a solstice gift

Happy Solstice!  This year our family made some hanging bird feeders as gifts for family and friends.  It was a messy and fun project that winter birds in your area will appreciate.  There are lots of tutorials all over the internet on different methods to use.  We could not find lots of large pine cones so we recycled toilet paper rolls and they worked just fine.

We started by making holes in the top of the toilet paper roll and tying a ribbon or yarn through them.

Slathering on the peanut butter.

and then rolling them in a birdseed mix.

wrap in cellophane and tie with a ribbon.

A lovely gift for the birds and probably a few squirrels depending on where you hang it.
Wishing you a happy solstice and a wonderful festive season.
See you in 2012.

Darker days and darker nights

To bring the children's attention to and constructively mark the fact that the nights are drawing in and winter has taken hold, we grabed some clue, some washed nutella jars and some sparkling stars. Cover the jar in glue, roll in hundreds of tiny stars (and spend the next 3 days finding them all over the carpet!) and wait to dry. They looked fab with little tea lights set in them :) It's a very simple activity with pretty results, and it's a very subtle way to get tiny people to start thinking about the cold of winter and what it might mean to them.

Have fun!

Learning about time with collage

Hello all!
I wanted to share a little project that my 3 year old and I did recently.  He has developed an interest in time: "When will I be 4?"
"When will it snow?"
"When does soccer class start?"

So in the interest of helping him understand time passing, seasons, months and weeks we made a simple collage with calendars and activities recorded.  Granted he can't read yet but we can look at it together and learn from the images and words.

This can be as elaborate or simple as you want and we created this from what we had on hand.  I found the calendar template here, we used old magazines for images, coloured paper, a pressed maple leaf and crayons.  You could also incorporate stickers, family photos or other artwork. Bristol board, a long roll of paper (what we used) or even fabric could be used for the background.

Things can be added throughout the season, you can make them reusable for next year or recycle them and start fresh.  I plan to do this project each season this year so I'm keeping a look out for any materials we can use in the future.

This is also a great way for kids to learn to use scissors, glue or other mediums like paint or pastels.  The beauty of this is that we did it in a day sporadically.  If you have more than one child you can make one for each of them so that the dates or holidays that they consider special can be highlighted.  Right now ours is in the family room but I think we'll move it into Kyan's room in a few weeks.

 
What I love about collage is that there is no "right" way to do it.  Any child at any age can participate and make this project their own.  As an added bonus I found this book at the library this week.  It delves into the concept of time from seconds to seasons and has deepened the conversation.  

Easy sew projects...

I found some neat fabrics at Spoonflower.com


I think I love these because they're a pattern plus the fabric all rolled into one! My six-year-old wants to sew the gnome doll... and for a first project, I think this is something she can do almost completely by herself!


Here's one that is a doll AND clothes all in one! Can't really ask for more than that!


I also liked these hand puppets... quick and easy... and the kids can spend hours enjoying them!

They have tons of other fabulous fabrics too... it's worth a look if you are in the market for new projects right now! Good cold weather project maybe?

Moon Phase Dream Pillow

UPDATE: I made one of these pillows in just a couple of hours.  I am teaching myself to sew.  If I can do it that quickly and expert would have no problem completing this project even more quickly.

Both of my boys loved their Solstice gift as much as I loved giving it to them.

5 Orange Potatoes has created a wonderful tutorial for making a moon phase dream pillow.  It is perfect for a simple Yule gift for each little one in your family.

Enjoy!

When Time is Scarce!

There's just so much you need to do at this time of year, but you also have little ones that are bored.... You need some time to do those last minute chores and the children want to have some fun!

Here is a great resource when you just need a little bit of unhindered time: www.sparklebox.co.uk has some printables. It's aimed at pre-school teachers in the U.K and is a site widely used by school, but it is equally as great for use in the home. It has lots of Christmas themed activities as well as lot of other great stuff for all year round use. While it's not a pagan resource there is lots here that you'll find useful. Lots of literacy and numeracy resources, mask making, story sequencing, recipe cards, and plenty of multi-faith resources. There is something here that you can use, I assure you.

Right, we're off to make some Little Donkey masks (gosh if I hear that song even once more I might just trawl ebay for some earplugs...)

Simple Celtic Plait Tutorial

As many of us will be making Yule/Christmas cards with our children I thought I would share a very simple method of creating a celtic style knotwork band. I've used biro and graph paper so you can see more clearly (a good way to go about it if you want to sneak in some number work while getting creative with your little people!) but pencils and erasers are the way to go really! These look fabulous as borders on cards...



