Flower crowns are a beautiful adornment for a dance around the May Pole- or even a springtime romp around your backyard! Here we have included instructions for creating the base of the crown and two varieties of tissue paper flowers. Of course, fresh flowers can easily be tucked within the crown, as we usually have done for our May Day festival.

Flower Crown Base

For the crown base we have used a few pieces of long raffia and 4-5 lengths of cotton yarn. If raffia is unavailable, all yarn is equally lovely. This video and following pictures demonstrates how to twizzle the lengths of raffia and yarn together and then tie around your child’s head.

• 

• 

Folded Tissue Paper Flower

For both types of flowers, you will need tissue paper, scissors, tape, a stapler, and a pipe cleaner.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Rolled Tissue Paper Flower

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In LifeWays and Waldorf schools, May Day is an annual festival celebrating community and the beauty of bloom time with traditional songs and the Maypole dance. In Waldorf schools, as children move through the grades, they learn evermore complicated weaves for the ribbons of the Maypole reflecting the particular developmental tasks of that grade level. In fourth grade for example, they learn simultaneous interweaving with skipping that complements the learning of singing in rounds for the first time.

The festival in different guises has been around since pagan times and got a bit tamer in Roman times. In America, it was celebrated very regularly with happy anticipation and, of course, flowers for about a hundred and sixty years. It continues to be celebrated in a number of enclaves throughout the country, including LifeWays programs. At Rose Rock, we typically weave flower crowns or jingle bracelets, and gather for a circle time of song and dance before weaving the Maypole with our families. We finish our celebration with a casual potluck picnic and joyful socializing.

For many years the festival in America was called May Basket Day. In the waning days of April, neighbours and friends, sweethearts and children would make paper baskets or use ready made baskets (returned to families around Halloween, so the baskets could take on their next festival tasks). The basket makers filled the baskets with flowers and/or other treats, and hung the basket anonymously on the intended receiver’s doorknob. If the giver is caught, they can claim a kiss from the giver. 

The Maypole dance, as mentioned above, reaches back to pre-Roman festival times. I am not sure those wild dancers from before Rome wore white, as is often traditional today, but it makes a lovely backdrop for all the colorful flowers adorning hair and filling up the Green, with the community all gathered to dance, picnic, and enjoy the start of spring. Weaving the Maypole seems to be a more common way of celebrating today than the secret giving of May Baskets, but this tradition is such a neighborly surprise. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see it resurrected in this social distancing time? It would be a sweet way to celebrate each other and the springtime when we are mostly apart.

A May Day basket is simple to make. Roll a piece of 8.5″x11″ pretty paper and glue in place, then staple a ribbon handle. Fill it with flowers, tissue flowers (we will post some tutorials on Thursday) or treats and leave your surprise on the steps of a friend!

Managing our earning work while at home with children can pose some challenges. Very young children need close supervision to explore their environment safely, or help with many basic skills, as well as guidance in learning to play. Older children may be able to amuse themselves in play, but after some time (such as the long period we have been sheltering-in-place) they begin to grow tired of this on-going independent play and become more demanding. Mothers and fathers have all levels of work to be achieving for their careers, and may not have much flexibility to be carrying a helpful rhythm. Add to that the normal workload of caring for the home, and it can all easily become exhausting.

Inviting our children to help tend our home space can be a key to bringing joy, relieving stress, and uplifting beauty. Domestic life is what children crave to learn from a very young age, and children of all ages are capable of helping in some capacity. Plus, everyone benefits from learning to collaborate on activities and work toward group goals.

LifeWays North America shared an article recently, Age-appropriate Chores for Kids, that can guide you into sharing the domestic workload and includes a chore list. We hope that sharing domestic tasks with your children will lighten your workload and elevate your spirits.

This week we are catching up on the “home front” at Rose Rock. We’ve made our master list, and gathered several unfinished projects and miscellaneous materials. We have rolled up our sleeves and set to work. We want to settle all this unfinished business before the heat of summer rolls in and we would rather kick up our feet in the shade between weeding and watering sessions.

The children are, of course, encouraged to help. Even as most our projects are centered around the yard, they are provided with opportunities to help. We all enjoy working together, and giving children meaningful work nourishes their sense of life (well-being or vitality), which is essential for living harmoniously with others as adults.

