At our beach, at our magic beach...

With not much of a summer to speak of this year, we spent the first few week of term making the most of what was left. Inspired by Alison Lesters Book "Magic Beach" we kicked off the term with a splash at Wellington Point exploring Our Magic Beach. Thankfully Father Sun came out to play and we had a beautiful morning and weeks to follow.

The water held an irresistable pull ...
"At our beach, at our magic beach, we swim in the sparkling sea,
surfing and splashing and jumpin the waves, shrieking and laughing with glee"

Then a bite to eat with a refreshing fruit salad and some wonderful healthy picnic treats - and a birthday to celebrate.

A play on the wonderful playground

Then a fossik along the shore...
"At our beach, at our magic beach, we walk when it's cloudy and grey,looking for driftwood, feathers and shells washed up on the edge of the bay"

A search for the hundreds of tiny crabs that we never quite got to as they disappeared down their holes before we could even get close...
"At our beach, at our magic beach, we search in the clear warm pools,peering at starfish, limpets and crabs, and tiny fish darting in schools"

__________

In the following weeks back at home we drew on our beach experience to create some beautiful experiences, play spaces and craft activities.

Our nature table held a collection of shells, coral, sea creatures and the beautiful Ocean Queen

A magical playscene and shells to play with in the playroom

A log, shells and seaweed from the beach formed a lovely backdrop to our circle time where we listened to the song of the sea.

Can you hear the seas song in this little shell?
Hold it up to your ear and listen, listen well
Swish-oo, swish-oo
The seashells song is from the silvery sea,
Where the waves roll in wild and free
Swish-oo, swish-oo

Shells in the sandpit become natural scoops and drawing tools.

We stitched and sewed with love some magical little felt seahorses at craft night.

We painted with watercolours inspired by the blue greens of the ocean
Blue wave from the sea, come and wash all over me

We also used some of collected items to create some interesting prints.

The shells we pressed into disks of clay to make shell fossils.

The children then chose some beads and pieces of driftwood from our collection to create beautiful beach mobiles.

A sweet reminder gently swaying in the breeze, of our Magic Beach!

All things new at playgroup...

A new year, new faces and some lovely new treasures as well...

As our first day of playgroup drew nearer I stitched and sewed, prepared and painted (well hubby did the painting), so that everything was just perfect for us and all of our playgroup friends.

Our playroom was painted and cleaned up, and our lovely new playstand and cloth set up. I love having this special space to set up playscenes, and display things with beauty and care.

Some beautiful new treasures were found - the two crystal gnomes are from Winterwood, handcarved in New Zealand (http://www.winterwoodtoys.com/) and the flower and mushroom fairies and gnomes are hand carved and painted in the Czech Republic (http://www.rjabinnik.etsy.com/). I wanted to create a mood of beauty, simplicity and possibility and I think these do that beautifully. As Sandra Frain reminded us last year, we need to be mindful of the way in which we convey images to children of what a gnome or a fairy for example looks like, and not limit them to set ideas and images. I also whipped up these little forest gnomes.

Two new swans were made to swim majestically upon the pond.

Our home area was uplifted with this fantastic new all in one kitchen (from Phil at http://www.enjoymakingtoys/) He came to visit us at playgroup last year, and made this at our special request. He is now selling a lot of them I believe. The teaset is bamboo, and is beautiful to look at and play with. I found that online at http://www.fishica.com.au/ in WA.

These two new handsized rainbow babies were a joy to make, arms outstretched just waiting to be picked up, and a cuddly new baby for our home area. Her body is made out 100% cotton (similar to dressing gown material) and is oh so soft.

My "All Seasons Garden of Plenty" Birthday crown is bursting with life - oranges, apples, plums, butterflies and bees all adorn this. And here are just some of the lovely new birthday treasures awaiting our special children.

And finally, we have some new chickens as well - India, Abigail and Persephonie have recently moved in to our hen house.



Our first day back was just beautiful. It was a joy to watch as the children played and explored, and every bit of effort was so worth it. All the love that was put into creating these special spaces was given back tenfold.