If you're not using squared paper you'll want to draw in some guide lines that you can rub out later. What you need is 3 equal sections from top to bottom. In the middle section you need to draw out a zig-zag pattern (if you're working on early math concepts this is a fun way to practise measuring).




For the next stage you need to extend the points of your zig-zag as shown above - make sure all the extensions are facing the same direction or you'll need that rubber sooner rather than later!




For stage 3 take each of those extensions and loop them over in a curve towards the next line. This is where your top and bottom guidelines are needed. If you're anything like me when you draw it free hand without the guidelines your knotwork has all sorts of bulges and thin bits. The guidelines just help to keep it neat and tidy.

Lastly rub out any guidelines you've drawn in and you can colour your lovely piece of art work. Simples!

After a few goes this gets really easy I promise - have fun!

Tree Advent Calender Tutorial

Hi everyone.

I'm a new contributor to Pagan Parenting Resource Blog and I'm very excited to share a project with you that I've been meaning to get to for a couple of years now.  Advent calenders are lots of fun for kids since they add to the anticipation of the holidays and give the rather abstract idea of time a more concrete reminder.
My son is almost 3 and so the holidays are just becoming something that he remembers and looks forward to.

I would recommend this project for children 3 and up.  My son helped as much as he was interested which lasted until the painting was done.  The great thing about this project is that most of us with kids will already have this stuff lying around so you don't need to buy much at all.  For clarity I have compiled a supplies list but do substitute whatever you have that will work.  This took me one full day to complete.  If you have older children that can help out more it could be a half day or less depending on how elaborate you get. 

While traditional advent calenders count down the days to Christmas ours counts down to xmas eve or Santa's arrival.  Another option is to count down to the Winter Solstice which brings the sun's rebirth.  If that is more to your liking you may want to change the design to a spiral sun instead of an evergreen tree.  The sky is the limit on how you can interpret this for your family.  Have fun!

Supplies list:

• 1 package of pipe cleaners (various colours)
• 1 large and sturdy piece of cardboard or cardstock for mounting
• 2 cut up egg cartons
• green paint
• red paint
• brown paint
• white paint
• 1 package of treats for each day (I used chocolate covered almonds)
• scraps of fabric and ribbon or yarn to wrap almonds
• scissors
• hole punch
• glue
• green construction paper
• paint brushes
• buttons, cording, old holiday cards for making tree ornaments

 

To begin layout your tree to the desired size

Next cut out a strip of construction paper and punch a hole in the top

punch a hole in each of your egg carton pieces

loop a piece of pipe cleaner through the two holes and tie

be sure to leave enough extra pipe cleaner to attach your ornaments to the tree later on

Glue the strip of paper to the cardboard.  Egg piece should be able to flip up like so

Continue for each following row

Once they are all glued down proceed with painting the tree shape and each carton green

Next create your tree ornaments out of pipe cleaners, buttons, beads or ribbon.  Remember they have to be small enough to fit into the egg cartons

Next wrap your candies, chocolates or treats

Finally put each treat and ornament in its place and display.

For older children you can put in suggestions of activities that you'll do together or poems and sayings of the season.  Each year can be different for variety or you can keep the tradition as it is for sentimentality. 

I'll be back each month with a new craft project to share with your kids.  It's great to meet you all and I wish your families the happiest of holidays this year.

Gnomes

So... everyone around here seems to be thinking deep thoughts, contemplating raising our children... and I want to thank them for some really enlightening posts. I have not been so philosophical lately... I've been tired... but I've still been playing... wanna see what I did???

Remember that wonderful website that One Pink Fish introduced us to called Wee Folk Art? Oh yeah... I've been making gnomes like crazy! Here are some of the first ones... today they went to live at my daughter's preschool. I hope the kids like them!


There are really endless possibilities with the colors used for the gnomes... which means that there can be multitudes that are "one-of-a-kind"! My kids take them and have created a whole world and families and stuff... as fast as I can produce them!

The pattern actually says to make the small ones just like the adults... just smaller. I found it easier to cut the rectangle for their outfits, and then sew up the front with "X"'s. I put acorn caps on them... and thought they turned out pretty well!


I'm going to make another set for my daughter's preschool, and I want to make them a Tomten also. It's such a great story, and Yule is the perfect time for reading it and acting it out. The kids are always putting on "shows" at preschool... it's SO cute!

Anyway, the learning curve for making these is fast... after you make the first, you're really on your way to a whole clan! I'm going to start making beds for them soon... I just need to order more wool felt first (oh... really, if you do this, wool felt... as opposed to polyester felt... makes ALL the difference!).