Autumn 2012 Plans

I've been busy lately. Busy because I have two littles to take care of. Busy because we've had quite a few guests as of late. Busy because money has been tight (thankfully a temporary thing), so I've been making more meals from absolute scratch.

Busy because we are starting our first year of Waldorf Preschool this month. I'm still working on creating our Circle Time for this month (two weeks in; ha!), so I think I'm just going to make it into the October Circle. I recently joined the Waldorf Home Educators yahoo group, and it has proven already to be an invaluable source of information, as has Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest. I really have to watch how much time I spend there, and when. I think, if I allowed myself, I could spend an entire day just perusing all of the Waldorf-y pins, which would kind of defeat the purpose of living a Waldorf style life. I try to limit myself to an hour or so during naptime or after N has fallen asleep at night.

Here are some of the things we've done to get ready for Autumn, so far.

We made our Seasonal Tree. This will stay here from now on (though I may make a new one when I can get a hold of some brown poster board as the closest I've found so far was find was a piece with gold on one side and silver on the other), changing with the seasons. Right now it has colorful leaves, acorns, and apples on it. There are a few pumpkins at the bottom, along with two cute little foxes, all dressed up for Fall. N's pince cone collection has taken up residence there, as well. The little table they sit on is going to be our Nature Table, but most of the items I want to put on it are still in storage in Colorado, so as of now it's just the pine cones.

I made a Season Calendar. I actually messed it up by painting the season ring, and then turning the paper without realizing it, so when I painted the tree, it was not lined up with the correct seasons. Oops. I fixed it (kind of) by painting the month sections in seasonally appropriate colors. So really, the red should have been Autumn, the blue should have been Winter, the green should have been Spring, and the yellow should have been summer. Oh well. I still like how it came out. On an unrelated note, I really need a better camera.

I changed our Rhythm Chart to one with seasonal colors, but I don't know if I'm going to keep it that way, as I really really like the rainbow chart. We'll see.

Now I just have to complete the Circle for October, and plan a few seasonal activities. I'll post the Circle when I have it finished (I'm hoping that will be tomorrow). I have started a Waldorf playgroup in our new area, after realizing that there was absolutely nothing like there here already, and I have around a dozen families interested right now. We'll be meeting up for the first time at the end of the month, and I'm hoping we'll be able to plan some really awesome activities for Autumn for the kids. I'm thinking a lovely Lantern Walk in November, and Advent Spiral in December, and things like that. I'm so excited about it!

The last thing I'm working on right now is putting together our play room (which is actually N's room, but it's a good size, and we only have two bedrooms, so it has to double as the playroom).  At this point, due to finances, it's all just planning and dreaming, but in a month or so I'll be able to start putting it together. I know it's going to be the perfect place for N and E, and any other littles that happen by to play. Just thinking about it makes me happy. 

Happy almost Autumn!