Hopscotch in the garden... old fashioned games, bringing back memories :0)

Saturday Sewing with Emmy...

Emmy chose a dress pattern then helped me cut it out and put it together this weekend!


Yes this is the same thrift store fabric find featured a few times before on this blog ;)
So now Emmy has a dress to match this peasant blouse and headscarf combo!

Last Saturday's sewing was these new PJ's.
Homemade pattern (using a few measurements, plus the outline of an old pair of jeans and a vest top) and some more thrift store fabric. £1:75 should make a pair of Summer PJ's for all the girls!
(And keep me busy for the next few Saturdays too)

For the child it is not half so important to know as to feel...

"For the child. . . it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. 

The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused - a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love - then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response . . . 

It is more important to pave the way for a child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts that he is not ready to assimilate."

 Rachel Carson

Climb...

One step

two step

"As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unself- consciously to the soughing of the trees."

 Valerie Andrews, A Passion for this Earth

The Peace of Wild Things...

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.



I come to the place of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come to the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time



I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

...Wendall Berry
From the poem "THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS"

Sewing a Simple Summer Skirt with Boo...

Sew a Simple Summer Skirt with your little one!

Some fabric found at a local charity shop for £1:99 (This fabric has gone a long way. So far, it has made two peasant blouses, one head scarf, a paneled dress for Emmy and this skirt... and there's still more left over!!!)

First we measured out the fabric. Bujana is an average sized 5 year old. We measured out 38 inches for the width and 14 inches for the length. These measurements took account of all seam allowances and too be fair they were pretty unscientific, as in they just "kinda looked right lol"
I would say the width would probably have to be increased somewhat for a longer length of skirt though.

We pinned and hemmed both the top and bottom of the skirt ( turning the fabric over twice to enclose the raw edges)
When we sewed the top of the skirt we left about a 1/2 inch gap between the top of the fold and the stitching so that the elastic would be able to work it's way around easily.

We hooked the elastic onto the end of a safety pin and carefully drew it through the 1/2 inch gap we left in our seam,

Here is Bujana pulling the elastic through the folded seam at the top of the skirt. She liked watching how the elastic ruffled the fabric up as she inched it through! Tilly seemed interested for a little while too. Peter rabbit was less bothered it has to be said :)

We doubled over the side seams too to hide raw edges, also called a french seam, although if you are very clever (with a very clever machine unlike my "vintage" cheap as chips, slightly clapped out old singer) you might serger them, which would probably make them feel less weighty.

Et Voila!

Now for the homeschool bit...
Here is Bujana drawing out the instructions so that she'll remember what to do next time :0)

This was a simple, fun sewing project for Boo. She was so excited that she was actually making something that she would actually be able to wear!
All in all the skirt took around 40 minutes to sew up, Boo on the machine (with a little guidance) me on the pedal. And it incorporated so many different skills...Measuring, visual, spatial skills, hand eye co-ordination, creativity, putting a set of instructions into an order of semblance...plus it was a lot of fun with a pretty summery skirt to twirl around the garden in at the end of it all.

Making Poetic Leaps

Making Poetic Leaps...onomatopoeia and A Poem about Happiness 
 

Reading some of Robert Bly's books recently including "Leaping Poetry" has brought into clarity thoughts that have long hovered beneath the surface of my mind yet have not been able to find articulation.

I suppose all good writing tends to do that.

It can be said that whenever we undertake the writing of a poem we are in fact making "leaps" between the conscious and unconscious minds.

A good poetic line draws secrets from the deep like a free diving pearl fisher.

This means that poetry is able to make free associations between seemingly far flung ideas.

In this place (which the poet Novalis refers to as the seat of the soul) underlying essential truths about our humanity become realized and brought into the crystal waters of clarity.

Memories, dreams, far away hopes, our inner child, fairy tales, ancient stories bound in human history, our connection to the earth and the divine, all return to us through the words of our poetry.

I love sharing my love of poetry with my girls.

I don't teach formal grammar, nor do I ever intend to.


I truly believe that grammar can be learned intuitively, when given the chance to explore words through the medium of stories, poems, factual prose, plays and oral narration.

To teach grammar separately creates a fissure between two linguistic worlds that can only be instinctively and internally understood when brought into relation and context with one another.

The other day Bujana wrote a poem using an object (namely a lemon) to explore how her senses are the tools we use to understand and describe the natural world.

I loved how the words she came up with were so tactile and so qualitatively onomatopoetic.

Children just instinctively love onomatopoeia I think of a poem we wrote earlier on in the year together as I began to introduce her to the idea of how sound can resonate within words and ideas....

MUD : Squelchy, squishy, Squashy
WATER: Splashy, sploshy, Washy
AIR : Buzzy, Fuzzy, Shhhhhh
FIRE: Hiss, Crackle, Crinkle
RAIN: Drip, Drop, Tip, Tap


So now I'm slowly bringing her toward more abstract association.

Instead of an object (like a lemon) we are going to start to explore a feeling with our senses...

The feeling of the day is HAPPINESS :0)

Here is what Bujana came up with...

HAPPINESS

lOOKS Bright like a fiery sun
SOUNDS like it's laughing
SMELLS like a rose's perfume
TASTES like warm bread 
FEELS like a hot cup of tea

I just love the line "HAPPINESS SOUNDS like it's laughing"
It really does!

I invited Bujana to paint her poem to
 *make a leap* between the word sound and visual imagination.

Her painting is at the top of this post.

Although the free association or "leaps" in this kind of purely "sensual" poetry are limited to a point, they are a gentle introduction for small children.

They project view, of the colour and texture of the wide and wonderful poetic landscape.

When Bujana thinks of happiness linked to a taste linked to warm memory of bread, of being leaps are being made!

Finding Light in Little Things....

Bujana's Button Box...

Create a Poem in 5 easy steps...

By
Listening
To
Your
Senses...

So first be very quiet. Listen.... so that you can hear you Poem!

Then go ahead and taste your Poem. What flavour is it?

Smell your Poem! Breath it in...

Touch your Poem


Now look closely at your Poem... What is it telling you?


It's time to create your Poem. Bring it to life!

Finally refresh yourself as you Read your Poem...
*
*
*
Enjoy your poem