Here is a list of suggested ways children can help in the yard in Spring/Summer:

• Weeding or gathering the picked weeds into a bin
• Gathering fallen sticks and rocks previous to mowing
• Gathering branches as you trim
• Digging for garden beds, walkways, etc.
• Heaving rocks and bags of materials
• Pulling wagons or pushing wheelbarrows
• Organizing garden shed and garage
• Helping to build shelving for shed or garage
• Helping to build compost bins
• Taking out and covering compost
• Shoveling compost
• Spreading mulch in garden beds
• Planting in garden beds or pots
• Helping to build trellis or stake plants
• Watering the garden
• Cutting flowers and greenery for vases indoors

We wrote an article a couple of years ago, Domestic Work and Play with Children that speaks of the value of work for children’s development in a bit more detail.

Even though we are not crafting this week, we invite you to participate in a LifeWays online course that offers an abundance of activities, crafts, and songs all centered around the season. Living Arts through the Seasons Spring edition, is self-paced, available at any time after registration, and very affordable. Plus, families of a LifeWays representative site receive a discount! We hope you enjoy it!

Festival life is pretty personally defined. Like most ideas, we can sign up for it, or not.  We can determine the extent of our commitment to familial or cultural notions of celebrating a festival life. What is a festival? Many of you know without my saying the obvious. Though, what is it for, how do we take it as our own, and why should we anyways? You may have some resistance to this idea of the festival and, if so, is it the same for all festivals? Or just those with which you grew up? Is it the commercial festival which you reject, or the sacred ones? Do you have your own? 

If you want to make festivals part of family life, what are some ways you can do this? I am going to toss out a bunch of ideas, some seminal to the practice of festival life and some simply whimsical.  We get to make it up, our very own festival life. But there can also be traditions we have loved so much since childhood that continuing them feels like an embrace, or a salute across the centuries to our people. It is a happy thing to weave festivals tightly in the fabric of our cyclical year and through the developmental stages of our whole long lives. Festival life may be a well worn and loved track through the year for you. But in case you are unsure, here are some thoughts.

Cleaning is often a key preparation fo festival time that builds anticipation. The place of anticipation in festival life, especially for children, is high. Anticipation can often be richer—as it feeds and lives in imagination where nothing can diminish it—than the physical experience of the festival day/s. Cleaning for a festival also lifts our common space into something of reverence. Sweeping the porch and adding a pot of flowers to welcome the grandparents, the angels, the rabbit, good will and beauty. Polishing the dining table helps children feel the specialness of the meal when they sit down at the table they helped to care for and beautify. Part of how we remember, how we get glued to traditions and ideas, is their life in our muscles. If we inhabit the preparation, we prepare in ourselves, in our actions, and in our cells a sacred and receptive place. 

Tell the stories from other years, the sacred stories and family stories. Tell stories of the natural world changing. Tell stories of the people who did extraordinary things for others, who essentially saved the day, or a people, or Love. These stories build both the anticipation and those underlying qualities that the festival life inspires: courage, hope, generosity, humility, gratitude, self-sacrifice, wonder, or awe. 

Make your beautiful nature tables, festival tables and mealtime tables with the things that grow only now, only here. Bring the flowers that are long traditional symbols of your festival. In my mother’s home it was irises, in my home it is peach blossom branches and Redbud twigs with the leaves growing as the blossoms fade. At school we grow wheatgrass, or marigolds and seasonal herbs, tending to them indoors before planting them outside. Through these acts of care, we become part of the growth of the season. Fill up the house with jars of branches because this moment will pass. Notice it. All of this anticipates but at the same time inwardly prepares. Festival life is more of a time than it is a day. It gets richer the more you give to it. 

Wash and press special clothes. Wash hair and feet and polish shoes. Line up all the stuffed animals. Snug up the covers on the bed. All of these seemingly ordinary tasks build the readiness for festival life. You know how keeping the same schedule at home throughout the days helps the children be ready for nap, for snack, for pottying, for outside play? This readiness can also be prepared for festival life. It takes a vision of what you want it to be. You can make a list. Here are a few things on mine outside of usual preparations I’ve shared so far: a new pillowcase for my child that matches the pj’s I made for Christmas, a special dinner (this year, lasagna that my sister and I will make together), iced tea for everyone that has sprigs of something from my garden served in shiny glasses that let the light through. Of course, I will want to read something that day, something that reminds me why I love being a person in the world right now in this place. 

