Birthdays

Birthday weeks are always busy ones. Blogging takes a back seat to cake making and present wrapping, card making etc. They're fairly simple affairs with the principle that the person who's birthday it is gets to steer the day. That is choose what we eat and what we do. So Frank chose homemade brioche for breakfast, lasagne for lunch, chocolate cake and then pancakes for tea. That was a lot of cooking especially as a second cake had to be made for the one of us that doesn't like chocolate cake (I know it's incredible some one doesn't like chocolate cake!).

He chose to play board games in the morning and head to the beach in the afternoon and we finished the day off with the very enjoyable Nim's Island.

Our cards are always homemade and that means an adult needs to make time to help out the kids, it's usually me except when it's my birthday. Sometimes they make presents too but not every time, it's up to them and this bit can be very last minute or something they work on weeks or even months in advance. I love handmade giving but I don't want it to be something they have to do rather something they love doing. And as with so many things in parenting, our actions speak louder than words.
 
So just a few photos today and the promise of good things to come ... some news on our spring activities, lino block printing and much more...

Frank - birthday at the beach

Collecting

Collecting ii

King of Tokyo

Making the cake

Spring is here!

Happy Spring! We've been enjoying all things spring, spending a lot of time outdoors and beginning to get the garden ready to go. It's so good to shed some of the extra winter layers and breathe in the fresh warm air. And there is so much beauty out there, what's not to enjoy.

Blossom

Sunshine

Reflections

Clouds

Blooms

Homeschooling the Seasons : Spring Activities and Crafts

Spring is in the air. At the weekend the weather was so warm I hung my washing outside to dry for the first time in months, it was strangely exhilarating. And yes I am aware that it's a bit sad when you get excited about where you can dry your laundry! 

Sunny day

I've always felt it was important to bring the children's attention to the seasons. When we first began homeschooling, Waldorf was a strong influence on my approach and the emphasis on nature, the seasons and hand crafts really suited us. With three children now of varying ages I don't always get to steer the homeschooling in quite the same way I did when I only one. However, I do try to keep an awareness of the seasons in our lives and work on it specifically with our youngest child, Lotta. 

One of the ways we focus on the seasons is with our seasonal books and you can read about our spring favourite here. The garden also helps, March begins the season of planting and we try to get the children involved as this post explains. Last year they each had a plot and they are keen to be responsible for a part of the garden again this season. They love when we eat food that they grew themselves.

Lotta with one of her own carrots

And I also try to make sure that we get in some seasonal crafts. We often spend some time drawing and painting flowers and blossom and we usually paint eggs for easter and of course there's flower pressing and picking wild flower bouquet's. I've already had my first little person flower offering - lovely.

Yellow Bouquet

Maya in bloom

Here is a quick round up of the crafts I've spotted and think we'll give a try this spring:

• Paper Eggs to Suspend from Craft and Creativity

Craft and Creativity's Paper Eggs

• Pom Pom Easter egg painting from Crafty Morning. I think they'll enjoy the novelty of painting with a different medium than paintbrushes for this one!

• Unbelievably we've never grown cress so I think we'll give something like this from The Imagination Tree a try,  it will be great to tie in work on letters.

• Eggs for Ornithology is just one of the fantastic ideas on Imagine Childhood's wonderful list of spring crafts, I think we might also try out the blooming petit fours, spring macaroons and probably the rainbow flower wreath.

• And from the amazing Artful Parent site which we've turned to many times for inspiration, I'm really liking the stained glass window ideas (last year we used real flowers and sticky back plastic to decorate our windows), the fairy wings, and this fun with a box!

I'll be sure to update with some pictures of these crafts once we get started!

thte

Five Little Things : Colour and Promise

Spring is in the air here, the primroses are blooming, the weeping willows have leaves, the first blossom is on the trees and the beautiful yellow bells of the daffodils are covering the verges. It's great. That and the fact that I'm poring over paint charts and decorating books has me thinking about colour a lot and that's the inspiration for today's five little things. Promise? Well that's what I feel like spring is full of, the promise of sunshine and warm days and more time outdoors. I love this season because on certain days, it really does feel like anything is possible in this life.

Blossom on my knee

Drooping Daffodil

The Old Hortensias

Rock Plants

Warhol Daffodils

ththe