Felted Advent Mats

This week we wet felted some mats to hold our advent treasures and candles on.

The children helped to lay out the fleece on some bubble wrap, and add their designs...

then sprayed them with warm soapy water.

Some more bubble wrap on top, then a gentle massage to hold it all in place...

before moving it over to the bamboo mats for lots of rolling.

Even our littlest one enjoyed the motion.

And here are a couple of the designs (with mums help of course)

Something from Nothing

In the spirit of building up to a creative christmas we have been making our own 'something from nothing' creative craft boxes and telling the story (a simplified version) "Something from Nothing" by Phoebe Gilman. During story time the children loved to watch as a baby's wonderful blanket - frazzled and worn, unsightly and torn - instead of being thrown out, was transformed into a wonderful shirt. Then the wonderful shirt - shrunken and small, doesn't fit you at all - became a wonderful handkerchief. The wonderful handkerchief - used till its tattered, splotched and its splattered - finally becomes a wonderful button. What a wonderful story to inspire re-using, recycling and creative thinking.

The children cut, tore, hole punched and pasted bits of paper, wool, and buttons to decorate their wonderful boxes.

I have filled them with some little treasures to take home over our holiday break - beads, buttons, scraps of felt and flannelette, wool, string, sticks, gumnuts, shells - I wonder what they will inspire? And a challenge - an old curtain ring. I want to see what creative ideas mums and children can come up with to use this!

And I just wanted to share this little creation - our dancing dolly was created from our something from nothing box purely by chance. The scrap pieces of felt, wool arms, button face and wool hairbow were randomly sewn together by my 2 year old to take on a life of their own, and literally create 'something from nothing'. We then spent the morning singing and making our little puppet dance merrily around the room.

Spring Ponies

For the past few weeks we have been busy making spring ponies.

The children have been waiting with much anticipation for their ponies to be finished. The time and energy that we put into these for our children is truly an expression of love, and each of these is unique and beautiful because of that.

Week 1 - Making the head

You will need

• a mens sock in 'pony' colours, or other for something a little magical
• felt for ears and eyes, and maybe a pair of buttons
• wool for the mane
• around 200g stuffing
  

Stuff the wool quite firmly into the sock for a nice thick head.

Sew on the ears and eyes. Then sew the mane by looping a long length of wool over and over, catching it at the neckline. Cut the loops at the bottom, and tie the strands together at the neckline to hold. (I hope that makes sense - hopefully the picture helps)

For more definition you can also give nostril indentations by knotting a thread and sewing it from side to side in the nose area, pulling tight.

Week 2 - Making the bridle

Rope Twisties!

You will need 2 long lengths of wool, approx 3 1/2 m each. Tie the wool together at one end, and have someone hold it. Then start twisting. Make sure you don't let go!

This was lots of fun.

When you've twisted all the way to the other end, bring the ends together to fold the length of wool in half (this can be a bit tricky without it twisting up on you). Hold on to the loose ends, then 1..2..3.. let go of the folded end.

Smooth out any knots.

To make the bridle

Tie twistie rope (at the folded end) around the horses nose

Bring the rope up over the head, then tie off on the other side of the nose piece.

Bring the rope back around to the other side (this creates the reins) and tie on to the starting point. Add some bells and any other decorative pieces.

Week 3 - Attaching the stick

Cut a length of reasonably straight, smooth stick around 80cm long and 2-3cm thick

I just collected fallen ones from our surrounding gums and native trees.

Drill a hole around 15cm down the length of stick.

Give the stick a light sand and polish with beeswax, it smells beautiful and brings out the rich natural colour of the wood

Attatch the head, pushing the stick up through the stuffing almost to the top.

Sew the sock (head) to the stick through the drilled hole, round and through a number of times for strength, then tie off.

Finally, let the fun begin!

Galloping galloping ho, galloping galloping hey

Running in the fields all day...
(from Restless Red Pony by Susan Perrow)

Hmmm, I wonder who is having more fun...

A butterfly came to add some magic fairy dust to this beautiful unicorn...

What a beautiful project this has been!

............

And a little peek at our nature table...

...simple and beautiful.