But all of that takes so much time, you may think. I am already so busy. Yes. Remember too the joy of having a family so we can share the work of festival time. A nature table or centerpiece which makes such a difference for the festive mood of a room takes a heartbeat and can be done at the same time as the children play or when you collect herbs or greens from the garden or when you need a break from the house or from the kids or you are on your lunch break. Making spaces that are festival-flavoured can happen in little moments throughout the day/s and weeks. 

Let’s say you are just beginning your festival preparations, this afternoon. You did not even really think about it, or it seemed a waste of time since families cannot gather. There are all of the hours of the day for making your festival: the children can make watercolor placemats to go under the plates and clip little swags of rosemary to decorate the plates when the table is set. They can help to set the table, and fold the napkins carefully. You can pull out the sacred text, or the sweet children’s picture books that are special to now and read one tonight after dinner. You can sing, or learn the simple version of that song on the guitar, just playing one key at a time, no chords. This can be the beginning time… if it is the beginning. You will grow your festival life as the years go on. 

Do festivals extend beyond the day, the week or 12 days of the season? Yes and no. Part of the point of sacred festivals is to give us practice and fuel to enthuse (meaning the breath of God) our whole way of seeing and being in the world. Festivals remind us of the higher ideals of humanity we tend to forget with everyday life. In the days leading up to and during a festival, we steep ourselves in its rich message. It becomes a contained practice in consciousness. We can give it our whole hearts and not take it for granted because it will not come round again for a whole year. Its special gifts and foods and decorations, its songs and stories, get wrapped in their handcrafted cloth, stowed away in the carved trunk and placed with gratitude and reverence into the rafters, a stair step for angels. 

Yet, in another way, the festivals live beyond their season. When I was a child, my Lenten practice one year was to do anonymously kind things; another year it was not to gossip. These replay in my head throughout the years when I say unkind things or think them, when I think I need credit for something I do. The practices of festival life help me to work toward a self better, kinder, more humble than the one I am living.

Happy Festivals to all of you.

Fairy tales in Waldorf philosophy are the story genre from early childhood (beginning around 4 years old). They have all the pieces that nourish the child. They build capacity for reading skills such as rich vocabulary, a story arc that a child can follow, and lyrical language that fosters listening attention. They build moral reasoning with models for character qualities we want to encourage, models for problem solving, and compelling plots in which the outcome has serious consequences. Lastly, they foster a love of Story, language, and social life. 

The telling of a fairy tale is calm and rhythmic, with or without story props. This undramatic story voicing allows children to absorb the story, characters, and landscape without being frightened. They bring their own mental pictures to the listening which filters out any story elements for which they are unready. This also means they are not envisioning the same pictures that we as adults are, such as the gruesome deaths read about in fairy tales for older children. Children are still formulating these images and concepts through their own life experiences.

With this kind of telling —rather than viewing in movie form or a telling in dramatic voice and gesture—the story is told and heard multiple times, and often over multiple years. At each telling, both storyteller and listener are different. You both have grown. Your relationship with this story, and with Story itself, has changed. You both have more mental pictures and more life experience to bring to the story. So though the story is told with the same rhythms each time, sticking as close to the original as possible, the participants—both teller and listener— bring new and individual qualities to the experience. Fairytales are rich, so a lot can happen from telling to telling. You will notice as the teller of a tale—one you have chosen because that story resonates for you—that you begin to know exactly where to pause, or on which word to put the smallest bit of stress. You notice how the repetitions help you to remember the sequence of the story, and how the story speaks into your own life. 

We hope you enjoy bringing this classic tale to your older children- it is generally brought to children ages five years and above.

Little Brier-Rose by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

In past times there were a king and a queen, who said every day, “Oh, if only we had a child!” but they never received one.

Then it happened one day while the queen was sitting in her bath, that a frog crept out of the water onto the ground and said to her, “Your wish shall be fulfilled, and before a year passes you will bring a daughter into the world.”

