re-arranged the two brown bunnies so they are kissing. Sweet!

some spring nature table inspiration

Our spring nature table is slowly coming together.  It's so tempting to just sweep all the winter stuff into a box and stash it--I feel *that* done with it all!  But I know it's important to reflect the changing nature of the seasons by gradually swapping out late winter items with early spring. Our winter sprites left on Tuesday night, and after our big thaw on Wednesday the mohair snow unwrapped itself from around the felt trees and sat on the table in droopy swirls.  Our white bear left this morning and two little rabbits showed up in late afternoon. Gray squirrel stays on year-round, perched on his little oak stump. And in a very encouraging sign that the nature table is indeed the group effort it's intended to be, I noticed that sometime this week Ivo carefully placed a little playdough flower on the table.  So, so perfect.

In bringing our table together, we're finding our inspiration in the natural world around us and also here:

Denise from Mom in Madison blogged about making flower people with her sons. Very, very cute ideas here.  I love those little wooden peg people and I know I don't have to tell you my feelings on the tiny acorn cap hats (*swoon*).

Emilie from Little Nest shared pictures of her very beautiful early spring nature table and moss garden.  Ivo and I made our version of this project this afternoon.  We just need to get a little bit of moss and ours will be almost as cool as hers.

Dawn from Renaissance Mama shared her beautiful mother/daughter collaboration here. I love the flower fairies and her daughter's acorn dolls. So sweet!

These felted eggs from waldorf mama are so yummy! Her Etsy shop has quite a few of these in stock, making it so hard to pick a favorite. They are all so pretty.  A bowlfull would be perfect but I'll have to choose just one for now.   Update: I picked this one . . .wheee!

This morning I bought this little nesting birdy from Vermont Fairies at Etsy.  Ivo and I have been spending lots of time learning about bird nests so I am hoping to surprise him with this when it arrives in a few days. Here are some other very cute birds and nests that are just right for gracing the spring nature table . . . the sweetest little hungry baby birds, this little bluebird, and a simple but beautiful promise of spring.

I would love to see more links to spring nature tables if anyone wants to share them in the comments section.

why i make things for ivo, finally articulated (but not by me)

One of the best parts about having a blog is the way it has connected me to other people who I might not have met otherwise. I feel like I have pen pals all over the world now, and some, like Libby Jane from The Full Cup, who are actually close enough to know in real life if we had the chance.  We both have an interest in making toys and recently she introduced me (not literally of course) to Sophia Cavaletti, saying she was a student of Maria Montessori and leader of a branch of montessori education (more on this here), who urges teachers and parents to make the materials themselves, maintaining that the care adults put into the materials we give our children is vitally important to the children. Here are some snippets of an email she sent me a few weeks ago, and I thought it was so interesting I asked her if I could share parts of it here (she said yes).

Sophia Cavaletti and many others put out a call to the community of catechists saying that it is the very poverty of the materials that calls to the children.  In poverty she was speaking not of poor and ugly things. Rather, the simplicity of the materials, along with the care put into them by the parent or teacher who makes them, speaks to the children.  She said that when we make too fancy materials they speak of the skill and imagination of the artist, but not so much to the soul of the child. 

The point of the materials is not to teach a lesson, but to engage the child in the work or play that he or she needs to do. "The materials... are not meant to lead to the formulation of concepts, but to a vital encounter with a real Person," says Gobbi in Listenting to God with Children.  I think this concept is so present in Waldorf too; the toys themselves don't actually matter.  It is the childrens' play (or their work!)  that takes them where they need to go.

I just love this, and isn't it interesting that these sentiments seem to cross over so many differing philosophies, almost like a higher conciousness.  I've been doing more toy shopping than usual because of the Christmas season, and even though I try to stay very positive-minded, I'm disheartened by what I see for children in the stores.  This email really lifted my spirits and I am so happy Libby Jane said I could post it here.  Here's a few sentences more . . .

She also said that each teacher must make her own materials for her children because making the materials is part of the spiritual formation of the teacher!  I have experienced that so much myself, and see it quite clearly in the work on your blog.
In writing this just now, I have a much needed reminder for myself.  As an artist, I am often so ambitious!  It is within my grasp to make such wondrous treasures, but actually it often prevents me from making anything at all.  I have a vision of the nativity set, the advent calendar, I want to make for our family, and I never make it, because I don't have the time!  But I remember the creche we had when I was little, my mom made it out of salt dough, and it was so simple.  Really just colored balls stuck together; we were always gluing the heads back on, but how I loved it!

