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The Seasons of Childhood™ - The Philosophy that underpins everything at The Know & Play Space

Inspired by our wonderful friends @the_play_adventures_ , we made a Lavender Sleep Pillow as part of our Lavender Week 🪻✨💜

With nerves and emotions all over the place at the moment, with many imminent and looming changes for Mr 4.5, settling to sleep has been challenging. We’d already talked earlier in the week about how lavender’s scent has a calming effect on our bodies, so having a little sleep pillow filled with dried lavender seemed a lovely way to promote that feeling of calm at bedtime.

Mr 4.5 absolutely loves sewing. We’ve done a lot of just ‘free’ sewing, but this was actually only our second project, and he saw it through from start to finish, doing ALL of the sewing. I just held the felt and tied the knots! It took nearly an entire naptime, however, spending that 1:1 time with him was absolutely golden, especially when I know our days together will be changing so much in September 💜😢

#wondrouschildhood #thewondrouscurriculum #handiwork #sewingforkids #waldorfinspired

My 10 Guiding Principles for raising, caring for or working with children ✨

Do any of these resonate with you? Which one most? What is one of your own guiding principles?

#wondrouschildhood #theseasonsofchildhood #slowchildhood #theknowandplayspace #guidingprinciples

The starting of our little Seasonal Table Space ☀️ one that will continue to grow and change over the month.

Having the board added behind means I can add photographs and pieces the boys have created as we go. With 4 weekly themes for July, each corner of the board will soon be full of joy and wonder ✨

We’ve got a few pieces we’ve made from clay over the weekend ready to add and truly celebrate that it’s summertime.

Have you got a Seasonal Table or Space at home? What do you add onto yours?

#seasonaltable #waldorfhome #homeschoolpreschool #wondrouschildhood #preschoolathome

Lavender Week 🪻💜✨

One of the wonderful things about The Lavender Fields yesterday, was that they had so many different varieties, all in different shades of purple. In their rows next to each other, this was really clear to see, so led to some lovely conversations about shades of colour.

This morning we explored how to create our own shades of purple, testing what happens when we add black, add white, or combine two shades together. Mr 4.5 even managed to create an exact match to the dried lavender bunch we bought yesterday!

Mr 1.5 enjoyed mark making and the sensory side of painting. He particularly liked using the dot dabbers, and was fascinating to see him investigating dabbing over the top of the lavender sprig he had for his page.

Follow along to see what else we get up to for Lavender Week 💜🪻 & do tag me if you join in the joy and wonder ✨

#thewondrouscurriculum #wonderouschildhood #creativeplay #natureplay #homeschoolpreschool

This coming week, we’re going to be ‘opening the door’ to Lavender - exploring it in all its purple summer glory.
💜

When introducing something new, it’s important to root it in real life experiences, as often as we can. Visiting our local Lavender Fields was a glorious start to July ☀️, and we’re looking forward to seeing all the wonder that Lavender brings to us ✨

Follow along this week to see where our discoveries take us 🪻

#thewondrouscurriculum #wondrouschildhood #slowchildhood #homeschoolpreschool #preschoolathome

Water play is always the way & not only is it great fun, but there is also so much learning and development that can come from it 💦

Having paint brushes, rollers and trays on your outdoor shelves is a way to encourage biiiiig mark making - enabling children to not only experiment with how movement can make marks, but is also allowing for their little bodies to strengthen those arm, shoulder and back muscles that they’ll need for writing in the future 💪🏼

Being able to mark make on such big scales outdoors also allows for movements that cross the midline - supporting that bilateral coordination, again, beneficial for writing but also reading and practical life skills!

I was lucky to get a great bundle of rollers and brushes free on Facebook marketplace, so it’s worth checking on there, at carboot sales and even in your own garden shed to see if you have any lying around 🤩

#markmaking #outdoorplay #toddlerplay #prewritingactivity #grossmotorskills

Started our morning by making natural paint from our garden strawberries 🍓 They had been nibbled by critters, so weren’t good enough to eat, but still wonderful enough to enjoy creating with ✨

A multistep journey of picking, crushing, pouring, mixing and finally, creating. No outcome needed, just joy in the process.
🥰

#outdoorplay #natureplay #learningthroughplay #playbasedlearning #toddlerplayideas

Our last day family adventuring today led us down to Durdle Door ✨ - a spectacular sight in itself. But what was even more wonderful was the reminder of the simple things. Waking up with the sunrise, an easy breakfast on the beach, and play that was not only purposeful and self-initiated, but that didn’t require any adult input or resources.

We didn’t take a single toy out with us. Yet both boys played, and played and played. Mr 4.5 spent nearly 2 hours jumping over the waves, throwing stones, & coming up with games using both. Mr 1.5 collected, threw, stacked, gathered and explored the shingle and stones for the same amount of time!

I’m all for play activities when they’re going to have a really positive impact on development. I’m all for beautiful resources. However… I’m also all for us all remembering that most of the time, play just needs to be unstructured, unhurried and left to unfold in its own way.

What do you think? 💭

#slowchildhood #earlychildhooddevelopment #earlyyears #outdoorplay #natureplay

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The Seasons of Childhood™ - The Philosophy that underpins everything at The Know & Play Space

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