What the frog said did happen, and the queen gave birth to a girl who was so beautiful that the king could not contain himself for joy, and he ordered a great celebration. He invited not only his relatives, friends, and acquaintances, but also the wise women so that they would be kindly disposed toward the child. There were thirteen of them in his kingdom, but because he had only twelve golden plates from which they were to eat, one of them had to remain at home.

The feast was celebrated with great splendor, and at its conclusion the wise women presented the child with their magic gifts. The one gave her virtue, the second one beauty, the third one wealth, and so on with everything that one could wish for on earth.

The eleventh one had just pronounced her blessing when the thirteenth one suddenly walked in. She wanted to avenge herself for not having been invited, and without greeting anyone or even looking at them she cried out with a loud voice, “In the princess’s fifteenth year she shall prick herself with a spindle and fall over dead.” And without saying another word she turned around and left the hall.

Everyone was horrified, and the twelfth wise woman, who had not yet offered her wish, stepped foreward. Because she was unable to undo the wicked wish, but only to soften it, she said, “It shall not be her death. The princess will only fall into a hundred-year deep sleep.”

The king, wanting to rescue his dear child, issued an order that all spindles in the entire kingdom should be burned. The wise women’s gifts were all fulfilled on the girl, for she was so beautiful, well behaved, friendly, and intelligent that everyone who saw her had to love her.

Now it happened that on the day when she turned fifteen years of age the king and the queen were not at home, and the girl was all alone in the castle. She walked around from one place to the next, looking into rooms and chambers as her heart desired. Finally she came to an old tower. She climbed up the narrow, winding stairs and arrived at a small door. In the lock there was a rusty key, and when she turned it the door sprang open. There in a small room sat an old woman with a spindle busily spinning her flax.

“Good day, old woman,” said the princess. “What are you doing there?”

“I am spinning,” said the old woman, nodding her head.

“What is that thing that is so merrily bouncing about?” asked the girl, taking hold of the spindle, for she too wanted to spin.

She had no sooner touched the spindle when the magic curse was fulfilled, and she pricked herself in the finger. The instant that she felt the prick she fell onto a bed that was standing there, and she lay there in a deep sleep. And this sleep spread throughout the entire castle. The king and queen, who had just returned home, walked into the hall and began falling asleep, and all of their attendants as well. The horses fell asleep in their stalls, the dogs in the courtyard, the pigeons on the roof, the flies on the walls, and even the fire on the hearth flickered, stopped moving, and fell asleep. The roast stopped sizzling. The cook, who was about to pull kitchen boy’s hair for having done something wrong, let him loose and fell asleep. The wind stopped blowing, and outside the castle not a leaf was stirring in the trees.

Round about the castle a thorn hedge began to grow, and every year it became higher, until it finally surrounded and covered the entire castle. Finally nothing at all could be seen of it, not even the flag on the roof.

A legend circulated throughout the land about the beautiful sleeping Little Brier-Rose, for so the princess was called. Legends also told that from time to time princes came, wanting to force their way through the hedge into the castle. However, they did not succeed, for the thorns held firmly together, as though they had hands, and the young men became stuck in them, could not free themselves, and died miserably.

Many long, long years later, once again a prince came to the country. He heard an old man telling about the thorn hedge. It was said that there was a castle behind it, in which a beautiful princess named Little Brier-Rose had been asleep for a hundred years, and with her the king and the queen and all the royal attendants were sleeping. He also knew from his grandfather that many princes had come and tried to penetrate the thorn hedge, but they had become stuck in it and died a sorrowful death.

Then the young man said, “I am not afraid. I will go there and see the beautiful Little Brier-Rose.”

However much the good old man tried to dissuade him, the prince would not listen to his words.

The hundred years had just passed, and the day had come when Little Brier-Rose was to awaken. When the prince approached the thorn hedge, it was nothing but large, beautiful flowers that separated by themselves, allowing him to pass through without harm, but then behind him closed back into a hedge.

