Kids Crafts – Spring Eggs & Wet Felting

I am having a fling with wool. It’s true, I’m totally smitten. There are so many reasons why wool is the one for me. Wool is soft and so very cozy, makes me feel like I’ve done something good for myself just by being near it. Then, of course, there’s the whole “my child is [...]

Watercolor Painting In the Waldorf Style

Editor’s Note: If you missed Robin’s review of Canadian author Wayson Choy’s fabulous novel All That Matters, you can read it HERE. This afternoon, we have Waldorf educator Rebecca Watkin back on site with a look at the Waldorf method of watercolor painting. Here she is:
A Painting Verse
The sunlight shines into each day
And sends the [...]

Deciding on Kindergarten – Options, Talk & Opinions

Editor’s Note: If you missed the Sunday Morning Walk post, you can read it HERE. The forests are alive with mushrooms and fungus and other coolness this time of year. Now, we dig into Kindergarten options here in the Comox Valley. Please jump in on the discussion.
It’s the hot buzz among preschool parents in the [...]

Taking A Peek Inside A Waldorf Classroom In Action

Editor’s Note: Good morning. Waldorf educator Rebecca Watkin is on site this morning showing us the inner workings of a Waldorf elementary grade classroom. Here she is:
The first time I set foot into a Waldorf classroom my breath was taken away by its beauty. I am not sure what I expected, but I was transformed [...]

A Waldorf Kindergarten

Editor’s Note: Happy Saturday! This morning we have Waldorf educator Rebecca Watkin giving us a look inside a Waldorf Kindergarten class. Here she is:
When I think of my own Kindergarten year my memory is a bit foggy. To me it is virtually the same as Grade One, but without the desks. There were stations, there were [...]

Seeking the Light and the Warmth with Advent

Editor’s Note: Happy Saturday morning! We have Rebecca Watkin on site discussing the Waldorf tradition of Advent - a time of celebrating light. Here she is:
Deep Mid-winter drawing near –
May Light arise in our Garden here.
Advent has always been my favorite celebration. As a child I didn’t know it was Advent I loved, I only knew [...]

The Magic of Seasonal Festivals for Children

Editor’s Note: It’s an education imagination Saturday. If you missed it this morning, we reviewed two fantastically fun Halloween books with the Rainy Day Book Club. Check them out HERE.

This afternoon we have Rebecca Watkin discussing the Waldorf tradition of seasonal festivals – their significance, beauty and ability to make the imagination of childhood soar. [...]

Product Review – Waldorf Inspired Rainbow Stackers

I love Waldorf toys. They have a simple, gorgeous - almost fairytale – feel to them that sooths and allow kids to be creative. It’s like watching your child’s mind blossom right in front of you.
High-quality wooden toys with such a mystique are seriously hard to find locally. So, when Sherry and Kristina over at Podlings [...]

Choices & Good Books About Homeschooling

Since our daughter was about 18 months old and I started looking into the whole idea of homeschooling, I was pretty much sold on doing the learning at home thing.
We are a hands-on bunch to begin with, spending lots of our time looking for bugs in the forest, trying to figure out what bird we [...]

The Best of A Crafty 2008

I never really thought of myself as a crafty sort of gal. Seriously, I have long lived with the crafty curse, trying many a Martha-centric project and failing in expensive, ugly sorts of ways.
I very much admit that my mom got the short end of the stick when it came to these sorts of projects [...]

Kid Toys to Spark Imagination, Naturally

Editor’s Note:
As a part of our new editorial format, Our Big Earth will be reviewing kid- and family-friendly products that are available locally or from regional online retailers.
The idea is not to fill up your house with all kinds of new gear, but offer you some greener, creative and healthy options that are available [...]

Make Some Forest Fairies

We have always been into the lives of forest fairies around our house.
From some of our earliest days of walking the trails, it didn’t take much convincing to make us believers that some forests are truly the land of fairy people.
It’s one of those things that we casually weave into stories about the forest…or at [...]

A Home Museum with Shadow Boxes

Zoology, Botany and Forestry aren’t exactly in the vocabulary of the under-5 set.
Yet, every time we hit the beach, the garden or the trail, science is following us around.
Each pine cone or shell tucked in a tiny pocket reveals something significant about a place we’ve explored. (Yes, OK, I am total science nerd.)
And I’m pretty [...]

Family Craft – Waldorf 3-D Butterflies

Our kiddo has never been into doing the girlie girl thing.
We instituted the no-pink, no-ruffles rule (applied loosely).
She loves bugs and snakes, Roberto Luongo and digging in the tide pools for creatures of all kinds.
But, lately, our house has gotten very fairy tale, very pastel, very soft and pretty thanks to the tiny person’s newfound [...]

Family Craft – Waldorf-Inspired Watercolors

The gig is up.
Our kiddo is a painting maniac.
Seriously, the older she gets the uglier public painting becomes. Just the mere mention of tempera paints and paper sends her into an uncontrollable frenzy during which she paints every inch of her body – and anyone standing within swiping distance, gets a gooey paintbrush on all [...]