Isn't that so encouraging and just . . . freeing?  Thanks Libby Jane :)

but waldorf toys are so expensive (part one)

Last year I was at a Waldorf conference and many of the mothers in attendance (me included!) had the same concern: "But Waldorf toys are so expensive!" The lecturer nodded in an understanding way and then offered his response that waldorf toys are actually not expensive at all.  He said if a mother wished to spend a hundred dollars or more on a single doll, well that is just fine because it will surely be a beautiful doll and will keep a craftsperson in business, and it is much preferable to a mass-manufactured doll full of synthetic materials and made by machine, but that it is much "more waldorf" (his words) to sew a simple rag doll right at home.  We all heaved a collective sigh of relief at that point, except for the moms who said they don't sew.  "Well, go ahead and learn then," the teacher said. "There are books written to teach eight-year-olds how to sew a doll. There's nothing wrong with using a book for children." He went on to warn us all against getting too caught up in the "accoutrements" of waldorf, and against perfectionism in general. Good stuff that I am still thinking about today, almost a year later.  Here are a few other waldorf-y toys that *can* be very expensive, but don't have to be:

The much-lauded playsilks can be made at home easily, using scarves from Dharma Trading Company (about $2 apiece) and Kool-Aid or food coloring. It is as easy as can be, and the benefit is two-fold: there is the fun of dying the silks as a family activity, and then you have the silks to play with for years.

As for those $300 playstands being sold on-line? Well I won't knock 'em because they are wonderful toys and well worth the money, but we simply didn't have the money so we made our own for about $40.  And Josh is no handy-man by any stretch. But looking at the design you can just tell it isn't rocket science. And it wasn't!

I don't think I've ever been to a thrift store that didn't have a good supply of wicker baskets to be had for a song (la-la-la!)  We use them for playing and for toy storage.  Hand-crafted ones are great of course, but if you can't afford it you can't afford it.  These have a similar look and are recycled, which I think is a nice lesson for Ivo.  Okay for all of us!

Okay, well these are really expensive . . .

Just kidding! Ivo plays with this kind of stuff all the time. free, free, free! 

Some of these blocks were purchased as a set, imported from Poland no less (why? why? why?!)  And some were cut from a tree branch that fell into our yard.  Guess if Ivo cares which ones cost $40 and which ones were free?

This is not meant to demean the beautiful Waldorf toys available online and through catalogs (and at a shop nearby if you are lucky).  I have a true appreciation for fine craftsmanship and the skill that goes into making wooden toys and natural fiber toys.  And while many are out of my price range I certainly would not say they are "overpriced" at all.  But if you can't afford it, simply don't have the money, period, there is no reason to feel bad about it.  We have our creativity and a world of natural materials to be had for the taking.  Children don't need much-- a lot of times the gift is in what you aren't giving them rather than what you are. ("less is more" is a common theme in designing Waldorf play spaces).  Even lovingly hand-crafted toys can contribute to consumerism if you feel you or your child will somehow be more complete if you can purchase them.  Here's what I try to do: window shop, find ideas, purchase things that I really feel are a good value for our family (and I don't mean cheap, I mean a good value for our family!) and with the rest, just "make do": create it ourselves, find it used, or just put it out of my mind and move in another direction.  And with the winter holidays coming I think I may need to post that on my refrigerator as a reminder.   

I have more thoughts on this, but for another day--this is getting really long and if you've read this to the end, then thank you! You're too kind :)

we are happy painters, we live in a box of paints

(this post title is a Joni Mitchell reference, I was trying to be clever. not sure if I pulled it off though!)

Since beginning Seasons of Joy we've done a lot of watercolor painting. Ivo really enjoys painting days, and sometimes we paint together as a family. So as a result we have a lot of artworks floating around the house.  Some are stunningly beautiful; those Stockmar watercolors really do their thing.  I think it's nice to have abstract art on the walls for Ivo to look upon with his imagination.  When I was a little girl we had several pieces of nonrepresentational art in our home, and I must have pondered them for hundreds of hours over the course of my childhood.  But at this point we could easily wallpaper most of the house with all of the paintings, so we've had to come up with some more uses for them. 

I've started using hand-painted business cards and tags for my etsy shop, which I cut with an Xacto knife and then round off the corners with a scrapbooker's corner punch. Then I hand stamp them with my shop name and info. Ivo likes to imitate this process so some days we make "business cards" as our handwork.  His are stamped with pictures of cats and horses from his Melissa and Doug Stamper Set.

Another project that puts our paintings to use is making cards. Yesterday we made a set of notecards by ripping and cutting paintings and gluing them to cards along with scraps of wool felt.  The results aren't photographed very well, but they turned out very cute and kept Ivo busy for a long time. 

On one of the cards he dictated a note to his speech teacher, who was home sick last week:

Dear Teacher Janis,

I miss you so much and I love you OK? You feel better OK? We have a bird feeder at our house.

Love, Ivo