In the courtyard he saw the horses and spotted hunting dogs lying there asleep, and on the roof the pigeons, perched with their little heads tucked under they wings. When he walked inside the flies were asleep on the wall, the cook in the kitchen was still holding up his hand as if he wanted to grab the boy, and the maid was sitting in front of the black chicken that was supposed to be plucked. He walked further and saw all the attendants lying asleep in the hall, and above them near the throne the king and the queen were lying. He walked on still further, and it was so quiet that he could hear his own breath. Finally he came to the tower and opened the door to the little room where Little Brier-Rose was sleeping.

There she lay and was so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her. He bent over and gave her a kiss. When he touched her with the kiss Little Brier-Rose opened her eyes, awoke, and looked at him kindly.

They went downstairs together, and the king awoke, and the queen, and all the royal attendants, and they looked at one another in amazement. The horses in the courtyard stood up and shook themselves. The hunting dogs jumped and wagged their tails. The pigeons on the roof pulled their little heads out from beneath their wings, looked around, and flew into the field. The flies on the walls crept about again. The fire in the kitchen rose up, broke into flames, and cooked the food. The roast began to sizzle once again. The cook boxed the boy’s ears, causing him to cry, and the maid finished plucking the chicken.

And then the prince’s marriage to Little Brier-Rose was celebrated with great splendor, and they lived happily until they died.

• Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, “Dornröschen,” Kinder- und Hausmärchen, gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm, 7th ed., vol. 1 (Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1857), no. 50, pp. 252-54. 
• The Grimms’ source: Marie Hassenpflug (1788-1856). 
• Translated by D. L. Ashliman. © 2002-2005. 
• The Grimms included this tale in the first edition of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812). Modest stylistic changes were made with the second edition (1819). 
• Revised February 16, 2015.

While the rain is keeping us indoors, we are busying ourselves planting Holy Basil in egg cartons for transplanting in May and decorating upcycled yogurt containers and jars for marigold seedlings. The craft is simple and can be done with materials you probably have around the house: containers to be reused, school glue, paint brush, tissue paper, and scissors.

• 

• 

• 

• 

A finger game from our late spring circle ties in well with this activity, and it’s simple enough to make up your own gestures.

Dig a little hole,
Plant a little seed.
Pour a little water,
Pull a little weed.
Chase a little bug,
Heigh-ho, there he goes.
Give a little sunshine,
Grow a little rose. 

Digging into the urban legend of a children’s circle game.

Ring-around-the-Rosie is a popular game for the children to play in the Spring. The version that we play at school has a second verse that rectifies the legendary darkness of the first verse, but we were curious about the truth of its story, so we asked Mama Christina to do a little digging for us.

Ring around the rosie,
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, Ashes,
We all fall down.

The cows are in the meadow
Eating buttercups.
Thunder, lightning,
We all stand up!

While the prevailing urban legend assigns the origin of “Ring around the Rosie” to plague years, (17th century London or the Black Death in the 14th century), the game does not show up until 200 years after the London plague and 500 years after the Black Death. Phrases in “Ring around the Rosie” have been assigned meaning based upon this theory (again without substantiation): we all fall down= we all die and pocket full of posies=carrying around little flower bundles to ward off illness and/or to obscure the stench of dead bodies–eeesh, that is heavy.

Philip Hiscock, from the Department of Folklore at Memorial University in Newfoundland, is a folklorist who writes about all sorts of edgy things like the post-Moratorium fisherman’s choir living there. (If that isn’t cool, then I’m not sure what is.) In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, he simply states that we do not know the origin of this children’s game but the plague theory is unfounded.

Other theories about the origin go back to May Day celebrations and other pagan dances. One theorist wondered if Protestant hexes on dancing may have caused children’s games to be used by teens to get some dancing in under the radar, so to speak. There are versions of this game in Holland-Roze Roze Meie, Germany-Ringel Ringel Rosen, and Italian-Gira Gira Rosa; though, it was popularized in England, according to Hiscock, in the late 19th century. Theories abound that the game itself of “Ring around the Rosie” may reside in oral storytelling. Just as fairy tales, these stories persisted in the memories of multiple storytellers’ versions for centuries before they were committed to writing and preserved for future storytellers.

Here is the earliest version of the song from the German from 1792, with its English translation following:

“Ringel ringel reihen,
 Wir sind der Kinder dreien,
 sitzen unter’m Hollerbusch
 Und machen alle Husch husch husch!”

“A ring, a ring, a round dance,
We are the children three,
we sit under the elderbush,
and all go hush, hush, hush!”

Here is an 1855 English language version of the song from a novel called The Old Homestead:

“A ring – a ring of roses,
 Laps full of posies;
 Awake – awake!
 Now come and make
 A ring – a ring of roses.”

While we continue to wonder about the true origin of “Ring around the Rosie,” it’s fascinating and comforting to imagine that the game’s originators may have been doing just what we are doing today- trying to bring light and levity to a bleak situation.

The Wondrous Child is a beautiful story to share at Easter time. It is a story of love and healing brought to the world by a child who has help from the animal kingdom. Themes of selflessness, perseverance and light imbue our hearts with hope that is much needed in this uncertain time. We share this story at the end of our article, and we hope you enjoy it just as much as your children will.

We also have a number of glorious books titles to share with you. Each is selected for its story content, beautiful illustrations, or both. All of these books can be found online for purchase, of course, but Mama Christina also has a clever plan to set up a “Front Door Lending Library” with a couple of trusted friends. Each family purchases just one or two books, and when you’re finished reading them, set up a date to switch books with a friend by delivering to their front door. Like magical little book faeries, you’ll be!

Some of our favorite Spring titles:

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McClosky
And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano
The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
My Garden by Kevin Henkes
Farfallina and Marcel by Holly Keller
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes
The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss
Poppleton in Spring by Cynthia Rylant
The Thing about Spring by Daniel Kirk
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
Two Little Gardeners by Margaret Wise Brown and Edith Hurd
The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
Nibble, Nibble by Margaret Wise Brown

The Wondrous Child

Some time ago, on this very Earth, the land was not a joyful, healthful place. The trees grew in a crooked way–bowed, as if they were weeping. The flowers in the fields were colorless and withered. Similarly, the people of the Earth lived dim and grey lives—except for one wondrous child. 

This wondrous child was filled with love and life and he had a plan to bring brightness of the Sun to the Earth. The wondrous child called upon all of the animal kingdom to join him in a large field, and he said, “Dear friends, I have gathered you here so that you might help me to bring health and light to our land. In order to do this, one of you must be able to race around the entire Earth in a single evening and meet me here when the Sun rises.  Is there anyone here who would like to attempt this task?”

The animals looked to one another. Then, the stag stepped forward. “I am very strong said the stag, and I should like to try the race.”  

“Very well, then”, said the wondrous child. “You may begin this evening.”

That evening all of the animals gathered to watch the strong stag begin. The stag ran swiftly over the Earth, jumping over streams, going up hill and down valleys, until he came to a craggy mountainside. The stag began to jump from boulder to boulder. He was taking great pleasure in exercising his strength, when he forgot completely about the race. The wondrous child was waiting in the clearing when the sun rose over the horizon, but the stag did not arrive. 

The child called out to all of the animals present. “Friends, the race will continue this evening. Please, search your hearts and tell me if you would like to try.” The animals looked to one another. Then, the wondrous child noticed some splashing at the water’s edge. It was the salmon. “Dear child,” said the salmon. “I can swiftly glide through the waters of the world, and I should like to try the race.”

“Very well, then”, said the wondrous child. “You may begin this evening.”

That evening all of the animals gathered to watch the swift salmon begin. She darted away from the shore, went through streams and underwater tunnels, until the moon was high in the sky. The moonbeams danced upon the water, and the salmon mistook the light for mayflies. She jumped up to catch them and jumped up to catch them, and she forgot completely about the race. The wondrous child was waiting in the clearing when the sun rose over the horizon, but the salmon did not arrive.

The child called out to all of the animals present. “Friends, the race will continue this evening. Please, search your hearts and tell me if you would like to try.” The animals looked to one another. They noticed as a grand eagle pumped and settled his wings, while sitting in an uppermost branch.  “Dear child,” said the eagle “I can soar boldly above both land and water, and I should like to try the race.”

“Very well, then”, said the wondrous child. “You may begin this evening.”

That evening all of the animals gathered to watch the bold eagle begin. He fearlessly flew to perilous heights, the wind carrying him over both lakes and hillsides, when his keen eyes spied a field mouse scurrying amongst the shadows. The eagle dove down in pursuit of the mouse, and the mouse dove under a rock. The eagle arose in search of another mouse, diving in pursuit of them, and he forgot completely about the race.  The wondrous child was waiting in the clearing when the sun rose over the horizon, but the eagle did not arrive. 

The child called out to all of the animals present. “Friends, the race will continue this evening. Please, search your hearts and tell me if you would like to try.” The animals noticed some rustling in the tall grasses, and out hopped a steadfast hare.  “Dear child,” said the hare, “I would like very much to bring joy and light to our Earth. I should like to try the race.”

“Very well, then”, said the wondrous child. “You may begin this evening.”

That evening all of the animals gathered to watch the steadfast hare begin. She hopped through the grasses, dodged trees and boulders, crossed over streams. All the time, she remembered the plan to bring joy to the Earth. Still, the going was long and hard, and she became very tired. The hare wanted to stop and rest, but she remembered the wondrous child waiting for her. At last, she saw the clearing, and she arrived just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. 

“Dear friends, we have a winner of the race,” exclaimed the wondrous child. The animals kindly greeted the steadfast hare, and the child shared with them the plan for healing the Earth. 

“Steadfast hare, in a single evening you shall deliver a gift to each child in the world —an egg. When the children open their eggs, they will find a drop of golden sunlight hidden within. When they see the light, they will know that a golden light lies hidden within themselves.”

From that day forward, the hare has delivered these eggs, spreading joy and light of the Sun. If it ever was, so it always shall be. 

Here’s a Little Hare is one of the games that most delights the children at Rose Rock. We play it as part of a circle this time of year and the children repeatedly beg for us to keep playing as the game comes to an end.

Here’s a little Hare,
(S)he’s fast asleep, fast asleep.
Little Hare, oh are you ill?
That you lie so quiet and still?
Hop little hare! Hop little Hare!
Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop everywhere!

We love the gesture this game brings to the children, one of finding peace in stillness and vitality in movement. A “hare” begins sleeping in the middle of the circle. When we sing “hop little hare, hope little hare”, the hare wakes up, hops about, and taps the feet of the next hare. The previous hare rejoins the singing circle. We hope you find the same joy in sharing this game with your children at home.

Today we are dyeing eggs with the children. We have chosen to use beets, cabbage, turmeric, and onion skins to create an array of natural dye colors. The red of the beets is especially vibrant and we would like to share this recipe with you.

6 medium purple beets, skinned and chopped
4 -5 cups of water
1 Tbsp white vinegar

Bring the water and beets to boil in a large pot. Simmer for 25-30 minutes. Strain the liquid and set aside the beets. You can dip and soak your eggs for as little as 20-30 minutes but brighter eggs will be achieved with an overnight soak. Allow your eggs to dry in the carton without a rinsing (that would remove some of your dye).

We added some whimsical variation to our eggs by wrapping some with rubber bands to create a stripped effect, or packing them with cabbage to create a “tie-dye” effect. Also, pressing leaf clippings or flower petals from the yard onto the eggs before wrapping them with pantyhose will give them a beautiful ethereal quality.

We used our cooked beets from the dye to prepare a delicious side dish, too. Simply toss your beets with salt, pepper and a little balsamic vinaigrette and let it rest in the refrigerator for a couple hours before eating.
For the vinaigrette, combine 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup honey, a tablespoon of dijon mustard, and a dash of salt and pepper. You can blend them with a food processor while streaming in the oil to make it a little creamy. More simply, you can combine them all in a jar, close the lid and shake!.

Even under regular circumstances, an area of child rearing that can present a disproportionate amount of challenges is sleep- both naps and bedtime. Starting at an early age, kids attempt to push the boundaries surrounding sleep, and it can become a point of stress for all parties involved. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 2 year olds need 12-14 hours of sleep, while children ages 3-5 years need 10-13 hours of sleep per 24 hour period. It is very rare for a child to thrive on 10 hours of sleep. Most children need the middle range of 11 -13 hours to be their at their physical and emotional best. When the family routine deviates from normal and/or there is anxiety in the household the need for sleep is amplified, due to its ability to lower stress hormones and restore emotional equilibrium. In times of illness sleep also becomes more important because of its positive effect on heightened immune function. With this all in mind, we would like to share this thorough and helpful essay from Mama Christina to support your nap and bedtime experiences.

I hope that nap time is seamless, easy and restful. It is an important piece of the day’s rhythm that can aid in more than just sustained energy and helping children feel cozy and warm.  It aids in cooperative behavior, integrating new skills and information, and providing much needed physiological support as well. That is just the positive pay off for immediate outcomes. It also teaches self-regulation, builds self-care strategies for rest and breathing, and helps with sequencing in its structure of preparing for nap, reading, singing by the adult, resting or sleep and nap time clean up. 

Just in case nap time at home is not yet in rhythm or so far in chaos that everyone lands exhausted from the battle, some rationale behind nap time’s plan in the curriculum may freshen your resolve to make it work more smoothly. There are some practices that can help to ready children for nap and help them to stay there for the designed time. In addition, I’d like to offer some encouragement for your own growth and development that might be gained by establishing and holding nap time. 

It may sound strange at first to think of nap time as curriculum, but it is just that. The teaching points (all unspoken to the children, of course) are self-regulation, learning to rest between tasks, integration that both NREM and REM dream time provides, as well as some esoteric possibilities such as meeting with our angels. I especially like this last possibility. Who wouldn’t want to have a chat with an angel, especially their very own assigned angel? I know this last point is not for everyone.  (Though, our subconscious and unconscious work to sort out and integrate issues that are troubling us, so that can perhaps be seen as angelic in nature.) Dream time helps to mediate conflicting ideas and reveals how our lives make sense, even if we are hit by a whole slew of unexpected challenges such as the present moment provides. Well-being depends on integrating and is relevant for everyone, even when you’re only 3. 

Here are some strategies to help nap time happen:

Become consistent, and be characterized by calm and deep breathing. When the children sleep in my classroom—and nearly all of the children sleep everyday—they usually fall asleep in 5-10 minutes for 2 and 3-year olds, usually within 20 minutes for 4-6 year olds. They typically sleep the entire time, which is an hour and a half. We put nap things out before lunch, as the activity of putting out nap things (mats, blankets, pillows) is too active to directly proceed nap. 

Each day nap rhythm is the same in the following ways: 

The children clear from lunch, wash up, and use the bathroom. Pottying before nap is especially important so that children are not getting up during nap and interrupting their sleep.  They “read” or look at one book that is very calm and does not have stimulating content. We darken the room, tuck in, and sing or hum softly. 

A few extra points for you to keep in mind for home:

There is no conversation during this time, as conversation is awakening and enlivening. Keep toys away from bed except for a single snuggly. If the snuggly is too rambunctious, have this little fellow sleep off to the side or ask your child to help their animal to calm down so that the two of them can take their nap together. Be firm. If the snuggle fellow keeps bouncing, put him to sleep elsewhere (with his pillow and blanket). Sometimes a hand on a child’s tummy or simply sitting beside them with your eyes closed can help to ground them until they fall asleep. Each child is different. For some, sitting beside them will keep them awake and engaged. You will know what is best. 

About adult self-care:

A constant endeavor for parents is managing to meet their own needs while taking the best care of their children. If you haven’t already, plan for this nap time to be a restorative time for you as well as for your child. Even if you need to do earning work during this narrow timeframe when your child is safe and cared for in sleep, that feeling (that you are taking care of your family in this other way, the way that pays the bills) can take off stress, give you a different sort of activity from parenting, and free you up to be more present when your child wakes. 

If your earning is taken care of without your help at this time, then nap time can open out to other kinds of restorative practices, such as your own well-earned nap. Perhaps after that catnap (or long nap), you have time to journal about these extraordinary days or meditate. Or, it may be a time when you will be eased if you can get the supper chopping and prepping done. It may be that napping time for your child must be a productive time for you, but even this sense of accomplishment after your 10-minute rest can feel refreshing. You can afford to spend 5 minutes reading what you love—not news feeds or must-reads, but 5 minutes of reading just because you love essays on flora of the Midwest or the history of color. 

When LifeWays calls Life the curriculum in its pedagogy, it is us adults as well as our children who are learning how to do life, including how we rest and breathe and take advantage of our unconscious dream time to heal and integrate. 

We would also like to share this helpful video from Helle Heckman.